44 Thursday, May 8th, 2008: The Round Tower and the Heist

My wonderful chauffer and tour guide, Laura O’ Mathuna, drove me to the Round Tower in Clones. Initially the Round Tower was built from limestone in 9^th century for storage purposes. The Vikings invaded in 795 and raided monastic establishments like Clones. At the time of the Viking pillaging the Round Tower was used as place of defence and refuge for the monks. The Round Tower stands at 75 feet tall but was originally 90 feet until conical cap collapsed. North of the tower is a graveyard dating back to the 1700s. Famous for the sarcophagus of Saint Tighearnach that is carved from stone is the shape of a house.

Later I went to Maire and Paul’s house to use the internet. Paul told me about the Martin Cahill heist of O’Connor Jewellers. Martin Cahill is the notorious Irish gangster who specializes in robbery. Cahill’s claim to fame is when he robbed the major manufacturer O’Connor Jewellers. I was surprised to know that Eamonn’s wife is the daughter of the O’Connor. Cahill and his minions, dressed as a football team, walked out of O’Connor’s Jewellers with $3,000,000 worth of jewellery. One hundred people had to be laid off because insufficient funding. The O’Connor’s apparently don’t like talking about the heist. It was an embarrassment to the family. Martin Cahill was shot and killed while getting into his car by the IRA in 1994. Four years after his death movie producers already had plans of creating a film on Martin Cahill. The producers went to the O’Connor Jewellery owner to ask if they could film part of their movie, ‘The General’, at the store. Mr. O’Connor replied “If you can repay the amount of money the jewellery went for then you can film in my store.” The directors replied ‘No’.