He persuaded Seán South to join the IRA, was arrested in a confession box in Armagh Cathedral, became an acclaimed journalist, and was deputy head of Trócaire and a close friend of Bishop Eamon Casey. Patrick Murphy visited 88-year-old Tony Meade to discuss his remarkable life.
Tony Meade at his home in Co Kerry
By Patrick Murphy
August 01, 2026 at 6:00am BST
THE threads of Irish history which link one generation to the next can usually be traced either through people or places.
In a remote farmhouse in Knockaneacoolteen in mid-Kerry, you can find a wonderful example of both.
The house played a significant role in the War for Independence and on the republican side in the Civil War.
The person in that house is 88-year-old Tony Meade, who took part in the IRA campaign of 1957-62 and who, through his journalism and international humanitarian work, later played a significant role in shaping modern Irish political opinion.
It is a place where you can almost taste the history.
Tony was born in 1937 in Limerick, “a hungry place”, he says, marked by widespread poverty.
His family were Labour Party supporters, but he joined the IRA in answer to a notice in the public library.
A “very close” friend who used to visit a family a few doors from Tony’s house was Jack South, later known as Seán Sabhat.
Tony persuaded him into the IRA too, adding: “Not that he took much persuading.”
Describing him as “an exceptional man”, Tony laughs at the idea that Seán held right-wing views.
Certainly, he says, Seán was an Irish language advocate. In the timber firm where he worked, the boss would speak to him in English and Seán made a point of answering in Irish.
When the IRA campaign began in December 1956, Tony was working in England and he came home to take part.
Seán had gone north with an active service unit, where he died with Monaghan man Fergal O’Hanlon in a raid on Brookeborough RUC station on January 1 1957.
Tony went on active service then too, but initially at least, it involved much inactivity.
He spent six months (including a Christmas) living in a dug-out in south Derry, buried six feet underground, covered by a henhouse.
There was room for two people – himself and Malachy McGurran from Lurgan.
“You could look out through the stones and see the ‘B’ Specials coming up to us and then [unknowingly] over us.”
The IRA men only came out under cover of darkness, but they were under orders not to attack the ‘B’ men.
In an age unrecognisable in the context of the recent Troubles, the IRA at that time observed the Geneva Convention.
They carried arms openly, wore recognisable uniforms or markings, and did nothing to endanger civilians or to foment sectarian division. The ‘B’ men were safe.
Bored during the day, he asked the farmer who owned the land for some books.
Next day he was presented, “with great ceremony,” with a bundle of back copies of the magazine Woman’s Way. Reading them brought a new meaning to the concept of suffering for Ireland.
Listening to RTÉ on a small radio, Tony would hear consumer queries such as: “I have spilled beetroot juice on a white tablecloth, what should I do?”
He would pen imaginary letters, asking: “I am in a dugout surrounded by hundreds of ’B’ men, what should I do?”
His activity in south Derry was a repeat of what Kerry’s Charlie Daly had been doing in 1920 in that same area and in Tyrone.
Daly took the republican side in the Civil War and was executed by Free State troops without charge or trial at Drumbo, Donegal in 1923.
Today, Tony Meade lives in Charlie’s house, having married Áine Casey, whom he met there during an IRA training camp.
She came from a family of committed republicans. She was the daughter of Susie Daly and Con Casey. Susie was Charlie Daly’s sister.
Con Casey was a senior member of the IRA’s Kerry Brigade and he was sentenced to death by the Free State and survived 45 days of hunger strike.
Áine’s uncle, Tom Daly, was on the IRA executive until 1936 and her Aunt May maintained a safe house for many years.
Apart from a wood-burning stove replacing an open fire, the house remains largely unchanged for over a century.
In March 1923, during the Civil War, Free State soldiers tied nine republican prisoners to a mine at nearby Ballyseedy. They detonated the mine, killing eight and badly injuring the other.
The injured survivor, Stephen Fuller, was taken to the house where Tony Meade now lives.
His blood-stained shirt remained there, where it was preserved with great care and respect in the house and was almost regarded as a holy relic. It is currently on loan to the Kerry Museum for preservation.
In 1958, Tony joined up with Denis Foley from Tralee and Willie Riley from Armagh.
They planned to blow up the RUC station in Irish Street, Armagh, by placing a bomb inside the sandbagged sentry post during the interval between one sentry leaving and another arriving.
Having placed the bomb, however, as they worked their way back around the barracks corner, the electrical wires connected to the device became entangled, even though they had been free the previous evening.
Abandoning their efforts, they went to Armagh Cathedral to be picked up as arranged and taken to a safe house.
Tony relates that “as so often happened”, the person to meet them did not show up, so they took refuge in the cathedral.
The police had the place flooded and as they were passing a confessional, its door creaked and there inside were the three IRA men.
Taken back to the police station they had just tried to destroy, they had to walk through a double line of RUC men.
“Not a hand was laid on us,” said Tony. “I thought they were very disciplined.”
The three men were held as internees “for ages” before being tried. They were later sentenced to 14 years each in Crumlin Road prison in Belfast.
At Christmas 1960, members of the Down team which had won the Sam Maguire that year brought the cup into the prison.
It was part of a concert for the inmates, all of whom gave the players a 15-minute ovation. Bridie Gallagher sang at the concert. It was a different world then.
Prison, he says, was a modus vivendi – a way of life.
He used his prison work as a book binder to send letters to his future wife, Áine.
He secreted them either between thin sheets which formed a book cover or, for larger volumes, inside the book spine.
A tick on page 41 of a book sent to an outside company meant that it contained a letter.
In more recent years he and Áine took a tour of Crumlin Road.
Philosophical about his time in jail, Tony recalls some of his fellow prisoners.
Tom Mitchell, abstentionist MP for Mid-Ulster, who was captured during the IRA raid on Omagh barracks, was “a great fellow”.
He speaks of how Seán Garland, who had led the Brookeborough raid, and John Kelly (he calls him “Johnny Kelly”) tried to escape.
Kelly would go on to help found the Provisional IRA and sit in Stormont as a Sinn Féin MLA, where I got to know him as a member of the Education Committee. Garland was a senior figure in the Official IRA.
After the IRA campaign ended in 1962, Tony was released the following year. A helpful RUC man gave him directions to John Kelly’s house.
After a short stint at home he went to Dublin to work for the United Irishman newspaper, then edited by Denis Foley.
Denis resigned in frustration after writing an editorial criticising the idea that all republican social and economic policy would have to wait until there was a united Ireland.
Tony took over on condition that Denis would join him, and the two worked well together.
However, Tony eventually left, simply because “they had no money to pay me”.
As newly-married man with three children, he had no choice. He proposed Seamus Ó Tuathail as his successor and drove him to the selection process.
Tony then applied for a job in The Kerryman newspaper in 1968, where he went on to become one of the most influential and informed columnists in the country, particularly on events in the north.
He had an infectious writing style. When you read one sentence, you immediately wanted to read the next one.
It was no surprise that he offered an accurate insight into the IRA split in 1969/70. After all, he knew most of the players on both sides.
He wrote that the north “has a way of battering at one’s conscience” and in that vein he produced a series of well-informed columns on events.
He produced what might be described as the definitive account of the civil rights march in Newry in February 1972, on the week following Bloody Sunday.
He concluded: “There is really no alternative at this time to the civil rights way of doing things.”
Two months later, as the violence increased, he asked: “Can Tone’s vision be realised by the destruction of some of the plain people of Ireland?”
He also carried out a series of interviews, under the heading “Old Heroes”, with many of those who had fought in the War for Independence: “They were tough men, all of them.”
Among those he interviewed was 73-year-old Dan Breen, who effectively started the war with the killing of two RIC men in the Soloheadbeg ambush in 1919. Breen made no apology for it.
He said: “Up to a certain stage [violence] is treason. Then it becomes respectable. Then the Church recognises it and you nearly get canonised if you live long enough.”
However he added: “Killing is a terrible thing. It is very difficult to shake it out of your system”.
On hearing that Kerry might have a new bishop in 1969, Tony travelled to England to interview the man who would become Bishop Eamon Casey. “It introduced him to the Kerry people.”
I ask if he stayed in touch with Casey when he arrived in Kerry. “Ah,” says Tony, “sure you couldn’t do otherwise”. It was the beginning of a close working relationship between the men.
When his brothers-in-law started The Drogheda Express newspaper in 1979, Tony worked there, but when it folded, he applied for a job as press and information officer for Trócaire. He soon progressed to deputy director, a job he “enjoyed very much”.
Tony makes the point that while charity begins at home, it does not necessarily end there and this is a logical extension of our concern for those who have less than we have ourselves.
His work took him to many former British colonies where independence had not significantly changed the lives of many who lived there.
Tea-pickers in Keyna, for example, earned 15 Kenyan shillings a day, but 2 kilos of meat cost 17 shillings.
Sending a child to secondary school cost a minimum of 1,500 shillings a year.
His republicanism had progressed from the national to international and he spent 20 years involved in development projects.
Bishop Casey, who it later emerged had fathered a child and would posthumously be accused of child sexual abuse, was chairman of the organisation and although the two men got on well together, Tony’s wife had less regard for the bishop. She just did not like him.
So, what was Casey like? “Casey? Ah, Casey was Casey” – which tells you everything and nothing in the same sentence.
Tony finally progressed from Trócaire to an educational organisation agency for schools, known as 80:20. It based on the fact that 80% of the world’s population live in the undeveloped world, while the richest 20% own the wealth of the rest of the world.
He is “more hopeful” now that a united Ireland is closer, but recognises unionist resistance to the idea. His grandchildren speak of the support for Sinn Féin in the south among young people.
Would he do it all again? “Of course, I would”.
When did he leave the IRA?
“One does not leave the IRA, one drifts. I drifted. I never fancied the Provos at all.”
In the quiet of an early summer evening, Tony Meade is at peace with the world in the company of his daughter Sadhbh and grandchildren Siún and Rafe.
Philosophical and still with that impish sense of humour, he is the link between the War for Independence and modern Ireland.
An Irish republican, an internationalist and a man of humanitarian care, he has not just seen Irish history in the making. He made a lot of it too.
JFK wrote about then Taoiseach Éamon De Valera, who promised to end partition in Ireland.
Shane O’Brien
@shamob96
Jul 29, 2026
Kennedy wrote about Éamon De Valera in an article in the New York Journal American.Kennedy wrote about Éamon De Valera in an article in the New York Journal American. Getty.
In 1945, some 18 years before he traveled to Ireland, John F. Kennedy wrote a lengthy article about then Taoiseach Éamon De Valera and his efforts to reunite the country in a prescient piece that highlighted the troubles bubbling under the surface in Northern Ireland.
Writing for the New York Journal American, Kennedy documented how De Valera sought to unite Ireland and Northern Ireland 23 years after the island’s partition.
Kennedy also documented that De Valera stated in the Dáil that Ireland was a republic three years before the nation officially declared itself a republic in 1948.
The article, entitled ‘Eamon De Valera Seeks To Unite All Ireland,’ centers on a question from Fine Gael TD James Dillon, who asked De Valera about Ireland’s constitutional status.
“We are a republic,” De Valera said, causing controversy since Ireland was still a member of the British Commonwealth in 1945.
Dillon immediately questioned De Valera’s response, asking, “How could Ireland be a republic and at the same time a member of the British Commonwealth?”
Kennedy reported that De Valera clarified his statement one week later, saying: “Ireland was a republic associated as a matter of external policy with the states of the British Commonwealth.”
Kennedy also spoke of De Valera’s devotion to ending partition on the island of Ireland, stating that the former Taoiseach and President had “dedicated his life” to that cause.
The future president of the United States argued that by building mutual trust with the United Kingdom, the partition of Ireland could be ended and the country reunited.
Kennedy said that Britain was reluctant to allow a United Ireland because Ireland’s military power was so weak, leaving Britain vulnerable to attacks from Ireland.
He said that Britain would consent to a United Ireland if Ireland agreed to give up its military bases during wartime.
Kennedy’s article concludes with reports from Stormont in Northern Ireland, where Unionist politicians looked on with anger as De Valera promised to end partition in Ireland.
Sir Basil Brooke, the Unionist Prime Minister of Ulster at the time, reportedly listened to the debate in the Dáil and roared that “not an inch” of Ulster would be given back to Ireland.
Kennedy reports that, upon hearing this, De Valera said that he would retreat “not an inch” in his endeavors to reunite the island of Ireland.
However, it is Kennedy’s closing sentence that provides a prescient warning about the situation in Northern Ireland.
“At this weekend, the problem of partition seems very far from being solved,” Kennedy wrote, accurately summarizing the problems in Northern Ireland.
Of course, the problem of partition would only be one of many problems in Northern Ireland that would remain unresolved for decades
Ireland’s new support package “will help Ukraine defend itself from these attacks and save civilians’ lives,” the Taoiseach says.
IrishCentral Staff
@IrishCentral
Jul 23, 2026
JTaoiseach Micheál Martin with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. July 23, 2026:
The support includes a €100 million allocation towards the provision of priority non-lethal military equipment to Ukraine, the Department of the Taoiseach said in a statement on Thursday.
It also includes a €25 million allocation to support the restoration and protection of Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, with a focus on energy ahead of winter.
Over €670 million in support
The Department of the Taoiseach said on Thursday that, as well as hosting very significant numbers of Ukrainians fleeing the conflict, Ireland has also provided substantial support of over €550 million to Ukraine since February 2022.
This includes over €254 million in humanitarian and stabilisation supports (including €27 million in energy supports), over €200 million in military support, as well as €94 million in non-lethal military support to Ukraine under the European Peace Facility (EPF).
This is in addition to equipment provided by the Irish Defence Forces, such as radar systems, vehicles, and satellite communications systems.
The decision, the Department said, to provide an additional €125 million in bilateral support builds on support provided to date and will bring Ireland’s support for Ukraine to over €670 million when disbursed.
The Department added that the military funding provided is fully in line with the Government’s position of providing non-lethal military support to Ukraine, and our support for Ukraine’s right to self-defence under the UN Charter.
Taoiseach in Kyiv
The new package was announced the same day the Taoiseach arrived in Kyiv “to express the Irish people’s solidarity in the face of Russia’s illegal war of aggression on Ukraine.”
During his visit, the Taoiseach will engage with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian authorities on “how Ireland and the EU can respond to Russia’s aggression and support the country’s current, and future, needs.”
“Support for Ukraine is a top priority for the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU”
Speaking from Kyiv on Thursday, the Taoiseach said: “The people of Ireland stand with Ukraine and its people in the face of Russia’s immoral and unprovoked war of aggression.
“It is devastating to see first-hand the impact of Russia’s campaign of aerial attacks targeting Ukraine’s towns and cities.
“The support announced today will help Ukraine defend itself from these attacks and save civilians’ lives. It will also help Ukraine prepare for the winter to come, protecting and repairing energy infrastructure.
“Support for Ukraine is a top priority for the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU and we will continue to work with our EU and international partners towards a just and lasting peace, and security for Ukraine, based on the principles of the UN Charter, with justice and accountability at its heart.”
Minister McEntee added: “Ukraine is a central focus of our EU Presidency. We will work to strengthen our support for Ukraine and increase pressure on Russia to end its brutal war of aggression.
“Russia continues its indiscriminate attacks against Ukraine’s towns and cities. Tragically, civilian casualties are now at their highest since the full-scale invasion began. Our support will help defend Ukraine from these brutal attacks.
“Russia is also once again cynically targeting Ukraine’s critical infrastructure ahead of winter. Last winter, millions were left without heat or electricity in temperatures of -20°C. Our support will help repair that damage and will assist efforts to build resilience ahead of the coming winter.
“We are committed to supporting Ukraine’s EU accession path.”
“It makes a difference”
In a statement on social media, Zelenskyy said in part: “I thank Ireland and all our partners across Europe, in America, and around the world for their tangible support – and for a new support package from Ireland. It makes a difference. I thank all the people of Ireland for caring.”
Damian Meehan’s GAA tops and medals are included in a new exhibit dedicated to his memory at the GAA Museum in Dublin’s Croke Park.
Kerry O’Shea
Jul 24, 2026
Irish American Damian Meehan was 33 years old when he was killed in the 9/11 attacks.Irish American Damian Meehan was 33 years old when he was killed in the 9/11 attacks.
Damian Meehan, an Irish American who was killed in the 9/11 attacks, has been honored with a new exhibit that was unveiled at the GAA Museum on Thursday, July 23.
Meehan, the son of immigrants from Co Donegal, was raised in the Inwood section of Manhattan. He grew up playing Gaelic football, first for Good Shepherd and later for New York GAA’s Donegal club.
A trader at Carr Futures, Meehan was on the 92nd floor of World Trade Center’s Tower One when it was struck on September 11, 2001. The 33-year-old was survived by his wife, fellow Irish American Joanne, their young son, and a daughter who was born after his tragic death. The family was living in Glen Rock, New Jersey, at the time.
Damian’s brother Mike told the Irish Examiner in 2002 that Damian’s body was found intact less than a month after the attacks in a stairwell with dozens of firemen.
“He was on his way down,” Mike said at the time, “he was found with his good friend Denis McHugh.”
His funeral at Good Shepherd drew thousands.
Meehan’s family later donated one of Damian’s GAA medals commemorating the All-Star team he played on in 1997 to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in NYC.
The GAA said the exhibition unveiled this week includes Meehan’s New York senior football team jersey from the 2000 season, his New York U21 football championship medal, his 9/11 missing poster, and a 9/11 memorial etching.
It also includes a framed memorial sculpture by the artist Nicola McClean, whose husband Paul McCormack, a former NYPD Inspector, is a good friend and former teammate of Meehan’s. McCormack is also the Executive Director of Ground Zero 360, which honours the sacrifice of the victims and their families of the 9/11 terror attacks.
Ground Zero 360 said McClean’s American flag sculpture incorporates wood from Gaelic Park in New York, Croke Park in Dublin, and Sean MacCumhaill Park in Donegal. Its star is crafted from steel recovered from the World Trade Center and holds Damian’s Under-21 Championship medal, “symbolising the enduring bond between Ireland, New York, and the spirit of remembrance.”
McCormack said on Thursday: “Damian was one of the nicest gentlemen you could ever meet in your life.
“He always had a big smile on his face, he was a tremendous sportsman, a tremendous family man, a wonderful friend, just a tremendous human being.
“It means a lot to have Damian honoured on the 25th anniversary of 9/11 by having his items now on permanent display in Croke Park. There’s just no better place for it.”
Speaking on behalf of the Meehan family at the unveiling, Damian’s first cousin Seóg Campbell said: “It’s a privilege and a pleasure to be here on such an occasion, and we’d like to thank Paul [McCormack] and everybody else who helped pull this together.
“My Uncle Mike emigrated to New York in 1961 along with Auntie Peig to make a better life. They had 10 children, eight of them boys, and Mike’s big focus was always GAA, and he was heavily involved in New York GAA.
“Damian was such a lovely lad with a big smile and to do this for him and for us as a family is just tremendous. Uncle Mike in particular would be smiling from ear to ear. Auntie Peig is 93 now, and she’s very grateful.
“We’re all just so thankful that Damian is the person chosen to represent all the other Gaelic footballers and people with connections to this wonderful organisation who were lost on 9/11.”
Jarlath Burns, President of the GAA, was also in attendance for the unveiling. He thanked the museum staff for the exhibition.
“We are commemorating one person out of over 3,000 who lost their lives in 9/11 and as long as we remember that one person we remember every person,” Burns said.
“Damian loved the GAA and was somebody who wanted always to give back, and the GAA is the place where we all belong. It is about giving, it’s not about taking. That’s what’s so special about the GAA and that was what was so special about Damian. He never wanted to be famous, he would never have wanted this, all he wanted was to play GAA, represent his county, and to work for his family.”
US Ambassador to Ireland Ed Walsh, Guest of Honour at the exhibition unveiling, commented: “Today we remember not just tragedy but also celebrate a remarkable life.
“Damian Meehan embodied the very best of both America and Ireland. He was a proud son of Ireland and gifted Gaelic footballer and a cherished member of New York’s Irish community.
“Through the GAA, he carried with him the traditions, friendships, and values that connected him to home even while building a life across the Atlantic. There’s something especially fitting about remembering him here at Croke Park. This is a place that celebrates community, identity, and belonging.
“For so many Irish immigrants, the GAA became a home away from home. It gave them friendship, purpose, and enduring connections with places and people they loved. Damian lived that story.
“His life reminds us that the bond between Ireland and the United States are not just measured only in diplomacy or trade, they are measured in people, families, and the shared traditions of communities that span the Atlantic.”
