Charles Monahan is recorded as not only Belfast’s first martyr, but that of the province of Ulster, in the struggle for independence during the 20th Century.

Born in the Market district of Belfast on the 21st March 1879, he was educated by the Christian Brothers. He moved to Dublin in 1900, immigrating to Canada three years later, before returning to Dublin a year later.

He joined the 2nd Battalion of the Dublin Volunteers and during Easter week 1916, he was one of a party of Volunteers tasked to remove two radio transmitters from the Maurice Fitzgerald Wireless College at Caherciveen, County Kerry which were to be used to signal the merchant ship the AUD carrying 20,000 rifles and a million rounds of ammunition from Lubeck in Germany to arm the Volunteers for the proposed rising set to take place over the Easter weekend.

The two cars in which they had travelled from Dublin were also to be used to pick up Sir Rodger Casement and two Volunteer officers who were to land at Banna Strand from a German submarine, U.19 sailing from Wilhelmshaven.

The plan unravelled when one of the vehicles took a wrong turning on the Killorglin to Caherciveen road and in bad weather and darkness, plunged off Ballykissane Pier, killing three of the four volunteers, including Charlie Monahan.

The Aud was trapped in Tralee Bay by the Royal Navy and the Ship’s Captain, Karl Spindler, scuttled the ship with its cargo of rifles. Rodger Casement was captured and later hanged for treason by the British.

Charlie Monahan and two of his comrades; Con Keating and Donal Sheehan became the first fatalities of the 1916 Rising. Charlie was buried in Drumavally churchyard, Killorglin and today is commemorated in the Republican Memorial Garden in Belfast’s Short Strand district.

Memorial plaques and two wall murals can also be seen in the Short Strand and the nearby Market district