Statement From Des Long (RSF)

WREATH LAID FOR MANCHESTER MARTYRS IN LIMERICK
Local Republicans mark 142nd anniversary

A wreath was laid at the Manchester Martyrs memorial in Limerick
on Sunday to commemorate the 142nd anniversary of the hanging
of Allen Larkin and O’Brien in Salford Prison in November 1867

The gathering at the memorial in Mount St. Lawrence cemetery
was presided over by Des Long a member of the Ard Comhairle
of Republican Sinn Fein.

Annette Long laid the wreath on behalf of all local republicans
who still adhere to the principles of the Republican Movement.

The Manchester Martyrs—William Philip Allen, Michael Larkin,
and Michael O'Brien—were members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood
a movement dedicated to ending British rule in Ireland. The men were
executed after having been found guilty of the murder of a police officer
during an escape that took place close to Manchester city centre,England,
in 1867.

Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien were members of a group of 30–40 who
attacked a horse-drawn police van transporting two arrested leaders of the Brotherhood, Thomas J. Kelly and Timothy Deasy, to Belle Vue Gaol.
Police Sergeant Charles Brett, travelling inside with the keys, was shot
and killed.

Although it was claimed in their defence that Brett's death was
unintentional, Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien were found guilty of murder
and publicly hanged on a temporary structure built on the wall of
Salford Jail, outside Manchester on 23 November 1867

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