In 1964, four million dollars was a huge amount of money ; that was the year, and that was the amount, that the CIA spent in securing the election of the 'Christian Democrats' in Chile.
However, six years later, it looked like a change of leadership was on the way - the socialist, Salvador Allende, was ahead in the polls, prompting the above-mentioned quote from Henry Kissinger.
American interests in Chile were worried, as was the CIA ; two US multi-national firms, I.T.T. and Anaconda Copper, offered the CIA $1,500,000 to stop Allende - the CIA told them to start an 'anti-Allende' campaign themselves with that money, as the Agency had its own 'war-chest' for just such a purpose.
However, US money and propaganda against him or not, on the 4th September 1970 - 54 years ago on this date - Salvador Allende won the election ('..he won the 1970 Chilean presidential election as leader of the Unidad Popular ('Popular Unity') coalition...on 4 September 1970, he obtained a narrow plurality of 36.2% to 34.9% over Jorge Alessandri, a former president, with 27.8% going to a third candidate (Radomiro Tomic) of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC)..' - from here.)
His victory was to be verified by the Chilean Congress on the 24th October 1970, prompting the CIA to increase their anti-democracy efforts.
They tried to bribe the Chilean Congress with $250,000, but failed ; they knew that the head of the Chilean Armed Forces, a General Rene Schneider, would not support unconstitutional means to remove Salvador Allende from 'play', but the CIA shipped guns into the country anyway, in a diplomatic bag - and Schneider himself was removed from the scene!
Three years later, and after spending $8 million dollars, the CIA were successful - Allende and thousands of his supporters were tortured and killed and a (U.S. friendly) military junta was installed in Chile.
Salvador Allende is gone, but American political arrogance is alive and well. It's too late now to properly repair the damage that Donald Trump has done, but perhaps future Office holders (Donald Trump?!) will take heed of the words of American poet, Maya Angelou ;
'History, despite its wrenching pain,
cannot be unlived,
but, if faced with courage,
need not be lived again'.
The RIC barracks in Drumquin, in County Tyrone, was raided by the IRA on the 26th August 1920, an operation which resulted in the death of one IRA man and one RIC member, with one other uniformed member of that British force being injured (later receiving £500 compensation for his injuries).
A large haul of arms was captured by the IRA Unit, which consisted of Dr Joseph Patrick McGinley (pictured, a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher [subsequently joined the Fine Gael party]), Sam O’Flaherty, John McGroarty, Michael Doherty, James Curran, Henry McGowan, Patrick McGlinchey, Jim Dawson, Anthony Dawson, Eamon Gallagher, Hugh McGraughan, Hugh Sweeney, William McLaughlin, Patrick McMonagle, James McMonagle, Hugh McGrath, John McLaughlin, Edward McBrearty, J.J. Kelly, James McCarron, John Flaherty, Jim Hannigan, John Byrne, Edward Thomas Coyle and Michael Bogan.
But more weapons and munitions were needed, and a plan was devised on how to obtain them.
On the agreed date - Saturday, 4th September 1920 - Hana (Hannah) Blaney, a Volunteer in Cumann na mBan, scouted the area around the Coast Guard station at Fanad, in County Donegal, and reported back to IRA leader Dr Joseph Patrick McGinley that the only enemy forces were inside the station - that the coast was clear (!) other than that.
The Volunteers moved in on the building and were fired on as they did so, and returned fire - a gunfight ensued but, realising they were outnumbered, those inside surrendered and the IRA took control of the station.
Between nine and eleven revolvers, one thousand rounds of ammunition for same, various other small arms and some boxes of gelignite were liberated, and repurposed (!) by the rebels but, had they been a few days earlier, they would have obtained more - most of the military munitions had been transferred to a ship anchored in the bay days previously.
And Dr McGinley was later to 'repurpose' himself, as stated above - speaking during the 'Treaty Debates', he voiced support, and voted for, the 'Treaty of Surrender', stating -
"I have no qualms about the oath which I took in coming to the assembly.
The people sent me here to get absolute separation if I could - I am for absolute separation if I could see a way out - but they sent me here to use my own free will*.
If I could not get absolute separation at the present time I was to take something by which we could work output own independence in the long run. I think in voting for this treaty I am voting according to the mandate* which my constituents gave me when sending me here..."
*His mandate, and that of the IRA and the Republican Movement, was to obtain a 32-County Irish Republic, not a 26-County Free State within that Republic.
==========================
On the 20th March, 1920 (his 36th birthday), the Irish republican Lord Mayor of Cork, Tomás Mac Curtain (March 20th 1884 - March 20th 1920) was shot dead in front of his wife and son by a group of men with blackened faces, who were found to be members of the 'Royal Irish Constabulary' (RIC) by the official inquest into the event.
His comrade, Terence MacSwiney (pictured) was shortly afterwards elected as the commander of the Cork Number 1 Brigade of the IRA and the new Lord Mayor of Cork.
Volunteer MacSwiney was 'arrested' in City Hall, Cork, by the British Crown Forces, on the 12th August (1920) for possession of "seditious articles and documents", and possession of a cypher key.
He was 'tried by a court' on the 16th August and sentenced to two years imprisonment at Brixton Prison in England, and went on hunger-strike, as it was his only means to continue the fight against the British military and political presence in Ireland.
The local, national and international media were following and reporting on the case, day-by-day, and Westminster was worried about the publicity that their interference in Ireland was receiving on the world stage.
On the 4th September, 1920, David Llyod George, the British Prime Minister, who was in Lucerne, in Switzerland, at the time, wrote to a Mr Bonar Law, who was one of his trusted MP's and was said to be "at the centre of government", expressing concern about the world-wide publicity being given to Volunteer MacSwiney's hunger-strike and about 'the Irish situation' overall -
"His release would completely disintegrate and dishearten the Police Force (sic) in Ireland and the Military. We might as well give up attempting to maintain (sic) law and order in Ireland..."
"Maintain law and order in Ireland" indeed! It was because of their presence in Ireland that law and order broke down.
Volunteer Terence MacSwiney died on the 25th October, 1920, after 74 days on hunger strike.
RIP.
(Incidentally, also during Volunteer MacSwiney's hunger-strike, three IRA operatives - Patrick 'Pa' Murray, Jerry Dennehy and Jack Cody - were sent to London to plan the assassination of a senior British government minister in the event of Volunteer MacSwiney's death ; however, shortly after he was buried, 'unofficial discussions about discussions' began between Irish republicans and Westminster about a truce [those discussions became 'official' on the 11th October 1921] and the London operation was put on hold.)
==========================
Percy Harold C Turner was born in 1894 in Guildford, in West Surrey, in England and, as a young adult, joined 'A Coy 1st The Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment' of the British Army (pictured, 'Service Number 6076392').
He was only 26 years of age when he died in the Military Hospital, in Victoria Army Barracks, in Belfast, Ireland, from an unexplained leg wound.
Gangrene had infected the wound, and he died on the 4th September, 1920.
==========================
On the 31st July, 1893, Douglas Hyde, Eoin MacNeill, Fr. Eoghan Ó Gramhnaigh (Eugene O'Growney) and others formed 'The Gaelic League' organisation, with the aim of restoring, maintaining and promoting the Irish langauge and culture.
The organisation flourished, running Irish language classes throughout Ireland, teaching people how to read and write in our own language and conducting its business as Gaeilge, and was particularly successful in the Kildare area.
Eoin MacNeill, Douglas Hyde and Fr. O'Growney, pictured in 1904.
Westminster, however, viewed the League in a somewhat different light after 1916 and, by 1920, it was unofficially considered to be an anti- (British) Establishment group ; the IRA, overall, was a force to be reckoned with, as its Volunteers were trained to a high level and the Republican Movement as a whole was a tightly-organised entity and, like the League, they had a strong presence in the Kildare area.
In July 1920, an IRA training camp was established at Ladytown, Naas, County Kildare, under the control of Peadar McMahon (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State poacher), an IRA GHQ organiser at the time and, in August (1920), a 'Big House' - Dowdingstown House, in the townland of Baile Dúidín, four miles south of Naas - was repurposed by the IRA as battalion headquarters, and fortnightly meetings of the battalion council were held there.
The Kildare Battalion, which controlled North Kildare and adjoining areas, was reorganised in September (1920) and two new battalions were formed : the 'Kildare Number 1', encompassing the northern region, with Patrick Colgan in command, and the remaining area became 'Kildare Number 2', with Thomas Harris in charge.
Try as they did, the Crown Forces were, as was said at the time, 'put to the pin of their collar' in the Kildare area and throughout the country in attempting to best the rebels (for example, 1,590 RIC members resigned during 1920 [and 1,428 in 1921]) so, in Kildare, the British reverted to an 'indirect approach' - on the 4th September, 1920, the 'Gaelic League' building in Kildoon, County Kildare, was burned to the ground by 'persons unknown'.
But the struggle continued in Kildare, to the point that the British still considered the county of Kildare to be "in a deplorable state..."!
==========================
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!)
These are crude figures, and the report stresses the importance of identifying the presence of institutional racism in Ireland*.
However, the report also gives rise to another very interesting question - what the researchers of the study found especially tricky was the creation of a representative sample within Ireland's ethnic minorities ; this is because there exist no official figures on the breakdown of different ethnic groups in this country (sic).
Dr Eoin O'Mahony said -
"There are figures on how many refugee applications the State has received and how many have been granted, however we don't know how many people belong to which ethnic group.
We don't know exactly how many people of African origin live here, or how many Pakistanis, for example. Any research into racism cannot in this situation be representative."
The primary way of gaining this type of data would be to introduce a question of ethnicity in the census but, despite the initial hope of introducing ethnicity as a question on this year's census form, the earliest date by which a respondent's ethnic origin will possibly be recorded is 2006...
(*"Institutional racism" in this State is reflected in the manner in which migrants here are, for instance, provided with a roof to shelter under ahead of the indigenous Irish and the manner in which the qualifying criteria for the main State [taxpayer-funded]-'Back To Work' scheme ['CE'] has been 'adjusted' for foreigners only.)
(MORE LATER.)
On the 24th May, 1921, Michael Collins contested elections as a Sinn Féin candidate for An Dara Dáil (the Second Dáil Éireann, which convened from the 16th August 1921 until the 8th June 1922) for two seats - Armagh and Cork Mid, North, South, South East and West - both of which he won.
On the 4th September that year (1921), Mr Collins was one of the main speakers at a political meeting held in the grounds of St. Patrick's College in Armagh City (pictured - Eoin O'Duffy was another), which was attended by an estimated 10,000 people (and a large force of IRA Volunteers were also present).
In his speech, he declared -
"In common with all other Republican candidates in this election, I go forward not as an individual seeking any distinction, but as the exponent of a National principle.
We go forward not accepting the Partition of Ireland Act, but rejecting it.
Ireland free as a Sovereign Entity or Ireland divided, with a minority of her population petted and pampered by the English are the alternatives today.
Ireland has room for all her people."
It was what the 'Irish News' newspaper described as "his first official visit to the city", and was the first time he had appeared in public since his name became known, to the world, literally, as the Commander in Chief of the Republican Forces but, among Irish Republicans, his name was shortly to be known as the man who took weapons from the British and used them against those he had once fought with, against the British.
Incidentally, at that 4th September meeting in Armagh, Eoin O'Duffy (another republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher) threatened pro-British unionists that he would "use the lead on them, if necessary, if they decided they were against Ireland and against their fellow countrymen.." for which he was removed as 'Northern Truce Liaison Officer' and was replaced on that useless talking shop by a Mr Frank Crummey.
Also, on his way home from that meeting, IRA Volunteer John Quigley was killed, but we are unable to find out where, or by whom ; indeed, there is a dearth of information on Volunteer Quigley, but he may have been active with the Truagh Company, 2nd Battalion East-Clare Brigade IRA.
==========================
ON THIS DATE (4TH SEPTEMBER) 173 YEARS AGO : BIRTH OF A LAND LEAGUE FOUNDER.
The pay of these men, which is taken out of the pockets of the Irish tenants, is voted yearly in the English Parliament, and not an Irish member could be found to protest against it.
Let us now see that, instead of the twelve hundred thousand pounds a year which is devoted to pay the Irish Constabulary, that not one hundred thousand will go for that purpose : then I would like to see the landlord who would face the Irish tenant.
I tell you that the hour we take away the bayonet of the Irish policeman that hour the landlords will come to ask us for a settlement of the land question..." - John Dillon (pictured), 1880.
John Dillon was born on the 4th September 1851 - 173 years ago on this date - and was educated at Trinity College Dublin and the Catholic University of Louvain, before studying medicine and eventually qualifying as a surgeon.
He was active in the Land League and was among those who organised a campaign whereby tenants paid their rents to the League instead of their 'landlords' and, if the tenants doing so were evicted, they would receive financial assistance from a general fund established for that purpose.
As a result of his involvement in this campaign, he spent a number of months in jail.
In 1880, he was elected as an M.P. for Tipperary but resigned from that seat in 1883 for health reasons ; he was elected again in 1885 for the East Mayo area, an area which he spoke up for, politically, until 1918, when he lost his seat in the election held in December that year ; Éamon de Valera outpolled him by 4,461 votes.
He was torn between his heart and his head in regards to the 1916 Rising ; he couldn't bring himself to support the 'dissidents' but neither could he fully condemn them -
"I say I am proud of their courage and, if you were not so dense and so stupid, as some of you English people are, you would have had these men fighting for you, and they are men worth having...ours is a fighting race...the fact of the matter is that what is poisoning the mind of Ireland, and rapidly poisoning it, is the secrecy of these trials and the continuance of these executions.
I do not think Abraham Lincoln executed one single man, and by that one act of clemency, he did an enormous work of good for the whole country.
Why cannot you treat Ireland as Botha treated South Africa - victims of misdirected enthusiasm and leadership*? (The rebels showed...) conduct beyond reproach as fighting men.
I admit they were wrong ; I know they were wrong** ; but they fought a clean fight, and they fought with superb bravery and skill, and no act of savagery or act against the usual customs of war that I know of has been brought home to any leader or any organised body of insurgents.."
He died, aged 76, on the 4th of August, 1927, and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, in Dublin.
(*Westminster is guilty of that towards Ireland and the Irish and, as a result of their continuing "misdirected enthusiasm and leadership", they are still claiming and operating military and political jurisdictional control over six Irish counties.)
(**No, they weren't wrong, no more than Mr Dillon was wrong to challenge the "English Parliament" and its representatives in this country in the manner in which he did, even though his opponents and his lukewarm supporters told him "you were wrong".)
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.
If George Bush Jnr has his way with the US Congress and receives a multibillion dollar programme to wage war on the global South in retaliation for recent events, it could provide a shot in the arm for the very companies that are leaving Ireland because of poor global demand.
Could the future of the 'Celtic Tiger' be tied to that of the US war machine?
Allah, help us!
(END of 'So, Farewell Then, Celtic Tiger' : NEXT - 'The Forgotten People', from the same source.)
In January, 1922, the British military and their 'police force' in Ireland, the RIC, began to hand over the barracks they were sheltering in to the army of the newly established Irish Provisional Government, the IRA.
On Thursday, January 26th, 150 British officers and soldiers vacated Clogheen Barracks, in County Tipperary ; on Saturday 28th, Mallow Military Barracks, in County Cork, was handed over to IRA Commandant General Liam Lynch and on Sunday the 29th, in Cahir, County Tipperary, the British '2nd Brigade Royal Filed Artillery' vacated and handed over the barracks.
On the 31st January, the headquarters of the Auxiliary Division of the RIC, at Beggar's Bush Barracks, Haddington Road, in Dublin, was formally handed over to the IRA ; Commandant-General Seán McMahon, First Quartermaster of the IRA, and Commandant James Emmet Dalton, IRA Chief Liaison Officer, took over the barracks from Mr. Alfred Cope, Assistant Under-Secretary, Dublin Castle, and a General Wood, Commander of the Auxiliary RIC, and on Wednesday, 1st February (1922), in Sligo, the '1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment' handed over the barracks they were in (at the courthouse).
The RIC Barracks in Dromahair, in County Leitrim (pictured), was similarly surrendered to the IRA in early 1922 but, when the IRA split, the Free Staters took control of it.
On the 4th September 1922, the IRA forced the Staters out of it and took it back under republican control.
In a statement released afterwards, Free State Army 'General Officer Commander' Seán MacEoin (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State poacher) later claimed that his garrison had surrendered the barracks due to dissatisfaction with pay and supplies...!
==========================
On the 4th September, 1922, an IRA Flying Column attached to Kerry Number 3 Brigade ambushed a Free State Army patrol in the townland of Ohermong, near Caherciveen, in County Kerry.
Two Stater soldiers were killed - Lieutenant Clement Cooper (22), from Kilcummin, in County Kerry, and Sergeant John O'Donoghue (23), and one IRA Volunteer, James 'Jama' O'Connell was wounded, but lived to fight another day.
Incidentally, Mr Cooper had fought with the IRA before joining the FSA ; he is buried in the same plot as Mr O'Donoghue in Killavarnogue Cemetery in Caherciveen, in County Kerry.
==========================
In July, 1922, the Free State Army finally succeeded in removing Waterford City from the control of the 'Irregulars' - the IRA, after a battle which lasted for about four days.
The IRA were using 'conventional/open confrontation' and guerrilla tactics and, while they may have lost Waterford, they hadn't gone away (!) and were still in Waterford, 'hitting and hiding'.
In early September, 1922, a number of engagements took place in that city - the rebels attacked the Manor Street RIC barracks, and shots were also fired at Lady Lane Barracks, hoping to draw the Staters out, but they didn't respond, and stayed indoors.
However, an elderly lady, Katie Walsh (66), was shot and killed while reading in her sitting room in Number 13 Bakehouse Lane near the Lady Lane Barracks, on the 4th September (1922).
The poor woman was shot in the arm and called out to her upstairs neighbours to come down to her, which they did, and they then rushed for help and asked other neighbours to get the priest, doctor, RIC and her son but, a few minutes after the priest and doctor arrived, the poor woman died.
==========================
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 -
"The delegates who opposed the resolution, together with delegates from units which were not represented at the Convention, met subsequently in Convention and repudiated the resolution.
They re-affirmed their allegiance to the Republic and elected a Provisional Executive which in turn appointed a Provisional Army Council.
I hereby further declare that the Provisional Executive and the Provisional Army Council are the lawful Executive and Army Council respectively of the IRA and that the governmental authority delegated in the Proclamation of 1938 now resides in the Provisional Army Council and its lawful successors.
I fully endorse their call for support for Irish people everywhere towards the realisation of the full freedom of Ireland."
Dated: 31st December 1969.
Signed : Thomas Maguire, Comdt. Gen. (Tomás Mac Uidhir).
In 1986 there was another split in the Republican Movement and, again, it was over the issue of recognition of the 26-County State...
(MORE LATER.)
"The cause of death was shock and haemorrhage, the result of gunshot wounds inflicted by Joseph Barry in the execution of his duty.
We consider the order issued a disgrace with regard to prisoners. We consider the other prisoners in the cell should have been produced as witnesses..."
-a note on the Death Certificate of Irish republican prisoner, Patrick Joseph O'Hanlon, who was sixteen years of age.
The young Volunteer (8th Battalion, 3rd Tipperary Brigade) was shot by FSA Private Joseph Barry, a sentry, in Kilkenny Jail, on the 4th September 1923, and was taken to the Curragh Military Hospital in County Kildare, where he died.
His death was registered on the 19th September, 1923, on foot of information received from the Coroner for South Kildare, following an inquest held on the 16th September, 1923, and he is buried with his comrades in the Republican Plot in Saint Mary's Cemetery in Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary.
Ar Deis Dégo Raibh a n-Anamacha ('A Chance To Have Their Souls Saved').
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Thanks for the visit, and for reading!
Sharon and the team.
