That 'War Letter' meeting took place, as stated, on the afternoon of Monday 5th December 1921 ; at around 7pm that same evening, Michael Collins and his negotiating team left that Downing Street meeting to discuss the matter between themselves and returned to Downing Street later that night. Collins and Griffith (both pro-Treaty) had pressurised their colleague, Robert Childers Barton (the Irish Minister for Economic Affairs) to accept the Treaty of Surrender, telling him that if he did not sign then he would be responsible for "Irish homes (being) laid waste and the youth of Ireland (being) butchered.." and, at about 11pm on Monday, 5th December 1921, Barton signed the document.
On the 19th December that year, Barton, speaking in Leinster House, declared - "I am going to make plain to you the circumstances under which I find myself in honour bound to recommend the acceptance of the Treaty. In making that statement I have one object only in view, and that is to enable you to become intimately acquainted with the circumstances leading up to the signing of the Treaty and the responsibility forced on me had I refused to sign. I do not seek to shield myself from the charge of having broken my oath of allegiance to the Republic — my signature is proof of that fact. That oath was, and still is to me, the most sacred bond on earth.
I broke my oath because I judged that violation to be the lesser of alternative outrages forced upon me, and between which I was compelled to choose. On Sunday, December 4th, the Conference had precipitately and definitely broken down. An intermediary effected contact next day, and on Monday at 3pm, Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, and myself met the English representatives. In the struggle that ensued Arthur Griffith sought repeatedly to have the decision between war and peace on the terms of the Treaty referred back to this assembly. This proposal Mr. Lloyd George directly negatived.
He claimed that we were plenipotentiaries and that we must either accept or reject. Speaking for himself and his colleagues, the English Prime Minister with all the solemnity and the power of conviction that he alone, of all men I met, can impart by word and gesture — the vehicles by which the mind of one man oppresses and impresses the mind of another — declared that the signature and recommendation of every member of our delegation was necessary or war would follow immediately. He gave us until 10 o'clock to make up our minds, and it was then about 8.30. We returned to our house to decide upon our answer. The issue before us was whether we should stand behind our proposals for external association, face war and maintain the Republic, or whether we should accept inclusion in the British Empire and take peace..."
Within six months a Civil War was raging in Ireland, between the British-supported Free Staters and the Irish republicans who did not accept that 'Treaty'. And, today, 97 years after that infamous 'War Letter' meeting was held, the struggle continues to remove the British political and military presence from Ireland.
26th August 1954.
BELFAST JAIL SENTENCE.
Sir - I have read in your paper about a man in possession of a number of copies of 'The United Irishman' newspaper who has been sent to jail. Strange that I get the newspaper here constantly and I have not been sent to jail. In fact, I take this opportunity of informing you that your newspaper finds its way even to distant Japan!
Yours sincerely,
Joseph P. O'Shaughnessy,
26 Bracey Street,
Finsbury Park,
London N4.
SOUTH KERRY'S HEROIC DEAD.
On Saturday evening, October 23rd 1954, a Testimonial and Dance will be held at Croke Park, 240 Street and Broadway, New York City. The proceeds will go to erect a Memorial in Cahirciveen to the memory of the men* in South Kerry who died fighting for Irish freedom. We, the members of the South Kerry Memorial Committee, appeal through the 'United Irishmen' newspaper to all Clan na Gael and Irish Republican Army Clubs of greater New York to support this very worthy cause. For information phone John Clifford of the 3rd Kerry Brigade, Ket. 8-4614, or Jack Lynch, Mo. 5-9484.
(*'1169' Comment - what, no women..?)
(END of 'Belfast Jail Sentence' and 'South Kerry's Heroic Dead' : next, from the same source - 'We Ask For No Mercy And We Will Make No Compromise' - Terence MacSwiney.)
ON THIS DATE (5TH DECEMBER) 378 YEARS AGO : HOISTED BY HIS OWN PETARD (OR 'STITCHED'-UP?)
As befitting Englishmen from a certain background, the good Bishop had a 'household' to do his bidding (!) and his 'steward/title proctor', a Mr John Childe and himself were said to be 'close' to each other and - lo and behold! - but didn't they find themselves up in court charged with 'indecent behaviour' under the same Act that the Bishop himself had 'squeezed' his friends in the 'House of Commons' to pass! And so it was that on the 5th of December in the year 1640 - 378 years ago on this date, at 42 years of age - Bishop Atherton was taken to Gallows Green (now 'Stephens Green') in Dublin and hanged by the neck until dead. His 'steward/title proctor/manfriend', John Childe, was similarly rewarded a few months later.
Mr Atherton was never 'defrocked', as the 'defrocker' of the day was dead and had not been replaced, thus achieving for the good Bishop the unenviable distinction of being the only Anglican bishop hanged for buggery, and himself and Mr Childe also made the grade in that they were only the second pair of 'close friends' to be put to death for that indiscretion - they had followed in the famous footsteps of Mervyn Tuchet, the 'Earl of Castlehaven', and a member of his 'staff', who were put to death nine years previously for the same behaviour.
'Suppose a Devill from th’infernall Pit,
More Monsterlike, then ere was Devill yet,
Contrary to course, taking a male fiend
To Sodomize with him, such was the mind
Of this Lord Bishop, he did take a Childe
By name, not years, acting a sinne so vilde...'
Incidentally, the phrase de mortuis nil nisi bonum apparently had no currency then : shortly after 'polite society' has disposed of the good Bishop, t'was said he was up to all sorts with his sister-in-law and was also a sampler of zoophilia with cattle. Thank your God that you live in an enlightened era...
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, February 1955.
"(IRA) membership," Mr. O'Donovan writes, "consists of young men who are half in love with death. They are not intellectuals but they are serious and steeped in Irish history...it matters little to them that their policy is more likely to strengthen the existence of partition...or that the IRA's military plan is based on a false assumption and has no chance of success.."
Facts are facts and we welcome them. You are unfair to your own people and unjust to ours when you state as established fact your own imaginings. It is a fact that our young men in the IRA are not afraid of death in a just cause. Ireland's claim to unity and freedom is surely just and righteous. To say that men who are not afraid of death in such a cause, love death for itself, is ridiculous.
Men serious enough to be steeped in history surely take a serious interest in the policy they pursue and would not pursue tactics that would defeat the objective of such policy. On what basis of fact does Mr O'Donovan assume that the IRA's military plan is based on a false assumption and has no chance of success? Is the British Army invincible? Perhaps the USA, Egypt, Palestine etc are, unknown to us, still occupied by British forces!
(END of 'Irish History For The British' ; next - 'San Francisco', from the same source.)
The question is no longer whether there is corruption within our political establishment but whether the political establishment is itself corrupt.
By Vincent Browne.
From 'Magill' magazine, February 1998.
Was the 1993 State tax amnesty done to accommodate a single mega-rich taxpayer who was in trouble with the Revenue Commissioners and whose generosity to Fianna Fáil and perhaps to individuals within the party was considerable? So troubled was the then minister for finance, Bertie Ahern, with the proposal to introduce the scheme that he considered resignation*, and he was talked out of it only by a representative of the 'Labour Party', which was then in government with Fianna Fáil. How ironic that a Fianna Fáil finance minister should be encouraged to accept a measure that was so manifestly unfair by a representative of a party that purports to represent the quintessence of fairness!
The third was the announcement in the budget of a reduction in the rate of capital gains tax, from 40 per cent to 20 per cent ; the scale of that tax change is staggering - in one fell swoop, a government that made such a fuss about reducing the top and standard rates of income tax by two percentage points reduced the tax that most affexts the rich by a full 20 per centage points... (*'1169' Comment - the "single mega-rich taxpayer" was not one of Bertie's Buddies, it seems...) (MORE LATER).
ON THIS DAY NEXT WEEK (12TH DECEMBER 2018) YOU'LL BE MISSING US...but your aim will get better on the 19th!
But we'll be back, as stated above, on Wednesday 19th December 2018, when our offering will include, I'm told, a piece about an Irish republican who was sentenced by the British to 15 years in prison and, although he went in 'with one arm tied behind his back', so to speak, he came out and proved himself more useful to the republican struggle than many a so-called 'able bodied' person...
Thanks, for reading , Sharon.
