Booklet published on Neil ‘Plunkett’ Boyle - the last man killed in the civil war

A booklet has been published on Neil ‘Plunkett’ Boyle - ‘the last man killed in the civil war’.

Titled ‘Commemoration of centenary of death of Neil ‘Plunkett’ Boyle, 15 May 1923-15 May 2023’ it recalls the life of the Rosses native.

Neil Boyle was born in 1898 at Lackeenagh, Burtonport, and was one of five children of Neil and Mary Boyle. He joined the Volunteers after the 1916 Rising and took a leading part in organising his area. He crossed to Glasgow where he became active in purchasing arms and getting them sent to Ireland.

Eventually, he was arrested and sentenced to five years in penal servitude. He was released in 1922 and returned to Ireland. Early in the Civil War he was taken prisoner and sent to Newbridge Internment Camp. After three weeks there he escaped and took charge of an Anti-Treaty flying column operating in West County Wicklow.

Early on the morning of May 15, 1923 he was sheltering with members of his column including Dan McGee from Falcarragh, at a farmhouse in the Valleymount area of Co Wicklow, when Free State soldiers surrounded them.

He came outside unarmed to plead for the safety of the women in the house when he was brutally shot dead. Read all about his time in Co Wicklow in the recent booklet published to commemorate the centenary of his death.

“This booklet is based on the book Óglach na Rosann by Pádraig Ó Baoighill,” says Maureen Phibbs, who put the booklet together. “Pádraig kindly gave me his permission to translate parts of interviews, he held in the 1980s with local people of the West Wicklow low area who remembered or had knowledge of Neil ‘Plunkett’ Boyle.”

Cost of one copy is €10 to include postage or €21 for three copies including postage. Available from Maureen Phibbs, Blackrock, Blessington, Co Wicklow.