In June, 1920, a Lieutenant Colonel, a Mr Gerald Bryce Ferguson Smyth, 34, (pictured), was sent from London to Ireland, to deal with "the troublesome Irish", as he had been seconded by his political bosses as the new 'RIC Divisional Commander for Munster'.
He rallied his somewhat demoralised troops in Listowel Barracks, in County Kerry, and delivered a 'tally-ho!' speech to the poor devils -
"Sinn Fein has had all the sport up to the present and we are going to have the sport now. I am promised as many troops from England as I require, thousands are coming daily. I am getting 7,000 police* from England.
Police and military will patrol the country at least five nights a week. They are not to confine themselves to the main roads but take across the country, lie in ambush, and when civilians are seen approaching shout "Hands up!".
Should the order not be immediately obeyed, shoot, and shoot with effect. If persons approaching carry their hands in their pockets and are in any way suspicious looking, shoot them down.
You may make mistakes occasionally and innocent persons may be shot, but that cannot be helped and you are bound to get the right persons sometimes.
The more you shoot the better I will like you ; and I assure you that no policeman will get into trouble for shooting any man and I will guarantee that your names will not be given at the inquest..." (*Black And Tans)
Mr Smyth had been sent here to 'shake up' the manner in which the RIC were attempting to get the better of the IRA and, as part of his 'new broom' approach (his 'Order Number 5', issued on the 17th June 1920), he stated -
"A police man (sic) is perfectly justified in shooting any man who he had good reason to believe is carrying arms and does not immediately throw up his arms when ordered. Every proper precaution for protection will be given to police at inquests so that no information will be given to Sinn Féin as to the identity of individuals.."
Mr Smyth's 'shoot on sight, with impunity' instructions came to the attention of Sean O'Hegarty (pictured), the Acting Officer Commanding of the Cork Number 1 Brigade of the IRA, and a Unit was formed to have a chat with Mr Smyth, the main players of which were Sean Culhane, John O'Connell, Sean O'Donoghue, Daniel ('Sandow') O'Donovan and Cornelius O'Sullivan.
Mr Smyth's fondness for being wined and dined in the 'Country Club' (known as the 'Conservative Club') on the South Mall, in Cork City, was noted.
A friendly waiter in that Club, a Mr Ned Fitzgerald, was contacted, and a plan was put in place.
On Saturday, 17th July, 1920, as Mr Smyth and his friends were having a bite to eat and drink and chinwagging in the Club, IRA Volunteer Daniel ('Sandow') O'Donovan walked up to him, shot him dead and wounded a Mr George Craig, an RIC 'County Inspector'.
Unsubstantiated legend has it that, as he approached Mr Smyth, Volunteer O'Donovan all but introduced himself, and said - "Your orders were to shoot on sight. You are in sight now, so make ready..."
Later that day (and on the next day, 18th July 1920) the Crown Forces (British Army and RIC members) sought their revenge on the citizens of Cork.
A Mr James Burke, an ex-British Army soldier from Cork, was killed by British troops on North Main St in Cork City, and it was said at the time that his killers used his blood to write their regimental name on a nearby wall. The inquest into Mr Burke's death found that he was killed by a bayonet- wielding soldier and that "it was unjustified".
At his funeral, almost 5,000 Cork native ex-British Army men and others marched behind his hearse.
Mr Burke's death led to hand-to-hand fighting between off-duty British Army soldiers and Cork-native ex-British Army soldiers over the next few days and, during these disturbances, another ex-British Army soldier, a Mr William McGrath, was shot for no reason from a passing British Army vehicle near North Gate Bridge and he died from his wounds on the 23rd July.
A young IRA Volunteer, John P. O'Brien, was killed (on the night of the 18th July) by British Army machine gun fire in King Street (now MacCurtain Street) when he was going to aid an injured woman.
Incidentally, Mr Smyth's brother, also a British Army operative - a Major George Osbert Sterling Smyth DSO, MC ETC ETC (!) pictured, who was stationed in India at the time - on hearing of his brothers death in Ireland, made arrangements to travel to this country to seek revenge on those who had killed his brother.
Eleven days after his brothers shooting, Major George left his post in India and made his way to Dublin where, he believed, apparently, the IRA Volunteers involved in the Country Club operation could be found.
On the 12th October (1920), he was part of a Crown Force raiding party (9 armed men) which raided a house in Drumcondra, on the corner of Home Farm Road and Upper Drumcondra Road, in Dublin, at about 2am, and Major George was shot dead (by Dan Breen and Seán Treacy, who were sheltering there) as was a Captain AP White, while a Corporal Worth was wounded.
The examination on the body of Major George showed that a bullet had gone through his chest, through his liver and exited from the right side of his back. The second bullet went through his back from the left side, through his right lung and then through a vertebra.
Death was due to shock and haemorrhage, with even more shock (!) being caused to the 'Establishment' when railway workers refused access for Mr Smyth's body to any of their rolling stock!
Mr Gerald Bryce Ferguson Smyth was born on the 7th September, in 1885, in Dalhousie, India, and he died on the 17th July, 1920, in Cork, Ireland, working on behalf of the British military. His brother, George, died in Ireland on the 12th October 1920, while also in the employ of the British military.
After large rallies in New York and Boston, Éamon de Valera (and Harry Boland, pictured) set out on a tour of the United States on the 17th July, 1919, visiting many states, capital cities and addressing large crowds, rallying support for the Irish struggle against the British military and political presence in Ireland.
Mr de Valera had arrived in New York on board the SS Lapland, having been smuggled aboard in Liverpool, and spent the nine-day journey concealed in the ship's boiler room.
On arrival, he met with Harry Boland and Joseph McGarrity in the back room of Phelan's Bar on 10th Avenue, and the group then moved to Liam Mellows’ apartment on East 39th Street where they met with John Devoy.
Between July and August 1919, Mr de Valera and his entourage travelled over 6,000 miles from New York to San Francisco, addressing huge crowds at dozens of venues, filling Madison Square Garden to capacity and receiving a thirty-minute standing ovation from about 25,000 people in Chicago's 'Wrigley Field'.
And, actually, at the Madison Square Garden rally, 15,000 people packed the venue and a further estimated 10,000 people waited outside, bringing the traffic on 7th Avenue to a standstill.
Mr de Valera's presence in America was kept secret for the first 10 days during which he visited his mother in Rochester and his half-brother, Fr Thomas Wheelwright, in Boston, and made strategic visits to Cardinal James Gibbons in Baltimore and Senator James Borah in Washington.
He prepared for the tour with the help of Mr Joseph McGarrity in Philadelphia where Mr McGarrity told him - "From the moment you leave this house, you go as President of the Irish Republic..."
That was 1919 ; eight years later, Mr de Valera would have been contacting most of the same people to explain why it was he was selling out that same Republic...
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'SINN FÉIN STATEMENT.'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
Mr McAteer is quoted as saying that he is.. "...surprised that groups and organisations which display the most contemptuous disregard for parliamentary institutions are now showing the most interest in this coming election.."
Sinn Féin is surprised that Mr McAteer displays such ignorance of Sinn Féin policy and what Sinn Féin stands for.
Sinn Féin is not contemptuous of parliamentary institutions, except when such institutions happen to be British created and British controlled and purport to legislate for the Irish people...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 17th July, 1920, an RIC member with 13 years 'service', a Mr James F. Masterson (35) was been driven from Limerick to Galway to begin a holiday break with his wife and two children.
As the car was travelling through the townland of Coolanoran, in Newcastle West, County Limerick, it drove into an IRA ambush position and Mr Masterson was shot dead.
Apparently, it later transpired that Mr Masterson was supplying the IRA with information on Crown Force activity ; if that was the case, then perhaps the ambush Unit weren't aware that that was the case, or maybe he had been caught out passing false information if, indeed, he was secretly assisting the IRA at all?
Anyway ; the next night his RIC colleagues caused havoc in the town of Newcastle West - Carnegie Library was wrecked and looted and the local creamery was partially burned.
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In 1920 in this country, the British political and military presence was operating practically on a day-to-day basis, being challenged almost hourly by the Republican Courts on the political front and by the IRA on the military front.
Some within the British political and military leadership in Westminster were insisting that military courts should be held in place of the (British) crippled legal (!) system in Ireland but, they were told, to do so would require new legislation, which would take time that they didn't have.
The 'pro-military courts' people suggested that if martial law was declared in Ireland, military courts could be installed practically instantly, and this gave food-for-thought to the 'Top Table' politicians and officers who were loudly whispering about the 'benefits' of doing so.
However, on the 17th July, 1920, their boss, General 'Sir' Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready (pictured), aware of the number of Irish people living in England and also recognising that British people would be concerned that 'if they can do that in Ireland then what's to stop them from doing it here...', let it be known that he had wrote that very day to to the British 'Chief Secretary for Ireland', 'Sir' Hamar Greenwood, stating -
"I do not for one instant think that the British public would stand for Martial Law (in Ireland) for one week over here..." and, effectively, that notion was dropped for the time being...
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On the 17th July, 1920, the Minister for Finance in the (British 'outlawed') First Dáil Éireann (the 32-County body, definitely not to be confused with the present institution in Kildare Street in Dublin), Mr Michael Collins, announced that the £250,000 loan target issue had been over-subscribed.
Mr Collins announced the winding-up of that loan scheme, stating that the final amount raised overall was £371,849 (equivalent to about €20 million today) describing the exercise as an outstanding success, which it certainly was, considering it had been operated by an 'underground government' in open defiance of an established and hostile British administration.
Mr Collins himself, however, was soon to align himself with that same administration...
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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.
The proportion of southern Irish workers on low pay also rose after 1987.
Ireland has twice as many workers on low pay than the rest of the EU, and five times more than Scandinavia.
Relative poverty increased along with inequality, and the Irish poverty rate rose to the highest in the EU, with 15.3 per cent of the population living in poverty.
The 'Celtic Tiger' created lots of jobs, and the average Irish family has a higher income today than in 1988 because they have work, but the jobs are still woefully low-paid and terribly insecure.
Many families are better off today only because they have two low-paying jobs in place of one dole cheque. Is that good enough in a boom economy...?
(MORE LATER.)
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.)
REPUBLICANS AND THE STATE :
In 'Dílseacht', Ruairí Ó Brádaigh said that Arthur Griffith had declared that, if he was elected, he.. "...would keep the Republic in being until after the Free State is established when the people can decide for and against...I want the Republic kept in being until the people can have a free election and give their votes."
As Ruairi put it - "There were express undertakings to maintain the Republic, yet these men's subsequent actions totally belied their words."
The IRA fought a civil war against the new Free State Army but eventually had to end hostilities, and did that by dumping arms without surrendering.
For Irish republicans the legitimate government of Ireland continued to be the Second (All-Ireland) Dáil, the government of the All-Ireland Republic.
The Second Dáil continued to function in the shadows, largely ignored, until December 8th, 1938, when it passed on its powers as the Government of the Republic of Ireland to the Army Council of the IRA...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 17th July, 1922, during a gun-fight between the IRA and Free State forces at Bunahowe on the road between Gort and Ennis in County Clare, IRA Captain Seán ('Jack') O'Halloran (21) (pictured) was killed.
Captain O'Halloran was born, in 1901, in Crusheen, in County CLare, and was a member of the Crusheen Piper Band and had joined the Republican Movement in 1917, operating between the Miltown Malbay and Ennistymon areas.
He is buried in his own native parish church-yard, and respects were paid on behalf of Commandant Peadar O'Loughlin and the members of all ranks of the Mid-North Clare IRA Brigades.
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On the 17th July, 1922, the Free Staters in Leinster House issued two press releases in which they practically bragged about the fact that they had now decided not to "take action" (ie imprison/shoot/execute) anyone "not found in arms" who was campaigning for the All-Ireland Republic.
In other words - 'Protest/campaign against us but only in the manner we allow...'
The second press release was a notification that their army now consisted of 15,000 armed soldiers.
In other words - 'Protest/campaign against us but only in the manner we allow. Or else...'
On the same date, the railway bridges in Yeomanstown, in Naas, and Killeenmore, in Kill, both in County Kildare, were put out of use by the IRA. No press release was issued...
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An IRA Unit, located in Baltinglass (pictured), County Wicklow, came under attack from the Free State Army on the 17th July, 1922.
The Staters had grouped in the town of Donard, about 8 miles away and, using ground troops and aeroplanes - after a battle that lasted for about three hours - the IRA withdrew.
One State soldier was killed, and among the IRA Volunteers captured were two brothers from Kildare Town, John and Michael Breslin, and Volunteer John Rafferty and Volunteer Peter Gill, both from Naas, County Kildare.
That wasn't the first or only such encounter in Baltinglass, County Wicklow, between agents of the Crown and/or their hirelings and Irish rebels -
'...according to Dwyer, McAllister sacrificed his life by standing in the doorway and drawing the soldiers' fire in order that Dwyer might escape, which he did...' : from here.
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Thanks for the visit, and for reading!
Sharon and the team.