27 November 1997 Edition
Volunteer Jack Lawlor commemoration
A large crowd attended the unveiling in Ballyheigue, North Kerry, of a monument to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Free State execution of Captain Jack Lawlor, Ballyheigue Unit of the Irish Republican Army, on Sunday 2 November.
Jack Lawlor was captured with two fellow Republicans on the night of 30 October 1922. The following morning he was beaten, taken to the old graveyard in Ballyheigue and shot (a bayonet was used on his fingers when he refused to enter the gate of the graveyard). His mother was then requested to collect the body.
The commemorative march commenced at the statute of Roger Casement at the top of the village and proceeded to the old graveyard where Jack had been brutally murdered. Three members of the Special Branch were in attendance and monitored the proceedings throughout, even in the graveyard itself where mass was celebrated.
The oration was given by North Kerry Sinn Féin representative, Martin Ferris, who spoke of the unselfish sacrifice of men like Jack Lawlor who gave their lives for freedom, justice and an end to interference in Irish affairs by a hostile and foreign power. The gathering was reminded that arms have always been and always will be the last resort for Irish republicans. Down south we tend to wonder why republicans up north take up arms against British oppression. We tend to forget that men like Jack Lawlor carried out the same struggle in the south-west, when all of this little island was under foreign rule.
In an article by Professor John A. Murphy in the Independent, Kerry Republicans were described as ``sugán corporals rather than armchair generals who live hundreds of miles away from the scene of the `Troubles' and who can therefore know very little about the situation in the North.'' An answer was given loud and clear by the Republicans of North Kerry at the graveside of Captain Jack Lawlor in Ballyheigue that Kerry will always play its part in the struggle for Irish freedom and in the quest for national self-determination for the people of this island.
Jack Lawlor was captured with two fellow Republicans on the night of 30 October 1922. The following morning he was beaten, taken to the old graveyard in Ballyheigue and shot (a bayonet was used on his fingers when he refused to enter the gate of the graveyard). His mother was then requested to collect the body.
The commemorative march commenced at the statute of Roger Casement at the top of the village and proceeded to the old graveyard where Jack had been brutally murdered. Three members of the Special Branch were in attendance and monitored the proceedings throughout, even in the graveyard itself where mass was celebrated.
The oration was given by North Kerry Sinn Féin representative, Martin Ferris, who spoke of the unselfish sacrifice of men like Jack Lawlor who gave their lives for freedom, justice and an end to interference in Irish affairs by a hostile and foreign power. The gathering was reminded that arms have always been and always will be the last resort for Irish republicans. Down south we tend to wonder why republicans up north take up arms against British oppression. We tend to forget that men like Jack Lawlor carried out the same struggle in the south-west, when all of this little island was under foreign rule.
In an article by Professor John A. Murphy in the Independent, Kerry Republicans were described as ``sugán corporals rather than armchair generals who live hundreds of miles away from the scene of the `Troubles' and who can therefore know very little about the situation in the North.'' An answer was given loud and clear by the Republicans of North Kerry at the graveside of Captain Jack Lawlor in Ballyheigue that Kerry will always play its part in the struggle for Irish freedom and in the quest for national self-determination for the people of this island.