"The pro-British sergeant at Inchigeelagh barracks, Daniel Maunsell (pictured), was considered to be the greatest threat to the local Volunteers and to the local public at large.
He was warned on several occasions by both the Company and the Battalion Irish Volunteer officers to scale down his anti-Irish activities, but to no avail.
On the 21st August 1920 he was shot dead at Creedon's Hotel in the village..." - Volunteer Patrick O'Sullivan.
A 20-year-old farmer from Tralee, in County Kerry, a Mr Daniel Maunsell, known to have pro-British tendencies, decided, in 1891, to hang-up his farmer boots and join the RIC ('Service Number 55061').
Whether he was carrying a grudge against republicanism or the 'power' of his new uniform went to his head is not known, but he quickly developed a reputation for being "hyperactive" against the Republican Movement and was, as stated above, advised to back off, which he didn't do.
The Inchigeelagh Company of Cork Number 1 Brigade of the Volunteers received information that Mr Maunsell who, by then, had been in charge of the RIC barracks, would be travelling from his home in Inchigeelagh to the town of Macroom on the 21st August, and two of their number (possibily Mick Séan Rua O'Sullivan and Ted Quinlan) were tasked to ambush him.
When Mr Maunsell got to Creedon's Hotel in the village of Inchigeelagh, at about 9.20pm, he was shot dead.
His RIC colleagues attended the scene of the shooting and, when they left same and were driving through the village of Lissardagh, they found their way blocked by a cart placed across the road by Volunteers from the Kilmurry and Crookstown companies of the Volunteers, who instructed the armed RIC members to surrender - they refused, jumped out of their truck and a gunfight ensued.
A number of RIC members were injured, one of whom - a 'Sergeant' Runane - was "seriously wounded", and Volunteer Michael Galvin, the Quartermaster of 'H' (Kilmurry) Company, was killed.
Mr Maunsell's widow and children were later awarded £4,500 in compensation.
Incidentally, it later transpired that on Saturday, 14th August (1920) - one week before he was shot dead - Mr Maunsell had taken action on the 'BACK OFF OR ELSE...' advice he was given, as he had handed in his resignation letter to his boss...
27-year-old Robert Morris, a Private in the 2nd Battalion of the 'Royal Welch Fusiliers' ('Service Number 241458'), was 'keeping the peace' in occupied Ireland in 1919 when, on the 21st August that year, he was "accidently shot dead in Limerick".
Mr Morris is buried in Leintwardine Cemetery, in Herefordshire, in the West Midlands region of England, where his father lived at the time of his son's death in Ireland.
==========================
ON THIS DATE (21ST AUGUST) 163 YEARS AGO : BIRTH OF A BRITISH PARAMILITARY 'GODFATHER'.
One of the (original) UVF's better-known leadership figures (apart from 'Sir' George Spafford Richardson, a retired British Army general) was Colonel Frederick Hugh Crawford CBE, who viewed himself as a breed apart from others who shared the planet with him - "From these settlers sprang a people, the Ulster-Scot, who have made themselves felt in the history of the British Empire and, in no small measure, in that of the United States of America.
I am ashamed to call myself an Irishman. Thank God I am not one. I am an Ulsterman, a very different breed.." (from here).
'His official title read Director of Ordnance of the HQ Staff of the UVF...he had first rate Protestant credentials for he had been one of those who signed the Ulster Covenant (pictured) in his own blood. He had travelled the world, fought for a time in South Africa and returned to throw himself tirelessly into the fight against Home Rule for Ireland...' (from here).
Colonel Frederick was born in Belfast on the 21st August 1861, and died in his 92nd year on the 5th November 1952. His father, James, was a factory owner in Belfast (manufacturing starch, which is said to be good for a stiff upper lip..) but Frederick struck out on his own, becoming an engineer with a shipping firm before taking to a military life, which brought him into the Boer War.
On the night of the 24th April, 1914, Frederick Crawford, the 'Director of Ordnance HQ Staff UVF' (who was cooperating re acquiring arms with, and for, the 'Ulster Unionist Council') and the main instigator in an operation in which over 25,000 guns were successfully smuggled into Ireland, witnessed his plans come to fruition - for at least the previous four years, he and some other members of the 'Ulster Reform Club' had been making serious inquiries about obtaining arms and ammunition to be used, as they saw it, for 'the protection of fellow Ulstermen'.
Advertisements had been placed in France, Belgium, Germany and Austrian newspapers seeking to purchase '10,000 second-hand rifles and two million rounds of ammunition..' and, indeed, between August 1913 and September 1914, it is known that Mr Crawford and his colleagues in the UVF/URC/UUC obtained at least three million rounds of .303 ammunition and 500 rifles, including Martini Enfield carbines, Lee Metford rifles, Vetterlis and BSA .22 miniature rifles, all accompanied by their respective bayonets, and six Maxim machine guns, from the Vickers Company in London, for £300 each.
The ads were placed and paid for by a 'H. Matthews, Ulster Reform Club' ; Crawford's middle name was Hugh and his mother's maiden name was Matthews, an action which some members of the Ulster Reform Club objected to, leading to Crawford resigning from that group and describing the objectors as "a hindrance".
He described that period in his life as being "so crowded with excitement and incidents that I can only remember some of them, and not always in the order in which they happened..".
Mr Crawford and his UVF/URC/UUC colleagues had ordered some munitions from a company in Hamburg, in Germany, and had paid a hefty deposit up front but, months later, as they had not heard from the company, Mr Crawford was sent there to see what the delay was and discovered that the German boss, who was in Austria while Crawford was in Germany, had informed Westminster about the order and was asked by that institution not to proceed with same - the deposit would not be returned and the deal was off, as far as the company was concerned.
Crawford tracked him down, in Austria, and called him and his company swindlers and was then told of a similar 'deal' involving that arms company regarding Mexican purchasers who also got swindled but, on that occasion, words and bullets were exchanged, the latter from gun barrels!
At 60 years of age (in 1921) he was named in the British 'Royal Honours List' as a 'CBE' ('Commander of the Order of the British Empire') and he wrote his memoirs in 1934 at 73 years of age.
He died, in his 92nd year, in 1952, and is buried in the City Cemetery in the Falls Road in Belfast. The then British PM, 'Sir' Basil Brooke, described him as "..a fearless fighter in the historic fight to keep Ulster British.." but, whatever about his 'successes on the battlefield', he was apparently less successful in his family life -
"What sort of man was my Father? As a boy and as a man he was never very intelligent. He was an unconscious bully and for that reason unloved by his children. Each in turn left the home as soon as we became adults and were able to do so.
The U.V.F rifles - I think about 15,000 - were stored and kept in good condition in a shed in the grounds of Harland and Wolff where I once saw them. For legal reasons they were in my father's name. After the retreat from Dunkirk, Britain was desperately short of arms and wanted to purchase the U.V.F rifles.
As you are now aware my father was not a very intelligent person and was a hopeless business man. My father's chartered accountant sent word to him to say that Sir Dawson Bates (pictured) wanted to meet him about something important. Accordingly, my father went to the accountant's office where his old friend Sir Dawson Bates was waiting for him - "Ah Fred, so glad you've come". The three, my Father, the accountant and Sir Dawson Bates sat down at a table.
There Sir Dawson carefully explained the desperate need Britain had for arms and asked my father, for patriotic reasons, to release the rifles – it would only be a simple matter of signing a prepared document. My father, in the presence of the accountant and Sir Dawson Bates, for patriotic reasons, signed the document without reading it.
It conveyed ownership of the rifles from my father to Sir Dawson Bates who sold them to the British Government for, I believe, £2 a barrel. But there was something equally disgusting to discover ; during the Second World War because of a failed eye operation my father became blind whereupon I was appointed his Attorney and in that capacity I had to take over his financial affairs.
I was horrified that his bank was about to foreclose which would have meant that he would have been declared a bankrupt. An unholy trio had been cheating him for years ; his estate agent who collected all revenues due to my father was keeping most of it, his chartered accountant was presenting false figures for income tax purposes and all this skulduggery was made legal by the co-operation of his trusted friend, his solicitor.." (from here).
Colonel Frederick Crawford CBE proudly worked for, and aided and abetted, British imperialism, only to be used, abused and cheated by that same system.
A lesson (which will no doubt continue to go unheeded) to be learned, even at this late stage, by those who, today, work that imperialist system in this country, north and south.
The 'modern day' UVF, meanwhile, are a self-sustaining criminal outfit, using politics as a disguise for their continued existence - 'Loads of youngsters were recruited...but the only thing these kids are good for is blocking the street. They wouldn't know the difference between Edward Carson and Frank Carson..drug dealers and housebreakers have also been recruited.
They are given the option of having their arms broken for anti-social behaviour or joining up...nearly everyone joins up.
I know of a few fellas who have been out of work and deliberately allowed to run up tabs in UVF pubs. The UVF comes to them at the end of the month and says "pay up lads". When they cannot they are given the option of a beating or signing up...' (from here.)
Colonel Frederick Hugh Crawford CBE was born on this date - 21st August - in 1861, 163 years ago and, although he's gone, the organisation he helped to establish is still with us but, as stated, it does not now operate to a political agenda.
WHY DOESN'T THE CENSUS ADDRESS ETHNICITY...?
By Niina Hepojoki.
From 'Magill' Magazine, March 2002.
It has been suggested that James Joyce was one of the first artists ever to imagine a world without foreigners.
In his essay 'Strangers in Their Own Country', Professor Declan Kiberd defines this Joycean world as... "..one possible once men and women begin to accept the foreigner in the self* and the necessarily fictive nature** of all nationalisms, which are open to endless negotiations."***
('1169' comment -* There is no "foreigner in the self" [except, perhaps, for those that are 'Woke'] as far as any indigenous people should be concerned ; we are what we are, and shouldn't seek to change our very DNA to suit anybody.
** - Nationalism is not of a "fictive nature" ; rather it is of a factual narrative and nature.
*** - "endless negotiations" ie 'those are my principles, and if you don't like them...well, I have others...' ; the very 'building blocks' of a 'Woke' structure!)
"Prove that there is racism in Cork and in this country", demanded some angry people.
Dr Eoin O'Mahony of 'Faqsresearch'* recently completed a study titled 'Racism in Ireland' - the Views of Black and Ethnic Minorities'** : this study attempted to 'prove', through validated social research, the extent of racist experiences within minority groups in Ireland ; the study consisted of a sample of 622 members of Ireland's ethnic minorities.
Based on interviews of the sample, it was concluded that 78% had experienced racism in this country, and a further breakdown of the sample noted that nine in every ten black persons felt they had been a subject of racism.
Interestingly, 70% of the overall sample also felt that white Irish people think black people are here to abuse the social welfare system...***
(* The 'Faqsresearch' company/GONGO no longer exists // ** That particular 'study' makes for heavy reading and, surprise, surprise, 'proves' that migrants here basically believe they should be entitled [!] to more // *** In our opinion, the majority of them abuse the indigenous Irish people, our hospitality, our patience and our social welfare system.)
(MORE LATER.)
"GALWAY, 1920 : "I WAS ARMED WITH A .45 REVOLVER AND HAD FIVE ROUNDS OF AMMUNITION FOR IT..."
"During the month of August, 1920, we got reports that five or six RIC men were in the habit of cycling from Oranmore to Galway on Saturday mornings.
One Friday night that month a meeting, composed mostly of officers, was held at the Forge, Brierhill.
I was present and amongst others present were Brian Molloy, my brother Mick, Thomas ('Baby') Duggan and Bernard Fallon. The meeting discussed the possibility of attacking the patrol. It was decided to attack them next morning, Saturday. Brian Molloy was the senior officer present.
We mobilised at Merlin Park wood on the Oranmore–Galway road at 10 am the following morning, Saturday. There were about fourteen or fifteen [men] present. I was armed with a .45 revolver and had five rounds of ammunition for it.
Four others had rifles and the remainder had shotguns. About twelve of the party were placed along the wall of Merlin Park at intervals of four or five yards apart, and two on the railway bridge about three hundred yards on the Oranmore side of our position. We were instructed not to fire until after the RIC had been called on to surrender, and they had refused to do so.
At about 12 o'clock noon I saw two RIC men on bikes coming under the bridge, and three others at intervals behind them. Before the leading RIC man reached the ambush position, the men on the bridge, contrary to orders, opened fire on them. We then opened fire. One of the leading RIC men fell.
We discovered afterwards that he was shot dead. The other four crawled behind a gateway on the opposite side of the road, the remaining three escaped across country.
When the firing ceased, I went on the road with three others and collected one .45 revolver and five bicycles. I kept the revolver. We dispersed, going home in twos and threes. Later the five bicycles were sent to G.H.Q. in Dublin to be exchanged for rifles.
I think that we got five rifles for them. Baby Duggan and Paddy Mullins were on the bridge. Among those in the main ambush position were my brothers, Willie and Michael Newell, Bernard Fallon, Joe Donnellan, Paddy King and Ned Broderick..." - Volunteer Thomas 'Sweeney' Newell of Castlegar, County Galway.
The Volunteers who planned and took part in the ambush were attached to the Castlegar and Oranmore IRA Companies, with Volunteer Joseph Howley and Volunteer Brian Molloy in command, and the dead RIC member was later named as a Mr Martin Foley (33, from the Castlerea district in County Roscommon), and his two wounded colleagues were named as a Mr Mulhearn and a Mr Brown.
Incidentally, the ambush was apparently not sanctioned by Seamus Murphy, the IRA Officer Commanding of the Galway Brigade, who left Galway for Dublin in September (1920), necessitating the re-organisation of the Galway Brigades.
On the 21st August, 1920, at about 11.30pm, a four-man RIC party on bicycles were in the Greenhills area of the village of Kill, in County Kildare, on their way to Naas to take up guard duty at the home of RIC 'Inspector' Kerry Supple, as the IRA had expressed an interest in having a chat with him.
The IRA had been monitoring the route and timing of the RIC members and were prepared for them that night.
IRA Commandant Tom Harris (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State poacher) and his fellow Volunteers instructed the RIC members to stop and put their hands up but one of them, a 'Sergeant' Patrick Reilly ('Service Number 56526'), opened fire on the rebels.
Mr Reilly and one of his colleagues, a Mr Patrick Haverty ('Service Number 60160'), were both hit when fire was returned ; he died on site as a result, and Mr Reilly died from his wounds in Dr. Steeven's Hospital in Dublin on the 31st of that month.
The two other RIC members, a Mr Michael Flanagan and a Mr Andrew Flaherty, were approached by Volunteers Pat Brady, Jim Dunne and Jack Sullivan, who were firing warning shots into the air as they walked towards the two RIC members, and both of them were taken prisoner.
Rifles, revolvers, ammunition belts and anything else of military value were taken by the Volunteers, for distribution among their own comrades -Kildare's IRA contingent at the time was small enough, containing just two Battalions and around 100 active men, with not enough munitions for all.
The two RIC prisoners were marched to the Palmerstown Estate 300 yards away, where they were put into a wooded area and told not to report to their barracks until the next morning, and they did as they were told.
RIC 'Inspector' Kerry Supple survived the conflict and was pensioned from the RIC on the 8th October, 1921, and he moved to England, Mr Reilly was a forty-seven-year-old married man from County Offaly and had twenty-six-years 'service' in the RIC, and was just three weeks away from retirement, and Mr Haverty was thirty-nine, single, from Ballinasloe in County Galway, and had nineteen-years 'service' with the RIC.
The IRA operation, from start to finish, took about 20 minutes, and was deemed to be a success by almost all involved...
==========================
On the 21st August, 1920, an RIC 'Detective Constable', a Mr John Hanlon (33), was 'on-duty' and in the kitchen area in Walsh's Pub in Moore Street, in Kilrush, County Clare, when an IRA Volunteer from the West Clare Brigade, Liam (Bill) Haugh (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State poacher), walked in and shot him dead.
Mr Hanlon, a known loyalist, had dismantled an IRA training camp in the area which was used by a local IRA Flying Column, which greatly inconvenienced the Column.
It's unclear to this day whether it was by chance that Volunteer Haugh just happened to see Mr Hanlon enter the pub, followed him in and shot him, or if it was an arranged meeting between Mr Hanlon and Volunteer Haugh to discuss the possibility of Mr Hanlon emigrating to America, for his own sake.
Crown Forces couldn't find Volunteer Haugh later, so they burned his house down, and then 'arrested' Volunteer Patrick Burke, who was carrying his revolver at the time, and beat him almost to death.
He was imprisoned for two years but, shortly after he was released, he died - his wounds and injuries were never treated in prison, where he was constantly mistreated again ; the prison Governor apparently knew he was dying and didn't want the paperwork, so he let him out.
==========================
Road and rail disruption by the IRA against the British Army and their affiliates in this country was always a worry for Westminster, as its personnel were 'sitting targets' and military equipment, correspondence and mail/parcels etc were valuable assets and intelligence information for the rebels.
So the British looked to the skies and thought - "Jolly good! Why not? We'll give it a bash..."
On the 21st August, 1920, a Bristol Fighter airplane (pictured), carrying correspondence, not personnel (apart, obviously, from the two crewmen!), left Fermoy, in County Cork, on a run to Dungarvan in Waterford, then Kilkenny and onwards to Clonmel in County Tipperary, never made it past its first drop.
The airplane developed engine difficulties not long after take off and was forced to land near Lismore, in County Waterford, where the 'landing committee' consisted of armed IRA men - they pulled the crew (injured but still alive) from the wreckage, took anything of military value, burnt the remaining carcass of the airplane, left the injured crewmen there and then returned safely to base.
"Dammit, Old Man! Back to carrier pigeons..."!
==========================
On the 21st August, 1920, as a four-man group of RIC members were walking down Jocelyn Street in Dundalk, County Louth, they were fired on by an IRA/Na Fianna Éireann unit.
One of their number, a 'Constable' Thomas Brennan (41), was killed and his three colleagues - Mr Clarke, Mr Witherden and a Mr Isdell - were all wounded ; all four of them were on their way to undertake 'crowd control duties' at a local football game.
Mr Brennan's colleagues and other pals in the Crown Forces attacked a Sinn Féin hall in Dundalk in reprisal, wrecking it, and then turned their attention to two pubs owned by local businessman Mr James McGuill, an elected County Councillor (...and Officer Commanding of the local Battalion of the IRA), and destroyed them, too.
In response, a large drapery store owned by another local businessman, a Mr Thomas Craig, a known British sympathiser, was burned down by the IRA on the 27th August (1920) - the living quarters above the premises were occupied by thirteen members of his staff, and all but three of them managed to flee the building : Elizabeth Wilson from Ballyhooley, Ballynure, in County Antrim, Georgina Rice from Ardee in County Louth and Alexander Alderdice from Drogheda all died in the fire.
Incidentally, one of the IRA/NFE Volunteers was apparently recognised by one of the wounded RIC members, but no such charge was brought against him ; the RIC member knew that there would be a price to pay for doing so.
==========================
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.
Or maybe the main Irish political parties just do not have the political will to change Irish society.
Either way, the Irish people have every reason to be very angry.
As for economic growth, despite the recent slowdown, there is still a possibility that something new will come along to spur the 'Celtic Tiger' back to life.
Ironically, the US high tech companies that have fuelled the Irish economy may get a shot in the arm from a source that many economists have invoked to predict further recession...
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE - 21ST AUGUST - 113 YEARS AGO : WOMEN GET UPPITY!
In Ireland, a few years before the Easter Rising of 1916, it would not be far-fetched at all to state that women were 'doubly oppressed' : by 'the State' (a British institution, at the time [now just a pro-British one!] ) and by, in the main, male society, although not all women accepted that that was the way it should be.
A number of social and cultural organisations had been established by women and for women, including the 'Conservative and Unionist Women's Franchise League', the 'Munster Women's Franchise League', the 'North of Ireland Women's Suffrage Committee', the 'Irish Women's Suffrage Society' and the 'Irishwomen's Suffrage and Local Government Association', most of which worked independently of each other.
Two 'troublesome' Irish women, Louie Bennett and Helen Chenevix, thought it would be to the benefit of the overall objective if those separate organisations were to be coordinated into a more effective campaigning body and, on 21st August 1911 - 113 years ago on this date - the 'Irish Women's Suffrage Federation' was formed...
"..to link together the scattered suffrage societies in Ireland in the effort to obtain the vote as it is, or may be, granted to men (and) to carry on more propaganda and education work throughout Ireland than has hitherto been possible...to form the basis of an association which will continue to exist after enfranchisement, and whose purpose will be to work, through the power of the vote, for the welfare of the country.." .
In that same year, (1911), the 'Munster Women's Franchise League' was formed in Cork and the 'Irishwomen's Reform League' was established in Dublin.
It appears that women, then, were not only more aware of the injustices foisted on them by an unequal and oppressive society, but were more prepared than we are now to do something about it.
Time for more drastic action, perhaps, Ladies...
'The first use of the Curragh for detainees was when seventeen men from County Kildare, who were arrested during Easter Week 1916, were confined at Hare Park Camp, the Curragh...several camps were opened in the country, including the one on the Curragh, which opened on 1st March 1921...
...the internment of republican prisoners is as old as the Irish republican struggle. Prior to 1798 most of the Irish rebellions, uprisings and wars were localised affairs, not national struggles for independence.
The 1798 rebellion was the first uprising waged to break the link with Britain. The idea was to create an Irish republic based on the ideals of France and America...
...around 12,000 people were imprisoned under the Free State governments emergency laws, which saw a harsher prison regime installed in the camps and jails than that of the British...' (from here.)
As with all prisons that the British or Staters locked Irish republican POW's in, escape attempts were mandatory and, on the 21st* August, 1921 - 103 years ago on this date - one IRA prisoner, James Staines(a brother to Michael, a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State poacher), hid in a lorry and was driven out of confinement!
(*'1169' comment - two dates are given by various sources for this escape - the 19th and the 21st - but it's worth writing about anyway!)
==========================
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 a statement dated December 31st, 1969, Thomas Maguire said -
"In December, 1938, the surviving faithful members of the latest 32-County Republican parliament, the Second Dáil, elected in 1921, delegated their executive powers of government to the Army Council of the IRA.
This proclamation of 1938 was signed by Seán Ó Ceallaigh ('Sceilg'), Ceann Comhairle, Count Plunkett, Professor William Stockley, Mary Mac Swiney, Brian Ó hUiginn, Cathal Ó Murchú and myself Tomas Maguire.
The majority of the delegates at the December, 1969, IRA Convention, having passed the resolution referred to above, proceeded to elect an Executive which in turn appointed a new Army Council, committed to implement the resolution.
That convention had neither the right nor the authority to pass such a resolution.
Accordingly, I, as the sole surviving member of the Executive of Dáil Éireann, and the sole surviving signatory of the 1938 Proclamation, hereby declare that the resolution is illegal and that the alleged Executive and Army Council are illegal, and have no right to claim the allegiance of either soldiers or citizens of the Irish Republic..."
(MORE LATER.)
Thanks for the visit, and for reading!
Sharon and the team.
(We won't be here next Wednesday, 28th August 2024, as we have a family engagement down the country between now and then and, with our family, that's gonna be a four-day gig!
We'll be back on Wednesday, 4th September 2024 with, among other pieces, a few paragraphs about a political incident from over 50 years ago, in a country foreign to America, in which a Mr Donald Trump is referenced, and another few paragraphs connecting the Irish agitation for land, bayonets, 'landlords' - and the 1916 Easter Rising.
See y'all on the 4th!)