Republican News · Thursday 1 November 2001

O'Donnell praises Army's courage

Speaking at the annual commemoration for dead republicans from the Markets and Lower Ormeau areas of South Belfast on Sunday, 28 October, Sinn Féin councillor for East Belfast Joe O'Donnell praised the Army "for its courage and for its decision in the previous week to save the peace process".

Up to 200 people attended a parade that marched from Joy Street to the Republican Garden of Remembrance in the Markets district. The Markets memorial was just opened last year,and it was here that O'Donnell dedicated a memorial stone in memory of three Volunteers - Paul Marlowe, Joey Surgenor and Frankie Fitzsimmons, who died on active service in 1976.

The trio were killed in what become known as the 'Gasyard Explosion'. They were involved in an operation against a British Army lookout post in the Belfast Gasyard on the Lower Ormeau Road when they died in an explosion.