Ireland 1915 ; the Irish Volunteer Movement had split ; approximately 170,000 men stayed with John Redmond and fought with England in the belief that to do so would guarantee a form of 'Home Rule' for Ireland - but about 10,000 men broke away as they had no faith in Redmond's plan.
Months earlier, British 'Sir' George Richardson had taken command of the 'Ulster Volunteer Force' (a pro-British militia) and had landed about 25,000 rifles and two-and-a-half million rounds of ammunition at Larne in County Antrim - when the British Government in Westminster attempted to move against the UVF (as they had no agreed control over them then), British Army Officers mutinied in objection.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Ireland, other forces were recruiting : the 'Irish Citizen Army' was recruiting for volunteers, as was the then Sinn Fein organisation, the 'Irish Republican Brotherhood' and John Redmond's 'United Irish League'. There was turmoil in the country.
A child was born into the above circumstances in Dundalk, in County Louth. He was child number three in the family, and one more was to be born after him. This third child in the Goss family, Richard, went to a local school and, like others in the Goss neighbourhood, tried to get work locally when he was finished his schooling - he was successful, and got a job in Rasson's Shoe Factory in Dundalk.
The troubled times he lived in got his attention and, at 18 years young (in 1933), Richie Goss joined the North Louth Battalion of the IRA, and trained in the use of explosives.
At that time in Ireland (which, by then, had been forcibly partitioned), the anti-Catholic bigots of the then two-year-old 'Ulster Protestant League' were in full swing ; nationalists all over the Six Counties were being hammered, and British political leaders were voicing support for the bigots - indeed, 'Sir' Basil Brooke actually boasted that he had "not a Roman Catholic about my own place"!
Also, the then British Stormont Minister for Labour, a Mr. J. M. Andrews (pictured), spoke out about what he termed "a foul smear" - that of "another allegation made against the (British) government, which is untrue : that, out of 31 porters at Stormont, 28 are Roman Catholic. I have investigated the matter and I have found that there are 30 Protestants and only one Roman Catholic (who is) there only temporarily."
The British Loyalists, too, in the form of the Orange Order, were putting pressure on the Nationalists in the Six Counties ; the then 'Grand Master' of that anti-Nationalist grouping, a British Senator, 'Sir' Joseph Davison, stated - "When will the Protestant employers of Northern Ireland (sic)recognise their duty to their Protestant brothers and sisters and employ them to the exclusion of Roman Catholics? It is time Protestant employers realised that whenever a Roman Catholic is brought into their employment it means one Protestant vote less. It is our duty to pass the word along - Protestants employ Protestants."
That was the sentiment of those times - the blatant sectarianism that existed, and which Richie Goss, amongst others, hoped to bring to an end.
He was 18 years young, an IRA member and learning to use explosives - in early 1934, at 19 years of age, Richie Goss was picked-up by the Free State Special Branch (political police) and asked to account for his movements ; he refused to do so, was brought before a Free State Military Tribunal and sentenced to three months in prison.
The prison sentence was related, according to the 'Court', to what became known as 'The McGrory Incident' when, in Dundalk, County Louth, on the 9th January 1934, a debt-collector (who was also said to be a member of the right-wing 'Blueshirt'[Fine Gael] party) was held-up by armed men and his bag of cash was taken. In making inquiries in the area about the robbery, the Free State Gardai ('police') were assisted by a local man, a Mr. Joseph McGrory, from Chapel Street, Dundalk : two IRA men were jailed as a result of the evidence given by Mr McGrory.
On the night of the 11th February 1934, a bomb was thrown through the front window of the McGrory house, and the explosion killed his wife. On the 23rd March 1934, Richie Goss and two others (James Finnigan and Matt McCrystal) were sentenced to three months in jail because they refused "to enter into recognisances" ie 'explain their whereabouts' on the night of the McGrory incident. Then, in early July 1935, four IRA men were arrested and charged with the death of Mrs McGrory.
Those men were Richie Goss, Eamon Coffey, Thomas Walsh and Bernard Murphy (all from Dundalk). The Free Staters had received information from an informer that five men were responsible for 'The McGrory Incident' - the four men named above, and one other ; James Finnigan. However, Mr Finnigan was already in jail, serving fifteen months for possession of weapons.
The informer was Matt McCrystal, an IRA man and, on his evidence, the first-ever 'murder trial' before a Free State Military Tribunal went ahead. But it was not successful - on the 20th July, 1935, after a five-day hearing, all the accused were acquitted.
Within months, Richie Goss was in England, helping to organise IRA Units, safe-houses etc for the campaign ; he was arrested in Liverpool in May 1939 for refusing to account for £20 in his possession (!) and was sentenced to seven-days in Walton Jail - when released, he reported back to the IRA in London. About two months later he returned to Ireland but was unlucky enough to be grabbed by the Free Staters in their round-up of known and suspected IRA members and supporters in September that year (1939) ; on the 2nd September 1939, the Leinster House Administration (the Free Staters) had issued a statement saying that, because of "the armed conflict now taking place in Europe, a national (sic) emergency exists affecting the vital interests of the State."
On the following day (3rd September 1939), the 'Emergency Powers Bill' was enacted (ie to all intent and purpose it was martial law) and, days later (on the 8th September 1939) a new Free State Minister for 'Justice' was appointed - the ferociously anti-republican Gerald Boland. All known or suspected Irish republicans were rounded-up, but a republican-minded lawyer, Sean MacBride (whose parents had fought alongside the IRA) supported the republican prisoners and, on the 1st December 1939, due to a 'habeas corpus' application, Richie Goss and fifty-two other republican prisoners were released from Mountjoy Jail in Dublin.
The men reported back to their IRA Unit's and continued the fight - Richie Goss was promoted to the position of Divisional Officer Commanding of the North-Leinster/South Ulster IRA and, in July 1941, when he was staying in the house of a family named Casey in Longford, it was surrounded by Free State troops and Gardai ; a shoot-out ended in the capture of the then twenty-six years young Richie Goss and the wounding of a Free State Army Lieutenant, resulting in a charge of attempted murder against Goss.
A Free State Military Tribunal returned a 'guilty' verdict on Richie Goss and he was sentenced to death. That was in July, 1941 and, on the 8th August that year, Richie Goss was taken, under armed guard, from Mountjoy Jail in Dublin and he was put in the back of a truck. He was forced to sit on his own coffin on the journey from Dublin to Portlaoise Jail.
On the 9th August 1941 - 82 years ago on this date - Richie Goss, 26 years young, was shot dead by a Free State firing squad and buried in Portlaoise Prison yard. In September 1948 - seven years after his execution- his remains were released and re-interred in Dowdallshill Cemetery in Dundalk, County Louth.
A well-known Irish republican of the time (and still remembered by the Movement to this day) Brian O'Higgins, wrote the following in the 1950 edition of 'The Wolfe Tone Annual' -
"On September 18th, 1948, the bodies of Patrick McGrath, Thomas Harte, George Plant, Richard Goss, Maurice O'Neill and Charles Kerins were disinterred in prison yards and given to their comrades and relatives for re-burial among their own.
These men were condemned to death and put to death as criminals, as outlaws, as enemies of Ireland. Today, that judgement and verdict is reversed, even by those who were and are their opponents, and they are acknowledged to be what we have always claimed them to have been - true comrades of Tone, of Emmet, of Mitchel, of the Fenians, and of all the heroic dead of our own day and generation.
There was no bitterness in their hearts towards any man or group of men, no meanness in their minds, no pettiness or brutality in their actions. They were, and are, worthy to rank with the greatest and noblest of our dead, and the younger men we salute and pray for and do homage to today are worthy to be their comrades. The only shame to be thought of in connection with those republicans is that Irishmen slew them and slandered them, as Irishmen had slain and slandered the men of 1922, for the 'crime' of being faithful soldiers of the Republic of Ireland.
Let us remember that shame only as an incentive to action and conduct that will make recurrence of it impossible ever again. Wolfe Tone built his plan for true indepdence on the resistance tradition of all the centuries from the beginning of the conquest to his own day, and these men who were his faithful followers, knew no plan but his would ever end English domination in Ireland..."
Those who would make all Ireland free must follow in his and their footsteps or fail. Men talk foolishly today, as they and others have talked for many futile years, of "declaring" the Republic of Ireland. There is no need to declare it. Wolfe Tone and Robert Emmet founded it and made it known to the world.
Daniel O'Connell reviled and repudiated it, but John Mitchel and Fintan Lalor stood beneath its banner and gave it their allegiance. The Fenians made it articulate and preserved it through two generations until the men and women of 1916 proclaimed it in arms. The whole people of Ireland accepted it a few years later, giving it the most unanimous vote that has ever been cast in this country, and it was established and declared on January 21st, 1919.
It has never been dis-established since, but it has been suppressed by falsehood and by force, and it is suppressed at this moment.
Against that force and falsehood, against that unjust and unlawful suppression, the men we honour today - Patrick McGrath, Thomas Harte, George Plant, Richard Goss, Maurice O'Neill and Charles Kerins - did battle unto death. Their blood cries out for only one vengenance - the restoration of the suppressed Republic of Ireland."
- Brian O'Higgins, as quoted in 'The Wolfe Tone Annual', 1950, speaking about the remains of the six Irish rebels which were handed over to their comrades and relatives on the 18th September 1948.
Richard Goss 1915 - 1941.
'KEOGHBOYS OF THE 1950's.'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
The AOH in Ireland were ever noted for their wretched cringing before Imperial England and for their sectarianism.
Afraid to join the professed Unionists in open condemnation of freedom-loving Irishmen, unwilling to give the slightest approval to anything with a separatist flavour, they wobble on a middle line pretending to be champions of the Faith.
They are neither fish, flesh nor good red herring.
In the village where I was born, they were chiefly noted for the brave way they played 'Faith Of Our Fathers', striking the same chord as the 'Pope's Brass Band' of 100 years ago, and of their invariable rendering of 'A Nation Once Again'.
This noteworthy body of men have come forward again to demonstrate their many faces. The 'Derry Journal' newspaper gives interesting accounts of their gatherings in Ballycastle and Drumquin on St Patrick's Day...
(MORE LATER.)
INTERNMENT IN OCCUPIED IRELAND : 9TH AUGUST 1971.
'During the 9th August 1971 and the early hours of the 10th August Northern Ireland (sic) experienced the worst violence since August 1969...in a series of raids across Northern Ireland (sic), 342 people were arrested and taken to makeshift camps. There was an immediate upsurge of violence and 17 people were killed during the next 48 hours.
Of these 10 were Catholic civilians who were shot dead by the British Army.
Hugh Mullan (38) was the first Catholic priest to be killed in the conflict when he was shot dead by the British Army as he was giving the last rites to a wounded man. Winston Donnell (22) became the first Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) solider to die in 'the Troubles' when he was shot by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) near Clady, County Tyrone...internment was to continue until 5th December 1975.
During that time 1,981 people were detained ; 1,874 were Catholic/Republican...' (from here.)
'The morning of Monday the 9th of August, 1971 was misty in Ballymurphy, a public housing estate of white semi-detached houses, the model of 1960s modernity, in west Belfast, under Divis Mountain.
This morning, though, the dawn gloom was broken by the piercing headlights of British Army armoured cars, which disgorged squads of beret-wearing paratroopers. Doors were kicked in and men, often addled by sleep, dragged away.
Before long, the predominantly nationalist area had woken up amid howls of rage from the families of those who had been taken...' (from here.)
Internment in Ireland, by the British or their proxies in the Free State, was one of the weapons used by those who were (and still are) fighting against the reunification of this country.
On the 6th July, 1957, the fortnightly meeting of the then Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle was being held at the party's Ard Oifig (Head Office) at 31 Wicklow Street in Dublin.
The meeting was raided by the Garda Special Branch and seven members of the Ard Chomhairle were 'arrested' and detained ; among those 'arrested' and interned were the President of Sinn Féin, Patrick MacLogan, the Vice-President Tom Doyle and the National Secretary Michael Traynor.
This signalled the imposition of internment without trial by Éamon de Valera's Fianna Fáil Free State administration, which was (and still is) based in Leinster House, in Kildare Street, in Dublin.
At the December 1957 meeting of Drogheda Corporation, a debate was held on the internment issue, after a letter re same, from the Sinn Fein Publicity Committee protesting against the internment of the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle, was read into the minutes.
Alderman Peter Moore and Councillor Harry Pentony spoke out strongly against the 26-County government's policy in introducing 'The Offences Against the State Acts', with the latter saying that they had a right to protest against internment without trial, not only of the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle, but also of all the young men that were held in custody behind the barbed-wire fences of the Curragh Camp.
He stated that no one was safe under the present State laws, and declared that even he could be interned for what he was saying at the Council meeting, and asked the assembled County officials "is this freedom?".
Alderman Peter Moore said he admired the stand taken by Councillor Pentony and said that he, too, had his duties as an Irishman, and stated that the other Councillors were all aware of where he stood in relation to Internment -
"We are the greatest nation of hypocrites in the world. The political parties in this country have perpetuated unemployment and emigration and we are worse off now than we were in 1922! The republicans are the only consistent element in the country today. They stand to gain nothing and to lose all."
Referring to the freedom movement in Occupied Ireland, he said the young men involved were right and should be admired. They went out to attack the institutions of the British Government and the British 'Monarchy', and their ideals were the ideals of Wolfe Tone, Robert Emmet and the men and women of 1916.
Speaking on the internment of Irishmen without trial he said that the situation in the so-called "Free Ireland" could only be compared with that prevailing under the "Kádár Regime", in the Six Counties, and behind the 'Iron Curtain'.
Larry Grogan, a Sinn Féin election candidate for the Louth constituency, who was one of those interned in the Curragh Camp, was referred to by Alderman Moore when he said that he was proud to say Drogheda had made its contribution to the Republican Movement and they now had this man in prison that "...the latchet of whose shoe many of those who liked to talk of all they did for Irish Freedom are not worthy to loose."
Concluding the Council debate, the Mayor of Drogheda, Councillor Eugene Hughes, said - "As long as there is one British soldier on Irish soil, there will be young Irishmen willing to go out and sacrifice their lives for freedom."
Unfortunately, Councillors today are, to put it mildly, not as concerned about the on-going British military and political claim of jurisdictional control over six Irish counties and are more interested in pushing and promoting a 'Woke Agenda', as they somehow believe that chasing that particular vote will get them a seat in Leinster House or a position with one of the thousands of NGO's in this State. They are now available for sale to the highest bidder.
'LAW AND SOCIETY :
IS IT TIME TO ASK QUESTIONS OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION...?
We have always been a society with a facility for the creation of myths. However, not even the most dewy-eyed devotee of the dreams of the Celtic Twilight could have invented the present status of the legal profession in Ireland.'
By John Drennan.
From 'Magill Magazine Annual, 2002.
The law exists to protect us but, as with the moral law of the Church, those who devote their lives to it should be under its closest scrutiny, precisely because they are more empowered by it than anyone else in our society.
It is time that journalism and politics started asking difficult questions of the legal profession. For starters, we can look into the scandal of the family courts, and then go on to ask who benefits the most from our relatively new-found public tribunal culture.
Only then will we even begin to redress the balance of power between the people and the courts.
(END of 'Law And Society : Is It Time To Ask Questions Of The Legal Profession?' : NEXT - 'Ireland On The Couch', from the same source.)
'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.
The Catholic Church Establishment has been called in to prop up a tottering colonialism in the Six Counties.
They have certainly over-reached themselves in their efforts to outpace the various Protestant Churches in condemnations of republicans and in invoking sanctions against them.
This is in keeping with the role of the Catholic Hierarchy ever since the Penal Laws were relaxed and they came 'off the run' themselves with the withdrawal of the bounty price on the heads of Catholic clergy.
From the foundation of Maynooth College with British government money in 1795 and the adoption in Ireland of the democratic ideal and the principles of the American and French Revolutions, the Bishops - with a few honourable exceptions - have acted as moral policemen of British rule in Ireland... (MORE LATER.)
Thanks for the visit, and for reading,
Sharon and the team.
