Union to commemorate the Battle of Ashbourne on Saturday
The SIPTU Meath District Council will commemorate the centenary of the Battle of Ashbourne with a series of events in Ashbourne and Navan on Saturday.
The commemoration begins with a flag raising event at the SIPTU Dan Shaw Centre in Navan at 3pm. This will be followed by a march, which will include the Irish Citizen Army Re-enactment Group, to the local 1916 monument.
SIPTU general president, Jack O’Connor, will lay a wreath and deliver a key note address at the 1916 Monument in Ashbourne at 4.15 pm.
The day’s events will then conclude at the Dan Shaw Centre with a ceremony to mark the unveiling of a plaque dedicated to the men, women and young people from County Meath who joined the struggle for Irish independence during the revolutionary period.
Historian, Michael Halpenny, will be a guest speaker at the unveiling ceremony. He said: “The Battle of Ashbourne which took place on 28thth April 1916 was the largest successful encounter between rebels and crown forces outside Dublin during the Rising. In the battle the men and women of the 5th (Fingal) Battalion led by Thomas Ashe and Richard Mulcahy succeeded in convincingly defeating a larger force of RIC, taking more than 80 prisoners.
SIPTU Meath District Council Coordinator, John Regan, said: “This event is part of a very successful wider series of commemorations and events to celebrate the 1916 Rising organised by SIPTU. Our union with its headquarters in Liberty Hall played a central role in the 1916 Rising. Those involved in the Battle of Ashbourne on the rebel side were members of the 5th Battalion of the Irish Volunteers and were in the main working men, so it very fitting that SIPTU is taking the lead in commemorating this event on the exact date of its centenary.”