4 May 2011 - 95th Anniversary of the Death of the Rebels #2

95 years ago, 4 May 1916, 3 rebels were executed: Joseph Mary Plunkett, Ned Daly, and Michael O'Hanrahan.

Following the surrender, Joseph Mary Plunkett was held in Kilmainham Gaol, and faced a court martial. Hours before his execution by firing squad at the age of 28, he was married in the prison chapel to his sweetheart Grace Gifford, a Protestant convert to Catholicism, whose sister, Muriel, had years before also converted and married his best friend Thomas MacDonagh, who was also executed for his role in the Easter Rising.

Ned Daly's battalion, stationed in the Four Courts and areas to the west and north of Dublin center, saw the most intense fighting of the rising. He surrendered his battalion on 29 April. In his trial, he claimed that he was just following orders, but was executed by firing squad on 4 May 1916, at the age of 25.

The men in his battalion spoke of him as a good commandant. This opinion was also shared by a British officer that Daly's battalion had captured.

Michael O'Hanrahan was second in command of Dublin's 2nd battalion under Commandant Thomas MacDonagh, though his role as such was usurped by the last minute addition of John MacBride to the battalion (as, one could argue, was MacDonagh's). He fought at Jacob's Biscuit Factory, though the battalion saw little action throughout Easter week, as the British Army largely circumvented their position.

O'Hanrahan was executed by firing squad on May 4, 1916. His brother, Henry O'Hanrahan, was sentenced to penal servitude for life for his role in the Easter Rising.

Wexford railway station is named in commemoration of O'Hanrahan, as is the road bridge over the River Barrow at New Ross.