Forgotten heroes: Westmeath-born policemen slain by Ned Kelly, remembered by historian

The Australian outlaw Ned Kelly is sometimes seen as something of a folk hero, a bit of daredevil, someone who faced up against authority - but that's not how historian Michael O'Connell views the man who cold bloodedly took the life of a police sergeant, Michael Kennedy, who was a native of Tonaghmore, Fore.

“He was a police murderer; he was a thief, a bank robber, a hostage-taker,” says Michael who, as part of Heritage Week, is to give a lecture at the Fore Coffee Shop between 7 and 9pm on August 19 on Ned Kelly and the killing of Michael Kennedy.

A daredevil folk hero is also not how the Kennedy family would have viewed him: Michael Kennedy was just 36 of age and a father of five when he was, effectively, executed by Ned Kelly on October 26 1878. A newspaper report from that time stated that when Sgt Kennedy’s body was found, “the body presented a frightful spectacle, and from the manner in which it had been mutilated was scarcely recognisable”.

Kelly remains a figure of huge interest in Australia says Michael, whose sympathies lie firmly in Kennedy’s camp - not least because as an ex-Garda himself, there would be a natural sympathy for any officer killed in the line of duty.

Apart from that, Kelly had few redeeming qualities: "one couldn’t even say of him that he robbed the rich to pay the poor,” says Michael

“He had planned to murder all the policemen on the train coming through Glenrowan [where he was eventually captured despite wearing his bizarre self-made body armour], but that was that was averted - thanks to the local school teacher,” says Michael.

“But he was a criminal - a criminal who is now being lauded by a lot of people who think that he was a great character, a great saviour of the very poor Irish in northeast Melbourne or northeast Victoria. But he was anything but.

“He robbed £4,000 from two banks in Euroa and Jeniderie, and £4,000 then would be the equivalent of nearly up to a million today, if not more. But yet, his mother lived in poverty all her life: he never gave her any of the proceeds - or if he did, she hid it well.”

Michael first became interested in the saga when he visited Australia in 2004: “It’s kind of a big story worldwide, the Ned Kelly story, but I came across the grave of the three policemen killed at Stringybark Creek, all three Irish-born - Michael Kennedy, who was born in Westmeath, Michael Scanlon, who was from Killarney and Thomas Lonigan who is down as coming from Sligo, although I’m struggling to get a birthplace for him.

“They were all very well respected policeman in their areas in Australia in Victoria - and also the fourth man who escaped - Thomas McIntyre - who was born in Belfast.

“When I came across the three graves I thought it was very sad that three Irishman were lying here in the graveyard in Mansfield so many miles away home, forgotten completely by all bar their kith and kin - but Ned Kelly was ‘a hero’ and was lauded all over the world and I thought that was very wrong.”

Kelly showed the men no mercy: “These four men were only doing their job, doing their best and they were shot in cold blood.

"In the case of Michael Kennedy Ned Kelly just held a shotgun to his chest and blew a hole in him while Michael Kennedy was begging to be left and hopefully survive so he could see his wife and children again. Another problem, of course, was that both Michael Kennedy's wife and Thomas Lanigan’s were both pregnant at the time of the murders and they both lost their babies as well. So that's another tragic aspect.”

Michael is a published author: his “Boatman for Mountbatten” is available on Amazon.co.uk, and it looks at events surrounding the death of Lord Mountbatten in Sligo. Michael himself actually worked on that boat.

* Michael's lecture on Ned Kelly and Michael Kennedy is taking place at the Fore Coffee Shop between 7 and 9pm on August 19