A young man (26, pictured, in later life), Patrick James Smyth, from the Mount Brown Area of Kilmainham, in Dublin, joined the anti-republican 'Dublin Metropolitan Police' grouping in March 1893 and proved to be so diligent (!) in his 'police work' that, as well as been given the nickname 'The Dog' (because of his obsessive pursuit of 'villains'), he was favoured by his bosses and, four years later, was moved up the ranks to the position of 'Detective Officer'.
He actually enjoyed the work, and stayed in that position for eleven years, then moved up the ranks again to the position of 'Detective Sergeant' in 'G Division'.
He changed desks within the British (para-)military apparatus in Ireland but, regardless of which station he manned, he practically detested those who didn't share his loyalty to 'Empire', and his 'jobsworth' preferences were noted by those he sought to practice on and, indeed, was contacted by those he practiced those preferences on and was advised to back off, but refused to do so.
He knew he was on thin ice and, as such, watched his back and made himself aware of his surroundings.
In late July (1919), on his way home to the family house (wife and eight children) in Millmount Avenue (Number 51) in Drumcondra, Dublin, he spotted a few men, stopped on the footpath, crossed the road, went up a sidelane etc and walked home by a different route.
On the 30th July, at about 11pm, he was walking along the Avenue he lived on when he was shot five times (by Volunteers Jim Slattery, Tom Ennis, Tom Keogh and Mick Kennedy) ; some of his children were in the house and ran outside to find their father on the ground, unconscious and bleeding heavily - between them, they managed to get him inside the house and got medical aid for him.
DMP 'Detective Sergeant G Division' Patrick James 'The Dog' Smyth died from his wounds in the Mater Hospital in Dublin five weeks later, on the 8th September (1919).
His death certificate listed him as 48 years of age, but his headstone states that he was 50 years of age at the time of his death. Had he heeded the advice he was offered, he wouldn't have needed either.
A British Army soldier in Dublin City Centre would not have heard those five shots ring out - at that same time, a 'Private' Francis William Mills ('Service Number 0407'), from London, and attached to the '3rd Wiltshire Regiment', was in the River Liffey, possibly as a result of having been dared to swim across it, but the poor man drowned trying to do so.
He was taken home to his own country and is buried in Manor Park Cemetery, in East London.
==========================
GAS LADS...
The massive finds of oil and gas on our western seaboard could ensure Ireland's financial security for generations.
Wealth approximating that of the Arab countries is within our grasp, but the Irish government seems content to sell off our birthright for a handful of votes and a few dollars.
In a special 'Magill' report, Sandra Mara investigates just what we are giving away, and why.
From 'Magill' magazine, March 2002.
Padhraig Campbell, SIPTU, stated -
"The 1987 changes should be referred to the Flood Tribunal because they were so drastic, and they followed on from strongly unadvised meetings between Ray Burke and the oil companies."
Ray Burke has already given evidence to the Flood Tribunal in relation to other issues.
Meanwhile, Irish rig-workers, in claims made to 'Magill Magazine', said -
"Enterprise Oil refused point-blank to hire any Irish-based rig-workers on, for instance, the drilling rig 'Petrolia', which is owned by Maersk.
They had hired the rig to drill appraisal wells at this massive gas field and, despite the fact that there had been an agreed involvement of highly skilled and experienced Irish rig-workers on rigs operating in Irish waters since drilling began in 1969, there were no Irish rig-workers initially hired..."
(MORE LATER.)
"My grandfather, Brigadier General Cuthbert Henry Tindall Lucas (pictured), was captured by the IRA in 1920 and held for over a month.
He was treated exceptionally well and eventually 'allowed' to escape.
It is one of the few good stories to come from a very dark period during the Irish War of Independence..."
- the grandaughter of Mr Lucas.
On the 26th June, 1920, an IRA Unit from the North Cork Number 2 Brigade, led by Liam Lynch, George Power, Sean Moylan (Officer Commanding Newmarket Battalion) and Patrick Clancy (Officer Commanding Kanturk Battalion) captured British Army Brigadier General Cuthbert Henry Tindall Lucas, the Commander of the 16th Brigade of the British Army in Ireland.
Two other British Army officers, a Colonel Danford and a Colonel Tyrell, were also captured.
The three British Army Officers had taken a break from marauding on that day, and were resting in a cottage in Kilbarry, County Waterford, preparing to go salmon fishing on the banks of the Blackwater River, just as the IRA Intelligence Department had told the IRA North Cork Number 2 Brigade they would be!
As they were outnumbered and outgunned, the three British operatives offered no resistance as they were put into the touring car belonging to Mr Lucas but, as they were leaving the site, Mr Danford and Mr Tyrell began talking to each other in Arabic and then suddenly tried to overpower Volunteers Lynch and Clancy in an escape attempt.
The IRA men got the better of them and, in the struggle, Mr Danford was seriously wounded ; himself and Mr Tyrell were removed from the car and made as comfortable as possible on the side of the road, and were told to stay where they were as a doctor would be sent from the next village to tend to them.
The Volunteers travelled to East Clare with their prisoner, Mr Lucas, from where they contacted the British Army leadership with the intention of exchanging their prisoner for IRA captives (Mick Fitzgerald and other Volunteers) held by them but, over the next few days, it became obvious to them that the British had no interest in, or intention of, taking part in such an exchange.
The IRA never intended to shoot Mr Lucas in cold blood, but he was now of no use or value to them ; on the 30th of July (1920) he 'escaped', according to himself, and was safely collected by his own people from Pallasgreen RIC Barracks (about 18 miles/28 km from Limerick city).
However, while being taken out of the area in a small convoy of British Army vehicles, travelling through Oola in East Limerick (on the border with Tipperary) they were attacked by a Unit from the IRA 3rd Tipperary Brigade (with Dan Breen and Seán Treacy in command) and Mr Lucas was grazed in the head by a bullet - he was lucky, but five of his 'rescuers' weren't ; two of them were killed (Privates Daniel Verey Bayliss and George B. Parker) and three were wounded, before the IRA withdrew, as British Army reinforcements were moving towards their position.
Later that day, Mr Lucas and his remaining convoy arrived in Fermoy, County Cork, with n'er a salmon between them!
Incidentally, during debriefing by his superior officers in connection with his time in IRA custody, Mr Lucas told them that he had no idea of the names of the Volunteers he encountered (he had!) and had no idea of the location where he was held (he had!).
He bore no ill wind to the IRA, Sinn Féin and/or Irish republicanism and, although opposed to their objective, at least understood and appreciated why they were fighting against the British military and political presence in Ireland.
He retired from the British Army (to Herefordshire, in England) in 1932 and died there in April 1958.
As Mr Lucas was 'escaping', a Mr Frank Brooke was in his office in Westland Row train station in Dublin (he was a Director of the Great Southern and Eastern Railways/Chairman of the Dublin and South-Eastern Railway Company) when four republican Volunteers walked in, shot him dead, and walked out again.
Mr Brooke had brought himself to the attention of the rebels by joining the pro-British 'Advisory Board' set-up by his friend, 'Lord' French, pictured (Field Marshal John Denton Pinkstone French, 1st Earl of Ypres, 'Lord Lieutenant of Ireland', KP GCB OM GCVO KCMG PC ETC ETC!) 'to maintain British authority and address the growing unrest in Ireland' and ignored advice that it would be for the best if he distanced himself from Mr French and his 'Board'.
And so it was that, on the 30th July, 1920, four Volunteers - Patrick Daly, Tomás Keogh, Vincent Byrne and James Slattery - stamped a one-way ticket for him.
==========================
ON THIS DATE (30TH JULY) 103 YEARS AGO : CAPTURE OF "AN INFLUENTIAL AND FORMIDABLE" IRISH REPUBLICAN SOLDIER.
Henry James 'Harry' Boland (27th April 1887 – 2nd August 1922). "I rise to speak against this Treaty because, in my opinion, it denies a recognition of the Irish nation...I object to it on the ground of principle, and my chief objection is because I am asked to surrender the title of Irishman and accept the title of West Briton...I object because this Treaty denies the sovereignty of the Irish nation, and I stand by the principles I have always held — that the Irish people are by right a free people.
I object to this Treaty because it is the very negation of all that for which we have fought. It is the first time in the history of our country that a body of representative Irishmen has ever suggested that the sovereignty of this nation should be signed away..we secured a mandate from the Irish people because we put for the first time before the people of Ireland a definite issue ; we promised that if elected we would combat the will, and deny the right of England in this country, and after four years of hard work we have succeeded in bringing Ireland to the proud position she occupied on the fifth December last.
The fight was made primarily here in Ireland ; but I want to say that the fight that was made in Ireland was also reflected throughout the world ; and we — because we had a definite object — had the sympathy of liberty-loving people everywhere....I have taken one oath to the Republic and I will keep it.
If I voted for that document I would work the Treaty, and I would keep my solemn word and treat as a rebel any man who would rise out against it. If I could in conscience vote for that Treaty I would do so, and if I did I would do all in my power to enforce that Treaty ; because, so sure as the honour of this nation is committed by its signature to this Treaty, so surely is Ireland dead.
We are asked to commit suicide and I cannot do it..we are asked to annihilate the Irish nation. This nation has been preserved for seven hundred and fifty years, coming down in unbroken succession of great men who have inspired us to carry on. We were the heirs of a great tradition, and the tradition was that Ireland had never surrendered, that Ireland had never been beaten, and that Ireland can never be beaten.." (7th January, 1922, from here.)
It is generally considered that Harry Boland was the first man to be 'unofficially executed' by a Michael Collins-controlled Free State death squad, on the evening of Sunday 30th July/early Monday morning 31st July 1922 and, following that shooting, in the Grand Hotel in Skerries, Dublin, the State gunmen issued this statement (on Monday 31st July 1922) -
"Early this morning a small party of troops entered the Grand Hotel to place Mr. H.Boland T.D., under arrest. Mr. Boland had been actively engaged in the irregular campaign.
When accosted in his bedroom he made an unsuccessful attempt to seize a gun from one of the troops and then rushed out to the door. After firing two shots at random and calling on Mr. Boland to halt, it was found necessary to fire a third shot to prevent an escape. Mr. Boland was wounded and removed to hospital.
A man giving his name as John J.Murphy with residence at 3 Castlewood Avenue, Ranelagh, Dublin, who was found with Mr. Boland, was taken prisoner. Subsequently he was identified as Joseph Griffin* , an active irregular, belonging to Dublin."
(*'1169' Comment - Joe Griffin was an IRA operative within the Movement's Intelligence Department.)
One of the Free State troops present at the time stated afterwards -
"Mr.Boland was wanted and we went to the hotel and two or three of us entered his room. He was in bed. We wakened him and he got up out of bed and partly dressed himself. He had no gun. Suddenly he turned and rushed to tackle one of our fellows for his gun. A shot was fired over his head to desist but he continued to struggle and almost had the gun when a second shot was fired and Mr.Boland was wounded."
The bullet entered his right side near the ribs, passed through his body and came out through his left side causing very serious injuries.
A photograph of the actual bullet which killed Harry Boland....
...and his funeral service, Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.
Although unarmed at that moment, as admitted by his executioners, caught by surprise and outnumbered (a "small party" of Free State troops were in the room at the time) the Staters attempted to present the execution of Harry Boland as 'a killing in self-defence' ie 'he attempted to jump us and then tried to flee...'.
They had learned well from their British colleagues.
Harry Boland died from his wounds on the 2nd August 1922, in St. Vincents Hospital, Dublin and, as he lay waiting for death, he told family members that the Stater who shot him had been imprisoned with him in Lewes Prison, in England, but he refused to put a name to him.
When his sister, Kathleen, asked him who had fired the shot he refused to tell her, saying "The only thing I'll say is that it was a friend of my own that was in prison with me, I'll never tell the name and don't try to find out. I forgive him and I want no reprisals".
The funeral expenses were taken care of by the Cumann na Poblachta organisation.
'Boland's mix of animal charm, gregariousness, wit and a dash of ruthlessness made him an influential and formidable character. Though not an intellectual in his manner he was a clear thinker, a forceful orator and a graceful writer....' (from here.)
RIP Volunteer Harry Boland.
CASH NO EXCUSE FOR RTE PUTTING DOCUMENTARY TO DEATH...
It has been a disastrous 12 months for RTE.
£23.5 million in cutbacks, a bid to increase the licence fee rejected, an enforced postponement of digital expansion, and a predicted £20 million loss to report for 2001.
By Belinda McKeon.
From 'Magill' Annual, 2002.
RTE's assumptions about the intelligence and dynamism of its audience are astonishingly insulting.
The irony is that RTE can be proven wrong even on the evidence of its own past dalliances.
When the IPU braved co-production finance for Donald Taylor Black's 'Dear Boy : The Story Of Mícheál Mac Liammóir' in 1999, admittedly amidst the publicity surrounding the centenary of Mac Liammóir's birth, it was RTE's own efforts to publicise 'Dear Boy' as an entertaining and thought-provoking piece of television which achieved the crossover to what was almost a prime-time audience.
There's a lesson here - with three television and four radio stations, as well as a top-selling magazine, RTE itself controls the most useful avenues through which to raise the profile of its own programming...
(MORE LATER.)
In 1922, the village of Bruree, in south-eastern County Limerick, was an IRA stronghold due to its strategic location, which is why the Staters, too, wanted it to be under their command.
On the 30th July, 1922, FSA Major General William Richard English Murphy (ex-British Army, hand-picked by Michael Collins to join the Staters in their treasonous fight against the Irish Republic) and his gunmen made their move - their 'Dublin Guards' Brigade attacked the town from the southeast, using armoured cars and an 18-pound field gun borrowed from the British.
The battle lasted for five hours, during which at least 13 Free State soldiers were killed and others wounded, with the IRA suffering the loss of 9 Volunteers.
Artillery reinforcements for the Staters arrived on the scene and the IRA withdrew, regrouped, rearmed, reorganised and, on the 2nd August, under the command of Volunteer Liam Deasy - using three improvised armoured cars, a trench mortar and a couple of powerful machine guns (assembled by master mechanic Jim Gray, a Cork man) - counterattacked...
Around the same time that the Staters were making a move on the village of Bruree, 57 miles (92 km) across the State, in Kilkenny, they were also making a move on Dowling's Pub on Blackmill Street, in Kilkenny City.
Kilkenny IRA Company Captain Volunteer William (Bill) Oakes was looking for a Volunteer 'runner' to deliver a carton of .303 bullets to two IRA men (Volunteers Robert Kenny and James 'Duffer' Morrissey) in Dowling's Pub and his younger brother, Samuel (21), offered to do the run.
It was after hours (doors closed, 'lock in') in the pub in the early hours of the 30th July (1922) when the three men got down to business but they were interrupted by an FSA Lieutenant, a Mr Peter Radcliffe, and other State mercenaries, banging on the door, demanding entry.
The owner of the pub, M/s Maria Dowling, told the three IRA men to leave by the back door, and she would stall the Staters for as long as she could, which she did.
No sooner had Stater Radcliffe and his gunmen gained entry at the front door than gunfire was heard from the rear of the premises ; the three IRA men, unarmed, had been met by three armed Staters at the back of the pub, and shots were fired at the Volunteers.
21-year-old Volunteer Sam Oakes was hit, and died from his wounds later that day.
RIP Volunteer Samuel Oakes.
As part of the political and military campaign to establish a 32-County Irish Republic and to hinder the progress of a pro-British 26-County Free State within that Irish Republic, the IRA defended itself from the then-new Free State Army and from those who gave the FSA and its associated entities sustineance.
On the 30th July, 1922, armed rebels gained entry to one such establishment entity, 'Kilmore House' (pictured) in the townland of Kilmore, in County Clare, the home of the Hickman family, which had connections with 'The Royal Dublin Fusiliers' and the 'Royal' Air Force.
Those inside the 'Big House' were escorted outside and held there, and the premises was set on fire (and was demolished later, leaving only ruins standing).
Between 1919 and 1923, about 275 'Big Houses' were either burned down or blown up ; they belonged to newspaper owners, State Army officers, judges, wealthy Anglo-Irish families, Irish 'nobles', members of Leinster House and/or the Free State Senate, and former members of those institutions who continued to support the Staters.
But the British-supported 'Me Féin' rot continued to fester in the Free State, and has unfortunately survived and flourished to this day...
==========================
DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...
Desmond Boomer, a Belfast engineer working in the Libyan oil-fields, disappeared seven years ago.
Officially, the plane on which he was a passenger crashed as a result of mechanical failure and pilot error.
But is that the real story?
Or were the Irishman and his fellow passengers unwitting victims of the shady war between Islamic fundamentalism and Mossad, Israel's intelligence network?
A special 'Magill' investigation by Don Mullan, author of 'Eyewitness Bloody Sunday'.
From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.
Mysteriously, despite all of the phone calls to loved ones and friends from pilot and passengers saying they were overnighting at Djerba because of bad weather, despite the fact that the black tempest was still raging and showed no sign of abating, despite the serious mechanical difficulties experienced by the aircraft on its outbound flight, and despite the fact that there is no evidence the aircraft underwent repairs or that its captain sought the necessary insurance clearance to enable such repairs to be carried out, a Tunisian Ministry of Transport report states that Bartolo's aircraft obtained start-up clearance from Djerba Tower at 3.38am and takeoff clearance at 3.44am.
The Tunisian report states that Djerba Air Traffic Control (ATC) had difficulty maintaining radio contact with the aircraft, but that at 4.10am, on the emergency frequency, it asked the pilot to contact Maltese ATC.
It is alleged the pilot responded to this request with the word "uniform", taken by Djerba as an indication he was about to do so.
The Tunisian report then records in bold print -
"The flight is therefore closed by the Tunisian Control and transferred to Maltese Control..."
(MORE LATER.)
Thanks for reading,
Sharon and the team.
(We'll be back on Wednesday, 13th August 2025 - GRMA!)
Dublin, 1900's - this young man, in his mid-20's, was mentally and morally 'captured' by the political and military 'strengths' of the British Empire (!) and was thrilled when his application to join a British 'police force' in Ireland was accepted.
His zeal ensured internal promotions for him but it also brought him to the attention of a different organisation, which was equally zealous of the job at hand...
...and that's just one of the eleven pieces we'll be writing about here on Wednesday, 30th July, 2025 :
Ireland, 1920's ; this high-ranking British Army 'war hero' took a day off and, with his bodyguards, decided to spend the day on the banks of an Irish river, relaxing, spot of fishing (!), chit-chat with his armed buddies, few drinks, picnic etc.
They were spotted by an IRA Volunteer who recognised the main man and a small 'Flying Column/Service Unit' was assembled, armed, and transported to where the 'war hero' was...and that brought the picnic to an end...
Dublin, 1920's - this Irishman worked as a type of civil servant in a logistics position in a company which inadvertantly (but not primarily) assisted the foreign presence in Ireland. However, it was only when he accepted a military/political-type advisory role from Westminster that he brought himself to the attention of those opposed to Westminster representation in Ireland...
So do, please, give us a shout on the 30th, 'cause we owe ya flesh on the bone for the above three and eight more to go with it!
Thanks for reading ; hope to see ye back here on the 30th!
Sharon and the team.
By the beginning of July, 1920, over 350 barracks throughout the country, that enemy forces had nested in, had been evacuated, such was the pressure exerted by the Irish rebels.
And, once evacuated, the IRA rebels moved in on them and destroyed them, and a further 105 such structures were damaged to the point that most of them were put beyond use.
In the county of Kildare, for instance, out of the twenty-four barracks in that county in January 1920, only six were still standing at the end of August (1920).
Also in Kildare, on the 15th July that year, IRA Volunteers attacked and burned the courthouse in the town of Athy ; the building was located on Barrow Quay (Market Square), beside the Town Hall, and had stood there (as a corn market) since the 1850's, having been 'gifted to the people' by the 'Duke of Leinster'.
The following day - the 16th July - the RIC in the nearby town of Ballymore Eustace decided enough was enough and deserted their barracks, fearing they were next...!
==========================
GAS LADS...
The massive finds of oil and gas on our western seaboard could ensure Ireland's financial security for generations.
Wealth approximating that of the Arab countries is within our grasp, but the Irish government seems content to sell off our birthright for a handful of votes and a few dollars.
In a special 'Magill' report, Sandra Mara investigates just what we are giving away, and why.
From 'Magill' magazine, March 2002.
"I think there should always be a take for the State", Des Geraghty said, "I think that the gas is extremely important as an indigenous energy source for economic development, but I believe that from the start the concessions that were given were unbelievable.
There were no jobs in it.
There was very little for the Irish economy and we are now suffering the consequences of a very bad policy which former minister Ray Burke has to answer for."
'SIPTU National Offshore Committee' spokesman, Padhraig Campbell, told 'Magill Magazine' -
"I think it would be a core demand of SIPTU that if it is in any way suspected that there was undue influence in the drastic changes to Ireland's oil and gas exploration terms from 1987 onwards, then the State should immediately freeze any existing licences and leases issued since then, including Corrib, in the national interest..."
(MORE LATER.)
On the 16th July, 1921, the 'Naas Poor Law Union' (an administrative body responsible for overseeing the 'Poor Law' directives in the Naas area of County Kildare) held a meeting at which its 'Board of Guardians' (ie its 'Top Table') decided to do away with its 'Naas Union' grouping which effectively meant the closure of Naas Workhouse, pictured - a severe blow to the working-class and unemployed people in its catchment area.
"There will be no peace settlement.
Of that you can be quite sure.
At the present moment, there will be no peace.
And that is all there is to it..."
- the words of British Army Brigadier-General 'Sir' Ormonde de l'Épée Winter ('KBE, CB, CMG, DSO ETC ETC', pictured, who nixered (!) for the Brits as Chief of the British Army Intelligence Branch), in a letter he wrote to a Mr Hubert Sidney Jenner Lamond Hemming (!), a Colonel in the British Army, on the 1st July, 1921.
Mr Winter was the then 'Deputy Director of Police', for Westminster, in Ireland but - and he obviously didn't see this coming! - a truce between the IRA and the British crown forces came into effect at noon on Monday, 11th July 1921 and, on the 6th December, 1921 (as not predicted by him!), a so-called 'peace settlement' was signed!
As part of the Truce, on the 16th July (1921), liaison officers were set up between the British Army/RIC and IRA to sort out details and resolve any disputes at local level.
Volunteer Eoin O'Duffy was appointed Truce Liaison Officer (TLO) for Belfast, and established a presence in St Mary's Hall in that city and announced that all IRA activity, except self-defence, would cease, Volunteer Patrick Shiels was TLO for Derry and Donegal (but was later replaced in that position by Patrick Lynch from Magera), Volunteer George Lennon was the TLO for Waterford (with Volunteer Paddy Paul as his deputy).
A British Army Officer, a Mr William Stack, was the TLO for the British Army's 14th Infantry Brigade area in their 5th Division, a Mr Finton Murphy was TLO for the BA 15th Infantry Brigade and Volunteer Michael Staines was the TLO for the Galway Brigade area.
The TLO's for the British Army apparently thought that their rank would carry some sway with the IRA TLO's, but not so -
"The class of individual selected for these liaison duties left much to be desired...", wrote their TLO staff, "..the liaison arrangements were in fact little more than a farce. The men originally selected by Sinn Féin were in many cases leading extremists, whose complicity in outrages and murder was well known to the British officers who were required to deal with them..."
Yes, yes, yes...sure that's just not cricket, sure it's not, Ormonde : you couldn't beat the IRA militarily and, politically, you couldn't best them, either.
Incidentally, talking about British Army Brigadier-General 'Sir' Ormonde de l'Épée Winter, he was known as 'O' and also as "The Holy Terror" within the spy network he helped develop and worked within, in Ireland.
A fellow officer of his gave the following opinion of the spy 'O' -
"O is a marvel!
He looks like a wicked white snake and can do everything.
He is an Artillery Colonel and commanded a Division of Artillery in France, and in India they say he was tried for murder for a little escapade while doing secret service work.
He started a race course near Calcutta and made a pot of money!
He is as clever as paint, probably entirely non-moral, a first class horseman, a card genius, knows several languages, is a super sleuth, and a most amazing original.
When a soldier who knew him in India heard that he was coming to Ireland he said 'God help Sinn Fein, they don't know what they are up against...' "
A non-moral snake, a murderer and a gambler - yes, I think Irish republicans knew what to expect even before he got here.
Included in his 'snakeisness' was his purchases of Irish republican newspapers in shops and on street stalls and the near-facsimile copying of them, in bulk, for distribution, in the same colours and design but with altered text, to sow confusion among Sinn Féin and the IRA!
This forging snake was driving out of his Dublin Castle lair in June, 1921, when the IRA ambushed him and his guard, but he was only wounded (in the hand) but it must have given him food for thought, as he retired from active service against the Irish in early 1924.
He shed his final skin on this Earth on the 13th February, 1962.
On the same date that the TLO's came into being (16th), a Mr Thomas Labrom, from the St Pancras area of London, a 'Light Car Driver Class III' with the '615 Motor Transport Company' of the 'Royal Army Service Corps' ('Service Number M/31415'), died from a gunshot wound in George V Hospital in Dublin.
In Ireland, the 'Royal Army Service Corps' (RASC) played a crucial logistical role in supporting British forces ; they were responsible for transport, supply, and other vital services, ensuring British troops were equipped and provisioned.
They transported personnel and supplies, managed barracks and provided fire services for enemy infrastructure, and their work was essential for maintaining the British military presence and operations in Ireland, which was why they were targeted by the IRA.
The IRA, North, South, East and West had a busy card - as well as the RASC working against the rebels, in July, 1921, for example, there were 3,414 'A' Specials in the Six Counties alone (outnumbering the RIC), 15,902 'B' Specials and 1,310 'C' Specials.
Plenty of clients for the George V and other hospitals...
==========================
CASH NO EXCUSE FOR RTE PUTTING DOCUMENTARY TO DEATH...
It has been a disastrous 12 months for RTE.
£23.5 million in cutbacks, a bid to increase the licence fee rejected, an enforced postponement of digital expansion, and a predicted £20 million loss to report for 2001.
By Belinda McKeon.
From 'Magill' Annual, 2002.
That work is needed not so much on the Independent Productions Unit at RTE, however, as on the attitudes from above which constrain its scope.
The hands of Kevin Dawson, Head of Factual Programming, have now been tied even more tightly because the budgetary cuts which followed the minister's rejection pressurised Dawson to aim programming at a majority, prime-time demographic, and to maximise advertising revenue. Arts documentary, he contends, is never going to do this.
Things would have been different had the licence fee increase come through, so the official line goes but, in fact, the only mention of developing a dedicated arts documentary strand in RTE lately was made in the rush to put together an application which would sway the minister.
While, technically speaking, the 'True Lives' slot, which proves that RTE can do an excellent job on documentary, is open to proposals from the 30 or so production companies which specialise in exploring the arts, the likelihood of even one such proposal getting the go-ahead is miniscule.
This makes for a very barren climate in which such companies might try to launch into what is actually a thriving international market...
(MORE LATER.)
Ireland, 1922 : the IRA split over the Treaty of Surrender became more conspicuous.
Those who supported being granted dominion status by the British re-invented themselves as the Free State 'National (sic) Army', but the majority of the IRA rejected the Treaty and vowed to continue fighting for the whole 32 Counties of Ireland.
Volunteer Francis Thomas ('Frank') Aiken (pictured), the Officer Commanding of the IRA 4th Northern Division (consisting of between 200 and 300 fighters) declared that he and his men were neutral - they were in command of the Anne Street RIC Barracks, in Dundalk, County Louth, and Volunteer Aiken called for a truce, a new IRA Army Council, and the removal of the Oath of Allegiance from the Free State constitution.
He and his Division of 'neutrals' got their answer on the 16th July, 1922, when the Free Staters, under the command of FSA 'Major-General' Dan Hogan (later to be the Free State Army 'Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces', a position he held from March 1927 to February 1929, and a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State poacher) attacked the barracks (killing two IRA Volunteers - Patrick Quigley and John Joseph Campbell - in the process) and 'arrested' Volunteer Aiken and his men, marching them just over a mile, with a heavy escort, to the County Gaol at The Crescent in Dundalk where they were detained.
Mr Francis Thomas ('Frank') Aiken should have come clean from the start - in 1926, he joined the Fianna Fáil party when it was founded.
RIP Volunteers Patrick Quigley and John Joseph Campbell.
On that same date (16th) in July (1922), 170 km/105 miles away up the road, in the Fort on Inch Island (pictured) on the Inishowen Penninsula in County Donegal, about three dozen IRA Volunteers had, for about ten days, successfully held off attacks by the Free State 'National (sic) Army' on their position.
The Staters then brought in heavy artillery pieces which they had borrowed from their new comrades in the British Army and opened fire on the Volunteers.
The rebels in the Fort had to surrender : about thirty of them were captured there and, on witnessing the carnage inflicted by (borrowed, British) artillery on a fixed rebel position, Volunteer Sean Lehane, the Officer Commanding the IRA forces in Donegal, gave the order to abandon their last post in that county, in Glenveagh Castle (pictured, below), and form 'Flying Columns' which would take on the Staters on a 'hit and run' basis, just as they had done against the British.
==========================
DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...
Desmond Boomer, a Belfast engineer working in the Libyan oil-fields, disappeared seven years ago.
Officially, the plane on which he was a passenger crashed as a result of mechanical failure and pilot error.
But is that the real story?
Or were the Irishman and his fellow passengers unwitting victims of the shady war between Islamic fundamentalism and Mossad, Israel's intelligence network?
A special 'Magill' investigation by Don Mullan, author of 'Eyewitness Bloody Sunday'.
From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.
After landing at Djerba, Rodney Woods said -
"We went to collect our luggage from the hold and I noticed that the alternator drive belt was all torn."
He also told the inquiry that Captain Bartolo "...put his hand in and tore it off easily in front of everyone..."
All three witnesses stated that, in their opinion, the aircraft was in no fit state to return to Malta.
To replace the alternator belt required at least three hours of specialist maintenance work, involving the removal of the propeller.
NCA International, a Maltese-based aircraft maintenance company, held the repair contract for aircraft owned by Captain Bartolo's two companies and, before another company could undertake repair work on his aircraft, Bartolo was required to obtain written authority from NCA, otherwise his insurance cover would be invalid.
He did not contact NCA for repair clearance that night or the following morning, which suggests that no repairs were carried out...
(MORE LATER.)
Thanks for reading,
Sharon and the team.
(We'll be back on Wednesday, 30th July 2025 - we're still enjoying our new, more relaxed publishing schedule ie a post every second Wednesday, rather than every Wednesday, and we're not yet ready to revert!)
A BRITISH "SUPER SLEUTH" IN IRELAND IN THE 1920'S...
Ireland, 1920's - the Four Courts in Dublin wasn't the only conflict zone in the country between the IRA and Free Staters that the Staters went cap-in-hand to the British Government and its army, looking for a lend of artillery pieces to use against their former comrades...
That's one of a number of pieces we'll be writing about on this blog on Wednesday, 16th July 2025, naming some of those who agreed with Michael Collins in demanding heavy artillery pieces to use against their former IRA comrades ; the Four Courts in Dublin is perhaps the best known such occasion, but it wasn't the only one, for shame.
In this Irish county in the 1920's, the Crown Forces and their colleagues in the RIC were proud of having established more that two dozen fixed bases from which they 'kept the peace' in that particular county.
But their peace-keeping (!) prowess was called into question by the local rebels and, within eight months, they were reduced to having only six such structures to duck and dive in...
Ireland, 1920's - this British 'super sleuth' in Ireland, who had made a name for himself as "a wicked-looking marvel" in other British outposts further afield than Ireland, verbally bet his bottom dollar on the outcome of a certain phase in the on-going Irish struggle, nearly had the hand taken off him...and lost the bet!
So do, please, give us a shout back here on Wednesday, 16th July 2025.
'Cause if'n ya don't, we might have to borrow somethin' from the Brits and pay y'all a visit...!
Thanks for reading : see ye on the 16th!
Sharon and the team.
In April, 1920, Irish republican Volunteers from Timoleague(under the command of Volunteer Captain John O’Driscoll) in the Carbery East area of County Cork, closed-in on Howes Strand Coastguard building, in an operation to commandeer war material.
Seven armed British State operatives were in the premises and, quickly realising they were outnumbered and outgunned, they surrendered.
The Volunteers confined them in one room and searched the building, eventually leaving with seven rifles.
Westminster tightened-up security (!) at the building by staffing it with 15 armed personnel and the Volunteers themselves also 'upgraded' - the Bandon Battalion, on the 2nd July (1920), under the command of Volunteers Charlie Hurley and Jack Fitzgerald, organised a 42-strong raiding party, of whom 24 were tasked with scouting all approach roads and blocking them, and the other 18 fighters, all armed, entered the building.
There was brief resistance but, again - realising they were outnumbered and outgunned - the British surrendered, and lost 15 rifles and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition.
Then they 'lost' the building, as the rebels burned it from inside out (pictured).
On the same date that they lost those 15 rifles, their colleagues 65 miles (about 105km) up the road in Tipperary nearly lost their few bob!
For t'was on the 2nd July that four armed members of the RIC were passing through Newton Cross (between Dualla and Ballinure Townland, in County Tipperary), transporting wages, when they came under fire from Irish Republican Volunteers, with Volunteer Tommy O'Donovan in command.
One RIC member, a Mr Robert Tobin (42), was killed in the firefight and one of his colleagues, a Mr Brady, was wounded.
On the 9th August that year, Volunteer Michael Burke (23, from Baile Fúca [Foulkstown Townland], Tipperary) was stopped, searched and 'arrested' by the British while leaving the house of a friend near Moyglass, County Tipperary.
Volunteer Burke was unfortunate in that he was carrying a revolver which had been issued to an RIC member, a Mr Maloney, who 'lost' it during a gunfight on the 2nd July.
He was detained (and battered) for a week in Tipperary British Army military barracks and was then moved to Cork military hospital where he was treated for his injuries and, afterwards, locked-up in Cork Jail.
He went on hunger-strike with his comrades but lived to fight another day ; Volunteer Michael Burke died, age 56, on the 29th July, 1953.
RIP Volunteer Michael Burke.
==========================
GAS LADS...
The massive finds of oil and gas on our western seaboard could ensure Ireland's financial security for generations.
Wealth approximating that of the Arab countries is within our grasp, but the Irish government seems content to sell off our birthright for a handful of votes and a few dollars.
In a special 'Magill' report, Sandra Mara investigates just what we are giving away, and why.
From 'Magill' magazine, March 2002.
The Corrib find, a 230-million-year-old gas field, is part of a geological structure up to 30 times the size of the Kinsale Head find, and is believed to be worth billions.
'Enterprise' first came to Ireland in 1984, just one year after its formation by Britain's Margaret Thatcher.
Twelve years later, in 1996, it began its first drilling operation in Ireland and it was 'Enterprise Oil UK', along with 'Statoil' and 'Marathon', the companies behind the development of the Mayo gas field, that made the massive gas discovery - believed by industry sources to be the biggest find yet in European waters.
It lies some 35 miles off shore.
Following the award of the petroleum lease to the consortium by State Marine Minister Frank Fahey, trade union leader Des Geraghty spoke out against the major concessions granted to 'Enterprise Energy Ireland' and its partners in the Corrib field development.
He was an angry man...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 2nd July, 1921, an IRA Unit attached to the ASU of the 1st (Fermoy) Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade, had taken up an ambush position near the village of Tallow, in County Waterford ; they were armed with rifles and a machine gun.
A ten-member RIC patrol, on its daily route, varied its direction slightly on that day but not enough to save them from the brunt of the rebel attack.
When the RIC entered the 'pinch point', the IRA opened fire on them and fire was returned by some of them, their colleagues having legged it to the relative safety of near-by houses.
The gun battle lasted for about ten minutes, before the rebels withdrew to the area of Boultha, a village in the barony of Kinnatalloon, in County Cork, where they rested, before moving out in the direction of the town of Castlelyons.
One RIC member, a Mr Francis (Frank) Creedon (41, with nineteen years 'service'), was dead and two of his pals were wounded.
At that same time, about 200km/125 miles up the road, Volunteers from the Meath/North Kildare flying column, with Volunteers Paddy Mullaney and Seán Boylan in command, were preparing to ambush a military train by disabling Stacumney Bridge at Hazelhatch, near Celbridge, in County Kildare ; trees were cut down, roads had been trenched and a Thompson machine gunner was brought down from Dublin.
But the rebel plans were halted when they were attacked by a British Army patrol from South Lancashire in England and, after a brief gunfight, a number of the rebels were wounded and captured.
The British Army left the scene with wounded prisoners, 6 land mines, guncotton, gelignite, detonators, arms and ammunition.
Elsewhere in Kildare at the same time, other Volunteers boarded a goods train at Maganey Railway Station and removed British Army supplies and destroyed them.
The day wasn't a complete loss.
As those foreigners from South Lancashire were causing trouble in Kildare, one of their wannabe colleagues 75 km (about 45 miles) up the road, in County Meath, had invited trouble on himself.
Again.
A young farm labourer, a Mr Patrick Keelan (19) seemed to be infatuated with the British Army to the point that he had apparently volunteered to work as a spy for them, which the local IRA got to hear about.
They called to Mr Keelan and suggested he withdraw his offer, but he didn't, so they called to him again some days later and took him away to a safe house and held him there for a few days, again advising him to stop associating with enemy agents, and they then released him.
Not only did he refuse the advice, but he told his British Army buddies that he knew the location of where he had been held and they burned the house to the ground.
On the 2nd July (1921) three ( - names withheld on request -) IRA Volunteers brought Mr Keelan to Kilmainhamwood in County Meath and shot him dead.
At around the same time as those shots were ringing out, another gunshot rang out on board a ship which was sailing to Ireland.
A British Army Private, a Mr Lawrence Ganley, who was attached to the 'King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Regiment', was shot in the thigh and bled to death from the wound.
As seawater and blood mixed, the Officer Commanding of the Fingal Brigade of the IRA, Dublin, Volunteer Michael Rock, was walking to the village of Naul in North County Dublin when, to his misfortune, a British Army Crossley Tender truck, carrying a mix of Black and Tans and RIC members, drove up behind him.
As they passed him, he was recognised and one of them shot him twice.
He was thrown into the back of the truck and taken back to their base, where he was patched-up and imprisoned ; he would have been executed by them but, before they could do so, a Truce between the Crown Forces and Irish Republican Forces was agreed and signed-off on in the Mansion House, in Dublin, on the 8th July, and came into effect on the 11th July.
Volunteer Rock was among those who were released under the terms of that Truce, and lived to fight another day.
At the same time, about 145km (90 miles) down the road in Limerick, an RIC grouping was "investigating a fire and the destruction of property" on the railway line at the village of Oola.
As they were attempting to survey the damage, Volunteers attached to the bordering Tipperary No.3 Brigade of the IRA opened fire on them, killing two - a Mr William E Hill (20, from Liverpool in England, eight months in the 'job', died on the 3rd) and a Mr Andrew Johnson (28, from Dublin).
Five of their colleagues had a lucky escape - they were only wounded in the operation.
==========================
CASH NO EXCUSE FOR RTE PUTTING DOCUMENTARY TO DEATH...
It has been a disastrous 12 months for RTE.
£23.5 million in cutbacks, a bid to increase the licence fee rejected, an enforced postponement of digital expansion, and a predicted £20 million loss to report for 2001.
By Belinda McKeon.
From 'Magill' Annual, 2002.
A broadcaster which has the nerve to give regular space in its schedule to arts documentary is a broadcaster which knows the difference between public service and public relations.
And, the pioneering but paltrily financed efforts of TG4 aside, it's clear that, right now, there's not much nerve at Montrose.
Ironically, TG4 originally developed its documentary strand 'SPLANC' because it felt that RTE was taking care of more conventional arts programming with such series as 'Imprint', 'Writer In Profile' and 'Cursaí Ealaíne'.
Three years later, with the 'SPLANC' output doubled, while the predictable panel-natter of 'The View' constitutes RTE's only take on the arts, the contrast could not be more pitiful.
It's obvious which department most requires the "significant work" demanded by Síle de Valera in her rebuttal of the licence fee bid...
(MORE LATER.)
In late June, 1922, the newly-spawned Free State Army moved a force of armed men into the Workhouse Building (pictured) in Boyle, County Roscommon, under the command of FSA Brigadier Michael Dockery (29, from Lisadurn, Elphin, in Roscommon, a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher).
On the 1st July, an IRA party moved on the building, and a three-day gunbattle began, during which Mr Dockery was shot dead.
On the third day of the gunfight, reinforcements from the Stater Army (under the command of a Mr Sean MacEoin [John Joseph McKeon, 'the Blacksmith of Ballinalee'], another republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher) had arrived on the scene with an 18-pounder gun, borrowed from the British Army, meaning that the IRA had to withdraw.
The rebels retreated to the Arigna Mountain Range, north of County Roscommon (near Lough Allen and the River Shannon) and, on their way there, they encountered an FSA patrol near the village of Ardcarne, outside the town of Carrick-on-Shannon, and had at them - one FSA soldier was killed in the engagement, and the rebels proceeded to the mountains.
At that same time, IRA leader Ernie O'Malley and about 40 other Volunteers were meeting-up in Blessington, West Wicklow, with a 110-strong column of Volunteers from Tipperary, commanded by Volunteer Michael Sheehan, to plan future actions.
As the Wicklow meeting was taking place, IRA Volunteers about 250km/160 miles away, up the road and across the other side of the country (with Volunteers Frank Carty and Tom Carney in command) were taking over the Workhouse in Colloney, in County Sligo.
From that base, the rebels launched attacks on the Stater Army in nearby Markree Castle and it was during one of those attacks (on the 4th [July 1922]) that a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State poacher, a Lieutenant Patrick Joseph McDermott (29, from Knockadoo, in Sligo) was shot dead.
As the IRA were moving in in Colloney, their comrades in Sligo Town itself were moving out : under the command of Volunteers Billy Pilkington and Brian MacNeill, the rebels left the ex-British Army barracks, burning it as they vacated, and moved to a new Headquarters in Rahelly House (pictured), on the Gore-Booth Estate, at Lissadell, Sligo.
Meanwhile, IRA colleagues about 150 miles/240km down the road in Kilkenny were outside Woodstock House (pictured), near the town of Inistioge, in the South of that county, preparing to destroy it.
Over the years, it had proven to be of military use to the British Auxiliaries who had only recently handed it over to their colleagues in the Free State Army who, in turn, abandoned it on the 28th June (1922) and so it was that, on the 2nd July, the IRA were standing outside of it, preparing to make it unusable should the Staters return to it.
Which they did - the IRA, that is, not the Staters!
As the flames took hold in Kilkenny, IRA Volunteers 170km/105 miles up and across the road (!) from them, in the town of Kildysart, in County Clare, left their base in the rectory, burning it down before they left, leaving it useless for the FSA.
==========================
DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...
Desmond Boomer, a Belfast engineer working in the Libyan oil-fields, disappeared seven years ago.
Officially, the plane on which he was a passenger crashed as a result of mechanical failure and pilot error.
But is that the real story?
Or were the Irishman and his fellow passengers unwitting victims of the shady war between Islamic fundamentalism and Mossad, Israel's intelligence network?
A special 'Magill' investigation by Don Mullan, author of 'Eyewitness Bloody Sunday'.
From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.
The light aircraft, registration 9H-ABU, that was going to bring them back to Malta, had flown from the island to Tunisia earlier that same day.
It landed at Djerba Airport at approximately 8.29pm.
Captain Bartolo carried four passengers on this flight, including MAPEL's Libyan area manager, David Silts ; it was a harrowing journey, and not just because of the prevailing weather conditions.
Three of the outbound passengers, David Silts, Roger Woods and Omar Klebb, gave evidence to a Maltese Board of Inquiry investigating the plane's disappearance, and testified that when the engine first started up a screech was heard.
The aircraft then headed straight into a violent electrical storm in which everything iced up and the passengers stated that the aircraft's portable global positioning system (GPS) was not functioning.
Rodney Woods, who sat next to the pilot throughout the flight, testified that, when the plane was still 20 minutes shy of Djerba... "..for a second time I smelt rubber burning..I noticed that the volt meter and the amp meter were not working..."
(MORE LATER.)
On the 2nd July, 1923, the politicians in Leinster House expressed their desire to remain on the gravy train and agreed to extend, for a six month period (!), their 'Public Safety Act'.
This political 'Act', enacted and enforced in June 1923 by the Staters, gave Leinster House the "authority to intern and seize land and stock..." and was wide open for corruption and for the settling of grudges.
One of the pretences used in an attempt to retrospectively justify that outrage was a report from the pro-British 'Dublin Metropolitan Police' (DMP), which stated that, for the period between the 1st July 1923 and the 31st of that month, there were 260 armed robberies and 119 armed raids throughout the State.
And seizing land and livestock would stop that, apparently...
==========================
ON THIS DATE (2ND JULY) 158 YEARS AGO - DEATH OF 'MEAGHER OF THE SWORD' CONFIRMED.
"Abhor the sword - stigmatise the sword? No, for in the passes of the Tyrol it cut to pieces the banner of the Bavarian, and, through those cragged passes, struck a path to fame for the peasant insurrections of Innsbruck!
Abhor the sword - stigmatise the sword? No, for at its blow a giant nation started from the waters of the Atlantic, and by its redeeming magic, and in the quiverings of its crimsoned light, the crippled colony sprang into the attitude of a proud Republic - prosperous, limitless, and invincible!
Abhor the sword - stigmatise the sword? No, for it swept the Dutch marauders out of the fine old towns of Belgium - scourged them back to their own phlegmatic swamps - and knocked their flag and sceptre, their laws and bayonets, into the sluggish water of the Scheldt.." - Thomas Francis Meagher, pictured.
Born on the 3rd August 1823, died (in mysterious circumstances) on the 1st July, 1867 -
'Does the world even have heroes like Ireland's Thomas Francis Meagher anymore? After fighting for Irish independence ("I know of no country that has won its independence by accident") ,then condemned to death, pardoned and exiled, Thomas Francis Meagher escaped to America, where he became a leader of the Irish community and commanded the Irish Brigade during the Civil War.
General Meagher's men fought valiantly at some of the most famous battles of the Civil War, including Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. After the war, Meagher served as Acting Governor of the Montana Territory. In 1867, Meagher disappeared on the Missouri River ; his body was never found..' (from here.)
Thomas Francis Meagher was born in Waterford City (near the Commins/Granville Hotel) on August 3rd, 1823, into a financially-comfortable family ; his father was a wealthy merchant who, having made his money, entered politics, a route which the young Thomas was to follow.
At 20 years young, he decided to challenge British misrule in Ireland and, at 23 years of age (in 1846), he became one of the leaders of the 'Young Ireland' Movement.
He was only 25 years of age when he sat down with the Government of the Second French Republic to seek support for an uprising in Ireland. At 29 years of age, he wrote what is perhaps his best known work - 'Speeches on the Legislative Independence of Ireland', of which six editions were published.
He unveiled an Irish flag, which was based on the French Tricolour, in his native city, Waterford, on the 7th March 1848, outside the Wolfe Tone Confederate Club. The French Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alphonse de Lamartine, and a group of French women who supported the Irish cause, gave Meagher the new 'Flag of Ireland', a tricolour of green, white and orange - the difference between the 1848 flag and the present flag is that the orange was placed next to the staff and the red hand of Ulster adorned the white field on the original.
On the 15th April that same year, on Abbey Street, in Dublin, he presented the flag to Irish citizens on behalf of himself and the 'Young Ireland' movement, with the following words :
"I trust that the old country will not refuse this symbol of a new life from one of her youngest children. I need not explain its meaning. The quick and passionate intellect of the generation now springing into arms will catch it at a glance. The white in the centre signifies a lasting truce between the 'orange' and the 'green' and I trust that beneath its folds, the hands of the Irish protestant and the Irish catholic may be clasped in generous and heroic brotherhood.."
He was arrested by the British for his part in the 1848 Rising, accused of 'high treason' and sentenced to death ("to be hanged, drawn and disemboweled..") but, while he was awaiting execution in Richmond Jail, this was changed by 'Royal Command' to transportation for life.
Before he was deported, he spoke in Slievenamon, Tipperary, to a crowd estimated at 50,000 strong, about the country and the flag he was leaving behind -
"Daniel O'Connell preached a cause that we are bound to see out. He used to say 'I may not see what I have laboured for, I am an old man ,my arm is withered, no epitaph of victory may mark my grave, but I see a young generation with redder blood in their veins, and they will do the work.' Therefore it is that I ambition to decorate these hills with the flag of my country.."
In July 1849, at only 26 years of age, he was transported from Dun Laoghaire on the SS.Swift to Tasmania, where he was considered, and rightly so, to be a political prisoner (a 'Ticket of Leave' inmate) which meant he could build his own 'cell' on a designated piece of land that he could farm, provided he donated an agreed number of hours each week for State use.
In early 1852, Thomas Francis Meagher escaped and made his way to New Haven, in Connecticut, America, and travelled from there to a hero's welcome in New York.
This fine orator, newspaper writer, lawyer, revolutionary, Irish POW, soldier in the American civil war and acting Governor of Montana died (in mysterious circumstances - he drowned after 'falling off' a Missouri River steamboat) on the 1st of July 1867 at 44 years of age.
Once, when asked about his 'crimes', he replied -
"Judged by the law of England, I know this 'crime' entails upon me the penalty of death ; but the history of Ireland explains that 'crime' and justifies it."
This brave man dedicated twenty-four of his forty-four years on this earth to challenging British misrule in Ireland and, while it can be said without doubt that Thomas Francis Meagher did his best, a 'crime' does remain to be resolved...
On the 2nd July, 1925, the 'Boundary Commission', a talking shop which opened for business (!) in 1921, met in Omagh, County Tyrone, for what would be its last 'official' meeting.
It dragged on behind closed doors for a further four months before it itself acknowledged that the game was up and melted away like slush in a downpour.
After the 2nd, there were no public hearings or interactions with the public, no 'updates' on its supposed objective ie 'to examine and potentially redraw the border between the Six Counties and the Irish Free State...', and no apology for failing that supposed objective.
The November 1925 final report of its findings was never published "due to disagreements among the commissioners..." and, unfortunately, six of our counties remain in bondage to a foreigner.
And, as with the other foreign invaders, the cry remains "get them out...".
==========================
Thanks for reading,
Sharon and the team.
(We'll be back on Wednesday, 16th July 2025 - we're enjoying the new, more relaxed publishing schedule ie a post every second Wednesday, rather than every Wednesday, and we're not yet ready to revert!)
