Page 120 - GAHS Journal Volume 9

TO CLON AND BACK

After breakfast on Tuesday morning we gathered in the hotel
lobby to meet our leader for the day. Tim Crowley is a hugely-
experienced guide and an expert on the history of Clonakilty and
locality, but particularly on all things Michael Collins related –
indeed, he’s actually a distant relative of the great man. He
brought us first to the Michael Collins Centre a few miles from
Clonakilty, set in the heart of countryside which Collins and his
ancestors would have known intimately. There we viewed
artefacts and photographs associated with the family and with
the War of Independence and Civil War in the area, and heard
an in-depth presentation from Tim which set the scene for the
tour we would take that afternoon to a number of the places most
closely linked with the Collins legend.

The first such place, as it
happened, was our stop for
lunch. O’Donovan’s Hotel in
Clonakilty was one of Collins’s
favourite haunts, used on his
flying visits and speaking tours
in the area. After lunch in
O’Donovan’s atmospheric and
welcoming bar, Tim retrieved
his scattered flock for a short
tour of more Collins-
associated sites in the town.
But first our attention was
diverted from Irish revolution-
ary history by the story of
another local hero - Tojo, the
spider monkey mascot of the
crew of a US Flying Fortress which crashed nearby in April 1943.
Following their rescue, Tojo and his human companions were
feted in O’Donovan’s Hotel for two days, before Tojo suddenly

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