Donegal and west Tyrone remember Drumboe Martyrs and 1916

THE annual Drumboe Martyrs Commemoration on Easter Sunday saw its largest turnout in many years as republicans marked the centenary of the 1916 Rising.

The parade, led by a contingent dressed in the period costumes of the 1916 Volunteers and with another group carrying portraits of the patriot dead of 1916, made its way from Johnston’s Corner in Stranorlar through the ‘Twin Towns’ and back to the newly-refurbished Drumboe Martyrs Memorial.

Proceedings at the memorial were chaired by Sinn Féin West Tyrone Assembly candidate Grace McDermott, who introduced the main speaker, Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty.

In a wide-ranging address, the Donegal TD paid tribute to the roles which republicans in Donegal and west Tyrone have played down through the years during the various periods of struggle.

Pearse said:

“For 100 years now, republicans the length and breadth of this island have been coming together to remember our patriot dead.

“Those brave men and women were committed and dedicated to the Republic; today we remember and pay tribute to them.

“Easter Sunday is not a day on which to mourn but to remember and give reverence.

“We do not therefore come to grieve but rather to honour and pay homage to all those republicans who have gone before us.

“We remember their sacrifice, their heroism and their inspirational acts of courage and bravery which has set them apart as the true sons and daughters of Ireland.

“Amongst them were great leaders, comrades, family members and friends.

“They were visionaries who, through their sheer belief in the Republic proclaimed on the steps of the GPO, gave of themselves and, in doing so, have earned their rightful place amongst the great makers of nations.

“And while they may be gone, their sacrifice has not been for nothing. Their deaths have most certainly not been in vain.

“We do not mourn them because they live on today.

“From our rural villages and towns to our busy cities' streets, wherever injustice and inequality rears its ugly head, and wherever there exists a desire to defeat it, it is in that desire that our fallen comrades live on.

“A chairde, we as republicans continue to actively pursue and strive toward these very ideals for which our brothers and sisters both lived and died.

“It is important therefore that we use this occasion to take a moment to recognise the very real and worthy nature of our struggle, and all those from across Ireland who have played their part in advancing that very cause in the decades gone by.

“Since the earliest recordings of Irish resistance to British rule, over hundreds of years, County Donegal and west Tyrone havemade their mark at every juncture.

“This region has seen our own periods of struggle, defining moments of exceptional bravery and remarkable resistance.”

Concluding his speech, Pearse Doherty said:

“Today in this place, in this year – the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, the 35th anniversary of the H-Blocks Hunger Strike – we cry out to Pádraig Pearse and Bobby Sands and to all our patriot dead to let them know, to let our own children know, that that our passion for freedom has never been extinguished and we intend to win that freedom.”