9 May 1916: Thomas Kent/ Tomás Ceannt was
executed in Cork Detention Barracks on this day: Born in 1865, Kent was
arrested at his home in Castlelyons, Co. Cork following a raid by the Royal
Irish Constabulary during which his brother Richard was fatally wounded. It had
been his intention to travel to Dublin to participate in the Rising, but when
the mobilisation order for the Irish Volunteers was cancelled on Easter Sunday
he assumed that the Rising had been postponed, leading him to stay at home. In 1966 the railway station in Cork was
renamed Ceannt Station in his honour.
- See more at: http://www.taoiseach.gov.
When the Kent residence was raided they were
met with resistance from Thomas and his brothers Richard, David and William. A
gunfight lasted for four hours, in which an RIC officer, Head Constable William
Rowe, was killed and David Kent was seriously wounded. Eventually the Kents
were forced to surrender, although Richard made a last minute dash for freedom
and was fatally wounded.
Along with Roger Casement he was the only
other person to be executed outside of Dublin for their part in the Easter
Rising.
In September 2015 he was given a State
funeral after his remains were
identified via DNA genetic testing thanks to samples supplied by Kent family
descendants still living in the Castlelyons and Fermoy areas of north Cork.
Following the requiem mass, Thomas Kent, who was 50 when he was executed, was
buried in his family's crypt alongside the remains of his brothers William,
Richard and David.
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