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In November 2008, Tomás Mac Conmara sat with a 105 five-year-old woman at a nursing home in Clare. While gently moving through her memories, he asked the east Clare native; 'Do you remember the time that four lads were killed on the Bridge of Killaloe?'.
About the author
An award-winning oral historian from County Clare. Tomás completed a PhD at the University of Limerick in 2015, which explored the memory of the Irish War of Independence. He began recording oral history as a teenager and is now regarded as one of the leading oral historians in Ireland. He was the founder of Cuimhneamh an Chláir (Memories of Clare) and was commended by President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins with a Comhaltas Forógra na Cásca Centenary Award in 2016. In 2017, he published Days of Hunger and in 2019, his twenty-year oral history collection work, The Time of the Tans was published by Mercier Press.
Summary
Journey back to 1920 with the memories of a 105-year-old woman recounting the haunting incident of the 'Scariff Martyrs' - four young rebels brutally killed by British Forces. Their story of commitment, betrayal, torture, and unyielding loyalty resounds deeply, not just in the local memory of East Clare but across generations.
