Loughgall Martyrs 20th Anniversay Commemorative website

Óglach Seamus Donnelly

11^th January 1968 – 8^th May 1987

Vol. Seamus Donnelly

Seamus Donnelly was 19 when he was killed at Loughgall. The forth eldest of eight children, he had joined the I.R.A. at 16. Growing up in Aughnaskea, Galbally, he loved and lived life as any teenager. Galbally is a tight knit community and the Donnellys a close knit loving family. Family, community and country were devastated by the deaths at Loughgall and the loss of Seamus.

As was customary in rural areas, where one went all went. At the weekends when Declan Arthurs’ car couldn’t hold any more, a convoy would head for Cookstown, Omagh or Monaghan for the night out. This was as a result of the great comradeship, but it also serves as a good security precaution. In the February before he died, the U.D.R. stopped Seamus at a checkpoint. They put a gun to his head and pulled the hammer back, Seamus remained totally calm. He had no fear of them. Only for a witness Seamus might never have left Killnaslieve that night. His only fear was for the safety of his family. In Gough Barracks the R.U.C. showed him a detailed map of the family home and indicated his bed. Typically Seamus was more concerned for his younger brother, with whom he shared the room than for himself.

Volunteer Seamus Donnelly died at Loughgall on the 8^th of May 1987 in an ambush by British undercover forces. With him, seven comrades from the East Tyrone Brigade, four were from the Galbally area. They are all greatly missed.

Seamus was a caring and thoughtful son, and a loving brother, who it was good to be around. He tried to make a better life for his family. At the graveside of Seamus and his comrade Declan Arthurs, who were buried together in St. John’s Galbally, Martin McGuinness spoke,

“Those young men who were there, with guns in their hands had every right and justification to be there. They were there for us. And those people who laid in wait, the people who murdered them, they are the terrorists.”