ON THIS DATE (1ST MARCH) 42 YEARS AGO : BOBBY SANDS BEGAN HIS HUNGER STRIKE IN LONG KESH PRISON.
The 1981 hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during this on-going struggle by Irish republican prisoners.
A 'blanket protest' began in 1976 when the British government withdrew 'Special Category Status' for political prisoners and, in 1978, after a number of attacks on prisoners leaving their cells to 'slop out', the protest escalated into the 'dirty protest', where prisoners refused to leave their cells to wash and covered the walls of their cells with excrement.
In 1980, seven prisoners participated in the first hunger strike, which ended after 53 days then, on Sunday, 1st March 1981 - 42 years ago on this date - (P)IRA POW Bobby Sands began his hunger strike.
He received widespread media attention for his protest and more so when, on the 9th April 1981, he was elected as an abstentionist member in a Leinster House (Free State 'parliament') election, after being nominated to contest the seat by Dáithí Ó Conaill, the then vice president of the then Sinn Féin organisation.
Bobby Sands was, as far as Irish republicans are concerned, a 'Teachta Dála' (TD) who was elected to take a seat in a 32-county Irish parliament, unlike the Free State representatives who sit in an institution in Kildare Street in Dublin today and claim to be 'TD's in the Irish parliament' and, indeed, Bobby's motives and those of Dáithí and the other then Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle members who nominated him to contest the election were pure, unlike the motives of the self-serving time-keepers who sit in that Kildare Street premises today : the motives of the former involved a principled unwillingness to allow themselves and the struggle they were part of to be criminalised and to highlight to the world that they were fighting a political struggle against Westminster and its allies in this country.
Bobby Sands was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for his alleged part in a fire-bombing campaign which, as part of an economic war against the British presence in Ireland, targeted business premises (in this instance, the Balmoral Furniture Company) with the intention of making it financially unviable for Britain to maintain its grip on that part of Ireland, a fact which present-day Provisional Sinn Féin and other Leinster House members seek to ignore or gloss over when referencing what they call 'the ineffectual/grubby deeds' of those who continue that struggle today.
On the 9th April, 1981, Bobby Sands was elected by 30,492 of those that voted in the Fermanagh/South Tyrone district, prompting, years later, this thesis from a republican leader -
"Contrary to allegations made in the news media, there was not a straight line from the election of Bobby Sands in 1981 to the Stormont Agreement of 1998. Rather was the line from March, April and May 1981 to the same months in 1998 disfigured and distorted by an internal power-struggle for the leadership of Sinn Féin accompanied and followed by deceit and artifice as the ideals of Bobby Sands were steadily perverted and a section of the then powerful revolutionary Republican Movement turned into a constitutional party.." (from here). Bobby Sands, 9th March 1954 – 5th May 1981. RIP.
'TRIBUTE TO DEAD REPUBLICAN...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
Oration given by Tomas MacCurtain at the grave of Domhnall Mac Suibhne, Ahane, Cullen, County Cork, who was laid to rest on March 7th 1955 -
"Never in the thirty-odd years that have passed has the voice or pen of Domhnall Mac Suibhne been still when a wrong was to be condemned or a right to be upheld.
All through those bitter years when he saw old friends and comrades turning away from him because he was too honourable to bow the knee to political expediency he remained true to the old cause and preached the old doctrine.
It is sad to think that, having endured the long years of political cynicism, he should die when the tide is about to turn and that he should not be here to witness in the near future the miracle of which Pearse spoke over the grave of another courageous and noble soul -
"That miracle which ripens in the heart of young men the seeds sown by the young men of a former generation."
I do not think it unfitting that, standing at his grave, I should say the words which he would say if he were alive..."
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (1ST MARCH) 175 YEARS AGO : 'STARVATION FEVER' ARTICLE PUBLISHED.
An article entitled 'Starvation Fever of 1847' was published in the 'Dublin Medical Press' periodical on this date - 1st March - 175 years ago (1848). The author was a Dr. Daniel Donovan, Skibbereen, Cork, and that article helped to focus world attention on the attempted genocide ('An Gorta Mór/The Great Hunger') that was obliterating the Irish people at that time -
'Dr. Donovan...emerges as one of the most heroic figures of An Gorta Mór...a bold and successful surgeon, an oculist and a general practitioner, a talented and prolific author and a champion of the oppressed and destitute Irish people..(he) was unambitious and unselfish and chose to remain in Skibbereen where patients came to consult him not only from other parts of Ireland but from England and Scotland, some even taking
the long Atlantic crossing from America..'
In the article, Dr. Donovan wrote - "Although the fever which committed such frightful ravages during the entire of 1847 has in a great degree subsided, yet we cannot, I fear, hope that the enemy is altogether subdued, more particularly as want and misery (to an extreme degree) are likely to be the lot of the majority of our population for the ensuing spring and summer ; and the privations of the poor, as regards food (and) clothes seemed last year to generate that epidemic which, like the rod of Aaron, has swallowed up the memory of its predecessors, and compared with which the pestilence of 1741 (proverbially known as the 'year of slaughter') scarcely deserves notice.
Golden corn for the stranger.
What sow ye?
Human corpses that wait for the avenger.
Fainting forms, hunger-stricken, what see you in the offing?
Stately ships to bear our food away, amid the stranger's scoffing.
They guard our masters' granaries from the thin hands of the poor.
Pale mothers, wherefore weeping?
Would to God that we were dead.
Our children swoon before us, and we cannot give them bread ...we are wretches, famished, scorned, human tools to build your pride,
But God will yet take vengeance for the souls for whom Christ died.
Now is your hour of pleasure
bask ye in the world's caress;
But our whitening bones against ye will rise as witnesses,
From the cabins and the ditches, in their charred, uncoffin'd masses,
For the Angel of the Trumpet will know them as he passes.
A ghastly, spectral army, before the great God we'll stand,
And arraign ye as our murderers, the spoilers of our land.
That good woman sums-up the despair and anger felt then, and still felt to this day.
As it should be.
WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON...
From 'Magill' Annual, 2002.
The solution?
Why, elect him President of Ireland.
'Wigmore' senses your reaction and begs you to persist as the argument unfolds.
Firstly, niggling constitutional issues regarding our favourite President's right to a nomination could be swept aside by a referendum of the type we as a nation (sic) seem somewhat addicted to ; in the clause which demands that the President be a citizen of the republic of Ireland (sic) we need only insert the caveat 'unless the President's name is William Jefferson Clinton'. That motion would be passed with record approval.
We could, while we are at it, make him exempt from any other Irish laws which he might deem unsavoury or unwarranted so that he might enjoy a smoother presidential ride on this side of the Atlantic than he has done heretofore...
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (1ST MARCH) 26 YEARS AGO : A NON-SLEEPING EGG CURRIE SPEAKS...
"We didn't sleep.." - the reply given by Tory politician Edwina Currie to a 'Twitter' user who stated she had slept with John Major. In the same year that she had put all her eggs in one basket, she was named as runner-up to Margaret Thatcher in BBC Radio 4's 'Women of the Year' poll but it is for her snide remark about the Irish that she is best remembered for here : she was quoted in 'The Sun' newspaper on the 1st March 1997 - 26 years ago on this date - giving her views on Irish people - "They're so intelligent, the Irish. Give them an education and they can do anything. I remember the first time I met an Irish accountant. I laughed because I couldn't believe it : an Irish accountant...!"
Oh but we're good with figures, Edwina : 1+1+6+9 = 854 and 26+6 = 1.
And you can count on that.
ON THIS DATE (1ST MARCH) 58 YEARS AGO : IRISH PATRIOT RE-INTERRED IN GLASNEVIN CEMETERY, DUBLIN.
Pictured - Roger Casement's body being re-interred (on Monday, 1st March 1965 - 58 years ago on this date) in the Republican Plot in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, having been released by the British from Pentonville Prison in Islington, North London.
He was born on the 1st September, 1864, in Sandycove, County Dublin, the son of Captain Roger Casement of the 3rd Dragoon Guards of the British Army and Anne Jephson from Mallow, County Cork. His mother had him secretly baptised in her own religion, Roman Catholic, but he was raised in the Protestant faith of his father. As both his parents died young, Roger was taken in by an uncle, near Ballycastle, County Antrim, and educated as a boarder at the diocesan school in Ballymena.
From 1895 onwards he held consular appointments at various locations in Africa, including Boma in the Congo (1904) where, for the British Foreign Office, he investigated Belgian human rights abuses of the indigenous people. Later, in Peru, he was commissioned to undertake a report on the reported abuse of workers in the rubber industry in the Putumayo basin, which earned him a knighthood after his findings were published as a parliamentary paper (1911). He had been a member of the Gaelic League and became increasingly radicalised by the opposition of the Ulster unionists to Home Rule from 1912 onwards and wrote nationalist articles under the pseudonym 'Seán Bhean Bhocht'.
He rarely receives a mention when it comes to the writers and poets of 1916 ("Of unmatched skill to lead by pathways rife/With danger and dark doubt, where slander's knife/Gleamed ever bare to wound, yet over all/He pressed triumphant on-lo, thus to fall" - 'Parnell', by Roger Casement) yet his reports from the Putumayo and from the Congo show a writer of great talent.
His descriptions of the horrendous brutality inflicted on innocent and perfectly peaceful native inhabitants was enough to force a change of policy with regard to the treatment of workers and slaves on the rubber plantations. Casement wrote in 1911 that "..the robbery of Ireland since the Union has been so colossal, carried out on such a scale, that if the true account current between the two countries were ever submitted to any impartial tribunal, England would be clapped in jail..".
For his part in trying to stop that robbery he was convicted of treason by the British and sentenced to death after a three-day 'trial' (held at the Old Bailey in London between the 26th and the 29th of June 1916, where he was prosecuted by 'Sir' Edward Carson, the Orange Order bigot).
His speech from the dock is not as appreciated as it should be - "With all respect I assert this Court is to me, an Irishman, not a jury of my peers to try me in this vital issue for it is patent to every man of conscience that I have a right, an indefeasible right, if tried at all, under this Statute of high treason, to be tried in Ireland, before an Irish Court and by an Irish jury. This Court, this jury, the public opinion of this country, England, cannot but be prejudiced in varying degree against me, most of all in time of war.
I did not land in England ; I landed in Ireland. It was to Ireland I came; to Ireland I wanted to come; and the last place I desired to land in was England. But for the Attorney General of England there is only "England"— there is no Ireland, there is only the law of England — no right of Ireland; the liberty of Ireland and of the Irish is to be judged by the power of England. Yet for me, the Irish outlaw, there is a land of Ireland, a right of Ireland, and a charter for all Irishmen to appeal to, in the last resort, a charter that even the very statutes of England itself cannot deprive us of — nay, more, a charter that Englishmen themselves assert as the fundamental bond of law that connects the two kingdoms.." (...more here).
I say that Roger Casement
did what he had to do.
He died upon the gallows,
but that is nothing new.
Afraid they might be beaten
before the bench of Time,
they turned a trick by forgery
and blackened his good name.
A perjurer stood ready
to prove their forgery true ;
they gave it out to all the world,
and that is something new.
For Spring Rice had to whisper it,
being their Ambassador,
and then the speakers got it
and writers by the score.
Come Tom and Dick, come all the troop
that cried it far and wide,
come from the forger and his desk,
desert the perjurer's side.
Come speak your bit in public
that some amends be made
to this most gallant gentleman
that is in quicklime laid. (From here.)
Roger Casement was sentenced to "death by rope" on the 29th June 1916 and was executed by the British on the 3rd of August that year in London, England. On the 1st March 1965 - 58 years ago on this date - his remains were re-interred in the Republican Plot of Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.
FUNDS AND FINE GAEL'S LEADER...
Michael Lowry has so far been the focus of media attention about Fine Gael fundraising.
But the party's current leader, Enda Kenny (pictured), hosted a £1,000-a-plate dinner two days before the second mobile phone licence was awarded. And other guests say that one of the bidders for that licence was in attendance.
By Mairead Carey.
From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.
"Obviously, the people going to such an event aren't going for the meal..." Michael Keating added, "..there would have been no promises made, but at least they feel afterwards that they have a nodding acquaintance with the guy."
A few days before he was to announce the winners of the 'National Conference Centre' bid, Enda Kenny controversially aborted the competition and entered negotiations with the 'Royal Dublin Society' (RDS) to build the centre - even though the RDS had been one of the competitors!
The 'Carlton Consortium' complained to the European Commission about his handling of the affair, and when Fianna Fáil returned to power, (State) Tourism Minister Jim McDaid set up another competition which was eventually won by 'Treasury Holdings'.
But that version of the project also floundered and to this day the centre has not been built...
(MORE LATER.)
PLANNING FOR A BREAK TO RECOVER FROM THE BREAK...!
...and we're back from our holliers, as you probably already noticed!
All 34 of us - actually, 38 of us left Dublin on the 13th February but a couple and their two children decided to stay on for another few days, during which time they'll (probably!) drive around offering apologises and begging for forgiveness on our behalf...!
We didn't completely wreck any of the places we visited but, as we tried to explain to the cops and the various judges we encountered (!), we were a group of Dubs free from the normal constraints of work, house, children, grandchildren and all other responsibilities and...well...eh....Sergeant/Yer Honour, we maybe occasionally lost the run of ourselves...!
Ah no. Only jokin'...
Mostly...!
And myself and the rest of the Girl Gang will be losing the run of ourselves again later on this month 'cause we're going back ; in between our childminding duties and the feeding times (!) we had the craic and have made arrangements to do it again, especially so considering that we won't be getting to New York this year, mostly because of 'Covid Passports', which we haven't got, but also due to the crappy exchange rate. So, yeah, readers - we'll be taking another short break later on, but don't fret, pet - sure we'll give ya at least a week's notice!
Thanks for the visit, and for reading,
Sharon and the team.
See yis all next Wednesday, 8th March, 2023.
ON THIS DATE (14TH SEPTEMBER) 102 YEARS AGO - 3 REPUBLICAN VOLUNTEERS KILLED IN AMBUSH.
In late August/early September 1920, the RIC and their colleagues in the British Army vacated their barracks in the town of Ballinlough, in County Roscommon, as it was felt that the building would not withstand an attack on it by republican forces. Those enemy personnel were transfered to the more fortified barracks in Castlerea, in the same county, and the Ballinlough building was left empty. But not unguarded...
That area of Roscommon fell under the jurisdiction of the 1st Battalion of the South Roscommon Brigade, IRA, and they had decided to destroy the empty building in order to hamper the area control and movements of the RIC and the British Army, as was republican practice at the time, and the evening of Tuesday, 14th September (1920) was the agreed date for this operation to take place.
On that evening, a number of IRA Volunteers descended on the empty barracks and a ladder was used to gain access to the roof, which the IRA battalion commander, Pat Glynn, did. He removed a few roof slates and poured paraffin/petrol through the hole and into the barracks, and threw some burning rags into the building. As the flames took hold, heavy gunfire was directed at the Volunteers by RIC/British Army '9th Lancers' members who had been tipped-off about the operation and had concealed themselves behind a nearby wall.
The Volunteers were caught off guard, as they were not expecting to encounter enemy forces that night and were not well enough armed to defend themselves ; they had no option but to flee the scene as best they could, and used the darkness to escape into surrounding fields. The RIC/BA kept firing at them and after them and continued the fusillade of shots, killing three republicans : Pat Glynn, Volunteer Michael J. Keane and Lieutenant Michael Glavey.
The bodies of the three republicans were taken from the scene by the Crown Forces and brought to the new Crown Force barracks in Castlerea, which is where the relatives had to travel to in order to identify them. When the families got to Castlerea they found the bodies of their loved ones in a turf shed at the rear of the barracks.
Lieutenant Glavey's funeral was held in Ballyhaunis, in County Mayo, Volunteer Keane's funeral took place in Granlahan, in County Roscommon, and Pat Glynn's funeral took place in Kilruddane, Loughglynn, in County Roscommon, and large crowds of people attended the burials. After Patrick Glynn was laid to rest, a formation of 1000 IRA members paraded in a field beside the graveyard where they were addressed by brigade officers.
In the 1930's, Roscommon County Council passed a resolution naming the main streets of Ballinlough to the memory of the dead Volunteers : the street leading to Granlahan is named 'Sráid Mhig Fhloinn' (Glynn Street), the street leading to Castlerea is named 'Sráid Chatháin' (Keane Street) and the street leading to Ballyhaunis is named 'Sráid Mhig Fhlaithimh' (Glavey Street), and the GAA club of Gorthaganny is named 'Michael Glavey's', in memory of IRA Lieutenant Michael Glavey.
Those three defenders of the Irish Republic gave their lives for Ireland on the 14th September 1920 - 102 years ago on this date.
'TOMÁS MacCURTAIN COMMEMORATION...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
In his oration, Domhnall O Cathain said -
"Their principles now, I am afraid, are governed by political expediency, and everything must now be examined from the restricted viewpoint of the politician.
This stepping down wasn't, I might remind you, done easily ; there was a great deal of heartburning, a great deal of deviation, an enormous amount of searching of conscience. Of course some of the searchlights on consciences suffered from some well-timed blackouts.
There was a great deal of splitting and splintering - Ireland was split from top to bottom, from east to west. Brother fought against brother. The Republican Movement was split, splintered, and again re-split, and then the great splitters concentrated on splitting words. All done to confuse a very clear little set of facts - that Ireland was dismembered, that part of our country was occupied by British troops..."
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (14TH SEPTEMBER) 102 YEARS AGO : 'ANY TAIG WILL DO' - BLACK AND TANS.
The Connolly family from Kinlough, in County Leitrim, had an honourable and well-deserved name and reputation in the area and among local (and country-wide) Irish republicans as a family that could be relied on to play their part in the (on-going) struggle for a 32-County socialist Republic. The family did not hide their republicanism and did not back down when confronted by enemy forces.
A son, James Connolly (Jnr), was born into the family on the 11th of September, 1897 and, politically and militarily, followed in the family footsteps ; he joined the local Volunteers (the IRA Third Western Division) and soon rose to the rank of Captain. The RIC and their mates in the Black and Tans were aware that young James was a fighter and decided to raid the house for him, which they did on the 14th September, 1920.
At about 4.30am that morning, a 9-person Crown Force raiding party, comprising 3 RIC members and 6 Black and Tans, banged on the hall door and gained entry to the house, looking for James Jnr. They ran into the house, shouting as they went, and came across James Snr (70) (also a known republican), who was deaf - they shouted at him to put his hands up but he couldn't hear them, and was shot by a Captain Small, from the Bedfordshire Regiment of the British Army.
The raiders located James Jnr and 'arrested' him ; Mrs Connolly insisted that James Jnr should be taken into the next room to say goodbye to his father, who was dying, but the raiders ignored her and took James Jnr away and locked him up in Belfast Jail.
When he was released, James Jnr reported back to the IRA and continued to fight for justice, and stayed true to republicanism by rejecting the 1921 'Treaty of Surrender'. When the British Army vacated buildings and barracks in the Free State it was a case of 'first up best dressed' as to whether the Staters or the 'Irregulars' (IRA) took them over and, when the British Army left Finner Military Camp in Bundoran, County Donegal, Captain James Connolly Jnr and other IRA fighters took it over (pictured).
However, the Staters wanted control of it and, on the 29th June, 1922, they made their move : during the gunfight that ensued, the IRA were forced to pull back and, as they took cover in the sand dunes behind the Camp, Captain Connolly was shot and killed as he checked the Camp to make sure that all the republicans had escaped. Ironically, the republican who give the oration at James Connolly senior's funeral was one of the Free State Army members which attacked Finner Camp, leading to the death of James Connolly junior.
In the graveside oration that he delivered for Captain James Connolly, IRA Brigadier Seamus Devins (pictured) said that "Captain Connolly would not harbour thoughts of revenge or indulge in ill-feeling...he would have forgiven those who shot him had he had time for expressing forgiveness..." True enough, no doubt ; we can forgive Free State gunmen, up to a point, but we'll never forget what they did.
In 1950, a memorial was errected in Captain Connolly's memory in Kinlough Cemetary, County Leitrim, which still stands today.
'DIVIDED LOYALTIES...'
Ulster loyalism displayed its most belligerent face this year as violence at Belfast's Holy Cross School made international headlines. But away from the spotlight, working-class Protestant communities are themselves divided, dispirited and slipping into crisis.
By Niall Stanage.
From 'Magill' magazine, Annual 2002.
"I think that was probably the most devastating episode of the last thirty years in this area," says John White, in his Lower Shankill Office, "it did more damage than the IRA could ever have done. I think the scars and hatred will remain for a very long time. We lost our sense of community."
Working-class loyalism has now lost its confidence to such an extent that its adherents credit enemies with extraordinary capabilities. Every republican concession is recast as further confirmation of Sinn Féin's artful deviousness, every reassuring statement from the British government is parsed for loopholes and potential betrayal, every conspiracy theory is hungrily devoured.
The loyalist world has changed utterly. Their leaders, their government, even their 'police force' can no longer be trusted ; "This community is being intimidated by a police force that we sought to protect," Glenbryn residents spokesman Stuart McCartney tells me, as we stand behind the serried ranks of grey landrovers...
(MORE LATER.)
'SINN FÉIN VICTORY...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, June, 1955.
It is now the task and duty of all Irishmen (sic) to rally to the support of Northern republicans in their demand for a 32-County Parliament. Sinn Féin has the plans, you have the power. Join Sinn Féin and unite the Nation.
The Unionist threat to unseat prisoner candidates, if elected, backfired ; instead of disrupting the Sinn Féin campaign it put Northern republicans on their mettle. English law in Ireland has always had but one purpose - to legalise the dispossession of the Irish, in rights and in property. Our forefathers fought against it and we today proudly follow in their footsteps.
The main plank of the Sinn Féin election platform was that there can be no political or economic development in Ireland while the country is divided...
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (14TH SEPTEMBER) 71 YEARS AGO : BIRTH OF OUR 17TH HUNGER-STRIKER.
'The fourth IRA Volunteer to join the (1981) hunger-strike for political status was Joe McDonnell, a thirty-year-old married man with two children, from the Lenadoon housing estate in West Belfast.
A well-known and very popular man in the greater Andersonstown area he grew up in, he had a reputation as a quiet and deep-thinking individual, with a gentle, happy go-lucky personality, who had, nevertheless, a great sense of humour, was always laughing and playing practical jokes, and who, although withdrawn at times, had the ability to make friends easily.
As an active republican before his capture in October 1976, Joe was regarded by his comrades as a cool and efficient Volunteer who did what he had to do and never talked about it afterwards. Something of a rarity within the Republican Movement, in that outside of military briefings and operational duty he was never seen around with other known or suspected Volunteers, he was nevertheless a good friend of the late Bobby Sands, with whom he was captured while on active service duty.
Although he didn't volunteer for the earlier hunger strike in 1980, it was the intense disappointment brought about by British duplicity following the end of that hunger strike and the bitterness and anger that duplicity produced among all the blanket men that prompted Joe to put forward his name the next time round.
And it was predictable, as well as fitting, when his friend and comrade Bobby Sands met with death on the sixty-sixth day of his hunger strike, that Joe McDonnell should volunteer to take Bobby's place and continue that fight. His determination and resolve in that course of action can be gauged by the fact that never once, following his sentencing to fourteen years imprisonment in 1977, did he put on the prison uniform to take a visit, seeing his wife and family only after he commenced his hunger-strike.
The story of Joe McDonnell is of a highly-aware republican soldier whose involvement stemmed initially from the personal repression and harassment he and his family suffered at the hands of the British occupation forces, but which then deepened - through continuing repression - to a mature commitment to oppose an occupation that denied his country freedom and attempted to criminalise its people. It was that commitment which he held more dear than his own life.
Joe McDonnell was born on September 14th 1951, the fifth of eight children, into the family home in Slate Street in Belfast's Lower Falls. His father, Robert, a steel erector, and his mother, Eileen (whose maiden name is Straney), both came from the Lower Falls themselves, and they married in St. Peter's church there, in 1941, living first with Robert's sister and her husband in Colinward Street, off the Springfield Road, before moving into their own home in Slate Street, where the family were all born.
A ninth child, Bernadette, was a particular favourite of Joe's, before her death from a kidney illness at the early age of three : "Joseph practically reared Bernadette", recalls his mother, "he was always with the child, carrying her around. He was about ten at the time. He even used to play marleys with her on his shoulders." Bernadette's death, a sad blow to the family, was deeply felt by her young brother Joe.
Joe and his then girlfriend, Goretti, who also comes from Andersonstown, married in St.Agnes' Chapel in 1970, and moved in to live with Goretti's sister and her family in Horn Drive in Lower Lenadoon. At that time, however, they were one of only two nationalist households in what was then a predominantly loyalist street, and, after repeated instances of verbal intimidation, in the middle of the night, a loyalist mob - in full view of a nearby British Army post, and with the blessing of the raving Reverend Robert Bradford, who stood by - broke down the doors and wrecked the houses, forcing the two families to leave.
The McDonnells went to live with Goretti's mother for a while, but eventually got the chance to squat in a house being vacated in Lenadoon Avenue. Internment had been introduced shortly before, and in 1972 the British army struck with a 4.00 a.m. raid ; Joe was dragged from the house, hit in the eye with a rifle butt and bundled into a British Army jeep. Their house was searched and wrecked. Joe was taken to the prison ship Maidstone and later on to Long Kesh internment camp where he was held for several months. Goretti recalls that early morning as a "horrific" experience which altered both their lives. One minute they had everything, the next minute nothing.
On his release Joe joined the IRA's Belfast Brigade, operating at first in the 1st Battalion's 'A' Company which covered the Rosnareen end of Andersonstown, and later being absorbed into the 'cell' structure increasingly adopted by the IRA. Both during his first period of internment, and his second, longer, internment in 1973, as well as the periods when he was free, the McDonnell's home in Lenadoon was a constant target for British army raids, during which the house would often be torn apart, photos torn up and confiscated and letters from Joe (previously read by the prison censor) re-read by infantile British soldiers, and Goretti herself arrested.
In between periods of internment, and before his capture, Joe resumed his trade as an upholsterer which he had followed since leaving school at the age of fifteen. He loved the job, never missing a day through illness, and made both the furniture for his own home as well as for many of the bars and clubs in the surrounding area.
His job enabled him to take the family for regular holidays - he took a strong interest in his children, Bernadette, aged ten and Joseph, aged nine, teaching them both to swim, and forever playing football with young Joseph on the small green outside their home - but Joe was a real 'homer' and always longed to be back in his native Belfast ; part of that attraction stemmed obviously from his responsibility to his republican involvement.
An active Volunteer throughout the Greater Andersonstown area, Joe was considered a first-class operator who didn't show much fear. Generally quiet and serious while on an operation, whether an ambush or a bombing mission, Joe's humour occasionally shone through. Driving one time to an intended target in the Lenadoon area with a carload of Volunteers, smoke began to appear in the car. Not realising that it was simply escaping exhaust fumes, and thinking it came from the bags containing a number of bombs, a degree of alarm began to break out in the car, but Joe only advised his comrades, drily, not to bother about it : "They'll go off soon enough."
Outside of active service, Joe mixed mostly with people he knew from work, never flaunting his republican beliefs or his involvement, to such an extent that it led some republicans to believe he had not reported back to the IRA on his second release from internment. The British, however, persecuted him and his family continually, with frequent house raids and street arrests.
He could rarely leave the house without being stopped for P-checking, or held up for an hour at a roadblock if he had somewhere to go. A few months before his capture, irate British soldiers at a roadblock warned him that they would 'get' him, and they did - his capture took place in October 1976 following a firebomb attack on the Balmoral Furnishing Company in Upper Dunmurray Lane, near the Twinbrook estate in West Belfast.
The IRA had reconnoitred the store, noting the extravagantly-priced furniture it sold, and had selected it as an economic target. The plan was to petrol bomb the premises and then to lay explosive charges to spread the flames. The Twinbrook active service unit led by Bobby Sands was at that time in the process of being built up, and were assisted consequently in this operation by experienced republican Volunteers from the adjoining Andersonstown area, including Joe McDonnell (pictured).
Unfortunately, following the attack, which successfully destroyed the furnishing company, the escape route of some of the Volunteers involved was blocked by a car placed across the road. During an ensuing shoot-out with the British Army and the RUC, two republicans, Seamus Martin and Gabriel Corbett, were wounded, and four others, Bobby Sands, Joe McDonnell, Seamus Finucane and Sean Lavery, were arrested in a car not far away.
Three IRA Volunteers managed to escape safely from the area. A single revolver was found in the car, and at the men's subsequent trial in September 1977 all four received fourteen-year sentences for possession when they refused to recognise the court. Rough treatment during their interrogation in Castlereagh failed to make any of the four sign a statement, and the RUC were thus unable to charge the men with involvement in the attack on the furnishing company despite their proximity to it at the time of their arrest.
From the day he was sentenced Joe refused to put on the prison uniform to take a visit, so adamant was he that he would not be criminalised. He kept in touch instead, with his wife and family, by means of daily smuggled 'communications', written with smuggled-in biro refills on prison issue toilet paper and smuggled out via other blanket men who were taking visits. Incarcerated in H5-Block, Joe acted as 'scorcher' (an anglicised form of the Irish word 'scairt', to shout) shouting the sceal, or news from his block to the adjoining one about a hundred yards away. Frequently this is the only way that news from outside can be communicated from one H-Block to the blanket men in another H-Block.
It illustrates well the feeling of bitter determination prevailing in the H-Blocks that Joe McDonnell, who did not volunteer for the hunger strike in 1980 because, he said, "I have too much to live for", should have become so frustrated and angered by British perfidy as to embark on hunger strike on Sunday, May 9th, 1981.
In June 1981, Joe was a candidate during the Free State general election, in the Sligo/Leitrim constituency, in which he narrowly missed election by 315 votes. All the family were actively involved in campaigning for him, and despite the disappointment at the result both they and Joe himself were pleased at the impact which the H-Block issue had on the election, and in Sligo/Leitrim itself.
Adults cried when the video film on the hunger strike was shown, his family recall, and they cried again when Joe was eliminated from the electoral count. At 5.11 am, on July 8th 1981, Joe McDonnell, who - believeably, for those who know his wife Goretti, his children Bernadette and Joseph and his family - "had too much to live for" died after sixty one days of agonising hunger strike, rather than be criminalised.'
(From 'IRIS' magazine, Volume 1, No. 2, November 1981.)
ON THIS DATE (14TH SEPTEMBER) 138 YEARS AGO : BIRTH OF A 'FENIAN FIANNA FÁILER'.
Michael Kilroy (pictured) was born in a house on the Carrickaneady Road in the townland of Derrylahan in the Fenian hotspot of Newport, in County Mayo, on the 14th September 1884 - 138 years ago on this date.
As a youth, he learned the trade of blacksmithing and also took a keen interest in religion, and was known as a very honest and reliable boy, but had short shrift for those who overindulged in alcohol!
He was fourteen years of age when the 100th anniversary of the 1798 rebellion was commemorated and, living in a town with a strong Fenian tradition, he developed a deep interest in those proceedings and began socialising with members of various nationalist organisations in the town, eventually joining 'The Irish Volunteers' and, later, the 'Irish Republican Brotherhood'.
He was active in the 1916 Easter Rising and was in a leadership position within militant republicanism during the early 1920's : IRA Major General Michael Kilroy (who was later to be appointed as the Commandant of the 4th Western Battalion of the IRA) was in command of the IRA's West Mayo Flying Column, comprising about 30 Volunteers when, on the 2nd June, 1921, they ambushed a convoy of RIC and Black and Tans who had just vacated Darby Hastings pub in Carrowkennedy.
A fierce firefight ensued resulting in the immediate deaths of eight Black and Tans, two more of whom were wounded and died later. The survivors from that particular British expedition, about sixteen RIC/Tans, had sought refuge in a near-by cottage and then surrendered themselves to the IRA Flying Column. They were relieved of their weapons and ammunition, which were added to the Lewis Machine Gun and the various rifles which the IRA confiscated from those enemy forces that day.
One of the many other military operations carried out by Commandant Michael Kilroy and his fighters is detailed here -
"The National forces (ie the Free State Army), who fought bravely to the end, lost six men, and one seriously wounded, and a large number of prisoners. Some accounts say six were killed outright and one wounded.
Some of the National forces escaped by car ; 42 rifles, some revolvers, and a large store of ammunition was seized by the Irregulars. The prisoners were released from custody the same evening by Commandant Kilroy, who was in charge of the lrregulars, and marched in the direction of Bangor, carrying captured ammunition as far as Barroosky, where they were set at liberty with an undertaking of no further molestation.
The wounded and dead were conveyed to Glenlossera lodge, where every possible attention and care was bestowed by the Irregulars on the wounded pending the arrival of Dr. Walsh, Ballina, and Dr. Kelly, Westport, with a corps of Red Cross nurses and ambulances for the conveyance of the dead and wounded to Ballina the following day..."
Every silver lining has a cloud (!), however, and the negative aspect of Michael Kilroy's military achievements is that it brought him into contact with certain types of people who contaminated him, politically ; in 1926, he joined the then newly-formed Fianna Fáil party and was elected, in June 1927, as a Leinster House representative for that grouping, and was re-elected at the (September) 1927, 1932 and 1933 Free State elections, but lost his North Mayo seat in the 1937 election, and retired from Fianna Fáil, and politics, in 1945.
He died on the 23rd December, 1962, aged 78, in the family home on the Carrickaneady Road in Newport, in County Mayo, and seven of his IRA comrades from the West Mayo Brigade formed a firing party at his graveside at Burrishoole Abbey Cemetery, in Newport, where the oration was given by one of those men, Edward Moane.
And that was most appropriate because, like Michael Kilroy, Mr Moane had left the Republican Movement for the Fianna Fáil grouping and both men had taken seats in Leinster House. Gamekeepers-turned-poachers.
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Thanks for the visit, and for reading!
Sharon and the team.
