Families ‘very proud’ of relatives' role in fight for freedom

Recognition of their relatives’ role was warmly welcomed by families of Cork’s Irish Volunteers and Cumann na mBan members in 1916 and the War of Independence.

For the family of Tomás MacCurtain, commandant of the Volunteers’ Cork Brigade in 1916, it was most rewarding to see the plaques unveiled on the building on Sheares St in the city which was the Volunteers’ Hall a century ago. It was there that he and vice-commandant Terence MacSwiney spent most of Easter Week, and negotiated — as they thought — the temporary surrender of their weapons after the Rising started in Dublin without them knowing.

“I’m very proud of my grandfather, who realised that battle was futile that day. He was torn by the fact that he had let down the men in Dublin when he heard about [the Rising] later,” said Fionnuala MacCurtain, grand-daughter of the commandant, who became lord mayor of Cork in 1920 but was murdered by police in March of that year.