Skeletal remains may be Kent

The assistant state pathologist has conducted a preliminary investigation of skeletal remains which were found at Cork Prison during the search for the mortal remains of executed 1916 patriot Thomas Kent.

Dr Margot Bolster inspected the bones yesterday, in the ground where they were found, as archaeologists from the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, continue their painstaking and sensitive excavation of the historic grave site.

It could be another 48 hours before the remains are fully revealed but plans are in place for their removal to Cork University Hospital (CUH) where more detailed forensic examinations will take place.

It is understood the remains were found at almost the exact spot where Thomas Kent was executed in May 1916, and where it has always been believed his body was buried.

But it could take up to eight weeks before the results of specialised DNA tests confirm the identity of the remains.

The Kent family has asked the Irish Prison Service to wait until all results of the DNA tests are issued to the State Pathologist’s office and, in turn, to them, before any further statement is made.

However, historians have described the find as hugely significant.

Military historian, Gerry White, said all the indications are at this stage that they are the remains of Thomas Kent.

“It is very exciting and historic. Cork has its own Richard 111 moment,” he said.

“It is an important day for people of Cork city and county but more importantly, it is also a significant day for the Kent family.”

UCC historian Gabriel Doherty described Thomas Kent as Cork’s main connection with Easter Rising events in Dublin.

“He and his family played a very prominent and noble part in what many would term the patriotic revival at the end of the 19th and start of the 20th century,” he said.

If the remains are confirmed as those of Thomas Kent, he said it would provide a wonderful opportunity, with Kent family support, for the city and county councils to unite in some way for a very special 1916 centenary commemoration next year.

Thomas Kent was a prominent organiser of the Irish volunteers and was arrested following an incident at the family home at Bawnard, Castlelyons, in which an RIC officer was killed and Thomas’s brother Richard was fatally injured during a fire fight.

Thomas Kent was tried for treason and executed on May 9, 1916 by British forces in the grounds of what was then the British military’s detention centre attached to the former Victoria Barracks — an area which is now part of Cork Prison.