Tom Ruane

Tom Ruane was Captain of the Second Western Division of the Irish Republican Army, from 1916-1920.

Ruane was a native of Carnmore, County Galway, and joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1908. He was already an active sportsman with the GAA, his position being full-back. From 1910 to 1916 he captained the local hurling team.

During the Galway Easter Rising in 1916 he was Captain of the Claregalway men. They rendezvoused with the Castlegar man under Brian Molloy and Pat Callanan at Carnmore. Orders were received from Liam Mellows to proceed to the deserted Moyode Castle, in Oranmore. The volunteers were discovered while resting at Carnmore Cross by a group of Royal Irish Constabulary. Fighting broke out but the only casualty was a Constable Whelan, who was the first to die during the Rising.

Arriving at Moyode they congregated with other companies but lack of orders and supplies led to fatigue and hunger. When news of the failure of the Rising in Dublin arrived, the men dispersed, some going home. Ruane himself went on the run.

He hid out in Moycullen and used an island in Lough Corrib as a fall-back during searches. However, a letter was found in his wife's handbag which gave his address as at Bohans, Borra, Moycullen. He was arrested and sent to Frangoch, where he spent ten months. After his release, he was arrested in 1918 in connection with the German Plot, this time in Wormwood Scrubs and Winson Green.

After his release from Birmingham Prison he was appointed a justice of the Sinn Féin courts for south and west Galway. His activities came at the price of a thousand-pound reward for his capture, and he was targeted by the Black and Tans. He may have participated on the attack on Loughgeorge R.I.C. Barracks in May 1920, launched by the mid-Galway Brigade.

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