JOHN SADLEIR and WILLIAM KEOGH - 19th Century Irish Turncoats .......
....... At 36 years of age , in 1851 , and a prominent member of the Catholic Church-led lobby group 'The Irish Brigade' , John Sadleir witnessed the introduction by the British of the 'Ecclesiastical Titles Bill ' , which aimed to curb the activities of the Catholic Church .......
It was now 'illegal' to be described as a 'Parish Priest' , 'Bishop' etc - at least it was so in writing ; but this 'law' was not followed-up (ie enforced) on the ground (what we in Ireland would call "an Irish solution to an Irish problem " !). However , enforced or not , the 'Titles Bill' was vehemently opposed by John Sadleir and William Keogh and 'The Irish Brigade' (who were by now known by the nick-name of 'The Popes Brass Band' , such was their support for the Catholic Hierarchy !) ; others , too , were opposed to the 'Bill' ...
... a group known as the 'Tenant Right League' , which had been founded in 1850 by 'Young Ireland' Movement leaders Charles Gavan Duffy and Frederick Lucas (to secure better conditions for those that worked the land) also campaigned against 'The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill' .
The 'Tenant Right League' was formed in City Assembly House in William Street , Dublin , in August 1850 , after a four-day conference , attended by a right mix of people - magistrates , 'landlords' , tenants themselves , priests (of both Catholic and Presbyterian persuasion) and newspaper journalists and editors .......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
KNOCKSAHARING.......
".......According to the Brits , they suffered no casualties due to our ambush -their usual claim ! However , they got far more than they bargained for that day when they met us , instead of the unarmed civilians they were after ......."
" We rejoiced , also, to hear of the destruction of the 'Union of Macroom ' , or the 'Workhouse' , or 'Poorhouse' , as it was variously called ; that cursed institution , and all the others of its kind throughout the country , had been for long the nightmare of the people . For too long they had obtruded their obscene presence between them and the light of God . What untold suffering of mind and body did their vile and ugly walls and gates encompass , not so long ago ! But suffering and despair were not confined to their compass or environs ...
...their influence went abroad like a virulent miasma , like Cromwell's corpse "to poison half mankind." Built , ostensibly , as 'charitable institutions' , the devil quickly became their patron - charity , the most formidable of virtures , was soon deleted from his programme . As an instrument of oppression , the Poorhouse far surpassed the gaol (jail) or the hangman's rope . For it struck at the whole family : first it haunted the parents for , if the 'landlord' wanted their land or they failed to pay the rent , what were their prospects ?
If they had the money they could emigrate - that would be bad enough but , failing that , there was the other 'option' ; the 'Poorhouse' . The prospect of death would not appal an Irish man or woman unduly , but the 'Poorhouse' , where the father would be separated from the mother , and the brother from the sister ...what torture could be more diabolically devised ...?
(MORE LATER).
ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .......
(First published in 'HOT PRESS' Magazine , 6th May 1988 , Volume 12 , No. 8 , page 28).
Re-produced here in 10 parts .
(5 of 10).
Instead a second strategic factor came into play - if Ethiopia's highlands made her impregnable , her coast was a more attractive prospect : now it guards the oil-tanker routes but , in the 19th Century , Britain's most crucial interest was to protect the Suez Canal - Red Sea passage to its Indian empire .
The British did'nt want the rival French interfering so they tolerated and sponsored the Italians as 'junior imperial partners' to gain a foothold on the Eritrean coast . Against this bleak background came the '72/3 famine and the consequent revolution ; this drought , which afflicated all the Sahel countries , was accounted the most devastating in the region since 1913 but the Ethiopian people suffered the greatest ravages through the inexcusable apathy of their government .
Traditional Ethiopian attitudes to famine were fatalistic , indeed almost medieval , in a belief that famine was God's punishment for man's sins that could only be countered by prayer . But Haile Selassie's government denied even the existence of the famine , acting as if the tragedy was merely a seasonal culling of the peasantry .......
(MORE LATER).
