Having entered the poignant week of the executions of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising, RCSI Heritage Collections wanted to look at an item that illustrates the emotions of one rebel who had fought in the Rising.
A colleague in Royal College of Physicians of Ireland contacted recently with the image below. This was found by a man in a corporation flat that was being emptied out. The author had given this, amongst other things to the owner who was now passing them on.
So who was Thomas P. Keenan, the 12 year old, who took part in the Rising and left such a beautiful poem encapsulating that historic week? There is reference to Tommy in Michael Foy and Brian Barton's book The Easter Rising and it is as follows
Whilst 12-year-old Tommy Keenan fetched food and medicine for Mallin's garrison in the College of Surgeons, his tiny size deceiving British Soldiers who never suspected that the smiling schoolboy was wearing a green Fianna shirt under his jacket. Keenan survived the Rising, unlike 15-year-old John Healy, an apprentice plumber who was shot dead carrying dispatches in the Phibsborough area.....
Little Tommy Keenan was induced to return home from the College of Surgeons to reassure his anxious family that he was safe. Other parents endured agonies of uncertainty...
Tommy Keenan was locked in a room on his return [home] and Matt Walton, who on Easter Monday morning had looked in vain for a dentist, returned home to discover that his parents had taken the valves from his bicycle to prevent him going off to join the fighting. However, youth was not to be denied. Keenan escaped through a window to report back to the College of Surgeons, while Walton, after convincing his parents that he had to go to work or he would be sacked, went straight back to Jacob's factory.
- pg. 219-220
Despite the danger Tommy and many other young boys and girls took part in what were the first steps in the founding of the Irish Republic. Tommy was lucky, he survived.
- Researched and written by Meadhbh Murphy
A colleague in Royal College of Physicians of Ireland contacted recently with the image below. This was found by a man in a corporation flat that was being emptied out. The author had given this, amongst other things to the owner who was now passing them on.
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| Poem written by Little Tommy Keenan |
So who was Thomas P. Keenan, the 12 year old, who took part in the Rising and left such a beautiful poem encapsulating that historic week? There is reference to Tommy in Michael Foy and Brian Barton's book The Easter Rising and it is as follows
Whilst 12-year-old Tommy Keenan fetched food and medicine for Mallin's garrison in the College of Surgeons, his tiny size deceiving British Soldiers who never suspected that the smiling schoolboy was wearing a green Fianna shirt under his jacket. Keenan survived the Rising, unlike 15-year-old John Healy, an apprentice plumber who was shot dead carrying dispatches in the Phibsborough area.....
Little Tommy Keenan was induced to return home from the College of Surgeons to reassure his anxious family that he was safe. Other parents endured agonies of uncertainty...
Tommy Keenan was locked in a room on his return [home] and Matt Walton, who on Easter Monday morning had looked in vain for a dentist, returned home to discover that his parents had taken the valves from his bicycle to prevent him going off to join the fighting. However, youth was not to be denied. Keenan escaped through a window to report back to the College of Surgeons, while Walton, after convincing his parents that he had to go to work or he would be sacked, went straight back to Jacob's factory.
- pg. 219-220
Despite the danger Tommy and many other young boys and girls took part in what were the first steps in the founding of the Irish Republic. Tommy was lucky, he survived.
- Researched and written by Meadhbh Murphy