On the 14th February, 1919, word began to circulate in Maddenstown, the Curragh, County Kildare, and surrounding districts, of a shooting that had happened the previous day.
It wasn't long before bad news was confirmed : a local man, in his 40's, a Mr Patrick Gavin, who worked for about 15 years as a farmhand for a Mr Moore, from the townland of Tully, was driving a bullock to a market at the Newbridge Fair when he was shot dead by a British soldier.
The British Army soldier, a Private Arthur Gay from the 'Duke of Wellington Regiment', was one of three soldiers on sentry duty when, he claimed, he was attacked by Mr Gavin, who was carring a stick. His two armed colleagues were elsewhere (!) when Private Gay "was attacked by Patrick Gavin" and, when the two of them arrived at the scene (!), they said, Mr Gavin was dead from a gunshot wound.
At the 'inquest', the jury (!) stated that perhaps only more experienced soldiers should be placed on sentry duty, and then discharged Private Arthur Gay from the 'court'.
Case closed.
==========================
'SINN FÉIN NOTES...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
GLASGOW...
Weekly concerts and dancing competitions are held at various centres, and a commemoration will be held at the grave of Thomas Brady, former chairman (sic) of the Cumann, on Easter Sunday and, that same night, a concert will be held in aid of An Cumann Cabhrach.
NEW CUMANN.
New Cumann have been formed during the past month in Carrickmacross, in County Monaghan, in Galway City, Carlow, and Hilltown, in County Down.
'IRISH MONETARY REFORM ASSOCIATION' JOINS SINN FÉIN.
We are very glad and proud to welcome into our organisation the members of the 'Irish Monetary Reform Association'. The following statement has been released to the press for publication...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 14th February, 1920, at least 120 armed IRA Volunteers, led by Eoin O'Duffy (pictured - a republican gamekeeper-turned Free State poacher) armed with a dozen rifles, twenty revolvers and about thirty shotguns, made their move to capture their first RIC barracks in Ulster at Ballytrain, County Monaghan.
The barracks housed between about six and ten armed RIC members and those inside were ordered by the IRA to surrender - they refused the offer - but accepted same soon after when an explosion caused a large hole to appear in the gable wall of the building (...courtesy of some gelignite liberated from Monaghan County Council builders yard!).
Any weapons and ammunition on the premises were taken by the IRA and the RIC members were released.
It has been recorded that, among the IRA Volunteers who took part in that attack were Ernie O'Malley, Dan Hogan, Seamus McKenna, Terry Magee, James Flynn, Phil Marron, P J Daly, John Donnolly, Thomas Donnelly, Patrick McDonnell, Charles Walton, Barney Marron and Patrick McCabe, and first aid was given to any of the RIC members who were injured in the explosion.
However, within about one month of that raid for arms, most of those who took part were 'arrested' by British forces but, by then, the liberated weapons had been dispersed to other IRA Units.
==========================
On the 14th February, 1920, an IRA Unit under the instruction of Commandant Diarmuid Hurley captured an RIC Barracks at Castlemartyr, in County Cork.
Commandant Hurley was killed by enemy forces on the 28th May, 1921 (funeral pic, more information here) -
'In the month of September, so charming,
It is well I remember the day,
Five thousand, in order, were marching,
How sadly our bands did play.
After Diarmuid's remains,
Whose blood flowed in streams,
When he fought for old Ireland and you,
In that dear sainted plot, he will ne'er be forgot,
Where he sleeps with his comrades so true...'
==========================
On the 14th February, 1920, Mr Michael Ensko, a 26-year-old shoemaker by trade, from Drumbiggle in County Clare, died after being hit by a British Army lorry. He left behind a wife, Bridget, and two daughters, Bridget and Teresa.
RIP.
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On the 14th February, 1920, the 'Buttevant Soldiers Home' in Buttevant, County Cork, which was attached to Buttevant British Army Military Barracks, went on fire, and the Attendant of the premises, who slept there, a lady named Ella Constance Wood, died in the fire.
The British military and political leadership held an 'inquest' on the same day (14th), an unusual development, and agreed on the wording for the 'Certificate of the Fact of Death' - "shock caused by burning".
If the fire had been considered to be other than accidental (ie arson) the inquest would not have been held so quickly, I presume?
==========================
On the 14th February, 1920 (...this shooting has also been stated to have occurred on the 17th and the 25th, but our sources continue to list it as having happened on the 14th), a Mrs Ellen Morris (aged 61 and a mother of 15 children), who lived in Ballagh, near Gorey, in County Wexford, was disturbed in her house by six armed men.
The men were looking for any weapons that might have been in the house, as one of her sons was in the British 'Royal Army Service Corps' and, for his own safety and that of his family, would probably have kept a firearm, or firearms, in the house.
The woman of the house got to her feet, grabbed a spade and went for one of the men with it ; he shot her dead.
One of the residents in the house wanted to leave to get a priest, but was told to stay put. When they had finished their business, the IRA told the residents not to leave the house for two hours - the six men then left.
Later that year (1920) thirteen men were brought to 'trial' over the shooting and one of them, John Lacy (18), admitted firing the shot but said that it was not intentional.
An RIC man, who was 'working the case', had collected statements but he was shot dead before he could present his 'evidence'. John Lacy pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received 18 months in prison with hard labour.
==========================
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.
As long as the historic US economic boom continued, the Irish economy could grow on its back.
But once the boom ended - and it went on much longer than anyone could have imagined a decade ago - the possible consequences for Ireland should have been obvious.
Now the boom is over, and the US is heading into a recession that will undoubtedly be deepened by the fallout from September 11th. North Americans, they say, will stop travelling and stop buying.
The southern Irish economy, which was humming along at ten per cent growth, already seemed headed for two straight quarters of zero growth, even before the attacks. That is some people's definition of a recession.
Only last year top economists were predicting rapid economic growth for at least another five years. Now people are beginning to ask what happened - and what will happen...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 1st February, 1921, an informer named Thomas Bradfield (56), from Knockmacool, Willsgrove, in County Cork, was shot dead by the IRA.
On the 14th February, 1921, at about 2am, two men from the 'Anti-Sinn Féin Society' broke into the Coffey family home in Breaghna, Desertserges, in County Cork, and quickly opened the locked front door, where about ten 'off duty' British Army soldiers (from the 'Essex Regiment') and various Black and Tans were waiting.
Two young men in the house, James (24) and Timothy Coffey (23), who both lived in Breaghna, County Cork, both IRA Volunteers ('Numbers 66 and 67' on a 'hit list' of 168 names compiled by the British, from information supplied to them by informers) were dragged from their beds, taken outside, and marched away.
They were forced into a near-by field (farmed by a neighbour, a Mr O'Donoghue) where they were beaten and interrogated about the shooting dead of the informer Bradfield.
The two brothers, Jim and Tim Coffey, were then shot dead.
The two men who had broken into the house were tracked down and the West Cork IRA later released a statement - "Two members of the ('Anti-Sinn Féin Society') gang were arrested, court-martialed and shot without delay".
==========================
In February, 1921, RIC member John Carroll arrived in the village of Ballywilliam, County Wexford, to visit his father.
After his visit, he disappeared.
On the 14th February, his blindfolded body was found in a field near Nenagh, in County Tipperary ; he had been shot in the head by IRA Volunteers under the command of Michael McCormack (an IRA GHQ organiser).
His family were told by the IRA that they would pay a visit to the man of the house and his three other sons if there were any reprisals but, soon after, a Mr Denis Hayes (a cousin of the Carrolls) had his house burned down ; rumour had it that Mr Hayes had tipped-off the IRA that RIC member John Carroll would be in Ballywilliam, visiting his family.
But, codladh an ghioria, on the 12th June the following year (1922), the Carroll house was burned down, and a Mr Patrick Carroll was shot dead.
==========================
On the 14th February, 1921, the 'General Officer Commanding' of the 5th Division of the British Army, 'Sir' Major-General Hugh Sandham Jeudwine (pictured), wrote to the 'General Officer Commanding' of the British Army in Ireland, General Nevil Macready (the last in a long line of 'Commanders of the British Army' in Ireland) and opined that martial law should be imposed on the whole country as this "...would substitute for the present divided control by military and police (and) under martial law, the extreme penalty should be relentlessly enforced for levying war, or carrying or using guns.."
Mr Jeudwine was an effective military operative but is said to have 'earned a reputation for unpopularity'. He died on the 2nd December, 1942, aged 80, in Surrey, in martial law-free England.
==========================
John O'Leary (33), an ex-British Army soldier, was shot dead by members of the 2nd Battalion, Cork Number 1 Brigade, IRA, near his home at 30 Gerald Griffin Avenue in Cork City, on the 14th February, 1921 (NOTE - other dates given for this shooting are the 12th and 15th February).
His active military 'career' was brought to an end after he lost a leg in 'World War 1', and he then took up a position with British Army Captain Campbell Joseph O’Connor Kelly ('OBE, MC, MM'!) in the 'Intelligence (6th) Division' in the British Army's Victoria Barracks in Cork.
Four IRA Volunteers, dressed in plainclothes, stopped him about a hundred yards from his house and asked to see his documents, and he showed them his barracks pass. After having confirmed his identity, he was shot three times and died of his wounds three days later in the North Infirmary Hospital, in Cork.
Michael Murphy, Commander of the Second Battalion of the Cork No. 1 Brigade, IRA, later recalled the liquidation of British Army Captain Kelly's associates : "Captain Kelly was in charge of the British intelligence system here. He had six intelligence officers on his staff. Each of them was wiped out one after the other..."
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On the 14th February, 1921, James Charles Beale (an Englishman married to a Sarah Blemens) was shot dead by the IRA in the Wilton area of Cork.
Sarah Blemens father and brother (James and Frederick) had been kidnapped and shot in November 1920 by the IRA, who stated that they were members of an anti-Sinn Féin organisation with connections to the Cork YMCA and Cork Freemasons.
Mr Beale worked as a manager at the Woodford and Bourne Company in Patrick's Street in Cork, a grocers and wine merchants and, as he left work on the 14th at about 6pm and made his way home, he was intercepted by Jeremiah Keating and John Horgan from 'G Company', 2nd Battalion, Cork Number 1 Brigade IRA, and driven to the Wilton area of the city and shot dead.
A placard stating - 'Convicted Spy. The penalty for all those who associate with the Auxiliary Cadets, the Black and Tans, and the RIC. IRA. P.S. Beware' was attached to his body.
It is thought that the IRA had acquired information on those three men through details which they came across from mail bag grabs, which they had in their possession.
The IRA stated that they were watching "...the approaches to College Road. We spotted Beale as he was crossing Southgate Bridge en route to his home. We got revolvers, picked up Beale and brought him by car to the Wilton district, where he was shot...we found in his possession papers giving valuable information relating to the spy organisation with which he was connected.
In our opinion the shooting of Beale broke the back of the anti-IRA-Sinn Féin organisation in Cork City. As a result of disclosures which came to light in the papers found on Beale, members of his organisations were picked up by other IRA Companies in the city and suitably dealt with. This had a discouraging effect on the Anti-Sinn Fein League which faded out, thus removing a serious threat to the Cork IRA..."
James Charles Beale's name appears in the 'Compensation Commission Register' (dated 14th February 1921) with the notation - 'Agreed 50/50' split on liability between British and Irish. Compensation of £900 was awarded. His widow Sarah Beale was awarded compensation of £3,250, and his children Matilda and Ross of Southsea in Portsmouth in England were granted compensation of £900..'
==========================
Between the 13th and the 14th of February, 1921, the IRA trenched roads in South Kildare, Booleigh and Kilmeade, felled trees across roads at Mullaghmast and between Bolton Hill and Castledermot and from Kilkea to Castledermot, to slow down enemy movement.
==========================
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 want recruits because we have work for them to do. We do not propose to keep our men idle. We propose to give them work — hard work, plenty of work. We would band together all men capable of working for Ireland and give them men’s work.
We want recruits because we are able to train them. The great majority of our officers are now fully competent to undertake the training of Irish Volunteers for active service under the conditions imposed by the natural and military facts of the map of Ireland. Those officers who are not so competent will be made competent in our training camps during the next few months.
We want recruits because we are able to arm them. In a rough way of speaking, we have succeeded already in placing a gun and ammunition therefor in the hands of every Irish Volunteer that has undertaken to endeavour to pay for them. We are in a position to do as much for every man that joins us.
We may not always have the popular pattern of gun, but we undertake to produce a gun of some sort for every genuine Irish Volunteer ; with some ammunition to boot.
Finally :
We want recruits because we are absolutely determined to take action the moment action becomes a duty. If a moment comes — as a moment seemed on the point of coming at least twice during the past eighteen months – when the Irish Volunteers will be justified to their consciences in taking definite military action, such action will be taken..."
(MORE LATER.)
On the 14th February, 1922, a British Army Lieutenant, John Hubert Wogan-Browne (pictured), was buried in Naas, in County Kildare.
He had been shot in the head on the 10th February during an IRA fund-raising operation in Kildare Town, when a British Army regimental payroll was targeted outside 'The National Bank'.
The money was being carried by the British Army man ; the IRA knew there would be between £135 and £500 in cash in his possession, but he fought with the Volunteers to hold on to the money.
Michael Collins was, at that time, in command of the newly-spawned Free State Army and, on hearing of the shooting, he contacted Mr Winston Churchill and assured him that he would do all in his power to bring those IRA Volunteers to justice, as any good servant would do, and told him that his men would assist the RIC and the British Army in finding those who had carried out the robbery and the shooting.
Then, on the 13th February, Mr Collins telegrammed Mr Churchill to inform him that three IRA Volunteers had been 'arrested for the crime' - "Have just been informed by telephone that we have captured three of those responsible for the attack on Lieutenant Wogan-Browne. Everyone, civilian and soldier, has co-operated in tracking those responsible for abominable action. You may rely on it that those whom we can prove guilty will be suitably dealt with..."
Mr Collins had somewhat placated his political and military mentors in Westminster with his 'we will pursue them' statement and, later, done the same in his own country - no trial was ever held, no-one was imprisoned for the robbery or the shooting. Disgraceful that he had ever placed himself in the position where he had to turn on his own countrymen and women to please the British.
==========================
On the 14th February, 1922, British Army Field-Marshall 'Sir' Henry Wilson (pictured), who was on the verge of retiring from his position as 'Chief of the Imperial Staff' (!) suggested to Winston Churchill and his 'British Cabinet Committee on Ireland' that "nothing could solve the Irish problem (sic) except re-conquest..."
Mr Churchill 'compromised' with both men and their 'suggestions' - he sent three (more) battalions of British soldiers to patrol and secure their imposed border in Ireland!
==========================
ON THIS DATE (14TH FEBRUARY) 103 YEARS AGO : IRA MAN WHO REFUSED THE OPPORTUNITY TO ESCAPE WAS DECLARED 'GUILTY' BY HIS BRITISH CAPTORS AND THEN EXECUTED.
- the words of Patrick Moran, Adjutant of D Company Irish Volunteers, 2nd Battalion (Dublin), to his comrades Ernie O'Malley (who had passed himself off to the British as 'Bernard Stewart') and Frank Teeling as they were about to walk to freedom through a gate in Kilmainham Jail in Dublin, which they had forced open, on the 14th of February 1921 - 103 years ago on this date.
Patrick Moran believed he would be found innocent at his 'trial' and saw no reason why he should take the opportunity to escape.
He was a 'dangerous man', as far as Westminster was concerned, and had been imprisoned in Dublin Castle on the 7th of January 1921 and charged with the 'murder' of two British Army/paramilitary gang members, Ames and Bennett, after been mistakenly identified as having been involved in the shooting dead of both men - Lieutenant Peter Ashmun Ames and British Army Lieutenant George Bennett (both of whom were in command of 'The Cairo Gang') on the 21st of November 1920 at 38 Upper Mount Street in Dublin.
Patrick Moran stayed behind on the night of the prison break ,refusing to take part in same, having encouraged Simon Donnelly to go in his place, a decision which was was to cost Patrick Moran his life.
On the 15th of February 1921, he was put on 'trial' (during which sixteen people and an RIC man verified he was elsewhere!) but was, as expected, found 'guilty' and, three days later - on the 18th of February 1921 - he was transferred to Mountjoy Jail, Dublin.
On Wednesday, 9th of March 1921, Patrick Moran was sentenced to death and he was executed by hanging five days later, on Monday, the 14th of March.
He had defended the integrity of his country in Jacob's Factory Garrison during Easter week in 1916, where he served under Thomas MacDonagh, and had been imprisoned at Knutsford and Woorwood Scrubs in England, and in Frongoch Internment Camp in Wales.
He was one of 'The Forgotten Ten' in that he, and his nine comrades, were 'forgotten' by the State but have always been remembered by the Republican Movement.
Finally, the planning and execution of the escape itself is worthy of a few paragraphs : On the 11th February 1921, Frank Teeling and Ernie O'Malley were joined in Kilmainham Jail by Simon Donnelly, who was taken into their confidence and told of the up-coming plan of escape. The peep-holes in the cell doors were three inches in diameter and, if one of the men could get his arm through it, it would be possible to open the door from the outside.
The plan then was to make their way to the yard, as the men had noticed that the door leading from the prison to the yard was usually left closed-over, but not locked, and then cross the yard to a large iron gate on the west side of the jail, cut the bolt on it and escape.
A 'Plan B' had been made in case the bolt cutter should fail - IRA Volunteers from 'F' Company, Fourth Battalion, Dublin Brigade, would take up positions outside the prison wall with a rope ladder and, awaiting an agreed signal, throw in the rope attached to the ladder, so that the prisoners could haul the ladder over to their side of the wall.
Oscar Traynor (on the left, in this photograph), IRA Dublin Brigade O/C, had secured a bolt cutter and that, along with two revolvers, were packaged and smuggled into the prison by a friendly British soldier. The prisoners were not sure that the bolt cutter would be up to the job but were determined to carry out the escape plan, as Frank Teeling was in line for execution ; on the night of February 13th, 1921, the three men made their way to the outer prison gate but, as the handles of the bolt cutter were incorrectly fitted, they were unable to cut the bolt.
They went to 'Plan B', and gave the signal for their comrades on the other side of the prison wall to throw in the rope attached to the ladder - the rope jammed on top of the wall and snapped when the men outside attempted to pull it back to them. The three prisoners had no alternative but to return to their cells.
The following day, the 14th February, 1921, the British soldier who was in on the plan repaired/adjusted the handles on the bolt cutter and, that night, at 6.30pm, the three prisoners decided to make another escape attempt.
The three Irish republican prisoners again made their way down to the gate and, this time, the bolt cutter worked. They used butter and grease, which they saved from their meals, to help ease the remaining portion of the corroded bolt out from its latch and two of the men got their revolvers at the ready as the third man pulled on the heavy door which creaked open sluggishly on its rusty hinges and the three men walked out!
Simon Donnelly had tried to persuade Patrick Moran to join them, but Moran - who was not involved in shooting Ames or Bennett, and had what he considered the perfect alibi for that night - refused to leave the prison except by the front gate as a free man.
Patrick Moran paid with his life for relying on British justice : as stated above, on Wednesday, 9th of March 1921, Patrick Moran was sentenced to death and he was executed by hanging five days later, on Monday, the 14th of March.
Not the first innocent man to be put to death by the British, and not the last Irish person to be punished by them in revenge.
Thanks for the visit, and for reading.
Sharon and the team.