Joe Howley

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{{Use Irish English|date=June 2020}}

Joseph Howley, from Oranmore, County Galway, was a member of the Irish Volunteers. He mobilized and led a combined contingent of 106 Volunteers from Oranmore to attack the Oranmore barracks on the Tuesday morning of the 1916 Easter Rising. Land and Revolution: Nationalist Politics in the West of Ireland 1891-1921, Fergus Campbell, Oxford University Press, 2005; {{ISBN|0-19-927324-3}} page 210. The company failed to capture the barracks, and joined those of Liam Mellows.[http://www.galwaycity.ie/AllServices/Heritage/Magazines/2006Magazines/FileEnglish,3309,en.pdf Galway City Council - Heritage Magazine - Summer 2006 - Page 27] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071120063517/http://www.galwaycity.ie/AllServices/Heritage/Magazines/2006Magazines/FileEnglish,3309,en.pdf |date=20 November 2007 }}[http://www.galwaycity.ie/AllServices/Heritage/Magazines/2006Magazines/] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071120014221/http://www.galwaycity.ie/AllServices/Heritage/Magazines/2006Magazines/ |date=2007-11-20 }} According to the reports, Howley was the revenue collector-general.{{Cite news|url=https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/business/businesses-urged-to-engage-with-revenue-after-storm-831225.html|title=Businesses urged to engage with Revenue after storm|newspaper=Irish Examiner|first=Pádraig|last=Hoare|date=2018-03-07|access-date=2020-06-23}}

Howley was shot dead by the R.I.C at the Broadstone Railway Station in Dublin, Ireland, on 4 December 1920.The History of Galway, by Sean Spellissy, {{ISBN|0-9534683-3-X}}, Celtic Bookshop, (1999), page 131. A special Intelligence Unit attached to the RIC known as the Cairo Gang was responsible.Pádraig Ó Fathaigh's War of Independence: Recollections of a Galway Gaelic Leaguer, Timothy G. McMahon, Cork University Press, 2000; {{ISBN|1-85918-145-7}}

A memorial statue to him was erected in 1947 in Howley Court in Oranmore;[http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1193406912032916938AKKqNP Howley Statue Picture] its inscription reads:

{{quote|Comdt. Joseph Howley. He led his volunteers in Easter week 1916 and was murdered by English agents at the Broadstone Dublin 1920.

Erected in 1947 by his old comrades of 1916 - 1920.[http://www.irishwarmemorials.ie/html/getPDF.php?memorialID=236 IrishWarMemorials.ie - Howley Memorial - Oranmore]}}