Lurgan – Page 2 – Paddy Duffy Collection

My Brother Is Not A Criminal

2024-08-132024-09-08Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

IRA volunteer Raymond McCreesh, originally from Camlough, died on May 21st, 1981, after 61 days on hunger strike. “In proud and loving memory of ten brave Irish soldiers who died on hunger strike in 1981 for their five just demands. I gcuımhne ar ıobaırt [íobaırt] cróga na staılceoırí ocraıs 1981 ní dheánfar [dhéanfar] dearmad orthu.”

This is a new version of a long-standing board to McCreesh in Taghnevan Drive, Lurgan. For the previous (painted) version (from 2009) see M05408.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
T05389

The Lurgan Ambush

2024-08-132024-08-28Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Fuaır sıad bás ar son saoırse na hÉıreann. Óglach Sean Burns, Óglach Gervase McKerr, Óglach Eugene Toman. “But they dared to hold their heads up high and never once did fail to declare their wish for freedom like true sons of the Gael” – The Lurgan Ambush (A poem by Ita Green [set to music at Irish Folk Songs])”.

The IRA volunteers were three of the six people shot in Lurgan in three incidents in November and December of 1982; the others were Seamus Grew, Roddy Carroll, and Michael Tighe. The deaths of the three would be investigated by the RUC and then by the Stalker Inquiry into the shoot-to-kill policy (RN); an inquest was begun by the Coroner in 2007 (BelTel | Madden-Finucane). Under the Legacy Act, which came into effect on May 1st (2024), the inquest has been suspended and the case transferred to the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (Irish News).

Taghnevan Drive, Lurgan

Lurgan Town Was Rocked By Sorrow

2024-08-132024-11-06Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Lurgan town was rocked with sorrow/On that bleak November day/Hushed tones and tears were mingled/When great numbers stopped to pray.” These lines come from ‘The Lurgan Ambush’, a poem by Ita Green [set to music at Irish Folk Songs], paying tribute to IRA volunteers Sean Burns, Eugene Toman, and Gervaise McKerr, who died together on the night of November 11th, 1982, when the car in which the three were travelling was hit by 109 bullets from officers at an RUC check-point.

The ECHR ‘asmissibility’ report gives a full account of the incident and the subsequent investigations into it, including the Stalker enquiry into ‘shoot-to-kill’.