Republican News · Thursday 9 January 1996

Jimmy McGill

On Sunday 1 December Ireland lost one of its truly unsung heroes, James Patrick McGill.

Jimmy, a native of Donegal, was 76 when he died in Manchester. He was a veteran Republican and an active Volunteer in his younger days. He maintained his Republican support right to the very end and would support any organised republican event in any way he could.

His funeral on 11 December was attended by 200 people. Many had travelled great distances to be there.

Fittingly, his coffin was draped in the National Flag and a lone piper played a lament as his body was carried from the mass.

Even more fittingly, as his coffin was being removed from the hearse for cremation, the piper played God Save Ireland. It was a song Jimmy loved, marking as it does the memory of the Manchester Martyrs. Throughout the decades Jimmy attended every commemoration and in 1963 with a close friend, Tom Redmond, he wrote a pamphlet about the event.

Jimmy could truly be described as one of the old brigade, and no one who ever knew him could ever question his courage, dignity, and above all his desire and aspiration to see his country free and united.

He was also one of the most unselfish men you could wish to have met.

Even when he discovered he had incurable cancer his courage never deserted him nor his dignity, even though he was suffering great pain in the final weeks of his life. Thankfully, when the end finally came it was peaceful but the pain for those who knew him was intense, and together with his old and dear friend Harry McMurragh Kavanagh their memories will be kept alive in Manchester. (Harry died only five weeks before Jimmy.)

L.H.

Joe Dullaghan

Republicans in County Louth and further afield were saddened recently by the sudden death of Joe Dullaghan, McSweeney Street, Dundalk. He was in his sixties.

Joe, like many of his generation, bore witness to the campaign against the British occupied Six Counties in the 1950s. And when the loyalist pogroms of 1969 heralded the renewal of the struggle, Joe immediately threw his weight and support behind the new breed of republicans. It was a support that Joe gave right up to the time of his death.

A few days before he died Joe was giving that support as he attended the Louth Sinn Féin General Election Selection Convention. At it he remarked, ``I'm delighted to see Owenie (Hanratty) get the nomination.'' I'm therefore sure that Joe was again delighted when Owen Hanratty spoke over Joe as he was laid to rest in his native Dromiskin.

The tricolour-draped coffin was given a guard of honour by the Officer Board of Louth Comhairle Ceantair Sinn Féin.

When an Ard Fheis or any other republican gathering took place Joe would ensure, ``I'll be there.'' And when the struggle is ended we'll know as we celebrate, Joe's spirit will be there.

MF

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