(UPDATE : the foreign queen has left her Dublin 'throne' ...)
Captain Mártan Ó hÓgáin's Commemorative Stone , Gracepark Road , Dublin." A few months after Mártan Ó hÓgáin was done to death by Free State forces , four Tyrone IRA anti-treaty Volunteers were captured by a platoon of 'B' Specials and shot dead on the spot. Their genitals were cut-off and placed in their mouths and obscenities about the Pope were written on the road with blood from their entrails . At the 'inquest' into this butchery , the platoon Commander defended the savagery of his troops by stating that they had recently seen action in Palestine . No 'Court' penalty followed...."
- a section of the short speech delivered by the Chairperson of today's wreath-laying ceremony , John Horan -
Pike and RSF banner ." The time of Captain Ó hÓgáin's death was the period in which the Free Staters sanctioned the executions of seventy-seven anti-treaty POW's . It was the period in which Free Staters tied nine POW's to a landmine at Ballyseedy before detonating it and riddling the mangled remains with machine-gun fire..."
1916 Proclamation being read at the Ó hÓgáin wreath-laying ceremony." Up to 1923 - when Mártan Ó hÓgáin was done to death by the Free Staters - seven Irish republicans had died on hunger-strike : Tom Ashe from Kerry , Michael Fitzgerald , Terence McSwiney ,Joe Murphy ,Denis Barry and Andy O' Sullivan, all from Cork , and Joe Witty from Wexford . Today - 85 years after the death of Captain Ó hÓgáin - twenty-two Irish men have died on hunger-strike. All fought and died for the same Cause , part of the same on-going struggle..."
Laying the wreath .Those in attendance marched the short distance from the corner of Collins Avenue/Gracepark Road to the Commemorative Stone , where they were welcomed by the Chairperson , John Horan . After a short speech , John called for one minutes silence and then asked the Flag Bearer to dip the National Flag . He then asked Donal to play a lament ('The Foggy Dew') on the tin whistle , following which a Wreath was laid . The attendees were thanked (with the stated exclusion of the four Special Branch men present) and the Chairperson again reiterated the link between that which Captain Ó hÓgáin fought for and that which republicans today are fighting for . He then brought proceedings to an end.
Flag Bearer at Captain Mártan Ó hÓgáin's wreath laying ceremony.(More on this wreath-laying ceremony can be found here and here.)
Sharon.
