Joseph Howley was a member of the local Irish Volunteers

Irish Volunteers

The Irish Volunteers was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists. It was ostensibly formed in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers in 1912, and its declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland"...

 at Oranmore

Oranmore

Oranmore is a village in County Galway on the outskirts of Galway city in Ireland. With its major housing developments, Oranmore is rapidly becoming a part of Galway's commuter or suburban belt...

, County Galway

County Galway

County Galway is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the city of Galway. Galway County Council is the local authority for the county. There are several strongly Irish-speaking areas in the west of the county...

. Howley mobilized and led a combined contingent of 106 Volunteers from Oranmore and neighboring Maree on Easter Tuesday morning of the 1916 Easter Rising

Easter Rising

The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...

. Their plan was to attack the Oranmore barracks. The company failed to capture the barracks, and his men to join those of Liam Mellows

Liam Mellows

Liam Mellows was an Irish Republican and Sinn Féin politician. Born in England, Mellows grew up in County Wexford in Ireland. He was active with the Irish Republican Brotherhood and Irish Volunteers, and participated in the Easter Rising in County Galway, and the War of Independence...

.

He was shot dead by British Forces at the Broadstone Railway Station

Broadstone (Dublin) railway station

Broadstone railway station, , the former Dublin terminus of the Midland Great Western Railway, is currently the headquarters of Bus Éireann, housing most of their administration and also one of their main garages...

 in Dublin, Ireland, on December 4, 1920 A special unit of the RIC

Royal Irish Constabulary

The armed Royal Irish Constabulary was Ireland's major police force for most of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. A separate civic police force, the unarmed Dublin Metropolitan Police controlled the capital, and the cities of Derry and Belfast, originally with their own police...

 known as the igoe Gang was responsible.
A memorial statue to Howley was erected in 1947 in Howley Court in Oranmore. The inscription reads: