WHO WAS SEAMUS QUIRKE?

The road on which our church stands is called after Seamus Quirke. Seamus,a Cork man, was staying at a house in the Docks here in Galway and was a fighter in the War of Independence. At this time the infamous Black and Tans, auxilary troops sent to Ireland to put down the rebellion, were causing terror and strife throughout Ireland. In Galway, on September 8th 1920, they were fired up by one of their lorry drivers, a man called Krumm. Krumm had spent the evening drinking and terrifying people in a pub by lining up beer bottles and shooting at them to prove his prowess. They murdered Sean Mulvoy at Ceannt Station on that evening and, during the early hours of September 9th, Seamus Quirke was taken from his lodgings and shot eleven times in the stomach dying a slow and cruel death. He was attended by the famous Father Griffin, who would very shortly after be taken from his own house at Montpellier Terrace and murdered. We pray for all from the Island of Ireland who died in all the terrible conflicts of the Twentieth Century and we pray, that, in this time, we will have peace and healing among all traditions of this beautiful island we share.