RICHARD DALTON WILLIAMS ; 'SHAMROCK' OF 'THE NATION' NEWSPAPER .....


.....when Richard Dalton Williams' first poem ('The Munster War Song') was published in 'The Nation' newspaper on 7th January , 1843 , under the pseudonym 'Shamrock' , the author was in the process of moving from Carlow to Dublin to study medicine .....


'The Nation' newspaper received a great response to Williams' poems , and 'Shamrock' became a regular contributor , with works such as 'The Dying Gael' , 'Sisters of Charity' and 'The Haunted Man' , which raised the profile and readership of the newspaper .

As well as the poems , 'The Nation' published a series of humorous articles from Richard Dalton Williams , entitled 'Misadventures of a Medical Student' and described the author , 'Shamrock' (in its July 1851 issue), in the following terms -

-- " His intellect is robust and vigorous , his passion impetuous and noble , his perception of beauty most delicate and enthusiastic ; his sympathies take in the whole range of human affections , and his humour is irresistible . We think , indeed, that 'Shamrock' excels all his contemporaries in imagination and humour ."

(MORE LATER)>


THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :


EUGENE FITZGERALD OF TRALEE .

" Beyond Ardfert , between Tralee Bay and Ballyheigue , lies the lonely , colourless waste of Currahane Sands . Grey green levels of short , wind-bitten grass-land , swelling now and then into sand-dunes , with never a tree or a singing bird to tell them when it is summer , end in the pebbly beach and the salt sea . Few people live there ; from the road a farmhouse or two can be seen : Mrs Lyons' , with its grey-roofed hayshed and old Mrs Connell's cottage beyond , houses gloomy with memory now of black winter nights .

Eugene Fitzgerald was Mrs Connell's nephew : it was her joy and her terror to have him living out with her in Currahane . His mother is a woman who loves her sons , but would not grudge them to Ireland . Antony was fighting and was arrested when the Free State troops came to Tralee ; her house was raided for Eugene again and again . He had been a Volunteer since the fighting began , a scout when he was thirteen years old " . (MORE LATER)>




I'M BEHIND YOU ......

......Paddy Wright , then a Provisional Sinn Fein Councillor in Kildare , seconded Derek Nallys candidature , thus allowing him to stand in the 1997 Free State Presidential election . [See AP/RN , 23rd October , 1997 , page 9.]



OH NO YOU'RE NOT ......

...... " He was also involved in working with the RUC " - Gerry Adams , in an interview with 'The Sunday Tribune' newspaper , 19th October ,1997 , page 13 , explaining why he would not vote for Derek Nally in the Free State Presidential election !


GERRY - " Right , Paddy - you second him . That should help get us in with the establishment ."

PADDY - " Yeah , ok , Gerry . But won't that get us into trouble with our own people ? "

GERRY - " Naa , I can sort that shower out . I'll issue a statement saying we don't support him ."

PADDY - " But then I'll look foolish , Gerry ! "

GERRY - " HEY ! Respectability has a price , ya know .... besides , Paddy , there's plenty 'a room up here on the fence with the rest of us ! "

RICHARD DALTON WILLIAMS ; 'SHAMROCK' OF 'THE NATION' NEWSPAPER .


In Dublin , in October 1822 , a child was born to Mary Williams , wife of a Tipperary Count , Count D'Alton ; the child , Richard Dalton Williams , was reared at Grenanstown , Nenagh , County Tipperary and educated at St. Stanislaus School , Tullabeg , in County Laois , and St. Patricks College , County Carlow .

His first published poem was entitled - 'The Munster War Song' and it appeared in 'The Nation' newspaper on 7th January , 1843 , under the pseudonym 'Shamrock' ; at the time of its publication , Richard Dalton Williams was in the process of moving , from Carlow , to Dublin , to study medicine in St Vincents Hospital . (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 .

MICHAEL O'SULLIVAN OF KNOCKANES ......

......two IRA Volunteers , Michael O'Sullivan and Denny Connor , were surrounded by Free State troops ; during the gun-fight , a bullet shattered O'Sullivan's right arm ....


" Denny Connor succeeded in getting away with a slight wound in the cheek . O'Sullivan seized in his left hand the gun that he could never use again and , dashing into a farmhouse , broke it on the floor . When the soldiers rushed in and saw what he had done and saw him facing them , still defiant , they fell on him in fury , dragged him outside the farmhouse , and shot him there . "

[END]


CLINTON , COCAINE , CUBA ......

.....According to a report in 'The New York Times' newspaper [see AP/RN , 15th May , 1997 , page 19] , a U S Democratic Party fundraiser travelled to Cuba in 1995 to raise money for Bill Clinton's re-election campaign . The fundraiser , Vivian Mannerud , travelled to Havana in November 1995 and stayed in the Copacabana Hotel , where she met with Jorge Cabrera , who donated twenty-thousand dollars to the campaign .

Cabrera was later imprisoned in Florida on charges of importing Colombian-sourced cocaine into the U S . When arrested , Cabrera had photographs showing himself with U S Vice President Al Gore and First Lady Hillary Clinton , and also an invitation to a Christmas celebration at the White House , to be held in December 1995 !

I presume the bould Bill would describe that as being "even-handed" - ie , take the money from drug-barons and business-people alike ...

[and speaking of being "even-handed" -->]


--> CLINTON , COMPLIMENTS, CONFORMING ......

..... " I would applaud the White House and President Clinton's even-handed approach to all this (so-called 'peace-process' business) especially as we move into unchartered waters ."

-- so said Mairead Keane , Provisional Sinn Fein representative in Washington at the time [ see AP/RN , 11th September , 1997 , page 11] .


" Unchartered waters " ? Apart from the fact that Dev and MacGiolla , amongst others , have sailed and sunk in those same waters , was'nt it by using same that Cabrera and his cartel got Charlie past the customs .....

JOSEPH MALONE , HUNGER-STRIKER , 1941 .....


.....on 21st January , 1941 , Joseph Malone was ordered off the hunger-strike by his O/C , Joe Collins ; within days , their demand to be recognised as political prisoners was granted - but it was too late for Joseph Malone . His internal organs were either bruised , cut , ruptured and/or bleeding . He was beyond help .....


He lived for only twelve months , in agony , from the date that he finished his fast ; on 21st January , 1942 , aged only twenty-four (24) , Joseph Malone's crippled body gave up . He is buried in the Republican Plot in Milltown Cemetery in Belfast . Like thousands of Irish rebels , both before and after him , the British made his life a misery and put him in an early grave .

I had the intention of ending this story by comparing the manner of Joseph Malone's death with the life of those who sit down to dine genteely at 'thousand-dollar-a-plate' functions with those who either perpetrated the barbarous act on Joseph Malone and his comrades or , by their in-action , supported those who carried out said act . But I can't do it .

Joseph Malone and his comrades , in the 'Parkhursts' of their day , and in the 'Portlaoises' and 'Maghaberrys' of today , deserve better than to be mentioned on the same page as those lackeys . I'll leave it at that , but will remind you , the reader , that more than sixty-one years after Joseph Malone's death over the issue of political status , the situation in HMP Maghaberry , a British concentration camp in Ireland , regarding that same issue , is escalating .

Will the 'establishment' of the day never learn ?

[END]



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 .

MICHAEL O'SULLIVAN OF KNOCKANES .

" The last fight of Michael O'Sullivan has grown almost to a legend around Knockanes . The end came so suddenly that no one can tell exactly what happened or what was said . On November 2nd a party of about forty Free State soldiers under Captain 'Tiny' Lyons advanced to Headford to make a round-up of Republican men . The hunted Republicans turned and attacked their hunters . The Free State troops , retreating towards Killarney , encountered Michael O'Sullivan and one comrade , who engaged them and kept them at bay for two hours .

At length , Lyons, with six soldiers, contrived to surround the two Republicans and fired on them , all seven at once . O'Sullivan , finding his retreat cut off , kept up fire until a bullet shattered his right arm ......" (MORE LATER)>



20th CENTURY REVOLUTIONARY ......

....... " I leave for the guidance of other Revolutionaries who may tread the path which I have trod . Never treat with the enemy - never surrender to his mercy - fight to the finish . Nothing can be gained by any other means ."

--- Eamon Ceannt , one of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising , quoted just prior to his execution by the British on 7th May , 1916 .


20th CENTURY 'SUIT' ......

....... " We know there are two roads before us . One is the road to further conflict and the other is the road to the negotiating table . We have declared ourselves and now re-declare ourselves in favour of travelling to the negotiating table . There is nowhere else for us to go ".

--- Martin McGuinness , as quoted in 'The Irish News' , 3rd February , 1997.

" Nowhere else to go " , eh , Martin ? If its any consolation - its a corner of your own making that you've backed yourself in too .....

JOSEPH MALONE , HUNGER-STRIKER , 1941 .....


.....during force-feeding , the screws would constantly yank the length of tubing from the victims stomach and quickly re-insert it ; when the screws actually felt the tube hitting the bottom of the persons stomach they would stop pushing on it ....


That's where the quote that I began this piece with comes in --

--- " I was in a cell next to Joe Malone . On the second day of feeding there was no sound from his cell for half-an-hour after the screws leaving . When he spoke from his window he told me he had lost consciousness while being fed . He woke up later lying on the floor , alone , with the door locked . He was wretchedly sick and spitting blood . Looking out on the prison wall he remarked - "It would be a decent thing for them to take us out and put us up against that wall and shoot us ." "

--- the words of Joe Collins , Officer Commanding IRA , Parkhurst Prison .

On 21st January , 1941 , Joe Collins ordered Joseph Malone off the hunger-strike ; day's later , the Irish POW's were offered proper segregation from the other inmates and the rest of their demands for political status were granted . Joe Malone was operated on as his internal organs were either bruised , cut , ruptured and/or bleeding , but he was beyond help ..... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle , first published in 1924 -

JOHN LAWLOR OF BALLYHEIGUE .....

....a division of Free State troops surrounded Ballyheigue on the night of October 30th , 1922 ; John Lawlor had good luck and ill luck that night ....

" Having helped to extricate two companies of Volunteers , he went with a couple of comrades to secure arms . They were captured ; they disarmed their guard and dashed away over the fields with the rifle , in triumph . They headed , by mistake , straight into the enemy post and were seen and fired on . The others escaped but John fell , wounded , and was taken prisoner .

They condemned him to death that night and killed him in the early morning . They left his body in the street of Ballyheigue , outside the church gate . "

[END]


TESTING .....

..... in 1958 , John Dunster , who then worked at Windscale (Sellafield) [and was later appointed head of the Free State 'Nuclear Radiological Protection Board'] told the 'Geneva Conference on Peaceful Uses of the Atom' that "discharges from Windscale have been deliberately maintained high enough to obtain detectable activity levels in samples of fish , seaweed and shore sand . The experiment is still proceeding . This year (1958) the rate of discharge of radioactivity was deliberately increased partly to dispose of unwanted waste but principally to yield better experimental data ."

(See 'Magill' magazine , November 1986 , pages 19 and 20.)

If the Brits want to s**t on their own doorstep , that's their business ; but nuclear waste knows no boundaries . The Brits are aware of that , obviously , but just don't care ....


OOOP's.....

.....on the 17th of March , 1986 , the then U K Energy Secretary , Mr Peter Walker , described nuclear power as --

-- " The safest form of energy known to man ."

Three weeks later , Chernobyle took place .....

Perhaps the Brits got enough "samples" of radioactive "fish , seaweed and shore sand" from Chernobyle . But I doubt it ....

JOSEPH MALONE , HUNGER-STRIKER , 1941 ......


......after they had being on hunger-strike for five days , the senior Medical Officer in Parkhurst Prison , a Dr. Hickson , decided to begin force-feeding the Republican prisoners .....


Being 'force-fed' is a vicious and agonising procedure ; in short , this gruesome act involves holding the victim down while a 'vice'-like object with a hole in its centre is forced in between the victim's teeth and the handle on same wound-up , forcing the person's mouth to open fully .

A length of rubber tubing was then inserted into the centre-hole of the device and forced down the person's throat into his/her stomach ; the other end of the tubing had a funnel placed into it , and 'liquid food' (ie raw eggs , tea , milk etc) was poured into the funnel and flowed down same and into the victim's stomach . This practice was often made even more unbearable by the prison staff sharply removing the tubing from the persons stomach , back up the throat and out of the centre-hole of the device , only to re-insert it immediately in a forceful manner .

This was known to have been done on each of the Irish Republican prisoners a number of times during every session . The screws would only stop re-inserting the tube when they physically felt it hitting the bottom of the person's stomach . (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 .


JOHN LAWLOR OF BALLYHEIGUE .

" John Lawlor was an adventurous boy and a good soldier ; his few years of manhood were full of action and enterprise . He joined the Volunteers in 1918 . The Treaty and the subtle arguments of those who claimed that it was not surrender were intolerable to John . He was in arms for the Republic again in 1922 .

On the night of October 30th a division of Free State troops surrounded Ballyheigue . John had good luck and ill luck that night ..... " (MORE LATER)>




A TAX ON YOUR PATRIOTISM ......

......in 1986 , the Fine Gael Ard Fheis (party conference) was held over the weekend of the 18th and 19th of October . One of the delegates , a Ronan Flynn , from Dublin South , took to the stage and stated - "What we need today is patriots . Every member of the workforce must be a patriot . That means working hard and paying your fair share of taxes ." (So THATS why they despise Wolfe Tone !)


NO TAX ON YOUR PATRIOTISM ......

...... speaking at the same venue , Garret Fitzgerald (then Fine Gael leader) stated - " Now is the time for honesty , for realism , for telling the truth . It is the time for plain speaking , for honest dealing . This future Ireland , to which we dedicate ourselves , will not be inhabited by a fearful people , afraid to face reality . It will not be a backward-looking Ireland . It will not be an Ireland of narrow-minded people , where personal , parochial or sectional interests hold sway over the common good . It will not be an Ireland of rigid or uncaring attitudes , nor an autocratic Ireland where political parties are personal dictatorships , with instructions handed down from the top ."


Too late for the bullshit , Garret - the previous speaker gave the game away : 'if it can be taxed , tax it' !

JOSEPH MALONE , HUNGER STRIKER , 1941 .....


.....because of their refusal to wear a prison uniform in Parkhurst Prison , the IRA prisoners were kept naked in solitary confinement for almost two years , in cells usually used to confine prisoners who were being punished .....


Every week for that two year period each P O W had his cell entered by a number of screws who would beat the prisoner senseless and then dress him in a prison-issue uniform ; the prisoner would then be carried or dragged to the Governor's office where he would be sentenced to one extra week 'on punishment' for "violating the rules on conventional dress" (ie - not wearing a prison uniform). It was a vindictive break with monotony for the prison staff .

In January , 1941 , the Irish P O W's could take no more ; the only weapon available to them was a hunger-strike , which they embarked on . After five days on hunger-strike , the senior Medical Officer in Parkhurst Prison , a Dr. Hickson , realised that the prisoners were serious and would only end their protest when granted political status . His career and reputation was on the line - he decided to force-feed the Republican prisoners ..... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle , first published in 1924 -

JACK GALVIN OF KILLORGLIN .....

.... Jack Galvin was a prisoner in a Free State convoy on its way to Tralee - the Ballyseedy road was blocked by trees , and the IRA prisoners were forced to clear the road ....


" A Free State Lieutenant named Horan accompanied them : "When you get back into the lorries," he said quietly, "keep Galvin in the middle of the crowd." After they had cut the third tree they were marched on about fifty yards to Ballyseedy Cross and waited for the lorries there . While they waited they heard shots from the Killorglin road ; then the lorries came up . Jack Galvin was missing . Lieutenant Horan counted the prisoners ; he wanted to go back and look for the missing man , but he was ordered to proceed with the convoy and had to obey .

That night the men of Tralee were out searching , and all the next day . They found Jack Galvin's body behind the ditch where the lorry had halted , in Ballyseedy Wood ."

[END]



REAL ? - NO ! .....

...... Bob Woodward of 'The Washington Post' newspaper broke a story in October 1986 claiming that Ronnie Reagan , then U S President , planned a campaign of disinformation against Moammar Gadhafi . The journalist stated that Reagan's spokesperson , Larry Speakes , misled the U S media on all things Libyan .

Woodward interviewed Reagan's 'National Security Adviser' , John D. Poindexter , who admitted that the "(disinformation campaign) combines real and illusionary events , through a disinformation programme , with the basic goal" of making Gadhafi believe that some of his own people and the U S were about to move against him . (See 'The Evening Press' , 7th October 1986 - a Tuesday , if memory serves- page 4.)

Reagan and Gadhafi ; Bush and Hussein . Same s**t , different century !



UNREAL ? - YES !.....

...... Arnold Lokshin , a native of San Francisco , defected to the (then) Soviet Union with his family in September 1986 ; he said his life in the U S had been "a nightmare of persecution" . Lokshin , a cancer specialist , stated - " We thought this was a place where we could raise our children without harassment . We were blackmailed on the telephone , our children were threatened and we received anonymous letters in which we were accused of treachery . I have brought letters of this kind to Moscow . In the end , I was thrown out of work and they threatened to physically destroy me and my three children , the oldest of whom is fifteen years old ."

He claimed he was picked on by the FBI because he was a former campaigner against the Vietnam War whose subsequent protests against the policies of the Reagan Administration incurred the anger of the FBI . (See 'The Evening Press' , 9th October 1986 - must have been a Thursday- page 3.)


Lokshin was apparently unfortunate enough to have been chosen by some 'bright spark' in Reagan's office to be used as an 'example' to others in the victims social circle to "keep their heads down" .

State harassment ? In America , the 'Land of the Free' ? Could'nt be - that only happens in places like Libya .....

JOSEPH MALONE , HUNGER-STRIKER , 1941 .....


....an active member of the Irish language group 'Conradh na Gaeilge' , Joseph Malone regularly stayed in the Donegal Gaeltacht for his holidays ....


At around twenty years young , Joseph Malone joined the Belfast Battalion of the IRA and , in February 1939, he travelled to England to take part in the bombing campaign . Within three months he was in Pentonville Prison , serving ten years penal servitude for possession of explosives .

The Republican prisoners were moved from Pentonville Prison and placed on the Isle of Wight , in Parkhurst Prison , where conditions were appalling ; the English 'Ordinary Decent Criminals' (ie non-political) and the warders took turns in beating the Republican prisoners , on a daily basis .

The prison authorities attempted to treat the Irish POW's as criminals , but they resisted ; because of their refusal to wear prison clothes , they were kept naked in solitary confinement for almost two years , in cells usually used to confine prisoners who were being punished . (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 .


JACK GALVIN OF KILLORGLIN .

" Killorglin , held by the Republicans all the summer of nineteen-twenty-two , was occupied in August by Free State troops . On September the twenty-fifth , the Republicans made an attempt to take the town again ; the fight lasted twenty-nine hours - twenty Republicans were captured , several wounded , and four killed . After four days in Killorglin barracks the prisoners were put into lorries to be moved to Tralee .

Jack Galvin was among them : his guards had beaten him and broken his left hand . He was suffering great pain and the hand was in a sling . At Ballyseedy the lorries halted : two great trees had been felled and lay across the road . Colonel Michael Hogan ordered the prisoners to get out and remove the trees , but Galvin , because of his useless hand, was kept in the lorry . When the prisoners had cut the two trees they were sent to remove a third , which lay further on .... " (MORE LATER)>



DEAD SAFE .....

.....Autopsies performed on the bodies of three former Windscale (Sellafield) workers have shown plutonium concentrations hundreds of times higher than in the general population .

A report in Britains 'New Scientist' magazine , confirmed by the 'National Radiological Board' , said that in one case the concentration was thousand's of times higher than normal ! Even the locals living around the nuclear plant have plutonium levels of , on average, fifty to two-hundred-and-fifty per cent higher than anyone else in Britain . For workers and locals , the most severe plutonium concentrations were found in lung tissue and lymph nodes connected to the lungs , which suggests that the plutonium had been breathed in .

These peoples ribs , verterbae and livers all showed consistently high concentrations of plutonium .

( Above information from 'The Evening Press' newspaper , 15th August - a Friday , I believe- 1986 , page 4.)

MENTAL PICTURE .... of a Windscale (Sellafield)/B N F L 'Public Relations' person -->

<-- Externally = 'Steve Silvermint'-type , immaculately dressed , well-spoken , white teeth , manicured , tanned and polite , with good manners . What every mother wants for her daughter .

<-- Internally = Remember the van-driver , the 'baddie' , in one of the 'ROBOCOP' films , who missed his target and smashed into a large container , and was flushed out of the back of the van in a tide of nuclear puke .....

JOSEPH MALONE , HUNGER-STRIKER , 1941 .


" I was in a cell next to Joe Malone . On the second day of feeding there was no sound from his cell for half-an-hour after the screws leaving . When he spoke from his window he told me he had lost consciousness while being fed . He woke up later, lying on the floor, alone, with the door locked . He was wretchedly sick and spitting blood . Looking out on the prison wall he remarked - " It would be a decent thing for them to take us out and put us up against that wall and shoot us . " "

---- the words of Joe Collins , O/C IRA prisoners , Parkhurst Prison , Isle of Wight .

Joseph Malone was born in Cullingtree Road in Belfast in 1918 and , as a young man , worked as a sorter in the GPO , Belfast ; he was an active member of the Irish language group 'Conradh na Gaeilge' , and stayed in the Donegal Gaeltacht for his holidays . (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 .

BERTIE MURPHY OF CASTLEISLAND....


....in September 1922 , IRA Volunteer Bertie Murphy was captured by the Free Staters and used by them as a hostage , to clear barricades etc . He was marched from Castleisland to Killarney and held in the Free State temporary barracks , the 'Great Southern Hotel' ....

" A Free State patrol had been ambushed on the road and there was violent excitement among the garrison in the hotel . A soldier seized Bertie by the throat and struck him ; then an officer called him out to the steps . There is a flight of eight steps in front of the hotel . The officer threw him , head first, down the steps and fired shots into him as he lay below .

Somebody who saw it went for a priest , and Bertie lived until the priest came . He had been killed , the Free State authorities stated , "in the ambush in Brennan's Glen ." "

[END]



OUCH ! ......(in the wallet..) -->

<-- All was rosy for Fine Gael man Eddie Collins and his missus , Mrs Eddie (or Lelia , as her friends called her). But the sky fell in on them and thorns were found on the roses and etc etc on the 24th September 1986 (a Wednesday , I believe..) , when the bould Eddie , then a Free State Minister , was sacked ! The Fine Gael boss at the time , Garret Fitzgerald , placed Austin Deasy in the seat that Eddie had been keeping warm .

Lelia stated - " We were deeply hurt . It was my greatest disappointment . Ed had made Garret Fitzgerald leader and Taoiseach , in my opinion - and on a particularly crucial day for the Taoiseach . I prayed and said Novenas all day for him . I wonder now if that was such good sense . "


Lelia said that her Ed was "shy" and "not a great media man" , but she felt he had better qualifications than the Taoiseach (oh nasty !) - " He was absolutely lost and wasted as a Minister of State " (ie : it was below him) "but he took the job because he felt it was his duty to his constituents and to the people of Waterford . Garret Fitzgerald let us down badly . I am absolutely disgusted with his weakness . I think Garret Fitzgerald does not like people to be intellectually equal to him . He has let us down very badly . "

(From 'The Evening Press' , 25th September , 1986 - a Thursday , if memory serves- page 3).


WELL screw him and his bloody train timetables , right, Missus ?

The bastard .....

AMERICAN FENIANS ; THEIR PLAN TO RAID THE CHESTER CASTLE MILITARY ARSENAL IN ENGLAND , 1867 .....

.....on being told that the Brits were ready for an attack on Chester Castle , the Fenian leadership ordered that all arms be dumped and that the rebels (estimated at over one-thousand strong) disperse - the British police later reported finding large quantities of weapons in Chester Town .....


In Ireland , the British blocked-off the ports in Dublin and Dundalk and quarantined all ships , steamers etc that docked in the port's ; hundreds of Fenians were arrested .

Fenian Captain John McCafferty and John Flood were caught in a small boat off Dublin Bay on 23rd February , 1867 - they were arrested and later sentenced to penal servitude for life . The fact that the informer was John F. Corydon was not discovered until the following September (1867) ; the course of Irish history could well have been changed in that one week in February 1867 but for the actions of that man . But the struggle itself continued ....

[END]


THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :


BERTIE MURPHY OF CASTLEISLAND .....

....in September 1922 , IRA Volunteer Bertie Murphy was captured by the Free Staters and taken out on patrol with them , as a hostage ...


" His mother heard that he was to be taken to Scartaglen , to remove a barricade and went in dread to the Officers of the IRA . They told her the barricade was not dangerous , and Bertie removed it without disaster on Sunday night . On the following Wednesday , September the nineteenth (1922) the troops from Castleisland went to Killarney .

A friend of Bertie Murphy's saw him marched through the streets carrying a heavy bag on his back . He was taken to the temporary barracks - the Great Southern Hotel . There were other prisoners in the guard-room , some of whom knew him well . (MORE LATER)>



OUCH ! ...... (below the belt..) ->

<- ...when he was a prospective election candidate for the British Conservative Party in the Scottish Constituency of East Lothian , a Mr Peter Clarke gave an address to the 'Federation of Conservative Students' , in which he stated -

" General Pinochet (of Chile) must be our inspiration . He is always caricatured by the left as merely an expert in electrifying peoples testicles ."

I could say thats a load of b***s , and tell Peter he's only a p***k , but this is a family column . And besides , its not forceful enough ...

TUNE IN TOMORROW for 'OUCH ! ......(in the wallet)' ->

<- ... a heart-breaking , mind-blowing , true-life story/drama of a Waterford woman , 'Lelia' , on her way up the social ladder , thanks to her husbands connection with a notorious Dublin-based organisation known to the authorities as 'Fine Gael' . This gang were not the type to 'take prisoners' , even from within their own ranks ; the womans chap , 'Eddie' , was about to be axed .....

Coming to a computer near you - starts tomorrow : don't miss it , or else ....

AMERICAN FENIANS ; THEIR PLAN TO RAID THE CHESTER CASTLE MILITARY ARSENAL IN ENGLAND , 1867 .....

..... the Fenians hoped to be sailing into Dublin Bay before midnight on Monday 11th February , 1867 , with the arsenal from Chester Castle ....


However , in the early afternoon of 11th February , a man who worked for the British administration in Dublin Castle but was a Fenian sympathiser , Thomas Breslin , got word to the Fenian leader Captain John McCafferty that the British were aware of the proposed attack on Chester Castle .

Breslin notified the Fenian leadership that there was an informer within the ranks of their leadership and , acting on that informers advice , the British had strengthened the Castle guard , local militia (British armed and trained) were out in force on the streets of Chester and British troop re-inforcements were on the way to the area from London .

The attack had to be called off , and quickly - word was sent out to dump arms and disperse . The British police later reported finding large quantities of arms and ammunition dumped in the grounds of the railway station and in the ponds and canals of the town ..... (More Later)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :

BERTIE MURPHY OF CASTLEISLAND -

" Bertie Murphy was seventeen years old when he was killed in September , nineteen-twenty-two. During the Black-and-Tan time his mother could not persuade him to stay at school ; he would be drilling with the Fianna and carrying despatches for the Volunteers . His officer in the Fianna , Hickey, joined the Free State Army and Bertie Murphy became Captain of the Fianna then .

After the outbreak of civil war , Hickey led many a search for his old comrade , but Bertie eluded his enemies for four months . One day in September(1922) he was walking down a bohereen at Dysart , alone, with his rifle on his shoulder , when he encountered a Free State patrol . His mother was standing at the door of her little shop in Castleisland when she saw Bertie led up the street .

He was pale and disfigured , his face bruised . He signed to her with his hand to go in from the doorway . They had threatened , one of the soldiers told her afterwards, to shoot him at his mother's door. They kept him prisoner that day at the hotel and his mother spoke to him there . Hickey was one of his guards . They took him out as a hostage that night when patrolling in Ballymacelligot and brought him back to the hotel .... (MORE LATER)>



SUITS FOR SALE , CAREER'S TO BE MADE .....

.... when the 'Hillsborough Treaty' was signed by the Dublin and London administrations in 1985 (with the intention of defeating the Movement and stabilising the Six and Twenty-Six Counties in the interests of British imperialism and Free Statism) protests by both sides on the ground took place .

While Joe and Josephine Soap were arguing the pros and cons of the Treaty , or simply tuning-out altogether , a section of the Treaty was quietly working away in the background : the so-called 'International Fund' . That 'Fund' was set up under the 1985 Hillsborough Treaty but was only legally established on Thursday , 18th September , 1986 ; signing ceremonies in Dublin and London took place , all very low-key .

The reason for the silence ? - the sound of money ! America had already put fifty million dollars into the 'Fund' kitty , with a promise of two-hundred million dollars more over the following four years ; the Canadians gave ten million dollars , while Australia , New Zealand and the E U (then EEC) had been called on for "agreed contributions" .


The then Free State Minister for Foreign Affairs (and up-and-coming 'tea baron') Peter Barry and the then British 'Charge d'Affaires' , Robert Stimson , signed the 'Fund' into existence in Dublin , while British Sir Geoffrey Howe (then British Foreign Secretary) and Noel Dorr (then Free State Ambassador to London) signed the 'Fund'-papers in London .

It is believed that approximately three-hundred-and-fifty million dollars was raised to "stimulate private investment and enterprise , supplement public spending programmes and encourage voluntary effort including self-help schemes " . In other words , fat cats with nice tans to match their suits which , in turn , were colour-coded to go with the briefcase and company car , all with one objective -to purchase those who opposed the British presence .

They failed then , but had better luck in 1998 , with the 'Stormont Treaty' . And they managed to change old comrades of mine into suits like themselves .

AMERICAN FENIANS ; THEIR PLAN TO RAID THE CHESTER CASTLE MILITARY ARSENAL IN ENGLAND , 1867 .....

.....a force of over one-thousand rebels was being assembled to assist in the attack on Chester Castle in England , where the British were storing some 20,000 weapons ; hundreds of Fenians were being deployed to seize the trains , capture the Holyhead mail boat and for the attack on the castle itself ......


On Sunday , 10th February 1867 , the Fenian leaders held a meeting to go over the list of events one more time ; it was reckoned , if all went well, that at least one-thousand armed Fenians would be on board a commandeered mail boat with a supply of approximately twenty-thousand firearms , on their way to Dublin, by that Monday night .

The timetable envisaged that the Rising in Ireland would start on the morning of Monday , 11th February, 1867 ; that Chester Castle would be raided at seven (7pm) that evening and that the Fenians would sail into Dublin before midnight that same evening with the (ex) Chester arsenal . However , in the early afternoon of 11th February ....... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle : first published in 1924 -

SEAN MORIARTY OF TRALEE ....

..... on 27th August , 1922 , Sean Moriarty and James Healy were captured in their homes in Tralee by Free State troops .....

" They marched them through Tralee to Balloonagh Convent , where they took Healy over a ditch into a field . An officer shot him through the body and left him , believing him to be dead . He dragged himself , bleeding and in agony , to a house . While he was crawling away he heard shots .

The people of the house were not Republicans , but they sheltered him and sent for a priest and a doctor , and his life was saved . They sent word to Sean Moriarty's family .

Sean was found in the field , riddled with bullets , dead .

[END]


RUPERT THE BEAR-faced liar and his friends .....

.....(From 'The Evening Press' newspaper , 22nd September , 1986 - a Monday , I believe- page 1)... Loyalist paramilitary paid-perjurer , James Williamson, said he was forced by the RUC into naming innocent people as accomplices .

He was offered immunity from prosecution , a new life in England and a new identity . He stated -

" The whole thing is corrupt . I named innocent people . If it happened to me it must happen with all the others . If I named three people as discussing the murder in a house , they (RUC) would ask me to add a few more names . They would put forward names and suggest that they were there as well . I would argue that the people were'nt there and they would just press the point that they were ."

Ah yeah , well - maybe . But that was the RUC ; you know, "a few bad apples" and all that . Now , of course , the RUC have been replaced by the ' new kids in the orchard' , the PSNI . And we all know that when you put the 'bad apples' in with the 'good apples' the 'bad' ones turn 'good' ....


.... AND ANOTHER BRITISH FAIRYTALE >

< A 13th Century English law decreed that 'time immemorial' began with the reign of Richard 1 in 1189 !

(Whatcha might call '1189 And Counting ' ...)

AMERICAN FENIANS ; THEIR PLAN TO RAID THE CHESTER CASTLE MILITARY ARSENAL IN ENGLAND , 1867 .....

.....The Fenian Movement had decided to challenge the English on Irish soil , and the campaign was to begin on Monday , 11th February , 1867 .....


Supporters in England had notified the Fenian leadership (via despatch carrier John F. Corydon) that a castle in the North of England , Chester Castle , was being used by the British military to store an arsenal of some twenty-thousand weapons and ammunition for same . The castle had a jail built on to it and was guarded by about sixty men - one company of the 54th Regiment , led by a British Captain Edwards .

The plan involved Fenian Captain John McCafferty and a company of Fenians attacking the castle after other rebel leaders John Flood and Thomas J. Kelly and their men had seized the trains between Chester Town and Holyhead and had captured the mail-boat in Holyhead . Also , all telegraph communications in the Chester district would by then have been cut .

A force of over one-thousand rebels would be put in place for the operation ...... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 .

SEAN MORIARTY OF TRALEE -

" Free State troops landed at Fenit on August 2nd , 1922 . They had the work before them which the English forces had abandoned - of destroying the people's allegiance to the Republic and making Ireland a dominion of the British Crown . They knew that they must use more vigorous methods than their predecessors were they to succeed where these had failed .

They had fear as an added incentive - the fear that if they did not do these things to the Republicans these things would be done by the English to themselves . They captured Sean Moriarty and James Healy on August 27th (1922) in their homes ...... " (MORE LATER)>



GURKHA GURRIERS .....

.... five British soldiers , all members of the 'King Edward VII Gurkha Rifles' were given light sentences by Isleworth Crown Court , Middlesex , England , in August 1986 , for smuggling almost £200,000 worth of drugs into Britain , from Nepal .

Purnabahadur Gurung got six years for possession of £153,500 worth of heroin , Haure Rai and Madan Kumar Shrestha got eighteen months (for £19,000 worth of cannabis) and Premparsad Gurung and Debendra Gurung each got twelve months for possession of £17,600 worth of cannabis .

...... and here was I thinkin' that King Edwards men only smoked cigars !

(info from 'The Evening Press' , 25th August 1986 - a Monday , if memory serves - page 5).


...... AND MORE RESPECTABLE GURRIERS >

< Speaking in Newtownards in County Down in September 1986 , ultra-Loyalist and the true original 'MAD DOG' . George Seawright , stated -

" Before the end of the year we'll burn the Tricolour over the GPO in Dublin and then we'll fire their city centre . Ulster has buried its dead and its widiws and orphans have wept , and Ulster has proved its commitment to the cause .

Now is the time for the Dublin people's commitment to their cause to be put to the test and it will have its fill of Irish widiws and orphans to mourn their dead by the time we're finished . All Loyalist efforts should be channeled against the Irish Republic because that is the weakest point in the British-Irish Agreement .

If bombs go off and fires consume Dublin the ordinary people whose relatives are burnt or blown to bits will soon put pressure on their Irish Government to abort the Anglo-Irish Agreement ."

(info from 'The Sunday World' newspaper , 14th September 1986 , page 8).

Obviously , some of the above-mentioned 'cigars' got through .....

AMERICAN FENIANS ; THEIR PLAN TO RAID THE CHESTER CASTLE MILITARY ARSENAL IN ENGLAND , 1867 .


MONDAY , 11th February , 1867 :
John F.Corydon , an American Fenian , had been responsible for carrying despatches between Ireland and America since 1865 , for the Fenians , in preparation for the planned Rising set to take place on Monday , 11th February , 1867 . Now the day had come . If the operation had gone ahead as intended , Corydon would have been one of the few possible survivors .....


In late 1866 , the Fenian leader James Stephens was replaced as Chief of the organisation and , under the new leadership of Colonel Thomas J.Kelly and Captain John McCafferty , about fifty American Fenians made their way to England ; some of their number then travelled to Ireland .

A decision had already been made to militarily challenge the English on Irish soil and a date agreed - Monday , 11th February , 1867 . (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :


DANIEL MURPHY OF KNOCKNAGOSHEL -

" When Daniel Murphy was taken at his forge in Knocknagoshel on the twenty-fourth of April , no arms were found in the place . He was known , however, to have been an active Volunteer since 1916 .

Other prisoners taken on the round-up saw Daniel Murphy led away to a certain field . It was the field where Lieutenant O'Connor of the Free State Army had been killed by a trigger-mine .

When he was out of sight they heard shots fired . Daniel Murphy's body was found in the evening by the people of Knocknagoshel and carried home . "

[END]



CHEQUE THIS OUT ....

In July 1986 , U. S. Senator Zorinsky of Nebraska stated that he had been informed by "some members of the (British) House of Commons" that if the U S approved of the British request for $50 million dollars of 'aid' to the occupied six north-eastern counties of Ireland , the British Government was going to reduce , by the same amount, the 'aid' which they gave to the Six Counties .

" We might as well make the cheque out directly to the United Kingdom " , said Zorinsky . That's the Brits for ya , Senator - get your 'friends' to bankroll your 'colony' ....

( Sure have'nt the gombeens in Leinster House being doin' that for years !)


.....THIS CHEQUE OUT >

<...... When he was Free State Minister for Finance (and before he met British Prince Charles and gave him one on the chin - a kiss , that is ...) John Bruton (Fine Gael) gave a speech in Trim , County Meath (on 3rd August , 1986 - a Sunday , I believe..) in which he urged Irish holiday-makers to take the trouble to find out what's on offer in Irish holidays before deciding to go foreign -

- " People will discover that Irish holidays are a good bargain . What Irish tourism needs right now is a buoyant home holiday market . " So far , so good ...

.... however , John's Boss , Garret Fitzgerald , and Mrs Garret, decided to spend two weeks of his holidays in West Cork before jetting off to Cyprus for the rest of his holidays ! And their partner in Leinster House , Dick Spring , and his wife Kristi were in Dublin Airport around the same time as the Prince-Kisser was doing his bit for Irish tourism . The Springs had just arrived home from a holiday in Spain ....

You'll have to pay attention to your buddies' where-abouts in future , John , before you open your mouth ; you don't need their help to make a fool of yourself ....

(From 'The Evening Press' , Monday 4th August , 1986 , page 3).

PETER O'NEILL CROWLEY , CORK FENIAN , KILLED BY THE BRITISH IN TIPPERARY , 1867 ......


.....the 'Kilclooney Wood Engagement' is considered to be the last action of the 1867 Fenian Rising .....


The 1867 Fenian Rising received world-wide attention , but not all of those that died in that attempt to remove the British presence from Ireland , like 35-year's young Peter O'Neill Crowley , are remembered for the part they played in it .

Today , some of those that purport to follow in the Fenian tradition would only recognise the value of Kilclooney Wood as being a 'nice wee spot for the holiday-home' , somewhere to discuss how best to sell-out while making it look like "progress" (reference the infamous 'TUAS' document : 'Totally Un-Armed Strategy' and/or 'Tactical Use of Armed Struggle').

The ghosts of men and women like Peter O'Neill Crowley will hopefully haunt 'patriots' like that .....

[END]


THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :


.....John Linnane and Dick Bunyan and John Mullaney had a dug-out in a hayshed in Trineragh ....


" It was a fine dug-out , raised about five feet from the ground , and they slept there with a sense of great security and peace . Dick Bunyan woke up suddenly ; Linnane had touched his elbow - someone was pulling down the hay .

The bundle that stopped their exit hole was pulled out and a ( Free State) soldier looked in , shouting "Come out of that!" "We are coming," the three cried out instantly , in reply , but the soldier fired full in Linnane's face , and when his comrades lifted him up he was dead .

Men learned to thank God for a death like that in Kerry in nineteen-twenty-three.

[END]



A SLAP ON THE WRIST ......

..... from 'The Evening Press' newspaper , 28th July 1986 (a Monday, I'm sure..), page 7 -

What was then known as 'The World Court' (formally known as the 'International Court of Justice') found that the United States had broken international law and violated Nicaraguan sovereignty by aiding anti-government rebels . It ordered Washington to stop "arming and training" insurgents and to compensate Nicaragua for damage caused by military attacks , although it did not set an amount .

The United States argued that the Court had no jurisdiction in the case , and rejected the verdict . It said the Court "was not equipped" to judge complex international military issues !

( "COMPLEX" ? -
U S General : "Mr President, SIR ! There's oil in that there country ! "

U S President : " Move in , Private . And take the Army with you " .)


....AND A LIMP WRIST -

- In July 1986 , the then Chief Medical Officer of what was then known as 'WINDSCALE' (now 'Sellafield') , a Dr. Jack Strain [ I kid you not !] stated --

" If Sellafield was to inform general practitioners every time a worker was contaminated we would be writing 100 letters a day ."

WHAT ! only one-hundred .....?

(and sure is'nt it grand writin' a hundred letters a day when ya have five hands .....)

PETER O 'NEILL CROWLEY , CORK FENIAN, KILLED BY THE BRITISH IN TIPPERARY , 1867 .....

..... after three weeks in hiding in Kilclooney Wood in Tipperary , the three Irish rebels (Peter O'Neill Crowley , John McClure and Edward Kelly) were found by the British and , in the ensuing gun-battle, Crowley was killed . McClure and Kelly were later sentenced to life imprisonment .....


The county of Cork practically came to a standstill for the funeral of Peter O'Neill Crowley , in his native Ballymacoda ; the Fenian leader John Devoy said of the man -

" Peter O'Neill Crowley was one of the best men in the Fenian Movement , and Ireland never gave birth to a truer or more devoted son . His devotion to the cause of Irish liberty was sublime and his courage dauntless . "

The two men captured in Kilclooney Wood in Tipperary after the gun-battle , John McClure and Edward Kelly , were released four years later , in the 'general amnesty' of that year (1871).

Incidentally , the 'Kilclooney Wood Engagement' is considered to be the last action of the 1867 Fenian Rising ..... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :


JOHN LINNANE OF LISTOWEL .

" John Linnane was a man of strong enthusiam and resolution , and such a man becomes loved and trusted in a time of national struggle . His religious conviction , his love of the Irish language , and his fearless activity as a soldier were an inspiration to all who knew him during ten difficult years .

He was killed on the thirteenth of April , nineteen-twenty-three , not far from the field in Gortaglanna where his old comrade-in-arms, Patrick Walsh, was murdered in nineteen-twenty-one by Black and Tans. John Linnane and Dick Bunyan and John Mullaney had a dug-out in a hayshed in Trineragh . (MORE LATER)>



A TALE OF TWO SHITTIES ...... Scene One - a distinguished building in Dublin > NOW READ ON .....

LIGHTS ! QUIET ON SET ! AND... ACTION -

DRUM ROLL < ORCHESTRA < and VOICEOVER ......


"Psst ! Hey Buddy .....
....wanna do a job for me ?

Don't matter what skills ya have , or if ya have a trade or not , man - and it's 'white-collar' stuff , won't dirty the hands - well, not with real dirt , ha-ha ! Inersted ? Here's your cut :

We start ya on a cool EURO 1541 a week , but it don't stop there - an associate of ours , right, Marty , from Kerry - hangs with the 'Adams Family' , this guy - shakin' down the 'one-five-four-one' grand on a weekly basis and, get this , buddy - Marty clicks another EURO 885 a week in - HA! HA! - "expenses" !

JEEZE , man , ya'd be crazy notta ! I mean it , dude , - EURO 2426 a week , every week ." Marty was sent in by 'Big Jer' , the Boss - " Gotta shake things up in there , Marty " , Big Jer said . "Sure thing," said Marty . But that's not the way it panned out .....


Marty got soft , ya know- comfortable - the broad was offa his back , things lookin' pretty good . So , Marty says to Bossman Jer - " Cut me some slack , man ; gimme time to stash some padding for the 'down-the-road' , like - you OK with that , boss ? " The Big Guy eyed up Marty : "Sure thing, Marty," he replied , " been there , done that , wrote the book , know what ya mean " , he said , winking .

But Jer was'nt finished - "Just one thing, man ..." . Marty froze : he knew from experience how good a huckster the boss was - he started to sweat . He knew well what Jer was capable of from the ( not so ) bad 'old days' ..... But he need'nt have worried - the boss knew the meaning (and price) of loyality : " Don't let the Family down , man " Jer said , walking towards a nervous Marty , "and pretty soon a weeks poke of EURO 2426 will be loose change . At my level , we call that a fair day's take ! "
The two men laughed out loud and hugged each other . Then , out of no-where, everything started shaking ; stuff falling offa the shelves , a real mess , and the very ground they were standing on pitched and rolled .

The bodyguards legged it , their new-found 'friends' standing in the background got offside , and all around them came crashing down .

"EARTHQUAKE !" , shouted Marty . "No " , said Jer , "I've seen this before . It's our own fault for having this conversation in the G P O " .


[END] (or is it.....?)


SOURCE -

financial figures : courtesy of the Free State 'Oireachtas' , released on Saturday 2nd August last - under the 'Freedom of Information Act' .


WORDS -

all my own . Really .


DRAMATIS PERSONAE -

Ah , ya know yourself ...
(.... go figure , buddy !)


FOREIGN RELEASE -

Yes . As a short play entitled 'Embarras de Richesses' .


CHANCE OF A HAPPY ENDING -

As we say in this business : " Enfants Perdus" .

PETER O'NEILL CROWLEY , CORK FENIAN , KILLED BY THE BRITISH IN TIPPERARY , 1867 .....


....when they realised that the Fenian Rising had failed , Peter O'Neill Crowley and his second and third in command, John McClure and Edward Kelly , issued an order to their men to disperse .....


After the 'dispersal' order was given (towards the end of the first week in March 1867) , the three Fenian leaders - Crowley , McClure and Kelly - fled to the limited safety of Kilclooney Wood in County Tipperary .

On 31st March , 1867, a large force of British soldiers entered Kilclooney Wood and 'scouts' from the same force soon located the whereabouts of the three Irish rebels . Within hours they were surrounded by the enemy and ordered to surrender ; they refused . The three were well-armed , and fought courageously , but were no match for the numbers ranged against them .

The gun-battle lasted for several hours ; it ended when Peter O'Neill Crowley died , with at least three gunshot wounds to his body . John McClure and Edward Kelly were arrested and were later sentenced to life imprisonment . (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :

JACK FLEMING OF TRALEE ...

....a member of the IRA since 1914 , Jack Fleming joined an established column of the Volunteers in 1922 : the Free State troops occupying Tralee were aware of his movements ....

" He caused enquiries to be made ,in the following March , by a friend : he wanted to know whether it would be safe for him to sleep at home . A direct message from the Free State Barracks was the reply - " He will be safe when he gives up his gun. " Jack Fleming went into hiding then ; he had no thought of purchasing safety at a price .

On the twenty-eight of March the house where he was sleeping was searched for him and he was found . He was taken to Ballymullen Barracks , that sinister building which the people of Tralee pass even now with shrinking , such screams of agony used to sound , a year ago, from the Intelligence Room. It is only from a score of vague , inconsecutive narratives told by soldiers and by men who were prisoners there , that what happened then can be made out at all .

Jack Fleming was taken out during the night ; he was brought to the prison , half a mile away, before daylight, dying or dead ; his body was refused to his people . No more is known . No more is known except this one thing - he could have saved himself had he chosen to be a traitor , and he chose to die .


[END]


BRUSSEL'S 'BULL' ....

..... in July , 1986 , the (then) EEC (now 'EU') made a decision to feed calves on cheap surplus butter rather than making it available to the poor . This move was backed by Britain , Denmark and the Netherlands because , they said , it would have little effect on levelling excess butter stocks if it were given to the poor ! (See 'The Evening Press' , 16th July , 1986 , page 4 ).

..the 'Straight Banana' proposal from those clowns was a laugh at the time , but when you hear of the above nonsense it takes the smile from your face .


GAY ? - no , just queer ....

.... Eamonn Dunphy used to be a member of the British Labour Party , but later supported Fine Gael . He stated - " Capitalism is the lesser of the two conflicting evils in the world ." (The other , he said , was Marxism.) He joined Fine Gael the night Charles Haughey became Free State Taoiseach , saying "Fine Gael is the most liberal party in this country (sic)" . (See 'In Dublin' magazine , issue 259, 24th July 1986 , page 9.)

Now THAT'S something the bouncer should do him for ....

PETER O'NEILL CROWLEY , CORK FENIAN , KILLED BY THE BRITISH IN TIPPERARY , 1867 .....

.....in March 1867 , Peter O'Neill Crowley and his Fenian 'Circle' attacked an armed coastguard station at Knockadoon ....


The Knockadoon coastguard station , located about eight miles from Youghal in Cork , was staffed by ten armed employees ; they were over-powered and held captive and their rifles and ammunition taken . It is not perhaps as well known as it should be , but the 'main' Fenian Rising of 1867 lasted for just over twenty-four hours , although isolated attacks on the British continued for a few weeks .

When Peter O'Neill Crowley and his second and third in command , John McClure and Edward Kelly , realised that the Rising had failed , they knew the British would be determined to 'round-up' the leadership ; they issued orders to their 'Circle' to disperse ..... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle , first published in 1924 -

JACK FLEMING OF TRALEE :


" Surely , in all wars , the most piteous stories are those that , to the worlds end, will never be told . To meet death in the night , alone among mocking enemies, knowing that no message from him will ever reach his comrades, that lies only will be told of him by his slayers , that the one sweet reward of sacrifice - a name remembered with love and praise among his people , may even be stolen from him in death - this, surely , is the hardest martyrdom a soldier can be called upon to endure .

There are men of Kerry who have died so , the manner of their end unknown . But this much is known of them - they could have saved themselves had they chosen to surrender to their torturers , to betray their comrades or to desert their cause . All that is known of their enemy's policy proves this : those who died knew a way to save themselves ; if they died it was because they would not take that way . Jack Fleming was best known in Tralee as a great lover of music and a skilled player of the pipes .

He had been a member of the Volunteers since nineteen-fourteen . In August , nineteen-twenty-two , he joined a column , but this was not known, he thought, to the Free State troops occupying Tralee ...... (MORE LATER)>



FILLING UP WITH IT ......>

....according to the 'Dubliners Diary' column of the old 'Evening Press' newspaper (12th September , 1992, page 11 - a Wednesday, if memory serves..) : British King George V once advised his sons - "In this business , it is wise never to pass up an opportunity to relieve yourself."

-- was the man full of piss , or was he just 'taking' it ?

-- or was he letting his sons know he was aware that they were full of s**t ?


FULL OF IT .....>

...... " 1916 challenges Irish nationalists to work to oppose any arrangement based on partition ; any such arrangement is doomed to failure ."

-- 'AP/RN' , 28th March , 1991 , page 2 . (...except, of course , Stormont and Leinster House - two parliaments set up by the British to maintain the imposed division on this island.)



.....AND OVER-FLOWING WITH IT -->

<-- " Accommodations with British-designed frameworks fly in the face of true justice and freedom ."

-- Brendan 'Bik' McFarlane , Provo leader , as quoted in 'AP/RN' , 2nd May , 1991 (page 7). Note that date - 2nd May 1991 ; on practically the same date (5th) of the same month (MAY) ten years earlier (1981) , Bobby Sands died on hunger-strike .

Had Bobby Sands or any of the ten men that died on hunger-strike that year made "accommodations with the British" they would not have died on hunger-strike .

Those men did not die so that others could make careers for themselves in Stormont and Leinster House by making "accommodations" with the Establishment ....

PETER O'NEILL CROWLEY , CORK FENIAN , KILLED BY THE BRITISH IN TIPPERARY , 1867 .....


...... 35-years young Cork man Peter O'Neill Crowley was in command of a Fenian 'Circle' of over one-hundred men .....


It is almost certain that Crowley and his 'Circle' were involved in the capture of the RIC Barracks at Ballynockane , County Cork, on the night of the 5th March , 1867 ; Fenian leaders J F X O'Brien , Michael O'Brien and William Mackey Lomasney had combined their forces into one 'Circle' consisting of over two-thousand Fenian fighters and , in early March 1867 caused havoc in Cork for the British administration -

- as well as capturing the Ballynockane RIC Barracks (and removing anything of value to the Fenian war effort) the Fenian's sabotaged large sections of rail-track used by the 'Great Southern and Western Railway' , destroyed the 'points-system' belonging to same and rendered inoperable the telegraph system in the district . In that same month (March 1867) , Peter O'Neill Crowley and his group attacked an armed coastguard station at Knockadoon .... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :


JAMES WALSH OF CURROW -

" The killing of prisoners seemed to have become an almost mechanical practice in Kerry in March and April of nineteen-twenty-three . Over twenty were murdered on the roadsides of Kerry within twenty days . Some of them were Republican soldiers taken with arms and sentenced by their gaolers to death ; some were men taken unarmed in their own homes and killed by their captors out of hand . On March 22nd , James Walsh was taken , unarmed ; he was kept for a few days in Castleisland .

On Tuesday , the 27th, at about six in the morning , the prisoners were called out by Lieutenant McGinn . The street was lined with soldiers and two more prisoners , just captured, Daly and O'Rahilly, were there . The prisoners were marched along the Cordal Road and just outside Kingwilliamstown , at the cross of Glountane , a party of soldiers led Walsh away .

The people of Mount Falvey heard shots , but did not discover their meaning until evening , when they found James Walsh dead by the roadside , with a bullet wound in his head .

[END]



HE SHOULD KNOW ......

..... In 'The Sunday Tribune' of 31st January , 1993 , (page A11) , British 'Lord' Harold Wilson was quoted as having once said that -

- " a lie can be half way around the world before the truth has got its boots on ! " (...but not before you can put the boot in , eh, Harold ?)


..... AND SHE SHOULD KNOW BETTER ... >

< In an article published in 'The Sunday Tribune' on 10th January 1993 (page B6) , 'Workers Party', no, sorry - Democratic Left- oops! - eh, oh,whats it now ; that group that ex-WP/DL leader Pat Rabbitte leads now - yeah: the 'Labour Party' , that's the one .

Where was I ? Right - well , in the issue of the 'Trib' mentioned up above (somewhere) , one of Pat's buddies , Liz McManus , stated -

- " Notwithstanding the prayers as gaeilge (ie in Irish) and the Celtic motif , what is remarkable about 'Dail Eireann' (sic) is how BRITISH (her emphasis) the place is . More British very likely , than the British themselves these days ." (Whatcha mean "these" days , Liz?)


As 'Rabbie' Burns wrote in 'Tam O'Shanter' , Liz -

-- " I wonder it didna turn thy stomach ."
(But when your stomach's as strong as your neck is hard .....)

PETER O'NEILL CROWLEY , CORK FENIAN , KILLED BY THE BRITISH IN TIPPERARY , 1867 .


A child born in the townland of Ballymacoda in County Cork , in 1832 , learned how to make a living from the land and was considered in the locality , as a young adult , to be what would now be called "a pillar of society" ; he was known as an expert farmer and had a wide circle of friends .

An Irish Republican at heart , Peter O'Neill Crowley joined the Fenian Movement in Cork and rose quickly through the ranks - at 35 years young , he was in command of a 'Fenian Circle' , which numbered more than one hundred men . (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :


BOB McCARTHY OF MONAREE ....

....captured by the Free Staters on the 24th March , 1923, the man who had fought with his comrades against the British Black and Tans was now being tortured by those same men that he once fought with , now wearing Free State Army uniforms ; they beat him senseless and stoned him with bricks . His sister was eventually let in to see him in Dingle Workhouse and he told her of his shotgun , still in the family house .....


" " Give it up to them when they come ," he said, "for the sake of the people of Monaree ." "Let me take the cap off your head," she said . It was crusted with blood . But he answered : " No, no, let it alone." "You are suffering," she said then , breaking down , "and you don't want me to see ." Bob seemed to tired to talk to her . "Our Lord suffered more," is all he said . Then the soldiers put her outside the gate .

An escort came out for him from Tralee ; the officer who shot Tom Sullivan was in charge . What they did to Bob on the road will never be known . They buried him in the Workhouse in Tralee .

[END]



... a tax on children's shoes ? - JOLLY GOOD ! ......... ~

You're on the ball out there !

A reader left a message in the site guestbook pointing out that it was a M/S Margaret Downes who interviewed Fine Gaeler Avril Doyle (see yesterday's piece) for the 'SBP' ; dunno wha' exactly Doyler said to her but , in that 'SBP' article , Maggie wrote -

- " Fine Gaeler's believe themselves to be the epitome of good breeding with superior taste ." Hear , Hear ! Always considered it so , meself ....


.........~ and worth every penny >

< .... In January 1993 , French industrialist Bernard Tapie was ordered by the French courts to pay one franc (then worth twelve old Free State pennies) in damages for calling Jean-Marie Le Pen , the then leader of the right-wing National Front , a bastard !

Better end for now , otherwise Fine Gael could cost me a pretty penny (groan)!

PATRICK O'DONOGHUE AND 'THE IRISH EXILE' REPUBLICAN NEWSPAPER , AUSTRALIA .....


.....within months of his release in March 1851 , Patrick O'Donoghue was again arrested and sent out of the district to 'work' , once again, on a chain-gang ; he was released after three months and dumped in another district , Launceston .....


While en route to his new destination , under guard, Patrick O'Donoghue's comrades rescued him and stowed him on the 'SS YARRA YARA' which was headed for Melbourne ; he laid low there and , again with the help of the 'Young Ireland' Movement , escaped to San Francisco .

On 26th January , 1850 , the first edition of 'The Irish Exile' newspaper was published in Australia , the first Irish Republican 'paper to be printed on that continent - on 22nd January , 1854 , the author, owner and publisher of that newspaper , Patrick O'Donoghue , died in San Francisco .

In Ireland , he took up arms against the British presence - in Australia , he continued the fight as best he could and , in America, he died ; his tired , battered and bruised body unable to keep up with his rebel mind . The man was ostracised by the British and their allies , and his work for Irish freedom suppressed by them : but the memory of Patrick O'Donoghue is still with us .....

[END]



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 ;


BOB McCARTHY OF MONAREE .

Bob McCarthy met with a death less merciful than his friend's . The enemies of the Republic had a great deal against him , for he had fought the Black-and-Tans in Dublin and the Free State troops in Kerry and was well-known. He was captured on March the twenty-fourth (1923), in Dunshean . He was sitting in a friend's house with a child on each knee when the soldiers rushed in and struck him on the head with a revolver . He was taken to Dingle and kept in the Workhouse that night . His sister heard that he was a prisoner and went in to Dingle and stood at the gate imploring the soldiers to let her in . She stood there hour after hour , though they refused her . She could not help crying , but she would not go away . At last they let her in and brought her to the yard .

The soldiers were kicking a football and her brother was among them . They were forcing him to kick the ball . He was swaying on his feet and was all stained and dusty . When she went to him he stared and seemed not to know her. His eyes were half-closed and there was blood on his head . "Oh, Bob, do you not know me ?" she asked him , and he said slowly : "You are my sister." They had beaten him , he told her , and stoned him with bricks . He seemed troubled about a shotgun that was in the house . (MORE LATER)>




SAME AS IT EVER WAS .......

.... on 10th January 1993 (a Sunday , if memory serves...) the Free State 'Labour Party' held a "Special Conference" to discuss forming an administration in Leinster House with one of the other parties , to make up the numbers required to obtain power ; the then leader of that party , Dick Spring , stated (amongst other things) --

---- " Let them sneer as we build houses on a scale not seen in many years , as we tackle waiting lists in the health service , as we bring Irelands commitment to the Third World up to international standards and as we take a seventy-five per cent cut in salary to put us on the minimum wage ." (WELL ok , then - that last part I just put in to keep ya all on yiser toes ; but the "sneer-houses-tackle-health service-Third World" diatribe is all Dick's doing : honestly - see 'The Sunday Business Post' , 17th January 1993, page 12).

The poor 'oul Dick that he is , he never did get his arse on the top seat in Leinster House : which is maybe just as well .....

..... in 1988 (see the same issue of 'The S B P' , page 12) Fine Gael Leinster House member Avril Doyle stated : " I can't think of anything worse than being Taoiseach . You'd want to be a masochist to become even leader of the party ." MASOCHIST ? So that's what happened our own 'Tricky Dicky' - he ended up as the cowboy in the 'Village People' and made enough money to buy-out the YMCA !