Tragedy on the border
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40th Edentubber Martyrs commemoration
Assembles 2.30pm Sunday 9 November, Ravensdale House car park,
Newry/Dundalk Road, County Louth
Main speaker: Mitchel McLaughlin
Bus from Dundalk leaves Muirhevnamor at 1.45pm, Market Square
2.15pm, Bridge Street 2.20pm
Fare £1
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Pat McGinn recounts the story of the Edentubber Martyrs who were
killed in a premature explosion during the IRA border campaign
forty years ago
Forty years ago, in the early hours of Monday 11 November 1957
five republicans were killed in an explosion which demolished a
small cottage at the foot of Edentubber Mountain in County Louth,
300 yards from the Carrickarnon Border post on the main
Dundalk/Newry Road.
Gardai, who were on the scene shortly after the explosion, found
human remains scattered by the blast and it was only after
lengthy examination of the remains that it was definitely
established that five men had been killed. The Newry Reporter
wrote, `As the early morning mists cleared from the rocky defile
abounding in that area, the grim gaunt evidence of the terror of
the earlier hours was visible. The blast was heard over 5 miles
away. Little remained of the building but a heap of scattered
rubble. A small portion of one wall was still standing. Wood
splinters and masonry and parts of shattered furniture littered
fields up to 150 yards away.
Four Thompson sub-machineguns and ammunition were found among the
wreckage. The Newry Frontier Sentinel reported, `The finding of a
machine gun strapped to a bicycle led to the belief that the men
were starting out on an expedition when a landmine they were
handling exploded.'
The Dead
The owner of the cottage was 54 year old Michael Waters, a
forestry worker. Tommy Callan, a farmer, of Deerpark, Ravensdale
said that he had called to visit Michael Watters and he asked him
to come for a walk, but Michael had declined saying he had a
touch of the flu.
Paul Smith, 19 years old, was born and lived at the Gardens,
Bessbrook. He was the eldest of a family of seven and had three
brothers and three sisters. He was educated at the Christian
Brothers School in Newry and was an articled architectural
apprentice. He had left home six monhs earlier to work in Dublin.
His mother identified the remains. His father Bernard, an
employee of Bessbrook Spinning Company had been returning from
Transport House in London where he had attended an interview in
connection with the job as organiser of the ATGWU.
Oliver Craven, from Dominic Street, Newry was one of a family of
three boys and four girls. He was a labourer and unmarried, and
had been away from home for about six months. His body was
identified by Daniel Craven, his brother.
Patrick Parle was employed as a compositor with a local printing
firm and was the son of Mary Parle and the late Murtagh Parle of
Wexford. Patrick was a keen GAA player and was a founder member
of the Parnell Hurling and football club. It had been reported
that he had been absent from home for some time.
George Keegan, a baker, was a single man and also had been away
from home for some time. His father Patrick Keegan was a
Commandant in the North Wexford Brigade IRA during the War of
Independence and a member of Enniscorthy UDC until his death five
years earlier.
The Funerals
The remains of all five men were taken form the Blessed Oliver
Plunkett home Dundalk, to St. Patricks Cathedral where they were
placed in the Mortuary Chapel. Vast crowds accompanied the
remains which were draped with tricolours and travelled on one
lorry, and all the traffic was at a standstill as the cortege
passed through the town. On Thursday 14 November Requiem mass was
said, after which the coffins of the Wexford men were taken away
on the first stage of their journey south. Throughout the day
people from Dundalk, South Down and South Armagh filed past the
coffins of the remaining three over which was mounted a guard of
honour of Fianna Eireann scouts.
In the afternoon the coffins were removed from the Cathedral and
placed on a wreath-bedecked lorry and headed for interment in St.
Patrick's Cemetery Dundalk. Ahead in processional order marched
members of the Fianna Scouts, Cumann na mBan, Sinn Féin led by
the Dundalk Emmet Brass and Lead band playing the sombre strains
of the Dead March in Saul. Along the footpaths silent crowds
watched the funeral procession pass and then joined in the
cortege. At the grave in the Republican Plot a guard of honour
and colour party was mounted and then the three coffins borne by
relatives of the men were lowered, one on top of the other.
John Joe McGirl, Sinn Féin TD for Sligo and Leitrim, delivered
the graveside oration. In the course of it he said: ``The tragedy
which brought to a sudden end the lives of five great Irishmen is
a tragedy of the Irish nation, the tragedy of an Ireland that is
unfree and divided. These men came from the North and the South
to join together to end the tragedy of our nation and her people.
``Michael Watters was symbolic of the mass of the Irish people who
have borne the burnt of the struggle for Irish freedom. The road
they travelled was the hard road, but its signposts were
unmistakable.
For 35 years the nationalists in the North looked to their
brother Irishmen in the South for a direct lead against British
occupation. They were sadly disillusioned by the inept approach
to the problem of occupation by their fellow Irishmen in the
south. Having examined and employed all peaceful approaches to
the unnatural division of our country they once again asserted
their God-given right to freedom and have fought side by side
with gallant men from the South.''
Many who attended the funeral complained that whilst going to and
coming from the service RUC patrols and `B' Specials had stopped
them and taken notes of cars and occupants before they were
allowed to proceed.
The Inquest into the events at Edentubber was somewhat harrowing.
At the end of it coroner J H Murphy extended his sympathy to the
relatives of the five killed. Superintendent W. Leen and the jury
also joined with the coroner with their sympathies.
Gardai-Superintendent Leen Dundalk also stated that a priest ahd
been taken to the scene immediately after the explosion by a
second gardai car and he had gone among the debris and annointed
all the men.
At the inquest a body watch belonging to one of those killed had
been found. It had stopped at exactly 12.50am.
11 November 1997 will be the fortieth anniversary of the
Edentubber Martyrs.
There is no trace today of Michael Watters' home, but a monument
in the form of a Celtic Cross, unveiled on the first anniversary
of the explosion, marks the spot to which republicans have
returned each year since.
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