Liam Mellows

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

Nationalist from an early age, Mellows joined Fianna Éireann (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, Galway.

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 and was responsible for buying arms. He was elected to the First Dáil as a Sinn Féin candidate for Galway East and for Meath North in December 1918.

He considered the Anglo-Irish Treaty to be a betrayal of the Irish Republic, saying:

"We do not seek to make this country a materially great country at the expense of its honour in any way whatsoever. We would rather have this country poor and indigent, we would rather have the people of Ireland eking out a poor existence on the soil; as long as they possessed their souls, their minds, and their honour. This fight has been for something more than the fleshpots of Empire".^{[citation needed]}

He wrote a social programme based on the Dáil's Democratic Programme of 1919 aimed at winning popular support for the anti-Treaty cause, but in a country with 130,000 unemployed it was impractical, if well-meant. In June 1922, he and fellow republicans Rory O'Connor, Joe McKelvey and Richard Barrett, (among others) took over the Four Courts. 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. (See also Battle of Dublin).

Imprisoned in Mountjoy Gaol, Mellows, O'Connor, McKelvey and Barrett were executed by firing squad on 8 December 1922, apparently as a reprisal for the shooting of TD Sean Hales. (see Executions during the Irish Civil War)

[edit] Commemoration

Mellows is commemorated by a statue in Eyre Square, Galway and in the official name of the Irish Defence Forces army barracks at Renmore, Dún Úi Maoilíosa. There is another commemorative statue of him in Oranmore, about 10 km from Galway city.

Mellows is buried in Castletown cemetery, Co. Wexford just a few miles from Arklow. A commemoration takes place every year in December in which a wreath is laid by a member of the Liam Mellows Commemoration committee and an Oration given by one of the local Fianna Fail politicians. An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, laid a wreath at this commemoration in 2006 in the year of the 80th anniversary of Fianna Fáil and the 90th year anniversary of the 1916 rising, in which he announced, along with Minister for Environment, Heritage and local government, Dick Roche, that 16 Moore street, Dublin, the last post to surrender during the rising, will be listed as a protected building.

[edit] Further reading

• Greaves, C. Desmond. 2004 [New edition]. Liam Mellows and the Irish Revolution. Belfast: Foilseacháin an Ghlór Gafa. ISBN 1-905007-01-9.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Patrick White	MP for Meath North 1918	Succeeded by vacant
Oireachtas
Preceded by New office	TD for Meath North 1918	Succeeded by vacant