Showing posts with label Tyrone commemoration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tyrone commemoration. Show all posts
Silver gems that pierce the dark,
Heavenly virgins in disguise;That stir the heart with love and flameAnd light great flames in all men's eyes
Ar dheis De go raibh a anam.
To my mind it's something worth considering that behind every hero and martyr is a family and a human story, because although they died as heroes they were still but ordinary lads to those who called them brother, father, son - ordinary men who became extraordinary, shaped by the savageness of Britain's oppression and repression in the occupied six-counties. Their pain is still very much there so to stand today in solidarity with his mother and sister, who lost their only son and brother because of the political situation here, was a privilege and a sad reminder of the suffering our people have been forced to endure.
Dessie Morgan, like so many other young men in Tyrone of his generation, was compelled by the tragedy unfolding around him as war broke out in the six-counties to join the ranks of Oglaigh na hEireann. Conditioned by the riots that swept through Coalisland in the July of 1970 after the RUC sealed the town to facilitate a triumphalist Orange march he became an active member of the East Tyrone Brigade, despite being practically still a boy. When I heard his story today it brought back memories of another young Volunteer who's grave we visited earlier this summer, also 40 years dead having been killed on Active Service with his comrade Dan McAnallen during an attack on Pomeroy RUC Barracks in August 1973. Young Patsy Quinn was incredibly just sixteen years old when he lost his life trying to free his native land, having already by that stage, like so many other young men round these parts, proved himself a mature and committed Volunteer with no fear of those who sought to bring terror to our streets and towns.
The story of Tyrone's fight in the most recent phase of our struggle is sadly littered with examples of such young men, often still teenagers, who died because of a war not of their making and a singular determination to engage and to respond to those who brought that war to their communities and to pursue the struggle for Irish freedom that went hand-in-hand with that determination.
The great tragedy in all this is that such young men were denied their right to live out their lives like the rest of us. Dessie Morgan was no different than others of his generation; he enjoyed the craic, going to dances and the cinema with his peers. He was a qualified tradesman with a full-time job and he was a keen sportsman - especially when it came to lining out for his local club Brackaville Owen Roes, who he represented with a pride typical of those living in the shade of their more illustrious parish-rivals, Clonoe and Coalisland. Indeed they say a better left-foot could not be found in the whole of the county never mind the ranks of Junior football, where he applied his trade as a dependable corner-back who possessed the same grit and determination still associated today with the good people of that area. Dessie could have went on to do anything he wanted; to build a home, raise a family, pass on his skills on the football field to the generations that were to follow him onto the sod of O'Brien Park, the kind of things we all take for granted. But the terrorist war the British state prosecuted against our people meant it could never be so.
This to me is the greatest tragedy of what happened here, that such young lads were denied such basic, run-of-the-mill norms and that their families suffered the terrible loss of a loved one gone long, long before their time. It should never have happened.
It was great to see people turn out in their droves to remember Dessie and to stand shoulder to shoulder with his loved one's, to let them know that he is more than a name on the Roll of Honour to us, that he is our comrade, our friend, our inspiration, our guiding light. Well done to those in the local Eamonn Ceannt Society and the wider Republican Movement for organising such a dignified and fitting event yet again.
The thing about it is that while for many the Republic may appear a lost cause, dead and buried given the way things have sadly turned out, while we have men like Dessie Morgan or Patsy Quinn or Dan McAnallen or the many other young men of those times to light our way, to inspire us and force us to confront the political reality that we still live under occupation and that we still have work to do, well then the republic will never die and remains a living, breathing thing. Because it lives in them, it lives in us and to it we must and will return.
Dessie Morgan, like so many other young men in Tyrone of his generation, was compelled by the tragedy unfolding around him as war broke out in the six-counties to join the ranks of Oglaigh na hEireann. Conditioned by the riots that swept through Coalisland in the July of 1970 after the RUC sealed the town to facilitate a triumphalist Orange march he became an active member of the East Tyrone Brigade, despite being practically still a boy. When I heard his story today it brought back memories of another young Volunteer who's grave we visited earlier this summer, also 40 years dead having been killed on Active Service with his comrade Dan McAnallen during an attack on Pomeroy RUC Barracks in August 1973. Young Patsy Quinn was incredibly just sixteen years old when he lost his life trying to free his native land, having already by that stage, like so many other young men round these parts, proved himself a mature and committed Volunteer with no fear of those who sought to bring terror to our streets and towns.
The story of Tyrone's fight in the most recent phase of our struggle is sadly littered with examples of such young men, often still teenagers, who died because of a war not of their making and a singular determination to engage and to respond to those who brought that war to their communities and to pursue the struggle for Irish freedom that went hand-in-hand with that determination.
The great tragedy in all this is that such young men were denied their right to live out their lives like the rest of us. Dessie Morgan was no different than others of his generation; he enjoyed the craic, going to dances and the cinema with his peers. He was a qualified tradesman with a full-time job and he was a keen sportsman - especially when it came to lining out for his local club Brackaville Owen Roes, who he represented with a pride typical of those living in the shade of their more illustrious parish-rivals, Clonoe and Coalisland. Indeed they say a better left-foot could not be found in the whole of the county never mind the ranks of Junior football, where he applied his trade as a dependable corner-back who possessed the same grit and determination still associated today with the good people of that area. Dessie could have went on to do anything he wanted; to build a home, raise a family, pass on his skills on the football field to the generations that were to follow him onto the sod of O'Brien Park, the kind of things we all take for granted. But the terrorist war the British state prosecuted against our people meant it could never be so.
This to me is the greatest tragedy of what happened here, that such young lads were denied such basic, run-of-the-mill norms and that their families suffered the terrible loss of a loved one gone long, long before their time. It should never have happened.
It was great to see people turn out in their droves to remember Dessie and to stand shoulder to shoulder with his loved one's, to let them know that he is more than a name on the Roll of Honour to us, that he is our comrade, our friend, our inspiration, our guiding light. Well done to those in the local Eamonn Ceannt Society and the wider Republican Movement for organising such a dignified and fitting event yet again.
The thing about it is that while for many the Republic may appear a lost cause, dead and buried given the way things have sadly turned out, while we have men like Dessie Morgan or Patsy Quinn or Dan McAnallen or the many other young men of those times to light our way, to inspire us and force us to confront the political reality that we still live under occupation and that we still have work to do, well then the republic will never die and remains a living, breathing thing. Because it lives in them, it lives in us and to it we must and will return.
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