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.)
==========================
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...'
==========================
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...
==========================
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.
==========================
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...
==========================
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.
Sweet 16!
...that's what we'll have ready for Wednesday, 9th October 2024, in our blog post : sixteen pieces, articles, instances, occurrences and/or other such stuff (!), all to do with our recent and not-so-recent historical and political past.
We'll have more info and detail on the following...
Westminster, late 1960's - an attempt to mislead world interest about 'an incident' in Ireland was only hours away from being made, and the British propagandists behind their oak desks were holding their last meeting before the 'big reveal'. They were somewhat nervous, but confident, as this wasn't their first such rodeo...
Westminster, 1900's - communication between high-ranking British Government politicians showed that they considered practically any offer to the Irish rebels to be 'a bridge too far' : "It would break-up our government..."
'Money, money, money' : a 20th Century 'cat and mouse game' between the British and their military and political agents in Ireland, England and further abroad and the military and political agents of the Irish 'dissidents' - but more than money was at stake, and both sides knew it...
..and thirteen other pieces (..well, fourteen, really, but in the last one we'll be mentioning a date in the near future!)
So do, please, give us a click on Wednesday, 9th October 2024. If yer not entirely happy with what ya find, let us know, won't ya?
And we'll block ya...!
Thanks for the visit, and for reading ; call again and be amazed (or blocked!) on the 9th!
Sharon and the team.
ON THIS DATE (25TH SEPTEMBER) 107 YEARS AGO : IRISH HUNGER-STRIKER MURDERED BY FORCE-FEEDING.
"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 - 107 years ago on this date - 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.
He 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".
He supported the unionisation of north Dublin farm labourers and his activities brought him into conflict with landowners such as Thomas Kettle in 1912 and, 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.
Ashe 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, and immediately returned to Ireland and toured the country reorganising the IRB and inciting 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 old.
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.
"Unless legislation was previously enacted the Government of Ireland Act 1914 (pictured) would come into operation on the ratification of the last of the Peace Treaties, which is likely to be the Treaty of Peace with Turkey..."
- one of the issues raised at a meeting of the British Cabinet on the 25th September, 1919, and one which caused alarm to those British politicians, as the 1914 Act intended to provide 'Home Rule' (ie 'self-government within the United Kingdom') for Ireland, and did not envisage the partition of the country.
That 1914 Act had been first introduced in 1912 and was debated in the British Parliament for two years ; it was finally passed (under the 'Parliament Act 1911') and given 'Royal Assent' on the 18th September, 1914.
The partition of Ireland, rather than so-called 'Home Rule' for the whole 32 Counties of the country, suited the British and their loyalists in Ireland (ie a 'broken Ireland' would be easier to control, they reckoned) and a committee to facilitate that outcome was established, consisting of, among others, Walter Long (the 'Secretary of State for the Colonies'), FE Smith (the '1st Earl of Birkenhead'), Laming Worthington Evans, Herbert Albert Laurens Fisher ('OM PC FRS FBA...ETC..ETC..!) Gordon Ewart, Richard Horne, Auckland Geddes, James Ian MacPherson and Philip Kerr.
It should be noted that there were no 'pro-Irish' representatives on that committee, nor were any such people consulted. However, those 'loyal to the Crown' were invited to offer their opinion and their advice, and did so.
And so it was that Ireland was partitioned by the British, and remains so to this day.
==========================
On the 25th September, 1919, as British soldiers from the 'Yorkshire Regiment' were guarding, moving and taking stock of the explosives kept at the Castlecomer Collieries (coal mine) in County Kilkenny, an explosion killed three of them.
A Private Frank Lord, Private George Frederick Heppenstall and a Lance Corporal, Andrew Walsh, died from the wounds inflicted and at least two of their colleagues were badly injured.
It was an accidental explosion, apparently caused by 'expired munitions' which weren't...
The three British soldiers are buried at St Mary's Church in Ardra, Castlecomer, County Kilkenny.
==========================
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!)
The importance of ethnicity as a question in the census is not merely in the data it provides for social research on issues such as racism.
This type of statistical information is also important in the assessment of particular conditions of certain ethnic groups, for instance in providing specific services for them.
A Dublin City Council document further emphasises this - according to its report titled 'A City of Possibilities', by the year 2005, 20% of Dublin's population will be made up of foreign nationals*.
If this proves to be the case, surely a solid statistical base is required so that the needs of a changing socety** can be addressed.
Far from being a socially divisive development, countries such as Britain have proven that an awareness of trends in statistical ethnicity contributes to a much more cosmopolitan national self-image***...
(* The figures are here - we find them frightening, with worse to come...)
(** Dublin and, indeed, the State and the country overall, is not as much "a changing society" as it is a society being changed - hundreds of thousands of foreigners have been people-trafficked here, politically, with a promise from Leinster House of "own accommodation after four months..", free medical plan, free food and utilities etc etc : Ireland, overall, is being (ab)used as a dumping ground for the unwanted of the world.)
(*** LOL! 'Contributing to a much more cosmopolitan national self-image' indeed!)
(MORE LATER.)
"A young man in the Milltown district of County Kerry was tarred and a young lady a short time earlier had her hair cut..."
- from a report in 'The Kerry People' newspaper, 25th September 1920.
'The most common act of physical violence carried out against women by the IRA was the cutting of hair, with 27 cases (23 per cent) found among
the sample.
Some public notices made it explicitly clear that women who interacted with the Crown Forces would have their hair cropped. In Mallow, County Cork, a notice posted on the chapel gate warned that 'Any girls speaking to the police from this day forward are liable to the penalty of hair cut'.
A Galway notice threatened that women found in company with the police would have '...their hair cut and their ears amputated..'
The cropping of hair offered a grimly visual reminder of transgression to the victim and an immediate warning to others. In Wicklow, young girls were warned against keeping company with Crown forces and any who disobeyed would 'have her hair cut off so that she will be held in contempt by all loyal citizens of the Irish Republic...' (From here.)
'Shame and Shearing...'
==========================
On the 25th September, 1920, in Westminster, 'Sir' Hamar Greenwood, the '1st Viscount Greenwood', opined to his friend, a Mr Andrew Bonar Law (the soon-to-be 'Unknown Prime Minster') that.. "...the tide has turned. The hostiles are getting frightened and the mass of Irishmen are losing faith in Sinn Féin as a winning side.."
Eight months later, an election was held in Ireland, North and South (East and West, too - 26 geographic constituencies were contested), and all of the 124 Sinn Féin candidates were elected!
An overview of the election can be read here.
==========================
On the 25th September, 1920, two RIC members - a Mr Michael Brogan and a Mr Brennan - were out and about in the village of Broadford, in County Clare, and popped in to a pub for a few pints.
On their way back to their barracks, two IRA men - Volunteer Michael Brennan and Volunteer James Hogan - ambushed them ; RIC member Mr Brennan ran away but Mr Brogan wasn't quick enough, and died from gunshot wounds.
Their 'Duty Status' was listed as 'On' at the time.
RIC member Michael Brogan (41, 'Service Number 61507') was from County Galway.
==========================
Two RIC members, a Mr Thomas Leonard and a Mr Thomas Carroll, were 'on duty' on the Falls Road in Belfast (pictured) on the 25th September, 1920, when they were approached by two armed IRA Volunteers.
The Volunteers wanted to disarm them, but the RIC members believed they could fight them off ; they couldn't, and both of them were shot.
RIC member Leonard died later that day from his wounds, his colleague survived.
Mr Leonard (35, 'Service Number 62331') was from Knockcroghery, in County Roscommon.
==========================
On the 25th September, 1920, at about 11pm, IRA Volunteers from the West Cavan and Longford Brigades quietly took over a house next door to the RIC Barracks in the village of Arva, in County Cavan.
They gained entrance to the roof of that house and, from there, got on to the roof of the RIC Barracks, and blocked the chimney - their reason for doing so was to prevent any one of the ten or so RIC members in the building from sending up a distress flare, and also to 'smoke them out'.
The IRA then opened fire on the barracks and lobbed grenades at the building and, after approximately 20 minutes, the RIC members inside surrendered.
At least 15 rifles and the same number of handguns, and ammunition for same, were removed from the barracks by the IRA that night.
The IRA were under the command of Volunteer Seán MacEoin (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher) and, according to another Volunteer, Seamus Conway, Volunteer MacEoin was asked, after the RIC had given up the fight, by the RIC member in charge, to destroy the building 'so that my superiors would not see that we surrendered without a fight...'!
The request was granted...
==========================
ON THIS DATE (25TH SEPTEMBER) 41 YEARS AGO - IRA H-BLOCK PRISON ESCAPE.
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.
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 - it 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.
Belfast areas, 25th September 1921 :
Eliza J Kelly was shot in her own home at about 8pm, in the Short Strand district, by an RIC man, and died of her injuries three hours later. Eliza was born in 1885 to John Dempsey and Elizabeth McLaughlin, and was married to William Kelly.
A Mr George Berry received fatal wounds when a bomb was thrown into his home on the Shore Rd. He died on October 10th. He was 38 years of age, and had fought with the British Army in the the Boer War and 'World War 1'.
Two young men, both aged 19 - James McMinn, from Reid's Place, and Alexander Harrison, from Frazer Street - were walking with a gang of loyalists towards the nationalist Short Strand area when a bomb was thrown at then, killing them and injuring about 20 other gang members.
==========================
In the 1900's in Ireland, the 'Republican Police Force' were turned to (as opposed to the British 'police force', the RIC, who were more 'turned against'!) by citizens who felt they had been aggrieved and, despite not having the same resources at their disposal as the RIC had, the 'RPF' had gained a reputation as a fair and unbiased organisation.
So much so, indeed that, in Kilkenny, two former British Army Majors reported to the 'RPF' that their houses had been broken into and jewellery taken - the 'RPF' recovered and returned the stolen goods, then investigated a complaint from a 'Sir' Charles Denny Wheeler-Cuffe, that livestock had been removed by person(s) unknown from 'his' land : the animals were recovered and returned to Mr Wheeler-Cuffe.
Another case involved an organised gang of house burglars who were eventually apprehended and jailed in a deserted house for a set period of time by the 'RPF'.
But it wasn't all 'cops and robbers' (!) stuff ; the then-fledging police force (3 months 'old') was asked, in June 1920, by the owners and management of Gowran Park Races to marshall the grounds during race days and, by all accounts, were placed in the 'Winners Enclosure' each time for a job well done!
The offence of 'an attack on a girl' was usually punished, by court order, by the guilty party being tied to the gates of the church, by the 'RPF', in the area where the attack took place, and a notice of his crime tied beside him.
Anyway - on the 25th September, 1921, two men who stole from a pub in Bennettsbridge, County Kilkenny - a Mr William Hayes and a Mr John Renehan - were caught by the Republican Police Force and taken back to the village of Bennettsbridge where they were tied to the railings of the local church as people were arriving for Mass.
And they were barred from the pub as well...
On researching the incident, we came across a Mr William Hayes, a member of the British Army 'Irish Guards/Royal Irish Fusiliers' Regiment, who was based in MacDonagh Station in Kilkenny at that time, as was a Mr John Renehan, a member of the 'Royal Irish Regiment'.
Sure there's not enough railings in the whole of Ireland for them lads...
==========================
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.
Fr Tom Flynn of the 'Aisling Irish Centre' says -
"But for the fact that the economy in the US was so good in the last few years, we would have been experiencing very severe problems."
Rumours abounded about the plight of the undocumented in the aftermath of the attacks in New York.
There was talk that 30 young Irish illegals had been hired the day before to do a job in the World Trade Centre - they had, apparently, been given false union ID's, and were supposed to be on one of the top floors of the Twin Towers when the planes hit.
One report suggested that 26 Irish men working for a lighting company in Long Island were missing, and fears were aired that construction companies didn't have their workers insured and were consequently suppressing information.
Then there were the four undocumented Cavan men who appeared to have miraculously escaped from the Twin Towers ; the four, it was claimed, had been feared dead but were found alive, although seriously injured, in St Vincent's Hospital in New York, according to Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, Sinn Féin.
The men's families were said to be relieved, but had requested anonymity : the Irish media went looking for the men, but no one could find them. To this day, Ó Caoláin stands over the story -
"I can only affirm the facts as they were given to me. The families made their own judgement and decided to maintain their anonymity, however uncomfortable it was for me," he says.
Even if those four men did not exist, there were others like them who did manage to escape...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 19th September, 1923, British 'Sir' Reginald Laurence Antrobus, the 'Senior Crown Agent for the Colonies', wrote to one of his political pals, a Mr Lionel George Curtis, an English public servant, writer, and political opinionist of the day, asking him what he made of the Irish situation.
On the 25th September (1923), Mr Curtis wrote back, stating that.. "...our friends' heads (ie the Free State administration) are, of course, pretty full at the moment.." (ie 'they are kept busy with the job we gave them - to destroy Irish republicanism') and he suggested that they wouldn't be so busy once they realised that their position in the world counted for little.. "...apart from their position in the British Commonwealth of Nations.."
Well, 'Har! Har!', Mr Curtis.
But now we have two powerbloc 'Commonwealths' that are sniggering at the indigenous Irish - one in Westminster, and one in Brussels.
The joke is on us.
==========================
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 :
The Republican view of where the legitimate right to govern Ireland lies, therefore, does not include the Six or 26 County States, and certainly not Britain.
Since the courts are one of the pillars of the State - the legislature and the president being the other two pillars in the 26 Counties and the legislature and the monarch for the British - Republicans do not recognise the authority of the courts.
The Republican Sinn Féin constitution forbids the organisation from making use of the courts of either partition assembly for civil actions and states -
"Recognition of these courts in the case of political charges is strictly forbidden, unless specifically sanctioned or ordered by the Republican Government."
Republican Sinn Féin does not recognise the right of the new Stormont, Leinster House or Westminster parliaments to govern any part of Ireland and would not therefore send their elected representatives to it.
This policy of not participating in these parliaments is called abstentionism, and has been the Sinn Féin policy since the formation of the organisation in 1905...
(Note - the RSF organisation has turned 'Woke' in the last few years and, while its stated political policy re our six occupied counties etc are sound, its social policies are much less so.)
(MORE LATER.)
Thanks for the visit, and for reading!
Sharon and the team.
(We won't be here next Wednesday, 2nd October 2024, as we have a BIG birthday party to help organise, and attend, and recover from... [I'm 21 then, and I'm not spending it with ye lot..!] ..but we'll be back 'On Air' on Wednesday, 9th October with, among other pieces, a few paragraphs about the final preparations put in place by Westminster before they unleashed a political white-washing on the world.
...and I'll be still chatting away on X/Twitter and Facebook as well!)
