BY MICHAEL BRESLIN
Mention Feargal O'Hanlon and Sean South in any Nationalist household from almost 50 years on, and even today, and people become misty eyed at the thought of how two young IRA men died after being fatally wounded in an attack on Brookeborough Barracks New Year's Day, 1957. Their deaths sparked off two immortal ballads,'Sean South from Garryowen', and, 'The Patriot Game', and countless other tributes.
The remaining 12 made good their escape by trekking over the mountains towards Monaghan, via Roslea, having abandoned their two dying or dead comrades in a byre at Altawark, and the lorry which they had used for the attack and their getaway.
Those on the receiving end, and those related to them, naturally, will have their own attitude and, likewise, the then Catholic Bishop of Clogher, Dr O'Callaghan who, speaking in Roslea the following day, told his flock that it was a mortal sin to take part in any of the occurrences (he was referring to the 1956 IRA campaign) that had taken place recently.
However, in the eyes of, one would have to say, most Nationalists the length and breadth of Ireland - O'Hanlon was from Monaghan, South from Limerick - the two dead were publicly honoured in death and went on to achieve iconic status in posterity.
A new book: 'The Pearse Column & the Brookeborough Raid', which hardly leave a stone unturned, has been put together by the Feargal Ó hAnnluain and Seán Sabhat Commemorative Committee. It will be launched this Friday night, 8th December in the Donn Carragh Hotel, Lisnaskea, at 8 o'clock sharp.
A special gust will be Pádraigín Ui Mhúrchadha, Feargal's sister, and the guest speaker will be Dr Ruan O'Donnell, a leading historian and lecturer on Irish history. His topic will be centred on the 1956-1962 IRA campaign, otherwise known as 'Operation Harvest'.
There will be an accompanying display at the launch, of unique photographs, newspaper cuttings and personal items. The book contains all of these, most poignantly, a short letter from Feargal to his sister, and excerpts from an autograph book belonging to Pádraigín. One dated 21st December, 1955 (her brother had joined the IRA the previous year) reproduces the Latin exhortation to Roman soldiers, 'dulce et decorum est mori pro patria: 'it is a sweet and decent thing to die for your country'.
So, who was O'Hanlon and what motivated Sean South to travel so far North, and what went all so wrong and how, like the Easter Rising, defeat became a glorious triumph. For, despite Bishop O'Callaghan's condemnation, an estimated attendance of 5,000 turned up for O'Hanlon's funeral in Monaghan Cathedral and, all the way to his final resting place in Limerick, thousands lined the streets of Dundalk (1,500 workers left their jobs to be there), Drogheda, Dublin, Nenagh and Roscrea (where 7,000 followed the hearse) in tribute to Sean South, his funeral Mass in Limerick being attended by an estimated 50,000.
Who were they? The book gives a profile of each. South was a noted Gealgóir and, in fact, he formed a youth organisation on the Padraig Pearse model whose members used Irish in their studies and games.
Séamus tells the editors: 'Seán left home on 9th December, 1956, happy, I'm sure, in the thought that he was going to strike a blow for Irish freedom'. He died just five weeks short of his 30th birthday.
Feargal O'Hanlon died just four weeks short of his 22nd birthday. Of stocky build, it is no surprise to see him feature in the Monaghan harps GAA team that won the Monaghan Intermediate 'double' in 1954, and in a handball photograph aged 20.
Where did the raid go wrong, and where did it go right for the occupants of Brookeborough Barracks shortly after 7 o'clock on New Year's Day?
Several things went wrong for the 14 IRA party, and ironically, the one thing that went right for the RUC men, the book explains, is that the Sergeant in charge, returning from a shop across the street, saw the lorry arriving and, sensing what was up, bolted into the barracks. Daithí O'Connell, who was second in command of the Assault Section, tried to bring him down with shots from his Thompson sub-machine gun, but missed.
The plan was, the book explains, that the lorry would park across the road from the barracks, and the cover group would give fire from the vehicle at the barracks, allowing the assault group to place a landmine at its front door. If the RUC personnel inside refused to surrender, a second mine would be laid and the building blown up. (The book does not say that the Volunteers intended doing with their captives).
In any event, the Sergeant, having dodged the bullets, raced to an upstairs room where he grabbed a Bren gun that had been used in training the previous day.
Two mines failed to ignite and the Bren's response from above was lethal, striking South and then O'Hanlon as the truck pulled away and, in between, injuring four of their comrades.
The book then takes us - there is a map within the book charting the course of the Volunteers' final fateful journey, partly in their hijacked lorry, from the Knocks to Brookeborough and on to Keenan's Barn (a monument marks the spot where O'Hanlon and South died), and then on foot across Jenkin Hill towards Monaghan.
The book then moves on to coverage of the inquest on O'Hanlon and South, conducted by the late Rainey Hanna, an Enniskillen solicitor.
The surgeon who had operated on O'Hanlon confirmed that he had died as a result of shock and bleeding from his leg wounds and, in reply to Mr Hanna, he suggested his life could have been saved if he had been attended to earlier, but not when the Police arrived at Altwark.
Copies of the book, 'The Pearse Column & the Brookeborough Raid' can be purchased at Friday night's launch in the Donn Carragh Hotel, Lisnaskea. The programme starts at 8 o'clock sharp.
