By the beginning of July, 1920, over 350 barracks throughout the country, that enemy forces had nested in, had been evacuated, such was the pressure exerted by the Irish rebels.
And, once evacuated, the IRA rebels moved in on them and destroyed them, and a further 105 such structures were damaged to the point that most of them were put beyond use.
In the county of Kildare, for instance, out of the twenty-four barracks in that county in January 1920, only six were still standing at the end of August (1920).
Also in Kildare, on the 15th July that year, IRA Volunteers attacked and burned the courthouse in the town of Athy ; the building was located on Barrow Quay (Market Square), beside the Town Hall, and had stood there (as a corn market) since the 1850's, having been 'gifted to the people' by the 'Duke of Leinster'.
The following day - the 16th July - the RIC in the nearby town of Ballymore Eustace decided enough was enough and deserted their barracks, fearing they were next...!
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GAS LADS...
The massive finds of oil and gas on our western seaboard could ensure Ireland's financial security for generations.
Wealth approximating that of the Arab countries is within our grasp, but the Irish government seems content to sell off our birthright for a handful of votes and a few dollars.
In a special 'Magill' report, Sandra Mara investigates just what we are giving away, and why.
From 'Magill' magazine, March 2002.
"I think there should always be a take for the State", Des Geraghty said, "I think that the gas is extremely important as an indigenous energy source for economic development, but I believe that from the start the concessions that were given were unbelievable.
There were no jobs in it.
There was very little for the Irish economy and we are now suffering the consequences of a very bad policy which former minister Ray Burke has to answer for."
'SIPTU National Offshore Committee' spokesman, Padhraig Campbell, told 'Magill Magazine' -
"I think it would be a core demand of SIPTU that if it is in any way suspected that there was undue influence in the drastic changes to Ireland's oil and gas exploration terms from 1987 onwards, then the State should immediately freeze any existing licences and leases issued since then, including Corrib, in the national interest..."
(MORE LATER.)
On the 16th July, 1921, the 'Naas Poor Law Union' (an administrative body responsible for overseeing the 'Poor Law' directives in the Naas area of County Kildare) held a meeting at which its 'Board of Guardians' (ie its 'Top Table') decided to do away with its 'Naas Union' grouping which effectively meant the closure of Naas Workhouse, pictured - a severe blow to the working-class and unemployed people in its catchment area.
"There will be no peace settlement.
Of that you can be quite sure.
At the present moment, there will be no peace.
And that is all there is to it..."
- the words of British Army Brigadier-General 'Sir' Ormonde de l'Épée Winter ('KBE, CB, CMG, DSO ETC ETC', pictured, who nixered (!) for the Brits as Chief of the British Army Intelligence Branch), in a letter he wrote to a Mr Hubert Sidney Jenner Lamond Hemming (!), a Colonel in the British Army, on the 1st July, 1921.
Mr Winter was the then 'Deputy Director of Police', for Westminster, in Ireland but - and he obviously didn't see this coming! - a truce between the IRA and the British crown forces came into effect at noon on Monday, 11th July 1921 and, on the 6th December, 1921 (as not predicted by him!), a so-called 'peace settlement' was signed!
As part of the Truce, on the 16th July (1921), liaison officers were set up between the British Army/RIC and IRA to sort out details and resolve any disputes at local level.
Volunteer Eoin O'Duffy was appointed Truce Liaison Officer (TLO) for Belfast, and established a presence in St Mary's Hall in that city and announced that all IRA activity, except self-defence, would cease, Volunteer Patrick Shiels was TLO for Derry and Donegal (but was later replaced in that position by Patrick Lynch from Magera), Volunteer George Lennon was the TLO for Waterford (with Volunteer Paddy Paul as his deputy).
A British Army Officer, a Mr William Stack, was the TLO for the British Army's 14th Infantry Brigade area in their 5th Division, a Mr Finton Murphy was TLO for the BA 15th Infantry Brigade and Volunteer Michael Staines was the TLO for the Galway Brigade area.
The TLO's for the British Army apparently thought that their rank would carry some sway with the IRA TLO's, but not so -
"The class of individual selected for these liaison duties left much to be desired...", wrote their TLO staff, "..the liaison arrangements were in fact little more than a farce. The men originally selected by Sinn Féin were in many cases leading extremists, whose complicity in outrages and murder was well known to the British officers who were required to deal with them..."
Yes, yes, yes...sure that's just not cricket, sure it's not, Ormonde : you couldn't beat the IRA militarily and, politically, you couldn't best them, either.
Incidentally, talking about British Army Brigadier-General 'Sir' Ormonde de l'Épée Winter, he was known as 'O' and also as "The Holy Terror" within the spy network he helped develop and worked within, in Ireland.
A fellow officer of his gave the following opinion of the spy 'O' -
"O is a marvel!
He looks like a wicked white snake and can do everything.
He is an Artillery Colonel and commanded a Division of Artillery in France, and in India they say he was tried for murder for a little escapade while doing secret service work.
He started a race course near Calcutta and made a pot of money!
He is as clever as paint, probably entirely non-moral, a first class horseman, a card genius, knows several languages, is a super sleuth, and a most amazing original.
When a soldier who knew him in India heard that he was coming to Ireland he said 'God help Sinn Fein, they don't know what they are up against...' "
A non-moral snake, a murderer and a gambler - yes, I think Irish republicans knew what to expect even before he got here.
Included in his 'snakeisness' was his purchases of Irish republican newspapers in shops and on street stalls and the near-facsimile copying of them, in bulk, for distribution, in the same colours and design but with altered text, to sow confusion among Sinn Féin and the IRA!
This forging snake was driving out of his Dublin Castle lair in June, 1921, when the IRA ambushed him and his guard, but he was only wounded (in the hand) but it must have given him food for thought, as he retired from active service against the Irish in early 1924.
He shed his final skin on this Earth on the 13th February, 1962.
On the same date that the TLO's came into being (16th), a Mr Thomas Labrom, from the St Pancras area of London, a 'Light Car Driver Class III' with the '615 Motor Transport Company' of the 'Royal Army Service Corps' ('Service Number M/31415'), died from a gunshot wound in George V Hospital in Dublin.
In Ireland, the 'Royal Army Service Corps' (RASC) played a crucial logistical role in supporting British forces ; they were responsible for transport, supply, and other vital services, ensuring British troops were equipped and provisioned.
They transported personnel and supplies, managed barracks and provided fire services for enemy infrastructure, and their work was essential for maintaining the British military presence and operations in Ireland, which was why they were targeted by the IRA.
The IRA, North, South, East and West had a busy card - as well as the RASC working against the rebels, in July, 1921, for example, there were 3,414 'A' Specials in the Six Counties alone (outnumbering the RIC), 15,902 'B' Specials and 1,310 'C' Specials.
Plenty of clients for the George V and other hospitals...
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CASH NO EXCUSE FOR RTE PUTTING DOCUMENTARY TO DEATH...
It has been a disastrous 12 months for RTE.
£23.5 million in cutbacks, a bid to increase the licence fee rejected, an enforced postponement of digital expansion, and a predicted £20 million loss to report for 2001.
By Belinda McKeon.
From 'Magill' Annual, 2002.
That work is needed not so much on the Independent Productions Unit at RTE, however, as on the attitudes from above which constrain its scope.
The hands of Kevin Dawson, Head of Factual Programming, have now been tied even more tightly because the budgetary cuts which followed the minister's rejection pressurised Dawson to aim programming at a majority, prime-time demographic, and to maximise advertising revenue. Arts documentary, he contends, is never going to do this.
Things would have been different had the licence fee increase come through, so the official line goes but, in fact, the only mention of developing a dedicated arts documentary strand in RTE lately was made in the rush to put together an application which would sway the minister.
While, technically speaking, the 'True Lives' slot, which proves that RTE can do an excellent job on documentary, is open to proposals from the 30 or so production companies which specialise in exploring the arts, the likelihood of even one such proposal getting the go-ahead is miniscule.
This makes for a very barren climate in which such companies might try to launch into what is actually a thriving international market...
(MORE LATER.)
Ireland, 1922 : the IRA split over the Treaty of Surrender became more conspicuous.
Those who supported being granted dominion status by the British re-invented themselves as the Free State 'National (sic) Army', but the majority of the IRA rejected the Treaty and vowed to continue fighting for the whole 32 Counties of Ireland.
Volunteer Francis Thomas ('Frank') Aiken (pictured), the Officer Commanding of the IRA 4th Northern Division (consisting of between 200 and 300 fighters) declared that he and his men were neutral - they were in command of the Anne Street RIC Barracks, in Dundalk, County Louth, and Volunteer Aiken called for a truce, a new IRA Army Council, and the removal of the Oath of Allegiance from the Free State constitution.
He and his Division of 'neutrals' got their answer on the 16th July, 1922, when the Free Staters, under the command of FSA 'Major-General' Dan Hogan (later to be the Free State Army 'Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces', a position he held from March 1927 to February 1929, and a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State poacher) attacked the barracks (killing two IRA Volunteers - Patrick Quigley and John Joseph Campbell - in the process) and 'arrested' Volunteer Aiken and his men, marching them just over a mile, with a heavy escort, to the County Gaol at The Crescent in Dundalk where they were detained.
Mr Francis Thomas ('Frank') Aiken should have come clean from the start - in 1926, he joined the Fianna Fáil party when it was founded.
RIP Volunteers Patrick Quigley and John Joseph Campbell.
On that same date (16th) in July (1922), 170 km/105 miles away up the road, in the Fort on Inch Island (pictured) on the Inishowen Penninsula in County Donegal, about three dozen IRA Volunteers had, for about ten days, successfully held off attacks by the Free State 'National (sic) Army' on their position.
The Staters then brought in heavy artillery pieces which they had borrowed from their new comrades in the British Army and opened fire on the Volunteers.
The rebels in the Fort had to surrender : about thirty of them were captured there and, on witnessing the carnage inflicted by (borrowed, British) artillery on a fixed rebel position, Volunteer Sean Lehane, the Officer Commanding the IRA forces in Donegal, gave the order to abandon their last post in that county, in Glenveagh Castle (pictured, below), and form 'Flying Columns' which would take on the Staters on a 'hit and run' basis, just as they had done against the British.
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DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...
Desmond Boomer, a Belfast engineer working in the Libyan oil-fields, disappeared seven years ago.
Officially, the plane on which he was a passenger crashed as a result of mechanical failure and pilot error.
But is that the real story?
Or were the Irishman and his fellow passengers unwitting victims of the shady war between Islamic fundamentalism and Mossad, Israel's intelligence network?
A special 'Magill' investigation by Don Mullan, author of 'Eyewitness Bloody Sunday'.
From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.
After landing at Djerba, Rodney Woods said -
"We went to collect our luggage from the hold and I noticed that the alternator drive belt was all torn."
He also told the inquiry that Captain Bartolo "...put his hand in and tore it off easily in front of everyone..."
All three witnesses stated that, in their opinion, the aircraft was in no fit state to return to Malta.
To replace the alternator belt required at least three hours of specialist maintenance work, involving the removal of the propeller.
NCA International, a Maltese-based aircraft maintenance company, held the repair contract for aircraft owned by Captain Bartolo's two companies and, before another company could undertake repair work on his aircraft, Bartolo was required to obtain written authority from NCA, otherwise his insurance cover would be invalid.
He did not contact NCA for repair clearance that night or the following morning, which suggests that no repairs were carried out...
(MORE LATER.)
Thanks for reading,
Sharon and the team.
(We'll be back on Wednesday, 30th July 2025 - we're still enjoying our new, more relaxed publishing schedule ie a post every second Wednesday, rather than every Wednesday, and we're not yet ready to revert!)
ON THIS DATE (17TH AUGUST) 53 YEARS AGO : BRITISH PRESS RELEASE RE "DISTURBANCES" EXPOSES WESTMINSTER MINDSET.
'Speech by the Prime Minister, Major The Rt. Hon. J.D. Chichester-Clark, D.L., M.P., At a Press Conference in Stormont Castle To-Day, Sunday, 17th August 1969.'
"We have, of course, been doing what we can to provide you all with a regular and accurate supply of information on the public order situation in Belfast and elsewhere in Northern Ireland (sic).
I have, however, invited you to come here to-day so that my colleagues and I may put before you, and through you to the public, our views on some of the wider issues involved.
This is vitally necessary in view of a great deal of speculation, much of it wide of the mark..."
- Mr Chichester-Clark's mealy-mouthed and marble-in-the-mouth misdirections and outright mistruths dripped off those first two pages as, indeed, they did for the following four pages in that six-page press release, which was unleashed for public consumption on the 17th August 1969 - 53 years ago on this date.
The reason the 'Right Honourable' Mr Chichester-Clark and his people felt it prudent to call a press conference was because of the riots caused by one of their surrogate groupings, the 'Apprentice Boys', five days previously which, in turn, meant that Irish republicans had to take to the streets to protect themselves and the areas that they lived in.
"The real cause of the disorder is to be found in the activities of extreme Republican elements and others determined to overthrow our State. That is why we have found it necessary to detain a considerable number of known and dangerous agitators.
I would remind you again that the trouble in Belfast began with firing upon the police (sic) at widely-scattered locations within a short period of time...disorder was mounting ; riots had taken place in ten different towns the night before ; great damage was being done ; lives were clearly at risk..."
The Westminster political and military administration has invaded almost 90 per cent of the world's countries (to date, but it's early yet...) and, without exception, has 'explained' that bloodshed occurred because some of the natives got uppity and objected to being robbed, raped and pillaged ie 'The real cause of the disorder is to be found in the activities of (name natives here) and that is why we have found it necessary to etc...'
Same as it ever was, then, from Mr Chichester-Clark who, incidentally, was crudely impersonated by those who associated politically with him, including his own people, who viewed him as a representative of aristocratic nepotism and amateurism and spoke behind his back about Mr C-C and his unionist cabinets comprising of 'captain this and major that and general nothing..', as the poet John Montague put it!
"We fully appreciate that the United Kingdom Government and the Westminster Parliament must be satisfied that troops are involved only in a setting about which they can be confident and that the situation had arisen through no failure or error of this Government...no one here would dispute the sovereign authority of Westminster to secure its will..."
Perhaps no one in the circles you moved in, Mr C-C, would have "dispute(d) the sovereign authority of Westminster to secure its will" (..in the Occupied Six Counties) but we know of thousands of natives who did, and continue to do, just that!
While facing repeated votes of 'No Confidence' in his leadership, Mr Chichester-Clark resigned his Stormont position on the 20th March, 1971, in protest at the failure of the London administration to send in more troops and impose wide-ranging security measures in the Six Occupied Counties but was no doubt placated when, on the 20th July, 1971, he received a 'Life Peerage' and was gifted the title of 'Baron Moyola of Castledawson'. And he never even thanked the natives for helping him to secure his 'Baronship'!
James Dawson Chichester-Clark ('Lord Moyola') died, aged 79, on the 17th May, 2002, in Moyola Park Country Estate, near Castledawson, in County Derry. We'll hazard a guess and say that his family missed him.
'TOMÁS MacCURTAIN COMMEMORATION.'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
At the Tomás MacCurtain Commemoration, held in the City Hall, Cork, on March 18th last, the following address was delivered by Domhnall O Cathain :
"We are inclined to dwell mostly on current affairs, to attempt to expose the hypocrisy and insincerity that is rampant in this Ireland of today.
You may ask what has this got to do with the Tomás MacCurtain Commemoration, maybe you may even accuse us of using the Commemoration for some obscure political reason or some ulterior motive.
This tendency became apparent when the Republican Movement was surrounded by, if I might use the hackneyed phrase, the 'Paper Wall', when every device known to modern propagandists was used to slander and detract from the Republican Movement.
All this cleverness, prompted by cynical materialism, was brought to bear on an organisation sadly depleted by imprisonments, demoralised by ruthless coercion, and its spokesmen (sic) had no other means of retaliation, no other means of nailing the lies than the common rostrum..."
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (17TH AUGUST) 102 YEARS AGO - TERENCE MACSWINEY TRANSFERRED FROM CORK TO BRIXTON.
"If I die I know the fruit will exceed the cost a thousand fold. The thought of it makes me happy. I thank God for it. Ah, Cathal, the pain of Easter week is properly dead at last..."
- Terence MacSwiney wrote these words in a letter to Cathal Brugha on the 30th September, 1920, the 39th day of his hunger strike. The pain he refers to is that caused by his failure to partake in the 1916 Easter Rising. Contradictory orders from Dublin and the failure of the arms ship, the Aud, to land arms in Tralee, left the Volunteers in Cork unprepared for insurrection.
In his book 'History of the Irish Working Class', Peter Beresford Ellis wrote : "On October 25th, 1920, Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney - poet, dramatist and scholar - died on the 74th day of a hunger-strike while in Brixton Prison, London. A young Vietnamese dishwasher in the Carlton Hotel in London broke down and cried when he heard the news - "A Nation which has such citizens will never surrender". His name was Nguyen Ai Quoc who, in 1941, adopted the name Ho Chi Minh and took the lessons of the Irish anti-imperialist fight to his own country..."
Terence MacSwiney, born on the 28th March 1879, was the Commandant of the 1st Cork Brigade of the IRA and was elected as the Lord Mayor of Cork. He died after 74 days on hunger strike (a botched effort to force feed him hastened his death) in Brixton Prison, England, on the 25th October, 1920, and his body lay in Southwark Cathedral in London where tens of thousands of people paid their respects.
He summed-up the Irish feeling at that time (a feeling and determination which is still prominent to this day) - "The contest on our side is not one of rivalry or vengeance but of endurance. It is not those who can inflict the most but those who can suffer the most who will conquer. Those whose faith is strong will endure to the end in triumph."
And our faith is strong.
It was on this date - 17th August - in 1920, that Terence MacSwiney was transferred from Cork Prison to Brixton Prison, where he died.
'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.
According to John White - "At the inception of the peace process the governments, including the American administration, said they would target funding into areas that had suffered most, and that didn't happen."
"There were great hopes, particularly among paramilitaries who said 'this is it, it's over, I'll be able to get a job and live a normal life.' When the jobs didn't come and when the economic and social deprivations in this area weren't alleviated in any way, they just felt 'what have we got out of it'? I saw many of them go back to senior positions in the UDA."
John White received a life sentence for the 1973 murder of SDLP Senator Paddy Wilson and his companion Irene Andrews, both of whom died from multiple stab wounds. Since his release from prison in the early 1990's he has become a prominent figure in the UDA's political wing, the 'Ulster Democratic Party' (UDP).
In the mid-90's, the UDP and the UVF's political wing, the 'Progressive Unionist Party' (PUP) were regarded as potentially transformational forces, combining hardline loyalism with left-of-centre social policies and a pragmatic attitude towards issues like power sharing...
(MORE LATER.)
'RAC REMINDER.'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, March, 1955.
We wish to remind American readers that the U.S. headquarters of the 'Republican Aid Committee' (RAC) is at 112 West 72nd Street, New York 23.
This is the only body in the U.S. which is authorised to collect funds on behalf of the Republican Prisoners and their dependents. Those wishing to subscribe to the fund should forward their subscriptions to the Secretary of the New York Committee.
A circular issued recently by 'The Irish Republican Adherents Benevolent Society' may have given the impression that the 'Society' had been authorised by the Central Committee in Dublin to collect funds. This is not the case.
Due to a misunderstanding, the sum of £100 was handed to the Central Committee some time ago on behalf of 'The Irish Republican Adherents Benevolent Society'. This sum has now been returned by the Central Committee.
(END of 'RAC Reminder' ; NEXT - 'United Stand Once More', from 'The United Irishman' newspaper, June, 1955.)
ON THIS DATE (17TH AUGUST) IN...
...1779 :
William Corbet (pictured) was born in Ballythomas, County Cork, on the 17th August, 1779 :
'William Corbet was an Anglo-Irish soldier in the service of France. In September 1798 he accompanied Napper Tandy in an aborted French mission to Ireland in support of the United Irish insurrection. After two years incarceration he escaped Ireland, and served in the campaigns of Napoleon reaching the rank of colonel. In 1831, under the July Monarchy, he was employed in the French expedition to Greece. He returned to France in 1837, retiring with the rank of Major-General...' (from here.)
Depending on circumstances, William sometimes used the name 'Billy Stone' but a name-change alone wasn't enough to save him from being expelled from Trinity College, in Dublin, in 1798, alongside Robert Emmet and others, for 'treasonable activities'.
He went to Paris and joined a French military force under Napper Tandy, with the rank of Captain, and sailed from Dunkirk with arms and ammunition for Ireland. The expedition had to turn back following the defeat of General Humbert and, arriving in Hamburg, they were handed over to the British authorities and taken to Ireland, where they were imprisoned in Kilmainham Jail.
He remained a military man for the rest of his life, obtaining the rank of Major-General, and died at St Denis, in Paris, on the 12th August, 1842, at only 63 years of age.
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...1912 :
On Yer Bike..!
This advertisement was published in 'The Connaught Telegraph' newspaper on the 17th August, 1912, and was placed by 'The Connaught Cycle and Motor Works of Linenhall Street, Castlebar and Main Street, Claremorris'.
It is a list of "satisfied customers" from the then British 'police' force in Ireland, the RIC, who had purchased bicycles or cycling accessories from the company and were so thrilled with what they got that they apparently wrote to the bike shop about it (!).
Among the happy customers was a Sergeant W. Driscoll, Clonboo RIC, County Galway, who bought an 'RIC Erin's Hope Bicycle' (..how ironic!), Daniel O'Sullivan, New Inn RIC, Galway, a 'Head Constable' be the name of Gargan, from Killarney, an RIC man named Hanley, from Kinvarra RIC, in Galway, and a few other Crown Agents, all of whom were full of praise for the product and the company.
We wonder did that company operate from a 'Big House'-type premises...?
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...1920 :
Tuesday, 17th August in 1920 was a busy day for the 'Irregulars' in Donegal ; Volunteer members of the Ardara Battalion attacked a four-person RIC patrol, leaving all four injured, two seriously (and that same IRA unit attacked another RIC patrol near the chapel in Ardara the following night) and, on the 17th, Volunteers from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions took over the village of Falcarragh (pictured) to remove the wireless telegraphy equipment from the post office in the town.
The IRA were aware that a garrison of RIC operatives were stationed in the town barracks and Joe Sweeney and James McCole organised their men in such a manner that the RIC knew not to attempt to leave their barracks until the IRA were finished their business ; the building was surrounded by armed republicans but no attempt was made to enter the premises and no attempt was made by the RIC to leave the safety of their barracks.
The removal of the wireless equipment took about two hours, during which the RIC stayed indoors and the IRA stood watch over them before dispersing and re-grouping in the Gortahork area, having completed their mission.
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1922 :
On the 17th August, 1922, two Free State Army medical orderlies from County Galway, Cecil Fitzgerald and John O'Mara, who were based in Killarney in County Kerry, decided to take a boat trip to Innisfallen Island (pictured) in Lough Leanne, in Kerry.
As they were approaching the jetty on the island, an IRA sniper opened fire on them and both were shot dead.
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1922 :
On the 17th August, 1922, Free State troops re-occupied the town of Dundalk, in County Louth. The Staters were led by republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher Dan Hogan (pictured) who obtained the rank of Free State Army 'Major General of the Eastern Command' and, in 1927, was promoted to 'Chief of Staff of the State Defence Forces', a position he resigned from in 1929.
He was last heard of in Chicago, in 1941 when, according to Fearghal McGarry's biography of Eoin O'Duffy - "Hogan left for the United States under a cloud, financial or sexual. He was killed in a bar brawl there in the early 1940s..."
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1922 :
A British 'police force' in Ireland, the 'Royal Irish Constabulary' (RIC) which was, in effect, an armed British militia in Ireland, was disbanded between the 17th and the 31st August, 1922, after that grouping had faithfully served the Westminster administration since 1822.
They were replaced by the 'Civic Guards' (which had been formed on the 7th February 1922), a grouping which was re-titled the 'Garda Siochana', in the Free State, in 1923, and which carried-on the old RIC traditions of assisting at evictions and doing its utmost to suppress Irish republicans and republicanism.
Indeed, one of the RIC's most high profile 'hits' was the murder of Cork Lord Mayor Tomás MacCurtain on the 20th March 1920, the inquest into which found that he had been - "...wilfully murdered under circumstances of the most callous brutality, and that the murder was organised and carried out by the Royal Irish Constabulary, officially directed by the British Government, and we return a verdict of wilful murder against David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of England ; Lord French, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland ; Ian McPherson, late Chief Secretary of Ireland ; Acting Inspector General Smith, of the Royal Irish Constabulary ; Divisional Inspector Clayton of the Royal Irish Constabulary ; District Inspector Swanzy and some unknown members of the Royal Irish Constabulary..." (From here.)
The anti-republican mentality of the RIC lives on today in those who wear the uniforms of the State cops and their colleagues in the Occupied Six Counties, the RUC/PSNI.
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2000 :
On the 17th August, 2000, the last passing out parade for RUC recruits, under the RUC name, was held in the Garnerville Training Centre in Belfast, when 36 new members of that British militia threw their caps in the air and shouted "Hurrah! Hurrah!"
On the 4th November, 2001, the RUC amalgamated with, and transitioned into, a grouping which calls itself the 'Police Service of Northern Ireland' (PSNI) (sic) and the RIC and the RUC were simply re-born in a different uniform.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose..!
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Thanks for the visit, and for reading!
Sharon and the team.
