On the 18th June, 1919, Dáil Éireann (not to be confused with the present-day Leinster House institution) established the 'National Arbitration Courts', which became known as the 'Sinn Féin Courts'.
The objective was two-fold : to stamp the authority of Irish people over their own justice system, and to expedite problems with land agitation issues on a county-by-county basis ie the Dáil was aware that a 'one size-fits-all'-type of system wouldn't work, so the implementation of the courts was left to the discretion of each county.
The 'Arbitration Courts' model was replaced in June, 1920, by a more formal 'Dáil Courts' system which itself was later dismantled by the Free Staters and the present-day 'Greasy Till' process, which generally favours the State 'Establishment', was enacted, unfortunately.
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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.
Mike Cunningham found it "most unusual" that the Taoiseach made the announcement of a joint venture to build the pipeline even before there had been a declaration that the Corrib was commercially viable.
In 1995, Michael Lowry issued many of the licences to the various interested parties, including 'Enterprise Oil', which holds the bulk of licences in Irish waters, including the much-lauded Corrib North gas field, in which it has a 45% stake.
'Statoil Exploration (Ireland)', together with 'Marathon International Hibernia Ltd', hold the remaining shares.
'Enterprise Energy Ireland Ltd', the operating company for the project, is headed up by 'Enterprise Oil' personnel, and is now known as 'Enterprise Fuinneamh Éireann'...
(MORE LATER.)
"You may make mistakes occasionally, and innocent persons may be shot, but that cannot be helped.
When civilians are seen approaching, shout, "Hands up!" and, should the order be not obeyed, shoot and shoot with effect.
If persons are seen on the streets and they run away, shoot them..."
- British Army Lieutenant-Colonel Gerald Bryce Ferguson Smyth ('DSO and Bar, French Croix de Guerre and Belgian Croix de Guerre' etc etc, pictured), addressing his troops and RIC members in Ireland, 1920.
His troops were 'gung-ho' with the 'shoot-on-sight' order, but the RIC argued against it, and refused to accept it.
Mr Smyth epitomised the British imperial officer class - he was a symbol of the British 'Establishment', a decorated war 'hero', and a ruthless enforcer of British misrule in Ireland, and spoke of his intention to crush the Irish Republican Army and dismantle the Republican Movement.
As the Westminster-appointed 'Divisional Commander for Munster', he ordered (in June 1920) the RIC in the village of Listowel, in County Kerry, to vacate their barracks and hand the building over to his troops, declaring that those RIC men were to be relocated to other stations in the district.
The RIC members in Listowel refused to leave the building and, on the 18th June (1920), Mr Smyth and the 'Police (sic) Advisor to the Irish Viceregal Administration in Ireland', a Major-General Henry Hugh Tudor, and their entourage (them being important people and all tha'...!), decided to take a trip to the "mutinous RIC station in Listowel" and the RIC members there were eventually placed in other areas.
Incidentally, on Saturday, the 17th July (1920), Mr Smyth was in the 'Smoking Room' of the County Club (a 'Gentleman's Club', frequented by British Army officers and loyalists) just off the South Mall, in Cork, having a smoke after dinner and drinks with his colleagues, among whom was the RIC 'County Inspector', a Mr George Craig, when an ASU from the Cork No.1 Brigade IRA, with Volunteer Dan 'Sandow' O'Donovan in command, interrupted play (!) and opened fire.
Mr Smyth was shot dead, and Mr Craig was badly wounded, but survived.
In short, Mr Smyth himself was 'relocated'.
While Mr Smyth and his friend Mr Tudor were packing their bags for the trip to Listowel, their comrades in the UVF, a pro-British paramilitary grouping, were consolidating their control of the Diamond and the Guildhall Square areas of Derry.
Once secure in their occupation, the UVF used the height advantage of the City Walls to fire into the Bogside, a nationalist area.
People walking on the footpaths, standing at their halldoors, coming or going to venues etc were fired on - men, women and children.
Derry IRA Volunteers Michael Sheerin and Alfie McCallion organised their IRA Company to defend the area, as did Cumann na mBan Commander Kathleen McGuinness, but they were outnumbered and outgunned, and were losing the battle when the British Army arrived on scene, and the UVF withdrew, but only temporarily - when the City Walls area went quiet, the British soldiers returned to barracks, and the UVF returned, opening fire again.
The IRA managed to establish a command centre in a college building (St Columb's), with Volunteers Patrick Shield and Michael Sheerin in charge (and two high-ranking IRA volunteers, Peadar Clancy and Dick McKee, came from Dublin and consulted with the Volunteers in the college) and rebels armed with rifles were sent out on patrol to target the loyalist shooters, which they did.
At least 20 people were killed during the attacks, which 'The Irish Independent' newspaper described as "war, pure and simple", and 'The Derry Journal' newspaper wrote that British soldiers had stood idly by while unionist gunmen had a free hand ; the UVF Commander in Derry later talked about how he and the British Army soldier in charge during the conflict discussed the issue as it was taking place and how he (the British Army lead soldier) "deferred to me as if I was virtually the Governor of Derry...".
The Westminster-enabled Stormont 'Parliament' in Belfast declared martial law on the 24th June (1920) but the fighting continued for another two days, with the IRA gaining the upper hand - on the 26th, extra enemy forces were drafted into the city of Derry (1,500 BA soldiers and 150 RIC members), forcing the IRA to dump arms and withdraw from their command centre.
But the IRA didn't withdraw, overall, from the conflict itself...
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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.
Timely as it was for his own purposes (made as ITV prepared to launch the 25th season of his 'South Bank Show'), Melvyn Bragg's attack was lethally effective because it struck at the core of the BBC's insecurity about its public service remit, pin-pointing the essence of what public service broadcasting ought to do, ensuring that debate centered around a specific shortcoming rather than declining into a quibble about receipts and transparency, which is essentially all that the Irish debate has been.
We, too, should approach the problem properly.
If a public service broadcaster cannot recognise and reflect a central area of its viewers' experience, something significant is amiss and, here - in a country in which an estimated 25,000 people make their living from the artistic and cultural sectors - where the status of literature, drama, film, music, dance and the visual arts are bound up with national identity, the arts is just such an area of experience.
As the only genre which can capture contemporary experience in an interrogative, original and stimulating fashion, documentary is the only hope of escape from the pressure of towering piles of press releases which now dictate the format of any attempt at arts programming...
(MORE LATER.)
"Military action to be effective must be vigorous and ruthless.
No war can be carried on effectively in the glare of public criticism - it would be the wildest folly to embark on such a policy unless the Government were absolutely convinced that they could command the necessary support in Parliament and the country.
It is a case of 'all out or get out'..."
- Mr John Anderson (pictured), the '1st Viscount Waverley', in a letter he wrote on the 18th June, 1921, to the British 'Chief Secretary for Ireland', a 'Sir' Hamar Greenwood.
Mr Anderson was the (Westminster-) appointed 'Under-Secretary for Ireland' from 1921 to 1922.
His 'duties' (!) included 'tweaking' the Dublin Castle administrative machine and doing the same for the British 'police force' in Ireland, the RIC, which he most certainly did, but definitely not a 'job' to be proud of : he is, in effect, the mostly unknown and unheard of 'parent' to three murderous groupings in this country - the Black and Tans, the Auxiliaries, and the Special Constabulary (in the Occupied Six Counties).
Mr Anderson also acted as a high-level advisor to the British side during the 'Treaty of Surrender' talks, which brought him further to the attention of the IRA.
However, he survived his time in Ireland, and died in London on the 4th January, 1958, aged seventy-six, from cancer of the pancreas.
As Mr Anderson was putting pen to paper for his 'Gung-Ho!' letter to his boss, the IRA Officer Commanding of an ASU attached to the Kilkenny No.1 Brigade (pictured), Volunteer George O'Dwyer, was waiting with his men (about 60 Volunteers) at an ambush point they had established at the village of Coolbawn, near Castlecomer, in County Kilkenny.
However, the IRA Unit was itself ambushed by the British soldiers they were waiting on, resulting in a firefight and the deaths of two Volunteers, Nicholas Mullins and Seán Hartley, and the wounding and capture of another Volunteer, James Doyle.
The remainder of the IRA Volunteers escaped.
On later investigation, it transpired that a local woman, a M/s Florence M Dreaper, a farm owner known to be anti-republican, had notified the British military about the ambush and, on the night of the 7th of July (1921), M/s Dreaper answered a knock at the door of her 'Finsboro House' home and was greeted (!) by Volunteers from the IRA 3rd Battalion, Kilkenny Brigade, who advised her and anyone else in the mini-mansion to leave immediately as they were about to burn it down.
Which they did.
RIP Volunteers Nicholas Mullins and Seán Hartley.
As that gun battle was taking place, 150km (about 93 miles) up the road, in County Clare, an RIC member, a Mr George Stockdale ('Service Number 74590') went for a swim and drowned and, as that poor man was going down for the third time, up and 'across the road' from him, about 230km (145 miles) away in Dublin, an ex-British Army sodier, a Mr Robert Pike, who lived in Tolka Cottages in Drumcondra and who still maintained regular contact with his soldier buddies, was leaving Fleming's Shop on the Drumcondra Road when he was shot dead.
As the grocery bag on Drumcondra Road was emptying its load, an eight-man RIC cycle patrol was 'on duty' about 125km (75 miles) down the road in Fiddown, near Mooncoin, in County Kilkenny, local IRA Volunteers attached to the 9th Battalion of the Kilkenny Brigade, including Jack 'Na Culla' Walsh, Ted Moore, Pat 'The Builder' Walsh and Dick Brennan, were lying in wait for them at Sinnott's Cross (between Piltown and Mooncoin, in County Kilkenny) and opened fire on them when they cycled into the ambush position.
One RIC member, a Mr Albert Bradford (21, with ten months 'service' in the position), from Essex, in England, was killed and another, a Mr John Stewart, from Scotland, was wounded.
While Mr Bradford's pushbike wheel was spinning aimlessly, a number of IRA Officers and Volunteers attached to the Cork (West) No. 3 Brigade were resting about 155km (95 miles) down the road in a Mr Charles O'Sullivan's house, in the townland of Maulatrahane, in Kilmacabea Civil Parish, in Barony, County Cork.
Volunteers Liam Deasy, Tom Barry and Tadgh O'Sullivan were among those in the house when, suddenly, the alarm was raised that British soldiers from the 'King's Liverpools Regiment' were in the yard.
The Volunteers escaped from the house but, having left at such speed, two trench coats were among the items left behind and taken away by the Crown Forces.
With nothing (now!) to loose, Volunteer Tom Barry wrote a letter to British Army Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Hudson, who was then in command of 'the Liverpool's', insisting that his trench coat, and the other one, be returned immediately as they were not material considered to be contraband of war!
Surprisingly, Mr Hudson agreed with the demand and delivered the two coats to a Mr Richard Connolly, the editor of 'The Southern Star' newspaper who, in turn, delivered them to Volunteer Tom Barry.
'Trench warfare' with a twist...!
...and a circle to go with the twist -
On the same date that the trench coats were 'lost' in Cork, other coats were being removed by those that were wearing them and were placed on the backs of chairs in Mrs O'Rahilly's house in 40 Herbert Park, in Dublin (pictured - this historic building was destroyed with political approval in September 2020, and a migrant barracks was probably built in its place).
On that date (the 18th June 1921) two republican-gamekeepers-turned-Free State-poachers - a Mr Éamon de Valera and a Mr Robert Brennan - and one staunch Irish republican, Mr Erskine Childers, who was executed by people like Mr de Valera and Mr Brennan, held a meeting in the Herbert Park house.
Mr de Valera explained his concept of 'external association' by a circle, representing Ireland, touching, but not part of, a larger circle, representing the 'British Commonwealth', and was enthused about his 'we-are-but-we-aren't' political 'solution'!
Mr Brennan later stated that he didn't really think Mr de Valera could sell the notion, but said... "...I could not but admire the rare political genius which had brought it into being...", while Mr Childers was not enthusiastic about it at all, to put it mildly...
As Mr de Valera was 'squaring circles' in Dublin, in Mayo - about 225km (135 miles) up the road - 'The Western People' newspaper carried a report about the 13th June discovery of the partly decomposed body of a young man in a bog near the townland of Sraheen, on the road between Ballina and Foxford, in County Mayo -
'A post mortem examination was held, and the remains of all that was mortal of Michael Tolan (pictured, a batchelor, who lived on Shamble Street, in the town of Castlebar) was clearly and conclusively identified.
The way in which he met his death is given in the horrifying story told by the medial gentlemen named.
Two bullet wounds were found in the back of the head, one having an exit through the eye, and other through the cheek bone, four teeth which did not appear to have been extracted, were missing, and evidently broken off by a heavy blunt instrument ; an arm was wrenched off, and in the chest penetrating to the back was a large wound as if inflicted by a bayonet.
Such was the manner in which poor Tolan met his death...'
(From here.)
Volunteer Michael J Tolan, a tailor by trade, was born with 'reel foot' disability (where the feet face inwards), affecting his walk, his balance and his ability to defend himself.
At the time he was slaughtered by the Crown Forces, he was a Non-Commissioned Officer for the North Mayo Brigade IRA, an intelligence officer, recruiter and a 'summons server' for the local arbitration courts (known as the 'Sinn Féin Courts').
The body was exhumed in November 1921 and an autopsy carried out which gave evidence that he was tortured before being killed.
Volunteer Michael J Tolan was later buried with full military honours.
RIP Volunteer Michael J Tolan.
On the same date that 'The Western People' newspaper reported on Volunteer Tolan, 247km (about 155 miles) across the country, in County Louth, IRA Volunteers called to the farmhouse of a Mr George Brown, near the town of Carlingford, told him to leave the property as they were there to burn it down, as he had ignored their advice to stop contacting the Crown Forces with (mostly low-level) information. Mr Brown vacated the house, and it was then burned down.
Three days later, Crown Forces removed a Mr James Cunningham from the shop he owned in the same area and burned it down ; Mr Cunningham was a known Sinn Féin supporter (and IRA Volunteer).
A woman died as a result of the shop fire, but the poor soul has never been identified.
44 miles away (about 70 km), in County Cavan, at that same time, a gun was discharged in Kinaleck RIC Barracks and a 20-years-young RIC member from Essex, in England, fell down, wounded.
RIC member Albert Moore had only joined that grouping five months earlier ('Service Number 77437') and died from his wound in Dr Steeven's Hospital, Kilmainham, Dublin, the next day.
One of his RIC colleagues had 'accidentally discharged his weapon in the barracks...'
On the same day that one RIC member shot another, Volunteers from the Offaly No.2 Brigade (pictured), 90km (about 55 miles) down the road from the Cavan barracks, two ex-British Army soldiers were removed from their houses near the village of Belmont, in County Offaly, and shot dead.
A Mr Thomas Cunningham and a Mr Michael Reilly had both previously been advised, more than once, to "cease all association" with their Crown Force colleagues, but failed to do so.
"It would be a great pity if well-meaning people queered the position by too much of this talk of peace.
There are always those who want to insist on shaking hands before the combat is over, and, in my opinion, we are not so near the end yet that we can afford to start the hand-shaking..."
- a Mr Michael Collins, in a letter he wrote to a Mr George Gavan Duffy (pictured), on the 18th June, 1921.
Ironic, really, considering that both Mr Collins and Mr Duffy 'shook hands (with the British) before the combat was over' and ended their days opposed to those who refused to shake those hands.
On the same date that Mr Collins was writing his 'call-my-bluff' letter, a lorry carrying armed British soldiers attached to the Wiltshire Regiment was driving down Capel Street in Dublin and, when they reached the Ryder's Row junction, the lorry exploded.
IRA Volunteers from 'H Company', 1st Battalion of the Dublin Brigade had thrown two grenades under it, and opened fire ; fire was returned and, in the gunfight, three Dublin civilians - Kate Mahon (27), from Phibsborough, Bessie O'Brien (the wife of an IRA Volunteer) and a child, four-years-young Michael Martin, from Capel Street - died from their wounds.
Altogether, seven members of the Wiltshire Regiment, six civilians and one member of the DMP were wounded.
RIP Kate Mahon, Bessie O'Brien and the poor child, Michael Martin.
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ON THIS DATE (18TH JUNE) 51 YEARS AGO : "NO ONE EXPECTED THAT THE HOUSE OF COMMONS WOULD BE A TARGET..."
On Monday, 17th June 1974, the then IRA decided to make it's presence felt, once again, in 'the Belly of the Beast' - a 20lb device exploded at the British Parliament, causing widespread damage and injuring 11 people, British political pride and capturing world headlines.
Six months before that attack, the IRA had exploded two bombs in London - one at Madame Tussauds and one at a boat show which was taking place at Earls Court Exhibition Centre and, one month after the 17th June attack, two bombs also exploded in London - British government buildings in Balham, South London, were damaged in the first explosion that day and the Tower of London was the target for the second bomb. This is a BBC report of the 17th June 1974 IRA attack, which they broadcast on the 18th -
'A bomb has exploded at the Houses of Parliament, causing extensive damage and injuring 11 people.
The IRA said it planted the 20lb (9.1 kg) device which exploded at about 0828 BST in a corner of Westminster Hall.
The explosion is suspected to have fractured a gas main and a fierce fire spread quickly through the centuries-old hall in one of Britain's most closely-guarded buildings.
Scotland Yard detectives have said they fear this attack could herald the start of a new summer offensive by the dissident Irish group on government buildings.
No one expected in those days the House of Commons would be a target - security was extremely casual...'
Former Labour MP Tam Dalyell ('Sir' Thomas Dalyell of the Binns, 11th Baronet) gave this account -
"A man with an Irish accent telephoned the Press Association with a warning only six minutes before the explosion. Police said a recognised IRA codeword was given.
Although officers were not able to completely clear the palace before the bomb went off, most of the injured were only slightly hurt..."
A Mr Edward Short, the Leader of the British 'Commons', announced that a review of security procedures would begin immediately, but he said the attack would not disrupt parliamentary business or intimidate MPs.
Liberal Chief Whip David Steel was in the building when the device detonated and told the BBC the damage looked considerable -
"I looked through Westminster Hall and the whole hall was filled with dust. A few minutes later it was possible to see flames shooting up through the windows..."
Today, the group that carried out that attack have again entered that bastion of British misrule in Ireland but, this time, to assist their new objective of administering the British writ in Ireland.
Shame on them.
On the 18th June, 1922, the third IRA Convention was held in the Mansion House, in Dublin.
The 'Joint Army Council' and, indeed, the general membership, were aware that all was not well within the organisation and a split had developed over supporting or dismissing the Treaty of Surrender proposals that were being discussed in the army and in Westminster.
Volunteer Tom Barry proposed that the meeting should direct its energy at planning for a continuation/resumption of the armed campaign against British military and political targets and a vote on that proposal was held - 118 against, 103 for.
The defeated minority withdrew from the Convention and went back to the Four Courts, which they had held since April, where they appointed Volunteer Joe McKelvey as their chief of staff and repudiated the authority of Liam Lynch who, with his 1st Southern Division men, left the Mansion House and went to the Clarence Hotel in Dublin City Centre.
Volunteer Lynch and his supporters did not agree with Volunteer Barry's proposal.
The IRA was now 'officially' split, with 12 out of the 16 members of the IRA Executive having supported those in the Four Courts ; Liam Lynch was one of the leadership figures who did not enter the Four Courts, but was still recognised as the IRA Chief of Staff by the majority of the Volunteers overall.
Over the next few days, Volunteer Lynch and his supporters held discussions with Volunteer McKelvey and his officers and, on the 27th June (1922), the rift was healed and, with the support of Liam Deasy, Joe McKelvey and Liam Mellows, Liam Lynch was confirmed as chief of staff.
By coincidence (??!) , Michael Collins and his Free State Army attacked the Four Courts on the 28th June (1922)...
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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.
Mike Williams managed the rock group 'The Characters', and he told band member Ray Mercieca that he would stay overnight in Djerba due to a bad storm.
He said he would call him as soon as his flight was leaving so that Mercieca could collect him at Malta's Luqa Airport, but the call never came.
Speaking to 'Magill Magazine' from Malta, Ray Mercieca said -
"Mike was my best friend.
He was always reliable.
We often phoned one another at all hours of the day and night and, before getting on that plane, Mike would have called me.
I don't believe he ever got on that plane and I am sceptical that the plane ever took off..."
A Maltese passenger, Matthew Aquilina, rang home on five occasions on the Saturday, the last time around 9.30pm to say he would be stopping over because of bad weather.
Similarly, Captain Bartolo's wife, Antonia, testified that her husband called her at 10.45pm to inform her that he was going to stay overnight...
(MORE LATER.)
The Ballyvoyle Viaduct is located over a steep ravine and the River Dalligan, near Dungarvan, in County Waterford.
It was built in 1878 for the Waterford, Dungarvan and Lismore railway and, in August, 1922, the structure was demolished by the IRA to impede the progress of the Staters from entering the Knockyoolahan East area of the county.
It was rebuilt by the State and opened on the 18th June, 1924, allowing trains to once again travel between Cork and Rosslare but, as expected, the Staters still haven't made much progress...
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In 1931, the Leinster House administration declared that the IRA was an 'illegal organisation' and banned it, but it remained active.
Again, in 1936 (most likely on the 18th June that year) a Mr Éamon de Valera's State junta, having washed its hands of republicanism and of the republican objective, reintroduced its '1931 Public Safety Act' rebanning the Republican Army and imprisoned IRA Commander Maurice 'Moss' Twoomey ; Mr de Valera had his Free State and didn't want any internal threat to his political comforts.
His '1931 Public Safety Act' ('State Constitution Amendment No. 17') allowed for...
"..enhanced security measures and the suppression of perceived threats to the state (and) was enacted in response to increased activity by physical force Irish republicans.
It introduced 'Article 2A' to the Constitution, which empowered the Executive Council to declare a state of emergency and take special measures including the establishment of a Military Tribunal, granting extra powers to the Garda Síochána, and banning certain organisations deemed a threat..."
The real threat to the State and, indeed, the country overall - then, as now - comes from the very institution which considers its citizens to be "mongrels", undeserving of maintaining their culture, traditions, societal values, shared principles and standards...
(We're not quite finished with our country visit(s) just yet ; we had a grand chat with our friend and comrade, and the family, and the three of us have been invited back to meet the relatives that are flying in from Australia and America - and, you bet, we're going!
We'll be back on the blog on Wednesday, 2nd July 2025 and, in the meantime, I'll still be voicin' me opinion on 'X' and 'Facebook' as well ; see ya anytime over there, and back here on the 2nd!)
Thanks for reading,
Sharon and the team.
