Extract from Statement Gearoid Ua h-Uallachain (Gary Holohan) Fianna Éireann Dublin Brigade.
Liam Langley, along with a group of Na Fianna members, was involved in the removal of a British Navy recruiting banner from the columns of the GPO around 1918 (date uncertain). This story was often recounted at home by Liam to his family. He added that the following day a large crowd gathered to look a the burnt banner. Liam and the group cycled back into O'Connell Street to survey the outcome of their actions.
The following is Holohan's account of the incident: "There is just one incident that comes to mind which took place after 1916. As if to add insult to injury, the British authorities erected a large scroll or banner of bunting across the top of the columns or the G.P.O. on which was painted 'An appeal for recruits for His Brittanic Majesty's Navy'. This was too much for us, so we organised a party of the Fianna. There were about twenty of us, including Liam Langley, Hugo MacNeill and Thee Fitzgerald. We met with bicycles at George's Pocket. We had a supply of twine with lead weights attached, and several sods of turf soaked in paraffin oil. We cycled into O'Connell Street at about half-past eleven, held up the policeman on duty at the point of a revolver, threw the lead weights over the banner, hauled up the burning sods of turf and the whole thing was in ashes in a few minutes. It was never replaced."
