Séan Ó Loirgneáin, member of the Irish Volunteers

Irish Volunteers

The Irish Volunteers was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists. It was ostensibly formed in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers in 1912, and its declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland"...

 and Irish Republican Army

Irish Republican Army

The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...

, fl. 1914-1951.

Ó Loirgneáin was a native of Parkgarve, Claregalway

Claregalway

Claregalway is a village situated about 10 km from the city of Galway in County Galway, Ireland. Claregalway was founded on the banks of the River Clare, hence the derivation of its name: Baile Chláir na Gaillimhe meaning "town on the Clare, in Galway"...

. He participated in the Galway Easter Rising

Easter Rising

The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...

 of 1916, serving under Captain Tom Ruane

Tom Ruane

Tom Ruane was Captain of the Second Western Division of the Irish Republican Army, from 1916-1920.-Background:Ruane was a native of Carnmore, County Galway, and joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1908. He was already an active sportsman with the G.A.A.. his position being full-back...

 of Grealishtown. He fought at the battle of Carnmore

Carnmore

Carnmore is located at the southern end of the parish of Claregalway, approximately east of Galway city in County Galway, Ireland. Carnmore lies within the Gaeltacht although the vast majority of residents there use English as their first language...

, which was the first engagement of the Galway rising. Volunteer companies from Claregalway

Claregalway

Claregalway is a village situated about 10 km from the city of Galway in County Galway, Ireland. Claregalway was founded on the banks of the River Clare, hence the derivation of its name: Baile Chláir na Gaillimhe meaning "town on the Clare, in Galway"...

, Castlegar and Carnmore participated against six truckloads of British army units Royal Irish Constabulary

Royal Irish Constabulary

The armed Royal Irish Constabulary was Ireland's major police force for most of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. A separate civic police force, the unarmed Dublin Metropolitan Police controlled the capital, and the cities of Derry and Belfast, originally with their own police...

. The company moved to the farmyard at the Agricultural College outside Athenry

Athenry

Athenry is a town in County Galway, Ireland. It lies east of Galway city, and one of the attractions of the town is its medieval castle. The town is also well-known by virtue of the song "The Fields of Athenry".-History:...

, which had already been seized by the local brigade. He was present at the occupation of Moyode Castle, and dispersed when the failure of the rebellion in Dublin became known.

In 1951 he was interviewed by the folklorist Ciáran Bairéad

Ciáran Bairéad

Ciáran Bairéad, Irish folklore expert, scribe and scholar, fl. 1950s - 1970s.Bairéad was a native of County Galway and a graduate of Galway University. He worked with the Irish Folklore Commission and An Fáinne, the later organisation been established to promote the Irish language, its members...

. Copies of his reminisinces are kept at the Department of Irish Folklore at University College Dublin

University College Dublin

University College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...

.