Remembering Óglach Michael Kane,3rd Battalion Belfast Brigade, Óglaigh na hÉireann, who died for Ireland #OTD 1970 - fifty years ago.

Michael Kane was the first soldier of the Irish Republic to die under arms under the command of the Provisional Irish Republican Army Council.

He was 35 years old. He was a French polisher, born in the New Lodge, North Belfast and had moved to the Short Strand and set up a business there. He had three daughters and three sons.

He joined the IRA in 1969 and took part in the defence of the Short Strand during the battle of St Matthews. His status as a teetotaler who never dranked helped him keep his involvement with the cause secret.

His grandfather, Volunteer Jack Coogan had done the same in the 1920s. His grandfather was killed in action on Valentine Road during the resistance to the Belfast pogroms.

Michael was killed while on active service on September 4th 1970. A bomb detonated prematurely near Newforge Lane in South Belfast. Michael was killed instantly and his comrade Tony O'Kane was arrested a short distance away.

Michael was buried in the County Antrim Plot after a republican funeral along the Falls Road, saluted by British soldiers as the hearse passed by.

On the 12th February 1976, Fian James O'Neill was burnt to death while on active service on the Antrim Road. He was Michael's nephew

Credit to @Tributes32 for this thread. Follow for more on republican history.