Thousands attend John Joe McGirl commemoration in Leitrim

This year’s John Joe McGirl commemoration on Saturday, August 17, saw a record number of people in attendance since the Republican’s death in 1988.

The annual commemoration typically attracts a couple hundred people in Ballinamore, but this year, the event drew over two thousand people.

A parade was led by a colour party, followed by the Mountain Road Pipe Band from Teemore, Co. Fermanagh.

The Citizen Army pageant group from Co. Cavan was also in attendance. Sinn Féin Cumainn members from Leitrim, the surrounding counties, and further afield, some with banners, presented a brilliant scene. Festival goers emerged from pubs and premises along the route to witness a spectacle rarely seen in the town outside of the annual festival Week.

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John Finucane MP gave a wide-ranging oration in which he paid tribute to John Joe McGirl as “a great Irishman and a true patriot.”

“John Joe McGirl was and remains for Republicans, not just here in Leitrim, but across the island, an inspirational figure,” said Mr Finucane.

Fintan Warfield, John Finucane MP and Micheál McGirl

Speaking of his own tragic experience of witnessing his father being shot dead in his own home, John said: “Such a loss will never leave anyone who experiences such a thing.”