Flowers
The Saturday morning Flowers Detail: Paul Callery, Veronica, Denis Lenihan, Ron Daly and Rod Dennison, Mr Langton is on Camera Duty
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS TOWARD THE PURCHASE OF FLOWERS.
THANK YOU
 Paul Fleming, Ron Daly and James Langton.Photo: Paddy Gilford. |
Dec 2010 – €100 – Thomastown Fine Gael District Executive, Co. Kilkenny Feb 2011 – €150 – Martin Condon,”Allegiance” production Naas, Feb 2011 – €200.00 Maurice Heneghan. Mar 2011 – €40.00 Anonymous Mar 2011 – €50.00 Christine Balconis – USA. June 2011 – €50.00 Martin Dunne and Peter Duffy, June 2001 – €50.00 Carol Howard. Aug. 2011 – €50.00 Christine Balconis – USA Dec. 2011 – £30.00 Sterling, Carol Howard Dec. 2011 – €100.00 House of Calenders per Paul Mar. 2012 – €30.00 Martin Condon, Naas Co. Kildare MAY. 2012 – €50.00 Christine Balconis – NY, USA. July 2012 – €90.00 Christine Balconis -NY, USA. Aug 2012 – $30.00 Tom Henderson, Lowell MA,USA. October Aug 2012 – €50.00 Christine Balconis NY, USA. October 2012 – €75.00 Julie Wentworth, Co. Cork. Dec. 2012 – €50.00 – Christine Balconis NY, USA. Feb – 2012 – €100.00 Julie Wentworth, Co. Cork. March 2013 – €30.00 Anonymous. April 2013 – €50.00 Birmingham Br Officers Martin and Peter April 2013 – €50.00 Tommy Reilly, May 2013 – €30.00 John Donegan, Dickson USA May 2013 – €50.00 Daniel O’Reilly, Clogher, Tyrone. June 2013 – €50.00 Felix OCallaghan. Irl. July 2013 – €30.00 Zach Donegan, Dickson USA. July 2013 – €50.00 Christine Balconis. NY, USA Dec 2013 – €50.00 Christine Balconis, NY, USA. Dec 2013 – €50.00 Lisa Osepowicz, MA, USA. Jan 2014 – €35.00 Tommy O’Reilly. Mar 2014 – €30.00 John G. Donegan TN, USA Mar 2014 – €100.00 Ian Pattison, Glasgow, Scotland April 2014 – €5.00 Dell Radcliffe, IA, USA April 2014 – €50.00 Damien English TD, Meath. July 2014 – $50.00 John Kerrigan, NY, USA Aug 2014 – €50.00 Christine Balconis, NY, USA Aug 2014 – €50.00 Marie White, Leitrim Aug 2014 – €75.00 Julie Wentworth, Co. Cork Aug 2014 – €40.00 Shaun Dauzat, LA, USA. Dec 2014 – €50.00 Lisa Osepowicz MA, USA Dec 2014 – €50.00 Christine Balconis Jan. 2015 – €200.00 B. Martin Feb. 2015 – €50.00 Martin Dunne UK Feb 2015 – €50.00 St Mary’s NS Killenaule May 2015 – €50.00 Christine Balconis NY USA. May 2015 – €100 Helga Rauhoegger, Passau May 2015 – €50.00 Christine Balconis NY USA May 2015 – €20.00 Kenneth Edward Riley CA USA May 2015 – €300.00 Peter Fitzpatrick TD & Louth F.G. July 2015 – €50.00 Christine Balconis, NY – USA Aug 2015 – €30.00 John G. Donegan, TN – USA Aug 2015 – €30.00 Marie White, Co. Leitrim Aug 2015 – €50.00 Lisa Osepowicz, Florence, MA USA Oct. 2015 – €100.00 Christine Balconis NY USA Dec 2015 – €350.00 Conor Dullaghan USA Dec 2015 – €50.00 Peter Duffy UK Dec 2015 – €30.00 John G. Donegan TN – USA Feb 2016 – €50.00 Diarmuid O’ Connor, Dub. Mar, 2016 – €50.00 Lisa Osepowicz Mar 2016 – €30.00 John G. Donegan TN. USA Mar. 2016 – €50.00 Christine Balconis NY USA May 2016 – €50.00 Christine Balconis NY USA May 2016 – €50.00 Tommy O’Reilly July 2016 – €50.00 Marie White Oct 2016 – €280 Kinnane Family, Ballymoreen, Littleton Feb 2017 – €100.00 Christine Balconis NY USA |
IN MY OPINION MARY KENNY – Weekend 7 August 2010
For years, Michael Collins’s grave lay neglected. Then one man decided it was time to restore the lost leader to his rightful place.
Later this month. Mr Brian Lenthan will give the memorial oration at Beal ma mBláth in West Cock commemorating the death of General Michael Collins on August 22, 1922, lt will be the nest time ever that a Fianna Fail minister has appeared at the annual ceremony for Collins, the lost leader, so it should be a moment of national reconciliation.
But I want to recount the story of another Lenihan – no relation – who has made it his Iifes mission to restore and tend the grave of Michael Collins at Clasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. For many decades., the State — notably under Fianna Fail administrations – Ignored Collins grave and by 1980 it had become run-down and neglected, Denis Lenihan, a tall, lean bachelor living nearby, used to come to the cemetery on Sundays to say a decade of the rosary f for his mother, who had died in 1979. Denis, who was 80 this year. was always interested In Michael Collins – his father had been in the old IRA and had been interned at Ballykinlar. Co Down – and would also visit Collins’s last resting place.
It struck him how shabby the Collins grave looked. although the family In Cork had done their best to maintain it. It was constructed with stark austerity. as, again, prevailing State authorities frowned on anything elaborate. The tomb-stone just gives the date of Collins’s birth (wrongly) and the date of his death, mainly in Irish, with the coda “Erected by his brothers and sisters”.
Denis decided to dedicate the rest of his life to restoring this national memorial, and to ensure that fresh flowers would adorn it every week He also paid. personally, to have it cleaned.
The grave is now clean, spruce and dignified. with varying numbers of vases of flowers, as well as garlands of red and white carnations. which Denis has learned to fashion himself, it is a reat magnet for visitors from all over the world some of whom are regulars. There is a mysterious French lady, who only identifies herself as Veronique, who comes from Paris four times a year, leaving flowers in Collins’s, honour.
What made Denis such an ardent fan of Michael Collins memory that it has dominated his life? Initially. it was the silence. When he was growing up in Naas in the 1930s and 1940s. no mention was made Of Collins at all. Denis’s father died – of tuberculosis – when Denis was only a year old„ and when he asked questions of his widowed mother, who was struggling to raise four children on a tiny sum, she would tactfully say that her own family was never invohed with politics. ‘The Civil War cast a lorng shadow, and people wanted to put the put the bitter divisions behind them.
But the more Denis learned about Mick Collins, the more his admiration grew — ‘the humanity of the man, the generosity’- and came to feel that he would do anything -to put that man in his rightful place” His dedication also brought him into many an interesting highway and byway of history. He made friends with Vinny Byrne the last of Michael’s comrades to die, in the 1990s. He tracked down – by visiting every nursing home in Clondalkin Fonsie Culleton. who, as a 14-year-old boy, became Collins’s ‘mascot’ in the Free State army: there is as famous photograph of Alphonsus Culliton, Like a little drummer boy in a kilt, walking behind Collins near Portobello Barracks. Fonsie was In his 80s when Denis located him, but they had several years of friendship talking about “The Big Fellow”,
Denis also made a big effort to find the car that carried Collins when halted by that fatal ambush. It was an irnpressive Leyland Straight – on a par with a Rolls-Royce – registered TB 7627. It cost £5,000 In 1922, Denis has tried every-where, even travelling to Africa when he heard a report that a Nigerian politician had bought it. He has never been able to trace what became of it, but, by way of compensation, an elderly man who had been a funeral chauffeur gave him a button from Michael Collins’s uniform. which he had surreptitiously taken from the hero’s remains.
Last pear, Denis injured his back while carrying vast tanks of water for graveyard flowera, and It became difficult for him to continue, but a rota of younger men, James Langton with Paul Fleming and Ron Daly, have now taken over the care of the Collins grave,
Initially Denis paid for the flowers himself – he has an American Pension from working in the Californian Aircraft industry, whish helped – but now the Collins 22 Society, founded five years ago to honour Michael Collins memory, can provide some support.
Denis says that Michael Collins brought his parents together – his father was released from iinternment after the 1921 Treaty was signed so in a way he owes General Collins his life. In carry out thls quiet and beautiful task Denis Lenihan has surely repaid the debt.
