21 September 2006 Edition

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Seán Glynn honoured in Limerick

Pádraig Malone, Chair Limerick Sinn Féin, Coireall Mac Curtáin, Michéal MacDomhnaill and Maurice Quinlivan Sinn Féin General election candidate, Limerick East at the graveside of Séan Glynn

Republicans gathered at the graveside of IRA Volunteer Sean Glynn on 10 September, to mark the 70th anniversary of his tragic and untimely death at the age of 24 in Arbour Hill Military Prison on 13 September 1936. The main oration was delivered by Pádraig Malone, Chairperson Limerick Sinn Féin.

Malone told how the Free State government had banned the Wolfe Tone Commemoration at Bodenstown in 1936 and police and troops blocked all approaches to Bodenstown. In Limerick some 30 Republicans, including Sean Glynn, commandeered a Limerick County Council lorry and headed for Bodenstown. They were apprehended at Dunkerrin, County Offaly and subsequently sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to 18 months.

The prisoners were committed to Arbour Hill Military Prison, where the Free State Army ran an exceptionally harsh regime. This included a regime of strict silence, which was brutally enforced. After eight weeks of this the young, naturally cheerful and outgoing Sean Glynn was found dead in his cell on the morning of 13 September - he had taken his own life. Within 24 hours of his death the government had ordered the restoration of a normal regime within the prison.

Glynn was the first republican to die at the hands of a Fianna Fáil government, but unfortunately not the last.

Malone said that in the current phase of republican struggle, "nobody is asked to bear arms or suffer death, imprisonment and torture. We are, however, called upon to remain faithful to the legacy, ideals and principles bequeathed to us by past generations. "

He added that Sinn Féin was not in the business of being yet another political party scrambling for votes on the basis of short-term policies. Republicans today should be determined to play a full part in the struggle for which Sean Glynn and many others gave their lives, he said.


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