Fógraí bháis: Lawrence Mulholland

Lawrence Mulholland photographed in the Cages of Long Kesh in the 1970s. Lawrence is the person pictured front row – Left

South Derry republican Lawrence Mulholland passed away on 27 August last after a short illness. That he was known in Bellaghy as ‘The Rebel’ tells much about Lawrence Mulholland and his standing within the republican community of south Derry.
Lawrence was born into a staunchly republican family.
His father had been sworn into the IRA by Joe McKelvey after the Easter Rising. His mother, a member of Cumann na mBan, while nursing in Belfast, had smuggled the Tricolour into Crumlin Road Prison that Austin Stack raised over A-Wing during a protest there in 1918.
As a young man, Lawrence saw at first-hand the treatment his community received within the Orange statelet. With other republican activists from south Derry, he was interned in Crumlin Road Prison for three years during the IRA campaign of the 1950s.
When the next phase of the struggle resumed, less than ten years later, Lawrence again was to emerge as a leader within the republican community in south Derry. His comrades within this new generation of republicans included two young neighbours from across the fields in Tamlaghtduff: Francis Hughes and Thomas McElwee, who were to die on hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh in 1981.
Lawrence was again to be interned without trial in 1974. He and the late Martin Meehan of Belfast were the last internees released from the cages of Long Kesh.
Lawrence could be said to be typical of the republicans existing in every area that not only bridged the generations but provided the benefit of their experience when a younger generation of activists was to look for leadership.
In more recent years he worked in the Eel Fishery at Toome until his retirement.