Tuesday 3 March 2015

A FORGOTTEN LIMERICK MAN, SIR THOMAS MYLES







A FORGOTTEN LIMERICK MAN, SIR THOMAS MYLES


Lecture by 
Paddy Waldron
Monday March 9, 2015

Room T.1.17 in the TARA building at Mary Immaculate College




The next lecture in the Thomond Archaeological and Historical Society's spring lecture series will be entitled A Forgotten Limerick Man, Sir Thomas Myles, and will be given by society member Paddy Waldron.

Thomas Myles was born in Limerick in 1857, probably over the family shop in Catherine Street, and achieved fame in many fields including medicine, sports and politics before his death in Dublin in 1937. His dual roles as an establishment figure in Dublin and as a leading home ruler make him something of an enigma in Irish history. He graduated in medicine at Trinity College, practised as a surgeon in the leading Dublin hospitals and became professor of pathology and eventually president at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. His medical career resulted in a knighthood and the freedom of the city of Limerick by the time he reached his mid-forties. Later, he held the position of honorary surgeon in Ireland to King George V of England. As late as 1917, St. James's Palace made him a Commander of the Bath for services rendered in connection with the war.

On the other hand, Dr. Myles was involved in 1886 in the establishment of the Irish Protestant Home Rule Association, courted controversy during the 1899 election campaign for president of the RCSI because of his membership of the United Irish League, and in 1914 made his yacht, the Chotah, available to the Irish Volunteers' gun-running effort. This saw a consignment of rifles which had been purchased in Germany successfully landed, partly at Howth and partly by Myles himself at Kilcoole in County Wicklow on the eve of the outbreak of WWI. At Easter 1916 and throughout the troubled times which followed, Sir Thomas Myles earned a reputation for going to extraordinary lengths to prevent the wounded rebels whom he treated at the Richmond Hospital, such as Eamon Martin and Matt Brady, from falling into the hands of crown forces.

Paddy Waldron has degrees in mathematical sciences, economics and finance, but his current passions are genealogy and local history. He is chairperson of Clare Roots Society, PRO of Kilrush and District Historical Society and a member of numerous other genealogical and historical societies. He is distantly connected by marriage to the Myles family.
The lecture will take place at 8pm on Monday 9 March next in room T.1.17 in the TARA building at Mary Immaculate College.


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