Oldcastle talk on republican Patrick McDonnell

‘The Life and Death of Patrick McDonnell’ and IRA operations in Meath during the War of Independence will be explored at the next Meath Archaeological and Historical Society lecture to be given by Frank Cogan, historian and retired diplomat, at Oldcastle Library on Sunday 17th July at 3pm.
Holy Week, 1921 witnessed a dramatic event in north Co Meath: the killing by the RIC and Black and Tans of Patrick McDonnell (28), Intelligence Officer of the Stonefield/Oldcastle Battalion of the IRA. He was the second senior IRA officer to be killed by Crown Forces within nine months. He was unarmed when shot “trying to evade capture” near his home in Stonefield. How did a brilliant student, who had studied for the priesthood for seven years in Maynooth, come to end his life so tragically? Why did his death raise so many unanswered questions about how IRA operations in the area were undermined and how close was McDonnell to unearthing the reasons for those failures? Why was the bloody revolutionary war so protracted when in the Spring of 1921 it was obvious to many that a compromise solution was inevitable? These are the questions which the talk by Frank Cogan in Oldcastle Library on 17th July will explore.
Frank Cogan is a historian and retired diplomat who spent most of his childhood in his family’s original home near Virginia Road Station in north Meath. He is a nephew of Commdt Seamus Cogan, killed in Oldcastle in 1920. In the course of a 42 year career in Foreign Affairs he served as ambassador in Iran, Brussels, Italy and Austria. He is the author of a number of articles on local history and international issues.