This is a statue of Sean Russell, the highly controversial Chief of Staff of the IRA (1938-40)in Fairview Park. Russell was a native of Fairview. Having taken the movement over in 1938 he led it from being anti-fascist organisation which had fought O'Duffy's Blueshirts on the streets of Dublin and Franco's Nationalists in Spain into one allied with the Nazis. Russell died in a German U-boat on his way back to Ireland in August 1940. In the early hours of January 1st 2005, the statue was beheaded and it remained headless until restored in 2009. The restored statue is said to be alarmed.