IRELAND , JANUARY 15th , 1920 : ELECTIONS .......
....... as the leader of the 'Irish Volunteers' , John Redmond called on Irishmen to join the British Army and help in the war against Germany ....
On 20th September , 1914 , John Redmond stated - " It would be a disgrace forever to our country , and a reproach to her manhood , and a denial of the lessons of her history , if young Ireland confined her efforts to remain at home to defend the shores of Ireland from an unlikely invasion , and shrank from the duty of proving on the field of battle that gallantry and courage which has distinguished our race all through its history . " ('1169 ...' comment - what a warped sense of history and a misguided view of 'gallantry' and 'courage' that man had !)
Others , obviously , did not agree with Redmond - amongst them was James Connolly , the Irish Trade Union leader , who was also in command of the Irish Citizen Army , who answered Redmond's call thus -
' Full steam ahead , John Redmond said ,
that everything was well , chum ;
Home Rule will come when we are dead ,
and buried out in Belgium . '
Also , some of John Redmond's own men dis-agreed with his pro-British 'call-to-arms' ; Eoin MacNeill , who was then in a leadership position within the 'Irish Volunteers' , was of the opinion that the 'Irish Volunteers' should only use force against the British if Westminster first moved against them ; a bit 'watery' , definately , but he was , however , against fighting with the British .
Eoin MacNeill was to come to prominence again , two years later , in 1916 ; in a move which outraged Irish Republicans ...
(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.
Some details about the Author , Micheal O'Suilleabhain .
The Planters who drove our people from the good lands followed them into the rocky mountain valleys and formed the hard-won little holdings into 'estates' on which 'rents' were levied for the benefit of 'landlords' who lived abroad .
Even the bodies of the mountainy men and women were commandeered at the whim of the 'masters' . The wild birds of the air and all the ground game were decreed the 'property' of the 'overlords' ; a native Irishman whose greyhound chased a hare or who took a shot at grouse or snipe ran the risk of being shot by a 'gamekeeper' .
The constant struggle against the twin forces of nature and an alien 'law' , both formidable and unrelenting , failed , however , to break the spirit of the people . It destroyed neither their capacity for simple social enjoyment nor their determination to throw off the yoke of serfdom ; rather did the long years of endurance foster in them a strong tradition of resistance to oppression .......
(MORE LATER).
ONE THAT GOT AWAY .......
Donegal IRA man , Patrick McIntyre - wanted by the RUC and by Gardai - was released by the High Court last month when his lawyers convinced the Court that he was not properly arrested and held by the Gardai . Tommie Gorman details McIntyre's story of two escapes and meets him 'on the run' .
From ' Magill ' magazine , June 1987 , pages 24 , 25 , 26 , 28 and 29 .
Re-produced here in 13 parts .
(2 of 13).
Two of the seven men detained were from Letterkenny in County Donegal ; Patrick McIntyre of Ard O'Donnell and his pal , Jim Clarke . Patrick McIntyre is the fifth of a family of nine , who did his 'Leaving Certificate' (school examination) in 1976 and , after taking a six months AnCo (state work-training ) course , started working on a building site in Letterkenny . John McIntyre , his father , is the Editor of the 'Donegal People's Press' newspaper ; he is a large man with a passion for ice-cream and the card-game 'bridge' , who has managed to go through life without making a single enemy .
As a youth , Patrick McIntyre was , as friends describe him , a 'withdrawn kind of a lad' . His involvement with the IRA was to surprise the entire family . But he had been impressed by the 1916 plaque in Saint Eunan's College , by the sight of Derry refugees taking shelter in Letterkenny , of the (Free State) Army on stand-by near the border , by emotive speeches by politicians and by the 'Arms Trial' .
He mixed with Official Sinn Fein members in the early 1970's : they held meetings in a room over a pub in Letterkenny where local issues were discussed . But he always stayed clear of public displays - and not a word was said at home .......
(MORE LATER).
