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Written by John McCullagh
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Monday, 31 January 2005 |
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What little remains of the sparse contribution of the Irish Citizens Association may lie in a few street names in the West Ward of Newry. Everyone has heard of James Connolly (of James Connolly Park, off Patrick Street) but who was Michael Mallin of the adjacent Park?
Michael Mallin was chief-of-staff of the socialist Irish Citizens Army and Connolly’s right-hand man when, at age forty-two, he took part in the 1916 insurrection. He commanded the rebels who occupied Stephen’s Green and the College of Surgeons. He was one of the sixteen leaders subsequently executed by British Army firing squads. Today Father Joseph Mallin is the only surviving living relative (immediate family) of any of the executed leaders, apart from his sister (who however, never met her father as she was born a few months after his execution at Kilmainham jail). Dun Laoghaire CIE Station is also named after Michael Mallin. |
Reminiscence 
