Liam Mellows Statue (Galway)

Ireland / Galway / Galway
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Liam Mellows (25th May 1895 – 8th December 1922) was born in Manchester to Irish parents, and grew up in county Wexford, Ireland.

Nationalist from an early age, Mellows joined Na Fianna (the republican boys movement) and was active with the Irish Volunteers. He was arrested and jailed on several occasions under the Defence of the Realm Act. Eventually escaping from Reading Jail he returned to Ireland to command the "Western Division" (forces operating in the West of Ireland) of the IRA during the Easter Rising of 1916. He led an abortive attack a Royal Irish Constabulary station at Oranmore.

After the failed Rising, Mellows escaped to the USA, where he worked with John Devoy and helped to organise Eamon de Valera's fund raising visit to America in 1919-1920. He returned to Ireland to become Irish Republican Army "Director of Supplies" during the Irish War of Independence — responsable for buying arms. He was subsequently elected to the First Dáil as a Sinn Féin candidate for Galway East.

He was an opponent of the Anglo-Irish Treaty considering it to be a betrayal of the Irish Republic. He wrote a social programme based on the Dail's Democratic Programme of 1918 aimed at winning popular support for the anti-treaty cause. In April 1922, he and fellow republicans Rory O'Connor, Joe McKelvey and Dick Barrett, (among others) took over the Four Courts in June 1922. However, they were bombarded by pro-Treaty Free State forces and surrendered after two days. Mellows had a chance to escape along with Ernie O'Malley, but did not take it.

Imprisoned in Mountjoy Gaol, Mellows, O'Connor, McKelvey and Barrett were executed by firing squad in December 1922, apparently as a reprisal for the shooting of TD Sean Hales.

He is now commerated in the Centre of the City of Galway in a statue located in a corner of Eyre Square.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liam_Mellows
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   53°16'30"N   9°2'57"W

Comments

  • Could this be anymore incorrect it's like reading a Tabloid. The statue in Oranmore is of Joseph Howley who fought in Oranmore during 1916 with his Ornamore company. He liked Cock how mature of you! imprisoned in Reading jail he was never arrested and imprisoned before the Easter Rising. He was given a deporation order and he had to stay in the Birmingham that was it!! God would you read a book before you start writing rubbish on the internet Clown!!
This article was last modified 12 years ago