Louth Sinn Féin commemorate Sylvester Heaney

Sunrise on Sunday was the backdrop for the centenary commemoration of the execution of 19-year-old Louth man Sylvester Heaney at the Republican plot at St Patrick’s Cemetery Dundalk.

The event, which was chaired by Sinn Féin councillor Pearse McGeough, was attended by over 40 people, including the grandnephews of Mr Heaney, who was known to his family as ‘Sylvie’.

A wreath was laid at the Republican plot, where Mr Heaney is buried and those in attendance heard from Louth TD Ruairí Ó Murchú, who outlined some of Mr Heaney’s background.

Mr Heaney, who was from Dillonstown and was the eighth child in the family of 12 to Bernard and Julia Heaney, who had lived in Hill Street before moving to Dillonstown.

Mr Heaney had initially joined the National Army but had, Deputy Ó Murchú said, “become utterly dissatisfied with the Free State and decided, like many others, to make his stand.”

He was stationed in Baldonnell Aerodrome. The Leixlip Flying Column of the IRA was involved in a number of attacks on infrastructure, primarily to disable communications in this region.

A plan was conceived to attack the aerodrome towards the end of 1922 and, having been postponed twice, there was a third mobilisation when the unit acquired a number of rifles and a machine gun and information had been provided. A number of National Army soldiers, including Mr Heaney, joined the IRA.

But it was ultimately unsuccessful and Mr Heaney, along with four other former soldiers, were captured and became known as the ‘Leixlip Five’. They were court martialled for treason and sentenced to death.

Deputy Ó Murchú said: “The State did not say where the executions took place. Each one of those executed left a family who had to live with the huge pain during a very difficult time in Irish history.”

Eventually, Mr Heaney's body was reinterred at the Republican plot in Dowdallshill, alongside five other executed men, but the funeral was marred by controversy when the firing party at the reinterment was attacked by National Army forces.

Mr Heaney left behind a number of letters, including to his mother and his sister, Martha. He told Martha he was not afraid and asked her to send some Christmas pudding ‘so as to think of those at home’.

Ó Murchú said:

"Sylvester Heaney died a martyr like many others. We must remember that they died to try to bring about a better Ireland, a united Ireland.“We have an opportunity today that we may not have had over the last 100 years to deliver an Ireland that they died for.”

Two other events, marking further executions, are to take place on January 13 and 22 at Dundalk’s old gaol and at Dundalk barracks.