Five friends, died for the same ideal

Divis Street, Belfast 2015



Danny McAreavey, IRA member, shot dead by British soldiers on 6 October 1972
Joe McKinney, IRA member, died on 10 October 1972 when a bomb that he was assembling exploded prematurely
Jimmy Quigley, IRA member, shot dead by British soldiers on 29 September 1972
John Donaghy, died on 10 October 1972 when a bomb that he was assembling exploded prematurely
Patrick Maguire (real name Patrick Pendleton), died on 10 October 1972 when a bomb that he was assembling exploded prematurely.

The Mother
by Padraic Pearse


           I do not grudge them: Lord, I do not grudge
           My two strong sons that I have seen go out
To break their strength and die, they and a few,
In bloody protest for a glorious thing,
They shall be spoken of among their people,
The generations shall remember them,
And call them blessed;
But I will speak their names to my own heart
In the long nights;
The little names that were familiar once
Round my dead hearth.
Lord, thou art hard on mothers:
We suffer in their coming and their going;
And tho' I grudge them not, I weary, weary
Of the long sorrow---And yet I have my joy:
My sons were faithful, and they fought.