Saor Éire [1967]

Saor Éire was a republican organisation, intended as an urban guerilla group, established in 1967 by former members of the IRA and a number of Trotskyists. Leading members included Peter Graham, Maureen Keegan (both former members of the Labour Party Young Socialists), Gerry Lawless (of the Irish Workers Group) and Frank Keane (formerly Commandant of the Dublin Brigade of the IRA). It carried out a number of armed robberies. During one of these in 1970 in Dublin Garda Richard Fallon was shot dead. Graham was shot dead in Dublin in 1971 in what may have been internecine feuding. Subsequent to that the organisation went into decline and in 1973 Saor Éire prisoners in Porlaoise Prison annouced that they had resigned from it due to actions carried out by ‘undesirable elements’. Its only printed political material was the Saor Éire Manifesto.

Please Note: This is a distinct organisation from the contemperaneous Cork-based Maoist group which emerged from Irish Revolutionary Forces, also called Saor Éire.