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The Kilkenny Observer Friday 03 December 2021
kilkennyobserver.ie
Feature
Colonel Jerry Ryan
Fr Pat Delahunty who was PP in Callan and who was one of the prisoners to escape in 1921
Jim Pollock . One of the forty seven who escaped from Kilkenny Gaol
The great Kilkenny jail escape as forty seven prisoners abscond Members of The Saturday Walkers group gathered on the green patch of ground at the intersection of St Rioch Street and Saint Francis Terrace
T
HE significance of a housing estate named Fr. Delahunty Terrace, a mere one hundred yards away becomes obvious. It was a cold Saturday morning. Scarves, woolly hats and gloves were the call of the day to fight the elements. Almost one hundred years ago, at the same area, forty seven men also gathered. Not for them gloves, hats or overcoats. Some were shirtless, covered in mud, most
with their boots hanging around their necks by their shoelaces. They emerged one by one from a freshly built tunnel about three feet in diameter. This would become known as The Kilkenny Jail escape. The Most audacious escape from an Irish prison. INSIGHTFUL TALK Almost a hundred years to the day later, Kilkenny walker’s group member, Jimmy Neary gave a very insightful talk on the daring
escape. The gathering was made all the more special as some family members of the escapees were in attendance. These included sisters Carmel Lenehan and Geraldine Bransfield, daughters of Jim Pollock, one of the men who escaped Jim and Dan Lenehan, grandsons of Jim Pollock attended with their mother Carmel. Also in attendance was Noel Delahunty, nephew of Fr Delahunty and brothers
Noel and Vinny Delahunty, grandnephews of Fr Pat. EXPERT TUNNEL DIGGERS The Kilkenny People, commenting on the escape of IRA prisoners from the Kilkenny Gaol on 22nd November 1921, advised on the possibility of a future Channel Tunnel being built, that the contractor should get in touch with Larry Condon of Fermoy and Martin Kealy of Kilkenny and their comrades. ‘What they do not know about constructing tunnels
is not worth knowing, and they will refuse to be hampered by consideration of an eight hour day.’ PREPARATION KEY TO SUCCESS OF DARING ESCAPE Kilkenny historian, Jim Maher has described in great detail the preparations for and the execution of a daring escape by prisoners, two of whom were under death sentences. They were Edward Punch and Timothy Murphy of Limerick.
The fact that the Truce was signed in July was no guarantee of their lives being saved. It could break down at any time. The Treaty when signed in December resulted in the fall of the British Government and a Civil War in Ireland. A friendly warder named Power was privy to the prisoner’s plan of escape. When he was on duty a considerable amount of tunnelling was done. A cellar existed below the recreation room. The prisoners cut a
