'Dublin Child Killed. A little girl named Kathleen O'Grady was knocked down by a military motor car in South Richmond Street..."
- how 'The British Newspaper Archive' summarised the death, on the 15th July 1919, of a five-years-young little girl on South Richmond Street, Dublin.
The Dublin-based 'Daily Express' newspaper (!) archived the following report into the incident (on the 16th July 1919) -
'...DUBLIN CHILD KILLED
... DUBLIN CHILD KILLED ] - A litthe girl numed Kathleen o'Grady, i-.uuy-‘\'..ama-ummm wes koocked down hy & military motor car in South Richmond street yesterday evening aud killed. The child wes crossing the street...'
It appears as if the archivist was trying to add insult to injury with a report like that.
Anyway - the driver was a British Army Corporal, a Mr George Troughton, on whom there is no more information, and an 'inquest jury' declared the accident/incident to be 'death by misadventure' ie 'no evidence of criminal negligence, reckless driving, or deliberate intent...'.
The poor child lived in 19 South Richmond Street (in the Portobello/Saint Kevin's area of Dublin) where she died.
Incidentally, the 'Daily Express', which was described in 'The New York Tribune' [in 1858] as "that government organ", was a pro-Establishment publication, known to express, strongly, the Unionist viewpoint ; it championed the British administration in Ireland and opposed Irish nationalism.
It was the preferred organ of the landed gentry, the (Protestant) clergy and the wealthy professional and commercial classes who formed the foundation of the British establishment in Ireland.
'That government organ' closed its doors in 1921, but its pro-British mentality still exists in this State...
==========================
THE GREAT OIL AND GAS ROBBERY...
From 'Magill' Magazine, October 2005.
"I spent an hour with Micheál Ó Seighin (pictured), one of the Rossport Five.
Micheál received us very graciously in the small visiting box. He is a small, quietly-spoken man in his late 60s.
"Tá sibhse ag dhéanamh obair go hiontach. Congratulations. Bhí an scéal Dé Luan go han, han mhaith. Ceim mhór", he said..."
Micheál Ó Seighin.
Michael McDowell.
Pat Rabbitte.
Issues abound about citizens' rights as opposed to the entitlements of powerful multi-national corporations, and there is also the issue of the ownership of our national resources.
In this case the Government gave away these resources.
The people of Mayo will not benefit.
The people of this State will not benefit.
In fact, we will have to pay Shell for gas and oil, and the Corrib gas field is only the tip of this particular rip off.
Since the 1970s, 185 wells were dug around our coastline - all in Irish waters - and there were traces of oil and gas in almost every one.
When the time comes to develop them who will benefit : Shell or the people of Ireland?
Michaél Ó Seighin knows where he stands on that issue. He made that clear on our visit. The rest of us should be just as clear...
(The third [ie last] pic above shows a Mr Patrick Rabbitte, ex-State Labour Party leader and ex-'State Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources' ; Mr Rabbittee retired as State Labour Party leader in 2007, and from political life altogether in 2016, on a combined pension package worth over €2 million to him!)
(MORE LATER.)
On the 15th July, 1920, a Mr Henry Wilson (pictured), the British Army 'Chief of the Imperial General Staff' ('CIGS'), writing war notes to himself, made the following entry into his diary -
"What is essential is concentration of forces in theatres of vital to us viz : - England, Ireland, Egypt, India, Mesopot[amia]. In that order..."
Three weeks later, in a memo to the British cabinet’s finance committee, Mr Wilson wrote...
"..since January 1920, the General Staff of the British army had consistently and repeatedly advocated the urgent necessity of concentrating our forces in those areas which are vital to us. The highest priority should be given to the defence of the main bases of the Empire - Britain and Ireland in the West and India in the East.
Next in importance was Egypt, the 'Clapham Junction' of imperial communication. Areas of secondary importance were the Rhine, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Persia and the Black Sea..."
Mr Wilson slipped up there - he didn't realise that Eaton Place, in the posh district of Belgravia, in London, should have been his priority...
==========================
On the same day that Mr Wilson was writing to himself in his diary, about 285 miles(455 km) across the Irish Sea (as the Phoenix flies, that is...), 'The Irish Times' newspaper wrote, in an editorial......"We seem to be approaching the day when British authority in Ireland will be shaken to its base by the laughter of two hemispheres..."
Oh I say, and jolly hockey-sticks and all that, but what could have possibly upset 'the paper of record' like that??!
Those dastardly rebels, of course!
For t'was on that very date (15th July 1920) that an IRA ASU of about two dozen armed Volunteers (with Volunteer Oscar Traynor in command of the fighters from the 2nd Battalion of the Dublin Brigade, accompanied by members of 'The Squad', who operated under the IRA's Director of Intelligence) took over the postal sorting office in the Rotunda Rink, Parnell Square, Dublin, and left the premises with a number of sacks of mail which were meant for the British 'authorities' in Dublin Castle.
The IRA's Intelligence Section (then based in Crow Street in Dublin) gleaned what was said to be "substantial information" from the captured mail, and arrangements were made to visit certain households throughout the country...
'The Pall Mall Gazette' in London, a pro-Westminster publication, commented that if the central post office in Dublin was not secure then "it would really save time if official correspondence were forwarded direct to Sinn Féin..."!
Incidentally, on Monday, 6th November 1922, 'The Irish Independent' newspaper, on its front page, stated -
"Yesterday morning, just as day dawned, armed men who arrived in three batches, burned down the Rotunda Rink sorting office, Parnell Square, Dublin..."
Thus giving 'The Irish Times' another jolly hockey-sticks day, no doubt...
==========================
As Volunteer Oscar Traynor and other rebels were in buying stamps in Dublin, the Phoenix retraced his flight path back to Westminster to witness a meeting of the British Government's 'Irish Situation Committee' (aka 'the Cabinet Committee on Ireland/the Long Committee' - the actual grouping which drafted the legislation that partitioned Ireland!), at which, among others, two 'British Lords' - Midleton and Dysert - were present, as was a Mr Walter Long (pictured) and his pal, a Mr William Jellett.
That committee let it be known that they "...felt the time had come when they must know whether the (British) Government intended to master the country (Ireland) or they would be forced to make terms with Sinn Féin..."
At 2:20am on the morning of the 6th December, 1921, the Staters signed terms with them...
==========================
At the same time as Mr Long and his committee were holding their meeting in Westminster, about 345 miles (555km) away (as the by-now tired Phoenix flies) in Emily Square in the village of Athy, in the county of Kildare, the courthouse was being set on fire by the IRA.
The Town Hall beside it suffered some smoke and water damage, but nothing too serious.
The courthouse was completely consumed by the fire and was left a smoldering ruin, with only the outer shell remaining.
It wasn't until 1928 that it was rebuilt and opened for business (!) again : wonder if the 'Your Honour'-man objected...
==========================
THE MONTH UNSPUN...
The stories that hit the headlines.
From Magill magazine, August 2002.
State Justice Minister Michael McDowell stressed that eight out of ten of the foreign people we see in Ireland are here legally*, and that foreigners should not be judged to be illegal immigrants simply because of the colour of their skin**.
He insisted that the raids are not part of a new, tougher policy, but he might struggle to convince those dragged out of their beds at 5am of this, however***.
'Operation Hyphen' involved gardai from 'ordinary' Dublin divisions as well as gardai from the 'National (sic) Immigration Bureau', so it is likely to be the beginning of a united front on illegal immigration****.
But the critical backlash against the raids has been severe, and Michael McDowell will have to stand firm in the face of such criticism if he wishes to continue with the operation, however there is another factor to consider, too - as some Irish businesses could not survive without underpaid workers from the 'black economy', particularly illegal immigrants here who are in no position to make a case for stronger pay - the Minister will have to ask himself whether he wants to go the whole way or just opt for occasional dramatic sorties that steal the headlines...*****
(* Nonsense - applications in this State peaked at 11,634 in 2002, and 'official debates' [ie in Leinster House] from the period highlighted that the vast majority of these individuals did not have prior legal permission to reside in the state before applying!)
(** - me and mine judge those foreign 'asylum seekers/refugees/migrants/vagrants' by their character which, to put it mildly, is severly lacking.)
(*** - in our opinion, those migrants don't need to be 'convinced' of anything : if you are in this State illegally or not, and if you rob, rape or are otherwise a burden on the indigenous Irish, you should be jewellery taxed and expelled.)
(**** - the only Leinster House "united front" in this State in relation to the migrants is an agreement between all the parties on how to people-traffic even more of them into the State.)
(***** - the politicians in Leinster House, in our opinion under orders from the EU/UN/WEF, took the latter course of action ie "occasional dramatic sorties that steal the headlines" : they speak of doing the opposite ie "go the whole way" but are not permitted to do that, even if they wanted to. And they obviously don't want to - because we're talking about their new voter base in this corrupt State, and they know it.)
(MORE LATER.)
On the 15th July, 1921, Volunteer John J. Breslin, the Quartermaster of 'F Company', 6th Battalion of the IRA, who worked outside the Movement as a cinema manager, was 'arrested' by the Crown Forces and jailed in Mountjoy Jail in Dublin, until his release in October that year.
But he stayed loyal to his pro-Irish beliefs.
On the 10th February, 1922, a British Army Lieutenant, a Mr John Hubert Wogan-Browne, was ambushed as he left the Hibernian Bank (now 'Bank of Ireland') with the wages for his regiment stationed in Kildare Barracks ; he attempted to fight back, defending the wages pouch he was carrying, and was shot dead as a result.
That evening, his near-penniless comrades ran riots in the town centre, attacked the cinema where Volunteer Breslin worked and, during the commotion they caused there, a shotgun was fired and three British soldiers sustained injuries from the blast.
Before the situation could escalate, British officers rounded-up their (ever-)troublesome soldiers from around the cinema and elsewhere in the town, brought them back to barracks and confined them there.
We're not sure (!) about this, but we'd like to think the cinema was showing 'Ireland a Nation' at the time...
==========================
In July, 1921, Irish historian (lawyer/architectural historian/author and cultural critic) Constantine Peter 'Con' Curran (pictured) estimated that there were over 70,000 Volunteers in the IRA but only 5,000 of them had been placed in 'Active Service Units'.
He also estimated that the combined Crown Force (BA and RIC) members numbered about 70,000 as well, of which, he said, about half were " infantry effective".
Also in July that year, the volume of the official 'British Army Record of the Rebellion' in Ireland, which more or less concentrated on the intelligence wars, stated that -
"From August 1920 to July 1921, 6,311 raids and searches were carried out [by Crown Forces] in the Dublin District alone. From 21st November 1920 to June 1921, 310 revolvers, 34 rifles, 20 shotguns, many thousands of rounds of ammunition, and a large quantity of bombs, explosives, detonators and articles of equipment were found in this Area (Dublin)..."
The rest of that military equipment was brought to their doorsteps, and not by the postman either...
==========================
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.
Maltese Foreign Minister Guido De Marco, who later became president, described his island's predicament as "a very serious situation."
In what might be interpreted as a response to the threats made against Malta three days earlier during the Tripoli demonstration, he vowed that "the Maltese authorities are determined to continue investigating this case in order to prosecute the perpetrators of the crime, and to seek identification of anyone, local or foreign, who might have somehow assisted or facilitated it, or had prior knowledge of its occurrence."
It is against this background that members of the Boomer, Aquilina and Williams families are increasingly suspicious of the 'KullHadd' article published in November 1995, which they believe effectively incriminated pilot Carmelo Bartolo.
Desmond Boomer's father told 'Magill' magazine -
"I am not accusing journalists Joe Mifsud and Felix Agius ('KullHadd') or Sharon Spiteri ('The Times') of deliberately implicating the pilot, with whom our loved ones disappeared, in the murder of Jihad leader Fathi Shqaqi..."
(MORE LATER.)
The (Protestant) church in the town of Miltown-Malbay in the county of Clare, which was built in 1804, was attacked and severly damaged on the 15th July (1922) by 'person(s) unknown', although the church worshippers placed the blame on the local IRA, who issued a statement denying any involvement.
Rather than repair the original structure, the small Church of Ireland community relocated and built the current Mediterranean Gothic-style Christ Church in the nearby town of Spanish Point.
The Miltown-Malbay building was gutted by fire on the 14th December that year.
==========================
At the same time as that church was being attacked, about 105 km (65 miles) away on yer right, in the town of Clonmel in the county of Tipperary, between the 15th and the 20th, IRA General Liam Lynch and his men were moving their HQ from that Tipperary town to the town of Fermoy, in the county of Cork.
But the Stater army followed and, on the 9th of August (1922), the Staters invaded Cork by sea and the rebels adopted a guerrilla-style HQ, rather that a fixed office.
And the fight continued...
==========================
On the 15th July (1922), as Volunteer Liam Lynch and his fighters were 'moving house', about 80 km (50 miles) away across the country, in Limerick, the Stater army (FSA) attacked two rebel positions in Strand Barracks and Castle Barracks, but they were repelled, realising too late that they would need (British-borrowed) artillery to take those positions from the IRA.
The FSA returned on the 19th of that month, with reinforcements and artillery and, on the 21st, the rebels vacated the positions, after heavy fighting.
At least six Stater soldiers died in the battle, and six IRA fighters also lost their lives.
RIP Volunteers Liam Scully, Daniel Murphy, Michael O'Brien, Patrick O'Connor, Thomas O'Brien and Patrick Foran.
==========================
We couldn't find anymore information about this incident -
A Mr Frank Crilly (listed as 'Francis' by one of our sources) was on his way home to Carnan Street, just off the Shankill Road in Belfast, after the British-imposed 'curfew' hours, on the 15th July (1922).
A British Army soldier questioned him, Mr Crilly "talked back", the soldier shot him dead.
RIP Mr Frank (Francis) Crilly.
==========================
At the same time as Mr Crilly was shot, about 170 km (105 miles) down the road in Dublin, the Staters political body issued a proclamation which it grandiosely labelled 'Government Statement for the Information of all Officers and Ranks'.
Mr Collins and his political team sought to provide a moral justification (a 'rallying cry', if you like) to their newly-spawned army to fully convince them that they were on the right side of history!
The publication was an attempt to solidify discipline among their troops by 'officially' outlining the so-called "democratic legitimacy" of their killing of men and women they had shortly before been fighting alongside with.
The political Staters talked to their military marauders about "democratic sovereignty, the rule of law, and the framing of IRA actions as an illegal defiance...".
Political and military hypocrites, sprouting the same propaganda that the British pompously delivered to their own troops...
==========================
As the Staters in Dublin were Nero-like delivering their fine words, about 260 km (160 miles) across the country and down a bit, in Quinn's Hotel in Ennis, in the county of Clare, three Free State Army Officers - Messrs Eoin O’Duffy, Michael Brennan and Sean MacEoin, all three of them republican-gamekeepers-turned-Free State-poachers - finalised their plan, with Stater Officers from their '1st Western Division', to force the IRA to leave the towns of Kilrush and Kilkee in that county.
In the gunbattles that ensued hours later, one Volunteer - Patrick O'Dea (19, pictured), was shot dead by Collins Crew.
Volunteer O'Dea was born in the townland of Carrowmore North, in the parish of Killard in the town of Doonbeg, in the county of Clare, in 1903, and joined the rebels at 17 years young in 1920.
He was a powerful, athletic young man who kept himself in shape by outdoor sports, particularly long-distance swimming, and also dedicated himself to his pro-Irish duties.
In 1922, he joined the West Clare Active Service Unit and was defending the Ballykett area, near the town of Kilrush, in Clare, on the 15th July (1922) when a Stater bullet found him.
He is buried in the Republican Plot at Doonbeg Cemetery, in County Clare, within sight of the final resting place of other Volunteers, including Commandant William Shanahan (aged 24, Chief of Republican Police, West Clare Brigade) and IRA Captain Michael McNamara (Doonbeg Company).
RIP Volunteer Patrick O'Dea.
==========================
As that Stater bullet robbed the Movement of a good young man, 220 km (135 miles) across the country and up a bit, in the county of Kildare, 'The Kildare Observer' newspaper reported that Volunteers Eamon Moran, Daniel Brennan, Thomas Doran, Philip Hade and Thomas Harris had been 'arrested' and imprisoned by the Staters.
Volunteer Harris escaped 'custody' but was recaptured a few weeks afterwards and imprisoned again, and was 'officially' released with his comrades in either late 1923 or early 1924, as per the 'Treaty of Surrender' stipulations.
==========================
ON THIS DATE (15TH JULY) 228 YEARS AGO : WORD SPREADS THAT THE SHEARES BROTHERS HAD BEEN MURDERED BY THE CROWN.
"Adieu, Julia, my light is out.
The approach of darkness is like that of death, since both alike require I should say farewell forever.
Oh! my dear family, farewell forever..."
- from a letter written by John Sheares to his sister shortly before his execution.
'On July 14th, 1798, brothers John and Henry Sheares (pictured), who were both lawyers and United Irishmen, were hung, drawn and quartered in Dublin.
Sons of a wealthy banker and member of the Irish Parliament from County Cork, Henry was briefly an officer in the '51st Regiment of Foot' following his schooling, but did not find army life to his liking and resigned his commission. Both brothers became successful lawyers and could have lived out their lives in comfort, but they visited France together in 1792 and there acquired their revolutionary republican principles. On the boat home from France they met Daniel O'Connell, who may have also been inspired by the revolution in France, but was repulsed by the violence that had gone on there and did not join the United Irishmen.
They joined the United Irishmen on their return to Dublin and John began to write articles for 'The Press', a nationalist paper, and help organize the group in Cork. When most of the leaders of the United Irishmen were arrested in the spring of 1798, John became the defacto leader for a short time. The brothers were betrayed by an informer, Captain Warnesford Armstrong, and were arrested on May 21st. Found guilty of treason, they were publicly hung (drawn, and quartered) outside Newgate Prison in Dublin. Both are buried at Dublin's St. Michan's Church...' (From here.)
The informer Armstrong was a particularly odious character - a 'rat' of a man - who struck up a 'friendship' with the Sheares children, who looked forward to visits from him, at their house in Baggot Street, in Dublin.
He was a Captain in the 'King's County Militia' and was tasked with ingratiating himself with the Sheares Brothers as the 'authorities' were aware of their republican activities.
Indeed, at least two other informers - Conway and Collins - were also 'on the case', but it was Armstrong who 'succeeded', to the point that John Sheares himself instructed Armstrong to be on his guard, as other 'United Irishmen' were convinced that Armstrong was a spy and were planning to execute him!
In a 'trial' which lasted all of seventeen minutes - in which Armstrong happily took to the dock and testified against the brothers - they were found 'guilty of high treason'.
The informer Armstrong was granted the 'Freedom of the City' by the British and was placed in command of a British militia group in County Wicklow, where he delighted in shooting suspected rebels on sight, even those who had been 'pardoned for assisting the Crown'.
As we said - a particularly odious character.
In a speech from the dock, John Sheares, who had been presented as some sort of a bloodthirsty individual, stated -
"The accusation of which I speak, while I linger here yet a minute, is that of holding out to the people of Ireland a direction to give no quarter to the troops fighting for its defence.
My lords, let me say thus, that if there be any acquaintances in this crowded court - I do not say my intimate friends, but acquaintances - who do not know what I say is truth, I shall be reputed the wretch which I am not ; I say, if any acquaintance of mine can believe that I could utter a recommendation of giving no quarter to a yielding and unoffending foe, it is not the death which I am about to suffer that I deserve.
No punishment could be adequate to such a crime.
My lords, I can not only acquit my soul of such an intention, but I declare, in the presence of that God before whom I must shortly appear, that the favorite doctrine of my heart was that no human being should suffer death, but when absolute necessity required it.."
John and Henry Sheares were hanged, drawn and quartered, 228 years ago on the 14th July.
She said, "Ten times they fought for me,
ten times they with might and main
Ten times I saw them beaten down,
Ten times they rose, and fought again.
She said, "I stayed alone at home,
A dreary woman, grey and cold
I never asked them how they fared,
Yet still they loved me as of old..."
(From the poem 'After Aughrim', by Emily Lawless.)
On the 15th July, 1923, the 'Cumann na nGaedheal' political party in this State held a public meeting in the Town Hall/Courthouse in Naas, in the county of Kildare.
It was a fundraiser/'get-together'-type of gathering, but mostly geared towards the 'general election' (State-wide only) that was due to be held the following month (...which they won).
Among those State luminaries (!) present were Messrs Kevin O'Higgins, Ernest Blythe, Eamonn Duggan, Christopher O'Byrne, JJ Parkinson, George Woulfe, Simon J Malone and a Mrs. Wyse Power and, after the 'meet and greet', all present retired to the near-by Whelan's Hotel (55 Eccles Street) for dinner and drinkies, where they were welcomed by their parish priest, a Mr Norris.
That grouping began life as the pro-Treaty wing of Sinn Féin, with the intention of consolidating the new Irish Free State and, in September 1933, it merged with 'The National Centre Party' and 'The National Guard' (better known as 'The Blueshirts) to spawn, ironically, a gathering which called itself 'Fine Gael - The United Ireland Party', ignoring the fact that it was established 'to consolidate the Free State'!
Real bleedin' Irish or wha'...
(Incidentally, Whelan's Hotel in the 1920's was a hotbed of republican activity, as the rebels were welcomed there to discuss political and military business. I'd say the chefs and table staff had some fun with the grub for the Blueshirts...!)
==========================
Thanks for the visit, and for reading - much appreciated!
Sharon and the team.
We'll be back with a few more comments and bits and pieces on Wednesday, 5th August 2026 : the firm that myself and my team work with, and for, has requested us to do a Galway-type revamp of business procedures in our Waterford office, so my team and I had a meeting between ourselves and then myself and the team second-lead arranged for a meeting with senior management to discuss their request. And our T+C's for the Munster gig were agreed, including two+ weeks in a four star hotel (!!). We'll be leaving Dublin in a few days, and won't be home until late July.
So don't wait up for us!
...but I'll still be givin' out on 'X' and Facebook as well, if yer gonna miss me that much!
