It’s a long way to Tipperary, and it is a longer way to Maynooth.
My grandfather on my father’s side when he was alive told me many stories this is one of them. In this case we tell of the bitter atmosphere in the country after the Civil War towards the old occupiers.
Back in the day there were races in Maynooth and people travelled from Dublin’s City Centre to them on a tram. What a lot of people may not know is that the song “It’s a long way to Tipperary” is actually a British marching song. In a land which had only recently rid itself of the yoke of British rule the singing of a British marching song did not go down too well with some people. What would not be known is WWI there were large Irish regiments on the British side in WWI. It could be called an inconvenient truth which was ignored for a long of time. This fact was not mentioned in the history books of Irish school children in the sixties and seventies.
Back to the tram, an exchange of words, neither side was willing to back down. Words having failed fists were used to try and get the point across. The tram like the fight continued on its way west having no place to stop at for some time. Eventually the tram stopped at the Dead Mans Inn, in Palmerstown, a pub which exists to this day. The Guard’s arrived and removed the offending parties.
My grandfather and a colleague were on that tram, they were not in uniform, had they stood up on either side would have turned a two man brawl into a riot, tensions about the level of the animosity between sides here and the third party the British after the civil war can’t be stated strongly enough. The civil war had nothing civil about it, it tore the heart out of Ireland and left us with the strange politics we have today.
As for my grandfather and his pal, they continued on to Maynooth and by all accounts enjoyed themselves.