James Farrelly - Ardee's Forgotten Patriot and His Legacy

Ardee Forgotten Patriot: James Farrelly and His Enduring Legacy in the Easter Rising

Ardee News and Sport – Ardee Forgotten Patriot: James Farrelly and His Enduring Legacy in the Easter Rising

In the heart of County Louth, the town of Ardee holds deep connections to Ireland’s struggle for independence—none more compelling than that of James (Jimmy) Farrelly. Born in Ardee in 1888, Farrelly would become one of the few known locals to take part in the 1916 Easter Rising, sharing a legacy intertwined with the very foundation of the modern Irish state.

James Farrelly’s story begins with humble roots in Railway Terrace, but his life would become anything but ordinary. In the run-up to the Rising, James was already deeply embedded in republican circles. On the Sunday before Easter 1916, he attended a meeting of the Irish Republican Brotherhood in Ardee, joined by others from Dundalk, Drogheda, and local names like Philip MacMahon and the Butterly brothers from Dunleer. Though unaware of the imminent insurrection in Dublin, the men strategised on how best to arm the Louth Volunteers, including a creative plan to source lead from burial vaults to manufacture bullets.

On Easter Sunday, the Louth Volunteers assembled on the Ardee Road in Dundalk before marching to Ardee, eventually planning to join the main force via Slane and the Hill of Tara. However, confusion reigned after receiving a countermanding order from Eoin MacNeill, which ultimately led most of the local Volunteers to disband. But James Farrelly wasn’t finished.

According to Bureau of Military History records, Sean McEntee drove to Ardee that very day, describing it as “as peaceful and unruffled as any other little Irish town.” Yet, beneath that calm, James Farrelly was mobilising. Travelling to Dublin with McEntee, he met with Patrick Pearse and James Connolly, who confirmed that the Rising would proceed the following day.

It is believed that Farrelly remained in Dublin and joined the garrison at Jacob’s Factory Mill when the Easter Rising began in earnest on Easter Monday. He was later arrested, detained in Richmond Barracks, and deported to England aboard a cattle boat with hundreds of others. Initially imprisoned in Wandsworth, James was eventually transferred to the infamous Frongoch Camp in Wales—the so-called “University of Revolution.”

It was there that James Farrelly’s path crossed fatefully with Michael Collins. Sharing a hut in Frongoch, the two men formed a close bond, one that would prove lifesaving. After his release on Christmas Eve 1916, Farrelly returned to Ardee and resumed his republican activities with renewed vigour. By 1918, he was named in numerous RIC intelligence reports and became a target of the British Murder Squad.

On the night of 30 November 1920, British Crown Forces murdered two local men, Patrick Tierney and Sean O’Carroll. Farrelly was on the same “Black List” and narrowly escaped the assassination attempt by fleeing through a window at his Railway Terrace home. His friend Michael Collins, now Director of Intelligence, ensured his safety by arranging for James to be smuggled to Glasgow among the Irish diaspora.

James later returned home and, after the signing of the Treaty in 1921, joined the newly formed Irish Free State Army. He served in both Ardee and Drogheda, seeing action during the Civil War, including defending Hatch’s Castle in Ardee from anti-Treaty forces.

By 1927, James had transitioned into civilian life, taking over as Ardee’s Postmaster after Miss O’Donnell’s retirement. Thus began a family legacy, with his son Sean and later grandson Michael continuing the Farrelly name at the helm of Ardee’s Post Office into the modern era.

James’s other son, Vincent, carved a different but equally valuable legacy—becoming one of Ardee’s earliest historians and the first to use a cine camera, documenting the town’s life in moving pictures.

James Farrelly passed away in October 1948. His funeral, as reported in the Drogheda Argus and Leinster Journal, drew a large crowd—an apt tribute for a man who had once stood alongside Pearse and Connolly, who braved the front lines of rebellion, evaded death, and continued the cause of Irish freedom long after the GPO had burned.

In a town so often bypassed in the broader story of 1916, the name James Farrelly offers a poignant reminder that the spirit of the Easter Rising lived far beyond the streets of Dublin. Ardee should remember him—not only as a soldier and a survivor, but as the founding figure of a local legacy that still endures today.