“The Month of November used be one of solemn Remembrance in Ireland.
For Dublin Brigade Volunteer and Medical Student Kevin Barry, hanged by the British in 1920.
For Tipperary footballer Michael Hogan and twelve spectators killed at Croke Park by British rifle fire.
For Brigadier Dick McKee, Vice-Brigadier Peadar Clancy and the civilian Conor Clune, done to death
In Dublin Castle the same day.
It was such books as “With The Dublin Brigade” which induced me as a teenager to join the part-time
soldiers of the FCA. In Dublin each November we marched past a saluting base manned by Dublin Brigade veterans to
commemorate McKee, Clancy and Clune.
Such parades persuaded me that, whatever their shortcomings, the hearts of Irish Government members
were in the right place. The McKee-Clancy-Clune parades have been abandoned, as have those honouring the 1916 Insurgents.
This year, as last, the Armed Forces of the Irish State will, jointly with the Royal British Legion, do homage
To those who died at Suvla and Sud-El-Bar. Ah, well might Erin Remember the Days of Old……………………….”
Quoted from a column of mine headed “Just Browsing” in THE IRISH DEMOCRAT November 1984.
The Irish Democrat Archives from 1939 can be accessed on the web.
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