Living history The story of Eileen Kelly For most of us Irish history is little more than facts and figures recalled in dusty tomes and boring text books, but for one Mohill lady, the spirit of history is not only alive and well, its quite literally, the story of her life. 99 years young, Eileen Kelly remembers a time when horse and cart were the main mode of transport, when Black & Tans imposed strict curfews and running battles occurred between the various factions in the Irish War of Independence. For Eileen, these aren't' just idle moments in history, even today, following a minor stroke, her recollections are as vivid as they were nearly a century ago and although she spends most of her time now living with her daughter in Dublin, she still calls Mohill home. "It's always been my home and it always will be. It's where my heart is," she nods as she gentle taps her fingers on her heart. She smiles as she admits she actually was born in Roscommon. "But we won't talk about that," she jokes. Although the passing years have made her steps a little less sure and her memory a little clouded, Eileen is still an engaging speaker who clearly feels a deep attachment to her adopted county. "The stroke you know, has made it a little harder to remember," she confides, "but I do remember so much. I've seen so much. So many changes. Today life is so much faster, some things have changed for the better, some not." When still only a small child, Eileen's father died, leaving her widowed mother to raise six children alone. "I always remember she (my mother) had beautiful titan locks and when my father died she just went while overnight," says Eileen. She recalls how her intrepid mother - "a wonderful woman, truly amazing" - then began training as a nurse in Dublin in a bid to provide for her family. Eventually, when Eileen was still in the later stages of national school, her mother met and married a widower from Mohill, moving the family to Co Leitrim. "My stepfather was a very kind man. He treated us like we were his own children. He had three daughters who used to visit him regularly, but he had lost all his sons in the Great War (World War 1) in Flanders which was very sad," recalls Eileen. "I think for him we were a second chance. He had lost so much." In the early 1900's, Mohill was a thriving market town with Monaghan Day and other regular fair days, a hospital, workhouse and bustling businesses catering for every need and whim. This was also the time when the narrow gauge railway was still operational from Dromod to Mohill and motor cars were only starting to become popular and were still very much a novelty reserved for the well off. "Most people just used a horse and cart to get around. Cars were still only for the very wealthy and there weren't many around. We weren't extremely well off but I remember there were people living in Mohill who were very, very poor," explains Eileen. "They had nothing but a dirt floor in their house and very little furniture. Sometimes there were huge families living in these small houses. You wondered just how they survived, the poverty then was terrible, but the alternative, the workhouse, well that was so much worse. Nobody wanted to end up in the workhouse." Living in the Hillview area in the 1920s, Eileen clearly remembers the arrival of the Black & Tans and the running battles that occurred on the outskirts of Mohill between the IRA and the dreaded British enforcers. "We lived in fear of the Black & Tans. They had a curfew in place and anybody found out on the street after that time would be shot by the Black & Tans. They were terrible bullies. You were afraid for your life when you passed by a group of them, they were so violent and abusive. They hated us so much nothing mattered to them at all. Oh God they were devils, that's what they were," she sadly recalls. "I remember watching the Black & Tans bringing up suspected IRA men they had captured. They had them in a lorry and they were kicking them and beating them. They was just nothing you could do." The Black & Tans took over the former residence of a Dr Pentland. The imposing two-storey residence, St Patrick's located across from the present day Cashin's Service Station was even mentioned in one of Anthony Trollope's novels. It became vacant after the doctor was forced to flee to England during 1920s. "It's a sad story because Dr Pentland was then knocked down by a car and killed in England. It was a beautiful house but after Dr Pentland left the Black & Tans just moved in and took it over. They wrecked the place, ripped up the flooring and destroyed the furniture. They just took what they wanted and ruined the rest. Death and destruction, that's all they ever brought," she sadly told. After the Black & Tans left there was the unrest of the Civil War. "It seemed like there was only a short period of peace when the Civil War took hold. It was a bad time because the IRA and the Free State Army used to have running battles. The Free State took over the area of Mohill and the IRA used to group at the back of the hill in Mohill and they'd shoot each other. The revenge attacks between the different factions were quite awful. It was a wonderful thing when peace finally came." Growing up amongst this turbulence Eileen still has plenty of happy memories of her time in Mohill. "Maybe because it was such a frightening time, you enjoyed the happy times all the more," she observes. "We had a great time when we were all young. There were the dances in the hall, the tennis and badminton clubs and Monaghan Day. Times just seemed simpler then." When in her early 30s, Eileen met her husband, JJ Kelly, a school teacher who moved to Mohill in 1922 from Tuam in Co Galway. A good friend of Eileen's brother Jack, they finally met when Jack brought JJ to tea in Hillview. "JJ lived over near St Patrick's and I had this brother Jack who was great friends with him. Jack invited JJ home one day to Hillview and my mother just offered him a plate of soup and the next thing Jack asked would mother take JJ in as a guest. She said yes and that's how he came to live with our family," she explains. "I was 32-years-old when I got married in 1941 and we had four beautiful daughters - Anita, Ríona, Orla and Martha - and they never gave us a moments trouble," she says. "JJ was such a wonderful man. He saw so many poor children coming through the school that he went to the Parish Priest to see what could be done and they started a branch of St Vincent de Paul. He was also very interested in Drama and he started the dramatic society and there were plays written and performed, it was a wonderful time to be in Mohill." Four years after her marriage, Eileen's husband brought her up to see the dilapidated remains of the once beautiful home of Dr Pentland, St Patricks. The stately home had been used as a school in the intervening years and still retained some glimmer of its former glory, however the rooms were in poor condition and there was no modern facilities. "It was just shocking when you first saw it. I took one look at it and said to JJ "I can't live here," but we brought in a local man, called Kennedy who had seven sons and they managed to get the place into a liveable state. If it hadn't been for JJ I don't think I ever would have stepped foot in the house," she admits. This move however, was the start of a love affair that has lasted over 60 years. Even though she no longer lives in the house, Eileen's daughter still resides there and Eileen is a constant visitor. During the renovation work the house also turned up many surprises for the Kelly family, not least of all was the fact that the sitting room still had, admittedly under layers and layers of other wall coverings, the original handpainted paper first installed over a 100 years ago. "We were surprised by just how much of the house had survived the Black & Tans and the neglect. It is a beautiful home now. We've been very happy here," she smiles as she looks around her. Sadly there has been some tragedy, Eileen's youngest daughter Martha passed away and her beloved JJ has also gone to his eternal reward. "Life is like that sometimes," she sadly observes. "God has a plan. What can you do but go on." However, she herself has been blessed with a long, and she is the first to state, a very hard but happy life. When asked the secret of her longevity, Eileen doesn't hesitate. "Starting each day with good wholesome porridge," she emphatically states, "and hard work" she adds. "I've lived a long time, but there's plenty to see yet, but if it's my time to go I don't mind. I've had a good life and that's what matters." - Courtesy of The Leitrim Observor, 1st February 2008 Tweet

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