Born to Irish speakers and into a clan of Fenians in Roscommon in 1876, Michael O'Flanagan was only 18 years young when he went to Maynooth College to study for the priesthood. He returned to his old alma mater , Summerhill College in Sligo and, at 24 years of age (in 1900), he was appointed 'Professor of Irish' in the college, from where he continued his involvement in Conradh na Gaeilge, through which he befriended Pádraig Mac Piarais and Douglas Hyde.
His church at first considered him to be a valuable asset and repeatedly sent him abroad on assignments, but less so over the years as he had a social conscience which took precedence over his church's need for him to be a 'team player' and, indeed, he embarrassed his church hierarchy when, at 37 years of age, he fully supported the Sligo dockers in their trade dispute in 1913 (even though he was working in Rome at the time, which is where he was based between 1912 and 1914) as, then as now, his religious 'betters' had more in common with the owners and bosses rather than the poorer workers.
In 1914 he was allocated to the parish of Ahamlish (North Sligo) before moving to Cliffoney, in that same county, and quickly became a true friend to the small farming community he now lived and worked with, and assisted them in their battle with the 'Congested Districts Board' who were trying to dictate the manner in which turf bogs could be used by the locals, an occasion that became known as the "Cloonerco Bog Fight".
During that 'turf war', Fr. O'Flanagan helped to organise the funeral of O'Donovan Rossa (pictured, who died on the 29th June 1915) and he spoke in Dublin City Hall when Rossa was lying in state there, which seemed to be 'the straw which broke the camel's back', as far as his Bishop (Coyne) was concerned - in October 1915, the church hierarchy attempted to transfer him to a new parish.
However, his friends and supporters in Cliffoney objected and physically prevented the new parish priest from taking up his priestly duties, a situation which lasted until Christmas Day.
Eventually, Fr. O'Flanagan was moved to Crossna, near Boyle, in County Roscommon, from where he continued to spread his own 'gospel' and that of Irish republicanism - he was vocally in favour of land reform and was strongly against Ireland taking any part in 'the First World War', 'forced' (by Westminster) or not to do so.
He worked in the background for Irish republicans during the 1916 Rising and became more politically involved in the years following same and, in October 1917, he was elected the vice-president of the then Sinn Féin organisation.
In May 1918, he condemned the English and German 'Establishments' for their encouragement to young men to join what they called "the war effort" :
"Those royal cousins who rule England and Germany will come together and clink their champagne glasses over the graves of millions of the flower of the manhood of Germany and England...", and, no sooner had he delivered those words to an appreciative audience when Bishop Coyne banned him from saying Mass in public or administering the sacraments and it would be 1938 before those duties were restored to him.
He played an active part in Sinn Féin's political victories that same year and was given the honour of opening the public session of the First Dáil Éireann in 1919 and was practically employed full-time in the 'Republican Courts' and in the development of the Dáil's land policy.
He stayed true to his political principles in 1921 and opposed the 'Treaty of Surrender', being barred from America and Australia for doing so.
He was elected president of Sinn Féin in 1933, a position which he held until 1935, but he was expelled from the organisation the following year because he breached the abstentionist policy.
He supported the Spanish Republic in its fight against Franco fascism from 1936 to 1939, which again put him at odds with his religious hierarchy, and undertook a number of speaking tours abroad in support of that fight.
Father Michael O' Flanagan, 66 years of age, died in Dublin on 7th August 1942 - 82 years ago on this date - and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery on the 10th August. Fittingly, his graveside oration was delivered by John Joseph O'Kelly ('Sceilg') , an action that that 'turbulent priest' would have appreciated.
('1169' comment ; a headline/title like that above - 'Our Own Turf For Our Own People' - would definitely get us labelled as 'fascists/racists/far-right/ner-do-wells [!!?] etc in todays 'Woke'-infested climate and the three of us actually had a meeting about whether to change the title to 'Ireland For The Irish' instead, but sure we decided to keep the latter title for another piece later on...!)
'SINN FÉIN STATEMENT...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
Mr McAteer assured the annual convention of the Anti-Partition League that there were happy improvements in the relationship between the "Irish Government" and the Anti-Partition League -
"We are reasonably satisfied with the new arrangements for co-operation, and we are moderately confident that it will lead to an intensification of the Anti-Partition drive, not only here but throughout the world."
At the same time, he informed the convention that the Anti-Partition League had... "..no master plan to solve partition."
It is possible that the results of the recent conference between political leaders in the twenty-six counties and representatives of the Anti-Partition League is an all-out effort to prevent Sinn Féin from succeeding where all others, on their own admission, have failed?
Issued by the Standing Committee, Sinn Féin.
(END of 'Sinn Féin Statement' and, actually, the 'end' of our 'The United Irishman' newspaper collection!
Next week [14th August 2024] we'll be re-posting articles from a 22-year-old Irish magazine [which was a great magazine once, 1980's/1990's, but went 'Woke' since then, unfortunately] and the first article is particularly timely, as it's to do with ethnicity in this State at that time which, today - 2024 - is, in our opinion, a characteristic that has changed for the worse, as far as the indigenous Irish are concerned.)
Thirty Pieces Of Silver...
On the 7th August, 1919, the British 'Chief Secretary for Ireland' (and also the '1st Baron Strathcarron'!), a Mr Ian James MacPherson, introduced a Bill in Westminster to increase the wages and improve the working conditions for their 'police force' in Ireland, the RIC.
Unemployed men were somewhat reluctant to join that semi-paramilitary grouping because the IRA were hitting back against it with some success and other Irish men and women were shunning it ; the wages were increased with fanfare to attract new recruits and to compensate for increased hardship and cost of living increases due to the fact that many shopkeepers were refusing to serve them, forcing them to obtain, usually with subterfuge, any food and other necessities from miles away.
It worked, and recruitment levels increased, as about 10,000 new members joined between January 1920 and August 1922, when the outfit was disbanded.
But their casualty rate also increased, as there were more of them presenting as targets and they were rushed into 'service' without suitable training ; between 1919 and 1922, more than 500 pro-British 'police casualties' (comprising the 'Dublin Metropolitan Police', the Auxiliaries, Black and Tans and 'Ulster Special Constabulary') were recorded ; in January 1919, the RIC claimed to have about 9,500 uniformed members and some 1,300 operational barracks in the country.
Swings and roundabouts...
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SO, FAREWELL THEN, CELTIC TIGER....
It had to happen, sooner or later.
Most of the pundits and economists were too busy singing the Celtic Tiger's praises to notice, but a few critical observers worried all along about the weaknesses of a boom economy that depended so much on a few companies from one place - the United States.
By Denis O'Hearn.
From 'Magill' Annual 2002.
A populist social housing regime that provided affordable and reasonable housing to successive generations of low-income households broke down ; Irish citizens no longer have assured access to affordable housing.
In health, Ireland reduced spending as a proportion of GDP by 20 per cent between 1980 and 1996 and, even after an increase in health spending in 1998, Ireland still ranked 20th in a survey of 27 OECD countries.
Between 1970 and 1975 and 1995 and 2000, our global ranking with respect to life expectancy at birth fell by seven places - hospital waiting lists are still unacceptably long and may be on the way back up.
In education, we have performed poorly, in spite of the public image that growth is due to a highly educated population...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 7th August, 1920, IRA Volunteers attached to the Cork Number 1 Brigade were getting into position to attack a better-armed force of RIC members in their barracks in Innishannon, County Cork, when one of the rebels discharged his weapon accidentally, thus alerting the enemy ; the operation was postponed, and the Volunteers withdrew from the area.
The same IRA Brigade had, between April and July that year, rendered inoperable RIC Barracks in Blarney, Farran, Inchigeela, Clondrohid and in Cork City (MacCurtain Street).
By the end of 1920, nearly half of the 1500 RIC barracks in the country had been abandoned, and most were burned by the IRA within days of their evacuation. Indeed, purposely, hundreds of those were rendered inoperable by the IRA on the night of the start of the fourth anniversary of the Easter Rising in 1916 - 24th April 1920!
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Between thirty and forty Irish republican operatives were said to be involved in the planning etc of the overall IRA operation, but the actual ambush itself involved only about between eleven and fourteen armed IRA Volunteers from the Castletownroche Battalion, Cork Number 2 Brigade (under Tom Barry, Battalion Officer Commanding/Column Commander) and the IRA East Limerick Brigade Column (led by Donnchadh O'Hannigan and Tadhg Crowley).
The movement of a six-man RIC grouping had been monitored and an ambush position established, on the 7th August, 1920, at the townland of Scart, near the village of Cill Dairbhre (Kildorrery, the 'Church of the Oakwood'), in North County Cork.
It was just before Noon on the 7th that the RIC members came under gunfire attack, from both sides of the road they were on, and all six were wounded.
The IRA Volunteers moved-in on the wounded forces and removed rifles, six revolvers and 250 rounds of ammunition and any other military equipment from them, taking two of them as prisoners and, once safely out of the area, released the two of them.
The other wounded RIC members were rescued by their colleagues and rushed to Fermoy Military Hospital where all but one survived - a Mr Ernest S. Watkins (29, 'Service Number 71756/LDS 2093/074B'), who was born in Monmouth, in Wales, on the 26th February 1891, and had been an RIC member for just over one month and, prior to that, worked as an engineer, leaving that trade to join the British Army and, finally, the RIC.
The next night (8th August 1920), the Crown Forces attacked the village of Kildorrery, looting houses, getting drunk and stealing from shops.
And it didn't stop there - on the 23rd November that year, a civilian - Denis O'Donnell (37), from Meadstown, near Kildorrery - was shot dead by three RIC members named Wood, Coe and Gray who were seeking to avenge the death of their colleague Mr Watkins.
Had Mr Watkins stayed in his own country, Mr O'Donnell wouldn't have died in the manner he did.
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On the 7th August, 1920, the British Army re-organised itself in Ireland and established its '1st Infantry Division', consisting of two military brigades – the '15th Infantry Brigade', with its Headquarters in Belfast, covering the counties of Antrim, Armagh, Louth, Down and Monaghan, and the Derry Brigade, with its Headquarters in Derry City, and covering the counties of Donegal, Derry, Tyrone, Cavan, Fermanagh, Sligo and North Leitrim.
They sought to militarily control all 9 Counties of Ulster yet, within a few months, were professing that the province of Ulster consisted only of Six Counties...!
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On the 7th August, 1920, 'The Roscommon Herald' newspaper reported that -
'...(the boycott of the RIC continues)...throughout County Leitrim the boycotting of police (sic) is carried on and there is no outside intercourse with or assistance in any way given to members of that body..'
On the 23rd April 1919, the (Republican) Dáil Éireann secretary, a Mr Diarmuid O'Hegarty, wrote out a detailed description of the policy of 'social ostracisation’ of the RIC, which had been authorised by the Dáil earlier that month. The RIC, he wrote, was to...
'...receive no social recognition from the people ; that no intercourse, except such as is absolutely necessary for business, is permitted with them ; they should not be saluted nor spoken to in the streets nor their salutes returned ; that they should not be invited to nor received in private houses as friends or guests ; that they be debarred from participation in games, sports, dances and all social functions conducted by the people, that intermarriage with them be discouraged...treated as persons, who having been adjudged guilty of treason to their country, are regarded unworthy to enjoy any of the privileges or comforts which arise from cordial relations with the public...'
And so it was!
And, actually, so it should be today, too, for the RUC/PSNI in the Occupied Six Counties and for 'An Garda Síochána' (AGS) in the Free State.
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On the 6th January, 1920, IRA Volunteers held a meeting in the home of a Mr Bartholomew (Bartelmew) Walsh in the village of Glashabee, in County Cork, and the '(North) Cork Number 2 Brigade' of the IRA was formed.
The Brigade was monitored closely by GHQ Staff in Dublin and, even thought it was considered to be a successful formation, a decision was made to establish a 'Flying Column' from within its ranks and, on the 7th August that year, it was formed at a meeting held in Mourneabbey, near the town of Mallow, in County Cork (commanded by Tom Barry) attended by, among others, Patrick McCarthy, Michael O'Sullivan, Dan Browne (Newmarket Battalion), Larry Condon, John O'Mahony, Daniel Daly, Matt Flood (Fermoy Battalion), Daniel Shinnick, Jeremiah Donovan, James O'Neill, Michael O'Halloran (Castletown Roche Battalion), Patrick O'Brien, Thomas Coughlan (Charville Battalion), Daniel Vaughan (Kanturk Battalion), John Healy, Patrick Healy (Millstreet Batallion), Tadgh Byrnes, Jack Cunningham, Paddy McCarthy (from Mourneabbey), Owen Harold and Jeremiah Daly (Mallow Battalion).
When the 'Treaty of Surrender' offered a 'truce', which came into effect on the 11th July, 1921, the strength of the Cork Number 2 Brigade was 2,407 Volunteers and, overall, the IRA fielded a total 65 brigades and 297 battalions, with a strength ('on paper') of 115,550 Volunteers.
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In July, 1920, courthouses in Buncrana, Carndonagh and Burnfoot, in Donegal, were burned down by the IRA to hopefully prevent any further miscarriages of 'justice' by the British political administration in Ireland.
The courthouse in Donegal Town (pictured), which was designed by local architect Michael Priestley and built in 1746, was one of only two 'Bridewells' in the county (ie it was built with basement cells), was burnt to the ground on the 7th August, 1920, following a gunbattle between the IRA and the RIC.
A Mr Harold Swan applied for compensation for the burning of the courthouse furniture, for 60 legal texts, 12,000 printed forms, and a gold mounted fountain pen.
He lodged a claim for £100 and we're not sure if he won his case, but he doesn't appear to have lodged a claim for a leather or fur coat or 60" TV...!
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BEIR BUA...
Republicanism in history and today.
Published by the James Connolly/Tommy O'Neill Cumann, Republican Sinn Féin, The Liberties, Dublin.
August 1998.
('1169' comment - 'Beir Bua' translates as 'Grasp Victory' in the English language.)
REPUBLICANS AND THE STATE :
In a statement on December 8th, 1938, the surviving faithful members of the Second Dáil announced this decision...
"..confident, in delegating this sacred trust to the Army of the Republic that, in their every action towards its consummation, they will be inspired by the high ideals and the chivalry of our martyred comrades, we, as the Executive Council of Dáil Éireann, Government of the Republic, append our names.
Seán O' Ceallaigh, Ceann Comhairle,
George Count Plunkett,
Professor William Stockley,
Mary MacSwiney,
Brian Ó hUiginn,
Tom Maguire,
Cathal Ó Murchadha.
In December, 1969, following a split in the Republican Movement over the issue of the recognition of and participation in the Partition and Westminster parliaments, Thomas Maguire, as the sole surviving member of the Executive of the Second Dáil Éireann, recognised the Provisional Army Council, which remained true to the Irish Republic as the lawful Army of the Thirty-Two County Irish Republic...
(MORE LATER.)
In August, 1921, the IRA had taken over policing duties in nationalist/republican areas of Belfast and were reporting to one of their own leadership figures, a Mr Eoin O'Duffy (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher).
On the 6th August, Mr O'Duffy wrote to the RIC Commissioner in Belfast, a Mr John Fitzhugh Gelston, telling him that the IRA patrols on the streets had been able to "frustrate any behaviour which might lead to serious disturbances" (ironic, considering that it was the RIC and other pro-British forces that were causing the disturbances in Ireland in the first place).
On the 7th August, the unionist/loyalist leadership in Belfast contacted Mr John Fitzhugh Gelston to object 'to the legitimacy bestowed on the IRA by the RIC (which was) resented by the unionists especially as the Truce meant a delay in the transfer of executive powers to Stormont..'
But Mr John Fitzhugh Gelston obviously survived the ticking-off (!) from his unionist/loyalist colleagues and from their political pals in Westminster because, in the 'King's Birthday Honours List' of 1923, he was 'appointed' as a 'Commander of the Order of the British Empire' (a 'CBE') in the 'Civil Division' of said 'List'.
Good on ya, Johnny - neither the IRA or the RIC could get ya, but the CBE did...!
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On the 7th August, 1922, Michael Collins arrived in the Curragh, Kildare, to inspect and advise his troops stationed there, who were under the command of Commandant General John T. Prout.
He told them that "...the entire organisation and command is defective.." and placed a new Commandant-General in charge, a Mr Eamon Price.
Mr Price was the husband of Máire Nic Shiubhlaigh, an Irish actress and one-time republican activist, and was apparently not enamoured of some of his high-ranking comrades in the Free State Army - for instance, he described the FSA command staff in Kilkenny as being 'a dumping ground for cowardly, useless and otherwise buckshee officers...' ('1169' comment - WHAT?! Only the command staff...?)!
A few weeks after Mr Price's promotion (!), an FSA report on his predecessor, Mr Prout, was leaked, in which he was labelled as "..too weak as well as too guilless to handle traitorous or semi-mutinous incompetents.." - the "traitorous...semi-mutinous incompetents" was a reference to the Free State soldiers that comprised that army!
Two weeks and one day after his visit to the Curragh, Mr Collins was shot dead in Béal na Bláth, in Cork, by the IRA, but Mr Prout fared somewhat better - he was only mentally and morally wounded by being demobilised from the Free State Army in June 1924, at a time when he held the rank of Major General.
Incidentally, when Mr Collins was 'shuffling his deck' in the Curragh on the 7th August, the IRA demolished a railway bridge on the line between Kildare and Kildangan, not too far from where he was.
Sure it's just as well that he wasn't intending to get the train back to Dublin or Westminster or wherever he was going, as he might have been injured had he been on board...
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Thanks for the visit, and for reading!
Sharon and the team.
