County Louth: Dundalk

10th October 2017.

A train from Portadown to Dundalk (population 40,000). About 50 minutes.

Dundalk is about 10 kilometres from the “border” with Norn Iron and during the Troubles (1969-1998) was a refuge for IRA men who were “on the run” and/or organising attacks in South Down and South Armagh.

Monuments include a 1916 Memorial and a very peculiar sculpture that honours the visit of American President, Bill Clinton.

The office of Gerry Adams TD (Sinn Féin).

A sign on a pub in Dundalk.

Memorials to IRA volunteers (brothers) who were killed by British Crown Forces in 1921.

I took the train from Dundalk station, named for Thomas J Clarke, (signatory of the 1916 Proclamation) who was executed.

One unhappy note. I left my baseball cap (a souvenir from the Irish National Stud) in a sandwich bar.