A young man (26, pictured, in later life), Patrick James Smyth, from the Mount Brown Area of Kilmainham, in Dublin, joined the anti-republican 'Dublin Metropolitan Police' grouping in March 1893 and proved to be so diligent (!) in his 'police work' that, as well as been given the nickname 'The Dog' (because of his obsessive pursuit of 'villains'), he was favoured by his bosses and, four years later, was moved up the ranks to the position of 'Detective Officer'.
He actually enjoyed the work, and stayed in that position for eleven years, then moved up the ranks again to the position of 'Detective Sergeant' in 'G Division'.
He changed desks within the British (para-)military apparatus in Ireland but, regardless of which station he manned, he practically detested those who didn't share his loyalty to 'Empire', and his 'jobsworth' preferences were noted by those he sought to practice on and, indeed, was contacted by those he practiced those preferences on and was advised to back off, but refused to do so.
He knew he was on thin ice and, as such, watched his back and made himself aware of his surroundings.
In late July (1919), on his way home to the family house (wife and eight children) in Millmount Avenue (Number 51) in Drumcondra, Dublin, he spotted a few men, stopped on the footpath, crossed the road, went up a sidelane etc and walked home by a different route.
On the 30th July, at about 11pm, he was walking along the Avenue he lived on when he was shot five times (by Volunteers Jim Slattery, Tom Ennis, Tom Keogh and Mick Kennedy) ; some of his children were in the house and ran outside to find their father on the ground, unconscious and bleeding heavily - between them, they managed to get him inside the house and got medical aid for him.
DMP 'Detective Sergeant G Division' Patrick James 'The Dog' Smyth died from his wounds in the Mater Hospital in Dublin five weeks later, on the 8th September (1919).
His death certificate listed him as 48 years of age, but his headstone states that he was 50 years of age at the time of his death. Had he heeded the advice he was offered, he wouldn't have needed either.
A British Army soldier in Dublin City Centre would not have heard those five shots ring out - at that same time, a 'Private' Francis William Mills ('Service Number 0407'), from London, and attached to the '3rd Wiltshire Regiment', was in the River Liffey, possibly as a result of having been dared to swim across it, but the poor man drowned trying to do so.
He was taken home to his own country and is buried in Manor Park Cemetery, in East London.
==========================
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.
Padhraig Campbell, SIPTU, stated -
"The 1987 changes should be referred to the Flood Tribunal because they were so drastic, and they followed on from strongly unadvised meetings between Ray Burke and the oil companies."
Ray Burke has already given evidence to the Flood Tribunal in relation to other issues.
Meanwhile, Irish rig-workers, in claims made to 'Magill Magazine', said -
"Enterprise Oil refused point-blank to hire any Irish-based rig-workers on, for instance, the drilling rig 'Petrolia', which is owned by Maersk.
They had hired the rig to drill appraisal wells at this massive gas field and, despite the fact that there had been an agreed involvement of highly skilled and experienced Irish rig-workers on rigs operating in Irish waters since drilling began in 1969, there were no Irish rig-workers initially hired..."
(MORE LATER.)
"My grandfather, Brigadier General Cuthbert Henry Tindall Lucas (pictured), was captured by the IRA in 1920 and held for over a month.
He was treated exceptionally well and eventually 'allowed' to escape.
It is one of the few good stories to come from a very dark period during the Irish War of Independence..."
- the grandaughter of Mr Lucas.
On the 26th June, 1920, an IRA Unit from the North Cork Number 2 Brigade, led by Liam Lynch, George Power, Sean Moylan (Officer Commanding Newmarket Battalion) and Patrick Clancy (Officer Commanding Kanturk Battalion) captured British Army Brigadier General Cuthbert Henry Tindall Lucas, the Commander of the 16th Brigade of the British Army in Ireland.
Two other British Army officers, a Colonel Danford and a Colonel Tyrell, were also captured.
The three British Army Officers had taken a break from marauding on that day, and were resting in a cottage in Kilbarry, County Waterford, preparing to go salmon fishing on the banks of the Blackwater River, just as the IRA Intelligence Department had told the IRA North Cork Number 2 Brigade they would be!
As they were outnumbered and outgunned, the three British operatives offered no resistance as they were put into the touring car belonging to Mr Lucas but, as they were leaving the site, Mr Danford and Mr Tyrell began talking to each other in Arabic and then suddenly tried to overpower Volunteers Lynch and Clancy in an escape attempt.
The IRA men got the better of them and, in the struggle, Mr Danford was seriously wounded ; himself and Mr Tyrell were removed from the car and made as comfortable as possible on the side of the road, and were told to stay where they were as a doctor would be sent from the next village to tend to them.
The Volunteers travelled to East Clare with their prisoner, Mr Lucas, from where they contacted the British Army leadership with the intention of exchanging their prisoner for IRA captives (Mick Fitzgerald and other Volunteers) held by them but, over the next few days, it became obvious to them that the British had no interest in, or intention of, taking part in such an exchange.
The IRA never intended to shoot Mr Lucas in cold blood, but he was now of no use or value to them ; on the 30th of July (1920) he 'escaped', according to himself, and was safely collected by his own people from Pallasgreen RIC Barracks (about 18 miles/28 km from Limerick city).
However, while being taken out of the area in a small convoy of British Army vehicles, travelling through Oola in East Limerick (on the border with Tipperary) they were attacked by a Unit from the IRA 3rd Tipperary Brigade (with Dan Breen and Seán Treacy in command) and Mr Lucas was grazed in the head by a bullet - he was lucky, but five of his 'rescuers' weren't ; two of them were killed (Privates Daniel Verey Bayliss and George B. Parker) and three were wounded, before the IRA withdrew, as British Army reinforcements were moving towards their position.
Later that day, Mr Lucas and his remaining convoy arrived in Fermoy, County Cork, with n'er a salmon between them!
Incidentally, during debriefing by his superior officers in connection with his time in IRA custody, Mr Lucas told them that he had no idea of the names of the Volunteers he encountered (he had!) and had no idea of the location where he was held (he had!).
He bore no ill wind to the IRA, Sinn Féin and/or Irish republicanism and, although opposed to their objective, at least understood and appreciated why they were fighting against the British military and political presence in Ireland.
He retired from the British Army (to Herefordshire, in England) in 1932 and died there in April 1958.
As Mr Lucas was 'escaping', a Mr Frank Brooke was in his office in Westland Row train station in Dublin (he was a Director of the Great Southern and Eastern Railways/Chairman of the Dublin and South-Eastern Railway Company) when four republican Volunteers walked in, shot him dead, and walked out again.
Mr Brooke had brought himself to the attention of the rebels by joining the pro-British 'Advisory Board' set-up by his friend, 'Lord' French, pictured (Field Marshal John Denton Pinkstone French, 1st Earl of Ypres, 'Lord Lieutenant of Ireland', KP GCB OM GCVO KCMG PC ETC ETC!) 'to maintain British authority and address the growing unrest in Ireland' and ignored advice that it would be for the best if he distanced himself from Mr French and his 'Board'.
And so it was that, on the 30th July, 1920, four Volunteers - Patrick Daly, Tomás Keogh, Vincent Byrne and James Slattery - stamped a one-way ticket for him.
==========================
ON THIS DATE (30TH JULY) 103 YEARS AGO : CAPTURE OF "AN INFLUENTIAL AND FORMIDABLE" IRISH REPUBLICAN SOLDIER.
"I rise to speak against this Treaty because, in my opinion, it denies a recognition of the Irish nation...I object to it on the ground of principle, and my chief objection is because I am asked to surrender the title of Irishman and accept the title of West Briton...I object because this Treaty denies the sovereignty of the Irish nation, and I stand by the principles I have always held — that the Irish people are by right a free people.
I object to this Treaty because it is the very negation of all that for which we have fought. It is the first time in the history of our country that a body of representative Irishmen has ever suggested that the sovereignty of this nation should be signed away..we secured a mandate from the Irish people because we put for the first time before the people of Ireland a definite issue ; we promised that if elected we would combat the will, and deny the right of England in this country, and after four years of hard work we have succeeded in bringing Ireland to the proud position she occupied on the fifth December last.
The fight was made primarily here in Ireland ; but I want to say that the fight that was made in Ireland was also reflected throughout the world ; and we — because we had a definite object — had the sympathy of liberty-loving people everywhere....I have taken one oath to the Republic and I will keep it.
If I voted for that document I would work the Treaty, and I would keep my solemn word and treat as a rebel any man who would rise out against it. If I could in conscience vote for that Treaty I would do so, and if I did I would do all in my power to enforce that Treaty ; because, so sure as the honour of this nation is committed by its signature to this Treaty, so surely is Ireland dead.
We are asked to commit suicide and I cannot do it..we are asked to annihilate the Irish nation. This nation has been preserved for seven hundred and fifty years, coming down in unbroken succession of great men who have inspired us to carry on. We were the heirs of a great tradition, and the tradition was that Ireland had never surrendered, that Ireland had never been beaten, and that Ireland can never be beaten.." (7th January, 1922, from here.)
It is generally considered that Harry Boland was the first man to be 'unofficially executed' by a Michael Collins-controlled Free State death squad, on the evening of Sunday 30th July/early Monday morning 31st July 1922 and, following that shooting, in the Grand Hotel in Skerries, Dublin, the State gunmen issued this statement (on Monday 31st July 1922) -
"Early this morning a small party of troops entered the Grand Hotel to place Mr. H.Boland T.D., under arrest. Mr. Boland had been actively engaged in the irregular campaign.
When accosted in his bedroom he made an unsuccessful attempt to seize a gun from one of the troops and then rushed out to the door. After firing two shots at random and calling on Mr. Boland to halt, it was found necessary to fire a third shot to prevent an escape. Mr. Boland was wounded and removed to hospital.
A man giving his name as John J.Murphy with residence at 3 Castlewood Avenue, Ranelagh, Dublin, who was found with Mr. Boland, was taken prisoner. Subsequently he was identified as Joseph Griffin* , an active irregular, belonging to Dublin."
(*'1169' Comment - Joe Griffin was an IRA operative within the Movement's Intelligence Department.)
One of the Free State troops present at the time stated afterwards -
"Mr.Boland was wanted and we went to the hotel and two or three of us entered his room. He was in bed. We wakened him and he got up out of bed and partly dressed himself. He had no gun. Suddenly he turned and rushed to tackle one of our fellows for his gun. A shot was fired over his head to desist but he continued to struggle and almost had the gun when a second shot was fired and Mr.Boland was wounded."
The bullet entered his right side near the ribs, passed through his body and came out through his left side causing very serious injuries.
Although unarmed at that moment, as admitted by his executioners, caught by surprise and outnumbered (a "small party" of Free State troops were in the room at the time) the Staters attempted to present the execution of Harry Boland as 'a killing in self-defence' ie 'he attempted to jump us and then tried to flee...'.
They had learned well from their British colleagues.
Harry Boland died from his wounds on the 2nd August 1922, in St. Vincents Hospital, Dublin and, as he lay waiting for death, he told family members that the Stater who shot him had been imprisoned with him in Lewes Prison, in England, but he refused to put a name to him.
When his sister, Kathleen, asked him who had fired the shot he refused to tell her, saying "The only thing I'll say is that it was a friend of my own that was in prison with me, I'll never tell the name and don't try to find out. I forgive him and I want no reprisals".
The funeral expenses were taken care of by the Cumann na Poblachta organisation.
'Boland's mix of animal charm, gregariousness, wit and a dash of ruthlessness made him an influential and formidable character. Though not an intellectual in his manner he was a clear thinker, a forceful orator and a graceful writer....' (from here.)
RIP Volunteer Harry Boland.
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.
RTE's assumptions about the intelligence and dynamism of its audience are astonishingly insulting.
The irony is that RTE can be proven wrong even on the evidence of its own past dalliances.
When the IPU braved co-production finance for Donald Taylor Black's 'Dear Boy : The Story Of Mícheál Mac Liammóir' in 1999, admittedly amidst the publicity surrounding the centenary of Mac Liammóir's birth, it was RTE's own efforts to publicise 'Dear Boy' as an entertaining and thought-provoking piece of television which achieved the crossover to what was almost a prime-time audience.
There's a lesson here - with three television and four radio stations, as well as a top-selling magazine, RTE itself controls the most useful avenues through which to raise the profile of its own programming...
(MORE LATER.)
In 1922, the village of Bruree, in south-eastern County Limerick, was an IRA stronghold due to its strategic location, which is why the Staters, too, wanted it to be under their command.
On the 30th July, 1922, FSA Major General William Richard English Murphy (ex-British Army, hand-picked by Michael Collins to join the Staters in their treasonous fight against the Irish Republic) and his gunmen made their move - their 'Dublin Guards' Brigade attacked the town from the southeast, using armoured cars and an 18-pound field gun borrowed from the British.
The battle lasted for five hours, during which at least 13 Free State soldiers were killed and others wounded, with the IRA suffering the loss of 9 Volunteers.
Artillery reinforcements for the Staters arrived on the scene and the IRA withdrew, regrouped, rearmed, reorganised and, on the 2nd August, under the command of Volunteer Liam Deasy - using three improvised armoured cars, a trench mortar and a couple of powerful machine guns (assembled by master mechanic Jim Gray, a Cork man) - counterattacked...
Around the same time that the Staters were making a move on the village of Bruree, 57 miles (92 km) across the State, in Kilkenny, they were also making a move on Dowling's Pub on Blackmill Street, in Kilkenny City.
Kilkenny IRA Company Captain Volunteer William (Bill) Oakes was looking for a Volunteer 'runner' to deliver a carton of .303 bullets to two IRA men (Volunteers Robert Kenny and James 'Duffer' Morrissey) in Dowling's Pub and his younger brother, Samuel (21), offered to do the run.
It was after hours (doors closed, 'lock in') in the pub in the early hours of the 30th July (1922) when the three men got down to business but they were interrupted by an FSA Lieutenant, a Mr Peter Radcliffe, and other State mercenaries, banging on the door, demanding entry.
The owner of the pub, M/s Maria Dowling, told the three IRA men to leave by the back door, and she would stall the Staters for as long as she could, which she did.
No sooner had Stater Radcliffe and his gunmen gained entry at the front door than gunfire was heard from the rear of the premises ; the three IRA men, unarmed, had been met by three armed Staters at the back of the pub, and shots were fired at the Volunteers.
21-year-old Volunteer Sam Oakes was hit, and died from his wounds later that day.
RIP Volunteer Samuel Oakes.
As part of the political and military campaign to establish a 32-County Irish Republic and to hinder the progress of a pro-British 26-County Free State within that Irish Republic, the IRA defended itself from the then-new Free State Army and from those who gave the FSA and its associated entities sustineance.
On the 30th July, 1922, armed rebels gained entry to one such establishment entity, 'Kilmore House' (pictured) in the townland of Kilmore, in County Clare, the home of the Hickman family, which had connections with 'The Royal Dublin Fusiliers' and the 'Royal' Air Force.
Those inside the 'Big House' were escorted outside and held there, and the premises was set on fire (and was demolished later, leaving only ruins standing).
Between 1919 and 1923, about 275 'Big Houses' were either burned down or blown up ; they belonged to newspaper owners, State Army officers, judges, wealthy Anglo-Irish families, Irish 'nobles', members of Leinster House and/or the Free State Senate, and former members of those institutions who continued to support the Staters.
But the British-supported 'Me Féin' rot continued to fester in the Free State, and has unfortunately survived and flourished to this day...
==========================
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.
Mysteriously, despite all of the phone calls to loved ones and friends from pilot and passengers saying they were overnighting at Djerba because of bad weather, despite the fact that the black tempest was still raging and showed no sign of abating, despite the serious mechanical difficulties experienced by the aircraft on its outbound flight, and despite the fact that there is no evidence the aircraft underwent repairs or that its captain sought the necessary insurance clearance to enable such repairs to be carried out, a Tunisian Ministry of Transport report states that Bartolo's aircraft obtained start-up clearance from Djerba Tower at 3.38am and takeoff clearance at 3.44am.
The Tunisian report states that Djerba Air Traffic Control (ATC) had difficulty maintaining radio contact with the aircraft, but that at 4.10am, on the emergency frequency, it asked the pilot to contact Maltese ATC.
It is alleged the pilot responded to this request with the word "uniform", taken by Djerba as an indication he was about to do so.
The Tunisian report then records in bold print -
"The flight is therefore closed by the Tunisian Control and transferred to Maltese Control..."
(MORE LATER.)
Thanks for reading,
Sharon and the team.
(We'll be back on Wednesday, 13th August 2025 - GRMA!)
