ISBN 1-900960-05-2

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Published August 1999


EXECUTED
Tom Williams and the IRA

by

Jim McVeigh

Tom Williams who was one of six IRA volunteers 
sentenced to death by hanging in 1942. A group 
of eight, including two women, had mounted a 
diversionary operation to take attention away from 
three Republican parades held in Belfast to 
celebrate the 1916 Easter Rising. All such parades 
had been banned under the Stormont regime since 
the partition of Ireland and the introduction of the 
Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act of 1922. 
A police patrol managed to capture the group but 
not before an exchange of shots which resulted in 
the death of RUC constable Patrick Murphy. 
Although only 18 years old, Tom Williams was in 
charge of the unit and in a controversial statement to 
the police he assumed full responsibility for the 
shooting. 

Following a remarkable international reprieve 
campaign, the colonial Governor of Northern Ireland 
commuted five of the six death sentences to terms of 
penal servitude. But the British had decided that 
Tom Williams should hang.

Although Tom Williams is remembered in song, an 
exhibition, and a recent play, his story has never 
before appeared in print. Jim McVeigh, himself a 
Republican prisoner, has pieced together a revealing 
account of the fateful operation and its aftermath. 
He has been ably assisted by leading Republican 
Joe Cahill, one of those sentenced to death with 
Tom Williams.

120pp. 129 x 198mm + 16 pages of original B&W photos

ISBN 1-900960-05-2 Price £7.95