Máire Drumm

Máire Drumm
Born	Máire McAleer November 22, 1919 Newry, County Down
Died	October 28, 1976 (aged 56) Belfast, County Antrim
Cause of death	Assassinated by Ulster loyalist paramilitaries
Nationality	Irish
Known for	Civil rights leader, public orator and figurehead of the republican movement
Title	Vice President of Sinn Féin
Term	1972 - 1976
Political party	Sinn Féin
Religion	Roman Catholic
Spouse(s)	James Drumm (1946-1976) her death
Children	Séamus, Seán, Margaret, Catherine and Máire

Máire Drumm's grave

A mural in Belfast showing Drumm at Bodenstown

Drumm's memorial in Killean

Máire Drumm (22 November 1919 – 28 October 1976) was the vice president of Sinn Féin and a commander in Cumann na mBan. She was killed by Ulster loyalists while recovering from an eye operation in Belfast's Mater Hospital.^[1]

Born in Newry, County Down to a staunchly Irish republican family. Drumm's mother had been active in the War of Independence and the Civil War. Drumm grew up in the village of Killean, County Armagh, where she played camogie (the female form of hurling). She was active in the republican movement after meeting her husband, a republican prisoner, and became involved in the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in the 1960s and worked to rehouse Catholics forced from their homes by loyalist intimidation.

She was jailed twice for seditious speeches. After she was released from HM Prison Armagh, raids on her house by the security forces escalated, her health began to fail and she was admitted to the Mater Hospital, Belfast.

On 28 October 1976, Maíre Drumm was shot dead in her hospital bed in a joint operation by the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Defence Association.^[2]

Quotes

Drumm's speeches and quotations can be found on murals across Northern Ireland. These include:

• "The only people worthy of freedom are those who are prepared to go out and fight for it every day, and die if necessary."
• "We must take no steps backward, our steps must be onward, for if we don't, the martyrs that died for you, for me, for this country will haunt us forever."

References

1. https://www.anphoblacht.com/contents/1124
2. 307 killed in Troubles' second bloodiest year, Belfast Telegraph, 29 December 2006

External links

• Tribute Press release issued by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh on the death of Máire Drumm.
• Mural Directory CAIN Web Service (Conflict Archive on the Internet) - Mural Directory
• Ed Moloney (2007-03-28). A secret History of the IRA. W. W. Norton & Company. Retrieved 2002.