Volunteer Michael O’Callaghan ‘saved name of Tipperary’ in 1916

ONE of the more obscure incidents of the Easter Rising took place near Galbally on the Tipperary/Limerick border.

Volunteer Michael O’Callaghan, aged 29, of Garryspillane, shot dead Thomas F Rourke (a police sergeant) and John Hurley (a constable) when they entered the house in which he was staying while endeavouring to arrest him.

The police were searching for O’Callaghan, after he pulled a revolver on a group of separation women who were threatening him after news of the Rising reached Tipperary Town.