Tag Archives: IRA

SHANNON historian Gearóid Ó Faoleán has written a sequel to his 2019 book on support for the IRA in the Republic during the Troubles. A Broad Church: The Provisional IRA in the Republic of Ireland, Volume 2: 1980-1989 was released earlier this month. “I did the 70s the last time and the book finished off at 1980, so it’s just continuing. Also, with the 30 year rule you couldn’t even do the 90s yet, you’d have to wait until 2029 to get those details,” says Gearóid. Now based in Belfast, he works in publishing, with the new book having been written as a side project. “Lockdown was about a year after the first book came out. Everyone had spare time so I kicked off again.” The true extent of support for the Provos south of the border in the 1980s is hard to quantify, he believes. “It was much harder to tell than in the 70s. By the time you’d …

Rose Dugdale, who spurned a life of privilege to join the IRA, is the subject of a book by writer Sean O’Driscoll A DÉBUTANTE presented to Queen Elizabeth in 1958, young Rose Dugdale had a life of privilege among England’s upper class at her feet, but instead she turned her back on her upbringing, joined the IRA and spent most of the 1970s in prison. Her extraordinary life story has now been told by Ennis journalist Sean O’Driscoll in his second book, Heiress, Rebel, Vigilante, Bomber: The Extraordinary Life of Rose Dugdale. Dugdale co-operated with the book and Sean spoke frequently to her during his research, while he says he was aware of the privileged revolutionary from his youth. “We used to visit cousins in Dublin and we’d pass Portlaoise prison and my mother or father  would say that’s where Eddie Gallagher (the father of Dugdale’s child, whom she married while in prison) is. On the way back down passing …

FRIDAY, September 16, will see the Clare launch of former IRA prisoner Jim (Jaz) McCann’s memoir 6,000 Days at the Oakwood Hotel. On the night the author will be in conversation with Donna McGettigan. Arrested at the age of 20 after attempting to kill a police officer, McCann was sentenced to life imprisonment and he remained in custody from 1976 until 1994. He was one of hundreds of Republican prisoners who refused to wear a prison uniform, claiming they were political prionsers, which led to them being locked in their cells, wearing only a blanket, for more than four years, in grim conditions. The death of the hunger strikers in 1981 was a huge historical moment, and he knew several of them. In the book he also recalls life in the IRA, the deprivation of the years spent in prison, the relationships with friends and comrades including the hunger strikers, his role in the prison breakout of 1983 which saw …

FORMER hunger striker Laurence McKeown will hold the Clare launch of his new book at the West County Hotel at 7.30pm on Thursday, June 30. The book, Time Shadows: A Prison Memoir details McKeown’s time in the Maze Prison from his arrival in 1976 to the aftermath of the 1981 hunger strike in which Bobby Sands and nine other republican prisoners died.  In all the author spent 1,621 days on the blanket protest, in which IRA prisoners refused to wear uniforms, 1,079 days on the no wash protest and finally 70 days on hunger strike. His life was spared when his family intervened to authorise medical attention when he was in a coma on the point of death. He has gone on to be a successful poet, playwright and author, and co-wrote the 2001 film about the Hunger Strike, H3, directed by Les Blair. In 1998 he was awarded a Doctorate in Sociology by Queens University Belfast, having completed a …

PLANS to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Glenwood ambush on Wednesday next, January 20, have now been deferred to later in the year in compliance with Covid-19 Level 5 restrictions. A very scaled down commemorative event will take place on the anniversary, however, with the lighting of a memorial lamp and the flying of a tricolour. The mounting of a commemoration plaque aptly named ‘An Teach Sábháilte,’ the Safe House, will go ahead as planned, but the unveiling has deferred to a future date. The wall plaque is being sculptured and fitted by Michael McTigue, and will take the shape of a 1920-style house. It will include revolutionary figures, facilitated by the bravery of women including members of Cumann na mBan. They provided support including food and shelter to the volunteers while on the run during the War of Independence. Other items on the plaque will include the rising sun and a semi-completed harp to signify the dawn of …

AS EVENTS in the War of Independence are commemorated across the country, communities in East Clare are preparing to mark the 100th anniversary of the Glenwood Ambush in the New Year. On January 20, 1921 at about 4pm, a motorised patrol of ten armed Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and Black and Tans, travelling from Sixmilebridge to Broadford, approached the back gate of Glenwood House. Waiting for them, concealed behind the walls of the Glenwood estate was a group of approximately 37 armed volunteers, from the East Clare Brigade of the IRA, led by Michael Brennan of Meelick. As the patrol passed by the gates, a fusillade of gunshots struck the patrol. Six RIC and Black and Tans were killed, two were injured and two escaped unhurt. One IRA volunteer was injured. The ambush party then withdrew through the forest and mountains to the East of Glenwood, towards the village of Oatfield. The surviving members of the patrol made their way …

WHILE events to mark the centenary of the Rineen ambush and the subsequent reprisals have had to be scaled back due to Covid-19, a plaque in memory of those who died on that day will be unveiled at Flanagan’s bar in Lahinch on September 22. On September 22, 1920, following the killing of six RIC men at Rineen, the military arrived in Lahinch around 2.30pm, setting fire to businesses and homes, with the blaze at Flanagan’s bar claiming the life of Pakie Lehane. Brian J O’Higgin’s is the grandson of the Flanagan couple who operated the pub in 1920.“That pub was burned, the 19th pub was burned, it was O’Dwyers then. Vaughan’s Hotel, which is now the Atlantic Hotel was burned on that night. It would have been owned by Michael Vaughan’s grandfather,” he says. “They all lost their homes and they all had to go down to the golf sandhills as they were called, and live there for a …

AN AMBUSH in the village of Feakle in 1920 is to be commemorated with the unveiling of a plaque at the place where it happened. The ambush, which took place on October 7, almost 100 years ago, involved members of the Sixth Battalion of the East Clare Brigade of the IRA. The attack on six members of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) led to the burning of a number of homes and business premises in Feakle by way of reprisal. Local historian and Chairperson of the Feakle Commemorative Group Pat Flynn has researched the event in detail, combing military archives and consulting secondary sources, and says the ambush is a significant incident in The War of Independence in Clare. “Tommo Tuohy was the man in charge of the ambush, having been deeply involved in the republican struggle, even as far back as 1916,” said Mr Flynn. “The East Clare Brigade were very strong and determined to make a stand for …