By the beginning of July, 1920, over 350 barracks throughout the country, that enemy forces had nested in, had been evacuated, such was the pressure exerted by the Irish rebels.
And, once evacuated, the IRA rebels moved in on them and destroyed them, and a further 105 such structures were damaged to the point that most of them were put beyond use.
In the county of Kildare, for instance, out of the twenty-four barracks in that county in January 1920, only six were still standing at the end of August (1920).
Also in Kildare, on the 15th July that year, IRA Volunteers attacked and burned the courthouse in the town of Athy ; the building was located on Barrow Quay (Market Square), beside the Town Hall, and had stood there (as a corn market) since the 1850's, having been 'gifted to the people' by the 'Duke of Leinster'.
The following day - the 16th July - the RIC in the nearby town of Ballymore Eustace decided enough was enough and deserted their barracks, fearing they were next...!
==========================
GAS LADS...
The massive finds of oil and gas on our western seaboard could ensure Ireland's financial security for generations.
Wealth approximating that of the Arab countries is within our grasp, but the Irish government seems content to sell off our birthright for a handful of votes and a few dollars.
In a special 'Magill' report, Sandra Mara investigates just what we are giving away, and why.
From 'Magill' magazine, March 2002.
"I think there should always be a take for the State", Des Geraghty said, "I think that the gas is extremely important as an indigenous energy source for economic development, but I believe that from the start the concessions that were given were unbelievable.
There were no jobs in it.
There was very little for the Irish economy and we are now suffering the consequences of a very bad policy which former minister Ray Burke has to answer for."
'SIPTU National Offshore Committee' spokesman, Padhraig Campbell, told 'Magill Magazine' -
"I think it would be a core demand of SIPTU that if it is in any way suspected that there was undue influence in the drastic changes to Ireland's oil and gas exploration terms from 1987 onwards, then the State should immediately freeze any existing licences and leases issued since then, including Corrib, in the national interest..."
(MORE LATER.)
On the 16th July, 1921, the 'Naas Poor Law Union' (an administrative body responsible for overseeing the 'Poor Law' directives in the Naas area of County Kildare) held a meeting at which its 'Board of Guardians' (ie its 'Top Table') decided to do away with its 'Naas Union' grouping which effectively meant the closure of Naas Workhouse, pictured - a severe blow to the working-class and unemployed people in its catchment area.
"There will be no peace settlement.
Of that you can be quite sure.
At the present moment, there will be no peace.
And that is all there is to it..."
- the words of British Army Brigadier-General 'Sir' Ormonde de l'Épée Winter ('KBE, CB, CMG, DSO ETC ETC', pictured, who nixered (!) for the Brits as Chief of the British Army Intelligence Branch), in a letter he wrote to a Mr Hubert Sidney Jenner Lamond Hemming (!), a Colonel in the British Army, on the 1st July, 1921.
Mr Winter was the then 'Deputy Director of Police', for Westminster, in Ireland but - and he obviously didn't see this coming! - a truce between the IRA and the British crown forces came into effect at noon on Monday, 11th July 1921 and, on the 6th December, 1921 (as not predicted by him!), a so-called 'peace settlement' was signed!
As part of the Truce, on the 16th July (1921), liaison officers were set up between the British Army/RIC and IRA to sort out details and resolve any disputes at local level.
Volunteer Eoin O'Duffy was appointed Truce Liaison Officer (TLO) for Belfast, and established a presence in St Mary's Hall in that city and announced that all IRA activity, except self-defence, would cease, Volunteer Patrick Shiels was TLO for Derry and Donegal (but was later replaced in that position by Patrick Lynch from Magera), Volunteer George Lennon was the TLO for Waterford (with Volunteer Paddy Paul as his deputy).
A British Army Officer, a Mr William Stack, was the TLO for the British Army's 14th Infantry Brigade area in their 5th Division, a Mr Finton Murphy was TLO for the BA 15th Infantry Brigade and Volunteer Michael Staines was the TLO for the Galway Brigade area.
The TLO's for the British Army apparently thought that their rank would carry some sway with the IRA TLO's, but not so -
"The class of individual selected for these liaison duties left much to be desired...", wrote their TLO staff, "..the liaison arrangements were in fact little more than a farce. The men originally selected by Sinn Féin were in many cases leading extremists, whose complicity in outrages and murder was well known to the British officers who were required to deal with them..."
Yes, yes, yes...sure that's just not cricket, sure it's not, Ormonde : you couldn't beat the IRA militarily and, politically, you couldn't best them, either.
Incidentally, talking about British Army Brigadier-General 'Sir' Ormonde de l'Épée Winter, he was known as 'O' and also as "The Holy Terror" within the spy network he helped develop and worked within, in Ireland.
A fellow officer of his gave the following opinion of the spy 'O' -
"O is a marvel!
He looks like a wicked white snake and can do everything.
He is an Artillery Colonel and commanded a Division of Artillery in France, and in India they say he was tried for murder for a little escapade while doing secret service work.
He started a race course near Calcutta and made a pot of money!
He is as clever as paint, probably entirely non-moral, a first class horseman, a card genius, knows several languages, is a super sleuth, and a most amazing original.
When a soldier who knew him in India heard that he was coming to Ireland he said 'God help Sinn Fein, they don't know what they are up against...' "
A non-moral snake, a murderer and a gambler - yes, I think Irish republicans knew what to expect even before he got here.
Included in his 'snakeisness' was his purchases of Irish republican newspapers in shops and on street stalls and the near-facsimile copying of them, in bulk, for distribution, in the same colours and design but with altered text, to sow confusion among Sinn Féin and the IRA!
This forging snake was driving out of his Dublin Castle lair in June, 1921, when the IRA ambushed him and his guard, but he was only wounded (in the hand) but it must have given him food for thought, as he retired from active service against the Irish in early 1924.
He shed his final skin on this Earth on the 13th February, 1962.
On the same date that the TLO's came into being (16th), a Mr Thomas Labrom, from the St Pancras area of London, a 'Light Car Driver Class III' with the '615 Motor Transport Company' of the 'Royal Army Service Corps' ('Service Number M/31415'), died from a gunshot wound in George V Hospital in Dublin.
In Ireland, the 'Royal Army Service Corps' (RASC) played a crucial logistical role in supporting British forces ; they were responsible for transport, supply, and other vital services, ensuring British troops were equipped and provisioned.
They transported personnel and supplies, managed barracks and provided fire services for enemy infrastructure, and their work was essential for maintaining the British military presence and operations in Ireland, which was why they were targeted by the IRA.
The IRA, North, South, East and West had a busy card - as well as the RASC working against the rebels, in July, 1921, for example, there were 3,414 'A' Specials in the Six Counties alone (outnumbering the RIC), 15,902 'B' Specials and 1,310 'C' Specials.
Plenty of clients for the George V and other hospitals...
==========================
CASH NO EXCUSE FOR RTE PUTTING DOCUMENTARY TO DEATH...
It has been a disastrous 12 months for RTE.
£23.5 million in cutbacks, a bid to increase the licence fee rejected, an enforced postponement of digital expansion, and a predicted £20 million loss to report for 2001.
By Belinda McKeon.
From 'Magill' Annual, 2002.
That work is needed not so much on the Independent Productions Unit at RTE, however, as on the attitudes from above which constrain its scope.
The hands of Kevin Dawson, Head of Factual Programming, have now been tied even more tightly because the budgetary cuts which followed the minister's rejection pressurised Dawson to aim programming at a majority, prime-time demographic, and to maximise advertising revenue. Arts documentary, he contends, is never going to do this.
Things would have been different had the licence fee increase come through, so the official line goes but, in fact, the only mention of developing a dedicated arts documentary strand in RTE lately was made in the rush to put together an application which would sway the minister.
While, technically speaking, the 'True Lives' slot, which proves that RTE can do an excellent job on documentary, is open to proposals from the 30 or so production companies which specialise in exploring the arts, the likelihood of even one such proposal getting the go-ahead is miniscule.
This makes for a very barren climate in which such companies might try to launch into what is actually a thriving international market...
(MORE LATER.)
Ireland, 1922 : the IRA split over the Treaty of Surrender became more conspicuous.
Those who supported being granted dominion status by the British re-invented themselves as the Free State 'National (sic) Army', but the majority of the IRA rejected the Treaty and vowed to continue fighting for the whole 32 Counties of Ireland.
Volunteer Francis Thomas ('Frank') Aiken (pictured), the Officer Commanding of the IRA 4th Northern Division (consisting of between 200 and 300 fighters) declared that he and his men were neutral - they were in command of the Anne Street RIC Barracks, in Dundalk, County Louth, and Volunteer Aiken called for a truce, a new IRA Army Council, and the removal of the Oath of Allegiance from the Free State constitution.
He and his Division of 'neutrals' got their answer on the 16th July, 1922, when the Free Staters, under the command of FSA 'Major-General' Dan Hogan (later to be the Free State Army 'Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces', a position he held from March 1927 to February 1929, and a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State poacher) attacked the barracks (killing two IRA Volunteers - Patrick Quigley and John Joseph Campbell - in the process) and 'arrested' Volunteer Aiken and his men, marching them just over a mile, with a heavy escort, to the County Gaol at The Crescent in Dundalk where they were detained.
Mr Francis Thomas ('Frank') Aiken should have come clean from the start - in 1926, he joined the Fianna Fáil party when it was founded.
RIP Volunteers Patrick Quigley and John Joseph Campbell.
On that same date (16th) in July (1922), 170 km/105 miles away up the road, in the Fort on Inch Island (pictured) on the Inishowen Penninsula in County Donegal, about three dozen IRA Volunteers had, for about ten days, successfully held off attacks by the Free State 'National (sic) Army' on their position.
The Staters then brought in heavy artillery pieces which they had borrowed from their new comrades in the British Army and opened fire on the Volunteers.
The rebels in the Fort had to surrender : about thirty of them were captured there and, on witnessing the carnage inflicted by (borrowed, British) artillery on a fixed rebel position, Volunteer Sean Lehane, the Officer Commanding the IRA forces in Donegal, gave the order to abandon their last post in that county, in Glenveagh Castle (pictured, below), and form 'Flying Columns' which would take on the Staters on a 'hit and run' basis, just as they had done against the British.
==========================
DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...
Desmond Boomer, a Belfast engineer working in the Libyan oil-fields, disappeared seven years ago.
Officially, the plane on which he was a passenger crashed as a result of mechanical failure and pilot error.
But is that the real story?
Or were the Irishman and his fellow passengers unwitting victims of the shady war between Islamic fundamentalism and Mossad, Israel's intelligence network?
A special 'Magill' investigation by Don Mullan, author of 'Eyewitness Bloody Sunday'.
From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.
After landing at Djerba, Rodney Woods said -
"We went to collect our luggage from the hold and I noticed that the alternator drive belt was all torn."
He also told the inquiry that Captain Bartolo "...put his hand in and tore it off easily in front of everyone..."
All three witnesses stated that, in their opinion, the aircraft was in no fit state to return to Malta.
To replace the alternator belt required at least three hours of specialist maintenance work, involving the removal of the propeller.
NCA International, a Maltese-based aircraft maintenance company, held the repair contract for aircraft owned by Captain Bartolo's two companies and, before another company could undertake repair work on his aircraft, Bartolo was required to obtain written authority from NCA, otherwise his insurance cover would be invalid.
He did not contact NCA for repair clearance that night or the following morning, which suggests that no repairs were carried out...
(MORE LATER.)
Thanks for reading,
Sharon and the team.
(We'll be back on Wednesday, 30th July 2025 - we're still enjoying our new, more relaxed publishing schedule ie a post every second Wednesday, rather than every Wednesday, and we're not yet ready to revert!)
Mr Hugh McClean (21), a member of the Black and Tans, from Moray, in Scotland, was billeted in the Cork area and himself and one of his colleagues, a man named Cooke, were keep-fit fanatics and would go for a run regularly in a local wooded area.
On the 15th May, 1921, the two Tans headed-off in mid-afternoon to their usual spot (Morgans/Mayors Wood) for a run but ran into more than they had planned for.
IRA Volunteers from the Skibbereen Battalion, who were based in the Maulbrack area, about two miles distance from the Barony townland in Cork, were waiting on the two Tans and, when they arrived to their position, they shot them.
Mr Cooke, although seriously wounded, survived the attack, but Mr McClean, who was shot in both lungs and was still alive, died from his wounds later that evening, in the Skibbereen Workhouse.
It transpired that Mr McClean had already decided to leave his 'job' and had handed in his notice, effective at the end of that month. His father and his brother were members of the RIC but the brother had also handed in his notice, and both were due to leave at the end of May, 1921.
Mrs McClean, at home in Scotland, had told her husband and two sons that she had received a letter in the post (which had been posted to her from Edinburgh in Scotland) which contained a threat to her family, wrapped in republican literature.
However ; as the IRA Volunteers were leaving the scene of the executions, a local woman, who worked in a nearby shop - Majorie Young (21), from Bridgetown, Skibbereen, Cork - had heard the gunshots and was looking in the direction of the Woods when she seen two IRA men that she recognised leaving from that area.
M/s Young reportedly gave information to the British Crown Forces that those two men were IRA Skibbereen Battalion Adjutant O'Brien and Bantry Company IRA Officer Commanding Ralph Keyes.
The local IRA investigated the affair and came to the conclusion that M/s Young had indeed passed IRA names to the British, thereby "placing their Battalion Officers at risk of a death sentence" and, in their 'Intelligence Papers', listed the young woman as "guilty in the first degree", a reckoning that, had it been a man under investigation, would have marked him for death.
As it was, from what we gleaned from our inquiries, M/s Young was made aware of the IRA investigation into her activities on that day - 15th May 1921 - but it is not listed in the 'IRA Intelligence Reports on Civilians Accused of Giving Information to and Associating with British Forces during War of Independence in Counties Cork, Kerry, Waterford, and Limerick’ 1921, CP/4/40 [Military Archives]' that any action was taken against her.
"AND THE RADIO SAID..."
IRA Volunteer Billy Reid (32) was shot dead by enemy forces on this date - 15th May - 53 years ago.
Volunteer Reid was on active service, defending his country and his people, on that Saturday in 1971, when he was shot dead in Belfast by British soldiers.
On that day in May, 1971, a British Army foot patrol was ambushed in Academy Street in the centre of Belfast by the Third Battalion Belfast Brigade IRA.
One of the Volunteers was wounded and Volunteer Reid told his comrades to take the wounded man to safety, and he would provide cover fire for them to do so. But his weapon jammed and, as he attempted to withdraw, he was shot in the back.
The British Army soldiers then attacked and abused his body.
RIP Volunteer Billy Reid.
1st January 1939 – 15th May 1971.
The 'Paris (Versailles) Peace Conference' was convened on the 18th January, 1919, to discuss possibilities for a permanent peace in Europe (no more 'World Wars') and to open discussions on US President Woodrow Wilson's apparent desire for self-determination and international co-operation between all nations.
Irish nationalists and republicans recognised the Conference as an opportunity to declare to world leaders our case for independence from England and, of course - as expected - Irish unionists and loyalists were not going to allow that case to go unchallenged.
The 'pro-Irish' delegation felt that the 'anti-Irish' side were receiving more favourable results than they were, and issued the following statement -
"We recognise that an agreement could not have been brought about without certain temporary concessions made in regard to the Constitution of the Irish Parliament which we, as democrats and representatives of Labour, regarded with strong dislike.
But we feel so deeply the necessity of setting up a Parliament in Ireland, in which labour amongst other interests may be able to find a place, that we have been willing to subordinate our democratic beliefs to what we conceive to be the highest interests of Ireland..."
So despondent were they that, on the 15th May, 1919, one of the 'pro-Irish' representatives, Joe Devlin, wrote home to his party leader, John Dillon, stating...
"...nothing will come of the (Paris) Peace Conference. The position must inevitably come to a fierce conflict between the government and Sinn Féin, and I am afraid the country is in for a bad time..."
And how right he was, and is - that "bad time" is still with us, as six of our thirty-two counties remain under the jurisdictional control of Westminster.
==========================
'KILLARNEY MEMORIAL UNVEILED.'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
On Sunday, March 13th (1955), a memorial was unveiled at Countess Bridge, Killarney, to the memory of four soldiers of the Irish Republican Army who were killed there by Free State forces, by being blown to pieces by a land mine, on March 7th, 1923.
A parade in the charge of DJ Conway, Tralee, and led by the Scartaglin Pipe Band, marched from the Fair Green, Killarney, to the Countess Bridge.
The Memorial was unveiled by Michael Lynch, The Spa, Tralee, who, after reciting a decade of the Rosary, said there was one thing the present generation could do, and that was to achieve the aims for which those four soldiers of the Republic gave their lives.
He appealed to the young men present to join the IRA and to bring the fight for Irish freedom to a successful end in our time.
Wreaths were placed on the Memorial on behalf of the Republican Graves Association, Killarney, and the Killarney Battalion IRA, and an oration was given by JJ Sheehy.
(END of 'Killarney Memorial Unveiled' ; NEXT - 'An Old And Unfair Criticism', from the same source.)
Commandant Niall 'Plunkett' O'Boyle (pictured) from Lackenagh, Burtonport, was an active Volunteer throughout the War of Independence and the Civil War. He was taken prisoner in 1922 and interned in Newbridge Internment Camp.
On October 14th, 1922, he was one of the 148 prisoners that escaped.
He made his way to Dublin, where he continued his campaign against the Free State forces and was appointed to the 3rd Battalion of the Dublin No.2 Brigade, operating mainly in the North West of Wicklow. For six months he operated fearlessly in the mountains between Tallaght and Glenmalure.
On May 15th 1923, two weeks after the call of a ceasefire, Niall O'Boyle's Flying Column was surrounded by Free State forces in the home of the Norton family, Valletmount, in County Wicklow.
The Free State forces opened fire on the house. Niall and his comrades called for the Staters to let Mrs Norton and her daughters out of the house.
He left the house with his hands raised and walked towards Free State officer, Felix McCorley from Belfast. Suddenly McCorley raised his revolver and shot Neil in the eye, and for good measure he shot him again in the head.
After the inquest, his remains were given to a Mrs Lambert of Lachen, Blessington, Co. Wicklow, and he was waked for one night in Manor Kilbride Church before being returned to Donegal.
During this time Mrs Lambert never left the remains until she seen him buried in his native Lackenagh, in Burtonport, in County Donegal.
He was born, on a small farm, at Leac Eineach, near Burtonport, in County Donegal, in 1898.
On the 15th May, 1923, the Plunkett Column of the Dublin No. 2 Brigade IRA was captured at Knocknadruce, Valleymount, in County Wicklow, after the death of its leader, Ned (Niall) Plunkett O'Boyle (25).
In April, 1923, a ceasefire had been agreed between the IRA and the Free Staters but that didn't deter most FSA Units from attempting to settle old scores ; on May 15th, Niall Plunkett O'Boyle and his men were resting in a house in Knocknadruce, owned by the Norton family, when they were surrounded by FSA troops and told to leave the building.
Shouted negotiations were held between both groups, with the Staters threatening to lob hand grenades into the house unless the IRA Volunteers came out.
Plunkett O'Boyle shouted that he was coming out, alone and unarmed, to discuss the terms of surrender ; he exited the house, hands held high above his head, and walked towards the officer in charge of the FSA, Felix McCorley, who moved in on the IRA man and shot him dead.
His body was returned to Donegal where he is buried in Kincasslagh graveyard.
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.
"Because I believe these things I will always stick to them ; but I do not want to force any other person to believe as I do. Let everyone be honest with himself and do what he thinks right. It is my duty to tell you what I believe should be done..." - Ned (Niall) Plunkett O'Boyle.
On the 14th, 15th and 16th May, 1920, those members of Dáil Éireann (the 32-County body) whom the British had not managed to imprison, received a note, on official Dáil Éireann-headed notepaper, stating -
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Therefore a life for a life."
On investigation, it was discovered that the notes had been sent by the British 'Cairo Gang' who had obtained the notepaper from raids on republicans they had conducted previously.
However, in November that same year, the IRA all but read out that same note to that gang...
==========================
On the 15th May, 1920, British Army Major General Henry Hugh Tudor (pictured, KCB, CMG ETC ETC!) was appointed by Westminster to the position of 'Police Adviser to the Irish Administration in Dublin Castle' ; in effect, he was placed in command of the RIC, sidelining the RIC 'Inspector General' and other high-ranking members of that grouping, which didn't go down too well with them!
Mr Tudor's appointment was 'recommended' by Mr Churchill himself, who wanted a 'show of strength' in Ireland against the rebels, and Mr Tudor had a deserved name as a 'military hawk' ; he had 'served queen and country' (!) in the Second Boer War (1899-1902) and in the 'First World War' (1914-1918) and survived through it all to die peacefully, at 94 years of age, in 1965, after denying so many others the opportunity to do so.
'For queen and country', of course...
==========================
In mid-May 1920 street riots erupted in Derry, with the IRA and Loyalist gangs, including the RIC, doing battle with each other - the former in an effort to protect the community from the latter.
On the 15th May, Clare-born RIC 'Sergeant' Denis Moroney became the first RIC member to be killed in the city, as a result of the unrest ; he was the first such member to be shot dead in the Province of Ulster.
==========================
"A BULLET IS WAITING FOR DALTON THE SPY..."
In early 1920, an IRA Volunteer in Limerick, James Dalton, an Intelligence Officer for 1st Southern Division IRA (comprising about 450 Volunteers, all ranks), was observed to be visiting the homes of known RIC Intelligence Officers in the early morning, and word of this quickly got back to his IRA comrades.
On hearing the rumours about him that were circulating in republican circles, Volunteer Dalton himself requested an enquiry into the accusations that had been made against him and, following procedure, the enquiry was held.
The verdict reached was that "...there was no guilty or dishonest motive on his part and that the suspicions were unfounded.."
IRA Captain O'Sullivan stated that the 'spy accusations' against Volunteer Dalton "...were due to personal jealousy and animosity between rival factions in the Volunteers in Limerick.."
But...
..on the 15th May, 1920, Volunteer Dalton left his home at around 12 Noon to go to his day job (he worked as a clerk in the Electric Generating Station on Frederick Street/O'Curry Street, in Limerick) and, after work, met his father-in-law, as arranged, in a local pub between 6pm and 7pm that evening. The two men had a quick pint and left each others company to go home to their own houses, both of them in good humour.
Within a couple of hundred yards of his house, and within sight of his thirteen-year old daughter, Kitty (he and his wife, Anne, had seven children), Volunteer James Dalton was surrounded by up to six men and was shot four times (this was the second attempt on his life). He fell to the ground, where he was shot twice more.
A local child, six-year-old Elly Lowe, was hit in her calf by one of the bullets.
The consensus today is that he was not a spy, but questions are still asked to this day if Volunteer Dalton was, perhaps, an IRA double-agent, was he shot dead in an operation carried out by other IRA Volunteers in an unauthorised attack and/or was he the victim of a personal feud within the IRA in Limerick...?
His wife, Anne, received an ex-gratia payment of £500 that year (1920) and a further £700 in 1924 (from the 'Compensation [Personal Injuries] Committee') but was later encouraged to hand that £1,200 back to the State in return for a longer-term offer, which she did - for a 'Widows Allowance' of £90 a year, plus a further £24 a year in respect of each of her 7 children (under 'The Army Pensions Act'), with all those new children payments to run from the 1st April 1922 until each child "came of age" (18?).
The few bob no doubt came in handy, but I'd bet she'd trade it in in a heartbeat to have her husband back.
Finally : the investigating officer in Dáil Éireann (the 32 County body, not the British/Free State-imposed institution that was spawned on Kildare Street in Dublin) issued the following statement in relation to the situation -
'Dáil Éireann Official Verdict in case of Mr James Dalton. The main point was not in dispute that the plaintiff (Mr Dalton) had entered certain premises at 1am and remained there til morning, the fact which had brought suspicion upon him.
Having heard the evidence I was of opinion that the plaintiff had been guilty of a grave indiscretion and error of judgement in acting as he had done, and that his conduct very naturally gave rise to much suspicion.
As against this I was certain of opinion that there had been no guilty or dishonest notice on his part, and that the suspicions in this respect had been unfounded.' (The Dáil investigation was Chaired by Judge Cahir Davitt.)
No arrests were made at the time. No arrests would ever be made...
On the 15th May, 1921, as Michael Hackett (27), from Bagenalstown, in County Carlow, was taking part in a sporting event in Fenagh, in County Leitrim, he was arrested by IRA Volunteers.
He was taken away and questioned about who he was talking to about the Active Service Unit attached to the Carlow Brigade IRA ; IRA enquiries had led to the conclusion that Mr Hackett, an ex-British Army soldier, was one member of a "gang of spies organised and paid by the RIC", who were operating in the Bagenalstown and Borris areas of Carlow, and regularly supplied information on the IRA and pointed out suspects to the RIC and British Army.
Mr Hackett was tried by court martial and found guilty of espionage "which was directly responsible" for the capture of an IRA ASU at Ballymurphy, County Carlow : he was executed by IRA Volunteers from the 4th Battalion IRA on the 1st June, 1921, and buried on the mountainside at Coolnasaughta, Myshall, in Carlow.
His body was later recovered and reburied by the Hackett family.
==========================
15th May 1921, Dublin - A Mr John Congdon and two of his friends were standing at the corner of Dorset Street and Saint Ignatius Road in Dublin, when the area around them exploded.
The IRA had thrown bombs at a passing British Army lorry and the three men were blown off their feet in the explosions ; Mr Congdon died from his wounds three days later.
==========================
15th May 1921, Tipperary - IRA Volunteers Brain Shanahan, Dan Breen, Jim Moloney, Con Moloney, Art Barlow and Ernie O'Malley were waiting outside a church in the village of Bansha, as they knew a group of RIC members were about to leave when the Mass ended.
When they left, the IRA attacked, and RIC member John Nutley (22) was shot in the head and died immediately.
Two of his colleagues, Jeremiah Sullivan and John McLoughlin, were wounded.
==========================
15th May 1921, Kerry - a member of the British Army's 'Royal Fusiliers City of London Regiment', Stephen Goldsmith, was cycling between the two places he rested his head in in Kenmare when he was shot by IRA Volunteers.
He died from his wounds on the 20th May that year.
==========================
RIC member John Ryle (45), from Kilmoyley in North Kerry, was badly injured in an IRA ambush on the 14th and died from his wounds the following day.
==========================
15th May 1921, Galway - RIC 'District Inspector' Cecil Arthur Maurice Blake (36), his wife Eliza, and two British Army officers (Captain Cornwallis and Lieutant William McCreery of the '17th Lancers') had left a party and were almost at the gates of Ballyturin House, near Gort, when they were ambushed by IRA Volunteers from the South West Galway Brigade and all four were shot dead.
A woman who was in the company of the four party-goers, a M/s Lily Margaret Gregory (the widow of Major Robert Gregory of Coole Park and 'Lady' Gregory's daughter-in-law) was not targeted or injured in the attack.
When the RIC arrived to investigate the scene, one of their members, John Kearney, was shot "in controversial circumstances" and died from his wounds on the 21st May.
==========================
15th May 1921, Tipperary - Two RIC members, Joseph Daly (20) and Thomas Gallivan (20) were reported as "missing" not long after they left their barracks, on bicycles, in Silvermines.
They had been arrested by IRA Volunteers from the North Tipperary Brigade (commanded by Billy Spain and Tom Walsh), shot dead and buried in Clooneen bog in the parish of Cloughjordan, as ordered by Brigade Officer Commanding Seán Gaynor.
In 1925, the bodies were exhumed by the IRA and Mr Daly was buried in his homeplace in Enfield, in County Meath.
The remains of Mr Gallivan, a native of Killarney, County Kerry, were buried in an unmarked grave in Ardcroney graveyard, in County Tipperary.
==========================
15th May 1921, Dublin - A Mr Peter Graham was shot dead as a spy at the Golf Links in Killiney, in County Dublin, by IRA Volunteers.
British Army 'insiders' had alerted the IRA that Mr Graham was a paid informer.
He was born in Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin, on the 19th October, 1897, and is buried in Deansgrange Cemetery in Blackrock, County Dublin.
==========================
15th May 1921, Tyrone - an attempted ambush on 'Special Head Constable' Matt Henderson at Eskra, near Dromore in County Tyrone, led to the death of IRA Volunteer Edward McCusker (...some sources list the date as May 14th).
Volunteer McCusker was attached to 'A Company', 2 Battalion, 2 Brigade (Tyrone) IRA, under the command of Michael and James Gallagher.
==========================
15th May 1921, London - A Mr Horace McNeil answered a knock on his house door in Bloemfontein Road, in Shepherd's Bush, London.
Four men questioned him about his links to the Black and Tans in Ireland, he tried to fight them away from his doorstep and close the door on them but was shot in the process.
He died three days later from his wound.
==========================
15th May 1921, Cork - in reprisals for attacks against them by the IRA in mid-May 1921, Crown Forces attached to the 'Cameron Highlanders' killed a labourer, Edward McNamara (19), from Water-Rock, in Cork ; his death certificate stated that he died on the 15th May, 1921, at The Kennels, Midleton, in Cork, of shock and haemorrhage caused by gunshot wounds. Mr McNamara was walking home on the train lines when he was shot.
The 'Camerons' then raided the home of IRA Volunteer Richard Barry and 'arrested' him. The next day his dead body was found on the railway line about a mile on the Midleton side of Carrigtwohill.
==========================
On this date - 15th May, 102 years ago (1922) - the newly-spawned Free State 'Civic Guard' were assembled for 'Morning Parade' in the training depot at Kildare Barracks.
They were standing to attention as their Commissioner, Michael Staines (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher - he was only about a month in his position at that time and, in September [1922] he was replaced by Eoin O'Duffy) was addressing them when, suddenly, over 1,200 of them broke ranks, ran to the armoury, and took it into their control.
Mr Staines and those that were still loyal to him rushed for shelter but there was no safety to be had 'in-house' so they evacuated the barracks.
The issue, which had been 'bubbling-up' for a while, was that - shamefully, in regards to the former - of the 1,500 'Civic Guard' members, more than 1,400 of them were, between them, ex-IRA Volunteers and/or ex-Free State Army men ; not natural allies (!), by any means, but they were (briefly!) united in their shared dislike for their Officers and military trainers, who were mostly former members of the RIC!
And that in itself was also strange, as the Stater Army practically worked side-by-side with Crown Forces such as the RIC in their campaign against Irish republican forces but objected to taking orders from them now!
Both groups of mutineers objected to the manner in which other new recruits, from an RIC/DMP anti-Irish background, were treated more favourably by the Officers and, after recent promotions within their ranks of five such ex-RIC members, tensions had boiled over.
An ex-IRA man, now a 'Civic Guard' member, Michael Daly (a Clare man) and seven other members, wrote to Commissioner Staines demanding that those recently-promoted five ex-RIC men should be sacked and, at that assembly on the 15th May, Mr Staines ordered those eight members to step forward, which they did - and loud verbal disagreements followed immediately.
Mr Staines, assured of his position within the ranks he believed he presided over (!), called for his men, in a show of support for him, to move to the left - and about 60 members did!
A larger grouping moved in the opposite direction, leaving about another 60 members undecided, stuck-in-the-middle, on the fence ; those stand-stillers (!) were following the lead of a member called Joe Ring (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher) and, between them they tried to 'restore order, find a compromise' but, eventually, they, too, had to seek shelter...
The mutiny/stand-off lasted for about seven weeks - this all happened during a period when the Staters - a Westminster proxy - were fighting against the IRA.
What happened next?
What did Chief Stater Michael Collins think of it all?
Did poor Mr Staines ever get his mojo back?
Those answers, or none of them, and answers to questions you haven't yet asked, might be found here. Or they might not. But - whatever - we're not bleedin' spoonfeedin' ya anymore...!
On the 15th May, 1922, the nascent Leinster House administration's 'Northern Advisory Committee' held a meeting in the Metropole Hotel in York Street, in Belfast (pictured).
Among others, Cahir Healy, George Murnaghan, Seamus Woods and Frank Crummey were in favour of calling for, and supporting, 'a campaign of destruction within the six counties with the aim of making the rule of the Stormont Administration more expensive and difficult...'
However, when Leinster House got itself established in the Free State and the Staters got a taste for the expensive lifestyles, they completely reversed their position on the O6C to the point that they, too, enforced partition, and still do so to this day.
==========================
A 'General Election' was due to be held in June, 1922, in the 26-County State, and Mr Churchill, in Westminster, was informed by his people in Dublin that Mr Michael Collins and other Free Staters (whom he supported) were in talks with Irish republicans to ensure a conflict-free election for both of the pro and anti 'Treaty of Surrender' sides involved.
A friendly relationship (of sorts!) between the British-supported Free Staters and Irish republicans was not a welcome development for Mr Churchill or his government so, on the 15th May (1922), he sent a letter to Mr Collins in which he denounced any such pact as "an outrage upon democratic principles" ('1169' comment - Oh the irony..!), and told the Staters that the 'pact issue' would be raised at a British Cabinet meeting to be held on the 16th May.
('1169' comment - we don't doubt that Mr Collins and his people would have buckled immediately, having read that letter, and the Staters haven't stopped buckling to the British since then.)
Anyway - the next day (16th May 1922), following the British Cabinet meeting, Mr Churchill let it be known to his Irish Stater chums (!) that he and his Cabinet had "reviewed the Irish situation" and they were of the opinion that 'Ireland was in a state of rapid social disintegration' and that queries had been raised as to whether or not the 'Treaty of Surrender' was being afforded the respect that it should be (!) and stated the fear in Westminster that, 'if British troops were withdrawn, a Republic would be declared..'
Mr Churchill had also expressed the desire 'to retain the English capital (ie Dublin!) and possibly convert it into a 'Pale' once more..'
The British Bulldog Churchill (!) also broadcasted to Dublin that he was suspending the supply of munitions to the Staters "until he was satisfied that they would be used effectively against the Republican party..", and that Mr Collins and his people were going to be summoned...invited (!) to London to be told that there would be no further large issues of arms to them until they showed that they were going to deal with Rory O'Connor and his men in the Four Courts!
And Mr Collins and his Stater Army duly fulfilled their duty to Mr Churchill.
And they haven't stopped doing so since...
==========================
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.
In other words, foreign software companies are nine times more productive than Irish companies, which are mostly very small and spend little on Research and Development, or training.
This dual economy is unstable in several respects - TNC's are much more likely to take their profits out of the country. In 1983, foreign profit repatriations made up just 3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product but by 1999 they rose to an astounding 40 per cent of GDP!
This drain on the economy requires a constant inflow of investments to offset it.
Even more worrying is the fact that global recession can rapidly cause cutbacks in the foreign sector, as we have seen so dramatically in Gateway's announced closure and Xerox's layoffs...
(MORE LATER.)
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.)
ROBERT EMMET AND THE IRELAND OF TODAY...
"She would have tended him like a mother could he have tarried there, but his path lay to Kilmashogue, and hers was to be a harder duty.
When Sirr came out with his soldiery she was still keeping her vigil.
"Where is Emmet?"
"I have nothing to tell you."
To all their questions she had but one answer : "I have nothing to say ; I have nothing to tell you."
They swung her up to a cart and half-hanged her several times ; after each half-hanging she was revived and questioned : still the same answer.
They pricked her breast with their bayonets until the blood spurted out in their faces. They dragged her to prison and tortured her for days. Not one word did they extract from that steadfast woman.
And when Emmet was sold, he was sold, not by a woman, but by a man — by the friend that he had trusted — by the counsel that, having sold him, was to go through the ghastly mockery of defending him at the bar..."
(MORE LATER.)
Thanks for the visit, and for reading!
Sharon and the team.
