By Christy Roche
On November 6th, 1928 the Cork Examiner carried an account of the unveiling of a monument in Killavullen Catholic Church grounds on the previous day.
The report listed almost all dignitaries and clergy who attended the ceremony. They included the Lord Mayor of Cork and many prominent clergy from Cork city and county.
The monument that was unveiled that day was not to a soldier, cleric or politician, but to a Cork hurler – Timothy Nagle, a native of Killavullen who played with St Mary’s Hurling Club in Cork city and who was an All-Ireland medal winner with Cork senior hurlers in 1919.
The monument carries the following inscription:
Erected by his admirers of the GAA
In fond and loving memory of
TIMOTHY NAGLE of Killavullen
Captain of St Mary’s hurling club, Cork All-Ireland champion
Sincere Gael and faithful comrade Died 6th Jan 1925
but today, in each ray their glories still they cast
Those temples of the noble – sacred relics of the past.
Timothy Nagle was born in Killavullen in 1892 and was apprenticed to his uncle David Crowley, a blacksmith with a forge at 69 Watercourse Road in Cork.
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