Volunteer Hugh Hehir Commemoration held in Clare

Maurice Quinlivan speaking at the Vol Hugh Hehir commemoration

THE 23rd anniversary of the death on active service of Volunteer Hugh Hehir was marked in County Clare on 8th May. Despite bad weather, the event attracted the largest attendance in recent years.
Led by the Volunteer Ed O’Brien Republican Flute Band, the crowd marched from Clarecastle Church to the graveyard in the town where Sinn Féin Councillor Maurice Quinlivan from Limerick addressed them.
After welcoming Hugh’s widow, Anne, and other members of his family, and a number of former POWs, Councillor Quinlivan gave a brief outline of Hugh’s life of republican activism.
Starting with his concern for the families burned out of their homes in Belfast in 1969 and his work to rehouse them, to his joining of the IRA and his time in Long Kesh, Hugh was motivated by his observation of injustice and his determination to fight it.
He was very active in the struggle after his release and ultimately suffered an untimely death at the hands of the Special Branch.
Maurice stressed the need to always remember the sacrifices of the men and women of the Republican Movement and to educate the next generation of activists about the struggle.
He reminded the crowd that this year is the 30th anniversary of the H-Blocks Hunger Strike and praised the sacrifice of those who died and suffered on hunger strike and said huge progress in the cause of Irish freedom had been made as a result of their sacrifice, pointing out that 400,000 people had voted for Sinn Féin this year, throughout Ireland. He called on people to redouble their efforts to increase the party’s strength in the fight to end partition. The settlement imposed by British imperialism in 1921 had, he said, failed.
Fine Gael and Labour have continued the Fianna Fáil/Green Party policy of bailing out banks while imposing swingeing cuts to welfare and public services, Councillor Quinlivan said. The troika of the IMF, ECB and EU is now dictating a course of action that would sink this state. He labelled such policies insane and pledged that Sinn Féin will fight them and seek to build a genuine republic built on decency and community which cherishes all the children of the nation equally. Building that republic would pay true tribute to Hugh Hehir, a true Irish patriot, he concluded.
A wreath was laid on behalf of the Republican Movement by Kevin Walsh and the event was chaired by Finbarr MacGabhann, who reminded the crowd that it occurred on the 24th anniversary of the Loughgall ambush, praising the sacrifice of those killed in that attack.