PRO-IRISH 'FASCIST' MAMMIES AND DADDIES!
"Those sought out at that time by Irish republicans to do 'business' with were real, dedicated and active far-right fascists, not the pro-Irish Mammies and Daddies (me and mine included) , teenagers and old-age pensioners who are called far-right fascists by the 'Come-One-Come-All/Open Borders' people and Irish self-declared 'republican' groups, for taking to the streets of Ireland today to voice opposition to the foreign vagrants that are here now..."
Who is the slippery ex-American President whose name was raised by an Irish Establishment media outlet as being linked to the State Presidential election here? He has Irish roots (or at least claims to have!) and is a household name here...
...and that's just two of the 14-piece blog entry that we'll be posting here on Wednesday, 8th October 2025, in which we'll be writing about certain political events that happened in Ireland, England, and further afield, between the 18th and 21st centuries.
Not all of the events, mind, as it's not a bleedin' manuscript we'll be posting...!
And here's a few more teasers for ya -
Munster, 1920's - the British soldiers were travelling in the back of the Crossley Tender lorry when a ticking bomb was lobbed in at their feet. Stunned, the soldiers looked at it, then looked at each other. One of them jumped up and lifted it, intending to throw it out on the busy road or footpath, but...
In the early 1920's, this Volunteer, from Kildare, knocked on his own halldoor for the first time in almost a year : he had been imprisoned by the British for "having seditious literature in his possession..."
"The DOC backed down, as he was always wont to do - he 'talked the talk' but, when push came to shove by the British, he showed his true mettle, and panicked that he would not be able to back down quick enough..."
Mid-1920's, Ireland - Westminster's newest serfs at that time, the Free State administration in this part of Ireland, put it out there in their then-as-now bought-and-paid-for media, that they had DEMANDED AN IMMEDIATE RESPONSE from the British in relation to a particular issue concerning their branch management of the new entity (...the word 'requested' was not used!). AND...they done the same, months later, after their Head Office in London couldn't be bothered to even acknowledge receipt of THE DEMAND (!), never mind respond to it...!
Ireland, mid-19th Century : this unsung Irish hero - a doctor - always holding rebel feelings, fully expressed those feelings when he could take British injustices in Ireland no more. When he got too 'uppity' for the British, they accused him of waging war against them but they had to be careful how they dealt with him because, by now, he had attracted worldwide coverage...
Thanks for reading - we appreciate it!
We'll be looking out for ya on Wednesday, 8th October 2025 - and we'll be disappointed if yer a no-show, and so will the Boys (...the Boys on the blog, I mean..!)
See ya on Wednesday the 8th.
Sharon and the team.
ON THIS DATE (24TH SEPTEMBER) 227 YEARS AGO..."HE DRAWS ANOTHER PISTOL AND SHOOTS THE GUNNER..."
"....suddenly Bartholomew Teeling broke from the Franco-Irish forces and charged forward on his horse.
One may imagine the scene: the British at first watch incredulously, then a scattered fire of muskets. Teeling is unharmed, galloping onwards. The British sharpshooter by the cannon coolly takes aim. Teeling eyes him and suddenly swerves his horse ; the shot goes past him.
The sharpshooter curses and reloads. Another ragged volley from the infantry and again they miss...the French and the Irish are cheering but they can’t believe he will make it. Teeling’s horse leaps a ditch and gallops on past the infantry, foam flying from the animal's body – the sharpshooter looks up at him, loses his nerve and fumbles the charging of his musket.
Teeling is up at the gun, he has drawn his pistol and shoots the sharpshooter dead. He draws another pistol and shoots the gunner.
The Irish and French are ecstatic and charge forward. The British are stunned ; some stand but most of the British infantry flee from the superior numbers and leave the cannon in the hands of the insurrectionist forces, as well as 60 dead and 100 taken prisoner..."
(from here.)
Another author wrote, re the above scene, which took place at the Battle of Collooney - "...this was the turning point of the battle. The troops despatched from Knockbeg had reached Beal Ban and were already rushing down on the British flank. The other column was advancing at a rapid pace against the front.
There was no safety for Verecker from this double danger, except in retreat ; and as the Ballysadare road was no longer practicable, he ordered his men to cross the river and make for Sligo..."
Bartholomew Teeling (pictured, above) was only 24 years of age when he was captured at the Battle of Ballinamuck, Longford, as were another 500 or so Irish and French fighters. The French soldiers were treated as POW's but the Irish soldiers were executed - Teeling was hanged by the British on the 24th September 1798 at Provost Prison in Arbour Hill, Dublin, before his body was thrown into the 'Croppy Pit'.
He attempted to read the following statement from the scaffold, but was not permitted by the 'authorities' to do so :
"Fellow-citizens, I have been condemned by a military tribunal to suffer what they call an ignominious death, but what appears, from the number of its illustrious victims, to be glorious in the highest degree.
It is not in the power of men to abase virtue nor the man who dies for it. His death must be glorious in the field of battle or on the scaffold.
The same Tribunal which has condemned me — citizens, I do not speak to you here of the constitutional right of such a Tribunal — has stamped me a traitor.
If to have been active in endeavouring to put a stop to the blood-thirsty policy of an oppressive Government has been treason, I am guilty. If to have endeavoured to give my native country a place among the nations of the earth was treason, then I am guilty indeed. If to have been active in endeavouring to remove the fangs of oppression from the head of the devoted Irish peasant was treason, I am guilty.
Finally, if to have striven to make my fellow-men love each other was guilt, then I am guilty.
You, my countrymen, may perhaps one day be able to tell whether these were the acts of a traitor or deserved death. My own heart tells me they were not and, conscious of my innocence, I would not change my present situation for that of the highest of my enemies.
Fellow-citizens, I leave you with the heartfelt satisfaction of having kept my oath as a United Irishman, and also with the glorious prospect of the success of the cause in which we have been engaged.
Persevere, my beloved countrymen.
Your cause is the cause of Truth.
It must and will ultimately triumph."
RIP Bartholomew Teeling, Irish Rebel, 1774-1798.
"You cannot in the existing state in Ireland punish a policeman (sic) who shoots a man whom he has every reason to suspect is concerned in police murders.
That kind of thing (ie shooting an RIC member) can only be met by reprisals..."
- the words of a Mr David Lloyd George ('1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor' etc!), the British Prime Minister at the time, as recounted (on the 24th September 1920) by a colleague of his, a Mr Herbert Albert Laurens Fisher (pictured), an MP for the constituency of Sheffield Hallam and, at that time, the President of the British Board of Education.
In effect, that would be a 'licence to kill' - to shoot dead anyone who 'looks suspect'!
On the same date that Mr Fisher was fondly recounting the words of Mr George, a Mr Henry Owens (30, 'Service Number 4180426'), a soldier in the British Army's 'Royal Welch Fusiliers', was in a military barracks ('New Barracks') in Limerick, when he was shot, dying shortly afterwards from the wound.
The shooting was said to have been carried out, 'accidentally', by one of his own comrades.
==========================
GAS LADS...
The massive finds of oil and gas on our western seaboard could ensure Ireland's financial security for generations.
Wealth approximating that of the Arab countries is within our grasp, but the Irish government seems content to sell off our birthright for a handful of votes and a few dollars.
In a special 'Magill' report, Sandra Mara investigates just what we are giving away, and why.
From 'Magill' magazine, March 2002.
However, 'Enterprise Oil' refused to meet with SIPTU and there followed a series of peaceful protests by Irish rig-workers.
The company then moved operations to Ayr on the west coast of Scotland and outsourced the bulk of its goods and services requirements.
For its part, the company says it has no objection to hiring Irish rig-workers ; "absolutely not.." spokesperson Pat Keating told 'Magill' magazine, "...my understanding of the issue is that rigs come in on contract for two, three or five months, and have specialist work forces which come with them.
You can't just send anybody out on a rig ; it would be a delight to have Irish workers, but there's not enough specialist Irish staff out there. So that issue really is a red herring..."
As for Ray Burke's rather generous terms, Pat Keating says they would have had little impact on Enterprise Oil's decision to drill here...
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (24TH SEPTEMBER) 108 YEARS AGO : BRITISH PLANS FINALISED TO FORCE-FEED AN IRISH HUNGER-STRIKER.
"You cannot put a rope around the neck of an idea...you cannot confine it in the strongest prison cell that your slaves could ever build.." - the words of Séan O'Casey, in relation to the murder of Thomas Ashe.
The funeral procession in Dublin, 30th September 1917 (pictured), for Thomas Ashe, an IRB leader, who died on the 25th September that year, after being force fed by his British jailers.
He was the first Irish republican to die as a result of a hunger-strike and, between that year and 1981, twenty-one other Irish republicans died on hunger-strike.
The jury at the inquest into his death found "..that the deceased, Thomas Ashe, according to the medical evidence of Professor McWeeney, Sir Arthur Chance, and Sir Thomas Myles, died from heart failure and congestion of the lungs on the 25th September, 1917 and that his death was caused by the punishment of taking away from the cell bed, bedding and boots and allowing him to be on the cold floor for 50 hours, and then subjecting him to forcible feeding in his weak condition after hunger-striking for five or six days.."
Michael Collins organised the funeral and transformed it into a national demonstration against British misrule in Ireland ; armed 'Irish Republican Brotherhood' Volunteers in full uniform flanked the coffin, followed by 9,000 other IRB Volunteers, and approximately 30,000 people lined the streets.
A volley of shots was fired over Ashe's grave, following which Michael Collins stated - "Nothing more remains to be said. That volley which we have just heard is the only speech which it is proper to make over the grave of a dead Fenian."
The London-based 'Daily Express' newspaper perhaps summed it up best when it stated, re the funeral of Thomas Ashe, that what had happened had made '100,000 Sinn Féiners out of 100,000 constitutional nationalists.'
The level of support shown gave a boost to Irish republicans, and this was noted by the 'establishment' in Westminster - 'The Daily Mail' newspaper claimed that, a month earlier, Sinn Féin, despite its electoral successes, had been a waning force. That newspaper said -
'..It had no practical programme, for the programme of going further than anyone else cannot be so described. It was not making headway. But Sinn Féin today is pretty nearly another name for the vast bulk of youth in Ireland...'
Thomas Patrick Ashe’s activities and interests included cultural and physical force nationalism as well as trade unionism and socialism. He also commanded the 5th Battalion of the Dublin Brigade Volunteers who won the Battle of Ashbourne on the 29th of April 1916. Born in Lispole, County Kerry on the 12th of January 1885, he was the seventh of ten siblings.
He qualified as a teacher in 1905 at De La Salle College, Waterford and, after teaching briefly in Kinnard, County Kerry, in 1906 he became principal of Corduff National School in Lusk, County Dublin.
Thomas Ashe was a fluent Irish speaker and a member of the Keating branch of the Gaelic League and was an accomplished sportsman and musician setting up the Roundtowers GAA Club as well as helping to establish the Lusk Pipe Band (pictured). He was also a talented singer and poet who was committed to Conradh na Gaeilge.
Politically, he was a member of the 'Irish Republican Brotherhood' (IRB) and established IRB circles in Dublin and Kerry and eventually became President of the IRB Supreme Council in 1917. While he was actively and intellectually nationalist he was also inspired by contemporary socialism. Ashe rejected conservative Home Rule politicians and as part of that rejection he espoused the Labour policies of James Larkin.
Writing in a letter to his brother Gregory he said "We are all here on Larkin's side. He'll beat hell out of the snobbish, mean, seoinín employers yet, and more power to him".
Ashe supported the unionisation of north Dublin farm labourers and his activities brought him into conflict with landowners such as Thomas Kettle in 1912. During the infamous lockout in 1913 he was a frequent visitor to Liberty Hall and become a friend of James Connolly.
Long prior to its publication in 1916, Thomas Ashe was a practitioner of Connolly’s dictum that "the cause of labour is the cause of Ireland, the cause of Ireland is the cause of labour". In 1914 Ashe travelled to the United States where he raised a substantial sum of money for both the Gaelic League and the newly formed Irish Volunteers of which he was an early member.
He founded the Volunteers in Lusk and established a firm foundation of practical and theoretical military training, and provided charismatic leadership first as Adjutant and then as O/C (Officer Commanding) the 5th Battalion of the Dublin Brigade.
He inspired fierce loyalty and encouraged personal initiative in his junior officers and was therefore able to confidently delegate command to Charlie Weston, Joseph Lawless, Edward Rooney and others during the Rising. Most significantly, he took advantage of the arrival of Richard Mulcahy at Finglas Glen on the Tuesday of the Rising and appointed him second in command.
The two men knew one another through the IRB and Gaelic League and Ashe recognized Mulcahy’s tactical abilities. As a result Ashe allowed himself to be persuaded by Mulcahy not to withdraw following the unexpected arrival of the motorised force at the Rath crossroads. At Ashbourne on the 28th of April Ashe also demonstrated great personal courage, first exposing himself to fire while calling on the RIC in the fortified barracks to surrender and then actively leading his Volunteers against the RIC during the Battle.
After the 1916 Rising he was court-martialled (on the 8th of May 1916) and was sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life.
He was incarcerated in a variety of English prisons before being released in the June 1917 general amnesty, immediately returned to Ireland, toured the country reorganising the IRB and incited civil opposition to British rule.
In August 1917, after a speech in Ballinalee, County Longford, he was arrested by the RIC and charged with "speeches calculated to cause disaffection".
He was detained in the Curragh camp and later sentenced to a year's hard labour in Mountjoy Jail. There he became O/C of the Volunteer prisoners, and demanded prisoner-of-war status and, as a result, he was punished by the Governor.
He went on hunger strike on the 20th September 1917 and five days later died as a result of force-feeding by the prison authorities ; he was just 32 years of age.
The death of Thomas Ashe resulted in POW status being conceded to the Volunteer prisoners two days later.
Thomas Ashe's funeral was the first public funeral after the Rising and provided a focal point for public disaffection with British rule. His body lay in state in Dublin City Hall before being escorted by armed Volunteers to Glasnevin Cemetery ; 30,000 people attended the burial where three volleys were fired over the grave (pictured) and the Last Post was sounded.
While imprisoned in Lewes Jail in 1916, Thomas Ashe had written his poem 'Let Me Carry Your Cross for Ireland, Lord' which later provided the inspiration for the Battle of Ashbourne memorial unveiled by Sean T. O'Kelly on Easter Sunday, 26th April 1959 at the Rath Cross in Ashbourne :
Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord
The hour of her trial draws near,
And the pangs and the pains of the sacrifice
May be borne by comrades dear.
But, Lord, take me from the offering throng,
There are many far less prepared,
Through anxious and all as they are to die
That Ireland may be spared.
Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord
My cares in this world are few,
and few are the tears will for me fall
When I go on my way to You.
Spare Oh! Spare to their loved ones dear
The brother and son and sire,
That the cause we love may never die
In the land of our Heart's desire!
Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord!
Let me suffer the pain and shame
I bow my head to their rage and hate,
And I take on myself the blame.
Let them do with my body whate'er they will,
My spirit I offer to You,
That the faithful few who heard her call
May be spared to Roisin Dubh.
Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord!
For Ireland weak with tears,
For the aged man of the clouded brow,
And the child of tender years;
For the empty homes of her golden plains,
For the hopes of her future, Too!
Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord!
For the cause of Roisin Dubh.
RIP Volunteer Thomas Ashe, 12th January 1885 – 25th September 1917.
ON THIS DATE (24TH SEPTEMBER) 49 YEARS AGO : "A THUNDERING DISGRACE" COMMENT MADE PUBLIC.
Ireland, 1970's : turmoil in the country, due to the then-as-now unwanted political and military interference here by Westminster.
The Leinster House administration was headed-up at the time by Fine Gael's Liam Cosgrave , and among the many harsh laws introduced, enforced and 'improved on' by the Blueshirts was a censorship act, 'Section 31'.
The then Free State President was a Fianna Fail man, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh , said to be a compromise candidate by the powers-that-be at the time, as he fitted the requirements dictated by the 'establishment' (ie 'a safe pair of hands').
He was previously the Free State Attorney General and Chief Justice of the FS Supreme Court, and was given the Office, unopposed, in 1974, following the death of Erskine Hamilton Childers.
But it was that legal training which raised a red flag with him in relation to a piece of legislation which the Blueshirt Leinster House administration wanted him to 'rubber stamp' - the 'Emergency Powers Act', and the fact that Ó Dálaigh and Cosgrave didn't agree with each other, socially or politically, came into play : Ó Dálaigh refused to simply 'sign off' on the 'EPA' without first testing its constitutionally.
On the 24th of September, 1976 - 49 years ago on this date - it became known that Mr Ó Dálaigh had spent four hours the day before consulting with a bunch of posh suits known as the Free State 'Council of State' on whether or not it would be best practice to refer the legislation to the Free State Supreme Court to test its constitutionality before he could declare it to be 'the law' and it was decided that that would be the best thing to do, a decision which annoyed the Blueshirt administration.
Just over three weeks later (ie on the 15th October 1976) the FS Supreme Court declared that the 'EPA' was a legitimate piece of legislation and it was only then that Ó Dálaigh deemed it necessary to sign-off on it, which he did, reluctantly (or so it was claimed at the time) but that 'victory' wasn't enough for Cosgrave and his people - they considered themselves to have been disrespected by the actions of Mr Ó Dálaigh and, three days later (ie on the 18th October 1976), they could contain themselves no longer.
It was on that date that the Free State Minister of Defence, Paddy Donegan, was opening a new Free State army barracks in Mullingar, County Westmeath (having, seemingly, forgot that Mr Ó Dálaigh was the Commander-In-Chief of said army!) that he made a remark (he was concussed at the time, he later claimed!) which was to haunt him for the rest of his life.
He had 'kicked himself up the transom', if you like, which wouldn't have caused as much damage as firing a shotgun over dwellings in which people lived - more about that 'eccentric' (!) Free State politician can be read here...
On the 24th September, 1921, during a speech he delivered in Dundee in Scotland, a Mr Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (pictured), British PM, stated that if the Treaty (of Surrender) was not accepted by the Irish...
"..our course would be very unpleasant, but it would also be very simple.
Not peace, but certain war ; real war, not mere bushranging, would follow such a course..."
Later in that speech, Mr Churchill admitted that one of the main reasons why the British needed an end to their terror campaign in Ireland was because "it would remove the greatest obstacle which has ever existed to Anglo-American unity.." ie trade, business, money : slaughtering the Irish was not a good business card to approach the Americans with...
...meanwhile, on that same date, the IRA were doing some approach work themselves, in connection with that same subject - the (Treaty) Truce - which had come into effect on Monday, July 11th 1921, to allow for negotiations between both sides.
The Officer Commanding of the West Limerick Brigade approached the Battalion Commanders in his operational area and instructed them that, as the Truce talks were winding-up, they should advise their fighters to be ready for battle as the outcome of the talks may demand it.
While IRA fighters in Limerick (and other areas in the country) were being briefed by their officers, rioting broke out about 200 miles/320 km up the road in Belfast.
British loyalists, disgusted that 'their side might be about to loose ground to Irish republicans', behaved as expected - they rioted.
A gang of them met up and proceeded to the Short Strand and Newtownards Road area of the city but they met resistance on the way and there and, in the ensuing street fight, two of their number (both aged 19) - James McMinn, from Reid's Place, and Alexander Harrison, from Frazer Street - died when a bomb was thrown at the gang, and about 20 of their colleagues were injured.
==========================
CASH NO EXCUSE FOR RTE PUTTING DOCUMENTARY TO DEATH...
It has been a disastrous 12 months for RTE.
£23.5 million in cutbacks, a bid to increase the licence fee rejected, an enforced postponement of digital expansion, and a predicted £20 million loss to report for 2001.
By Belinda McKeon .
From 'Magill' Annual, 2002.
RTE should remember that its audience has always come through for it when it has taken intelligent risks with programming - it should have faith in that audience, it should have faith in its independent programmers, and it should have faith in itself.
Because, ultimately, it is for itself that the station needs to move forward, not for a minister and her pack of accountants.
(END of 'Cash No Excuse For RTE Putting Documentary To Death' : NEXT - 'William Jefferson Clinton', from the same source.)
"We consider it imperative that some sort of Government, whether a Provisional or a Republican or a military one, should be inaugurated at once..."
- the words written by Volunteer leader Ernie O'Malley (pictured, aka 'B. Stuart'), in a letter he sent, on the 24th September, 1922, to Volunteer leader Liam Lynch.
At that time, the IRA had launched a 'September Offensive' and was attacking Free State forces as opposed to simply defending themselves from FSA attacks on them, and the rebels had success enough to worry the Stater politicians to the point that they introduced, that same month, a death penalty for IRA members.
Perhaps their colleagues in Westminster were paying them a bounty on each ex-comrade they executed...?
As Volunteer Lynch was reading that letter, an IRA Active Service Unit had opened fire on a FSA guard post in Glendalough, in County Wicklow, and was getting the upper hand when the fight was interrupted by the arrival of a 50-strong FSA patrol.
The IRA ASU was now outnumbered and outgunned, and was forced to retreat, with two Volunteers wounded and three captured.
And, on that same date (the 24th), an already captured IRA fighter, Volunteer Patrick Mangan (age 20, Third Battalion of the Cork No. 2 Brigade), from the village of Carrignagower, near Lismore, in County Waterford, was shot by a FSA sentry during a disturbance in Cork Jail.
The IRA POW'S (numbering about 400 Volunteers) refused to return to their cells from the recreation yard and, after being forced to move inside the prison by FSA soldiers/prison guards using their rifle butts, the prisoners rioted in the corridors.
Shots were fired over their heads which dispersed some of the POW's and, when a second round was fired at them, Volunteer Mangan fell to the ground, wounded. He died from that wound the next day.
Attempting to explain and excuse their actions, the Staters put out a statement -
"One party of prisoners, amongst whom was the deceased, still remained on the corridors, shouting and defiant. The sentry was again ordered to fire, and Mangan fell wounded..."
Volunteer Mangan died the following day from the wound.
The Staters held a 'Military Inquiry' (!) into the shooting and issued the following statement afterwards -
"Patrick Mangan met his death as the result of a shot fired by a sentry in the execution of his duty, and the officer who gave the order to fire was justified, as the prisoners had sufficient warnings and ample time to comply with the order to return to their cells..."
Volunteer Patrick Mangan, from the village of Carrignagower, near Lismore, in County Waterford, was attached to the Third Battalion of the Cork No. 2 Brigade, and operated mostly as as a dispatach rider. He was captured by the Staters in Fermoy, County Cork, in August 1922 and imprisoned in Cork Jail.
He is buried in Lismore Old Cemetery in County Cork, and is named on the IRA memorial in Kilcrumper Cemetery in that town.
RIP Volunteer Patrick Mangan.
On that same Sunday (24th September 1922), a pastoral letter from the RC Bishop of Cork, a Mr Daniel Coughlan, was read out at all Masses in the diocese, in which Mr Coughlan stated that "the killing of National (sic) soldiers is murder...", and went on to state that any person taking part in an ambush in which British soldiers were injured, held as hostages, or killed ("murdered", he called it) would be promptly excommunicated by the Catholic Church!
Mr Coughlan, or Cohalan, which he preferred, was known for his loyalty to the Crown and was also known - among the public - as 'Danny Boy', a reference to his pro-British leanings.
Just another quisling in a long line of quislings.
==========================
DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...
Desmond Boomer, a Belfast engineer working in the Libyan oil-fields, disappeared seven years ago.
Officially, the plane on which he was a passenger crashed as a result of mechanical failure and pilot error.
But is that the real story?
Or were the Irishman and his fellow passengers unwitting victims of the shady war between Islamic fundamentalism and Mossad, Israel's intelligence network?
A special 'Magill' investigation by Don Mullan, author of 'Eyewitness Bloody Sunday'.
From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.
Cormac Boomer, an engineer by profession, told 'Magill' magazine -
"On the 16th May, 1997, I examined and photographed the alleged wreckage.
It is obviouse the condition of it was not compatible with having spent ten months in the salt brine of the Mediterranean.
There was no indication of salt pigment or the corrosion one would expect to find in such circumstances.
It is claimed the aircraft fell from a height of 9,000 feet into the sea in a severe storm but it is strange, therefore, that the cable looms do not show any indication of the stretch, arc or rupture one would expect from the ripping-apart which would occur in an aircraft descending in a headlong plunge.
From my visual inspection and the photographic evidence it is obvious the ends of those cables have been severed with a cutting tool..."
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (24TH SEPTEMBER) 42 YEARS AGO - IRA H-BLOCK PRISON ESCAPE PLAN FINALISED BY IRA POW'S.
THE LONG KESH ESCAPE - SUNDAY 25th SEPTEMBER 1983. From 'IRIS' magazine, November 1983.
"We perceived the escape as a military operation from beginning to end. It could not have been achieved in any other way, and the ASU - as Volunteers in the Irish Republican Army - were under strict orders throughout from an Operations Officer whose judgement was crucial and whose every order had to be obeyed.
Every Volunteer was under a tight brief.." - IRA statement.
It was this precision of planning, exclusively revealed in a detailed interview by key ASU personnel involved, that lay behind the almost incredible escape of 38 Republicans on Sunday 25th September 1983 from what is generally believed to be the most secure prison in Western Europe - the H-Blocks of Long Kesh (near Lisburn, South Belfast).
At 2.15pm that day, three IRA Volunteers carrying concealed pistols fitted with silencers, which had been smuggled into the prison, moved into the 'Central Administration' area (the 'Circle') of H7-Block on the pretext of cleaning out a store. Fifteen minutes later they were joined by a fourth armed Volunteer ; control of the 'Circle', with its numerous alarm bells, was vital for the escape's success and had to be carried out simultaneously with the overpowering of prison Screws in the four wings of H7-Block.
Minutes later three other Volunteers - armed with pistols, hammers or chisels - took up key positions near Screws positioned by alarm buttons, on the pretext of carrying out orderly duties, while Brendan 'Bic' McFarlane (the H-Block Officer Commanding during the hunger-strike) was allowed through two locked grilles into the hall of the Block on cleaning duties - his job was to arrest the Screw there and, on a given signal - once everyone was in position - IRA Volunteers overpowered and arrested all the prison Screws in the Block, many of the Volunteers subsequently changing into their uniforms.
During the seizure of control one Screw - on duty in a locked control room - was shot twice in the head when he ignored orders to lie on the floor and instead made a lunge for the alarm. Control of the Block was completed when 'Bic' McFarlane, accompanied by two IRA Volunteers dressed as Screws, arrested the Screw on duty in the front gate enclosure. It was now about 2.45pm.
Some time later the food lorry bringing evening meals to H7 (pictured) arrived ; 37 IRA Volunteers climbed into the back while another lay on the floor of the cab holding a gun on the Screw driving the lorry. The lorry then drove through a series of 'security gates' in the Long Kesh complex manned by unsuspecting Screws and in full view of armed British sentry posts.
It eventually arrived at a 'tally hut' close to a back gate of the prison camp ; the plan was to arrest the Screws in the 'tally hut' and, leaving five Volunteers in control, drive the food lorry a further quarter mile to the front gate 'tally hut' which the escapees would then take control of, leaving two Volunteers there, before driving out in the food lorry to freedom.
Meanwhile, the five Volunteers in the first 'tally hut' would obtain a Screw's car from the adjoining car park, drive to the front gate where the two Volunteers in control there would clamber into the boot, and also make their escape. That was the plan of escape ; unfortunately, it was not to be - the plan of escape began to go wrong at the first 'tally-hut' due to there being larger numbers of Screws coming on duty than anticipated.
While the escapees kept arresting more and more Screws, the situation got out of control and the alarm was raised.
At this point the escapees were forced to make a run for it on foot across fields, many of them successfully commandeering local cars. In the final melee several Screws were stabbed and one escapee, Harry Murray (pictured), was shot and wounded.
It was inevitable, given the eventual breakdown of the plan, that there would be some re-arrests, some within minutes and some within two days of the break-out. Nonetheless, the massive total of 19 Republican prisoners of war did successfully escape and eventually reach freedom - to the massive embarrassment of the British and the jubilation of Nationalists throughout the 32 Counties !
The 19 H-Block escapees that were then at liberty are - Kevin Barry Artt, (24) North Belfast ; Paul Brennan (30) Ballymurphy ; Seamus Campbell (26) Coalisland, County Tyrone ; James Clarke (27) Letterkenny, County Donegal ; Seamus Clarke (27) Ardoyne ; Gerard Fryer (24) Turf Lodge ; Dermot Finucane (22) Lenadoon ; Kieran Fleming (23) Derry ; Anthony Kelly (22) Derry ; Gerry Kelly (30) Belfast ; Anthony McAllister (25) Belfast ; Gerard McDonnell (32) Belfast ; Seamus McElwair (22) Scotstown, County Monaghan ; Brendan McFarane (31) Ardoyne ; Padraic McKearney (29) Moy, County Tyrone ; Dermot McNally (26) Lurgantarry, North Armagh ; Robert Russell (25) Ballymurphy ; Terence Kirby (27) Andersonstown and James Smith (38) Ardoyne.
Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated, especially (because we're greedy!) as we're trying to get to 3 million hits (...did ya notice that we now have over two million hits..?!).
Sure we're never bleedin' happy...!
Sharon and the team.
(We'll be back on Wednesday, 8th October, 2025.)
WESTMINSTER, 1920's - 'SHOOT-TO-KILL' POLICY GIVEN OFFICIAL APPROVAL...
Westminster, 1920's - 'shoot-to-kill' policy in Ireland is given 'official approval' when the British PM sought to excuse the conduct of his soldiers by practically giving them a 'licence-to-kill'...
'What they got was British 'justice',It's plain for all to see :Orders straight from Westminster -Shoot-To-Kill, the policy...'
That's just one of the 13-pieces we'll be posting on this blog on Wednesday, 24th September 2025 - and here's two more tasters...!
1921, Westminster - what exactly was said by the then British PM in relation to the on-going discussions between the British imposers and the Irish rebels, leading to threats being made by one side...?
Ireland, 1920's, in a Free State prison : the protesting rebel POW's were demonstrating in the exercise yard when they were attacked by armed members of the Free State Army, and were batoned and bludgeoned but, when forced back inside the prison, the Staters opened fire on them...
...and there are ten more articles like that - from today and yesterday, all 32 Counties and all in relation to Irish history and Irish politics - comin'-at-ya, as stated, on Wednesday, 24th September 2025.
So, do, please, give us a look-see on the 24th : and if ya don't like wha' we're floggin', sure we'll give ya yer money back.
Oh wait...!
Thanks for visiting today, and for reading our lil' promo piece - appreciated ; see ya on the 24th, hopefully!
Sharon and the team.
On the 10th September, 1919, the 'British Viceroy for Ireland', a Mr John French, and his political and military pal, a Mr Frederick Charles Shaw, the 'Commander of the British Army in Ireland', signed a proclamation outlawing Dáil Éireann.
Some days later, in Westminster political circles, an in-house letter came to light showing that the British 'Chief Secretary for Ireland', a Mr Ian Macpherson, and his buddy, a Mr Andrew Bonar Law, the 'Leader of the House of Commons and Lord Privy Seal', had... 'allowed (!) Dáil Éireann to assemble and sit in consultation if they wished (but when they) conspired by executive acts to overthrow the duly constituted authority (by which they meant Westminster), then we had to act...'
And, in acting in that manner, the British inadvertently showed, and proved, that politics alone wasn't going to be enough to shift them from Ireland...
==========================
On the 10th September, 1919, a Mr George Frederick Ernest Albert (aka 'King George V of England', pictured) instructed his 'Lord Privy Seal of England', a Mr Bonar Law, to attend for a meeting with him and, on the 11th, the two men were in each others company.
Mr Ernest Albert questioned Mr Law about the measures that the British government were taking to protect... "..the lives of unoffending people in Ireland, and what measures were to be brought into parliament for the government of the country (ie Ireland)..?"
The "unoffending people" in Ireland were, no doubt, those who weren't fighting against the savage hordes unleashed on them by both Mr Albert and the political savage hordes he surrounded himself with.
Anyway - the poor man wasn't in the best of health, and he died, at 70 years of age, on the 20th January, 1936, in London, from a purposely-administered drug overdose.
Whether his death was an act of euthanasia, medically assisted suicide or murder, he should have been more concerned about his own governance than that of a country foreign to him...
GAS LADS...
The massive finds of oil and gas on our western seaboard could ensure Ireland's financial security for generations.
Wealth approximating that of the Arab countries is within our grasp, but the Irish government seems content to sell off our birthright for a handful of votes and a few dollars.
In a special 'Magill' report, Sandra Mara investigates just what we are giving away, and why.
From 'Magill' magazine, March 2002.
However, things were not straightforward, and it took difficult and prolonged negotiations to reach an agreement with Enterprise Oil which resulted in some Irish rig-workers being employed.
At one point, Enterprise Oil threatened to pull out of Foynes, which was being used as a service base, and relocate to Ayr in Scotland.
This move was prevented when Emmet Stagg TD told the oil companies that they could not claim Irish tax breaks while operating out of the jurisdiction.
Following these negotiations, a number of experienced Irish rig-workers got jobs on board the Petrolia drilling rig and were there when it hit a "huge gas find, almost a blow-out", as one worker describes it.
The pressure of the gas find was so high that it caused major technical difficulties and drilling was abandoned until 1998 but, eventually, almost two years later, the 'Sedco 711', owned by Sedco Forex, was contracted to drill and Enterprise Oil agreed 34 jobs for Irish rig-workers...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 10th and 11th of September, 1920, as the Newbridge and Athgarvan Companies of the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Brigade Kildare IRA (1st Eastern Division) were carrying out a number of successful raids for arms in their areas, their republican comrades who worked on 'The Irish Bulletin' newspaper published details of a 'false flag' operation by British forces.
In November, 1919, raids by the DMP and other British forces had yielded sheets of blank Dáil notepaper on which Westminster and Dublin Castle agents were issuing false orders and instructions to IRA Units countrywide in the hope of disrupting the Movement.
The republican newspaper had in its possession false orders and instructions issued on Dáil paper by Dublin Castle agents in January and April and it also published an intelligence report written by a British Army Captain, a Mr Frederick Harper-Shove, who was attached to the 'BA General Staff, Intelligence', and was better known in BA circles as a 'spy instructor' - he mostly operated from the 'spy school' in Hounslow, in West London, in a premises known as 'Cavalry Barracks/Silent Section'.
Mr Harper-Shove had been staying in the St Andrew's Hotel in Exchequer Street, Dublin, from where he wrote a letter to one of his spy buddies, a British Army Major, Jocelyn Lee 'Hoppy' Hardy -
"Dear Hardy,
Have been given a free hand to carry on, and everyone has been charming.
Re our little stunt, I see no prospects until I have things on a firmer basis, but still hope and believe there are possibilities..."
The "little stunt" was probably a reference to the 'false flag' orders/instructions he and his people were placing in Irish republican circles, in the hope that it would lead to IRA members executing their own people in the belief that they had been 'turned'.
When not trying to stitch good people up, Mr Harper-Shove was apparently stitching himself up - his military 'Medal Index Card' contains complaints from his superior officers that he was fond of wearing medals to which he was not entitled and, in his dealings with the 'Herbal Medicine' (!) industry, Mr Harper-Shove was known as a Lieutenant-Colonel, a rank he was never entitled to!
Despite his many enemies, he stitched-up (!) a long life for himself - he died in 1974, at 88 years of age, in Gateshead, in Tyne and Wear, North East England.
That, at least, is true about the man...
'SCAB!
This is Robert Bruce, who continued to drive (British Army) munition trains while his comrades are being dismissed (for refusing to drive them).'
- Mr Bruce was the driver of a train from Belfast to Dublin on the morning of the 10th September, 1920, and the above comment was written on a placard that was made for him...
After he stationed the train in Dublin, he had a few hours before doing the return journey so he went to a pub in nearby Talbot Street, and had a pint or two.
He finished his drinks and left the pub - immediately outside, three IRA Volunteers identified themselves to Mr Bruce, showed him their placard, moved him over to a street pole and, using a length of chain and a padlock, secured him to it and placed the placard around his neck.
He wouldn't agree, but he got away lightly...
At the same time as Mr Bruce was trying on his jewellery, 155km (about 96 miles) up the road, in County Leitrim, Volunteer Patrick Gill, a middle-aged farmer from Corlara, Kilmore, County Roscommon was walking down the street in Drumsna, County Leitrim, with his sister, Elizabeth, and one of her friends, a M/s Netley.
The three friends were on their way home after attending the wake of a colleague, a Mr Bernard O'Beirne, and were walking slowly through the village when, without warning, shots were fired from the back of a British Army lorry, and Volunteer Gill fell down, dead.
An inquest was held and a Lieutenant Wallace, from the East Yorkshire Regiment of the British Army, claimed that Volunteer Gill was shouted at three times to stop, refused to do so, and was shot dead because of the danger he presented to the armed soldiers present!
The verdict reached was that "death was caused by a shooting by persons unknown..", while a coroners jury subsequently found that Volunteer Gill "had been murdered without provocation".
RIP Volunteer Patrick Gill.
==========================
ON THIS DATE (10TH SEPTEMBER) 69 YEARS AGO - LESSONS IN HOW TO KILL PEOPLE QUICKER.
"The British wanted to understand the harm that atomic explosions caused, and it was decided to use Australians, without their full knowledge and consent, as human guinea pigs. Australians were there simply to provide the labour, the bodies needed to get the tests done, the land to explode the bombs on, and, as it was later revealed, to function as lab rats for the British scientists..."
On the 10th September 1956, the British, not content with the carnage they inflicted in Dusseldorf 14 years earlier, wanted to see if they could blow things up quicker and kill even more people with less effort, and hundreds of British nuclear 'trials' took place in South Australia, about 800 kilometres north-west of Adelaide, between 1956 and 1963, at the Maralinga site, part of the Woomera Prohibited Area.
A total of seven major nuclear tests were performed,along with hundreds of minor trials, with approximate yields ranging from 1 to 27 kilotonnes of TNT (4.2 to 113.0 TJ).
Frank Walker, the author of the above-pictured book, came across the minutes of a meeting held on the 24th May 1957 between members of the 'UK Atomic Energy Research Establishment', chaired by Professor Ernest Titterton, during which the group agreed to continue its testing programme to determine the long-term effects of nuclear explosions on Australian citizens and also agreed to continue secretly testing the bodies of dead babies, infants, children, teenagers and young adults (of which the known total examined was given as 21,830!) for radiation contamination.
This violation of the dead apparently started innocently enough (!), with testing carried out on soil samples, graduating from that to tests on dead animals and then to its final phase - tests on dead humans, to discover "...if Strontium-90 is entering the food chain and getting into humans..."
'The site was contaminated with radioactive materials and an initial cleanup was attempted in 1967. The McClelland Royal Commission, an examination of the effects of the tests, delivered its report in 1985 and found that significant radiation hazards still existed at many of the Maralinga test areas.
It recommended another cleanup, which was completed in 2000 at a cost of $108 million. Debate continued over the safety of the site and the long-term health effects on the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land and former personnel.
In 1994, the Australian Government paid compensation amounting to $13.5 million to the local Maralinga Tjarutja people...'
A 'small price' to pay, I'm sure, for such invaluable knowledge - how to kill people quicker than you had done before.
'Progress' indeed.
CASH NO EXCUSE FOR RTE PUTTING DOCUMENTARY TO DEATH...
It has been a disastrous 12 months for RTE.
£23.5 million in cutbacks, a bid to increase the licence fee rejected, an enforced postponement of digital expansion, and a predicted £20 million loss to report for 2001.
By Belinda McKeon .
From 'Magill' Annual, 2002.
What is needed is the establishment of a structured co-production scheme, involving both organisations and all Irish broadcasters - as well as BBC Northern Ireland (sic), a frequent co-financer of independent productions - which would lift Irish arts documentary out of the thankless rut into which it has declined.
As for RTE, the need to create a strong, individual identity for the station has never been greater.
Despite its shortcomings, it still has a loyal viewership, and can only bolster this loyalty by building a reputation as something different, something daring, something which taps into the interests of its audience and documents the obsessions of their imagination...
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (10TH SEPTEMBER) 83 YEARS AGO : CIVILIANS TARGETED BY BRITISH.
"The destruction of German cities, the killing of German workers, and the disruption of civilized community life throughout Germany [is the goal]....it should be emphasized that the destruction of houses, public utilities, transport and lives ; the creation of a refugee problem on an unprecedented scale; and the breakdown of morale both at home and at the battle fronts by fear of extended and intensified bombing are accepted and intended aims of our bombing policy. They are not by-products of attempts to hit factories...."
- Air Marshal Arthur Harris, Commander in Chief, Bomber Commander, British Royal Air Force (from here).
On the 10th of September 1942, 100,000 incendiary bombs were dropped on Dusseldorf, Germany, by 476 British Royal Air Force bombers - the objective was as stated above by one of Britain's more infamous 'mad bombers', a psychopathic mass murderer who, along with the man who issued him his instructions (and agreed that the first wave of RAF bombers should drop explosives thereby opening up the infrastructure for the second wave, incendiary bombs) , Churchill, should have been tried for war crimes, along with Goebbels and Himmler, amongst others.
Yet the British continue to propagate the myth that they are 'peace keepers' and here, in Ireland, they have found a gaggle of willing fools to assist them in spreading that myth.
On the 10th September, 1922, as IRA rebels from the Kerry No. 1 Brigade were consolidating their hold on the Kerry village of Tarbert, a Free State Army convoy was ambushed by the IRA near the village of Rathmore, in County Kerry.
The Staters were under the command of a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher, a Mr James McGuinness, who had fought with the IRA against the British but was now fighting against his old comrades (he participated in the Stacumney Ambush in July 1921).
Mr McGuinness survived the IRA ambush, but seven other Free State Army renegades were killed before the rebels withdrew, as FSA reinforcements with an artillery piece arrived on the scene.
As the rebels were withdrawing, Mr de Valera was writing a letter to a Mr Joseph McGarrity in which he outlined how the Staters had started the Civil War in Ireland and also voiced his concern that public opinion in the country was moving in the direction of support for the Treaty of Surrender ; other supporters of that Treaty, in Westminster, were - on that same date - reading the 'Weekly Intelligence Summary' from the 'Dublin District of the British Army', in which the British military leadership in Ireland noted that "there are no signs of double dealing at present (by the Staters)..." in relation to their support for the Treaty and, by association, their willingness to suppress the 32-County Republic.
So - 103 years later - no change there, then...
==========================
DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...
Desmond Boomer, a Belfast engineer working in the Libyan oil-fields, disappeared seven years ago.
Officially, the plane on which he was a passenger crashed as a result of mechanical failure and pilot error.
But is that the real story?
Or were the Irishman and his fellow passengers unwitting victims of the shady war between Islamic fundamentalism and Mossad, Israel's intelligence network?
A special 'Magill' investigation by Don Mullan, author of 'Eyewitness Bloody Sunday'.
From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.
In October 1996, ten months after the incident, the Maltese Board of Inquiry was officially informed by Tunisia that local fishermen had pulled wreckage from the plane to the surface.
However, the Tunisian government has never identified the fishermen, the name of their vessel or the exact location where the wreckage was allegedly discovered, nor were they pressed by the Maltese Board of Inquiry to do so.
On 14th November 1996, the inquiry in Malta was shown photographs of the wreckage taken by the Maltese Charge d'Affaires in Tunis, including photographs of Captain Bartolo's wallet and its contents, allegedly found amongst the wreckage, but no specific information is given regarding the actual date the wreckage was 'discovered'.
The Maltese Board of Inquiry report, published in January 2000, states that ... "..following the recovery of the wreck, a search was carried out in November 1996 in the indicated area, but the search proved unfruitful..."
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (10TH SEPTEMBER) 102 YEARS AGO : FINAL PREP DAY FOR A LON-ANNOUNCED (AND IMAGINED) 'NEW NATION'!
A LESS-THAN-USELESS FAILED INSTITUTION.
(No, not Leinster House - that it is the above goes without saying!)
We refer to the so-called 'League of Nations' organisation which, on this date in 1923 - 10th September - was preparing to open its doors on 'Day 1' of having somehow officially announced the 'birth of a new nation' - Ireland, all 26 of its 32 Counties, that is!
The new entity (!) was, unbelievably, allowed membership of that August body (!) as "a nation".
This despite the fact that the application was endorsed by a (Free State) political administration which was in turmoil and had only just 'officially' emerged from a war with its neighbour, Britain, the effects of which were still being felt in the country as a whole and, indeed, are still being felt to this day, as the issue remains unresolved.
The 'main man' at the time, in this then war-torn State, William T. Cosgrave - a republican-poacher-turned-Free State-gamekeeper - was delighted that the Free State was 'allowed' to join the then four year-old 'League', which was considered by both the home-grown and foreign political 'Establishment' as a 'sacred circle'.
The British representative in that failed grouping, amongst others, gave what was described at the time as an "..eloquent speech...a spontaneous manifestation of good-will toward Ireland (sic) (in which) felicitations were extended...(to the new member)..."
And why wouldn't Westminster (and its 'friends' in Ireland and abroad at the time) welcome an acknowledgement by Cosgrave and his ilk that, to all intent and purpose, they agreed with Westminster that the part of Ireland handed back to 'the Irish' was indeed considered to be a 'nation', as it helped propagate the lie that the (still occupied) six north-eastern counties of Ireland were "part of the Empire".
Mr Cosgrave died 60 years ago but the political fault-line he so ably gave succor to in 1923 (and before and after that year) lives on after him.
Nothing to be proud of.
On the 10th September, 1923, the newly-spawned Irish Free State became a living oxymoron, when it was admitted to the 'League of Nations' organisation.
"We can no longer say, as we could formerly about the Irish question, that it is an internal matter..."
- the words of a Mr Antrobus, an official in the British Colonial/Dominions Office, in a letter he sent on the 19th of that month to a Mr Lionel Curtis.
Mr Antrobus opined that the Free Staters could now take a complaint against Westminster to the League because delays in appointing the Boundary Commissioner violated an 'international agreement' ie the Treaty of Surrender but, of course - as correctly judged by the British - the Free State Leinster House administration wouldn't dare bite the hand that fed them ; it would bark, but not bite.
"Our friends' heads (the Free State government) are, of course, pretty full at the moment, but this would soon change once they realised that their position in the world counted for little apart from their position in the British Commonwealth of Nations..."
- the reply to Mr Antrobus from Mr Curtis (on the 25th September) : then, and now, the Free State politicians consider(ed) themselves to be 'world players' when, in reality, they are occasional pebbles in the shoes of the real players.
==========================
ON THIS DATE (10TH SEPTEMBER) 102 YEARS AGO : AN IMPOSTER JOINS A CLUB!
"The elected Parliament and Government of the Irish Republic pledged the active support of the Irish Nation in translating into deeds the principles enunciated by the President of the U.S. at Washington's tomb on July 4th, 1918, and whole-heartedly accepted by the people of America during the war. We are eager and ready to enter a World League of Nations based on equality of rights, in which the guarantees exchanged neither recognise nor imply a difference between big nations and small, between those that are powerful and those that are weak. We are willing to accept all the duties, responsibilities, and burdens which inclusion in such a League implies..."
- the words of Michael Collins, delivered to a meeting of (the 32-County) An Chéad Dáil (the First Dáil, 1919-1921) in April 1919, in relation to the then-probable formation of a 'League of Nations' organisation (which was formed in January 1920) .
The British forcibly partitioned Ireland in December 1922 and, on the 10th September 1923, the then three-years-old 'League of Nations' organisation accepted the Free State (a 26-county entity) as a member of the club - had that grouping been called the 'League of States' rather than the 'League of Nations' then we would not be writing this piece but for any so-called 'organisation of nations' to accept a request for membership from a landmass that contains a little more than three-quarters of its own land brings to mind the Groucho Marx quote - "I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member"!
And, in a further twist of logic, 'Time' magazine stated -
"Ireland was admitted into the sacred circle of the League of Nations by unanimous vote. On all sides there were spontaneous manifestations of good-will toward Ireland. In eloquent speeches, representatives of Britain, France, China, Persia and other countries extended felicitations to the Free State representative...." again confusing the Free State as being 'Ireland', rather than part thereof.
Incidentally, this very issue caused a rift between U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and the then leader of the Clann na nGael organisation in America, Judge Daniel Cohalan - the Judge was known to be of the opinion that the 'League of Nations' was a ploy by the British to integrate themselves into American society.
It was he and the Clann organisation that financed the opposition to Wilson's 'League of Nations' proposal - indeed, of the estimated $900,000 dollar 'war fund' that the Clann had, only $115,000 dollars was spent in Ireland ; the other $785,000 dollars was spent in attacking the 'League of Nations ' or "Britains League", as Judge Daniel Cohalan and John Devoy called it.
But that's a story for another day...!
==========================
"(The Boundary Commission) will hand over to the Southern States (sic) the Catholic parishes which were anxious to join them, but which would, on the other hand, transfer to the North those Protestant parishes which are now in the Free State..."
- British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, addressing an audience in Wales, on the 10th September 1924.
One of the legal referees involved in the Boundary Commission fiasco, a Mr Kevin Matthews, stated that an award based on the wishes of the population in parishes would mean that large portions of Counties Tyrone, Fermanagh and Armagh would go to the Free State as well as Derry City, Strabane and Newry, which the British wouldn't countenance, so they loaded the dice by granting themselves two votes on the Commission - their own, and that of the Six County rep, whom they picked!
Mr Matthews repeatedly voiced concern regarding the legality of that move, arguing that Westminster did not have the unilateral authority to make such an appointment and that parliamentary legislation was required (...a point we have made numerous times on this blog), and the British 'Judicial Committee of the Privy Council' supported his argument (having ruled in June 1924 that the British government did indeed need to pass legislation to nominate the Six County representative to the commission).
However, the Commission (chaired by a Mr Richard Feetham, a friend of Westminster) rode roughshod over the ball-less Free Staters and, in its 1925 report, ultimately recommended no changes to the imposed border, a decision that proved highly controversial but went legally unchallenged by the Staters, who were quite happy to rule over (?!) the portion of Ireland that Westminster had allocated to them.
Shame on them, but it wasn't unexpected...
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Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated!
Sharon and the team.
(We'll be back on Wednesday, 24th September 2025.)
