On the 18th December, 1919, Irish and British newspapers reported that, during a Q+A session in the 'House of Commons' in London, which took place the previous day, a Mr Winston Churchill (pictured), the British 'Secretary of State for War and Secretary of State for Air' (!) stated that there was 43,000 British soldiers in Ireland, costing the British taxpayer £860,000 per month.
Those same newspapers rarely mentioned it at the time or later but, between 1919 and the spring of 1921, the unemployment level in Britain rose from 3.9% to over 20% and, in May of 1921, that level actually showed an increase to 23.4%.
That £860,000 could have been put to a worthwhile purpose each month - should have been spent at home on their own social services rather than on maintaining military and political control on a country foreign to them.
On the same day (17th December 1919) that his colleague, Mr Churchill, admitted to wasting £860,000 a month, a British 'Field Marshal', a Mr John French ('Sir John Denton Pinkstone French, 1st Earl of Ypres and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland') wrote the following memo for his diary-
"The Irish are an impulsive and quick-witted, but not a deep-thinking, people.
Their real feeling was never in favour of a Republic, or indeed, of any form of complete separation..."
Mr French was born in Kent, in England, but always considered himself an 'Irishman' due to his family's Anglo-Irish roots in County Roscommon.
He should have thought deeper about it...
As Mr French was feeling his Irishness, an accident occured in the Sinn Féin Hall in an area known as Briosc-Choill ('Briskil') Newtown Forbes, in Clongesh Civil Parish, Barony, County Longford.
IRA Volunteer John Mahon was hit in the accidental discharge of a weapon by a comrade, Volunteer Peter Nolan, and died from his wound.
RIP Volunteer John Mahon.
==========================
61 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH : CHE GUEVARA LANDS IN IRELAND.
Che Guevara being interviewed in Dublin Airport by RTE's Seán Egan : the result was first aired on RTE television on the 18th December in 1964. He was travelling to Algeria from New York when the plane he was on was redirected from Shannon to Dublin due to bad weather.
On the 14th June 1928, Celia de la Serna y Llosa, from Rosario in Argentina, gave birth to her fifth child, a boy, who her and her husband, Ernesto Guevara Lynch, named as Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna, better known to the world as Che Guevara.
Celia's mother was from Galway and moved to South America where she married into the Guevara family.
Having Irish roots, Guevara visited this country a number of times and it was during one such visit in the early 1960's, to Kilkeel, in British-occupied County Down, that Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick encountered the man.
The young artist, then a teenager and a student at Gormanstown College, was helping to pay his way through college by working part-time in the Marine Hotel pub in Kilkeel, where his mother was from.
Jim happened to be on the premises on the same morning that Che Guevara and two of his colleagues walked in and ordered glasses of Irish whiskey.
He recognised Guevara immediately and got chatting to him about his Irish roots, and was told by Guevara that he had an Irish grandmother and that her mother, his great-grandmother, a woman named Isabel, was from Galway, and that he had other family connections with the Cork area.
However, now, perhaps, more so than in the 1960's, 'money talks' and local politicians listen : to destroy a Jim Fitzpatrick work of art for such short-term gain is the very mindset that Che Guevara tried to overcome and, unfortunately, there are not enough Che Guevara types left in this world to do that.
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.
For its part, 'Enterprise Energy Ireland' claims that the capital cost of bringing Corrib gas ashore will be in the region of €634 million between 2000 and 2005, with estimated additional costs of €152 million to connect up to the main Galway ring later this year.
While much of this will represent outlay in respect of equipment - which can be off-set against taxation - it states that there will be "a significant number of workers involved, around 500 for two seasons on the off-shore pipeline and terminal, and 1,000 for one season on the pipeline to Galway."
They admit, however, that "..while many of these workers would not be local residents, they will be based in the area during construction.
The local spend generated by these workers will exceed €25 million over two seasons of construction and, in addition, significant sums will be spent on local supplies for the construction sites.
While it is difficult to be precise about how many temporary jobs might be created, it is reasonable to estimate that it could run into hundreds..."
(MORE LATER.)
On the 17th December, 1920, an RIC member, a 'District Inspector' in that grouping, Mr Philip O'Sullivan, met his fiancé, a Miss Moore, at the GPO in O'Connell Street in Dublin, as arranged, and the pair of them went for a ramble down nearby Henry Street.
Days previously, the young lady had been advised to have nothing to do with him, as he was a marked man because of his membership of that paramilitary organisation and because he used his position within that organisation to assist the Black and Tans, but she dismissed that advice.
Volunteer Ned Kelliher had been monitoring Mr O'Sullivan's movements for about a week and had told his comrade, Volunteer Joseph Byrne, that the RIC member would be on Henry Street between 6pm and 7pm on the 17th, with Miss Moore, and Volunteer Byrne and three other Volunteers patrolled the street, looking for him.
When they seen him, they approched and one of the Volunteers shot him in the head ; Miss Moore grabbed the revolver before he could fire a second shot but a second shot was fired into Mr O'Sullivan by one of the other Volunteers.
There was panic in the street, enabling the Volunteers to leave the scene and return safely to base.
The RIC man was rushed to Jervis Street Hospital and died there an hour later.
Two or three hours later, on that same day, about 155km (97 miles) up the road, in Swanlinbar, County Cavan, an RIC 'Sergeant', a Mr Charles Morahan ('Service Number 57996'), left Swanlinbar RIC Barracks on foot patrol with three other RIC members - Mr Peter Shannon ('62069'), Mr John Collins ('60999') and a Mr William Francis Joseph Halligan ('66590').
The four of them were walking towards the Enniskillen Road in the north of the town when shots were fired at them.
RIC member Mr Peter Shannon was hit three times as he ran for cover, which he found behind a low wall, where he died from his wounds.
RIC member Morahan was hit in the head with shotgun pellets, but lived to tell the tale.
The Volunteers, about 20 of them, were attached to the Corlough Battalion, West Cavan Brigade IRA and, at the same time as they were withdrawing from the scene of the ambush, some of their comrades called to the house of another RIC member, a Mr Patrick Mulligan, but left on discovering that he wasn't there.
Other Battalion Volunteers called to the house where RIC member Francis Byrne lived and shot him - he fell to the floor, his wife screamed, the Volunteers left - they returned shortly afterwards to ensure he was dead but his distraught wife went to attack them ; they let her be and left the house.
Mr Byrne survived, living to tell the tale.
"Any war, to be just and lawful, must be backed by a well-grounded hope of success.
What hope of success have you against the mighty forces of the British Empire?
None!
None whatever.
And, if it's unlawful, as it is, every life taken in pursuance of it is murder..."
Catholic Bishop Patrick Finegan, in a statement he released on the 17th December 1920.
Mr Finegan was known, apparently, for his 'piety, scholarship and patriotism' and had, earlier in that same year (summer, 1920, addressing an audience in Cootehill, County Cavan), gone on record for assuring those listening that "..it was true that God forgave even the murderer (sic)...".
Then, as now, Catholic priests with Irish republican leanings existed but - again, then as now - their pastoral letters etc can be (and were) misrepresented and/or outright censored, as mentioned here (see, for instance, the notifications for the 10th and 13th December, 1920, on that link).
The bottom line, however, in our opinion, is to 'put not your trust in princes' : if something is so wrong (such as British military and political interference in Irish affairs and/or the literal and purpose swamping of this State and Country with 'asylum seekers/refugees/migrants/vagrants', for example) then that wrong must be righted, by any means possible.
==========================
THE MONTH UNSPUN...
The stories that hit the headlines.
From Magill magazine, August 2002.
What unionists say they want is positive action from the IRA to advance the peace process, and not statements that they feel are politically motivated.
David Trimble, in particular, has been forceful on this point - issuing an ultimatum to Tony Blair that the Prime Minister must expel Sinn Féin from the Executive if the IRA refuses to abandon all paramilitary activity, Tony Blair, in turn, has said the IRA must abide by strict ceasefire criteria laid down in the past week.
Given that it is difficult to see this happening, the onus could be put back on Tony Blair very quickly...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 17th December, 1921, the pro-British newspaper 'The Belfast Newsletter', in an Editorial on the Treaty of Surrender, described that Treaty as "a betrayal of Ulster(sic)..." but, as the saying goes - 'It's hard to tell who has your back, from who has it long enough just to stab you in it'.
Weeks after that Treaty had come into operation (ie on the 23rd January 1922 ; it was signed and accepted by the Staters on the 6th December 1921 but it only came into full effect and 'formally established' the Irish Free State on the 6th December, 1922, one year later) that same newspaper said that if the Leinster House administration is prepared to take an attitude of goodwill to the Stormont administration "then the Treaty is likely to turn out a blessing to the whole of Ireland..."!
Same as it always was and always will be until the 'Irish Issue' is finally settled : pro-British supporters in Ireland will always warm to anything which has the welcome effect, as they see it, of dividing their opponents.
"The English have made a greater concession than we. They have given up their age-long attempt to dominate us..."
- Michael Collins, in a letter he wrote on the 17th December 1921, to his fiancée, Kitty Kiernan (pictured).
Well - Mr Collins was right about one thing : M/s Kiernan was his fiancée.
"The British broke the Treaty of Limerick, and we'll break this Treaty too when it suits us, when we have our own army..."
When Mr Collins and other turncoats like him assembled their own army, they tasked it with upholding partition and hunting down and executing the brave men and women of the IRA that they had once fought alongside.
Their oath to the Irish Republic - that's what Mr Collins and his ilk 'broke' :
'I, (name), do solemnly swear that I will uphold and defend the Irish Republic and the Government of the Irish Republic which is Dáil Éireann against all enemies both foreign and domestic ; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. That I take this obligation freely without mental reservation or purpose of evasion, so help me, God.'
Instead, the Staters took the following oath -
'I, (name), do solemnly swear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State as by law established, and that I will be faithful to H. M. King George V, his heirs and successors by law in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and her adherence to and membership of the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of Nations.'
Don't know if Kitty took the same oath or not, but shame on those who did.
Incidentally, Francis Thomas Aiken, a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher, stated that Eoin O'Duffy, another republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher, had told him that the signing of the Treaty (and, therefore, the taking of the 'loyal to the Commonwealth' oath) "was a trick. IRA GHQ had only approved the Treaty in order to get the arms to continue the fight...".
And trick it was - but it was those oath-takers who were being tricked...
On the same day that Mr Michael Collins was whispering sweet nothings (literally) to his Kitty, the Third Session of the Second (Republican) Dáil (Day Four) was in session in Dublin -
"I know perfectly well I have charge of four thousand men. I do not here hesitate to say that number.
But of that four thousand I have a rifle for every fifty. Now that is the position as far as I am concerned and I may add that there is about as much ammunition as would last them about fifty minutes for that one rifle.
Now people talk lightly of when we are going to war. I hold they do not know a damn thing about it.
I hold further the Treaty is called a bird in the hand. I hold that that bird in the hand can be turned to Ireland's interests, not to put or to have only one rifle in the hands of every fifty men but to put one rifle in every man's hand..."
- Séan MacEoin (pictured), yet another republican-gamekeeper-turned Free State-poacher, speaking at that Dáil session.
And Mr MacEoin and his type did indeed "put one rifle in every man's hand", but those rifles were turned against their old comrades, not against the British.
Speaking at that same Dáil session, Mary MacSwiney (pictured), who lived as she died (in 1942) - a true Irish republican - knew that the majority of the public would grasp any straw if they were led to believe that, in doing so, the war would end and a fitting political solution would ensue :
She said that the people were not in a position, a frame of mind, to decide, because they "had been in slavery for 120 years and longer" and that, because they would be unable to decide as a free people, it was up to the members of the Dáil to decide for them, stating - "We cannot compromise but I ask you to vote in the name of the dead to unite against this Treaty and let us take the consequence".
She continued -
"This ratification must go to the people not yet trained out of the slavery which the last 100 years have put into these souls. As to whether the majority of the people would take it, what would the majority in 1916 have taken?
Somebody quoting Pádraig Pearse said 'We have lost this battle but we have saved the soul of the nation', and if you tomorrow ratify this Treaty you would have done the best you could to undo Pádraig Pearse's work and to lose the soul of the nation, for we have to face the fact that our people are only gradually coming out of the slavehood.
It was the minority in 1916 that made 1918 possible ; it was that minority all along that made it possible to have this offer today..."
That was the start of the Dáil debates on the Treaty of Surrender and, just over one year later, the assembly unfortunately voted 64 to 57 to accept the Treaty.
For shame, in our opinion.
On that same date (17th December 1921), about 170km (107 miles) up the road in Belfast, that same issue - the British military and political presence in Ireland - was also causing trouble.
Three men - Mr Walter Pritchard (30), Mr John McMeekin (41) and Mr Edward Brennan (22) - were shot by snipers, and a shopkeeper, a M/s Frances Donnolly(/Donnelly) was shot and wounded by a member of the USC.
The poor woman died from her wound two days later.
"We shall be a free people.
Some say that our freedom is limited, but if we look around and examine the small nations of the world, we will realise that we will have to bow in this wicked world to the forces of might..."
- Mr James Nicholas Dolan (pictured), in one of his pro-Treaty speeches, 17th December 1921.
A republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher who knew, like the other wannabe Staters, that Westminster was not willing to move on the question of partition, but could live with that - 'we will be a free people...well..not really..'
As Mr Dolan was being economical with the truth, about 170km (107 miles) up the road in Belfast, some of those that he allegedly supported were facing reality.
An IRA ASU were in the process of carrying out an arms raid in Balmoral Military Camp in Belfast but they were caught by the British soldiers there, and six Volunteers were captured.
As those Irishmen were looking for equipment with which to free Ireland, newspapers reported that Englishmen in the political administration in London had, the previous day, tightened the noose on that desire.
They were voting on the Treaty of Surrender and those Englishmen in the so-called 'British House of Commons' voted 401 to 58 in support of that vile document and their colleagues in the 'House of Lords' voted 166 to 47 in favour.
Voting to decide the fate and fortune of their neighbours...
==========================
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.
Paul Lehman was heard saying to his lawyer "I have no difficulty in answering that", to which his lawyer responded "Okay".
Mr Lehman then said "Yes sir, I believe that to be the case", and he was then asked if he could be certain that the aircraft crashed on the night in question, to which he replied "No sir, I can't say that for sure."
In August, 1999, Dr. Christian Farrugia, a Maltese lawyer, wrote to the chairman of the Maltese Board of Inquiry criticising its failure to properly investigate the disappearance of the aircraft -
"The Board did not manage to procure the very best evidence available (and) opted to rely on incomplete testimony and procedurally defective documentation when other alternative routes existed.
This will impinge on the integrity of the Board's final conclusions..."
(MORE LATER.)
On the 17th December, 1922, thousands of Irish people took to the streets of Dublin to wave goodbye (!) to British soldiers who had been ordered by Westminster to vacate the newly-spawned Irish Free State, as per the Treaty of Surrender stipulation.
The politicians in Westminster were comfortable in doing this because they were handing control of their then newest acquisition from actual British political and military forces to pro-British political and military forces.
The last 3,500 British troops in Dublin marched from their various barracks (including the former British General Headquarters at Parkgate Street and the 'Royal Barracks', now Collins Barracks) to the North Wall area of Dublin Port.
They boarded ships, including the SS Arvonia, and sailed for home, in England.
A British Army Captain, a Mr Henry Robinson, was said to be the very last soldier to board his ship at 3:45pm, on that date, the 17th December 1922.
So here's to you, Mr Robinson, but there are still about 2,000 armed British soldiers in Ireland, in our six north-eastern counties ; hopefully their ship will sail soon...
As Mr Robinson and his grouping were waving goodbye to Dublin, and it to him, I'm sure, about 165km (103 miles) down the road a train was brought to a sudden stop.
Volunteer Captain Thomas Keating was in command of a column of rebels (who were headquartered in the Comeragh Mountains) and they had removed a section of track on the Mallow to Waterford railway line, forcing the train to come to a stop outside the town of Cill Mhíodáin (Kilmeaden/Kilmeadan).
The IRA then boarded it and, as a section of the men removed the mailbags, other rebels removed the passengers.
The mailbags were put carefully to one side, a distance away from the train, and the passengers were told to walk the five mile distance back to the station where they had got on.
The mailbags usually contained information of use to the rebels, and destroying traintrack infrastructure etc disrupted the Stater army and its transport and communication lines.
The train engine, two carriages and the guards van were set on fire and, before the fires had fully caught, the train driver was told to start the engine and drive the train forward, onto the missing track - he refused, was put off the train and a rebel hand done the job instead.
The train derailed, toppled over and burned itself into a state of uselessness.
The rebel fighters returned safely to base.
(RIP Volunteer Captain Thomas Keating.)
==========================
55 YEARS AGO TODAY (17TH DECEMBER 1970) : EVE OF THE FORMATION OF A LOYALIST DEATH-SQUAD.
The 'Ulster Defence Regiment', a pro-British loyalist paramilitary gang, was established by Westminster on the 18th December 1970 and continued to uphold the British writ, as the UDR, until 1992, when they were amalgamated with the 'Royal Irish Rangers' to form the 'Royal Irish Regiment'.
In every country it occupied (...and in every country it continues to either occupy or take an 'interest' in) Britain, like other imperialist forces, recruits a native 'workforce' which it uses to serve its interests.
In the mid-to-late 19th Century in Ireland, for instance, Westminster decreed that the then Irish police force be re-named the 'Royal Irish Constabulary', a move which the then British 'queen', Victoria, was strongly in favour of, as a 'reward' to them in payment for the cruel manner in which they dealt with the Fenian Rising.
In the early 1920's, after Britain had partitioned Ireland, the paramilitary RIC groupings in the Six Counties were re-classified as the 'RUC', 'U' for 'Ulster' ('1169...' comment : sic - Ulster has nine counties , not six) and a new pro-British death squad was also established - the 'USC' (or the 'B Specials', as they were better known) , comprised of native loyalist/unionist supporters, sharing a common hatred of all things Irish.
British military forces show proper respect for their flag.
'The Specials' were left with more or less a free rein by Westminster to 'maintain (English) law and order' in that part of Ireland but they dirtied their own doorstep so often that Westminster, long embarrassed by having to clean up after them so often, produced a report which, basically (much to the disgust of the local 'powers-that-be') , called for their reign to be brought to an end but, by coincidence (!) , a new pro-British murder gang was formed : the UDR.
This latest reincarnation of the RIC/RUC/USC/B Specials (which also 'traded' as the 'UVF') had, by 1992, ran out of doorsteps to dirty and, in that age-old British 'tradition', was 're-launched/re-named' as the 'Royal Irish Regiment' (RIR), on 1st July 1992.
But regardless of what name or uniform Westminster dresses them up as (or in) they will remain what they have always been - mercenary boot-boys in military garb, whether in Ireland or abroad.
And they will continue to meet the same response that their ilk so readily dish out to those that dare challenge the 'might of the British Empire'.
One of the many problems that partitioning Ireland brought for Westminster, God help them, to be sure, was the subject of social welfare payments to, for instance, an unemployed man or woman in England compared to an unemployed man or woman in the British-occupied six north-eastern counties of Ireland.
It was with this in mind that the then British 'Under-Secretary for Ireland', a Mr John Anderson (' 'Sir' John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley') wrote to a colleague of his in the British Ministry of Labour on the 17th December, 1924.
Mr Anderson was concerned "that amalgamation of the British and Northern Ireland (sic) unemployment insurance would be an admission that the 'Government of Ireland Act 1920' was unworkable" because, under that Act, the Stormont administration were expected to fund all such social services from the tax they raised in the occupied zone but, the pool being smaller to draw from than the pool in England, a pound-for-pound payment match wasn't possible.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave...!
Unionists were insisting that an unemployed person in, say, Belfast, should be on the same welfare payment as an unemployed person in, say, Bristol, as that person was just as British, they claimed, and should be entitled to the same social payments.
But the smaller kitty wouldn't allow for that.
The issue was verbally pondered over and kicked down the road until March, 1925, when the Stormont 'Prime Minister', a Mr James Craig ('1st Viscount Craigavon PC NI DL' ETC ETC!) wrote to a Mr Churchill, the then 'Chancellor of the British Exchequer' in Westminster, demanding that the funds from which Westminster paid out, for instance, welfare payments, should be amalgamated with the funds which Stormont used for same - and he said he would resign if that was not done.
And, that same month, a Mr John Miller Andrews, the 'Stormont Minister for Labour', wrote to his political pal, a Mr Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart ('Lord Londonderry, the 7th Marquess of Londonderry'!), telling him -
"The plain truth is that we cannot carry on as a Government here (ie the Occupied Zone in Ireland) unless our working classes enjoy the same social standards as their brother Trade Unionists in Great Britain..."
And t'was in that same month also (March 1925) that Mr Churchill recorded in his diary that the provision of social services depends on a "sufficiently large area and large numbers of trades" (ie a sufficiently big kitty) and that the Six County area, on its own, could obviously not match the kitty in England.
And, lo and behold, also in March, 1925, the Cabinet in London agreed that "on the grounds of equity" Britain should assist Stormont in its "difficulties" with its unemployment insurance fund issue, and authorised Mr Churchill to donate £650,000 to that Stormont fund.
But, again, questions were raised about giving that money as to do so "would be a departure from the spirit, if not the terms, of the Treaty...", as Mr Anderson again put it, and Mr Churchill agreed with him, saying that it would involve a substantial modification of the '1920 Government of Ireland Act' but that might not be such a bad thing, says he - doing so would gave "the southern Irish an object lesson in the value of the British connection...".
Put manners on them, so to speak...
However, it was a hot subject which politicians realised they could loose votes, support, pay and perks over, so they did what they always do, and what they continue to do : pass the buck - a committee of civil servants (not dependant on votes from the public ie 'the permanent government') was formed to deal with the issue!
That committee devised a complex arrangement which essentially gave a major financial underwriting, using British Exchequer funding, of Stormont's unemployment insurance fund (the 'Unemployment Insurance Act 1926 [Ireland]') and they also shortened parliamentary discussion time of the legislation as they were aware that their political bosses "would face a revolt from their own backbenchers who, despite economic hardship throughout Britain, were being told that prudence required continuing reductions in government spending..." yet here they were pumping much-needed money into their 'Irish project'!
A programme about oily, slippery political toads and hucksters comes to mind...
==========================
THE LAST WEEK IN DECEMBER 229 YEARS AGO IN IRELAND...
Bad weather prevented French troops from landing in Bantry Bay , Cork, Ireland in 1796.
Near the end of December in 1796, Wolfe Tone arrived in Bantry Bay, Cork, with French General Hoche and a fleet of thirty-five ships, carrying about 15,000 troops, but fog and other bad weather prevented them from landing.
Some of the ships sank, and a despondent Wolfe Tone recorded the following in his journal at that time -
"This damned fog continues without interruption.
I asked General Cherin what we should do in case they did not rejoin us.
He said that he supposed General Grouchy would take the command with the troops we had with us, which, on examination, we found to amount to about 6,500 men.
The Captain has opened a packet containing instructions for his conduct in case of separation, which order him to cruise for five days off Mizen Head and, at the end of that time, proceed to the mouth of the Shannon, where he is to remain three more, at the end of which time, if he does not see the fleet or receive further orders by a frigate, he is to make the best of his way back to Brest....".
On 21st December, this entry was recorded in his journal -
"There cannot be imagined a situation more provokingly tantalising than mine at this moment, within view, almost within reach of my native land, and uncertain whether I shall ever set foot in it.
We were near enough to toss a biscuit ashore..."
On the 26th, he wrote -
"We have now been six days in Bantry Bay, within 500 yards of the shore, without being able to effect a landing.
All our hopes are now reduced to getting back safely to Brest...".
The French armada was forced, by the weather, to return to France and an opportunity to change the history of this country and, likely enough, the on-going political conflict here, went with it.
In December 1923, the Free State administration enacted a new law which it called 'The Loans and Fund Acts' as part of its strategy to get its foul hands on Irish republican funds.
Under this new law, the Staters assembled a list of those who had contributed to the Republican Loan Fund and contacted them, telling them that it was their intention to repay them with a 40% return on their investment.
But it wasn't the Staters money to make deals over ; it was raised by Irish republicans with a 32-County Ireland in mind, not a 26-County Free State within Ireland and, to rub salt into the wound, the Free State Minister for Finance (who was also the FS Minister for Local Government), a Mr Ernest Blythe (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher) stated, in Leinster House (on the 13th December 1923)-
"If it had not been for the generosity and faith of the people who subscribed to the Loan, there would be no Free State today..."
Mr Blythe was gaslighting the people - as an ex-republican, he would have been aware that, as we stated above, that money was raised by Irish republicans with a 32-County Ireland in mind, not a 26-County Free State within Ireland.
A legal battle over the proper ownership of that fund continued until the 17th December, 1925, when the Free State Supreme Court ruled against a Mr Stephen O'Mara (pictured, one of the three trustees of the fund) and unanimously upheld the decision of a lower State court that the Free State government had the right to appoint new trustees to the fund (which had about £1,100,000 in its kitty).
But the Staters were still locked out from accessing the money, as the three (original) trustees (Éamon de Valera, Dr Michael Fogarty and Stephen O'Mara) refused and/or neglected to co-operate with the Free State court decision.
The legal tussle continued until, in February 1927, the Free State Supreme Court appointed a Mr William Norman to replace Mr de Valera as one of the three trustees and the Staters finally 'legally' raided the funds held in the Dáil Loan accounts.
Drochrath ort le caoi a bheith ort!
==========================
UP THE REPUBLIC - OUR DAY WILL COME !
NOLLAIG SHONA DAR LEITHEOIRI !
Ar eagle an dearmaid...
Ba bhrea an rud e siocháin bhuan bunaithe ar an gceart a bheith againn in Éireann. Is i an bronntanas is fearr a d'fheadfaimis a thabhairt duinn fein agus dar gclann.
Coinniodh an ceart agus an tsiocháin uainn le breis agus ocht gcead bliain, de bharr ionradh, forghabhail agus miriaradh na Sasanach. Socrú ar bith a dheantar in ainm mhuintir na hÉireann agus a ghlacann le riail Shasana agus a dhaingnionn an chriochdheighilt, ni thig leis an ceart na an tsiocháin bhuann a bhunu.
Ni dheanfaidh se ach la na siochána buaine a chur ar an mhear fhada agus an bhunfhadb a thabhairt do ghluin eile. Tharla se seo cheana nuair a siniodh Conradh 1921 agus cuireadh siar ar mhuintir na hÉireann e in ainm na siochána.
Éire a bheith saor agus daonlathach, an cuspoir ceanna a bhi i gceist ag Wolfe Tone agus ag na Poblachtaigh uile anuas go dti 1916 agus an la ata inniu ann.
Rinne a lan fear agus ban croga iobairti mora, thug a mbeatha fiu, ar son na cuise uaisle seo.
CEART. SAOIRSE. DAONLATHAS.
A PEACEFUL CHRISTMAS TO OUR READERS!
Least we forget...
A just and permanent peace in Ireland is most desirable. It is the greatest gift we could give to ourselves and our children.
We have been denied justice and peace for more than eight centuries, because of English invasion, occupation and misrule of our country.
Any arrangement which, in the name of the Irish people, accepts English rule and copperfastens the Border will not bring justice and lasting peace. It will only postpone the day of permanent peace, handing over the basic problem to another generation.
This happened before when the Treaty of 1921 was signed and was forced on the Irish people in the name of peace.
Irish republicans cherishes the objective of a free, democratic Ireland, as envisaged by Wolfe Tone and all republicans down to 1916 and our own day. Many brave men and women sacrificed a lot, even their lives, for this noble Cause.
JUSTICE. FREEDOM. DEMOCRACY.
Thanks for the visit, and for reading - it's appreciated by us.
Hope yis all have the craic over the Christmas and New Year, 'cause we're sure gonna... ; )
Sharon and the team.
(We'll be back on Wednesday, 7th January 2026 - now get outta here, will ya ; ya must have parcels to wrap...!)
ONE OF THE MANY PROBLEMS IN PARTITIONING IRELAND...
'Ireland, 1920's - one of the many problems that partitioning Ireland brought for Westminster, God help them, to be sure, was the subject of social welfare payments to, for instance, an unemployed man or woman in England compared to an unemployed man or woman in the British-occupied six north-eastern counties of Ireland...'
Making chalk of one and cheese of the other - but the smell, appearance and taste of the 'cheese' in Ireland worried the political representatives of the cheddar who depended on them for votes, so something had to be done and the issue, and other connected hackles, were raised with the big cats in Westminster...
That's just one slice (!) of the roughly twenty-five pieces we'll be writing about on Wednesday, 17th December, 2025, and here's a few more for yer plate...
'Ireland, 1922 - the politicians in Westminster were comfortable in doing this because they were handing control of their then newest acquisition from actual British political and military forces to pro-British political and military forces...'
'1920's - speaking in Leinster House, this rebel woman took to the floor and shamed the men in that institution, referencing Pearse and 'minorities from the past' but to no avail : the men were referencing their future political careers...'
'Ireland, 1960's - 'Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act' had yet to be imposed and RTE and other media outlets were scrambling to interview him but, if this world figure was still alive and landed in the State today, they would deem him to be a 'terrorist' and imprison him...'
'1970's, Occupied Six Counties - name change, uniform change...but the attitude and objective remained the same...'
So...
..chalk and cheese mightn't mix but, if ya have an interest in Irish history and Irish politics, from today and yesterday, all 32 Counties - then yerselves and ourselves will get along just fine : chalk (!) us in for a visit on Wednesday, 17th December 2025.
Don't have us to come down the bleedin' chimney after ya...!
Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated : see ya again on the 17th!
Sharon and the team.
"It was agreed that the ultimate aim of the (British) Government's policy in Ireland was a united Ireland with a separate parliament of its own, bound by the closest ties to Great Britain, without offending the Protestants of Ulster (sic)..."
- a statement issued by the British cabinet, on the 3rd December 1919, after those politicians had had a discussion on 'the Irish Question'.
Needless to say, "the Protestants of Ulster" (sic) or, at least, the political leadership of same, were practically up in arms when they heard about the "separate parliament" discussions and, on the 15th December, that cabinet stated that they had held meetings with (Six County) Unionist leadership figures and agreed with the Unionists, who were "doubtful whether a Northern Parliament (sic) of Ireland would be able effectively to govern three Ulster counties - Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan - where there was a Nationalist majority".
Of the remaining six counties - Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Derry and Tyrone - Fermanagh and Tyrone also had Nationalist majorities but, with the aid of a manipulated vote (ie a gerrymandering protocol) and supine Free State politicians in the Twenty-Six Counties, the London politicians and the Ulster Unionists knew they could enforce their illegitimate writ in those two Irish counties.
And so it remains today.
"Any attempt at secession (by the Staters) will be fought with the same determination, with the same resources, with the same resolve as the Northern States of America put into the fight against the Southern States. It is important that that should be known, not merely throughout the world, but in Ireland itself..."
- Mr David Lloyd George (the British PM at the time), 22nd December, 1919.
Before and after the 15th December "Doubtful" statement and between then and the 22nd, the British Government and Unionists in Ireland cobbled-together a plan which they themselves, in-house, referred to as 'The Fourth Home Rule Bill' but were devious enough to call, in public, 'The Better Government of Ireland Bill'.
The pro-British political boss in Ulster, a Mr James Craig (the '1st Viscount Craigavon'!) knew the score and convinced the others that a Six County 'State' within the Nine-County Ulster would be easier to gerryman...manage... (!) and, on the 23rd December, 1920, 'The Fourth Home Ru... (oops!) - 'The Better Government of Ireland Bill'...received 'Royal Assent', meaning it became 'law'.
That new 'law' introduced two 'parliaments' - one for the six-north eastern counties of Ireland and one for the other twenty-six counties - which sounds, and IS, equally as ludicrous today as it was then!
The London political boss, Mr David Lloyd George, also knew the score ; when introducing the new 'law', he declared -
"There is a path of fatality which pursues the relations between the countries and makes them eternally at cross purposes..."
And - again - so it remains today...
==========================
ON THIS DATE (3RD DECEMBER) 48 YEARS AGO : STATE MEDIA REPORT THAT AN ESCAPED IRA LEADER HAD BEEN CAPTURED AFTER 50 MONTHS ON THE RUN.
In March 1973, IRA leader Joe Cahill was arrested by the Free State Navy in Waterford, aboard the Claudia, a ship from Libya loaded with five tons of weapons, and was sentenced to three years imprisonment, and another IRA leader, Seamus Twomey (pictured), was appointed IRA Chief of Staff.
In early October that year, Twomey was caught and arrested by the Free Staters and imprisoned in Mountjoy Jail, which meant that three top IRA operatives (Twomey, J.B. O'Hagan and Kevin Mallon) were now housed in the one location - and the IRA wanted them back!
An 'American businessman', a 'Mr. Leonard', approached the manager of the 'Irish Helicopters' company at Dublin Airport and discussed hiring a helicopter for an aerial photographic shoot in County Laois and, after being shown the company's fleet of helicopters, this 'businessman' booked a five-seater Alouette II helicopter for October 31st.
'Mr Leonard' arrived at Irish Helicopters on the day and was introduced to the pilot of the helicopter, a Captain Thompson Boyes, who was instructed to fly to a field in Stradbally, County Laois, to pick up photographic equipment.
After landing, the pilot saw two armed and masked men approaching the helicopter from nearby trees and he was held at gunpoint and told he would not be harmed if he followed instructions.
'Mr Leonard' left the area with one gunman, while the other gunman climbed aboard the helicopter armed with a pistol and an Armalite rifle. Captain Boyes was told to fly towards Dublin following the path of railway lines and the Royal Canal, and was ordered not to register his flight path with Air Traffic Control.
As the helicopter approached Dublin, Captain Boyes was informed of the escape plan and instructed to land in the exercise yard at Mountjoy Prison.
On Wednesday, 31st October 1973, at 3.40pm in the afternoon, the Alouette II helicopter landed in the 'D Wing Exercise Yard' of Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, when a football match was taking place between the prisoners, and Twomey, O'Hagan and Mallon jumped aboard, but were quickly spotted (!) by an alert (!) prison screw who used his training and power of intuition to take immediate action - he *called on the screws at the gate to close them over as he feared the helicopter was trying to escape (*according to the RTE 'Scannal - Prison Break' programme!).
Another IRA prisoner who was in the yard at the time recalled how an embarrassed screw told him that he had apologised to the prison governor in relation to the incident, saying that he thought the helicopter contained a visiting (Free State) Minister for Defence (and well-known publican) Paddy Donegan : the IRA prisoner replied that, in fact, "..it was our Minister of Defence leaving...!"
All three men reported back to the IRA and continued their work for the Movement but, after a few weeks of freedom, Kevin Mallon was recaptured at a GAA Dance in the Montague Hotel in Co. Laois on 10th December 1973, J.B.O'Hagan was recaptured in Dublin in early 1975 and Seamus Twomey managed to remain uncaptured until December 2nd, 1977, after the Special Branch came across him in a 'suspicious car' parked in Sandycove, in Dublin.
He had managed to evade the forces of 'law and order', North and South, for fifty months, despite been hunted by the best that Leinster House and Westminster could throw at him!
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.
Noel Tracey, (State) Minister for Science, Technology and Commerce, told the gathering at the annual dinner of the Institute of Petroleum in November last -
"The Tosco transaction represents an excellent deal for Ireland.
It radically improves the situation for both the refinery and the terminal by placing them squarely within the fold of a major integrated oil business, where opportunities for profitable trading are maximised and a culture of investment in both plant and people predominates."
Joe Higgins, though, condemned the sale of INPC in the Dail (sic), saying that it was "a policy which has been dictated not by the interests of working or ordinary people, but by the interests of multinational corporations exerting huge pressure on governments."
Industry experts say that INPC, which dealt with the retail end of the business, was well placed to win contracts from organisations such as the ESB, Iarnrod Eireann and other State agencies for the supply of fuel, and at the time of the sale already had a substantial turnover...
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (3RD DECEMBER) 138 YEARS AGO : EVE OF THE BIRTH OF A 'TROUBLESOME WOMAN'.
'4th December 1887 - Winifred Carney, trade unionist and revolutionary, is born in Bangor, Co. Down.
Winifred Carney was a suffragist and an advocate for trade unions. She was an activist in the Irish Textile Workers Union and became James Connolly's personal secretary while he was based in Belfast in 1912. She was active in organising solidarity work for workers during the Dublin Lockout and she joined Cumann na mBan.
She became involved in the Easter Rising when Connolly asked her to come to Dublin to work for him. She was the only woman who participated in the initial occupation of the GPO where the Irish Citizen Army set up its headquarters. She was armed with a typewriter and a revolver.
Winifred was well known for her reputation of being a crack shot. She was among the final group to leave the GPO (along with Elizabeth O’Farrell and Julia Grennan) as she would not leave the wounded Connolly. She was arrested and taken to Kilmainham Gaol and later Aylesbury prison and was released in December 1916. Winifred died in 1943 and is buried in Belfast...' (From here.)
"The conditions of your toil are unnecessarily hard, that your low wages do not enable you to procure sufficiently nourishing food for yourselves or your children, and that as a result of your hard work, combined with low wages, you are the easy victims of disease, and that your children never get a decent chance in life, but are handicapped in the race of life before they are born.."
- part of the speech which Winifred Carney and James Connolly prepared for his speech to millworkers in Belfast in late 1911. Connolly was the Belfast Organiser for the ITGWU at the time, and Carney was just a few weeks away from becoming the full-time Secretary of the then newly-formed 'Irish Textile Workers' Union'.
On the 4th of December 1887, Alfred and Sarah Carney welcomed the birth of their sixth child, Winifred, into their existing family - three boys (Ernest, Louie and Alfred) and two girls ( Maud and Mabel).
The family were then living in Bangor, County Down but, not long after Winifred was born, the marriage broke down and Sarah moved with the children to Carlisle Circus in Belfast, where she started a small shop.
Winifred found work as a teacher and developed a love for the Irish language, joining the Gaelic League to further her interest and, at 27 years of age, she joined (membership number 56077) the then newly-formed 'Cumann na mBan' organisation and, indeed, was present in Wynn's Hotel in Dublin in April 1914 when that organisation was founded.
Her duties included teaching first aid to the other members as well as training in the use of weapons, as she was known to be proficient in that particular field (a skill no doubt learned due to her activity with the 'Irish Citizens Army', which she joined on its formation in 1913).
This was two years before the (1916) Easter Rising and, due to her connection with James Connolly and her membership of various republican/nationalist organisations, Winifred Carney knew that an action against British interference in Ireland was being discussed and she was determined to play her part in any such blow against the 'empire' and said as much to Connolly, who by then had stationed himself in Dublin to assist the workers there in what became known as 'the great lock out'.
Winifred Carney stayed in Belfast, collecting whatever money she could for the Dublin strikers and billeting as many families of the strikers as she could. Connolly kept her up to date on developments and, when the time came - April 1916 - he asked her to come to Dublin to help with the preparations for a rising against Westminster, which she did.
At first she was 'jobbed' in Liberty Hall, writing dispatches and mobilisation orders etc but, on the day the rising began - 24th April 1916 - as an Adjutant in the Irish Citizen Army, she carried both 'tools of her trade' into the GPO : a typewriter and a revolver.
During the early stages of the week-long battle she was the only female in the building and, towards the end of that particular battle (..but not the end of the fight itself!) she refused orders at the time to leave the premises, as did her two colleagues, Julia Grenan and Elizabeth O'Farrell.
Altogether, there was a total of thirty-four women in the GPO at the time, members of the 'Irish Citizens Army' and 'Cumann na mBan', thirty-one of whom followed orders and vacated the building, with the wounded.
The female Volunteers were also tasked with carrying military instructions around the city during which trips they gathered intelligence on the strength and locations of the enemy and carried as much food and ammunition as they could safely deliver to their comrades.
The Rising ended when Winifred Carney, Nurse Elizabeth O'Farrell and Julia Greenan, who were by now based in the Moore Street Headquarters as there was no safety or shelter to be had in the remains of the GPO, were instructed to deliver a surrender notice to British General Lowe, stating the following -
'In order to prevent further slaughter of the civil population and in the hope of saving the lives of our followers, the members of the Provisional Government present at headquarters have decided on an unconditional surrender, and commandants or officers commanding districts will order their commands to lay down arms.
P.H. Pearse, Dublin, 30th April 1916.'
Winifred Carney, Brigid Foley, Maire Perolz, Nell Ryan and Helena Moloney were the five female Volunteers that were deported to prisons and internment camps in England and Wales, following the surrender, as were 1,836 male Volunteers, and approximately 80 other female Volunteers were taken, firstly, to Richmond Barracks and then to Kilmainham Jail and, although most were released within a week, Winifred Carney, Helena Moloney and Nell Ryan were held captive in Aylesbury Prison in Buckinghamshire in England until the 24th December (1916).
They had been offered early release if they signed an undertaking "...not to engage in any act of a seditious character.." but they had refused to do so.
She maintained her republican principles in the years that followed, despite being targeted repeatedly by agents of the State and, despite many personal setbacks (most of which were related to her strong political beliefs) she never compromised her republicanism.
When ill health forced her off the picket and protest lines she continued to verbally challenge the State at every opportunity until even that became too much for her : she died at fifty-five years of age on the 21st November 1943, just as opposed to Free Staters and partition as she had always been, and is buried in Milltown Cemetery in Belfast.
On the 3rd December, 1920, Galway County Council discussed and agreed a 'Peace Resolution' which called on the Irish republican, 32-County Dáil Éireann to negotiate a truce with the British.
Pro-British presstitute 'journalists' in England and in Ireland reported, gleefully, that the resolution was bitterly criticised by the Republican Movement, including (ironically) by Michael Collins, and newspaper reports mentioned that the British took it as an indication that rebel resolve was weakening.
However, on closer examination, the truth emerged later but, as usual with all things spun by politicians and their hirelings in the media, it didn't receive the same coverage as the original article.
Six members out of the 32 members of Galway County Council turned up for the meeting (six not being a quorum), as the other 26 were 'on the run' from foreign gunmen, and those six elected reps did indeed discuss a 'Peace Resolution' but did not pass it as an agreed motion.
But the lie was half way around the world before the truth even got its trousers on / falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it / a lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on...!
On the same date that six Galway political sleveens were sleveening their way into notoriety, IRA GHQ issued 'General Order No.15 [New Series]', authorising IRA Brigade Commanders to collect funds in their area to financially support the Movement.
The Commanders were told to be thorough in their endeavours and to approach everyone "except declared enemies", and leaflets were drawn-up, printed and distributed, similiar to this one which was delivered practically door-to-door in the Cork IRA Brigade No.3 area -
'A collection is being made in this area, by authority of the General Head Quarters of our Army, to enable me to carry on the work of arming the Volunteers in this Brigade, and so sustaining and increasing the fight waged against the enemy here.
You are asked to subscribe a fair amount.
It is for your own protection as well as for the national good.
The enemy forces are running loose whenever they get an opportunity.
They are murdering defenceless people.
They are pillaging, burning, outraging, wherever they go.
Arms are needed to meet them and to beat them.
Money is required to get the arms.
That is the plain statement of the case.
It is no appeal ; it is just a request to every man and every woman who believes in Ireland to help the Army of Ireland to carry on the fight.
During the next week collectors appointed by the Officer-in-charge of the area will call on you...'
The IRA Brigade Commander for the 3rd (West) Cork area, Volunteer Tom Barry, later reported back to GHQ that over £5,000 had been collected in three nights in his area - the citizens were willing, as was their army!
On the same date that IRA GHQ issued 'G Order 15 [NS]', Archbishop Patrick Joseph Clune (pictured) was visiting Arthur Griffith and Eoin MacNeill (Irish-republican-gamekeepers-turned-Free State poachers) in Mountjoy Jail in Dublin.
Two days previously, Mr Clune had had a chat 'about peace in Ireland' with a Mr David Lloyd George and he was due to meet with Michael Collins (another republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher) the next day (4th).
However, the British demand that the IRA must surrender their arms meant that nothing came from those talks.
As Mr Clune was visiting the poachers in the 'Joy (!), the then ten-year-old 'Church of England Peace League' issued a statement in London condemning reprisals in Ireland which they said undermined "the very foundations of justice and order..."
A purposely ambiguous position, as it's not clear whether that church grouping were referencing British Army revenge attacks on civilians or IRA attacks on the British military...?!
On the same date that that church body were formulating their murky statement, a patrol of five RIC members, led by a Mr Daniel McMorrow ('Service Number 60344') were leaving their barracks in the town of Youghal, in County Cork, and were crossing the old metal 'Blackwater Bridge' when shots were fired at them.
An IRA ASU, with Volunteer James Mansfield (3rd Battalion, West Waterford Brigade) in command, had established an ambush position and the RIC members were now in the middle of it.
One of the RIC members was hit and fell to the ground ; his colleagues took whatever cover they could find as bullets bounced off the ground beside them.
Job done, the rebels returned to base.
The wounded RIC man, a Mr Maurice Prendiville (/Prenderville, 46, 'Service Number 57219'), a married man with six children, from Kerry, was carried by his buddies to nearby Torrens Chemist shop where he died from his wounds.
Mr Prendiville had 26 'years of service' with that paramilitary grouping, and two of his brothers - James and Edmund - were also tied-up with it.
Incidentally, Mr Prendiville and one of his RIC pals, a Mr Peter Ryan ('Service Number 62404') had been captured by the IRA during an ambush at Piltown Cross, Waterford, on the 1st November (1920) but both were released unharmed on the understanding that they would resign from the RIC.
Neither of them did.
Also incidentally (!) -
The family which owned the chemist shop, the Torrens, had come to the attention of the rebels before the 3rd December 1920 -
'Notice to quit Ireland within 7 days or die -
We hereby give you solemn notice to leave this country within 7 days or forfeit your life.
So take your choice.
It's up to yourself, beware, for this is no idle threat.
Signed J.K.A.'
- a note delivered to John Morrison Torrens from the IRA in that area, after Mr Torrens and his family had again given assistance to enemy forces.
Indeed, a letter dated December 1920, and signed by a 'JJ Carroll, Captain, County Inspector's Office', surfaced afterwards, in which Mr Torrens was thanked.. "..for kindness to wounded officers on two recent occasions, on behalf of the Royal Irish Constabulary..."
The Torrens family duly left Ireland.
On the 3rd December, 1920, 'The Spectator Magazine' in London claimed that the British Government's failure to enlist the support of Britsh public opinion for its policies (!) in Ireland was the result of its failure to use its propaganda resources to the fullest.
Looking for extra ad revenue, perhaps...?!
==========================
THE MONTH UNSPUN...
The stories that hit the headlines.
From Magill magazine, August 2002.
In general, it was welcomed among the major parties, although David Trimble was extremely cautious in his optimism.
Trimble had questioned in the House of Commons what role Sinn Féin should play in the Executive in the absence of concrete evidence of a republican transition from violence to democracy.
The fact that the timing of the statement strengthened Sinn Féin's position in that discussion was hardly coincidental, 'The Irish Times' newspaper believed.
The 'paper argued that the statement, along with two acts of decommissioning and Alex Maskey's recent Somme commemoration, could be used to allay unionist anger over violence in Belfast, the murder (sic) of alleged drug dealers and the events in Colombia - all indications, it would seem, that the IRA ceasefire is not being maintained...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 3rd December, 1921, in a show of strength in the days before the 'Treaty of Surrender' was signed (6th December, 1921, at 10 Downing Street in London, England), about 2,000 IRA Volunteers held a parade through the town of Kilreekil, in County Galway.
The rebels were inspected by Volunteer leadership figures Richard Mulcahy and Michael Brennan : two Irish republican-gamekeepers-turned-Free State-poachers.
The irony, for shame.
==========================
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.
The Maltese Report fails to note, however, that the wife and children of Carmelo Bartolo publicly stated, through their lawyer, in 'The Times' newspaper, Malta, on the 23rd April 1999, that they did not recognise the voice on the tape as that of their loved one.
Paul Lehman, the Piper Corporation Senior Accident Investigator, told the Maltese Board of Inquiry that following his examination of the recovered wreckage he was satisfied it belonged to Piper Lance 9H-ABU and that it was his expert opinion the aircraft had crashed into the sea.
On Thursday June 14th 2001, Cormac Boomer telephoned Mr. Lehman at the Piper Corporation headquarters in Florida.
A number of telephone calls were made before he was eventually put through to a woman who identified herself as a lawyer who was in the presence of Paul Lehman. Lehman and the lawyer conducted the telephone conversation by conference.
Boomer asked Lehman if he would be willing to give an interview for a television documentary, and his lawyer replied that questions would need to be forwarded in advance before a decision could be taken.
Then he asked Lehman if he was satisfied the aircraft had crashed into the sea...
(MORE LATER.)
As a 14-years-young teenager, John Dooley from Loughbrown, Newbridge, in County Kildare, joined Na Fianna Éireann and, shortly afterwards, started work in a gravel pit in Knockbrown, County Wexford, which was owned by the Great Southern and Western Railway Company.
He stayed with NFÉ and the gravel pit job for five years, then abandoned the NFÉ, the gravel pit job and his principles for a 'career as a soldier' with the newly-spawned Free State Army (which he joined on the 4th July, 1922, 'Service Number 401').
He was part of an FSA military convoy (he was driving one of the trucks) which, on the 1st December 1922, was travelling from the village of Wellington Bridge, in the south of County Wexford (about fifteen miles west of Wexford Town) into Wexford Town when an IRA landmine exploded under the lorry.
The young Mr Dooley was seriously injured and died from his wounds on the 3rd December.
One of his Stater comrades, a Mr Washington, also from Newbridge, was actually blown out of the truck and into the air by the explosion but, when he landed, his only injury was a sprained ankle.
'Tugann an Diabhal aire dá mhuintir féin' ('The Devil looks after his own').
As Mr Washington was landing on his arse in County Kildare, 250 km (about 155 miles) away, across the country and down the road a bit in Castleisland, County Kerry, a 26-year-old man, Mr William Brosnan, who kept himself to himself, had locked-up his butchers shop on Main Street and was walking home.
It was his usual routine - doors closed to the public at about 8.30pm, sweep the floor, lights off, close door and lock it, walk home.
As he was walking down Main Street he was shot dead.
The Free State Army had declared a 9pm curfew for that night and a motorised FSA patrol passed him on the street, no questions, no warning - one of the State gunmen simply shot him dead.
They at least had the decency not to plant a firearm on him.
Marbhfháisc air!
RIP Mr William Brosnan.
At about the same time that poor Mr Brosnan was locking-up his shop, 100 km (about 62 miles) away across the country, in County Cork, a Free State Army member, a Mr George McGlynn, and his colleagues, were trying to escape from an IRA ambush in the village of Ballyvourney.
Mr McGlynn was badly wounded and died from his injuries the next day.
The Stater Army had him on their books as a 'Sergeant' ('Service Number 20743') and a 'Corporal' ('Service Number 56600').
He was from Forge, New Row, Naas, County Kildare, and died on the 4th December 1922 in the Mercy Hospital in Cork.
==========================
ON THE 2ND DECEMBER 105 YEARS AGO - QUESTIONS ASKED IN WESTMINSTER RE 'ESCAPING' IRISH PRISONERS BEING SHOT BY BRITISH FORCES IN IRELAND ARE SIDE-STEPPED, BUT COVERED BY SOME NEWSPAPERS ON THE 3RD.
Ireland, 1920 : a flavour of the chaos inflicted here by the British political and military presence : in January that year, the 1st Cork Brigade of the IRA captured Carrigtwohill 'Royal Irish Constabulary' (RIC) barracks.
In February, the 'Home Rule Bill' was published, in which Westminster voiced its intention to establish a 128-member 'parliament' in Dublin and a 52-member 'parliament' in Belfast despite knowing, from previous partition experiments, that two 'parliaments' in one country was a receipe for political disaster.
Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork, Tomás Mac Curtain, was murdered in his house by British forces in March.
In April, a hunger-strike began in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin by IRA prisoners who were demanding POW status.
In May that year, forty IRA prisoners who were on hunger-strike in Wormwood Scrubs in London, England, were released and in June an armed British militia in Ireland, the RIC, got the go-ahead from Westminster to'officially' shoot republicans dead.
In July 1920, those deemed not fit for the regular British forces in Ireland were given a new home in the 'ADRIC' ('Auxiliary Division Royal Irish Constabulary') and in August Terence MacSwiney went on hunger-strike in Brixton Prison in England.
In September the 'Black and Tans' destroyed more than fifty properties in Balbriggan town in Dublin, a British militia, the 'USC', was established in October, in November fourteen British spies were executed in Dublin by the IRA and in December 1920 Westminster declared 'Martial Law' in Cork, Kerry, Limerick and Tipperary.
Questions re 'the Irish situation' surfaced occasionally in the grand halls of Westminster and, on the 2nd December 1920 (covered by some newspapers on the 3rd), the following exchange took place in that venue but was dismissed by the chairperson as 'the wrong question having been asked' :
Lieut-Commander KENWORTHY asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland how many prisoners in Ireland have been shot dead while trying to escape, according to police reports, up to the end of November of this year and during the present year; how many have been wounded; and how many of these were handcuffed at the time of their death or wounding?
Mr. GALBRAITH asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland what is the total number of persons who have been shot at in Ireland when attempting to escape from custody; and how many of such persons have been wounded and killed, respectively?
Mr. HENRY : According to the police reports the number of prisoners fired at while attempting to escape from custody within the period from 1st January to 30th November, 1920, is 11. Of these nine were killed and two wounded. One of the prisoners killed and one of those wounded are stated to have been handcuffed while attempting to escape.
Lieut-Commander KENWORTHY : Is the right hon. and learned Gentleman aware that when the bodies have been given to the relatives that in many cases those men have been found to be riddled with bullets through the head: how does he think that men can try to escape from police lorries; and can he inform me if all these cases have been investigated by a court of inquiry?
Mr. HENRY : I must have notice of that question.
Mr. MacVEAGH : Can the Attorney-General say whether the figure he has quoted includes those shot dead on the allegation that they were attempting to resist arrest?
Mr. HENRY : The question put to me was as to the number of men shot whilst attempting to escape from custody.
Lieut-Commander KENWORTHY : Surely the right hon. and learned Gentleman can say whether there has been an inquiry into these cases, in view of the very serious allegations made and reported in the newspapers throughout the country?
Major O'NEILL : Is the right hon. and learned Gentleman aware that when General Lucas was captured, the officer who was captured with him attempted to escape, and was shot by the Sinn Feiners?
Mr. MacVEAGH : Also does the right hon. and learned Gentleman know that when General Lucas was released he stated that he had been treated with the greatest consideration by his captors?
Mr. SPEAKER : We are getting a long way from the question on the Paper...
(HANSARD 1803–2005 ? 1920s ? 1920 ? December 1920 ? 2 December 1920 ? Commons Sitting ? IRELAND.
ESCAPING PRISONERS [SHOOTING]. HC Deb 02 December 1920 vol 135 cc1410-1 1410.)
That was 105 years ago and shows that those political defenders of British imperialism were as quick then as they are now to use obfuscation in an attempt to 'neutralise' an embarrassing situation.
But Irish republicans had been fighting the British writ in Ireland centuries before the Westminster parliament was established and - no obfuscation here - will continue to do so, in one form and/or another, until they remove themselves, politically and militarily, from our country!
As a teenager, James Woods (pictured), who was born in March 1900, from Ballyreen, Lisdoonvarna, County Clare, studied to be a teacher and acquired a position as a trainee teacher, but left after one year and joined the Volunteer Movement.
When the Free State 'An Garda Síochána' was established in February 1922, he showed an interest in that grouping and, in November that year, he paid a visit to their recruitment office at Ship Street Barracks in Dublin and joined up ('Service Number 2358'), as did two of his brothers.
Young James (23) was sent to 'do his duty' in Bantry Garda Barracks in County Cork and, six months later, he was promoted to the rank of sergeant and, within weeks, he was transferred to Scartaglen Garda Barracks in the Sliabh Luachra area of County Kerry.
On the night of the 3rd December, 1923, six armed and masked men entered the barracks and took control of it, holding the occupants - Sergeant Woods and one other Garda member - at gunpoint ; they were there to confiscate weapons, uniforms and any other material they deemed useful.
The armed men ordered Sergeant Woods to hand over his weapons and his uniform and, when he resisted them, he was shot and died instantly.
Mr Woods is the first State cop to have died 'in the line of duty'.
==========================
ON THIS DATE (3RD DECEMBER) 54 YEARS AGO : NEWS BREAKS THAT THREE IRA PRISONERS HAD JOINED NINE OF THEIR COMRADES!
Crumlin Road Jail, Belfast (pictured) - known for its good quality bed sheets...
In November 1971, there were more than 700 IRA prisoners being held in Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast, with at least the same number again 'housed' in Long Kesh and other prisons.
All had access to an exercise yard and, in Crumlin Road Jail, the escape committee decided to use that yard as part of their plan to free three of their number - Martin Meehan, Anthony 'Dutch' Doherty and Hugh McCann.
The plan was for the three men to hide themselves under a sewer manhole in about two feet of water, which they did, for about five hours.
As luck would have it, when they eventually let themselves out, a thick fog had settled in the area, giving good cover. They ran for the prison wall and, using bed sheets which they had roughly fashioned into a rope ladder, with a home-made 'hook' tied to the top of the 'ladder', they managed to scale the wall.
Within hours, Martin Meehan and Hugh McCann were in a safe house in the Free State and their comrade, Anthony Doherty - who stayed in Belfast following the escape - joined them two weeks later.
Incidentally, on the 17th November 1971 - about two weeks before the above-mentioned 'rope ladder' escape - nine other IRA prisoners had also escaped from that same prison with the use of rope-ladders!
The nine were Thomas Kane, Seamus Storey, Bernard Elliman, Danny Mullan, Thomas Fox, Tom Maguire, Peter Rogers, Christy Keenan and Terrence 'Cleaky' Clarke and all of them escaped in two cars which were waiting for them on the near-by Antrim Road.
To add further to the distress caused to the then British 'Home Affairs Minister', Brian Faulkner, and his side-kick, 'Sir' Edmund Compton ("...torture would never happen in a British jail..") by those jail breaks, they were referenced in a popular song of the time -
OVER THE WALL.
In Crumlin Road Jail all the prisoners one day
took out a football and started to play,
and while all the warders were watching the ball
nine of the prisoners jumped over the wall!
Over the wall, over the wall,
who would believe they jumped over the wall?
over the wall, over the wall,
It's hard to believe they jumped over the wall!
Now the warders looked on with the greatest surprise
and the sight that they saw brought tears to their eyes,
for one of the teams was not there at all
they all got transferred and jumped over the wall!
Now the governor came down with his face in a twist
and said "Line up those lads while I check out me list,"
but nine of the lads didn't answer at all
and the warder said "Please Sir, they're over the wall."
The 'security forces' were shook to the core
so they barred every window and bolted each door,
but all their precautions were no use at all
for another three prisoners jumped over the wall!
Then the news reached old Stormont, Brian Faulkner turned pale
when he heard that more men had escaped from his jail,
said he - "Now we'll have an enquiry to call, and we'll get Edmund Compton to whitewash the wall."
Ah, whitewash : the second-favourite liquid used in Westminster, after Earl Grey, of course!
The newspapers made for good reading on the 3rd December, 1971...!
The much vaulted and 'Establishment'-lauded so-called 'Tripartite Agreement' was agreed to and signed on the 3rd December, 1925, by representatives from the Westminster, Leinster House and Stormont administrations.
In effect, by agreeing to the document, and signing it, the Staters were 'officially' accepting the enforced partition of Ireland.
The three political entities consented to suppress the report of the 'Boundary Commission' (that report was suppressed for 44 years ie it wasn't released until 1969!), that the partition/border between the Free State and the Occupied Six Counties was to remain unchanged, that issues regarding republican prisoners held in those Six Counties would be the imprimatur of Westminster (and Stormont would accept that that is the case ; Leinster House not even mentioned), that the Staters would be freed from 'Article 5'* financial penalties, that the powers (!) granted to the so-called 'Council of Ireland' (a GONGO agency/talking shop, which never even held one meeting!)) would be transferred to Stormont and, finally, that "the two Irish governments (sic - Stormont and Leinster House were being referenced ie two 'governments' actually spawned by the British!) would meet together, as and when necessary, for the purpose of considering matters of common interest..." (the actual 'common interest' that both entities shared was to maintain the imposed border ie to keep the country partitioned).
That last clause ("common interest") was never invoked and Mr Cosgrave and Mr Craig were never to meet again!
The Irish historian, Maureen Wall (pictured, née McGeehin), summed-up the farce by declaring -
"Ambiguities were now at an end ('1169' comment - verbally, at least!).
This time the unionists had got all they wanted, and the agreement bore the signatures not only of the British and Free State representatives but, for the first time, the signatures also of the representatives of Northern Ireland (sic)..."
The British civil servant and 'Irish Under-Secretary' in Westminster, a Mr James McMahon, stated -
"The Boundary Commission crisis was resolved surprisingly easy when British financial generosity allowed the three governments (sic) to come to an agreement that buries the commission’s findings..."
A Mr FE Smith (the '1st Earl of Birkenhead'), a prominent British politician who had involved himself in the various 'Treaty of Surrender' events, in a letter he wrote to one of his political buddies, 'Lord Reading', the British 'Lord Lieutenant of Ireland', said -
"...both the Northern Ireland and Free State governments (sic) developed a friendly and competitive enthusiasm in the task of plundering us..." (pot calling the kettle black right there!).
And, finally, speaking in Westminster about the Boundary Commission plunder (!), the then British 'Chancellor of the Exchequer', a Mr Winston Churchill stated -
"The Irish question will only be settled when the human question is settled..."
The so-called 'Irish question' will only ever be properly settled when the British finally withdraw, politically and militarily, from Ireland.
(*'Article 5' left the Staters liable for a share of British public debt and, under that Article, Leinster House had actually agreed [!] to repay compensation payments it got from Westminster for damage etc done here between July 1914 and November 1918 during 'World War 1'...!)
==========================
Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated.
Sharon and the team.
(We'll be back on Wednesday, 17th December, 2025, which will be our last post for this year.)
UP THE REPUBLIC - OUR DAY WILL COME !
