Mallow commemorates Andy O'Sullivan

Andy O Sullivan, one of 22 republican prisoners to die on hunger strike in the last century, was commemorated in Mallow, County Cork last Sunday 27 November.

In 1922 the Free State Government interned large numbers of republicans. Most were held in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin.

By 1923, in conjunction with protests outside and a rising groundswell of resentment at Cumann na nGaedheal's intransigence, hunger strikes started. In October, Mountjoy voted to go on strike with 425 men, including ten TDs, involved. Kilmainham followed suit and then the Curragh and Newbridge.

On 22 November 1923 Captain Andy O'Sullivan died while on hunger strike

Mallow Sinn Féin Chairperson, Stella O Sullivan, gave the oration at Sunday's commemoration. "The goal of the Republican Movement is what it has always been: the establishment of the Republic proclaimed in 1916 and ratified by the First Dáil," she said.

Of republican prisoners still in jails at home and abroad she said: "We demand that these men be freed. They are prisoners of war; and if the war is over, they deserve to be released."