Tom Williams to buried next week
IRA Volunteer Tom Williams is to be buried next week in a private
funeral organised by his remaining living relatives.
Speaking to An Phoblacht, Liam Shannon of the Belfast National Graves
Association, gave assurances that republicans will respect the
family's wishes and plans for a private burial.
The Belfast National Graves Association, which worked tirelessly to
have the dead man's remains removed from Crumlin Road for reburial, is
planning its own national commemoration for the IRA Volunteer.
The commemoration, to be held in Belfast on Sunday, 23 January, will
begin at 1pm in the Clonard area, where Williams was from, and proceed
to the republican plot in Milltown Cemetery.
Tom Williams was one of five men and two women arrested and charged
with killing of an RUC man in 1942. The men were sentenced to hang but
all, bar Williams, were subsequently reprieved. Williams was executed
on 2 September, 1942 and buried in a lime pit in Crumlin Road Jail.
His remains were exhumed last year and taken for DNA testing before
being handed back to his family to be buried.
Said Liam Shannon: ``The Belfast National Graves want the commemoration
we are organising to be a demonstration of the respect that
republicans over the generations have shown Tom Williams. The campaign
to have his remains exhumed was supported by many people and we are
glad to have his remains out of Crumlin Road.''
Shannon added that the Association will be organising food and
refreshments for people travelling into Belfast for the commemoration.
A bus will depart Dublin for Belfast from the Hugh Lane Gallery,
Parnell Square, Dublin, on Sunday 23 January at 9am.
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