03/11/2026
Remembering Liam Sutcliffe 'The Pillarman'✊🇮🇪
The Irish Revolutionary died in Dublin on November 3rd 2017.
Liam Sutcliffe was born in the Liberties area of Dublin in 1933 and joined the Irish Republican Army in 1954.
Sutcliffe enlisted in the British Army and was sent to Gough barracks in Co. Armagh, where he passed on information to his Republican comrades in preparation for a new IRA campaign.
However, frustrated at the lack of action, Liam left the IRA, along with a large number of Dublin Volunteers and joined the breakaway group led by Joe Christle.
Sutcliffe and the others took part in the 1956-62 ‘Border Campaign’, officially referred to by the IRA leadership as “Operation Harvest”.
The Christle group joined forces with Kevin Neville and Frank Morris in Liam Kelly’s left-wing organisation, Saor Uladh, in Co. Tyrone in early 1956.
In 1966, on the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising, Liam was involved in an operation to blow up Nelson’s Pillar on O’Connell Street, the central boulevard in Dublin. Nelson’s Pillar had been there since 1809, the tallest monument in Dublin.
To Irish Republicans in Dublin, the monument represented a constant reminder of British imperialism, while Dev and FF were giving lip service to the 50th anniversary of the 1916 rising, Sutcliffe and his comrades wanted to mark the anniversary with a bang.
In 1970, he joined Saor Éire and was involved in the arming and training of the Nationalist Defence Committees in Belfast and Derry. He became a leading volunteer in the group, active in many of its engagements.
Right up to his death, Liam Sutcliffe was active in attending Republican commemorations around Ireland and even had his name taken by the Garda Special Branch (SDU) a few months before he died while travelling to a 1916 commemoration in Derry.
Liam Sutcliffe died on November 3rd 2017, and was buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery in Dublin.
