On the 15th September, 1919, a 24-years-young British Army soldier, a Mr William Milburn Booth (from Norton-on-Tees, Durham, in England, 'Service Number 60488', attached to the 2nd Battalion, 'Yorkshire Regiment' ['The Green Howards']) was sitting with his colleagues in 'Hut 12' in a barracks in County Tipperary, Ireland.
One of his BA colleagues, a Mr Pagan, asked Mr William Milburn Booth if he could have a look at his revolver.
As Mr Booth was handing Mr Pagan the weapon, it discharged and the bullet went into Mr Booth's heart.
The injured man died from his wound the following day, and is buried in Norton (St. Mary) Churchyard in Norton, Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham (Teesside/Durham), in his own country, England.
==========================
ON THIS DATE (16TH SEPTEMBER) 101 YEARS AGO - BIRTH OF "A VERY SHALLOW PERSON".
Charles James Haughey was born in Castlebar, County Mayo, on the 16th September 1925 (101 years ago on this date) and died on the 13th June, 2006 ; he was 'Taoiseach' of the Free State on three occasions.
His father was in the IRA but then fought against his old colleagues, as a member of the Free State Army.
"He hid in plain sight. Was it a failure of journalism (not to investigate that fully)? He refused point blank to explain where his wealth came from...his wealth was vastly beyond anything he could accrue from a salary...he represented everything that people were refusing to speak about until then : sex, money and power.
There was an oppressive relationship about all of those topics. He had all three of those, and a lifestyle way beyond the meagre existence of the 1960's..something happened. He became crooked and began behaving in an unethical and corrupt way..." (from here.)
However, despite his own taxpayer-funded luxury lifestyle, he had no hesitation in attempting to convince the State taxpayers whom he used to sustain himself that they were 'living beyond their means' -
"As a community we are living away beyond our means. I don't mean that everyone in the community is living too well, clearly many are not and have barely enough to get by, but taking us all together we have been living at a rate which is simply not justified by the amount of goods and services we are producing..." (from here.)
'Evidence emerged yesterday that substantial cheques made out to Fianna Fail and sent to party Headquarters in Upper Mount Street, Dublin, ended up in the party leader's account which Mr Charles Haughey ran from his office in Leinster House.
It also emerged that Mr Haughey was able to make withdrawals from this account for reasons that had nothing to do with politics. In February 1991, when he was Taoiseach, a cheque for £8,332 was written on the account and used to buy a draft in French francs. The draft was used to pay Chevret, Paris, an expensive shirtmaker used by Mr Haughey.
In September of that same year a further £7,500 was used for the same purpose...' (from here.)
He liked socialising with poets and painters, although not all of the latter profession got on with him (!) and Irish republicans certainly didn't -
'Taoiseach Charles Haughey speaks out strongly against the H Block activists who attempt to disrupt his election campaign : RTÉ News reports on the Taoiseach Charles Haughey, leader of the Fianna Fáil party, as he campaigns throughout the country (sic) in advance on the 1981 general election.
In the border counties of Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan , supporters of the hunger strikers in the H Block prison attempt to disrupt the campaign...the National H-Blocks Committees had announced that they would harass the Taoiseach during all public appearances during the election campaign because, they claimed, he had not done enough to end the hunger strike in the Maze Prison...' (from here.)
'Maintain the Border, Haughey - you're Maggie's little boy ;
You bolster up what Irishmen still suffer to destroy.
Our constitution claims its right, but you in breach bear stain -
You expend the people's millions, the Border to maintain..'
He was the driving force behind the founding of the politically-motivated 'Special Criminal Court' (staffed at that time by personnel from the Free State Army, as opposed to just Free State sympathisers, as it is today) and developed a reputation for organising party nights within the State for what became known as 'the men in mohair suits', a breed of Free State 'politician' which one of Haughey's pals, Martin Mansergh, described as "..not holding much store by political correctness and (who) did not retire early to bed..".
Another of his political pals, George Colley, equated Haughey with "low standards in high places".
He had what is known as 'a whiff of sulphur' off him and used that 'wink wink' codology to make a name and a political career for himself, just as other Leinster House reps did before him, and are still doing to this day.
FAILING THE CHILDREN...
In every county in Ireland, children must put up with woefully inadequate school buildings.
The government says it is doing its best to improve the situation, but parents and teachers complain that the State's attitude is bureaucratic, secretive and uncaring.
Niall Stanage investigates.
From 'Magill Magazine', March 2002.
66% 0f those schools said their toilet facilities were inadequate, 71% had an inadequate or unsafe schoolyard and 47% had rotting windows or doors.
"These schools are totally inadequate in terms of basic facilities, and hazardous from the point of view of health and safety..." (State) Senator Joe O'Toole, General Secretary of the INTO, said at the time - "...this situation is totally unacceptable to us and we will not allow it to continue."
Since then, the government has announced a further increase in spending, but the INTO and the opposition parties say the money is still not sufficient.
The government responds by pointing out that expenditure on educational infrastructure is at an all-time high...
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (16TH SEPTEMBER) 161 YEARS AGO : REPORTS OF A FENIAN NEWSPAPER HAVING BEEN CLOSED DOWN.
The Fenian Brotherhood was founded in Dublin on Saint Patrick’s Day in 1858 and, by 1863, had grown to such an extent that its leadership were in agreement that it was in a position to publish its own newspaper on a weekly basis.
On Saturday, 28th November 1863, the first edition of 'The Irish People' newspaper appeared on newsstands throughout Ireland, with copies of it having being dispatched to supporters overseas.
At first, the British and their despicable minions in this country, were of the opinion that the newspaper wouldn't be a success and would not be a threat to their misrule ; indeed, their 'Number One' man in Dublin, Daniel Ryan (who was actually in charge of the raiding party on the 15th September 1865), who was the Superintendent of 'G Division' of the 'Dublin Metropolitan Police', reported back to his Westminster-based paymasters in December 1863 that the newspaper was doomed and would not attain good circulation in this country.
Mr. Ryan had managed to have one of his informers, Pierce Nagle, placed in the newspaper office but the tout misread the true situation.
Those involved with the newspaper were known to the British as being 'Irish dissidents' and included Charles Kickham, Thomas Clarke Luby, Denis Dowling Mulcahy, Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, James O'Connor, John Haltigan and John O'Leary (Editor), all of whom were on a British 'Watch List'.
The newspaper, operating from within the shadows of Dublin Castle - at 12 Parliament Street - prospered and, as expected, was considered to be a 'seditious publication' by the British 'authorities' so much so that, on the 15th September, 1865, they raided the newspaper office and closed it down.
It was not the first Irish newspaper to be censored by the British, nor would it be the last - indeed, one of the 'Pillars of the Establishment' in London, 'The Times' newspaper, voiced opposition to that policy -
'A right of interference would be sustainable if the Press were used as an instrument of crime – but not otherwise. We do not regard the advocacy of any political opinion as included in this definition, and we consider that the Press has an indefensible right to report faithfully the happenings of all events whether welcome to the Executive or not...' (from here, and more of same can be found here.)
"Report faithfully..." : how times, and the so-called 'newspapers', have changed...
On the 16th September, 1920, rebel Volunteer Joseph Athy (20, Maree Company IV), from the townland of Achadh Pholl Lín (Ahapouleen) who made a living from carrying goods with his horse and cart in Galway, was travelling on that cart with workmates, going from the town of Oranmore to the village of Maree, a coastal village and parish, located just south of the town of Oranmore, along Galway Bay.
As they passed a hedged area, men in British Army fatigues stood up and opened fire on them.
It was recorded later that over 100 rounds were fired by the BA assassins.
Volunteer Athy, who had joined the rebels in 1916, died from his wounds the following day in St Bride's Nursing Home in Galway (one of his workmates, a Mr Patrick Burke, was seriously injured, but recovered from his wounds).
RIP Volunteer Joseph Athy.
==========================
On the same day that Volunteer Athy was shot by the enemy, about 200 KM (125 miles) across the country, in Dublin, press correspondents/journalists were assembling in the Mansion House to cover a press conference called by a then-republican figurehead, a Mr Arthur Griffith.
He told them to put their journalistic paraphernalia out of sight as the man they were about to meet was a British spy who believed he was about to meet the Irish republican inner circle!
Mr Griffith told his audience that the spy, a failed journalist among other failings, named 'John Henry Gooding/Frank Digby Hardy/Digby Hardy/Frank Hall/A.G. Saville/Frank Harling/Hall Frankland' (!) had been recruited out of an English prison by the head of the British Special Branch, a Mr 'Sir' Basil Thomson, to infiltrate the rebels in Ireland.
Mr Thomson would have known about the criminal spy's background - check forgery, bigamy (fathering at least 11 children across multiple illegal marriages), naval desertion and embezzling (!) but apparently figured that he was just the man to fool the rebels!
When he arrived in Dublin, the 'spy' brought suspicion on himself by his eagerness to 'assist' the rebels in their endeavours - the rebels investigated the man and led him to believe that they had taken him into their confidence.
He was 'shadowed' in Dublin, his phone calls were listened in to and his post was opened and read before being sent on ; the game was up, but he didn't know it.
When he arrived at the 'meeting', Mr Arthur Griffith exposed him in front of the newspaper correspondents and, 'caught rapid' (as we say in Dublin!) and completely unprepared to try and spoof his way out of it, the spy 'fessed up ; his cover, such as it was, was well and truly blown.
It transpired that, according to himself, had he met with Mr Michael Collins he was going to offer his services, as a 'double agent', to the rebels and betray his British bosses!
And, speaking of his British bosses, when one of them - a British Army Brigadier-General, a Mr 'Sir' Ormonde de l'Épée Winter (official codename 'O', unofficial codename 'The Holy Terror'!), the head of the British 'Combined Intelligence Service' (CIS) - heard that 'his man' was now of no use to them, he put it in his official report into the exposure and the 'double agent' aspect, that -
"Mr. Digby Hardy proved himself a villain of the first water..."
Oh I say...harsh words, what...just not cricket...
Anyway - no doubt recognising that to kill him would turn him into a 'fallen hero'-type or some such nonsense in British eyes, the rebels simply exiled him out of Ireland and he legged it to Wolverhampton, in England, probably to live with one of his illegal wives...
This 'spy', this wannabe Walter Mitty, lived in relative obscurity in that city until his death at 62 years of age from natural causes, on the 28th October, 1930.
And even then he probably tried to make a deal with the Devil.
(Few more paragraphs about this specimen elsewhere in this post...)
==========================
ON THIS DATE (16TH SEPTEMBER) 160 YEARS AGO : DEATH ANNOUNCED OF 'THE NATION' FOUNDER.
John Blake Dillon (pictured) was born in Dillon House on the Market Square in Ballaghaderreen, in the county of Roscommon, on the 5th May 1814. He was educated at St. Patrick's College Maynooth and Trinity College Dublin. He trained as a barrister and was called to the Irish Bar in 1841.
Dillon became well known as one of the founders of the 'Nation' journal. During this period, the newspapers available to the Irish public had a British bias. The Nation set out to teach people about their own country and its history (and) was first published on 15th October 1842. The print run of 12,000 copies was sold out on the first day. Dillon contributed an estimated fifty-one articles to the journal between the date of its first issue and May 1843.
After witnessing the devastation the Great Famine (sic) had on the country and in particular the poor, the group tried to gather an army to mount an insurrection. The attempted insurrection took place in 1848 but was a failure.
Despite this, the cultural nationalism of the 'Young Ireland' movement had a strong influence on later movements that aimed for Irish independence, most notably the Fenians.
John Blake Dillon was a member of the Young Irelanders. This was originally a group of young men in Daniel O'Connell's Repeal Association. O'Connell's association advocated the repeal of the Act of Union and refused to resort to physical violence or armed rebellion. However, the Young Irelanders advocated the use of force in order to achieve their aims. Dillon had to flee the country after the failed uprising.
He was convicted of High Treason and sentenced to death (but) managed to escape to the United States, dressed as a priest.
There he practiced law until he returned to Ireland under an amnesty in 1855. He was elected as an MP for Tipperary in 1865. A promising career as a politician came to an end when he died of cholera in 1866. He is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin...' (from here.)
As stated above, a section of Daniel O'Connell's 'Loyal National Repeal Association' walked-out of a meeting which was being held in the Conciliation Hall in Dublin on the 28th of July in 1846 and broke with the O’Connell-led 'Repeal Association' for good ; the so-called 'Uncrowned King of Ireland' objected to 'fighting fire with fire' ; even when Irish 'violence' was to be employed in self-defence, Daniel O'Connell's 'Loyal National Repeal Association' was against it.
This led to tension within that organisation, and a 'split' developed - those that left included William Smith O'Brien (a Member of the British Parliament, Harrow-educated, with an accent to match!), Thomas Francis Meagher and John Mitchel, and a new group was established - 'The Young Irelanders'.
That new group's political position was outlined in their newspaper 'The United Irishman' : a call for immediate armed revolt against the British, and a 'War Council' was appointed, of which John Blake Dillon was a member.
Try as they might, John Blake Dillon and 'The Young Irelanders' were not successful in removing the British military and political presence from this country, but they succeeded in keeping the flame alive.
Although he later renounced the views he had held earlier (ie towards his final years he condemned those who adhered to the views he had expressed earlier regarding armed revolt against the British) his good deeds deserve to be highlighted.
He died from cholera, at 52 years of age, in 1866, in Killiney, County Dublin, and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, in Dublin.
THE MONTH UNSPUN...
The stories that hit the headlines.
From Magill magazine, August 2002.
Cork beat Tipperary by 19 points in the Munster football final and then feared they might be stripped of the title on a technicality.
Cork brought on five substitutions and a blood sub, using 21 players - but the maximum number of players allowed to participate in a single game is 20.
Cork were not penalised, however, because they used only five 'normal' substitutions.
Earlier this year, Kildare were deducted a point they earned in a 'National Football League' draw with Sligo because they had used 21 players - the difference being that they had used six 'normal' subs, even though one of the six had originally been used as a 'blood' sub.
Confused?
The GAA's 'Games Administration Committee' wasn't ; it ruled that the penalty of forfeiture applies only when a team exceeds that number of 'normal' substitutions allowed...
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (16TH SEPTEMBER) 181 YEARS AGO : DEATH OF AN IRISH REVOLUTIONARY, POET AND POLITICAL THEORIST.
'Davis, Thomas Osborne (pictured), poet and politician, was born at Mallow (Cork), 14th October 1814.
From his very earliest years he was noted for his passionate love of Ireland.
In 1835 he graduated with distinction at the University of Dublin, mathematics and modern history being his favourite studies. In the debates of the College Historical Society he was distinguished more for talents and learning than for eloquence.
Although called to the Bar in his twenty-fourth year he afterwards evinced little taste for following up the profession of the law. He travelled on the Continent, and collected a good library...
In 1840 he contributed a series of articles on the state of Europe to the Dublin Morning Register — contending that a crisis was approaching in which Ireland would be able to obtain her legislative independence. He became an active member of the Repeal Association, where his ability and the sincerity of his character soon obtained for him an effective and influential position. At times he did not shrink from opposing O'Connell, for whom he had the greatest veneration.
In 1842, with a few other persons desirous of strengthening the spirit of nationality in Ireland, he started the Nation newspaper...' (from here.)
Thomas Osbourne Davis was a revolutionary Irish writer and was one of the leaders of the 'Young Ireland' movement.
He was well educated, having studied in Trinity College, from which institution he received an Arts Degree and, at 24 years young, he was 'called to the Irish Bar'.
In 1842, Thomas Davis and two of his colleagues, Charles Gavan Duffy and John Blake Dillon, were walking together in the Phoenix Park in Dublin discussing, among other issues, no doubt, the 'Hughes/Armagh Assizes' case, an infamous case of its day, and the manner in which it was being reported on.
The three politically like-minded men made a decision there and then to start their own (weekly) newspaper which would present the news in a manner which would not be slanted towards the Westminster point-of-view. 'The Nation' newspaper was born that day.
The first copies of the newspaper were printed from a premises in Trinity Street in Dublin but later moved to a more suitable location in D'Olier Street, before finding a permanent home in Middle Abbey Street, Dublin.
It was well received by Irish society, at home and abroad and, in 1900, it merged with 'The Irish Weekly Independent' -
'There has never been published in this, or any other country, a journal, which was imbued with higher ideals of nationality, which attracted such a brilliant band of writers in prose and verse, which inspired such widespread enthusiasm, or which exercised a greater influence over all classes of its readers, which after a time included every section of the community.
'The Nation' preached a nobler and more self-sacrificing Gospel of Nationality than Irishmen and women had been accustomed to hear for many years.
It sought, not only to disinfect the political life of the country, but to raise the whole standard of national self-respect based on the inalienable right of people to guard their own destinies ; to inculcate a sentiment of pride in Ireland and everything Irish - in our history, legends, language and literature ; in our music and in our art ; in our magnificent contributions to the culture and civilisation of other countries ; in our sacred ruins scattered throughout the land and in lonely islands off our coasts, silently preaching silent sermons on Irish sanctity, learning and foreign rapacity ; in our heroic struggle for freedom throughout the ages ; in the brilliant achievements of our soldiers on the continent of Europe and in America, where they helped the oppressed colonists to achieve their independence – and it strove to regenerate the motherland intellectually, spiritually, socially and nationally...' (From here)
On the 16th September, 1845 - 181 years ago on this date - Thomas Osborne Davis, at only 30 years of age, died in Dublin from scarlet fever, and is buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, in Dublin.
RIP Thomas Osborne Davis.
On the 13th September, 1921, the British Prime Minister, a Mr David Lloyd George, sent a telegram to Mr de Valera, the President of the Irish Republic (previously known as the President of Dáil Éireann ie the 32-County administration, not to be confused with the Leinster House grouping).
In his telegram, Mr George told Mr de Valera that any form of a peace conference could not proceed unless Ireland dropped its demand for complete and separate sovereignty from the United Kingdom.
On the 16th September (1921), Mr de Valera replied -
"Throughout the correspondence that has taken place you have defined your Government’s position. We have defined ours. If there is to be any result, the negotiators must meet without prejudice and untrammelled by any conditions whatsoever..."
18th September : Mr George replied, stating -
"My colleagues and I cannot meet them (the Irish delegates) as the representatives of a sovereign and independent State without disloyalty on our part to the Throne and Empire. I therefore must repeat that unless the second paragraph in your letter of the 12th is withdrawn conference between us is impossible..."
(Mr George, in stating that, was saying that Mr de Valera's stance made a conference impossible, effectively threatening to call the arrangements off and blame the Irish for it!)
19th September : Mr de Valera replied to that -
"We had no thought at any time of asking you to accept any conditions precedent to a Conference. If you seek to impose preliminary conditions, which we must regard as involving a surrender of our whole position, they (the Conference) cannot meet. Was your earlier letter intended to demand or intended to be a demand for a surrender on our part or an invitation to a Conference free on both sides?"
...to which Mr George replied, saying that since he could not enter into a conference on the basis of the correspondence to date that they should start over again -
"We therefore send you herewith a fresh invitation to a Conference in London on October 11th, where we can meet your delegates as spokesmen of the people whom you represent with a view to ascertaining how the association of Ireland with the community of nations known as the British Empire may best be reconciled with Irish national aspirations. Conference, not correspondence, is the most practical and hopeful way to an understanding..."
The next day Mr de Valera accepted the offer on the basis that "Our respective positions have been stated and understood", and 'negotiations' were to start on October 11th (1921).
All that 'back and forthing' only to sell out to the British at 2.15am, in No 10 Downing Street in London, on the 6th December 1921.
And paying for it ever since...
==========================
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.
Breifne O'Reilly, Private Secretary to the (State) Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen, stated -
"The Taoiseach asked the Maltese authorities whether there was anything else they could do to establish what happened to Desmond Boomer. There was no further advice nor assistance the Maltese authorities could offer."
The fact that the Taoiseach appeared not to be briefed with a list of pertinent questions and demands on behalf of grieving Irish citizens with well-founded concerns suggested the Boomer family's tragic loss was at the bottom of the government's Maltese priorities.
Indeed, O'Reilly's following paragraph seemed to confirm this to the Boomer family -
"With regard to your request that the Irish government seek an independent judicial inquiry," he wrote, "...the Minister considers that such a move would imply a lack of confidence in the report of the Maltese Board of Inquiry and that, as a serious implication of that nature would be likely to damage our relations with Malta, it would not be in Ireland's overall interest to accede to your request. He is sorry that there is no other appropriate action open to the Irish government..."
(MORE LATER.)
On the 16th September, 1922, a Mr 'Sir' Alfred William 'Andy' Cope, the British 'Assistant Under-Secretary for Ireland' (based in Dublin Castle) wrote to his political boss, a Mr 'Sir' Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, and told him that Collins' Crew in Ireland "are now going to take the gloves off" in regards to how they were trying to deal with the IRA.
Mr Cope was referring to the so-called 'Public Safety Bill' (aka 'Public Safety Act / Army (Emergency Powers) Resolution') which the Staters were due to implement on the 27th of that month.
This 'Bill' was a publicly-controversial 'emergency measure' to establish military courts with the power to impose the death penalty.
That Free State legislation directly led to the 'official' executions by the Staters of 81 IRA prisoners, by firing squad, between November 1922 and May 1923.
Incidentally, this particular piece of Free State 'law' was passed by Leinster House as a 'resolution' rather than a formal statute, in order to avoid requiring the signature of the English 'King', a Mr George V (!), which would have been politically embarrassing for the 'freedom to achieve freedomers'.
Also incidentally - this month, September 2026, the current crop of Free Staters in Leinster House passed a new 'law' to do with e-scooters but, before they could do so, they had to have that new law approved by the 'European Commission' in Brussels first.
Pathetic - Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...
==========================
"Give ye typewriter and your index finger a rest for a few weeks, because the harvest being generally late in my Brigade, the crop of Intelligent Officers is not yet mature and the harvesters are few..."
- Volunteer Humphrey Murphy (pictured, Officer Commanding, Kerry No. 1 Brigade IRA), on the 16th September, 1922.
Volunteer Murphy was replying to written orders from the IRA Divisional Headquarters and the leadership in Dublin demanding that the local Kerry units organise more systematic, bureaucratic structures and also launch more frequent, coordinated attacks against Free State forces.
It was his way of telling them, biblically, to 'back off', that the paperwork would have to suffer if he and his men were to concentrate instead on fighting a war and navigating local military realities : 'The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few...' - Matthew 9:37 !
==========================
In and around mid-1922, the Stormont administration in the Six Occupied Counties (backed by its parent in Westminster) introduced widespread internment of Irish republican activists ; they 'let loose the dogs of war' - the 'Special Constabulary', the RUC and the British Army were instructed to round-up and intern the rebels and their supporters.
Among those targeted were hundreds of IRA Volunteers attached to the 2nd and 3rd Northern Divisions (primarily Belfast, Antrim, and Down) who, like lesser-active individuals and groups, left their homes and workplaces to (reluctantly) seek sanctuary in the new Free State.
Mr Michael Collins and his fellow Staters (recognising an opportunity to hopefully neutralise hundreds of IRA Volunteers?) let it be known that he and his colleagues in the FSGHQ in Dublin were offering a 'Safe Haven' to those Volunteers, the leadership of whom (including Volunteer Seamus Woods, the Officer Commanding of the 3rd Northern Division IRA) came to an agreement with ex-Volunteer Collins.
The offered sanctuary - the Curragh Camp - was offered to and accepted by the IRA as a venue where they would be housed, fed and actually paid a wage, and would not be expected, coerced or forced to take sides in the IRA V Free State Army war, or join the Stater Army, or prevented from continuing their military training and exercises.
By August/September 1922, there were between 380 and 525 Northern IRA men stationed at the Curragh.
Then, on the 22nd August (1922), Mr Michael Collins, the primary architect, protector and enforcer of the 'Safe Havens/Northern Policy' offerings(/ploy?) was shot dead by the IRA during an ambush at Béal na Bláth in the county of Cork.
On the 16th September (1922), a Mr Diarmuid O’Hegarty (pictured), the 'Director of Organisation' of the Stater Army, wrote to one of his political/military bosses, a Mr Richard Mulcahy (Free State 'Minister for Defence' and, later, 'Commander-in-Chief' of the FSA) saying that he is awaiting a decision from Leinster House as to whether the Northern Volunteers in the Curragh should be asked to decide either to join the Stater Army or go back to their homes in the under-siege Occupied Six Counties!
On the 21st September, Volunteer Seamus Woods wrote to Stater Mr Richard Mulcahy stating that he and his leadership comrades had detected a marked change in the attitude of some FSGHQ staff since the death of Mr Collins and that they, the Stater Command in the Curragh, seemed to be revising their offered sanctuary policy ; it was known then that demoralisation was setting in with ex-IRA Volunteers in the Occupied Six Counties who had (temporarily) discontinued their service with the Movement in the hope/belief that the Staters would 'unofficially' organise a fight back against partition.
On the 29th September, Volunteer Woods wrote again to Mr Mulcahy, highlighting the now-obvious shift in Leinster House policy re the North, stating "that the breaking up of this organisation (IRA) is the first step in making partition permanent...".
The new 'join us-or-go-home' policy didn't go down well with the Volunteers in the Curragh Camp, who felt abandoned by and disgusted with the Staters and had no heart in fighting with them against their old comrades in the IRA, more concerned, as they were, and rightly so, with returning home to defend their families and communities in the Six Counties.
The Curragh Volunteers fractured and split - about 245 of the fighters joined the Stater Army simply because they had no homes left to safely return to in the North without facing immediate British/RUC internment, with hundreds more refusing to take up arms against fellow republicans - they attempted to return home or faded into civilian life in the Free State.
By December 1922, the Free State Army GHQ issued an order that "..the 1st and 2nd Northern Divisions be stood down entirely...", effectively ending the 'relationship' between the Staters and the remaining Northern republican structures.
Another win delivered to Westminster by the Staters...
==========================
On the 16th September, 1922, 'The Dundalk Democrat' newspaper reported on a FSA soldier, a Mr Patrick McBreen, who had been shot during an IRA ambush on Church Street, Dundalk, on the 15th.
Mr McBreen died later on the date of the shooting.
Mr McBreen, a farm labourer from the townland of Corravilla, near Shercock, in the county of Cavan, had joined the FSA that same year.
He was 20 years of age.
==========================
"The peace of Belfast does not apparently meet with favour in some quarters, as, after a good period of welcome orderliness, some persons of the hooligan type have been doing their best to revive the awful deeds which disgraced the city several months ago..."
- 'The Belfast Telegraph' newspaper, 16th September 1922, condemning those in the city who defended themselves from previous attacks by 'official' and unofficial anti-Irish military and paramilitary forces.
The real "hooligan type" has been committing "awful deeds" throughout the world, in about 57 distinct major territories, colonies, dominions, and protectorates, claiming governance over a total population of around 458 million people.
'And you dare to call me a terrorist...'
==========================
On the 16th September, 1922, a commercial trader horse-drawn convoy ('supply train') of 15 carts, carrying several tons of different foodstuffs, was making its way from Killarney to Tralee, in the county of Kerry.
Trucks couldn't carry the load because the IRA had closed roads and trains were of no use because train tracks had been disabled ; but horse and carts could transport the goods, on and off road.
As the convoy was passing through a narrow gap in Brennan's Glen, between Farranfore and Killarney, armed IRA Volunteers commandeered the load for use by its own Volunteers and those transporting it were sent on their way, on foot.
The media labeled these confiscations as 'The Flour Wars' ; the IRA objective, as well as actually feeding its own fighters, was to disrupt local commerce and undermine public confidence in the newly formed Free State administration.
Incidentally, at that same ambush point in Brennan's Glen, on the 27th of that month, a heavily armed Free State military convoy was ambushed by the IRA and, during what is described as "a fierce gun battle", two Stater Officers, a Mr Daniel Hannon and a Mr John Martin, were killed.
The IRA had no casualties, and returned safely to base after the operation.
========================
ON THIS DATE (16TH SEPTEMBER) 106 YEARS AGO : 'OH WHAT A TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE..'
'16th September 1920 : British double agent John Henry Gooding aka F. Digby Hardy (pictured) offers to betray his superior, Basil Thomson, to the IRA.
It is unknown if the offer was genuine or part of a trap for Michael Collins ; exposed by Irish press as an ex-convict, forger and bigamist, 'Gooding' admits his past and scores a propaganda victory for the IRA ; he is allowed to flee Ireland unharmed and dies of natural causes in 1930...'
'John Henry Gooding, alias Frank Digby Hardy was an English naval writer, journalist, soldier, career criminal and would-be spy during the Irish War of Independence. Born in Devonport, Plymouth to a middle-class family, he was educated in London before gaining notoriety in his native Devon as a bigamist and a cheque forger.
Imprisoned numerous times throughout his life, he was enlisted by British intelligence to capture Irish Republican Army leader Michael Collins in 1920...his enlistment into the British intelligence services came at a time when membership of the organisation was low and a recruitment drive had been initiated by its leadership for the purposes of action in Ireland during the Irish War of Independence...'
'A convicted forger serving a 5 year sentence in a London prison, one F. Digby Hardy, offered his services as a spy.
Hardy was to travel to Ireland and establish contact with the 'Irish Intelligence Service' ('IIS', the Irish Republican Intelligence agency).
Hardy's letter, however, had been intercepted and transmitted to IIS Headquarters, where Irish operatives began to amass a dossier of incriminating information concerning Hardy's past. Collins actually got a copy of the letter Gooding wrote offering his services.
Collins permitted Hardy to make contact with the IIS, and shortly there after arranged what Hardy had been led to believe was a conference with IIS officers. Those present were in fact American and British journalists anticipating the scoop that Hardy was shortly to provide.
During this meeting the leaders of the IIS confronted Hardy with his criminal past, and his mission to penetrate the IIS. When Hardy learned the true identity and purpose of his host, he made a full confession, hoping thereby to obtain leniency from his inquisitors.
Because of Hardy's cooperation, the IIS spared his life and gave him until the next morning to be out of Ireland. The story made international news headlines, and the BIS suffered a humiliating reversal before world opinion...'
The paragraphs above were taken from various sources as, indeed, was the subject matter - a hired mercenary, spawned, like all mercenaries, from a half-successful coupling between a couple, one of whom - or both - lacked the moral fibre to do it right.
Your manifest perfections never cease
To drive the day-long terrors out of mind
They are the lights the darkness hides behind
Allowing satisfaction its increase
Beyond the petty boundaries designed
To keep us well aware the world's unkind
And still your eyes proclaim a reign of peace... (from here.)
John Henry Gooding, alias Frank Digby Hardy, infected this world from the 5th April, 1868, until the 28th October 1930. He was 52 years of age when he died. From natural causes.
He did well to make it that long.
Thanks for poppin' in, and for reading - ya know where to find us for our next posting...
...but that won't be until around mid-October 2026, as meself and the Girl Gang are wintering in the Algarve, Morocco and the Canaries (we're off on our holliers to sunny, dry and warm climes with a beach within stumbling distance of our villa and shopping centres, bars and restaurants to help keep us amused!) ...but I'll still be voicing me opinion on 'X' and 'Facebook' as well, if yer looking for me!
Sharon and the team.
Slán go fóill anois!
Hasta pronto ; ¡Adiós por ahora!
ROADS AND FULL STOPS...
1920's - a commercial trader horse-drawn convoy ('supply train') of over one dozen carts, carrying several tons of different foodstuffs, was making its way from one country town to another.
Trucks couldn't carry the load because the IRA had closed roads, and trains were of no use because train tracks had been disabled ; but horse and carts could transport the goods, on and off road.
But others, too, could operate on and off those roads...
That is one of about 18 pieces we'll be writing about on this blog on Wednesday, 16th September 2026.
And here's another one -
1860's, Ireland - those involved with the new newspaper were known to the British as being 'Irish dissidents', all of whom were on a British 'Watch List'.
The newspaper, operating from within the shadows of Dublin Castle, prospered and, as expected, was considered to be "a seditious publication" by the British 'authorities' so much so that they raided the newspaper office and closed it down...
Thanks for the visit - give us a shout back on Wednesday, 16th September, 2026, and ya can read all about it...if we're not closed down before then...!
Sharon and the team.
On the 2nd September, 1919, three RIC members - a 'Sergeant' Philip Brady ('Service Number 54833', aged 48, a Cavan man [Corcashel, Annagh Parish], married with six children [all under 11 years of age]) and two 'Constables', a Mr Foley and a Mr McCormack (both aged between 25 and 30, and both single men) left Lorrha Village Barracks, North Tipperary, at about 10.30pm, on (pushbike) patrol.
Mr Brady was armed with a revolver, and his two pals carried rifles.
Their patrol 'duties' took them as far as Carraig an Chomhraic (Carrigahorig) Crossroads, which they arrived safely at, at about 11.30pm.
On their way back to their base, as they were passing Trenchs Gate, not far from Lorrha, three shots were fired at them from an IRA ASU and Mr Brady fell to the ground, Mr Foley was wounded, dropped his rifle and legged it.
The third RIC member, Mr McCormack, ran over to see if he could assist his colleague, Mr Brady but, on reaching him, found that he was dead.
Mr McCormack called out for his other colleague, Mr Foley, to help him, but got no reply.
RIC member Mr Philip Brady, one of eleven children and himself the father of six, is buried in Redhills Cemetery, in the county of Cavan.
The IRA ASU, including Intelligence and Logistics, is said to have consisted of Volunteers John Madden, Michael Hogan, John Gilligan, James Carroll, Felix Cronin, Jack and Michael Joyce, Tim Haugh, William Bouchier and Martin Needham.
The RIC member who 'escaped' (!), Mr Foley, returned to the scene with reinforcements at about 6am on the morning of the 3rd...
==========================
FAILING THE CHILDREN...
In every county in Ireland, children must put up with woefully inadequate school buildings.
The government says it is doing its best to improve the situation, but parents and teachers complain that the State's attitude is bureaucratic, secretive and uncaring.
Niall Stanage investigates.
From 'Magill Magazine', March 2002.
In mid-February, Dr Michael Woods TD told the Dail (sic) that "no one has ever matched the performance of this government in meeting the needs of schools for modern state-of-the-art buildings and facilities...".
There are parents, children and teachers in every county in Ireland who would disagree.
They know their school buildings are inadequate, they know education suffers in bad conditions and they feel frustrated when State bodies respond to their requests for improvements with indifference, delay and obfuscation.
Many people believe that primary schools fare worst of all ; in November 2001, the main primary teachers union, the 'Irish National Teachers Organisation' (INTO), published a list of 73 schools it claimed were substandard...
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (2ND SEPTEMBER) 84 YEARS AGO : "IF FROM THE PATH YOU CHANCE TO STRAY...
Tom Williams, pictured (Tomás Mac Uilliam) ; born 12th May, 1923, murdered by Westminster at 19 years young - he was hanged in Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast on Wednesday 2nd September 1942 - 84 years ago on this date.
The executioner was the 'official' English hangman, Thomas Pierrepoint, who was assisted by his nephew, Albert Pierrepoint.
...KEEP IN MEMORY OF THAT MORN, WHEN IRELAND'S CROSS WAS PROUDLY BORNE.." 
"I met the bravest of the brave this morning. Tom Williams walked to that scaffold without a tremor in his body. The only people who were shaking were us and the hangman. I've one other thing to say to you. Don't pray for Tom Williams, pray to him, for at this moment Tom is a saint in heaven..."
- Father Alexis, from the Holy Cross Monastery in Ardoyne, North Belfast.
Tom Williams, 12th May 1924 – 2nd September 1942.
"Williams was one of six IRA volunteers sentenced to death by hanging in 1942. A group of eight, including two women, had mounted a diversionary operation to take away attention from three republican parades held in Belfast to celebrate the 1916 Easter Rising.
All such parades had been banned under the Stormont regime since the partition of Ireland and the introduction of the 'Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act' of 1922.
A police (RUC) patrol managed to capture the group but not before an exchange of shots which resulted in the death of RUC constable Patrick Murphy.
Although only 18 years old, Tom Williams was in charge of the unit and in a controversial statement to the police he assumed full responsibility for the shooting. Following a remarkable international reprieve campaign, the colonial Governor of Northern Ireland commuted five of the six death sentences to terms of penal servitude. But the British had decided that Tom Williams should hang..."
'Time goes by as years roll onwardsBut in my memory fresh I'll keepOf a night in Belfast PrisonUnshamefully I saw men weep
For the time was fast approachingA lad lay sentenced for to dieAnd on the second of SeptemberHe goes to meet his god on high
Now he's walking to the scaffoldHead erect he shows no fearFor on his proud and gallant shouldersIreland's cross he holds so dear
Now the cruel blow has fallenFor Ireland he has fought and diedAnd we the countrymen who bore himWill love and honour him with pride
Brave Tom Williams we salute youAnd we never will forgetThose who planned your brutal murderWe vow to make them all regret
So come all you Irish rebelsIf from the path you chance to strayBear in memory of the morn,when Irelands cross was proudly borneBy a lad who lay within these prison walls.'
For Tom, and all the other brave men and women.
On the 2nd September, 1920, newspapers in Kildare reported on a meeting of Kildare County Council which had been held the previous day.
At that meeting, which had been presided over by the Vice Chairman, a Mr Éamon O'Modhráin, a resolution was unanimously passed calling on the Magistrates of County Kildare to resign their 'Commissions of the Peace' immediately.
Another proper resolution which was unanimously passed was an instruction that only trade union labour would be employed by the County Council in all future endeavours.
Incidentally, just over one week later, 'The Kildare Observer' newspaper reported that six magistrates had recently resigned from their positions...
==========================
At the same time as the people in Kildare, Ireland, were reading about those passed resolutions, about 540 kilometers (335 miles) away, across a body of water known as the Irish Sea, in Westminster, in London, England, British 'Top Table' political players were holding a meeting.
At that meeting, a Mr James Craig (pictured, the British ex-'Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions' and the then current 'Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty') sought to advise one of his bosses, a Mr Andrew Bonar Law (the then 'Lord Privy Seal' [!] and 'Leader of the [so-called] House of Commons' in the coalition administration headed by a Mr David Lloyd George ; are yis all still with me, yeah...?!) that Ireland needed "a special constabulary of full-time and part-time men, to quell disturbances..".
Mr Craig stated -
"...a reserve of Special Constabulary should be raised from the loyal population which would only be called out for duty in case of emergency. The organisation of the UVF should be used for this purpose (and we should) establish a 2,000 strong full-time force (as well).
Loyalists were losing faith in the government's determination to protect them and were threatening an immediate recourse to arms, which would participate a civil war..."
Mr Craig also wanted the appointment (really an imposition) of a political 'Under-Secretary' in Belfast to ensure that the Occupied Six Counties would no longer be 'governed' from the British Office in Dublin Castle.
The two other British cabinet members present at that meeting, a Mr ('Lord') Arthur James Balfour and a Mr Richard Horne ('President of the Board of Trade') voiced support for Mr Craig's proposals, as did Mr Andrew Bonar Law, who wrote to his boss, Mr David Lloyd George, stating -
"...unless the British government acted promptly there was a danger of Orangemen getting completely out of hand and something like a general massacre happening in Belfast..."
And so it came to pass that the 'A, B and C Specials' were legislated for by the British on the 9th September and actual recruitment began on the 22nd October, 1920.
A Specials : Full-time, fully paid members who worked alongside the regular RIC.
B Specials : Part-time, paid (initially part-time/unpaid in some early structures) local members who dressed in uniform and carried out routine local patrols.
C Specials : Part-time, unpaid reservists kept as a back-up for mobilisation strictly during 'emergencies' or guard duties.
Those recruited for all three groupings were 'officially' enrolled on the 1st November 1920, and further mayhem ensued...
(...few more words below about this calamity...)
==========================
As those at that 'Top Table' in Westminster were having a discussion about forming and unleashing a murder-gang on the Irish in Ireland, up to one dozen rebel Volunteers were settling-in at an ambush site they had established in the townland of Cromghlinn (Cromlin/Crimlin), in Oughteragh, near the town of Ballinamore, in the county of Leitrim.
The Volunteers were attached to the South Leitrim Brigade (Aughnasheelin Company and/or the Ballinamore Company of the 3rd Battalion) and would have included Volunteers Seán Mitchell (from Drumreilly [Leitrim/Cavan border], the Brigadier/Officer Commanding of the South Leitrim Brigade), Charles 'Charlie Eddie' McGoohan (from Aghoo, Ballinamore, in the county of Leitrim), Séamus Wrynn (of Tarmon, Ballinamore, who was involved politically as well as militarily), Michael Martin (of Ballinamore) and Thomas O'Reilly (of Aughnasheelin), a brilliant rebel strategist.
However, one of the Volunteers opened fire too early, and the RIC patrol legged it : there were no casualties on either side.
==========================
ON THIS DATE (2ND SEPTEMBER) 217 YEARS AGO : EXECUTED BY THE BRITISH FOR BEING "FOUND IN ARMS" IN DUBLIN.
'Thomas Maxwell Roche, an old man, about sixty years of age, and by trade a slater, was the next brought to trial, September 1. The evidence afforded nothing new, or materially differing from that adduced on the trial of Kearney ; like him, Roche was found in arms in Thomas street, by Lieutenant Brady, and the party of the 21st regiment under his command.
Some time before this hoary malefactor left the gaol for execution, he persisted in declaring he was not guilty, but it appeared equivocation ; for on being exhorted in a most becoming manner, by a reverend gentleman present, not to be dissembling in the presence of the Supreme Being, adding to his crime, he at length declared at the place of execution, that he was guilty of the crime for which he suffered.
From a discharge which he produced as to his character, it appeared that he also, in his life time, had been addicted to inebriety, that demon of destruction to the lower class. He suffered also in Thomas-street...' (from here.)
Owen Kirwan, hanged in Thomas Street, Dublin, September 1.
Maxwell Roach, hanged in Thomas Street, Dublin, September 2.
Denis Lambert Redmond, hanged at Coal Quay (now Wood Quay), Dublin, September 8.
John Killeen, hanged in Thomas Street, Dublin, September 10.
John McCann, hanged in Thomas Street, Dublin, September 10.
Felix Rourke, hanged outside his own home, Rathcoole, September 10.
Thomas Keenan, hanged in Thomas Street, Dublin, September 11.
John Hayes, hanged in Thomas Street, Dublin, September 17.
Michael Kelly, hanged in Thomas Street, Dublin, September 17.
James Byrne, hanged in Thomas Street, Dublin, September 17.
John Begg, hanged in Thomas Street, Dublin, September 17.
Thomas Donnelly, hanged at Palmerstown, Dublin, September 17.
Nicholas Tyrrell, hanged at Palmerstown, Dublin, September 17.
Robert Emmet, hanged in Thomas Street, Dublin, September 20.
Henry Howley, hanged at Kilmainham Jail, Dublin, September 28.
John McIntosh, hanged in Patrick Street, Dublin, October 3.
Thomas Russell, hanged at Downpatrick, Co. Down, October 21.
James Corry, hanged at Downpatrick, Co. Down, October 22.
James Drake, hanged at Downpatrick, Co. Down, October 22.
Andrew Hunter, hanged at Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim, October 26.
David Porter, hanged at Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim, October 26.
Tradesmen were prominent in Robert Emmet's movement in Dublin -
Edward Kearney, John Killeen, Thomas Keenan, John Hayes, Michael Kelly, Henry Howley and John McIntosh were carpenters; Owen Kirwan and John Begg were tailors ; Thomas Donnelly and Nicholas Tyrrell were factory workers ; Maxwell Roach was a slater ; Denis Lambert Redmond was a coal factor ; John McCann was a shoemaker ; Felix Rourke was a farm labourer and James Byrne was a baker.
it was not only college-educated men and women like Robert Emmet (ie those who might be perceived as being 'upper class') who decided to challenge Westminster's interference in Irish affairs in 1803 : so-called 'working class' men and women also acknowledged the need for such resistance.
And the same can be said for today.
THE MONTH UNSPUN...
The stories that hit the headlines.
From Magill magazine, August 2002.
No more cuts are expected in the immediate future, as the cabinet has now broken for the summer holidays.
Government officials have justified the timing of the announcements by saying that the cuts need a five-month lead-in before they have an effect on this year's figures.
The opposition (sic) denounced the cuts as a "complete betrayal" of pre-election promises, but have been denied their opportunity for instant political exploitation by the summer break.
Given Charlie McCreevy's recent announcements on the state of the Exchequer, however, there may well be more cuts to come when the cabinet meets again in the autumn ; one wonders, though, just how much the government is regretting those SSIA's now...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 2nd September, 1921, the Bishop of Down and Connor, a Dr Joseph MacRory (pictured, who fiercely opposed the implementation of the 'Government of Ireland Act 1920' ie partition), wrote to 'The American Committee for Relief in Ireland' (ACRI) telling them, in a nutshell, that the political situation in Ireland was going from bad to worst.
The 'ACRI' was founded on the 16th December, 1920, and altogether raised about $5 million in the United States to help Irish civilians who suffered injury, property destruction, or severe hardship due to British military and political interference in Ireland.
As Dr MacRory was placing the stamp on his letter, delegations of concerned citizens from Belfast were in Dublin, as arranged, to have meetings with the politicians in the Republican Dáil, to stress the importance of not abandoning them to Westminster.
However, on the 6th December that same year (1921), the Staters did just that.
Within months, the 'ACRI' had wound down its primary fundraising and direct relief operations, and its Ireland-based local distribution network, the 'Irish White Cross' (managed by Quaker businessman James Green Douglas, a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher), had scaled down its operations and officially closed its books in 1928.
The Staters were then the only source of funds to repair the damage they had caused.
==========================
On the 30th July, 1921, when he held the position of Minister for Defence in the Republican Dáil (a post he occupied from 1919 to 1922, and he also served as a Teachta Dála [TD] for Waterford), Volunteer Cathal Brugha (pictured) wrote to Mr Éamon de Valera, the President of the Irish Republic.
In his letter, the rebel Volunteer was fiercely critical of any notion that the rebels should enter so-called 'peace talks' with the British, or negotiations to do with a truce, especially so to do that "in the house of the enemy".
On the 2nd September (1921), the Deputy Chief of Staff, Richard Mulcahy (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher),
replied, in the Dáil, to Volunteer Brugha's letter...or, rather, referenced it.
Mr Mulcahy concentrated on what he considered the 'tone' of the letter rather than its substance -
"...unless something could be done to eliminate the tendency to revert to this tone when differences arise then I could not be responsible for maintaining harmony and discipline..."
Obviously, not satisfied with the 'answer', Volunteer (and Minister for Defence) Brugha wrote directly to Mr Mulcahy, on the 6th September (some of our sources give that date as the 12th), raising an issue regarding a Mr James 'Robbie' Robinson (a businessman connected to the 'Yost Typewriter' company) who had been wrongfully deported, insisting on a reply within 24 hours and, when no reply was forthcoming, followed up on that issue by informing Mr Mulcahy that this was a 'suspension-level' infringement and, shortly afterwards, the Volunteer told Mr Mulcahy that his services were no longer required!
Mr Mulcahy told Mr de Valera what had happened and insisted that he "...estimate and adjust the situation without delay..", which he did - he reinstated Mr Mulcahy.
Birds of a future Free State feather sticking together...
==========================
On the same day that Mr Mulcahy spoke around the issue at hand, a British Army soldier, attached to the 'Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry(2nd Battalion?)', a Mr Jack Radford ('Service Number 5430047'), 'died from wounds received in an accidental shooting in Kilbride Camp in Wicklow', and an RAF member, attached to '100 Squadron', a Mr Harold Stanley Roadknight ('Service Number 158321') went up to the clouds (!) for a test flight over Celbridge, in the county of Kildare, in a Bristol F.2b Fighter (pictured, serial number J6725) with pilot Francis Frederick Tattam in the cockpit.
The two of them flew to 1500 feet and then purposely put the aircraft into a spin, from which he successfully recovered at 150 feet.
It is believed that, after taking the aircraft out of the spin, Mr Tattam passed out, the aircraft crash landed and Mr Roadknight died in the crash.
The pilot, Mr Tattam, was injured but survived the incident.
The poor aircraft was completely destroyed...
==========================
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.
Cormac Boomer stated -
"My experience has lead me to the conclusion that the Maltese authorities will continue to ignore the lonely voices of the bereaved until such times as my own government, the British government and the European Parliament support our demand for truth and accountability, based on international standards."
He says that his family's struggle for Maltese accountability has been carried on in profound isolation, with virtually no official support.
Correspondence and discussions with the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, while cordial, have served only to compound his sense of having to struggle alone.
The last letter he received, dated 31st January 2001, signed by Breifne O'Reilly, Private Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen, is an example ; Breifne O'Reilly informed Cormac Boomer that the Taoiseach had raised the matter of his missing son during a visit to Malta earlier that month...
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (2ND SEPTEMBER) 106 YEARS AGO : 'SPECIAL (LOYALIST) CONSTABULARY' FIRST MOOTED.
At a meeting in London on the 2nd September 1920 - 106 years ago on this date - the then 'Prime Minster' of Stormont, 'Sir' James Craig ("All I boast is that we are a Protestant Parliament and Protestant State...") demanded that a force of 'Special Constabulary' be established for 'Ulster' and, six days later - on the 8th September - Westminster agreed that a force of "loyal citizens" were needed, and insisted that the then pro-British paramilitary gang known as the 'Ulster Volunteer Force' should be made 'official' and employed as such.
And, with a simple name change and the provision of a British uniform, a new State-sponsored paramilitary gang, the A,B and C Specials, was spawned.
The 'A' grouping (about 3,500 of them in total) were full-time operatives who lived in the local RIC barracks and were used as re-inforcements for the RIC, and were armed and on a wage. Essentially, their presence allowed more 'police officers' free to leave their desks and assist their British colleagues in cracking nationalist skulls.
The 'B' outfit (numbering 16,000 approximately) were armed but part-time and on 'expenses' only, and were usually to be found on street patrol and operating checkpoints and the 'C' grouping (about 1,000) were a reserve force with no specific duty as such but were 'on call' as an armed militia.
Nationalists knew the danger of such a move for them - the UVF/Specials were not by any means 'neutral' in the conflict.
The then 'Daily News' newspaper stated, re the establishment of the 'Specials' -
'The official proposal to arm "well-disposed" citizens to "assist the authorities" in Belfast raised serious questions of the sanity of the government. It seems the most outrageous thing which they have ever done in Ireland.
A citizen of Belfast who is "well-disposed" to the British government is, almost from the nature of the case, an Orangeman, or at any rate, a vehement anti-Sinn Feiner. These are the very same people who have been looting Catholic shops and driving thousands of Catholic women and children from their homes...'
But all words of opposition, or even caution, were ignored.
The officer class in the 'Specials' were hired if they passed a civil service examination and were mostly upper and middle-class protestants with a moral connection to their 'mainland' (England) whereas the rank-and-file consisted of the thugs that once populated any anti-Irish paramilitary gang that would have them.
The latter were not allowed 'serve' in their own county or the county of a family member and were relocated on a fairly regular basis, living in the local barracks and single men were not allowed to leave on the same at night to socialise.
'Specials' who wanted to get married could only do so after they had been with the paramilitary grouping for seven years or more and even then only if their girlfriend was deemed 'suitable' by the officer class, a 'test' which included the nature of her job before and after the marriage. Any such 'Special' family were under orders not to take in lodgers, not to sell produce locally (ie eggs, vegetables etc) and the husband was not entitled to days off (no 'rest days' or annual holidays) and was not permitted to vote in elections!
After Westminster forcibly partitioned Ireland in 1921 the British wanted control over the new 'State' to be exercised by their own kind (as opposed to 'Paddies in British uniforms') and, in late 1925, they felt confident enough to declare that the 'Specials' should be wound-up and a kitty containing £1,200,000 was put on the table to secure their disbandment : their main man in that part of Ireland, 'Sir' James Craig - up to then a great friend and supporter of the Specials - was jobbed to pass on the bad news : on 10th December 1925, Craig told the 'A' and 'C' Specials that they were out of work (the 'B' outfit were to be kept on) and offered each man two months pay.
End of announcement - at least as far as Craig and Westminster were concerned, but the 'A' and 'C' Specials were not happy with the "disband" order and discontent in the ranks grew.
The 'A' and 'C' Specials held meetings between themselves and, on 14th December 1925, they mutinied!
'A' and 'C' members in Derry 'arrested' their own Officers, as they did in Ballycastle - two days later (ie on 16th December 1925) a demand from the 'A' and 'C' 'rebels' was handed over to 'Sir' Richard Dawson Bates, the Stormont 'Minister for Home Affairs', a solicitor by trade, who was also Secretary of the 'Ulster Unionist Council', a position he had held since 1905.
He was not impressed with their conduct.
The 'A' and 'C' Specials were looking for more money ; they demanded a £200 tax-free 'bonus' for each member that was to be made redundant.
Two days later (ie on 18th December 1925) 'Sir' Bates replied to the Special 'rebels' that not only would they not be getting the £200 'bonus' but if they didn't back down immediately they would loose whatever few bob they were entitled to for being made redundant and, on 19th December 1925, the 'rebels' all but apologised to Bates, released their hostages and signed on for the dole - the 'hard men' of the 'Specials' had been put in their place by a bigger thug than they were!
By Christmas Day, 1925, the 'A' and 'C' Sections of the 'Ulster (sic) Special Constabulary Association (the 'Specials')' were disbanded.
It was only in 1970 that the 'B' Special gang of thugs 'disbanded' (ie changed uniform into that of the 'Ulster Defence Regiment' (UDR) and carried-on with their mis-deeds). It was actually in September 1969 that the British 'Cameron Commission' described the 'B' Specials as "a partisan and paramilitary force..." while the October 1969 'Hunt Report' recommended that the 'B' Specials be disbanded.
Since then, the RUC, formed in 1922, have been amalgamated into the 'PSNI' but, even though the uniforms changed, the objective didn't - the preservation of British rule in Ireland.
On the 2nd September, 1922, a 'Sir' Alfred William Cope (pictured) reported to his cabinet in Westminster that they had helped to secure the position of the Free Staters in Ireland by supplying them with 27,400 rifles, 6,066 revolvers, 246 Lewis guns and five Vickers guns to use against Irish republicans.
Mr Cope, a senior British 'civil servant' stationed in Dublin Castle, served the British administration as the 'Under Secretary for Ireland', and also operated as the 'secret intermediary' between the British government and Mr Michael Collins and his people during the negotiations surrounding the 'Treaty of Surrender'.
In a connected/coincidental development on that same day, Mr William O'Brien and Mr Tom Johnson of the Irish Labour Party let it be known that two Free State leaders, a Mr William Thomas Cosgrave ('Chairman of the Provisional Government') and a Mr Richard Mulcahy ('Minister for Defence' and 'Commander-in-Chief' of the Stater Army) had informed them that, if the IRA forces disbanded, they would be allowed (!) to keep their weapons "and the government would not molest them."
The IRA refused the offer.
When this proposal was raised later in the Leinster House assembly, the two State leaders and, indeed, the Free State assembly itself, denied that that offer/proposal was ever made in the first place!
'Oh what a tangled web we weave when we continue to deceive...'
==========================
On the same day that the Staters once again 'crowed three times', a British military report came to light, in which their intelligence department stated "...that several republicans have been murdered under extremely revolting circumstances (by 'CID' Oriel House), probably as a reprisal for (the killing of) Collins..."
No "probably" about it : between August 1922 and October 1923, at least 25 to 30 republican activists (and civilians) were killed in Dublin under circumstances widely attributed to the 'Oriel House Gang' '(CID') or closely aligned Free State intelligence units, all following a specific blueprint : individuals targeted, abducted from their homes or off Dublin streets by armed men in plain clothes, driven to the city's outskirts, summarily executed, and their bodies dumped.
Known victims included Harry Boland, 'the Clondalkin Quarry Killings' (Edwin Hughes, Joseph Rodgers, and Brendan Houlihan), Christopher Breslin, Joseph Kiernan, Bobby Bondfield (another Clondalkin, Dublin, link) Noel Lemass, Francis Lawlor, Martin Hogan, Paddy Egan, Thomas Whelan, Thomas Maguire, Joseph Bergin, Alfred Colley, Bernard Daly and Seán Cole*.
The two 'Top Men' in Oriel House (Pat Moynihan and Liam Tobin, both associated with the 'inner core' attached to Michael Collins) were republican-gamekeepers-turned-Free State-poachers and, ironically, Mr Tobin was later to lead a mutiny against his Free State superiors over ex-IRA fighters being sacked from the Stater Army in favour of still-employed ex-British soldiers!
Anyway - due to the sheer volume of extrajudicial executions and a public outcry over its terror tactics, the Free State administration officially disbanded the CID/Oriel House grouping in November 1923 ; many of its remaining personnel were either absorbed into another Free State grouping, the 'Dublin Metropolitan Police', or were quietly retired out of public view.
(* On the 7th September [1922], Seán Cole's mother wrote a letter to each member of the Free State administration -
"Had he fallen in combat I would freely have given his young life in the sacred Cause of the Republic, but he was taken out by this murder gang and shot like a dog because he was faithful to the Republic, and refused to be dragged into the British Empire...")
RIP to all those victims of Free Statism.
==========================
In the summer of 1922, Cork Volunteer James Gray and a team of mechanics and engineers acquired a heavy truck and decided, as best they could, to turn it into an armoured car.
Using improvised material (such as thick iron plates rather than the unobtainable standard armoured steel) it provided some protection from the Stater guns and had two mounted machine guns fitted to its chassis but - swings and roundabouts - the extra armoury meant extra weight (it got 'bogged down' on off-road/soft surfaces) and that extra weight put extra pressure on the engine which made the vehicle unreliable.
It apparently proved more useful as a 'shield' than an armoured car and, after a few outings (on the 2nd September [1922], for instance, the 'River Lee', as the IRA named it, was used in an attack on Free State forces in Macroom, in the county of Cork) its machine guns were removed and used independently by an IRA column, the side, top, front and back plating was hidden in a river(under a certain known-to-us [!] bridge near a village in West Cork) and the chassis was concealed in a hidden IRA arms dump (...which we also know the location of but we're not tellin' ya!).
It should have been re-built in the mid-90's, when the other pretenders began arriving...
==========================
On the same day that the 'River Lee' was out and about in Macroom, about 85 miles (135 km) across the country on yer right, in the county of Waterford, an IRA ASU of about one dozen rebels were at their base in the townland of Kilrossanty, Cutteen, in the county of Waterford (near the Comeragh Mountains).
The rebel in command of the ASU, which was attached to the 2nd Battalion of the Waterford IRA, was Volunteer Thomas Keating (pictured) ; his younger brother, Pat, the Commandant of the Kilrossanty Company of the IRA, was shot and killed by the British during the Burgery Ambush on the 19th March, 1921.
Anyway - those Volunteers at their base in Kilrossanty had not posted sentries and the Stater army managed to surround, surprise and capture them, and another ASU from that same rebel battalion was also captured about a month afterwards in Waterford, near Kilmacthomas, greatly diminishing the 2nd Battalion as a fighting force.
(On the 11th April, 1923, as Volunteer Thomas Keating (30) was making a rare visit home to Kilrossanty to see his family, he was crossing a rural area known as Coolnasmear when Stater soldiers shot him dead. The entire household was deeply involved in the struggle ; his father, Michael, was a former Land League activist, his mother Margaret, provided logistical support to the rebels, his four sisters worked as Cumann na mBan dispatch-carriers and his brothers were active Volunteers.)
RIP to Volunteers Thomas and Pat Keating.
==========================
At the same time as the rebel ASU in Kilrossanty, Cutteen, in the county of Waterford, were taken prisoner by the Staters, the Chief of Staff of the IRA, Volunteer Liam Lynch (pictured), was re-organising the rebel command structure.
The Officer Commanding of the Western Command, Volunteer Seán Hyde, was appointed as the Director of Intelligence, Volunteer Michael Kilroy was placed in charge of the Western Command and Volunteer Patrick A.* Murray was promoted to 'Officer Commanding Britain' ; within months, Volunteer Murray had revitalised the organisation and developed good transport/smuggling networks.
(*The 'A' is apparently not a reference to a middle name - it is said to refer to 'A Company' of the Cork No. 1 Brigade, the specific unit within the rebel army which Volunteer Murray was affiliated with.)
==========================
ON THIS DATE (2ND SEPTEMBER) 162 YEARS AGO : BIRTH OF FUTURE IRISH PATRIOT ANNOUNCED IN DUBLIN.
Pictured - Roger Casement's body being re-interred (on Monday, 1st March 1965) in the Republican Plot in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, having been released by the British from Pentonville Prison in Islington, North London.
Ruairí Dáithí Mac Easmainn (Roger Casement) was born on the 1st September, 1864 - 162 years ago, on this date - in Sandycove, County Dublin, the son of Captain Roger Casement of the 3rd Dragoon Guards of the British Army and Anne Jephson from Mallow, County Cork, and his birth was publicly announced by his family on the 2nd September.
His mother had him secretly baptised in her own religion, Roman Catholic, but he was raised in the Protestant faith of his father.
As both his parents died young, Roger was taken in by an uncle, near Ballycastle, County Antrim, and educated as a boarder at the diocesan school in Ballymena.
From 1895 onwards he held consular appointments at various locations in Africa, including Boma in the Congo (1904) where, for the British Foreign Office, he investigated Belgian human rights abuses of the indigenous people.
Later, in Peru, he was commissioned to undertake a report on the reported abuse of workers in the rubber industry in the Putumayo basin, which earned him a knighthood after his findings were published as a parliamentary paper (1911).
He had been a member of the Gaelic League and became increasingly radicalised by the opposition of the Ulster unionists to Home Rule from 1912 onwards and wrote nationalist articles under the pseudonym 'Seán Bhean Bhocht'.
He rarely receives a mention when it comes to the writers and poets of 1916 ("Of unmatched skill to lead by pathways rife/With danger and dark doubt, where slander's knife/Gleamed ever bare to wound, yet over all/He pressed triumphant on-lo, thus to fall" - 'Parnell', by Roger Casement) yet his reports from the Putumayo and from the Congo show a writer of great talent.
His descriptions of the horrendous brutality inflicted on innocent and perfectly peaceful native inhabitants was enough to force a change of policy with regard to the treatment of workers and slaves on the rubber plantations. Casement wrote in 1911 that "..the robbery of Ireland since the Union has been so colossal, carried out on such a scale, that if the true account current between the two countries were ever submitted to any impartial tribunal, England would be clapped in jail..".
For his part in trying to stop that robbery he was convicted of treason by the British and sentenced to death after a three-day 'trial' (held at the Old Bailey in London between the 26th and the 29th of June 1916, where he was prosecuted by 'Sir' Edward Carson, the Orange Order bigot).
His speech from the dock is not as appreciated as it should be -
"With all respect I assert this Court is to me, an Irishman, not a jury of my peers to try me in this vital issue for it is patent to every man of conscience that I have a right, an indefeasible right, if tried at all, under this Statute of high treason, to be tried in Ireland, before an Irish Court and by an Irish jury.
This Court, this jury, the public opinion of this country, England, cannot but be prejudiced in varying degree against me, most of all in time of war. I did not land in England ; I landed in Ireland.
It was to Ireland I came ; to Ireland I wanted to come ; and the last place I desired to land in was England. But for the Attorney General of England there is only 'England' — there is no Ireland, there is only the law of England — no right of Ireland ; the liberty of Ireland and of the Irish is to be judged by the power of England.
Yet for me, the Irish outlaw, there is a land of Ireland, a right of Ireland, and a charter for all Irishmen to appeal to, in the last resort, a charter that even the very statutes of England itself cannot deprive us of — nay, more, a charter that Englishmen themselves assert as the fundamental bond of law that connects the two kingdoms.." (..more here).
I say that Roger Casement
did what he had to do.
He died upon the gallows,
but that is nothing new.
Afraid they might be beaten
before the bench of Time,
they turned a trick by forgery
and blackened his good name.
A perjurer stood ready
to prove their forgery true ;
they gave it out to all the world,
and that is something new.
For Spring Rice had to whisper it,
being their Ambassador,
and then the speakers got it
and writers by the score.
Come Tom and Dick, come all the troop
that cried it far and wide,
come from the forger and his desk,
desert the perjurer's side.
Come speak your bit in public
that some amends be made
to this most gallant gentleman
that is in quicklime laid. (From here.)
Roger Casement was sentenced to "death by rope" on the 29th June 1916 and was executed by the British on the 3rd of August that year in London, England.
God's curse on you, England...
ON THIS DATE (2ND SEPTEMBER) 170 YEARS AGO : BIRTH OF A FUTURE COLLABORATOR ANNOUNCED IN DUBLIN.
'Irish Volunteers split over Redmond’s recruitment plea. Founders of movement call for the establishment of a 'National Government' in Dublin.
25th September 1914.
Tensions within the Irish Volunteers have flared into open view with the announcement that all John Redmond’s nominees have been removed from the ruling committee. The announcement came in a statement by twenty members of the governing committee that is highly critical of John Redmond.
Issued by the founder of the Irish Volunteers, Prof. Eoin MacNeill, the statement condemns Mr. Redmond for his call on Irish Volunteers to join the British army.
It reads:
'Mr. Redmond, addressing a body of Irish Volunteers on last Sunday, has now announced for the Irish Volunteers a policy and programme fundamentally at variance with their own published and accepted aims and pledges. He has declared it to be the duty of the Irish Volunteers to take foreign service under a government which is not Irish.
He has made this announcement without consulting the Provisional Committee, the Volunteers themselves, or the people of Ireland, to whose service alone they are devoted...'
(The statement was laced with bitterness at the manner in which Mr. Redmond had assumed control over the Volunteers three months ago when it was a proven success, having initially opposed its establishment and operations...) (from here.)
John Redmond (pictured) was born on the 1st September, 1856, in Dublin and, from a position of power within nationalism in Ireland, he encouraged Irish people to join the British Army to "..account yourselves as men not only in Ireland itself, but wherever the firing line extends.." by which he meant that Irish people should shoulder weapons for British (and/or other foreign) objectives in the hope that Westminster would look favourably on the Irish for doing so!
At the time that Mr Redmond made his 'Join the British Army' call, the organisation that he was in the leadership of, the 'Irish Volunteers', was approximately 180,000 strong ; at least half of the 'IV' leadership were Redmond's people and, as he was also in the leadership of the 'Irish Parliamentary Party', his words carried weight within the political and media circles of the day.
However, thankfully, not everyone was smitten by the man ; the 'Irish Volunteers' split, with the majority unfortunately siding with Redmond, and calling themselves the'National Volunteers', but approximately 11,000 of the membership refused to join with him in his new organisation and, within a few short years, as the actual raison d'être of the 'National Volunteers' became even more unclear, it's power waned as, indeed, did Redmond himself - in early March, 1918, he underwent an operation to remove an intestinal blockage.
The operation was, at first, considered successful but directly or indirectly caused the man to suffer a heart attack, from which he died on the 6th March, 1918.
No doubt the British missed his input and support...
ON THIS DATE (OR WAS IT?) 274 YEARS AGO...
... the Gregorian calendar was adopted in Ireland and Britain 170 years after some other countries had done so (France in 1582, Austria in 1584, and Norway in 1700). This resulted in the 2nd of September 1752 being followed, 24 hours later, by the 14th September 1752!
In 1752, the British 'Empire' ordered the abolishment of the dates between the 2nd and the 14th of September for all colonies controlled by them.
This meant that the so-called 'British Isles', English colonies and America lost 11 days in September 1752.
The days in that September month began with the 1st and the 2nd but 11 days were skipped and the days continued with the 14th, 15th etc untill the 30th day.
This meant that from the 3rd to 13th of September 1752, nothing actually happened because there were no dates for anything to happen on (?!).
At the time, many people mistakenly believed that their lives would be shortened by 11 days and some were also unhappy and suspicious at the moving of saint's days and holy days, including the date of Easter etc.
But not everyone was unhappy about the new calendar ; according to W.M. Jamieson in his book, 'Murders Myths and Monuments of North Staffordshire', there is a tale about one William Willett of Endon.
Always keen on a joke, he apparently wagered that he could dance non-stop for 12 days and 12 nights. On the evening of September 2nd 1752, he started to jig around the village and continued all through the night.
The next morning, September 14th by the new calendar, he stopped dancing and claimed his bets!
We won't be doing a jig here in '1169 Towers', as we'll be busy putting together the next post, for Wednesday, 16th September.
Thanks for poppin' in through the time-warp continuum, and for reading - ya know where to find us for our next posting...
...which will be on Wednesday, 16th September, 2026 (...that's if there is a Wednesday, 16th September, 2026..!)
...and I'll still be voicing me opinion on 'X' and 'Facebook' as well, if yer looking for me!
Sharon and the team.
