Boylan family donate father’s uniform to army museum

There was an afternoon of nostalgia in Mullingar recently as former Meath GAA manager Sean Boylan and his family handed over the uniform and greatcoat of his father, General Sean Boylan, to the community museum at Columb Barracks. General Boylan (1880-1971) was a leading member of the IRA from 1913 until joining the Free State Army in late 1921. He commanded the First Eastern Division from its formation, and is credited with keeping his entire division loyal to the first Provisional Government of the Free State throughout the Civil War. Together with the uniform, Mr Boylan brought his father's War of Independence medal and 1916 commemorative medal awarded in 1966 to the presentation. At the event, Mr Boylan said: “Back then, it was not about which political party you belonged to. It was about serving Ireland and serving the people of Ireland. “The Government served the people of Ireland and the army served the people of Ireland. This is a fitting place for my father's uniform to be displayed. “It is well-known, for example, that de Valera, when he said his prayers before his evening meal, would always finish with a prayer for our war dead, especially Michael Collins.†Lt Col Arthur Armstrong welcomed Sean and the Boylan family to Mullingar and the barracks and described Sean Boylan's incredible career from the War of independence through to his retirement from military life in 1925. He explained: “The Boylans were a prominent Republican family in Meath and family members were involved in the Fenian Rising and deported to the penal colony in Van Diemen's Land. “Sean Boylan joined the IRB in 1913. In 1916, Sean Boylan and his three brothers were arrested and sent to Kilmainham Jail and then the Frongoch internment camp in Wales. “Sean Boylan returned to Ireland and resumed his IRA activity with records showing his involvement in a raid on the RIC barracks in Trim where weapons were captured. He also headed up IRA units in Delvin and Castlepollard before heading up the first 1st Eastern Division from its formation with an area of operations which comprised Meath, south Louth, north Kildare and east Westmeath.†General Boylan was one of the senior officers to sign what became known as 'The Army Document' on the 1st May 1922. This document was an attempt to avert the impending civil war. Other senior officers to sign this document include Michael Collins, Richard Mulcahy, Dan Breen and Sean O'Hegarty. Sean Boylan recalled at the event how his father retired from the army in 1925 because of failing health and the expectation that he only had a year to live. “My father turned to herbalist medicine which had been used by my family for generations and lived until 1971,†said Mr Boylan, who has long carried on the tradition of herbalism himself. The museum at Columb Barracks is open to the public by appointment.