Republican News · Thursday 14 November 2002

Edentubber martyrs remembered

Despite the inclement wintry weather on Sunday last, a huge crowd estimated at more than a thousand people gathered outside Ravensdale House on the Main Dublin Road for the annual Edentubber Commemoration.

A 16-person colour party from Newry headed the parade and two other colour parties from South Armagh and Louth led the parade the short distance to the Edentubber monument. They were accompanied by a wreath-bearing section and six bands. Prominent were many local Sinn Féin cumainn banners.

At the site of the monument, where five people lost their lives in a premature explosion on Monday night, 11 November, 1957, Sinn Féin TD Arthur Morgan chaired proceedings. He paid a special thanks to the immediate family members of those who died at Edentubber for attending the ceremony.

Those who died were: Oliver Craven, Dominic Street, Newry; Paul Smith, The Gardens, Bessbrook; George Keegan, Enniscorthy; Patrick Parle, Wexford. They were in a cottage belonging to Michael Watters, who also died in the explosion.

Jimmy McCreesh, Group Leader of Sinn Féin councillors, laid a wreath on behalf of Newry & Mourne District Council, followed by many more wreaths from relatives, friends, comrades and Sinn Féin cumainn.

Former hunger striker Raymond McCartney from Derry, the invited guest speaker, welcomed everyone who attended the commemoration, especially those who had travelled long distances.

Addressing himself to the families of the five men, he said: "I hope gatherings like this help you realise the high esteem in which our fallen comrades are held and that the struggle for which they gave their lives continues.

"Vols Oliver Craven, Paul Smith, George Keegan, Patrick Parle and Michael Watters knew the injustices which partition created. They joined the IRA to end that injustice.

George Keegan and Patrick Parle came from County Wexford - they could have taken the view that they lived in an Ireland free of British rule but they understood only too well that the partition of their country was the cornerstone on which the many injustices of the Northern state were fostered.

"They came to this part of Ireland because - when one stands in places like this - one understands the folly of wanting people to accept that this is where one nations stops and another begins. They came here united, North, South, East and West, to state very clear that they were part of a national struggle. Tragically, it was here in pursuit of that ideal that they gave their lives in an accidental explosion as they prepared to mount an operation against British crown forces.

"Forty-five years on that struggle continues, and it grows in strength. We are stronger today than at any time in the past 30 years. No part of Ireland better exemplifies that growing strength than where we are now gathered - the election of Arthur Morgan to Leinster House and Conor Murphy, MP in waiting for Newry/Armagh, is testimony to this.

"This is the first time that I have attended the Edentubber commemoration but it was something which was part of the republican folklore which I can recall as a young boy growing up in Derry.

"Oliver Craven, Paul Smith, George Keegan, Patrick Parle and Michael Watters are not distant heroes - they were part of our families, our friends, our comrades and our march to freedom. Beirigí bua."