Renewed calls have been made for a memorial bench for War of Independence IRA leader, Michael Moran, to be erected on the grounds of NUI Galway.
Michael Moran, Commandant, Tuam Battalion IRA, was killed on the grounds of NUIG - Queen’s College Galway as it was then named - by members of the British Army’s D Company Axillaries on November 24 1920. It is suspected that Moran was the victim of a shoot to kill policy.
Last year, an online conference was hosted by the Moore Institute NUIG, in Commandant Moran’s honour, which proposed that a bench be placed close to the spot where he was executed.
The bench is to bear the inscription: ‘Near this spot on 24th November 1920, Michael Moran, Commandant, Tuam Battalion IRA, was shot dead while in Custody of the Auxiliary Force.’
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However, no work has as yet been carried out, and local historian Damine Quinn is calling on the NUIG Buildings Office to erect the bench.
“This would be a fitting tribute to a man who gave all for his country and who was connected to the university directly due to the Irish War of Independence,” he said. “In the west, many students and staff of the university were heavily involved in this conflict.”
