THE B-SPECIALS ; 1920-1970 .......


.......the loyalist (pro-British) paramilitary gang , the 'Ulster Volunteer Force' (UVF) were attacking Nationalists and putting them out of their homes ; the loyalist political leader , James Craig , was concerned at the level of Republican resistance to British 'rule' and demanded that a " Special Constabulary " be established .......


At a meeting of the British Cabinet on 6th September , 1920 , James Craig got his wish ; a force of " well-disposed and loyal citizens " was to be established for operational purposes in the North-Eastern Counties only -- the Six County area . This new unit was to be known as the 'Ulster Special Constabulary' and was to be divided into three sub-units -- the A , B and C Specials ---

--- the A-Specials were a full-time unit , and were based in RIC barracks , thus allowing more 'police officers' free to leave their desks and assist their colleagues in cracking skulls in Nationalist areas ;

--- the B-Specials were a part-time but fully-armed unit , that were sent out on patrol duty , with or without the British Army or RIC ;

--- and the C-Specials , a reserve unit , for those eager to serve 'Queen and Country' on a "call-us-if-you-need-us" basis . (MORE LATER).



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 .

THE WAR OF BROTHERS.......


".......the new Free State Army realised too late that the enemy now was not England , but their old comrades who were carrying-on the fight against British occupation ......."


" Fighting for a cause they hated against the cause they loved , hunting and killing their old comrades and leaders , dying , not a few , for their country's enemy , execrated by the people they had betrayed --- what reward could the 'Empire' offer to atone for this ? Debauchery was the only refuge , the only stimulus to such work as they had to do .

Of the degradation that followed , one thing only need be said --- the unspeakable things done to prisoners in jails and camps and barracks and on lonely roadsides were not due to insane impulses of these drink-sodden , irresponsible men ; they were the fruits of a policy calculated , authorised and prompted by the government which they had to obey ......." (MORE LATER)



CHEMICALLY.......

[from 'AP/RN' , 30 th May , 1985 , page 4]

In Leinster House last week (ie third week in May , 1985) it was revealed that twenty-seven dangerous substances were being used by fifty-two manufacturing companies in the Free State ; forty of those companies were U S subsidiaries who were known to choose this State as a base for processing dangerous chemicals only because they were not allowed to set-up elsewhere !

Still --- the politicians would have made a few bob out of it . The people may have suffered (and probably still are) but sure ye can't have it every way !

And --- as Albert Reynolds , the ' passports-for-dog-food' boyo might have said -- " That's chemicals for ya " !



.......UNBALANCED --->

[from 'New Hibernia' magazine , March , 1985]

In his 'Personally Speaking' column , Dermot McEvoy stated ---

--- " I regard Fianna Fail not as a political party but as a criminal conspiracy against the people ."

HOWEVER-- in the same article , McEvoy admitted to being a Fine Gael supporter and a fan of Margaret Thatcher !

One out of three is usually not good enough for inclusion in this column , but what the hell -- I like the Fianna Fail one !

---

THE B-SPECIALS ; 1920 - 1970 .


Before the British partitioned Ireland (1921) , pogroms by loyalists in Belfast were carried out by the ' Ulster Volunteer Force ' (UVF) , a loyalist paramilitary outfit , with the British Army and the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) looking on , but not intervening .

The loyalist political leader , James Craig , realised that the British hold on the island was slipping but was determined to protect his own patch , in the North-Eastern corner : he insisted that Westminster establish a ' Special Constabulary ' to assist the British Army and the RIC ....... (MORE LATER).


THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 .


THE WAR OF BROTHERS.

" The Terror failed . The 'Empire' resorted to a more subtle policy -- "Divide and Conquer" --- a motto as old as Rome . Believing , as they were told , that it was still the Republican Army , that the oath to the English king meant nothing , that England was the only enemy they would ever be called upon to fight , Irish Volunteers joined the Free State Army , and took the guns and the uniform and the pay .

When , without an hour's warning , they were given English artillery and ordered to make war upon their old comrades -- upon those who refused allegiance to the English king -- they were in a death-trap . To mutiny was to die . Their tragedy is more pitiful than the tragedy of the men they killed ....... " (MORE LATER).



SITTING.......

[from 'The Sunday Business Post' , 15th August , 1993 , page 13]

In a book entitled 'Provisional Irish Republicans - An Oral and Interpretive History' , by Robert W. White , Mitchel McLaughlin , Provo Sinn Fein Chairperson , stated --

-- " I would'nt say never even in respect to Westminster ."

And why should you , Mitchel ? Stormont , Leinster House -- ....might as well go for the hat-trick ; it's where your future lies .


.......AND NOT SITTING --->

[from 'The Evening Press' , 23rd April --( a Tuesday , I believe ) 1985]


<--- A political Councillor in Florence , Italy , Giovanni Pallanti (Christian Democrat) declined an invatation to attend or sit at a dinner in 'honour' of the so-called Prince and Princess of Wales yesterday (ie Monday , 22nd April , 1985).



Pallanti stated --- " I would have no appetite thinking of those Northern Irish who died in prison as a result of hunger-strikes ."

An Italian politician who refuses to sit with the Brits and a person who classes himself as an Irish Reoublican who can't wait to sit with them !

God help us .....

---

MICHAEL SCANLON - POET AND FENIAN.......


.......the Fenian invasion of Canada (31st May , 1866) was cut short by the lack of reinforcements and the Rising in Ireland collapsed in March 1867 ; Michael Scanlon did not lose heart . He continued writing for Irish and American newspapers and was by now a senior Official in the American administration in Washington.......

Such was his job and the contacts it offered him with the business community in America that Michael Scanlon was able to convince business leaders to source material in countries other than England !

The dearth of information on Michael Scanlon means that it is hard to find a reliable source of notification of his death ; indeed , some of my (usually dependable) sources have his year of Birth as 1833 ! As far as I can tell , he died at around seventy-two years of age , in 1908 , in Chicago , America . I believe his membership of the ' Irish Republican Brotherhood' lasted for at least fifty years -- he joined same in 1858 (at twenty-two years young) and , by all accounts , "served the cause for over fifty years" before he died .

If you know better , please leave a message in the site 'Guestbook' for me .


[END]



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 .

"....... in 1921 , three friends -- Padraic Dalton , Padraic Breathnac and Diarmuid Lyons , were executed in a field in Gortaglanna by the Black and Tans......."


" On the road from Castleisland to Tralee there is a cross by the wayside : ' Remember Denis Broderick , who died in defence of Ireland , May 24th , 1921 .' There is a cross that has no name on it a little further on ; it is for Seumas Taylor; his brother's is on the roadside in Glencar .

There is one for Jack Galvin a few hundred yards to the left , and there is one bearing eight names and the date March 6 , 1923 . It stands , quite close to those three others , at Ballyseedy Cross . "


[END].


WESTMINSTER.......

[from 'The Sunday Tribune' , 8th March , 1998 , page 16]

Last week , a survey of political attitudes in the Six Counties , conducted by BBC/Coopers and Lybrand , showed that fifty-one per cent of Provisional Sinn Fein supporters and eighty-nine per cent of SDLP supporters are willing to accept a settlement falling short of Irish unity !

They would have got one-hundred per cent in favour if they had also asked the leaderships of both partys .......


.......WARNING --->


<--- On 3rd December , 1941 , Belfast Republican Liam Rice wrote ---

--- " The traitor , in a vain attempt to justify his treachery , always wantonly attacks the cause he has forsaken . "

The man must have had a crystal ball .......

---

MICHAEL SCANLON - POET AND FENIAN .......


.......an 'Irish Republican Brotherhood' Convention of over fifteen-hundred American and Irish Fenians was held in November 1863 in Chicago ; Michael Scanlon and Henry C. McCarthy were put in charge of same by the 'IRB' leadership . It was decided to wait until the end of the American Civil War before a campaign against the British would begin in Ireland .......


Charles J. Kickham , one of the Irish delegates to the Chicago Convention , returned to Ireland with the message -- ' The IRB will take action when the time is right .'

At the age of thirty , Michael Scanlon supported the Fenian Colonel John O' Neill in his invasion of Canada; the Canadian village of Fort Erie was attacked and seized by an eight-hundred strong force of Fenians on the night of 31 May , 1866 ; the British forces met the Fenians in battle in early June , 1866 , at Lime Ridge , with the Brits losing the fight . The promised reinforcements for the Fenians never materialised and Colonel John O' Neill retreated back to America .

The Fenians in Ireland were also forced to retreat when , in March 1867 , the Rising collapsed . However , Michael Scanlon did not lose heart -- he was a well-known contributor of verse , poems and articles to Irish and American newspapers , and was by now working as a senior Official within the American administration in Washington ...... (MORE LATER).


THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924.

THE TERROR.......

......the Republican defenders against the British and Free State enemy risked death in battle , and capture , torture and murder at their captor's hands .......


" Screams of agony heard from the prisons , dead bodies of young men found in ditches , are calculated to reduce the people to submission . That the contrary effect is produced is a lesson which 'empires' are slow to learn .

This is the explanation of the little rough wooden crosses , sometimes not bearing even a name , which mark forsaken spots on the Kerry roads . It is the explanation of the 'Sign of the Cross' which people make in passing places not marked yet with wood or stone . Hear , they will tell you , in Ballymacelligott , Maurice Reidy and John Leen were killed on Christmas night . That was in nineteen-twenty-one ; their murderers were the Black and Tans . In Ballybunion , young Scanlon was murdered , and Carmody in Ballylongford and Houlihan in Ballyduff .

There were Frank Hoffman of Tralee , and Bill McCarthy of Lixnaw and Joseph Taylor of Glencar . In a field in Gortaglanna there are three crosses bearing the names of Padraic Dalton , Padraic Breathnac and Diarmuid Lyons , three friends who were taken on the road and put to death there in 1921 by the Black and Tans." (MORE LATER).



POLITICAL.......

[from 'AP/RN' , 17th June , 1993 , page 5]

....... John McDonnell , Chairperson of the ' Britain and Ireland Human Rights Centre' stated ---

--- " Political violence in Northern Ireland (sic) is inextricably linked with Britains historic role in Ireland and its failure to complete the process of decolonisation ."

Telling it like it is ---1 .

.......PROXY --->

<--- In his book ' The Framework of Home Rule ' , Erskine Childers wrote that Unionist resistance to Irish Nationalism was inspired not by racialism or fear for the Protestant faith , but by " a deep-rooted hatred of democratic principles and practices . "

Telling it like it is ---2 .

---

MICHAEL SCANLON - POET AND FENIAN.......


.......joining the 'Irish Republican Brotherhood' shortly after its formation in 1858 , at twenty-two years young , Michael Scanlon was soon appointed as Editor of the Fenian newspaper , 'The Irish Republic'.......


At twenty-seven years young (in 1863) , Michael Scanlon had been a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood for five years and was , for want of a better description , at 'middle management' level in the organisation ; he was trusted and respected by Irish Republicans in America and at home and , along with Henry C. McCarthy (IRB member) , was put in charge of organising the ' Chicago Convention' .

The 'Convention' was to be held in Chicago in November 1863 ; its function was to bring together Fenian delegates from all over America and Ireland and put a plan in place for a sustained armed campaign against the British in Ireland . More than 1500 delegates attended the event and large sums of money were collected by the IRB leadership ; however , it was decided to wait until the American Civil War had ended before action would be taken in Ireland ....... (MORE LATER).


THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY ,by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 .

THE TERROR

" A war of conquest , such as England's war against Ireland , develops , inevitably , into a campaign of terrorism against the people . Resistance to foreign invasion and foreign rule will never be limited , in a high-spirited nation , to a paid and uniformed army ; young men will cast their bread upon the waters , go "on their keeping" and fight in hunger and cold ; old men and old women and young girls will be taking their share . Therefore , to break the spirit of the whole people by spreading panic terror amongst them , by making them suffer more than they can endure , must be the conqueror's aim .

The defenders who go out to ambush the armed forces of the oppressor , to wreck his military and governmental institutions and to impede his progress through the country , risk not only death in battle but capture , and torture and murder at their captor's hands ." (MORE LATER).


MEDDLING.......

[from 'AP/RN' , 19th September , 1996 , page 5]

....... " It should never be forgotten that the bottom line for the British Government is the protection of its own interests and the maintenance of the status quo by whatever means necessary-- including espionage , dirty tricks , psychological operations and disinformation ."---

--- Micheal MacDonncha , ex-'AP/RN' Editor , now Provo employee in Leinster House : That's all very well , Micheal , but even if the Brits did try something-- like , say , set-up a false 'parliament' and invite the enemy in , clean them up and dress them up , introduce them to other's on the 'rubber-chicken' circuit and help them to turn (so-called) "respectable" --- sure I ask ya , Micheal ; who'd fall for that ? Especially after you warning us and all .......


.......MEDALS --->

[from 'The Phoenix' magazine , 19th January , 1996 , page 8]

The former Editor of 'The Evening Herald' newspaper , Brian Quinn (who held that position between 1969 and 1977) recently (ie late 1995 ?) received the 'Jerusalem 3000' medal from the Israeli Government --- the only other Irish citizen to receive such an award was ex-Labour Party Chairperson , the late Jim Kemmy ! He got his medal for " acts of friendship to Israel " . The Editor of a right-wing Dublin newspaper and the Chairperson of a (so-called) left-wing political party : Israeli friends in odd places ......

---

MICHAEL SCANLON - POET AND FENIAN.......


....... in 1849 , when Michael Scanlon was thirteen years young , his family emigrated to America and settled in Chicago ......


When he was twenty-two years of age (in 1858) , well-aware of what was happening in his own country re British oppression , he celebrated St. Patricks Day with his family and other Irish friends ; some of the talk that day centred on a new Irish Republican organisation which was being formed that very day -- the 'Irish Republican Brotherhood' .

Back home in Ireland , the 'IRB' was established (also on St. Patricks Day , 1858) by James Stephens and Thomas Clarke Luby ; in America , the leader of the new organisation was John O'Mahony . Joining the 'Irish Republican Brotherhood' almost immediately , Michael Scanlon made good contacts and was later appointed as Editor of the Fenian newspaper , ' The Irish Republic' . (MORE LATER).



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 .


The Dingle Peninsula .......

.......ridged by cliffs and turrets of rock , watered valleys looked-down on by steep slopes that allow access by narrow passes ; the beauty of Dingle Peninsula .......


" Conor Mountain , Brandon Mountain , Cahir , Conree ..... Dingle Bay to the south , Brandon Bay and the mouth of the Shannon far off to the north , westward 'the ocean wide and wild' , and all Dingle's inlets and lochs and torrents and valleys are dominated by those royal hills ---

" The Kings of Kerry over the clans of Ciar
O'Connor rules that land by right ,
Chief of the plain of the fertile fields
From the strand to the Shannon of clear streams . "


It is Irish that the people speak in the tiny village ; it is Irish songs and music that you will hear . But they go barefoot , and many go hungry : you see their cattle seized for the rent by bailiffs , being driven along the road . You see little dark cabins built of rough stone where a dozen beautiful children have to live . You see the pitiful tokens of a conquered land . And because it is not conquered yet in spirit you come to stricken homes whose sons are slain . "


[END].


PLANTERS.......

[from 'The Evening Press' , 2nd May , -- a Thursday , if memory serves -- 1985 , page 9]

....... On the first weekend in May this year ( ie 1985) the Dutch celebrate their 1945 liberation from the Germans at the end of 'World War Two' . A Dutch Government brochure on the anniversary stated --

-- " We must never forget how things can go so far . On that day , we face the question how it is possible that people assume the right to invade and occupy other lands , to impose servitude and unleash terror . "

A question our nearest neighbour should ask itself .....



.......AND PLANTED --->

[from 'Hot Press' magazine , 30th June , 1993 , page 6]

<--- Last March (ie 1993) the Bishop of Salisbury said on 'Network Two' (Irish) television --

-- " The island of Ireland is a natural geographic unit . Britain has made a substantial contribution to divisions in Ireland , partly from strategic and political reasons . People had to be planted there who were regarded as loyal to the British state ."


"Substantial contribution" ? "Partly ...." ? Admit your guilt but then again..... .

The good Bishop failed to mention the 'West Brits' that London left "in charge" in this State ; those more loyal to their bank balance and Westminster (and Brussels) than they are to a true Irish Republic .

---

MICHAEL SCANLON - POET AND FENIAN .


'THE BOLD FENIAN MEN' ; a well-known and still , to this day , hugely popular ballad in Ireland and anywhere else that Irish people gather for a night out . Other songs this man composed are 'The Fenian Men' and 'The Jackets Green' .

The above ballad's were penned by Michael Scanlon in the late 19th Century ; he was born in Castlemahon , in County Limerick , on 10th November , 1836 . In 1849 , when Michael Scanlon was thirteen years young , his family emigrated to America and settled in Chicago ....... (MORE LATER).



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 .


THE DINGLE PENINSULA .

"Ireland Unconquered : ' Ireland her own from the sod to the sky' is here , you would think , coming to the Dingle Peninsula first . It is hard to imagine that any enemy could dare to invade or have strength to hold down that land . It stands out , ridged by precipitous cliffs , over the ocean that almost encircles it ; sentinel islands , impregnable turrets of rock , stand for beacon and watch-towers about its shores ; mountains shelter its green , watered valleys and rear up , a fortress-chain , over its coast .

The narrow passes and roads that terrace their steep slopes are overhung by Summits that might be battle-pens of Fionn Mac Cumhal , piled so high they are with boulders that a giant's throw would send down . " (MORE LATER).


FIGHTING.......

[from 'AP/RN', 6th June , 1985 , page 13]

In an interview with 'The New York Times' newspaper , Fianna Fail's Sean Lemass stated --

-- " We recognise that a military commitment will be an inevitable consequence of our joining the Common Market and ultimately we would be prepared to yield even the technical label of neutrality . We are prepared to go into this integrated Europe without any reservation as to how far this will take us in the field of foreign policy and defence ."

NOTE the "without any reservation" claim ; this before the issue was put to a vote of the electorate in the State . As Albert said , in a different context , - "That's democracy for ya ...."


.......TALK --->

[from same as above]

---> In 1970 , when he was Free State Minister for External Affairs , Paddy Hillery said --

-- " We would have to act closely in political as well as economic affairs and would have to participate in common action , even the defence of the new Europe . "

Obviously better career prospects on a European stage for the gombeens in Leinster House --- even if it is at the expense of the rest of us .

---