On the 15th September, 1919, a 24-years-young British Army soldier, a Mr William Milburn Booth (from Norton-on-Tees, Durham, in England, 'Service Number 60488', attached to the 2nd Battalion, 'Yorkshire Regiment' ['The Green Howards']) was sitting with his colleagues in 'Hut 12' in a barracks in County Tipperary, Ireland.
One of his BA colleagues, a Mr Pagan, asked Mr William Milburn Booth if he could have a look at his revolver.
As Mr Booth was handing Mr Pagan the weapon, it discharged and the bullet went into Mr Booth's heart.
The injured man died from his wound the following day, and is buried in Norton (St. Mary) Churchyard in Norton, Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham (Teesside/Durham), in his own country, England.
==========================
ON THIS DATE (16TH SEPTEMBER) 101 YEARS AGO - BIRTH OF "A VERY SHALLOW PERSON".
Charles James Haughey was born in Castlebar, County Mayo, on the 16th September 1925 (101 years ago on this date) and died on the 13th June, 2006 ; he was 'Taoiseach' of the Free State on three occasions.
His father was in the IRA but then fought against his old colleagues, as a member of the Free State Army.
"He hid in plain sight. Was it a failure of journalism (not to investigate that fully)? He refused point blank to explain where his wealth came from...his wealth was vastly beyond anything he could accrue from a salary...he represented everything that people were refusing to speak about until then : sex, money and power.
There was an oppressive relationship about all of those topics. He had all three of those, and a lifestyle way beyond the meagre existence of the 1960's..something happened. He became crooked and began behaving in an unethical and corrupt way..." (from here.)
However, despite his own taxpayer-funded luxury lifestyle, he had no hesitation in attempting to convince the State taxpayers whom he used to sustain himself that they were 'living beyond their means' -
"As a community we are living away beyond our means. I don't mean that everyone in the community is living too well, clearly many are not and have barely enough to get by, but taking us all together we have been living at a rate which is simply not justified by the amount of goods and services we are producing..." (from here.)
'Evidence emerged yesterday that substantial cheques made out to Fianna Fail and sent to party Headquarters in Upper Mount Street, Dublin, ended up in the party leader's account which Mr Charles Haughey ran from his office in Leinster House.
It also emerged that Mr Haughey was able to make withdrawals from this account for reasons that had nothing to do with politics. In February 1991, when he was Taoiseach, a cheque for £8,332 was written on the account and used to buy a draft in French francs. The draft was used to pay Chevret, Paris, an expensive shirtmaker used by Mr Haughey.
In September of that same year a further £7,500 was used for the same purpose...' (from here.)
He liked socialising with poets and painters, although not all of the latter profession got on with him (!) and Irish republicans certainly didn't -
'Taoiseach Charles Haughey speaks out strongly against the H Block activists who attempt to disrupt his election campaign : RTÉ News reports on the Taoiseach Charles Haughey, leader of the Fianna Fáil party, as he campaigns throughout the country (sic) in advance on the 1981 general election.
In the border counties of Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan , supporters of the hunger strikers in the H Block prison attempt to disrupt the campaign...the National H-Blocks Committees had announced that they would harass the Taoiseach during all public appearances during the election campaign because, they claimed, he had not done enough to end the hunger strike in the Maze Prison...' (from here.)
'Maintain the Border, Haughey - you're Maggie's little boy ;
You bolster up what Irishmen still suffer to destroy.
Our constitution claims its right, but you in breach bear stain -
You expend the people's millions, the Border to maintain..'
He was the driving force behind the founding of the politically-motivated 'Special Criminal Court' (staffed at that time by personnel from the Free State Army, as opposed to just Free State sympathisers, as it is today) and developed a reputation for organising party nights within the State for what became known as 'the men in mohair suits', a breed of Free State 'politician' which one of Haughey's pals, Martin Mansergh, described as "..not holding much store by political correctness and (who) did not retire early to bed..".
Another of his political pals, George Colley, equated Haughey with "low standards in high places".
He had what is known as 'a whiff of sulphur' off him and used that 'wink wink' codology to make a name and a political career for himself, just as other Leinster House reps did before him, and are still doing to this day.
FAILING THE CHILDREN...
In every county in Ireland, children must put up with woefully inadequate school buildings.
The government says it is doing its best to improve the situation, but parents and teachers complain that the State's attitude is bureaucratic, secretive and uncaring.
Niall Stanage investigates.
From 'Magill Magazine', March 2002.
66% 0f those schools said their toilet facilities were inadequate, 71% had an inadequate or unsafe schoolyard and 47% had rotting windows or doors.
"These schools are totally inadequate in terms of basic facilities, and hazardous from the point of view of health and safety..." (State) Senator Joe O'Toole, General Secretary of the INTO, said at the time - "...this situation is totally unacceptable to us and we will not allow it to continue."
Since then, the government has announced a further increase in spending, but the INTO and the opposition parties say the money is still not sufficient.
The government responds by pointing out that expenditure on educational infrastructure is at an all-time high...
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (16TH SEPTEMBER) 161 YEARS AGO : REPORTS OF A FENIAN NEWSPAPER HAVING BEEN CLOSED DOWN.
The Fenian Brotherhood was founded in Dublin on Saint Patrick’s Day in 1858 and, by 1863, had grown to such an extent that its leadership were in agreement that it was in a position to publish its own newspaper on a weekly basis.
On Saturday, 28th November 1863, the first edition of 'The Irish People' newspaper appeared on newsstands throughout Ireland, with copies of it having being dispatched to supporters overseas.
At first, the British and their despicable minions in this country, were of the opinion that the newspaper wouldn't be a success and would not be a threat to their misrule ; indeed, their 'Number One' man in Dublin, Daniel Ryan (who was actually in charge of the raiding party on the 15th September 1865), who was the Superintendent of 'G Division' of the 'Dublin Metropolitan Police', reported back to his Westminster-based paymasters in December 1863 that the newspaper was doomed and would not attain good circulation in this country.
Mr. Ryan had managed to have one of his informers, Pierce Nagle, placed in the newspaper office but the tout misread the true situation.
Those involved with the newspaper were known to the British as being 'Irish dissidents' and included Charles Kickham, Thomas Clarke Luby, Denis Dowling Mulcahy, Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, James O'Connor, John Haltigan and John O'Leary (Editor), all of whom were on a British 'Watch List'.
The newspaper, operating from within the shadows of Dublin Castle - at 12 Parliament Street - prospered and, as expected, was considered to be a 'seditious publication' by the British 'authorities' so much so that, on the 15th September, 1865, they raided the newspaper office and closed it down.
It was not the first Irish newspaper to be censored by the British, nor would it be the last - indeed, one of the 'Pillars of the Establishment' in London, 'The Times' newspaper, voiced opposition to that policy -
'A right of interference would be sustainable if the Press were used as an instrument of crime – but not otherwise. We do not regard the advocacy of any political opinion as included in this definition, and we consider that the Press has an indefensible right to report faithfully the happenings of all events whether welcome to the Executive or not...' (from here, and more of same can be found here.)
"Report faithfully..." : how times, and the so-called 'newspapers', have changed...
On the 16th September, 1920, rebel Volunteer Joseph Athy (20, Maree Company IV), from the townland of Achadh Pholl Lín (Ahapouleen) who made a living from carrying goods with his horse and cart in Galway, was travelling on that cart with workmates, going from the town of Oranmore to the village of Maree, a coastal village and parish, located just south of the town of Oranmore, along Galway Bay.
As they passed a hedged area, men in British Army fatigues stood up and opened fire on them.
It was recorded later that over 100 rounds were fired by the BA assassins.
Volunteer Athy, who had joined the rebels in 1916, died from his wounds the following day in St Bride's Nursing Home in Galway (one of his workmates, a Mr Patrick Burke, was seriously injured, but recovered from his wounds).
RIP Volunteer Joseph Athy.
==========================
On the same day that Volunteer Athy was shot by the enemy, about 200 KM (125 miles) across the country, in Dublin, press correspondents/journalists were assembling in the Mansion House to cover a press conference called by a then-republican figurehead, a Mr Arthur Griffith.
He told them to put their journalistic paraphernalia out of sight as the man they were about to meet was a British spy who believed he was about to meet the Irish republican inner circle!
Mr Griffith told his audience that the spy, a failed journalist among other failings, named 'John Henry Gooding/Frank Digby Hardy/Digby Hardy/Frank Hall/A.G. Saville/Frank Harling/Hall Frankland' (!) had been recruited out of an English prison by the head of the British Special Branch, a Mr 'Sir' Basil Thomson, to infiltrate the rebels in Ireland.
Mr Thomson would have known about the criminal spy's background - check forgery, bigamy (fathering at least 11 children across multiple illegal marriages), naval desertion and embezzling (!) but apparently figured that he was just the man to fool the rebels!
When he arrived in Dublin, the 'spy' brought suspicion on himself by his eagerness to 'assist' the rebels in their endeavours - the rebels investigated the man and led him to believe that they had taken him into their confidence.
He was 'shadowed' in Dublin, his phone calls were listened in to and his post was opened and read before being sent on ; the game was up, but he didn't know it.
When he arrived at the 'meeting', Mr Arthur Griffith exposed him in front of the newspaper correspondents and, 'caught rapid' (as we say in Dublin!) and completely unprepared to try and spoof his way out of it, the spy 'fessed up ; his cover, such as it was, was well and truly blown.
It transpired that, according to himself, had he met with Mr Michael Collins he was going to offer his services, as a 'double agent', to the rebels and betray his British bosses!
And, speaking of his British bosses, when one of them - a British Army Brigadier-General, a Mr 'Sir' Ormonde de l'Épée Winter (official codename 'O', unofficial codename 'The Holy Terror'!), the head of the British 'Combined Intelligence Service' (CIS) - heard that 'his man' was now of no use to them, he put it in his official report into the exposure and the 'double agent' aspect, that -
"Mr. Digby Hardy proved himself a villain of the first water..."
Oh I say...harsh words, what...just not cricket...
Anyway - no doubt recognising that to kill him would turn him into a 'fallen hero'-type or some such nonsense in British eyes, the rebels simply exiled him out of Ireland and he legged it to Wolverhampton, in England, probably to live with one of his illegal wives...
This 'spy', this wannabe Walter Mitty, lived in relative obscurity in that city until his death at 62 years of age from natural causes, on the 28th October, 1930.
And even then he probably tried to make a deal with the Devil.
(Few more paragraphs about this specimen elsewhere in this post...)
==========================
ON THIS DATE (16TH SEPTEMBER) 160 YEARS AGO : DEATH ANNOUNCED OF 'THE NATION' FOUNDER.
John Blake Dillon (pictured) was born in Dillon House on the Market Square in Ballaghaderreen, in the county of Roscommon, on the 5th May 1814. He was educated at St. Patrick's College Maynooth and Trinity College Dublin. He trained as a barrister and was called to the Irish Bar in 1841.
Dillon became well known as one of the founders of the 'Nation' journal. During this period, the newspapers available to the Irish public had a British bias. The Nation set out to teach people about their own country and its history (and) was first published on 15th October 1842. The print run of 12,000 copies was sold out on the first day. Dillon contributed an estimated fifty-one articles to the journal between the date of its first issue and May 1843.
After witnessing the devastation the Great Famine (sic) had on the country and in particular the poor, the group tried to gather an army to mount an insurrection. The attempted insurrection took place in 1848 but was a failure.
Despite this, the cultural nationalism of the 'Young Ireland' movement had a strong influence on later movements that aimed for Irish independence, most notably the Fenians.
John Blake Dillon was a member of the Young Irelanders. This was originally a group of young men in Daniel O'Connell's Repeal Association. O'Connell's association advocated the repeal of the Act of Union and refused to resort to physical violence or armed rebellion. However, the Young Irelanders advocated the use of force in order to achieve their aims. Dillon had to flee the country after the failed uprising.
He was convicted of High Treason and sentenced to death (but) managed to escape to the United States, dressed as a priest.
There he practiced law until he returned to Ireland under an amnesty in 1855. He was elected as an MP for Tipperary in 1865. A promising career as a politician came to an end when he died of cholera in 1866. He is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin...' (from here.)
As stated above, a section of Daniel O'Connell's 'Loyal National Repeal Association' walked-out of a meeting which was being held in the Conciliation Hall in Dublin on the 28th of July in 1846 and broke with the O’Connell-led 'Repeal Association' for good ; the so-called 'Uncrowned King of Ireland' objected to 'fighting fire with fire' ; even when Irish 'violence' was to be employed in self-defence, Daniel O'Connell's 'Loyal National Repeal Association' was against it.
This led to tension within that organisation, and a 'split' developed - those that left included William Smith O'Brien (a Member of the British Parliament, Harrow-educated, with an accent to match!), Thomas Francis Meagher and John Mitchel, and a new group was established - 'The Young Irelanders'.
That new group's political position was outlined in their newspaper 'The United Irishman' : a call for immediate armed revolt against the British, and a 'War Council' was appointed, of which John Blake Dillon was a member.
Try as they might, John Blake Dillon and 'The Young Irelanders' were not successful in removing the British military and political presence from this country, but they succeeded in keeping the flame alive.
Although he later renounced the views he had held earlier (ie towards his final years he condemned those who adhered to the views he had expressed earlier regarding armed revolt against the British) his good deeds deserve to be highlighted.
He died from cholera, at 52 years of age, in 1866, in Killiney, County Dublin, and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, in Dublin.
THE MONTH UNSPUN...
The stories that hit the headlines.
From Magill magazine, August 2002.
Cork beat Tipperary by 19 points in the Munster football final and then feared they might be stripped of the title on a technicality.
Cork brought on five substitutions and a blood sub, using 21 players - but the maximum number of players allowed to participate in a single game is 20.
Cork were not penalised, however, because they used only five 'normal' substitutions.
Earlier this year, Kildare were deducted a point they earned in a 'National Football League' draw with Sligo because they had used 21 players - the difference being that they had used six 'normal' subs, even though one of the six had originally been used as a 'blood' sub.
Confused?
The GAA's 'Games Administration Committee' wasn't ; it ruled that the penalty of forfeiture applies only when a team exceeds that number of 'normal' substitutions allowed...
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (16TH SEPTEMBER) 181 YEARS AGO : DEATH OF AN IRISH REVOLUTIONARY, POET AND POLITICAL THEORIST.
'Davis, Thomas Osborne (pictured), poet and politician, was born at Mallow (Cork), 14th October 1814.
From his very earliest years he was noted for his passionate love of Ireland.
In 1835 he graduated with distinction at the University of Dublin, mathematics and modern history being his favourite studies. In the debates of the College Historical Society he was distinguished more for talents and learning than for eloquence.
Although called to the Bar in his twenty-fourth year he afterwards evinced little taste for following up the profession of the law. He travelled on the Continent, and collected a good library...
In 1840 he contributed a series of articles on the state of Europe to the Dublin Morning Register — contending that a crisis was approaching in which Ireland would be able to obtain her legislative independence. He became an active member of the Repeal Association, where his ability and the sincerity of his character soon obtained for him an effective and influential position. At times he did not shrink from opposing O'Connell, for whom he had the greatest veneration.
In 1842, with a few other persons desirous of strengthening the spirit of nationality in Ireland, he started the Nation newspaper...' (from here.)
Thomas Osbourne Davis was a revolutionary Irish writer and was one of the leaders of the 'Young Ireland' movement.
He was well educated, having studied in Trinity College, from which institution he received an Arts Degree and, at 24 years young, he was 'called to the Irish Bar'.
In 1842, Thomas Davis and two of his colleagues, Charles Gavan Duffy and John Blake Dillon, were walking together in the Phoenix Park in Dublin discussing, among other issues, no doubt, the 'Hughes/Armagh Assizes' case, an infamous case of its day, and the manner in which it was being reported on.
The three politically like-minded men made a decision there and then to start their own (weekly) newspaper which would present the news in a manner which would not be slanted towards the Westminster point-of-view. 'The Nation' newspaper was born that day.
The first copies of the newspaper were printed from a premises in Trinity Street in Dublin but later moved to a more suitable location in D'Olier Street, before finding a permanent home in Middle Abbey Street, Dublin.
It was well received by Irish society, at home and abroad and, in 1900, it merged with 'The Irish Weekly Independent' -
'There has never been published in this, or any other country, a journal, which was imbued with higher ideals of nationality, which attracted such a brilliant band of writers in prose and verse, which inspired such widespread enthusiasm, or which exercised a greater influence over all classes of its readers, which after a time included every section of the community.
'The Nation' preached a nobler and more self-sacrificing Gospel of Nationality than Irishmen and women had been accustomed to hear for many years.
It sought, not only to disinfect the political life of the country, but to raise the whole standard of national self-respect based on the inalienable right of people to guard their own destinies ; to inculcate a sentiment of pride in Ireland and everything Irish - in our history, legends, language and literature ; in our music and in our art ; in our magnificent contributions to the culture and civilisation of other countries ; in our sacred ruins scattered throughout the land and in lonely islands off our coasts, silently preaching silent sermons on Irish sanctity, learning and foreign rapacity ; in our heroic struggle for freedom throughout the ages ; in the brilliant achievements of our soldiers on the continent of Europe and in America, where they helped the oppressed colonists to achieve their independence – and it strove to regenerate the motherland intellectually, spiritually, socially and nationally...' (From here)
On the 16th September, 1845 - 181 years ago on this date - Thomas Osborne Davis, at only 30 years of age, died in Dublin from scarlet fever, and is buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, in Dublin.
RIP Thomas Osborne Davis.
On the 13th September, 1921, the British Prime Minister, a Mr David Lloyd George, sent a telegram to Mr de Valera, the President of the Irish Republic (previously known as the President of Dáil Éireann ie the 32-County administration, not to be confused with the Leinster House grouping).
In his telegram, Mr George told Mr de Valera that any form of a peace conference could not proceed unless Ireland dropped its demand for complete and separate sovereignty from the United Kingdom.
On the 16th September (1921), Mr de Valera replied -
"Throughout the correspondence that has taken place you have defined your Government’s position. We have defined ours. If there is to be any result, the negotiators must meet without prejudice and untrammelled by any conditions whatsoever..."
18th September : Mr George replied, stating -
"My colleagues and I cannot meet them (the Irish delegates) as the representatives of a sovereign and independent State without disloyalty on our part to the Throne and Empire. I therefore must repeat that unless the second paragraph in your letter of the 12th is withdrawn conference between us is impossible..."
(Mr George, in stating that, was saying that Mr de Valera's stance made a conference impossible, effectively threatening to call the arrangements off and blame the Irish for it!)
19th September : Mr de Valera replied to that -
"We had no thought at any time of asking you to accept any conditions precedent to a Conference. If you seek to impose preliminary conditions, which we must regard as involving a surrender of our whole position, they (the Conference) cannot meet. Was your earlier letter intended to demand or intended to be a demand for a surrender on our part or an invitation to a Conference free on both sides?"
...to which Mr George replied, saying that since he could not enter into a conference on the basis of the correspondence to date that they should start over again -
"We therefore send you herewith a fresh invitation to a Conference in London on October 11th, where we can meet your delegates as spokesmen of the people whom you represent with a view to ascertaining how the association of Ireland with the community of nations known as the British Empire may best be reconciled with Irish national aspirations. Conference, not correspondence, is the most practical and hopeful way to an understanding..."
The next day Mr de Valera accepted the offer on the basis that "Our respective positions have been stated and understood", and 'negotiations' were to start on October 11th (1921).
All that 'back and forthing' only to sell out to the British at 2.15am, in No 10 Downing Street in London, on the 6th December 1921.
And paying for it ever since...
==========================
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.
Breifne O'Reilly, Private Secretary to the (State) Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen, stated -
"The Taoiseach asked the Maltese authorities whether there was anything else they could do to establish what happened to Desmond Boomer. There was no further advice nor assistance the Maltese authorities could offer."
The fact that the Taoiseach appeared not to be briefed with a list of pertinent questions and demands on behalf of grieving Irish citizens with well-founded concerns suggested the Boomer family's tragic loss was at the bottom of the government's Maltese priorities.
Indeed, O'Reilly's following paragraph seemed to confirm this to the Boomer family -
"With regard to your request that the Irish government seek an independent judicial inquiry," he wrote, "...the Minister considers that such a move would imply a lack of confidence in the report of the Maltese Board of Inquiry and that, as a serious implication of that nature would be likely to damage our relations with Malta, it would not be in Ireland's overall interest to accede to your request. He is sorry that there is no other appropriate action open to the Irish government..."
(MORE LATER.)
On the 16th September, 1922, a Mr 'Sir' Alfred William 'Andy' Cope, the British 'Assistant Under-Secretary for Ireland' (based in Dublin Castle) wrote to his political boss, a Mr 'Sir' Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, and told him that Collins' Crew in Ireland "are now going to take the gloves off" in regards to how they were trying to deal with the IRA.
Mr Cope was referring to the so-called 'Public Safety Bill' (aka 'Public Safety Act / Army (Emergency Powers) Resolution') which the Staters were due to implement on the 27th of that month.
This 'Bill' was a publicly-controversial 'emergency measure' to establish military courts with the power to impose the death penalty.
That Free State legislation directly led to the 'official' executions by the Staters of 81 IRA prisoners, by firing squad, between November 1922 and May 1923.
Incidentally, this particular piece of Free State 'law' was passed by Leinster House as a 'resolution' rather than a formal statute, in order to avoid requiring the signature of the English 'King', a Mr George V (!), which would have been politically embarrassing for the 'freedom to achieve freedomers'.
Also incidentally - this month, September 2026, the current crop of Free Staters in Leinster House passed a new 'law' to do with e-scooters but, before they could do so, they had to have that new law approved by the 'European Commission' in Brussels first.
Pathetic - Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...
==========================
"Give ye typewriter and your index finger a rest for a few weeks, because the harvest being generally late in my Brigade, the crop of Intelligent Officers is not yet mature and the harvesters are few..."
- Volunteer Humphrey Murphy (pictured, Officer Commanding, Kerry No. 1 Brigade IRA), on the 16th September, 1922.
Volunteer Murphy was replying to written orders from the IRA Divisional Headquarters and the leadership in Dublin demanding that the local Kerry units organise more systematic, bureaucratic structures and also launch more frequent, coordinated attacks against Free State forces.
It was his way of telling them, biblically, to 'back off', that the paperwork would have to suffer if he and his men were to concentrate instead on fighting a war and navigating local military realities : 'The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few...' - Matthew 9:37 !
==========================
In and around mid-1922, the Stormont administration in the Six Occupied Counties (backed by its parent in Westminster) introduced widespread internment of Irish republican activists ; they 'let loose the dogs of war' - the 'Special Constabulary', the RUC and the British Army were instructed to round-up and intern the rebels and their supporters.
Among those targeted were hundreds of IRA Volunteers attached to the 2nd and 3rd Northern Divisions (primarily Belfast, Antrim, and Down) who, like lesser-active individuals and groups, left their homes and workplaces to (reluctantly) seek sanctuary in the new Free State.
Mr Michael Collins and his fellow Staters (recognising an opportunity to hopefully neutralise hundreds of IRA Volunteers?) let it be known that he and his colleagues in the FSGHQ in Dublin were offering a 'Safe Haven' to those Volunteers, the leadership of whom (including Volunteer Seamus Woods, the Officer Commanding of the 3rd Northern Division IRA) came to an agreement with ex-Volunteer Collins.
The offered sanctuary - the Curragh Camp - was offered to and accepted by the IRA as a venue where they would be housed, fed and actually paid a wage, and would not be expected, coerced or forced to take sides in the IRA V Free State Army war, or join the Stater Army, or prevented from continuing their military training and exercises.
By August/September 1922, there were between 380 and 525 Northern IRA men stationed at the Curragh.
Then, on the 22nd August (1922), Mr Michael Collins, the primary architect, protector and enforcer of the 'Safe Havens/Northern Policy' offerings(/ploy?) was shot dead by the IRA during an ambush at Béal na Bláth in the county of Cork.
On the 16th September (1922), a Mr Diarmuid O’Hegarty (pictured), the 'Director of Organisation' of the Stater Army, wrote to one of his political/military bosses, a Mr Richard Mulcahy (Free State 'Minister for Defence' and, later, 'Commander-in-Chief' of the FSA) saying that he is awaiting a decision from Leinster House as to whether the Northern Volunteers in the Curragh should be asked to decide either to join the Stater Army or go back to their homes in the under-siege Occupied Six Counties!
On the 21st September, Volunteer Seamus Woods wrote to Stater Mr Richard Mulcahy stating that he and his leadership comrades had detected a marked change in the attitude of some FSGHQ staff since the death of Mr Collins and that they, the Stater Command in the Curragh, seemed to be revising their offered sanctuary policy ; it was known then that demoralisation was setting in with ex-IRA Volunteers in the Occupied Six Counties who had (temporarily) discontinued their service with the Movement in the hope/belief that the Staters would 'unofficially' organise a fight back against partition.
On the 29th September, Volunteer Woods wrote again to Mr Mulcahy, highlighting the now-obvious shift in Leinster House policy re the North, stating "that the breaking up of this organisation (IRA) is the first step in making partition permanent...".
The new 'join us-or-go-home' policy didn't go down well with the Volunteers in the Curragh Camp, who felt abandoned by and disgusted with the Staters and had no heart in fighting with them against their old comrades in the IRA, more concerned, as they were, and rightly so, with returning home to defend their families and communities in the Six Counties.
The Curragh Volunteers fractured and split - about 245 of the fighters joined the Stater Army simply because they had no homes left to safely return to in the North without facing immediate British/RUC internment, with hundreds more refusing to take up arms against fellow republicans - they attempted to return home or faded into civilian life in the Free State.
By December 1922, the Free State Army GHQ issued an order that "..the 1st and 2nd Northern Divisions be stood down entirely...", effectively ending the 'relationship' between the Staters and the remaining Northern republican structures.
Another win delivered to Westminster by the Staters...
==========================
On the 16th September, 1922, 'The Dundalk Democrat' newspaper reported on a FSA soldier, a Mr Patrick McBreen, who had been shot during an IRA ambush on Church Street, Dundalk, on the 15th.
Mr McBreen died later on the date of the shooting.
Mr McBreen, a farm labourer from the townland of Corravilla, near Shercock, in the county of Cavan, had joined the FSA that same year.
He was 20 years of age.
==========================
"The peace of Belfast does not apparently meet with favour in some quarters, as, after a good period of welcome orderliness, some persons of the hooligan type have been doing their best to revive the awful deeds which disgraced the city several months ago..."
- 'The Belfast Telegraph' newspaper, 16th September 1922, condemning those in the city who defended themselves from previous attacks by 'official' and unofficial anti-Irish military and paramilitary forces.
The real "hooligan type" has been committing "awful deeds" throughout the world, in about 57 distinct major territories, colonies, dominions, and protectorates, claiming governance over a total population of around 458 million people.
'And you dare to call me a terrorist...'
==========================
On the 16th September, 1922, a commercial trader horse-drawn convoy ('supply train') of 15 carts, carrying several tons of different foodstuffs, was making its way from Killarney to Tralee, in the county of Kerry.
Trucks couldn't carry the load because the IRA had closed roads and trains were of no use because train tracks had been disabled ; but horse and carts could transport the goods, on and off road.
As the convoy was passing through a narrow gap in Brennan's Glen, between Farranfore and Killarney, armed IRA Volunteers commandeered the load for use by its own Volunteers and those transporting it were sent on their way, on foot.
The media labeled these confiscations as 'The Flour Wars' ; the IRA objective, as well as actually feeding its own fighters, was to disrupt local commerce and undermine public confidence in the newly formed Free State administration.
Incidentally, at that same ambush point in Brennan's Glen, on the 27th of that month, a heavily armed Free State military convoy was ambushed by the IRA and, during what is described as "a fierce gun battle", two Stater Officers, a Mr Daniel Hannon and a Mr John Martin, were killed.
The IRA had no casualties, and returned safely to base after the operation.
========================
ON THIS DATE (16TH SEPTEMBER) 106 YEARS AGO : 'OH WHAT A TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE..'
'16th September 1920 : British double agent John Henry Gooding aka F. Digby Hardy (pictured) offers to betray his superior, Basil Thomson, to the IRA.
It is unknown if the offer was genuine or part of a trap for Michael Collins ; exposed by Irish press as an ex-convict, forger and bigamist, 'Gooding' admits his past and scores a propaganda victory for the IRA ; he is allowed to flee Ireland unharmed and dies of natural causes in 1930...'
'John Henry Gooding, alias Frank Digby Hardy was an English naval writer, journalist, soldier, career criminal and would-be spy during the Irish War of Independence. Born in Devonport, Plymouth to a middle-class family, he was educated in London before gaining notoriety in his native Devon as a bigamist and a cheque forger.
Imprisoned numerous times throughout his life, he was enlisted by British intelligence to capture Irish Republican Army leader Michael Collins in 1920...his enlistment into the British intelligence services came at a time when membership of the organisation was low and a recruitment drive had been initiated by its leadership for the purposes of action in Ireland during the Irish War of Independence...'
'A convicted forger serving a 5 year sentence in a London prison, one F. Digby Hardy, offered his services as a spy.
Hardy was to travel to Ireland and establish contact with the 'Irish Intelligence Service' ('IIS', the Irish Republican Intelligence agency).
Hardy's letter, however, had been intercepted and transmitted to IIS Headquarters, where Irish operatives began to amass a dossier of incriminating information concerning Hardy's past. Collins actually got a copy of the letter Gooding wrote offering his services.
Collins permitted Hardy to make contact with the IIS, and shortly there after arranged what Hardy had been led to believe was a conference with IIS officers. Those present were in fact American and British journalists anticipating the scoop that Hardy was shortly to provide.
During this meeting the leaders of the IIS confronted Hardy with his criminal past, and his mission to penetrate the IIS. When Hardy learned the true identity and purpose of his host, he made a full confession, hoping thereby to obtain leniency from his inquisitors.
Because of Hardy's cooperation, the IIS spared his life and gave him until the next morning to be out of Ireland. The story made international news headlines, and the BIS suffered a humiliating reversal before world opinion...'
The paragraphs above were taken from various sources as, indeed, was the subject matter - a hired mercenary, spawned, like all mercenaries, from a half-successful coupling between a couple, one of whom - or both - lacked the moral fibre to do it right.
Your manifest perfections never cease
To drive the day-long terrors out of mind
They are the lights the darkness hides behind
Allowing satisfaction its increase
Beyond the petty boundaries designed
To keep us well aware the world's unkind
And still your eyes proclaim a reign of peace... (from here.)
John Henry Gooding, alias Frank Digby Hardy, infected this world from the 5th April, 1868, until the 28th October 1930. He was 52 years of age when he died. From natural causes.
He did well to make it that long.
Thanks for poppin' in, and for reading - ya know where to find us for our next posting...
...but that won't be until around mid-October 2026, as meself and the Girl Gang are wintering in the Algarve, Morocco and the Canaries (we're off on our holliers to sunny, dry and warm climes with a beach within stumbling distance of our villa and shopping centres, bars and restaurants to help keep us amused!) ...but I'll still be voicing me opinion on 'X' and 'Facebook' as well, if yer looking for me!
Sharon and the team.
Slán go fóill anois!
Hasta pronto ; ¡Adiós por ahora!
