Liam Mellows was 23 years old when he led the Galway rebels in the 1916 Easter Rising. Liam Mellows came from Wexford and he was a key figure in the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Irish Volunteers, and his leadership in Galway was a significant part of the 1916 Rising.
Mellows commanded around 700 Volunteers in attacks on Royal Irish Constabulary stations at Oranmore and Clarinbridge, and briefly took control of the town of Athenry.
He will be honoured at the Annual Easter 1916 Commemorations which takes place on Sunday next with Mass at 11am in St Patrick’s church, Forster St, followed by the parade and wreath laying at the Liam Mellows statue in Eyre Square.
The Galway Volunteers disbanded in Moyode in South Galway and Mellows together with many of the volunteers spent several weeks on the run.
Mellows stayed in safe houses in south Galway and north Clare, before finally making his way to New York in December 1916.
While in the US, he was elected a TD to represent Galway in the 1918 election and he finally returned to Ireland in October 1920.
In November 1922 Eamon DeValera appointed him as Minister for Defence in his anti-Treaty government.Families of former Volunteers and Cumann na mBan members are invited to attend as special guests.A special tribute will also be paid to Fr Michael Griffin, from Gurteen in East Galway. He was a curate in Saint Josephs Parish, who was abducted and murdered by the Crown forces in 1920 during the War of Independence.
