Today marks the birthday of one of Kildare's most iconic and beloved figures

Today marks the 174th anniversary of the birth of one of Kildare's most famous historical figures.

John Devoy, a native of Kill, was born on September 3 1842 and went on to become one of the major influential figures during three of the most famous periods in Irish history; the 1867 Rebellion, the 1916 Rising and the War of Independence.

Devoy was appointed as Chief Organiser of Fenians in the British Army in Ireland in 1865 by James Stephens, with his role described as 'enlisting Irish soldiers into the Irish Republican Brotherhood.' Devoy was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the British for treason in 1866 after they got wind of a planned rebellion, and the IRB member was forced to serve five years in a London prison before being exiled to the States in 1871.

Devoy continued to fight for an independent Ireland from America, and he raised vital funds that helped pay for weapons and ammunition that would be used in the 1916 Rising. He held meetings with Republican leaders such as Sir Roger Casement and Padraig Pearse in New York ahead of the rising, with the latter describing him as 'the greatest Fenian of them all' due to his unrelenting pursuit of Irish freedom.

Having supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921, Devoy eventually returned home to Ireland in 1924 as an honoured guest of the Cumann na nGaedheal Government of W.T. Cosgrave. 

Devoy died in 1924 in Atlantic City, but his body was returned home to Ireland and he is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. A large monument was erected on the road between Johnstown and Kill in his honour, while a statue was also unveiled in Naas last year to remember him.