Martesa Kearney, who died on February 5th, was known as "Tess" to her relatives and friends the world over. She had been a leading member of the National Graves Association, Ireland, for almost 50 years.
Tess was the granddaughter of a Fenian. Her family had to leave Derry after partition, when her Republican father refused to sign an oath of allegiance to the British crown. This meant the loss of his livelihood. After an interlude in Donegal the Kearney family came to live in Dublin. Tess embraced her family's separatist republican tradition wholeheartedly and never lost sight of the ideal of a 32-county republic.
She enjoyed a successful career as an accountant, while channelling much of her considerable organising talents into Cumann Cabhrach and later into the NGA. To safeguard the independence of the latter, she was instrumental in turning the NGA into a limited company.
During the past 20 years, Tess Kearney was a leading player in effecting the repatriation of the remains of Roger Casement, Barnes and McCormack and Dunne and O'Sullivan from England, the Connaught Rangers from India and Frank Ryan from Germany. Many of these were reburied in Glasnevin Cemetery, where their monuments are cared for lovingly and pointed out during the association's regular tours. The late Yann Renard Goulet, one of Ireland's leading sculptors, was selected to create the memorial in Glasnevin to the hunger strikers in Glasnevin, as well as in Ballyseedy to the tragic victims of the Civil War in Ballyseedy.
In 1974 Tess seemed to be unscathed after enduring the Talbot Street bombing, but was never able to forget the sight of dismembered human beings around her. From then on her health began to decline; for years afterwards she carried on by sheer will power.
Tess was apt to discharge herself from her hospital bed when the situation demanded. To mention one example: when she heard that the Croppies Acre was in danger of being turned into a bus park for the new National Museum, she turned in a magnificent effort for the television cameras and organised the "Save the Croppies Acre" campaign within 10 days. But for her, the present 1798 Memorial Park might never have happened.
Up to the moment of her death she was involved in trying to get the Forgotten Ten removed from the prison yard in Mountjoy Jail so they could be given a Christian burial. It is disappointing that her efforts went unheeded.
We remember her dry Northern sense of humour, her insistence that the role of women in Irish history was undervalued. She was a caring, loyal friend, but didn't suffer fools gladly. Tess Kearney was 77 when she died. Despite the burden of deteriorating health, she burned with a bright spirit to the end.
Ni bheidh a leithead ann aris.
E.O'C.