Ballyheigue tribute to Jack Lawlor

On Bank Holiday Monday, republicans from Kerry and throughout Munster gathered in the seaside village of Ballyheigue to pay tribute to local republican Jack Lawlor, murdered by Free State forces in 1922.

Having assembled at the Roger Casement Memorial, the marchers, led by a Republican Colour Party and by the Ballyseedy Martyrs' Band, made their way to the Old Graveyard to the spot where Jack was brutally killed. The ceremony was chaired by recently elected Sinn Féin Kerry County Councillor, Robert Beasley, who in his welcoming address compared Jack Lawlor and Joe Cahill who, though from different eras, were committed to the same struggle.

In her address, Sinn Fein Kerry County Councillor Toiréasa Ní Fhearaíosa, paid tribute to the courage of Volunteer Jack Lawlor, who went to his death at the tender age of 23. She encouraged all present to remain focussed and dedicated to the objectives for which he strove, an Ireland of Equals, free from tyranny and discrimination. The creation of such a nation would be the only fitting tribute to the memory of Jack Lawlor, she said.