Tom Williams (Irish republican)

Irish republican

Thomas Joseph Williams, more commonly known as Tom Williams, (Tomás Mac Uilliam; 12 May 1923 – 2 September 1942) was a volunteer in C Company, 2nd Battalion of the Belfast Brigade in the Irish Republican Army from the Bombay Street area of Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was hanged in the Crumlin Road Gaol for his involvement in the killing of Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) police officer, Patrick Murphy during the Northern Campaign.

Williams was born at 6 Amcomri Street in the Beechmount area of Belfast in 1923. He was the third child in a family of six. His brother Richard was the eldest, his sister Mary died of meningitis at the age of three. Williams' mother Mary died, at the age of 29, after giving birth to his sister Sheila, who also died shortly after. After the death of his mother, Williams and his brother then went to live with their grandmother at 46 Bombay Street in the Clonard area of Belfast. Williams family had had to leave the small Catholic enclave in the Shore Road area of Belfast before moving to Beechmount, after their house was attacked and burnt. The RUC officer, Constable Patrick Murphy, a father of nine children, from the Falls Road, was one of a minority of Catholics serving in the RUC. There has been some debate over the years about who actually fired the fatal shot. The six IRA members were convicted and sentenced to death for murder under the law of common purpose. Five, Henry Cordner (19); William James Perry (21); Sean Terence Oliver (21); Patrick Simpson (18); and Joe Cahill (21) (who went on to become a senior figure in the IRA) had their sentences commuted. Williams, who acknowledged that he was the leader of the IRA unit involved and took full responsibility for the actions of his men.

Williams was hanged in Crumlin Road Gaol Belfast at 08:00 on Wednesday 2 September 1942. The executioner was the official English hangman Thomas Pierrepoint, assisted by his nephew Albert Pierrepoint. Afterwards Williams' body was interred in unhallowed ground in an unmarked grave within the grounds of the prison. His remains were only released in January 2000 after the closure of the prison in 1996 and a lengthy campaign by the National Graves Association, Belfast. Before Williams was executed he inscribed some messages on the backs of some playing cards. On one he wrote "To ever who receives this to pray for me always & pray for the cause for which I am dying. God Save Ireland ." Father Alexis who witnessed the execution spoke after to his friends in the prison chapel. "I met the bravest of the brave this morning", he said, "Tom Williams walked to that scaffold without a tremor in his body. The only people who were shaking were us and the hangman". Father Alexis concluded by saying to the remaining prisoners, "I’ve one other thing to say to you. Don’t pray for Tom Williams, pray to him, for at this moment Tom is a saint in heaven." Joe Cahill, Williams' cell mate, and John Oliver, sentenced to death with Williams but later reprieved. Tom's funeral Mass was celebrated by Paddy O'Donnell, a Redemptorist Priest from Clonard Monastery.

He is remembered in a ballad Tom Williams. Various recordings have been made, most notably by the Flying Column, and by Éire Óg who preamble their version with the story of the campaign to release his body. The now disbanded, Volunteer Tom Williams Republican Flute Band from Glasgow, Scotland was named in his memory as was the Tom Williams Camogie Club in Belfast.