Decade of Commemorations

Poems by Thomas Behan, compiled and edited by Mario Corrigan and James Durney, has been produced as part of the Co. Kildare Decade of Commemorations programme 2021. The booklet contains a facsimile of an original copy of the poems published in 1923, which is held in the Kildare Local Studies, Genealogy and Archives collections. Please click on the link below.

Tom Behan was a soldier. Born and bred in Rathangan, Co. Kildare, he was self-employed as a road contractor but was swept along by nationalist politics prior to 1916. As a prominent member of the local Volunteers, he was arrested in the wake of the Easter Rising in 1916, and was interned in Wakefield Jail, England. He fought during the War of Independence and was interned again just as the country found peace. When the Civil War broke out, he joined the anti-Treaty forces, and was captured and killed on the 13 December 1922. "Tom Behan who rendered outstanding services in the fight for freedom, and who was a brave and intensely local Soldier of Ireland, was shot dead on the Curragh in 1922, and his death, still mourned as that of a man who loved his country above all things, evoked universal sorrow and regret.”  The Rambler, Rathangan Past and Present, Kildare Observer, 30 December 1933.

The booklet contains a foreword by Brian McCabe, Chair of the Co. Kildare Federation of Local History Groups, an article about the Rathbride Column and a detailed account of Thomas Behan’s life and family, as well as a selection of photographs.

An accompanying project was undertaken by the Co. Kildare Decade of Commemorations Committee which involved audio recordings by members of the Co. Kildare Federation of Local History Groups of a selection of Behan’s poems.  These recordings will be available online at www.kildare.ie/ehistory and in Kildare Local Studies department.