BLOG BREAK : 8TH NOVEMBER 2024 - ??TH NOVEMBER 2024.
Meself and the Girl Gang have the 20kg bags packed, the backpacks and the extra-large handbags ready, the paperwork is signed, sealed and will be delivered on Friday, 8th November 2024, to the nice weighing-scale-blind people at the Aer Lingus check-in Desk in Dublin Airport for our ??-week trip to ??!
The two lads are taking advantage of my absence to catch up on a few other projects they are working on and have a bit of a break, too, but it'll be damp, cold and wet where their going 'cause they'll be staying in Dublin!
And it's gonna be warm, sunny and dry where we're going, and we'll have nuthin' to be doin' and all day to be doin' it - no work in the home or outside of it, just shopping, eating out, shopping, sight-seeing, night life, shopping...!
No children, grandchildren, other family members, neighbours or other friends dropping in.
Our travel-agent girlfriend will, with two days notice, change our flight home to suit us, as we'll more than likely extend our holiday by at least a week... "And don't worry," says she, "if yis are a wee bit overweight on the return journey - I'll have that fixed for y'all, too.."
Far as we could tell, she was talking about the luggage...(??!)
So there ya have it - my tale of woe. But we should be alright, once the Factor 50 does its job!
And I'll be posting a few words and pics on X/Twitter and Facebook, and maybe even one or two of the five of us together on one of our outings, if we can get anyone mad enough to try and get us to stand upright...still..for a few minutes!
WINTER IN THE ALGARVE (...or thereabouts!)
This State can be a tiring place,
The wind blows, and it pours with rain,
Some years it can get very cold,
And we see snow and ice again.
People can get very stressed,
Life does not feel like fun,
That's why we're all hoping to get,
A dose of Winter Sun.
There's nothing quite like it,
For getting you going again,
A couple of weeks in Madeira,
Or a trip to the Caribbean...
(Mr Bill Wright, slightly edited!)
Thanks for the visit, and for reading - see y'all back here sometime in November 2024!
Sharon and the team.
OCTOBER NOTIFICATION VERIFIED...
..and we did mention it in (early) October, on the blog.
But - if you can't remember ('cause let's face it, other stuff happened ya in October..!) or you're just not bothered to check back and find out what I'm on about, then tune in here again on Wednesday, 6th November 2024 and we'll give ya the full skinny...!
(...well..maybe not the 'full' skinny, 'cause we actually don't know the full of it just yet ourselves...!)
Thanks for the visit, and for reading - more on the 6th!
Sharon and the team.
ON THE LAST WEDNESDAY IN OCTOBER 1973.....
The Alouette II helicopter used by the PIRA on the last Wednesday in October, 1973, to escape from the exercise yard of Mountjoy Prison in Dublin.
On this day (the last Wednesday in October) 51 years ago (1973) , at 3.41pm, the
helicopter took off from Mountjoy Prison with three leading Provisional IRA Volunteers on board - Seamus Twomey, J.B. O'Hagan and Kevin Mallon.
Kevin Mallon's freedom was shortlived ; he was arrested at a dance-hall in Portlaoise six weeks later and he got four years (Marion Coyle was charged with allegedly firing at a State detective at the dancehall but she was acquitted through lack of identification).
The helicopter escape severely embarrassed the political administration in Leinster House and led directly to a review of national security (sic - the Leinster House Administration has not got national authority) carried out by Free State Justice Finlay.
But if the escape was an embarrassment to that administration , it was an inspiration to the PIRA and inspired another operation : on the 24th January, 1974, Rose Dugdale posed as a journalist and hired a helicopter along with two others to fly to Tory Island.
Eddie Gallagher and Rose Dugdale (pictured) had registered as man and wife in a hotel in Gortahork, County Donegal, prior to the operation.
According to Eddie Gallagher, they first met in a 'doss house' in Edinburgh, in Scotland - they were both fascinated at how 'dossers' could sleep on ropes when they could not afford to pay for a flea-infested bed in the dormitory. They were very close, and Rose Dugdale later gave birth to Gallagher's son in prison.
However - the helicopter was hijacked and forced to fly to Strabane RUC Station with three milk-churn bombs aboard. The bombs failed to explode when dropped.
In March 1973, PIRA leader Joe Cahill was arrested by the Free State Navy in Waterford, aboard the Claudia, a ship from Libya loaded with five tons of weapons, and was sentenced to three years imprisonment, and another PIRA leader, Seamus Twomey, was appointed IRA Chief of Staff.
In early October that year, Twomey was caught and arrested by the Free Staters and imprisoned in Mountjoy Jail, which meant that three top PIRA operatives (Twomey, J.B. O’Hagan and Kevin Mallon) were now housed in the one location - and the PIRA wanted them back!
An 'American businessman', a 'Mr. Leonard', approached the manager of the 'Irish Helicopters' company at Dublin Airport and discussed hiring a helicopter for an aerial photographic shoot in County Laois and, after being shown the company’s fleet of helicopters, this 'businessman' booked a five-seater Alouette II helicopter for Wednesday October 31st.
'Mr Leonard' arrived at Irish Helicopters on the day and was introduced to the pilot of the helicopter, a Captain Thompson Boyes, who was instructed to fly to a field in Stradbally, County Laois, to pick up photographic equipment.
After landing, the pilot saw two armed and masked men approaching the helicopter from nearby trees and he was held at gunpoint and told he would not be harmed if he followed instructions. 'Mr Leonard' left the area with one gunman, while the other gunman climbed aboard the helicopter armed with a pistol and an Armalite rifle.
Captain Boyes was told to fly towards Dublin following the path of railway lines and the Royal Canal, and was ordered not to register his flight path with Air Traffic Control. As the helicopter approached Dublin, Boyes was informed of the escape plan and instructed to land in the exercise yard at Mountjoy Prison.
On this day (the last Wednesday in October 1973), at 3.41pm in the afternoon, the Alouette II helicopter landed in the D Wing exercise yard of Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, when a football match was taking place between the prisoners, and Twomey, O’Hagan and Mallon jumped aboard, but were quickly spotted (!) by an alert Screw who used his training and power of intuition to take immediate action - he *called on the Screws at the gate to close them over as he feared the helicopter was trying to escape (* …according to the RTE 'Scannal - Prison Break' programme..)!
Another PIRA prisoner who was in the yard at the time recalled how an embarrassed Screw told him that he had apologised to the prison governor in relation to the incident, saying that he thought the helicopter contained a visiting (Free State) Minister for Defence (and well-known publican) Paddy Donegan : the PIRA prisoner replied that, in fact, "..it was our Minister of Defence leaving...!"
All three men reported back to base and continued their work for the PIRA but, after a few weeks of freedom, Kevin Mallon was recaptured at a GAA Dance in the Montague Hotel in County Laois on the 10th December, 1973, J.B.O’Hagan was recaptured in Dublin in early 1975 and Seamus Twomey managed to remain uncaptured until the 2nd December, 1977, after the Special Branch came across him in a 'suspicious car' parked in Sandycove, in Dublin.
The 'Wolfe Tones' ballad group released a song called 'The Helicopter Song' which topped the Irish Charts for 4 weeks and 'The Wolfhounds' (pictured) also recorded the event in song and, in January 1974, a close associate of Kevin Mallon’s, Eddie Gallagher, along with Doctor Rose Dugdale, hijacked another helicopter in Donegal to bomb the RUC station in Strabane from the air but the milk-churn bombs they dropped never exploded.
There have been 'ups and downs' (pardon the pun!) in this long on-going struggle to achieve full Irish freedom and Irish republicans may tend to get on a 'high' (!) during the 'Up' periods but we very seldom go on a 'Downer' during the 'Down' periods.
We know from our own experiences and from our history that we will witness both such periods repeatedly but we have learned to take the good with the bad, in that an 'up' period does not mean that victory has been achieved no more than a 'down' period means that all is lost.
The prize we seek is more valuable to us than that sort of short-term thinking would allow for!
On the 30th October, 1919, a Lance-Corporal with the British Army's 'Welsh Regiment', a Mr Edward Perry, is listed as having 'killed himself in the North Dublin Union in Ireland'.
We could find no information on the man or the incident.
Even the British 'National Army Museum' has no record of the man or what happened to him.
==========================
"HE SHOT A SOLDIER WITH AN EXPANDING BULLET..."
In his report, statement and comments to the Westminster 'Irish Situation Committee of the British Cabinet' on the 30th October, 1920, a Mr 'Sir' Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready, the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief ('GOC-in-C') British forces in Ireland, made reference to the funeral of Terence MacSwiney, troublesome (!) transport issues in Ireland and the then forthcoming death-by-hanging of Kevin Barry, of which he opined -
"It would be a good thing if some person in authority in England would explain publicly that this man (Kevin Barry) was conclusively proved to have shot a soldier with an expanding bullet..."
Mr Macready was lying to tell a lie.
Kevin Barry was charged with three counts of the murder of British Army Private Marshall Whitehead (20), yet one of the bullets taken from Mr Whitehead's body was of .45 calibre, while all witnesses stated that Barry was armed with a (Model 1915) .38 Mauser Automatic Parabellum.
A BA Private, Harold Washington (15 years young - he had lied about his age to enlist in the BA, a common enough practice), was killed outright during the IRA attack, BA Private Thomas Humphries, aged 19, died later of his wounds and two other BA Privates, a Mr William Smith and a Mr Frank Noble, were both shot in the ankle.
Kevin Barry was born on the 20th January, 1902, at 8 Fleet Street Dublin.
The son of Thomas and Mary (née Dowling) Barry, he was the fourth of seven children, two boys and five sisters, and was baptised in Saint Andrews Church, Westland Row, in Dublin.
Thomas Barry Senior worked on the family farm at Tombeagh, Hacketstown, in County Carlow, and ran a dairy business from Fleet Street ; he died in 1908 at the age of 56.
His mother came from Drumguin, also in County Carlow, and on the death of her husband, moved the family to Tombeagh.
As a child, Kevin liked country life, and went to the national school in Rathvilly and, on returning to Dublin, he attended Saint Mary's College, Rathmines, until the school closed in the summer of 1916.
The Sworn Statement of Kevin Barry -
"I, Kevin Barry, of 58, South Circular Road, in the County of Dublin, Medical Student, aged 18 years and upwards, solemnly and sincerely declare as follows :
On the 20th of September, 1920, I was arrested in Upper Church Street by a Sergeant of the 2nd Duke of Wellington's Regiment and was brought under escort to the North Dublin Union, now occupied by military. I was brought into the guard room and searched. I was then moved to the defaulter's room by an escort with a Sergeant-Major, who all belonged to 1st Lancashire Fusiliers.
I was then handcuffed.
About 15 minutes after I was put into the defaulter's room, two Commissioned Officers of the 1st Lancashire Fusiliers came in. They were accompanied by 3 Sergeants of the same unit. A military policeman who had been in the room since I entered it remained. One of the officers asked me my name, which I gave. He then asked me for the names of my companions in the raid. I refused to give them.
He tried to persuade me to give the names and I persisted in refusing. He then sent a Sergeant for a bayonet. When it was brought in the Sergeant was ordered by this officer to point the bayonet at my stomach. The same questions as to the names and addresses of my companions were repeated with the same results. The Sergeant was then ordered to turn my face to the wall and point the bayonet to my back. The Sergeant then said he would run the bayonet into me if I did not tell.
The bayonet was then removed and I was turned round again. This officer then said that if I still persisted in this attitude he would turn me out to the men in the barrack square and he supposed I knew what that meant with the men in their present temper. I said nothing. He ordered the Sergeants to put me face down on the floor and twist my arm. I was pushed down onto the floor after my handcuffs were removed. When I lay on the floor one of the Sergeants knelt on the small of my back, the other two placed one foot each on my back and left shoulder and the man who knelt on me twisted my right arm, holding it by the wrist with one hand while he held my hair with the other to pull back my head.
The arm was twisted from the elbow joint. This continued to the best of my knowledge for 5 minutes. It was very painful. The first officer was standing near my feet and the officer who accompanied him was still present. During the twisting of my arm the first officer continued to question me for the names and addresses of my companions and the names of my Company Commander or any other officer I knew. As I still refused to answer these questions I was let up and handcuffed.
A civilian came in and he repeated the same questions with the same results. He informed me that if I gave all the information I knew, I could get off. I was then left in the company of the military policeman. The two officers, three sergeants and civilian all left together. I could certainly identify the officer who directed the proceedings and put the questions. I am not sure of the others except the Sergeant with the bayonet.
My arm was medically treated by an officer of the Royal Army Medical Corps attached to the North Dublin Union the following morning and by the prison hospital orderly afterwards for 4 or 5 days. I was visited by the Court Martial Officer last night and he read the confirmation of sentence of death by hanging to be executed on Monday next and I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing same to be true and by virtue of the Statutory Declarations Act, 1835.
Declared and subscribed before me at Mountjoy Prison in the County of the City of Dublin, 28th October, 1920.
(Signed) MYLES KEOGH,
A Justice of the Peace for said County.
KEVIN GERARD BARRY."
SLEEPING FOR THE FLAG.
When our boys come home in triumph, brother,
With the laurels they shall gain ;
When we go to give them welcome, brother,
We shall look for you in vain.
We shall wait for your returning, brother,
Though we know it cannot be ;
For your comrades left you sleeping, brother,
Underneath a southern tree.
Sleeping to waken
In this weary world no more ;
Sleeping for your true-lov'd country, brother,
Sleeping for the flag you bore.
You were the first on duty, brother,
When "To Arms!" your leader cried -
You have left the ranks forever, brother,
You have laid your arms aside.
From the awful scenes of battle, brother,
You were set forever free,
When your comrades left you sleeping, brother,
Underneath that southern tree.
You have cross'd the clouded river, brother,
To the mansions of the best,
"When the wicked cease from troubling," brother,
"And the weary are at rest."
Surely we would not recall you, brother,
But the tears flow fast and free,
When we think of you sleeping, brother,
Underneath a southern tree.
Henry Clay Work.
On the 30th October, 1920, 'The Irish Bulletin' (pictured) carried a report from Kevin Barry detailing the torture inflicted on him by Crown Forces and that same issue of the newspaper also reported on Mr Arthur Griffith's (the then 'Acting President of the Irish Republic') letter addressed to "the civilised nations of the world", stating that...
"Under similar circumstances a body of Irish Volunteers captured on June 1 of the present year a party of 25 English military who were on duty at the King's Inns, Dublin.
Having disarmed the party the Volunteers immediately released their prisoners.
This was in strict accordance with the conduct of the Volunteers in all such encounters.
Hundreds of members of the armed forces have been from time to time captured by the Volunteers and in no case was any prisoner maltreated even though Volunteers had been killed and wounded in the fighting, as in the case of Cloyne, County Cork, when, after a conflict in which one Volunteer was killed and two wounded, the whole of the opposing forces were captured, disarmed, and set at liberty..."
Mr Griffith was rightly making comparisons between how the British Crown and Irish republican forces treated prisoners, but to no avail - Kevin Barry was put to death by Westminster, by hanging, on the 1st November, 1920, at 18 years of age.
The bastards.
==========================
On the 30th October, 1920, between forty and fifty IRA Volunteers, with Volunteer Thomas McInerney in command, took up ambush positions on the road from Loughrea to Gort, in County Galway.
The rebels placed themselves just outside the townland of Castledaly, about the halfway point from Kilchreest and Peterswell, as they knew a five-man patrol of armed RIC members was due to pass through that area.
When the enemy patrol turned up, they were challenged and a gunbattle ensued, during which one RIC member, a Kerry man named Tim Horan (40, 'Service Number 60534'), was shot dead.
Mr Horan's colleagues were relieved of their rifles, ammunition, bicycles and anything else of use to the dissidents (!) and then released, shook but otherwise unharmed.
Following the ambush, many of the Volunteers involved were forced to go on the run and the people of the locality braced themselves for reprisal attacks by the Crown Forces. Volunteer Dan Ryan, from Gortacarrane, Gort, recalled -
"Reprisals followed immediately.
On Saturday evening the RIC opened indiscriminate fire around the village of Kilchreest.
At midnight on the same night, they burned Carty's and Coy's dwelling houses in Ballinacurra, a quarter of a mile from the village of Kilchreest, and they also burned Fallon's dwelling house at Scalp, Castledaly, as we passed that house on our way from the ambush..."
Volunteer Patrick Glynn recalled that Volunteer Peter Howley's home at Ardrahan was also burned by them.
However, a clerk somewhere within the British chain of command more than likely got 'burned' him/herself, as he/she placed it on record in the 'Official Register of Crime for the Province of Connaught' that the burning of those houses was in reprisal for the killing of RIC member Horan!
More details on the Castledaly Ambush can be accessed here.
==========================
On the 21st October, 1920, two drunk members of the British Crown Forces, a Lance Corporal Alexander McPherson and a Corporal Norman Buchanan, were 'doing the rounds' near Milton Malbay, in County Clare, in uniform, calling to houses, looking for money or valuables for themselves.
One of the houses they called to belonged to the Lynch family and, when they tried to force their way in, Ned Lynch (Captain of G Company, 4th Battalion of the IRA's Mid Clare Brigade) and his brothers physically stopped them, and put them off and away from the house.
They were humiliated in that physical confrontation with the Lynch brothers, and wanted revenge.
The two drunks returned to their barracks and assembled a motley gang of British soldiers, RIC members and Black and Tans, and went back to the Lynch house.
Mr Charles Lynch (70), the father, seen them pull up outside and opened the door, and Lance Corporal Alexander McPherson shot him in the heart, killing him on the spot. He then aimed his gun at John Lynch but, before he could fire, was stopped by a neighbour and one of his own RIC gang members.
Lance Corporal Alexander McPherson then instructed his gang to burn the house, which they did, and he then shot and wounded a Mr John Grady, a farm labourer and, on their way back to their barracks, they stopped at the family home of a Mr and Mrs Lorrie (an ex-British Army family) and assaulted the family, then went to small farms owned by the Talty, Boland and Moroney families and set fire to bales of hay and otherwise made a nuisance of themselves.
Lance Corporal Alexander McPherson's name was linked to all of the above, and he himself, and his British Army unit, thought it best that he leave the area and lie low for a while.
A 19-year-old man named Robertson, who was in the terror gang that night, left with him, both in uniform (possibly intending to do more 'nixers' on their way to 'sanctuary'!) but were arrested by the IRA on the 30th October (1920) and immediately claimed to have deserted from the British Army.
They were questioned and investigated and Lance Corporal Alexander McPherson's recent past caught up with him ; both of the 'deserters' were tried and found guilty and taken to the townland of Furroor (in County Clare) where they were to be executed.
But, during a 'toilet break', Lance Corporal Alexander McPherson escaped and, walking at night, eventually made his way back to Miltown, where he reassembled his gang of semi-military misfits and caused bloodshed and havoc in Clare townlands and villages in the search for their missing comrade.
Mr Robertson was never seen again and, to this day, his body has not been located.
==========================
In its 'Weekly Memorandum (No. 5)' report, issued on the 30th October, 1920, the IRA recorded that resignations from the RIC continued unabated.. "...and in very many cases these were stated to be brought about by pressure exerted by their relatives at home..".
It was also noted that some ex-RIC members had volunteered as 'pointers' for the Black and Tans (ie they would point out people, areas and venues, pubs etc of interest to the Tans but wouldn't engage with republicans other than that) and IRA units were advised that.. "...none of the pointers friends or relatives must be allowed to forget this to him. They cannot of course be held responsible for him and must not therefore be actually boycotted, but they must bear his shame..."
Nowadays, unfortunately, the 'pointers' operate in full view.
==========================
'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.
It seems much the same argument can be put forward for abuse victims who attended schools of the blind and orthopaedic hospitals.
So why the reluctance to include such schools in the compensation scheme?
In a recent article in 'The Irish Times', Mary Raftery, co-authgor of 'Suffer The Little Children ; The Inside Story Of Ireland's Industrial Schools' and the producer, director and writer of 'States Of Fear', suggests that it reflects shades of the attitude that drove the Government to "vindictively and aggressively" defend itself (and protect taxpayers money) against the claims to compensation by victims of the hepatitis C scandal.
The existence of the proposed compensation payout is a recognition that abuse did take place.
But the exclusion of the children who attended the schools for the deaf and the blind, the Orthopaedic hospitals and the Magdalen Laundries, made it difficult to avoid the conclusion that the State is implicitly denying that abuse occurred in these places...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 30th October, 1921, a meeting about the 'Irish situation' was held between Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins (Free Staters) and
Westminster, represented by a Mr David Lloyd George and a Mr Frederick Edwin Smith (the '1st Earl of Birkenhead, GCSI, PC, DL' aka 'Lord Birkenhead').
This meeting was what the participants referred to as the '4th Sub-Conference' and, the next day, while discussing the meeting with one of his trusted Stater colleagues, a Mr Gearóid O'Sullivan, Mr Collins told him that the British demanded that, in return for a united Ireland (which, by the way, was not theirs to 'gift'), Leinster House would have to accept membership within the British Commonwealth, along with safeguards for the Unionists in the partitioned Six Counties and guarantees from the Staters on British security.
Otherwise, said Mr Collins to Mr O'Sullivan, the British declared there would be war and "no fooling about it either".
What a missed opportunity - that information/threat should have been released to the Irish people and to the Irish in England, America and the rest of the world, but the Staters knew they would upset Mr George and his colleagues had they done so.
So they didn't.
Incidentally, when he fought against the British instead of against Irish republicans and republicanism, it was Mr Gearóid O'Sullivan who raised the Irish Flag above the GPO in Dublin on Easter Monday 1916 - he was 25 years old at the time, and hadn't yet being turned.
The GPO is about 180 meters off the ground, but Mr O'Sullivan fell further than that...
==========================
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.
Former US Congressman Bruce Morrison said -
"Most illegals are never apprehended because the INS didn't go around doing that.
They didn't have the resources to check up on nine million immigrants.
It was only if an illegal had the misfortune of getting into a fight in a bar, or being in an accident, or in some other way had come to the attention of law enforcement, that they would have difficulties.
There is a heightened level of communication now ; whereas, in the past, local law enforcement would not have bothered investigating immigration status, they are more likely to have it checked out today.
People have always been going home and coming back fraudulently, and living in the States illegally, but they represented themselves as tourists.
Now every aspect of US immigration screening is being tightened up and there will be greater questioning of people on a visa waiver coming from Dublin and Shannon..."
(MORE LATER.)
On the 30th October, 1922, the 1st Southern Division of the IRA held a meeting to discuss the military logistics and capabilities of the five Cork Brigades and it was agreed that the organisation was very weak in most Brigade areas.
However, they soldered on until May (24th) 1923 when they received an order from the Chief-Of-Staff, Frank Aiken, to "dump arms" which, even in their weakened state, they were reluctant to do.
==========================
On the 30th October, 1922, the IRA attacked Oriel House, the Headquarters of the State CID (political police/Special Branch) in Dublin.
A bomb was to be placed at the front door of the building to blow it open and, in the confusion, the IRA intended to enter the building with a more powerful bomb which would have been capable of levelling the whole structure.
But the door bomb actually demolished the first floor of the building which prevented the plan going ahead, leading to the 'arrest' of three IRA Volunteers - Patrick Farrelly (67 Chancery Lane, Dublin), John Murphy (56 Bellview Buildings, Dublin) and Joseph Spooner (36-37 McCaffrey's Estate, Dublin).
The three Volunteers were executed in Beggars Bush Barracks, in Dublin, by the Free Staters, on the 30th November, 1922.
RIP.
==========================
"On the morning of (my arrest) as I was signing the attendance book in the City Rates Office where I was employed, I felt a gun being stuck in my back and I instantly knew that the game was up.
I was brought to the Free State post at the City Hall and searched.
Later that day I was brought to Griffith Barracks' guardroom...(then)..we were crowded into the gymnasium and the door locked. Some Staters got outside through the north door with sub-machine guns and fired through the wooden door, but 'God directs the bullets'.
A strong inside iron bolt deflected the bullets, but only for this the casualties amongst the 250 prisoners would have been very great, but as it was, not more than half a dozen were wounded..."
- Joseph John 'Holy Joe' O'Connor (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State poacher), Officer Commanding of the 3rd Battalion IRA Dublin Brigade, describing his capture on the 30th October 1922.
Joseph O'Connor joined the 'Irish Volunteers' in 1913, was appointed a Lieutenant in 1914 and, by 1916, he was a captain in command of 'A Company', 3rd Battalion, Dublin Brigade, under Éamon de Valera.
He was active in the training and arming of the Volunteers and was present at the landing of guns at Howth in July 1914.
But, in 1925, he was elected as a State Senator for the Cumann na nGaedheal party and maintained his membership when they, and others, morphed into the Fine Gael grouping (in 1933) which supported everything that 'Holy Joe' had once fought against.
==========================
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 -
"England has her consuls in every city of the world, but wherein does Ireland benefit from that consular service beyond the doubtful privilege of having to pay for part of it.
Our national organisation must have competent men as agents in every principal city of Europe and America, who will find a market for our manufactures, see to our interest, and gain recognition for our countrty as a distinct national entity.
England has the ear of the world through the agency of her press, but Ireland's agents could keep the press of the world informed as to the real state of our country and of the national aspirations and efforts of our people.
Today the nations look on Ireland as dead, as one of the peoples that has perished..."
(MORE LATER.)
On the 13th January, 1923 (1923) three IRA Volunteers - Thomas McKeown, John McNulty, and Thomas Murray - were executed in Dundalk Jail, County Louth, by the Leinster House regime, for being "in possession of arms" and, on the 22nd January that same year (1923) three more Volunteers - Joseph Ferguson, James Melia, and Thomas Lennon - were executed by the same foe in the FSA Barracks in Dundalk, for the same 'offence'.
At the burial on the 30th October 1924, of the six IRA Volunteers, shooting broke out when a number of IRA Volunteers fired volleys of shots over the graves and the Free State Army tried to arrest them.
A Dundalk man, Joseph Hughes, was shot and died shortly afterwards.
'DUNDALK DEMOCRAT, Saturday, November 1, 1924
GUNFIRE!
EXTRAORDINARY GRAVEYARD SCENES IN DUNDALK
Military and Civilians "Blaze Away" Over Dead Bodies.
Hundreds of Shots Fired in Cemetery
The Burial of the Executed Louthmen
A number of young men took up positions near the graves, and producing revolvers fired three volleys. Just as the last volley rang out a number of men in civilian attire, Free State soldiers, whipped out revolvers and rushed towards the graves.
A number of uniformed and fully-equipped soldiers who had been in positions further out in the cemetery and in adjoining fields, also rushed up, with fixed bayonets. Soon the cemetery was the scene of indescribable confusion. The civilians who fired the first volleys appeared to have continued the firing as the military advanced and the soldiers replied with rifles and revolvers from different parts of the cemetery, and shots were also fired in the direction of the road.
But this was only the beginning of a terrible five minutes. When the first shots between the civilians and the military were fired, the people fled terror stricken towards the road...
...when the coffins had been laid in the graves six young men proceeded to fire three volleys from revolvers. Military, who were on duty inside and outside the cemetery, rushed in with fixed bayonets towards the men.
Hundreds of shots were exchanged between the soldiers and the armed civilians.
Many hundreds of people who were in the cemetery at the time became panic stricken at the extraordinary happening. Women and children shrieked and all made a mad rush for shelter. Lucky ones got behind tombstones, while others, heedless of the rain, stretched themselves on the wet grass.
Wreaths were broken and graves trampled on in a scramble to get out of the way of the whizzing bullets. Many people were injured in the panic. One young man was brought to hospital seriously wounded by a bullet wound in his abdomen...' (From here.)
The then-newly spawned Free State announced its executions of Irishmen after the fact, as it wasn't secure enough within itself that it could contain the anger that such executions caused, but to leave the dead men and their families waiting twenty-one months for final closure is inhuman.
==========================
On the 14th March, 1923, IRA Volunteers Charlie Daly, Daniel Enright, Timothy O'Sullivan and Séan Larkin were executed at Drumboe, County Donegal, by a Free State firing squad (said to consist of ex-British Army soldiers, then in the employ of Leinster House) and it wasn't until the 30th October 1924 that Volunteers Enright and O'Sullivan (pictured) were re-interred in their native town of Listowel in County Kerry.
God Bless those brave men.
RIP.
==========================
On the 30th October, 1924, the Free State 'Minister for Justice', a Mr Kevin Christopher O'Higgins (pictured) was one of the speakers at an 'Irish Society' meeting in Oxford University, in England.
His speech was notable because he failed to speak about any part played by the 1916 Rising in the limited political and military freedom that Ireland had, instead linking the establishment of the Free State entity to the 1918 General Election!
Mr Higgins asked his audience "to remember what a weird composite of idealism, neurosis, megalomania and criminality is apt to be thrown to the surface in even the best regulated revolution.."
He was a luke-warm 'republican' who was in favour of the 1921 'Treaty of Surrender' and used his newly-acquired political power to arrange, sanction and approve of the killings of as many Irish republicans as he could.
Perhaps on his way to seek forgiveness from a higher power (or perhaps not), Mr Kevin Christopher O'Higgins (35) was executed in Booterstown, County Dublin, by the IRA, on the 10th July, 1927, while on his way to Mass.
Amen.
==========================
Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated!
Sharon and the team.
In the early 1920's...
..this republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher, by then a career politician, stopped just short of describing the men and women of 1916 as criminals, even though he had soldiered alongside the same men and women in the (on-going) struggle for a 32-County Ireland...
That's one of the twenty-or-so pieces we'll be putting pen to paper about on this blog on Wednesday, 30th October 2024.
The man mentioned above left a particularly dirty and bloody thumbprint in Irish history and sullied his family surname to the extent that even so-called 'neutral observers' find it hard to defend his 'official' (ie State) actions.
These are two more 'teaser pieces' that we'll be putting skin on the bone of on the 30th -
..a second IRA attack on Free State paramilitary operatives in their own headquarters didn't go as planned : not only were Volunteers captured, but too much damage was done to the building...
..at one of the weekly meetings held by the IRA leadership to discuss 'the state of play', the fact that family members of enemy combatants were pressuring their loved ones to resign their positions for safety reasons was noted, and it was agreed that the 'sins-of-the-father' rule would still apply to those family members...
So...
..even if ya have other plans on that date, add us in - cancel/postpone whatever it is that ya havta, but get yer butt back here then.
Or else...!!
Thanks for the visit, and for reading - see ya on Wednesday, 30th October 2024!
Sharon and the team.
ON THIS DATE (23RD OCTOBER) 258 YEARS AGO : BIRTH OF AN ANTI-REPUBLICAN 'MANGLER'.
John Claudius Beresford (pictured), was born in Ireland on this date - 23rd October - 258 years ago (1766), into a rich Tory-like family which, due to their favoured position in Irish society, ensured that young John received a top-class education in, among other such institutions, Trinity College, in Dublin.
Between the connections he made in Trinity and his family's 'position in society', young John did well for himself - he was a banker, and was appointed as the 'Inspector-General of Exports and Imports' for the port of Dublin, while also earning a crust as a storekeeper, a renowned 'taster of wines' and he managed to squeeze-in his duties, for a year, as the 'Lord Mayor' of Dublin and as an MP for ten years.
Such was his 'skillset', he also operated as an 'Agent' for the Derry branch of the 'London Society' business grouping and as one of the trustees for the 'Linen Board'!
However, ever selfless as he was (!), when the Irish attempted to overthrow British misrule in their country, in 1798 - when our John was a then 32-years-young MP, Inspector-General, storekeeper and 'taster of (fine) wines' - he decided to fight alongside other like-minded miscreants and he took command of a gang of yeomanry/"military savages" in Dublin and used his 'Riding School' in Marlborough Street - his stables - as his base of operations.
Irish 'dissidents', whether real or imagined, were dragged to the stables by Beresford and his thugs and tortured, including been flogged, for 'information'.
A sign, stating 'MANGLING DONE HERE GRATIS BY BERESFORD AND CO' was fitted to the torture chamber by the British savages and it quickly became known that it was no idle threat -
"Mr Beresford...tortured two respectable Dublin tradesman, one named John Fleming, a ferryman, the other Francis Gough, a coachmaker.
The Nobleman (ie Beresford) superintended the flagellation of Gough and, at every stroke, insulted him with taunts and inquiries how he liked it..." (from here.)
Indeed, one of his own, a 'Lord' Howick, actually complained to other British 'establishment' figures that "John Claudius Beresford (has) a name so terribly distinguished in the history of Irish persecution (but still) receives the open countenance and support of government.." and another Tory-toff, the 'Duke' of Bedford, admitted that Beresford 'had a heavy hand'.
At 46 years of age (in 1812) - having allegedly suffered 'financial difficulties' - he sought yet another pensionable 'job' from his parliament in Westminster but was refused on the grounds that he already had "..a great pension (and) a place in addition would [not] go down with the public..", and so he announced that he was 'withdrawing from public life'.
He died, aged 80, in 1846.
Probably in comfort, and not in a stables.
In September, 1919, a farm in Landenstown, Sallins, County Kildare, owned and worked by the Higgins family, was raided by the British Army.
The man of the house, a Mr Richard Higgins, the Secretary to the Prosperous, County Kildare, Sinn Fein Cumann, took responsibility for a "sword bayonet", quantities of ammunition and two pounds of gunpowder, which were found on the farm, and he was taken into custody.
On the 23rd October (1919), Mr Higgins was "conveyed in a military motor wagon" to a sitting of the military court in Ship Street Barracks, in Dublin, and charged with 'munitions offences'.
He replied that, as a soldier of the Irish Republic, he did not recognise that the 'court' had the legal authority to put him on trial and announced that he was on a hunger-strike in protest ; he was found guilty and was taken to Mountjoy Jail and imprisoned.
He was released from prison in early November, still on hunger-strike, as his health had deteriorated and the British didn't want the death of a hunger-striker on their hands.
==========================
'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.
Although no official explanation has yet been given for the exclusion, some speculate that the Minister for Education and Science, Dr Michael Woods, is attempting to draw a line in the sand between industrial schools and other residential institutions.
Unlike industrial schools, victims were not compelled to attend institutions for the deaf, blind or other disabilities, and no court orders were made to place children in these schools.
However, it is not clear how this helps to explain why such schools have been excluded.
Indeed, Kevin Stanley, Chairman of the 'Irish Deaf Society', points out that many parents of deaf children did not have a choice about where to send their children as there was no other place to send them.
The majority of deaf children are today mainstreamed into hearing schools, but this was not the norm even 20 years ago...
(MORE LATER.)
In April, 1920, a 'Sir' Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready (a '1st Baronet', no less, pictured) was sent to Dublin by Westminster to command their forces in Ireland as their new 'General Officer Commanding-in-Chief ('GOC-in-C') British Forces', a title almost as long as his own name!
Apparently disgusted at the nature and amount of so-called 'reprisals' that his troops were carrying-out on civilians, Mr Macready issued orders (on the 18th August [1920]) instructing his soldiers "to cease acts of retaliation and looting against the civil population. Lapses in discipline will be severely punished..."
On the 23rd October 1920, Mr Macready wrote to his colleague, British Field Marshal 'Sir' Henry Hughes Wilson (...himself a '1st Baronet', too. And a 'GCB' and a 'DSO', as well. So there, Cecil..! By the way, Mr Wilson was an Irish man, born in Ballinalee, in County Longford) stating that, in his opinion.. "...no-one with the interests of the Army at heart can for a moment approve of reprisal.."
And here we are, 104 years later, and the British are still looting Ireland...
==========================
...and British Field Marshal 'Sir' Henry Hughes Wilson (see above piece) was a busy man on the 23rd, for it was on that date in October 1920 that he wrote a letter to one of his colleagues, a Mr Winston Churchill (pictured), in which he listed 12 colonels and 21 majors and captains in the British Army who refused service and/or did not want to serve in Ireland!
In his letter, Mr Wilson suggested that "...the obvious course of action to quell the rebellion in Ireland was, when there was a killing of a member of the Crown Forces, to at once arrest the principal members of the IRA in a town or village, and give them twenty-four hours to produce the murderer on pain of being shot themselves.."
Mr Wilson had marked himself out, on more that one occasion, as 'a military hawk' but, as with all such creatures, the more feathers that the hawk uses, the more his flying abilities are impaired.
His feathers were clipped on the 22nd June, 1922...
==========================
A Mr Edward Meade (48), from Number 4 Clarke’s Bridge, in Cork (an ex-British Army soldier) was working as a grocer's assistant and, in his spare time, worked in Victoria British Army Barracks in Cork City (pictured) as a 'civilian subordinate/clerk'.
On the 23rd October, 1920, as he was in the barracks, on his way to do some 'clerking' for the British Army, he passed a lorry full of soldiers just as one of the troopers in the lorry 'accidentally fired his rifle'.
The bullet struck Mr Meade in the head and he died shortly afterwards from the wound.
And to think that he had survived through what the British Army describe as "the Italian campaign during the Great War...".
==========================
William Butler Yeats (pictured) wrote a poem in 1916 entitled 'Easter 1916' but only decided to publish it in 1920 - on the 23rd October.
Mr Yeats choose to publish his poem in 'The New Statesman' magazine, and it appears that his decision to publish it was influenced by the then on-going hunger-strike of Terence MacSwiney -
"Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly :
A terrible beauty is born..."
Born in Sandymount, in Dublin, on the 13th June 1865, died in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, in France, on the 28th January, 1939 (at 73 years of age) and his final resting place is in the village of Drumcliffe, in County Sligo.
Rest In Peace.
==========================
A Mr James McCormack (27) worked in Farrell's fish and chip shop at 100 North Brunswick Street (pictured, top and bottom) in Dublin City Centre, which was owned by his uncle, John Farrell, and his wife, Catherine.
On the 23rd October, 1920, two men in civilian clothing came into the shop at about 9pm and one of them took out a handgun and shot him in the chest.
Mr McCormack died the following morning from his wound.
The British 'authorities' in Dublin Castle investigated (!) but no arrests were made and, in their report into the shooting, the British suggested that Mr McCormack had been shot for "disobeying an order not to serve (British) soldiers", thus indirectly pointing the finger at the IRA.
John and Catherine Farrell "emphatically repudiated" that claim, stating that the gunmen were complete strangers, not known to people in the area, and said that "...nothing was ever said to us by anyone who we served..".
Mr John Farrell was known to have a nationalistic point of view, which would have marked him, his wife and staff out as targets by the Crown Forces.
==========================
ON THIS DATE (23RD OCTOBER) 104 YEARS AGO : MILITARY COURT OF INQUIRY DEMANDED INTO THE IRA'S TOUREEN AMBUSH.
The actual site of the Toureen Ambush, at the house which was then owned by the Roberts family.
Six days later, Westminster held that military court of inquiry into the IRA ambush which stated that...
'...the deceased, Lieutenant Alfred William Dixon (sic- the man's name was William Alfred Dixon) MC, Suffolk Regiment, attached 1st Essex Regiment, died at a spot midway between Innishannon and Ballinhassig, at about 1000hrs on Friday 22nd October 1920, as a result of gunshot wounds inflicted at the aforementioned time and place, and that the said deceased met his death whilst in the execution of his duty, at the hands of some person or persons unknown.
Such person or persons aforesaid are guilty of wilful murder.
...to ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland what steps have been taken, or will be taken, to increase the number of armoured cars for the use of the military in Ireland, and to equip them with quick-firing guns in order to prevent, as far as possible, repetitions of what happened to soldiers of the Essex Regiment..?'
Mr Churchill replied -
"My Right Honourable friend has asked me to reply. The question of the provision of armoured cars for use in Ireland is very seriously engaging the attention of the military authorities. Large numbers, armed with machine guns, are already in Ireland, and steps are being taken to effect a considerable increase in these numbers..."
It wasn't spoke about at their inquiry, obviously (!), that British Army Lieutenant Dixon died as a result of the part he played in assisting with the military occupation of a country he should not have had any dealings with except, perhaps, as a tourist.
He was shot dead whilst attempting to kill or wound those defending their own country from the military (and political) occupation that he, Dixon, enforced ; to state he was 'murdered' is incorrect.
'The Toureen Ambush'-
'The IRA men moved from behind the gate out on to the road. They now faced the Essex, whose shooting appeared to be wayward. Volley after volley was fired by the Volunteers.
Captain Dickson (sic - the man's name was Dixon) ) was shot through the head as he fired his revolver and soon more British soldiers were hit, some fatally.
Before long the remainder of the British surrendered, raising their hands over their heads.
Immediately the whistle to cease fire was blown and an order was given to divest the enemy of their arms and equipment...'
Casualties and losses : IRA none, British 5 dead, 4 wounded, 6 captured, munitions repurposed.
A good day's work...!
In one of the many encounters between the IRA and the Free State Army in 1922, a Sergeant in the Stater army, a Mr James Marum (age 36, 'Service/Reference Number VR2917'), was wounded on the 21st October, 1922, in Charleville, County Cork.
Mr Marum died from his wounds in the Mercy Hospital in Cork City two days later (23rd October 1922), and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, in Dublin.
He had been a Sergeant in the Machine Gun Corps of the British Army, after 'serving' in that grouping for eleven-and-a-half years, following which he worked as an agricultural labourer/gardener in Ireland, before joining the then newly-minted Free State Army in May 1922.
After his death, his wife, Isabella, and children, moved to Wicklow and lived in Number 12 Prince of Wales Terrace in Bray, from where she applied for a military pension/allowance, as her late husband was the main bread-winner and, between the 24th December 1922 and the 3rd April 1923, she received £1 18 shillings and 6 pence a week then, from the 4th April 1923 to the 31st March 1924, she received £1 and 8 shillings a week.
Apparently, from that date on - as long as she didn't re-marry - she received 17 shillings and 6 pence a week.
Mr Marum's mother, Ellen, also applied for a financial 'stipend' from the Free Staters and, on the 17th June, 1925, she was awarded "a gratuity of £40".
Cheap at the price, no doubt...
==========================
'The Leinster Leader' newspaper reported that this shooting took place on the 23rd October, 1923, whereas other sources list the date as the 17th December, 1922 -
A young Dublin lad, John Keogh (a future republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State poacher), joined Na Fianna Éireann in 1913 and was active enough during the 1916 Rising to bring himself to the notice of the British 'authorities'.
He was arrested/captured by the British after the Rising but was released on account of his age.
He joined the IRA and was again active against the Crown Forces until at least 1921 when, records indicate, he threw his political and military lot in with the Free State 'Criminal Investigation Department' (CID) and then with the Free State Army itself, in which he was a Lieutenant, working as a body guard to the State Governor General and the State President, when either of them would visit London (...to report to their benefactor, no doubt).
On the 23rd October, 1922 (...or the 17th December that year..?) more than likely working on a tip-off, Mr Keogh and other Stater militia men raided a dance hall in Johnstown, Kill, County Kildare, apparently looking for IRA Kildare Officer Commanding Jim Dunne and other Volunteers, and a gunfight ensued.
Mr John Keogh was shot dead.
==========================
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.
Visa waivers make going to the US far easier than it was in the 1980's, but when the States waived a visa it was in return for emigrants waiving their rights, says Bruce Morrison, the former Congressman responsible for the 'Morrison Visa Scheme' -
"Their status is more legally tenuous than it was in the 1980's.
If you are apprehended you can be put on a plane and sent home there and then. There is no court appearance, no pleadings before a judge, no process that you can go through to attempt to stay.
Now the only relief available is to claim asylum, and that is not going to be accepted for people from Ireland.
You are taken into custody, you won't be released, and the US 'Immigration and Naturalisation Service' can, in a matter of days or in a matter of hours if they were organised enough, send you home..."
(MORE LATER.)
When the 'Boundary Commission' was first mooted, as part of the 'Treaty of Surrender', pro-British elements in the partitioned Six Counties of Ireland were reluctant, to put it mildly, to have anything to do with it, for fear they would 'loose' more territory.
Indeed, it was only on the 23rd October in 1924 that the British finally passed legislation - after being prodded into doing so for years - allowing for themselves to appoint a representative on the Commission to represent the Stormont puppet administration, as the unionist/loyalist politicians in those occupied counties in Ireland didn't want to aid a 'compromising body'.
Westminster duly appointed one of their own, a Mr Joseph Robert Fisher (pictured) to the Commission, having brought him 'up to speed' on the T+C's (ie 'how to indiscreetly favour the Union and screw the Staters'!).
The grouping met for the first time on the 6th November, 1924, and established offices for itself in the Strand, in London, at Number 6 Clement's Inn, and Mr Fisher is known to have regularly briefed pro-British politicians in Ireland on the 'confidential' discussions etc held at the meetings (...he did this with the assistance of an Ulster Unionist MP, a Mr David Reid).
The embarrassing talking shop that it was limped on until December 1925, with 'both sides' (!) claiming a victory of sorts - the Staters were able to claim that they had not conceded even more territory to the British, and the British claiming that they had fought off a territorial grab by the Staters.
And today, 99 years later, Ireland remains as partitioned as she was in 1925.
==========================
ON THIS DATE (23RD OCTOBER) 89 YEARS AGO : DEATH OF DUBLIN-BORN UVF LEADER ANNOUNCED.
'Lord' Carson (pictured) was born in Dublin in 1854 and died at 8am on the 22nd October 1935 on the Isle of Thanet in Kent, England.
His beloved empire had conveyed the title of 'Right Honourable The Lord Carson KC PC' on him , a prefix he was delighted to take with him to his grave.
"We must proclaim today clearly that, come what will and be the consequences what they may, we in Ulster will tolerate no Sinn Féin - no Sinn Féin organisation, no Sinn Féin methods. But we tell you (the British Government) this : that if, having offered you our help, you are yourselves unable to protect us from the machinations of Sinn Féin, and you won't take our help ; well then, we tell you that we will take the matter into our own hands.
We will reorganise, as we feel bound to do in our our defence, throughout the province, the Ulster Volunteers.
And those are not mere words.
I hate words without action..."
- the words of then soon-to-be (anti-republican) paramilitary leader Mr Edward Carson ('Lord Carson of Duncairn') at an 'Orange' rally in Finaghy, Belfast, County Antrim.
He was a staunch supporter of the Irish (pro-British) Unionists who, at 38 years young, was elected as a Unionist MP (to Westminster) for Dublin University and, again at that same age, was appointed (British) 'Solicitor General for Ireland' and served as the 'Solicitor General for England' from 1900 to 1905.
He was also an Irish Barrister, a judge and politician, and the leader Of 'The Irish Unionist Alliance' and 'Ulster Unionist Party'. At 57 years of age (in 1911*) he was elected leader of the 'Ulster Unionist Council' (UUC) and helped to establish the 'Ulster Volunteer Force' (UVF), a pro-British militia (*he wrote to his friend James Craig re his UUC leadership that he intended "....to satisfy himself that the people really mean to resist. I am not for a game of bluff and, unless men are prepared to make great sacrifices which they clearly understand, the talk of resistance is useless...") .
On the 3rd of September 1914, in an address he delivered in Belfast to the 'UUC', he stated -
"England's difficulty is not Ulster's opportunity.
However we are treated, and however others act, let us act rightly. We do not seek to purchase terms by selling our patriotism...."
A lesson there, without doubt, for all the gombeens that inhabit the Leinster House institution!
From 1915 to 1916 he served as the British Attorney General, and was appointed as the 'First Lord of the Admiralty' in 1916 (until 1917) and was a member of Lloyd George's War Cabinet from 1917 to 1918.
Westminster thought so highly of him that they offered him an even bigger 'prize' - that of the 'Premiership' of the new Six County 'State' - but he refused, and retired from public life in 1921, at 67 years of age.
In June 1935, at 81 years of age, Mr Carson contracted bronchial pneumonia but, even though he recovered his health somewhat within weeks, a few months later his strength weakened again and he died on the 22nd of October, 1935.
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 -
"They would form the centre and brain of the national life, and with the consent of the whole people behiind them, they could quietly assume and take possession of all the rights and functions of the governor.
With the people banded in support of them, they would form a national entity, self-contained, obeying their own laws and living their own life.
They would simply ignore the existing Government, neither entering its courts of law - for they would have arbitration courts of their own - nor participating in its affairs at all.
Any interference with such a Council, or with the people under its guidance, can be met and resisted by the people.
A passive resistance policy, if properly carried out, would suffice to show the futility of coercive measures on the part of the English Government..."
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (23RD OCTOBER) 383 YEARS AGO : 1641 REBELLION BEGAN...
Phelim Roe O'Neil (pictured), one of the leaders of the 1641 Rebellion, was hanged, drawn, and quartered, one quarter being impaled at Lisburn, another at Dundalk, a third at Drogheda and the fourth, with his head, at Dublin, on the 10th March, 1653.
Although the intention of the Irish rebels was to dislodge the English settlers and reclaim their land, O'Neil is on record for stating the following : "...the rising was not against the King, but only for the defence and liberty of ourselves, and the Irish natives of this kingdom..." which, if you read between the lines, would indicate that the action was taken not so much against English rule as against English mistreatment.
The fighting, which began in Ulster on the night of October 22nd/morning of the 23rd and was only quashed 12 years later (September 1653) caused the death of '30,000 English, murdered and massacred...' , according to English politicians but, within weeks, this figure rose to 50,000.
Then 100,000, later 'revised' to between 150,000 and 200,000 and finally a nice round figure of 300,000 was agreed on.
By those English politicians, that is.
But in their haste to make propaganda at the expense of the "..tumultuary Irish rabble...." , they overlooked the fact that there were only 20,000 English people living in the area affected by the rebellion!
The actual casualties are said to be nearer to 12,000 English 'settlers' and 7,000 indigenous.
However : whether the rebellion was fought by some for 'civil rights under the English Crown', so to speak, and by others to remove the political and military might of the English 'settlers', it has to be borne in mind that those who were attacked were being set upon by those whose objective it was to regain that which was once theirs.
In short, the robber was challenged by those he robbed.
More on this rebellion can be viewed here.
Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated!
Sharon and the team.
