TRACY IS SO PROUD
THE NAME Bateson is synonymous with the Drogheda of 1916, the men and women who helped shape a nation with a valiant shout for freedom. It may have ended with heroes born and heroes killed, but it also left legacies that are felt to this day in homes all over the region.
Last week, the Drogheda launch of the ‘Louth Volunteers 1916’ took place in St Peter’s Church of Ireland hall.
Amongst those present was Tracy Bateson.
Frank Bateson was her granddad’s brother, a man born on the Falls Road in Belfast, but who came to Drogheda at a young age to work in his relation’s shop, beside St Mary’s Church.
Frank was one of those to mobilise in 1916, a man who made that dash for freedom, that saw him jailed for his actions.
He passed away 70 years ago this year and fittingly the then Corporation acknowledged his role at that time.
Mayor, Councillor Francis Dennis, said that Frank had been an old and valued member of the Council and had, in fact, been a member of the old Sinn Fein Council. ‘Everyone knew that when men were wanted in the fight for Irish freedom, Frank Bateson was there,’ he stated at that time.
Alderman Walsh said that Frank Bateson was one of his closest ,most intimate and dearest friends and outside his family he did not think that anyone would miss his genial smile more than he.
‘In the fight for the freedom of their country Frank Bateson was never found wanting. When still a very young boy he came to Drogheda from Belfast and from tho.se days onward he had shown that exceptional love of Ireland which seemed to be engendered in the hearts of the people In that North-East corner of Ireland.’
So, last week, it was appropriate that Cllr Pio Smith award Tracy Bateson with a special medal for Frank’s role at that torrid time in Irish history.
Growing up, she heard the stories of Frank and his role from her father and his sisters and knew all about Bateson’s shop.
‘I was very proud when Sean Collins asked me to read at the Easter Mass and then when I was asked to come along and accept Frank’s medal in Drogheda.
‘ To accept it here was special,’ she told the Drogheda Independent.
Last week’s event was addressed by Denis Cummins of the Drogheda Civic Trust and the authors of the book on the Rising in Louth, Alan Bogan and Marcus Howard.
Medals were presented to Tracy Bateson for Frank Bateson and Liam O’Hannigan for Donal O’Hannigan’s family.
Addressing the meeting, Sean Collins from the Civic Trust explained that three weeks before Easter ,Donal O’Hannigan , a native of Angleboro. Co.Limerick was summoned to Tom Clarke’s tobacconist’s shop in Parnell St. in Dublin. He was instructed to resign from his job in Guinness, he was being given a command, and it would be a whole time job for as something big was going to happen at Easter.
Commadant Donal O’Hannigan was given the command of Louth, Meath, South Down, South-Armagh, and South Monaghan, where there was over 1,300 Volunteers. He was given a list of all the IRB men in the area and was told to base himself in Dundalk. On Holy Thursday he visited Drogheda and advised the Volunteer officers, Larry Walsh [an I.R.B. member]and Philip Monahan, the Volunteer Captain of an important meeting to be held in the Forester’s Hall in Dundalk that evening. Monahan attended the meeting. Nicholas Butterly of Dunleer said Paddy Hughes advised them they were going into action on the following Sunday.
He also outlined those that mobilised in Mell at that time, quoting Larry Walsh, later writing from memory, named volunteers, Francis Bateson, William Branigan, Joseph Finnegan, Thomas Gavin, Michael Harkins, Sean Kiely, Michael Keenan, Fintan Lawler, Captain Philip Monahan, Frank and Jim Malone, Larry Walsh, Seamus O’Meara and Dr.William Bradley.
Joseph O’Higgins said he had assembled at Mell, and Seamus O’Meara recollected that Paddy Myles and a man named Tuite from Tullyallen was also present.