On This Day / March 15, 1921
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
19210315
Reference Date
19210315
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 15th March 1921, reports told how six IRA prisoners were executed in Mountjoy Jail after failed appeals for clemency, prompting solemn scenes outside the prison as crowds gathered in prayer. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Six More Hanged | On This Day – 15th March 1921
ALL efforts for reprieve having proved in vain, the six Dublin prisoners were executed in Mountjoy Gaol yesterday morning.
They were marched to the gallows in pairs at intervals of one hour, the first two being executed at six o’clock, two others at seven and the remaining two at eight o’clock.
Their names, already familiar to the people of Ireland: Thomas Whelan, Patrick Moran, Thomas Bryan, Patrick Doyle, Frank Flood and Bernard Ryan.
Scenes of the utmost solemnity were witnessed outside the prison while the grim tragedy was being enacted within its walls.
It was a bitterly cold and dreary morning but this did not deter people from coming out.
Many of these were young boys and girls, a great number early workers who, but for the impending sacrifices, would have been going to their workshops but, above all, were the very poor women especially – who came from their humble homes to pray for the happy repose of the six victims of the gallows.
Kneeling on the damp ground, with close to a thousand people fervently reciting the Rosary which was given out by a lady attached to Cumann na mBan, many bore lighted candles.
Here the heroic mother of Thomas Whelan, clad in her Western garb, took her place to join in the chorus of prayer for her dying boy.
The scene at this juncture was so touching that even the soldiers in an armoured car stationed some yards away leant over in silent awe and wonder and seemed to forget, for the moment, the grim occupation in which they were participants.
It was known in which particular wing the doomed men had been incarcerated and lights were seen in two cell windows.
A crowd collected and handkerchiefs were waved while soldiers stood by in obvious amazement.
A figure was seen to come repeatedly to one of the windows and he seemed to be endeavouring to communicate with those outside.
After some time the lights went out and as it was then close to seven o’clock, the awful truth was forced upon the crowd that two more were being taken to the execution chamber.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: THE six IRA prisoners had been sentenced to death by courtmartial for their alleged part in the Bloody Sunday killings by Collins’s ‘Squad’.
Patrick Moran – convinced he could prove his innocence – had declined to take part in a successful escape attempt.
Joe Devlin met Lloyd George to appeal for the young men’s lives but failed to save them.
To Moran’s sister, Devlin wrote: ‘I was shocked at your brother’s execution and…what I regard as a cruel crime of infamy.’)
On This Day – 15th March 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19210315
Reference Date
19210315
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 15th March 1921, reports told how six IRA prisoners were executed in Mountjoy Jail after failed appeals for clemency, prompting solemn scenes outside the prison as crowds gathered in prayer. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Six More Hanged | On This Day – 15th March 1921
ALL efforts for reprieve having proved in vain, the six Dublin prisoners were executed in Mountjoy Gaol yesterday morning.
They were marched to the gallows in pairs at intervals of one hour, the first two being executed at six o’clock, two others at seven and the remaining two at eight o’clock.
Their names, already familiar to the people of Ireland: Thomas Whelan, Patrick Moran, Thomas Bryan, Patrick Doyle, Frank Flood and Bernard Ryan.
Scenes of the utmost solemnity were witnessed outside the prison while the grim tragedy was being enacted within its walls.
It was a bitterly cold and dreary morning but this did not deter people from coming out.
Many of these were young boys and girls, a great number early workers who, but for the impending sacrifices, would have been going to their workshops but, above all, were the very poor women especially – who came from their humble homes to pray for the happy repose of the six victims of the gallows.
Kneeling on the damp ground, with close to a thousand people fervently reciting the Rosary which was given out by a lady attached to Cumann na mBan, many bore lighted candles.
Here the heroic mother of Thomas Whelan, clad in her Western garb, took her place to join in the chorus of prayer for her dying boy.
The scene at this juncture was so touching that even the soldiers in an armoured car stationed some yards away leant over in silent awe and wonder and seemed to forget, for the moment, the grim occupation in which they were participants.
It was known in which particular wing the doomed men had been incarcerated and lights were seen in two cell windows.
A crowd collected and handkerchiefs were waved while soldiers stood by in obvious amazement.
A figure was seen to come repeatedly to one of the windows and he seemed to be endeavouring to communicate with those outside.
After some time the lights went out and as it was then close to seven o’clock, the awful truth was forced upon the crowd that two more were being taken to the execution chamber.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: THE six IRA prisoners had been sentenced to death by courtmartial for their alleged part in the Bloody Sunday killings by Collins’s ‘Squad’.
Patrick Moran – convinced he could prove his innocence – had declined to take part in a successful escape attempt.
Joe Devlin met Lloyd George to appeal for the young men’s lives but failed to save them.
To Moran’s sister, Devlin wrote: ‘I was shocked at your brother’s execution and…what I regard as a cruel crime of infamy.’)
On This Day – 15th March 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19210315
Reference Date
March 15, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 15th March 1921, reports told how six IRA prisoners were executed in Mountjoy Jail after failed appeals for clemency, prompting solemn scenes outside the prison as crowds gathered in prayer. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Six More Hanged | On This Day – 15th March 1921
ALL efforts for reprieve having proved in vain, the six Dublin prisoners were executed in Mountjoy Gaol yesterday morning.
They were marched to the gallows in pairs at intervals of one hour, the first two being executed at six o’clock, two others at seven and the remaining two at eight o’clock.
Their names, already familiar to the people of Ireland: Thomas Whelan, Patrick Moran, Thomas Bryan, Patrick Doyle, Frank Flood and Bernard Ryan.
Scenes of the utmost solemnity were witnessed outside the prison while the grim tragedy was being enacted within its walls.
It was a bitterly cold and dreary morning but this did not deter people from coming out.
Many of these were young boys and girls, a great number early workers who, but for the impending sacrifices, would have been going to their workshops but, above all, were the very poor women especially – who came from their humble homes to pray for the happy repose of the six victims of the gallows.
Kneeling on the damp ground, with close to a thousand people fervently reciting the Rosary which was given out by a lady attached to Cumann na mBan, many bore lighted candles.
Here the heroic mother of Thomas Whelan, clad in her Western garb, took her place to join in the chorus of prayer for her dying boy.
The scene at this juncture was so touching that even the soldiers in an armoured car stationed some yards away leant over in silent awe and wonder and seemed to forget, for the moment, the grim occupation in which they were participants.
It was known in which particular wing the doomed men had been incarcerated and lights were seen in two cell windows.
A crowd collected and handkerchiefs were waved while soldiers stood by in obvious amazement.
A figure was seen to come repeatedly to one of the windows and he seemed to be endeavouring to communicate with those outside.
After some time the lights went out and as it was then close to seven o’clock, the awful truth was forced upon the crowd that two more were being taken to the execution chamber.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: THE six IRA prisoners had been sentenced to death by courtmartial for their alleged part in the Bloody Sunday killings by Collins’s ‘Squad’.
Patrick Moran – convinced he could prove his innocence – had declined to take part in a successful escape attempt.
Joe Devlin met Lloyd George to appeal for the young men’s lives but failed to save them.
To Moran’s sister, Devlin wrote: ‘I was shocked at your brother’s execution and…what I regard as a cruel crime of infamy.’)
On This Day – 15th March 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
On This Day is a daily column in the Irish News looking back either 50 or 100 years. The column was compiled by Dr Éamon Phoenix from the mid 1980s until autumn, 2022. The Foundation is very grateful to the Irish News for giving permission to reproduce Eamon’s columns. Funding gratefully received from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and the Magill Trust.
* The Foundation has worked hard to recreate Eamon’s distinctive voice through AI. Since this is an emerging technology, occasional imperfections may be audible.