The IRA had listed as targets all the elected reps who had voted for 'emergency legislation' authorising the executions of republicans.
His companion, Pádraic Ó Máille, deputy speaker of the Free State parliament, was seriously injured, but still managed to get Hales into the car and drive to the nearest hospital, where he died. British soldiers in the immediate area attempted to engage the two IRA shooters but they made good their escape.
Ó Máille was an elected representative for Sinn Féin from 1918 to 1921 and was active in the IRA (as was Seán Hales) in the Galway region, but supported the 'Treaty of Surrender' in 1921 (he later left Cumann na nGaedhal, attempted to form his own party but then joined Fianna Fáil). Both were, at the time of the shooting, members of the Cumann na nGaedhal party which, in 1933, merged with smaller groups to form the 'Fine Gael' party (pictured here, in that same year).
'The actual killer, the playwright Ulick O'Connor was told in 1985, by Sean Caffrey, an ex-IRA Intelligence officer, was Owen Donnelly, from Glasnevin, "a rather girlish-looking, fair-haired fellow who had been a very good scholar in O’Connell Schools." "Who ordered him to do it?" I asked. "No one gave him an order," he said. "At that time the general orders issued by Liam Lynch were for anybody to shoot TDs or Senators if they could." He was in the main room of the Intelligence Centre when Donnelly came in shortly after the killing, on the afternoon of December 7, 1922. I asked Caffrey what was his reaction when he heard Seán Hales had been killed - "I was delighted," he said, and then gave a little chuckle, as if reminiscing over something which he particularly enjoyed. "Donnelly was carrying on the fight," he said. "There are no rules in war. The winner dictates the rules..." ' (from here.)
The reaction of the Free State administration was swift and ruthless : they announced their intention to execute four of the republican prisoners being held without charge or trial in Mountjoy jail and, the following morning (December 8th, 1922, at dawn) Dick Barrett, Rory O'Connor, Liam Mellows and Joe McKelvey were summarily executed by firing squad in the yard of Mountjoy jail.
The executioneers declared that the four men were executed "...as a reprisal for the assassination of Brigadier Seán Hales and as a solemn warning to those who are associated with them who are engaged in a conspiracy of assassination against the representatives of the Irish people.. (sic)"
The four men were the first of the Free State administration's executions of it's former comrades and drew condemnation from, among others, Thomas Johnson, the then leader of the State Labour Party : "Murder most foul as in the best it is - but this (is) most foul, bloody and unnatural. The four men in Mountjoy have been in your charge for five months...the Government of this country (sic) — the Government of Saorstát Eireann, announces apparently with pride that they have taken out four men, who were in their charge as prisoners, and as a reprisal for that assassination, murdered them. I wonder whether any member of the Government who has any regard for the honour of Ireland, or has any regard for the good name of the State, or has any regard for the safety of the State, will stand over an act of this kind..."
One of those who had 'regard for the honour of Ireland', at that time, anyway, was Tom Hales, one of Seán's brothers - Tom was in command of the IRA 'Flying Column' which attacked a Free State Army convoy at Béal na Bláth in West Cork on the 22nd August 1922, in which Michael Collins was killed, but he later dishonoured himself by becoming an active and vocal (elected) member of the Fianna Fáil party.
If you have a half hour to spare, you could use it wisely by watching this 'YouTube' video concerning the Hales brothers and that particular period in our history.
'LONDON CEREMONY...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, July, 1954.
Tomás O Dubhghaill stated - "What part does Sinn Féin play in this struggle? The purpose of Sinn Féin is to organise the whole Irish people, North and South, at home and overseas, into one broad mass organisation to secure the restoration of the Republican Government of All-Ireland. Young and old, male and female, all are needed, each can help in their own way to forward the task and the help of all is urgently required now.
*We have lost too much time and the danger is that the generation which has grown up since the division of our country in 1922 may come to accept that division as natural since they had known no other position*. The thirty-two years which the division conquest has lasted has been far too long. But Irish history has been a sequence of ebb and flow - we have had the ebb tide now but the flow is starting again.
Come in and help it to gather force so that it will sweep all obstacles from its path and carry us at long last to final victory ; the enthronment of the Irish Republic of all thirty-two counties, united and free."
(*'1169' comment - And that's the position that Irish republicanism is in now - an 'ebb'. People have been led astray by 'Leinster House republicanism' - FF and PSF - both of which are vichy-like in their support and/or actual implementation of the British political and military writ in this country, as is the Kildare Street administration they happily sit in. As things stand now, politically, traditional Irish republicanism in this country is reflected in the raison d'être of one organisation and its affiliated groups.)
(END of 'London Ceremony' ; NEXT -'Stirring Bodenstown Commemoration', from the same source.)
ON THIS DATE (30TH MARCH) 198 YEARS AGO : BIRTH OF A 'SOCIAL SYSTEM CAMPAIGNER'.
The social system in which a man willing to work is compelled to starve, is a blasphemy, an anarchy, and no system. For the present these victims of monarchic rule, disowned by the republic, are conquered; 10,000 are slain, 20,000 perhaps doomed to the Marquesas. But for all that the rights of labour are not conquered, and will not and cannot be conquered. Again and again the labourer will rise up against the idler – the workingmen will meet this bourgeoisie, and grapple and war with them till their equality is established, not in word, but in fact..."
(*The "70,000 workmen.." is an extract from an article he wrote for 'The Irish Felon' newspaper, and was in relation to the June 1848 Uprising in France, when the workers rebelled against the poor working and living conditions they were forced to endure.)
Thomas Devin Reilly (pictured) was born in County Monaghan (in relatively privileged circumstances) on Sunday, the 30th March 1824 - 198 years ago on this date - and became a journalist with a social conscience ; his mindset would have been shaped by the times he was born and grew-up in ; 'While better-off landowners were thriving from the mid-18th century to the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1813, inflation was slowly crippling the poor. While the landed elite were building their Georgian townhouses and Palladian mansions, the landless and land poor were falling behind...' (from here.)
He was an active member of the 'Irish Confederation' Movement (founded by John Martin, John Mitchel and William Smith O'Brien in January 1847) which agitated, campaigned and worked for and with small land workers, who needed to keep some or most of their produce for their own families and for their local community, but Westminster said 'No!'.
So the 'Confederation' set about using waylaying tactics to make it impossible or at least extremely difficult for the 'landlord' class to physically move the harvests that the small land workers were producing - they destroyed railway tracks and bridges etc to prevent wheat crops being exported from the land from which they had been harvested, where the communities were suffering starvation due to a series of failed potato crops.
And, like hundreds of others, Thomas Devin Reilly recognised the benefits of 'direct action' and he joined 'The Young Irelanders' group ; he took part in the 1848 Rising and, although a 'marked man' before then, he was hunted practically day and night now. He was caught and 'arrested' by the British and, althought he was facing either execution or deportation to Australia, he was given bail. He left Dublin and made it to the north of the country and from there to New York, in America, before moving to Boston.
He worked in journalism and politics (for the administration of U.S. President Franklin Pierce) but his time in Ireland had taken a toll on him - he now suffered from severe headaches and his nerves acted up on him. He was victim to strokes and, as he neared his thirtieth birthday, he claimed that he sensed the approach of death. Feeling unwell, he gathered his household around him, toasted the freedom of Ireland with a broad smile and, tears streaming down his cheeks, retired to his bed. He died that night, 5th March, 1854.
"If the landlords of Ireland make their existence incompatible with the lives of the people, every one of us must choose either to fall with the landlords or live with the people. When it comes to that you can take no medium course. You cannot continue silent and inactive. You cannot stand between parties. They will crush you in the collision."
THE NOT SO IRISH NEWS...
Her analysis shows how the paper reflects the political attitudes of the Stormont Castle Catholics (who dominate the SDLP*) and the conservative values of the Catholic Hierarchy, especially Bishop Cahal Daly.
(From 'Iris' magazine, October 1987.)
('1169' comment - *...and who now fill the ranks of other Stoop-like political parties in Stormont and Leinster House.)
Having decided that discrimination has been overcome and chosen to ignore the structural relationship of the Irish economy, North and South, to British imperialism, it is necessary to find another explanation for the fact that there are so few jobs.
The decline in employment is the result of the war of liberation "...scaring off investment, disrupting production and, ironically, creating a situation where half those in employment are dependent for their jobs on British government money.." (February 9th). Sinn Féin's manifesto on discrimination and unemployment is dismissed because "..it originates from an attitude that in the past 18 years has done its utmost to destroy the economic fabric of society...it has thrown thousands of workers on the dole scrap heap.." (May 13th).
The Irish establishment's solution to our economic ills is to throw open both the Six and 26 Counties to the multinationals, trusting that in the process of such capitalist 'development' there will be pay-offs for themselves. Nothing must be allowed to interfere with such investment and in this regard the McBride Principles, peaceful political sanctions that they are, also come under fire. Supporters of the Principles are "..in grave danger of destroying what is central to their argument. Pressure cannot be put on employers if they are reluctant to set up in the first place" (April 21st).
The Politics Of Appeasement :
For the people on behalf of whom 'The Irish News' speaks, the first and last priority is an end to "conflict." Endless appeals are made for "dialogue" and "reconciliation". The evils of 'violence' are denounced at every opportunity, and overwhelmingly the bulk of the denunciations are directed against those engaged in armed struggle against British imperialism. But it is not just armed struggle to which these people are opposed.
What they really require to cease is the politics of popular struggle in which ordinary people take responsibility for and fight for control over the decisions which affect their lives at every level... (MORE LATER.)
'IRA NOT OATH-BOUND.'
One of the misconceptions regarding the Irish Republican Army is that its members are obliged to bind themselves to the Army by oath. It is even thought by some that once having joined the Army one cannot leave it except under pain of death or dire penalty.
When one reflects that most of the present-day political party leaders were at one time members of the Army, it will be seen how ridiculous are these misconceptions. There is no oath in the IRA. This is made quite clear to all recruits seeking membership. Volunteers on entering the Army are required to make the following declaration :
'I (name here) promise that I will promote the objects of Óglaigh na hÉireann to the best of my knowledge and ability and that I will obey all orders and regulations issued to me by the Army authority and by my superior officers."
Any person purporting to administer an oath as a condition of membership of the Army would be acting in contravention of the Army Constitution and against Army Orders and Regulations.
(END of 'IRA Not Oath-Bound' ; NEXT - 'Take Your Choice', from the same source.)
ON THIS DATE (30TH MARCH) IN...
...1798 :
'His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executive power in conjunction with the chief governor of Ireland, who was viceroy of the British monarch.
The council evolved in the Lordship of Ireland on the model of the Privy Council of England ; as the English council advised the king in person, so the Irish council advised the viceroy, who in medieval times was a powerful Lord Deputy. In the early modern period the council gained more influence at the expense of the viceroy, but in the 18th century lost influence to the Parliament of Ireland.
In the post-1800 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Irish Privy Council and viceroy Lord Lieutenant had formal and ceremonial power, while policy formulation rested with a Chief Secretary directly answerable to the British cabinet. The council comprised senior public servants, judges, and parliamentarians, and eminent men appointed for knowledge of public affairs or as a civic honour...' (From here.)
On the 30th March, 1798, this 'council of eminent men' got a rude awakening when they realised that less 'eminent' (!) people weren't willing to take their advice and put the pike in the thatch. So they proclaimed that Ireland was in a state of rebellion and declared martial law. And those 'eminent men' were right - the people weren't listening to them, and the rebellion went ahead.
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...1880 :
Séan O'Casey - Irish playwright, socialist, and member of 'The Irish Citizen Army' - was born in Dublin on the 30th March, 1880.
His work was mainly about the plight of the working classes, which encompassed his own background as he was born into and grew up surrounded by poverty and, indeed, wrote his earlier scripts in tenement rooms. He is perhaps best known for 'The Shadow of a Gunman', 'Juno and the Paycock' and 'The Plough and the Stars'.
He died in Torquay, in Devon, England, on the 18th September 1964, at 84 years of age.
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...1920 :
IRA Volunteer James McCarthy, Thurles, County Tipperary, was shot dead in his house on the 30th March 1920 by the RIC after they had sent him a death threat on Dáil Éireann notepaper in an effort to incriminate the Republican Movement in his death. His brother, Billy, who was an IRA Lieutenant in that county, was also shot dead by the same British force around that time.
The coroner's inquest into the death of James McCarthy stated that "...he was shot by some person or persons unknown wearing long black coats and caps similar to those worn by the police (sic)..."
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...1920 :
On the 30th March, 1920, two Donegal Sinn Féin TD's - Joe Sweeney and PJ Ward - were 'arrested' by the RIC and taken to Derry Jail then moved to Crumlin Road jail in Belfast, and then to Wormwood Scrubs prison in London.
They were served with internment orders, went on hunger strike and were eventually taken to hospital for medical attention. They discharged themselves with assistance from the 'Irish Self-Determination League'.
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...1920 :
On the 30th March, 1920, the IRA, led by Tadgh Brosnan, ambushed a three-man RIC patrol at Killiney Cross near Castlegregory, in County Kerry, and relieved them of their weapons. You can read more about that brave Irish soldier here.
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...1920 :
On the 30th March, 1920, the following Proclamation was made public by the IRA -
'Whereas the spies and traitors known as the Royal Irish Constabulary are holding this country for the enemy, and whereas said spies and bloodhounds are conspiring with the enemy to bomb and bayonet and otherwise outrage a peaceful, law-abiding and liberty loving people, we do hereby solemnly warn prospective recruits that they join the RIC at their own peril. All nations are agreed as to the fate of traitors."
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...1921 :
Four RIC members, on pushbikes, were sent to the area to check it out - 'Head Constable' Edward J. Mulroony, Sergeant Michael Hallisey, and two 'Constables', Neill and Keary. As they were cycling back over the railway bridge in Ballyfermot, on their return journey, they were ambushed by the IRA.
A gunfight ensued and Padraig O'Connor, a Volunteer with the Dublin Active Service Unit IRA, shot and wounded H/C Mulroony, Sergeant Hallisey died at the scene and 'Constable' Neill was seriously wounded. By the time British reinforcements got there, the IRA were gone. H/C Mulroony died from his injuries on the 4th April.
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...1921 :
"One of our first governmental acts was to take control of the voluntary armed forces of the nation. From the Irish Volunteers we fashioned the Irish Republican Army to be the military arm of the government. This army is, therefore, a regular State (sic) force, under the civil control of the elected representatives...and under officers who hold their commissions under warrant from these representatives. The Government is, therefore, responsible for the actions of this army."
- the words of Eamon de Valera, as delivered by him during an interview he gave to an American news agency on Wednesday, 30th March, 1921. The government he referenced was the Irish republican administration, Dáil Éireann (not the present-day political institution which operates from Kildare Street in Dublin) and he maintained that position, at least verbally, until May 1926 when he abandoned the Republican Movement and founded the Fianna Fáil grouping.
In August 1927, that man and his new State party entered the Leinster House institution, which was then - and remains - a puppet parliament, spawned out of the 'Treaty of Surrender' and operated 'by the leave' of Westminster. He and his ilk then turned on, and against, "the voluntary armed forces of the nation".
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...1921 :
Seán Finn and some other men were in a house when they heard firing nearby. Some members of the ASU were in a firefight with a British military patrol and Seán and the others went to help ; he was hit and killed, but the rest of the IRA Unit escaped when a fog rolled in from the Shannon estuary.
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...1921 :
James McLoughlin (19), Company Officer of an IRA Active Service Unit attached to the 2nd Tipperary Brigade, was shot dead on the 30th March 1921 by British Forces at Cormackstown, Thurles, County Tipperary.
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...1921 :
The British army discovered an IRA Lewis gun in Harcourt Street in Dublin along with 6,000 rounds of ammunition.
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...1921 :
On the 30th March, 1921, an IRA party, led by Dan Hogan, rescued one of their comrades, Matt Fitzpatrick (pictured), from County Hospital in Monaghan Town -
.....'during the raid on Roslea, Matt Fitzpatrick, a leading member of the Monaghan IRA Brigade, was wounded. For a time he was moved from safe house to safe house, before eventually being captured near Newbliss on 27th/28th of March 1921.
He was taken to Monaghan infirmary where a military party of six men and a sergeant were placed on guard. The infirmary was formerly a gaol. It was surrounded by a ten-foot high wall. The only access was through the main gate, located off a side street but close to the police barracks and courthouse. Dan Hogan lead the rescue party...' (more here...)
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...1921 :
On the 30th March, 1921, the Flying Column of the Cork (West) No. 3 Brigade IRA ('fresh' from action at Crossbarry), under Tom Barry, moved into position to attack Rosscarberry RIC barracks and, at about 1am on the 31st, placed a 400 lb bomb at the front door of the barracks - the upper floors of the buildings opposite were occupied by the IRA and the rear of the barracks was also covered by IRA men.
The IRA bomb had been made by a man named McCarthy, who received his training with the British Army 'Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers' Unit.
An RIC Sergeant, Ambrose Shea (a Wicklow man, 46 years of age) ('Service Number 57356'), who was asleep in the dayroom in the front of the building, and a Black and Tan member, Charles H. Bowles (22 years of age, from Kent, in England, who was only 8 months 'on the job') ('Service Number 72058'), who was in an upstairs room, directly over the door, died in the explosion, and a third British operative, an RIC member named Kinsella, died later. Nine of their colleagues were injured in that IRA operation.
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...1977 :
On the 30th March, 1977, a (Catholic) civilian, Francis Cassidy (43), was found shot with his throat cut on a grass verge in the Highfield area of Belfast. Members of the 'Ulster Volunteer Force' (UVF) gang known as the 'Shankill Butchers' were responsible for the killing.
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...1979 :
As Airey Neave was driving out of the British 'House of Commons' in his blue Vauxhall Cavalier car on the 30th March, 1979, a bomb exploded under the vehicle, killing him instantly. He was the spokesperson on the Occupied Six Counties of Ireland for the Conservative Party and was allegedly readying himself for the position of 'British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland' in the new Conservative government, as he had made a reputation for himself as being 'tough' on Irish republican dissidents.
He had close links to the British Secret Intelligence Service throughout his adult life and, during the Second World War, he worked for 'MI9', a subsidiary of 'MI6', and was also known to hold the rank of commanding officer of the 'Intelligence School 9' of the British 'Territorial Army'. His political intention was to 'wage war' on Irish republicanism, a war he lost.
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Thanks for the visit, and for reading.
Sharon and the team.
