Search for lost IRA medals

The family of a man killed on active service during the War of Independence have put a call out to locate medals he was posthumously awarded.

Séan McCartney was killed in action by British soldiers in the townland of Lappanduff near Mountainlodge in Cavan in 1921.

The IRA volunteer was posthumously awarded two medals and it’s thought they were collected by a Cavan person. Now one of the fallen soldier's relatives, Dominic Corr, has launched an appeal in a bid to locate the War of Independence medals.

Dominic’s mother was a first cousin of Séan McCartney, and he says the family were very active in the fight for independence.

“I'm speaking on behalf of a large, extended family, both in Belfast and Canada. Our relative, Séan, was a member of a flying column. It was a Belfast based joint northern division/third Cavan.

“He was killed during an operation by British soldiers, ‘Black and Tans’ on Lappaduff mountain. Pre and post partition a large number of Séan's extended family came from two streets on the Falls Road; Norfolk St and Conway St. They were burned out twice in the 1920s and once in the 1930s,” he recounted the family's turbulent past.

“Three of Séan's brothers had to go to Canada after his death. They were under the threat of death from the RIC in Belfast. One of those RIC men was from Crosskeys in Cavan.

“We believe there were two medals posthumously awarded to Séan, but the family were never able to collect them because of the turmoil,” Dominic told the Celt.

Séan's sister Maggy visited Cavan in 1992. This was when the location of the medals first came to the attention of the family: “It was her dying wish to have a cross erected in the area where Séan was killed in Laragh.

“She was down with a nephew. They met a man who claimed to have Séan's medal for safe keeping. We don't know who the man is, but we believe he could be connected to either of two families. Two local men from Cavan; Patrick Clarke and Patrick Smith. Patrick Smith went on to be a TD and was the longest serving TD in Dáil Éireann.”

Dominic believes his relative's comrades hold the key to where the medals are.

“The two men were part of the flying column Séan was with. They were arrested and sentenced to be hanged, but they were saved when Michael Collins signed the treaty.

“We believe the medals are somewhere in Cavan. It's coming up to the centenary of his death and the family would like to get the medals he was awarded. The whole family have gone through a lot of trauma over the decades.

"The medals were probably safer where they were in Cavan, but things have changed. We believe the medals should be in the family circle,” he said.

Dominic says there is a lot of detail the family will never know: “On Séan's death certificate it said he died from haemorrhaging from being shot. All the rest of the lads in the column were arrested by the British Army.

When Séan's body came home there were rope marks on his feet and his skin was flailed off his back, but we don't know what actually happened to Séan after his death to cause these injuries.”

He feels that the changes that have happened over the last 100 years would be acknowledged by the returning of the medals to the family: “It would conclude Séan's legacy and bring closure to a lot of intergenerational stress.”