Fergal O'Hanlon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fergal O'Hanlon (Irish: Feargal Ó hAnnluain (1936 – 1 January 1957) was a member (volunteer) of the Pearse Column[1] Irish Republican Army from County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland.
A keen Irish language activist he was a draughtsman employed by Monaghan County Council, and he played Gaelic football.
Aged 20, he was killed along with Seán South while taking part in an attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary barracks in Brookeborough, County Fermanagh during the Border Campaign (IRA). Several other IRA members were wounded in the botched attack. The IRA fled the scene in a dump truck. They abandoned it near the border. They left South and O'Hanlon, both then unconscious, in a cow byre, and crossed into the Republic of Ireland on foot for help for their comrades. The wounded IRA men were treated as "car crash victims" by sympathetic staff in the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in Dublin.
Tim Pat Coogan says that O'Hanlon's mother remained firmly committed to the IRA and was hurt by the suggestion that there was an alternative to IRA activity[citation needed].
A stone/marble monument now stands at the spot where South and O'Hanlon lost their lives.
More than 500 people attended a 50th commemoration of the men's deaths in January 2007 in Limerick.[2]
A fictionalized O'Hanlon is the narator of Dominic Behan's ballad, The Patriot Game.
His sister Pádraigín Uí Mhurchadha is now a Sinn Féin Councillor on Monaghan County Council.
