On the 21st February, 1919, two-hundred-and-twenty workers went on strike at Fulton's Woolen Mill in Caledon, County Tyrone.
The strike was led by Irish republican activist Peadar O'Donnell and, even though the majority of the workers were unionist, they agreed that unity on the floor of the workplace was needed if they were to improve their pay and conditions.
The striking workers had joined the 'Irish Transport and General Workers Union' and held their ground for the first few weeks but, slowly, the comradeship splintered to the point that, after about one month, at least ninty of them had reluctantly returned to work, leaving about 130 still on the picket lines.
The Mill's management then hired scab workers from the 'Carsonite Ulster Workers Union' and divided the remaining strikers by offering loyalists on the picket their jobs back.
The strike collapsed in July 1919.
==========================
'SINN FÉIN NOTES...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
Sinn Féin statement re IMRA :
"At a meeting of the National Executive of the 'Irish Monetary Reform Association' held on March 20th, 1955, Mr Liam Bolton, Vice-Chairman (sic),presiding, the following resolution was proposed by Liam Bolton and passed -
'1. That the National Executive of IMRA is prepared to accept the Constitution of Sinn Féin as issued to the Irish people.
2. We consider that on the financial issue the social and economic programme of Sinn Féin is not sufficiently specific, but we are prepared as individual members of Sinn Féin through our Cumann to work for full monetary control."
Northern Elections :
The Joint Election Committee met at Headquarters on Sunday, 6th March last, and the business of this Committee is to co-ordinate all the activities of the organisation in the election campaign...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 20th January, 1920, a British-proxy semi-political/military grouping, the 'Dublin Metropolitan Police', raided Number 4, Oakley Road, in Ranelagh, Dublin ('Cullenswood House'), where the then IRA Chief of Staff, Richard Mulcahy (pictured, a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher) lived.
The raid was led by DMP Deputy Inspector William Charles Forbes Redmond (who was assassinated by the IRA just over one year later, on the 21st January 1921 ; he was the DMP 'Assistant Commissioner' at the time), believed to be acting on information from a British spy in the IRA, a man named John Charles Byrne (38), from Romford, in Essex, England.
Mr Byrne 'traded' under a fictitious name, 'John Jameson', and was shot dead by the IRA on the 7th March, 1920, on the Ballymun Road in Dublin.
Richard Mulcahy was in the house on that day in January 1920, with Mr Michael Collins, and both would have been caught had it not been for a spy of their own ; a DMP Detective, a Mr James McNamara, heard about the raid as it was being organised and tipped-off one of his IRA contacts, a Mr Tomas Cullen who, along with IRA man Frank Thornton, rushed to Number 4 and got their men off the premises with minutes to spare.
On the 21st February that year (1920), the DMP raided the house again.
Richard Mulcahy was there, but managed to escape (dressed in his pyjamas!) but the raiders got their hands on IRA documents which, they claimed, contained "complete addresses of 3,000 members of the Dublin Brigade IRA."
But, whether or not they had those details, it didn't prevent the Dublin IRA from defending itself and its people against the British forces in Dublin, and Ireland.
==========================
SO, FAREWELL THEN, CELTIC TIGER....
It had to happen, sooner or later.
Most of the pundits and economists were too busy singing the Celtic Tiger's praises to notice, but a few critical observers worried all along about the weaknesses of a boom economy that depended so much on a few companies from one place - the United States.
By Denis O'Hearn.
From 'Magill' Annual 2002.
It is time to reassess the Celtic Tiger.
Two crucial questions bear examination ; the first is whether a Celtic Tiger could have ever been sustainable, and the second - and far more important question - is what are the social consequences of Irish growth or stagnation?
At the end of the 1980's the future of the southern Irish economy did not look good ; the economy was stagnant, unemployment was higher than anywhere in the European Union except possibly Spain, and the State was one of the most indebted in the world.
Socially, things appeared to be going from bad to worse as the State compounded economic miseries with an austerity programme that shut down or cut back many facilities for the poorest sections of the population.
By 1994, however, the economic growth rate rose to six per cent.
It was so high by EU standards that an article in Morgan Stanley's 'Euroletter' asked whether Ireland was now a Celtic Tiger, after the high-growth tiger economies of East Asia...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 21st February, 1921, a six-person RIC foot patrol was making its way, in single file, through the town of Maynooth, in County Kildare, at about 10pm, when they came under fire from an IRA Unit.
RIC 'Sergeant' Joseph Hughes (34), from Rathaspick, Wolfhill, near Ballylinan, in County Laois, fell to the ground, wounded, as his fellow gunmen ran for cover, firing as they went. The gun battle lasted for about ten minutes, after which the IRA withdrew from the scene.
The IRA Volunteers, from the Kilcock and Leixlip Companies, used shotguns, rifles and revolvers in the attack, hoping to replenish their stock with RIC weapons which, unfortunately, didn't happen this time.
RIC member Hughes worked as a miner as a 15-years-young youth, and then got a job as a postman, but joined the RIC in 1909, at about 23 years of age ; the bullet wound that he received that night killed him - the round hit him in the right jaw and exited at the back of his head.
That IRA operation had been planned by Paddy Mullaney, a national schoolteacher from Leixlip, in County Kildare, who had been appointed Officer Commanding of the 1st Kildare Battalion IRA in November 1920.
The inquest into the shooting found that RIC member Hughes had been killed "by armed rebels".
==========================
On the 21st February, 1921, 'The Freeman's Journal' newspaper announced that British forces in the area had released a 'proclamation' (signed by a Colonel-Commandant PCB Skinner) stating that fairs and markets in the districts of Bagnalstown, Carlow and Castledermot would not be going ahead due to the IRA attacks on roads and bridges in those areas.
The reason for such 'proclamations' was two-fold : to limit themselves as targets on 'Fair Days' and to try and turn the people against the IRA as 'instigators of the trouble caused'.
But, as a tactic, it failed, as the Movement went from strength to strength.
==========================
On the 21st February, 1921, The IRA carried out an ambush on members of the Devonshire Regiment in Friary Street in Kilkenny City.
But the operation wasn't a success : IRA Volunteers Thomas Hennessy was shot dead and Michael Dermody died of his wounds on the 4th March (having been shot by Private Harley Turner and Lance Corporal Ernst Higgins, respectively), and a civilian, Tom Dollard, was shot dead by a British Army soldier, who claimed he thought Mr Dollard was an IRA man.
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On the 21st February, 1921, 'Sir' Hamar Greenwood (pictured) delivered a speech in the British 'House of Commons' during which he stated that elections to the (British spawned) Dublin and Belfast political administrations would be held within two months, and also declared that "the 'Government of Ireland Act' (which partitioned Ireland) provides for the political unity of Ireland..." (!).
Mr Greenwood's colleagues, who disagreed with any type of 'United Ireland' sentiment from anyone, soon made their 'esteemed friend' aware of what they thought of his utterances : eight Conservative British Government Coalition MP's 'crossed the floor' (ie refused to support the 'Government of Ireland Act'), seven Liberal British Government MP's voted against their own administration, and eighty-eight of them showed their annoyance by abstaining from voting.
Poor Hamar was hammered!
==========================
A shop owner in Rosslea, in County Fermanagh, a Mr George Lester, was well known locally as a 'bully boy', a loud mouth, and carried that attitude with him as he put on his 'Ulster Special Constabulary' ('USC') uniform to 'safeguard the Union' ; he was known to actually issue threats to Catholic children and adults, using his 'USC' membership and uniform as a 'shield'.
His constant attempted terrorising of local Catholic children and adults brought him to the attention of the local IRA Unit who, in a letter to him, advised him to calm down, but it didn't work - he continued treating the same demographic in the same manner.
On the 21st February, 1921, as he was opening up his shop for business, the IRA shot him, only wounding him - a warning to stop his bullying behaviour.
It was because of his hatred for Catholics that he was popular with his 'USC' colleagues and a gang of them assembled that same evening to 'avenge' the shooting of their friend ; the 'Specials' and their UVF colleagues drove into the village of Roslea, attacked and looted the priest's house, and burned down at least ten houses in which Catholics lived.
During their attack on the village, a 'USC' member, Samuel Finnegan, used the butt of his rifle to break open a house door but the weapon discharged, killing him instantly.
A few weeks later, in a single night, the IRA targeted about 16 houses where 'Specials' lived and killed three of them.
==========================
In February, 1921, acting on information supplied to them, the British Crown Forces dismantled an IRA arms dump in Cork and removed the weapons that were stored in it.
An investigation by the IRA concluded that a Mr John Sheehan, from Kanturk, in County Cork, had given the location of the arms dump to the British and further inquiries revealed that he had briefed his mother not to open the door as it could be "the Sinn Feiners come for me...". On the night of the 21st February 1921/early morning of the 22nd, the IRA took him in for questioning and he was shot dead by them in early March. His body was discovered on the 21st March (1921) with a notice beside it - "Spies, Traitors, Informers ; associate with the Military, Police and Black and Tans in Kanturk, you will be listed. Beware. IRA".
The IRA issued a statement saying - "During March 1921 a spy was found guilty of giving information to the enemy and was executed by members of the Kanturk Battalion".
==========================
On the 21st February, 1921, The 'Judge Advocate General' of the British Army, a Mr Felix Cassel, wrote to the British Secretary of State for War*, a Mr Laming Worthington-Evans, voicing concern about the death sentence that was pronounced on an Irish rebel, Seán Allen (pictured), the previous month (January 1921).
Seán, from Bank Place in Tipperary, was a member of the Tipperary No.3 Brigade IRA and was convicted of possession of a revolver on the 19th January, 1921. Five of his comrades (Timothy McCarthy, Thomas O'Brien, Daniel O'Callaghan, John Lyons and Patrick O'Mahony), who were captured after the Dripsey ambush, were also sentenced to death by the British.
The 'Execute' ruling had been referred to the British 'High Court' to determine its legality, but that 'court' washed its hands of any responsibility in declaring that it had "...no power to interfere with the findings of a military court while war* was being waged..".
On the 28th February, 1921, all six Irish rebels were executed in the 'Military Detention Barracks' in Cork City by the British.
The IRA instructed its Volunteers to shoot any British Army soldiers that they came across in Cork, and twelve British Army men (some in plain clothes) were shot, of whom six died from their wounds.
(* - when it suited Westminster, it was a "war" it was fighting against the IRA, and when it suited them, it wasn't : it was 'a skirmish against terrorists...')
==========================
BEIR BUA...
Republicanism in history and today.
Published by the James Connolly/Tommy O'Neill Cumann, Republican Sinn Féin, The Liberties, Dublin.
August 1998.
('1169' comment - 'Beir Bua' translates as 'Grasp Victory' in the English language.)
'WHY WE WANT RECRUITS'.
(Padraic H. Pearse, May 1915.)
"We do not anticipate such a moment in the very near future, but we live at a time when it may come swiftly and terribly.
What if Conscription be forced upon Ireland?
What if a Unionist or a Coalition British Ministry repudiate the Home Rule Act?
What if it be determined to dismember Ireland?
What if it be attempted to disarm Ireland?
The future is big with these and other possibilities.
And these are among the reasons why we want recruits."
ROBERT EMMET AND THE IRELAND OF TODAY.
(Padraic H. Pearse ; an address delivered at the Emmet Commemoration in the Aeolian Hall, New York, March 9th, 1914.)
"We who speak here to-night are the voice of one of the ancient indestructible things of the world. We are the voice of an idea which is older than any empire and will outlast every empire.
We and ours, the inheritors of that idea, have been at age-long war with one of the most powerful empires that have ever been built up upon the earth ; and that empire will pass before we pass. We are older than England and we are stronger than England. In every generation we have renewed the struggle, and so it shall be unto the end.
When England thinks she has trampled out our battle in blood, some brave man rises and rallies us again ; when England thinks she has purchased us with a bribe, some good man redeems us by a sacrifice.
Wherever England goes on her mission of empire we meet her and we strike at her : yesterday it was on the South African veldt, today it is in the Senate House at Washington, tomorrow it may be in the streets of Dublin.
We pursue her like a sleuth-hound ; we lie in wait for her and come upon her like a thief in the night : and some day we will overwhelm her with the wrath of God..."
(MORE LATER.)
The 1922 Ard Fheis of the Sinn Féin organisation was a somewhat testy affair, understandably, as some of the roughly 2,500 delegates present had already decided to accept the 'Treaty of Surrender' and were about to side with the British in fighting against the IRA and Irish Republicanism.
In the hope of remaining civil to each other at the Ard Fheis, both sides present agreed to abide by three rules -
'1. That no election would be held in next three months.
2. That that the Dáil (elected as a 32-County body) would continue to function as before the Treaty.
3. That a new Constitution would be put to the people at same time as they would be asked to vote on the Treaty.'
One of the pro-Treaty delegates, a Mr Denis McCullough, spoke about "their people in the North (who) were being murdered day by day" which, if anything, the Treaty he supported was going to prolong!
There were about 300 delegates present from Ulster, and they implored the Ard Fheis to "maintain unity", with the majority of those present assuming that the new Constitution would be republican in character (which it wasn't), if not in spirit (which, again, it wasn't). In relation to 'Number 1', above, the author Diarmaid Ferriter was later to wisely opine that "...three months was a long time to allow events to drift.."
And, unfortunately, things have "drifted" ever since, for all, except traditional Irish republicans.
(More about the 1922 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis can be read here.)
==========================
On the 21st February, 1922, the 'Irish Labour Party' held a conference at which it's secretary, Tom Johnson (pictured) welcomed the 'Treaty of Surrender' but condemned the pro and anti-Treaty sides in Sinn Féin, which is not really surprising as what passes for a 'Labour Party' here has not only never been a republican organisation but has, and is, a pro-State, pro-capitalism, anti-republican collection of individuals wanting to feather their own nests.
Well-suited for 'careers' in Leinster House, in other words.
==========================
In late January 1922, the Free Staters began to change Irish society to suit their new 'respectable' image and, among other dispositions, the IRA Police were disbanded and a new (26 County) 'Civic Guard' was established.
The first commissioner of the new 'police force' was Michael Staines, from County Mayo, the first recruit was Patrick Joseph Kerrigan, also from Mayo, and the first serving member was Patrick McAvinia, from County Cavan. We've no idea on whose shoulders the first republican head they cracked rested.
And it has been all down hill since then...
==========================
On the 21st February, 1922, the British Army barracks in Ennis, County Clare, was vacated by the foreign soldiers, as was the RIC Barracks in Ennis (on the 25th February), and both buildings were taken over by the IRA.
The vacated 'Ordnance Survey Building' in Ennis was abandoned by British civil servants and Free Staters, under the command of Michael Brennan (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free Stater) took it over.
In July that year (1922), the IRA were forced by the Staters to abandon both buildings, but torched them on exiting and, with both buildings no longer serviceable, the Staters had to rough-up a headquarters for themselves in the Corofin Workhouse (pictured)!
==========================
On the 21st February, 1922, the IRA raided the house of former British Army officer, Leslie Huddlestone, at the Cairn, Ramelton, in County Donegal, looking for arms and ammunition.
2nd Lieutenant Joseph Duffy (from Milford, in County Donegal), D Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Northern Division of the IRA was in charge of the operation and, while attempting to gain entry to the house, the hall door was opened from the inside and one shot was fired - the bullet hit Lieutenant Duffy in the heart, killing him instantly.
The IRA later released a statement confirming that 2nd Lieutenant Joseph Duffy "...was engaged in an official raid for arms when he was shot and killed.."
==========================
On the 21st February, 1922, British Army General Nevil Macready wrote a letter to 'Sir' Laming Worthington-Evans (pictured), the British Secretary of State for War, in which 'the Irish situation' was mentioned.
Mr Macready stated to Mr Worthington-Evans that it was his belief that "...it is quite possible that (Michael) Collins and company will have to fight for their lives, not only with the ballot boxes, but also with automatics and rifles.."
And sure no doubt he would have supplied Collins' Crew with more weapons with which to do so again...
==========================
ON THIS DATE (21ST FEBRUARY) 48 YEARS AGO : IRISH REPUBLICAN 'BURIED' BY FREE STATERS UNDER SIX FEET OF CONCRETE.
And freedom's light aglow
When some IRA had gathered in a graveyard in Mayo.
Those brave Irish Freedom fighters
Who came together in the West
Had come to fill the promise to lay Frank Stagg at rest.'
'Frank Stagg was the seventh child in a family of thirteen children, born at Hollymount near Ballinrobe, Co Mayo, in 1942. Stagg was educated to primary level at Newbrooke Primary School and at CBS Ballinrobe to secondary level. After finishing his education, he worked as an assistant gamekeeper with his uncle prior to emigrating from Ireland to England in search of work. In England, Frank was employed as a bus conductor and later qualified as a bus driver. In 1970 he married Bridie Armstrong from Carnicon, Co Mayo.
He joined Sinn Féin in Luton in 1972 and shortly afterwards joined the IRA. Frank remained in touch with home and spent his annual holidays in Hollymount up to the year of his arrest and imprisonment in 1973.
In the words of his mother, "he never forgot he was Irish..." ' (From here.)
Frank Stagg had begun his fourth (and final) hunger strike in late 1975 - having been convicted under the notorious 'British Conspiracy Laws' - as it was the only 'weapon' he had at his disposal with which to impress on his British captors his desire to be repatriated to Ireland.
He died, blind and weighing just four stone, in Wakefield Prison on 12th February 1976, after 62 days on hunger strike.
His remains were hijacked by suited, uniformed and armed members of the State, acting under orders from FS Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave and his 'Justice' Minister, Paddy Cooney - the airplane carrying his coffin was diverted from Dublin to Shannon and, when it landed, the Special Branch surrounded it and forcibly removed the coffin and buried it, supported by an armed escort, under six feet of concrete in Leigue Cemetery in Ballina, County Mayo, in a grave purchased by the Free Staters and which was located about 70 meters from the Republican Plot in that cemetery ; on that day - Saturday, 21st February, 1976, 48 years ago on this date - the Requiem Mass was boycotted by almost all his relatives.
For the following six months, armed State operatives maintained a heavy presence in the graveyard to prevent Irish republicans from affording Frank Stagg a proper burial but they were not the only group keeping a watch on the grave : the IRA were aware of their presence and, after the Staters withdrew, the IRA made their move : on the night of the 5th of November, 1976, the IRA disinterred Frank Stagg's remains and reburied them with his comrade, Michael Gaughan.
When questioned in Leinster House about this sordid affair, its 'Director', Paddy Cooney, stated -
"The persistent attempts by members of an unlawful organisation and their associates to exploit the situation that arose are well known and, indeed, notorious. Because of this and because also of certain obligations of confidentiality, I must decline to make any comment on the question of the choice of burial place.."
The "question of the choice of burial place" was, thankfully, not one that was left to Cooney and his thugs to decide.
Frank Stagg, aged 33, had three funerals and two burials. One funeral had no body and one burial was done in darkness.
In his final message to his comrades in the Republican Movement he wrote :
"We are the risen people, this time we must not be driven into the gutter. Even if this should mean dying for justice. The fight must go on. I want my memorial to be peace with justice."
That objective has still to be obtained and those in Leinster House, Stormont and Westminster are still working against it, still pouring 'concrete' on Irish republicanism.
Shame on them.
On the 21st February, 1923, the IRA in Dublin carried out an economic operation against the Free State when they attacked and burnt down State and business premises in Nassau Street, Upper Gardiner Street and Lower O'Connell Street : in one attack, on a State income tax office, a civil servant, Peter Carney, was fatally injured when the office in which he worked was set on fire.
About seventy-five Volunteers were involved in the operation, but six of them were captured by the Staters.
One of those captured, Volunteer James O'Rourke, from 1 Upper Gloucester Street in Dublin, was put on a Free State Army 'Wanted' list for his part in that operation, as he had to defend himself from armed Staters in Dame Street on the 21st, during the economic operation and, on the 13th March that year (1923) the Staters put him to death.
A Free State Army report released after his execution stated that Volunteer James O'Rourke '..had been tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for his role in the IRA attack on National Army (sic) members at Jury's Hotel, Dublin, on 21 February 1923 and for having in his possession arms and ammunition without proper authority...'
What the Staters described in that statement as "proper authority" was, in fact, permission granted to them by Westminster, and still is to this day...
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Thanks for the visit, and for reading.
Sharon and the team.