The County Kildare Decade of Commemorations Committee presents, A Commemoration of the Rathbride Column.
This event will take place at the Curragh Racecourse on Monday 12 December, 2022. Light refreshments will be served from 7.15 pm, and an illustrated presentation will begin at 8.00 pm.
The Rathbride Column – background
12-13 December 1922
A detachment of National Army troops raided a farmhouse at Mooresbridge near the Curragh Camp. Ten members of the Rathbride Column were found in a dugout and arrested along with Annie Moore, who was armed with a revolver, ten rifles, and a quantity of munitions were also captured. One of the men, Thomas Behan, Rathangan, was later shot dead when ‘trying to escape’ from custody. The Rathbride Column operated close to Kildare town, blowing up bridges, derailing trains, and wagons.
19 December 1922
Seven men from the Rathbride Column were executed, and later buried, in the grounds of the Military Prison, Curragh Camp. They were Patrick Bagnall, Fairgreen, Kildare, labourer; Patrick Mangan, Fairgreen, Kildare, railway worker; Joseph ‘Jackie’ Johnston, Station Road, Kildare, railway worker; Bryan Moore, Rathbride, Kildare, labourer; Patrick Nolan, Rathbride, Kildare, railway worker; Stephen White, Abbey Street, Kildare labourer; and James O’Connor, Bansha, Co. Tipperary, railway worker. This was the largest (single day) official execution of the Civil War.
Photo of coffins taken at Kildare Courthouse.
Extract from: A Timeline of the Civil War in Co. Kildare 1922 – 1924, by Mario Corrigan, James Durney, Karel Kiely, Kevin Murphy with Kevin O Kelly.
The book was published by Kildare Local Studies, Genealogy and Archives Department, Kildare Library Services, in 2022, and is available to download for free at:
https://kildarecoco.ie/Library/LocalStudiesGenealogyandArchives/DecadeofCommemorations/CivilWar/