Liam Mellows remembered in Athenry

Locals turn out in honour of patriot

A LARGE crowd attended a special event last Thursday at the 1916 Easter Rising Memorial Garden in Athenry to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Irish patriot Liam Mellows’ death.

On the morning of December 8, 1922, Liam Mellows was executed by a Free State firing squad in Mountjoy prison along with three fellow Irish men Rory O’Connor, Dick Barrett and Joe McKelvey.

The men represented the four provinces of Ireland and were executed by the Free State government in retaliation for the shooting of two Pro-Treaty TDs.

Although not from the West of Ireland, Mellows, who led the 1916 Easter Rising in the county, was the Connacht representative, having first come to Athenry in 1914 to train the Irish volunteers just a stone’s throw from where the current memorial garden is now situated.

A large bronze plaque with the Proclamation of the Republic inscribed was temporarily unveiled at the Athenry event, with it to be attached to a permanent stone structure in the future…

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