Tom Kennedy getting the chop for a War of Independence Plaque

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Head and Beard shave for a War of Independence Plaque by The Ballylongford Enterprise Association

Tom Kennedy (pictured) has decided to shave his head and beard that he has been growing since the 12th of March 2020. He will be getting his trim this Sunday the 9th of May at 8pm live on Facebook.

Tom will be doing this for The Ballylongford Enterprise Association and they will be using the money to erect a plaque on the corner house in Ballylongford and permission has been granted from the owner.

The plaque will be in remembrance of the burning in Ballylongford, which was 100 years ago on the 23rd February of this year where 20 houses were burned down by Crown Forces.

Ballylongford has a proud Republican history and suffered at the hands of crown forces for centuries from in the 1500s when Elizabethan forces sacked Carrigafoyle Castle and Lislaughtin Abbey. The castle was sacked again in the late 1500s by Cromwellian forces. Through resettlements, tithe laws, penal laws, locals not being allowed to catch fish or eat seaweed from the shore by British forces in the time of the famine. Landlords such as The Crosbies, Popes, Sandes to name a few evicted tenants and treated them very poorly. Ballylongford always fought back with resistance, be it with some of its sons being in the United Irishmen in 1798 and through to The Easter Rising in 1916 where Micheal Joseph O’Rahilly of Ballylongford was the only leader to be killed in action at the GPO. Con Dee of Ballylongford was a member of the North Kerry Flying Column in 1921 and other men from the Ballylongford company of the IRA were also members of the flying column. It is only right that a plaque to mark one of the numerous hardships endured by the people of Ballylongford in the struggle for freedom is marked and remembered. The night of the 23rd of February 1921, the 2nd burning of Ballylongford, and a large scale burning by Black and Tans and Crown forces where 20 house and businesses were burned, others looted and people shot at indiscriminately in a night of terror that will never be forgotten.

Any additional money raised will go towards additional plaques. These further plaques would be at locations where significant events happened during the War of Independence, so it would nearly be like a mini War of Independence walking tour through the town. The plaque/plaques will complement the historical map that the Enterprise Association are erecting this year.

The Enterprise Association appreciates any donations which can be made on the Go fund me website by putting in Ballylongford as the location and clicking into the fundraiser titled Ballylongford War of Independence Plaques.

Or at the link https://gofund.me/584b86d0