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John Begley was also from this parish. Begley was a priest in the diocese and was an Archdeacon in the parish of Bruff when he died in 1941. He wrote a three-volume history of the Diocese of Limerick that was published over a period of thirty years. Local historian Tim Mulcahy told us that Begley was put through school by his brother James. James Begley was an ace marksman and due to his success in shooting game, he could afford to fund his brother's education. In 1905, a horse named Kirkland won the Aintree Grand National. Fr Edmund Clifford, who was parish priest from 1892 until his retirement in 1919, bred Kirkland. Kirkland won in Kilmallock at the age of four and was owned at this stage by a Mr T. A. Hartigan. Hartigan then sold the horse onto a Liverpool manufacturer Frank Bibby. Kirkland was well fancied by the general public at Aintree as he had earlier won the Grand Sefton chase (run over the National course) and had finished fourth in 1903 and second in 1904 in the two previous running of the National. Kirkland was trained by Mr. E. Thomas and ridden by Frank 'Tich' Mason. He won by three lengths from Napper Tandy at the odds of 6/1. It is sometimes argued that Kirkland was a Templeglantine horse. However, Kirkland was born in 1896, while Fr. Clifford was parish priest in Monagea. Another local who achieved fame (or infamy in this case) was "Terrible" Tommy O'Connor, who shot his way out of Chicago jail in 1910. The leader of the local division of the Whiteboys was Captain Rock, a
Fitzmaurice. A faction group called the Rockites emerged from this organisation.
A Mulcahy led them at one stage. Like the Whiteboys, their objective was
to grab land from farmers. This usually happened for one of two reasons;
a dispute with another local farmer, or simply wanting their lands. Heritage Project Home | Monagea Home | Back to Top
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