Kingsland and the 1916 Rising
by Matthew Bermingham
When contacted by Freda Forde and invited to make a literary contribution to the proposed commemorative publication, I did some research to find out if any of Kingsland's sons or daughters had established a compelling claim to fame. The name of Mrs. Knott, who was my assistant and men tor when I took my first faltering steps into Matthew Bermingham the teaching profession, almost forty years ago, provided me with a clue.
On Easter Monday 1916 Dr. John Freeman Knott answered a knock on the door of the College of Surgeons, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin and admitted Countess Marcievicz and her officers to the building, thereby playing a small but significant part in one of the most momentous chapters in our history. It is generally believed that the man who admitted the Countess and her armed band of volunteers was not aware of what was happening and was not in any way involved in organising the Easter Rising; nor was this meeting pre-arranged. But who knows?
Born in Kingsland, Co. Roscommon, and residing then at Sallymount Avenue, Ranelagh, Dr Knott (surgeon and doctor) was author of several books and two thousand articles on science and technology. He married Phillipa Annie Balcombefrom Hull and had two children; a son Ian Harlow and a daughter Phillipa Maria Eleanor. The latter, better known as Eleanor Knott became a distinguished Irish scholar and author of many books and articles on the history and literature of the Irish Language.
Eleanor who was born in 1886, was encouraged by her father from Kingsland and her mother who was believed to be of Cornish (and therefore Celtic) stock to study the Irish Language in the years following the founding of the Gaelic League in 1893. I am sure that Dr. Knott, like Douglas Hyde from nearby Frenchpark, had heard the language spoken in Kingsland and could indeed had been able to speak it. I regret very much having missed by a few years the last native speaker (a man named Connolly) from the Kingsland area. I had better luck on my return to my native Clare; there I had the pleasure of recording several Irish speakers from the Central and Northern part of the County. At least one of them is still alive. Go maire sé. Eleanor Knott could have indeed been born in Kingsland; researchers have not been able to trace a written record of her birth. Maybe some past-pupil will yet discover that she was in fact born in Kingsland. In case someone makes such a discovery, I will list just a couple of publications; "Irish Classical Poetry" (1957), "Early Irish Literature" (1966) as well as learned articles contributed to academic publications like Eigse; Gadelica Irish Historical Studies, Irish Nation, Eriu and so on. She also cooperated with Marstrander, when in 1911 he got the research for the Royal Irish Academy's dictionary under way. Eleanor died in 1975 and is buried at Mount Jerome. She had been blind for the last 20 years of her life.
In 1824 the British government, in order to have a sounder basis for levying of local taxes, decided to do a thorough survey of Ireland and to produce maps showing the boundaries of all townlands. John O'Donovan from South Kilkenny was one of the men to whom this responsibility was entrusted. We know from his letters that he was in Ballinagare on 14th July 1837 and in Boyle two. days later. Did he visit Kingsland, or even stay there on the 15th? Another job for some enterprising past-pupil.
When I came to teach in Kingsland in the mid-fifties, memories of Roscommon's years of football glory were still fresh in people's minds, the crannógs had recently been discovered in Lough Gara, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann had just been founded, traditional music was beginning to make a come-back, stations (to collect "oat money" for the priest, I was told ) were held in local houses followed by a dance that night. I saw Roscommon "Lancers" danced for the first time at such an occasion in Murray's. This interested me greatly, as coming as I do from "Caledonian" and "Plain Set" country.
Other members of Kingsland; children coming to school barefooted and stepping, to my horror, across lids of "Nugget" polish boxes that I used to repair holes in the floor, running a card game in the school to by a load of turf for heating purposes, walls unpainted for years and hiring a travelling (formerly "tinker") man to clean the dry closets. I still use the word "Gobán" to describe a clumsy worker or tradesman; but I never took to "horrid nice" or "horrid good"! I remember being greeted at a Fleadh Cheoil in Boyle by a man named "Boyo" Cregg; he was the only one to approach me in the street and formally welcome me back. I did, however, meet others in less forma l settings.
Anyone who served in Kingsland school, was ready to go anywhere and not only thrive but prosper. Mary Durr Morrissey, who served as an Assistant with me for a short time, went on to become a very successful Principal at Ballinteer Girls' National School in Dublin, where she was held in great esteem by pupils, teachers and parents. I am sure the pupils too, who graduated from Kingsland over the years, went away prepared for the pilgrimage of life. I wish them well, as well as the pupils of 1994 the best of luck.
Bibliography.
Breathnach, Diarmaid "Beathaisnéis A Dó". Baile Átha Cliath: An Clóchomhar Ita 1990. De hOir, Eamonn “Seán Ó Donnabháin agus Eoghan Ó Comhraí”. Baile Átha Cliath: An Clóchomhar Ita 1962.