I gCuimhne - In Memory
Eight Names. One Community.
The Patriot
Who was Liam Mellows
Liam Mellows was born in 1892 and spent much of his boyhood in County Wexford. A leading organiser of Na Fianna Eireann, he commanded the Irish Volunteers in County Galway during the 1916 Rising, one of the few engagements fought outside Dublin. Elected to the First Dail in 1918, he took the anti-Treaty side in the Civil War and was executed at Mountjoy Prison on the 8th of December 1922, aged just thirty. His name lives on in the streets of Finglas and in the garden that honours him and his fellow patriots.
The patriots
The eight patriots
More than sixty years ago, Dublin Corporation named the streets of this locality after eight patriots who gave their lives in the cause of Irish freedom: Joseph Mary Plunkett, Roger Casement, Kevin Barry, Dick McKee, Conor Clune, Peadar Clancy, Joe McKelvey and Liam Mellows. Their names are woven into daily life in Finglas North West, and the garden honours them all. You can read each of their stories on our Irish Patriots page.
OUR ORIGIN STORY
Roots of the Liam Mellows Memorial Garden
Mission Statement The purpose of this project is to support and encourage civic awareness through community development and cohesion. The project relates to the early development of Finglas from the late 1940’s up to the late 1960’s and is an integral part of the area’s local history, culture and heritage. It commemorates the work of Dublin Corporation the municipal authority of that time who named the areas of this locality after eight of our patriots who gave their lives in the cause of Irish freedom and self-determination in the early years of the century.
The Project To design, fund and develop with the consent of the local community, a memorial garden to honour the patriots, Joseph Mary Plunkett, Roger Casement, Kevin Barry, Dick McKee, Conor Clune, Peadar Clancy, Joe McKelvey, Liam Mellows. ​ Constitution The Liam Mellows Memorial Committee Finglas  (LMMC) structure will consist of a Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer, as the executive of the committee. LMMC is a not-for-profit community group. LMMC is non-party political.  ​
The Journey
The story so far
• 2015 - It begins with a handful of chestnuts. In the autumn, chestnuts gathered under the trees of Mellows Park are potted and set growing, the first seeds of a dream to honour the 16 executed leaders of 1916.• 2016 - In August, on the centenary of Roger Casement's execution, the Liam Mellows Memorial Committee is born after an oration by the artist Robert Ballagh. Our aim: a memorial to the eight patriots whose names Dublin Corporation wrote into the streets of Finglas.• 2017 - We knock on doors across all eight named areas and gather close to 1,000 signatures of support. Music nights under the banner of The Pipers Chair and our Private Members Draw raise the funds. In December we lodge our planning application with Dublin City Council.• 2018 - Planning permission is granted in March. In June the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Micheal Mac Donncha, unveils the granite memorial column and bronze bilingual plaque, and the Memorial Garden is donated by the people of Finglas to the Irish Nation. Grants of 15,000 euro and 10,000 euro follow before the year is out.• 2019 - In April we commission sculptor Steve Finney of Co Tyrone to create the bronze statue of Liam Mellows, shown holding the Democratic Programme of the First Dail. A final fundraising night at Erins Isle GAA Club in June brings us home.• December 2019 - The statue, named Oath Bound Republic, is unveiled by Fred Brennan, a relative of Liam Mellows, and Micheal Grealy, whose father served with Mellows in Galway in 1916. Children from the local Gaelscoil lay lilies for each of the eight patriots.• 2020 - The information board is installed, telling the story of the eight patriots in English, Irish and braille. In August, four years on from our founding, our development work is complete and we become the garden's care, maintenance and management committee.• 2020 and beyond - In the centenary year of Kevin Barry's execution, we proudly endorse the new Kevin Barry Memorial Committee and its campaign for a statue of young Kevin and his dog Cu in Kildonan Park. The story continues.
LMMC8-2016@outlook.com
Finglas, Dublin, Ireland
COMMUNITY • HERITAGE • DEMOCRACY • KEVIN BARRY STATUE CAMPAIGN • LIAM MELLOWS MEMORIAL GARDEN • 84% COMMUNITY MANDATE • FINGLAS NORTH WEST • DUBLIN 11 • IRELAND •