A commemorative film Who Shot Sergeant Kirwan? which re-enacts a major altercation in Ballyboughal in 1921 will be launched by Mayor of Fingal Cllr Seána Ó Rodaigh on Friday 27 August 2021 and public viewings will be held in Ballyboughal National School on Saturday and Sunday.
On the 21st of June 2021, Fingal County Council will commemorate this local historic event by launching a Fingal Libraries exhibition entitled The Burning of the Coastguard Buildings which will be displayed in Skerries Church, Rush Library and the Atrium, County Hall Swords. The Council’s Arts Department will also launch a unique bespoke writing commission entitled “a Burning Tide” in partnership with the Irish Writers Centre, in which six renowned authors will, in their own unique style, produce six modern writing pieces which will represent their interpretation of the events that transpired on the night of the 18th June 1921.
Fingal County Council is delighted to launch a commemorative documentary which is a fitting and lasting reminder of the amount of preparation and commitment local groups and Elected Representatives from Balbriggan put into the planning of the commemoration of the Sack of Balbriggan centenary, which occurred last year.
To what extent did the military tactics of Thomas Ashe's (5th) Fingal battalion of the Irish Volunteers in 1916 prefigure those of the IRA in the War of Independence, 1919-21? To what extent did the sack of Balbriggan in September 1920 provide the template for subsequent reprisals by Crown force? To discuss the role of Fingal (North County Dublin) in the revolutionary decade join History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, in discussion with John Dorney, Marie Bashford Synnott, and Frank Whearity.
With the support of Fingal County Council and the Commemorations Unit, The Loughshinny & Rush Historical Society in partnership with Historical writer Aidan Arnold have produced a booklet that describes the life and time of John 'Rover' McCann, the Irish Republican Army, the influences that shaped his life and the events that lead to his untimely and brutal death.
