15th February 2016

We have recently acquired from a member of the Traynor Family in Dublin personal items belonging to Thomas Traynor which includes printed material plus photos . These 30 odd pieces of Traynor memorabilia will be part of our single exhibit in Tullow Museum which is now on display

As to our locally produced forthcoming publication 1916/22 OGHAM it is finished and  available in our museum

We in Tullowphelim Historical Society have also commissioned a stone mason to design a granite monument to honour Thomas Traynor which will be located near his birth place in Cannonsquarter Tullow.

Thomas Pierrepoint 1920's

During 1900's Executions in Mountjoy Jail were carried out by Thomas Pierrepoint and his assistant John Ellis, the official hangmen at that time. He is reputed to have hanged many Irish rebels including Thomas Traynor.
He is credited with having carried out 294 hangings in his career, although no precise figure has been verified, as some of these were in Ireland.

Pierrepoint is the English hangman who gave the cash-strapped Irish government of the day a dig out by slashing his fee for a rare double execution in 1925, according to a periodical document he only charged half price in some cases....

Thomas Pierrepoint regularly travelled to Ireland from his home in Yorkshire to hang murderers sentenced to death here because the newly established Irish Free State was unable or unwilling to hire a local hangman and continued to use the services of British executioners.

Pierrepoint’s standard fee for a hanging was £10. But, in August 1925, he travelled to Mountjoy Prison for a rare double execution – of Annie Walsh (31) and her nephew Michael Talbot (24).

However, instead of charging total fees of £20, he charged just £5 for the second victim in a case of “buy one hanging, get the second for half price”.

The Pierrepoint family business stayed open until 1954, and included amongst its victims Óglaigh Na hÉireann members such as Charlie Kerins who was executed on 1 December 1944.

Another two victims of state executions, Maurice O' Neill and Richard Goss had shot but not killed Gardaí: They were executed by the state for a non-murder crime.

Michael Manning was the last person executed in the state. He was hanged by Albert Pierrepoint for murder on 20 April 1954

As a matter of interest the last woman to be hanged in Ireland was hanged in Carlow Gaol

Her name LUCY SLYE who was hanged for the murder of her husband in 1834.

John keoghTPHS.

Thomas Traynor

For  months I have been going through the arrest records of Thomas Traynor both here in Ireland and looking at those housed in Kew Library England.  I have also looked at the capture of D.I Potter and how is captors felt about him. On a lighter note I recently received photos from a relation of Frank Traynor which will be included in our now published publication. In examining the documents I found that Thomas's wife Elizabeth family hailed from Mullinhahone Tipperary originally. With the amount of documents available and all the publications proposed fom Carlow groups.

Thomas Traynor,

(27 May 1882 - 25 April 1921)

A member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) was hanged in Mountjoy gaol during the Irish War of Independence. Thomas Traynor was born in Cannon’s Quarter Tullow County Carlow, Ireland, and was 39 at the time of his death^, He was an experienced soldier and was a member of the Boland's Mill garrison during the 1916 Easter Rising, He was interned in Frongoch and in Wakefield Jail where he shared a cell with Seán Mac Eoin after the Rising. He worked as a boot maker and was married with ten children. At the time of his death the eldest was 18 years old and the youngest 5 months. Traynor's eldest son, Francis, represented Ireland at the 1928 Summer Olympics, competing as a bantamweight boxer.

Traynor was captured during an ambush on <a title="Auxiliary Division" href="%3