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8 November 2001 Edition

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Remembering the Past

Explosion at Edentubber


BY ART Mac EOIN


In the early hours of a Monday morning in November 1957, five men were killed in an explosion that demolished a small cottage at the foot of Edentubber Mountain in County Louth, close to the border with the Six Counties. The men have since become known in Irish republican folk history as the Edentubber Martyrs.

The tragic deaths of these five republicans ocurred during the course of a military campaign waged by the IRA between 1956 and 1962, codenamed 'Operation Harvest', which has since been dubbed the 'Border Campaign' by historians. The campaign witnessed a number of clashes and ambushes between the IRA and crown forces, mainly the RUC and B-Specials.

Four Thompson machine guns and ammunition were found among the wreckage of the cottage at edentubber. The Newry Frontier Sentinel reported: "The finding of a machine gun strapped to a bicycle led to the belief that the men were starting out on an expedition when the landmine they were holding exploded."

The five who died at Edentubber, a few hundred yards from the border crossing at Carrickarnon included the owner of the cottage - 54-year-old Michael Waters, a forestry worker; Paul Smith, 19 years old, who was born and lived at the Gardens, Bessbrook;

Oliver Craven, a labourer from Dominic Street, Newry; Patrick Parle, a compositor, was the son of Mary Parle and the late Murtagh Parle of Wexford. Patrick was a keen GAA player and a founder member of the Parnell Hurling and Football Club; George Keegan, a baker. His father Patrick Keegan was an IRA Commandant in the North Wexford Brigade during the Tan War and a member of Enniscorthy UDC until his death five years earlier.

After Mass in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dundalk on Thursday, 14 November, the coffins of the Wexford men were taken away on the first leg of their journey south. Throughout the day people from Dundalk, South Down and South Armagh filed past the coffins of the remaining three, over which was mounted a Fianna Éireann honour guard.

Later at their funeral in St Patrick's Cemetery, John Joe McGirl, Sinn Féin TD for Sligo/Leitrim, delivered the graveside oration. In the course of it he said: "The tragedy which brough to a sudden end the lives of five great Irishmen is a tragedy of the Irish nation, the tragedy of an Ireland that is unfree and divided. These men came from the North and the South to join together to end the tragedy of our nation and our people."

McGirl, a leading republican for four decades until his death in the late 1980s, also pointed out: "For 35 years the nationalists in the North looked to their brother Irishmen in the South for a direct lead against British occupation. They were sadly disillusioned by the inept approach to the problem of occupation by their fellow Irishmen in the South.

"Having examined and employed all peaceful approaches to the unnatural division of our country, they once again asserted their God-given right to freedom and have fought side by side with gallant men from the South."

There is no trace today of Michael Watters' home but a monument marks the spot to which republicans have returned each year since the first anniversary of the explosion.

The Edentubber Martyrs died on Monday, 11 November 1957, 44 years ago next Sunday.


An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland