On Saturday, 24th July, 1920, 45 Black and Tan recruits arrived in Limerick city from Baile Mhic Gormáin (Gormanston), in County Meath.
Ten IRA Volunteers from 'E Company', 2nd (Limerick City) Battalion of the Mid-Limerick Brigade (under the leadership of William Barrett, pictured) had prepared an ambush position in Newenham Street in Limerick (pictured) and, when three RIC members - Walter Oakley, Albert Jones and William Jones - walked into it, they were attacked, and two of them suffered gunshot wounds ; a bullet actually bounced off the clasp of the braces being worn by Mr Albert Jones, who was shaken but otherwise uninjured.
One of those attacked, a Mr Walter Oakley (20 years of age, 'Service Number 71636'), a recruit from England, died from his wounds (kidney failure) on the 29th of that month ; he was from Essex, in East England, and had only about six weeks of 'service' in the RIC, having joined that grouping on the 11th June from the 'Royal Marines' outfit.
On the 17th August, 1920, two ex-British Army soldiers - James O'Neill and Patrick Blake - were 'arrested' by their ex-colleagues and charged with 'the murder of Constable Oakley' and taken to Dublin to be court martialed.
At their 'trial' on the 19th November that year (1920), at which their families were present, their lawyer, a Mr Quirke, said there was no evidence whatsoever against the two men, neither of whom had any involvement with the IRA and, indeed, both had been in the British Army, fighting against the IRA.
Both men were acquitted and, within minutes, walked out of court with their loved ones, delighted with themselves, naturally, and made plans to return home, to Limerick - the Blake's and the O'Neill's got the train to Limerick, and went their separate ways at Limerick Junction, by road (bus and taxi) and, because it was an unusual sight, members of each family commented on a yellow car that was parked there.
The taxi that the Blake family was in was stopped by British soldiers at the permanent road block outside Pallasgreen RIC Barracks and, following a few questions to the occupants, was allowed to continue on its journey ; Patrick Blake was sitting in a window seat in the back, but swapped with his brother, Michael, after the road block. When the taxi got near to the village of Oola, a number of armed men stopped it beside two parked cars, one of which was the same yellow car that had been noticed earlier.
Within seconds, two men fired shots into the taxi at Michael Blake, who was sitting in the seat vacated by his brother, Patrick. Michael Blake was shot dead.
The bus that the O'Neill family were in was also stopped by armed men, a number of whom boarded it, removed Mr O'Neill at gunpoint and marched him up the road towards the railway bridge near Grange Cross, where a silk scarf was tied in place over his eyes and he was shot four times in the head.
Indications at the time, which remain today, are that an RIC man from the then British West Indies, a Mr Thomas Darrell Huckerby (pictured), was the man who organised the executions of Mr Blake and Mr O'Neill.
Mr Huckerby was born in the town of St Vincent (in the West Indies) on the 5th January, 1901 and, at 19 years of age, joined the RIC (on the 30th April 1920, 'Service Number 71352').
He was known in Limerick as 'a fiend in human shape, driven by rage' and, between April and December 1920, his name was linked to so many 'official' atrocities in Ireland that, on the 27th December, he resigned from the RIC with unspecified 'disciplinary charges pending' ('1169' comment - something else would have been 'pending' for him too) and moved to London where he stayed among his own type, at the 'Police Institute Hostel' on Adelphi Terrace. Safety in numbers...
By February 1921 he was dead.
The official cause of death was 'acute yellow atrophy' ('bilious liquefaction...'?), a rare diagnosis that perhaps, for some, raises more questions than it answers. Had he not fled Ireland, he might have had the good fortune to die quicker.
Incidentally, an RIC member named William Jones (37) died on the 22nd December, 1920, when he was shot dead "while questioning three suspects in a public bar..", and another RIC member, a Mr Albert Jones, had died on the 28th November, 1920, when he and his colleagues were ambushed by the IRA at Kilmichael, in County Cork.
At least both of them survived the 'yellow fever'...
On the 24th July, 1919, 'The Daily Telegraph' newspaper in England, an 'Establishment' mouthpiece, was in the process of softening-up its own people to accept the idea that partitioning Ireland would not mean "a weakening of the Union".
In an 'Editorial' it printed on that date, it stated -
'Ulster Unionists possess the pledged word not only of the British Unionists, but also the British Liberals, that they shall not be coerced into a submission to an Irish Parliament against their wills..", by which they were referencing the then-proposed Leinster House assembly on Kildare Street, in Dublin.
On that same date, 'The Times' newspaper, another 'Establishment' parrot-paper in London, 'predicted' (ie given a kite to fly by Westminster) that the British government would bring forward legislation setting up two parliaments in Ireland – one for the nine counties of Ulster and one for the rest of Ireland ; another 'softening-up' attempt by Westminster.
In the event, the British realised that they would not be able to guarantee that the populations of Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal would be as easy to 'assert influence over' (!) as the populations of Derry, Antrim, Down, Tyrone, Armagh and Fermanagh, so they abandoned the three 'troublesome' counties and drew their partitioning border around the remaining Six Counties, and that - unfortunately - is how it stands to this day.
Lost in the 'small print' to most people is the fact that the Leinster House political assembly was established, nurtured and propagated by the British as, indeed, was the Six County assembly.
The Irish republican objective is to dismantle both of those assemblies and establish, nurture and propogate one proper political assembly for all of Ireland.
==========================
Two RIC members, a Mr Bernard Oates and a Mr JJ O'Connell, were cycling back to Camp Village (pictured) RIC Barracks on the North Shore of the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry from 'patrol duties' in the village of Aughacasla.
As they were cycling through the townland of Mín na Scairte (Meennascarty), at about 8pm, an IRA ambush party consisting of Volunteers attached to the Aughacasla Company (including Michael Spillane, Michael and Martin Griffin, Michael Flynn and John Crean, the Officer Commanding the Unit) came out from behind the gate of the Fitzgerald's house and rushed at the two RIC members.
Mr Oates and his colleague were about 50 yards apart, and it was expected that both would be armed - the IRA Volunteers had only one revolver between them, held by Volunteer Crean, whereas the other rebels were carrying blackthorn sticks.
RIC member Oates was smashed over the head with the stick by Volunteer Martin Griffin and shot by Volunteer Crean, with the bullet bouncing off his brace buckle, both actions taking the fight out of him.
RIC member O'Connell was reaching for his rifle when he was knocked unconscious by a blow of a blackthorn stick to his head, and was held on the ground by a knee on his throat and his rifle and his ammunition pouch were taken from him.
Both bicycles were smashed up and the raiding party left the scene, in the direction of Aughacasla Village.
Early the following morning, the RIC raided houses in the area and 'arrested' Michael Spillane, Michael Griffin, Martin Griffin and Michael Flynn, and two other men - Mr Michael Maunsel and Mr Tom Spillane (who played no part in the ambush) - were also 'arrested' by the Crown Forces.
Mr Tim Spillane received three years penal servitude, Michael Spillane and Michael Flynn were each sentenced to 18 months hard labour, Michael Maunsel was given 15 months of hard labour and Martin Griffin was sentenced to nine months hard labour, and were split-up between Cork, Mountjoy (Dublin) and Portlaoise prisons.
Finally, RIC member Oates received £250 in compensation for 'injuries sustained' in the ambush, and RIC member O'Connell was awarded £50 for same : on top of, that is, their thirty pieces of silver...
(Different sources give different dates for the above - '24th June 1919' and '24th July 1919' but, as it's such a good piece, we decided to post it anyway!)
==========================
'SINN FÉIN STATEMENT.'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
Mr McAteer is further quoted as saying -
"...but if a decision was to be forced on the vexed question of attendance or abstention then, even at the risk of losing two seats, his recommendation, so far as it carried any weight, would be 'let us if necessary lose the seats but at the same time we will have gathered the feeling of the people of those constituencies..' "
It is evident from the foregoing that Mr McAteer is prepared to advocate that the 'Anti-Partition League' and those who support it bear full responsibility for splitting the vote and handing the seats to Unionist representatives.
In other words, a Unionist representative is more acceptable to Mr McAteer than a Sinn Féin representative*...
(*...impossible nowadays to tell them apart, politically..)
(MORE LATER.)
On the 24th July, 1920, a (Protestant) businessman in Cork, a Mr GW Biggs, from the Bantry area, wrote to 'The Irish Times' newspaper in Dublin, commenting on the IRA fight against the British military and political presence in Ireland.
Mr Biggs stated his opinion that that fight was political in nature and was not reflecting in worsening or strained relationships between Catholics and Protestants in Cork, adding that "the greatest goodwill exists..." between both religious groups, as it should be.
This, apparently, marked him out to the British and their armed militias as 'a traitor' and, three days later, his business premises was attacked and burnt down by the RIC.
Mr Biggs was respected in the community and was not without contacts in high places ; a Mr John Annan Bryce was a friend of his and, being the younger brother of 'Lord' Bryce, one-time British 'Chief Secretary for Ireland', Mr Bryce carried a bit of weight, politically, himself.
Mr Bryce wrote a letter of complaint some weeks later to his British military and political contacts in London about the treatment of his friend, Mr Biggs, in which he said -
"...the only damage to loyalists premises has been done by the police.
In July they burned the stores of Mr. G.W. Biggs, the principal merchant in Bantry, a man highly respected, a Protestant, and a lifelong Unionist, with a damage of over £25,000...subsequently, in August, the police fired into Mr. Biggs's office, while his residence has since been commandeered for police barracks.
He (Mr Biggs) has had to send his family to Dublin and to live himself in a hotel. Only two reasons can be assigned for the outrages on Mr. Biggs, one that he employed Sinn Feiners – he could not work his large business without them, there being no Unionist workmen in Bantry – the other a recently published statement of his protesting – on his own 40 years' experience – against Orange allegations of Catholic intolerance..."
The July burning was part of a general pogrom, in which a cripple, named Crowley, was deliberately shot by the police while in bed and several houses were set on fire while the people were asleep.
A report was made to Dublin Castle by Mr. Hynes, the County Court Judge, who happened to be on the spot for quarter sessions. Questioned in the House of Commons, the Government refused to produce this report on the ground that production would not be in the public interest, which means – as Parliamentary experience teaches one – that it was damning to Government..."
For daring to 'stick his head above the parapet', the Bryce family were intimidated and harassed by the British political and military forces in Ireland, as a lesson to others to turn a blind eye to the manner in which the Irish were being treated ; indeed, Mr Bryce's wife was arrested by her own 'police force' in an attempt to silence her husband.
It was most probably due to his 'standing' in the British community that Mr Bryce wasn't just shot dead by them.
The correspondence between Mr Bryce and the British political and military leaderships can be read here, and offer a valuable insight into how (British) imperialism works -"My wife is brave and has been strong, but she is severely shaken by ill-usage on this and previous occasions at the hands of servants of the Crown..."
==========================
On the 24th July, 1920, 'The Connaught Tribune' newspaper reported that the IRA had demolished the RIC barracks in Kinvara, in County Galway and, after doing so, the Volunteers regrouped and marched to the town courthouse and destroyed the case records that were held in the building.
On July 20th pm/21st am, IRA Officer Commanding John Burke led the Kinvara Company IRA into the town late in the evening, having posted armed sentries at all entrance/exit roads into and out of the town.
The Volunteers entered the then empty RIC barracks and proceeded to destroy the roof and the second floor of the building, thus weakening it structurally ; they had intended to burn it down, but that would have caused damage to the houses/buildings either side of it so it was demolished instead.
The RIC had evacuated the barracks on the 18th, fleeing to the barracks in the nearby towns of Kilcolgan and Ardrahan for their own safety.
==========================
"The Government cannot abandon a measure so elaborate in its structure and so far advanced in its Parliamentary career as the present Home Rule Bill ('Government of Ireland Act') without some discredit.
This discredit would amount to a disgrace if this course were adopted, not on its merits, but as a concession to those who worked through organised assassination. A parliament has been promised to Ulster..."
- the words of the influential Mr Arthur James Balfour (pictured), on the 24th July 1920 ; Mr Balfour had resigned from the British Foreign Office in October 1919, but held on to his Cabinet Seat as 'Lord President of the Council'.
He was a strong voice for and supporter of a Stormont administration for six Irish counties realising, as did his unionist/loyalist base, that they couldn't hold all nine counties of Ulster.
He was a 'cold creature', apparently, and is one of only a small select (!) individuals to have a human mannerism named in their honour (!) - 'the Balfourian Manner' :
'This Balfourian Manner ; an attitude of mind. An attitude of convinced superiority which insists in the first place on complete detachment from the enthusiasms of the human race, and in the second place on keeping the vulgar world at arm's length.
To Mr. Arthur Balfour this studied attitude of aloofness has been fatal, both to his character and to his career.
He has said nothing, written nothing, done nothing, which lives in the heart of his countrymen.
The charming, gracious, and cultured Mr. Balfour is the most egotistical of men, and a man who would make almost any sacrifice to remain in office...' - Edward Harold Begbie.
Mr Balfour certainly played his part in sacrificing the Irish, to feed his egotistical desires...
==========================
On the 24th July, 1920, a Dublin man, Danny McGee, was riding his bicycle along Victoria Quay in Dublin when he was run over by a British Army military vehicle.
The driver stopped the car and, with the consent of his passenger, drove the badly injured man to Dr Steevens Hospital, but Mr McGee was pronounced dead.
The passenger was British 'Sir' Norman Fenwick Warren Fisher (pictured), the Head of the British Civil Service, and he, the driver and the institution they represented, were cleared of any wrongdoing.
And they had been 'clearing themselves of any wrongdoing' long before then, and continue to do so to this day.
==========================
Two British Army Marines - a Mr Charles Cleaver Burdett Yates and a Mr Cecil George Redvers Helmore - who were stationed in Ballyvaughan Coastguard Station in County Clare, apparently had a (drunken?) falling-out in June 1920 and were at odds with each other when, on the 7th July, Mr Helmore pulled out his revolver and shot Mr Yates, who died in Cork Military Hospital from the wound on the 24th July that year.
Mr Yates was posted to the '8th Royal Marine Battalion' on the 2nd June (1920), and they sailed to Cork in HMS Valiant and HMS Warspite before being taken by destroyer to protect coastguard and signal stations around the Irish coast, with Mr Yates being posted to the station where he met his death.
After he shot Mr Yates (in the neck, paralysing him from there down, with the bullet remaining close to his spine), the shooter, Mr Helmore, turned the gun on himself but was restrained before he could kill himself.
He probably wished he had done so because, in February 1921, he was sentenced to life imprisonment : more here.
==========================
A Mr John Crowley, from the village of Lissagroom, near Upton, in County Cork, was arrested by the Knockavilla Company of the Bandon Battalion of the Cork Number 3 Brigade IRA on the 10th July, 1920, in connection with information supplied to Crown Forces in relation to IRA operations in the area.
Mr Crowley, an ex-British Army soldier, was held in the Crosspound area, near the town of Ballyhandle in Cork, and was questioned over time by Volunteers Tadhg O’Sullivan (Quartermaster of the Cork Number 3 Brigade), Tom Hales, Dick Barrett and Charlie Hurley, and was found to have been paid £20 for the details he gave to the British, with future payments promised if his information was good.
He was executed by the IRA as a spy on the 24th July 1920 and he was buried in secret.
His body has never been recovered.
His sister, Mary Murphy (née Crowley), declared in a letter dated the 11th April 1922 -
"I am sorry to say or think I had a spy belong to me. If I only knew he was one, I would have shot him myself..."
==========================
PROBLEMS AT SEA, AND A MISSED OPPORTUNITY BY THE REBELS.
Approximately 400 Free State Army soldiers left Dublin on the 22nd July, 1922, aboard the State military vessel 'The Minerva', under the command of a Colonel-Commandant O'Malley, to sail to Westport in County Mayo, and arrived there on the 24th.
The 4th Western Division of the IRA, commanded by Volunteer Michael Kilroy (pictured, a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher) held the area at the time, and the Staters wanted them out ; indeed, they were under instruction from Westminster to do so -
'The Government of the Irish Free State shall afford to His Majesty's Imperial Forces :
(a) In the time of peace such harbour and other facilities as are indicated in the Annex hereto, or such other facilities as may from time to time be agreed between the British Government and the Government of the Irish Free State ;
and
(b) In time of war or of strained relations with a Foreign Power such harbour and other facilities as the British Government may require for the purposes of such defence as aforesaid...'
Mr Kilroy had served on the Army Executive of the IRA but left his republican beliefs behind him in 1927.
However, there were problems at sea when the Staters arrived at Westport, and missed opportunities by the rebels -
'...The Minerva, carrying 400 men, one “Whippet” armoured car and an 18-pound field gun, sailed from Dublin Port's North Wall at 8pm on 22 July. The expedition arrived in Clew Bay at 2am, 24 July.
A pilot was requested and arrived after two hours. However, he informed Colonel Commandant O'Malley that the Minerva was 100 feet too long to dock at the quay.
This was confirmed by another pilot who arrived aboard at 5am. It is possible that the pilots were attempting to prevent the landing by misinformation.
The Minerva was still at the mouth of the bay and not visible to any defenders onshore. The expedition attempted to contact Portobello Barracks in Dublin for further instructions but did not succeed until Monday evening.
The reply was too late to influence events, the order was given to abort the operation and make for Limerick, but by this time the landing was again underway.
An attempt was made to continue the operation when a food ship, the SS Admiral, bound for Westport, was sighted. She was ordered alongside and an effort was made to transfer the Whippet aboard. However, this failed and the vessel was sent on unhindered.
The risk of information on the landing force being leaked in Westport was apparently not considered.
The pilots eventually came to the decision that they would risk bringing the Minerva in on the next tide. At 5pm on 24 July, the expedition made for Westport. A party of forty men were detached for an attack on Rossmoney Coastguard Station which was held by the Irregulars...'
(More here, page 20.)
The Staters did, eventually, take Westport, and most of the main towns in Mayo were taken by them in the next few days.
That may not have been the case had 'The Minerva' been spotted while she waited for a docking solution...
'A party of enemy troops came in contact with our forces. Four killed, rest surrendered. Thirteen rifles and one Lewis gun captured by our forces...' - IRA statement, late July 1922.
On the 24th July, 1922 (other sources state the 25th and/or the 28th), four Free State Army soldiers - P Murphy, P Carey, D O'Mahony and a Captain Power - were shot dead at Ballygibba Cross, Bruree, in County Limerick, by the IRA.
The four FSA soldiers were attached to the '1st Cork Brigade' and their unit had walked into an IRA ambush position which had been set-up on a narrow road : they at first attempted to fight their way out of it and suffered those casualties as a result.
==========================
On the afternoon of Monday, 24th July, 1922, a Column of IRA Volunteers from Kyle, County Wexford, under the command of Volunteer Robert Lambert, lay in wait on high ground at Killurin, waiting for the train from Wexford to Dublin. The Column were assisted by fighters from Cumann na mBan, and some of those rebels had crossed the River Slaney by boat to get to the ambush position.
The tracks were blocked with railway sleepers and the station-master was locked into his office, with no means of communicating with the outside world.
The train was transporting IRA prisoners, guarded by two coaches of Free State Army soldiers, and mail bags and civilians were also on board.
When the train emerged from a tunnel about 600 yards on the Wexford side of Killurin Station, two rifle shots rang out, the train pulled to a halt and sustained fire was opened on the two carriages carrying the FSA soldiers.
The doors were locked, so those inside the two carriages tried to escape out the windows and most of them did so, presenting themselves as targets for the IRA and Cumann na mBan fighters who, in more ways than one, held the higher ground.
The Staters that got out of the train took whatever cover they could and fired back, and the gunfight lasted for about half-an-hour ; the IRA then withdrew, as Stater reinforcements were probably on the way.
A number of IRA prisoners escaped, three FSA soldiers were killed in the fight and at least seven were wounded.
But at least all of the bags of mail got through...
==========================
A woman named Nellie McDonagh was in her house in Riverstown, County Sligo, on the 24th July, 1922, when a number of youths broke into her house, looking for a gun that was on the premises.
Whether they found the gun or had brought one with them is not known, as there are no more details about how it happened, but M/s McDonagh was shot dead.
==========================
SO, FAREWELL THEN, CELTIC TIGER....
It had to happen, sooner or later.
Most of the pundits and economists were too busy singing the Celtic Tiger's praises to notice, but a few critical observers worried all along about the weaknesses of a boom economy that depended so much on a few companies from one place - the United States.
By Denis O'Hearn.
From 'Magill' Annual 2002.
The most scandalous outcome of the 'Celtic Tiger', however, is not the degree of low pay and insecurity.
Rather, the most scandalous thing is that economic growth gave the government massive resources with which to fight years of run-down social services and increase the welfare of the Irish people ; it failed miserably to do so.
It was okay to give big grants and tax breaks to industry and the rich, but once someone like the 'Conference on Religious in Ireland' started talking about improving social services or fighting poverty, the cry went up... "..you'll overheat the economy...don't kill the goose that laid the golden egg.."
As a result, successive State budgets favoured tax cuts for the rich and failed to provide the necessary social spending to correct Ireland's severe social problems.
Thus, we may be socially worse off today than we were before the 'Celtic Tiger'...
(MORE LATER.)
BEIR BUA...
Republicanism in history and today.
Published by the James Connolly/Tommy O'Neill Cumann, Republican Sinn Féin, The Liberties, Dublin.
August 1998.
('1169' comment - 'Beir Bua' translates as 'Grasp Victory' in the English language.)
REPUBLICANS AND THE STATE :
In a statement on December 8th, 1938, the surviving faithful members of the Second Dáil announced this decision -
"Dáil Éireann :
In consequence of armed opposition ordered and sustained by England, and the defection of elected representatives of the people over the period since the Republican Proclamation of Easter 1916 was ratified, three years later, by the newly inauguarated Government of the Irish Republic, we hereby delegate the authority reposed in us to the Army Council, in the spirit of the decision taken by Dáil Éireann in the Spring of 1921, and later endorsed by the Second Dáil.
In thus transferring the trust of which it has been our privilege to be the custodians for twenty years, we earnestly exhort all citizens and friends of the Irish Republic at home and abroad to dissociate themselves openly and absolutely from England's unending aggressions, and we urge on them utterly to disregard England's recurring war scares, remembering that our ancient and insular nation, bounded entirely by the seas, has infinitely less reason to become involved in the conflicts now so much threatened than have the neutral small nations lying between England and the power she desires to overthrow..."
(MORE LATER.)
On the 24th July, 1924, 'The Irish Independent' newspaper (!) reported on a declaration made by a State court against a Mr Éamon de Valera and a Mr Dáithí Ó Donnchadha in relation to the Dáil Loan funds in their possession, which were said to be worth about €20 million in today's terms and values.
In late 1923, the Leinster House/Free State political administration had enacted a new 'State law', the 'Loans and Fund Act' which, basically, gave them 'legal' access to those funds, even though they were aware that that money was to be used as the first charge on the revenues of the Irish Republic "after the withdrawal of the English military forces".
The funds (applications for which finished on the 17th July 1920) were raised to finance 'the establishment of a (32-County) Republic of Ireland free and independent of any allegiance to Great Britain...', which the 26-County Free State certainly wasn't!
Within days, a similar legal declaration was made against a Mr Stephen O'Mara, who appeals the ruling to the State Supreme Court on the basis that the Free State administration did not have the legal authority to appoint new trustees to the Dáil Loan (...as the Leinster House administration was not the political body that the funds were raised for).
After a long legal battle (December 1925), the State Supreme Court ruled against Mr Stephen O'Mara and unanimously upheld the decision of the lower court that the Free State government had the right to appoint new trustees to the Dáil Loan ie 'it was their money'.
Mr de Valera "refused/neglected" to co-operate with the State Supreme Court decision and further legal correspondence was entered into by the parties concerned until, in February 1927, the State Supreme Court appointed a Mr William Norman to replace de Valera as one of the three trustees and the Free Staters got access to the funds held in the Dáil Loan accounts.
Incidentally, on the 13th December, 1923, Mr Earnán de Blaghd (Ernest William Blythe) had gleefully stated -
"If it had not been for the generosity and faith of the people who subscribed to the Loan, there would be no Free State today..."
Those who subscribed to the Loan did not do so to financially assist with the spawning of a so-called 'Free State' within Ireland, but rather in the hope, belief and expectation that their hard-earned money would be availed of to finance the establishment of a 32-County Irish Republic.
But traitorous men and women, with more desire for money than for the Republic, intervened...
==========================
Thanks for the visit, and for reading!
Sharon and the team.
(We won't be here next Wednesday, 31st July 2024, as we're off to a family gig ; it'll be the usual 3+day affair, as we do the final, final prep work in the hall the afternoon and evening before, then there's the day itself and at least one day (?!) after the gig to clean up and recover!
It's a 21st, so the whole show will more than likely drift into a fourth/fifth day, as expected!
We'll be 'on air' again on Wednesday 7th August, 2024 with, among other bits and pieces, an article about an Irish rebel, born in the late 19th Century, who offended his bosses regularly by his words and actions on behalf of his own people - his fight against injustices was second nature to the man, and he took that fighting spirit to the grave with him...)
So thanks again for popping in - see ye on the 7th August 2024 and, in the meantime, if'n ya miss me that much, sure you can keep an eye on me on 'X/Twitter' and 'Facebook' as well!
Slán anois,
Sharon.
