Republican News · Thursday 31 January 2002

Louth remembers brave Volunteers

This Sunday will see the annual commemoration for Sean O'Carroll and Patrick Tierney, two young IRA volunteers murdered by Black and Tans in 1920.

Sean O'Carroll, a native of Kildare, was 25 when he was taken from his lodgings in Castle Street, Ardee, County Louth, by the Tans and shot dead in a laneway close by. The O/C of 'D' Company, Belfast Battalion, he had come to Ardee to teach Irish for the Gaelic League. The laneway where he was found was later renamed Sean O'Carroll Street, and a plaque was erected at the place of his death.

His Belfast comades took his body back to that city for burial, and a monument was erected over his grave in Milltown cemetery.

Patrick Tierney, aged 26, a native of Ardee, was murdered the same night by a squad of drunken Tans. In 1991, aged 90, his sister, Delia Spillane recalled that night on 30 November, when her brother was taken from the house and found later with broken arms and legs, stomach ripped out with a bayonet and a bullet through his head. She said shortly after the killing, she joined Cumann na mBan.

Both men were valued volunteers and Sean is quoted as saying shortly before his death: "Sooner or later everyone will join, and the sooner the better. This time there will be no surrender. It may be 50 or even 100 years before we win, but one thing is certain, there will be no surrender ever again."

The commemoration will begin at 2.30pm at Fairgreen, Ardee, and Michelle Gildernew MP will be the guest speaker. A ballad session featuring 'Justice' will follow in Shambles Nite Club, Muldoon's.