Fergal O'Hanlon

Fergal O'Hanlon was born in Ballybay, County Monaghan, on 2 February 1936, into a family that loved Ireland enough to bleed for her. He drew maps for the county council, played Gaelic football, and whispered prayers at St. Macartan's before joining the IRA in 1956. On 1 January 1957, he and Seán South charged a barracks in Brookeborough, took fire, and were left unconscious in a cow byre while others fled across the border. They never woke. A marble stone marks the spot where two young men stopped running, and hundreds still gather each year to remember the weight of that choice.