PHILIP GREY ; 1827 - 1857 : AN IRISH MILITARY MAN.......
.......When Philip Grey was one month away from his 20th birthday , William Smith O'Brien MP established a pro-Irish organisation - 'The Irish Confederation' ; that was in January 1847 .......
For all his "stiff and stilted mannerisms , his [posh English] accent " and his fine clothes , William Smith O'Brien was said to have traced his Irish ancestry back to the 11th Century - to Brian Boru , the High King of Ireland !
' The Irish Confederation' organisation was established with the intention of pushing harder against the British than Daniel O'Connell was prepared to do ; at that time in our History (ie between 1845 and 1849) the 'Great Hunger' [so-called 'Famine'] was upon the people .
The situation was that bad that one of the most prominent Dublin newspapers of the day , which was a pro-'Establishment' organ , 'The Freemans Journal' , was actually driven to publish an Editorial piece which , had same been published in another newspaper , it would in all probability have condemned .......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
COOLNACAHERA and COOMNACLOHY .......
"....... Ireland , 1921 - We were 'on-the-run' from the British Auxiliaries ; it was nine hours since we last had something to eat . Tired , hungry and thirsty , we stopped at a farmhouse for a bite and some tea . I was sitting , facing the window , about to put milk in my mug of tea ......."
" Away to the south-east , I could see a white ribbon of road ; I saw a speck appear on it , then another and another - they were coming , one behind the other ... " What do you think those are ? " I asked the girl of the house , indicating to her the road . With the teapot clasped between her hands , she regarded them : " I think they are bicycles, " she replied , still watching them . Then she said again - " No , they are lorries . " They were lorries , sure enough . We went outside , the better to investigate .
The lorries were on the Top Road which runs on high ground to the north of Ballyvourney Village , and parallel to the main road to Killarney . They were coming down to the junction with the mountain road to Millstreet - would they turn down to the Mills , Ballyvourney ? If they did we could return to our tea ; but they did not turn left for Ballyvourney , they turned right and came up the Millstreet Road . There was still a chance for us - would they turn right below Sean Hyde's place and go on to Millstreet ? They did not . They kept left and came on into Coomnaclohy .
We ran forward to a high meadow where we could be seen from the farmhouse below ; I whistled with my fingers , and one of the lads came out . We pointed down to the road . All the men came out of the farmhouse and we signalled them forward , and then to cover , behind a fence . They lined the fence , but my brother said he would go down to them . " If anything goes wrong , " he said , " the city lads may go the wrong way out of here - I'll have to talk to them . " Instructing us to keep an eye on the Killarney Road behind us , he ran downhill from us . Meanwhile , the British Army lorries kept coming , carrying soldiers from their regular army .......
(MORE LATER).
THE CONVICTION OF WILLIAM QUINN .......
' William Quinn was recently jailed for life in Britain having been convicted of the murder of a London policeman on the basis of evidence and an identification which has given rise to considerable controversy . '
BY MICHAEL FARRELL .
(First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1988 , page 18).
Reproduced here in 9 parts.
(7 of 9).
The only evidence against William Quinn was the fingerprints associating him with the Balcombe Street Four , who had the murder weapon , and the identification . The fingerprints of about a dozen other people had also been found in the house and Patrick Bishop and Eamonn Mallie in their recent book on the Provisional IRA name another associate of the Balcombe Street Group as having shot British PC Tibble .
Mr. Justice Rose told the jury that the circumstances of the identification were unsatisfactory but he refused to rule it out . The jury , by now aware from the details of the identification that William Quinn had been convicted of IRA membership in Ireland , convicted him of murder .......
(MORE LATER).
