'I have the honour to inform you that the Government of the Irish Republic [32 counties], having as its first duty towards its people the establishment and maintenance of peace and order here, demand the withdrawal of all British armed forces stationed in Ireland. The occupation of our territory by troops of another nation and the persistent subvention here of activities directly against the expressed national will and in the interests of a foreign power, prevent the expansion and development of our institution in consonance with our social needs and purposes, and must cease.
The Government of the Irish Republic believe that a period of four days is sufficient notice for your Government to signify its intentions in the matter of the military evacuation and for the issue of your Declaration of Abdication in respect of our country. Our Government reserves the right of appropriate action without further notice if upon the expiration of this period of grace, these conditions remain unfulfilled...' - IRA ultimatum to the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, 12th January, 1939.
Thirteen days later - on Friday, the 25th August (a few days before Hitler's German army invaded Poland) - an IRA man from Cork, Joby O'Sullivan, was strolling through Broadgate, in Coventry, wheeling a push bike, on his way to a police station. The bike repeatedly got stuck in tram tracks on the road and, frustrated, he removed it from the road and propped it up against a wall.
The bike had an armed bomb in the basket that was fixed to the handlebars, which had been wired up to an alarm clock timer, which was set for about 2.30pm. He left it there, and walked away. The five-pound bomb exploded prematurely, killing five people and injuring dozens more - it was one of about 150 IRA bombing incidents in England at that time, targeting infrastructure such as electricity stations, post offices, gas stations and government buildings.
Not long after the explosion, Peter Barnes (who was in London on the day of the explosion) was arrested at the lodgings he was staying in and, three days after that, James McCormack (aka 'James Richards') was pulled-in along with the other tenants of the house he was staying in. The 'trial' began in December (1939) and both men were convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. Throughout the court case, James McCormack remained silent until he told the court - "As a soldier of the Irish Republican Army, I am not afraid to die, for I am dying in a just cause."
Peter Barnes stated to the court - "I would like to say as I am going before my God, as I am condemned to death, I am innocent, and later I am sure it will all come out that I had neither hand, act or part in it. That is all I have to say." In his last letter (to his brother) he wrote - 'If some news does not come in the next few hours all is over. The priest is not long gone out, so I am reconciled to what God knows best. There will be a Mass said for us in the morning before we go to our death. Thank God I have nothing to be afraid of. I am an innocent man and, as I have said before, it will be known yet that I am.'
In the last letter he ever wrote, James McCormack said - "This is my farewell letter, as I have been just told I have to die in the morning. As I know I am dying for a just cause, I shall walk out tomorrow smiling, as I shall be thinking of God and of the good men who went before me for the same cause." (That letter was addressed to his sister, as both of his parents were dead.)
In Winson Green Prison, Birmingham, at 8.50am on Wednesday, 7th February 1940 - 84 years ago on this date - the two men received a final blessing. Minutes later they walked together to the scaffold and were hanged by four executioners.(...short video here, in relation to those two men, and a few paragraphs re Jimmy Steele...)
One of the few Irish republicans to be charged by Westminster with "treason felony" (an archaic charge originally devised for John Mitchel, the Young Ireland leader, in 1848) Jimmy Steele, who was born in Belfast on the 8th August, 1907, lived his life as a soldier, writer and poet, and devoted his 63 years in this world to the Republican Movement and the cause of Irish freedom.
At the age of 12, he joined Na Fianna Éireann and was active with his young comrades in assisting the Volunteers in his own area, the New Lodge Road, during the Tan War. Following the Treaty of Surrender in December 1921, and the split in the Movement, Steele remained true to his republican principles and, in the early 1920's, he joined the IRA.
Arrested twice - in 1923 and 1924 - he was held for several months in Crumlin Road Jail. Following his release later that year and the freeing of the internees in 1925, he assisted with the re-organising of the IRA and NFÉ in Belfast. On the 25th April 1936, while attending an IRA court-martial in connection with the abortive Campbell College raid in December 1935, at the rooms of the Craobh Rua Club at Crown Entry in Belfast, Steele and most of the Belfast Battalion Staff were 'arrested' by British forces.
On the 29th May 1936, he was charged with 'treason felony' and, along with twelve others, was found guilty and sentenced to five years penal servitude in Crumlin Road Jail.
Released in May 1940, he reported back to the Army leadership and continued on as before.
While 'on the run', he married Anna Crawford, a member of Cumann na mBan who came from a staunch republican family ; unfortunately, married life in freedom was to be short-lived - the following December he was re-arrested and sentenced to ten years in jail. In January 1943, along with Patrick Donnelly, Ned Maguire and Hugh McAteer, Steele escaped from Crumlin Road Jail.
Despite a reward of £3000 being offered by the Stormont administration for his capture and his photograph being displayed throughout the Six Counties, he reported back for active service and was appointed Adjutant of the Northern Command Staff IRA.
He figured in two major operations during his brief period of freedom : in March 1943, along with Liam Burke and Harry White, he organised and assisted in the escape of 22 IRA Volunteers from Derry Jail and, in April 1943, he participated in the Broadway Cinema operation on the Falls Road when armed Volunteers took over the cinema and stopped the film while Steele and McAteer went on stage and read a statement from the IRA Army Council.
The two men finished off the nights entertainment for the packed cinema by reading the 1916 Proclamation!
By May 1943, Steele was back in jail, this time sentenced to twelve years. When he was released in September 1950, he was the last republican prisoner of that era to be freed, leaving Crumlin Road Jail empty of political prisoners for the first time since partition. During the following years, Steele edited two Belfast newspapers - 'Glor Uladh' and ' Resurgent Ulster', and was the main author of two books published by the National Graves Association - 'Antrim's Patriot Dead' and 'Belfast Patriot Graves'.
On the 21st December 1957, following the beginning of the IRA's Border Campaign, internment was once more introduced in the Six Counties and Steele was among the 167 republicans interned in Crumlin Road Jail - he was released three years later and reported back to the IRA.
He was an outspoken opponent of the policies being pursued by the leadership of the Republican Movement and, in an oration at the re-interment of the remains of Peter Barnes and James McCormick at Mullingar, County Westmeath, in July 1969, he severely criticised the leadership and in particular the running-down of the IRA.
Within six months (January 1970) the inevitable split in the Republican Movement occurred and, following 'the parting of the ways' Jimmy Steele, a member of the IRA's Belfast Brigade Staff and the Provisional Army Executive (a position he held until his death) was active in Belfast re-organising and re-arming IRA units to defend nationalist areas from attack by Orange mobs backed-up by the B-Specials and RUC.
A founder member of ' Republican News' in June 1970, the four-page weekly paper under the editorship of Steele soon had a circulation of 15,000 copies per week. Jimmy Steele was Editor of that 'paper when he died on the 9th August, 1970, at 63 years of age : more than twenty of those 63 years were spent in jail.
Steele by name, and Steele by nature - hard to break.
On the 7th February, 1919, the British war ship HMS Hyderabad (pictured), a 'Q' ship, specially designed with a shallow draught that would allow a torpedo to pass underneath it, was on a'goodwill visit' to Dublin.
A ship worker (a 'stoker'), 'Royal' Navy Reserve man Arthur William Young, from Yorkshire, fell overboard from the vessel at Alexandra Basin in Dublin Port, and drowned.
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'SINN FÉIN NOTES...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
CORK...
CUMANN BRIAN DIOLUN.
The activities of the Brian Dillon Cumann, Cork, augur well for the future of the organisation in the St Patrick's Parish area of the city.
In order to form a common basis on which discussions could be held, it was decided that all members of the Cumann should read certain passages from books by Padraic Pearse and other notable writers, and then hold a general discussion.
This is to be recommended strongly as the Cumann can derive immense benefit from such discussions.
TIPPERARY.
The Nenagh Cumann held a special general meeting on Tuesday, 8th February. Arrangements were made to intensify the drive to spread the organisation into adjoining areas.
Paddy McLogan presided at the meeting which was very enthusiastic, and the out-going Officer Board was re-elected for a further 12 months.
GLASGOW.
The Connolly Sinn Féin Cumann, Glasgow, has its headquarters at 150 Gorbals Street, and its membership is showing a steady increase...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 7th February, 1920, a house in Cloncurry, County Kildare, was surrounded by a patrol from the British 'police force' in Ireland, the RIC, who were supported by their comrades in the British Army.
The house belonged to, and was lived in, by a widow woman, a Mrs Ennis, who was told by the invaders that they were searching for 'a fugitive (political) offender..'
The poor woman heard later that two other small houses nearby (belonging to a Mr John Feeney and a Mr Tom Harris) were also intruded on that night, and a local graveyard was 'searched' (desecrated) by the same gang of marauders.
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On the 7th February, 1920, a group of RIC members were huddled around the open fire in their barracks in Moyne, County Tipperary, making preparations to go out and terrorise the locals.
Some of them would have been checking their boots and their batons, while others were checking and cleaning their guns, getting ready for the 'sport' when, suddenly, a shot rang out.
The RIC members ducked, dived and ran for cover, the 'Night Guard' didn't know which way to jump, and the sleeping RIC members woke with the noise and stumbled out to the day room to see what was happening. Except for a 'Constable' Edward Mulholland (32), a 15-year 'veteran' and "a powerfully built Sligo man", who "reeled and collapsed" near the fire - he had been shot in the back.
It transpired that one of RIC member Mulholland's colleagues had been cleaning his revolver when it went off, killing RIC man Mulholland, and ending that 15-year terror spree.
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ON THIS DATE (7TH FEBRUARY) 177 YEARS AGO : 'THE LIBERATOR' FINALISES HIS PLEA TO WESTMINSTER - 'ONE IN FOUR WILL DIE UNLESS YOU HELP...'
The use of the term 'famine', in this instance, is a misnomer if ever there was one - 'In the early summer of 1845, on the 11th September of that year, a disease referred to as blight was noted to have attacked the crop in some areas. In that year, one third of the entire crop was destroyed. In 1846, the crop was a total failure. This report came from a Galway priest - "As to the potatoes, they are gone – clean gone. If travelling by night, you would know when a potato field was near by the smell. The fields present a space of withered black stalks..." Though 1847 was free from blight, few seed potatoes had been planted...yet the country was producing plenty of food. As the Irish politician, Charles Duffy wrote: "Ships continue to leave the country, loaded with grain and meat." As food was scarce people would eat anything such as nettles, berries, roots, wildlife, animals, dogs and cats in order to survive...' (from here.)
O'Connell was to plead with Westminster to save the people of Ireland who were being decimated by sickness and disease, caused by a lack of nourishment, and request that, instead of building roads and other such infrastructure, the money available for same should be used to encourage the Irish to cultivate the soil to plant oats and barley etc and, eventually, a 'compromise' (of sorts) was arrived at - cheap Indian corn was brought into Ireland, for the people, sometimes on the same ships that, when unloaded, would then be loaded again with Irish-produced oats and barley - 'cash crops', according to the landlords, for export, not for home consumption!
The imported 'corn' was considered by the Irish to be a type of animal feed, the grain of which was so tough as to cause great pain and, even at that, the amount of it imported was inadequate for the number of people in need.
Daniel O'Connell died, age 72, in Genoa, Italy, 13 weeks after his February 1847 speech and, as he requested, his heart was buried in Rome and the remainder of his body was buried in Glasnevin, Dublin.
Father Ventura of the Theatine Order delivered the oration, during which he stated -
"My body to Ireland – my heart to Rome – my soul to heaven : what bequests, what legacies, are these! What can be imagined at the same time more sublime and more pious than such a testament as this! Ireland is his country – Rome is the church – heaven is God. God, the Church and his country – or, in other words, the glory of God, the liberty of the Church, the happiness of his country are the great ends of all his actions – such the noble objects, the only objects of his charity! He loves his country and therefore he leaves to it his body; he loves still more the Church and hence he bequeaths to it his heart ; and still more he loves God, and therefore confides to Him his soul! Let us profit then, of this great lesson afforded by a man so great – a man who has done such good service to the Church, to his country, and to humanity..."
It was on this date - 7th February - 177 years ago that Daniel O'Connell finalised his last speech to the British 'House of Commons', which he delivered the next day.
In the 1920's in Ireland, the IRA hindered enemy movement by felling trees, destroying bridges and digging trenches across roads.
On the 7th February, 1921, local men were filling-in one such road trench either because it didn't suit them to have the road trenched or because they didn't want the British forces inconvenienced.
The IRA happened upon the scene, in Cooraclare, County Clare, and fired a few shots in the general direction of the civilian 'road workers' to scare them off but one of them, a Mr Patrick Falsey (24) was hit, and died that same evening.
Poor compensation for Mr Falsey's family, I know but, after some public pressure, his father received £700 in compensation from the British 'authorities'.
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On the 7th February, 1921, three wanted IRA men were captured by the RIC in Kilfennora, in County Clare.
The three Volunteers - John Joe Neylon (IRA Captain, Ennistymon Company, 4th Battalion, Mid-Clare Brigade), Tom McDonagh and Joe Murphy - were 'roughly handled' for a few days, before they were given over to the British Army.
They were tortured by, and under the orders of, a British Army Sergeant, a David Finlay, but all three Volunteers survived the ordeal and lived to fight another day.
Sergeant David Finlay, however, who stood his ground (!) in County Clare, was shot dead in Ennis, County Clare, on the 13th January 1922.
But he wasn't tortured beforehand, except mentally and morally, perhaps...
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Elizabeth 'Letty' Bray, a deaf woman, was out and about in the Castle Street area (pictured) of Belfast on Monday, 7th February, 1921, when she was badly wounded by a British soldier, and died from her wound in the Mater Hospital 12 days later.
The British Army Sergeant who was present on the day stated that the woman had ignored an order to stop (the poor woman was deaf) and, anyway, the soldier had fired his weapon at her when he wasn't ordered to do so!
An RIC member who was also present on the day declared that the soldier could easily have simply "caught the girl if he wanted to".
Saved himself the walk, I suppose...
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IRA Captain/Section Commander Patrick O'Driscoll was accidently killed by one of his comrades near Skibbereen, County Cork, on the 7th February 1921.
IRA Commander Tom Barry witnessed the tragedy, telling how, when an IRA sentry was going off duty, Commander Barry asked him to state what his duties were, for the benefit of Captain O'Driscoll -
"About halfway through his recital a shot rang out and Pat O'Driscoll swayed towards me. Catching him, I lowered him gently, but he was dead before I placed him on the ground.
I turned to the man who had shot him. His face was a mask of consternation, and he dropped the Webley revolver. I spoke to him, but he could not answer, and then, with a moan, he too collapsed, for the man he had accidentally shot was his best friend..."
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On the 7th February 1921, an RIC member from Ardnaree, in County Mayo, James Nixon (34) ('Service Number 64718') was in a Crossley Tender truck in the Mount Talbot area of County Roscommon with his colleagues when one of them, who was sitting behind 'Constable' Nixon, discharged his carbine rifle.
The round hit RIC man Nixon in the hip and he died from the wound on the 2nd March 1921.
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On the 7th February, 1921, the IRA ambushed an 'Ulster Special Constabulary' patrol in Warrenpoint, County Down : a USC officer was killed and two other members wounded by gunfire and grenades.
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On the 7th February, 1921, a group of young boys were playing a game of hurling in Knocknagree, in County Cork, and a small crowd of people had assembled to watch the game.
The match was interrupted by the arrival of three British Army lorries (from the 6th Division of the British Army) which approached the village from the Gneeveguilla direction.
Suddenly, for no reason, two long bursts of gunfire were directed from one of the lorries at the hurlers and the small crowd, who scattered in all directions. Soldiers jumped from the vehicles and ran on to the pitch, firing as they went.
When the firing stopped, three boys had been shot ; Michael John Kelleher (14) lay dead, and two of the Herlihy brothers, Michael (13) and Dónal (12) had been badly wounded.
In what they termed an 'Official Report' into the shootings, the British Army claimed that they were "returning fire" but all local accounts vehemently denied this, and in the 'Official Record' of the British Army's 6th Division, no ambush is recorded for the day...
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ON THIS DATE (7TH FEBRUARY) 38 YEARS AGO : ONE EPISODE IN THE 'SECRET' HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH...
The boy's parents, Glenn and Faye Gastal, refused 'out of court' settlements and sought twelve million dollars in their lawsuit against the Catholic Church because, they said, it harboured the priest even after learning that he was a child molester. The predominantly Catholic jury also awarded the boy's parents 250,000 dollars. The abuse started when the boy was seven years of age. Father Gilbert Gauthe was sentenced to twenty years in prison last October (ie October 1985) after admitting he molested the children at Saint John Parish Church in the community of Esther. The Lafayette Diocese has settled lawsuits with thirteen families against Father Gilbert Gauthe for a reported five-and-a-half million dollars, with not one of those thirteen cases going to trial...' (from 'The Evening Press' newspaper, 8th February 1986 ; thirty-eight years ago on this date.)
These are the same self-righteous hypocrites that, at the drop of a Bishop's hat, will - and have - condemned Irish men and women for challenging, and seeking to change, the political and social system in Ireland.
A corrupt system which nurtures a corrupt Church.
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.
If dissenting voices were stifled by an authoritarian Church in the past, it is the liberal opinion formers and media acolytes who enforce censorship today.
This would not be so worrying if it did not preclude open debate of the multitude of problems that assail modern Ireland.
Ireland has come through a period of very rapid social change in the past 30 years ; as a nation we remain materially contented but socially and emotionally vulnerable - the religious revival may spring from this realisation.
Meanwhile, parents are in a state of disquiet and ambivalence, and community life as we traditionally know it may be slowly crumbling. Far from being a place for open discussion, modern Ireland is very harsh on those who point out its flaws.
However, the recent downturn in our suicide rate, always a good barometer of our social health, may be a portent that the tide of disintegration has been stemmed.
Let us truly hope so.
(END of 'Ireland On The Couch' : NEXT - 'So, Farewell Then, Celtic Tiger', from 'Magill' Annual, 2002.)
The 'Royal' Dublin Fusiliers (pictured) was an infantry regiment of the British Army which was formed on the 1st July, 1881.
It was one of eight Irish regiments raised largely in Ireland, and served the counties of Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow and Carlow, and recruited in the east of Ireland mostly.
The last detachment of this regiment left Naas Barracks on the 7th February, 1922, on their way to Bordon, in Hampshire, England, where they amalgamated with their the 1st Battalion, before being disbanded in June 1922, as were five other 'RDF' regiments. The 'RDF', despite its 'Dublin' title, were apparently about as fair to the Irish in Ireland as their British Army comrades were...
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On the 7th February, 1922, a pre-arranged evacuation of Kilkenny Military Barracks took place between the British and the Free State Army.
Since 1803, the barracks had housed over sixty Infantry Regiments of the British Army and also operated as the 'Brigade Headquarters of Artillery' from 1908, and 'The King’s Overseas Dominions Regiment' (!) [a cavalry detachment] also sheltered there.
On that date, the Free State Army, having exchanged pleasantries with their colleagues in the British Army, moved in to the premises and used it as the British had used it - to quell the republican struggle. More information here.
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"Do my darling use your influence now for some sort of moderation or at any rate justice in Ireland. Put yourself in the place of the Irish. If you were ever leader you would not be cowed by severity and certainly not by reprisals which fall like the rain from Heaven upon the Just and upon the Unjust. It always makes me unhappy and disappointed when I see you inclined to take for granted that the rough, iron-fisted 'Hunnish' way will prevail..."
The Monaghan Footballers 'Arrest' of 1922 included an action which took place when..."Eoin O’Duffy sent IRA units across the border on Feb 7 (1922). They met more resistance than expected but still seized 43 Unionists and brought them back across the border as hostages to stop the three executions in Derry...'
Three IRA Volunteers - Pat Leonard, Thomas O'Shea and Patrick Johnstone - were due to be hung by the British in Derry Jail but had their sentences commuted to 15 penal years servitude and were eventually released in August 1925.
This story can be read here in some detail.
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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.)
"The faith is that Ireland is one, that Ireland is inviolate, that Ireland is worthy of all love and all homage and all service that may lawfully be paid to any earthly thing ; and the hope is that Ireland may be free.
In a human sense, we have no desire, no ambition but the integrity, the honour, and the freedom of our native land.
We want recruits because we are sure of the rightness of our cause. We have no misgivings, no self-questionings. While others have been doubting, timorous, ill at ease, we have been serenely at peace with our consciences. The recent time of soul searching had no terrors for us. We saw our path with absolute clearness ; we took it with absolute deliberateness.
We could do no other. We called upon the names of the great confessors of our national faith, and all was well with us. Whatever soul-searchings there may be among Irish political parties now or hereafter, we go on in the calm certitude of having done the clear, clean, sheer thing. We have the strength and the peace of mind of those who never compromise. We want recruits because we believe that events are about to place the destinies of Ireland definitely in our hands, and because we want as much help as possible to enable us to bear the burden.
The political leadership of Ireland is passing to us not, perhaps, to us as individuals, for none of us are ambitious for leadership and few of us fit for leadership ; but to our party, to men (sic) of our way of thinking : that is, to the party and to the men (sic) that stand by Ireland only, to the party and to the men (sic) that stand by the nation, to the party and to the men (sic) of one allegiance..."
(MORE LATER.)
The 'Ulster Protestant Association' (UPA) evolved (!), in July 1920, out of the 'Belfast Protestant Association', an organisation which was established for the expulsion of Catholics and "rotten Prods", as they put it, from 'their' areas in Belfast.
On the 7th February, 1923, the 'Northern Ireland (sic) Minister of Home Affairs', a 'Sir' Richard Dawson Bates, received a report on the activities of the 'UPA'.
An RUC member, an 'officer' - District Inspector R.R. Spears - told 'Sir' Bates that, over the period since it came to official attention in the autumn of 1920, it ran four 'branches' (in Ballymaccarrett, York Street, Shankill and the Ormeau Road) and that "..the whole aim and object of the club (!) is simply the extermination of Catholics by any and every means.."
Mr Spears estimated that the 'UPA' had killed at least six Catholics between June and October 1922.
Author Alan F. Parkinson wrote that "...loyalists of one hue or another were probably responsible for well over half of the terror-related fatalities in the North. The response of the (Stormont) authorities (sic) to the threat of loyalist terror seemed to many to be half-heated and belated in nature and only got going once the IRA's campaign had petered out.."
Collusion was, and is, no illusion.
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¡VOLVEMOS EN MARZO!
The five of us had such a brilliant time in Spain that we've booked it again, for next month (March 2024)!
We usually save like mad for our New York holiday each year and, between that few bob and a bit of luck we had on 'the Markets' (...set-up and managed for us by a family member, a part-time trader who knows his beans from his onions!) we have the cash and we booked our flights and our accommodation.
We can't all get a month or six weeks off from home and outdoor work commitments at the same time to travel to New York (not worth our while going for a week or two) but we can all get the time for a few weeks in Spain again, so that's what we've done!
It hasn't got the same buzz as NYC, but it's a break in guaranteed sunshine with guaranteed great company, sight-seeing, shopping, food etc, so the plan has been made and paid for, but it's not for a few weeks yet. For those that might have missed it, I put up a few posts on 'X' and 'Facebook' about our recent sojourn in that wonderful country, and I'll be doing the same again in March.
And now for some even better news - we'll be here again (on the blog, silly, not Spain...) next Wednesday, 14th February 2024!
Thanks for the visit, and for reading.
Sharon and the team.
