On the 4th June 1919, the Irish delegation (representing all 32 Counties) to the Paris Peace Conference, led by Seán T. O'Kelly (a republican-gamekeeper turned-Free State-poacher) presented a memorandum to M. Clemenceau, the French Prime Minister.
The memo concerned itself with Ireland's claim for independence and the need for international recognition, and those presenting it sought to be heard and to be allowed to participate in the peace treaty negotiations, arguing, correctly, that Westminster had no right to speak for Ireland.
The Conference and its treaties (specifically the Treaty of Versailles, which ended 'World War I') had far-reaching consequences, including the establishment of 'The League of Nations', the reshaping of European borders, and the imposition of harsh terms on Germany.
The Irish position - indeed, it's mere presence - was objected to by the British delegation and, despite some 'corridor conferences', we were unsuccessful in our endeavours but, had we been, the ensuing military and political conflict which, to this day remains unresolved, would more than likely have been avoided...
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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.
Now, once production starts from the Corrib field, the oil companies will be able to write off all costs going back 25 years!
These are the same companies that operate elsewhere in the world under far more stringent regulations.
In the Faroe Islands, for example, no company can operate without agreeing to a minimum government take of 55% by way of taxes and royalties.
The oil companies are also obliged to give a commitment to develop a sea port in the area, and these are the same companies operating off the west of Ireland.
In Norway, the government take was up to 79% on some of the fields, and that compares to zero% here ; the Norwegians have also benefited with the development of infrastructure for their ports and other services.
The government here should, at the very least, introduce a nominal 2% levy on production which could be used for local development and employment...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 4th June, 1920, IRA GHQ issued 'General Order No. 6' (pictured) to all Volunteers.
This Order was a follow-on from a directive from the Dáil announced in April that year in connection with the ostracisation of the RIC, in which Mr Diarmaid O’Hegarty, the Secretary to the Dáil, had stated that 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..."
'GO No.6' put some flesh on the bones of that -
'Volunteers shall have no intercourse with the RIC and shall stimulate and support in every way the boycott of this force, ordered by the Dáil.
These persons who associate with the RIC shall be subjected to the same boycott, and the fact of their association with, and toleration of this infamous force, shall be kept public in every possible way.
Definite lists of such persons in the area of his command shall be prepared by each Company, Battalion and Brigade Commander.'
In our opinion, the same should be done today with the RUC/PSNI in the Occupied Six Counties and with the Free State Gardai, the AGS ; those two groupings are constantly overstepping their remit by, among other actions, using pepper-spray and batons to ensure entry for foreign vagrants into working-class areas.
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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.
Times will be tough at Montrose in the year ahead, as RTE's struggle to balance commercial viability with broadcasting integrity grows ever more arduous.
But the ill wind has brought about something of worth - at last, an adequate degree of debate on the nature and status of a public service broadcaster is taking place in this country.
Across the water in recent months, Melvyn Bragg's slating of the BBC for its "dereliction of duty" triggered discussion of that duty, and of the responsibilities of a public service remit - discussion which prompted BBC viewers to ask questions of their national broadcaster, just as their RTE counterparts are beginning to ask questions here.
However, they are not the same questions, and they will never achieve the same results ; here's why -
Melvyn Bragg brought the BBC to its knees by pointing out that, within the past year, the station had screened only a single arts documentary and that, by failing to develop this crucial genre, they were neglecting to address and to reflect the public they claimed to represent...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 4th June, 1921, IRA Volunteers attached to 'E Company' of the 2nd Battalion of the Dublin Brigade were positioned on Newcomen Bridge (pictured) at the North Strand, waiting for a British Army vehicle which was due to pass by, with the intention of disabling it.
The vehicle arrived and the Volunteers, as tasked, threw a number of grenades at and under it, and left the scene.
It was put out of commission but, unfortunately, one of the fragmented parts of it hit a nine-year-old schoolboy, Andrew Hanratty, and the poor child died shortly afterwards.
RIP young Andrew Hanratty.
On the 7th May, 1921, an IRA Flying Column from Belfast travelled to east County Cavan at the request of IRA Colonel Seán McGouran.
The operation was to disarm a local RIC party near the village of Cootehill, in County Cavan, but they were ambushed near Lappinduff Mountain by enemy forces of around 100 men and, during the ensuing gun battle, Volunteer Sean McCartney was killed, other Volunteers were injured and 13 of the rebels were subsequently 'arrested', tried, and sentenced to death.
The Volunteers were awaiting the hangman in Crumlin Road Jail, but Volunteers attached to the 3rd Northern Division of the IRA set a plan in motion to break them out.
A Webley revolver was smuggled into the prison and, on the 4th June (1921), a four-man rescue team, disguised as RIC members and British Army Officers, drove up to the gates of Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast and, as expected, were stopped there by the sentries.
They told the armed guards that they were there to take custody of some of the fighters who had been captured at Lappinduff Mountain and they were waved through the gate checkpoint but, once inside, one of the 'British Army Officers' was recognised as an IRA man and the alarm was raised.
The IRA team managed to escape, but they didn't manage to take any of the Lappinduff POW's with them but all 13 were released as part of the Truce between the IRA and Westminster which occurred on the 11th July, 1921.
A close call...
...but no 'close call' for Volunteers attached to 'E Company' of the 3rd Battalion of the Dublin Brigade who, under the command of Volunteer Joseph O'Connor, gained entry to the British Army's 'GHQ Motor Repair and Ordnance Depot' (pictured) at the Shell Factory in Parkgate Street, in Dublin.
The Volunteers burned the stored oil, resulting in the destruction of 5 armoured cars and 35 other vehicles belonging to the Crown Forces and, while the flames were taking hold, other Dublin Volunteers (attached to 'F Company', 2nd Battalion, under the command of Lieutenant Danny Lyons), acting on information supplied to them by Brigade Intelligence Officers, had made their way to Sea Road in Clontarf where, as expected, they encountered two ex-British Army soldiers, a Mr John Brady and a Mr Thomas Halpin (who were still 'keeping company' with their old Crown Force colleagues) - both of them were shot and died later that day from their wounds.
At the same time as some Dublin Volunteers were warming themselves in Parkgate Street and taking in the sea air in Clontarf, two British Army deserters, a Mr George Mottley and a Mr John ('Jack') Steer, both of whom had made contact with the Kerry IRA months earlier and cautiously declared and announced themselves as 'neutral' and tried to maintain contact and relations with the rebels, were shot dead by the IRA in the village of Kilcummin, near Killarney, in County Kerry.
The remains of both men were recovered from a Kerry bog in 1926.
On the same day as the Parkgate Street attack, and possibly because of it, RIC Auxiliary troops parked their truck at the bottom of Capel Street in Dublin, dismounted, and opened fire on civilians - men, women and children.
A number of people were wounded and two men, Henry O'Rourke and John Murphy, died as a result.
RIP to those two men.
As the Crown Forces in Dublin were firing into civilians in Capel Street, their colleagues in the Military Detention Barracks in Limerick were placing one of their prisoners, IRA Captain Thomas Keane ('C Company', 2nd Battalion, Mid-Limerick Brigade), up against a white-washed wall.
They then shot him dead.
And, as they shot him, their colleagues 'keeping the peace' outside the barracks attacked the crowd of mourners, injuring people who had gathered there to pray at the time of the execution.
RIP Volunteer Thomas Keane.
While the Crown Forces in Limerick were executing and battering Irish men and women, the Crown Forces (British Army and RIC) on the Clare/Galway border (near the Slieve Aughty Mountains) had set-up a 'Recruitment Fare', to run from the 4th June to the 12th. On the 13th, they reported back to their HQ that "...we met with no success..".
Which is not strictly true, as they got out of there alive.
As they were setting-out their recruitment stall on the 4th, one of their RIC mates, a Mr Chandler, was setting-out his kit in the Curragh, in County Kildare to travel, on the next day, the short distance with his buddies, in a convoy, to Carlow Town.
The convoy consisted of three Crossley Tender trucks, carrying one British Army Officer, fifteen BA Privates, one Sergeant and seven RIC members.
At about 10pm, at the Kildangan Crossroads in the county of Kildare, the rear truck blew a tyre and pulled in ; not wanting to be abandoned in enemy territory, a Crown Force member in the punctured truck fired two shots to indicate to his colleagues in the other trucks that they were in trouble.
RIC member Chandler thought that was a great idea, and sure didn't he then fire three shots himself, one of which hit a British Army Private in the convoy, a Mr William Green (attached to the '1st North Staffordshire Regiment') and Mr Green died on the spot.
Good job Mr Chandler wasn't asked to change the wheel...
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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.
Carmelo Bartolo was the owner of two small private Maltese airlines, 'Excelair' and 'Sun Aviation'.
Five weeks earlier, the Maltese press had implicated him, wittingly or not, in the assassination of the leader of Islamic Jihad, Fathi Shqaqi ; the impression was given that Carmelo Bartolo may have assisted members of the Israeli secret service, Mossad, to escape from the island in the hours following the killing on the 26th October 1995.
Desmond Boomer was initially due home for Christmas on the 13th December 1995, then his plans changed - on Saturday, 2nd December, he called his wife, Mandy, twice, from Djerba Airport.
The first call was in the afternoon ; he told his wife Mandy that he was coming home early and probably for good.
His second call was made around 9.30pm, when he informed Mandy that there was "very bad weather" and that he did not expect to fly out of Djerba until sometime the following day. His parting words are etched in his wife's memory - "I love you, Mandy".
A British passenger, Mike Williams, also made a phone call that Saturday ; he spoke to Ray Merciece, the lead guitarist and singer with 'The Characters', the most popular rock band in Malta at the time...
(MORE LATER.)
A Westminster-appointed 'Resident Magistrate' in Newry, County Down/Armagh, in Ireland, a Mr James Woulfe-Flanagan, was wanted for questioning by the IRA, and a two-man team, Volunteers Eddie O'Hare and Edward Fullerton, was dispatched to arrest him -
"On the 3rd June 1922, I was in the military barracks*, Dundalk.
I got an order that evening to proceed to Newry and, on the following morning, to arrest or shoot Mr. James Woulfe-Flanagan, Resident Magistrate.
I was told that Mr. Woulfe-Flanagan was in the habit of attending 11 o'clock Mass in the Cathedral in Newry and that he could be got coming from that Mass. I took Eddie O'Hare with me from the military barracks and we proceeded to Newry.
Next morning I made contact with Pat McEvoy, who had a Ford car, and I asked him to have his car available for us in his garage from 9 o'clock onwards, as we had a 'job' to do in Newry.
We had scouts out from 10 o'clock onwards to find out if Mr. Woulfe-Flanagan attended any of the earlier Masses. Shortly after the 11 o'clock Mass had started the scouts reported that Mr. Woulfe-Flanagan had gone to that Mass.
At about a quarter to twelve we got the car parked as close as possible to the Cathedral steps, at Fox, the barber's shop, and immediately in front of Mr. Woulfe-Flanagan's parked car.
Eddie O'Hare and myself then waited on the Cathedral steps until the congregation started to come out after the 11 o'clock Mass. When Mr. Woulfe-Flanagan and his two sisters came out, I approached him and informed him that I had orders from the IRA to arrest him and that, if he resisted, he was doing so at the peril of his life.
Having warned him, I took hold of him on one side and O'Hare took hold of him on the other. He violently resisted our efforts to force him to come with us.
As he was a powerful man of over six foot in height, when we found we were not able to force him to come with us we both fired and mortally wounded him..."
(* A British Army military barracks, which the IRA had taken over.)
- Statement by Volunteer Edward Fullerton.
That's cat altogether - that story of the 'wolf', the fox, the hare and the 'legal eagle'...
...and, on the same day that Mr Woulfe-Flanagan refused a lift, 52km (about 32 miles) up the road in Belfast, a Mr Robert Hunt (50) was walking across Ross Street when he was shot by a sniper, and died later that day in the Mater Hospital from his wounds, and a 25-years-young man, a Mr William Rice, was walking along Lime Street when a British Army soldier shot him dead.
RIP Mr Robert Hunt and Mr William Rice.
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Thanks for reading - but, ya know, when we get to 2 million, we're gonna keep buggin' ya to come back, 'cause we'll be looking for yer help to get to 3 million...!
Sharon and the team.
We won't be here on Wednesday, 11th June 2025, as the three of us will be down the country visiting a dear friend and comrade of ours who is in her final days. A genuine 'country woman', an old rebel, tough as auld boots and as honest, straight and strong as a six-inch nail.
Truly one of our own, a true friend, and an invaluable source of information, detail and just general auld chit-chat, who helped us out manys a time over the decades, and is one of our 'go-to' people for the historical knowledge we need to put the blog together.
We'll be back on Wednesday, 18th June 2025.
’Tis fifty long years since I saw the moon beaming,
On strong female forms and on eyes with hope gleaming,
I see them again, sure, through all my day dreaming,
Glory o, glory o, to the bold Fenian women...
