Fógraí bháis

Tom Joe Gilhooly, Augnasheelin, county Leitrim, was a republican activist for close on 50 years and many a republican throughout Ireland availed of his support down the years. He was born and lived at Knockacullion in the foothills of the Sliabh an Iarainn mountains between Ballinamore and Drumshanbo. It was to this area that many Ulster people fled for refuge hundreds of years ago and the northern names on the mountainside farms testify to this movement of population. Indeed in 2005 Tom Joe unveiled a monument on the mountainside to these 'Ultach' people. Tom Joe lived up to the good name of Leitrim people who always made welcome those in need and he and Lizzie gave refuge to many a republican 'on the run' over the 30 years of armed struggle.

Tom Joe, like his father before him, worked the land and earned his living from sheep farming and cattle. As a young man in the 1940s he, like many from the area, worked locally at the gruelling task of coal mining in Cull & Gannon's pits in Aughacashel. This was cruel work in bad conditions and I think especially so for big men like Tom Joe and his neighbours who had to lie on their sides in a very narrow shaft in the wet and dirt, cutting with a hand pick.

In 1948 Tom Joe went to work on the buildings in England and stayed for nine years. While there he married his wife Lizzie, a neighbour from home, likewise forced to emigrate in the bad economic times of the 40s and 50s. They returned home to Knockacullion in 1957 and Tom Joe resumed work in the mines, this time in Paddy Wynn's pit, and also carried on farming, which he did up to his illness.

Tom Joe was buried in Aughnasheelin Cemetery and large crowds attended his removal and burial. A republican Guard of Honour marched alongside his Tricolour draped coffin.

Sinn Féin Councillor Martin Kenny in his graveside oration acknowledged Tom Joe's life-long commitment to the struggle for freedom - "Tom Joe was a deeply committed and dedicated republican with an unshakeable determination to see freedom and justice delivered to our people.

"Like the people from whom he came he was determined, staunch and resolute in his beliefs. He understood well the ins and outs and ups and downs of the struggle, and he would have understood well the latest twist with the outing of informers, but it wouldn't have stalled him in his unyielding support for our cause because he himself was genuine and unbreakable.

"He will be remembered by us all as a great example and worker for the future. Let us take heart from his life and his contribution."

For my part, Tom Joe was one of the few - a man to be relied upon, a man to be safe with and many can testify to this. When I think of him now, I think of the mountain, big and strong, always there, unmoveable yet a place of sanctuary. Tom Joe was a big, strong man with a great generous heart, proud to be a Leitrim man and a republican and surely in the fullness of time, where mountainy men like him have sown, the people's struggle will bear fruit.

BY OWEN CARRON