21 May 1998 Edition

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Dunlavin Green martyrs remembered

On the day he was shot in Ballymun Larry O'Toole was looking forward to the following day when he was due to speak at the 1798 commemoration at Dunlavin, County Wicklow. As a native of West Wicklow, the Dunlavin event was very special for Larry and from his hospital bed he urged that the commemoration should go ahead.

So it did, and it turned into a tribute to Larry as well as to the 36 patriots done to death by British forces on Dunlavin Green in May 1798.

The parade included a 50-strong contingent from Larry' O'Toole's Dublin North East constituency and followed the route along which the 36 prisoners were marched by British troops. On the village green where a memorial now stands, the 36 were made to kneel down and then shot dead.

Gerry O'Neill of Wicklow Sinn Féin chaired the ceremony and called on Derek Sweetman of Dublin, recently released from the H-Blocks, to lay a wreath. A lament was played on the bagpipes by Michael Foy and Ann Osborne read the names of the dead. SF Dublin City Councillor Christy Burke then addressed the crowd and drew applause when he paid a warm tribute to Larry O'Toole's role as a SF representative and an anti-drugs activist.

The main oration which should have been delivered by Larry O'Toole was given by Mícheál MacDonncha. He described the Ballymun shooting as ``an extreme example of the type of intimidation which communities in Dublin endure daily from those involved in the drugs trade''. He said anti-drugs activists would not rest ``until our communities are liberated from this scourge''.

Referring to the 1798 bicentenary MacDonncha said that when the marching season came around this year it should be remembered that the Orange Order was established as a sectarian response to the democracy and non-sectarianism of the United Irish Societies. The Dunlavin massacre was an attempt to terrorise the community into submission at the very outset of the `98 Rising. Despite recent difficult decisions by republicans their central aim remained:

``We say it loud and clear - our struggle is not over and will not be over until we have won the complete unity and independence of Ireland, free from the last remnants of British rule.''

A recently published book The Dunlavin Massacre by Chris Lawlor tells the full story of the events of May 1798 in West Wicklow and is now available in all good bookshops.

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