Residents of Newry's Derrybeg estate, along with former Republican Prisoners and community leaders joined with éirígí on Christmas eve to mark the 41st anniversary of IRA volunteers Eddie Grant and Brendan Quinn.
The annual wreath laying commemoration has been held every year since éirígí became active in the Newry area.
Both men were tragically killed in Monaghan Street on Christmas Eve 1973 when a bomb they were carrying exploded prematurely. Sadly a civilian was also killed in the explosion.
The crowd gathered at the Republican monument in Derrybeg to remember and pay tribute to those who lost their lives. During the ceremony a wreath was laid by long standing community worker Anthony Coyle in memory of both men.
Speaking at the event éirígí’s Newry spokesperson Stephen Murney said “Eddie Grant came from Derrybeg while his comrade Brendan Quinn lived just out the road in Cloughreagh. Both were Republicans and both men were volunteers in the Irish Republican Army. Tragically both young men were taken before their time along with a civilian.
“Volunteers Grant and Quinn both actively participated in the struggle for national and social liberation, and, like many other hundreds of men and women, both gave their lives. The objectives for which those men and women fought and died for remain unfulfilled”
Murney concluded “We aren't here to try to speak for the dead, nobody can do that. However we can safely say without fear of contradiction that the goal that these men set out to achieve remains to be achieved. They fought and died for a socialist republic and that fight continues to this day”
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