ON THIS DATE (6TH DECEMBER) 102 YEARS AGO : A TERRIBLE CATASTROPHE IS BORN.
One of the leaflets (pictured) distributed by Irish republicans in late 1921 to counteract anti-republican propaganda that the 'Treaty (of Surrender)' was "a stepping stone" to that which they had fought for - indeed, one of those who accepted that Treaty, ex-republican Arthur Griffith, declared, in a press release immediately after signing same - "I have signed a Treaty of peace between Ireland and Great Britain. I believe that treaty will lay foundations of peace and friendship between the two Nations. What I have signed I shall stand by in the belief that the end of the conflict of centuries is at hand."
Yet historian Nicholas Mansergh noted that, at practically the same time as Griffith had penned the above, the British were talking between themselves of "...concessions (from the Irish) wrung by devices..some of which can be described at best as devious..every word used and every nuance was so important..."
On Monday 5th December 1921 - the day before the Treaty of Surrender was signed - the then British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, announced to the Irish side in the negotiations that he had written two letters, one of which would now be sent to his people in Ireland ; one letter told of a peaceful outcome to the negotiations, the other told of a breakdown in the negotiations - Lloyd George stated that if he sent the latter one "it is war, and war within three days. Which letter am I to send?"
(Years later, the Minutes of a British Cabinet meeting at which the 'Treaty' was discussed were released, and they showed that the majority of British politicians at the meeting "generally agree" that "the rough treatment to which the Irish extremists had been subjected during the past twelve months... had brought home to the (IRA) men in the field the need for some equitable compromise..." [UK National Archives, CAB 23/27/17]. Those people were also of the opinion "that a Boundary Commission would possibly give Ulster [sic] more than she would lose..")
That 'war letter' meeting took place on the afternoon of Monday 5th December 1921 ; at around 7pm that same evening, the Irish team left the Downing Street meeting to discuss the matter between themselves and returned to Downing Street later that night.
At ten minutes past two on the morning of Tuesday 6th December 1921 - 102 years ago on this date - Michael Collins and his team accepted 'dominion status' and an Oath which gave allegiance to the Irish Free State and fidelity to the British Crown - the Treaty was signed (and it should be noted that Collins and his team did not consult the [32-County] Dáil, the institution on whose behalf they were acting, before they signed it. Also, Mr Collins took the time to write to Kitty Kiernan saying that he did not get to bed until five o'clock that morning. He added - "I don’t know how things will go now but with God's help we have brought peace to this land of ours – a peace which will end this old strife of ours forever." He was wrong about it bringing peace, but was soon to catch up on his sleep. Also, when Mr Arthur Griffith got back to Dublin after his meetings in London, one of his first acts was to organise various meetings with 'representatives of the Southern unionists' [ie anti-republican elements in the country] to guarantee that "their interests would be safeguarded" in his new Free State!) :
On the 16th December (1921), the British so-called 'House of Commons' (by a vote of 401 for and 58 against) and its 'House of Lords' (166 for, 47 against) ascribed 'legitimacy' to the new State and, on the 7th January 1922, the political institution in Leinster House voted to accept it, leading to a walk-out by then-principled members who, in effect, were refusing to assist in the setting-up of a British-sponsored 'parliament' in the newly-created Irish Free State.
Mr Éamon de Valera was reportedly very annoyed when he heard that the 'Treaty' had been signed without his final consent but, later that same day, he dressed-up in his academic robes and, in his capacity as 'Chancellor of the National University of Ireland', he chaired an event to mark the anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri in 1321. Mr de Valera was later to fully enforce the structure and operation of that same 'Treaty'. Mr Alighieri was known to have penned some verses on 'hypocrisy'...
But, at an IRA convention on the 26th March (1922), at which 52 out of the 73 IRA Brigades were present - despite said gathering having been forbidden by the Leinster House institution (!) - the 'Treaty' was rejected and a statement issued deriding Leinster House for having betrayed the Irish republican ideal.
Within six months, a Civil War was raging in Ireland, between the British-supported Free Staters and Irish republicans who did not accept the 'Treaty' and that vicious fight continued until the 24th May 1923 when the IRA were ordered by their leadership to "..dump arms (as) further sacrifice on your part would now be in vain and the continuance of the struggle in arms unwise in the national interest...military victory must be allowed to rest for the moment with those who have destroyed the Republic.." , but, 'unofficially', Free Staters continued to exact revenge on republicans for some time afterwards and, indeed, are still doing so today, albeit in a different manner.
On the 11th July 1924, the Treaty was registered at the 'League of Nations' by the Free State authorities which, in our opinion, would have been the ideal occasion for a legal challenge to it, based on the fact that, when Michael Collins and his supporters were attempting to 'sell' it to their own side, they made a big deal of the 'Boundary Commission' clause and in particular the part of it which stated that the 'border' could be adjusted "in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants", which is precisely why Westminster 'took' only six of the nine Ulster counties - a built-in 'majority'.
Also, the British actually took it on themselves to amend the 1921 Treaty of Surrender to allow themselves (ie Westminster) to unilaterally appoint a representative to speak on behalf of the Stormont 'Parliament'.
That Boundary Commission clause ('Article 12') was not properly adhered to by the signatories of the 1921 Treaty thereby, legally, negating the Treaty itself but deep pockets would be required to take such an action.
And the only grouping in this State in a position to mount a challenge like that is the same (Free State) grouping which benefited then and continues to benefit today from that Clause and that which spawned it. For now they do, anyway...
(Incidentally, decades after the 'Treaty of Surrender' had been signed, the diary kept by a prominent British Army officer and politician, a 'Sir' Henry Wilson, was opened [after his death] and, in it, he had opined about that 'Treaty'- "The Agreement [sic] is complete surrender...a farcical oath of allegiance...withdrawal of our troops...a Rebel Army! The British Empire is doomed..."
If only it truly was, Mr Wilson. If only...)
'AMERICAN NOTES...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
The New York GAA have given the use of Gaelic Park for a field day in aid of the 'Prisoners Dependents Fund' on March 27th.
The president of the New York GAA, John Kerry O'Donnell, and the other officers of the New York Council, have given of their time to help plan the event, and preparations are also now nearing completion for the biggest Easter Commemoration that New York has had for years, and the 'Clan na Gael-IRA Veterans of America Inc' will direct the proceedings.
An active committee representative of many organisations in overseeing arrangements for the function to be held at the Pythian Temple, West 70th Street, New York, on Easter Sunday night : Barney Rooney is the General Chairman (sic)...
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (6TH DECEMBER) 98 YEARS AGO : A 'CON' ARTIST IS BORN!
Con Houlihan, pictured, a sports writer who sometimes strayed into other subjects, was born on this date - 6th December - in 1925, 98 years ago on this date.
One of those 'other subjects' that Mr Houlihan occasionally visited was politics (he was a Fine Gael supporter, it seems) which prompted us to post a piece on this blog a few years ago in connection with a highly coloured article (!) that the man wrote after he happened to share street-space with Ruairí Ó Brádaigh -
'Not so much (or at all, even) 'speaking ill of the dead' in this piece as highlighting the straws an 'artist' will clutch at when they attempt to stray onto another 'canvass'. And Mr. Houlihan was indeed an 'artist' when it came to discussing and dressing-up/colouring in matters of the field and had wonderful turns of phrase which he employed with great timing.
But he done himself no favours when he attempted to 'stray' on to the well-trodden anti-republican 'canvass', where he was not as sure-footed as he was 'on the field' - indeed, the only way he could sustain an 'away trip' of that nature was to use a straw man argument in the hope that those as unfamiliar with that particular 'turf' as he was would consider him to be as good a 'pol corr' as he was a sports writer.
The first fault with Mr. Houlihan's effort in this piece is that a radio station would not be played through the same loudspeakers on the same stage at the same time as an Irish republican was addressing an Irish republican gathering. It just wouldn't happen, simple as and, whilst some might dismiss this example as 'nit picking', it is from such 'little acorns' that mighty deceptions spring from.
It was a 'straw man' introduction that the author invented in order to 'colour' the gathering as "inflamed with hatred..indoctrinated by bigots in pubs and cafes or by mob orators..", before bringing in the standard 'Nazi' comparison.
All standard fare for any 'straw man' author - invent a 'connection' then rage against it. Mr. Houlihan got his answer days later from that particular "bigot (of a) mob orator" but the damage had been done : through deliberate misrepresentation, one anti-republican had 'confirmed' to others of that ilk just how right they were to despise Irish republicans and republicanism in general and, job done, Con parked his 'straw weapon' (in the back of the net, no doubt) to be (ab)used another day. Which he did, by the way - and often - but I'll not go into that here , as I have no desire to 'speak ill of the dead'..' (from here.)
Mr. Houlihan died on the 4th August, 2012, at 86 years of age. He was a fantastic sports writer, so I'm told (regular readers will know that I'm not big into sports or those that write about it etc) but I knew Ruairí, and I know how republicans carry themselves at rallies and protest marches etc and considered it fitting, and necessary, to repeat the above piece on the 'Con Almighty's' birthday.
IRELAND ON THE COUCH...
A Psychiatrist Writes.
'Magill' commissioned Professor Patricia Casey to compile an assessment of Irish society at what may emerge as the end of a period of unprecedented growth and change.
This is her report.
From 'Magill Magazine' Annual, 2002.
Further evidence for the ongoing role that Catholicism has in people's lives came from the study by Greally and Ward, published in late 2000, which surveyed 1,010 people in the Irish Republic (sic) as part of a larger, longitudinal European study.
The results are fascinating, not least because many of them are counter-intuitive and challenge the much-vaunted belief that the churches are empty and that our '20-somethings' have no interest in religion.
According to the results, Ireland is still the most religious country in Europe and there has been little change in weekly mass attendance during the 1990's, with the decline to the present level of 63 per cent occurring before the crop of clerical sexual scandals came to public attention.
The attitudes to the priests working in parishes at the coalface remain very positive, and the cohort now in their 20's have higher regard for these priests than any other age group, even when compared with their grandmothers born in the 1930's.
However, the institutional Church has suffered a serious decline in confidence since the last survey in 1991, with just 28 per cent having a great deal of confidence in the institutional Church...
(MORE LATER.)
6TH DECEMBER...
1919 :
IRA Volunteer Edward Malone, of Dunbrin, Athy, in County Kildare (a nephew of well-known cleric Reverend JJ Malone), was back in a British prison (Ship Street Barracks), having been in 'court' the previous day (5th December).
He had been charged with possession of 10 detonators, a document "likely to cause disaffection", a document "likely to prejudice discipline within the RIC" (!) and possession of a Winchester Rifle.
Volunteer Malone refused to recognise the 'court' but was sentenced anyway - to two years imprisonment with hard labour (but one year was remitted later).
==========
1919 :
John Charles Byrne (pictured) , aka 'Jack Jameson/Keith Prowse', a former British Army soldier who had been recruited into 'British Intelligence' by a Mr Basil Thomson of the London Metropolitan Police, arrived in Dublin on the 6th December, 1919, posing as a socialist theatre worker/musical instrument salesman, and let it be known that he could be helpful to the Irish republican Cause.
He was eventually put in contact with Michael Collins, who contacted one of his agents in London (Art O'Brien), who had supplied Mr Byrne with a cover note of introduction to Collins. The two men discussed the new 'benefactor', who had met with Collins twice and left an uneasy feeling behind him, on both occasions, with Collins and Squad members.
Mr Byrne was given false information by the IRA and, when that information was acted on by British operatives, the jig was up for the 'benefactor' : his body was found in Drumcondra, in Dublin, on the 7th March 1920.
'British Intelligence' later described him as "..the best Secret Service man we had...".
==========
1920 :
On the 6th December, 1920 (listed as 'October 1920' by some sources) as a Republican Court was in session in the village of Craggaknock, near Kilkee, in County Clare, armed and semi-uniformed men burst in to the building and stopped the proceedings.
The Black and Tans had arrived.
They were looking for one person in particular - an IRA man named William Shanahan (pictured) - they knew he had been there, but was no where to be found now.
But they wanted blood, so they opened-up on the unarmed civilians in the room, killing a local man, a Mr Thomas Curtin.
A local doctor stated that "the bullet had caused a wound about three to four and a half inches long. It had ripped up the skull, the coverings of the brain and the brain itself. The wound was about one inch wide. An ordinary rifle bullet was used, at about 500 yards range..."
==========
1920 :
On Monday, 6th December 1920, as Dublin Corporation was holding its monthly meeting in 'City Hall' in Dublin, British Auxiliaries stormed the venue, led by a Captain William King, and 'arrested' six elected political representatives - Michael Staines, Thomas Lawlor, Joseph Clarke, James V. Lawless, James Brennan and Michael Lynch.
Their intention was to disrupt Irish political life in Ireland, as they were aware that not all politicians supported 'the Crown'. They then "requisitioned" (under DORA 'legislation') the 'City Hall' building and another political institution, 'Municipal Buildings', for use by the British political and military forces.
==========
1920 :
On the 6th December, 1920, having been instructed by his betters (!) in Westminster to do so, British Army Lieutenant-General 'Sir' Henry Hugh Tudor ('KCB, CMG etc!') issued a notice to the British 'police force' in Ireland, the RIC, to, basically, 'calm down'.
That grouping, the RIC, had 'unofficially' been given carte blanche by Westminster to run riots in Ireland and terrorise the population, in order to 'restore and maintain law and order'. Britain's version of 'law and order', that is - the order was effective, for a few days, and then ignored. Westminster, too, ignored the fact that it had issued the order in the first place.
==========
1922 :
On the 6th December, 1922, Free State forces finally took over the town of Kenmare (pictured), in County Kerry.
The town had been held by the rebels (IRA) since September, 1922, and the Staters had tried, twice, to take it from them, but failed on both occasions. But, on the 6th December that year, the Leinster House Free State administration sent in three military columns of their armed forces to 'secure' the town, which they did, this time, and 'arrested' fourteen rebels in the process.
==========
1925 :
In order to 'legitimise the new Irish State in Northern Ireland' (sic) in the political eyes of the world, Westminster and its offspring in Leinster House needed to present the 'Stormont Government' (sic) in the Occupied Six Counties as 'an agreed positve advancement'.
So those three anti-republican, pro-British political institutions came up with a 'Tripartite Agreement' which all three would get on board with and sign off on.
In a speech in Dublin, Mr Éamon de Valera (playing the rebel) loudly objected, calling the 'Agreement' a "mediated crime" and described those in Leinster House as "Free Staters who had sold our countrymen for the meanest of all considerations – a money consideration..".
However, within two years, Mr de Valera and his followers had accepted political office in the Free State 'parliament' and Establishment...!
==========
BEIR BUA...
The Thread of the Irish Republican Movement from The United Irishmen through to today.
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.)
Republican Sinn Féin, likewise, follows in the traditions of Tone, Emmet, the Fenians and Pearse.
We accept the programme of previous generations of republicans - 'Ireland Free'. No compromising 'interim settlement' is acceptable.
"The task we take up again is just Emmet's task of silent unattractive work, the routine of correspondence and committees and organising. We must face it as bravely and as quietly as he faced it, working on in patience as he worked on, hoping as he hoped, cherishing in our secret hearts the mighty hope that to us, though so unworthy, it may be given to bring to accomplishment the thing he left unaccomplished, but working on even when that hope dies within us..." - Padraig Pearse.
The Union Creed Of The United Irishmen :
"I believe the land, or any part of it, cannot become the property of any man, but by purchase, or as rewards for forwarding and preserving the public liberty.
I believe our present connection with England must be speedily dissolved.
I believe that old age, pregnant women and labour should be honoured.
I believe that treason is the crime of betraying the people.
I believe religious distinctions are only protected by tyrants.
I believe applying the lands of the church to relieve old age, to give education and protection to infancy, will be more acceptable to a united people, than maintaining lazy hypocrites and ravenous tithe-gatherers.
In this faith I mean to live, or bravely die..."
(MORE LATER.)
Thanks for the visit, and for reading.
Sharon and the team.
ON THIS DATE (28TH JUNE) 101 YEARS AGO : FREE STATERS USE BORROWED WEAPONS FROM WESTMINSTER AGAINST THEIR OLD COMRADES.
"For a little while on the morning of the attack on IRA Headquarters, Four Courts, Dublin, 28th June 1922 (101 years ago, on this date), Liam Mellows and I shared vigil at one of the barricaded upper windows, and watched the city bestir itself, within our arc of vision, to the noise of rifle fire and light artillery fire. We thought our thoughts.
Two men, obviously workmen making their way along the quays to their jobs, started us speculating on what role the trade unions would have been guided into were James Connolly alive and the Republic under attack.
It was the first time I heard Mellows on the play of social forces in the crisis of the Treaty ; I was present at the Dáil Éireann session when he made his speech against the Treaty but, while what he said then impressed me greatly, it gave no indication of the pattern of ideas he uncovered now.
The Four Courts fell and its garrison became prisoners, and with it members of the IRA Executive - Rory O'Connor, Liam Mellows, Joe McKelvey and Peadar O' Donnell. In the angry mood of the thronged cells in Mountjoy Jail, the prisoners instinctively turned to Mellows as the one among us who must, somehow, be able to explain how the Republican Army could permit itself to be overrun by much weaker military forces and why certain men of courage, hitherto devoted to independence, should choose to enter on a road of struggle to overthrow the Republic and raise on its ruins a parliament which rested on the penal British Government of Ireland Act 1920.." (From 'There Will Be Another Day', by Peadar O'Donnell, first published in January 1963.)
'..on the 14th April 1922, Anti-Treaty forces under the command of Rory O'Connor occupied the Four Courts and several other buildings in Dublin city. A tense stand off between Pro and Anti-Treaty Forces commenced. Anti-Treaty forces hoped that their occupation of the courts would ignite a confrontation with British troops and thus unite the pro and anti Treaty forces. However, this hope never materialised.
Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith ('1169' comment - Both Free Staters, pro-Treaty - they were sold a pup, and they tried to sell it to others by subterfuge - in Griffith's own words "I have signed a Treaty of peace between Ireland and Great Britain. I believe that treaty will lay foundations of peace and friendship between the two Nations. What I have signed I shall stand by in the belief that the end of the conflict of centuries is at hand..") came under increasing pressure from London to assert the new governments authority in Dublin and remove those occupying the courts...on the 22nd June 1922, two men assassinated soldier and Unionist politician Sir Henry Wilson in London.
Though it was stated that the men were acting on their own initiative, it was suspected that they were acting on orders from Anti-Treaty forces. This action produced an ultimatum from the British government, that they would attack Anti–Treaty forces in the Four Courts unless the Free State government took action. Collins issued a final ultimatum to those occupying the courts. The three-armed parties involved had now reached a point of no return.
Civil War was now inevitable...on the 28th June 1922 (101 years ago, on this date) at 04.10 hours, the bombardment commenced. Shelling was to continue for a number of days..' (from here.)
Michael Collins (left) and his bodyguard, Emmet Dalton.
Emmet Dalton led the Free State attack on the Four Courts ; he was an Irish rebel-turned-Free Stater, who was born in America on March 4th 1898 and died in Dublin on March 4th 1978 - his 80th birthday, and also the bicentenary of the birth of the man he was named after - Robert Emmet.
Dalton sold out in favour of the 'Treaty of Surrender' in 1921 and made a (Free State) name for himself by attacking republican positions from the sea, actions that his British paymasters considered as having 'turned the tide' against the Irish republican resistance.
He was with Michael Collins on the 22nd of August 1922 when the latter was shot dead by republican forces in West Cork (Béal na mBláth) and is said to have propped up a dying Collins to place dressings on his wound. He resigned from the Free State Army shortly after Collins was killed, and was appointed as the clerk of the Free State Senate, but resigned from that, too, three years later, and opened a film production company, Ardmore Studios, near Bray, in Wicklow. He died, aged 80, on the 4th of March 1978, the same date and month that he had been born on, and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.
He, Collins, Griffith and those others were wrong at the time when they propagandised that their 'treaty' offered "the end of the conflict of centuries" as they were experienced enough to realise that that wasn't the case.
They cursed the rest of us for their own ends.
'NORTHERN IRELAND' FLAG ACT.'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
It was reported in 'The Evening Mail' newspaper on the 14th March 1955 that -
'The annual conference of the 'Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers Union', at their Easter Conference at Blackpool, will discuss the 'Northern Ireland (sic) Flag and Emblem (Display) Act 1954'.
A resolution from the Manchester Textile Branch calls on the government "to use its good offices with the Northern Ireland (sic) Government" to secure the repeal of the Act.
'Enactment such as this by a legislative body which is bolstered and subsidised by Britain is contrary to the British people's conception of democratic government, and violates every principle of freedom', says the proposal...'
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (28TH JUNE) 225 YEARS AGO - 'UNITED IRISHMEN' LEADER EXECUTED BY THE BRITISH.
'Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey was captured within a few weeks by the British and was 'tried', convicted and hanged on the 28th June 1798 (225 years ago, on this date) at the bridge of Wexford. His body was then beheaded, the torso thrown into the River Slaney and his head displayed on a spike at the courthouse in Wexford town....' - from a piece we wrote here on the 31st May, 2017, as it was on that date (31st May) that the 'United Irishman' in question, Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey, '..was appointed by the approximate four-thousand strong rebel army in that area (Wexford) as their Commander-in-Chief..' (from here.)
We won't re-post the whole piece but, having said that, we couldn't let the date pass without referencing its relevance to the man, and drawing your attention to this article, from the 'Library Ireland' website :
'Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey (was) an estated gentleman of about £3,000 a year, in the County of Wexford, a barrister, and commander of the Wexford insurgents in 1798. He was born about 1762, educated at Trinity College, Dublin, studied at the Middle Temple, and was called to the Bar in 1782. Before the insurrection of 1798 he "was in tolerable practice as a barrister, and was extremely popular with all parties. He was high-spirited, kind-hearted, and good-tempered, fond of society, given to hospitality, and especially esteemed for his humane and charitable disposition towards the poor."
He resided at Bargy Castle, and when the insurgents took the field in May 1798, in the north of the county, Harvey, with his friends Colclough and FitzGerald, was immediately imprisoned in Wexford on suspicion.
After the defeat of the royalists at the Three Rocks, Wexford was evacuated by the small garrison that remained, and the prisoners were on 30th May released by the inhabitants, who implored Harvey to intercede with the insurgents for the safety of the town. This he did, and upon its being occupied by the insurgents he was appointed Commander-in-Chief...' (from here.)
Farewell to Bargy’s lofty towers, my father’s own estate
And farewell to its lovely bowers, my own ancestral seat
Farewell each friend and neighbour, that once I well knew there
My tenants now will miss the hand that fostered them with care.
Farewell to Cornelius Grogan, and to Kelly ever true
John Coakley and good Father Roche, receive my last adieu
And fare-thee-well bold Esmond Kyan, though proud oppression’s laws
Forbid us to lay down our lives, still we bless the holy cause.
Farewell my brave United men, who dearly with me fought
Though tyrant might has conquered right, full dearly was it bought
And when the sun of freedom shall again upon you shine
Oh, then let Bagenal Harvey’s name array your battle line.
Although perchance it may be my fate, in Wexford town to die
Oh, bear my body to the tomb wherin my fathers lie
And have the solemn service read, in Mayglass holy towers
And have twelve young maids from Bargyside, to scatter my grave with flowers.
So farewell to Bargy’s lofty towers, since from you I must part
A stranger now may call you his, which with sorrow fills my heart
But when at last fate shall decree that Ireland should be free
Then Bagenal Harvey’s rightful heirs shall be returned to thee.
Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey 1762 - 1798.
'LAW AND SOCIETY :
IS IT TIME TO ASK QUESTIONS OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION?
We have always been a society with a facility for the creation of myths. However, not even the most dewy-eyed devotee of the dreams of the Celtic Twilight could have invented the present status of the legal profession in Ireland.'
By John Drennan.
From 'Magill Magazine', November 2001.
The dominant viewpoint is that barristers are currently playing a crucial role in exorcising political corruption in Ireland, as dodgy politicians, bankers and others experience the modern-day equivalent of the religious missions of the 1950's.
Within the Dail (sic) politicians defer to them, whilst within the media no one seriously questions practitioners of the law because they are seen to be beyond reproof and rather powerful enemies. Whispers of discontent about the salaries of top barristers in cases funded by the taxpayer tend to be no more than just whispers - the kind of bugbear so beloved of taxi-drivers and lefty students.
Most other people simply accept the payment of fees of £1,500 per day* to each senior counsel as a necessary evil in a society where truth lies at the bottom of a tribunal...
(*'1169' comment - that figure [£1,500] was the standard in 2001 ; today [2023], senior counsel get a 'brief fee' of €1,716 and 'refresher fees' of €858 per day. The 'brief fee' for junior counsel and solicitors is now €1,144 and 'refresher fees' are €572 and €418 per day, respectively.)
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (28TH JUNE) 101 YEARS AGO : FREE STATERS (WESTMINSTER PROXIES) DELIVER ULTIMATUM TO THE IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY.
On the 26th June, 1922, Leo Henderson and a group of 'Irregulars/Dissidents' left the then republican-occupied Four Courts (which had been taken over on the 14th of April by anti-treaty forces) '..and arrived at Ferguson's garage on Dublin's Baggot Street, accusing them of doing business with Belfast ; this was, they said, in violation of the boycott the IRA had placed on the city due to violence against nationalists there. Leo Henderson, their leader, seized a number of cars at gunpoint, and was on the point of driving back to the anti-Treaty stronghold of the Four Courts when he was arrested by pro-Treaty/Free State troops. Henderson's comrades in the Four Courts in response arrested a pro-Treaty General, JJ O’Connell (pictured) and, within 24 hours, Free State artillery was battering at the walls of the Four Courts in central Dublin.
The first shots of the Irish Civil War were caused by a row over selling cars to Belfast...' (from here.)
Not altogether the full story, although the 'bones' of what actually happened are there.
Harry Ferguson's garage was a well-known Belfast automobile company, with a branch on Baggot Street, in Dublin. It was known to be unsympathetic to the 'Irregulars' and had blatantly ignored an overall directive from the IRA that for-profit business dealings with Belfast should cease until business bosses in that city took steps to ensure the safety of their nationalist workforce.
Leo Henderson and his men commandeered about 15 cars which had been sent, for sale, to Dublin from Belfast - the IRA's intention, as well as to be seen enforcing the 'Belfast Trade Boycott', was to use the vehicles, as part of the war effort, against the continuing British political and military presence in the Six Occupied Counties and in their campaign to overthrow the then-fledging Free State political administration.
Leo Henderson was captured by the Staters, with ex-IRA man Frank Thornton in command of them and, when the IRA leadership heard that Henderson had been 'arrested', they discussed abducting Collins himself or Richard Mulcahy in retaliation, but decided instead to seize Free State General Jeremiah Joseph (JJ) 'Ginger' O'Connell, who was Richard Mulcahy's Deputy Chief-of-Staff.
At 11.15pm on the night of Tuesday, 27th June, 1922, 'Ginger' was arrested in Dublin by the IRA after an evening out with his girlfriend - the couple had gone to the theatre and, after the girlfriend was dropped home, 'Ginger' went to McGilligan's Pub in Leeson Street for a few pints. As he left the pub, the IRA seized him and held him in the republican-occupied Four Courts ; Ernie O'Malley actually telephoned Free State General Eoin O'Duffy, who was in Portobello Barracks, and told him that 'Ginger' will be returned to the Staters in exchange for Leo Henderson.
The republicans knew that 'Ginger' was valued by Collins and his renegades - he was one of the few that eagerly conveyed the 'cancel-the-Rising'-order
from Eoin MacNeill in 1916 and both Collins and Mulcahy regarded him as a safe pair of hands.
Collins's political and military bosses in London were notified about 'JJ Ginger' being held in republican custody and made it clear to Collins that if he and his Free State colleagues didn't take steps to remove the republicans from the Four Courts, they would - the Staters had already decided to attack their former comrades in the Four Courts and had already accepted the offer from Westminster of equipment with which to carry-out the task ; British artillery, aircraft, armoured cars, machine guns, small arms and ammunition were by then in the possession of Collins and his team, who then used the 'JJ kidnap'-incident to press ahead with the assault.
At 3.40am, on Wednesday, 28th June 1922 - 101 years ago on this date - the republican forces inside the Four Courts were given an ultimatum from Collins - 'surrender before 4am and leave the building'.
The republicans ignored the threat and held their ground and, less than half-an-hour later - at about 4.30am - the Staters opened fire on the republicans with British-supplied 18-pounder guns and practically destroyed the building (pictured), an act which was described as "..a major national calamity..an assault on the collective memory of the nation..such actions are considered as war crimes..a cultural atrocity.."
The IRA held out for two days before leaving the building, but fought-on elsewhere in Dublin until early July, 1922, with Oscar Traynor (who later joined the Fianna Fáil party) in command.
'JJ Ginger' was rescued by his Stater colleagues on Friday, 30th June 1922 when they finally managed to enter the then shell of a building where the Four Courts once stood and, within months, he was demoted from a Lieutenant-General to a Major-General and then to a Colonel, a position he was to remain at.
He got married in 1922 and, between 1924 and 1944 (he died in the Richmond Hospital in Dublin from a heart attack on the 19th February of that year), he was shifted around like a pawn on a chess board : chief lecturer in the FS Army school of instruction, director of Number 2 (Intelligence) Bureau, OC equitation school, quartermaster-general and director of the military archives.
We wonder did he consider himself to be the man who, alongside Westminster and his Free State comrades, started a Civil War in Ireland...?
'WAITING TO FALL...'
If this year sees the end of the 'Age of Tribunals', it won't be a moment too soon.
By John Drennan.
From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.
Ironically, it is at their moments of supposedly great triumph that the most serious flaw of the tribunals is unmasked.
The wonderful 'Flood Tribunal' report revealed that Tom Brennan knowingly misled the tribunal, John Finnegan had given false and misleading accounts, 'Rambo' Burke had received corrupt payments, James Stafford was a liar and so forth.
The list of those who hindered and obstructed the tribunal ran to six pages and consisted of 18 names.
But four months after the report, the tranquillity of those gentlemen's lives - one high-profile raid by the CAB on Ray Burke's house aside - is as undisturbed as the conscience of a tribunal barrister...
(MORE LATER.)
Thanks for the visit, and for reading,
Sharon and the team.
ON THIS DATE (30TH JUNE) 99 YEARS AGO : PRO-BRITISH MERCENARIES IN DUBLIN RETAKE THE FOUR COURTS.
The Four Courts building in Dublin, located on Inns Quay, was abandoned by Anti-Treaty forces on the 30th June, 1922 after a two-day bombardment by the Free Staters, who used borrowed British guns against those who, only months earlier, they had been fighting with, against the British occupiers.
At 3.40am, on Wednesday, 28th June 1922, the republican forces inside the Four Courts were given an ultimatum from (poacher-turned-gamekeeper) Free Stater Tom Ennis (pictured), which had been sanctioned by Michael Collins - 'surrender before 4am and leave the building'.
Tom Ennis had been active within republicanism in 1916 but jumped ship in 1922 into the then newly-formed Free State Army, which he resigned from in 1924. His brother, Peter, also fought on the republican side in 1916 but he, too, joined the Staters as the Chief Supertendent of their new 'Intelligence Department', then based in the notorious Oriel House, in Dublin. He earned his keep for his employers in Leinster House and eventually retired in 1941.
The republicans ignored the threat and held their ground and, less than half-an-hour later - at about 4.30am - the Staters opened fire on the republicans with British-supplied 18-pounder guns and practically destroyed the building, an act which was recently described as "..a major national calamity..an assault on the collective memory of the nation..such actions are considered as war crimes..a cultural atrocity.." (from here.)
The IRA held out for two days before leaving the building (on the 30th of June, 1922), but fought-on elsewhere in Dublin until early July, 1922, with Oscar Traynor (who later joined the Fianna Fáil party, in 1929) in command.
Incidentally, on the 26th June (1922) Leo Henderson and a group of 'Irregulars/Dissidents' left the then republican-occupied Four Courts (which had been taken over on the 14th of April by anti-treaty forces) '..and arrived at Ferguson's garage on Dublin's Baggot Street, accusing them of doing business with Belfast ; this was, they said, in violation of the boycott the IRA had placed on the city due to violence against nationalists there.
Leo Henderson, their leader, seized a number of cars at gunpoint, and was on the point of driving back to the anti-Treaty stronghold of the Four Courts when he was arrested by pro-Treaty/Free State troops. Henderson's comrades in the Four Courts in response arrested a pro-Treaty General, JJ O’Connell and, within 24 hours, Free State artillery was battering at the walls of the Four Courts in central Dublin. The first shots of the Irish Civil War were caused by a row over selling cars to Belfast...'(from here, and more details can be read here.)
On this date - 30th June - in 1922, a then recently-employed service provider for the British, Michael Collins, used British weaponry against men and women that only months earlier he had fought alongside in opposition to the British military and political presence in Ireland.
And those who fumble in the greasy till in this rotten State consider him a hero for doing so.
'MORE ENGLISH THAN...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, July, 1954.
The Gaedhilg-printed 'Indiu' was among the few papers opposed to the IRA action in Armagh. It carried a long-winded hostile article, which followed the 'main line of reasoning' which is being put forward recently by a certain ex-politician and formerly a member of the Free State Government.
The argument was something like this : Catholic families tend to have more children than Protestant, hence in the normal course the Catholic population of the Six Counties will gradually overtake and eventually exceed the Protestant population, meanwhile we should concentrate on trying to win over a section of the Protestants to support Irish unity.
A couple of hundred thousand would be sufficient but, while doing this, we must establish the best possible relations with the Stormont Government, being always careful not to do or say anything that would offend their pro-British susceptibilities. Thus, in fifty or a hundred years time, the problem would be solved and everyone would live happily ever after*.
That a man who was party to the surrender in 1921 and has been a supporter of the Free State since then should put forward such a case is understandable enough, but that it should be supported and publicised by a Gaelic newspaper is lamentable...
(* '1169' comment - the 'outbreed them' policy re the Occupied Six Counties has been the 'official' position of the Leinster House administration since it was spawned here in 1921 by the British, and the 'win-over-without-causing-offence' notion has been practised by the self-serving career politicians in that institution ever since then. Indeed, one set of politicians in that Kildare Street venue have gone one step further - they offered themselves as service providers for the British, for financial rewards, of course, and have been gainfully employed as such for decades now!)
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (30TH JUNE) 80 YEARS AGO : THE STEPHEN HAYES AFFAIR.
On the 30th June, 1941, Stephen Hayes, a former IRA chief of staff, was kidnapped by the IRA after suspicions were raised that he was an informer ; '...Hayes, Stephen (1902–74), revolutionary, was born 26 December 1902 in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, one of eleven children of Thomas Hayes, publican, and Ellen Hayes (née Brown).
In 1920 he left the local CBS and became a clerical officer with Wexford county council. Having been an active member of Fianna Éireann while still at school, he was appointed commandant of the Wexford brigade (1920–21) and was subsequently obliged to go on the run in early 1921...Hayes was kidnapped (on the 30th June 1941, by the IRA) and taken to a house in the Cooley Mountains...(and) was then moved to a house in the Wicklow Mountains before being taken to a safe house at 20 Castlewood Park, Rathmines (Dublin)...Hayes swiftly grabbed a gun from a table and threw himself from the window on to the street. He gave himself up at Rathmines garda station and eventually gave evidence against the IRA...' (from here.)
That he eventually turned informer is not in doubt, but whether he was an informer at the time that he was arrested by the IRA is still open for discussion, and part of that discussion will have to take the following into consideration -
'Hayes later admitted in a detailed statement that he had been an agent for the Gardaí and the Government...' - from here.
Another murky episode in our history. One of many such episodes, which can all be directly linked to the British military and political presence in this country.
'WHAT IS TO BE DONE? THE STRUGGLE IN THE 26 COUNTIES'.
The following article was solicited by 'IRIS' from a political observer in the 26 Counties. The article - whose author, John Ward, is not a member of the Republican Movement - is aimed at provoking discussion within (P)Sinn Féin. From 'IRIS' magazine, October 1987.
('1169' comment - please note that 'IRIS' magazine had, at that time, recently morphed from a republican-minded publication into a Trot-type mouthpiece for a Leinster House-registered political party.)
The German communist playwright Berthold Brecht remarked wryly that if the people did not vote the way the party wished them to, then perhaps they should dissolve the people and elect a new one.
A lot of Sinn Féin members probably felt like that after the general election in the South last February. After they had taken the trauma-laden decision to end abstentionism, the electorate rewarded them with a miserable 1.9% of the vote. And for all the complaints about Section 31, garda harassment etc, most of them knew that was a fairly accurate reflection of how ordinary people viewed (P) Sinn Féin.
"It's enough to make you go back to militarism" was the feeling of more than one disgruntled election workers. And, naturally, the so-called** 'Republican Sinn Féin' were cock-a-hoop, while those who had pushed for the end to abstentionism were shaken and disillusioned.
Part of the problem was exaggerated expectations***. While Gerry Adams had said it was not the next election but the one after the next that (P) Sinn Féin should be judged on, nonetheless many members fooled themselves into believing that the steadily rising graph of (P) Sinn Féin's electoral successes in the North would be repeated in the South. They thought they really would win a couple of seats and hold the balance of power in Leinster House...
(**'1169' comment - the author, a nationalist, has no notion of the difference between being a 'nationalist' and being a 'republican'. And, actually, his type were to fill the void left by the departure, in 1986 and afterwards, of Irish republicans from the Provisional Sinn Féin grouping.)
(***Lol! The 'King and Queen' of political "exaggerated expectations" is to believe that Leinster House [and Stormont] can be factored-in, in a positive manner, to the goal of removing the British military and political presence from Ireland. Both of those institutions were established here, in Ireland, by the British, to secure its presence in this country, not to weaken it!) (MORE LATER.)
'TALK, FORCE AND POLITICIANS....'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, March, 1955.
Politicians Condemn Force...
"We are convinced..." Mr Costello stated, "..of the futility and danger to the national interests of the use of force as a method of ending partition."
He does not advance one fact or one argument in support of this very dogmatic statement. Could it be that, like his redoubtable predecessor, he cannotadvance one fact or one argument to support his dogma? No, Mr Costello, you are not convinced, no more than Mr De Valera, of the futility of force. But both of you are convinced of the danger which it may ultimately hold for men (sic) like you.
History Supports Force.
Eight hundred years of cold logical history, plus the national resurgence so apparent from the actions of June and October last, fail to even influence Mr Costello's thought on the subject of armed force. He keeps urging the people to state and restate the injustice of partition hoping that an armed garrison will one day pack up and move out in the face of politicians talk.
It seems right, in conclusion, to formulate some views on the limits of mere argument as a force and a general proposition may be stated - the limit that argument can effect is to render conscious what is already sub-conscious.
(END of 'Talk, Force and Politicians' ; NEXT - 'Mór Mó Náir', from the same source.)
Thanks for the visit, and for reading,
Sharon.
AN APOLOGY TO OLIVER HOYLE, WILLIAM BURKE AND CHRISTOPHER BYRNE.
When Ireland called forth her true sons of the heather,
O'Boyle was the foremost to answer the call,
The sons of the Rosses he banded together,
To drive the oppressor from dark Donegal.
'Neil O ‘Boyle was born, on a small farm, at Leac Eineach near Burtonport, County Donegal in 1898. It was here in the Breac Ghaeltact area of the Rosses that the young Boyle's character was formed and his determination strengthened. According to his schoolmates he was tall for his age, lanky and silent. Not overly particular about his appearance, he always appeared to have something on his mind. He had a look in his eye "as if he was going to do something".
They led young Michael Barrett to the scaffold at Newgate,
He was indeed a Fenian but they blamed him in the wrong,
They had to have a scapegoat and Michael was the one.
He came from north Fermanagh near the county Donegal,
And he had lived through the hunger, Michael seen it all,
He went away to Glasgow like so many from this land,
There he joined up with the Fenian’s to help free Ireland...' (from here.)
Michael Barrett, Bold Fenian Man ; 1841 - 26th May 1868.
NO RIGHT OF APPEAL...
Why the media consensus on a broad range of issues is increasingly disturbing. By John Drennan.
From 'Magill' Annual, 2002.
The real problem with Cardinal Connell is that our liberal elite don't like his views on morality ; unfortunately, you will observe, the Cardinal is not a great believer in moral equivalence. He tells it in black and white.
"Oh, right then..." sez the plain people of Ireland, "...a bit like Mary Ellen Synon, is he? Oh, he's fair game, so.."
('1169' comment - ironic that the author should seek to claim that Ms Synon is a 'black and white person', as her support for, among her many other oddities, the Ku Klux Klan, is well known.)
Note to the plain people of Ireland : this is not you talking, but rather the mythical, spectral 'plain people of Ireland' who jostle raucously in the corner of every Dublin newsroom. So be quiet and listen - the good Cardinal's first faux pas occurred after a function organised by the Taoiseach to celebrate Mr Connell's elevation to the position of Cardinal. Bertie respected his guest so much he brought his mistress...our apologises... - partner - along to the festivities. Not a problem, perhaps.
Even the Cardinal was prepared to turn a blind eye until he received his invite in which he was graciously invited by the happy couple. This was a ridiculous mistake which absolutely did not have to happen, and placed a senior churchman in an unforgivably difficult position... (MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (26TH MAY) 124 YEARS AGO - BIRTH OF AN ANTI-TREATY IRA COMMANDER.
On the 26th May, 1897 - 124 years ago on this date - Ernie O' Malley, fighter and author
(Earnán Ó Maille, pictured, in 1921, in Dublin Castle, during his 'arrest' - he was using the alias 'Bernard Stuart'), was born in Castlebar, in County Mayo.
On August 10th and 11th, 1924, the remaining original members of the pre-Civil War Irish Republican Army Executive (that is those of them who had opposed and fought against the Treaty of Surrender in 1921), together with the co-opted members of the Executive during the Civil War (about 26 people in all), met secretly to review the past and decide policy for the future.
Ernie O' Malley was voted on the 'Sub-Commission Committee to the Executive for Emergency Consultative Purposes', and it was he who proposed the following motion, at this first post-Civil War general meeting of the Executive : 'That Volunteers be instructed not to recognise Free State and Six County Courts when charged with any authorised acts committed during the War or for any political acts committed since, nor can they employ legal defence except charged with an act liable to the death penalty.' This motion was passed unanimously, and that refusal to recognise those courts in one way or another lasted until the 1970's.
An important theme of his books is the treatment of republican prisoners , who were even then denied prisoner-of-war status : a concern for all IRA men unaccepted as political prisoners or prisoners-of-war, and all his life he supported their lonely cause. He himself had taken part in the mass hunger-strike of October/November 1923, although medically exempted and suffering intense pain from old wounds and bed sores, for the length of its 41 days and being one of the four in Kilmainham Jail who had wanted to continue.
While in exile in America, Ernie O' Malley's diaries showed support for the republican prisoners in the Free State, of whom he wrote - " ...who are there for the very same reason that the men we read of and revere were imprisoned ." Back in Ireland, at a meeting in 1939 of the Irish Academy of Letters, he voted in favour of Peadar O' Donnell's motion that a concert be organised to support dependants of IRA prisoners - not surprisingly the motion was rejected. His was the drama and sacrifice of a really doctrinaire republican - a very brave man, at once ruthless and sensitive, whose contrasting traits of character are well revealed in his autobiographical writings. He was very nearly killed in November 1922 when Free State troops besieged his headquarters, ensuring ill health that affected him for the rest of his life and very likely resulted in his comparatively early death, aged 57.
But while not shirking the possibility of death in action, he fought for military victory, and for a time believed that it was possible. An old Ulster proverb says it is easy to sleep on another man's wound : there are many in Ireland today who rest cruelly or carelessly on the hardships and sufferings of brave men and women who fought and still fight for their country's freedom. The only books Ernie O' Malley wrote were about the Irish wars and it is in those that he should be most remembered.
Ernie O' Malley's book 'On Another Man's Wound' records the war against the British forces from 1916 until the calling of the 'Truce' in July 1921 and is told by one who volunteered for Oglaigh na hEireann in 1917 and by 1921 was Officer Commanding of the 2nd Southern Division and, later, Assistant Chief of Staff in the Civil War. It is an exciting read, always enthralling, beautifully written, and far and away the best of the Tan War books.
Ernie O' Malley was brave and energetic in his total dedication to the Republic as proclaimed in Easter Week 1916 : his personal adventures, dramatic and varied, are an integral part of the wider significances of the national struggle. Unlike some of his companions who later called themselves 'the Old IRA' or 'the Neutral IRA', he did not change his republican beliefs - indeed, he recognised that some Irish have always helped in the conquest (those people and groups are what we on this blog refer to as 'service providers' ; they can be found everywhere, in all walks of life, and cohabit with each other in the posh halls and corridors of Leinster House and Stormont, to name but two such venues).
During the 'National Emergency' years of World War Two, de Valera himself was very keen to have so famous a fighter as Ernie O' Malley join the Free State army and pressure was put on him to follow many renowned republicans into its ranks . O' Malley asked - "Would I have to inform on my former comrades and work against them? But of course! Join? Certainly not!" And that was that. Indeed, only a month or so before his last illness he was writing in his diary - "I can never see a peeler without feeling uneasy.."
Hopefully, Ernie O' Malley's books should fire the imagination of a new generation of Irish republicans. In so many ways 'On Another Man's Wound' relates to what is happening today between the British and Irish nations. It is tragic that his wartime experiences should remain so pertinent but, nevertheless, those experiences are a source of guidance and encouragement to those who continue the struggle today. That book is one to convert the unbeliever and to inform the ignorant, just as Ernie O' Malley himself turned to republicanism at Easter 1916 when as a young medical student he witnessed Padraig Pearse reading the Proclamation outside the GPO in Dublin and then followed the subsequent events of the Rising.
His well-to-do family never discussed national politics at home - his elder brother was an officer in the British Army and died in that service, but Ernie devoted the best years of his life to the fight for the Irish Republic, so that in 1923 the Sinn Féin news-sheets claimed that he had '..perhaps the greatest individual record during the Tan War and was one of the bravest soldiers who ever fought for the independence of Ireland.' He wanted to show the struggle of a mainly unarmed people against the might of an 'empire' and his book pays constant tribute to the heroism of a risen people.
He was famed for his own courage, although like the truly brave he freely admitted to feelings of fear and inadequacy. Undeterred by mass condemnations from the British and their Irish allies, by newspapers and professional politicians and by the Catholic Hierarchy, between 1919 and 1921 the Irish Republican Army waged a war that also involved shooting 'policemen', executing British Officers, burning buildings, punishing spies and informers - in short, all those actions which Westminster and Leinster House vie with each other in condemning today. And Ernie O' Malley was very active in all such actions.
Ernie O' Malley was very active in attacks on British Army barracks, ambushes, raids and always in organisation and leadership crucial for the building of a people's army. He fought the Auxiliaries, an elite group of ex-BA officers attached to the RIC - a sort of 1920 SAS. He admitted that the RIC had "the guts to stick it out" but insisted "we can't admire Irishmen who fight for foreigners against us." His books are still useful handbooks for contemporary guerrillas.
A significant section of 'On Another Man's Wound' concerns his eventual capture by British forces in Inistioge, County Kilkenny, on 9th December 1920 (a notebook found on him had the names of all the members of the 7th Battalion IRA (Callan) of the West Kilkenny brigade - many of whom were subsequently arrested) and the torture and imprisonment he underwent at the hands of the British Army, including his interrogation ordeal in Dublin Castle, the 'Castlereagh of the Tan War'. Threatened with hanging for an action he did not commit, in the midst of brutal questioning, Ernie O' Malley replied - "With us hanging is no disgrace." It is a revealing line, and one which puzzled his British torturers, who never will understand the mentality, motivation and moral strength of their opponents.
The prison chapters of his books illustrate how he and his comrades defied the prison system and bewildered their guards who, as O' Malley stated, "..had been told that we were murderers. That meant an image from a Sunday newspaper - twitching hands and furtive walk, or sullen hardness. They heard us laugh and sing, rag and annoy each other, joke and refuse to take prison regulations seriously.." But he pays tribute, too, to those who showed humanity to prisoners, which makes his verdicts on the others and on the British caste system all the more convincing.
After an historic escape from Kilmainham Jail on the 14th February 1921, Ernie O' Malley returned to the Martial Law areas and an intensified war campaign, until he was first baffled, then broken-hearted by the truce called in July 1921. One of the grimmest incidents had taken place one month previously, when Ernie O' Malley, as Officer Commanding of the IRA Division involved, had taken it upon himself to execute three captured British Army officers because "..any officers we capture in this area are to be shot until such time as you cease shooting your prisoners.."
He wanted the Irish Republican Army to have status abroad, rather than be hidden behind the image of a suffering colonial people. As he bluntly put it to his affronted superiors later in 1921 - "We (the IRA) had never consulted the feelings of the people. If so, we would never have fired a shot. If we gave them a good strong lead, they would follow." If his books were required reading in schools and universities, instead of the shoneen or revisionist or simply non-existent versions of modern Irish history, then the people of Ireland would be better prepared to achieve a true independence. As Ernie O' Malley wrote of the best of the IRA recruits, in words that typify his own unyielding spirit - "At times one came across a man who had been born free. There was no explaining it. One just accepted and thanked God in wonder!"
Ernie O' Malley's two books are best read together : it is in 'The Singing Flame' that the British faces fade and are replaced by Irish counterparts and the high noon of summer darkens to the Mulcahy/Cosgrave years. Of course 'The Singing Flame' is partisan ; one intended by its author as support for the republican tradition - with the 'cult' of 1916 transformed into the 'cult' of 1922, where the Four Courts of Dublin stands in place of the GPO. It is also an exciting story, full of incidents and answering some questions that had been posed for half a century ; relating his Civil War days as Assistant Chief of Staff in Dublin where he commanded future Fianna Fail ministers like Sean Lemass and Tom Derrig, while leading a hunted existence in a city resembling Belfast of the 1970's.
The second of the books also has clear lessons for today, containing many parallels and the same abuse and falsified arguments used against the republicans then as now. In the early days of the Civil War, Ernie O' Malley and his IRA Company heard a priest at Mass denounce them as looters and murderers : "The Hand of God was against us.." , according to the priest, he said. His officers wanted to walk out, but he motioned them to remain ; "If we were going to be insulted when we could not hit back, we might as well be dignified. It was good to get out in the fresh air again."
He could have accepted power and privilege under the Free State but he remained faithful to the Republic and rejected both the 1921 Treaty and de Valera's alternative Document No. 2. He told a Free State general, J.J. 'Ginger' O' Connell, at the time of the Treaty debates - "You'll have to fight in our area if you are false to your oath. That's where you'll meet with immediate and terrible war."The irony was pointed : Lloyd George had threatened an "immediate and terrible war" if the Treaty was not accepted.
True to his word, when the 1921 Treaty was ratified, Ernie O' Malley's Second Southern Division IRA was the first to renounce its allegiance to both IRA GHQ and Dail Eireann : in the war against the Staters, Ernie O' Malley was (Acting) Assistant Chief of Staff to Liam Lynch and was also Officer Commanding of the Ulster and Leinster Commands. Liam Lynch was in the South/Cork area while Ernie O' Malley remained based in the enemy's stronghold of Dublin. He wrote of waging a guerrilla warfare that, this time, for him, was urban based rather than rural and, when asked by a journalist why the IRA were still fighting, he replied : "I think they think they're fighting for a younger generation." Ernie O' Malley was 24 years of age at that time.
He himself knew that he was fighting imperialists, both British and Irish varieties, and believed that the Free State Cabinet and a few Catholic bishops should not be immune from the war. He also recognised and acknowledged the great support given to the republican cause by Cumann na mBan and other Irish republican women, and one feature of his books is the courage, strength and involvement of such women. As he wrote - "During the Tan War the girls had always helped but they had never sufficient status. Now they were our comrades, loyal, willing and incorruptible comrades. Indefatigable, they put the men to shame by their individual zeal and initiative."
His book 'The Singing Flame' reveals much of Free State treachery and covers inside stories of the critical months before the IRA attack on the Four Courts began, and he paints a vivid picture of the war. But perhaps the most important pages are the prison chapters, detailing the scenes of prison life in Portobello Barracks, in Mountjoy, in Kilmainham Jail and in the Curragh internment camps, highlighting the deaths of comrades and the hunger-strike. Despite his wounds (hit over 20 times by Free State gunfire), the threats of execution, and a wasting sickness worsened by forty-one days on hunger-strike, Ernie O' Malley was a leading challenge to "..the petty automatons that help to keep one captive..". Some of his most inspiring passages in 'The Singing Flame' concern that 'other war' that prisoners fought : in jail.
Then as now, Irish republican prisoners fought against criminalisation and for prisoner-of-war status : as Ernie O' Malley wrote - "Free men cannot be kept in jail, for their spirits are free. In our code, it is the duty of prisoners to prove that they cannot be influenced by their surroundings. Make the enemy feel a jailer but be free yourself." An appendix of prison letters documents that spirit of defiance. Not surprisingly, O' Malley was the last republican leader to be released from the Curragh in July 1924, although he had been confined to bed with his many wounds for most of his imprisonment : despite medical operations, he carried in his body five bullets to the grave.
When 'The Singing Flame' was published in 1978, twenty-one years after his death, the chief political book reviewer of 'The Irish Times' newspaper saw Ernie O' Malley as "..the unrepentant Fenian and perhaps even as the very first Provisional.." ('1169' comment : we disagree - O' Malley fought against the Free Staters and Westminster, he didn't administer political or military 'control' on their behalf.) Ernie O' Malley was one of the bravest, most idealistic, most dedicated and determined of socialist republican fighters, ruthless against imperialism, but chivalrous in war.
On the 30th June 1922, Ernie O' Malley, as Officer Commanding of his IRA Garrison, most unwillingly surrendered the destroyed Four Courts in Dublin : when Free State officers accused him of deliberately causing the fire and the great explosion that had wrecked the building, he denied that republicans had set off a mine - "It was the spirit of freedom lighting a torch. I'm glad she played her part." Two years before he died he wrote - "The spirit of freedom is immeasurable and its strength can suddenly increase in unexpected ways."
The time will come when through that Spirit of Freedom the Irish Republic will not just be realised in the mind, and then the epitaphs of those like Ernie O' Malley and Bobby Sands and Francis Hughes can indeed, together with that of Robert Emmet, be truly written, as part of a living tradition.
(This is an edited version of an article we first posted here in 2008.)
'FORCE : MORAL OR PHYSICAL...?'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, March, 1955.
Out of O'Connell's moral force was begotten the 'Irish Parliamentary Party' ; out of the 'Young Ireland' movement was begotten the Republican Brotherhood and the Rising of 1916.
Britain, by ruthlessness and intrigue, crushed the flowering of freedom and imposed by force - the threat of immediate and terrible war - the partition of our country and the disunity of our people.
We do not doubt the sincerity of Mr. Cosgrave and his colleagues when they advocate the use of "moral pressure". We do not doubt the sincerity of any Irishman who advocates policies different from ours. But we do doubt their wisdom. In the face of present-day realities, in the face of our history and our traditions, there can be only one wise national policy - to break the connection with England, and be prepared to meet British force with Irish force when necessary.
(END of 'Force : Moral or Physical?' ; NEXT - 'Talk, Force and Politicians', from the same source.)
ON THIS DATE - 26TH MAY - IN THE FOLLOWING YEARS :
On the 26th May 1798 – United Irishman Rebellion : The rebels are defeated at Tara Hill ; this marks the end of the rebellion in Co Meath. Rebellion begins in Co Wexford. Fr John Murphy and local people confront the Camolin yeomanry at The Harrow. Thomas Bookey, Lieutenant of the yeomanry, is killed.
On the 26th May 1919 – Members of (the 32-County) Dáil Éireann sent a statement concerning 'Ireland’s Case for Independence' to the Paris Peace Conference.
On the 26th May 1919 – Capture and destruction at Ticknock, Co Dublin of military field kitchen and 2 mules in the charge of 2 unarmed soldiers, by members of the 3rd Battalion Dublin Brigade IRA.
On the 26th May 1921 – Attack on Naval base and wireless station Dún Laoghaire. When the attack was in progress one hour, a (British) armoured car leading a party of troops from the naval base advanced up Marine road. Another party from the wireless station proceeded from Clarence St. Both patrols were attacked on the way and shortly after capturing Georges St. they (British patrols) clashed and opened fire on each other. They suffered some killed and 5 wounded before they realised their mistake.
On the 26th May 1954 – Birth of Mickey Devine, a volunteer of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) who died on the 1981 hunger strike.
THE ACTRESS AND THE IRA MAN.On the 26th May 1979 – Death of actor, George Brent (pictured, with Bette Davis). Born in Ballinasloe, Co Galway, during the Irish War of Independence, Brent was part of the IRA. He fled Ireland with a bounty set on his head by the British government, although he later claimed only to have been a courier for guerrilla leader and tactician Michael Collins. He eventually moved to Hollywood, and made his first film in 1930. Highly regarded by Bette Davis, he became her most frequent male co-star, appearing with her in 13 films :
'...(she) wrote about Brent as a courier for Collins, but also about his second job as Collins' doppelganger. "In Dublin," she wrote, '..his most convincing double was a young actor George Brendan Nolan. A tall, well-built young man that fit Collins’s official description, Nolan was interested in the stage but was also a full member of the Fianna Éireann. For many months he played the dangerous but successful role of stand-in for Ireland’s most wanted man. He would conspicuously attend a public meeting or event as a 'Big Fella' in expensive suits and, since the (British) authorities were never quite sure what Collins looked like, they would follow him, thereby leaving the real leader free to go about his business.
Then, suddenly, in 1920, Brent disappeared. "Dublin Castle issued a warrant for Nolan’s arrest that charged him with treason against the state, a crime punishable by execution, Collins’s spies immediately informed the leader who thus arranged Nolan’s urgent, secret escape out of Cobh harbor in County Cork. As the Black and Tans thundered through the quiet village of Watergrasshill, just 12 miles away, bent on arresting Nolan, he was already bound for New York and a new life. They had missed their quarry by only a few hours..." (from here.)
'George Brent' was born George Patrick Nolan, in Galway, on the 15th March 1904 ; he died in Solana Beach, in California, on the 26th of May, 1979, 42 years ago on this date.
Thanks for reading,
Sharon.
