De Valera’s Greystones arrest commemorated
A centenary commemoration of Éamon de Valera’s 1918 arrest at Greystones railway station was held recently, with his grandson Éamon Ó Cuiv in attendance.
The commemoration – which was attended by Wicklow Fianna Fáil TD Pat Casey, Senator Gerry Horkan and Councillors Gerry Walsh, Pat Doran and Pat Kennedy – was to mark the arrest on May 17, 1918, of Éamon de Valera, then President of Sinn Féin, during the anti-conscription campaign, on the grounds of an alleged German plot.
The British authorities used this to arrest, deport and intern the republican leadership and later banned Sinn Fein and the Irish Volunteers. Despite these obstacles, the republican movement, under de Valera’s leadership, won a landslide victory in the 1918 General Election.
De Valera boarded the 10.15p.m. Greystones train from Harcourt Street railway station, stopping as usual at all the southbound stations. Beyond Bray station, the train was brought to an unscheduled stop and a number of RIC police constables boarded. Upon the train’s arrival at Greystones station, de Valera was arrested on the platform and taken to the station’s waiting room to be searched.
Simultaneously, his family home at Edenmore, Kinlin Road, Killincarig, Greystones, was raided and searched, waking de Valera’s wife Sinead, who was six month’s pregnant, and their young family of five children, ranging in ages from two to eight.
De Valera and 150 other leading republicans were subsequently deported and interned without trial in British prisons, with de Valera being incarcerated in Lincoln Gaol, from which he later escaped with the aid of Harry Boland and Michael Collins.
The commemoration, which included a re-enactment of de Valera’s arrest, was organised by the Wicklow constituency Fianna Fáil Comhairle Dáilcheantair. Cathaoirleach Malachaí Duddy acted as MC in the presence of a local Fianna Fáil colour-party.
The uniformed re-enactors were David Owens (a cousin of Shankill Volunteer Willie Owens, who was killed by the Cheshire Regiment in 1920) and accomplished Arklow artist Patrick Power.
Following the address by Deputy Ó Cuív, Deputy Pat Casey addressed the assembly, thanking An Garda Síochána, Greystones Municipal District, Greystones Tidy Towns and Iarnród Éireann for their assistance in organising the event. The commemoration was briefly interrupted when those in attendance gave a standing ovation to a passing march protesting at the cervical smear test scandal.
The commemoration con- cluded with a parade from Greystones railway station to the 1916 Memorial Garden, where Deputies Pat Casey and Éamon Ó Cuív laid a wreath on behalf of the Fianna Fáil organisation. Afterwards, those in attendance retired for refreshments to the Burnaby Pub.