It was depressing watching on TV, listening on the radio and reading on the web as professional political spoofers lined up to tell all and sundry about how they practically 'saved Ireland', and to observe as they used false assertions and incorrect 'facts and figures' to support their claims.
It excites them to do so, and allows them to consider themselves to be 'every bit as good' as those that once spat down on them from the 'big house'.
When the 'Stormont Treaty' ('GFA') was voted on here in May 1998 by State voters, one of it's main 'selling-points', according to the State establishment that were promoting it - Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour, Provisional Sinn Féin, the various Church's, media etc - was that the British Government would legislate for the creation of a united Ireland if a majority within the Six Counties desired same.
This was said to be a major development and, on it's own, worth voting 'YES' for.
However, that 'commitment' from Westminster was contained in the 'Ireland Act' of 1949, the 'Northern Ireland (sic) Act' of 1973, Section Five of the 'Sunningdale Agreement' and the opening section of the 1985 Hillsborough Treaty!
It was a deliberate mis-representation of the facts by the pro-treaty side, which repeatedly claimed that a peaceful end to the North-Eastern conflict depended on a majority 'YES' vote in the referendum, thereby insinuating that those who voted 'NO' were pro-war.
In 1922, Liam Mellows said of the 1921 'Treaty of Surrender' - "This is not the will of the people ; it is the fear of the people".
The struggle continued after that Treaty, and continues today.
In 1973, the political establishment here and its hangers-on were amongst those telling republicans that the 'Sunningdale Agreement' was the "solution" to the North. In 1985 they did the same with the 'Hillsborough Treaty' and in 1998 they did the same with the 'Stormont Treaty' ('GFA').
The only solution - the only aim of Irish Republicans - is for a complete British military and political withdrawal from Ireland.
'SINN FÉIN REPLIES TO MR. HANNA...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
The fact, of course, is that it is Britain who makes the claim.
She claims all the Irish people living in the Six Counties as British citizens and Sinn Féin emphatically rejects that claim.
This in fact is the whole basis and core of Sinn Féin policy - the repudiation of Britain's claim to sovereignty over even one inch of Irish soil or even one individual Irish person.
It is often said that the Irish people suffer from an inferiority complex and there seems to be a lot of truth in this ; it is also said that the English people have a marked superiority complex, particularly where the Irish people are concerned, but there is no truth in this.
The truth is that the English adopt this braggart and superior attitude in order to hide their inferiority complex...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 10th April, 1919, the First Dáil Éireann (the 32-County body, not to be confused with the semi-political 26-County assembly which is located on Kildare Street in Dublin) held it's third session in the Mansion House, on Dawson Street, in Dublin (pictured) :"Our first duty as the elected Government of the Irish People will be to make clear to the world the position in which Ireland now stands..."
Over the course of its lifetime, the First Dáil held 12 sessions that were spread out over 21 days. The 'Constitution of the Dáil', as approved at its first meeting on the 21st January 1919, vested legislative powers in Dáil Éireann and conferred executive powers to a Ministry (Aireacht).
One of the motions proposed and accepted on the 10th April (1919) was one which called on the Irish people to ostracise the RIC, the pro-British 'police force' which operated in Ireland at that time and, for the most part, that force was 'greeted' with turned backs, until they were eventually disbanded on the 30th August, 1922.
Other business carried out was in connection with the Dáil Loan Fund and the establishment of embassies abroad ; the assembly (of at least 50 members) met over two days.
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On the 10th April, 1919, British Field Marshal John Denton Pinkstone French ('1st Earl of Ypres, KP, GCB, OM, GCVO, KCMG, PC' ETC ETC!), the 'Lord Lieutenant of Ireland' (...who only accepted the position, in May 1918, on condition it was as "...a military viceroy at the head of a quasi-military government..") wrote to Winston Churchill about his concerns about Ireland.
Mr French stated, in his letter -
"We are suffering terribly in Ireland for the want of a proper Criminal Investigation Department. There used to be quite an effective one, but Mr. (Augustine) Birrell (pictured, the former 'Chief Secretary for Ireland') for reasons best known to himself broke it up entirely..."
Mr Birrell was distracted from his political work/input by his own domestic problems and it was said that he didn't quite appreciate the 'danger to the Crown' presented by what he and others like him termed 'the Irish problem'.
And, due to similar ignorance and arrogance, Westminster still has an 'Irish problem'.
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ON THIS DATE (10TH APRIL) 101 YEARS AGO : DEATH OF IRA GENERAL, LIAM LYNCH.
During the Irish War of Independence Lynch helped to reorganise the Cork IRA, becoming commandant of the Cork No. 2 Brigade. He was arrested by the RIC in August 1920 in Cork City, along with Terence MacSwiney, who would later die in Britain during a hunger strike. Lynch was not recognised by RIC officers and was released. Lynch continued to prove his leadership abilities throughout the war including the capturing of the Mallow Barracks in September 1920 with Ernie O'Malley. In April 1921, the IRA was re-organised into divisions and Lynch was made Commander of the 1st Southern Division. He would hold this post until the truce in July 1921.
Lynch opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty signed on 6 December 1921. Much of the IRA, of which Lynch was Chief-of-Staff, was opposed to the treaty. As the country moved towards civil war in 1922, the majority of the republican forces elected Lynch as Chief of Staff of the republican forces at a Dublin convention...' (From here.)
Liam Lynch was born in Barnagurraha, on the Cork-Limerick border, on the 9th of November, 1893, into a republican family - his mother was the secretary of the Ballylanders branch of the Ladies Land League, and his uncle John was one of a party of Volunteers who assembled in Kilmallock on Easter Sunday morning in 1916 to play their part, locally, in the Rising but, due to Eoin MacNeill's 'Countermand Order', the intended insurrection there never happened.
Throughout his life, Liam Lynch had no faith in politicians and is on record for declaring that "...the army has to hew the way to freedom for politics to follow.."
And his preference for a military solution ie to 'fight fire with fire' to remove the British military (and political) presence from Ireland was known to the enemy in Westminster, so much so that London instructed their 'Cairo Gang' mercenaries to concentrate on admired soldiers like Lynch and, in their rush to do so, a Sinn Féin councillor, John Lynch, was shot dead by 'Cairo' member Lieutenant Angliss, (aka 'McMahon'- he had been recalled from spy work in Russia for the 'Cairo Gang' job in Dublin) .
The British assassin is said to have believed that John Lynch was Liam Lynch, or related to him, but expressed no remorse when his mistake was pointed out to him.
The Ciaro man was playing billiard's in Dublin after he killed John Lynch when the IRA shot him, but he was only wounded. He wanted revenge - and the 'Cairo Job' gave him that opportunity, he thought ; in November, 1920, he was in lodgings at 22 Lower Mount Street in Dublin when two of the 'Twelve Apostles' entered his room. He reached for his revolver but was shot dead before he could get to it.
'...the dramatic headlines of the papers told the story in graphic form ; "Leaders meeting surprised, Irregular Chief taken near Clonmel, fight in the hills".
The text went to say - "Liam Lynch was severely wounded and captured in a fight south of Clonmel yesterday. His death was announced in the following report, recieved from Army G.H.Q. this morning - "Liam Lynch died in Clonmel at 8.45 last evening". Further down the page under the heading "Liam Lynch Dead" and "Mr. De Valera" Narrow Escape", it gave further details and also a short biography of the dead leader.
At the inquest in Clonmel on Wednesday the last wish of Lynch was told by a witness - "In conversation with me, deceased asked to be buried in Fermoy along with Fitzgearld, and told me he was Liam Lynch". Liam Lynch had been shot in the right side of the body with the exit wound on the left side, said Dr Raymond Dalton, military M.O. There was a fair amount of external and considerable amount of internal hemorrhage, and he was suffering severely from shock...' (from here.)
IRA General Liam Lynch died on the 10th of April, 1923, in Clonmel, Tipperary - 101 years ago on this date.
In Ireland, in 1920 - only four years after the Rising - the population sensed that change was coming and, the country being an agricultural base, the 'ownership' and use of the land was on the mind of most of the people.
One republican-minded newspaper, 'The Mayoman', was editorially in favour of the proposition that the anti-republican 'Big House' owners were further abusing their positions by grazing their animals on lands that poorer people could live and farm on, and the Sinn Féin organisation had released a pamplet (written by well known Irish republican and agrarian radical, Laurence Ginnell) -
'Why have not the ranches, which are all evicted lands, been distributed among evicted tenants, holders of uneconomic farms, labourers, farmers' sons and other landless people (who should) clear cattle off every ranch, and keep them cleared until distributed...'
The newspaper, which traded under the slogan - 'For prompt and efficient service in all kinds of printing and advertising matter. Specialists in printing book work' - was published in Castlebar, in County Mayo, and was established in 1919 by a Mr John J. Collins, a GAA Council member.
It was an influential voice, and Mr Collins himself was an influential man ; he was a cousin of Catholic Archbishop Thomas Patrick Gilmartin who was, at best, lukewarm about the struggle against the British and military presence in Ireland but, as an Archbishop, he and his family carried 'weight' in society.
Mr Collins carried some weight himself within Irish republican circles and, when his newspaper ceased publication in 1921, he worked for 'The Mayo News' and 'The Connacht Tribune' newspapers.
1920 was one of the years when land distribution 'hit the headlines', pardon the pun, and the land labourers weren't too pushed about how that distribution would come about - on Tuesday March 30th 1920, for example, a two-hundred strong contingent, mostly comprising of tenants of the Ross estate, paraded on horse-back in military formation through the district of Oughterard, in County Galway, stopping at the residences of large graziers/ranchers who held lands on the estate and, at the landlord's house, they let their feelings be known.
In Headford, just across Lough Corrib from Oughterard, one grazier was told he would be burned alive unless he signed his land over and the assembled crowd, reportedly of over one thousand people, went so far as to start the fire.
James G. Alcorn, the 'High Sheriff' for County Galway, was brought to the edge of Lough Corrib, and given the choice of drowning or surrendering his farm.
In Roscommon, one grazier had two pistols held to his head while his prospective grave was dug before his eyes.
The more common tactic of the movement was 'cattle-driving', which was carried out so extensively that by the middle of April one Galway newspaper wrote that 30,000 acres had been cleared of livestock (an area equivalent to nearly 50 square miles [about 129 square kilometers]) and that this involved the driving out of 20,000 cattle and as many sheep from the land.
On the 10th April, 1920, under a front page headline declaring 'Western Land Hunger', the Mayoman newspaper reported that "...the fight for the grazing land is developing all over South Mayo, Galway and South Roscommon. Cattle drives were occurring in many areas.."
And we still have Six Counties outstanding...
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On the 10th April, 1920, republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher, Arthur Griffith (pictured), the then Minister for Home Affairs in Dáil Éireann (not to be confused with the Leinster House assembly) gave an interview to 'The Irish Independent' newspaper, in which he declared -
"Labour stood down for Sinn Féin at the General Election and worked in harmony with us at the local elections. If our enemies are relying on a breach in our forces in that direction they will be disappointed."
And today, 2024, there is no 'breach in their forces' and both groupings are 'working in harmony' in relation to the 'Woke' (ie queer, so-called 'transgender' issues, pro-mass immigration policies) agenda and, hopefully, both will pay for those political, social and moral indiscretions in the 7th June 2024 Council, Corporation and EU elections.
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On the 10th April, 1920, the RIC Barracks in Leixlip, County Kildare, was attacked by the IRA and taken over by the rebels.
The RIC 'Sergeant' in charge of the barracks, a man named Lane, was on the premises, as were his wife and children.
The Lane family were escorted from the building by IRA men and were allowed to remove personal belongings from their rooms before the building was set on fire.
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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 can be argued that this kind of growth is unstable, both economically and socially, because the Celtic Tiger is actually two separate economies.
Ireland has what some social scientists call a dual economy.
A dynamic, highly profitable and mostly foreign-owned economy sits alongside a sluggish, less profitable and low-waged domestic economy.
One problem with such a dual economy is that a significant fall in the dynamic sector - that is, in the foreign sector over which Irish policy makers have little control - could bring the whole thing tumbling down.
A close look at the 'Celtic Tiger' reveals the profound differences between the foreign and Irish sectors ; investments by US firms rose dramatically in the 1990's while investments by Irish firms declined - in real terms, US investments quadrupled between 1990 and 1998 but investments by Irish industry fell by a third...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 10th April, 1921, two RIC men - Joseph Boynes (23), from Northumberland, in England, and George Woodward (23), from Surrey, in England, were out walking in Scart, Kildorrery, in County Cork, when they were shot dead by IRA Volunteers from the Active Service Unit of the Castletownroche Battalion, Cork Number 2 Brigade.
Among the Volunteers who participated were Maurice Cronin, Paddy Cronin, and Jim Cronin (all from Rockmills, Kildorrery).
Three days later, British forces ordered the burning of ten homes of republicans and burned down the houses of six farmers in the Kildorrery district because, they stated, "...their owners must have known of the intention of certain unknown rebels to murder (sic) Woodward and Boynes.."
The IRA retaliated on the night of 30th April/morning of the 1st May, when Volunteers burned three mansions in north-east Cork - 'Convamore', at Ballyhooly, owned by the Third Earl of Listowel ; 'Ballywalter House', near Castletownroche, owned by SG Penrose Welsted, and 'Rockmills House', near Glanworth, owned by Charles Deane Oliver .
The British, in turn, then destroyed the houses of six more farmers in north-east Cork "...on the grounds that their owners are active supporters of armed rebels.."
Mr Boynes had been in the RIC for only five months (he had been in the British Army and then a labourer, before joining the RIC), and Mr Woodward had ten months 'service' with them.
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On Sunday, 10th April 1921, five members of the British Forces - Samuel Dougald, Hans Leeman, Edward Linton, John Fluke and William Irwin - who operated from a barracks in Crossmaglen, in County Armagh, were on their way to church services, when they heard that "unusual activity" was taking place in McConville's public house in Cregganduff, County Armagh.
They went to investigate the 'disturbances' and discovered that IRA Commander Frank Aiken (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher)and about fifteen other IRA Volunteers had removed Catholic and Protestant churchgoers from their churches, for their own safety, and moved them into the pub, as an attack was imminent on British Forces in the town.
When the five members of the British Forces ('Special Constabulary') happened upon the scene, a gunfight ensued and one of the five - John Fluke - died in the fight : more here.
When his colleagues heard that 'Special Constable' Fluke had been killed, they went on a rampage in Cregganduff, assaulting the local people and burning down two houses which, in turn, led to the burning of two unionist-owned houses.
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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.)
ROBERT EMMET AND THE IRELAND OF TODAY...
"The contention I make now, and I ask you to note it well, is that England does not trust Ireland with guns ; that under Home Rule or in the absence of Home Rule England declares that we Irish must remain an unarmed people ; and England is right.
England is right in suspecting Irish loyalty, and those Irishmen who promise Irish loyalty to England are wrong.
I believe them honest ; but they have spent so much of their lives parleying with the English, they have sat so often and so long at English feasts, that they have lost communion with the ancient unpurchasable faith of Ireland, the ancient stubborn thing that forbids, as if with the voice of fate, any loyalty from Ireland to England, any union between us and them, any surrender of one jot or shred of our claim to freedom even in return for all the blessings of the British peace.
I have called that old faith an indestructible thing.
I have said that it is more powerful than empires.
If you would understand its might you must consider how it has made all the generations of Ireland heroic..."
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (10TH APRIL) 157 YEARS AGO : BIRTH OF AN IRISH POET, ARTIST AND MYSTIC.
He made his living as a poet, an artist and a mystic, and was a leading figure in the Irish literary renaissance of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was during a proof-reading session by one of his assistants that he adopted a new pseudonym, 'AE', when his then pseudonym, 'AEon' (meaning 'life/vital force') was mentioned by the proof-reader.
He became friends with the poet William Butler Yeats when the two of them were attending the 'Metropolitan School of Art' in Dublin - both men were interested in the occult and mysticism, and also shared an interest in the Irish language.
To supplement his income, 'AE' Russell worked in the accounts department in a drapery shop but left that position to work with, and in, the agricultural business.
At 27 years young, in 1894, he published his first work, 'Homeward : Songs by the Way' and it was during those years in the editor's chair that he published his 'Collected Poems', in 1913 and 1926.
And it was also during those same years that Terence MacSwiney, the Commanding Officer of the IRA, died, on the 74th day of his hunger strike, in Brixton Prison, in England, on the 25th October in 1920, a death which inspired 'AE' Russell to pen the following tribute -
'See, though the oil be low more purely still and higher
The flame burns in the body’s lamp! The watchers still
Gaze with unseeing eyes while the Promethean Will,
The Uncreated Light, the Everlasting Fire
Sustains itself against the torturer’s desire
Even as the fabled Titan chained upon the hill.
Burn on, shine on, thou immortality, until
We, too, have lit our lamps at the funeral pyre;
Till we, too, can be noble, unshakable, undismayed:
Till we, too, can burn with the holy flame, and know
There is that within us can triumph over pain,
And go to death, alone, slowly, and unafraid.
The candles of God are already burning row on row:
Farewell, lightbringer, fly to thy heaven again!'
George William Russell ('AE') died on the 17th of July, 1935, in Bournemouth, Hampshire, in England, in his 69th year.
On the 10th April, 1922, Eamonn Seán Duggan (pictured, a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher) suggested that the artillery barracks in Kildare might be suitable as a depot for the new Free State 'Civic Guard' (so-called 'police force'), who were at the time housed in the 'Royal Dublin Society' (RDS) showgrounds in Ballsbridge, Dublin.
The 'Civic Guard' was composed of ex-IRA Volunteers and members of the British Forces, and was known to employ ex-RIC members as instructors.
In late April that year (1922), 1,100 recruits were duly moved from Ballsbridge to their new depot in Kildare.
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Thanks for the visit, and for reading - and thank you for taking the time, and having the interest, to check back with us after our excursions in Lovely Lanzarote : appreciated!
Sharon and the team.
