Family Ties - Nurse Margaret Kehoe

Next week my children are taking to the stage to portray street urchins in a play entitled “Fallen Angel”.  It’s a piece written by my cousin Eleanor Cummins, to commemorate her gran aunt, my great gran aunt, Margaret Kehoe, who was killed in the 1916 Rising.

My grandmother was Genevieve Kehoe, from Orchard House, in Leighlinbridge.  Like her aunt Margaret before her, Nanny was a nurse, as is her daughter Maggie and her granddaughters, Sheri and Eimear.  

Nurse Margaret was on duty in the South Dublin Union, now St. James Hospital, on Easter Monday, the first day of The Rising.  The Union was of strategic military importance because it was close to British headquarters.  Margaret was working on the top floor when the fighting began.  During a lull in fighting she descended the stairs to tend to the wounded.  As she did so, she was shot several times by British soldiers and died instantly.  Volunteer Commander Eamonn Ceannt, one of the signatories of the Proclamation, referred to her as the first martyr of the Rising and said “she died for Ireland just as surely as if she’d worn the uniform”.

On Easter Saturday, the family gathered to attend services to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the Rising and the life of Nurse Margaret.  There was a wreath laying ceremony in Ballinabranagh cemetery, where she is buried and afterwards a plaque in her honour, was unveiled at Leighlinbridge Memorial Garden.  The project received funding from the Carlow Ireland 2017 Committee of Carlow County Council and Ireland 2016.

It’s been an honour learning about Margaret, who’s story, according to Trinity College’s assistant professor in Nursing, Paul Horan, was “airbrushed out of history because the British were in charge of propaganda, and didn’t want the world to know that they had shot a nurse in uniform.”

Orchard is more well known for being the ancestral home of Captain Myles Walter Kehoe, Margaret’s uncle.  I grew up with stories of Myles and his exploits as a member of the Papal Guard before fighting in the American Civil War, where he was chosen to escort Abraham Lincoln, on one of his tours of army bases.  Most famously though Myles Kehoe fought and died with General Custer in Custer’s Last Stand at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. 

He and Custer were the only soldiers not scalped or mutilated.  In Kehoe’s case, reportedly, because he wore the Papal medal, which was later recovered from the body of Sitting Bull, chief of the Sioux.  Myles’ horse Comanche was found alive two days after the battle and is preserved at the University of Kansas, where it is used to highlight the importance of equestrian involvement in US history.  The kids have been completely enthralled by these stories of their brave ancestors. 

“Fallen Angel” is based on material from family stories and the work of Professor Horan.  The 1^st performance takes place on Saturday April 16th at 2pm in Deighton Hall, Carlow and features performances from local musicians, poets and story tellers.