Kevin Barry remembered in Dublin

» Mark Moloney

At 8am on Monday 1 November 1920, he was hanged in Mountjoy Jail and buried inside the prison walls. His last message to his comrades was: "Hold on and stick to the Republic."

REPUBLICANS gathered on a windy and rainy afternoon in Dublin on 2 November to commemorate the anniversary of the death of IRA Volunteer Kevin Barry who was hanged at the age of just 18 by the British in November 1920.

A student of medicine in University College Dublin, Kevin joined the Irish Volunteers at 15 and also became a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

On 20 September 1920, Kevin was among 23 Volunteers who took part in a raid for arms on a British patrol at Monk's bakery in Church Street. After a short but fierce gun-battle during which a soldier was killed and four others wounded, the Volunteers were forced to withdraw due to the imminent arrival of British reinforcements from the nearby North Dublin Union.

Everyone got away except Kevin. Although tortured by the enemy, he refused to name any of his comrades.

At 8am on Monday 1 November 1920, he was hanged in Mountjoy Jail and buried inside the prison walls. His last message to his comrades was: "Hold on and stick to the Republic."

The commemoration was organised by the Frank Stagg/ Kevin Barry North West Inner City Sinn Féin cumann and was accompanied by the Dublin Republican Colour Party and the Phoenix Rising Republican Flute Band as it marched from Sinn Féin headquarters at Kevin Barry Memorial Hall on Parnell Square to Kevin Barry Flats, the scene of Kevin's capture, on Church Street.

The main oration was delivered by Sinn Féin Dublin EU candidate Lynn Ní Bhaoighealláin, the Roll of Honour was read by Sinn Féin Inner City representative Jonathan Dowdall and Castleknock representative Natalie Treacy read the lyrics of rebel song Kevin Barry.  A wreath was laid by veteran republican Noel 'Chalky' Hughes.

Organiser and Sinn Féin North-West Inner City representative Janice Boylan told An Phoblacht:

"It was a well-attended commemoration with the focus firmly on the confidence we have in our young people to carry on the struggle for freedom, justice and equality."