Joe MacManus Commemoration, Sligo

» BY SHAUN HANNON

REPUBLICANS in their hundreds gathered throughout the north-west in February to attend a number of events organised marking the 20th anniversary of Volunteer Joe MacManus. Joe, a young man of 21 from a well-known republican family in Sligo, was killed in action on 5 February 1992 when he was fatally wounded in an exchange of fire with a soldier of the British Army’s Ulster Defence Regiment near the Fermanagh/Donegal border.

The weekend’s first event, attended by 200 republicans, was held on Saturday at a commemorative stone erected adjacent to where Joe was killed. Sinn Féin Mayor of Letterkenny Gerry McMonagle said:

Volunteer Joe MacManus and Volunteer Kevin Coen

“The actions of Volunteers like Joe MacManus and Sinn Féin’s strategy brought the British and the unionists and the Irish Government to the negotiating table. Let us go from here today and begin to build the fitting epitaph for Joe and all his comrades who made the ultimate sacrifice. Let us go from here today and continue to build Sinn Féin into the unstoppable vehicle that will drive us to a 32-county socialist republic.”

It was a sentiment repeated the following morning at Joe’s grave by H-Blocks escapee Dermot McNally and former POW Conor O’Neill, who was captured by 26-county forces the night Joe was killed.

Conor spoke of a man for whom he had great admiration, of the great lift he felt when Joe, someone who hadn’t lived with the daily reality of the British Army and RUC, had joined him and his comrades in the border area.

“You would admire Volunteers from the 26 Counties because these were people living in Sligo, Cork, Donegal, Limerick, Kerry and elsewhere who could have turned away but who stepped forward.”

The main event of the weekend, the Coen/MacManus Memorial Lecture, was held in honour of Joe and fellow Sligo Volunteer Kevin Coen. The crowd of over 200 were firstly addressed by Sinn Féin Councillors Pat Treanor and Joe’s brother, Chris MacManus.

The main speaker was another H-Blocks escapee, Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly now a junior minister at the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister. Gerry Kelly said:

“It was always much harder to be a republican activist south of the border but Joe MacManus made a conscious decision, young as he was, not to leave the nationalists in the North to suffer on their own. He led from the front and paid with his life. Unfortunately, in struggle we lose some of our best — precisely because they lead from the front.”

Following the lecture and the launch of a new commemorative booklet, presentations were made to the Coen and MacManus family by Sligo republican Joey McMorrow and senior Sinn Féin activist Rita O’Hare.

The 20th anniversary 68-page booklet

His name was Joe MacManus

is available in store and online from the

Sinn Féin Bookshop, 58 Parnell Square, Dublin 1

www.sinnfeinbookshop.com