Commemorations of Galway’s part in the 1916 Easter Rising and of IRA volunteers who fought in the War of Independence and the Border Campaign, will take place this weekend.
Sinn Fein will assemble for the annual Easter Commemoration in St Michael’s Square, Ballinasloe, on Easter Sunday at 12.30pm. There will then be a march to Creagh Cemetery, with the commemoration at the graveside of Noel McCann at 1pm. The speaker will be Sinn Féin Mayor Councillor Therese Ruane.
Noel McCann was from Ballinasloe and a member of the victorious St Grellans minor football team. He was imprisoned in Portlaoise Prison for eight years. Sinn Féin Cumann in Ballinasloe is named after him. Some of his family members will be in attendance
The commemorations will also honour Jack Keogh, an anti-Treaty IRA member and leader of the South Galway Brigade, and Dr Ada English, a psychiatric doctor in St Bridget’s Hospital Ballinasloe. She was the medical officer for the Irish Volunteers and a member of Cumann na mBan. In 1921 she was elected to Dáil Éireann for the NUI constituency as a Sinn Féin candidate. She voted against the Anglo-Irish Treaty and opposed the Dáil of 1922
Also on Easter Sunday, Gabe Cronnelly of the local Murt Qualter Cumann in Athenry will hold a wreath laying ceremony at New Cemetery, Athenry at 11pm. The cumann will have Easter Lilies available. Other commemorations will take place in Easter Saturday with at the Castlegar monument, at 1pm, for a wreath laying ceremony; at 3pm, at the Liam Mellows Statue, Eyre Square, Galway city; and at 6pm at the Joe Howley Monument, Oranmore; and on Easter Sunday at 1pm in Teach an Phiarsaigh, Rosmuc, Conamara.
On Easter Monday there will be commemorations at Ard Bear Cemetary, Clifden, at 2.30pm; at the Thomas Whelan Statue, Clifden, at 3pm; and at Tooreena Cemetary, Tullycross, Renvyle, at 5pm.
Sinn Féin MLA for West Tyrone, Barry McElduff, will be the speaker for the city and south Connemara events. Sinn Fein’s Irish language development officer, Liadh Ní Riada, will give the main oration in Clifden and Tullycross.
