The Carrickshock Incident, 1831: Social Memory and an Irish cause ...

The Carrickshock Incident, 1831 61
The dedication of the memorial in 1925 marked a turning point in
the history of the public commemorations. Over the decade that followed
– a decade of economic gloom and political disillusionment –
attendance at the anniversary ceremonies dwindled steadily until, by
1935, the gatherings ceased altogether. As they did, the monument fell
into disrepair, and death claimed the last of the local men who led
the long campaign to honour the memory of Carrickshock. 93 There
were sporadic efforts to revive the annual commemorations following
the Second World War, but it was obvious that times and local attitudes
had changed. Attendance at the gatherings was comparatively meagre
during the late 1940s and early 1950s, and there were few younger
faces among those who did turn out. 94
Despite declining enthusiasm, certain expressions of remembrance
persisted into the post-war years. One of them contained a faint echo
of the competing versions of Carrickshock that rst erupted in the
1830s. In 1952 the essayist and historian Hubert Butler recalled a
recent outing that the Kilkenny Archaeological Society made to the
battle site. When the members assembled at the boreen, Butler noted,
they arranged themselves along sectarian lines: ‘Most of the Protestants
went home from the bottom of the hill, but I [he was a Protestant]
went to the top’, where the Catholics had gathered to hear a brief
history of ‘this bitter controversial event’ from a local priest. 95
This meeting was among the last of its kind. During the remainder
of the 1950s, local organizers searched for ways to generate larger,
more youthful turnouts. Possibilities included a proposal in 1953 to
stage a pageant at the boreen ‘on the lines of the con ict’ that would
be part of the ill-fated national festival known as An Tóstal that the
government planned for that year. But nothing seemed to work. By
1955 the ceremonies were reduced to small night-time processions by
torchlight from Hugginstown to the battle site, where a priest led participants
in the rosary. Newspapers record no formal battle commemorations
after 1957, though the boreen has since become the venue
for yearly Manchester martyrs observances, thereby merging local and
national objects of remembrance.
The local memory of Carrickshock has taken on some new, somewhat
ironic features in recent years. To mark the 150th anniversary in
1981, a team of workers and local volunteers re-landscaped the area
around the monument in hopes of attracting tourists. 96 Two decades
later, it appeared as if another project might overshadow their efforts
and bring more people closer to the boreen than anyone could have
imagined. In August 2001 the National Roads Authority announced
93 Munster Express, 20 Dec 1946.
94 Munster Express, 23 Dec 1953.
95 Hubert Butler, Escape from the Anthill (Lilliput, Mullingar, 1985) p. 340. The address
to which Butler refers is: T.J. Clohosey, ‘Carrickshock: The Tithe War’, Old Kilkenny
Review, 5 (1952) pp. 10–15.
96 Kilkenny Standard, 11 and 18 Dec 1981.
Cultural and Social History 2004 1 (1)