KEVIN BARRY
Executed: 1 November, 1920
Aged 18, from Dublin/Carlow
Member of H Coy, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade. He was captured after a raid on a military bread lorry at Monks Bakery, on the junction of Church Street / North King Street on 20 September, 1920 in which three British Soldiers were killed. He was tried for murder and sentenced to death. His youth provoked a huge national outcry. He was a first year student in UCD, studying medicine. He was born at 8 Fleet Street, Dublin, where his father had a dairy business, and he spent most of his life on the family farm in Carlow. Kevin Barry was the first person executed during the war of independence.
THOMAS WHELAN
Executed: 14 March, 1921 6.00 a.m.
Aged 22, from Sky Road, Clifden, Galway.
Thomas Whelan went to Dublin aged 18 looking for work, and after a year or two joined the Volunteers. He had worked with the Midland and Great Western Railway. He lived at Barrow Street, Ringsend. He was arrested in November 1920 and brought to Kilmainham, before being transferred to Mountjoy. He was charged with the shooting of Captain Baggallyon Bloody Sunday, November 21st, 1920. Whelan strongly protested his innocence.
PATRICK MORAN
Executed: 14 March, 1921 6.00 a.m.
Aged 33, from Crossna, Roscommon.
A greengrocer’s assistant, resident in Blackrock. He held the rank of Captain at the time of his arrest (D Coy, 11th Dublin Battalion), and had previously fought in Jacob’s Garrison in Easter Week 1916, under Thomas Mac Donagh. He had also been imprisoned at Knutsford and Wormwood Scrubs. He was rounded up after Bloody Sunday in November 1920 and charged with the murder of Lieutenant Aimes. He strongly protested his innocence. He was sentenced to death by the court martial.
PATRICK DOYLE
Executed: 14 March, 1921, 7.00 a.m.
Aged 29. St. Mary’s Place, Dublin.
Member of F Company, 1st Battalion. Charged on February 24th, 1921 by Court-martial, with high treason/levying war against the King in an attempted ambush at Drumcondra on January 21st 1921. He was a carpenter, married with four children. His brother Seán was fatally wounded at the Custom House six weeks later. One of Doyle’s infant twins died two days before his own execution.
BERNARD RYAN
Executed: 14 March 1921, 7.00 a.m.
Aged 20. Dublin.
Charged on 24 February 1921 by Court-martial, with high treason/levying war against the King in an attempted ambush at Drumcondra on January 21st, 1921. He was an apprentice tailor, and the only son of an elderly widow, whom he lived with in Royal Canal Terrace, Phibsborough. He was born and bred in Dublin, went to St Gabriel’s NS in Cowper Street. He became a clerk in a city firm, and was the breadwinner for his family. Described as quiet and practical, he was renowned for his love of the Irish language.
FRANK FLOOD
Executed: 14 March 1921, 8.00 a.m.
Aged 19. Summerhill Parade, Dublin.
Charged on February 25th, 1921 by Court-martial, with high treason/levying war against the King in an attempted ambush at Drumcondra on January 21st, 1921. He was a very close friend of Kevin Barry’s, and was a student in UCD which he attended under a scholarship. Prior to that he had been a student in O’Connell’s School, Dublin. He asked to be buried as close as possible to Kevin. He was a lieutenant in H Coy., First Battalion. He was captured with four others (including Patrick Doyle, Thomas Bryan, and Bernard Ryan), at the scene of an attempted ambush of Auxiliaries at Drumcondra. The Who’s Who of the War of Independence cites Flood as the leader of the ambush. His brother Alfred J. Flood became a Deputy Commissioner of the Garda Síochána.
THOMAS BRYAN
Executed: 14 March 1921, 8.00 a.m.
Aged 24. Henrietta Street, Dublin.
Charged on February 24th, 1921 by Court-martial, with high treason/levying war against the King in an attempted ambush at Drumcondra on January 21st, 1921. He was an electrician and married just four months before his arrest. In 1917, he took part in the hunger strike in Mountjoy in which Thomas Ashe died. After that he spent time in Dundalk Prison.
THOMAS TRAYNOR
Executed: 25 April 1921.
Aged 39. From Tullow/Carlow.
A boot maker, married with 10 children; the eldest was 18 years and the youngest five months. He had been a member of the Boland’s Mill Garrison during Easter Week, 1916, and was later interned in Wakefield Jail. He shared a cell with Seán Mac Eoin. He was also in Frongoch. He was captured during an ambush of Auxiliaries in Brunswick Street, Dublin. He was badly beaten by the Igoe gang before execution. Tried on April 5th, 1921 at City Hall. A Song has been written – the Ballad of Thomas Traynor – in his memory, author unknown.
EDMOND FOLEY
Executed: 07 June 1921, 7.00 a.m.
Aged 24. From Galbally, Co. Limerick.
Arrested at home after being on the run for two weeks following the successful release of Seán Hogan from a train at Knocklong, en route to Cork Jail, on May 13th 1919. Hogan had taken part in the Soloheadbeg ambush. Foley and Patrick Maher were charged with the murder of two RIC men at Knocklong Railway Station, Sgt. Peter Wallace and Const. Enright. They spent 21 months in prison and were tried three times. On two occasions the juries did not reach verdicts. Finally their cases were handed over to the military to be tried by court martial. He was the son of a farmer, William Foley. His father and mother were outside the gates of Mountjoy on the day of the execution. He had asked his father to secure a plot for him in the burial grounds at Galbally.
PATRICK MAHER
Executed: 7 June 1921. 7.00 a.m.
Aged 32. From Knocklong, Co. Limerick.
He strongly protested his innocence. Both he and Edmond Foley issued a final statement, which included the words "Our souls go to God at 7.00 in the morning, and our bodies when Ireland is free, shall go to Galbally."
Information courtesy of the Government website, where more information is available.