PATRICK O'DONOGHUE AND 'THE IRISH EXILE' REPUBLICAN NEWSPAPER , AUSTRALIA .....


.....there were thousands of Irish deportees in the British penal colony and police garrison of Hobart Town , Australia, where Irish rebels were sent by the British ; one of their number , Patrick O'Donoghue , decided to publish a weekly newspaper , 'The Irish Exile' , aimed at , and for, those political prisoners .....


By all accounts , the arrival of the 'The Irish Exile' newspaper caused a stir ; it contained a regular column by the Fenian John Martin , who wrote about the Repeal Movement in Ireland , it had articles detailing periods of Irish history and it published Irish poetry and Irish ballads -- that mixture , along with local news and the 'comings and goings' of the thousands of Irish deportees themselves , ensured the success of the newspaper .

It also ensured that Patrick O'Donoghue and his enterprise came to the attention of the (pro-British) authorities , and the Governor , Sir William Denison, in an attempt to close 'The Irish Exile' down , arrested O'Donoghue and had him charged with 'leaving the allocated district' - Irish deportees were not allowed to leave the 'open prison' where they were dumped ...... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :


THOMAS O'SULLIVAN OF BALLINEANIG ......

.....Thomas O'Sullivan's mother gave him his brothers letter - the brother , Dan, was in jail ; Tom read it under the lamp ......


" "Dan's all right," he said with relief in his voice , and gave her the letter again. Then he said, "Come down with me now ." She went with him down the bohereen. It was getting dark and she could not well see his face. Suddenly he put his arms round her . "Goodbye, mother," he said . "Why do you talk like that , Tom ," she said , half-crying , "and you always so brave ?" "Ah, mother," he answered , "I'll be under locks from you soon ." He took her hand then and they walked together a little further on . He was going to sleep in a house across the fields , where he'd be safe , he said. He started to go but came back to her again :

" You're not ashamed of me, mother ?" he asked her . It was in Irish , the speech of her heart , that she answered him . In the dark of the night a man came to her door . It was Bob McCarthy , Tom's friend : she knew him well . " 'Tis pity to be disturbing you," he said , "but the Staters are in the fields below. Where's Tom ?" She told him and he ran out . She was on her knees praying when she heard a shot fired . She started up and drew the bolt and ran out . She stood , crying out her prayers and blessings, against the gable of the house when she heard another shot and another again .....

The man who was with Tom hiding in a hollow knows what happened then , but he is a prisoner , sentenced to fifteen years . Only the little that he told to a fellow-prisoner , since released, is known .... (MORE LATER)>



IN GOOD COMPANY .......

.... yesterday we mentioned Martin and Theresa Ferris , the wanna-be Kerry 'dynasty' : but that's not all that's happening in the political world of 'warm-the-seat' .....

Joe Costello (Free State Labour Party) is doing it with his wife , Emer (!) , Brendan Howlin is doing it with his brother ,Ted (wha?) and so is Willie Penrose (no - not with Brendans brother ; with his own brother , John).

.... and as for the soldiers of opportunity , Fianna Fail ~ Margaret Cox and Kieran Phelan are both playing musical chairs with their brothers , while Sean Ardagh , Noel O'Flynn and Batt O'Keeffe, amongst other Fianna Fail luminaries, are giving their sons the seat-shaped 'thin-edge-of-the-wedge' ....

...... AND BLESSED FROM ABOVE FOR DOING IT -

- The word 'NEPOTISM' comes from Nepote , the Italian for 'Nephew' , and it stems from the time of Pope Innocent VIII who gave important posts to his nephews , regardless of their merit ! (And if the Italian's had'nt done it then , our own local political 'mafia' would have ...)

'Innocent' no more !

PATRICK 0' DONOGHUE AND 'THE IRISH EXILE' REPUBLICAN NEWSPAPER , AUSTRALIA .......


.....sentenced to death for his part in the 1848 Rising , Patrick O'Donoghue was 'spared' and his sentence commuted to transportation for life to the penal colony in Australia ; a death sentence by another name - six months at sea , a 14,000 -mile journey on board a 'slave-ship' - many did'nt make it ......


In the Autumn of 1849 ,'The Swift' , the ship carrying Patrick O'Donoghue and hundreds of other Irish rebel prisoners arrived in Australia , and the deportees were moved to Hobart Town , a (pro-British) police garrison town . They were closely monitored by the authorities , as per orders issued by the local Governor , Sir William Denison , who had no time for the Irish .

There was no work , no 'dole' , no state assistance and no-one to care whether you lived or died . In January 1850 , using materials he had begged and borrowed , Patrick O'Donoghue published , in Hobart Town, what was intended to be a self-financing newspaper - the weekly 'The Irish Exile' . There were thousands of Irish deportees in the district , and the 'paper was aimed at , and for, them ...... (MORE LATER)>




THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle ; first published in 1924 -

THOMAS O SULLIVAN OF BALLINEANIG -


" "I had twelve children , but I had none like him," Mrs. O'Sullivan says .

Tom was twenty-two years old when he was killed ; he was a teacher of Irish and a fisherman , and he was a Volunteer since the Black-and-Tan time ; he was Commandant of his Battalion when he died . They came raiding for him in December , with their lorries, but his mother got him away . He was going fishing and had his hand on the kettle , going to make himself a cup of tea , when she ran in with the warning and he made out through the back door . She lifted a bucket and went up the road towards them thinking to hold them awhile in talk .

" Who's that man running ?" the officer shouted to her , and she called back, "I don't know at all ." "You know well, you devil !" he answered . " 'Tis your son, Tom," and he went down on his knee and fired . The bullet slit Tom's jersey , but Tom was not hurt . But the danger to him seemed more than she could bear . "Wisha, give me your gun ," she said to Tom that night , "and I'll carry it into town for you ." "No, mother," he answered, "that's what I'll never do . I did'nt take my oath to break it, " he said . "I know what's before me , and I'm satisfied to face that ."

He used to come home sometimes , never to sleep, but maybe to change his clothes . He came in on the eighteenth of February . His mother thought he looked troubled . "Have you any letter from Dan ?" he asked her at once . Dan , his brother, was in jail. She gave him the letter and he read it under the lamp . (MORE LATER)>



KEEPING IT IN THE (Adams) FAMILY......

.....In an interview in 'Hot Press' magazine on 25th January , 1990 , (page 28) , Gerry Adams was questioned about the 1986 Sinn Fein Ard Fheis (when Adams and his followers left the Republican Movement to form a new Free State political party) and he stated -

" I pointed out in my presidential speech at the time that for too long republicans had 'left politics to the politicians' with the result that the ambitious and self-seeking were allowed to climb to power on the back of sacrifices made by generations of republicans " . Well said , Gerry - but I wonder would Theresa Ferris agree with you ? This 23-years young lass is to fill the seat on Kerry County Council soon to be vacated by her father , Martin , who will then no doubt find it easier to concentrate on his career in Leinster House .

And if Martin should decide to go for a seat in Brussels , who will be 'parachuted' in to fill his Leinster House seat .....? (Shades of Fianna Fail-'ism' : they went in to Leinster House to "change the system" only to find that the system changed them !)

Oh! what a tangled web we weave ......

PATRICK O'DONOGHUE AND 'THE IRISH EXILE' REPUBLICAN NEWSPAPER , AUSTRALIA.


In July 1848 , a man from Clonegall , County Carlow , Patrick O'Donoghue ( a member of the 'Young Ireland' Movement) was one of the many Irish rebels arrested following the failure of the 1848 Rising ; these men and women were 'tried' before what the British termed a 'Special Commission' and , at one such 'trial' in Clonmel in County Tipperary , in October 1848 , Patrick O'Donoghue was found guilty and sentenced to death .

That death sentence was later commuted to transportation for life to the penal colony in Australia ; a death sentence by another name - the British Administration knew well that the six-month , 14,000 mile-journey to Australia , on board a 'slave-ship' , would finish most , if not all, of the Irish rebels , who had been treated like vermin while awaiting transportation . (MORE LATER)>




THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle , first published in 1924 -

JOHN KEVINS OF BEAUFORT ......


..... a little girl walking on the main road saw (Free State) soldiers with a cart far up a lane . They were putting something wrapped in a blanket into the cart ......


" One of the soldiers was at the hotel later . He said - " The prisoner died on the road . " The Red Cross man , who had been awake all night , was sleeping there on a sofa . They woke him and said to him , "Your patient is dead ." He stared at them wildly , his face white . "Would the wound have killed him ?" , they asked . He said nothing , but shook his head . " It was I turned the mother back on the road , " a soldier who was drunk , said to Miss Sullivan later on . "I was sorry for that - I was sorry for the grey-haired woman - I was not sorry for him - he would have done the same to me , but I was sorry for the grey-haired woman . I have a mother myself , and I would not like her to see the deed that was done ... "

"I'll not forget the things she said to me ," he added , "when I turned her back - she gave hard words ." "I will tell you, then," Miss Sullivan replied, "what she said to me . She said'What could those poor decent boys do?' "

"Jesus," exclaimed the soldier , paling and sobering . "Oh, Jesus, did she say that ?" "



CHEQUE-MATE ........(and/....


" We owe it to the least fortunate of our citizens to ensure that public decisions affecting everyone's welfare are taken only on the grounds of equity and the public good , and to ensure that possession of wealth can never purchase private political favours ."

---- Bertie Ahern , present leader of Fianna Fail and current Free State Taoiseach , giving his response to the publication of the McCracken Tribunal findings , as quoted in 'The Sunday Tribune' , 12th May , 2002 , page 10.


...........or)......BUT THEN HE GOES AND SPOILS IT ALL BY SIGNING SOMETHING STUPID LIKE...

....ONE THOUSAND SIX-HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN CHEQUES -

-- The same Bertie Ahern co-signed most of the 1,615 cheques drawn on the Fianna Fail leaders allowance account from 1984 to 1992 ; better known as 'The Haughey Years' !

Ahern said he had no recollection of a cheque for £25,000 (that's twenty-five thousand old Free State punts- convert it yourself ; I have no recollection of saying I'd do it for ya) made out to cash and signed by him and Haughey on 16th June , 1989 - the day after the general election that year .

The cheque was discovered in an account linked to Haughey .



Is Bertie still married ? Or divorced ? Is 'she' still the girlfriend ? Or is 'she' the ex ? Where was the man educated ? And is 'that' degree really his ?

DOES'NT MATTER -
-- with his 'do-as-I-say-and-not-as-I-do' attitude , the man can ride out any storm.....

..... or claim to have no recollection of any storm !

ATTEMPTED TUNNEL ESCAPE FROM CORK JAIL , 1940 .....


....the result of the Free State 'inquest' into the shooting dead of IRA man John Kavanagh on 3rd August , 1940 (while "attempting to escape") was never made known ......


The IRA internees in Cork Jail were swiftly moved to the Curragh Camp in County Kildare - day's before that move took place , the IRA had buried John Kavanagh (a Cork man) in the Republican Plot in St Finbarrs Cemetery in Cork .

The three tunnel survivors - Denis Joseph O'Sullivan , Cornelius Byrd and Roger Ryan - were charged , on 2nd October 1940, in the 'Special Court' in Dublin with attempting to rescue prisoners from Cork Jail ; O'Sullivan got four years , and Byrd and Ryan each received two years .

I searched my files for more information on Broy Harrier Detective Jim Moore , but found only a fleeting reference to him being in charge of all Cork operations against the Republican Movement . I was curious as to whether he ever emerged from his own blinkered tunnel .



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle ; first published in 1924 --

JOHN KEVINS OF BEAUFORT ....

.... John Kevins lay wounded in a shop at Carenahone , outside Beaufort, surrounded by Free State troops under the command of Captain Bishop of the Dublin Guards .....


" Nobody told John's mother that night . It was a night of cruel frost and east wind . At midnight , Kevins was moved down to the barracks ; at six o'clock , soldiers came to Sullivan's for a cart to take him to Killarney . The Red Cross man protested , offered to go for an ambulance , wanted to accompany the prisoner himself ; this was not allowed . Miss Sullivan went and told the mother , and Mrs. Kevins hurried to the barracks gate . " Let me send for an ambulance, " she pleaded, " and I will pay for it myself . " The answer was "No!" " Will you not let me in to see my boy ? " The answer was "No" , again . " Won't you let me go with him ? " The soldiers were ordered to push her out of the road .

" Don't you know, " she said , " if I saw one of yourselves lying there wounded that I'd help you ? I'd wash you , I'd bandage you , I'd do for you whatever I could - and will you not let me see my poor boy ? " Gently as they could , the soldiers pushed her back from the road . They were slow in doing it , and she saw the cart pass . She saw John lying back in his shirt only ; she called out to him , "Good-bye, John" and he lifted his arm and held it up . He held it up a long time .... When they had passed she turned and saw the mail cart standing at the hotel . It was the goodness of God , she thought, the pity of Mary ! It would be going the Killarney road . She climbed up and the driver started , following the rear-guard of the cart . She could not see the cart itself because of the bends in the road but she hoped , every moment , to see it again .

Then one of the soldiers shouted - " You, there , the boy's mother ! get down and go home !" and she was forced to turn back . The driver of the mail cart was forced to stay where he was for a long time . Whatever he heard or saw it was never told . A man working in the fields heard a terrible scream ; a little girl walking on the main road saw soldiers with a cart far up a lane . They were putting something wrapped in a blanket into the cart . (MORE LATER)>



GUESS WHO ..... (part four) -

.... said .....

..... " Well ,um, somethings neither good nor bad but thinking makes it so , I suppose , as Shakespeare said . "

.... and .....

..... " I believe what I said yesterday ... I don't know what I said, er , but I know what I think and...well , I assume its what I said ."

.... and .....

..... the answer is .....

..... DONALD RUMSFELD , the U S Secretary of Defence , speaking at a U S Department of Defence press conference in 2002 . His boss , George W Bush Jnr , could'nt have put it better himself ....

( See 'The Sunday Business Post' , 1st June last , page 19.)

ATTEMPTED TUNNEL ESCAPE FROM CORK JAIL , 1940.......


...... four IRA men were working in the tunnel on 3rd August , 1940, when one of a group of about ten Broy Harriers fired into it with a Thompson sub-machine gun ......


John Kavanagh died in the tunnel and Roger Ryan was seriously wounded . The other two Volunteers , Denis Joseph O'Sullivan and Cornelius Byrd , escaped injury as they had been round a bend in the tunnel when the shots were fired in ; they were dragged out and arrested .

It was known that John Kavanagh had been shot a number of times in the chest , so questions were asked when the Free State Justice Minister, Gerry Boland, (Fianna Fail) stated that both Kavanagh and Roger Ryan had been shot while attempting to escape ; Boland's answer to the questions was to invoke the 'Emergency Powers Act' , under cover of which the Free Staters prohibited the media from reporting the incident and also allowed the State to cancel the coroner's inquest (by jury) into the death of John Kavanagh .

To try and obtain a gloss of respectability for his actions , Boland conducted his own 'inquest' and one of his own people was put in charge of it - the 'results' of same were never made known ..... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle, first published in 1924 -


JOHN KEVINS OF BEAUFORT .....

.... John Kevins' mother went to her son , an IRA Volunteer, deep in the mountains, to warn him to be careful ; she went home comforted.....

" On March the 15th (1923) , late in the evening, John came down to a shop at Carenahone, outside Beaufort , where they used to buy cigarettes . The shop door was open and the light streamed out , shining on John Kevins' face as he came up . A man in a trench coat , carrying a rifle, stepped out of the shadow, and asked his name . "I'm Kevins ," he replied, "who are you ?" The man lifted his rifle and fired , and John staggered into the shop . There were more men there . "Put another in him," Bishop said .

But the woman of the house rushed between them . "You'll not murder the man in my house," she cried out . "Send for the priest !" A soldier , too, tried to stop murder being done . They left him there , alone with a girl . The priest came and went . The wound was in the shoulder . "This wound won't kill me," John said to the girl . "I don't feel too bad ; I wonder could I escape ?" She went out , but came back shaking her head . "The house is surrounded." "Then the hounds are up for my blood," John said .

Bishop went down for a drink to Miss Sullivan's hotel ; it was his driver who told her sister , the nurse, that a man was wounded above . "He's not too bad," he said; "He can talk away." "I'll let nobody see him," Bishop said . "I have sent up my own Red Cross man ". "What wounds has he ?" she asked , and Bishop answered "He has two." It was not true yet . When Father Dennehy saw him he had only one . Nurse Sullivan implored Bishop to let her go to the wounded man . "It was for me," she told him, "that John sent for his own prisoner, Dempsey. Surely you will let me go ?"

"I'll let no one at all see him," Bishop replied . Nobody told John's mother that night . " (MORE LATER)>



GUESS WHO ..... (part three)--


....said the following ......

..... " I would not say that the future is necessarily less predictable than the past - I think the past was not predictable when it started ."


..... and ......
... " I also know that stating what might be preferable , er , is simply stating what might be preferable ."


..... and ......
... " Near my Office is an American flag done in ....origami.... that's one of those words that I have'nt mastered yet ."


----- (MORE [and answer] LATER)>

ATTEMPTED TUNNEL ESCAPE FROM CORK JAIL , 1940......


.... the IRA were determined to break their imprisoned comrades out of Cork Jail .....


An asylum on College Road in Cork shared a high side-wall with the Jail and , from a secluded corner of the asylum grounds, it was decided to dig a tunnel under the wall and into Cork Jail . In mid-July , the IRA put the plan into action and for the next two weeks all went well ; the equipment was up to the job , the Volunteers worked in shifts and 'look-outs' were in position . But the Broy Harriers (Free State detectives) , under Detective Jim Moore, were monitoring the whole scene .....


On the 3rd August , 1940 , four IRA men were in the tunnel - John Kavanagh , Denis Joseph O'Sullivan , Cornelius Byrd and Roger Ryan : it is thought that John Kavanagh was coming up out of the tunnel , having passed Roger Ryan , who had his back to the opening . At least ten 'Harriers' , armed with sub-machine guns , were crouched-down at the opening , and one of them opened fire with a Thompson Gun into the tunnel ...... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle , first published in 1924 .....


JOHN KEVINS OF BEAUFORT ......

....the captured Free State Officer was Colonel Dempsey of the Dublin Guards , an important capture for the IRA : the gun-battle had left him wounded in the eye .....

"( ..... the local IRA leader ) John Kevins had him cared for in a farmhouse and sent for Nurse Sullivan of Beaufort and for Dr. Carey , of Killarney, Medical Officer to the Brigade . Dr. Carey examined the wound and said it could not be satisfactorily treated except in a hospital . John Kevins asked him to take Dempsey to Killarney in his own car . He released the two 'Red Cross soldiers' at the same time .

Captain Bishop , of the Dublin Guards, took the clothes from some of the prisoners in Bahaghs Workhouse , and with a gang of Free State Officers, dressed in the soft hats and trench coats of Volunteers, went to Glencar . All were armed and Bishop carried a Thompson gun . It was the day of Seumas Taylor's funeral , the 14th of March (1923) ; people on the roads took them for Volunteers and answered their questions as to the identity of certain men . But one old man grew suspicious and called in a loud voice to another - " Would'nt you say there's five or six hundred of the Volunteers marching in the funeral the day ? " . Bishop and his gang changed their minds and travelled to Beaufort .

Beaufort was John Kevins' home . A week before his mother had a dream that troubled her . She saw John with blood on his forehead . She thought it was a foreshadowing of death . She travelled far into the mountains and found him , meaning to warn him because of her dream, but she found him so light-hearted and confident that for the world she could not have said a gloomy word . " Let you make your mind easy ," he said to her, " 'twould take a thousand to catch us here . " She went home comforted , her dream untold . " (MORE LATER)>



GUESS WHO ...... (part two..) --

-- .... told the 'New York Times'...
.... " Once in a while , I'm standing here, doing something . And I think 'what in the world am I doing here ?' It's a big surprise ! "

--
.... told a reporter ...
.... " If I know the answer , I'll tell you the answer , and if I don't , I'll just respond , cleverly ! "

--
.... the same person also said ...
... " I think what you'll find , I think what you'll find is , whatever it is we do substantively , there will be near-perfect clarity as to what it is . "

--
.... and ...
... " It will be known , and it will be known to the Congress, and it will be known to you , probably before we decide it, but it will be known . "

.... (MORE [and answer] LATER)>

( Great to be back ... have washed the Tramore sand out of my system and if I never see another bleedin' egg sambo ....)



ATTEMPTED TUNNEL ESCAPE FROM CORK JAIL , 1940.


The IRA bombing campaign in England , which started in 1939, prompted the Free State administration to double their efforts in the 26-Counties in regards to putting the Movement out of business ; Volunteers were either arrested and imprisoned , interned or shot dead and , by the summer of 1940 , the IRA was virtually decimated .

The 'Broy Harriers' (Free State detectives) were given a free hand , with the then Fianna Fail State Justice Minister Gerry Boland willing to excuse them any deed if it served the purpose of the Staters and the Brits. In Cork , Detective Jim Moore was in charge of the Broy Harriers and had been involved in the conversion of Cork Prison into a military detention centre ; IRA prisoners were interned there and their comrades in the area were determined to break them out ....... (MORE LATER) >



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY by Dorothy Macardle, first published in 1924 -

JOHN KEVINS OF BEAUFORT :

" No problem that confronted the IRA during the civil war was more difficult than the question of the disposal of the hundreds of prisoners who fell into their hands . A fight in which all the prisoners are held by one side is hard on those prisoners , but the IRA controlled no buildings where captives could be detained . To kill or ill-use a prisoner in any way was impossible : there was no alternative but to disarm the men and set them free to hunt their captors again . Throughout the campaign this was done .

In the winter of 1922 , Captain John Kevins and his company were attacked on the hill called 'The Devil's Punch-bowl' in the Macgillicuddy Reeks . Their attackers were driven off and left one wounded officer behind. Kevins saw two of the retreating officers put down their rifles , kneel down by their wounded officer and affix 'Red Cross' badges to their sleeves. He came down to the three prisoners , protesting against men who had come out as combatants wearing the 'Red Cross' . He had the book of 'Red Cross' regulations in his pocket and showed them that it was a breach of these.

The officer proved to be Colonel Dempsey , of the Dublin Guards . It was an important capture. To hold him as a hostage might stop the killing of prisoners which was being practised , by Act of Parliament , by the other side . But Dempsey was wounded in the eye . (MORE LATER)>



GUESS WHO .....

.... said , to a meeting of his Department of Defence last year -

" As we know , there are known knowns . There are things we know we know . We also know there are known unknowns . That is to say , we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknowns unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know ".

.... the same speaker was asked what he knew of the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden -

" We do know of certain knowledge that he is either in Afghanistan , or in some other country , or dead ."

.....and was also asked if the U S would go to war without the Brits backing them -

" Their situation is distinctive to their country and they have a government that deals with a parliament in their way , distinctive way, and what will ultimately be decided is unclear as to their role,um, that is to say their role in the event a decision is made to use force. "


......and no , it's not Homer !

( MORE [and answer] LATER)>