Not that this (or this) couldn't happen in a proper 'Republic', just that instances like that happen here, in this failed and false 'Republic', as a matter of course, and make the headlines on the day but are quickly pushed aside by the next tragedy.
And talking of tragedies, that's what is being 'celebrated' here, tomorrow, the 18th April : the tragedy, that is, that this failed State has been misconstrued as a 'Republic', and is being honoured, by some, as such, in the same manner that that same mistake was made on the day itself :
'At midnight last night (ie the 17th April 1949, the time and date that this State 'officially' left the so-called 'British Commonwealth' under the terms of 'The Republic of Ireland Act 1948') the twenty-six counties officially left the British Commonwealth and cut the last constitutional link with Britain. The description of the state from that moment became the Republic of Ireland.
The birth of the new Republic was welcomed throughout the country (sic) in celebrations centred on Dublin, where a 21-gun salute was fired from O'Connell Bridge...at 11.45pm, as blazing tar barrels on the Dublin hills could be seen in the city centre, O'Connell street became a blaze of light from searchlight batteries ringing the city.
A few minutes after midnight the salute from the guns began, with ten-second intervals between the rounds...men, women and children shouted "Up the Republic," while groups of young people with accordions and other musical instruments joined in singing national airs...and dancing continued until early this morning.
At one minute past midnight Radio Éireann broadcast this statement : "These are the first moments of Easter Monday, April 18th, 1949.
Since midnight, for the first time in history, international recognition has been accorded to the Republic of Ireland.
Our listeners will join us in asking God's blessing on the Republic, and in praying that it will not be long until the sovereignty of the Republic extends over *the whole of our national territory..." (from here : * possibly the last time that RTE publicly acknowledged, unashamedly, that "our national territory" includes the Occupied Six Counties!).
Seems straight-forward enough but, as with most things in this 'republic', that's not the case : what happened in 1949 was, according to those who profess to know better, simply a legal exercise to tidy up loose ends by declaring that the word 'Éire' implied that the area known as such is the 'Republic of Ireland' even though that area ie 'Éire' was itself never recognised as a 'Republic'.
So, it is being argued, the name change was a translation only and is not established as a fact in legal circles.
Some 'experts' (but not all of them!) are of the opinion that this State 'became a republic' twelve years previous to the above (ie 1937) when 'Bunreacht na hÉireann' was enacted (29th December that year).
If you think that's confusing, you should try living here.
Anyway - for our part, we're not as much interested in when exactly the Free Staters claim this gombeen Free State was 'spawned' as we are in regards to when it will end - when it will be buried, politically, morally, and spiritually, and replaced with a proper country.
"Those raids for mails gave General O'Duffy and the Brigade staff most valuable intelligence about the activities of some civilian spies who were giving information to the British in our Brigade area.
Information obtained in one of those raids resulted in the execution of two British spies Kitty Carroll from near Scotstown and Arthur Treanor from Tydavnet direction.
In both of these cases I heard that cheques were actually enclosed in letters in payment for services rendered. I know for a fact that both of those people were executed as a result of information got in raids on mails which left no doubt as to their guilt..."
-- 'IRA Witness Statement', made after the shooting dead, on the 17th April, 1920, of Catherine (Kate/Kitty) Carroll (36), who lived near Duffy's Cross, in Tydavnet, County Monaghan.
A sign saying 'Spies And Informers Beware' was attached to her body.
For the IRA to purposely execute a woman was almost unheard of and the shooting dead of M/s Carroll caused an avalanche of bad feeling and wild rumours : that she made and sold poitín and was friendly with the RIC, to whom she informed to on other Poitín makers with requests that they be put out of business, that she was a "social deviant" and had caused trouble in the town on more that one occasion, that she was pestering a local IRA man to marry her and, as such, the IRA were wary of the trouble that 'a woman scorned' could bring to their doorstep, and that she was simply of 'feeble intellect' and could be easily manipulated by enemy forces.
Thomas Brennan, an IRA intelligence officer, is on record as saying that Kate Carrol had written to the RIC giving the location of an IRA arms dump and had listed the places where IRA men were staying at night :
"This person, Kate Carroll, wrote letters again and again to RIC Scotstown wanting to know why these fellows were not arrested and their arms seized..."
On investigating the shooting, Dr Niall Meehan (Faculty Head, Journalism and Media, Griffith College, Dublin) concluded that there was considerable IRA testimony available "...to the effect that Kate Carroll had informed against the IRA...the evidence, properly scrutinised, shows that...she is someone...who became an informer, and who ignored warnings to desist. That does not mean that she should have been executed. But it is the reason that she was executed..."
However, IRA GHQ had issued a 'General Order on the Handling of Women Spies' ('General Order No. 13'- "Women Spies' should be warned and (if not Irish) deported. In dangerous and insistent cases, IRA Commanders were ordered to seek instructions from GHQ...")
The reason for the special treatment of female spies was the position which women held in Irish society at this time and the bad publicity which would result from the execution of women who were alleged to be informers or spies.
Killings of that nature caused acute embarrassment locally and at GHQ level to the IRA, and would explain why, between 1919 and 1921, only three women, thankfully, were executed by the IRA - Catherine (Kate/Kitty) Carroll, Bridget Noble and Mary Lindsay.
'SINN FÉIN REPLIES TO MR. HANNA...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
Their continual efforts to claim the Irish race and nation as British is an indication of their grudging respect and secret admiration for them.
Their determination to hold on to a portion of Irish soil can be explained by the strategic importance of Ireland, but how can we explain their determination to hold on to every individual Irishman (sic) whether he comes from North or South?
This they do even to the extent of regarding them as British citizens with full civic rights once they land in England.
Could the explanation be that they regard the Irish as a superior race - which they undoubtedly are - and, like Irish horses, they like to put the 'British' stamp on them before the world?
Since the point has been raised, however, it may be as well to restate the position in regard to elections as far as Sinn Féin is concerned...
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (17TH APRIL) 106 YEARS AGO - 'CONSCRIPTION ; 'THE BLOOD VOTE' - CAMPAIGN FINALISED.
Why do you choke for breath?"
"O I have dreamt in the night, my son
That I doomed a man to death."
"Why do you hide your hand, Mother?
And crouch above it in dread?"
"It beareth a dreadful branch, my son
With the dead man's blood 'tis red..." (from here.)
In 1916, as Westminster was 'putting down' the Irish for daring to challenge its misrule in Ireland, it found itself under 'attack' on another front - a shortage of military manpower with which to enforce the 'writ' of its 'empire' on a global scale, and the 'solution' it arrived at, in its arrogance, was to introduce conscription on what the 'empire' called its 'mainland' - Britain.
But even that Act didn't supply enough 'cannon fodder' (overall, about 18 million soldiers died and more than 20 million were incapacitated during that conflict) and, two years later, the criteria of those to be conscripted was 'relaxed', meaning that those who 'failed to qualify' in round one now found themselves to be suitable material.
But that wasn't the only change made - there still wasn't enough 'trench fillers' so the British announced that the Irish were to be paid a visit in regards to being given the opportunity (!) to 'serve their empire' and, on the 16th April 1918, conscription was extended to this country (the British 'Military Service Act' was amended to include this country).
An unintended consequence of insisting that the Irish, too, must be allowed to die 'for their empire' was the common ground found between the 'Irish Volunteers', Sinn Féin, Cumann na mBan, the 'Irish Party', the trade union movement and the religious orders, all of whom were, among other groups, opposed to that 'offer' from Westminster and, on the 17th April, 1918 - 106 years ago on this date - the final arrangements for a 'Mansion House Monster Meeting' were confirmed.
On the 18th April 1918, that opposition was shown to have a loud and popular voice by way of a packed meeting held in the Mansion House, in Dublin, organised by the newly-formed 'Irish Anti-Conscription Committee', which attracted about 1,500 people.
Mr Duke was removed from his job during the first week of May but, by the middle of June that same year, those that had removed him and, indeed, their political bosses in Westminster and Whitehall, realised that he was right and abandoned their intention to force conscription in Ireland.
Incidentally, membership of the IRA increased as a result of the Irish conscription order, but the downside of accepting 'new republicans' into the fold, simply because those new members were opposed to conscription, was recognised by some in the Movement, at the time, but not, unfortunately, by all :
'When the British Government introduced 'The Conscription Bill' on 16th April 1918, recruits flocked to the IRA - the people were scared.
But people have short memories. It was merely a temporary hosting, like that of King Wire's donkey. King Wire was an expert manufacturer of wire goods - muzzles, strainers and the like, who attended every horse fair in the south of Ireland. While he walked through the throng of people and horses, he worked unceasingly with hands and pliers on the roll of wire slung over one shoulder.
When his feet stopped he bought donkeys.
Thus while his eyes surveyed his prospective purchase, and his tongue got busy to bargain with a fine humour, his hands never rested. No donkey on the market went home unsold.
All went into his carelessly-kept herd. One evening in Macroom I remarked to him : "You have a big stock today, King Wire..."
"Most of those will have departed by morning," he replied..' (from this book.)
Hopefully, it won't be too much longer until we're reading about another 'departure', or do some in this country still need to be conscripted by the British before they act to defend themselves and their country?
Because of their 'adventurous' travels (!) throughout the world, the British almost always had an army abroad to feed, as well as those who were still at home because they hadn't yet been sent away to join the 'adventures', so foodstuffs practically became a currency in itself.
In early 1920, the price of most foodstuffs in Ireland increased (not for the first time, by any means!) when Westminster relaxed/withdrew price control structures (which inadvertently (?!) increased supply for armies abroad, for instance...) and, as a result, two of the basics in Ireland - bacon and butter - became practically unaffordable for the citizens.
On the 17th April, 1920, the 'Irish Labour Party And Trade Union Congress', fresh from success at the polls, decided to fight back and the export of certain foodstuffs - such as live pigs, bacon and butter - was banned.
The 'Irish Farmers Union' opened negotiations with the relevant department in London and, on April 20th, the prices of bacon and butter in Ireland were reduced.
The moral of the story is that, while an army 'may march on its stomach', the Irish will march on any army that stomps on its belly!
==========================
"It is not sufficient that these brave men should die, as Thomas Ashe had died, in defence of a principle.
Their deaths must be made agonising and their bodies and souls tortured by the refined brutality of forcible feeding.
Such are the methods a British government has been reduced to in its brutal attempt to destroy the soul and spirit of the Nation..."
-the words of a 'Cork Examiner' newspaper journalist, in 1920, having witnessed three hunger-striking IRA POW's being forcibly removed from Cork Prison to Cork Military Hospital to be force fed.
On the 17th and 18th April, 1920, there were riots in Derry when six political prisoners on hunger-strike were removed from Derry Jail to Wormwood Scrubs Prison in Hammersmith and Fulham, in West London, in England, to be force fed ; one of the prisoners, Maurice Crowe (Adjutant, 4th Battalion, 3rd Tipperary Brigade) was told that he was being moved to be "fed", but such was the outcry that the prison doctors objected and the POW's were then moved to Pembroke Prison.
"We were taken out of the cells where we were and thrown into what are called punishment cells. We were three days on hunger strike at this time and were getting pretty weak. These punishment cells are in the basement, low down. They had not been opened for twenty years, I think. They were very small and close and the dust was thick in them..."
- the words of POW IRA Kerry Commander, Thomas Treacy, who was taken by ship from Belfast Prison to Wormwood Scrubs Prison in April 1920, during the first week of his hunger strike ; he later described the journey as "traumatic - handcuffed in pairs, the republican prisoners suffered from violent seasickness and empty retching..."
On the 15th January, 1920, Donnchadh O' Muireagain (Denis Morgan), a member of Sinn Féin and at the time a teacher of Irish and Mathematics at Thurles Christian Brothers School (CBS) had been elected Chairman of Thurles Urban District Council and was asked, in 1921, to give a statement of evidence to a Washington body, 'The American Commission on Conditions in Ireland'.
Mr Morgan had been incarcerated by the British as a republican prisoner and, while addressing the Commission, spoke about how he and his fellow prisoners had broken down their cell doors at Wormwood Scrubs Prison in protest against the cell doors being locked at night, which prevented the healthier hunger strikers from attending to the weaker hunger strikers -
"We were taken out of the cells where we were and thrown into what are called punishment cells. We were three days on hunger strike at this time and were getting pretty weak. These punishment cells are in the basement, low down. They had not been opened for twenty years, I think. They were very small and close and the dust was thick in them..."
Mr Morgan added that the size of the cells was only twelve foot by eight foot and that the prisoners remained imprisoned there for four days without being offered water to wash with.
As with the on-going struggle and campaign for a full British military and political withdrawal from Ireland, Westminster has always attempted to treat and present the struggle as 'criminal', rather than what it is - political - and have always attempted to portray our political prisoners as 'criminals'.
==========================
A Westminster policy of state-sanctioned terrorism was supported at the highest levels in their political and military administrations, up to and including the British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, and the Secretary of State for War, Winston Churchill.
The British felt that a policy of 'hard coercion' would turn the people of Ireland against the IRA.
As part of that official policy, on the 17th April, 1920, a gang of RIC men besieged the small Tipperary town of Bouladuff, and raided houses and business premises, all the time firing their weapons.
On the 26th April, they partially wrecked Kilcommon in the same county, on April 27th, after the IRA had captured and then destroyed the RIC barracks at Ballylanders, County Limerick, and seized arms and ammunition, the RIC and the Black and Tans shot up a number of houses in Limerick City and called back on the 1st May and done the same again.
They destroyed a number of houses in Bantry, County Cork, on the 13th May and caused mayhem in Limerick City on the 18th of that month. On the 19th, they revisited Kilcommon, in County Tipperary, and 'shot up the town' again.
==========================
On the 17th April, 1920, between the hours of 12 Midnight and 2am, the (disused Protestant) church in Clarecastle (pictured), south of Ennis, in County Clare, was set on fire by 'persons unknown', using paraffin oil, and the building was destroyed.
The church, St Mary's, was built in 1813 to serve the local Protestant families as well as British soldiers and their families, who were stationed in Clare Castle Barracks.
A meeting of the Roman Catholic parishioners, at which the parish priest, Canon Bourke, presided, was held in the National School on the day after the burning and a resolution was passed "...to place on record our deep sense of horror at the dastardly deed which resulted in the destruction by fire of the Protestant Church in the village.."
Sinn Féin and the IRA were among those who condemned the attack, stating that none of their members or Volunteers were authorised to interfere with the Protestant community in that manner.
£1,000 was paid to the Church Commissioners in compensation but it was decided not to rebuild the Church.
==========================
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.
As a result, the share of US-based firms in industrial investment rose from a third in 1990 to two-thirds in 1998.
The 'Celtic Tiger' comprised two distinct stories - rising investments by US companies and stagnating investments by Irish firms ; economic growth was concentrated in the three US-dominated sectors of computers, electronic engineering and pharmaceuticals.
These three sectors alone (not including software-related services and teleservices) accounted for 78 per cent of industrial growth (including construction) in 1998, 85 per cent in 1999 and 84 per cent in 2000.
They were the only sectors in the whole economy that exceeded the average GDP growth rate of 6.3 per cent during the 1990's, growing annually by about 15 per cent...
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (17TH APRIL) 84 YEARS AGO : FUNERAL ARRANGEMENT FINALISED FOR GALWAY HUNGER-STRIKER.
Tony Darcy was sentenced to three months imprisonment for refusing to either account for his movements or give his name and address when arrested by Free Staters at an IRA meeting in Dublin.
The POW's went on hunger strike after Meath IRA man, Nick Doherty, was imprisoned on the criminal wing in Mountjoy Jail and a request to transfer him to join his political comrades in Arbour Hill Jail was refused by the Staters. One week into the protest, the prison authorities made a move to take the IRA OC of the prisoners, Seán McNeela, for 'trial' before the 'Special Criminal Court' but he refused to go with them.
Barricades were built and D-Wing was secured as best as possible by the IRA prisoners and they were soon attacked by armed Special Branch men, backed-up by the Dublin Metropolitan Police. Amongst the casualties were McNeela and Darcy, both of whom were beaten unconscious and suffered wounds that were never allowed to heal.
This account of that period, by Michael Traynor, was submitted for the public record by Carmel McNeela, widow of Paddy McNeela and sister-in-law of Seán McNeela :
(Michael Traynor, Adjutant-General, IRA at the time of his arrest in February 1940, endured hunger strike with Seán McNeela, Tony Darcy, Tomás Mac Curtáin, Jack Plunkett and Tommy Grogan) :
"When Seán McNeela became CS (Chief of Staff) of the IRA in 1938 he immediately appointed Jack McNeela OC (Officer Commanding) Great Britain with the particular task of putting the organisation there on a war footing and amassing explosives and preparing for the forthcoming bombing campaign.
After a few months of tense activity Jack was arrested and sentenced to nine months imprisonment. He returned to Ireland in 1939 and was appointed Director of Publicity. Jack was very disappointed with this appointment. He said he knew nothing about publicity and would have preferred some task, no matter how humble which would have kept him in contact with the rank and file Volunteers.
However Publicity had to be organised and Jack threw himself to the job with zeal and energy. After two months, out of nothing, Jack had his Publicity Department functioning perfectly. Writers were instructed and put to work, office staff organised, radio technicians got into harness.
Another big disappointment at this time for Jack was the instructions he received about the raid on the Magazine Fort. He nearly blew up when he was told that he could not take part in the operation, that HQ staff could not afford to lose more than the QMG and the AG if the operation failed. He was a man of action and wanted to be with his comrades in time of danger.
He repeatedly requested the AG for permission to take part in the operation but without success. But Jack was there, orders or no orders, and he did about ten men’s work in the taking of the fort and the loading of the ammunition. He was a very pleased man that night, for he, like all the rest of the members of GHQ knew that this ammunition was necessary to the success of the Army’s attack on the Border, which was planned to take place in the following spring.
He was arrested about three weeks later with members of the Radio Broadcast Staff and lodged in Mountjoy jail.
He was OC of the prisoners when I arrived in the middle of February 1940. Tomás Mac Curtáin was there, and Tony Darcy, who was a very great personal friend of Jack's, so was Jack Plunkett and Tommy Grogan. I was about a week in jail, life was comparatively quiet, great speculation was going on as to what would happen to the men arrested in connection with the raid on the Magazine Fort.
The crisis developed when Nicky Doherty, of Julianstown, Co Meath was sentenced to five years penal servitude. Instead of being transferred to Arbour Hill (where other Republican prisoners had political status), Nicky was lodged in the criminal section of Mountjoy Jail.
Jack, being OC of Republican Prisoners, interviewed the governor of the jail and requested that Nicky be transferred to Arbour Hill on the grounds that he was a political prisoner and that it was unjust and unchristian to attempt to degrade and classify as criminal a Republican soldier. The request was ignored.
Jack and his prison council met to consider the situation : it was decided that a demand was necessary and with the demand for justice went the ultimatum that if he refused a number of prisoners (who were still untried) would go on hunger strike until the demand was accepted. A short time limit was set, but the demand was also ignored.
Jack, I remember well, was very insistent that the issue should be kept clear and simple. The hunger strike was a protest against the attempted degradation of Republican soldiers. There was no other question or issue involved. A simple demand for justice and decency. Seven men volunteered to go on hunger strike and when the time limit [February 25, 1940] of the ultimatum expired they refused to eat any food, although tempting parcels of food kept arriving every day from their relatives and friends.
It was felt by the men on hunger strike that the struggle would be either a speedy victory or a long, long battle, with victory or death at the end. It was victory and death for Jack McNeela and Tony Darcy.
Seven days after the commencement of the hunger strike Special Branch policemen came to take Jack to Collins Barracks for trial before the 'Special Criminal (or was it the Military) Court'. Jack refused to go with them. They told him they’d take him by force. They went away for reinforcements.
A hasty meeting of the Prisoners’ Council was held. They felt it was unjust to take Jack for trial while he was on hunger strike, and that everything possible should be done to prevent the hunger strikers from being separated. Barricades were hastily erected in the D-Wing of the jail. Beds, tables and mattresses were piled on top of each other ; all the food was collected and put into a common store and general preparations made to resist removal of Jack, their OC.
A large contingent of the DMP arrived together with the Special Branch at full strength. The DMP men charged the barricades with batons ; the Special Branch men kept to the rear and looked on while the DMP men were forced to retire by prisoners with legs of stairs. Several charges were made but without success. Some warders and a few policemen suffered minor injuries. The governor of the jail came down to the barricade and asked the prisoners to surrender. They greeted him with jeers and booing.
After some time the DMP men returned, armed with shovel shafts about six feet long, hoping with their superior weapons to subdue the prisoners. After several charges and some tough hand-to-hand fighting the policemen again retired. The most effective weapon possessed by the prisoners was a quantity of lime, liquefied by some Mayo men, and flung in the faces of the charging DMP men. It was reminiscent off the Land League days and the evictions.
Finally the fire hydrants were brought into use and the force of the water from these hoses broke down everything before them. The barricade was toppled over and the prisoners, drenched to the skin, could not resist the powers of water at pressure ; they were forced to take cover in the cells. I got into a cell with Tony Darcy and Jack McNeela. We closed the door. After a few minutes the door was burst open and in rushed about five huge DMP men swinging their batons in all directions.
Tony, standing under the window facing the door, put up his hand but he was silenced by a blow of a baton across the face that felled him senseless. Jack was pummelled across the cell by blow after blow. Blood teemed from his face and head. These wounds on Jack and Tony never healed until they died.
It lasted only a few brief minutes, this orgy of sadistic vengeance, and then we were carried and flung into solitary confinement. Jack was taken away that evening and tried and sentenced by the Special Court. The next time I saw Tony and Jack was in the sick bay in Arbour Hill. Jack Plunkett was also there with them. We exchanged experiences after the row in the 'Joy'.
Day followed day, I cannot remember any particular incident, except that regularly three times a day an orderly arrived with our food, which we of course refused to take. We were by now nursing our strength realising that this was a grim struggle, a struggle to the death. We jokingly made forecasts of who would be the first to die.
Jack was almost fanatic about speaking Gaelic. Most of our conversation while in the Hill was in Gaelic. Tony used to laugh at my funny accent. While he couldn’t speak Gaelic he understood perfectly well all that was said and sometimes threw in a remark to the conversation. When conversation was general, English was the medium. Jack Plunkett didn't know any Gaelic at all. We were in the best of spirits. Rumours filtered through to us, I don’t know how, because we were very strictly isolated from the rest of the Republican prisoners in the Hill.
We heard that one of our comrades had broken the hunger strike at the Joy ; we didn't hear the name for a few days. The report was confirmed, we were inclined to be annoyed, but we agreed that it was better for the break to come early than late. It had no demoralising effect.
After Jack was arrested all the books he had bought (mostly Gaelic) were sent into the Joy. He intended to make good use of his spell of imprisonment. He kept requesting the Governor of the Hill to have them sent to him. After about three weeks a few tattered and water-sodden books were brought to him, all that remained of his little library, the others had been trampled and destroyed by the police in Mountjoy. Jack was vexed. He hadn’t smoked, nor taken drink and every penny he had went to the purchase of these books that he loved.
We were, during all this time, as happy as men could be. In spite of imprisonment and all that it means we were not all despondent nor feeling like martyrs. Everyday, we reviewed our position ; what we had done, our present state of health, the prospect of success. The conclusion we came to was that de Valera, Boland and Co had decided to gamble with us – to wear us out in the hope that we would break and therefore demoralise all our comrades and if we didn’t break, to give political treatment to all IRA prisoners when we were in the jaws of death.
The issue, as we saw it, was of vital importance to us, but of practically no consequence to the Fianna Fáil regime. We knew of course that de Valera and the Fianna Fáil party hated the IRA, because we were a reminder of their broken pledged to the people.
On the eve of St Patrick's Day we were removed to St Bricin's military hospital. A few days later Tomás Mac Curtáin and Tommy Grogan joined us. We were terribly disappointed with their report from the 'Joy'. The men who had been sentenced were accepting criminal status instead of refusing to work as they had been instructed to do ; that is another story, although it led directly to the death of Seán McCaughey six years later in Portlaoise jail.
We were in a small hospital ward. Three beds on each side, occupied by six hungry men and every day was a hungry day. Every evening each of us would give the description of the meal he would like most, or the meal he had enjoyed most. Salmon and boxty loomed large in Jack’s menu.
About this time we began to count the days that we could possibly live. The doctors who examined us, sometimes three times a day, told us that we had used up all our reserves and were living on our nerves ; they tried to frighten us, assuring us that if we didn't come off the hunger strike our health would be ruined. We all agreed among ourselves that the doctors were actuated by purely humane motives, although their advice if acted on by us would have been very satisfactory to their employers.
After 50 days on hunger strike we were unable to get out of bed, or rather the strain of getting up was too great an expenditure of energy, which we were determined to husband carefully.
We did not see any change on each other. The change came so imperceptibly day after day. Jack, lying in the next bed to me, seemed to be the same big robust man that I had known before we were arrested, yet, we each were failing away. The doctors and nurses were very kind. We were rubbed with spirit and olive oil to prevent bedsores ; all our joints and bony places were padded with cotton wool, for by now the rubbing of one finger against another was painful. None of us could read anymore, our sight had lost focus and concentration on material objects had become difficult.
We were face to face with death ; but no one flinched or if he did he prayed to God for strength and courage.
On the 54th night of the strike, about midnight, Tony cried out (we were all awake) : "Jack, I'm dying." We all knew that it was so. Jack replied, "I’m coming, Tony". I felt, and I’m sure Jack and the others felt also, that getting out of bed and walking across the room to Tony would mean death to Jack also.
As well as I remember Mac Curtáin, Plunkett, Grogan and myself appealed to Jack not to get out of bed. But Tony's cry pierced Jack's heart deeper than ours so he got up and staggered across the room to his friend and comrade. Later that night Tony was taken out to a private ward. We never saw him again. He died the following night. A great and staunch and unflinching soldier and comrade ; oh that Ireland had twenty thousand as honourable and fearless as he.
The day following Tony's removal from the ward, Jack's uncle, Mick Kilroy, late Fianna Fáil TD, came to see Jack.
Alas, he didn’t come to give a kinsman's help, but attacked Jack for "daring to embarrass de Valera" the "heaven-sent leader" by such action and demanded that Jack give up his hunger strike at once. Jack’s temper rose and had he been capable of rising would have thrown him out. He ordered him out of the room, so did we all.
It was the first time in 56 days that we felt enraged at anything. The brutal treatment of the police after seven days' hunger strike was trivial in comparison to this outrage. The next day Jack was taken out of the ward. We never saw him again.
A few hours after his removal we received a communication from the Chief of Staff IRA. The following is an extract:
'April 19, 1940.
To the men on hunger strike in St Bricin's Hospital :
The Army Council and the Nation impressed with the magnitude of your self-sacrifice wish to convey to you the desire that if at all consistent with your honour as soldiers of the Republic you would be spared to resume your great work in another form. We are given to understand that the cause you went on strike has been won and that your jailers are now willing to concede treatment becoming soldiers of the Republic.
In these circumstances if you are satisfied with the assurances given you – you will earn still more fully the gratitude of the people – relinquishing the weapon which has already caused so much suffering and has resulted in the death of a gallant comrade.'
Jack had requested confirmation from HQ of the assurances given to us by Fr O'Hare, a Carmelite Father from Whitefriars Street, Dublin. Fr O'Hare had interviewed Mr Boland, the Minister for Justice in the Free State government and received his assurances that all Republican prisoners would get political treatment.
Naturally we did not want to die, but we could not accept any verbal assurance so we felt that written confirmation by our Chief of Staff was necessary. When the confirmation arrived Jack was out in the private ward. I was acting OC. We were reluctant, the four of who remained, to come off the hunger strike, with Tony dead and Jack at death's door.
Yet we had the instruction from HQ that our demands were satisfied. The doctors assured us that if the strike ended Jack had a 50-50 chance of living so I gave the order that ended the strike. I believe the doctors worked feverishly to save Jack's life, but in vain. Jack McNeela, our OC and comrades, died that night and joined the host of the elected who died that Ireland and all her sons and daughters would be free from the chains of British Imperialism and happy in the working out of their own destiny."
NOTES: Nicky Doherty was found in possession of a quantity of ammunition seized in the raid on the Magazine Fort. He remained an active Volunteer until his death at an early age in the mid-1950s.
Criminal section of Mountjoy : This was A-Wing. The Republicans on remand were housed in D-Wing. On sentence they were usually sent to Arbour Hill.
Governor of the jail : Seán Kavanagh, a former Republican prisoner himself during the Tan War.
DMP: Dublin Metropolitan Police, originally a separate force from the RIC. They were kept on after the Treaty and amalgamated with the Gardaí in 1925. They made a deal with the IRA in 1919 not to engage in 'military activities' and were removed from the list of legitimate targets. "G" Division, or Special Branch were not excluded. In 1940 they supplied the Riot Squad for Mountjoy.
Tony Darcy, Headford, Co Galway, died April 16th 1940. He was OC Western Command, IRA at the time of his arrest.
Seán McNeela, Ballycroy, Co Mayo, died April 19th 1940.
From 1940 to 1947, sixteen Republican prisoners were sent to Portlaoise prison where they were denied political status. For all seven years they were naked, except for the prison blanket. For three years of this they were also in solitary confinement.
Finally - writing about the funerals of Tony Darcy and Seán McNeela , Brian Ó hÚiginn stated : "Hundreds of uniformed and plain-clothes police were sent into the two graveyards, while soldiers in full war-kit were posted behind walls and trees in surrounding fields, and armoured cars patrolled the roads...the lowest depths of vindictive pettiness was reached when mourners on their way to Seán MacNeela's funeral were stopped by armed police and their cars and persons searched....even when they reached the cemetery many were locked out - the gates were locked - and those attempting to enter were attacked....."
That was 1940, this was 2013 - the 'establishment' harasses those it fears, even in death, and wines and dines those it has purchased even though they, too, are 'dead' : morally and spiritually.
BEIR BUA...
Republicanism in history and today.
Published by the James Connolly/Tommy O'Neill Cumann, Republican Sinn Féin, The Liberties, Dublin.
August 1998.
('1169' comment - 'Beir Bua' translates as 'Grasp Victory' in the English language.)
ROBERT EMMET AND THE IRELAND OF TODAY...
"Having its root in all gentleness, in a man's love for the place where his mother bore him, for the breast that gave him suck, for the voices of children that sounded in a house now silent, for the faces that glowed around a fireside now cold, for the story told by lips that will not speak again, having its root, I say, in all gentleness, it is yet a terrible thing urging the generations to perilous bloody attempts, nerving men to give up life for the death-in-life of dungeons, teaching little boys to die with laughing lips, giving courage to young girls to bare their backs to the lashes of a soldiery.
It is easy to imagine how the spirit of Irish patriotism called to the gallant and adventurous spirit of Tone or moved the wrathful spirit of Mitchell.
In them deep called unto deep : heroic effort claimed the heroic man. But consider how the call was made to a spirit of different, yet not less noble mould ; and how it was answered.
In Emmet it called to a dreamer and he awoke a man of action ; it called to a student and a recluse and he stood forth a leader of men ; it called to one who loved the ways of peace and he became a revolutionary. I wish I could help you to realise, I wish I could myself adequately realise, the humanity, the gentle and grave humanity, of Emmet.
We are so dominated by the memory of that splendid death of his, by the memory of that young figure, serene and smiling, climbing to the gallows above that sea of silent men in Thomas Street, that we forget the life of which that death was only the necessary completion : and the life has perhaps a nearer meaning for us than the death..."
(MORE LATER.)
In around December, 1920, John Cyril MacDonald (28), a single man from Number 31 Whirring Stone Road, Fulham, in London, decided to leave the British Army and join the RIC in Cork, Ireland.
He was 'put to work' in Union Quay Barracks, in Cork City, and quickly made a name for himself in Irish republican circles as "a particularly obnoxious individual" but, apparently, some of the local ladies thought that he cut a sharp figure in his uniform and, being young, single and paid about 23 shillings a week, he caught the eye of one girl in particular, and they became a couple.
On the 17th April, 1921, he was on a day off and himself and the girlfriend got suited-up and headed off to visit a friend of theirs.
The couple were walking in Cove Street, in Cork City, near the entrance to Saint Nicholas Church, not minding the two men who were walking towards them, on their way to Barracks Street.
One of those men grabbed Mr MacDonald by his arms and forced them behind his back ; his companion moved just as quickly and removed the RIC-issue revolver from the trapped man's holster and pointed his IRA-issue revolver at the RIC man's head ; he struggled, but the gun was fired and the round hit him in his lower jaw, fracturing it, and entering the spine at his neck.
Mr MacDonald fell to the ground, badly wounded, and a number of other shots were fired at him, none of which hit him.
The two IRA Volunteers then hurried away from the scene and the girlfriend, understandably shocked, helped him to a house, a few yards away, and then she ran to the fire station on nearby Sullivan's Quay to summon an ambulance.
Mr MacDonald was rushed to Cork Military Hospital, attended to as best as possible, and placed in a ward for observation ; he was weak, but was able to tell a patient in the ward (another RIC member, by chance) what had happened -
"(I) was walking along with a girl friend when two men jumped on my back, pinned my arms behind me, and took my revolver away from me...another civilian stood by pointing a revolver, but I tried to knock it away and, in doing so, I was shot in the face. I collapsed on the ground, and the civilians fired shots all round my head, but none took effect..."
Mr MacDonald died from his injuries on the 22nd April 1921.
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On the 17th April, 1921, a pedestrian in Dublin, Bride Glynn, was killed by an RIC vehicle near her house, at the junction of Ailesbury Road and Merrion Road in Dublin, and a British Army vehicle, carrying members of 'Q Company' of the Auxiliaries, was attacked by six IRA men from the 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade IRA, led by Captain James Foley, at Eden Quay in Dublin ; there were no fatalities, but one Auxiliary was wounded.
On the same day, the 'Shannon View Hotel' in Castleconnell, in County Limerick, was open for business and was trading to the public as best it could, in the times that were in it - the owner, a Mr Denis O'Donovan, was working in the premises, helping to serve food and drink, and chatting to the customers.
Among those he probably served a few drinks to were three 'off-duty' (!) RIC members, in plain clothes, but still armed, enjoying their 'official day off' but, as always, keeping their eyes and ears opened for anything of interest to them in relation to Sinn Féin or IRA talk or personnel.
Suddenly, a gang of armed men in plain clothes burst in to the hotel - about a dozen of them - and people scattered as, indeed, did Mr O'Donovan and, probably thinking that it was an IRA ASU coming for them, the three 'off-duty' RIC members, with their revolvers drawn, legged it, too.
But the raiders were all members of 'G Company' of the British Auxiliaries, based in Killaloe, not IRA Volunteers, but they, in turn - on seeing three armed men in plain clothes on the premises - thought that they were three IRA men, and chaos ensued...
'3 RIC men in civilian clothes were drinking in the Shannon View Hotel, 12 Auxiliaries in civilian clothes raided the hotel. There is some disagreement in the reports as to what actually happened.
Pringle was shot apparently by one of the RIC men who fired out into the yard, and the RIC man was shot inside the bar itself. Three civilians ran out into the yard, the hotel owner and two of the RIC men.
The Auxiliary commander says one then turned and ran back toward the hotel, and was hit (this was O’Donovan the hotel owner, who was dead), the other two put their hands up and surrendered (the RIC men, one had been wounded)...' (...more here.)
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On the 17th April, 1922, as IRA Volunteer Michael MacGreal was working on a car engine, he accidentally discharged his own revolver and died from the wound.
Volunteer MacGreal was a native of Craughwell, in County Galway, and was employed in Liptons Shop in Ennis, County Clare. He was a Volunteer in the Ennis Company IRA, and was active in the ASU of the 1st Battalion of that Company, which seen action during the Black and Tan War.
RIP Volunteer MacGreal.
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'The Belfast Newsletter' newspaper was first printed in 1737 and had a somewhat nationalist/republican feel to it, but changed hands a number of times over the centuries and changed/softened its political leanings, too.
On the 17th April, 1922, it opined that, due to continued and increasing IRA activity, the Occupied Six Counties may have to become the Occupied Four Counties instead!
In an 'Editorial' piece, the 'Newsletter' stated that 'For the sake of peace, Fermanagh and Tyrone (may have to) agree to inclusion in Southern Ireland which would render the position of the other four counties perilous, if not untenable, and would be a long step in the direction of a united Ireland...'
Would have been a step in the right direction, definitely, had it happened, but only one such step in that which is required - 'Damn your concessions, England (and 'Newsletter') : we want our Country...' !
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Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated!
Sharon and the team.
