On the 15th January, 1921, an IRA Volunteer, Seán Kavanagh, from Tralee, in County Kerry (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher) was having a bite to eat in the 'Royal Exchange Hotel' in Dublin (having arrived there by train, from Newbridge in County Kildare) when he was accosted by a Black and Tan 'soldier' and two British Army Auxiliaries, all armed.
They had recognised him on the street, in the Kingsbridge area, and followed him at a distance, before closing in on him.
Seán worked for the Movement in the Intelligence Department, with Michael Collins and others, and knew that he was a wanted man ; he had been 'in hiding/on the run', and was billeted in various locations between Dublin and Kildare.
His work also included carrying messages from around Ireland and abroad which he would pass-on to Michael Collins himself, at an arranged time, in Vaughan's Hotel on Parnell Square West in Dublin, every Saturday and, when he was 'arrested' by the Crown Forces on the 15th, he had three such messages on him, which had been passed to him earlier that day in Sallins Train Station in County Kildare.
Seán was charged with... "..having in his possession a seditious document namely a report headed Óglaigh na hÉireann containing statements relating to road cutting and another relating to the affairs of the Irish Volunteers, an unlawful association..."
He was taken to Dublin Castle where he was interrogated ('questioned, hair pulled, body blows') for about two hours, but he gave them nothing. He was removed from the Castle and brought to Kilmainham Jail where he was 'processed', then taken to Mountjoy Jail (he was hand-cuffed to Rory O'Connor) where he was locked-up for one year.
His interrogators, Major William Lorraine 'Tiny' King, commanding officer of 'F Company' ADRIC (who was later to be charged by his own people for certain killings), and (the sadistic) Captain Jocelyn Lee 'Hoppy' Hardy misinterpreted one of the messages to read that Michael Collins would be attending 'The Royal Exchange Hotel' that night at 8pm for a meeting, so they 'tooled up' with armed soldiers and forced Seán Kavanagh to stand in the doorway of the hotel, setting a trap, they thought, for Michael Collins and whoever else might be with him.
However, 8pm came and went - but nothing happened.
The meeting was set for 8pm that evening, the 15th January 1921 - in Vaughan's Hotel, not in the 'Royal Exchange'!
But, early in 1922, IRA Volunteer Seán Kavanagh switched his allegiance from the Republic to the Free State and by August of that year he had been promoted to the rank of 'Commandant'.
He was given governorship of the Hare Park camp on the Curragh (a holding centre for prisoners waiting to be court-martialled) and, about two years later, he resigned from the Free State Army to begin a 'career' in the State Prison Service, commencing his future State service as the Deputy Governor of Mountjoy Jail then, eventually, as the Governor of that institution, a position he held for 28 years.
His duties in that job included the detention of many of his former comrades and overseeing the executions of some of them.
He died in 1984, at 87 years of age, and is buried in Deansgrange Cemetery, in Dublin.
We wonder if he ever thought back to that doorway...
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.
Ireland, by conservative estimates, contains thousands of oil and gas-bearing zones in her 65,000 square kilometres of water.
In recent years, the Marathon Oil company has discovered large quantities of natural gas in the Celtic Sea and, more recently, the indications are that the Corrib North gas fields off the shores of North Mayo look set to produce massively lucrative gas finds.
In the current economic climate, Ireland is expected to suffer a downturn in employment figures, with a corresponding drop in tax revenue and increased inflation.
The discovery of massive natural resources of gas within our territorial waters should be a Godsend - something that will ensure our fiscal security, creating jobs and revenue for the foreseeable future.
Such resources have been a guarantee of success for countries like Norway and those of the Middle East which, before the discovery of oil, were bereft of any real income-generating industries.
Now, like them, we have won the oil and gas lottery - only to find we've thrown away the winning ticket.
A loss of unimaginable proportions to Ireland for generations to come...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 15th January, 1920, elections to borough and urban district councils in Ireland were held using, for the first time, the 'Proportional Representation' voting system (which was mandated by the 'Local Government (Ireland) Act of 1919'), whereby seats are won based on the proportion of votes each candidate receives ; all votes cast (except for 'spoiled votes') contribute to the result and are effectively used to help elect (one of) the candidates.
The then Sinn Féin organisation, other nationalist candidates and The Labour Party, between them, obtained control of 172 out of 206 councils, and the number of Unionist councillors dropped from 52 to 29.
Nowadays, it's a case of "It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything..."
==========================
BUTCHERS APRON ON A FORCED PARADE.
"...they gathered in the main street, in front of the Moy Hotel, a number of most respectable citizens and men who were whole-heartedly Sinn Féiners.
Pat and Michael Beirne, John Moylett, Martin Corcoran, Dominick Molloy and Michael Moylett.
After handcuffing them, the Auxiliaries tied the Tricolour to the last prisoner (John Moylett), trailing it in the mud of the streets and, with an itinerant musician marching in front, took them to the Market Cross where the prisoners were beaten and kicked to their knees in an effort to make them kiss a Union Jack placed on the roadway.
They refused and were kicked and beaten and ultimately allowed to go free..."
- the words of George Hewson, a local pharmacist in Ballina recalling, in 1957, the incident he witnessed in January 1921.
On the 15th January 1921, 'The Irish Independent' and 'The Freeman's Journal' newspapers reported that, on the 14th... '...Crown Forces arrested five prominent merchants and made them parade through the streets carrying the Union Jack with one trailing the Republican flag on the ground. Before they were released they had to kneel and kiss the Union flag while at the same time the Republican flag was burned...'
On the 17th January, 'The Irish Independent' carried a report from the Auxiliaries that the men were not arrested but "were merely asked to come to the Auxiliary headquarters, and that when desired to carry the Union Jacks through the town they did not object..."
This group of armed British thugs had only arrived in Ballina, County Mayo, on the 12th of January, and had taken over two hotels ('The Imperial' and 'The Moy') as their Headquarters, flying their Butchers Apron flag from both, and wanted to stamp their 'authority' on the town.
During their 'parade' through the town, the six Irishmen were repeatedly punched in the side with revolvers by the English thugs who walked beside them, while other armed Auxies accompanied them in two motor vehicles, one at the front and one at the back.
When the 'parade' reached a place known as Tyler's Cross, the six men were put on their knees and made to kiss the foreigner's flag as the Irish Tricolour was burned beside them and they were then, at gunpoint, told to sing 'God Save the King'.
They were then brought back to the Auxie 'Headquarters' and lectured on 'loyality' and, before they were released, were told that if there was any retaliation their businesses "would go up and you'll go down".
The local newspaper, 'The Western People', no doubt in fear for its staff and premises, did not report on the issue at the time, but one of its reporters, a Mr Tom Hennigan, gave the details to reporters in Dublin and, as stated above, two reports were published on the 15th January ('The Ballina Herald' reported on the matter on the 2nd February 1922, and 'The Western People' ran a story about it on the 4th February 1922.)
The English perpetrators were annoyed that their deed was headline news and claimed that the details were incorrect and there had been no element of coercion involved!
A year later (ie in January 1922), five of the men were awarded £100 and the sixth, Mr Michael Beirne, was awarded £200.
But nothing could have compensated them for the humiliation they suffered at the hands of the Crown.
On the 15th January, 1921, the British Army sealed off the Church Street/Capel Street area of Dublin City Centre and began a search of every premises in that location.
They seemingly 'arrested' some of the people who objected to them doing what they were doing, but no Volunteers were located and no weapons were found.
They packed-up and went back to base on the 17th.
==========================
On Friday, 31st December, 1920, the IRA planted an explosive device consisting of 30 pounds of gelignite and gun cotton, encased in a wooden box, against the door of the occupied RIC/Black and Tan barracks (pictured) in the town of Kilbrittain, in County Cork.
The plan was to storm the barracks after the front doors were blown off their hinges, but the device failed to explode and the operation was called off.
On the 15th January, 1921, the IRA returned (with Volunteer Jackie O'Neill in command) with another explosive device (weighing about a half-hundred weight/4 stone!) and tried again - seven Volunteers, carrying revolvers, were to enter first, closely followed by about a dozen Volunteers with rifles and fixed bayonets.
Volunteer Dinny Manning placed the device but it, too, failed to explode and, frustrated about the failure, Volunteer Manning is reported to have... "..stood out in the middle of the street and shouted to the Crown Forces inside 'If you hand me out a pencil and paper I'll write down my name for you..' "
Those inside the barracks (IRA Intelligence indicated that at least 12 armed men were in the building) started sending up Verey lights and throwing out small bombs to drive the IRA away.
Once again, the operation was called off and the IRA withdrew.
==========================
On the 15th January, 1921, Michael Collins replied to a letter he had received on the 13th from Éamon de Valera, in connection with the up-coming elections (due to be held in May) and the 'northern parliament' itself, Stormont.
Mr Collins opined that Sinn Féin would hopefully win at least a dozen seats, that the populations of counties Fermanagh, Tyrone and Derry would have more allegiance to Dublin rather than London and that town and rural county councils will continue to be worked on to declare their support for the (32-County) Dáil.
Sinn Féin only won six seats, for a variety of reasons - of the nineteen Sinn Féin candidates (excluding Queen’s University), eight were in prison or interned and seven were 'on the run', which meant that they were not visible on election platforms and were represented by proxy, nationalist/republican voters were intimidated by loyalists, Sinn Féin organisers were arrested, republican literature was confiscated by anti-republican elements and there was a lack of nationalist/republican organisations in some parts of the electoral area.
Today, 104 years after those elections, Ireland remains partitioned and some so-called 'republican' elements are comfortable, politically and financially with, and because, of that...
==========================
On the 15th January, 1921, Gerald Oswald Pring (34), from Main Street, Midleton, in County Cork, and his brother and sister, were walking past a shop on the Western Road in Cork when two British Army Crossley Tender lorries drove past them.
When the lorries drove on about 100 yards away from them, a shot was fired and Mr Gerald Pring collapsed onto the footpath. He had been shot just below his left eye and died within minutes.
During an investigation, a British Army Officer stated that his men... "...might have had drink (on them) but were all perfectly sober, otherwise they would not be allowed out on patrol. Men on lorries sit with their fingers on the triggers, which is the only safe thing at present.
It was possible, but not probable, that a shot would go off accidentally..."
Bizarrely, Gerald's sister, Mary Ellen, in a claim for compensation, later stated that her dead brother "was an officer of the crown and was killed in the course of an attack on British Crown Forces by members of the IRA..." (?!).
==========================
THE FORGOTTEN PEOPLE...
Emigration from Ireland to the United States continued throughout the 1990's, although the reasons were no longer so bluntly economic.
Now, in the wake of September 11th, the US authorities have been granted increased powers to investigate legal status, and Irish illegal emigrants are more vulnerable than ever before.
By Mairead Carey.
From 'Magill Annual', 2002.
Bruce Morrison says -
"People have scruples. Even if they intend getting married, they don't want to do it for a green card.
My advice is that they should start paying more attention to these things because the horror stories are more likely to increase in this climate.
You are going to see the guy with the good job and the family having it all wrenched apart because he got a speeding ticket."
He is surprised that the Irish community has not been organised in recent years in campaigning for green cards for the undocumented.
"There has been no concerted effort by the Irish community to take advantage of other initiatives aimed at helping other countries.
They could have been extended to help the Irish, but there wasn't any organisation campaigning for it."
The last initiative was the 'Walsh Visas', which were aimed at helping young people in the North of Ireland and in the border counties train in the US for three years...
(MORE LATER.)
From the 14th to the 19th of January, 1922, ten IRA POW's were released from prison by the British and by their proxies in the Free State -
Volunteer Jack Mitchell, Caragh Road, Naas, was freed after fifteen months imprisonment in Gloucester Jail in England. He was greeted home by the 'Naas Workingmen's Band' and a large gathering which included a local company of Volunteers, Republican Police and Na Fianna Éireann, who played music, sang and danced as tar barrels blazed all around the area.
Volunteer Richard O'Brien (released from Mountjoy Jail in Dublin) and Volunteer Arthur Doran (Canterbury Prison, England) were lifted high by the Staff Officers and other Volunteers from the 3rd Battalion IRA, hundreds of members of the public and the local band.
Volunteers Michael Smyth, William Jones and Matthew Cardiff, from Athgarvan, in County Kildare, were welcomed home by family, friends and the local branch of the ITGWU trade union.
A huge 'Welcome Home!' party greeted Volunteers Fintan Brennan and Hugh E. McNally in Monasterevin, County Kildare, on their return home from Parkhurst Prison in England - bonfires were lit, tourchlights were lit from them and carried on the streets and the local fife and drum band played republican songs.
Volunteers Patrick Duffy (from Gurteenoona, Monasterevin, County Kildare) Michael Duffy (Kilgowan) and Michael Carpenter all had parties held in their honour.
==========================
On the 7th January, 1922, the 'Treaty of Surrender' was agreed to and accepted by 64 to 57 votes in Dáil Éireann (up to that point, a 32-County body) and on the 14th of that month a 'Provisional Government' (ie a Free State administration) was formed to administer the handover from British rule in the 26-County area to the Staters.
Therefore today, the 15th, is the 103rd anniversary of the first full day of business for that corrupt and ill-begotten institution.
Nothing to celebrate.
==========================
WESTMINSTER-ORGANISED PAEDOPHILE RING IN IRELAND.
On the 3rd April, 1980, three staff members of the Kincora Boys Home in Belfast were charged with acts of gross indecency.
Serious allegations were made that elements of the British security forces, civil servants and a number of loyalists had been involved in the abuse of young boys at the home.
One of those sentenced was William McGrath, the leader of a loyalist paramilitary group called Tara.
On the 15th January 1982 - 43 years ago on this date - the then 'Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (sic)', a Mr James Michael Leathes Prior, announced the setting up of a 'Committee of Inquiry' into the sexual abuse of children who lived in the Kincora institution.
John Dunlop McKeague (pictured), who had been a prominent Loyalist activist, and an 'activist' in other areas, too, was shot dead by the 'Irish National Liberation Army' (INLA) in his shop on the Albertbridge Road, Belfast, on the 29th January, 1982.
That he survived as long as he did is testament to his colleagues in the War Office in Westminster, who only 'threw him to the wolves' when they feared he was about to do the same to them.
'Loyalists have harboured within their ranks some of the most notorious deviants in Northern Ireland's (sic) history.
These include John McKeague, who led the Red Hand Commando terror group for a short time in the early Seventies. British military intelligence was aware of McKeague's taste for young boys and used it to blackmail him into becoming an informer...he was aware through his links with other loyalist paedophiles, particularly the Orangeman William McGrath, of the child abuse going on at Kincora's boys' home in east Belfast.
In 1982 McKeague was about to go public about the role of British intelligence in blackmailing paedophiles like McGrath, Kincora's housemaster, when he was shot dead by the INLA...when McGrath's regime of abuse became public, he was allowed to retire to the outskirts of loyalist east Belfast.
None of the loyalist paramilitary groups took any action against him...' (from here.)
'In a British intelligence document called 'Folio 4782/9/76 LB', McKeague was supposedly the mastermind of the Protestant Unionist plot to launch a coup d'état in Northern Ireland (sic).
A key aide of Paisley was being blackmailed over personal problems which caused him to be depressed causing his wife to have a nervous breakdown...using Paisley's aide there was active recruitment to a new loyalist paramilitary force among former members of the B Specials. Rather than being under DUP authority the group would be under the control of McKeague himself.
The DUP aide met with the UDA who were also to take part in the coup and the meeting was tape recorded secretly so to blackmail the DUP if they contemplated pulling out. At the time Paisley and the DUP were organizing a strike with other unionists and loyalists under the 'United Unionist Action Council' umbrella.
McKeague was good friends with William McGrath who was a fellow rapist and sex abuser of young boys at Kincora.
McGrath, a preacher who once accompanied Paisley to meet Chichester Clark in 1969 to form a 'People's Militia', was the founder of Tara, a bizarre group of British Israelites who recruited many young loyalists who believed in an Armageddon uprising by the Catholic population...' (from here.)
The Westminster 'establishment' and its political camp followers, including its 'royal family', in England and elsewhere, is overflowing with perverts and misfits who use insider knowledge against one another for political advantage ; in Ireland, and its other colonies, the British political 'top table' use such information to organise 'murder gangs' to carry-out politically-based killings.
John McKeague, an evil individual, was 'encouraged' in that manner and was protected by Westminster until he became too hot to handle.
His 'licence' was withdrawn on the 29th January, 1982...
"Patrick had a dugout in a bank on the commonage, covered with scraws, about 300 yards from his house. During his years on the run, whenever things got hot, Pat would go there and lie low for a while..." (from here.)
In December, 1922, four IRA Volunteers - Frederick Burke (from Borrisoleigh, County Tipperary), Martin O'Shea (from Carrinagreena, Borrisoleigh), Patrick Russell (from Summerhill, Borrisoleigh) and Patrick McNamara (from Nenagh, County Tipperary) - were 'arrested' by Free State forces for "illegal possession of arms" ('bearing arms against the State...')
On the 15th January, 1923, those four political prisoners were taken by the Staters into the grounds of Roscrea Castle in Tipperary and shot dead.
A fifth political prisoner, James Lillis (from Bagnalstown, in County Carlow) was executed that same day by the Free State Army : in total, in that month of January (1923), 34 Irish republican prisoners were executed by the Staters in towns throughout their new 'Free State' - Dundalk, Roscrea, Carlow, Birr, Portlaoise, Limerick, Tralee, Roscrea and Athlone.
Indeed, the then Leinster House 'Minister for Justice', a Mr Kevin Christopher O'Higgins, had issued instructions that such killings should be carried out in every county in the State in order "to maximise their impact".
The new Westminster-spawned State administration was "asserting its authority", and republicans asserted back...
RIP to those brave soldiers of the Republic.
==========================
On the 15th January, 1923, a Mr Lionel George Curtis (pictured), a military and political 'fixer-upper' for Westminster, wrote a letter to his colleague, a Mr George William Tallents (ex-Lord Mayor of Westminster) in which he praised the new Free State administration for... "..having crossed the rubicon. Definitely ranked themselves on the side of the constitutional governments by opening fire on their old comrades..."
We can picture the two of them, brandy and cigars in hand, going 'Har! Har!'.
Also, in a letter he wrote in September that year to a Mr Antrobus, another British political 'fixer-upper', Laughing Lionel wrote -
"Our friends heads (ie the Free State administration) are, of course, pretty full at the moment, but this would soon change once they realised that their position in the world counted for little apart from their position in the British Commonwealth of Nations..."
And they were right to sneer at the Staters, and they still are - right, and sneering, that is - but they are still Toffboy Brit bastards for doing so, and the Staters are wannabe-Toffboy Irish Gobshites for putting themselves in a position where the other Toffboys can sneer at them.
==========================
POLITICAL LIFESTYLES IN IRELAND...
His lavish lifestyle was funded by wealthy admirers.
Time after time, his debts were taken care of by friendly businessmen.
In exchange for giving people access to government leaders, he cheerfully lined his own pockets.
From 'Magill' Magazine, January 2003.
To which the only sensible answer is - what does he expect people to write about instead?
Since his election in June, after all, Enda Kenny has mainly busied himself with a series of media interviews, each more vacuous than the last.
The nadir was reached during the week after Christmas, when Enda Kenny dropped the following bombshells in the course of an exclusive chat with 'The Irish Independent' -
'Fine Gael will take up defined positions on the issues that matter. It will campaign on a whole range of issues.
It stands for a fairer Ireland where work opportunities exist. It is forward-looking and has a strong social conscience. If it sits down and does nothing it will face extinction...'
Well, they do say that every journey begins with a small step but, really, Enda, does it have to be this small...?
(MORE LATER.)
On the 15th January, 1986, a Mr Victor Foster (18), a building contractor and part-time member of 'B-Company', 6th Battalion, of the 'Ulster Defence Regiment', got into his Opel Kadett car outside his house in Gamble Park, Castlederg, County Tyrone, and drove off.
The car blew up, killing him instantly ; the IRA had fitted an under-car bomb to it.
Mr Foster was given a full UDR funeral, and was buried at Drumclamph Church of Ireland, at nearby Crewe Bridge.
Incidentally, British Army soldiers in Ireland referred to the UDR/UDA/RUC and other suchlike armed anti-republican gangs as 'native levies', a term for 'local troops' raised in, and for, suppression of "the Colonies".
'The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend...'
==========================
A FOUR-DAY INQUIRY TO FIND THE OBVIOUS!
On the 15th January, 1916, 'The Down Recorder' newspaper carried the following report -
'RIC CONSTABLE EARLY RECEIVES AN UNFAVOURABLE RECORD.
There has just been promulgated the finding in a constabulary inquiry by District-Inspector Loch, president, and District-Inspector Sheridan, into disciplinary charges, numbering no fewer than 220, and affecting Sergeant Hamill, Kirkcubbin, and six constables.
The inquiry extended over four days.
Sergeant Hamill was found not guilty of the 78 charges preferred against him and, in turn, Constables Clarke, Leader, M’Cole, Morrison, and Mullarkey were exonerated.
Constable Early, who was found guilty of committing a minor assault upon Constable M’Cole, admitted 64 charges.
He received an unfavourable record...'
'An unfavourable record'.
That'll learn him...
But, seriously, there was no need at all for a four-day inquiry to see if the words "unfavourable record" should be attached to the RIC...
We won't be posting any content next Wednesday, 22nd January 2025, as we're heading off 'down the country' to family members to begin and help with the shopping spree for Communion outfits etc, book a hotel for the little Princesses (if we can find one without 'asylum seekers/refugees/migrants' in it) for a two-day stay for them and a four-day stay for us.
And yes - we could organise most of that on-line, but there's no craic in that and, besides, it's an outing with some of my brothers and sisters, an opportunity never to be missed!
We'll be back 'on air' on Wednesday, 29th January 2025 with, among other bits and pieces, a few paragraphs about so-called 'Hate Speech' legislation in Ireland in the 18th Century!
Thanks for dropping in - appreciated.
See yis on the 29th - GRMA!
Sharon and the team.
