AN appeal issued through The Irish News to locate the families of two members of an Irish War of Independence flying column has led to spectacular trans-Atlantic success.
Earlier this year, the appeal was issued for relatives of two Derry members of legendary socialist Peadar O’Donnell’s 1921 flying column. The column was recruited in Derry in 1920 specifically to take on the Black and Tans in west Donegal. Among those recruited were two young men from the city, Alfie McCallion and William Cullen who joined the IRA at the Shamrock Hall in the Bogside.
Letterkenny man, Noel McCann was keen to locate their families for the unveiling of a monument commemorating a remarkable trek by the column across Donegal’s Glendowan Mountains in the last days of 1920. The column, which included Mr McCann’s grandfather Seamus McCann went on to wreak havoc among British forces in west Donegal. The monument is to be unveiled at Ballymacool in Letterkenny, the base from where the flying column embarked on its marathon trek across the Glendowan Mountains.
Originally from Iskaheen in Inishowen, McCallion moved as a child to Barry Street in the Pennyburn area of Derry. Following the Civil War, he emigrated from Ireland and all contact with him was lost. However, within days of going public in The Irish News, details of Mr McCann’s appeal, by sheer coincidence, reached Alfie McCallion’s grandniece in the US.
Researching Irish “news” online in preparation for a trip to Ireland next month, Professor of Economics at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, Jackie Geoghegan stumbled on The Irish News article and realised it was about her granduncle.
She told Mr McCann: “I was doing some browsing on the web this morning, as I’m going to Dublin next month to see my daughter who is doing a semester of college there so I came across the article.”
Professor Geoghegan was able to tell Mr McCann her granduncle was known to the family as “Joe”.
“I have vague memories as a little kid visiting my Aunt Mary and Uncle Joe in Dearborn in the early 1970s. I knew that Uncle Joe was in the IRA and “escaped” to Canada somehow and then came across the border to Dearborn,” she said.
She was also able to give Mr McCann details of her uncle and his brothers’ involvement in the War of Independence and the Civil War, including a seven-hour “gun battle” at Skeoge on the northern outskirts of Derry.
“I thought with the appeal I might have reached some local surviving relatives but, not for a minute, did I think I would be contacted by such a close relative and that she would do so after reading The Irish News in America,” Mr McCann said.
The Letterkenny man now hopes Professor Geoghegan or some family members will be able to attend the monument unveiling when she visits Ireland next month.
