Search Results for 'Army'

There was never anything like the visit by the Yanks to get the best delph out in the house. The blue willow cups with the delicate handles and the immaculately-decorated plates which year round never saw our thick fingers, were paraded out to hold hot tea and Irish salads of ham and corned beef and scallions and ripe tomatoes. Lettuce not forget those days.

The 2023 Schools Playwright Competition, hosted in conjunction with the RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival Fringe and sponsored by the Athlone Credit Union saw Transition Year students from twelve counties compete for the prestigious award, the winner, Cormac Reilly from Glenamaddy being announced at a ceremony in the Dean Crowe Theatre recently.

As a direct consequence of the death of three National Army soldiers during a botched raid on the barracks in Headford on Sunday April 8 1923, six anti-Treaty young men, already in Galway jail, were selected for immediate execution. They had been arrested during a raid on their training camp in the Currandulla area six weeks earlier.

By the end of January 1923 the Irish Free State had executed 34 anti-Treaty republican prisoners. To put this figure into context, the British authorities executed 24 Irish prisoners between November 1920 and June 1921 during the War of Independence. The fledgling Irish Free State was determined to put-down the rebellion by a small but deadly anti-Treaty force, led with fierce determination, by Liam Lynch.

In the immediate aftermath of the recapture of Clifden by the anti-Treaty forces on Sunday 29 October 1922, the town was in a mess. Every house on Main Street had its windows and doors shattered. The streets were littered with glass as a result of explosions. In the houses opposite the barracks ‘not a picture remained on the walls, nor a piece of furniture unscathed’. Porter and spirits ‘flowed out the door’ of Lavelle’s pub. The ‘armoured car’, which had caused so much surprise, and gave cover to allow bombs to be placed, was removed and abandoned at Killery. It was noted that for the first time in living memory there were no church services in Clifden that Sunday.

Local Independent Deputy, Denis Naughten, has called on the Tánaiste, Deputy Micheal Martin, to designate Custume Barracks in Athlone as the location for the proposed new Defence Forces headquarters, as recommended by the Commission on the Defence Forces.

RONAN FAGAN

Week III

Athlone native, Lavinia Connell, and her partner, Jason Hassett, both of whom are members of the Irish Defence Forces, are hoping that their collective years of army experience will prove beneficial as they prepare to ascend the world’s tallest freestanding mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro.

Saturday afternoon last was a momentous moment in the modern history of Ballinahown as community members united for the formal opening of the new astro turf facility and biodiversity park.