And freedom's light aglow
When some IRA had gathered in a graveyard in Mayo.
Those brave Irish Freedom fighters
Who came together in the West
Had come to fill the promise to lay Frank Stagg at rest.'
'Frank Stagg was the seventh child in a family of thirteen children, born at Hollymount near Ballinrobe, Co Mayo, in 1942. Stagg was educated to primary level at Newbrooke Primary School and at CBS Ballinrobe to secondary level.
After finishing his education, he worked as an assistant gamekeeper with his uncle prior to emigrating from Ireland to England in search of work. In England, Frank was employed as a bus conductor and later qualified as a bus driver.
In 1970 he married Bridie Armstrong from Carnicon, Co Mayo. He joined Sinn Féin in Luton in 1972 and shortly afterwards joined the IRA. Frank remained in touch with home and spent his annual holidays in Hollymount up to the year of his arrest and imprisonment in 1973. In the words of his mother, "he never forgot he was Irish..." '
Frank Stagg had begun his fourth (and final) hunger strike in late 1975 - having been convicted under the notorious 'British Conspiracy Laws' - as it was the only 'weapon' he had at his disposal with which to impress on his British captors his desire to be repatriated to Ireland.
He died, blind and weighing just four stone, in Wakefield Prison on 12th February 1976, after 62 days on hunger strike.
His remains were hijacked by suited, uniformed and armed members of the State, acting under orders from Free State Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave and his 'Justice' Minister, Paddy Cooney - the airplane carrying his coffin was diverted from Dublin to Shannon and, when it landed, the Special Branch surrounded it and forcibly removed the coffin and buried it, supported by an armed escort, under six feet of concrete in Leigue Cemetery in Ballina, County Mayo.
That grave had been purchased by the Free Staters and was located about 70 meters from the Republican Plot in that cemetery ; on that day - Saturday, 21st February, 1976 - the Requiem Mass was boycotted by almost all his relatives.
For the following six months, armed State operatives maintained a heavy presence in the graveyard to prevent Irish republicans from affording Frank Stagg a proper burial but they were not the only group keeping a watch on the grave : the IRA were aware of their presence and, after the Staters withdrew, the IRA made their move : on the night of the 5th of November, 1976, the IRA disinterred Frank Stagg's remains and reburied them with his comrade, Michael Gaughan.
When questioned in Leinster House about this sordid affair, its 'Director', Paddy Cooney, stated -
"The persistent attempts by members of an unlawful organisation and their associates to exploit the situation that arose are well known and, indeed, notorious. Because of this and because also of certain obligations of confidentiality, I must decline to make any comment on the question of the choice of burial place.."
The "question of the choice of burial place" was, thankfully, not one that was left to Cooney and his State thugs to decide.
Frank Stagg, aged 33, had three funerals and two burials. One funeral had no body and one burial was done in darkness. In his final message to his comrades in the Republican Movement he wrote :
"We are the risen people, this time we must not be driven into the gutter. Even if this should mean dying for justice. The fight must go on. I want my memorial to be peace with justice."
That objective has still to be obtained and those in Leinster House, Stormont and Westminster are still working against it, still pouring 'concrete' on Irish republicanism.
Shame on them.
In the early morning of the 12th February, 1920, about twenty Volunteers from the Cork Number 3 Brigade of the IRA (under the command of Volunteer Seán Hales) took up position around the RIC Barracks in Allihies (located about twelve miles from Castletownbere), in Cork.
That operation to remove those pro-British agents began with some of the Volunteers chipping access points into the gable wall of the barracks, in order to get a 'foothold' to secure explosives to.
The RIC members looked out to investigate the noise and were immediately fired at, retreated back inside, and returned fire. One of their number, a Mr Michael Neenan (32), dashed to the barracks rifle locker to arm himself and his colleagues but was shot in the abdomen before he could reach it, and died from his wound.
Another RIC member, named O'Driscoll, was shot in the foot during the gunfight.
The Volunteers planted their explosives (assembled by Volunteer Cornelius O'Sullivan, from the Cork Number 1 Brigade which, incidentally, had over 8,000 members that were organised into twenty battalions) and blew a hole in the gable wall, but the RIC members wouldn't surrender, and the gunfight continued ; the IRA were safe in the knowledge that they had made "every preparation to deny any chance of reinforcements arriving to help the stricken RIC men".
Realising that they weren't going to take the barracks, the IRA withdrew from the area at about 5am.
==========================
On the 12th February, 1920, as two RIC members were 'out on patrol' in the village of Rathdrum, in County Wicklow (pictured), they fired shots in the direction of about three men whom, they said, had fired at them.
One of the men fell to the ground, wounded, and died that same night ; he was an IRA Volunteer, Seamus O'Brien, who was active in the Wexford area in 1916, and was, in 1920, a valued operative with the Wicklow Brigade (which comprised the Fourth Battalion led by Jack Smith, and the Fifth Battalion led by Matt Kavanagh).
One of the RIC members, a man named Mulligan, later claimed that he and his colleague were fired on and that a bullet had glanced off his shoulder and had become lodged in his heavy overcoat but, on examination, Mr Mulligan had no strike mark on his shoulder and his heavy RIC-issue overcoat bore no entry/exit mark of a bullet...
==========================
In January, 1920, one of the top men in the Republican Movement, a Mr Robert Barton, was 'arrested' by the British on Oakley Road, Dublin, tried by general court martial in Ship Street Barracks (under the 'Defence of the Realm Act') and sentenced to three years’ penal servitude.
On the 12th February that year, as he was being moved from Ship Street to Mountjoy Jail, the IRA knew that the transport van would be travelling on Berkeley Road and the time it would be there, and an escape attempt was put in place.
The van was blocked by a handcart carrying a forty-foot ladder and, as it stopped to allow the obstruction to pass, IRA Volunteers moved in on it.
They held it up, and opened it up - but it was empty!
Wrong information, or a British decoy vehicle...?
Whichever it was, Mr Barton ended up in a British prison - Portland, in Dorset, England - but was released in early July 1921 (as were Arthur Griffith and Eoin MacNeill) to take part in the 'Treaty of Surrender' talks.
It was sometime after 2am on the 6th December, 1921, that Mr Robert Barton (very reluctantly, by all accounts) signed his name to that foul document but, within days, he rejected it but (again), in the 1930's, he worked politically within the State apparatus on behalf of the Fianna Fáil grouping.
The politically confused and/or tormented Mr Robert Barton died on the 10th August 1975.
==========================
On the 12th February, 1920, two young British Army soldiers, Private Guy FP Roberts (18, 'Service Number 0865') and Private William H Pearce (17, 'Service Number 01907'), who were both stationed at Finner Camp, in Donegal, went on a day trip to Ballyshannon, a coastal town in that county.
While exploring the rocky shoreline, both young men were swept out to sea, and were drowned.
RIP to both young men.
==========================
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 sale of our vital national resources in this way means that Ireland cannot benefit in terms of economic spin-offs through the provision of services, manufacturing, ship and rig construction, infrastructure and development of port services, refineries, petrochemical industries, or the thousands of on-and-offshore jobs and ancillary services needed to support the oil industry.
Norway, only a century ago, was one of Europe's poorest nations, until it experienced a reversal of fortune with the discovery of oil in the North Sea in the 1970's.
Suddenly thrown on to the world stage, Norway was invited to discussions with military superpowers and wealthy oil nations.
Taking full advantage of its new-found status, the Norwegians set about constructing some of the largest and most advanced offshore production facilities in the world...
(MORE LATER.)
JUST SHY OF 178 YEARS AGO ON THIS DAY (AND COMPLETELY SHY AT ALL OF ANY COMPASSION)...
"I SAW THE DYING, THE LIVING, AND THE DEAD, LYING INDISCRIMINATELY UPON THE SAME FLOOR..."
In his report, Mr Mahoney stated that he started out on his journey ".....for Skibbereen and saw little until we came to Clonakilty, where the coach stopped for breakfast ; and here, for the first time, the horrors of the poverty became visible, in the vast number of famished poor, who flocked around the coach to beg alms.
Amongst them was a woman carrying in her arms the corpse of a fine child, and making the most distressing appeal to the passengers for aid to enable her to purchase a coffin and bury her dear little baby. This horrible spectacle induced me to make some inquiry about her, when I learned from the people of the hotel that each day brings dozens of such applicants into the town.
After leaving Clonakilty, each step that we took westward brought fresh evidence of the truth of the reports of the misery, as we either met a funeral or a coffin at every hundred yards, until we approached the country of the Shepperton Lakes. Here, the distress became more striking, from the decrease of numbers at the funerals, none having more than eight or ten attendants, and many only two or three..."
The 'shy of compassion' reference, above, is in relation to the Westminster government which, at that time, was the seat of political power in Ireland and had the wherewithal, financially and logistically, to intervene favourably in the man-made catastrophe that was unfolding in 'that part of the Empire'.
But it choose not to, as the land without its natives was deemed to be more valuable to it and, indeed, it is that very attitude that has ensured that the British armed forces have 'been engaged' in armed conflict ('peacekeeping duties') somewhere or other in the world for well over a hundred consecutive years now - a 'record' which some believe may be about to end.
But they have no compassion about them and, in our opinion, their 'record' is in safe hands and will no doubt continue.
Unfortunately, for non-warmongers everywhere.
On the 12th February, 1921, an RIC member, a Mr Patrick Joseph Walsh, left the pub he was in, after having a few pints, in Churchtown, in County Cork, and was shot dead.
Mr Walsh, a native of Turloughbeg, Rossmuck, in Connemara, County Galway, who had four years of 'service' in the RIC (it was his first 'job') was the son of an ex-'RIC Head Constable' who, at the time, was working as a publican.
Eight shots were fired at him by an IRA Unit from the Charleville Battalion of the Cork Number 2 Brigade, under the command of Volunteer Patrick O'Brien, one of which hit him in the head, killing him instantly.
After the shooting, most members of the IRA Unit stayed where they were, in the expectation that RIC reinforcements would be sent to the scene ; the IRA were hoping for an opportunity to add to their tally.
However, no British or pro-British forces turned up, so the Volunteers left the area.
==========================
On the night of the 12th February, 1921, IRA Brigade Commandant George O'Dwyer's (pictured) plans were carried out.
The RIC barracks in the village of Gowran, in County Kilkenny, was attacked by the IRA and, at the same time, some 18 miles (30km) away, in the village of Callan, the RIC were attacked in their barracks.
Both attacks were small, but determined, and the propaganda arising from the two simultaneous operations was immense.
Neither side suffered any injuries.
==========================
At about 7.30pm on the evening of the 12th February, 1921, a British Army convoy consisting of one troop-carrying lorry, two armoured cars and one Crossley Tender, left Dun Laoighaire and drove through Monkstown, Blackrock and Booterstown.
When the convoy reached the Merrion Gates, about one dozen armed IRA Volunteers from 'F company, 6th Battalion', under the command of Volunteer Rory MacDermott, opened fire on it -
"The enemy convoy was travelling towards the city from Dun Laoghaire (Kingstown). Fire was opened at them from behind a wall fifty yards south of the gate of the Blind Asylum, Merrion.
Five bombs were thrown, two of them exploding on the lorry. Fire was returned by the armoured cars, especially the second car, which entered the gate of the asylum, and sprayed the bushes inside.
Our forces fired off about forty rounds of ammunition. The enemy casualties could not be ascertained. There were no casualties on our side.
Two civilians were killed, one in his bed near the scene of the ambush and the other on the road about 600 yards on the city side of where the ambush took place. We were armed with bombs, two shotguns, two rifles, and the remainder with revolvers..."
Two civilians, John Healy (a former member of Blackrock County Council and a well known local nationalist, who had no connection with either the IRA or the British Army) and James Brophy (pictured, a native of Killadooley, Ballybrophy, County Laois [then known as 'Queen's County']), were killed during the gunfight.
Mr Brophy was in his house, Number 244 Merrion Road, in bed, trying to get his young son asleep, when he was hit "in the breast" by a stray bullet ; he was rushed to the 'Royal Dublin Hospital' (about two miles away from the scene) but died there.
His young son was frightened, obviously, but physically unhurt.
An inquiry was launched by the pro-British 'DMP' into the firefight and, on the 25th July that year, that 'police force' issued the following statement -
"As a party of military were motoring along Merrion Road in the vicinity of the residence of James Brophy, they were ambushed by Sinn Feiners, who threw bombs and fired a number of shots at them, at which they replied with their rifles.
While this was going on a bullet passed through Mr. Brophy’s bedroom window wounding him in the breast as he lay in bed."
In a compensation claim against the British, his family said he worked as a "blacksmith and horseshoer (farrier)", but the 'DMP' rejected that and claimed that he was an employee of 'The Dublin United Tramways Company' ; an attempt, perhaps, to raise doubts about the overall innocence of the Brophy family...?
==========================
On the 12th February, 1921, IRA Units in South Kildare finalised their plans to obstruct the movements of the Crown Forces in their area.
On the 13th and 14th, trenches were dug into the road networks around the villages of Booleigh and Kilmeade, and trees were felled at Mullaghmast and on the roads from Bolton Hill to Castledermot and Kilkea to Castledermot.
Actions like this served two purposes - not only did it successfully hinder enemy troop movements but, as they were clearing/filling the damage, they never knew if an IRA Unit, or lone sniper, had them in rifle sights.
'Mind Games...'
==========================
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.
The Aisling Irish Centre which he heads was set up four years ago as a drop-in centre, providing immigration information, professional and pastoral counselling.
"Now is a very vulnerable time for people. George Bush is talking about tightening up the whole system and if he goes down that road it will have far-reaching consequences for the Irish.
Traditionally, a lot of people would go home for Christmas, but I have been encouraging people not to travel unless it is absolutely necessary.
It can be a lonely place at Christmas.
It's a day that highlights the reality for emigrants ; you are without the very important support structure that you take for granted at home.
It will be especially so this year."
(END of 'The Forgotten People' ; NEXT - 'The Number's Up', from the same source.)
Between the 12th and the 15th February, 1922, 37 people were killed in riots in Belfast ; the worst incident was the Weaver Street bombing in which six people were killed, including four children.
On the 11th February, about eighteen 'A Special' pro-British 'policemen' were stopped on a train in Clones, County Monaghan, by the IRA, and a gunbattle ensued, during which four 'A Specials' were killed (William Dougherty, James Lewis, William McFarland and Robert McMahon) and nine more of them were wounded.
Pro-British loyalists in Belfast wanted revenge but, rather than take on the IRA, they turned on their Catholic/Nationalist neighbours, including children, and at least 23 Catholics and 14 Protestants were killed over those few days.
And as long as Westminster continues to claim jurisdictional control over six of our counties, those days are not necessarily behind us.
==========================
On the 12th February, 1922, the IRA held a meeting in Dublin to discuss the Treaty of Surrender, and other such meetings were being held around the country (and the Free Staters were doing the same).
The split was widening, with those who rejected that Treaty (who correctly argued that it was unconstitutional, a usurpation of the 1916 Dáil Constitution adopted in 1919, that it would lead to the loss of six of the nine counties of Ulster, and the 'dominion status' under Britain and the requirement to swear an oath of allegiance to its monarch were among the bridges too far) also voicing their opposition to the political figures who were calling for it to be supported and accepted.
Indeed, those verbal disagreements were to escalate into armed campaigns in June that same year, when the Staters took up arms to help secure Westminster's so-called 'writ' in Ireland.
At around that time in Ireland, the IRA fielded seventy-four brigades, comprised of 297 battalions comprised, in turn, of 2,009 companies made up of roughly 115,000 members, but possessed only about 3,000 rifles among its other armaments.
It is estimated that about seventy-five percent of IRA members opposed the Treaty but Leinster House, working with its British allies, was better armed and was able(d) to add ex-British soldiers, RIC and other such rogue mercenaries to its military ranks, thus outnumbering and outgunning the 'Ireland For The Irish' fighters (the 'irregulars', as the Staters called them).
We're down - on the canvas - since then, but not yet out of the ring...!
==========================
On the 12th February, 1922, the RIC Barracks in James Street, in Westport, County Mayo, was evacuated by the RIC and handed over to the IRA, as was the British Army barracks in Castlebar, and the RIC Barracks in Ballina (also Mayo) was taken over by the North Mayo Brigade of the IRA.
Enemy forces in Ireland had began the abandonment of their bricks and mortar bases in January that year, safe in the knowledge that they were leaving behind a proxy political and military presence in the guise of the Leinster House State administration.
To its credit, Dublin Corporation put out some feelers about acquiring those buildings to repurpose them as living quarters for the majority of Irish people, who were then trying to live in tenament slums, but other organisations were equally as determined to make use of them and the Corporation backed off...
==========================
On the 10th February, 1922, British Army Lieutenant John Hubert Wogan-Brown walked the 500 yards distance from Kildare Artillery Barracks to the Hibernian Bank to cash a cheque and collect the weekly regimental pay for his troops.
Between the cheque he cashed (for about £130) and the payroll, he had around £500 on him as he left the bank.
He strolled down the road, on his way back to the barracks and, as he got to the corner of Infirmary Road (beside the hospital, opposite the barracks), three men approached him.
One of the men walked past him and went over to a car parked nearby, with the driver at the wheel - the man pulled a gun on the driver and told him to stay where he was, and his two companions, guns drawn, stood in front of the British Army Lieutenant and told him to hand over the money.
Mr Wogan-Brown not only refused to hand the money to the men, but tried to fight them off.
One of the men shot him in the forehead, he fell down, dead, the two men got the money and quickly went over to their colleague, who was standing at the hi-jacked car.
"Drive, or by God, we'll riddle you...", one of them shouted at the driver, who did just that, and in a hurry. That was the last that was seen of the men or the money.
The next day Mr Michael Collins got word of the robbery and the fact that a British Army Lieutenant had been killed in the process of it.
On the 12th February (1922), Mr Collins and his advisers/secretaries, fretting that the British Army soldiers death might impact negatively on their new-born 'treaty/peace process', put an apologetic letter together for Mr Churchill, proof read it, fretted some more, possibly changed a bit of the script in it and, when they were satisfied that it was sufficiently crawling enough, telegrammed it to Mr Churchill on the 13th.
In his letter, Mr Collins told Mr Churchill that "three men had been arrested for the murder of Lt. Wogan-Brown.." and that he had seen to it that "...the Republican Police (force), the IRA, the RIC and the British Army had been involved in operations to bring the culprits to justice..."
Mr Churchill must have been ever-so proud of his latest creation.
However - if anyone actually was 'arrested' by the Staters for the shooting, no one was ever charged over it and no trial was ever held about it.
The case was allowed to fizzle out...
==========================
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.
Unsung heroes - carers who look after the handicapped, teachers who give up their free time to supervise sporting activities, founders of charities who make a real difference to people's lives.
If we believe that there is such a thing as society, then society ought to be able to say thank you to the people who make it better.
Unfortunately, however, we know that an Irish honours system just wouldn't work like that - as in Britain, it would be controlled by whatever politicians happened to be in power, which means it would be patronising at best, crooked and incestuous at worst.
And this is the point where all honours systems fall down.
As soon as you give out a single award to someone who clearly doesn't deserve it, everyone else's award is automatically diminished...
(MORE LATER.)
That's it for now, and thanks for dropping in - appreciated!
(We won't be here next Wednesday, the 19th February 2025, as we have a rather celebratory family gathering ("ya wha', Shar..?!") to attend and to attend to this coming weekend and, when you have such a large family like wha' we is, it takes a lot of organising.
Large venue acquired, needs to be suitably dressed, tables, seating, drinks, meals, entertainment for the younger children, disco for the adults [mostly sounds of the 70's, 80's and early 90's, of course : ya ain't seen nothin' 'til ya have seen the Girl Gang singing and dancing to 'Carwash'!] transport etc.
But we'll be back on Wednesday, 26th February 2025 with, among other bits and pieces, a story of so-called 'high treason', a pardon and transportation, the ending of a particular phase of the struggle for full independence, and the execution of a man who was said by all concerned to be of unfit mind.
And sure if yer gonna miss 'lil aul me that much, then gimme a shout on Twitter and/or Facebook!)
Sharon and the team.
