ENNISCORTHY TOWN Council has approved a proposal to erect a granite stone memorial, on a public site in the town, to honour the 1957 “Edentubber bombers” – two of whom were natives of Co Wexford.
Town clerk Pádraig O’Gorman said councillors had “unanimously” agreed to the request from an organisation called Coiste Cáirde na Laochra, Loch Garman, to erect a memorial “in remembrance of those who played their part in the struggle for Irish freedom”.
On the morning of Monday November 11th, 1957, five men died in an explosion in a cottage at Edentubber Mountain in Co Louth, 300 yards from the Carrickarnon Border post on the main Dundalk/Newry Road.
It is believed the men were en route to bomb a target in Northern Ireland as part of the so-called “Border Campaign”, staged by the IRA during the late 1950s and early 1960s, which involved guerrilla-style attacks launched from the Republic.
The Irish Times of November 12th, 1957 reported that the men “were setting off to take part in a raid in the Newry district to mark Armistice Day” and that “a civic guard radio patrol guard on border duty” heard the explosion.
Two of the men who died in the explosion were from Northern Ireland: Paul Smith (19) from Bessbrook, Co Armagh and Oliver Craven (19), from Newry, Co Down. Three were from the Republic: Michael Watters (54), a Co Louth forestry worker; Patrick Parle (27), a printer from Wexford town; and George Keegan (28), a baker and son of a councillor from Enniscorthy.
The Enniscorthy memorial is expected to be unveiled later this year.