You are on the ball again Effin Effer, When De Valera announced his intention of his new Party in 1926, his fellow party members in old Sinn Fein came on board and formed the back bone of
FF.
In Mountmellick my grandfather proposed at the
SF meeting that the Mountmellick organisation go with Dev's Party. Bridie Fitzpatrick's father asked that the motion be posponed until the next meeting and it was at this meeting that the Sinn Fein organisation in Mountmellick formed itself into Fianna Fail.
There is no connection with the knuckle draggers of today with Sinn Fein of the 1920s.
In Mountrath my great grandfather and his sons were also part and parcel of the Sinn Fein organisation that went with Dev. So any talk of Sinn Fein in the Borris-in-Ossary area having any links can be taken with a grain of salt just as the Courts took Ted Cunningham's story on the monies from the Northern Bank robbery coming from Sinn Feins contacts in Bulgaria wanting to buy a sand pit in Offaly and leaving the money in a black bag in a car park for collection.
Away with the fairies!
Michael Moloney MCC (Indep) Laois CC