Search Results for 'Larry Lardner'

Gems taken in Athenry

William Mellows was born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Manchester, where his father, Staff Sergeant William Mellows, was then stationed. His father had ambitions for the son to become the fourth generation of the family to serve in the armed forces, but after they moved back to Ireland, Liam became steadily disillusioned with the British Government. He lived in Dublin for a time and spent a lot of time living in his grandparents' house in Co Wexford, where his mother came from.

Unlike the men executed after the 1916 Rising, there was little of the same idealisation given to the hundreds of men and women who died in the War of Independence, or, more emphatically, those executed during the regretable Civil War.

Athenry has an Easter treat for Galwegians this weekend at the town's Heritage Centre.

Burglary in Athenry

Eamonn Corbett came from Kileeneenbeg near Clarinbridge. He was associated with the Volunteer movement in County Galway from 1914 onwards. After the Redmondite split he gave valuable assistance in organising the Volunteers throughout the county, and in 1915 he was assisting Liam Mellows while training the various companies in the Brigade area.

Early in 1916, Pádraic Pearse visited Athenry to discuss plans for the Rising. He wanted the Volunteers to hold the county at the River Suck at Ballinasloe, to capture Galway city, and then, if possible, to march on Dublin. There were several variations of this strategy, but whichever plan was finally agreed, its success depended on the Volunteers receiving modern weaponry. Up to then the men had been rehearsing with shotguns, and sticks. Pearse assured them that small arms, including assault rifles and machine guns, were on their way. They would arrive in Gort, and be distributed from there.