Allegiance Irish Republican Army Battles/wars Border Campaign Rank Volunteer | Years of service 1956 - 1957 Battles and wars Border Campaign | |
 | ||
Died 1 January 1957, Brookeborough | ||
Feargal O'Hanlon (Irish: Feargal Ó hAnnluain (2 February 1936 – 1 January 1957) was a volunteer in the Pearse Column of the Irish Republican Army.
Contents
Background
O'Hanlon was born in Ballybay, County Monaghan, Ireland, into a staunchly republican family, Feargal O'Hanlon was a draughtsman employed by Monaghan County Council. He was a Gaelic footballer and a keen Irish language activist.
Brookeborough raid
Aged 20, O'Hanlon was killed along with Seán South while taking part in an attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary (R.U.C.) barracks in Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, during the Border Campaign. Several other IRA members were wounded in the botched attack. The IRA fled the scene in a dump truck. They abandoned it near the border. They left South and O'Hanlon, both then unconscious, in a cow byre, and crossed into the Republic of Ireland on foot for help for their comrades. The wounded IRA men were treated as "car crash victims" by sympathetic staff in the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in Dublin. The events and personalities are sympathetically recalled in Dominic Behan's ballad The Patriot Game.
Reaction
O'Hanlon's mother remained firmly committed to the IRA and was hurt by the suggestion that there was an alternative to IRA activity or that her son was anything other than an Irish hero.
A marble monument now stands at the spot where South and O'Hanlon lost their lives. An annual lecture has been held in memory of O’Hanlon since 1982, and approximately 500 people attended a 50th commemoration of the men's deaths in January 2007 in Limerick.
His brother Eighneachán Ó hAnnluain was elected a Sinn Féin abstentionist TD in the 1957 general election to Dáil Éireann. His sister Pádraigín Uí Mhurchadha was a Sinn Féin Councillor on Monaghan Urban Council.