Dr Killeen of Brick Lane

[Gary Barnett]

Quick, Gary, grab your uke and get busking :


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...n-Commons.html

Looks like Tim Killeen’s funeral cortege.

[Gary Barnett]

Here’s Thomas Crowe presumably looking for a tenant to replace Lysaght.




From The Clare Journal

[Gary Barnett]

I mentioned the case of the child that it was alleged had been starved to death so that it’s mother could collect on the insurance.

The mother took the child to Killeen’s surgery in Brick Lane. He stated in court that the child was ‘in a comatose state, very much emaciated with sores on the mouth and lips’.

‘He prescribed for it, at the same time giving the mother a severe reprimand for the dirty state the child was in. About half an hour later he heard the child was dead, and refused to give a certificate.’

What do you prescribe for a comatose child, I wonder? And why reprimand the mother for the child’s lack of cleanliness when it was clear that it was at death’s door, and then let her take the child away?

This was in August, 1888.

[Robert Linford]

Hi Gary


I'm afraid I get left behind a bit by childcare matters. Was there an inquest?

[Gary Barnett]

Hi Gary


I'm afraid I get left behind a bit by childcare matters. Was there an inquest?

There was. Killeen’s words above were apparently spoken at the inquest.

[Gary Barnett]

There’s a brief mention here (page 68) of a Mrs Killeen of Clonfeigh harbouring a fugitive IRA man in 1920.


http://www.militaryarchives.ie/colle...BMH.WS1068.pdf

[Robert Linford]

That looks rather suggestive, doesn't it. We're talking about a very small place.

[Gary Barnett]

That looks rather suggestive, doesn't it. We're talking about a very small place.

Yes, Clonfeigh Townland = Clonfeigh Farm = our Killeen family. And the more I look, the more I find recent references to the Killeens of Clonfeigh. They’re still there, and I bet there’s a photo or two of Tim knocking about somewhere.

So it seems likely that the woman who gave refuge to Michael Brennan, the commander of the East Clare Flying Column, was Tim’s widow, or Mary from the Dairy as I like to call her.

[Gary Barnett]

Michael Brennan certainly looked the part:




https://clarechampion.ie/brigade-lea...o-be-recalled/

[Robert Linford]

Not sure he'd have blended in very well. Did he tell the police he was just on his way to get a pound of runner beans?

[Gary Barnett]

It seems there is a bloodline of greyhounds with the name Clonfeigh something-or-other (Jewel/Rose/Bandit/Rebel etc.). I wonder if it can be traced back to the dogs owned by Michael and Tim Killeen.

[Gary Barnett]

Not sure he'd have blended in very well. Did he tell the police he was just on his way to get a pound of runner beans?

He was a slippery customer. On one occasion he was approached by a British officer and asked what he was he was doing lurking about in a lane, and why he was carrying a gun. He blagged his way out of it by saying he was an undercover RIC man watching a suspect house.

Then he did a runner.

[Gary Barnett]

I found, but have lost again, a record of a Patrick Killeen of Clonfeigh being awarded a medal for his participation in the War of Independence, which was later recalled for some reason.

[Gary Barnett]

To lighten the mood a little, mention of a farmer named Timothy and the troubled history of Ireland made me think of this.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tpYwoeivpZk

[Robert Linford]

The whole situation need not have arisen if he'd been given tea from a Laurel and Hardy mug. That's what I have mine from.