Saor Éire (1967–1975)

Saor Éire
Saor Éire
Free Ireland
Leaders	Martin Casey; Joe Dillon; Peter Graham; Frank Keane; Maureen Keegan; Liam Walsh;
Split from	Irish Republicanism ; Trotskyism
Size	"never numbered more than a few dozen activists"
Opponents	Official IRA

Saor Éire (IPA: [ˌs̪ˠeːɾˠ ˈeːɾʲə, ˌs̪ˠiːɾˠ -]; meaning 'Free Ireland'), also known as the Saor Éire Action Group, was an armed Irish republican organisation composed of Trotskyists and ex-IRA members. It took its name from a similar organisation of the 1930s.^[1]

History

It was formed in 1967 by ex IRA members who left in protest in the early sixties over lack of military action. its leaders included

Irish Times writes that the group "probably never numbered more than a few dozen activists".^[3]

Between 1967 and 1970, Saor Éire carried out a number of bank robberies, the proceeds being used to purchase arms. The group provided arms, training and funding to nationalists in Northern Ireland after the outbreak of the Troubles in 1969.^{[citation needed]}

27 February 1967: In Drumcondra the group carried out an armed robbery.^[4]
In August 1967: Saor Éire member Frank Keane attempted to burn down the Fianna Fáil party HQ.^[2]
19 April 1968: Joe Dillon and three others robbed the
Royal Bank of Ireland in Drumcondra where £3,186 was stolen.^[2]

20 June 1968: A Hibernian bank in Newbridge, Kildare was robbed, £3,174 was taken.^[2]
March 1969: A robbery in Newry netted £22,000, the biggest single haul from a robbery in the country at the time.
February 1970: the group took over the village of Rathdrum in County Wicklow, stopping traffic and cutting phone lines, and robbed the local bank.^[1]
3 April 1970: In the course of a bank robbery in
Arms Trial.^[5]^[2] The government has refused to hold a public inquiry into the matter and possible State collusion with members of the organisation.^[5]

13 October 1970: Liam Walsh died in a premature bomb explosion on a railway embankment in Dublin while Martin Casey was critically injured [2]
25 October 1971: Peter Graham assassinated in Dublin in what was referred to at the time as an internecine dispute about a large sum of money. His killers were never found. Among the mourners at his funeral, along with leading republicans and left-wingers, were
clenched fist salute at the grave.^[6]

10 June 1975: Larry White, a leading Saor Éire activist from Cork was shot several times on Mount Eden Road. He died of his injuries a short time later.
Sean Garland in Ballymun in March of that year.^[8] In 1976 a number of members of the Official republican movement were convicted of the murder of Larry White, among them Bernard Lynch^[9] (the husband of Labour party TD Kathleen Lynch). The case was later quashed on the basis that evidence given at the original trial was no longer admissible.^{[citation needed}
]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Liz Walsh: The Final Beat, Gardaí Killed in the Line of Duty (Gill and Macmillan, Dublin. 2001).
^
ISBN 9780141970295
.

^ "The sudden rise and rapid fall of Saor Eire". The Irish Times. 29 June 2002.
^ Looney, Cormac (29 October 2011). "Ruthless gangsters who brought guns back on the streets". The Herald.
^ ^a ^b ^c Irish Examiner, Reporter (18 April 2009). "After 39 years, truth about death of brave garda must finally be told". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 6 July 2009.
^ Ireland on Sunday, 1 October 2006. A copy of the photograph is available here Archived 17 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
^ Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland, CAIN. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
^ Hanley & Millar, pgs. 299–301
^ Family of murdered republican calls for removal of Minister's assistant by Paul Cullen, The Irish Times – Saturday, 25 June 2011
^ Terrorism Act 2000 (11, Schedule 2). 2000.