RIP BRAVE SON OF EIRE TOM WILLIAMS
Anne DevlinSociety Belfast
Five of the six condemned Belfast youths have been reprieved. Only Thomas Joseph Williams is to die. Cordner, Perry, Oliver and Cahill received life sentences while Simpson gets 15years. He is the youngest of the six and was recommended to mercy by the trial jury.
At the trial, the police alleged that Williams made a statement in which he said, he had suggested firing at the police car as a distraction to allow the Easter parade to pass off uninterrupted.
News of the Governors decision was greeted with great relief. But the prevalent feeling was one of extensive sorrow that a lad of 19 years was going to die.
The Dublin Reprieve Committee last night issued the following statement. ‘The. Reprieve of five of the condemned men does not in any way alter our position. This committee will continue to work
tirelessly to secure the reprieve of Thomas Williams with un diminished energy.
In the event of the authorities making Williams the victim, Ireland will make it known to the world that this execution would never be sanctioned by the Irish people who will observe Wednesday as a National day of morning.
— With many thanks to the: Anne Devlin Society, Belfast.
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