'I am to die for Ireland' - New exhibition marks 100 years since first Civil War executions

The centenary of the first executions of the Irish Civil War is being marked in a new exhibition. 

Four young working class men - Peter Casidy, James Fisher, John Gaffney and Richard Twohig - were executed in one of the yards of Kilmainham Gaol at 7am on this day (November 17) a hundred years ago. 

The men were charged with unauthorised possession of a revolver and were tried at a military court in Wellington Barracks (now Griffith College) on November 8 1922. 

The 'I am to die for Ireland: Civil War Executions' exhibition - presented at Kilmainham Gaol Museum - features the original last letters written by Peter Cassidy and James Fisher.  

None of the young men were allowed to see their loved ones before their executions. 

In the letters, they express their pride in the fact that they are to die for Ireland, but their distress at not being allowed to say goodbye to their families is palpable. 

James Fisher’s letter ends with the plaintive lines: 

‘To my Mother I dearly love, Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye. We will meet again in Heaven please God, Mother. God strengthen you in this ordeal Mother. I am to die for Ireland.’ 

Many of the items in the exhibition have not been on public display before, including a memorial card for John Gaffney and a letter sent to Peter Cassidy’s parents by Phil Foley, who had been a prisoner with the four men in Wellington Barracks. 

He described how the four were removed from the barracks after breakfast on Thursday November 16 and the next he heard of them was when he read of their execution in the evening papers the following day. 

A further exhibition, looking at the executions which took place in Kilmainham in January 1923, will open in the new year. 

Admission to the museum - currently open from 10am to 5.30pm seven days a week - is free.