Galway Republican Sinn Féin will mark the 88th anniversary of the murder of Fr Michael Griffin by British forces this Sunday with a march and wreath laying.
A parade will leave from Bearna school at 12 noon to the Fr Griffin Monument at Cloch Scoilte, Bearna, where the priest’s body was found in November 1920, after he had been murdered. The main speaker at the commemoration will be Des Long, from Limerick.
On the night of November 14 1920, Fr Griffin was lured from his home at No 2 Montpellier Terrace. Six days later his partially-buried body was discovered at Cloch Scoilte. His funeral cortege was attended by more than 12,000 Galway people, and led by some 150 priests.
The Bishop of Galway Dr O’Dea wrote in a letter later that Fr Griffins murder was the culmination of a concerted campaign by Crown forces in the Galway area, including “burnings and murders at Lahinch, Ennistymon, and Oranmore”.
