1169 And Counting.....

Wednesday, June 17, 2026

"ONLY A COMPLETE POLITICAL AND MILITARY PURGE CAN SAVE IRELAND NOW..."

ON THIS DATE (17TH JUNE) 181 YEARS AGO : BIRTH OF A GREEN-HEARTED LOYALIST.

Emily Lawless, pictured, (aka 'Emily Lytton'), the writer and poet, was born on the 17th of June, 1845, in Ardclough, County Kildare and was educated privately.

War battered dogs are we

Fighters in every clime;

Fillers of trench and of grave,

Mockers bemocked by time.

War dogs hungry and grey,

Gnawing a naked bone,

Fighters in every clime -

Every cause but our own.

- Emily Lawless, 1902 ; "With the Wild Geese".

She was born into a politically mixed background, the eldest daughter and one of eight children ('Sir' Horace Plunkett was her cousin) .

Her father was 'Titled' by Westminster (he was a 'Baron') even though his father (Emily's grandfather) was a member of the 'United Irishmen'.

Her brother, Edward, seems to have taken his direction from his father rather than his grandfather - he held and voiced strong unionist opinions, wouldn't have a Catholic about the place and was in a leadership position within the (anti-Irish) so-called 'Property Defence Association'.

Perhaps this 'in-house' political confusion (mixed between stauch unionism and unionism with sympathies for Irish nationalism/republicanism, coupled with the 'whisperings of shame' that Emily was a lesbian and was having an affair with one of the 'titled' Spencer women) was the reason why her father and two of his daughters committed suicide.

She considered herself to be a Unionist although, unlike her brother, she appreciated and acknowledged Irish culture (...or, in her own words - "I am not anti-Gaelic at all, as long as it is only Gaelic enthuse and does not include politics...") and, despite being 'entitled' to call herself 'The Honourable Emily Lawless', it was a 'title' she only used occasionally.

She spent a lot of her younger days in Galway, with her mother's family, but it is thought that family tragedies drove her to live in England, where she died, on the 19th of October 1913, at the age of 68, having become addicted to heroin.

She is buried in Surrey.

She wrote a full range of books, from fiction to history to poetry, and is best remembered for her 'Wild Geese' works, although some of her writings were criticised by journalists for its 'grossly exaggerated violence, its embarrassing dialect and staid characters...'.

'The Nation' newspaper stated that 'she looked down on peasantry from the pinnacle of her three-generation nobility...' and none other than William Butler Yeats declared that she had "an imperfect sympathy with the Celtic nature..." and that she favoured "theory invented by political journalists and forensic historians."

But she had a great talent :

After Aughrim

She said, "They gave me of their best,

They lived, they gave their lives for me ;

I tossed them to the howling waste

And flung them to the foaming sea."

She said, "I never gave them aught,

Not mine the power, if mine the will ;

I let them starve, I let them bleed,

they bled and starved, and loved me still."

She said, "Ten times they fought for me,

Ten times they strove with might and main,

Ten times I saw them beaten down,

Ten times they rose, and fought again."

She said, "I stayed alone at home,

A dreary woman, grey and cold ;

I never asked them how they fared,

Yet still they loved me as of old."

She said, "I never called them sons,

I almost ceased to breathe their name,

then caught it echoing down the wind

blown backwards, from the lips of fame."

She said, "Not mine, not mine that fame ;

Far over sea, far over land,

cast forth like rubbish from my shores

they won it yonder, sword in hand."

She said, "God knows they owe me nought,

I tossed them to the foaming sea,

I tossed them to the howling waste,

Yet still their love comes home to me."

Emily Lawless, 1845-1913.

From the 17th to the 19th June, 1919, the fifth session of the First Dáil took place in Fleming's Hotel, 31–32 Gardiner Place in Dublin (just off Mountjoy Square).

A large number of issues were discussed and decisions made, including on consular affairs, national arbitration courts and the Dáil Loan.

A 'Commission of Inquiry' into the resources and industries of Ireland was established and a committee was established to look into the issue of land redistribution.

A Mr Arthur Joseph Griffith (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State poacher) told the assembly that Mr de Valera had, "by and with the advice of the Ministry, gone on a mission abroad" (he was in America) and that he (Mr Griffith) was in charge of the proceedings, as the 'Acting President', to which two members - Seán McEntee and Joseph MacDonagh - objected (rightly so, in our opinion), on the grounds that only one Ministry (/Office) of the Dáil (the 'Presidents Ministry') had been consulted about the departure, and not the assembly itself.

Objection noted, and the business of the assembly continued : a Mr Desmond Fitzgerald was confirmed as the Dáil's 'Director of Publicity', Messrs Kevin O'Shiel and Conor Maguire were elected to oversee the establishment and running of a land arbitration court (although it was agreed that "each constituency was left free to pursue its own course in carrying the decree [of the court] into operation...", noting that Brian O’Higgins, TD for West Clare, had already set up a system of local courts in his constituency) and a Mr Eamon Bulfin had been appointed as the Irish representative in Argentina.

Mr Griffith (pictured) was questioned as to whether Dáil representatives in Paris had in fact entered into a joint-action agreement with Egyptian, Indian and South African nationalists, and he replied that there was no actual alliance between India, Egypt and Ireland, but rather they were working in co-operation with each other (...when is an 'alliance' not an 'alliance'?!).

A land bank committee, chaired by a Mr Robert Barton (TD for Wicklow West and the Director of Agriculture) was established to look into how land could be provided to the agricultural population which currently could not access land and, because land agitation was increasing through out the country, the Sinn Féin administration wanted the political agenda to stay focused on resistance to British rule and did not want to be distracted by another land war which could break the cross-class alliance within Sinn Féin.

A 'Commission of Inquiry' into the resources and industries of Ireland was set up, with a Mr Darrell Figgis as its Secretary, reporting to a Mr John O'Neill as the Chairman (a Mr Maurice Moore replaced Mr O'Neill in that position in September 1920).

The Dáil approved the issue of the Loan prospectus and appointed three trustees for the National Loan - Eamon de Valera, James O'Meara and Dr Michael Fogarty (the RC Bishop of Killaloe), with a Mr Daithi O'Donoghue appointed as their Secretary (it has been said that Mr O'Donoghue was the 'main mover and shaker' in keeping this initiative alive).

The terms of the Loan were delineated – the size of the bond was increased to £500,000 with half to be raised in Ireland and half in the United States, and it was listed as becoming the first charge on the Revenue of the Irish Republic after the English had evacuated Ireland.

It was this aspect in particular - the Dáil Loan - which Westminster was adamant to close down : they engaged in strenuous attempts to suppress it with a mass of prosecutions and the suppression of a large number of newspapers who carried advertisements for it, including many provincial newspapers.

Some of those newspapers were 'allowed' to reopen after a few days, 'having learned their lesson', but some of them were 'permanently banned' by the British, but the Dáil survived those attempts to destroy it, only to be betrayed in June 1922 by 'Collins Crew', aided by the British.

Historically and psychologically, this whole on-going event highlights how devastating unmasking traitorous insiders can be compared to open conflict and, indeed, that lesson is being learned again today, 2026 (and has been since the mid-1990's), as traitorous political insiders in this State and Country betray the indigenous Irish people as they infest us with 'asylum seekers/refugees/migrants/vagrants' from any country in the world with their 'best-boy-in-the-class'-people-trafficing industry for financial profit and a new voter base.

Only a complete political and military purge can save Ireland now, in our opinion...

==========================

THE GREAT OIL AND GAS ROBBERY...

From 'Magill' Magazine, October 2005.

"I spent an hour with Micheál Ó Seighin (pictured), one of the Rossport Five.

Micheál received us very graciously in the small visiting box. He is a small, quietly-spoken man in his late 60s.

"Tá sibhse ag dhéanamh obair go hiontach. Congratulations. Bhí an scéal Dé Luan go han, han mhaith. Ceim mhór", he said..."

Micheál Ó Seighin.

Michael McDowell.

Pat Rabbitte.

Micheál Ó Seighin said -

"That's why the Shell to Sea campaign can work ; Shell have the technical know-how and technological resources to process all the gas and oil out at sea where its no danger to anyone, and that's what they should have done from the beginning."

At this point the prison officers told us that we had five minutes left on our visit.

I asked Micheál had he any statement he wanted to make, and wrote down what he said along with my notes of our conversation. The main points are as follows -

"We have no choice. All normal people protect themselves, their families and their communities.

We are being kept here by Shell. They are the only ones who can lift the injunction, and we cannot agree not to protect our families and our communities. We cannot agree to anything which will make us less than citizens.

We want to thank everyone who supports us."

At that point the heavy door swung open and the prison warders arrived to take Michaél back to his cell.

They treated him respectfully and, as the door clanged closed behind him, I watched him going down the prison corridor flanked by two large escorts.

I was deeply impressed by Micheál's demeanor and his commitment to this cause...

(The third [ie last] pic above shows a Mr Patrick Rabbitte, ex-State Labour Party leader and ex-'State Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources' ; Mr Rabbittee retired as State Labour Party leader in 2007, and from political life altogether in 2016, on a combined pension package worth over €2 million to him!)

(MORE LATER.)

In June, 1920, a Lieutenant Colonel, a Mr Gerald Bryce Ferguson Smyth, 34, (pictured), was sent from London to Ireland, to deal with "the troublesome Irish", as he had been seconded by his political bosses as the new 'RIC Divisional Commander for Munster'.

He rallied his somewhat demoralised 'police force' in Listowel Barracks, in County Kerry, and delivered a 'tally-ho!' speech to the poor devils -

"Sinn Fein has had all the sport up to the present and we are going to have the sport now. I am promised as many troops from England as I require, thousands are coming daily. I am getting 7,000 police* from England.

Police and military will patrol the country at least five nights a week. They are not to confine themselves to the main roads but take across the country, lie in ambush, and when civilians are seen approaching shout "Hands up!".

Should the order not be immediately obeyed, shoot, and shoot with effect. If persons approaching carry their hands in their pockets and are in any way suspicious looking, shoot them down.

You may make mistakes occasionally and innocent persons may be shot, but that cannot be helped and you are bound to get the right persons sometimes.

The more you shoot the better I will like you ; and I assure you that no policeman will get into trouble for shooting any man and I will guarantee that your names will not be given at the inquest..." (*Black And Tans)

Mr Smyth had been sent here to 'shake up' the manner in which the RIC were attempting to get the better of the IRA and, as part of his 'new broom' approach (his 'Order Number 5', issued on the 17th June 1920), he stated -

"A police man (sic) is perfectly justified in shooting any man who he had good reason to believe is carrying arms and does not immediately throw up his arms when ordered. Every proper precaution for protection will be given to police at inquests so that no information will be given to Sinn Féin as to the identity of individuals.."

Mr Smyth's 'shoot on sight, with impunity' instructions came to the attention of Volunteer Sean O'Hegarty (pictured), the Acting Officer Commanding of the Cork Number 1 Brigade of the IRA, and a Unit was formed to have a chat with Mr Smyth, the main players of which were Volunteers Sean Culhane, John O'Connell, Sean O'Donoghue, Daniel ('Sandow') O'Donovan and Cornelius O'Sullivan.

Mr Smyth's fondness for being wined and dined in the 'Country Club' (known as the 'Conservative Club') on the South Mall, in Cork City, was noted.

A friendly waiter in that Club, a Mr Ned Fitzgerald, was contacted, and a plan was put in place.

On Saturday, 17th July, 1920, as Mr Smyth and his friends were having a bite to eat and drink and chinwagging in the club, IRA Volunteer Daniel ('Sandow') O'Donovan walked up to him, shot him dead and wounded a Mr George Craig, an RIC 'County Inspector'.

Unsubstantiated legend has it that, as he approached Mr Smyth, Volunteer O'Donovan all but introduced himself, and said - "Your orders were to shoot on sight. You are in sight now, so make ready..."

A case of 'ready or not, here it comes...'

==========================

As Mr Smyth was issuing his 'Order Number 5' in Munster, about 270 miles (430 km) up the road in the county of Tyrone in Ulster, two RIC members - Messrs Denis A. Leonard and Thomas Hargaden - were putting their plan in action : to raid and burn down the RIC barracks in the town of Innisrush, in Cookstown, County Tyrone!

The two RIC men were supporters of the Republican Movement and the republican Cause, as were two of their RIC colleagues, Messrs Bernard Conway and John O'Boyle, and the four of them had approached the IRA with their 'attack and burn' plan.

However, on the 17th, Mr Conway (one of his brothers, Andrew, was an IRA leader in North Sligo) and Mr O'Boyle were sent to other districts, but the attack went ahead anyway.

In the early hours of the 17th, RIC member Leonard came down the stairs in the barracks and unlocked the back door, as arranged ; the IRA entered the barracks and tied RIC member Hargaden to a chair, as arranged, and gathered up the arms and other munitions that were kept on the ground floor, then went upstairs to where the 'Head Constable' and other RIC members were sleeping, with the intention of removing whatever military equipment they kept there.

All the upstairs doors were locked and the noise of men on the landing woke the 'Head Constable' who realised what was going on and fired a number of shots through his bedroom door, one of which hit Volunteer Patrick Loughran, from Dungannon, County Tyrone, who died later from the wound.

The gunshots and shouting woke the other RIC members and a gunfight ensued ; the Volunteers, carrying their wounded comrade, fought their way out and returned to base.

RIC member Leonard was dismissed from the RIC soon after ('carelessness for not securing the barracks during his watch'?)and, within about three months, the other three RIC members resigned and moved on.

But ex-RIC 'Constable' Bernard Conway didn't move too far away - he stayed with the IRA, and persuaded an RIC pal of his in Fermanagh, a Mr Hugh O'Donnell, to help him and Volunteers from the 4th Battalion of the Fermanagh Brigade of the IRA to raid the RIC barracks in the village of Tempo, in Fermanagh, on the 25th of October that same year (1920).

That raid was authorised by Volunteer Frank Carney, the Commanding Officer of the Fermanagh Brigade of the IRA.

An RIC street patrol was captured, detained and held outside the barracks by a section of the IRA (who numbered altogether between 15 and 25 fighters) and the rebels entered the building by a back door which had been left opened for them.

However, pro-British elements in the village (the UVF, pictured) were alerted to the raid, armed themselves and made their way to the barracks to help their 'police force'.

A gunfight ensued, the IRA were outnumbered and had to fight their way out of the village (carrying their recently acquired seven rifles, five or six revolvers, and a quantity of ammunition), street-by-street and, in the crossfire, an RIC member, a Mr Samuel Wilfred Lucas, was shot, and died from his wound later in hospital.

RIP Volunteer Patrick Loughran.

==========================

Elsewhere in the county of Fermanagh on that same day in June, 1920 (17th), armed IRA Volunteers attached to the West Cavan Brigade met up that night as arranged and crossed into the neighbouring county of Fermanagh.

Their objective was to destroy a symbol of British civil infrastructure in Ireland - Derrylin Courthouse.

These attacks on 'civil property' (courthouses, vacated buildings etc) were part of a nationwide IRA strategy to systematically destroy assets, rendering districts completely 'unpoliced' and ungovernable and, in this operation on that particular target, were aiming to destroy registries, RIC records and compensation claims etc.

The rebels moved into position late in the evening of the 17th and over the following couple of hours breached security, poured accelerant inside most of the building and set it alight ; the upper floor and its contents were burned, the lower floor survived major damage, as intended : the Volunteers deliberately avoided fully destroying the ground floor because it housed a chemist's shop and a residence, and a massive fire risked immense destruction and loss of innocent lives in the adjoining buildings.

All Volunteers returned safely to base.

Take that, your 'Honour'...

==========================

Conflicting results from different sources with this incident, but we'll list it anyway -

An RIC member, a Mr Patrick McKenna ('Service Number 62477'), drowned in the River Deel in Askeaton, County Limerick, on the 17th June, 1920.

His death was determined to be an accidental drowning rather than an act of war or an IRA ambush, which might help explain why his details are not recorded by all our sources.

From what little we could gather about Mr McKenna, he was born on the 2nd of July, 1896 (some sources say 1886) in the townland of An Luachair ('Lougher'), Annascaul, in the County of Kerry.

Not only did Mr McKenna fall in the river, but he fell in with a bad crowd...

==========================

On the same day that Mr McKenna was about to meet his fate, the Irish Republican Police (IRP) force were transporting prisoners (two men were under arrest for agrarian offenses and were being taken to a Sinn Féin court) about 165 miles (265 km) up the road in the town of Dromore, in the county of Tyrone.

The IRP officers were fired on by an RIC patrol who then demanded that the two prisoners be handed over to them, which the IRP officers refused to do.

The RIC fired again, and the IRP fired back - the gunfight resulted in the death of one IRP officer, Volunteer Peter McCani (frequently recorded in historical documents as 'Peter McCanny') and the wounding of at least two other IRP officers.

Outnumbered, outgunned and caught by surprise, the IRP withdrew from the scene.

Incidentally, the Irish Republican Police (IRP), which enforced decrees and maintained law and order across Ireland, was established in 1920 under the authority of Dáil Éireann (not to be confused with the Leinster House institution) to replace the British-controlled RIC, which was collapsing due to mass resignations and the IRA campaign against foreigners with ill intent in Ireland ; the foreigners are here again, albeit in a different form ; see pic, above.

RIP Volunteer Peter McCani (...and hoping for a speedy recovery to Mr Stephen Ogilvie, the 8th June 2026 victim of a foreign vagrant in Ireland).

==========================

On the same day that the RIC were breaking the law, trying to rob two prisoners, about 60 miles (95 km) down the road, in the town of Granard, in the county of Longford, an RIC 'Sergeant', a Mr John Campion (41), was in the RIC barracks when a shot was fired and he fell to the floor.

Seconds before he hit the floor, he had dropped his revolver on it, discharging a shot, which hit and killed him.

==========================

Due to his own carelessness, Mr Campion never did get to read the 17th June edition of 'The Irish Bulletin' republican newspaper, and so missed the article about the RIC raiding several grocery stores about 23 miles (35km) up the road from the floor he was lying on, in Mohill, County Leitrim, filling their trollies and baskets up with foodstuffs, estimating the cost of their 'weekly shop' and leaving the money on the counter for the shopkeeper.

None of the shops in that village, and other villages, would serve them ; a 'Boycott-The-Brits'-campaign was underway, and the RIC had no butter for their bread, which they hadn't got either.

When news of that and other RIC DIY-shopping expeditions reached a Mr Michael Collins (who was, at that time, still fighting against the British) he was reportedly pleased to hear that the boycott was hurting them.

Ironic, then, that, within 18 months, Mr Collins would be buttering their bread for them...

==========================

On the same day and date that the RIC in Leitrim were counting their pennies in shops they weren't welcome in, a British Navy 'Destroyer Class' warship, accompanied by a minesweeper, arrived at Rosses Point in County Sligo and put ashore about 60 marines who took up duty guarding an area that they, too, weren't welcome in.

Sure the poor divils probably had to survive on whatever fish they caught...

==========================

THE MONTH UNSPUN...

The stories that hit the headlines.

From Magill magazine, August 2002.

'Operation Hyphen'.

Gardai moved against a paper backlog of 2,610 outstanding deportation orders by making dawn raids on 100 addresses around the city.

More than 200 officers arrested ten people with deportation orders issued against them, and a further 36 people who are here illegally.

Some of those arrested will be deported as soon as possible, whereas others may be eligible to apply for asylum.

Four of the ten people arrested over outstanding deportation orders have children born in the State* who have resident status and, as children cannot be separated from parents living here illegally, under UN rules, so the parents will not be deported in the immediate future...

(*'1169' comment - then don't separate the anchor-baby children from their parents - deport them all together. Problem solved!)

(MORE LATER.)

On Friday, the 17th June, 1921, the IRA General Military Headquarters issued official notification that the annual procession to the grave of Wolfe Tone in Bodenstown would take place on that coming Sunday, the 19th.

This republican directive was 'in direct violation' of the Westminster/Dublin Castle imposition of a martial law-type decree (issued under the so-called 'Restoration of Order in Ireland Act' [ROIA]) which 'allowed' British 'authorities' (!) to bypass standard civil liberties, implement curfews, and use military courts-martial to try civilians without 'formally declaring' a state of martial law.

Early on Sunday morning, the 19th (at about 3am) hundreds of (armed) British soldiers were mobilised and stationed on all the roads leading to Bodenstown Graveyard, on the look-out for any signs of groups of men and women forming-up for a procession to the graveyard.

However, the 'venue' in question being a graveyard, 'normal business' took place ie family and relatives etc continued to visit their loved ones and, as the day wore on, no group procession materialised - the Brits took it as 'a win' for them.

Until, that is, they checked the graveyard before heading off to interfere somewhere else, and discovered that Irish republicans had, indeed, assembled - in the graveyard! - and laid a wreath on the grave of Wolfe Tone!

It transpired that a small group of Cumann na mBan Volunteers had breached the 'security cordon' - as planned beforehand by the Republican Movement - assembled in the graveyard, and laid a wreath.

'Just not cricket', as the Brits would say...!

==========================

In 1921, while 'officially' operating as a 'police man' in Dundalk, County Louth, RIC member Mr William Campbell (22), from Dumbarton, in Scotland, apparently sought 'more action' and also worked (!) as an aid to the Black and Tans ; Mr Campbell was only about six months 'in the service of his King in Ireland' and was seemingly anxious to 'prove himself'.

The North Louth Battalion of the IRA noted his activities and listed the fact that, most nights, he left the Bridge Street Barracks, on a bicycle, between 10pm and 11pm (perhaps to meet a woman, an informer, or just looking for republican activity to report on to his Black and Tan buddies?) and a squad was assembled to end his (forever) rambles.

At least five IRA fighters, including Volunteers William Craven, Thomas Morgan, Thomas Richardson, Thomas Darcy and Thomas Faulkner, were instructed to put a 'plan of engagement' in place, and act on it.

At about 10.30pm on the night of the 17th June (1921), as Mr Campbell (wearing his RIC uniform, and armed with his .45 Webley revolver) was cycling along the Newry Road after leaving his barracks, at least three shots were fired at him, and his bicycle went one way and he went another - downwards.

One bullet hit his bicycle, the other two hit him, bringing his outings to an end.

'The Dundalk Democrat' newspaper reported that "..his holster was lying open and his revolver was gone. The body was lifted into the (British Army) tender and conveyed to the morgue at the Louth Infirmary..."

Incidentally, Mr Campbell was actually in breach of his own groupings regulations by travelling unaccompanied and being outside the town boundary ; but he wouldn't be breaking the rules again.

Within hours, however, a few Black and Tans and RIC members were in Dundalk, looking for targets to hit in revenge.

At about 2am on the 18th (June 1921), that armed gang forced entry into 'The Windmill Bar' (on Barracks Street/junction of Quay Stret and Seatown, in Dundalk), a small pub owned and operated by the Watters family - Patrick Watters (18) was an active member of the IRA and his two brothers, John and Bernard, were republican supporters, but not active, militarily.

The three sons were upstairs in bed, their two sisters were asleep in another room, and their mother was asleep in a third bedroom.

The British raiding party were met by the half-asleep Watters family and, during the shouting match and the scuffles, Bernard managed to escape.

The raiders marched Patrick and John outside, the three women were shouting at the Brits and trying to force the release of the two boys, who were barefooted and clad only in shirts and trousers.

The brothers were marched in single file down the road and the Tans/RIC fired at both of them wounding each one ; Patrick was picked up off the ground, stood up against a wall and shot dead, in view of his wounded brother, John, and his mother and two sisters.

The three Watters women were in hysterics, trying to revive Patrick and remove John from the 'custody' of the British killer gang, but the raiding party brushed them out of the way and pushed John to carry on walking down the road.

They marched about twenty yards further on and then shot John Watters dead.

An 'inquiry' was held shortly afterwards (in what was then the 'Old Louth Hospital') at which Mrs Watters and her two daughters spoke about having witnessed Crown Force members taking Patrick and John from their beds and murdering them on the street.

The 'inquiry' concluded that the brothers had been shot "by persons unknown..."

RIP Patrick and John Watters.

==========================

On the 16th June, 1921, an IRA ASU made its way in the evening to a 'Big House', Castletown Motte (/Mount, pictured, aka Dealgan and/or Cú Chulainn's Castle) located on the western outskirts of Dundalk, County Louth, in the townland of Castletown.

Their objective was to destroy the structure, as part of a coordinated 'scorched-earth campaign', to prevent the building being used by enemy forces.

The rebels burned it down hours later (and, on the 18th, another 'Big House' in Dundalk, Ravensdale Park [/'Ravensdale Castle'], was burned to the ground along with Ravensdale Court House).

Making the country uninhabitable for thuggish foreigners : a solid idea...

==========================

In 1915, at 37 years of age, an Offaly man, a Mr Patrick O'Connell, from the townland of Cloncon, in Tullamore, took a notion on the 6th of July in that year to join 'The Royal Irish Regiment' ('Service Number 8909') of the British Army.

And two years later, the 'RIR' took a notion to inform him that he had been "discharged for reason of sickness".

So Mr O'Connell went back to his small family holding in the townland of Cloncon, in Tullamore, in County Offaly, and tried again to make a living for himself from the land.

As with all such British Army 'returnees', the IRA monitored him from a distance to ensure he wasn't 'planted' there by the enemy to gather information against the Republican Movement.

We couldn't find any details of what, if anything, the Movement apparently discovered about his activities but, on the 17th June (1921), as Mr O'Connell was cutting turf (practically 'illegal' now in Ireland) he was approached in the (turf)bog by IRA Volunteers from the Kilbeggan Company, Offaly Brigade, IRA (Commanding Officer Volunteer Sean McGuinness) and taken away for questioning.

On the 19th June his blindfolded body was found near the townland of Killenmore (often spelled 'Killeenmore') in the civil parish of Geashill, in Offaly, with a handwritten note attached to his coat -

'Convicted Spy – Spies and Informers beware of IRA.'

==========================

As Mr O'Connell was cutting his last sleán of turf, about 30 miles (45 km) across the country and down a bit, in the county of Kildare, an RIC member, a Mr George Jones ('Service Number 57697') was having a bath.

He drowned in it.

==========================

Also in Kildare, as Mr Jones was trying to wash the blood off himself, a number of armed men were forcing their way into the home of the Dunne family in the townland of Gráinseach Huigín (Grangehiggin) in Rathernan Civil Parish, in Barony, County Kildare.

They were after Mr Philip Dunne, in apparent connection with a dispute over land.

The Dunne family tried to defend him but were overpowered and, in the scuffles, Mrs Dunne was wounded and her son, Philip - the target - was shot dead.

Three days previous to that operation, those armed men had called to the house looking for Philip Dunne, but he escaped their attention on that occasion.

==========================

On the same day that Mr Philip Dunne was shot dead, about 105 miles (165 km) across the country and down a bit, in the county of Clare, an IRA ASU attached to the 1st Battalion of the Mid-Clare Brigade had opened fire on an RIC Crossley Tender truck at Craighalough (near Newmarket-on-Fergus in that county).

However, during the gunfight, a second RIC Crossley Tender truck arrived on site and the rebels had to shoot their way out.

One of the rebels - Volunteer Thomas Healy (pictured) - took ill afterwards and died.

Volunteer Healy was a native of Duagh, a small village reasonably close to the town of Abbeydorney, in County Kerry, and was a member of the Mid Clare Active Service Unit before joining the East Clare Column ; and, before his involvement with the rebels, had actually worked against them as a member of the RIC, resigning from that grouping in August 1920!

Medics stated that his death, from exhaustion and heart failure, was attributed to his active service with the IRA, and he was taken back home to Duagh, in County Kerry, by the IRA, and buried with full Military Honours.

RIP Volunteer Thomas Healy.

==========================

DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...

In May 1922, 'The Men's Committee' was a disgruntled faction of recruits within the newly established Free State 'Civic Guard' (the precursor to AGS/An Garda Síochána, the present Free State 'police force').

On the 15th May, 1922, during an address by the 'Civic Guard' Commissioner, a Mr Michael Staines, at the Kildare training depot, over 1,000 recruits suddenly broke ranks, mutinied, and raided the armoury. 'The Men’s Committee' was at the heart of this disruption, as was its president, a Mr Thomas Daly.

On the 17th June, 1922, Mr Daly and others met with IRA representatives, including Volunteer Ernie O'Malley, outside Kildare Town and made their way to the Staters Army Barracks in Kildare, where Mr Daly used a password and gained entry for the group into the building.

They tied up the guards on duty and commandeered the armoury's weapons and ammunition - 167 rifles and 243 revolvers, as well as an amount of ammunition for those weapons - and the IRA Volunteers and Mr Daly and some of the other 'Committee' members then travelled to Dublin and joined with the rebels in the Four Courts.

On the 28th June (1922) the Stater Army, supported politically and militarily by the British, attacked the republicans in the Four Courts and, on the 30th June, the rebels surrendered, having lost that battle.

But the campaign - the struggle - for a new Ireland, free of the Stater mentality and free, also, of the British military and political presence - has not been surrendered...

==========================

On the 16th June, 1922, Volunteer Frank Aiken and about fifty other armed rebels took up an ambush position near the village of Druim an Tighe (Dromintee), County Armagh, in wait for a fourteen-man armed patrol from the 'Ulster Special Constabulary'.

On the 17th, the enemy 'police men' walked into the sights of the rebels, and fire was opened up on them.

One 'Special Constable', a Mr Thomas Russell, was shot dead and at least one of his colleagues, a Mr George Hughes, was listed as 'wounded'.

The IRA Volunteers returned safely to base.

Incidentally, for that ambush, some of the Volunteers were stationed in McGuill's Public House, and not only for the vantage point it gave them -

Three days before that ambush (ie on the 14th), just after midnight, eight members of the 'USC' (from the Forkhill Military Barracks) forced entry into McGuill's Pub wanting 'to have a word' with the owner, a Mr James McGuill.

He wasn't there, lucky for him, but the 'Specials' searched the premises, causing destruction as they went from room to room.

Unfortunately, his heavily pregnant wife, Unah, her mother, two small children, a female barworker/housekeeper and a (female) family friend were present.

The invaders proceeded to wreck the pub, helping themselves to as much drink as they wanted, robbing the cash from the till, and then turned their savage intentions to the women on the premises.

Mrs McGuill was beaten up by the thugs, who left her with, among other injuries, a fractured skull, and then three of them raped the poor woman.

The barworker/housekeeper was beaten up by them next, and then she, too, was raped.

The family friend ran upstairs and threw herself from a bedroom window.

Word about the 14th June sexual atrocities and sexual violence travelled fast in Irish republican circles and, on the 17th June, a party of about 20-30 armed IRA volunteers from the Ravensdale Training Camp in County Louth crossed the then new British-imposed border into South Armagh and carried out coordinated attacks on a unionist/loyalist farming community in the Altnaveigh and Lisdrumliska areas, just outside Newry, leaving six people dead, four others wounded, and about twelve houses burned or bombed.

In our opinion, the IRA should have continued to concentrate their attacks that day on British military and paramilitary targets, not on ordinary unionists/loyalists.

==========================

As the Volunteers were leaving the Training Camp on the 17th, about 180 miles (290 km) down the road in the townland of An Mhoingeach Thoir (Meggagh East) in Carran (/Carron), in the county of Clare, six other Volunteers forced entry into the home of the Kilmartin family, who had connections with the newly-formed Free State 'Civic Guards'.

They were looking for a Mr Stephen Kilmartin, who was there with his wife, Margaret ; there was a scuffle, during which about six shots were fired, one of which hit Mrs Kilmartin, and the poor woman died from the wound.

==========================

On that same Saturday, the 17th, about 100 miles (160 km) up the road in the townland of An Leathbhaile ('Lavally'), in the Ballymote area of the county of Sligo, armed rebel Volunteers entered the home of the Brehany family.

They were looking for James Brehany, an ex-RIC member, but were confronted and challenged by his brother, John, who argued with them.

In the verbal and physical melee that followed, Mr John Brehany was wounded ; as his brother, James, wasn't in the house, the Volunteers reported back to base.

The wounded man died from his injury hours later.

==========================

Over the 17th and 18th of that same month (June 1922), about 130 miles (210 km) across the country and up a bit in the Belfast area, at least eight businesses were hit during economic attacks by the IRA.

Volunteers Joseph Doran, Joseph McGlade, and John Donegan were captured on the morning of the 18th by the Crown Forces and 'arrested' in Harry Ferguson's Garage on Chichester Street (at about 4.45am) but, because they had no weapons, matches, or incendiary materials on them, they were only prosecuted 'for a curfew violation' offence.

The three men were ordered by the 'court' to pay a standard fine and post a £20 bond as a legal surety to 'keep the peace' for the following twelve months (!) but refused to do so.

However, outside supporters paid the fines 'and successfully posted the peace bonds' but, on the 5th of July, the Stormont 'Home Affairs Minister', a Mr Dawson Bates, circumvented their release by signing executive internment orders against the three men!

Instead of being set free, they were indefinitely detained under the 'Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act', taken from Crumlin Road Jail to the infamous prison ship 'SS Argenta', which was anchored in Belfast Lough but was later moved to Larne Harbour.

Those three Volunteers - internees - were released in late 1924 when the 'SS Argenta' prison ship was officially decommissioned and the internment policy from that specific period was wound down.

Meanwhile, Irish republicans continue to seek the 'winding down' of the British writ over any part of Ireland.

==========================

ON THIS DATE (17TH JUNE) 52 YEARS AGO : IRA BOMB WESTMINSTER.

On Monday, 17th June 1974, the then IRA decided to make it's presence felt, once again, in 'the Belly of the Beast' - a 20lb device exploded at the British Parliament, causing widespread damage and injuring 11 people.

Six months before that attack, the IRA had exploded two bombs in London - one at Madame Tussauds and one at a boat show which was taking place at Earls Court Exhibition Centre and, one month after the 17th June attack, two bombs also exploded in London - British government buildings in Balham, South London, were damaged in the first explosion that day and the Tower of London was the target for the second bomb.

This is a BBC report of the 17th June 1974 IRA attack -

'A bomb has exploded at the Houses of Parliament, causing extensive damage and injuring 11 people.

The IRA said it planted the 20lb (9.1 kg) device which exploded at about 0828 BST in a corner of Westminster Hall.

The explosion is suspected to have fractured a gas main and a fierce fire spread quickly through the centuries-old hall in one of Britain's most closely-guarded buildings.

Scotland Yard detectives have said they fear this attack could herald the start of a new summer offensive by the dissident Irish group on government buildings.

No one expected in those days the House of Commons would be a target - security was extremely casual.'

Former Labour MP Tam Dalyell ('Sir Thomas Dalyell of the Binns, 11th Baronet'!) gave this account -

"A man with an Irish accent telephoned the Press Association with a warning only six minutes before the explosion. Police said a recognised IRA codeword was given. Although officers were not able to completely clear the palace before the bomb went off, most of the injured were only slightly hurt" and Edward Short, the Leader of the British 'Commons', announced that a review of security procedures would begin immediately, but he said the attack would not disrupt parliamentary business or intimidate MPs.

Liberal Chief Whip David Steel was in the building when the device detonated and told the BBC the damage looked considerable -

"I looked through Westminster Hall and the whole hall was filled with dust. A few minutes later it was possible to see flames shooting up through the windows..."

Today, the group that carried out that attack are only a short step away from again entering that bastion of British misrule but, this time, to assist their new objective of administering the British writ in Ireland.

Shame on them.

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - much appreciated!

Sharon and the team.

We'll be back with more bits and pieces on Wednesday, 1st July 2026 when, be the looks of things, we'll have four million hits to brag about ; GRMA!

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

"THE GENTLEMANY NATURE OF THE IRISH REBELS" IS CONDEMNED.

ON THIS DATE (27TH MAY) 148 YEARS AGO : BIRTH OF A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT MEMBER-IN-WAITING.

'Francis Sheehy-Skeffington did not enter his wife Hanna's details on the 1911 Census form at their home...as the suffragettes had a campaign of non-cooperation with the 1911 Census.

Francis recorded four people in the house : himself (aged 32), his one year old son (Owen) and two female servants, Philomena Morrissey (aged 23) and Mary Butler (aged 21).

The enumerator, James Crozier, attempted to circumvent the boycott by recording Hanna’s details, but almost all of the information was incorrect.

He entered her name as Emily, (but her correct name was Johanna), had the wrong age of 28 (her real age was 33), he recorded their marriage as 3 years in length (but they had been married for 8 years) and recorded her place of birth as Dublin (she was born in Kanturk, Co. Cork).

He was correct in recording that they had had one child and that this child was alive (Owen Lancelot) ; the enumerators, who were from the police force, had extensive powers to make enquiries locally about those who refused to fill out the form.

Johanna Mary Sheehy (pictured, in 1912, on her release from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin), known as Hanna, was born in Kanturk, County Cork, in May 1877. She belonged to a prosperous farming and milling family. Her father, David Sheehy (1844-1932), was a member of the IRB and later an MP, and had been imprisoned no less than six times for revolutionary activities. Hanna was a highly influential figure during the suffragette movement and was also active in the realms of socialism and Irish independence.

She married Francis Skeffington in 1903. They joined their names together on marriage, a symbol of the equality in their relationship. Both were founder members of the Irish Women’s Franchise League in 1908 which fought for women’s suffrage. They had one child, Owen Lancelot, in 1909. She was fired from her teaching post in 1912 following her arrest for breaking windows during a militant suffragette protest.

In 1912 she and her husband founded the 'Irish Citizen' newspaper. She was active in the labour movement assisting in the soup kitchen at Liberty Hall in 1913.

Like her husband, Hanna was a pacifist. She attended a meeting in Wexford organised by John Redmond for conscription to the British Army. Huge crowds attended as conscription was so popular and trains had been organised from Waterford and Kilkenny. Redmond was about to address the audience when a very heavily veiled Hanna stood up on a box asking people to repudiate Redmond and his recruiting. She was torn down from the box by the crowd and her clothes almost ripped from her.

She was very badly mistreated by the crowd and if it were not for the intervention of the police and some members of the public she would have been thrown into Wexford Bay ;

"A much battered and torn and, I am sure, very much bruised, Mrs Skeffington was rescued".

During the Rising Hanna did not join the rebels but she brought food and messages to the various outposts. Her elderly uncle, a priest named Eugene Sheehy, a well-known Land League and IRB member, was at the GPO as a confessor to the rebels. She was in the confidence of some of the leadership as they selected her to act as a member of a civil provisional government to come into effect if the Rising was prolonged (she was to be one of five members of the Provisional government to be set up once the rebellion was victorious).

She considered the Rising as the first point in Irish History where the struggle for women’s citizenship and national freedom converged. Her husband Francis, who was not involved in the Rising, was arrested while trying to prevent looting. He was detained by Captain Bowen-Colthurst and shot without a trial. She refused £10,000 in compensation and instead looked for a court martial for her husband’s killer.

After the Rising she worked tirelessly to convince the American public to support the Irish cause and conducted a series of lectures there to raise funds. She went to America with Margaret Skinnider and Nora Connolly but the US authorities did not want her there as she was "talking too much" and so she returned to Ireland.

In 1917 she was appointed to the executive of Sinn Féin, rising to become the Director of Organisation. In the War of Independence she served as a judge in the Republican law courts in Dublin and during the Civil War she helped to set up the Women’s Prisoners’ Defence League. In the 1930’s Hanna was assistant editor of An Phoblacht. She died in April 1946 and is buried beside her husband Francis in Glasnevin...' (from here.)

The inscription on the Sheehy Skeffington headstone reads -

'Sacred to the memory of Mrs. Rose Skeffington, born Magorrian in Ballykinlar, Co. Down. Died at Ranelagh, Dublin 16th April 1909. And Francis Sheehy Skeffington her son / murdered in Portobello Barracks April 26th, 1916 and his wife Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, Feminist, Republican, Socialist. Born May 1878 / Died April 1946 And their son Owen Lancelot Sheehy Skeffington, born May 19th 1909, died June 7th, 1970 who, like them, sought truth / taught reason and knew compassion.'

That headstone dates Hanna's death as 'May 1878', and other sources cite her date of birth as '24th May'. But, either way, in our opinion, the Lady deserves a write-up and also deserves to be remembered more than she is.

On the 27th May, 1919, a Mr Walter Hume Long (pictured, the '1st Viscount Long'!) wrote to his friend, a Mr David Lloyd George (the 'Prime Minister of the United Kingdom') offering his opinion that it was not yet the time for declaring the Sinn Féin organisation to be an 'illegal' body.

Mr Long was aware that if Sinn Féin were 'outlawed' the RIC, the pro-British 'police force' in Ireland, would come under ever more pressure and he knew they wouldn't be able 'to hold the line'.

So he suggested holding off until the RIC were 'overhauled' first, telling Mr George that the chief RIC officers were either incompetent or worn out, suggesting that the then RIC 'Inspector General', a Mr 'Sir' Joseph Aloysius Byrne (who was appointed in 1916) had lost his nerve and should be replaced.

Mr Byrne had initiated a policy of compulsory retirement of RIC members whom he considered "unfit for service", which didn't go down well in political or military circles in Westminster as it was precisely the "unfit for service" (ie 'the loose cannon')-types that they wanted to 'police' Ireland!

Mr Long opined that a Mr Thomas James Smith (Belfast City Commissioner since 1909), a hardline RIC supporter in Belfast, would be spot-on for the position, I say, what...!!

This issue was discussed between the politicians for a few months and, on the 10th November (1919), the British 'Lord Lieutenant of Ireland', Field Marshal John Denton Pinkstone French ('1st Earl of Ypres, KP, GCB, OM, GCVO, KCMG, PC...' ETC ETC!) wrote to Mr 'Sir' Joseph Aloysius Byrne ordering him to take one month's leave "to rest himself" (Mr French could not actually sack the man, as that would require input from the British Treasury and there was no guarantee that Treasury management would agree with the move).

Mr Byrne assured all and sundry that he was grand (!) and sure he took the few weeks off anyway but, when he returned to work in early December, he found that "desks containing his private papers had been sealed" and Mr Smith was sitting behind his desk, the locks on which had been changed, as had Mr Byrne's career trajectory!

Flexing his new muscles on the 6th July, 1920, the then 'Inspector General of the RIC', Mr 'Sir' Smith, issued a decree to the media and to his troops -

"No authorised persons will be allowed to arrogate to themselves the duties of the police. Any such gathering of Volunteers will be an illegal assembly, the local police should take steps to disperse it and arrest the leaders. Military aid may be invoked where necessary..."

Needless to say, the IRA ignored his 'warning' and continued to militarily defend themselves and their country.

His failed decree might have had some bearing on the fact that, within five months of him having issued it, he retired from his position with that paramilitary 'police force', on two-thirds of his salary.

Indeed, between the 1st May 1920 and the 31st July 1920, more than 500 members of that grouping also resigned/retired.

They were no doubt just as demoralised as Mr Smith was.

Incidentally, the official file on Mr 'Sir' Thomas James Smith is in the British 'National Archives' in Kew, London and, when the man retired, his file was sealed for 26 years...

==========================

THE GREAT OIL AND GAS ROBBERY...

From 'Magill' Magazine, October 2005.

"I spent an hour with Micheál Ó Seighin (pictured), one of the Rossport Five.

Micheál received us very graciously in the small visiting box. He is a small, quietly-spoken man in his late 60s.

"Tá sibhse ag dhéanamh obair go hiontach. Congratulations. Bhí an scéal Dé Luan go han, han mhaith. Ceim mhór", he said..."

Micheál Ó Seighin.

Michael McDowell.

Pat Rabbitte.

Micheál said all of this in a quiet understated way and every so often he would chuckle as he responded to our questions.

For example, when I asked him what was the pipeline like he said - "Shell told us it was a very thick pipeline. We told them that the pipeline might be very thick but we're not."

I had heard that heavy metal deposits were being dumped back into the sea. He is obviously a man who thinks and ponders on all these matters and in response to my questions he gave detailed answers.

"Yes", he said, "Originally they wanted to dump it in Broadhaven Bay which is a special area of conservation under the EU and it is also internationally important because it supports important populations of birds, among them Brent Geese.

That stretch of coast used to have the best sea angling in western Europe - seven different types of whale and dolphin breed in the bay.

Carrowmore Lake is the supplier of water for this region and is protected as a 'Natura 2000' site on the UN list of protected conservation areas, and it will be badly damaged. Shell were told all of this and so was the Government."

Our discussion turned to the bog through which the pipe is being laid which, in some parts, is 30 feet deep, and below that is the dóib ('1169' comment - dóib [pronounced doh-ib] is an Irish word referring to sticky mud - 'daub' - or plaster-clay and, in the context of Irish bogs, it refers specifically to a type of heavy, viscous mud or clay found deep within the soil). Dóib causes the bog to move.

Micheál told us of a neighbour's experience when he built a septic tank ; the dóib lifted the tank, and another neighbour had a similar experience with the foundations for a hayshed.

According to local people, sections of the pipe are sinking in the bog...

(The third [ie last] pic above shows a Mr Patrick Rabbitte, ex-State Labour Party leader and ex-'State Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources' ; Mr Rabbittee retired as State Labour Party leader in 2007, and from political life altogether in 2016, on a combined pension package worth over €2 million to him!)

(MORE LATER.)

ON THIS DATE (27TH MAY) 158 YEARS AGO : "FENIAN HANGED IN PUBLIC" ANNOUNCEMENT IN ENGLAND.

'The last man to be publicly executed in England has had a plaque erected in his memory at a mass grave in London. Michael Barrett came from a small farm in Drumnagreshial, Fermanagh, and was 27 when he was publicly hanged in front of Newgate Jail in London in May 1868...(he) was a member of the Fenians and had been found guilty of blowing up the wall of Clerkenwell House of Detention in London in 1867...(his) guilt was never clearly established and the evidence given by witnesses at the trial was questionable...' (from here.)

Michael Barrett's body was left hanging for about one hour, in full public view, outside Newgate Prison, and his body was then removed by prison staff and he was put in a grave within the prison walls : he remained there for 34 years before the British were shamed into placing his remains into a box and burying him in the City of London Cemetery in Ilford, East London.

At the time they executed him, their 'queen', Victoria, expressed her disappointment that 'only one person was caught' for the deed and suggested that, in any future such incident, the police should simply lynch, on-the-spot, any Irish suspects rather then give too much publicity to the Irish fightback.

An unsurprising comment, really, from the 'Famine (sic) queen' who, to put it mildly, 'had no real compassion for the Irish people in any way'.

'It was on a bright may morning, in the year of 68,

They led young Michael Barrett to the scaffold at Newgate,

He was indeed a Fenian but they blamed him in the wrong,

They had to have a scapegoat and Michael was the one.

He came from north Fermanagh near the county Donegal,

And he had lived through the hunger, Michael seen it all,

He went away to Glasgow like so many from this land,

There he joined up with the Fenian’s to help to free Ireland...' (from here.)

RIP Michael Barrett, Bold Fenian Man ; 1841 - 26th May 1868.

ON THIS DATE (27TH MAY) 228 YEARS AGO : BATTLE OF OULART HILL, WEXFORD.

On the 27th of May, 1798 (Whit Sunday) , a few hundred well armed British Kingsborough militiamen and yeomanry from the North Cork Militia were sent to Oulart (Abhallghort/Orchard), in Wexford, to quell 'native unease' and, as expected, they plundered and caused havoc on their journey to 'put manners' on those Irish men and women who had assembled, approximately one-thousand strong, in Oulart, under the leadership of Fr.John Murphy, General Myles Byrne, from Ballylusk, and General Edward Roche of Garlough, Castlebridge.

A description of the battle can be read here, but suffice to quote one paragraph from that link :

'...the (British) militiamen were soon completely overrun, and must have seen their fate written in the pent-up hatred on the rebels' faces. They turned and fled for their lives, spilling down the slopes from where they had come just a few minutes before.

Some ran for miles before being overtaken, impaled and gutted.

They begged for mercy in both Gaelic and English. They blessed themselves and shouted out prayers, since many of their number were themselves Catholic, but received absolutely no pity from the rebels.

To the insurgents, the men begging for their lives were the same ones who had so recently burned out and murdered their neighbours and friends. The merciless pikemen offered no quarter, and the detested North Cork Militia disappeared forever on the bloody slopes of Oulart Hill....'

One of the above-mentioned leaders, Myles Byrne (who lived long enough to serve as an officer in Napoleon's 'Irish Legion') was born in Monaseed in Wexford, on March 20th, 1780, and was only a boy when he witnessed the attacks by the yeoman militia and other mercenaries which England let loose in Wexford in 1798.

But he took his place in the United Irishmen and fought through the Wexford campaign, joined Michael Dwyer afterwards in Wicklow, later came to Dublin and was a comrade and friend of Robert Emmet in the continuation of '98 which failed so sadly in 1803.

He was sent by Emmet (then on the run) to France to seek assistance from Thomas Addis Emmet and the other exiled United Irishmen and went with no hesitation, in the hope that he would return in the ranks of a conquering army and, for over 30 years, he followed the flag of France across the battlefields of Europe, whilst seeking out information from all sources on the situation in Ireland.

After his retirement in 1835, when all hope of striking a blow for his own country had failed, he settled in Paris and continued to write, off and on, for twenty years, right up to the day of his death in 1862.

His widow published his memoirs in three volumes and the story was published in serial form in the 'Shamrock' newspaper of Dublin, in 1869, and reprinted in the 'Irish Weekly Independent' in 1898.

In his memoirs, he was critical of the "gentlemany nature" of the rebel approach, believing them to have been "too willing to negotiate and to accept (British) government protections and non-existent government good faith".

Whilst in Paris, his home was a 'safe house' for all who had ever served Ireland and one of the most welcome visitors to his home was that fine old soldier John Mitchel, who described Myles Byrne as "..a tall figure, the splendid ruin of a soldier d'elite , bearing himself still erect under the weight of eighty winters. The grey eye is keen and proud, the thin face bronzed and worn by war and weather, and the whole bearing gives the idea not of decrepitude, but of a certain dashing gallantry.

He has marched over half of Europe, and stood full often at the head of his regiment on the rough edges of battle in Spain, in Germany, in Greece and other, earlier memories, cloud at times his clear grey eyes ; and through and beyond the battle smoke and thunder of all Napoleon's fields, he has a vision of the pikemen at New Ross, and hears the fierce 'hurrah' on Oulart Hill..."

Myles Byrne died in France on Friday 24th January 1862, aged 82, and was buried in Montmarte Cemetery ('The Hill Of Martyrs'), Paris, in a grave marked with a Celtic Cross (since replaced with a different headstone) , inscribed with the words -

'Sincerement Attache A L'Irlande : Son Pays Natal, IL A Fidelement Servi La France, Sa Patrie Adoptive.'

The words on the new headstone read -

'Here lies Myles Byrne, Lieutenant Colonel in the service of France.

Officer of the legion of Honour.

Knight of St Louis, born at Monaseed in the county Wexford in Ireland, 20th March 1780. Died at Paris, the 24th January 1862, his long life was distinguished by the constant integrity and loyalty of his character and by his high-minded principles.

Sincerely attached to Ireland, his native land, he gave faithful service to France, the country of his adoption.'

Myles Byrne done more for Ireland on that one day, 228 years ago on this date, then some will do in a lifetime.

RIP General Myles Byrne.

27th-28th May, 1920 : "In 1867, the Fenians attacked a British military outpost at Kilmallock in County Limerick, but were repelled ; fifty-three years after that event, the Fenians (IRA) decided to burn the outpost (then an RIC barracks) to the ground..."

60+ armed republican Volunteers from East Clare, Cork, Tipperary and West Limerick, including Volunteers Tim Crowley, Jack McCarthy, Michael Brennan (Officer Commanding East Clare Brigade), Donnacha O'Hannigan, Jeremiah O'Mahoney, Sean Finn (Officer Commanding West Limerick Brigade), Garrett McAuliffe, Patrick Clancy, Larry McNamee, Edmond Tobin, P Hannigan, Tadgh Crowley, Denis Lacey, D P McCarthy, Connie Mackey, J Lynch and J O'Brien.

Volunteer Thomás Malone (aka 'Seán Forde', pictured, above) and Volunteer Seán Wall (pictured, below) played prominent parts in the operation - there were about 30 armed foreign 'police men' in a well-fortified barracks, roads into and out of the area were blocked by the armed rebels, neighbouring buildings were availed of in the fight, and there were casualties...

..we have penned a few paragraphs about this military operation elsewhere in this blog post ; two for the price of one, yer gettin'...!

==========================

On the 11th November, 1919, British forces raided a Dáil Éireann office in Dublin (76 Harcourt Street) and, among other items robbed by them - and damage caused - was at least one box containing Dáil Éireann-headed notepaper.

Over the following weeks and months 'orders' were issued on Dáil Éireann notepaper to various Dáil Éireann departments leading to missed meetings, misinformation, people being named in the wrong etc and some more serious issues.

On the 18th May, 1920, Arthur Griffith (Acting President and Minister for Home Affairs, Dáil Éireann) again contacted a Lieutenant-Colonel Mr 'Sir' Walter Edgeworth-Johnstone (KBE, CB etc!), the 'Chief Commissioner' of the then British 'police' in Ireland, the DMP, demanding the return of all the Dáil Éireann headed paper his grouping took during the Harcourt Street intrusion.

On the 27th May (1920), Mr 'Sir' Johnstone wrote back to Mr Griffith declaring "that no notepaper or any writing paper was removed from 76 Harcourt Street or taken possession of by police or by the military...", which prompted Mr Griffith to issue another public statement confirming that official notepaper was indeed among the items removed from Harcourt Street by British forces during the November 1919 raid.

Mr Griffith again referenced the fact that 'The Irish Bulletin' had previously released photographs of British Army documents which were written on the stolen notepaper and a statement from a neutral typefounder/typecaster/die-sinking expert saying that the typeface on those documents was an exact match for the typeface on death notices written on Dáil Éireann notepaper which had been sent to Dáil Éireann members.

The republican newspaper also published a copy of a British Army intelligence report from a British Army Captain, a Mr Frederick Harper-Shove, to one of his 'intelligence department' buddies, a British Army Major, Jocelyn Lee 'Hoppy' Hardy -

"Dear Hardy,

Have been given a free hand to carry on, and everyone has been charming.

Re our little stunt, I see no prospects until I have things on a firmer basis, but still hope and believe there are possibilities..."

The "little stunt" was probably a reference to the 'false flag' orders/instructions he and his people were placing in Irish republican circles, in the hope that it would lead to IRA members executing their own people in the belief that they had been 'turned'.

When not trying to stitch good people up, Mr Harper-Shove was apparently stitching himself up - his military 'Medal Index Card' contains complaints from his superior officers that he was fond of wearing medals to which he was not entitled and, in his dealings with the 'Herbal Medicine' (!) industry, Mr Harper-Shove was known as a Lieutenant-Colonel, a rank he was never entitled to!

Mr Frederick Harper-Shove was attached to the 'BA General Staff, Intelligence', and was better known in BA circles as a 'spy instructor' - he mostly operated from the 'spy school' in Hounslow, in West London, in a premises known as 'Cavalry Barracks/Silent Section'.

Despite his many enemies, he managed to stitch-up (!) a long life for himself - he died in 1974 in his own country, at 88 years of age, in Gateshead, in Tyne and Wear, North East England.

That much, at least, is true about the man...

==========================

As Mr 'Sir' Johnstone was writing his 'don't-know-nothin'-letter to Mr Griffith, a British Army Private, a Mr Joseph Clarkson (19, 'Service Number 51979'), attached to 'The King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment', was on guard duty outside the British 'Chief Secretary's Lodge' in the Phoenix Park in Dublin when a gunshot was discharged.

Mr Clarkson fell to the ground, dead.

The poor young man had been "accidently shot dead by a fellow British Army soldier..."

He is buried in Ince-in-Makerfield Cemetery on the Warrington Road in Lower Ince, in Wigan, Greater Manchester, in his own country.

==========================

THE MONTH UNSPUN...

The stories that hit the headlines.

From Magill magazine, August 2002.

For its part, the government claimed that it had tried to draw up a list of protected sporting events in the past, but the moves had been blocked by the FAI, the IRFU and the GAA.

But there was more to government utterances on the matter than met the eye.

The government is now in the process of drawing up a list of protected sports events, and it is not likely that any of the above-mentioned organsations will risk public outrage by trying to interfere.

The GAA has already said it had "no objection", according to 'The Irish Times', to the inclusion of the senior All-Ireland finals on the list.

The proposed list is not due to be finalised until mid-September, with Sky's coverage beginning with Ireland V Switzerland in October and, if that game is live on Sky but not on RTE, expect things to get messy.

('1169' comment - next 'Unspun' piece : deportation orders...)

(MORE LATER.)

On the 4th May, 1921, the '5th Division' of the British Army began an eight-day 'round-up drive' in the Mullingar, Tullamore and Longford areas of Ireland and "captured a number of wanted men" (...their own claim was that the 'drive' began on the 4th and resulted in the capture of 35 'terrorists').

On the 27th May, they geared-up in armoured columns and cavalry and, this time, used their colleagues in the RIC as 'point and spotters' (ie 'expendable') and headed off on another 'round-up drive', and intended to stay out until mid-June.

They had five counties in mind, and left from their base in the Curragh, County Kildare, for Offaly, Westmeath, Longford, Cavan and Monaghan (and paid a 'visit' to County Leitrim as well).

They captured a few more rebels but afterwards admitted... "..as in the first operation the results were disproportionate to the exertions of men and horses, owing to the difficulty of identification.."

However, their efforts didn't put the IRA out of business - Irish men and women carried-on and had no "difficulty of identification" when it came to knowing who had placed themselves as the enemies of Irish freedom...

==========================

On the same date that the second wave of 'armoured cars and tanks and guns' were leaving their Curragh base on the hunt for Irish rebels, 'The Cork Constitution' newspaper reported that four houses belonging to anti-republican/pro-unionist families in Cork City had been attacked and burnt down.

Historian Dr John Borgonovo later opined that these burnings were a counter-reprisal by the IRA for the burning of four local homes by the British Army after the ambush on an RIC patrol in Blackpool, County Cork, on May 14th, in which three RIC members were killed.

Incidentally, in 1921, the IRA targeted over 40 country estates, or 'Big Houses', across County Cork.

These burnings were primarily retaliation for the destruction of republican homes by Crown forces, or were strategic military operations to prevent British forces from using the properties as a barracks.

==========================

As that newspaper was reporting on trouble in Cork, about 260 miles up the road (420km approximately) in Belfast, an internal IRA GHQ memo was received by the leadership of the 3rd Northern Division.

The memo expressed concern in relation to the alleged lack of discipline on the part of 'IRA juniors' (ie street-level Volunteers) in Belfast.

The Belfast Brigade operated under the command structure of the 3rd Northern Division of the IRA and, due to its geographic isolation from Dublin (no mobile phones or email in those days!) and the intense sectarian violence in that northern city - it was engulfed in severe communal violence as well as guerrilla warfare - the Volunteers sometimes had to act with local pressures in mind, rather than on official IRA GHQ policy.

Understandable, in our opinion ; the British military and political presence caused additional problems in that part of our country, due to anti-republican/pro-unionist elements pressuring Westminster to go ahead with their plan to partition that part of Ireland.

==========================

Volunteer Patrick Boland, the Captain of the Crossard Company (pictured), East Mayo Brigade, IRA, was from Cluain Gamhnach (Cloongawnagh/Cloongownagh) near Toureen, in County Mayo.

On the 27th May (1921) he was 'arrested' by the British Army (2nd Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) near his home and, they claimed, attempted to escape and was shot dead by them.

Reports at the time stated that... "..his body was reportedly severely mutilated...(it is) believed he was tortured by Lieutenant Anderson of the Argyll and Southern Highlanders, stationed in Claremorris..".

The name 'Lieutenant Anderson' is said to be a pseudonym used by a British agent who knew that if he owned-up to his many deeds, using his real name, his last such deed would indeed be his last such deed...

RIP Volunteer Captain Patrick Boland.

==========================

As Volunteer Captain Patrick Boland was being 'arrested', about 90 miles (140km) up the road in Donegal, RIC member James Doherty (24, 'Service Number 74307') was "accidentally shot dead by a fellow RIC man...".

We couldn't find any more information on the circumstances involved or on Mr Doherty himself.

==========================

DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...

Desmond Boomer, a Belfast engineer working in the Libyan oil-fields, disappeared seven years ago.

Officially, the plane on which he was a passenger crashed as a result of mechanical failure and pilot error.

But is that the real story?

Or were the Irishman and his fellow passengers unwitting victims of the shady war between Islamic fundamentalism and Mossad, Israel's intelligence network?

A special 'Magill' investigation by Don Mullan, author of 'Eyewitness Bloody Sunday'.

From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.

On the 31st October, 1995, crowds gathered outside the Maltese Embassy in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, protesting about Shqaqi's assassination.

On the 1st November, 'The Times' newspaper in Malta reported on its front page that the crowds "warned Valletta of unspecified retaliation if it did not arrest the killers of Islamic Jihad chief Fathi Shqaqi..."

Reuters reported that "crowds demonstrated in Tripoli's streets and outside the Maltese Embassy, carrying portraits of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and shouting their anger and denunciation of this abominable crime.."

The Libyan news agency JANA went fuirther - it reported that the crowd outside the embassy "read out a message to the Maltese urging them to arrest Shqaqi's killers or bear responsibility for the consequences of the killing on Libyan-Maltese ties. The Maltese authorities and the ruling party there bear full responsibility if they do not arrest the terrorists and bear the responsibility for its results on all aspects of Arab-Maltese cooperation."

Arab reaction to Shqaqi's murder was not confined to Libya.

The crowd at his funeral in Palestine, where he was declared a martyr, was estimated at a quarter of a million...

(MORE LATER.)

ON THIS DATE (27TH MAY) 106 YEARS AGO : IRA OPERATIONS BEGIN TO ATTACK BRITISH FORCES IN THEIR BARRACKS IN LIMERICK.

The building, above, which was used at the time as a barracks for a British 'police force' in Ireland.

In 1867, the Fenians attacked a British military outpost at Kilmallock in County Limerick, but were repelled ; fifty-three years after that event, the Fenians (IRA, with Volunteers Thomas Malone amd Sean Wall in command) decided to burn the outpost (then an RIC barracks) to the ground.

This was officially an East Limerick IRA operation but Volunteers from East Clare, Cork, Tipperary and West Limerick took part in the attack, among whom were Volunteers Tim Crowley, Jack McCarthy, Michael Brennan (O/C East Clare Brigade), Donnacha O'Hannigan, Jeremiah O'Mahoney, Sean Finn (O/C West Limerick Brigade), Garrett McAuliffe, Patrick Clancy, Larry McNamee, Edmond Tobin, P Hannigan, Tadgh Crowley, Denis Lacey, D P McCarthy, Connie Mackey, J Lynch and J O'Brien.

The building was a two-storey, solid masonry structure with steel shuttering and was set back from the road ; it housed an RIC garrison of two sergeants, Messrs. Thomas Kane and Tobias O'Sullivan, and between seventeen and twenty-eight 'constables', all armed, and was known to be a 'tough' building.

But it had one possible weakness - its roof.

A house to the right-hand side of the barracks, which was owned by the Carroll family, was taller than the barracks, and had a 'skylight' in its attic. Clery's Hotel and a bank practically faced the barracks, as did a shop, owned by the O'Herlihy family. If, during the attack, RIC reinforcements from other areas were to attempt to rescue their colleagues they would find the routes into the town barricaded by armed IRA units.

Sixty IRA Volunteers were organised for the operation ; at least half of them, plus some local men, went out on the night of 27th May (1920) and blocked a number of roads leading to Kilmallock.

IRA leader Tom Malone ('Sean Forde') and his unit took over Carrolls house, Tim Crowley and his Volunteer group took control of Cleary's Hotel, D. O'Hannigan was in charge of a unit of IRA men which occupied the bank and J. McCarthy and an IRA unit moved in to O'Herlihy's shop for the night. Michael Brennan, an IRA leader from East Clare, was also in the shop.

A few Volunteers were positioned near outhouses at the rear of the barracks.

Just after midnight, IRA leader Tom Malone and his men took it in turns to lob heavy objects out of the skylight of the Carrolls' house, the objective being to break a hole through the roof of the barracks, into which prepared petrol-bombs could be thrown ; when Volunteer Malone's first object hit the roof, the IRA units positioned around the barracks opened fire on the front and rear of the building and, within minutes, the RIC men trapped in the building were shooting back.

While this gun-fight was going on, Malone and his men succeeded in breaching the roof - dozens of parafin and petrol bombs were thrown through the hole, followed by a flaming torch and a grenade : the building was now on fire.

By 2am (approximately two hours after the attack began) the upper storey of the barracks was about to collapse on top of the ground-floor section, where the RIC men were now confined : the IRA stopped the attack and advised the RIC to throw out their weapons and then come out themselves. The RIC refused the offer.

However, all was not as it seemed to the attackers ; the RIC men had been retreating to the outbuildings at the back of the barracks, braving the sniper-fire from the IRA Volunteers rather than face the onslaught coming through the front of the building.

By about 7am, with the barracks now a smouldering ruin, it was obvious that a fresh plan and re-deployment of the Volunteers would be necessary if the RIC were to be removed from the various outhouses they were now in, and the order was given for the IRA to withdraw ; one Volunteer, Liam Scully, from Glencar, County Kerry, was dead (and is buried in Reilig na Tríonóide [the Old Church] Graveyard [Templeglantine Cemetery], in the townland of Templeglantine West in County Limerick) and an RIC Sergeant, a Mr Thomas Kane, and one of his 'constables', a Mr Joseph Morton, were dead - six more RIC men were seriously wounded, two of whom were named as a Mr Arthur Hooey and a Mr Barry.

The Kilmallock attack, on 28th May, 1920 - in the middle of the Tan War - was one of the most prolonged and fiercest battles of that period. The actual battle itself began on the 27th of May, 1920, 106 years ago on this date.

Incidentally, local folklore has it that the rebels in 1920 were repeated name for name and, in many cases, in blood relationship, with the rebel attackers on that barracks during the Fenian Rising on March 6th 1867.

RIP Volunteer Liam Scully.

In late May, 1922, a Mr David Lloyd George (pictured), the 'Prime Minister of the United Kingdom', was 'conducting Empire business' in Genoa, Italy, when he was contacted by his office and reminded that he was due to meet on the 27th with a political delegation from the Free State in Ireland.

'That's a damned nuisance...', says he to himself, '..sure isn't the whole partition of Ireland issue settled...?!'

Anyway - he made it back to Westminster on the 20th and, on the 26th, he examined the 'Treaty document' (written by, among others, Messrs Hugh Kennedy, James Douglas and Professor Alfred O'Rahilly) which the Staters had delivered to himself and his administration.

And it wasn't to their liking.

At the meeting on the 27th (May, 1922), he didn't hold back - he told the Staters that the new Free State constitution was a republican one (!) with a "thin veneer" ('spoonful of sugar', if you like!) and a complete evasion of the Treaty, and declared that the Irish would be sent a list of British objections to their draft constitution by May 29th.

Also, a Mr Churchill referenced 'Article 17' of the Treaty (of Surrender) [which obliged the Staters to sign a declaration of adherence to the Treaty] and told 'Collins Crew' that if Article 17 did not apply then "the process of the transfer of function does not go forward anymore".

It later transpired that Mr Churchill had already made contingency plans, which were approved by "a subcommittee of the 'Committee for Imperial Defence'...", no less (!) chaired by Mr Churchill, to occupy the waterline of lakes and rivers running from Dundalk to Letterkenny "to defend the North against invasion [by the Staters]" (sic- how do you invade your own country?!).

Other (cringe-inducing) meetings were held on the 29th and the 30th May (1922) and also on the 1st June (it transpired after his 1st June meeting with the Staters that Mr Churchill had also held a meeting with British military chiefs to draw up a plan for the full military reconquest of Ireland!), in which the Brits put the Staters in their place and, on the 2nd June, Mr Arthur Griffith, speaking for the Stater delegation, wrote to Mr David Lloyd George saying, in effect - "OK, boss - you win. We'll sign whatever ya want, just let us have part-control over 26 of our own 32 counties, a titled office job, decent salary and pension and the job's done.."

And Stater politicians in that same Leinster House institution are still selling us out today, 2026, but this time it's to the EU/UN/WEF, who have sent hundreds of thousands of their foot-soldiers here already - the 'asylum seekers/refugees/migrants/vagrants' that gather at practically every street corner in almost every village, town and city in this God-forsaken corrupt State...

==========================

On the 27th May, possibly in the hope of putting pressure on the British at the meeting in Westminster that same day, the Staters back home in Dublin issued a 'Proclamation from the Provisional Government' stating that an election would be held in the new 'Free State' on the 16th June.

Nomination forms for that election referred to elections to the 'Provisional Parliament pursuant to the Free State (Agreement) Act' (and not for the Third Dáil) and, later that same day (27th May 1922), a 'Lord Viscount of Derwent', a Mr Edmund Bernard FitzAlan-Howard (pictured, the British-imposed 'Lord Lieutenant of Ireland' ie the representative of the British Crown in Ireland, a position often referred to as the 'Viceroy of Ireland') declared that "the Parliament of Southern Ireland was dissolved and I hereby call a Parliament to be known as and styled the Provisional Parliament..."

Mr FitzAlan-Howard was a lucky man - he died of natural causes on the 18th May, 1947, at the age of 91, at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor, Berkshire, in his own country, England, and is buried at the Arundel Roman Catholic Cemetery at Arundel Castle.

One of his ancestors, 'the 2nd/9th Earl of Arundel' who bore the same name, was not as lucky - he was beheaded for high treason on the 17th November, 1326.

'High Treason' is heredity, it seems...

==========================

On the same day that the Staters issued their 'Proclamation from the Provisional Government' in Dublin, about 105 miles (165km) up the road in Belfast, three people were shot - a Mr William Smyth (21) was shot dead in the Short Strand, a Mr Robert Rainey (50) was shot when he went to the aid of a man injured in disturbances in the Cullingtree Road area and a five-years-young child, Georgina Campbell, was shot by a sniper allegedly operating from St Matthew's Church.

Those poor people might not have known it at the time, but they had been abandoned to their fate that same day by the Staters in Westminster.

==========================

Between the dates May 27th and June 10th, 1922, the build-up to and actual clash between the 'Ulster Special Constabulary', the British Army, the Free State army and the IRA - 'The Battle Of Pettigo' - took place along the Donegal/Fermanagh Border.

It was the last occasion that the Free Staters and the IRA fought side-by-side against British and pro-British forces.

The British military occupied Pettigo, a small village and townland on the border of County Donegal and County Fermanagh, until January 1923, when it was handed over to Free State troops and stayed in Belleek until August 1924, when the RUC and the 'Specials' took over the security (!) of the village -

'Pettigo, that little dismembered village, half in County Fermanagh, half in County Donegal, half free and half unfree, recalls to thousands of us very vivid memories of our Pilgrimage to Saint Patrick's Purgatory, Lough Derg.

...the stand made by less than one hundred IRA Volunteers against overwhelming numbers of British forces and lasting over a week, began on Saturday, May 27th 1922.

On that day a hundred Specials crossed Lough Erne in a pleasure steamer named 'The Lady of the Lake', towing a number of small boats, and landed above Belleek.

They (the pro-British 'Special Constabulary') marched to Magheramenagh Castle, the residence of the late Reverend L. O'Kierans, the Parish Priest of Pettigo, and ordered him to leave immediately, which he did.

A party of thirty IRA Volunteers advanced down the railway line towards Magheramenagh Castle but on their way there they were intercepted by a patrol of Specials who engaged them and then retreated to Magherameena Castle, pursued by the IRA Volunteers.

The Specials then abandoned the Castle for good, retreated to their boats on the Lough and withdrew in them to the Buck Island in Lough Erne, where they were reinforced by another hundred Specials with medical attendants who treated their wounded.

The Volunteers had suffered but a few minor injuries...' (...more here.)

==========================

As 'The Battle Of Pettigo' was kicking off, about 122 miles (195 km) down the road in Dublin, a smaller battle was taking place.

A British Army 'Lance Corporal', a Mr George Albert Emery ('Service Number M/25319'), from London, England, attached to the 'Royal' Army Service Corps Motor Transport Division in Dublin, was in the College Green area of the city with an army buddie of his, a 'Private' Dean, standing beside their sidecar-mounted motorbike.

At about 12.40pm on that day (27th May 1922) two men approached them and ordered them to move away from the motorbike ; a verbal/physical scuffle ensued and five gunshots were fired.

Both of the BA soldiers were seen to stagger ; Mr Emery fell to the ground, got back up, moved unsteadily towards nearby Church Lane and managed to set foot on Saint Andrew Street where he fell down again - dead.

Mr Emery had been shot three times - once in the neck and once in each lung.

Mr Dean survived the day.

The two other men left the scene.

==========================

Around the same time as College Green in Dublin was thrown into a panic, about 103 miles (166km) across the country and up the road a bit an 'ex'-RIC 'Sergeant', a Mr James Greer, was taken out of his house in Cootehall (near the town of Boyle) in County Roscommon and shot dead.

Mr Greer's son, Thomas, who lived just down the road from his father and was an 'ex'-member of the ADRIC* anti-republican semi-paramilitary grouping was also paid a visit that same day.

He was removed from his house and shot dead as well.

The Greers name had surfaced during an IRA investigation into the killing of Fr Michael Griffin, as had the name of another ADRIC member, a Mr Nichols, and 'Lord Haw-Haw' (a Mr William Joyce).

(*The ADRIC's were known as 'Pound-a-Day' men by the rebels, as that's how little they sold their 'service' for.)

RIP Fr Michael Griffin.

==========================

ON THIS DATE (27TH MAY) 71 YEARS AGO - ELECTION VICTORY ANNOUNCED FOR SINN FÉIN IN THE O6C.

'SINN FÉIN VICTORY.

Two Prisoner Candidates Elected To Thirty-Two County Parliament!

Northern republicans on road to freedom : Thursday, May 26th 1955, is a landmark in Irish history.

A new chapter has been opened.

The total vote cast for Sinn Féin candidates, great though it was, is of secondary importance to the new spirit of co-operation and voluntary service to Ireland that has spread throughout the country.

We are proud of the response made by the republicans in the North to Ireland's call for freedom and unity ; after years of betrayal and confusion - in spite of enemy tactics to disrupt and 'friendly' efforts to discourage - the republicans of the North have proved that the courage and idealism of the O'Neills and the O'Donnells lives on.

The election is a phase in the Sinn Féin campaign to organise all Irishmen into one united people to end forever British occupation and influence in Ireland, to restore to the Irish people their fundamental right to govern themselves and to develop the resources of Ireland for the happiness and prosperity of the Irish people.

It is now the task and duty of all Irishmen (sic) to rally to the support of Northern republicans in their demand for a 32-County Parliament.

Sinn Féin has the plans, you have the power - join Sinn Féin and unite the Nation!'

(From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, June, 1955 ; please note that the Sinn Féin organisation referenced in the above piece has no connection, except verbally [according to the PSF grouping] to the Stormont and Leinster House political party which is a political service provider for both the Free State and British administrations in this country.)

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - much appreciated!

Sharon and the team.

(We'll be back here on the blog on Wednesday, 17th June, 2026, and 'lil auld me will be on 'X' and Facebook between now and then, if yer missin' me all that much!

Myself and one of my teams in the company I work for, and with, have been requested to travel to our Galway office to reorganise/tweak the internal structures, and the company have booked us in to a [5 Star 'sleek urban retreat', if ya wouldn't mind!] hotel so I won't be in Dublin for at least ten days, never mind being in a position to work on the blog.

Only hope I don't come back with a culchie accent. Or an African one...)

1169 And Counting.....

Wednesday, June 17, 2026

"ONLY A COMPLETE POLITICAL AND MILITARY PURGE CAN SAVE IRELAND NOW..."

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

"THE GENTLEMANY NATURE OF THE IRISH REBELS" IS CONDEMNED.

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