Edmund McSweeneyPrint Page

The cross, erected over the grave commemorates Edmund McSweeney, a member of the Irish National Association (I.N.A.). 

Since its establishment in 1915, the INA has worked for the Irish community and cared for the welfare of Irish immigrants in Sydney and throughout the region. Today, the INA still cares for the development of the Irish-Australian cultural activities and the welfare of the Irish people in Australia.

On Monday, 17 June 1918, Albert Dryer and six other INA office-bearers were arrested under emergency war-time regulations, and imprisoned without trial. Apart from Dryer they were Thomas Fitzgerald, secretary of the Brisbane branch, Maurice Dalton and Frank McGeown of the Melbourne branch, and Edmund McSweeney, Michael McGing and William McGuinness of the Sydney branch. The seven were accused of membership of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and were held in Sydney's Darlinghurst Gaol for several months. Six were released on 19 December 1918, but Albert Dryer was held until 11 February 1919.

The beautiful Celtic cross erected to the memory of the late Edmund McSweeney is considered by critics to be one of the most beautiful monuments in Waverley Cemetery. Would to God that Ireland's sons were all as loyal as Ned McSweeney. Ireland's long night of suffering would have passed and its place taken by that glorious era that Pearse and his compatriots had dreamed of. Let your presence at Waverley Cemetery on Sunday, 27th instant, be, as it were, a renewal of your love to Ireland; let the waves of the ocean that wash the shores of this hallowed ground carry with them to the shores, of Erin' the feelings of her children in the land of the Southern Cross.
Freeman's Journal (Sydney),  24 October 1929. 

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