"The RIC and DMP should be treated as persons who, having been adjudged guilty of treason to their country, are regarded as unworthy to enjoy any of the privileges or comforts which arise from cordial relations with the public.
They must receive no social recognition from the people.
No intercourse is permitted with them, they should not be saluted or spoken to in the streets, not their salutes returned.
They should not be invited to, nor received in, private houses, as friends or guests and they should be debarred from participation in games, sports, dances and all social functions conducted by the people.
In a word, the RIC and DMP should be treated as persons who have been adjudged guilty of treason to the country..."
- the reply given by the Secretary to the Dáil, a Mr Diarmuid O'Hegarty (pictured) on the 23rd April, 1919, when asked for a more explicit definition of what was meant by the ostracism of the RIC and DMP, which had been approved by the Dáil.
It was during the Third Session of the First Dáil (10th April 1919 - 12th April 1919) that the issue of ostracising the RIC and the DMP was raised, and historians later recorded that.. "...the message disseminated slowly and the shunning grew sporadically.."
We could do with a bit of that now...
==========================
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.
On this subject, trade union leader Des Geraghty remarked recently -
"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."
In 1992, in a further unusual move, Bobby Molloy, following intense lobbying by the oil companies, reduced the tax rate levied on oil and gas to 25 per cent, the lowest anywhere in the world.
Industry sources believe this was "naive" on the part of Bobby Molloy, but they accept that at the time he needed to boost exploration ventures in Ireland.
'Frontier Licences' were introduced, allowing the oil companies to hold a licence for up to 20 years on a drilling location option and this, together with 100 per cent write-offs, left the door wide open for Ireland, already plundered, to be raped of its resources...
(MORE LATER.)
"God speed, son..."
-the words of encouragement from a Mr and Mrs McCarthy, Droumbeg, Glandore, County Cork, to their 27-year-old son, Michael, who told them he was joining the Crown Forces and intended to "volunteer for the front", which he did, in January 1915.
He was wounded in that 'adventure', came home and, in December that same year, joined the pro-British 'Dublin Metropolitan Police' ('Service Number 65668') in late 1915, and was placed in various districts (Galway, Down, Belfast).
Mr McCarthy became very friendly with his 'betters' (!) in 'G Division' and was proud of his association with them.
He resigned from the Crown Forces in March, 1920, as he was needed on the family farm and, on the 23rd April, word filtered out to the local community that he had been working in a potato field on a farm owned by his brother Daniel and his sister Margaret at Lackenalooha, near Clonakilty, in County Cork, on the 22nd (he had been there for about a week), when he was approached by two armed men, who shot at him.
He was wounded, but still managed to try and make a run for it, but the men caught up with him.
When his brother and sister went to investigate the gunshots, they found their brother lying in the field and managed to get him to Cork Military Hospital, where he died on the 24th.
He had been shot six times.
As word was filtering out to the local community about Mr McCarthy (on the 23rd April 1920), a British Army General, a Mr ('Sir') Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready (the then recently-appointed 'General Officer Commanding-in-Chief [GOC-in-C] of British forces in Ireland') sent a letter to a Mr Walter Long (a friend of his, '1st Viscount Long', a pro-British Unionist politician) in which he stated -
"Before I was here for three hours (in his new position in Ireland) , I was honestly flabbergasted at the administrative chaos that seems to reign here.
I'm a little nervous, owing to the disorganisation of the RIC, not so much on account of their morale, as in that crass stupidity which is so often found among police officers (sic) who have not been carefully selected.
As regards the RIC, we are sitting on a volcano. If they were turned into an ordinary unarmed police force (sic), they would fulfil their functions in time of peace a good deal better than at present..."
The best "functions" they could have preformed would have been to apologise and then disband.
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THE NUMBER'S UP...
How some famous gambling conspiracies came to light.
By Con Houlihan.
From 'Magill' Magazine Annual 2002.
It made a great story, and the tabloids especially revelled in it.
Some of the alleged conspirators were named in the front pages, including a leading trainer, a member of the aristocracy, and an inspector in the Gardai.
Several people were arrested, and the owner and trainer were charged ; the judge at Preston Crown Court delivered a self-righteous oration on the morality of racing but didn't impose a custodial sentence.
Tony Murphy spoke to the media circus after the case, and his words became a part of folklore -
"We did it only for the craic..."
Life went on.
Nobody thought any worse of the conspirators or those alleged to be conspirators ; I said that I wouldn't trust them to organise a picnic - they might forget the salt or the olive oil or both...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 23rd April, 1921, Volunteer Michael Smyth (pictured), the Officer Commanding of the Kildare 2nd Battalion IRA, opened a letter which had been sent to him the day before, from Volunteer Richard James Mulcahy (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher) who, at that time, was the IRA Chief of Staff.
In his letter, Mr Mulcahy praised Volunteer Smyth and his fighters for 'the offensive action by Kildare IRA which had virtually paralysed enemy transport and communications in the county...'
Mr Mulcahy was later to organise military activities which would, he hoped, 'paralyse IRA transport and communications' in the country.
As Mr Mulcahy's words on paper were being read by Volunteer Smyth, Volunteers Seamus Woods and Roger McCorley (ASU Belfast Brigade) had 'read' the situation in Belfast and had established an ambush site for enemy troops at the corner of Donegall Place and Fountain Street.
A patrol of the Auxiliary Division of the RIC (ADRIC forces, pictured) were walking past, on their guard as ever, when they were fired on, and two of their number - a Mr John Bales and a Mr Ernst Bolam - were shot dead.
An RIC detective who just happened to be passing at the time shot at the Volunteers, who shot back, and two civilians were wounded in the cross-fire.
An RIC 'District Inspector', a Mr John William Nixon, assembled his 'Assassination Squad', including three of his RIC colleagues, a Mr John Patrick Ferris, Mr Christopher Clarke and Mr Richard Dale Winnet Harrison and, that night, burst into the Duffin family home in Belfast (64 Clonard Gardens) and shot dead two brothers, Patrick and Daniel Duffin (Daniel was an IRA Volunteer, Patrick wasn't).
And, actually, an 'RIC Service Dog' (a 'Station Dog', kenneled/housed in Springfield Road RIC Barracks) was left behind at the murder scene, having become trapped in the Duffin house ; an RIC member actually called to the house later that night to collect the dog!
Both brothers were given IRA funerals, coffins draped with Irish Tricolours, and IRA Volunteers marched in rank formation in the funeral cortège.
Incidentally, Catholic Bishop MacRory gave a graveside oration, and quite a number of other clerics were proud to accompany the family and the other mourners on the last earthly journey of Patrick and Daniel Duffin.
On the same date that an RIC assassination squad was doing its work, a 14-member RIC cycle patrol was out and throwing its weight around about 380km (235 miles) down the road, in Galway.
When they got to Kilmilkin, near the town of Maam, they rode straight into an IRA Flying Column ambush by the West Galway Brigade (under the command of Volunteer Peter Joe McDonnell, pictured) and, in the gunfight, an RIC member, a Mr John Boylan ('Service Number 60741' 40 years of age, from County Leitrim, with 19 years 'service to the Crown'), was shot dead and two of his colleagues were wounded.
That night, the RIC attacked two houses in the area, one of which was the family home of a Mr Padraig Ó Máille (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher).
While those cyclists were licking their wounds in Galway, their colleagues in the 'Special Constabulary' 250km up the road (about 155 miles) in Drumshanbo, in the townland of Drumlegagh, in County Tyrone, came under fire from an IRA Unit and, although no casualities were reported by either side, on their return to their Cookstown Barracks the 'Specials' opened fire on a brother and sister who were causing them no trouble, a Mr Michael Langan and his sister, Kate.
Michael was shot through the lung, and his sister was also wounded by them.
As those 'Specials' were dodging bullets, one of their political bosses, a 'Sir' NF Warren Fisher, was showing his boss, Llyod George, a letter he had received from his colleague, a Mr John Anderson, the '1st Viscount Waverley' and 'Under-Secretary for Ireland'.
In his letter, Mr Anderson had suggested that Westminster should go easy on the Irish, because, he opined, to do so might not lead to a settlement but "it would put us right in the eyes of the world..."!
While Mr Anderson and his political colleagues were discussing optics in Westminster, the body of a Mr Timothy Cranley (45), a butcher from Saint Michael Street in Tipperary, was found on the roadside at the village of Rosanna, on the outskirts of Tipperary Town.
He had been shot dead, after ignoring advice from the IRA to have no dealings, business or otherwise, with the RIC.
At the same time as Mr Cranley's body was discovered, about 85km (50 miles) up the road, by arrangement, the IRA Active Service Unit of the 7th Battalion of the Kilkenny Brigade, under the command of Volunteer Ned Aylward (pictured) had temporarily relocated to cover an area between the villages of Piltown and Fiddown, in Kilkenny, which was usually patrolled by the IRA's 8th Battalion.
The ASU were in position to ambush an RIC patrol which was due to pass their location when, unexpectedly, a lone Black and Tan, a Mr Carrigan, cycled into their trap, and was captured.
Soon after, however, the ambush party were being closed-in on by the RIC and British Army and retreated, bringing their prisoner with them.
As they had enough to worry about in securing their own safety, Volunteer Aylward had to decide whether to shoot the Tan or let him go - he was released.
The Volunteers returned safely to base.
As the RIC/British Army were unsuccessfully looking for the escaping IRA ASU in Kilkenny, the body of ex-British Army soldier, jobbing as best he could as a handyman, a Mr John McCabe, from Crossmaglen in County Armagh, was found in a barn by a farmer near the village of Tullyvaragh, in County Monaghan, about 180km (110 miles) up the road from them.
Mr McCabe had been shot four times, and a sign placed around his neck, which read 'Convicted Spy - IRA'.
As Mr McCabe's body was being investigated, three armed and masked IRA Volunteers were entering the home of a M/s Kate Carroll in Grattanstown, in County Louth, about 55km (35 miles) down the road from where the investigators were.
M/s Carroll was dating an RIC member from Dunleer, in County Louth, and had been advised to stop doing so ; she ignored the advice, and the three men shaved her hair off.
At the same time as M/s Carroll was getting her hair done, the IRA hijacked a goods train at Falkland's Cross near Glaslough, in County Monaghan, about 65km (40 miles) up the road, and set fire to it and, while the blaze was catching, a Mr Mark Sturgis (pictured), a 'Civil Servant' (!) in the British political administration in Dublin Castle, wrote a note to himself in his diary about the Irish-English situation -
"The Prime Minister (Llyod George) will not make them a definite offer so long as they ask for a Republic. They will not cease to ask for a Republic till the Prime Minister makes them an offer..."
Mr Sturgis was discovering that he himself, his Prime Minister and, indeed, his political and military apparatus had hoisted themselves with their own petard in regards to the 'Empire's' interference in Ireland...
As his bosses in Dublin Castle were busy hoisting themselves, an RIC member, a Mr John McFadden (30, 'Service Number 65056'), was 'On Duty' in Market Square in Kilrush, in County Clare, with a colleague, on their way back to their barracks, when they were ambushed by the IRA ; Mr McFadden was shot dead.
On that same date (23rd April 1921), twelve RIC members in County Sligo were assigned 'escort duty' and travelled to Belfast.
At about 9pm that night, two of them - a Mr John Beets Bales (23, 'Service Number RIC 82706/ADRIC 1876') and a Mr Ernest Baran Bolam (34, a 'Temporary Cadet') - were walking at the junction of Donegall Place and Fountain Lane, in Belfast, when two IRA Volunteers approached them and opened fire.
Mr Bolam died at the scene, and Mr Bales died in the Royal Victoria Hospital the following 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.
In the early hours of 3rd December 1995, a light single-engine Piper Lance aircraft disappeared from Djerba Airport, Tunisia.
Five passengers were on board, along with the pilot and, seven years later, mystery and controversy continue to surround the events of that night.
Among the disappeared is 38-year-old Belfast engineer, Desmond Boomer ; his travelling companions were English engineer Michael Williams (49), Polish national Tadeus Gorny (48), and Maltese nationals Philip Farrugia (43) and Matthew Aquilina (22).
The pilot, Captain Carmelo Bartolo (47), was also Maltese.
Desmond Boomer's elderly parents live in Andersonstown, Belfast, the home he shared with his wife and five children is in County Down, and he worked in the Libyan oil-fields for a UK-based company, 'Mapel Engineering'.
Because of UN sanctions against Colonel Gaddafi's government following the Lockerbie bombing, foreign workers could not fly directly to Libya.
Small planes usually ferried MAPEL employees along a (possibly illegal) route between the Mediterranean island of Malta and Djerba Airport in Tunisia...
(MORE LATER.)
A blind 68-year-old man, a Mr Robert Miller, was shot dead in his house in Beechfield Street in Belfast on the 23rd April, 1922, in a shooting which was apparently linked to the shooting of a local woman, a Mrs McCabe...*? - note : the death of Mr Millar has been on occasion confused/dismissed over the decades as an anomaly due to the death of another Robert Miller, a 22-year-old British Army soldier who, in August 1978, was part of a foot patrol which was passing a parked car when it exploded, killing the soldier. Some of our sources confuse/dismiss the earlier event.
When the incident on Beechfield Street was taking place, people were mixing in the carpark and surrounds of Saint Mathew's Church in Ballymacarret in Belfast (about 5.5 miles/3.5km distance) when a hand grenade was thrown into the crowd, the explosion from which killed a local woman, a M/s Elizabeth McCabe* and seriously injured an RIC member, a Mr John Moriarty.
At the same time, some of the Volunteers from the 2nd Northern Division IRA were leaving and/or preparing to leave their homes in Derry and Tyrone and go 'on the run', as they were aware that Crown Force members were looking for them - they laid low in Donegal, having reported for duty to the leadership of the 1st Northern Division IRA (in McCarry's Hotel in Letterkenny, County Donegal) represented by Volunteer Charles Daly.
Where, hopefully, they caused just as much trouble for enemy troops...!
==========================
"The various sources of information at our disposal not only in this office but also in the War Office, have yielded no single indication of bad faith on the part of the Free State government.
The members of the government have risked their lives and suffered loss in their property and families in order to make good their obligations under the Treaty to establish a constitutional government in Ireland.
The most conclusive proof of all this is that they have not hesitated to execute some of their former comrades..."
- part of a British Government internal memo written by the 'British Secretary of State for the Colonies' on the 23rd April, 1923, a Mr Victor Christian William Cavendish (pictured), the '9th Duke of Devonshire'.
On the same date that Mr 9th Duke praised the Staters in Leinster House, a Mr Richard Mulcahy, the 'Commander-in-Chief' of the Free State, wrote his own memo to his 'Defence Council' in which he opined that the Officer Commanding of the Free State Army in Claremorris, County Mayo, a Mr Dan Hogan, needed more men and resources.
And, as Mr Mulcahy was putting pen to paper, so, too, were business people in the County of Kildare - they wrote to the Free State Minister for Local Government, a Mr Ernest Blyth, complaining about a recent rise in taxes and insisting that more tax money be spent on road networks and health care in Kildare.
They requested that Mr Blyth "appoint administrators to run the county or to manage the budget..." ; we don't know if Mr Blyth wrote to Mr Cavendish asking if he had any ideas on how to keep those Staters in check...
As Mr Blyth was no doubt pondering the request for administrators, the 'Kerry Command of the Free State Army' issued a report to him stating that the units controlled by one of the local rebel leaders, a Mr John Joe Rice (Officer Commanding of Kerry No. 2 IRA Brigade) "have not up to the present suffered any serious depletion".
Maybe they should have issued their report to London as well...
Finally, a Free State Army Sergeant, a Mr James Montgomery ('Service Number VR3097'), who was attached to the 'Motor Transport Corps, Curragh Division', from 104 Old Park Road in Belfast, County Antrim, was 'on patrol' in Moorabby, Monasterevin in County Kildare when, on the 23rd April, 1923, "he was accidentally shot dead by a fellow soldier".
Volunteer John Joe Rice died on the 24th July, 1970, in Kenmare, County Kerry, at the age of 77.
RIP to that brave man.
==========================
Thanks for reading - sure we love ya for it!
Sharon and the team.
Hope ye have geared yerselves up for the temporary absence of this blog for 3 or 4 weeks soon, as meself and the Girl Gang are heading off to the Canary Islands in May, as one of the Gang owns a villa there.
The two lads that work on the blog with me will be taking a break, too (in dirty aul Dublin!) and sure we know fine well that everyone is gonna miss us, especially the Gang's husbands, childer and grandchilder etc.
But their aim'll get better...and our aim is to have the craic in the sun on the beach, in the shops, bars and restaurants : and there ain't nothin' wrong with our aim...!
