Career
Too young to carry a gun, he became a dispatch rider. On the Tuesday after Easter Sunday 1916, the Oranmore Company assembled at 10.00 a.m. under the command of Captain Joe Howley. Furey participated in the following attack on the local R.I.C. station, which failed.
They retreated to Clairinbridge where they were joined by the Clarinbridge and Maree companies, following which the three companies march back to Oranmore, and decided to march to Athenry to join up with the local company under command of Larry Lardner.
This followed on information that a detachment of the British army led by Captain Morcombe were on the way from Galway. Captain Morcombe and his force reached the centre of Oranmore just as the last of the volunteers were leaving and a brief battle ensued.
Furey remained with the volunteers over the next ten days, and participated in the seizing of Moyode Castle, Athenry. They were shipped to Britain, serving time in Dartmoor prison.
Furey met Éamon de Valera, also imprisoned at Dartmoor, and participated in a protest against wearing prison clothes.
This resulted in Furey being chained to Thomas Ashe, Eoin McNeill, Tommy Hunter, Josip Juraj Walsh, and Bill Cosgrave for the duration of their day-long transfer to Lewes Prison, Brighton. In Lewes, Furey against participated in agitation, this time to be accorded Prisoner of War status, which resulted in being chained in gangs of seven and a diet of bread and water. On 15 June 1917, all prisoners were released and given five shillings to return to Ireland.
He had served time in a total of eight prisons.
Upon his return, he and other prisoners posed for a group photograph. In later life he was a valued source for local historians on the background and events of the Easter Rebellion in Galway, the only other one in the country outside of Dublin.
