Julia Morrissey Wreath Laying Announced To Take Place On 8th March
A wreath laying ceremony to honour Galway woman and 1916 leader, Julia Morrissey, will take place in Athenry, Co. Galway on Saturday, 8th March, at 1pm.
The event will take place in the Old Dominican Priory, and is being jointly organised by the Julia Morrissey Appreciation Society and Éirígí For A New Republic.
Poster advertising next months wreath laying.
Éirígí's Galway representative, Ian Ó Dálaigh, said,
The anniversary of Julia Morrissey’s death is unfortunately not something that has been marked annually until recent years.
In fact, until the fantastic work of the Relatives & Friends of Galway 1916-1923 group, which led to the erection of a headstone at Julia’s grave in 2017, she lay in an unmarked grave for 43 years following her death in 1974.
Julia was a Cumann na mBan commander during the 1916 Rising in Galway, and stayed active thereafter, through the Tan War and after the Treaty - which she, like the vast majority of Cumann na mBan members, opposed.
During that time, the execution of her close friend and comrade, Liam Mellows, had a profound effect on Julia. This certainly contributed to the decline in her mental health.
At some point in the 1930s, she ended up confined to the ‘mental asylum’ in Ballinasloe. She lived out her days there until her lonely death in 1974.
Activists calling for the new bridge in Galway to be named after 1916 Rising heroine, Julia Morrissey.
Ó Dálaigh continued,
History was not kind to Julia, despite her prominent role in the fight for a free and fair Ireland. She received no 1916 veteran’s medal, nor any public recognition for the role she played.
Three years ago, we launched a campaign calling for Galway City’s new bridge to be named after Julia. Shortly after that, a standalone Julia Morrissey Bridge Campaign was launched.
That campaign received widespread support - with over 2,250 signatures on an online petition, it was clear that our proposal was the most popular one.
We also received the backing of a number of well-respected historians and authors, the relatives of 1916 leader Éamonn Ceannt, singer Fieldsy, and many other public figures.
Despite this, Galway City Council chose to alter their own rules, which asked for public submissions based on naming the bridge after a ‘person or an event’, and named the bridge after ‘hope’ - an abstract concept.
We will be challenging this decision, and will continue to campaign for the public commemoration of Julia Morrissey. It is the least she deserves.
Part of that work involves organising an annual wreath laying ceremony at Julia’s grave in the Old Dominican Priory in Athenry.
I would like to invite the people of Galway to join us on Saturday 8th March, as we pay tribute to one of Galway’s bravest daughters. Bígí linn.
Éirígí's Galway representative, Ian Ó Dálaigh, laying a wreath at the grave of Julia Morrissey in Athenry.