During the Civil War 77 men were executed by former comrades. This song, The Drumboe Martyrs, relates to four of them.
Together with six other men Charlie Daly, Sean Larkin, Timothy O'Sullivan and Daniel Enright formed an unit of Republicans in County Donegal. Initially they manage to hold up against the Free State forces, but soon the Republicans were forced to withdraw and hide in the mountains. Following a tip from an informer Free Staters found them and on 2 November 1922 the ten were arrested and transferred to Drumboe Castle. In January the three Kerrymen Charlie Daly, Timothy O'Sullivan and Daniel Enright, and Sean Larkin from Derry, were sentenced to death by firing squad. The sentence was carried out on 14 March 1923, thus not on the feast of Saint Patrick as mentioned in the text, on an improvised firing range and their bodies were buried at Drumboe.
The remains of the Drumboe... (continua)