Merseysider who fell in ‘The Lonely Woods of Upton’

The Upton memorial in Cork

LIVERPOOL’S Irish community has paid tribute to one its sons who fell in the ambush immortalised in the ballad The Lonely Woods of Upton on February 15th 1921.
Seán Phelan hailed from Evelyn Street in the Kirkdale area of the city but travelled to Ireland to take up work as a teacher in Cork. He also became a staff officer in one of the IRA’s most active columns in the Tan War, the Third (West) Cork Brigade, and lost his life, along with two comrades, at the age of 21, in an ambush at Upton railway station.
Organised by the Liverpool branch of Cairde na hÉireann, the commeorative event on Sunday, February 13th, began at the spot where Phelan was born. There was a parade through the city’s strongly Irish ‘Scottie Road’ and Vauxhall areas to a rally on the edge of the city centre. The parade was led by the Volunteer Seán McIlvenna Republican Flute Band from Glasgow and the Liverpool Irish Patriots band.
At the rally, Jeff O’Carroll from Cairde na hÉireann Learpholl gave a brief synopsis of Seán Phelan’s life, in Liverpool and as an IRA Volunteer in Ireland.
The main speaker was Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle member and the party’s political representative for England, Scotland & Wales, Seán Oliver.
Seán traced the links with cities like Liverpool to the freedom struggle in Ireland in the 1916-22 period. This was both in terms of people like Seán Phelan going to Ireland  to fight and in the organisation of groups like the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Irish Volunteers and the IRA in Liverpool itself, as well as in many other British cities.
He recalled the remarks of Tom Barry at that time that Upton was part of “twelve dark days” for the IRA in West Cork, who lost 11 Volunteers in that short period, and linked it to the sacrifices made by republicans in the most recent phase of conflict, including the deaths of the ten hunger strikers 30 years ago this year.
But Seán Oliver also emphasised that as well as the need to always look back and remember, it is vital to be looking forward with confidence in advancing the same struggle in its latest phase today through elections and campaigns “and the opportunities those could bring, particularly in the 26 Counties, in the aftermath of the scandalous EU/IMF bail-out and loss of sovereignty”.
He concluded by stressing Sinn Féin’s links to the Irish community in Britain and pledged their ongoing support to both the ‘Tick the Irish Box’ campaign for the upcoming census and to those campaigning for ‘Votes for Irish Citizens Abroad’ in the upcoming Presidential election.