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You are > Home > The Healy clan branches have spread very far and very wide
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Thursday, January 27, 2005
The Healy clan branches have spread very far and very wide
By: Finbarr Slattery
A FEW years ago I was given the loan of a book called The Healy Story as the lender expected that I would find suitable material in it for this column.
I put the book under the driver’s seat of my car and it was almost a year later before I found it there.
When I did, I could not recollect who had given it to me. The book was inscribed: “ To Julie, Donal Healy 10/8/96”.
Early this year I was chatting with Roger O’Donoghue from Clonkeen and Knocknahoe, Killarney when he asked me about a book. It immediately clicked that he was the man who gave me The Healy Story.
I found the book that night and rang Roger to tell him. Speaking to his wife, Mary, on the phone, I told her the book would feature in my column this week.
But before doing so, I must relate a story about lending books. I remember well seeing a cartoon in Dublin Opinion many years ago, a visitor was being shown around the family home by the owner and there were books all over the place. The caption read “Why don’t you put the books on shelves?” The answer given was: “Tell me, can I borrow those too”
It was a pertinent message that has stayed with me and has made me very conscious above the hazards of borrowing and lending books. I found The Healy Story brimful of interest and today I feature some extracts that I hope you will enjoy:
First, Roger O’Donoghue’s connection with The Healy Story. Julia Healy married John O’Donoghue (John Rodger) in Clonkeen. They had two in family and Roger is a grandson of Julie Healy.
The book contains quite a graphic account of the Headford Ambush. A member of the Healy clan took part in the ambush, the most celebrated and biggest military engagement of the War of Independence in Kerry. The conflict was between Kerry No. 2 Brigade flying column and the forces of the Crown and the incident took place on Tuesday, March 21, 1921.
The site of this famous ambush was the platform at Headford Railway Station, where DJ Allman, the officer commanding the Kerry No. 2 Brigade, and his men decided to ambush the Kenmare-Killarney train. Their plan was to capture the large amount of arms which included a Vickers machine gun carried by the British Military.
The column lost two men, their O.C, DJ Allman and Jimmy Bailey, while the British fatalities numbered 25. After his death and, indeed, 75 years later, Allman was a folk-hero in his native Kerry. His two right-hand men during that Headford ambush were Jim Coffey and his close friend Danny Healy of Coolroe, Listry, who were with Allman as the train pulled into the station during the ambush.
Allman was determined to break the ambush stalemate which, in his opinion, had lasted far too long and as he edged out from the shelter of the ramp to fire at the enemy, a hidden sniper sent a bullet through his lung. Healy and Coffey immediately pulled him back into cover but it was obvious to them that he had been fatally wounded for blood gushed from his mouth, ears and nostrils and a green and gold resetter worn on lapel of the coat was dyed a vivid red.
They heard him gasp ‘water’ and he tapped his breast. Healy and Coffey knew that the dying man was referring to the little bottle of holy water which he always carried in his vest pocket. Healy took out the little black bottle and sprinkled him with the water.
At that stage, the position of Coffey and Healy was an extremely dangerous one. They wanted to take the dead or dying Allman with them, but burdened with his body, they would have presented too good a target for the British snipers, who were sending bullets screaming off the rails all around them and so, reluctantly, they left Allman’s body lying on the platform.
This ends the story of the Headford Ambush. Two gallant soldiers of Ireland had lost their lives while the enemy had been dealt a heavy blow and the men of the Kerry No. 2 Brigade Column had written an imperishable chapter in the history of their country’s fight for freedom.
Danny Healy later married Allman’s sister and today that family is known as the Healy-Allmans. In the townland of Liscarrigane, in the parish of Clondrohid, and in Daingeanasallagh, in the parish of Ballyvourney, three different branches of the Healy family lived in one square mile. The late Bill Healy of Ballincollig, who gave me some of the terrible famine stories, was among them.
Bill had 16 brothers and sisters. One brother, Denis, was included in the first group, who joined the newly formed Garda Siochana in 1922. In 1912 another brother, Mike, and a neighbour called Murphy, made arrangements to emigrate to the United States and they applied for berths on the new luxury transatlantic liner, The Titanic.
Murphy was granted permission to travel but Mike Healy was refused because the liner was booked out and he was told to wait for the next sailing. Mike and the Healy family were very disappointed at the refusal, because in the public mind, this new liner was the ultimate in luxury and safety and therefore everybody travelling to America at the time wanted to go on the Titanic.
However, when young Murphy saw Mike’s disappointment, he decided not to travel himself but to wait for Mike so that they could travel together. A few weeks later their disappointment turned quickly to joy and relief when they heard that the Titanic had gone to a watery grave, after hitting an iceberg in the western Atlantic and had sunk to the ocean floor. This appalling tragedy was the world’s worst maritime disaster. It happened on April 14, 1912, with a loss of 1,503 lives.
Another chapter in the wonderful book, The Healy Story, reveals that Tadhg Healy from Tralee was the youngest player ever to win an All-Ireland medal. The former Kerry footballing great, who passed away during the early days of 1991, had the distinction of being the youngest player ever to win an All-Ireland senior medal, when at the age of 17 years he helped Kerry to their 1937 success against Meath. He went on to win three All-Irelands in 1939, ‘40 and ‘41, with the great Kerry three-in-a-row team of that period.
There was also a Healy closely connected with Christy Ring. The family connections with one of the greatest sportsmen of all time were Dan Healy, who worked with him and Willie Healy and Paddy ‘Hitler’ Healy, who played with him.
Colourful Kerry politician, Jackie Healy-Rae also features in the Healy book. He has, on two occasions, held the prestigious and influential position of Chairman of Kerry County Council, in 1982 and again in 1985.
Healy-Rae, a farmer and publican, is a native of Kilgarvan parish where many members of the Healy clan fled after their eviction from Donoughmore during the Penal Times. In a recent full-page article in The Cork Examiner (14/7/95) on the life of Healy-Rae, who was then a Fianna Fáil member of the Kerry County Council, he was described as “the champion of the grassroots, and the most famous local politician in Ireland”.
Another famous Healy is Ardfert man, Phil Healy, the former chairperson of Kerry IFA, has been very much to the fore in helping the people of underdeveloped African countries, during the last decade of the 20th century. My thanks to Roger O’Donoghue for giving me a loan of this interesting book. I hope you have enjoyed and found interesting the extracts from it that I have included.
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