Pax Shortall took me to Crory Lane to the monument in memory of four Anti-Treaty soldiers who were shot dead by National Army troops on the 23rd of March 1923. Pax was last up Crory Lane in 1989 when a visiting woman from America wanted to visit the monument as she was related to the one of the men who died. The four men (Captain Denis Lacey, Blackwater, John O’Connor, Enniscorthy, Martin Nolan, Ballywilliam, and John Leacy, Wexford Town) were shot close to where this monument stands just eighty-one years ago by National Army troops from Wexford Barracks.   Luckily the Civil War ended later that year. In fact, one of the last Anti-Treaty soldiers to die in the War was Joseph (Joe) Lacey, brother of Denis (above), who died from complications as a result of Hunger Strike at the Curragh Hospital on the 24th of December 1923. He was just 25 years old and like his brother is buried in Blackwater Graveyard. The lane is currently undergoing improvement works, and is passable by car. From the Crossabeg side, the field where the monument stands is on a slight bend on the right hand side. Pax pointed out to me where a house once stood at the opposite side to the lane to this field. All that is visible now is an old pier and some of the garden flowers that bloom every year.

Crory Lane

Crory, Crossabeg, Co. Wexford

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