Kilfeacle to mark 105th Seán Treacy commemoration honouring Tipperary revolutionary

This Sunday afternoon, Kilfeacle will once again turn its thoughts to one of Tipperary’s most storied sons. The 105th Annual Seán Treacy Commemoration will honour the Solohead-born revolutionary whose name remains etched into the mythology of Ireland’s struggle for independence.

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This Sunday’s commemoration will open with Mass at 2.15pm, followed by a procession to the nearby cemetery where Treacy is buried. The Dr Diarmuid O’Hurley Pipe Band will lead the way in solemn accompaniment.

Elaine Fitzpatrick, Chairperson of the 3rd Tipperary Brigade Old IRA Commemoration Committee, will deliver an address and lay a wreath at Treacy’s grave. David Sinclair will place a separate wreath at the plaque honouring two other volunteers, James Looby and Bill Delaney.

The ceremony will include a Decade of the Rosary as Gaeilge by Nuala Gleeson and a reading of the Proclamation by Neil Ryan. Niamh Hassett will deliver the oration, and proceedings will conclude with the Sounding of the Last Post and the national anthem, Amhrán na bhFiann.

Treacy’s life was as brief as it was blazing. Born in 1895, he joined the Gaelic League and the Irish Republican Brotherhood while still in his teens, before becoming a founding member of the Irish Volunteers in 1913.

By 1919, Treacy had risen to a leading role within the 3rd Tipperary Brigade. On January 21 of that year, he and fellow volunteer Dan Breen carried out the Soloheadbeg ambush, widely considered to be the first engagement of the Irish War of Independence. The pair intercepted a convoy of Royal Irish Constabulary officers transporting a consignment of explosives. In the ensuing attack, two RIC men were killed and the explosives seized.

Relentlessly pursued by British forces, Treacy spent the next year living as both fugitive and freedom fighter. His death came on October 14, 1920, during a gun battle on Talbot Street in Dublin. British agents had planned to capture him in a surveillance operation, but the plan collapsed in a chaotic exchange of fire that left Treacy and two British intelligence officers dead. He was just twenty-five years old.

The enduring custom of Tipperary people visiting the site of his death on All-Ireland Final day—whenever the county is represented—remains a distinctive gesture of local pride. That tradition was observed again this year at a special event in Dublin, addressed by GAA President Jarlath Burns.

Seán Treacy’s life and deeds are remembered in Tipperary and beyond, both for their bravery and for the turbulent, violent era they reflect. His story stands as a testament to the determination and sacrifice that defined Ireland’s fight for independence, while also acknowledging the profound costs such struggles entailed.

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