Republican committee to honour Patrick MacNamara in Roscrea on Sunday

The North Tipperary Republican Memorial Committee will hold a commemoration for Patrick MacNamara on Sunday, January 15 at 12.30pm outside the castle gate in Castle Street Roscrea.

Patrick MacNamara was born an reared in Killary , Derrycastle, Ballina , County Tipperary.

MacNamara fought throughout the Tan war. He took part in all the engagements in his area, including the Bushfield ambush and many other engagements in the / Ballywilliam locality.

In 1922, Patrick MacNamara along with Patrick Ryan, went into Nenagh to join the Civic Guards, which had just come into existence. Patrick MacNamara, on arriving in Nenagh, changed his mind, and went on the run with the Republican forces.

In December 1922 MacNamara and Mick Kennedy (Rajah) , an officer of the IRA, both locals and on the run, went up to O’Brien’s of the Quarries to meet some friends. On their way back they fired a few shots at a derelict building. They made their way to Landsdowne House which was unoccupied at the time. However, the house was later surrounded by state troops went up the stairs into the bedrooms and fired above the heads of the men who were sleeping.

They were later brought before a military tribunal and charged with being in possession of arms and ammunition, a capital offence in those days and sentenced to death.

On the morning of January 15, MacNamara, Patrick Russell, Frederick Burke and Martin O’Shea all from Borrisoleigh and the Mid-Tipp brigade, who had been involved in a separate incident in which a mail car had been held up at Ross, were shot against a wall in the small garden of the castle yard. Bullet marks are still visible on the wall.

Their remains were only handed over by the State in October 1924. All are welcome to the ceremony on January 15.