Please sign this petition and add your voice to the call to honour one of Galway's forgotten heroes! 

An Athenry native, Julia Morrissey, was a key figure in Cumann na mBan's Galway branch. In 1916, she commanded a group of 50 women during Easter week, as part of the rebellion in Galway that was led by Liam Mellows.

When Mellows first came to Athenry in 1915, Morrissey was his landlady. The two developed a close bond and ended up in a relationship, and it is said that Julia never recovered from Mellows' execution in 1922.

At some point in the 1930s, she ended up confined to the mental asylum in Ballinasloe. While there, she applied for the state pension that had been set up for veteran republicans - which she never received. Nor did she receive any medals recognising her contribution in 1916.

She died in Ballinasloe in 1974. With no surviving relative to pay for an inscription, she lay in an unmarked grave for 43 years, until the fantastic work of the Relatives & Friends of Galway 1916 group saw a headstone erected for her.

Julia Morrissey is one of the many forgotten heroes of the revolutionary period from 1913-1923. We are calling for the planned pedestrian and cycle bridge - adjacent to the Salmon Weir Bridge - to be named in her honour, as a small (and very belated) tribute to her vital contribution to the cause of Irish freedom.

March 2024 will mark 50 years since Julia Morrissey's lonely death in Ballinasloe's 'mental asylum'. Let's make sure she is finally honoured in her native county before then!