Pictured : Terence MacSwiney, his wife Muriel and their daughter, Máire, photographed in 1919.
On August 12th, 1920, in Cork, British forces 'arrested' Terence MacSwiney (and other members of the Cork IRA) for possession of 'seditious articles and documents', and for the possession of a cipher key which, they claimed, would enable the user to read coded messages sent by the RIC and, to ensure conviction, they accused him of three other counts of 'sedition'.
Terence MacSwiney was summarily 'tried' by the British on the 16th of August, 1920 - 103 years ago on this date - and sentenced to two years imprisonment in Brixton Prison, away from his family and supporters ; he immediately began a hunger strike in protest against his conviction, and was joined by ten other political prisoners (including Maurice Crowe [Tipperary] and Michael Fitzgerald).
Terence MacSwiney was born on the 28th March 1879, and was the Commandant of the 1st Cork Brigade of the IRA and was the elected Lord Mayor of Cork.
He died after 74 days on hunger strike (a botched effort to force feed him hastened his death) in that prison (Brixton) on the 25th October, 1920, and his body lay in Southwark Cathedral, in London, where tens of thousands of people paid their respects.
He summed-up the Irish feeling at that time (a feeling and determination which is still prominent in Irish republicans to this day) -
"The contest on our side is not one of rivalry or vengeance but of endurance. It is not those who can inflict the most but those who can suffer the most who will conquer. Those whose faith is strong will endure to the end in triumph."
"If I die I know the fruit will exceed the cost a thousand fold. The thought of it makes me happy. I thank God for it. Ah, Cathal, the pain of Easter week is properly dead at last..."
- Terence MacSwiney wrote these words in a letter to Cathal Brugha on the 30th of September, 1920, the 39th day of his hunger strike. The pain he refers to is that caused by his failure to take part in the 1916 Easter Rising - contradictory orders from Dublin and the failure of the arms ship, 'The Aud', to land arms in Tralee left the Volunteers in Cork unprepared for the fight.
In his book 'History of the Irish Working Class', Peter Berresford Ellis wrote :
"On October 25th, 1920, Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney - poet, dramatist and scholar - died on the 74th day of a hunger-strike while in Brixton Prison, London. A young Vietnamese dishwasher in the Carlton Hotel in London broke down and cried when he heard the news - "A Nation which has such citizens will never surrender". His name was Nguyen Ai Quoc (pictured) who, in 1941, adopted the name Ho Chi Minh and took the lessons of the Irish anti-imperialist fight to his own country..."
On the 13th March, 1920, Terence MacSwiney was unanimously elected as the 'Lord Mayor of Cork' by that city's Corporation (he donated his salary for the position to an outside organisation and received no salary for the other position he held at that time - Brigadier of the No. 1 Brigade, Cork IRA) -
"I shall be as brief as possible. This is not an occasion for many words, least of all a conventional exchange of compliments and thanks. The circumstances of the vacancy in the office of Lord Mayor governed inevitably the filling of it. And I come here more as a soldier stepping into the breach, than as an administrator to fill the first post in the municipality.
At a normal time it would be your duty to find for this post the councillor most practical and experienced in public affairs. But the time is not normal. We see in the manner in which our late Lord Mayor was murdered an attempt to terrify us all. Our first duty is to answer that threat in the only fitting manner by showing ourselves unterrified, cool and inflexible for the fulfillment of our chief purpose - the establishment of the independence and integrity of our country — the peace and the happiness of our country. To that end I am here.
I was more closely associated than any other here with our late murdered friend and colleague, both before and since the events of Easter Week, in prison and out of it, in a common work of love for Ireland, down to the hour of his death. For that reason I take his place. It is, I think, though I say it, the only fitting answer to those who struck him down.
Following from that there is a further matter of importance only less great — it touches the efficient continuance of our civic administration. If this recent unbearable aggravation of our persecution by our enemies should cause us to suspend voluntarily the normal discharge of our duties, it would help them very materially in their campaign to overthrow our cause. I feel the question of the future conduct of our affairs is in all our minds. And I think I am voicing the general view when I say that the normal functions of our corporate body must proceed, as far as in our power lies, uninterrupted, with that efficiency and integrity of which our late civic head gave such brilliant promise.
I don't wish to sound a personal note, but this much may be permitted under the circumstances — I made myself active in the selection of our late colleague for the office of Lord Mayor. He did not seek the honour and would not accept it as such, but when put to him as a duty he stepped to his place like a soldier.
Before his election we discussed it together in the intimate way we discussed everything touching our common work since Easter Week. We debated together what ought to be done and what could be done, keeping in mind, as in duty bound, not only the ideal line of action but the practical line at the moment as well. That line he followed with an ability and success all his own.
Gentlemen, you have paid tribute to him on all sides. It will be my duty and steady purpose to follow that line as faithfully as in my power, though no man in this Council could hope to discharge its functions with his ability and his perfect grasp of public business in all its details and as one harmonious whole.
I would recall some words of mine on that day of our first meeting after the election of Lord Mayor. I realised that most of you in the minority here would be loyal to us, if doing so did not threaten your lives ; but that you lacked the spirit and the hope to join with us to complete the work of liberation so well begun. I allude to it here again, because I wish to point out again the secret of our strength and the assurance of our final victory.
This contest of ours is not on our side a rivalry of vengeance, but one of endurance — it is not they who can inflict most but they who can suffer most will conquer — though we do not abrogate our function to demand and see that evil doers and murderers are punished for their crimes.
But it is conceivable that they, our enemies, could interrupt our course for a time ; then it becomes a question simply of trust in God and endurance. Those whose faith is strong will endure to the end and triumph. The shining hope of our time is that the great majority of our people are now strong in that faith. To you, gentlemen of the minority here, I would address a word. I ask you again to take courage and hope. To me it seems — and I don't say it to hurt you — that you have a lively faith in the power of the devil, and but little faith in God.
But God is over us and in His divine intervention we have perfect trust. Anyone surveying the events in Ireland for the past five years must see that it is approaching a miracle how our country has been preserved. God has permitted this to be, to try our spirits, to prove us worthy of a noble line, to prepare us for a great and noble destiny.
You amongst us who have yet no vision of the future have been led astray by false prophets. The liberty for which we today strive is a sacred thing, inseparably entwined as body and soul with that spiritual liberty for which the saviour of men died, and which is the inspiration and foundation of all just government. Because it is sacred, and death for it is akin to the sacrifice on Calvary, following far off but constant to that divine example, in every generation our best and bravest have died.
Sometimes in our grief we cry out foolish and unthinking words : 'the sacrifice is too great'. But it is because they were our best and bravest that they had to die. No lesser sacrifice could save us. Because of it our struggle is holy, our battle is sanctified by their blood, and our victory is assured by their martyrdom.
We, taking up the work they left incomplete, confident in God, offer in turn sacrifice from ourselves. It is not we who take innocent blood but we offer it, sustained by the example of our immortal dead and that divine example which inspires us all for the redemption of our country. Facing our enemies we must declare our attitude simply. We ask for no mercy, and we will make no compromise.
But to the Divine Author of mercy we appeal for strength to sustain us, whatever the persecution, that we may bring our people victory in the end. The civilised world dare not continue to look on indifferent. But if the rulers of earth fail us we have yet sure succour in the Ruler of Heaven ; and though to some impatient hearts His judgements seem slow, they never fail, and when they fall they are overwhelming and final."
Terence MacSwiney : 28th March 1879 - 25th October 1920.
'KEOGHBOYS OF THE 1950's...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
Senator JG Lennon, Armagh, was prominent at the Drumquin demonstration ; he demonstrated his loyalty to the Queen of England when he took his oath on going into Stormont ; no victim of economic stress, he considers this alteration of his allegiance worth the few hundred pounds per annum which accrues to him in his position as 'Senator'.
('1169' comment - that oath, which was agreed and signed by all members of Stormont [including the 'republicans' in that institution], is set out in 'Section 1 of the Parliamentary Oaths Act of 1866' (the 1866 Act), amended by Sections 2, 8 and 10 of the Promissory Oaths Act of 1868, and now [2023] reads :
"I [name] do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty King Charles III, his heirs and successors, according to law. So help me God."
Wolfe Tone and many other Irish republicans could have saved themselves had they taken such an oath.)
At Drumquin, the good Senator explained to the gathering the function of the 'Special Constabulary', with interesting sidelights on similar institutions in other countries.
The people of Drumquin can now consider themselves educated, as far as the 'B Specials' are concerned, theoretically as well as practically. Mr Lennon then explained that he considered it to be the duty of any government "to disarm or completely disband such forces..."!
Exit Senator Lennon - how much nearer is Ireland to freedom and peace...?
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (16TH AUGUST) 102 YEARS AGO : SECOND DÁIL ÉIREANN MEETS.
On the 16th August 1921 - 102 years ago on this date - 125 members of the Second Dáil Éireann ('An Dara Dáil') assembled (pictured) for a meeting in the Mansion House, in Dublin. It consisted of members elected at the 1921 elections, but only members of Sinn Féin were willing to take their seats in it.
As with its predecessor, the First Dáil ('An Chéad Dáil', which assembled on the 21st January 1919 in the Mansion House) it was also a 32-County institution, unlike the State administration now in Kildare Street, in Dublin, which nonsensically claims to be 'Dáil Éireann' but admits that it only claims jurisdictional control over twenty-six of our thirty-two counties!
One of the first items on the agenda was to discuss 'the Truce', which had been agreed in July (1921) between Irish republican representatives and Westminster's political and armed forces, and was to lead to negotiations towards a treaty and, on the 7th January, 1922, the Second Dáil, by 64 votes to 57, ratified (under threat of "immediate and terrible war" by British prime minister David Lloyd George) an 'Anglo-Irish Treaty' which fell far short of what was required for a lasting and proper peace on the island of Ireland.
From 1919 to 1922, the 32-County Dáil Éireann was the (revolutionary) parliament of the 32-County Irish Republic until, with British military and political backing, on the 6th December 1922, a Free State political administration was formed in its present location on Kildare Street, in Dublin, and it usurped the name 'Dáil Éireann', which it still erroneously classes itself as to this day.
The 32-County republican government tried its best but was not able to continue to function properly ; although regarded by a large section of the population as the only de jure Irish government it could do little more than represent the protest against the seizure of power by the Free Staters and place the logical and constitutional facts of the situation on record by means of statements and proclamations.
For instance, in November, 1922, Irish republicans loyal to (the 32-County) Dáil Éireann issued the following Proclamation -
'Dated the 3rd November, 1922, the following proclamation was issued :
GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND.
PROCLAMATION.
Whereas an unconstitutional and usurping Junta, set up at the dictation of the British Government and calling itself the "Provisional Government of Ireland," is and has been pledging the credit of the nation without the sanction of Dáil Eireann, the Parliament and Government of the Republic, and contracting debts and liabilities in various ways, including the purchase of military supplies and war material, and is further seeking to create vested interests by filling vacant offices and making appointments to new offices ;
And whereas the so-called Provisional Government has been proclaimed an illegal body by the Government of the Republic ;
Therefore, it is hereby proclaimed and notified to all whom it may concern that all such debts contracted or to be contracted, and appointments made, or to be made, by the said Provisional Government without the sanction of Dáil Eireann, the Parliament and Government of the Republic, are, and shall be illegal, null and void, and will not be recognised by the State.
(Signed) Aibhistin de Staic (Austin Stack)
Minister for Finance.'
In May 1923, the defence of the (32-County) Republic by armed struggle was suspended : from April 1922 until May 1923, the fighting had raged throughout the country (all 32 Counties of it) until the republican forces, encircled and isolated, were forced to dump arms. The republican army had lost some of its best leaders ; the republican institutions had been smashed, 11,316 republican fighters were still interned and British interests were being protected, by the 26-County Staters, 'with an economy of English lives.'
That same political junta is still here, in this Free State, still operating from Leinster House in Kildare Street, in Dublin and it's still wreaking political and financial havoc in the part of Ireland that it claims to have jurisdictional control over.
Those who operate under its 'writ' are, for the most part, millionaire/extremely wealthy businessmen and women and/or so-called 'landlords', and have no empathy with the people they purport to govern over.
The 'Free State' was spawned, in Ireland, on the 6th December 1922 and, in a nutshell, it has been all downhill since then, politically and morally. We need a new beginning ; a 'New Ireland'.
The alternative is to continue to put so-called 'new oil' (political candidates) into a seized 'engine' (Leinster House) in the hope that it will work.
IRELAND ON THE COUCH.
A Psychiatrist Writes.
'Magill' commissioned Professor Patricia Casey to compile an assessment of Irish society at what may emerge as the end of a period of unprecedented growth and change.
This is her report.
From 'Magill Magazine' Annual, 2002.
There was a perception of the Irish as a rural people ; priest-ridden and repressed but warm and friendly.
Over the past decade that image has metamorphosed and we are now seen as artistically sophisticated, socially progressive, chic and wealthy.
Many of these changes are positive, but there are indicators that at least some of this restyling has brought a raft of problems that could scarcely be comprehended in a sociological report.
We have always had a very friendly relationship to alcohol, and the pub has been an integral part of Irish culture. Regrettably, this relationship seems to be turning sour as we consume more and more alcohol. Teenagers and young adults drink prodigious amounts, yet they fail to identify any message in the findings of a recent EU survey which demonstrated that Ireland's young people had the largest intake of alcohol in Europe... (MORE LATER.)
'IN ANSWER TO CHURCH AND STATE AND IN DEFENCE OF IRISH REPUBLICANISM...'
Address to the Annual General Meeting of Comhairle Uladh (Ulster Executive) in Cootehill, County Cavan, on Sunday, November 22nd, 1987, by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, Uachtarán, Sinn Féin Poblachtach.
Comhaírle Uladh AGM, November 22nd, 1987.
No generation of Irish republicans since the foundation of republicanism in Ireland by Wolfe Tone has been exempt from their strictures ; the United Irishmen, the Young Irelanders, the Fenians, the Land League, the men and women of Easter Week 1916, the Irish Republican Army in the Black-and-Tan War, in the war against the Free State, in 1931, in 1956 and in line of unbroken condemnation to the present day.
Denial of the sacraments and of church services for republican dead, excommunication in 1920 and again in 1922, exiling, silencing and punishment of brave priests eg Fathers Albert and Dominic and Father Michael O'Flanagan, who brought religious consolation to active republicans, are all part of this sorry tale. And in spite of it all, the Irish people have in the main clung tenaciously to their religious beliefs, wisely 'rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's'.
The altar has many times been made a pro-British political platform down the years... (MORE LATER.)
16TH AUGUST 1919...
On the 16th August 1919 - 104 years ago on this date - Michael Collins, who was then still an Irish republican and a member of the GHQ Staff of the IRA, visited the Cork area and, as arranged beforehand, held a meeting with representatives of the Cork IRA.
The meeting took place in a town called Caheragh, in Drimoleague, and was presided over by Mr Collins, who announced several changes to the command structure of the 3rd West Cork Brigade of the army (pictured).
Seán Hayes, Hugh Thornton, Liam Deasy, Michael McCarthy, Pat Harte, Denis O'Shea and Ted O'Sullivan were all either promoted or demoted by Mr Collins, in what is said to be the last visit that he made to any of the three Cork Brigades during that period in our history.
After he took the soup, Mr Collins found himself in the Cork area again and, on the evening of the 22nd of August, 1922, Mr Collins and his Free State military escort took a wrong turn (another one...) and, on seeing a man they presumed was a local, pulled-in and asked him for directions.
The local, a Mr Dinny Long (an IRA man) put them on the right road, so to speak, and sent them on their way to an area known as 'the Mouth of Flowers', better known to outsiders as Béal na mBláth.
Mr Long had recognised Collins and got word to his comrades, and a certain IRA man, Liam Deasy, helped to organise a 'street party' for his old ex-republican Commanding Officer. The rest is history...
16TH AUGUST 1920...
British Army Private AE Nunn and some of his colleagues had been tasked with guarding a British Army airplane which crashed to earth on the 15th August, 1920, in the vicinity of Kanturk, in County Cork.
The Kanturk Company of the IRA heard about the incident and arrived at the scene on the same day and opened fire on Private Nunn and his colleagues and, in the firefight, Private Nunn was killed.
The following day, Monday, 16th August 1920 - 103 years ago on this date - Private Nunn's colleagues, assisted by RIC men, raided Jack O'Connell's home at Derrygallon, in Cork, and pulled him and his IRA comrade, Patrick Clancy, out of the house. Both men (pictured) were bayoneted and then shot dead.
The British raiding party later claimed that both men were killed while "resisting arrest".
16TH AUGUST 1920...
The car with the (armed) RIC men arrived on the bridge at the expected time and was fired on, in the belief that the RIC would vacate the vehicle to defend themselves and try and retain ownership of the car.
Instead, although being fired on, the car sped up and hightailed it off the bridge!
16TH AUGUST 1920...
In June, 1920, RIC District Inspector William Harding Wilson was part of an RIC patrol driving through the village of Templetouhy, in County Tipperary, when they were fired on by the IRA ; bullets grazed his head but, although injured, he survived.
That same RIC operative, Wilson, was later said by the IRA to have been involved in the killing of IRA Captain (Borrisoleigh Company, Tipperary No.2 Brigade) Michael Small, who was shot dead on the 4th July, 1920, while he was crossing a field close to where an IRA ambush had taken place.
On the 16th August 1920 - 103 years ago on this date - an IRA 'Active Service Unit' was sent to the townland of Templemore, in Tipperary, to deal with the RIC man and, as he was about to enter the Post Office in that village at about 6.45pm, a shot rang out from a near-by laneway and RIC DI Wilson fell to the ground, having been shot in the head.
His colleagues in the British Army and the RIC went berserk and they went into the town of Templemore and burnt down the Town Hall (pictured) and three creameries in Castleiney, Killeen and Loughmore, and shops and houses were looted and destroyed.
However, during the fiery destruction of the Town Hall, two British soldiers (from the Northampton Regiment) received mortal injuries ; Lance–Corporal Herbert Fuggle died from burns and Lieutenant-Colonel Sidney Beattie was injured and died later from his wounds.
RIP Captain Michael Small.
Thanks for the visit, and for reading,
Sharon and the team.
