On the 12th September, 1919, a number of Irish organisations were 'outlawed' by Westminster.
Dáil Éireann, Sinn Féin, the Irish Volunteers, Cumann na mBan and the Gaelic League were all deemed by the British to be "dangerous organisations/assemblies" and the British Army and Westminster's 'police force' in Ireland, the RIC, were instructed to break-up meetings of those groups and 'arrest' those in attendance.
A network of about 80 venues was established in Dublin and throughout the rest of the country for use by the 'banned' organisations in which to conduct their business and it was in one of those venues, the Mansion House, in Dublin, that, on the 16th October (1919) , at midnight, the Sinn Féin organisation moved into to hold its Ard Fheis.
About 500 delegates attended and the full Clár (agenda) was gone through including, no doubt, several motions condemning the British for having 'banned' them!
==========================
'WHY ARE THE DEAF BEING EXCLUDED FROM THE COMPENSATION SCHEME FOR ABUSED CHILDREN?'
Amid the considerable controversy about the deal struck between the Catholic Church and the State over compensation to victims of institutional child abuse, little attention has been focused on the proposed exclusion from the compensation scheme of a number of institutions run by the church where abuse clearly took place.
By John Cradden.
From 'Magill' magazine, March 2002.
The government's decision to pay 75% of a total compensation payout - that could amount to around €500 million - has been strongly criticised by groups representing victims of abuse.
They say that the Church has been let off too lightly over its complicity in the abuse that wrecked the lives of so many of those who attended Catholic institutions as children.
Yet such criticisms must arguably take second place to the likely exclusion from the compensation scheme of children with disabilities who ended up in orthopaedic hospitals and in schools for deaf and blind children.
Among those groups that have been loudest in their condemnation of this exclusion is the 'Irish Deaf Society', which has represented a number of survivors of abuse in schools for the deaf who told of systemic abuse by members of the religious orders who ran them...
(MORE LATER.)
In October, 1920, after a Catholic man was forcibly evicted from his home in the Marrowbone area of North Belfast, street riots ensued between loyalists and the British Army and nationalists and republicans.
Two men - a Mr John Gibson (55), of Byron Place, and a Mr William L Mitchell (25), of 20 Downing Street - were shot dead, and another man, a Mr Matthew McMaster (34), from Conlig Street, was run over by a British Army armoured car.
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A Catholic Bishop on the fence, politically, in Ireland in the 1900's -
"Home Government for all Ireland, with complete fscal autonomy, with adequate safeguards for minorities and guarantees that the race for positions and appointments shall go to the fttest ; this is the least that the gallant defenders of small peoples ought to grant to long-sufering Ireland..." - the words of 'The Most Reverend' Doctor Patrick Morrisroe, Bishop of Achonry (pictured), in January 1917.
On the 16th October, 1920, in connection with the on-going freedom struggle in this country, the good Bishop declared that "bad government" (by Westminster) was primarily responsible but he also said that the IRA had fostered "during the latter years ideals clearly impossible of attainment...".
Previously, Mr Morrisroe had described the 1916 Rising as.. "..a domestic tragedy, a hapless enterprise, an unfortunate occurrence.." , and stated.. "...to cast aside obedience, and by popular violence to incite to revolt, is therefore treason, not against man only, but
against God.."
Speaking about Irish rebels, he sought to advise them that.. "...there is a law of the Church forbidding the Sacraments to persons who belong
to organisations that plot or conspire against legitimately constituted authority, either publicly or privately, either by oath or without personal
rights..." and then, struggling to secure a footing on the fence he had placed himself on, he asked that nothing he said should be taken.. "...to imply that we must be satisfed with the existing situation or that we are not to endeavour to secure our liberty.."
Mr Morrisroe also declared that.. "...they who rule should rule with even-handed justice, not as masters, but rather as fathers, for the rule of God over man is most just, and is tempered always with a father's kindness. Government should, moreover, be administered for the well-being of the
citizens..."
A 'den of thieves', whether they be situated in Westminster or any other 'temple', should be cleansed...
==========================
On the 16th October, 1920, British Army Auxiliaries forced entry into the home of the Feeney family in Corofin, in County Galway, and the four sons were taken outside.
Two of them were stripped by the Auxies and flogged and one was beaten over the head with rifle butts and punched repeatedly, then all three were kicked severely while on the ground.
Later that same night, a Corofin publican, a Mr John Raftery (pub pictured), was also attacked by the same gang ; we mentioned these attacks last week, 9th October.
==========================
In October, 1920, A Mr Patrick Moylett (pictured, top), an Irish republican operative/businessman/IRB member and arms procurer for the IRA, was chatting to a Mr Herbert AL Fisher (the Minister of Education in the British cabinet), at an informal meeting facilitated by a Mr John Steele (pictured, above), the London correspondent of 'The Chicago Tribune' newspaper.
After that meeting, Mr Moylett made arrangements to meet with Mr Arthur Griffith, the acting president of Dáil Éireann at that time, and told him that, as far as he was concerned, Westminster was unofficially inquiring - 'fishing' - about the possibility of a settlement between themselves and the IRA.
For our own part here on the blog, we note that a 'Sir' Basil Home Thomson, spymaster, (British) colonial administrator, prison governor and director of intelligence at Scotland Yard, had been busy for about six months prior to the above-mentioned meeting distributing selectively leaked documents gathered by British intelligence to "prepare the ground for negotiation with IRA leaders...".
The outcome of those particular 'negotiations', when they happened, favoured 'the spymasters, colonial administrators, prison governors and directors of intelligence at Scotland Yard' more so than they did the Irish.
==========================
THE FORGOTTEN PEOPLE...
Emigration from Ireland to the United States continued throughout the 1990's, although the reasons were no longer so bluntly economic.
Now, in the wake of September 11th, the US authorities have been granted increased powers to investigate legal status, and Irish illegal emigrants are more vulnerable than ever before.
By Mairead Carey.
From 'Magill Annual', 2002.
City officials arrived the following Friday and began asking questions of the survivors.
"I upped and left. I called for someone I knew to meet me and we made our way out of the hospital."
He stayed with a friend, whose sister-in-law was a nurse and looked after his injuries.
"Only for her I would have been in an awful state. It will never leave me, but I have to learn to cope with it. I was lucky to get out alive."
Whatever difficulties he had before September 11th, he is even more vulnerable now.
Some of the illegals from the North had republican backgrounds, and with the new discretionary powers being invested in the FBI and police, they may find it particularly difficult to remain below the radar of the State.
The crackdown will affect employers too, especially in the construction business - they will have no choice but to be more careful in future about employing undocumented workers...
(MORE LATER.)
"Business people must make their choice of the custom of their neighbours or the cowardly ruffians of the RIC. A sensible businessman will be able to judge which pays the best in the long run..."
- IRA recommendation to the business people who continued to do business with members of the Crown Forces, 1920's.
On the 16th October, 1921, a 'Sheriff's Officer' (a bill server for the [British] judical system in Ireland) in Raphoe, in County Donegal, a Mr Bernard Mailey, who had been advised by local republicans that his work on behalf of the Crown was not appreciated by the IRA, was on his way home from Mass when he was taken off the street by the latter.
Mr Mailey, who acknowledged that he was "the only sheriff’s officer in the county", not only served 'legal documents' on his neighbours and on anyone else that he was instructed to, also appeared in court to give evidence against the served parties.
The IRA shot him dead.
One of his 'sheriff office' colleagues, a Mr George Frend (described by neighbours as "a man of heroic consistency ; one of the most uncompromising and staunchest supporters of the British Government in Ireland..") was out and about on the 28th December 1920, re-establishing a petty sessions court in Moneygall, in County Offaly, when he was shot by the IRA.
He died from his wounds a few days later.
Mr Frend had acted against a number of tenants for refusal to pay rent and had also involved himself in a local land dispute.
Anyway - Mr Mailey's wife claimed compensation from the 'Irish Grants Committee', stating that her health "was completely shattered by the murder of her husband following a long period of apprehension from day to day that the threats frequently made would end as they did..."
But, really, when your job entails delivering 'legal' threats on behalf of a disputed 'Empire...'
==========================
Having managed to obtain Khaki-type uniforms from a friendly prison officer, two IRA men interned in Ballykinlar Camp (which, at the time, held around 1,700 republican prisoners) in County Down had decided to use them in an escape attempt.
On the 16th October, 1921, the two republican prisoners - Patrick J. Colgan (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher), from Maynooth in County Kildare, and Maurice 'Mossie' Donegan (pictured, aka 'Thomas Fitzpatrick') from Cork, placed in-house made 'dummies' in their beds, donned the 'British Army khaki uniforms' over their own clothes, mingled beside their captors and managed to leave the Camp.
But both men were recaptured in a car the next day on the road between Drogheda and Dublin (at a joint BA and RIC road checkpoint) and were taken to a British Army Barracks in Drogheda and, from there, were transported back to Ballykinlar Internment Camp where they were kept in solitary confinement for six weeks.
They were then taken to Belfast, court-martialled by the British and sentenced to six months hard labour in Belfast's Crumlin Road Gaol.
'Mossie', for one, knew that that was about the only use that the enemy's uniform could be put to...
==========================
BEIR BUA...
The Thread of the Irish Republican Movement from The United Irishmen through to today.
Republicanism in history and today.
Published by the James Connolly/Tommy O'Neill Cumann, Republican Sinn Féin, The Liberties, Dublin.
August 1998.
('1169' comment - 'Beir Bua' translates as 'Grasp Victory' in the English language.)
REPUBLICANS AND THE STATE :
One of the predecessor organisations of Sinn Féin, the Dungannon Club, wrote in its manifesto in 1905 -
"Can Ireland be served by men taking an oath of allegiance to England?
Can she be represented by them?
Will she consent longer to be misrepresented?
Their action today gives sanction to the fraudulent union of the two peoples, for they, proclaiming themselves representatives of the Irish people, acquisce and assist in the government of Ireland by England.
A representative Council of the whole people of Ireland can be brought into existence, a Council which would have the full sanction and approval of the governed, and which would work in their interests.
In their hands would be the real government of the country, for their decrees would be obeyed and given effect to by the people..."
(MORE LATER.)
On the 16th (and in to the 17th) of October, 1922, the IRA Executive met in a venue in the village of Poll an Teara (Poulatar) , a townland in Ballybacon, Barony, in County Tipperary.
The meeting was called to agree on the minimum terms that would be accepted in any peace negotiations with the Free Staters, to discuss the composition
of an Irish Republican Government, to confirm that Éamon de Valera would be the 'President of the Republic and Chief Executive of the State' and to confirm that any military or political arrangements with Westminster or Leinster House would first have to be approved by the IRA Executive.
This was the first meeting of the IRA Executive since the attack on the Four Courts in late June (1922) except for a meeting of the eight then available members in Fermoy, County Cork, on July 15th.
Four members of the 16-strong Executive - Rory O'Connor, Liam Mellows, Joe McKelvey and Peadar O'Donnell - were absent (and two others - Michael Kilroy and PJ Ruttledge - only arrived at the end of the proceedings), as they were being held as prisoners by the Staters, but, nonetheless, an Army Council was established, consisting of Liam Lynch, Ernie O'Malley, Liam Deasy, Tom Derrig and Frank Aiken.
A declaration calling for the setting up of the Republican Government was agreed and signed, and the Executive agreed, unanimously, to execute all the members of Leinster House who had voted for the 'Public Safety Act', but this order was later changed to target only nine of the Stater reps and to arrest two of them.
The Executive reiterated, rightly, its opinion that the Leinster House administration was a usurpation which derived its 'authority' from the English parliament.
==========================
In connection with the elections to be held in England later that month, a political meeting was held on the 16th October (1924) in the town of Omagh, County Tyrone, at which nationalists were urged to abstain as a 'protest vote' against the forced partition of six Irish counties.
Those in attendance demanded that a plebiscite be held to determine the wishes of the inhabitants of the then newly-enforced border area.
The general election was held on the 29th October and the 'Conservative/Tory Party' (pro-partition) won a landslide majority (413 seats), the Labour Party was reduced from 191 to 151 seats and the Liberal Party went down from 159 seats to only 40 seats.
Most nationalists boycotted the polls and the pro-partitionists quickly claimed that the results were proof that partition was acceptable!
==========================
Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated!
Sharon and the team.
Ireland, 1900's - these pro-Irish organisations were 'allowed' by Westminster (through gritted teeth!) to exist in Ireland, but they were closely monitored by the British political and military classes until, one day, they weren't!
They were proscribed by the British, deemed to be 'illegal entities', membership of which would lead to arrest, or worse.
Within weeks of that 'Banned!' designation, hundreds of Irish men and women put it up to the British to "come get us..."
...and 'come get us', won't ya, on Wednesday, 16th October 2024, when we'll have a 12-part post ready for viewing (!), including the 'top and tail' of the above piece, when it was Irishmen and women that gathered in a group in the city centre in question, to challenge those who didn't belong here.
And we'll be putting the starting and finishing touches to these two pieces as well -
Ireland, 1920's - two 'cool hand lukes' in poorly-presented enemy uniforms decided to bluff their way out of prison, and it worked.
But...
From 2002 - they may not actually hear the State politicians, but they can see what it is they have done and, although somewhat muted by unfortunate circumstances, they can be loud and they know 'where the bodies are buried', so to speak...
...and we shall be so speaking - on Wednesday, 16th October 2024.
So do, please, give us a shout (pun intended!) then.
Thanks for the visit, and for reading ; see y'all again on the 16th!
Sharon and the team.
ON THIS DATE (9TH OCTOBER) 55 YEARS AGO : UNHINGED 'POLICING REPORT' DEEMED PRESENTABLE.
British 'Baron' Brigadier Henry Cecil John Hunt CBE DSO ETC (!)(pictured - full title/name -'Henry Cecil John Hunt, Baron Hunt of Llanfair Waterdine') was born in Simla in 'British India' on the 22nd June, 1910. His father was Captain Cecil Edwin Hunt, of the Indian Army, and his mother was Ethel Helen Crookshank ; the family were steeped in the British 'stiff-upper-lip' tradition of the ruling class and, whether in India or Ireland, were deemed by their fellow 'establishment' members to be 'safe pairs of hands' when it came to defending 'the empire'.
And that 'empire' needed defending, then and now : in the six north-eastern counties of Ireland, the 'Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)' were devoid of the few token catholics/nationalists that were present in its paramilitary ranks in the other 26 Irish counties and that fact was highlighted by the actions of those Six-County uniformed thugs.
A British 'royal commission' report on the 1857 pogroms against Belfast catholics/nationalists found that the RIC 'police' force had behaved in a sectarian fashion and had actually led attacks on catholic/nationalist homes and businesses, recommending that 'a total change should be made in the mode of appointment and the management of the local police..'.
That same pro-British paramilitary outfit, this time operating as the 'Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), exposed themselves again at Burntollet in January 1969, and in the lower Falls in August that same year, when out-of-uniform and uniformed RUC men and 'B' Specials co-ordinated the attacks on catholics/nationalists.
In a false flag operation to appear 'neutral/even-handed', Westminster announced (on the 26th August 1969) that 'Lord' Hunt was to prepare a report (the remit was 'to examine the recruitment, organisation, structure and composition of the Royal Ulster [sic] Constabulary and the Ulster [sic] Special Constabulary and their respective functions and to recommend as necessary what changes are required to provide for the efficient enforcement of law and order in Northern Ireland... [sic]') on the RUC (known as the 'Report of the Advisory Committee on Police in Northern Ireland [sic]' but better known as 'the Hunt Report', pictured) and that whitewash was eventually signed-off on on the 3rd of October that year.
The last 'inhouse presentation' meeting before it was delivered publicly was held on the 9th October, 1969 - 55 years ago on this date.
It was published on Friday 10th October 1969 and presented to the pro-British 'parliament' in Stormont on that same date.
The British objective was to salvage the 'credibility' of 'policing' in that part of Ireland by introducing so-called 'reforms' to the then 'policing' format - however, as expected by Irish republicans, the 'reforms' were not real but were a sleight-of-hand operation - the 'B' Specials were disbanded but were replaced by the 'Ulster (sic) Defence Regiment' (UDR), which were attached to the British Army rather than to the RUC.
But 90 per cent of all 'B' Specials in 1969 joined the UDR at its formation in 1970, meaning that to all intents and purposes the UDR was composed of former 'B' Specials and those same men and women, in a different uniform, were then lauded by Westminster as a breath of fresh air!
'Fool me once, shame on you : fool me twice, shame on me' : on the 4th of November 2001, the RUC 'became' the PSNI and the first of those 'new police officers' took up duty, in Ireland, on behalf of the British Crown, in April 2002, supported by the political 'establishment' here in the Free State.
As James Connolly said - "Ruling by fooling is a great British art with great Irish fools to practice on."
How right he was!
On the 9th October, 1919, a Mr Andrew Bonar Law (pictured) - a high-ranking British politician and an outspoken supporter of all things anti-Irish - wrote to a like-minded political colleague of his, a Mr Arthur James Balfour (the '1st Earl of Balfour'!) stating that he and others at the top of the Brtish political food chain wanted to postpone or repeal the '1914 Home Rule Act', which was getting close to its enactment date, as he and his colleagues deemed it to be too favourable to the Irish.
Mr Law wrote that he feared that his Prime Minister, Mr David Lloyd George, supported the '1914 Home Rule Act' and, in doing so, was hastening the break up of the British Government.
Ner a thought or concern, of course, for the break up of Ireland...
==========================
"The British are out after the Dáil Loan – neck or nothing.
But the loan goes merrily along. They appear to have got into a blue funk about it, but they cannot stop its progress.
Their activities so far have been an asset..."
- the words of Diarmuid O'Hegarty (pictured, Jeremiah Stephen Hegarty/Ó hÉigeartuigh), a particularly nasty 'republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher', in a letter he wrote on the 9th October, 1919, to Seán Thomas O'Kelly (another 'republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher', who was in Paris at the time).
Mr Ó hÉigeartuigh was referencing the fact that, in their continuing failed efforts to stop the fund from operating and confiscate the funds already received, Westminster was inadvertently helping to advertise its existence!
Incidentally, on the 9th October 1920 the official report of the results of the Dáil Loan were published in the 'Old Ireland' publication, showing that £371,849 had been collected, which was 50% higher than the target set on April 4th 1919.
The overall amount was to rise to £400,000 when some outstanding funds from London were received.
==========================
WHY DOESN'T THE CENSUS ADDRESS ETHNICITY...?
By Niina Hepojoki.
From 'Magill' Magazine, March 2002.
It has been suggested that James Joyce was one of the first artists ever to imagine a world without foreigners.
In his essay 'Strangers in Their Own Country', Professor Declan Kiberd defines this Joycean world as... "..one possible once men and women begin to accept the foreigner in the self* and the necessarily fictive nature** of all nationalisms, which are open to endless negotiations."***
('1169' comment -* There is no "foreigner in the self" [except, perhaps, for those that are 'Woke'] as far as any indigenous people should be concerned ; we are what we are, and shouldn't seek to change our very DNA to suit anybody.
** - Nationalism is not of a "fictive nature" ; rather it is of a factual narrative and nature.
*** - "endless negotiations" ie 'those are my principles, and if you don't like them...well, I have others...' ; the very 'building blocks' of a 'Woke' structure!)
Where the statistics are silent there can exist only speculative ignorance.
The sooner the government catches up with the imminent needs of Irish society, the sooner we will be on our way to James Joyce's society without foreigners.
(END of 'Why Doesn't The Census Address Ethnicity?' : NEXT - 'Why Are The Deaf Being Excluded From The Compensation Scheme For Abused Children?', from the same source.)
'1169' Comment : "A society without foreigners"?
Yes, please - Irish societies, that is.
If we are to have foreigners here, it will need to be very strictly regulated, controlled and legally enforced ie illegal/undocumented foreigners entering the State/Country to be immediately returned to wherever they came from, on the same plane/boat that they arrived on, after a 'Jewelry Tax' has been imposed on them (all items, not only wristwatches).
Those coming here legally (ie with all paperwork etc in order) should only be allowed entry if they have a job and a proven address waiting for them, provided that job is not one which could have been filled by an indigenous Irish person and the roof is not needed by an indigenous Irish person, and even then only if that foreigner can prove that they have enough savings/money to sustain them for six months, as such entrants will not be permitted to claim social welfare payments until they have paid sufficiently into the State social welfare system.
We wrote about this subject before...
"The police (sic) naturally feel that the time has come to defend themselves and that is what is called reprisals in Ireland.
Sinn Féin cannot have it both ways. If they were at war * they must expect the consequences. You cannot have a one-sided war."
There is no doubt that at last their (the RIC's) patience has given way and there has been some severe hitting back. Let us be fair to these gallant men who are doing their duty in Ireland.
Were the police to be shot down like dogs in the streets without any attempt to defend themselves...?"
- the words of British Prime Minister, Mr David Lloyd George (pictured), on the 9th October, 1920, speaking in Caernarfon, in Wales.
If it was 'a slip of the tongue', then it slipped twice - Mr George delived much the same speech, with the same terminology, in the Guildhall, in Derry, Ireland, on November 9th that same year.
(* Mr David Lloyd George or the British Cabinet had never, up until that speech, declared that there was a war in Ireland...!)
Ooops...!
==========================
On the 9th October, 1920, an IRA Unit with Peadar Clancy in command was stationed in the then 'Kingsbridge Train Station' in Dublin for an operation.
The British Army were transporting military equipment in two railway wagons and, when the train pulled in, the Volunteers surrounded the ten British Army soldiers that were guarding it and forced them to surrender.
The ten foreign soldiers were tied up and ten rifles, a revolver and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition was taken from them, following which the two wagons with the munitions in them were burned, as the IRA had no way to take them as well.
(Peadar Clancy was shot dead the following month by the British Army, as were Dick McKee and Conor Clune ; the three Volunteers were prisoners in British custody at the time.)
==========================
On the 9th October, 1920, 'The Kerry People' newspaper carried a report that "a labourer recently tarred in the Milltown district (of County Kerry) has been taken away by the Crown forces..."
The man was not named, and we can find no other information about this incident but, throughout the country, civilians who traded with the Crown Forces (ie business owners and farmers etc) would receive threatening letters or be named in public notices and occasionally beaten.
Females would have their hair cut off for being "friendly with members of the Crown forces" and males would be tarred and tied to railings etc in the village square as a warning to others not to do business or associate with enemy agents.
==========================
On the 9th October, 1920, at about 11pm, a British Army unit led by a Major Arthur Ernest Percival (pictured) was ambushed by the IRA at Newcestown Cross, Co Cork.
Mr Percival and twenty-two of his men from the '1st Battalion Essex Regiment' had just raided a pub and were on their way to the next target (in the Castletown area) in two Crossley Tenders, when they were ambushed by Volunteers attached to the Bandon Battalion, IRA, Cork No. 3 Brigade, commanded by Sean Hales (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher).
The battle lasted for about 30 minutes, and resulted in the death of two of Mr Percival's men - a Lieutenant Robert Robertson (25) MC, 1st Battalion, Essex Regiment, and Flight Lieutenant Gurth Richardson (30), Royal Air Force, who was seconded to the Essex Regiment, and at least four of their colleagues were wounded.
Mr Robertson, who was a veteran of foreign British 'conquests', died in Cork Military Hospital on the 12th October and is buried in his own country in Fulford Cemetery, in York.
Mr Richardson, a radio technician, was driving one of the Crossley Tenders (the one in which Mr Percival was a passenger) and his stint in Ireland wasn't his first (British Army) rodeo, so to speak.
Twelve days later, the British took their revenge - four houses in the village of Newcestown were burned down by them, as was the local pub, and the publican, a Mr O'Sullivan, had his house burned by them, too.
Farms/small holdings owned by the Corcoran and Lordan families were attacked by them, and wrecked.
Incidentally, "for gallantry shown that night (9th October 1920)", Mr Percival was awarded the OBE ; not bad, we suppose, for 'the chinless wonder of Singapore', known by his own people as 'I Surrender Percival'!
==========================
On the 9th October, 1920, at night time, a group of British Army Auxiliaries, in paramilitary clothing and wearing black caps, forced entry into a house in the village of Maree, near Oranmore, in County Galway, where the Deveney family lived.
The family were asleep when the invasion took place, and the parents could only look on as their three sons - Thomas, Stephen, and Patrick - were shouted at to get out of bed and taken outside, all the time being loudly asked if they were Sinn Féiners.
The three sons, one in his shirt and trousers, the other two in their shirts alone, were dragged on to the road and were shouted at to kneel down and say their prayers.
Shots were fired over their heads.
Asked again if they were sinn Féiners, they were told to stand up and were then marched down the road and told to stand where they were.
A flashlight was shined on them and both barrels of a shotgun were fired at them - two of them, Thomas and Stephen, were shot in the legs and Patrick was shot in the stomach.
The gunmen then shouted at them to return to their house, and the gang of them then left the area, heading for the house where the Cloonan family lived.
Again, they forced entry and removed the man of the house, Albert, from his bed, took him outside, beat him over the head a number of times with rifle butts, dragged his wife, Anne, outside, and burned their house down (as they did with the local Sinn Féin hall).
Between the 9th October 1920 and the 21st of that month, a total of at least 25 such house intrusions were recorded in Galway including, on the 16th, at the home of the Feeney family in Corofin, where the four sons in the house were taken outside, two were stripped and flogged and another was hit on the head with a gun butt and beaten up – all of them were kicked repeatedly while on the ground.
Also on the 16th, British Army Auxiliaries attacked a Mr John Raftery from Corofin, a publican.
On the 21st, the anti-Irish gang forced entry into the house of Roger Furey in the village of Gurran, Oranmore, and take his two sons out to the yard and shoot one of them, Michael, in the leg.
From there, the gang broke into the house of Roger's brother, Thomas, where his three sons were taken outside and battered, following which they proceeded to a neighbour's house, Martin King, smashing every window in the house and beating up his two sons.
In a rare moment of clarity, the Irish Catholic Bishops issued a pastoral letter (on the 20th October 1920) saying that, if there were anarchy in Ireland, the Ministers of the British Government were its architects, adding -
"Not by inhuman oppression will the Irish question be settled but by recognition of the indefeasible right of Ireland, as of every other nation, to choose the form of government under which its people are to live.."
Eventually, after an 'investigation', the RIC reported that all the attacks were the work of the same group - British Army Auxiliaries from nearby Galway City.
It must have pained them to have to point the finger so close to home.
THE FORGOTTEN PEOPLE...
Emigration from Ireland to the United States continued throughout the 1990's, although the reasons were no longer so bluntly economic.
Now, in the wake of September 11th, the US authorities have been granted increased powers to investigate legal status, and Irish illegal emigrants are more vulnerable than ever before.
By Mairead Carey.
From 'Magill Annual', 2002.
One undocumented Irish worker, in an interview with 'Irish Voice' editor Niall O'Dowd, told how he had got a job on the 23rd floor of the South Tower a few days before the attack.
No papers were required by the construction company.
A single man in his 30's, he said he lived in constant fear of being deported and stayed clear of all the usual Irish neighbourhoods and, because of previous 'legal problems' in Ireland, he was particularly intent on keeping a low profile.
September 11th was his second day on the job ; most of the crew were from the North of Ireland and, after the plane struck, they made their way down scaffolding to the ground.
He had gone about 30 yards clear when he heard a massive rumbling sound and the building crashed.
"It was pure hysteria, pandemonium," he recalled. As he ran from the site he was hit on the back by debris, and collapsed.
Two police officers or firemen, he isn't sure, dragged him clear and he was brought to St Vincent's Hospital, suffering from burns on his back and broken ribs...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 9th October, 1921, IRA Volunteer Michael Joseph Geelan (23), from 1 Woodstock, Midleton, County Cork, was on his motorbike outside the village of Carrigtwohill, when he was knocked off it by a Crossley Tender (pictured), carrying RIC members.
Volunteer Geelan died two days later from blood poisoning caused by his injuries.
The IRA man, who was employed as a farm labourer.. "...had no lights on his motorbike and was driving on the wrong side of the road..", according to the RIC.
RIP, Volunteer Geelan. Your name is proudly inscribed on the Cork No. 1 Brigade Memorial at the Republican Plot in the Holy Rosary Cemetery in Midleton, County Cork.
(Some sources state that the 'road accident' happened on dates including and between the 8th and the 10th October 1921.)
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On the 9th October, 1921, political/military delegates supposedly representing Irish interests arrived in London to further discuss terms for accepting 'the Treaty of Surrender'.
Arthur Griffith, Robert Barton, Eamonn Duggan and George Gavan Duffy, with Robert Erskine Childers (Robert Barton's cousin) as 'Secretary to the delegation', were accompanied by bodyguard Mr Eamon 'Ned' Broy (pictured), from Rathangan, in County Kildare, which wasn't one of the six counties abandoned by them.
The delegates disembarked their train at Euston Street, to be met by huge crowds and dozens of media reps, and stayed in Number 22 Hans Place in a posh part of London - it's a garden square area in the Knightsbridge district of the 'Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea', and must have been too rich for Michael Collins - he arrived the next day (10th October) and stayed in Number 15 Cadogan Gardens.
Incidentally, the infamous 'Broy Harriers', as with the man they were named in honour of (!) '..had (-have-) a controversial history...'
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In a 'Situation Report' he wrote on the 9th October, 1921, the General Officer Commanding of the British Army in Ireland, General 'Sir' Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready (pictured), stated that..
"...advantage had been taken of the truce to convert the IRA, which was three months ago little more than a disorganised rabble, into a well-disciplined, well-organised and well-armed force.."
Mr Macready, who was appointed in April (1920) by Westminster to his position, was the last such office holder to hold that post in Ireland.
Even though he had a deep dislike for the Irish and Ireland ("...I loathe the country and its people with a depth deeper than the sea and more violent than that which I feel against the Boche.."), Mr Macready was said to hold the belief that an outright military victory against the Irish dissidents was not obtainable, and was not altogether opposed to reaching a settlement with them.
And a 'settlement' - not the final one ; that still has to be arrived at - was reached, in London, on the 6th December that year, but the final one will see us get back our Six Counties...
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BEIR BUA...
The Thread of the Irish Republican Movement from The United Irishmen through to today.
Republicanism in history and today.
Published by the James Connolly/Tommy O'Neill Cumann, Republican Sinn Féin, The Liberties, Dublin.
August 1998.
('1169' comment - 'Beir Bua' translates as 'Grasp Victory' in the English language.)
REPUBLICANS AND THE STATE :
One of the predecessor organisations of Sinn Féin, the Dungannon Club, wrote in its manifesto in 1905 -
"At present one-hundred-and-two (102) Irishmen go over to England's Parliament at Westminster year after year, talk endlessly, and play at representing Ireland in the Council of the Empire.
Eighty-four (84) of those are in favour of Ireland being allowed a pretence of a parliament in Dublin ; the remainder are not even in favour of that.
All this has got to be ended.
While these men are prating in London, Ireland is driven to ruin ; what can they do for Ireland there, and is England's Pariament House the place in which to seek to build the Irish nation?
If these men will not come home, and cease to give away the case of Ireland by acknowledging the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament, then every constituency in Ireland should be contested against them. We can at least prevent them misrepresenting us..."
(MORE LATER.)
"The men are scattered and the equipment and armaments poor but peace talk and peace negotiations must be definitely hit on the head..."
-A defiant Volunteer Ernie O'Malley (pictured), writing from the HQ of the Northern and Eastern Commands of the IRA, 9th October 1922.
Harried and hounded by a Westminster-supported Free State Army, the IRA maintained the struggle for a 32-County Irish Republic until May, 1923, when their then Chief-Of-Staff, Frank Thomas Aiken (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher) issued a "dump arms" order to the rebels.
Republican weapons were placed aside, but the spirit for a true Republic remained in hand, as it does to this day.
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On the 9th October, 1922, possibly/probably during an IRA attack on the 'Big House', a Mr Henry Moore, a gardener/'land steward' at 'Burton Hall' (pictured) in Stillorgan, Dublin, was shot dead.
Mr Moore's employer, the man who owned 'Burton Hall' at the time, was a Mr Henry Seymour Guinness (...yes, from that family), who wouldn't have had the time to do his own gardening or land stewarding (!) himself as he was a very busy man.
Mr Guinness, a committed Free Stater (a 'Senator') and an ex-British militia soldier (the 'Burma State Railway Volunteer Rifles' Unit), occupied himself as a banker (a director of the Bank of Ireland [BoI]) and as the 'High Sheriff' of County Dublin.
In his position with the BoI, he organised for 'loans' of millions of pounds to be made to the Leinster House administration to ensure that it could continue to work towards its objectives which, then - as now - include the crushing of traditional Irish republican principles.
That 'Big House' was last attacked by the IRA in March, 1923, when a mine planted there failed to explode.
Mr Guinness died on the 4th April 1945 in Broadwater House, Tunbridge Wells, in England, and it's a shame that Mr Moore's personal history has not been as well recorded, but then he was 'only' a gardener/'land steward' for a Toff...
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WINTERING IN THE ALGARVE (...AS YOU DO!)
We had the craic at our BIG birthday party last week - two days prep beforehand and the best part of three days afterwards to help clean up and recover!
And it was during the recovery operation (!) that meself and the Girl Gang got talking 'bout extending the craic and taking it to foreign shores, so we discussed possible dates etc and one of the Girls got on to a business buddie of hers with better contacts than we have in the travel/holiday field of influence and, within hours, flights and accommodation were secured for the five of us - a holiday villa in permanently sunny climes near the beach and in comfortable walking distance of the shops, pubs, restaurants and other sites of interest ("Ya wha', Shar - there are other sites of interest..??!).
So, for now, just a heads up for ya - we'll be absent from the blog (the two lads will be catching up with other work in my absence) from early November 2024 for three or four weeks. But we'll bring ya back a fridge magnet...!
Thanks for the visit, and for reading ; see y'all again on Wednesday, 16th October 2024, and/or on X/Twitter and Facebook between this and then!
Sharon and the team.
