The graphic shows alleged members of the 'Molly Maguires' being led to their death.
'On 21st June 1877, in the anthracite-mining county of Schuylkill, Pennsylvania, ten Irish immigrant men alleged to have been members of an oath-bound secret sect of vigilantes called the 'Molly Maguires' were hanged in what came to be known as 'The Day of the Rope'.
Twenty members of the group in all would be executed, following a kangaroo court that American historian John Elliot called "one of the most disgraceful episodes in the history of the bench and bar in the United States."
Oppression, exploitation, racial and ethnic bigotry, strikes and union-busting are common enough themes in the American labour movement, but the story of the 'Molly Maguires' and the ruling class's attempts to destroy these Irish workers is so especially contemptible it has achieved legendary status..' (from here.)
On what became known as 'Black Thursday' (21st June, 1877), ten coal miners were hanged until dead in eastern Pennsylvania ; all ten had been born in Ireland but were forced to leave because of the attempted genocide known as 'An Gorta Mór'.
It was claimed that they, and others, were involved in 'organised retributions' against corrupt and unfair employers and other members of the establishment, and operated as such under the name 'Molly Maguires' ('Molly Maguire' had become famous in Ireland [or 'infamous', as the 'landlord' class described her] for refusing to bow down or bend the knee to the monied 'gentry').
The workers had been arrested for their alleged part in several killings and, despite much doubt cast over the 'evidence' used against them, they were convicted and sentenced to death.
The court case was widely seen as employers drawing 'a line in the sand' in regards to what they considered to be 'uppity' workers looking for better wages and conditions, and an excuse for the establishment to vent its anti-labour and anti-Irish prejudice - the first trials began in January 1876. They involved 10 men accused of murder and were held in 'Mauch Chunk' (an Indian name meaning 'Bear Mountain') and Pottsville.
A vast army of media descended on the small towns where they wrote dispatches that were uniformly pro-prosecution.
The key witness for the prosecution was yet another Irishman, James McParlan (pictured), an Armagh man : back in the early 1870's, when bosses had hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to spy on workers, McParlan had gone under cover to infiltrate the 'Mollies' and gather evidence.
And gather he did — or at least he claimed he did during the trials. On the stand he painted a vivid picture of 'Molly Maguire' secrecy, conspiracy and murder. With Irish Catholics and miners excluded from the juries, the verdicts were a foregone conclusion.
All 10 were convicted and sentenced to hang.
No doubt seeking to send the most powerful message to the region's mining communities, authorities arranged to stage the executions on the same day — June 21st, 1877 – in two locations.
Alexander Campbell, Michael Doyle, Edward Kelly, and John Donahue were hanged in 'Mauch Chuck' (where the four men "all swung together"), while James Boyle, Hugh McGehan, James Carroll, James Roarity, Thomas Duffy, and Thomas Munley met a similar fate in Pottsville (where all six "swung two-by-two").
Although the hangings took place behind prison walls, they were nonetheless major spectacles that drew huge crowds and generated international news coverage. It was reported that there was "..screams and sobbing as husbands and fathers were bid goodbye.." and that "..James Boyle carried a blood-red rose and Hugh McGehan wore two roses in his lapel (as) James Carroll and James Roarity declared their innocence from the scaffold.."
Over the following two years, ten more alleged members of the 'Molly Maguires' were hanged, including Thomas P. Fisher (on the 28th March 1878) and James McDonnell and Charlie Sharp (on the 14th January 1879).
In 1979 - 101 years after the cruel deed - the state of Pennsylvania pardoned one of the men, John 'Black Jack' Kehoe (pictured), after an investigation by its 'Board of Pardons' at the behest of one of his descendants.
John Kehoe was led to the gallows on the 18th December, 1878 - 146 years ago on this date (incidentally, Seán Connery played the part of John Kehoe in the film 'The Molly Maguires') ; on the 5th December 2005, the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives passed a resolution recognising the lack of due process for several of the men :
'The basic facts of the case are clear. As the 'Death Warrant' indicates, Governor John F. Hartranft ordered the execution of John Kehoe.
In 1877, he had been tried by the 'Court of Oyer and Terminer', a 'court of criminal jurisdiction', and was found guilty of the murder of Frank W.S. Langdon, a mine foreman, fifteen years earlier.
He was sentenced to death by hanging.
Kehoe's attorney appealed the decision to the State Supreme Court, which supported the lower court. Governor Hartranft signed Kehoe's death warrant in February 1878.
As a last resort Kehoe's attorney issued three pleas for clemency to the Pardon Board, which also denied his appeals. The Governor eventually signed a second death warrant on November 18, 1878. Kehoe was executed before a large crowd in Pottsville on December 18, 1878..' (from here.)
Make way for the Molly Maguires,
They're drinkers, they're liars but they're men.
Make way for the Molly Maguires,
You'll never see the likes of them again.
Down the mines no sunlight shines,
Those pits they're black as hell,
In modest style they do their time,
It's Paddy's prison cell.
And they curse the day they've travelled far,
Then drown their tears with a jar.
Backs will break and muscles ache,
Down there there's no time to dream
of fields and farms, of woman's arms,
"Just dig that bloody seam".
Though they drain their bodies underground,
Who'll dare to push them around.
So make way for the Molly Maguires,
They're drinkers, they're liars but they're men ;
Make way for the Molly Maguires -
You'll never see the likes of them again.
The 'Molly Maguires' were an organised labour group that had allegedly been responsible for some incidences of vigilante justice in the coalfields of eastern Pennsylvania, defending their actions as attempts to protect exploited Irish-American workers.
We badly need the 'likes of them' again...
'WHY ARE THE DEAF BEING EXCLUDED FROM THE COMPENSATION SCHEME FOR ABUSED CHILDREN...?'
Amid the considerable controversy about the deal struck between the Catholic Church and the State over compensation to victims of institutional child abuse, little attention has been focused on the proposed exclusion from the compensation scheme of a number of institutions run by the church where abuse clearly took place.
By John Cradden.
From 'Magill' magazine, March 2002.
Studies have shown that the literacy levels of most adults educated at schools for the deaf is equivalent to that of children aged between eight and nine.
While the case that such emotional abuse took place as a result of the compulsory oral education policy is a very strong one, it is possible that such arguments may have added to government fears about opening a floodgate to compensation claims for this kind of abuse.
Nevertheless, it is still extraordinary that 'The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse' invited representatives of the deaf community to appear before the 'Compensation Advisory Committee' and are now about to tell them that the victims they represent will not be eligible for any compensation...
(MORE LATER.)
"Thank God I am gone..."
..words left on a postcard by a young man, a Mr John Alfred Copp (22), a British soldier ('Service Number 9632'), just before he drowned himself at Waterside Quay, in Derry, on the 18th December, 1919.
Mr Copp, from Exeter, in England, was a Private in the 1st Battalion of the Dorset Regiment.
His body was recovered on the 19th January, 1920.
Sad...
==========================
On the 18th December, 1919, a Mr Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (pictured) took to his feet in the Westminster 'House of Commons' and declared that he and the British administration had placed 43,000 soldiers in Ireland and British taxpayers were paying £860,000 per month to keep them there, and to keep Ireland under the military control of London.
That money would have been better spent in their own country...
==========================
THE FORGOTTEN PEOPLE...
Emigration from Ireland to the United States continued throughout the 1990's, although the reasons were no longer so bluntly economic.
Now, in the wake of September 11th, the US authorities have been granted increased powers to investigate legal status, and Irish illegal emigrants are more vulnerable than ever before.
By Mairead Carey.
From 'Magill Annual', 2002.
Josephine said -
"Most of the people who are illegal here want to contribute to society. We want to live a normal life, pay tax and do our bit.
We are not interested in scamming the system*, we just want to get on with our lives. You would think that in a recession they could do with the tax revenue and give us an amnesty."
Her own situation is not as desperate as that of many others - "If I was deported, it wouldn't be the end of the world.
I don't have children or a house, but there are people who have so much fear of losing everything that they will never go home again."
On the day the Twin Towers were hit, the 'Green Card Column' of 'The Irish Voice' newspaper featured a letter from a young woman who had been living as an illegal in the US since 1996. Her fiancé was due to apply for US citizenship next March.
She wanted to return to Ireland to get married and wondered if she was likely to be caught on her return...
(*...and that's one of the main differences between the unvetted and illegal Irish in America, who are willing - indeed, anxious - to earn their keep and not be a burden or a threat to the American people, and the fake and/or dangerous so-called 'refugees' who are, at the time of writing, in this State in their tens of thousands, leeching off the abilities of taxpayers, overpowering the indigenous Irish and our whole social welfare system and destroying us societally.)
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (18TH DECEMBER) 147 YEARS AGO : 'FATHER OF THE IRISH LAND LEAGUE' ABOUT TO BE RELEASED FROM A BRITISH PRISON AFTER SEVEN YEARS INCARCERATION.
On Tuesday, 18th December 1877 - 147 years ago on this date - Michael Davitt (pictured), 'the father of the Irish Land League', was being prepared to be released from Dartmoor Prison in Princetown, Devon, in England, having served seven years in savage conditions.
He was released the following day.
This Irish 'dissident' was born on the 25th March, 1846, in Straide, County Mayo, at the height of An Gorta Mór ('the Great Hunger/attempted genocide') and the poverty of those times affected the Davitt family - he was the second of five children and was only four years of age when his family were evicted from their home over rent owed and his father, Martin, was left with no choice but to travel to England to look for work.
Martin's wife, Sabina, and their five children, were given temporary accommodation by the local priest in Straide. The family were eventually reunited, in England, where young Michael attended school for a few years.
His family were struggling, financially, so he obtained work, aged 9, as a labourer (he told his boss he was 13 years old and got the job - working from 6am to 6pm, with a ninty-minute break and a wage of 2s.6d a week) but within weeks he had secured a 'better' job, operating a spinning machine but, at only 11 years of age, his right arm got entangled in the machinery and had to be amputated.
There was no compensation offered, and no more work, either, for a one-armed machine operator, but he eventually managed to get a job helping the local postmaster.
He was sixteen years young at that time, and was curious about his Irish roots and wanted to know more - he learned all he could about Irish history and, at 19 years young, joined the Fenian movement in England.
Two years afterwards he became the organising secretary for northern England and Scotland for that organisation and, at 25 years of age, he was arrested in Paddington Station in London after the British had uncovered an IRB operation to import arms. He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, on a 'hard labour' ticket, and served seven years in Dartmoor Prison in horrific conditions before being released in 1877, at the age of 31, on Wednesday, December 19th.
He realised that if the power of the tenant farmers could be organised, it would be possible to bring about the improvements that were badly needed, and he arranged a convention in August of 1879 ; the result was a body called the 'National Land League of Mayo' :
'This body shall be known as the National Land League of Mayo and shall consist of farmers and others who will agree to labour for the objects here set forth, and subscribe to the conditions of membership, principles, and rules specified below.
Objects: The objects for which this body is organised are —
1) To watch over the interests of the people it represents and protect the same, as far as may be in its power to do so, from an unjust or capricious exercise of power or privilege on the part of landlords or any other class in the community.
2) To resort to every means compatible with justice, morality, and right reason, which shall not clash defiantly with the constitution upheld by the power of the British empire in this country, for the abolition of the present land laws of Ireland and the substitution in their place of such a system as shall be in accord with the social rights and necessities of our people, the traditions and moral sentiments of our race, and which the contentment and prosperity of our country imperatively demand.
3) Pending a final and satisfactory settlement of the land question, the duty of this body will be to expose the injustice, wrong, or injury which may be inflicted upon any farmer in Mayo, either by rack-renting, eviction, or other arbitrary exercise of power which the existing laws enable the landlords to exercise over their tenantry, by giving all such arbitrary acts the widest possible publicity and meeting their perpetration with all the opposition which the laws for the preservation of the peace will permit of.
In furthernance of which, the following plan will be adopted —
A. Returns to be obtained, printed, and circulated, of the number of landlords in this county ; the amount of acreage in possession of same, and the means by which such land was obtained ; farms let by each, with the conditions under which they are held by their tenants and excess of rent paid by same over the government valuation.
B. To publish by placard, or otherwise, notice of contemplated evictions for non-payment of exorbitant rent or other unjust cause, and the convening of a public meeting, if deemed necessary or expedient, as near the scene of such evictions as circumstances will allow, and on the day fixed upon for the same.
C. The publication of a list of evictions carried out, together with cases of rack-renting, giving full particulars of same, names of landlords, agents, etc, concerned, and number people evicted by such acts.
D. The publication of the names of all persons who shall rent or occupy land or farms from which others have been dispossessed for non-payment of exorbitant rents, or who shall offer a higher rent for land or farms than that paid by the previous occupier. The publication of reductions of rent and acts of justice or kindness performed by landlords in the county.
4) This body to undertake the defence of such of its members, or those of local clubs affiliated with it, who may be required to resist by law the actions of landlords or their agents who may purpose doing them injury, wrong, or injustice in connexion with their land or farms.
5) To render assistance when possible to such farmer-members as may be evicted or otherwise wronged by landlords or their agents.
6) To undertake the organising of local clubs or defence associations in the baronies, towns, and parishes of this county, the holding of public meetings and demonstrations on the land question, and the printing of pamphlets on that and other subjects for the information of the farming classes.
7) And finally, to act as a vigilance committee in Mayo, note the conduct of its grand jury, poor law guardians, town commissioners, and members of parliament, and pronounce on the manner in which their respective functions are performed, wherever the interests, social or political, of the people represented by this club renders it expedient to do so.'
Thus began the land agitation movement.
On the 21st October 1879, a meeting of concerned individuals was held in the Imperial Hotel in Castlebar, County Mayo, to discuss issues in relation to 'landlordism' and the manner in which that subject impacted on those who worked on small land holdings on which they paid 'rent', an issue which other groups, such as tenants' rights organisations and groups who, confined by a small membership, agitated on land issues in their own locality, had voiced concern about.
Those present agreed to announce themselves as the 'Irish National Land League' (which, at its peak, had 200,000 active members) and Charles Stewart Parnell who, at 33 years of age, had been an elected member of parliament for the previous four years, was elected president of the new group and Andrew Kettle, Michael Davitt, and Thomas Brennan were appointed as honorary secretaries.
That leadership had 'form' in that each had made a name for themselves as campaigners on social issues of the day and were, as such, 'known' to the British 'authorities' - Davitt was a known member of the Supreme Council of the IRB and spoke publicly about the need "..to bring out a reduction of rack-rents..to facilitate the obtaining of the ownership of the soil by the occupiers..the object of the League can be best attained by promoting organisation among the tenant-farmers ; by defending those who may be threatened with eviction for refusing to pay unjust rents ; by facilitating the working of the Bright clauses of the Irish Land Act during the winter and by obtaining such reforms in the laws relating to land as will enable every tenant to become owner of his holding by paying a fair rent for a limited number of years.."
He died before he could accomplish all he wanted to, at 60 years of age, in Elphis Hospital in Dublin, on the 30th of May 1906, from blood poisoning : he had a tooth extracted and contracted septicaemia from the operation.
His body was taken to the Carmelite Friary in Clarendon Street, Dublin, then by train to Foxford in Mayo and he was buried in Straide Abbey, near where he was born.
The 'Father of the Irish Land League' was gone, but will not be forgotten.
As we mentioned last week, an Irish-born Archbishop, a Mr Patrick Joseph Clune (pictured), involved himself in negotiations between the Irish rebels and the British.
On the 18th December, 1920, Mr Clune had another meeting with the then Irish rebel leader, Arthur Griffith, at which a possible draft peace/truce proposal was formulated.
On the 21st, Mr Clune met with the British PM, a Mr David Lloyd George ('1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor') and the two men discussed the offered proposals.
Mr George rejected the documents because, he said, they did not include the surrendering of republican arms and munitions to the British and anyway, says he, 'we can mop-up the IRA...'.
The British didn't 'mop-up the IRA' - they 'bought-out' some of the leadership and membership and turned them against their own...
==========================
On the 18th December, 1920, the IRA leadership held a meeting in Barry's Hotel, on Gardiner Row, Dublin, to discuss purchasing weapons and munitions from Italy, and the transport of same from there to Ireland.
Present at that meeting were Cathal Brugha, Michael Collins, Liam Mellows, Sean McMahon, Joe Vize (IRA GHQ Staff) and representatives of two of the Cork brigades - Florrie O'Donoghue (Adjutant Cork No. 1 Brigade) and Liam Deasy (Adjutant Cork No. 3 Brigade).
The two Cork representatives were there to give their opinions on the use of Squince Strand, near Myross, in County Cork (pictured), as the landing site for the shipment.
A Mr Donal Hayes (brother of Tom and Séan) was the 'middle-man' between the Irish rebels and the Italian military, and Mr Collins (the 'money-man') stated that the £10,000 price tag, for 20,000 rifles, 200 rounds of ammunition for each rifle and 600 machine-guns (which were declared to be "in good condition and only required cleaning" ; also, "up to 100,000 rifles" were available, for a price), would be made available when required.
However, the unstable military and political situation in Italy at the time caused the project to be delayed a number of times and, in early July 1921, Mr Collins let it be known, internally in the Movement, that it would not be happening - "the business has not been found practicable..." (due, apparently, to Westminster obtaining knowledge of the operation).
Incidentally, Volunteer Joseph Vize was the 'Director of Purchases' for the IRA and was declared by the British to be "...an active and dangerous man, concerned in the purchase of arms. A case for prosecution lies against him, but owing to the difficulty of obtaining proof of handwriting, the Chief Secretary does not advise prosecution. Recommend internment..."
God Bless all those 'active and dangerous men (and women)'!
==========================
On the 18th December, 1920, Volunteers attached to the Flying Column of the Mid-Clare Brigade IRA (pictured) took up their agreed positions in the townland of Monreal ((between Ennis and Ennistymon), County Clare.
They had placed themselves near a crossroads, with high ground to the east, and the River Inagh to the west, where at least three lorries transporting a joint British Army and RIC contingent was due to pass through.
The Volunteers had formed into two sections - one at the east of the road, the other to the west.
The Flying Column consisted of about sixty Volunteers, with Joseph Barrett in command, and included Ignatius O'Neill, John Joe Neylon, Martin Slattery, Frank Barrett, Seán Casey, Andrew O'Donoghue, John Minihan, Peadár O'Loughlin, Bill McNamara, Bill Carroll, Jack Hasnett and Jim Kierse - those last five Volunteers were wounded during the operation, as were six British soldiers and one RIC member.
All Volunteers were accounted for back at base that same night.
==========================
On the 18th December, 1920, in Cork, a British Army Brigadier-General, a Mr Harold Whitla Higginson ('CB, DSO, bar, ETC ETC!', pictured), who was 'in charge' of that area of Munster, issued a decree stating that captured rebel officers will in future be carried on British lorries in the martial law area as protection against attack by the rebels - 'human shields'.
That policy proved successful, sometimes but, on other occasions, it gave the enemy a false sense of security leading to a relaxed manner on their part, which didn't work out too well for them.
Mr Higginson's life, however, worked out well for him, despite his many military 'adventures' - he died in Salterton, in Devon, in his own country, on the 30th October, 1954, at 80 years of age, having
Incidentally, Mr Higginson was known among his own kind to be 'a bit of a regimental stickler', but was known among the Irish as a notorious figure who was well known (and well despised) for carrying out brutal military actions in villages and towns across Cork.
Also, it should be noted that he 'won' his 'bar Award' '..for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty while commanding his brigade. In fourteen days' fighting the losses of the brigade exceeded 70 per cent, but owing to his able leadership and the fine example set by him their fighting spirit was in no way impared...'
Sort of a 'Best Failure Award'..?!
==========================
POLITICAL LIFESTYLES IN IRELAND.
His lavish lifestyle was funded by wealthy admirers.
Time after time, his debts were taken care of by friendly businessmen.
In exchange for giving people access to government leaders, he cheerfully lined his own pockets.
From 'Magill' Magazine, January 2003.
This appalling litany of corruption applies not, of course, to any Irish luminary, but to Winston Churchill, who was recently - and in Magill's view, quite correctly - voted the 'Greatest Briton' of all time.
The details have been a matter of public record for some time, and are rehased once again in the current issue of 'The Spectator'.
It's nice to see that some people, at least, have their priorities right.
A word, now, on one of Magill's many disappointing Christmas presents ; I honestly hadn't thought it was possible to produce a duller book than Garret FitzGerald's autobiography 'All In A Life', so I feel compelled to record, in the interests of accuracy, that with his just-published 'Reflections On The Irish State' (don't you just love that self-deprecating title?!), the good doctor has managed it nicely.
Oh, and while we're at it, I thought the favourable reviews this spirit-sapping volume received in the 'quality' press were shocking.
Just shocking...
(MORE LATER.)
The house in Kimmage, Dublin, known as 'Clonard House', belonging to a Mr James Henry Mussen Campbell (aka 'Lord Glenavy', whom we mentioned last week) was attacked and burnt by the IRA on the 18th December, 1922.
'Lord/Baron' Glenavy had made quite a name for himself - a Unionist MP for Dublin (elected in 1898), a close associate of Edward Carson in his campaign against 'Home Rule', a 'Chief Justice for Ireland' in 1916 and Chairman of the first Free State Senate.
Incidentally, one of Mr Campbell's sons, Charles, married the Irish artist Beatrice Elvery whose family founded 'Elvery Sports'.
We presume they also look after the cricket fraternity in Ireland...!
==========================
"When I read the terms of the Treaty signed in London everything that was in me that I can call good revolted against those terms.
No argument that has been produced by those who are for this Treaty has made any influence on me. I see in it the giving away of the whole case of Irish independence..."
- the words of Mr Hugh C O'Doherty, the Mayor of Derry City Council, delivered to that Council in relation to the Treaty of Surrender.
At the final meeting of that outgoing Derry City Council, on the 18th December, 1922, Mr O'Doherty accused Mr James Craig of disfranchising the minority and reducing them to the condition of serfs.
His term of office ended in 1923, and God took him from us on the 10th March, 1924.
A Blessing in disguise for the man himself, perhaps, as his disgust with the 'Treaty of Surrender' was and is well-founded.
RIP Mayor Hugh C O'Doherty.
==========================
On the 18th December, 1922, the IRA attacked and captured a Free State Army post in Sligo Town Hall (pictured). One Free State soldier was killed in the operation, during which the IRA re-purposed (!) 21 rifles, 4 revolvers and 1,300 rounds of ammunition, no doubt giving the Town Hall suits something to talk about around the water-cooler...
==========================
ON THIS DATE (18TH DECEMBER) 103 YEARS AGO : FINAL DRAFT OF "FULL-INDEPENDENCE-AND-NOTHING-SHORT-OF-IT"-SPEECH PREPARED BY AUSTIN STACK, FOR THE 'TREATY OF SURRENDER' DEBATE, DÁIL ÉIREANN* (*..the 32-County body, not the Free State Leinster House assembly).
That wasn't soon enough, as far as his former comrades were concerned - he had remained a republican, and completely rejected their politics and their Free State.
He was arrested with Con Collins on the 21st April 1916 while planning an attack on Tralee RIC Barracks in an attempt to rescue Roger Casement, and was court-martialed and sentenced to death, but this was commuted to twenty years penal servitude and he was released in the general amnesty of June 1917, and became active in the Irish Volunteers again.
He was elected Secretary of Sinn Féin, a position he held until his death.
His health was shattered due to the number of prison protests and hunger strikes for political status that he undertook. In the 1918 general election, while a prisoner in Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast, he was elected to represent West Kerry in the First (all-Ireland) Dáil, and the British sent him off to Strangeways Prison in Manchester, from where he escaped in October 1919.
During the 'Black and Tan War', as Minister for Home Affairs, Austin Stack organised the republican courts which replaced the British 'legal' system in this country.
He rejected the Treaty of Surrender in 1921 (stating, during the debate on same - "Has any man here the hardihood to stand up and say that it was for this our fathers suffered, that it was for this our comrades have died in the field and in the barrack yard.." ) and, following a short fund-raising/public relations tour of America, returned to Ireland to fight on the republican side in the Civil War.
In the general round-up of Irish republican leaders in April 1923 (during which Liam Lynch was shot dead by Free State troops) Stack, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the rebel forces, was arrested in a farmyard in the Knockmealdown Mountains in County Tipperary - this was four days after Lynch's death.
Imprisoned in Kilmainham Jail in Dublin, he took part in the mass hunger-strike by republican prisoners in October 1923, which was his 5th hunger-strike in 6 years. Shortly after the end of that forty-one day hunger-strike, in November 1923, he was released with hundreds of other political prisoners, and he married his girlfriend, Una Gordon, in 1925.
In April 1929, at forty-nine years of age, he entered the Mater Hospital in Dublin for a stomach operation. He never recovered and died two days later, on 27th April 1929. He is buried in the Republican Plot, Glasnevin Cemetery, in Dublin.
'Austin Stack was born in Ballymullen, Tralee and was educated at the local Christian Brothers School. At the age of fourteen he left school and became a clerk in a solicitor's office.
A gifted Gaelic footballer, he captained the Kerry team to All-Ireland glory in 1904 and also served as President of the Kerry Gaelic Athletic Association County Board. He became politically active in 1908 when he joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood and, in 1916, as commandant of the Kerry Brigade of the Irish Volunteers, he made preparations for the landing of arms by Roger Casement, on Banna Strand.
Although Austin Stack was made aware that Casement was arrested and was being held in Ballymullen Barracks in Tralee, he made no attempt to rescue him : RIC District Inspector Kearney treated Casement very well and made sure Stack was aware that Casement could so easily have been rescued, yet Stack refused to move (possibly sensing that a trap had been laid for him?) but he was arrested anyway and sentenced to death for his involvement, but this was later commuted to penal servitude for life.
He was released under general amnesty in June 1917 after the death of fellow prisoner and Tralee man Thomas Patrick Ashe and was elected as an abstentionist Sinn Féin Member of Parliament for Kerry West in the 1918 Westminster election, becoming a member of the 1st Dail and was automatically elected as an abstentionist member of the 'House of Commons of Southern Ireland' and a member of the 2nd Dail as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála for Kerry-Limerick West in the Irish elections of 1921.
He opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 and took part in the subsequent Irish Civil War. He was captured in 1923 and went on hunger strike for forty-one days before being released in July 1924...when Eamon de Valera founded Fianna Fail in 1926, Stack remained with Sinn Féin...his health never recovered after his hunger strike and he died in a Dublin hospital on April 27th 1929, aged 49.'
A commemorative pamphlet, entitled 'What Exactly is a Republican?' was issued in memory of the man -
'The name republican in Ireland, as used amongst republicans, bears no political meaning. It stands for the devout lover of his country, trying with might and main for his country's freedom.
Such a man cannot be a slave. And if not a slave in heart or in act, he cannot be guilty of the slave vices.
No coercion can breed these in the freeman.
Fittingly, the question - 'What is a republican?' fails to be answered in our memorial number for Austin Stack, a man who bore and dared and suffered, remaining through it all and at the worst, the captain of his own soul.
What then was Austin Stack, republican? A great lover of his country. A man without a crooked twist in him. One who thought straight, acted straight, walked the straight road unflinchingly and expected of others that they should walk it with him, as simply as he did himself.
No man could say or write of him "He had to do it". That plea of the slave was not his. His duty, as conscience and love dictated, he did.
The force of England, of the English Slave State, might try coercion, as they tried it many times : it made no difference. He went his way, suffered their will, and stood his ground doggedly, smiling now and again.
His determination outstood theirs, because it had a deeper foundation and a higher aim. Compromise, submission, the slave marks, did not and could not exist for him as touching himself, or the Cause for which he worked and fought lived and died.'
Austin Stack fought physically and verbally for the Irish Republic and, on the 19th December, 1921 - 103 years ago - he said the following in Dáil Éireann in relation to the Westminster-'offered' (and Free State accepted) 'Treaty of Surrender' :
"It happens to be my privilege to rise immediately after the President to support his motion that this House do not approve of the document which has been presented to them. I shall be very brief ; I shall confine myself to what I regard as the chief defects in the document, namely, those which conflict with my idea of Irish Independence.
I regard clauses in this agreement as being the governing clauses. These are Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4. In No.I, England purports to bestow on Ireland, an ancient nation, the same constitutional status as any of the British Dominions, and also to bestow her with a Parliament having certain powers. To look at the second clause, it starts off —
"Subject to provisions hereinafter set out.." — and then she tries to limit you to the powers of the Dominion of Canada. What they may mean I cannot say, beyond this, that the Canadian Dominion is set up under a very old Act which considerably limits its powers.
No doubt the words "law, practice, and constitutional usage" are here. I cannot define what these may mean. Other speakers who will come before the assembly may be able to explain them. I certainly cannot. To let us assume that this clause gives to this country full Canadian powers, I for one cannot accept from England full Canadian powers, three-quarter Canadian powers, or half Canadian powers.
I stand for what is Ireland's right, full independence and nothing short of it.
It is easy to understand that countries like Australia, New Zealand and the others can put up with the powers which are bestowed on them, can put up with acknowledgements to the monarch and rule of Great Britain as head of their State, for have they not all sprung from England? Are they not children of England? Have they not been built up by Great Britain? Have they not been protected by England and lived under England's flag for all time? What other feeling can they have but affection for England, which they always regarded as their motherland?
This country, on the other hand, has not been a child of England's, nor never was. England came here as an invader, and for 750 years we have been resisting that conquest.
Are we now after those 750 years to bend the knee and acknowledge that we received from England as a concession full, or half, or three-quarter Dominion powers? I say no.
Clause 3 of this Treaty gives us a representative of the Crown in Ireland appointed in the same manner as a Governor-General. That Governor-General will act in all respects in the name of the King of England. He will represent the King in the Capital of Ireland and he will open the Parliament which some members of this House seem to be willing to attend.
I am sure none of them, indeed, is very anxious to attend it under the circumstances, but, if they accept this Treaty they will have to attend Parliament summoned in the name of the King of Great Britain and Ireland. There is no doubt about that whatever.
The fourth paragraph sets out the form of oath, and this form of oath may be divided into two parts. In the first part you swear "true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State as by law established." As the President has stated, according to the Constitution which will be sanctioned under that Parliament, it will be summoned by the representative of the King of England and Ireland and will acknowledge that King.
I say even that part of the oath is nothing short of swearing allegiance to the head of that Constitution which will be the King. You express it again when you swear, "and that I will be faithful to His Majesty King George V., his heirs and successors by law." That is clear enough, and I have no hesitation whatever in reading the qualifying words.
I say these qualifying words in no way alter the text, or form, or effect of this oath, because what you do in that is to explain the reason why you give faith, why you pledge fealty to King George. You say it is in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and the meaning of that is that you are British subjects. You are British subjects without a doubt, and I challenge anyone here to stand and prove otherwise than that according to this document.
If ever you want to travel abroad, to a country where a passport is necessary, your passport must be issued from the British Foreign Office and you must be described as a British subject on it. If you are mean enough to accept this Treaty, time will tell. You wind up by saying that you further acknowledge that King in virtue of Ireland's adherence to and membership of the group of nations known as the British Commonwealth of Nations, and all that, of course, is really consistent with the whole thing.
You will become a member of the British Empire.
Now this question of the oath has an extraordinary significance for me, for, so far as I can trace, no member of my family has ever taken an oath of allegiance to England's King. When I say that I do not pretend for a moment that men who happened to be descended from, or to be sons of men who took oaths of allegiance to England's Kings, or men who themselves took oaths of allegiance to England's Kings are any worse for it.
There are men in this assembly who have been comrades of mine in various places, who have been fighting the same fight as I have been fighting, the same fight which we have all been fighting, and which I sincerely hope we will be fighting together again ere long.
There are men with whom I was associated in this fight whose fathers had worn England's uniform and taken oaths of allegiance, and these men were as good men and took their places as well in the fight for Irish independence as any man I ever met.
But what I wish to say is this : I was nurtured in the traditions of Fenianism. My father wore England's uniform as a comrade of Charles Kickham and O'Donovan Rossa when as a '67 man he was sentenced to ten years for being a rebel, but he wore it minus the oath of allegiance.
If I, as I hope I will, try to continue to fight for Ireland's liberty, even if this rotten document be accepted, I will fight minus the oath of allegiance and to wipe out the oath of allegiance if I can do it.
Now I ask you has any man here the idea in his head, has any man here the hardihood to stand up and say that it was for this our fathers have suffered, that it was for this our comrades have died on the field and in the barrack yard. If you really believe in your hearts that it was vote for it.
If you don't believe it in your hearts vote against it.
It is for you now to make up your minds. Today or tomorrow will be, I think, the most fateful days in Irish history. I will conclude by quoting two of Russell Lowell's lines : — "Once to every man and nation comes a moment to decide,
In the strife 'twixt truth and falsehood for the good or evil side."
Unfortunately, the "evil side" is, at the time of writing, in the majority. But it's early yet...
(Incidentally, on the 19th December 1921, one of those who signed and accepted the 'Treaty of Surrender' attempted to explain, probably more so to himself than to those who were in his presence, why he had done so - "I do not seek to shield myself from the charge of having broken my oath of allegiance to the Republic — my signature is proof of that fact. That oath was, and still is to me, the most sacred bond on earth..." - a poor effort at absolving himself for doing the wrong thing, in our opinion : more here.)
UP THE REPUBLIC - OUR DAY WILL COME !NOLLAIG SHONA DAR LEITHEOIRI!
Ar eagle an dearmaid...
Ba bhrea an rud e siocháin bhuan bunaithe ar an gceart a bheith againn in Éireann. Is i an bronntanas is fearr a d'fheadfaimis a thabhairt duinn fein agus dar gclann.
Coinniodh an ceart agus an tsiocháin uainn le breis agus ocht gcead bliain , de bharr ionradh , forghabhail agus miriaradh na Sasanach. Socrú ar bith a dheantar in ainm mhuintir na hÉireann agus a ghlacann le riail Shasana agus a dhaingnionn an chriochdheighilt , ni thig leis an ceart na an tsiocháin bhuann a bhunu.
Ni dheanfaidh se ach la na siochána buaine a chur ar an mhear fhada agus an bhunfhadb a thabhairt do ghluin eile . Tharla se seo cheana nuair a siniodh Conradh 1921 agus cuireadh siar ar mhuintir na hÉireann e in ainm na siochána. Éire a bheith saor agus daonlathach, an cuspoir ceanna a bhi i gceist ag Wolfe Tone agus ag na Poblachtaigh uile anuas go dti 1916 agus an la ata inniu ann.
Rinne a lan fear agus ban croga iobairti mora, thug a mbeatha fiu, ar son na cuise uaisle seo.
CEART. SAOIRSE. DAONLATHAS.
A PEACEFUL CHRISTMAS TO OUR READERS !
Least we forget...
A just and permanent peace in Ireland is most desirable. It is the greatest gift we could give to ourselves and our children.
We have been denied justice and peace for more than eight centuries, because of English invasion, occupation and misrule of our country. Any arrangement which, in the name of the Irish people, accepts English rule and copperfastens the Border, will not bring justice and lasting peace. It will only postpone the day of permanent peace, handing over the basic problem to another generation.
This happened before when the Treaty of 1921 was signed and was forced on the Irish people in the name of peace. Republicans cherishes the objective of a free, democratic Ireland, as envisaged by Wolfe Tone and all Republicans down to 1916 and our own day. Many brave men and women sacrificed a lot, even their lives, for this noble Cause.
JUSTICE. FREEDOM. DEMOCRACY.
From the '1169' Crew, December 2024.
PLEASE NOTE : we are on a short break now from normal posting, although we will return to 'normal' early(ish!) in 2025.
Yeah - that's all we can say for now - "early", 'cause, between the family, our political colleagues and the Girl Gang, we've got about a dozen Christmas parties to get to and literally a dozen more house calls to make!
I'll still be having me say on X/Twitter and Facebook, as ya can't keep a Dublin young wan from spaking her mind!
Go raibh maith agat, and we hope a good 2025 will come to your door!
Sharon and the Crew ; God Bless, and we'll be seein' ya in 2025 (...hopefully on Wednesday, 8th January).
