Search Results for 'Galway Jail'

The horrific Maamtrasna murders, the arrest of 10 men, the rush to ‘justice’, the evidence of the Cappanacrehas (known to be bitter enemies of the murdered Joyces), the two informers Anthony Philbin and Thomas Casey (whose false evidence led to penal servitude for life for five innocent men, and the execution of one innocent man), was followed in minute detail not only throughout Ireland, but in Britain and among the Irish communities in America. Yet nowhere did it impact more than on the mountainside community of Maamtrasna .

As a direct consequence of the death of three National Army soldiers during a botched raid on the barracks in Headford on Sunday April 8 1923, six anti-Treaty young men, already in Galway jail, were selected for immediate execution. They had been arrested during a raid on their training camp in the Currandulla area six weeks earlier.

Diarmuid Crowley, a native of Co Cork, was arrested, charged with being a judge in the Sinn Féin courts, and incarcerated in Galway Jail even though he was ill. His condition worsened and he demanded the attendance of a private medical doctor. The prison doctor refused, so 40 Sinn Féin prisoners decided to do something to prevent Mr Crowley suffering any further.

Hubert Reynolds was born in St Patrick’s Avenue in 1902 and shortly afterwards his family moved to Queen Street. He followed a family tradition when entering the service of the Railway Company as a 15-year-old in 1917. He was a boy porter and earned 10 shillings for a 60 hour week. From his boyhood, he took an active part in the National Movement and joined Fianna Éireann. During the War of Independence, he was engaged on communications work.