Padraig Mac Lochlainn to give main oration at Drumboe Easter commemoration

Donegal TD Padraig Mac Lochlainn will deliver the main oration at the annual Drumboe Easter commemoration this year.

Sinn Fein politician Mac Lochlainn has been a TD in Donegal since 2020 having had a previous term in the Dail from 2011-2016.

Prior to being elected to the Dáil in 2011, he had served for many years on Donegal County Council and Buncrana Town Council.

In the 2004 and 2009 local elections, he was elected to represent the people of Inishowen on Donegal County Council and in those elections; he was also elected to Buncrana Town Council. 

He acted as the Donegal spokesperson for the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU) from 1997 to 2001. He also served on the INOU National Executive from 1997 until 2000 as well as representing the organisation on the National Rural Development Forum.

On Easter Sunday, April 5, the main commemoration in Stranorlar is due to get underway at 3pm.

The Drumboe Martyrs, Charlie Daly, Sean Larkin, Daniel Enright and Timothy O’Sullivan were executed in Drumboe in 1923.

All four were Anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army Volunteers who lost their lives in the Irish Civil War. Officer Commanding Second Northern Division. They were captured when their safe house was surrounded by Free State Forces.

In January 1923 following a Free State Courts Martial, all four were sentenced to death which was carried out on the cold early morning of March 14, 1923, just six weeks before the ending of Civil War hostilities when the men were taken from their cells at the official Free State Army Headquarters at Drumboe Castle, Stranorlar.

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There are a series of other events across Donegal at the weekend:

Easter Saturday: Lifford at 1pm, Buncrana at 2pm; and Drumoghill at 5pm.

Easter Sunday: Clar at 9am; Aughnashinan and Glencolmcille at 10.30am; Castlefin, Drumkeen and Gweedore at 12 noon.

Easter Monday: Mountcharles (10am), Abbey Donegal (12 noon), Carrigarty (12.30pm), Ballmacgroarty (1pm), Fanad and Pettigo (3pm).