A young man who gave his life for Irish freedom was remembered at a ceremony in Ballygiblin last Sunday. Not as well known as the likes of Liam Lynch (Anglesboro) or Mick Fitzgerald (Fermoy), Mitchelstown native, Sean O'Donoghue (1898-1922) was a leading figure in the War of Independence, who went on to oppose the Anglo Irish Treaty. Among a generation of young Irish people swept up in the nationalist cause, he would die at the age of 24, killed by former comrades in the Free State Army on 28th September, 1922.
Former tánaiste Michael McDowell has warned that extremism can have no place in Irish democracy and that it had left some politicians and their families effectively under siege in their own homes.