Search Results for 'Irish Republican Brotherhood'

Liam Mellows was 23 years old when he led the Galway rebels in the 1916 Easter Rising. Liam Mellows came from Wexford and he was a key figure in the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Irish Volunteers, and his leadership in Galway was a significant part of the 1916 Rising.

The Government of Ireland Act came into being on May 3 1921, resulting in a parliament for the six northern counties and devolved powers for the 26 counties.

STEPHANIE KLAPP, MA Culture and Colonialism NUI Galway, history teacher, and local historian, recalls the story of a fellow German who made Galway his home, but found himself caught up in the 1916 Rising and wrongly humiliated on the streets of Galway.

An Taibhdhearc, Ireland’s only Irish language theatre, situated in Middle Street, the very heart of Galway, grew out of a conversation between two remarkable men, Professor Liam Ó Briain and Dr Séamus Ó Beirn.* Both men, passionate Irish speakers, believed that a lively Irish language theatre would promote Irish in an imaginative way.

Liam Ó Briain, professor of romance languages UCG, was arrested by the Black and Tans on November 21 1920. He was taken to the RIC barracks, at that time in Dominick Street, and then up to the army barracks at Earls island, where he was identified. Other men arrested stood in line. They were watched by ‘pompous young officers’ who, with ‘a hand on their guns’ ‘sniggered’ at the standing prisoners. They went up and down pulling hands out of their pockets. Ó Briain, in his recently published essays on his experiences,* did not sound too concerned. He was well known to the police authorities. Because of the murder and mayhem during the week of his arrest, he must have been expecting to be picked up.

Week II

In September 1867, 50 Fenians attacked a prison van at Hyde Road, Manchester, intent on releasing their comrades Thomas Joseph Kelly, a Galwegian, and Timothy Deasy. An unarmed police sergeant, Charles Brett was shot dead and 26 men were tried for partaking in the attack.

MENTION GALWAY to Eddi Reader, and the Scottish singer is likely to go into a rhapsody about the city and county - and with good reason, it’s a place that appreciates her voice and music; it’s somewhere she has played often; and a region of deeply personal significance for her.

A plaque to commemorate the local people who were involved in the 1916 Rising is to be erected in John Count McCormack Square.