A new book titled, Nine Lives – Mooresbridge December 1922, by Mario Corrigan, was launched at the Curragh Racecourse on Monday 12 December, 2022, during an event commemorating the Rathbride Column.
In 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.
On the 19 of 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.
Nine Lives – Mooresbridge December 1922 is on sale now in Kildare Town Heritage Centre, Seanchaí Books, Kildare; Farrells and Nephew in Newbridge; Woodbine Books in Kilcullen; and Barker & Jones in Naas.
160 pages A4 and 69,000+ words.