Proudly Supported by
Menu
In 1923 the Sherwood forest of Munster continued to live up to its name and reputation as another fugitive was spirited into it’s bosom. This time it was the turn of Stephen Fuller.
The sole survivor of the Ballyseedy massacre, Stephen Fuller was brought along this valley floor under the cover of darkness aided and abetted by the people of the glenside.
He ended up in the home of the Boyle family where he narrowly escaped capture thanks to the quick thinking and agility of one of the dwellers who knew the woods and ravines better than the visiting soldiers.
A cave was quickly dug out on the mountainside and it was there he remained for several months cared for by the Herlihy family until it was safe for him to leave and bid farewell to the people of the Glenside.
Another life had been saved, another honour for the tightly knit people of the Glenside, another honour for the Sherwood forests of Munster.
Stephen Fullers amazing story began on the 7th March 1923 when he, along with 8 other IRA prisoners, were taken from Ballymullen Barracks in Tralee and brought to Ballyseedy where they were tied together in a circle with a landmine in the centre. The explosion and the subsequent machine gun fire killed 8 of the prisoners, but Stephen Fuller was blown clear across a ditch.
Fragments of bodies were left hanging from the trees and it’s well documented that for days afterwards the crows were eating the flesh off the trees.
The fragments of the bodies were taken to Tralee in 9 coffins in the belief that all 9 had died in the explosion and the press release was that 9 prisoners had died while removing an IRA landmine which was blocking the road.
However all of this was about to unravel with the survival of Stephen Fuller.
When Stephen landed in the drain in the nearby field the explosion had blown the clothes off his body and he had lost the skin from his back and the backs of his legs. His body was peppered with gunpowder grains, pieces of gravel and small metal fragments some of which remained in his body until his death.
After his escape he was taken to various hideouts over the next couple of days before being brought up along this valley by the river to the Boyle farm just 100 meters north of the walkway cabin.
At the Boyle homestead, Stephen was given the bed and the room of Annie Boyle as with two her other sisters now gone to Canada and others married around the county Annie was the youngest and she was the only girl left in the house so she had her own room.
Here Stephen remained while a dug out was being prepared in a strategic location on a nearby hillside on the Herlihy farm,
However, it was while staying at the Boyle homestead that Stephen came closest to being captured and he would undoubtedly have been executed.
It was a Sunday afternoon and one of the Boyle brothers was making his way down the boreen to visit his neighbours when he met the soldiers on their way toward the Boyle farm. By now they had discovered that 1 prisoner had escaped so they were hell bent on finding him and silencing him.
They proceeded to interview Mr Boyle and they told him they were looking for an escaped prisoner. They told Mr Boyle that if he was aware of any such person in hiding on his farm and that provided he told them so they would simply remove the prisoner and the family would come to no harm. However, on the other hand, if he denied knowledge of such a person and the soldiers found him then they would burn out the entire farm.
Mr Boyle did not flinch and looking the soldiers squarely in the eyes he denied that he had any knowledge of such a person. After they went their separate ways Mr Boyle ran through glens and ravines to get to the house before the soldiers in the slim hope of they hiding Stephen Fuller. However Mr Boyle must have told a very convincing story as the soldiers continued on through the farmyard to the next house and never searched the Boyle homestead.
One other reason that might have helped was that the Boyle family was a Protestant family and therefore attracted less attention in the likelihood of providing a safe house to IRA members.
After his narrow escape at Boyles farm he was moved to the newly created dug out on the southern side of the Stacks mountains on the Herlihy farm where he remained for several months. His only break from his dark and damp cave was his trips for food to the Herlihy dwelling house where a white sheet out the attic window was his signal that the coast was clear for him to approach the house.
When the conflict ended, Stephen took to the political stage as a Fianna Fail candidate and became a Kerry North TD holding office from July 1937 to June 1943. After his political career ended he returned to his life as a farmer in Kilflynn.
Stephen Fuller died in February 1984 and while he was a patient in Edinburn hospital Ballymacelligott before he died Annie Lenihan, in the company of John Lenihan, paid him a visit for an emotional reunion of his time spent in her house many years before.
As you stand here today at this wood cabin you are but 100 meters from the ruins of the Boyle dwelling where in 1923 history was created by the mountain dwellers and the people of Glanageenty by sheltering Stephen Fuller and by risking their own lives in doing so.
Once more Glanageenty had written itself in the history books for all the right reasons.
Click on the images below for more information on Glanageenty Walks and the History surrounding this area of Ireland.