Tuesday
9 April 2004
As
predicted, the morning turns out to be crisp and clear and the sun is shining.
We breakfast on some excellent beef sausages and eggs. The Irish do not do
sausages anywhere as good as the British. They are the sausage champions of the
world, after us of course!
And
it’s off chasing Flashy’s Marum relatives, an hour east on the M7 to Galmoy.
His
GG great Uncle John Marum was one of seven brothers living in Kilkenny County
around a little village of Galmoy in the early 1800’s. The clan, traced
back to the 1600’s, was quite successful.
Among them a parish priest, wealthy landowner and a Bishop.
John
was a forthright bloke who owned land and was probably a bit bolshie. Anyway,
on his way home one day in 1824, his neighbours ambushed him, shot him off his
horse then stabbed him to death. I guess they didn’t like him much. The horse,
also carrying his young son with him, took off for home - who wouldn’t eh?
The
perpetrators were traced to a nearby home by the rifle that broke when fired,
leaving tell tale evidence at the scene. After a controversial trial in Kilkenny,
in which the jury of gentlemen were sent back by the judge to reach a verdict,
five of the six accused were found guilty and sentenced to death. That’ll teach
‘em to murder a Bishop’s brother. Kieran the youngest brother was Bishop of
Ossory, Kilkenny at the time. And in due course, they were swiftly taken back
to the scene of the crime and hung by the neck until dead, as was the practice
at the time, apparently.
As
a man of some local reputation, it came as no surprise in the end, to find his
grave stone right next to the door of the church. Closer even than the handful of
local parish priest’s graves. We of course, started on the outside fence,
working our way to the church door in cold, windy 7C conditions, only to find
the big grave at the end.
After
taking photos, Flashy went inside and lit a candle. He owes the church 25
cents. Further grave chasing was postponed, as firstly, we had the dog with us
and secondly, we needed to get back for a doctor’s appointment and some fuel
for the car.
Arriving
home, we discover that the central heating is off. We were briefed on this by
the host and shown where the kitchen knife was to unscrew the cover, pull out
the filter, brush it clean of soot, re-insert it and restart the kerosene
boiler, to provide the hot water to circulate throughout the home’s traditional
but effective water heaters. A piece of piss really!
We
are planning on going to the pub tonight as there is Irish music on. When
Flashy dropped in the other day to ask what time the music started, he was
asked what instrument he played. If they are that desperate, who knows what the
night will bring?
A very pretty hanging spot. Be interesting to know what he did to rile his neighbours up so much!
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