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Originally Photographed 21 June 2026
Captain O'Leary War Is Buried In The Republican Plot In Glasnevin Cemetery
The crisp relief of the Celtic cross and the sharp, re-carved text ensure that O’Leary’s name and the actions of 23 March 1923 remain vividly legible to passersby, preserving a profound piece of neighbourhood memory right on the old convent wall.
* In The Year 2008 * In The Year 2011 * In The Year 2017 * Henrietta Back In 2010
Step onto Upper Rathmines Road, directly opposite Rathmines Close, and you will find a quiet piece of Dublin’s revolutionary history embedded straight into a roadside wall. For eighty-five years, a modest, deeply weathered 1933 stone monument marked the exact spot where a grim chapter of the Irish Civil War concluded.
Set into the boundary wall of the former Tranquilla Convent grounds, the original marker had suffered terribly from decades of dampness, overhanging foliage, and roadside pollution, leaving the stone blackened and the delicate inscription nearly illegible. However, on 24 March 2018—the weekend of the 95th anniversary of his death—the original marker was completely replaced with the pristine limestone monument we see today in my set of photographs.
The Tragedy of March 1923
The monument is dedicated to Captain Thomas O’Leary (Tomás Ó Laoghaire), a 22-year-old Dubliner raised in nearby Harold’s Cross. O’Leary was an officer in the 4th Battalion, Dublin Brigade of the anti-Treaty IRA.
By March 1923, the Civil War had entered a bitter, clandestine guerrilla phase. On the night of 23 March, O’Leary was intercepted by Free State forces. His body was later recovered at this exact spot outside the convent gates, bearing twenty-two bullet wounds—a tragic synchronicity with his age. His death belonged to a dark period of summary executions and roadside killings that marked the final, brutal months of the conflict.
The 2018 Restoration: Faithful Preservation
The 2018 replacement is a masterclass in faithful preservation. Looking closely at "Memorial-269630.jpg", the stonemason took immense care to replicate the traditional Gaelic script (Cló Gaelach) of the 1933 original, maintaining the classic overdots (buailte) for aspiration rather than shifting to modern spellings.
The crisp relief of the Celtic cross and the sharp, re-carved text ensure that O’Leary’s name and the actions of 23 March 1923 remain vividly legible to passersby, preserving a profound piece of neighbourhood memory right on the old convent wall.
Extract From Official Document:
Jane O'Leary's receipt of a dependents' allowance under the Army Pensions Act, 1932 in respect of her son IRA Section Commander Thomas O'Leary. File also relates to the award of a posthumous Service (1917-1921) Medal in respect of Thomas O'Leary to his brother John O'Leary. Thomas O'Leary died during the Civil War on 23 March 1923 at Upper Rathmines, Dublin, from the effects of gunshot wounds received by him from members of the National Army forces while in their custody there. According to Jane O'Leary and references on file, Thomas O'Leary had been taken from a house in Upper Rathmines by members of the National Forces just prior to the shooting. References state that Thomas O'Leary had served with Na Fianna Éireann and the IRA from 1916 onwards and during the War of Independence and Civil War. File includes: original handwritten material submitted and signed by Jane and John O'Leary in support of their respective applications; signed handwritten report dated 6 May 1933 from Thomas Markham regarding the circumstanjces and means of the O'Leary family and the degree of dependency of Jane O'Leary on her son at the time of ther latter's death; material relating to the settlement and closure of Jane O'Leary's dependents' allowance account following her death on 27 January 1950; and signed handwritten statements regarding Thomas O'Leary's service and death from Patrick Lamb (MSP34REF102) and William Roe (MSP34REF21737).
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