By Mike Vearnals:
LT. GENERAL JOE McKELVEY 8th DECEMBER 1922 Executed by firing squad by Free State Troops in Mountjoy Jail in Dublin, alongside Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows and Richard Barrett. Their only guilt was that they opposed the Treaty. Joe McKelvey, although born in Stewartstown, Co. Tyrone, grew up in Cyprus Street, Belfast and was involved from an early age in the Republican movement, rising to command the 3rd Northern Division. A huge turnout lined the Falls Road for the funeral following Mass in St. Mary’s Church, Chapel Lane.
Joe McKelvey and Eoin O’Duffy in the Falls Park, Belfast
By Risteard O’Murchu:
From the left Seamus Woods, Tom McNally, Joe McKelvey & Frank Crummey, IRA 3rd Northern Division shortly after truce July 1921
Last Saturday (8th December), which was the anniversary of the executions, Jimmy McDermott, author of “Northern Divisions – The Old IRA and the Belfast Pogroms 1920-22”, gave a talk on Joe McKelvey at a commemoration ceremony in Milltown Cemetery in Belfast.
You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozGEn2tqous
hi mike,can you tell me if joe mckelvey had family,my father joseph patrick mckelvey,of belfast,arrived in australia,circa 1924,thanking you,vincent mckelvey.
Vincent, Joe McKelvey was an only child, his parents lived in Stewartstown, Co. Tyrone. I don’t think he ever married.
The 1911 Census can be viewed online, which might be some help: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ It shows two children named Joseph McKelvey living in Belfast at the time.