MARTIN McDERMOTT , 1823-1905 : YOUNG IRELANDER .......
....... Martin McDermott's mentor , Patrick Byrne , had been 'out' with the United Irishmen as a young boy of 15 ; he went on to design and build some of Leinster's better-known landmarks . He died in 1864 , at 81 years of age .......
When Daniel O'Connell's 'Repeal Association' split , ostensibly due to O'Connell acquiescing to British demands that he cancel his planned 'Monster Meeting' for October 1843 , the militant 'Young Ireland' group stated that O'Connell's leadership had failed to address the threat " of the decay of Irish culture , language and custom " under British influence .
One of the many who left the 'Repeal Association' to lead the 'Young Ireland' Movement , John Mitchel , the son of a Northern Presbyterian Minister , called on the Irish people to strike back against the British -
- " England ! All England , operating through her government : through all her organised and effectual public opinion , press , platform , parliament has done , is doing , and means to do grievous wrongs to Ireland . She must be punished - that punishment will , as I believe , come upon her by and through Ireland ; and so Ireland will be avenged ! "
It was a sentiment with which Martin McDermott agreed .......
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
1921 - The Big Round-Up.......
" I was armed and going cross-country to a British Army military camp to have a go at them ; I was walking beside a dried-up ditch when I heard voices and noise near me - I took cover in the ditch . Only yards in front of me , the group I was hiding from almost fell into the ditch ......."
"The fright they got naturally loosened their tongues and I knew by their accents that they were not of the enemy . Curiosity got the better of me - " Where the devil are ye going to ? " I asked them , thinking at the same time that perhaps the enemy was not far behind them . The voice immediately behind them caused the utmost confusion amongst them : they were not IRA Volunteers but said they would help as best they could . They had come from the Ballyvourney district to avoid being rounded up ; I asked them where they proposed going to avoid capture . " To Doiranaonaig " , they replied . " There is a British Army camp at Doiranaonaig " , I told them , and pointed out the great danger of travelling together in a group .
They had come down on the road talking loudly , and had the enemy been in my place they would have been greeted with a volley ; questions would be deferred until too late . There were many other reasons why they should not have left home at all . I had pity for them travelling thus , a target for the enemy - I asked them if they knew any friends to the south-east , and one of the group said he had relations a few miles away in that direction , so it was decided to go to that place . Before leaving , they told me the news of the day from Ballyvourney . A number of prisoners had been brought in by the Brits .
Among the prisoners there were a few members of my IRA Column ......."
(MORE LATER).
TALKING TO THE PROVISIONALS.
" The British Government has twice entered into detailed negotiations with representatives of the IRA . Nollaig O Gadhra recalls the talks that took place exactly ten years ago between the Northern Ireland (sic) Office and the Provisional Republican Movement . "
By Nollaig O Gadhra .
(From 'The Sunday Press' newspaper , 10th February 1985).
Re-produced here in 12 parts .
1 of 12 .
When the British Government , through its spokespersons from Stormont Castle , met the Provos to negotiate a continuation of the 1974 Christmas Truce , on 19th January 1975 , they made four main points :
* We are prepared for (our) officials to discuss with members of Provisional Sinn Fein how a permanent cessation of violence might be agreed and what would be the practical problems to be solved .
* We are , as we have already said , prepared for (our) officials to engage in a discreet exchange of views with Provisional Sinn Fein on matters arising from their objectives . We would not exclude the raising of any relevant questions .
* Our representatives would remain , as at present , for both sets of talks . We would be content to engage in these consecutively or in parallel , but the urgency of the ceasefire question suggests that this should be taken first .
* The representation would have to be within the terms of the statement in parliament about not negotiating with the IRA though being ready to speak to Provisional Sinn Fein .
(MORE LATER).
Friday, June 25, 2004
MARTIN McDERMOTT , 1823-1905 : YOUNG IRELANDER .......
.......When he finished his apprenticeship in architecture (under the tutelage of Patrick Byrne), Martin McDermott moved to Birkenhead in England to earn his living . However , the skill of architecture was not all that the young McDermott learned from his mentor , Patrick Byrne .......
Martin McDermott also developed an interest in the history and culture of his land and , in early 1845 , at 22 years young , he sent some of his writings to the then 3 year-young newspaper , 'The Nation' , which had been founded (in 1842) by Charles Gavan Duffy , Thomas Davis and John Dillon , after the three men had agreed the need for a Rebel newspaper whilst walking through Dublin's Phoenix Park and discussing the 'Hughes/Armagh Assizes' case (as mentioned in an earlier article on this 'blog').
Incidentally , the architect Patrick Byrne , with whom Martin McDermott served his apprenticeship , was born in Dublin in 1783 , and took up arms with the United Irishmen when he was only 15 years young ! Among the better-known buildings he designed and built are the 'Church of the Holy Redeemer' , in Bray , County Wicklow , the bell-tower of St. Paul's on Dublin's Arran Quay and Merchants Quay Church , Dublin .
Patrick Byrne had a workshop and small office at 10 Mobbet Street (off Foley Street , Dublin) and was later elected as the Vice-President of 'The Institute of Architects in Ireland' . He died , aged 81 , in 1864 .......
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
1921 - The Big Round-Up.......
"....... the Brits had set-up their main camp in ground I knew well ; it would be possible for me to sneak in and cause them damage - stir-up the big hornet's nest ......."
" Moreover , having spent a tough and unprofitable day in Kerry , the insult to the mighty war machine would be keenly felt by its patrons . I slept soundly at Kilmacarogue until late in the morning then , towards evening , I came to Knocksaharing and started to equip myself for the rough four miles across country . First , I got ready the light aeroplane Lewis-Gun ; next I put on a strong military haversack and one by one stowed into it the spare Lewis drums . I felt I could carry five , although my total load, including a Mauser pistol , was heavy . Having securely fastened all my gear , I shouldered my gun and set off in the gathering dusk .
I kept to the fields from the very start , intending to cross roads only in favourable places and at right angles ; the reason for this caution was that I had heard that two more British military camps had been established not far away to the south-west and west . I even avoided the road from my uncle's gate to the boreen leading to Gurtanedin . The spot where I choose to cross the road was a most lonely and unfrequented place - I stepped out from behind a rock , crossed the road and dropped on one knee in a shallow depression just on the roadside . There was no fence to the road and just in front of me I heard voices . Presently there was a stumbling of many feet down a steep slope ten yards away from me ; clumps of rushes grew on either side of me - in fact I was in the middle of a lochan , now dried up by the prolonged fine weather .
I had hoped that the oncoming group would make a detour of the lochan which had a fairly steep bank five or six feet in front of me . But no ; they did not see it at all and stepped off into space and , half falling, half rising , passed on either side , narrowly escaping a collision with me ......."
(MORE LATER).
EXTRADITING CITIZEN KANE .......
BY PHIL CONNOR.
(First published in 'DUBLIN DIARY' magazine , Volume 1 , No. 3 , May 1989 , page 11.)
Re-produced here in 5 parts .
[5 of 5].
The Kane extradition is taking place under the old '(1965) Extradition Act' , as the 1987 Act was not in operation when the warrants for Kane were gained by the gardai . Under Section 50(4) of the 1965 Act , Justice Minister Gerry Collins can intervene to stop the extradition and order Paul Kane's release .
It seems that justice and morality cry out for this to be done and also for Paul Kane to be compensated for the years that have been taken from him and his family . Unfortunately the Fianna Fail Government seem intent on extraditing this citizen ; should he be dragged across the border , then clearly no Irish citizen , no matter how innocent , will be safe from extradition ...
...or , indeed , safe from the fate as that currently being inflicted on the Birmingham Six , the Guildford Four , Judith Ward , the Wilshire Three , and other people whose only crime appears to be that they are Irish .
[END of 'EXTRADITING CITIZEN KANE .......'].
(Tomorrow - 'TALKING TO THE PROVISIONALS' : from 1985).
.......When he finished his apprenticeship in architecture (under the tutelage of Patrick Byrne), Martin McDermott moved to Birkenhead in England to earn his living . However , the skill of architecture was not all that the young McDermott learned from his mentor , Patrick Byrne .......
Martin McDermott also developed an interest in the history and culture of his land and , in early 1845 , at 22 years young , he sent some of his writings to the then 3 year-young newspaper , 'The Nation' , which had been founded (in 1842) by Charles Gavan Duffy , Thomas Davis and John Dillon , after the three men had agreed the need for a Rebel newspaper whilst walking through Dublin's Phoenix Park and discussing the 'Hughes/Armagh Assizes' case (as mentioned in an earlier article on this 'blog').
Incidentally , the architect Patrick Byrne , with whom Martin McDermott served his apprenticeship , was born in Dublin in 1783 , and took up arms with the United Irishmen when he was only 15 years young ! Among the better-known buildings he designed and built are the 'Church of the Holy Redeemer' , in Bray , County Wicklow , the bell-tower of St. Paul's on Dublin's Arran Quay and Merchants Quay Church , Dublin .
Patrick Byrne had a workshop and small office at 10 Mobbet Street (off Foley Street , Dublin) and was later elected as the Vice-President of 'The Institute of Architects in Ireland' . He died , aged 81 , in 1864 .......
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
1921 - The Big Round-Up.......
"....... the Brits had set-up their main camp in ground I knew well ; it would be possible for me to sneak in and cause them damage - stir-up the big hornet's nest ......."
" Moreover , having spent a tough and unprofitable day in Kerry , the insult to the mighty war machine would be keenly felt by its patrons . I slept soundly at Kilmacarogue until late in the morning then , towards evening , I came to Knocksaharing and started to equip myself for the rough four miles across country . First , I got ready the light aeroplane Lewis-Gun ; next I put on a strong military haversack and one by one stowed into it the spare Lewis drums . I felt I could carry five , although my total load, including a Mauser pistol , was heavy . Having securely fastened all my gear , I shouldered my gun and set off in the gathering dusk .
I kept to the fields from the very start , intending to cross roads only in favourable places and at right angles ; the reason for this caution was that I had heard that two more British military camps had been established not far away to the south-west and west . I even avoided the road from my uncle's gate to the boreen leading to Gurtanedin . The spot where I choose to cross the road was a most lonely and unfrequented place - I stepped out from behind a rock , crossed the road and dropped on one knee in a shallow depression just on the roadside . There was no fence to the road and just in front of me I heard voices . Presently there was a stumbling of many feet down a steep slope ten yards away from me ; clumps of rushes grew on either side of me - in fact I was in the middle of a lochan , now dried up by the prolonged fine weather .
I had hoped that the oncoming group would make a detour of the lochan which had a fairly steep bank five or six feet in front of me . But no ; they did not see it at all and stepped off into space and , half falling, half rising , passed on either side , narrowly escaping a collision with me ......."
(MORE LATER).
EXTRADITING CITIZEN KANE .......
BY PHIL CONNOR.
(First published in 'DUBLIN DIARY' magazine , Volume 1 , No. 3 , May 1989 , page 11.)
Re-produced here in 5 parts .
[5 of 5].
The Kane extradition is taking place under the old '(1965) Extradition Act' , as the 1987 Act was not in operation when the warrants for Kane were gained by the gardai . Under Section 50(4) of the 1965 Act , Justice Minister Gerry Collins can intervene to stop the extradition and order Paul Kane's release .
It seems that justice and morality cry out for this to be done and also for Paul Kane to be compensated for the years that have been taken from him and his family . Unfortunately the Fianna Fail Government seem intent on extraditing this citizen ; should he be dragged across the border , then clearly no Irish citizen , no matter how innocent , will be safe from extradition ...
...or , indeed , safe from the fate as that currently being inflicted on the Birmingham Six , the Guildford Four , Judith Ward , the Wilshire Three , and other people whose only crime appears to be that they are Irish .
[END of 'EXTRADITING CITIZEN KANE .......'].
(Tomorrow - 'TALKING TO THE PROVISIONALS' : from 1985).
Thursday, June 24, 2004
MARTIN McDERMOTT , 1823-1905 : YOUNG IRELANDER .......
....... Ireland , 1823 - the potato blight which struck in 1817 had left its mark ; but the population was on the increase , those that 'rented' land from the British 'Landlords' had been evicted to make way for cattle , the Irish 'secret societies' were fighting back as best they could . Turbulent times .......
The British Government in Westminster was worried enough to at least ask - " Looking ahead to fifteen years or more , what must this increase in population without employment end in ? I do not know ; I think it is terrible to reflect upon . " The Irish people would be doing well to live long enough to see the following day , never mind fifteen years down the road ...
A baby was born to a wealthy Dublin business couple in April that year (1823) and , after his schooling , that youth , Martin McDermott , studied as an architect - he began an apprenticeship in that trade with Patrick Byrne , an old Irish Rebel , who had been active with the United Irishmen in 1798 . When he became qualified at his trade , Martin McDermott moved to England to earn his living , and settled in Birkenhead .
However , the skill of architecture was not all that young McDermott learned from his mentor , Patrick Byrne .......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
1921 - The Big Round-Up.......
"....... Murt Twomey was on his way to visit Sean Jer when the Brits grabbed him and put him to work erecting their field tents ; he was hammering tent-pegs into the ground when the head of the mallet he was using flew off and smacked a Brit Sergeant on the head - the man grabbed his rifle ......."
" Murt thought his end had come ; but the British Sergeant cooled off and he and others contented themselves with telling Murt and his fellow-'workers' of the fun they would have in the evening when the IRA Column was brought in . Murt listened patiently , but said nothing . Presently , when that party had finished with their tents , they allowed their 'workers' to go . As he left the field , Murt saw a clip of ammunition on the ground , which he surreptitiously transferred to his pocket , and went towards home .
A few hundred yards ahead of him at the village cross he saw a British sentry ; dropping the ammunition clip into a convenient hole in the stone fence , he carried on . At the cross he was halted by the sentry and all his pockets were carefully searched . Soon , however , they got to know him and did not further trouble him - indeed , some of the British Tommies were anxious to open trade relations with him . One of them offered a fine pair of British Officer's leggings for three shillings ; Murt said he had no money about him , but credit was forthcoming and the gaiters were handed over . An appointment was made for the transfer of the hard cash .
However , each kept the appointment at a different rendezvous ; soon after , the Brit Tommy shocked and astonished some of the villagers as he went about inquiring for ".... that ****** Murt who had kept my three shillings . " Later on , Murt found him and the matter was amicably settled . Later on Sunday evening , I located the main camp of the enemy - it was situated very favourably relative to the Curragh Hill , I thought , as I went home in the twilight . I knew the ground well ; it would be easy , in the semi-darkness of the June night , to come down the western slope of Rahoona , slip across the Dubh-Glaise River and the road at Cathair Cearnach and , moving cautiously upwards over the eastern scrubby shoulder of the Curragh , approach to within four hundred yards of the huge growth of bell tents .
I might not succeed in doing much material damage , I reflected , but at least I would stir up the big hornet's nest ....... "
EXTRADITING CITIZEN KANE .......
BY PHIL CONNOR.
(First published in 'DUBLIN DIARY' magazine , Volume 1 , No. 3 , May 1989 , page 11.)
Re-produced here in 5 parts .
(4 of 5).
The 'Black convictions' and Christopher Black's word had been completely discredited ; the original convictions were overturned and all those imprisoned were set free . In other words , Paul Kane and his co-defendants had been wrongfully convicted and should never have spent a single minute in prison !
For Paul Kane , the nightmare is far from over ; having spent two years in prison awaiting trial , and a further three years inside after the escape , he is now sitting in Portlaoise Prison facing extradition purely for escaping from a jail he should never have been put in , in the first place . He has now spent the bulk of the last eight years in prison - all for nothing .
For himself , his wife , and three young daughters (one of whom was born while Paul Kane was living a fugitive existence in the South) the past eight years have been a living hell . The power to put an end to this nightmare and see justice done for this Irish family lies with the Fianna Fail Government ...
(MORE LATER).
....... Ireland , 1823 - the potato blight which struck in 1817 had left its mark ; but the population was on the increase , those that 'rented' land from the British 'Landlords' had been evicted to make way for cattle , the Irish 'secret societies' were fighting back as best they could . Turbulent times .......
The British Government in Westminster was worried enough to at least ask - " Looking ahead to fifteen years or more , what must this increase in population without employment end in ? I do not know ; I think it is terrible to reflect upon . " The Irish people would be doing well to live long enough to see the following day , never mind fifteen years down the road ...
A baby was born to a wealthy Dublin business couple in April that year (1823) and , after his schooling , that youth , Martin McDermott , studied as an architect - he began an apprenticeship in that trade with Patrick Byrne , an old Irish Rebel , who had been active with the United Irishmen in 1798 . When he became qualified at his trade , Martin McDermott moved to England to earn his living , and settled in Birkenhead .
However , the skill of architecture was not all that young McDermott learned from his mentor , Patrick Byrne .......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
1921 - The Big Round-Up.......
"....... Murt Twomey was on his way to visit Sean Jer when the Brits grabbed him and put him to work erecting their field tents ; he was hammering tent-pegs into the ground when the head of the mallet he was using flew off and smacked a Brit Sergeant on the head - the man grabbed his rifle ......."
" Murt thought his end had come ; but the British Sergeant cooled off and he and others contented themselves with telling Murt and his fellow-'workers' of the fun they would have in the evening when the IRA Column was brought in . Murt listened patiently , but said nothing . Presently , when that party had finished with their tents , they allowed their 'workers' to go . As he left the field , Murt saw a clip of ammunition on the ground , which he surreptitiously transferred to his pocket , and went towards home .
A few hundred yards ahead of him at the village cross he saw a British sentry ; dropping the ammunition clip into a convenient hole in the stone fence , he carried on . At the cross he was halted by the sentry and all his pockets were carefully searched . Soon , however , they got to know him and did not further trouble him - indeed , some of the British Tommies were anxious to open trade relations with him . One of them offered a fine pair of British Officer's leggings for three shillings ; Murt said he had no money about him , but credit was forthcoming and the gaiters were handed over . An appointment was made for the transfer of the hard cash .
However , each kept the appointment at a different rendezvous ; soon after , the Brit Tommy shocked and astonished some of the villagers as he went about inquiring for ".... that ****** Murt who had kept my three shillings . " Later on , Murt found him and the matter was amicably settled . Later on Sunday evening , I located the main camp of the enemy - it was situated very favourably relative to the Curragh Hill , I thought , as I went home in the twilight . I knew the ground well ; it would be easy , in the semi-darkness of the June night , to come down the western slope of Rahoona , slip across the Dubh-Glaise River and the road at Cathair Cearnach and , moving cautiously upwards over the eastern scrubby shoulder of the Curragh , approach to within four hundred yards of the huge growth of bell tents .
I might not succeed in doing much material damage , I reflected , but at least I would stir up the big hornet's nest ....... "
EXTRADITING CITIZEN KANE .......
BY PHIL CONNOR.
(First published in 'DUBLIN DIARY' magazine , Volume 1 , No. 3 , May 1989 , page 11.)
Re-produced here in 5 parts .
(4 of 5).
The 'Black convictions' and Christopher Black's word had been completely discredited ; the original convictions were overturned and all those imprisoned were set free . In other words , Paul Kane and his co-defendants had been wrongfully convicted and should never have spent a single minute in prison !
For Paul Kane , the nightmare is far from over ; having spent two years in prison awaiting trial , and a further three years inside after the escape , he is now sitting in Portlaoise Prison facing extradition purely for escaping from a jail he should never have been put in , in the first place . He has now spent the bulk of the last eight years in prison - all for nothing .
For himself , his wife , and three young daughters (one of whom was born while Paul Kane was living a fugitive existence in the South) the past eight years have been a living hell . The power to put an end to this nightmare and see justice done for this Irish family lies with the Fianna Fail Government ...
(MORE LATER).
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
MARTIN McDERMOTT , 1823-1905 : YOUNG IRELANDER .......
....... Ireland , 19th Century - Agriculture was in a flux - tillage (crop) farming would not bring in as much money for the British 'Landlords' as pasture (livestock) farming would . An increase in profits could be had by 'Landlords' by putting 'their' land to a different use : but the 'tenants' used the land for tillage , not for the pasture of animals .......
So the 'tenants' were evicted ; thousands of Irish 'peasant' families were moved-on , and took what little refuge they could find in the mountains - they attempted to cut into the stone and rock to make ridges where potatoes could be grown to feed themselves . These ' channel's ' became known as 'Lazy Beds' and there remains are still visible today , two centuries later , on mountain slopes .
The year 1823 also saw Daniel O'Connell and the 'Catholic Association' , with the help of the Catholic Church , moving amongst the dispossessed to get their support in pleading for better conditions to be bestowed by the British ; others , too, were organising , but had no time for gentle words of pleading - the secret societies of the Whiteboys , Oakboys , Moonlighters , the Steelboys and the Defenders , who were taking direct action in defence of their livelihood , such as it was , against the British .
The effects of the 1817 potato blight was still being felt ; there was a population increase , evictions , open battles between 'Landlords' and the secret societies : turbulent times.......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
1921 - The Big Round-Up.......
"....... Murt Twomey , one of our lads , was a witness to the stranger in the field being shot at by the Brits - they missed him , but Sean Jer , walking with his cow nearby , fell to the ground . Murt ran to try and help him but had to seek refuge in the man's cottage as the Brits were now firing at him ......."
" A British Army Officer and some troops stormed the cottage - eventually , Murt Twomey persuaded them to help him bring Sean Jer indoors , and lay him in a comfortable position , as he was suffering terrible pain . Then , after further parley , they allowed Murt to go in search of a priest and a doctor . He returned to the village after a fruitless quest , and was challenged by some British Auxiliaries who were present in great strength : " What are you doing to and fro here for some time ? " they demanded . " I am looking for a priest and doctor for a man who was shot over there , " Murt replied . " Who shot him ? " they said . " It must have been some of your men, " came the answer . " Can you prove that ? " they said threateningly , as they gathered around him ; Murt wisely compromised by saying that he could not .
He told the Auxies that he had been sent by a British Military Officer on his mission , and he was let go . He then met another Brit Officer who again questioned him , and Murt asked him for the service of a Military doctor ; the Brit directed him to the Red Cross station where he found a doctor who agreed to attend to Sean Jer . On the following morning , Murt went to see Sean but was taken by a party of British soldiers and , with a few other local men , ordered to help at the erection of 'bell tents' on the inch near the bridge . Murt made a bad start - a mallet was handed to him and he was directed to drive some pegs into the ground . Aiming a vicious blow at one of the pegs , the head of the mallet flew off and struck a British Sergeant on the head ...
...mad with rage and pain , the Brit snatched up a rifle ......."
(MORE LATER).
EXTRADITING CITIZEN KANE .......
BY PHIL CONNOR.
(First published in 'DUBLIN DIARY' magazine , Volume 1 , No. 3 , May 1989 , page 11.)
Re-produced here in 5 parts .
(3 of 5).
As a victim of this system , and knowing himself wrongfully imprisoned , Paul Kane took part in the September 1983 Mass escape from the H-Blocks . He was recaptured shortly afterwards and returned to prison until October 1986 when he was released on bail over the escape charges .
Having little confidence in British justice , and having his life threatened a number of times , Paul Kane decided to flee South ; he was arrested in Cavan in November 1987 , following actions by the Gardai which were later the subject of Court proceedings and raised serious questions about garda behaviour .
Since then he has been held in Portlaoise Prison on British extradition warrants ; in the meantime the 'Black' convictions and Christopher Black's word have been completely discredited . The original convictions were overturned and all those imprisoned were set free ...
(MORE LATER).
....... Ireland , 19th Century - Agriculture was in a flux - tillage (crop) farming would not bring in as much money for the British 'Landlords' as pasture (livestock) farming would . An increase in profits could be had by 'Landlords' by putting 'their' land to a different use : but the 'tenants' used the land for tillage , not for the pasture of animals .......
So the 'tenants' were evicted ; thousands of Irish 'peasant' families were moved-on , and took what little refuge they could find in the mountains - they attempted to cut into the stone and rock to make ridges where potatoes could be grown to feed themselves . These ' channel's ' became known as 'Lazy Beds' and there remains are still visible today , two centuries later , on mountain slopes .
The year 1823 also saw Daniel O'Connell and the 'Catholic Association' , with the help of the Catholic Church , moving amongst the dispossessed to get their support in pleading for better conditions to be bestowed by the British ; others , too, were organising , but had no time for gentle words of pleading - the secret societies of the Whiteboys , Oakboys , Moonlighters , the Steelboys and the Defenders , who were taking direct action in defence of their livelihood , such as it was , against the British .
The effects of the 1817 potato blight was still being felt ; there was a population increase , evictions , open battles between 'Landlords' and the secret societies : turbulent times.......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
1921 - The Big Round-Up.......
"....... Murt Twomey , one of our lads , was a witness to the stranger in the field being shot at by the Brits - they missed him , but Sean Jer , walking with his cow nearby , fell to the ground . Murt ran to try and help him but had to seek refuge in the man's cottage as the Brits were now firing at him ......."
" A British Army Officer and some troops stormed the cottage - eventually , Murt Twomey persuaded them to help him bring Sean Jer indoors , and lay him in a comfortable position , as he was suffering terrible pain . Then , after further parley , they allowed Murt to go in search of a priest and a doctor . He returned to the village after a fruitless quest , and was challenged by some British Auxiliaries who were present in great strength : " What are you doing to and fro here for some time ? " they demanded . " I am looking for a priest and doctor for a man who was shot over there , " Murt replied . " Who shot him ? " they said . " It must have been some of your men, " came the answer . " Can you prove that ? " they said threateningly , as they gathered around him ; Murt wisely compromised by saying that he could not .
He told the Auxies that he had been sent by a British Military Officer on his mission , and he was let go . He then met another Brit Officer who again questioned him , and Murt asked him for the service of a Military doctor ; the Brit directed him to the Red Cross station where he found a doctor who agreed to attend to Sean Jer . On the following morning , Murt went to see Sean but was taken by a party of British soldiers and , with a few other local men , ordered to help at the erection of 'bell tents' on the inch near the bridge . Murt made a bad start - a mallet was handed to him and he was directed to drive some pegs into the ground . Aiming a vicious blow at one of the pegs , the head of the mallet flew off and struck a British Sergeant on the head ...
...mad with rage and pain , the Brit snatched up a rifle ......."
(MORE LATER).
EXTRADITING CITIZEN KANE .......
BY PHIL CONNOR.
(First published in 'DUBLIN DIARY' magazine , Volume 1 , No. 3 , May 1989 , page 11.)
Re-produced here in 5 parts .
(3 of 5).
As a victim of this system , and knowing himself wrongfully imprisoned , Paul Kane took part in the September 1983 Mass escape from the H-Blocks . He was recaptured shortly afterwards and returned to prison until October 1986 when he was released on bail over the escape charges .
Having little confidence in British justice , and having his life threatened a number of times , Paul Kane decided to flee South ; he was arrested in Cavan in November 1987 , following actions by the Gardai which were later the subject of Court proceedings and raised serious questions about garda behaviour .
Since then he has been held in Portlaoise Prison on British extradition warrants ; in the meantime the 'Black' convictions and Christopher Black's word have been completely discredited . The original convictions were overturned and all those imprisoned were set free ...
(MORE LATER).
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
MARTIN McDERMOTT , 1823-1905 : YOUNG IRELANDER .
Ireland , 1823 ; eight years after the end of the Napoleonic Wars and eight years , also , after the agricultural 'boom' in Ireland had begun a downwards trend ; the all-important wheat crop was not now the saviour it had been .
The price per hundredweight of wheat fell by 34 per-cent , from 17 shillings 6 pence to 11 shillings 6 pence ; the 'peasant' farmer and his family , the 'labourers of the land' , went from bad to worse - but the 'rent' still had to be paid to the British 'Landlord' , who noticed that the demand for cattle had increased ...
...but his 'tenants' were geared-up for tillage , not pasture ; the 'Landlord' was losing money.......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
1921 - The Big Round-Up.......
".......During the search for IRA Volunteers by the British Army , one of our lads , Murt Twomey , decided to pass them on the road - he was not known to them , but if he fled they would shoot him for running ....... "
" Murt called out his two dogs to take with him and walked away to the south as far as the bridge over the River Sullane ; here he waited until he saw the advance Column of British troops enter the village . The road from the village turns eastwards after crossing the river on its southern side , and about a hundred yards from the bridge , stood Sean Jer's cottage - Sean was the father of one of our best Volunteers .
Sean Jer himself was at home , but none of his sons were with him ; as the British soldiers entered the village , about four hundred yards away , a few people were on the road near his cottage - one of them was a visitor to the district and knew no better : he should have walked away to the east along the road , which was sheltered by a good fence , but instead he leaped over the southern fence and ran straight up the high fields of the Curragh Hill in view of the Brits ...
...a heavy rifle-fire was immediately directed at him - he escaped , but Sean Jer , coming out to drive his cow to safety was himself mortally wounded . Murt Twomey , under cover of the road fence , managed to reach the cottage and dash in under fire from the Brits - the shooting was maintained and a stream of bullets passed through the open door . Presently , a British Army Officer with a party of troops arrived ......."
(MORE LATER).
EXTRADITING CITIZEN KANE .......
BY PHIL CONNOR.
(First published in 'DUBLIN DIARY' magazine , Volume 1 , No. 3 , May 1989 , page 11.)
Re-produced here in 5 parts .
(2 of 5).
In November 1981 , Paul Kane was arrested and charged , along with 37 others, with a number of incidents , on the word of 'supergrass' Christopher Black . After the longest trial in British and Irish legal history , all 38 defendants were convicted solely on Black's uncorroborated testimony . Paul Kane was sentenced to 18 years in August 1983 and sent to the H-Blocks .
The 'supergrass' system was condemned by all the parties in the South and by both Nationalist and Unionist leaders in the North ; one of the most forceful denunciations of the administration of justice in the North came from none other than Charles J. Haughey - in November 1985 , he described it as "...an appalling system of supergrass , paid informers , mass trials , discredited court procedures , imprisonment without trial (and) police techniques which are more appropriate to a totalitarian regime than to a parliamentary democracy . "
(MORE LATER).
Ireland , 1823 ; eight years after the end of the Napoleonic Wars and eight years , also , after the agricultural 'boom' in Ireland had begun a downwards trend ; the all-important wheat crop was not now the saviour it had been .
The price per hundredweight of wheat fell by 34 per-cent , from 17 shillings 6 pence to 11 shillings 6 pence ; the 'peasant' farmer and his family , the 'labourers of the land' , went from bad to worse - but the 'rent' still had to be paid to the British 'Landlord' , who noticed that the demand for cattle had increased ...
...but his 'tenants' were geared-up for tillage , not pasture ; the 'Landlord' was losing money.......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
1921 - The Big Round-Up.......
".......During the search for IRA Volunteers by the British Army , one of our lads , Murt Twomey , decided to pass them on the road - he was not known to them , but if he fled they would shoot him for running ....... "
" Murt called out his two dogs to take with him and walked away to the south as far as the bridge over the River Sullane ; here he waited until he saw the advance Column of British troops enter the village . The road from the village turns eastwards after crossing the river on its southern side , and about a hundred yards from the bridge , stood Sean Jer's cottage - Sean was the father of one of our best Volunteers .
Sean Jer himself was at home , but none of his sons were with him ; as the British soldiers entered the village , about four hundred yards away , a few people were on the road near his cottage - one of them was a visitor to the district and knew no better : he should have walked away to the east along the road , which was sheltered by a good fence , but instead he leaped over the southern fence and ran straight up the high fields of the Curragh Hill in view of the Brits ...
...a heavy rifle-fire was immediately directed at him - he escaped , but Sean Jer , coming out to drive his cow to safety was himself mortally wounded . Murt Twomey , under cover of the road fence , managed to reach the cottage and dash in under fire from the Brits - the shooting was maintained and a stream of bullets passed through the open door . Presently , a British Army Officer with a party of troops arrived ......."
(MORE LATER).
EXTRADITING CITIZEN KANE .......
BY PHIL CONNOR.
(First published in 'DUBLIN DIARY' magazine , Volume 1 , No. 3 , May 1989 , page 11.)
Re-produced here in 5 parts .
(2 of 5).
In November 1981 , Paul Kane was arrested and charged , along with 37 others, with a number of incidents , on the word of 'supergrass' Christopher Black . After the longest trial in British and Irish legal history , all 38 defendants were convicted solely on Black's uncorroborated testimony . Paul Kane was sentenced to 18 years in August 1983 and sent to the H-Blocks .
The 'supergrass' system was condemned by all the parties in the South and by both Nationalist and Unionist leaders in the North ; one of the most forceful denunciations of the administration of justice in the North came from none other than Charles J. Haughey - in November 1985 , he described it as "...an appalling system of supergrass , paid informers , mass trials , discredited court procedures , imprisonment without trial (and) police techniques which are more appropriate to a totalitarian regime than to a parliamentary democracy . "
(MORE LATER).
Monday, June 21, 2004
JOHN SADLEIR and WILLIAM KEOGH - 19th Century Irish Turncoats .......
....... John Sadleir , ex-'Independent Irish Party' MP and now 'Lord of The Treasury' in a British 'Whig' Administration in Westminster and owner of a Bank in Tipperary , lived the 'good life' - but could'nt afford to 'keep up' with his new friends ; so he borrowed over a million pounds from his Tipperary Bank , was found out , and topped himself in 1856 .......
However , Sadleir's old buddy , the British Solicitor-General for Ireland , William Keogh (ex-'Independent Irish Party' MP) , somehow managed to 'soldier-on' ; he became a Judge for his British pay-masters during the infamous Fenian Trials of 1865-1867 , where he verbally cracked many an Irish Rebel skull , saving his employers from getting their hands even more bloodier . His conscience must have eventually got the better of him because , in 1878 , he , too, killed himself . It could only make you wonder that , had he a Bank to embezzle , would he have lived longer ?
Perhaps Oscar Wilde summed-up people like John Sadleir and William Keogh (and their 21st Century equivalents) when he wrote - " I know how people chatter in England . The middle classes air their moral prejudices over their gross dinner-tables , and whisper about what they call the profligacies of their betters in order to try and pretend that they are in smart society , and on intimate terms with the people they slander ! "
[END of ' JOHN SADLEIR and WILLIAM KEOGH - 19th Century Irish Turncoats .......'].
(Tomorrow : 'MARTIN McDERMOTT , 1823-1905 : YOUNG IRELANDER').
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
1921 - The Big Round-Up.......
......." 10,000 armed British troops and Auxiliaries out 'hunting' for the IRA in our area ; they were using young and old men as 'target practice' , and then arguing between themselves as to who was the better shot ......."
" It was said at the time that the enemy forces , ten-thousand in number , had converged on the Claodach Valley to encircle and destroy an IRA Army of one thousand men ; now there was no such thing , even scattered over the whole of Munster . The odds against a thousand men would have been ten to one , had such an IRA Army existed . The British force , moving from every point of the compass on Claodach , interviewed every person they met , and had the same story for everyone - 'One thousand IRA men ' were waiting for them in Claodach .
Had the Brits been really certain of this they would not have advanced with such confidence ; fifty men was about the number they expected to take in - that would provide them with ample 'sport' for the day . But twenty times fifty ? What a pity such a force could not have been waiting for them ! But , could it have been mustered , it would not have been waiting in Claodach for them to call ; it would have been down on them before then to meet the Brits on the Ballyvourney Road . As I watched them march past on that evening I looked in vain for some flanking protection for the massed battalions , but there was none . They just marched stolidly through Coolnacahera and Poul na Bro .
Had they dreamt that a thousand IRA men were assembled within six miles of them , their disposition would have been entirely different . On Sunday afternoon , a local IRA Volunteer, Murt Twomey , left the village in good time before the influx of foreign troops to Ballyvourney ; while walking uphill to the north , he decided that to keep on in that direction , or perhaps to the west or south , would end only in his capture a long way from home . He decided to return and , since there was little chance of his being identified as an IRA Volunteer , to pass off as a peaceful citizen ......."
(MORE LATER).
EXTRADITING CITIZEN KANE .
BY PHIL CONNOR.
(First published in 'DUBLIN DIARY' magazine , Volume 1 , No. 3 , May 1989 , page 11.)
Re-produced here in 5 parts .
(1 of 5).
Four men presently sit in Portlaoise Prison awaiting extradition to the north ; one of them - Belfastman Paul Kane - could be handed , or dragged , across the border any time from the first week in April .
Regardless of any arguments for or against extradition in general , Paul Kane's case seems unanswerable ; when , for instance , leading anti-extradition campaigner and long-time Fianna Fail member Nora Comiskey publicly challenged Progressive Democrat spokesperson Anne Colley , through the pages of the Irish Times newspaper to justify extradition , Colley (who had previously argued in favour of it) , was unable to reply .
Kane's argument against extradition hinges on the fact that he is wanted for escaping from a jail where he was wrongfully imprisoned in the first place .......
(MORE LATER).
....... John Sadleir , ex-'Independent Irish Party' MP and now 'Lord of The Treasury' in a British 'Whig' Administration in Westminster and owner of a Bank in Tipperary , lived the 'good life' - but could'nt afford to 'keep up' with his new friends ; so he borrowed over a million pounds from his Tipperary Bank , was found out , and topped himself in 1856 .......
However , Sadleir's old buddy , the British Solicitor-General for Ireland , William Keogh (ex-'Independent Irish Party' MP) , somehow managed to 'soldier-on' ; he became a Judge for his British pay-masters during the infamous Fenian Trials of 1865-1867 , where he verbally cracked many an Irish Rebel skull , saving his employers from getting their hands even more bloodier . His conscience must have eventually got the better of him because , in 1878 , he , too, killed himself . It could only make you wonder that , had he a Bank to embezzle , would he have lived longer ?
Perhaps Oscar Wilde summed-up people like John Sadleir and William Keogh (and their 21st Century equivalents) when he wrote - " I know how people chatter in England . The middle classes air their moral prejudices over their gross dinner-tables , and whisper about what they call the profligacies of their betters in order to try and pretend that they are in smart society , and on intimate terms with the people they slander ! "
[END of ' JOHN SADLEIR and WILLIAM KEOGH - 19th Century Irish Turncoats .......'].
(Tomorrow : 'MARTIN McDERMOTT , 1823-1905 : YOUNG IRELANDER').
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
1921 - The Big Round-Up.......
......." 10,000 armed British troops and Auxiliaries out 'hunting' for the IRA in our area ; they were using young and old men as 'target practice' , and then arguing between themselves as to who was the better shot ......."
" It was said at the time that the enemy forces , ten-thousand in number , had converged on the Claodach Valley to encircle and destroy an IRA Army of one thousand men ; now there was no such thing , even scattered over the whole of Munster . The odds against a thousand men would have been ten to one , had such an IRA Army existed . The British force , moving from every point of the compass on Claodach , interviewed every person they met , and had the same story for everyone - 'One thousand IRA men ' were waiting for them in Claodach .
Had the Brits been really certain of this they would not have advanced with such confidence ; fifty men was about the number they expected to take in - that would provide them with ample 'sport' for the day . But twenty times fifty ? What a pity such a force could not have been waiting for them ! But , could it have been mustered , it would not have been waiting in Claodach for them to call ; it would have been down on them before then to meet the Brits on the Ballyvourney Road . As I watched them march past on that evening I looked in vain for some flanking protection for the massed battalions , but there was none . They just marched stolidly through Coolnacahera and Poul na Bro .
Had they dreamt that a thousand IRA men were assembled within six miles of them , their disposition would have been entirely different . On Sunday afternoon , a local IRA Volunteer, Murt Twomey , left the village in good time before the influx of foreign troops to Ballyvourney ; while walking uphill to the north , he decided that to keep on in that direction , or perhaps to the west or south , would end only in his capture a long way from home . He decided to return and , since there was little chance of his being identified as an IRA Volunteer , to pass off as a peaceful citizen ......."
(MORE LATER).
EXTRADITING CITIZEN KANE .
BY PHIL CONNOR.
(First published in 'DUBLIN DIARY' magazine , Volume 1 , No. 3 , May 1989 , page 11.)
Re-produced here in 5 parts .
(1 of 5).
Four men presently sit in Portlaoise Prison awaiting extradition to the north ; one of them - Belfastman Paul Kane - could be handed , or dragged , across the border any time from the first week in April .
Regardless of any arguments for or against extradition in general , Paul Kane's case seems unanswerable ; when , for instance , leading anti-extradition campaigner and long-time Fianna Fail member Nora Comiskey publicly challenged Progressive Democrat spokesperson Anne Colley , through the pages of the Irish Times newspaper to justify extradition , Colley (who had previously argued in favour of it) , was unable to reply .
Kane's argument against extradition hinges on the fact that he is wanted for escaping from a jail where he was wrongfully imprisoned in the first place .......
(MORE LATER).
Sunday, June 20, 2004
JOHN SADLEIR and WILLIAM KEOGH - 19th Century Irish Turncoats .......
.......Two of the top 'Independent Irish Party' MP's , John Sadleir and William Keogh , 'jumped ship' from the 'IIP' to the British 'Whigs' , for personal gain : a 'top job' each in a British Administration - history repeats ...
As 'Lord of The (British) Treasury ' , John Sadleir (ex- 'IIP' MP) aspired to a lifestyle which he no doubt considered to be his of right - he was , after all , a British Minister and he also owned , by now , ( No - not a holiday-home in Donegal !) a community-type Bank/Financial House , in Ireland - the 'Tipperary Joint-Stock Bank' : however , such was his taste for the fine life and his desire to 'keep in' with his new 'friends' , when his Bank was found to be shy by over one million pounds the shame was too much for him - he killed himself in 1856 .
However , his old buddy , the British Solicitor-General for Ireland , William Keogh (ex-'IIP' MP) , somehow managed to 'soldier-on' and was asked to perform another task for his British pay-masters .......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
1921 - The Big Round-Up.......
".......I was 'dug-in' on the Rahoona Mountains , covered by heather ; then the procession of enemy forces came into view below me - at least ten-thousand strong , all armed , and complete with field equipment . An impressive display ......."
" Beside the regular British Army troops and their gear , the Auxiliaries with their Crossleys gave me the impression that , apart from the cat , very few had been left to mind the house ... Having seen this methodical and massive movement of British military force , from east to west , I was left in no doubt about its objective - it would be some point beyond the village of Ballyvourney to the west or north of it . In fact , it proved to be the valley of Claodach at the foot of the Paps Mountain .
The valley of Claodach is a deep pocket between the hills , four miles to the north-west of Ballyvourney ; from a military point of view it was a veritable cul-de-sac , with only one long winding road leading into it from the west at that time . This would , in the ordinary way , have been an advantage , since enemy lorries could not converge on the glen . But the incursion of infantry from all sides was made feasible by the unusually fine weather . So , early on a Monday morning , a ring of steel was closed around Claodach ; ten-thousand armed men made up that circle which , as the day wore on , gradually contracted .
It was a real 'day out' for the British , a day on the moors ; every man , young or old , was shot at on sight ; an old man at the county border , near the Killarney Road , was gazing upwards at an aeroplane when a volley was fired at him . A bullet grazed his throat , but missed the vital arteries ; the poor harmless old man never dreamt that the 'sportsmen' were out for Irish blood that day . From early morning until late afternoon the firing went on - two young men were killed early in the day on a hilltop north of the Claodach Valley ; evidently they had moved away from the northern contracting arc of the 'ring of steel' , expecting to find safety somewhere to the south .
Like grouse or other game , however , they were 'flushed out' of their native heather to provide targets for the British warriors ; they killed them , and then disputed among themselves as to who were the successful marksmen . Their shooting would , no doubt , have been far less accurate had the poor young lads had any kind of a firearm with which to return even an occasional shot ..."
(MORE LATER).
ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .......
(First published in 'HOT PRESS' Magazine , 6th May 1988 , Volume 12 , No. 8 , page 28).
Re-produced here in 10 parts .
[10 of 10].
Lauded as Africa's statesman , Haile Selassie witnessed the location of the Organisation of African Unity at Addis Ababa in 1963 as a further tribute to Ethiopia's endurance during the colonial era . But his rule became increasingly devoted to its own self-perpetuation ; abroad , he posed as a sage and gradual moderniser but , in fact , imperial Ethiopia was archaic .
Between 1963 and 1973 , only 4.2 per cent of state expenditure went to agriculture in this overwhelmingly rural country ; in 1974 , 91 per cent of the population was illiterate - the 'peasantry' were subject to a grinding feudal system whereby 75 per cent of their meagre incomes went in taxes to the Emperor and his aristocratic associates , who monopolised land ownership .
With 'peasant' initiative punished , there was no incentive to improve agricultural production .
[END of 'ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .......'].
(Tomorrow - EXTRADITING CITIZEN KANE ; from 1989 .)
.......Two of the top 'Independent Irish Party' MP's , John Sadleir and William Keogh , 'jumped ship' from the 'IIP' to the British 'Whigs' , for personal gain : a 'top job' each in a British Administration - history repeats ...
As 'Lord of The (British) Treasury ' , John Sadleir (ex- 'IIP' MP) aspired to a lifestyle which he no doubt considered to be his of right - he was , after all , a British Minister and he also owned , by now , ( No - not a holiday-home in Donegal !) a community-type Bank/Financial House , in Ireland - the 'Tipperary Joint-Stock Bank' : however , such was his taste for the fine life and his desire to 'keep in' with his new 'friends' , when his Bank was found to be shy by over one million pounds the shame was too much for him - he killed himself in 1856 .
However , his old buddy , the British Solicitor-General for Ireland , William Keogh (ex-'IIP' MP) , somehow managed to 'soldier-on' and was asked to perform another task for his British pay-masters .......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
1921 - The Big Round-Up.......
".......I was 'dug-in' on the Rahoona Mountains , covered by heather ; then the procession of enemy forces came into view below me - at least ten-thousand strong , all armed , and complete with field equipment . An impressive display ......."
" Beside the regular British Army troops and their gear , the Auxiliaries with their Crossleys gave me the impression that , apart from the cat , very few had been left to mind the house ... Having seen this methodical and massive movement of British military force , from east to west , I was left in no doubt about its objective - it would be some point beyond the village of Ballyvourney to the west or north of it . In fact , it proved to be the valley of Claodach at the foot of the Paps Mountain .
The valley of Claodach is a deep pocket between the hills , four miles to the north-west of Ballyvourney ; from a military point of view it was a veritable cul-de-sac , with only one long winding road leading into it from the west at that time . This would , in the ordinary way , have been an advantage , since enemy lorries could not converge on the glen . But the incursion of infantry from all sides was made feasible by the unusually fine weather . So , early on a Monday morning , a ring of steel was closed around Claodach ; ten-thousand armed men made up that circle which , as the day wore on , gradually contracted .
It was a real 'day out' for the British , a day on the moors ; every man , young or old , was shot at on sight ; an old man at the county border , near the Killarney Road , was gazing upwards at an aeroplane when a volley was fired at him . A bullet grazed his throat , but missed the vital arteries ; the poor harmless old man never dreamt that the 'sportsmen' were out for Irish blood that day . From early morning until late afternoon the firing went on - two young men were killed early in the day on a hilltop north of the Claodach Valley ; evidently they had moved away from the northern contracting arc of the 'ring of steel' , expecting to find safety somewhere to the south .
Like grouse or other game , however , they were 'flushed out' of their native heather to provide targets for the British warriors ; they killed them , and then disputed among themselves as to who were the successful marksmen . Their shooting would , no doubt , have been far less accurate had the poor young lads had any kind of a firearm with which to return even an occasional shot ..."
(MORE LATER).
ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .......
(First published in 'HOT PRESS' Magazine , 6th May 1988 , Volume 12 , No. 8 , page 28).
Re-produced here in 10 parts .
[10 of 10].
Lauded as Africa's statesman , Haile Selassie witnessed the location of the Organisation of African Unity at Addis Ababa in 1963 as a further tribute to Ethiopia's endurance during the colonial era . But his rule became increasingly devoted to its own self-perpetuation ; abroad , he posed as a sage and gradual moderniser but , in fact , imperial Ethiopia was archaic .
Between 1963 and 1973 , only 4.2 per cent of state expenditure went to agriculture in this overwhelmingly rural country ; in 1974 , 91 per cent of the population was illiterate - the 'peasantry' were subject to a grinding feudal system whereby 75 per cent of their meagre incomes went in taxes to the Emperor and his aristocratic associates , who monopolised land ownership .
With 'peasant' initiative punished , there was no incentive to improve agricultural production .
[END of 'ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .......'].
(Tomorrow - EXTRADITING CITIZEN KANE ; from 1989 .)
Saturday, June 19, 2004
JOHN SADLEIR and WILLIAM KEOGH - 19th Century Irish Turncoats .......
.......with support from the 'Independent Irish Party' in Westminster , British 'Lord' Aberdeen and the 'Whigs' took control of the Administration - and almost immediately offered less that had been agreed to the 'Independent Irish Party' in return for their support .......
This led to rows and bickering within the 'IIP' , a signal which 'Lord' Aberdeen picked-up on and used to his own advantage - in true Brit 'divide and conquer'-style , Aberdeen offered John Sadleir IIP MP the position of ' Lord of The Treasury' in the new British Administration , and also 'threw a bone' to the other dog , William Keogh IIP MP - that of the Office of British Solicitor-General for Ireland !
...And both men took the offer ; and the Catholic Church , subservient as ever to the Brits , supported them for doing so ! This tore not only the 'Independent Irish Party' asunder (although it did manage to 'hobble' on for another few years , disintegrating along the way ) until finally it disbanded in 1858 , but it also disappointed Charles Gavan Duffy IIP MP , (one of the more prominent members of the party) so much that , in October 1855 , he emigrated to Australia in despair .
So - despite success at the polls , and having the 'ear' of the political bosses , and the 'respect' of the 'Establishment' and good , favourable media coverage , being well-dressed , well-spoken and well-paid , if you lose your political principles , you're finished - draw your own conclusions....
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
1921 - The Big Round-Up.......
".......One of our lads , Corney , wanted to visit his family in West Cork but my uncle Dan advised against doing so by the mountain track as it would be swarming with British troops . But the men decided to go that route with Corney anyway , and asked me to go with them ......."
" Reluctantly , I agreed and the seven of us left together ; we had travelled over half-a-mile across country towards Renanirree when I stopped and asked the others again to consider staying where we were , or even to go in the opposite direction - I told them that they were going to be chased if not caught by the British on the bare mountains and that they would have a peaceful week anywhere to the south or east of us . It was no use ; I wished them luck and watched them go , for I felt lonely when they left me . I would have gone with them against my own judgement , but I had another reason for staying as well ...
I returned to Knocksaharing , and that night my uncle and I slept peacefully at Patsy Cooney's of Kilmacarogue , a quarter-mile from Dan's house . All the following afternoon and until late in the evening , I lay stretched in the heather on top of one of the foothills of Rahoona - it commanded an excellent view of the winding Ballyvourney Road at Pool na Bro , and stretches here and there as far east as Coolavokig . Equipped with a powerful pair of field glasses , little could pass unknown to me . One did not need the glasses to see the enemy , however ...
...at about two o'clock the procession started ; the massed columns of British infantry formed its principal feature - it was an imposing display , calculated to overawe as well as to destroy . The British infantry was made up most of the regular troops from Cork and Ballincollig Barracks . Their motor transport , with tents , field kitchens and other impedimenta added to the display ......."
(MORE LATER).
ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .......
(First published in 'HOT PRESS' Magazine , 6th May 1988 , Volume 12 , No. 8 , page 28).
Re-produced here in 10 parts .
(9 of 10).
After their drubbing at Adowa , the Italians had retired to their Eritrean and Somalian enclaves but Mussolini , inflamed with his fevered dreams of a new Roman Empire , invaded Ethiopia in 1935 . Evelyn Waugh , an Italian supporter , wrote of "the eagles of Ancient Rome , as they came to our savage ancestors in France and Britain and Germany , bringing the inestimable gifts of fine workmanship and clear judgement ... " but , in truth , the Italian campaign , with a policy of using poison gas and killing ten Ethiopians for every Italian casualty , was a prelude to the genocidal brutalities of the Second World War .
The Italian rule did'nt stick , however , and in 1941 , an Allied Force liberated Ethiopia and restored Haile Selassie to his throne . Both Italian wars had immensely added to Ethiopian prestige .
The first African independence movements seized on Ethiopia as an example and inspiration for their anti-colonial struggle whilst , as a feudal monarch , Haile Selassie was obviously friendlier to the West than Moscow or Peking ...
(MORE LATER).
.......with support from the 'Independent Irish Party' in Westminster , British 'Lord' Aberdeen and the 'Whigs' took control of the Administration - and almost immediately offered less that had been agreed to the 'Independent Irish Party' in return for their support .......
This led to rows and bickering within the 'IIP' , a signal which 'Lord' Aberdeen picked-up on and used to his own advantage - in true Brit 'divide and conquer'-style , Aberdeen offered John Sadleir IIP MP the position of ' Lord of The Treasury' in the new British Administration , and also 'threw a bone' to the other dog , William Keogh IIP MP - that of the Office of British Solicitor-General for Ireland !
...And both men took the offer ; and the Catholic Church , subservient as ever to the Brits , supported them for doing so ! This tore not only the 'Independent Irish Party' asunder (although it did manage to 'hobble' on for another few years , disintegrating along the way ) until finally it disbanded in 1858 , but it also disappointed Charles Gavan Duffy IIP MP , (one of the more prominent members of the party) so much that , in October 1855 , he emigrated to Australia in despair .
So - despite success at the polls , and having the 'ear' of the political bosses , and the 'respect' of the 'Establishment' and good , favourable media coverage , being well-dressed , well-spoken and well-paid , if you lose your political principles , you're finished - draw your own conclusions....
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
1921 - The Big Round-Up.......
".......One of our lads , Corney , wanted to visit his family in West Cork but my uncle Dan advised against doing so by the mountain track as it would be swarming with British troops . But the men decided to go that route with Corney anyway , and asked me to go with them ......."
" Reluctantly , I agreed and the seven of us left together ; we had travelled over half-a-mile across country towards Renanirree when I stopped and asked the others again to consider staying where we were , or even to go in the opposite direction - I told them that they were going to be chased if not caught by the British on the bare mountains and that they would have a peaceful week anywhere to the south or east of us . It was no use ; I wished them luck and watched them go , for I felt lonely when they left me . I would have gone with them against my own judgement , but I had another reason for staying as well ...
I returned to Knocksaharing , and that night my uncle and I slept peacefully at Patsy Cooney's of Kilmacarogue , a quarter-mile from Dan's house . All the following afternoon and until late in the evening , I lay stretched in the heather on top of one of the foothills of Rahoona - it commanded an excellent view of the winding Ballyvourney Road at Pool na Bro , and stretches here and there as far east as Coolavokig . Equipped with a powerful pair of field glasses , little could pass unknown to me . One did not need the glasses to see the enemy , however ...
...at about two o'clock the procession started ; the massed columns of British infantry formed its principal feature - it was an imposing display , calculated to overawe as well as to destroy . The British infantry was made up most of the regular troops from Cork and Ballincollig Barracks . Their motor transport , with tents , field kitchens and other impedimenta added to the display ......."
(MORE LATER).
ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .......
(First published in 'HOT PRESS' Magazine , 6th May 1988 , Volume 12 , No. 8 , page 28).
Re-produced here in 10 parts .
(9 of 10).
After their drubbing at Adowa , the Italians had retired to their Eritrean and Somalian enclaves but Mussolini , inflamed with his fevered dreams of a new Roman Empire , invaded Ethiopia in 1935 . Evelyn Waugh , an Italian supporter , wrote of "the eagles of Ancient Rome , as they came to our savage ancestors in France and Britain and Germany , bringing the inestimable gifts of fine workmanship and clear judgement ... " but , in truth , the Italian campaign , with a policy of using poison gas and killing ten Ethiopians for every Italian casualty , was a prelude to the genocidal brutalities of the Second World War .
The Italian rule did'nt stick , however , and in 1941 , an Allied Force liberated Ethiopia and restored Haile Selassie to his throne . Both Italian wars had immensely added to Ethiopian prestige .
The first African independence movements seized on Ethiopia as an example and inspiration for their anti-colonial struggle whilst , as a feudal monarch , Haile Selassie was obviously friendlier to the West than Moscow or Peking ...
(MORE LATER).
Friday, June 18, 2004
JOHN SADLEIR and WILLIAM KEOGH - 19th Century Irish Turncoats .......
.......With about forty elected members in the British Parliament in Westminster , the 'Independent Irish Party' put its requests to 'Lord' Derby's Tory-led Government but were re-buffed - so the 'IIP' withdrew its support and that Administration collapsed .......
The main opposition party in Westminster , the 'Whigs' , led by 'Lord' Aberdeen , apparently promised John Sadleir IIP MP and William Keogh IIP MP that the 'Whigs' would be sympathetic to the interests of the 'Independent Irish Party' and the two Irish MP's , in turn , passed this information on to the Ruling Body of their own Party ; it was agreed to support the 'Whigs' in their bid for power which , with 'IIP' support , they got .
...And no sooner had 'Lord' Aberdeen climbed into the Prime Ministerial Chair when his political promises to Sadleir and Keogh were cast aside ; he was , it seems , prepared to 'honour' part of the agreement he made with the 'Independent Irish Party' representatives and Party , but not enough to satisfy them , and certainly not enough when compared with what he said he would do . This led to rows and bickering within the 'IIP' , a signal which 'Lord' Aberdeen picked-up on and used to his own advantage , in true Brit 'divide-and-conquer'-style.......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
1921 - The Big Round-Up.......
".......We knew the Brits were planning a round-up ; our IRA Column had been temporarly disbanded , although seven of us stayed together . We were discussing our immediate plans to lay low somewhere......"
" The weather was unusually fine and dry and the mountains along and across the Cork/Kerry border would be well searched by enemy infantry - it was easy enough to search the same mountains , as most of them were bare and devoid of even heather . Certainly , a column of men could not hope to escape attention from enemy columns scattered about on the neighbouring hills . Even one man could not move without being seen by any fairly vigilant and well-posted sentry .
All of us present well knew the disadvantages of the bare Kerry mountain in a round-up or in a clash with stronger enemy forces ; yet , six out of the seven voted to go to Kerry well beyond the western limit of the circle . To escape the net was not entirely their motive - Corney wanted to avail of the period of inactivity to pay a visit home to west Cork , and the others declared that they would accompany him some distance and then go further into Kerry to meet some of the Kerry IRA men we knew .
My uncle and I opposed the decision to go into any mountain country or to leave our own ground at all - " I think, " said Dan , " it is a great mistake to go near those mountains now , for they will be swarming with troops . I'd much prefer to keep the low , broken boggy ground , be damned! "
The man was wise and the next few days were to prove his wisdom ; however , the others decided to go and asked me to come with them ......."
(MORE LATER).
ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .......
(First published in 'HOT PRESS' Magazine , 6th May 1988 , Volume 12 , No. 8 , page 28).
Re-produced here in 10 parts .
(8 of 10).
The traumas of war and revolution inevitably caused economic stagnation which hindered Ethiopia's own ability to counteract the 1984/'85 famine . Also , though the Russians did give economic help , it was starved of Western governmental development aid ; while Somalia received $70 per capita and Sudan got $29 , Ethiopia was permitted only $9 . It was inevitable , in time, that things would give ...
The next significant Emperor , after Emperor Theodorus (1855-1868) was Johannes IV (1887-1889) who extended the 'royal' power , but battle was only really joined during the reign of his successor , Menilek (1889-1913). Under-funded , under-manned and unaware of the strength and firepower of Menilek's forces , previously supplied by French gunrunners like the poet , Arthur Rimbaud , the Italians marched into the mountainous interiors to be overwhelmed at Adowa in 1896 in what was the only conclusive African victory over a European power in the Colonial period .
So Menilek became the founder of the Ethiopian state , extending its rule to the south , west and east ; building Addis Ababa ; and starting the slow , technical modernisation of the state . At his death , Haile Selassie attained power , first as Regent , in 1916 , finally ascending the imperial throne in 1930 to face the second Italian assault on Ethiopia .......
(MORE LATER).
.......With about forty elected members in the British Parliament in Westminster , the 'Independent Irish Party' put its requests to 'Lord' Derby's Tory-led Government but were re-buffed - so the 'IIP' withdrew its support and that Administration collapsed .......
The main opposition party in Westminster , the 'Whigs' , led by 'Lord' Aberdeen , apparently promised John Sadleir IIP MP and William Keogh IIP MP that the 'Whigs' would be sympathetic to the interests of the 'Independent Irish Party' and the two Irish MP's , in turn , passed this information on to the Ruling Body of their own Party ; it was agreed to support the 'Whigs' in their bid for power which , with 'IIP' support , they got .
...And no sooner had 'Lord' Aberdeen climbed into the Prime Ministerial Chair when his political promises to Sadleir and Keogh were cast aside ; he was , it seems , prepared to 'honour' part of the agreement he made with the 'Independent Irish Party' representatives and Party , but not enough to satisfy them , and certainly not enough when compared with what he said he would do . This led to rows and bickering within the 'IIP' , a signal which 'Lord' Aberdeen picked-up on and used to his own advantage , in true Brit 'divide-and-conquer'-style.......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
1921 - The Big Round-Up.......
".......We knew the Brits were planning a round-up ; our IRA Column had been temporarly disbanded , although seven of us stayed together . We were discussing our immediate plans to lay low somewhere......"
" The weather was unusually fine and dry and the mountains along and across the Cork/Kerry border would be well searched by enemy infantry - it was easy enough to search the same mountains , as most of them were bare and devoid of even heather . Certainly , a column of men could not hope to escape attention from enemy columns scattered about on the neighbouring hills . Even one man could not move without being seen by any fairly vigilant and well-posted sentry .
All of us present well knew the disadvantages of the bare Kerry mountain in a round-up or in a clash with stronger enemy forces ; yet , six out of the seven voted to go to Kerry well beyond the western limit of the circle . To escape the net was not entirely their motive - Corney wanted to avail of the period of inactivity to pay a visit home to west Cork , and the others declared that they would accompany him some distance and then go further into Kerry to meet some of the Kerry IRA men we knew .
My uncle and I opposed the decision to go into any mountain country or to leave our own ground at all - " I think, " said Dan , " it is a great mistake to go near those mountains now , for they will be swarming with troops . I'd much prefer to keep the low , broken boggy ground , be damned! "
The man was wise and the next few days were to prove his wisdom ; however , the others decided to go and asked me to come with them ......."
(MORE LATER).
ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .......
(First published in 'HOT PRESS' Magazine , 6th May 1988 , Volume 12 , No. 8 , page 28).
Re-produced here in 10 parts .
(8 of 10).
The traumas of war and revolution inevitably caused economic stagnation which hindered Ethiopia's own ability to counteract the 1984/'85 famine . Also , though the Russians did give economic help , it was starved of Western governmental development aid ; while Somalia received $70 per capita and Sudan got $29 , Ethiopia was permitted only $9 . It was inevitable , in time, that things would give ...
The next significant Emperor , after Emperor Theodorus (1855-1868) was Johannes IV (1887-1889) who extended the 'royal' power , but battle was only really joined during the reign of his successor , Menilek (1889-1913). Under-funded , under-manned and unaware of the strength and firepower of Menilek's forces , previously supplied by French gunrunners like the poet , Arthur Rimbaud , the Italians marched into the mountainous interiors to be overwhelmed at Adowa in 1896 in what was the only conclusive African victory over a European power in the Colonial period .
So Menilek became the founder of the Ethiopian state , extending its rule to the south , west and east ; building Addis Ababa ; and starting the slow , technical modernisation of the state . At his death , Haile Selassie attained power , first as Regent , in 1916 , finally ascending the imperial throne in 1930 to face the second Italian assault on Ethiopia .......
(MORE LATER).
Thursday, June 17, 2004
JOHN SADLEIR and WILLIAM KEOGH - 19th Century Irish Turncoats .......
.......the newly-formed 'Independent Irish Party' (composed of 'The Irish Brigade' and 'The Tenant Right League') appeared adamant that the British would be challenged on their mis-rule in Ireland , with particular reference to the 1851 'Ecclesiastical Titles Bill' ; however , the Brits had seen it all before .......
The new 'Independent Irish Party' was flexing its muscle ; as William Keogh (a Barrister and MP for Athlone) put it - " I will not support any party which does not make it the first ingredient of their political existence to repeal the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill . So help me God ..... " By this stage , Charles Gavan Duffy had been elected as an 'Independent Irish Party' MP to Westminster , representing the New Ross area of Wexford .
The ' IIP ' , with forty members elected to Westminster , did actually hold the balance of power in 'Lord' Derby's Tory-led government in Westminster and so pressed their claims with that administration regarding the 'Titles Bill' and other matters pertaining to Ireland - but they got no satisfaction from 'Lord' Derby or any of his Ministers ...
...so the 'IIP' 'pulled the plug' and the British Government of the day collapsed .......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
1921 - The Big Round-Up.
" The 'Big Round-Up' started on the evening of Sunday , 5th June 1921 , at Ballyvourney - we had been expecting it daily for at least a fortnight , and our IRA Column had been disbanded in the face of it . Seven of us had so far kept together ; Corney O'Sullivan , Jim and Miah Grey , Paddy Donncha Eoin , Patsy Lynch , my brother Pat and I : we had stayed in the neighbourhood of the village or Cross of Kilnamartyra , at Lios Bui , or kilmacarogue , or Doirin na Ceardchan , or Knocksaharing with our good friends and comrades .
Now , on Saturday morning , we had got definite news that the round-up was about to begin on the morrow . In the kitchen of the old house at Knocksaharing we discussed the matter ; my uncle was present with the seven of us . While nothing very definite was known about the impending enemy operation , we knew that it was going to be very thorough and widespread - to anticipate its boundaries was now the vital consideration . Hitherto , when hard pressed , we had always crossed the border into Kerry , and when things had quietened down again had returned .
Sure enough , there were large areas in Kerry that would escape encirclement in this round-up , but to select those areas was the crux - again , it was obvious that the nearest safe part of Kerry during this period would be many miles from the Cork border......."
(MORE LATER).
ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .......
(First published in 'HOT PRESS' Magazine , 6th May 1988 , Volume 12 , No. 8 , page 28).
Re-produced here in 10 parts .
(7 of 10).
For a year from September 1976 , a 'red terror' was conducted against students and civilians linked with the regime's revolutionary competitors in the 'Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Party' , albeit that the 'EPRP' had also begun its own assassination campaign against Mengisty's supporters . Some claim over 1,000 of the 5,000 students at Addis Ababa University died ; Amnesty International calculates 30,000 were imprisoned and several thousand killed - but the West has tolerated many regimes with a bloody birth . What it could'nt accept was Mengisty's Russian alliance .
At the most traumatic and apparently vulnerable point of the Ethiopian revolution , Somalia invaded the south-eastern Ogaden Desert region . Previously Russia had backed Somalia ; initially it tried to mediate before eventually siding with the more strategically valuable Ethiopia - it was Cuban troops who helped to drive out the Somalis , who themselves had switched over to an American alliance ...
(MORE LATER).
.......the newly-formed 'Independent Irish Party' (composed of 'The Irish Brigade' and 'The Tenant Right League') appeared adamant that the British would be challenged on their mis-rule in Ireland , with particular reference to the 1851 'Ecclesiastical Titles Bill' ; however , the Brits had seen it all before .......
The new 'Independent Irish Party' was flexing its muscle ; as William Keogh (a Barrister and MP for Athlone) put it - " I will not support any party which does not make it the first ingredient of their political existence to repeal the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill . So help me God ..... " By this stage , Charles Gavan Duffy had been elected as an 'Independent Irish Party' MP to Westminster , representing the New Ross area of Wexford .
The ' IIP ' , with forty members elected to Westminster , did actually hold the balance of power in 'Lord' Derby's Tory-led government in Westminster and so pressed their claims with that administration regarding the 'Titles Bill' and other matters pertaining to Ireland - but they got no satisfaction from 'Lord' Derby or any of his Ministers ...
...so the 'IIP' 'pulled the plug' and the British Government of the day collapsed .......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
1921 - The Big Round-Up.
" The 'Big Round-Up' started on the evening of Sunday , 5th June 1921 , at Ballyvourney - we had been expecting it daily for at least a fortnight , and our IRA Column had been disbanded in the face of it . Seven of us had so far kept together ; Corney O'Sullivan , Jim and Miah Grey , Paddy Donncha Eoin , Patsy Lynch , my brother Pat and I : we had stayed in the neighbourhood of the village or Cross of Kilnamartyra , at Lios Bui , or kilmacarogue , or Doirin na Ceardchan , or Knocksaharing with our good friends and comrades .
Now , on Saturday morning , we had got definite news that the round-up was about to begin on the morrow . In the kitchen of the old house at Knocksaharing we discussed the matter ; my uncle was present with the seven of us . While nothing very definite was known about the impending enemy operation , we knew that it was going to be very thorough and widespread - to anticipate its boundaries was now the vital consideration . Hitherto , when hard pressed , we had always crossed the border into Kerry , and when things had quietened down again had returned .
Sure enough , there were large areas in Kerry that would escape encirclement in this round-up , but to select those areas was the crux - again , it was obvious that the nearest safe part of Kerry during this period would be many miles from the Cork border......."
(MORE LATER).
ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .......
(First published in 'HOT PRESS' Magazine , 6th May 1988 , Volume 12 , No. 8 , page 28).
Re-produced here in 10 parts .
(7 of 10).
For a year from September 1976 , a 'red terror' was conducted against students and civilians linked with the regime's revolutionary competitors in the 'Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Party' , albeit that the 'EPRP' had also begun its own assassination campaign against Mengisty's supporters . Some claim over 1,000 of the 5,000 students at Addis Ababa University died ; Amnesty International calculates 30,000 were imprisoned and several thousand killed - but the West has tolerated many regimes with a bloody birth . What it could'nt accept was Mengisty's Russian alliance .
At the most traumatic and apparently vulnerable point of the Ethiopian revolution , Somalia invaded the south-eastern Ogaden Desert region . Previously Russia had backed Somalia ; initially it tried to mediate before eventually siding with the more strategically valuable Ethiopia - it was Cuban troops who helped to drive out the Somalis , who themselves had switched over to an American alliance ...
(MORE LATER).
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
JOHN SADLEIR and WILLIAM KEOGH - 19th Century Irish Turncoats .......
.......the pro-Catholic Church lobby-group , ' The Irish Brigade ' , and the 'Young Ireland Movement'-supported 'Tenant Right League' were against the British 'Ecclesiastical Titles Bill'.......
In 1852 , 'The Irish Brigade' and 'The Tenant Right League' joined forces to get the 'Ecclesiastical Titles Bill' revoked and , in July that year (1852) the new organisation came together as 'The Independent Irish Party' . This new Party declared that " legislative independence is the clear , eternal and inalienable right of this country , and that no settlement of the affairs of Ireland can be permanent until that right is recognised and established ....(we will) take the most prompt and effective measures for the protection of the lives and interests of the Irish people , and the attainment of their natural rights . "
John Sadleir and William Keogh , two of the more prominent MP's in 'The Independent Irish Party' (of which there were about forty , as the new 'IIP' was joined by Irish MP's in Westminster) , like all the other 'IIP' representatives , took a pledge not to accept any Office in a Westminster Administration or to co-operate with same until , amongst other things , the 'Ecclesiastical Titles Bill' was done away ; however , the British had seen developments like this in their other ' colony's ' and were preparing to manoeuvre things in their own favour .......
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
KNOCKSAHARING.......
"....... Ireland , early 20th Century ; Irishmen and women faced death each day , either from the enemy or from nature ; but the 'Poorhouse' was to be feared as well - families were split-up in these institutions : mothers pulled from their children , husbands from their wives , brothers from their sisters ......."
" And it happened in the 'Poorhouse' of Macroom , and Canon Peter O'Leary (An t-Ahair Peadar) has given the names of the family and the details of their sufferings in 'Mo Sgeal Fein' - he tells how Diarmaidin was separated from Sheila , his little sister , how he died and his body was thrown into the pit at Carraig a' Staire with other Famine victims ; how Sheila soon followed him there and how , a few days later , the father and mother struggled home to die .
He records how Padraig and Cait stopped at the Famine Pit at Carraig a' Staire : somewhere underneath were the bodies of their children , but their bright souls were in a better world "where tyrants 'taint not nature's bliss ." Having cried enough , the parents turned their faces towards their cabin in Doire Lia , six miles away to the north-west . Here they were found the following morning by a neighbour - both were dead . Cait's feet were clasped by Padraig to his breast inside his shirt ; it had been his last effort to somehow save her life...
Canon O'Leary almost lived to see the 'Poorhouse' laid low ; how the man who wrote 'Mo Sgeal Fein' would rejoice with us at its passing !
[END of 'KNOCKSAHARING.......'].
(Tomorrow - '1921-The Big Round-Up.)
ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .......
(First published in 'HOT PRESS' Magazine , 6th May 1988 , Volume 12 , No. 8 , page 28).
Re-produced here in 10 parts .
(6 of 10).
Only when British journalist Jonathan Dimbleby inflitrated the famine zone and smuggled his film of the horrific scenes back to London did Haile Selassie's government concede the immensity of the suffering ; it was the last throw of a corrupt and senile regime . The small young educated 'elite' in the universities and among the junior officers had already recognised the chasm between Haile Selassie and his showy international pretensions , and Ethiopia's true backwardness - the discontent erupted and the students struck and then marched on the Palace , bizarrely , after gathering at the only meeting the nervous authorities could'nt forbid - an American Peace Corps Fashion Show !
The Junior Officers took the leadership as 'the creeping coup' of 1974 displaced the Emperor . Finally , Haile Miriam-Mengisty emerged as leader of the revolutionary regime - a government which itself attracted much Western criticism during the 1984/'85 famine . This partially derived from the bloody events of the immediate post-revolutionary period ; many 'aristocrats' and Imperial Officials were executed . Within the military revolutionary 'elite' , opponents of Mengisty and his alies were also shot .......
(MORE LATER).
.......the pro-Catholic Church lobby-group , ' The Irish Brigade ' , and the 'Young Ireland Movement'-supported 'Tenant Right League' were against the British 'Ecclesiastical Titles Bill'.......
In 1852 , 'The Irish Brigade' and 'The Tenant Right League' joined forces to get the 'Ecclesiastical Titles Bill' revoked and , in July that year (1852) the new organisation came together as 'The Independent Irish Party' . This new Party declared that " legislative independence is the clear , eternal and inalienable right of this country , and that no settlement of the affairs of Ireland can be permanent until that right is recognised and established ....(we will) take the most prompt and effective measures for the protection of the lives and interests of the Irish people , and the attainment of their natural rights . "
John Sadleir and William Keogh , two of the more prominent MP's in 'The Independent Irish Party' (of which there were about forty , as the new 'IIP' was joined by Irish MP's in Westminster) , like all the other 'IIP' representatives , took a pledge not to accept any Office in a Westminster Administration or to co-operate with same until , amongst other things , the 'Ecclesiastical Titles Bill' was done away ; however , the British had seen developments like this in their other ' colony's ' and were preparing to manoeuvre things in their own favour .......
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
KNOCKSAHARING.......
"....... Ireland , early 20th Century ; Irishmen and women faced death each day , either from the enemy or from nature ; but the 'Poorhouse' was to be feared as well - families were split-up in these institutions : mothers pulled from their children , husbands from their wives , brothers from their sisters ......."
" And it happened in the 'Poorhouse' of Macroom , and Canon Peter O'Leary (An t-Ahair Peadar) has given the names of the family and the details of their sufferings in 'Mo Sgeal Fein' - he tells how Diarmaidin was separated from Sheila , his little sister , how he died and his body was thrown into the pit at Carraig a' Staire with other Famine victims ; how Sheila soon followed him there and how , a few days later , the father and mother struggled home to die .
He records how Padraig and Cait stopped at the Famine Pit at Carraig a' Staire : somewhere underneath were the bodies of their children , but their bright souls were in a better world "where tyrants 'taint not nature's bliss ." Having cried enough , the parents turned their faces towards their cabin in Doire Lia , six miles away to the north-west . Here they were found the following morning by a neighbour - both were dead . Cait's feet were clasped by Padraig to his breast inside his shirt ; it had been his last effort to somehow save her life...
Canon O'Leary almost lived to see the 'Poorhouse' laid low ; how the man who wrote 'Mo Sgeal Fein' would rejoice with us at its passing !
[END of 'KNOCKSAHARING.......'].
(Tomorrow - '1921-The Big Round-Up.)
ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .......
(First published in 'HOT PRESS' Magazine , 6th May 1988 , Volume 12 , No. 8 , page 28).
Re-produced here in 10 parts .
(6 of 10).
Only when British journalist Jonathan Dimbleby inflitrated the famine zone and smuggled his film of the horrific scenes back to London did Haile Selassie's government concede the immensity of the suffering ; it was the last throw of a corrupt and senile regime . The small young educated 'elite' in the universities and among the junior officers had already recognised the chasm between Haile Selassie and his showy international pretensions , and Ethiopia's true backwardness - the discontent erupted and the students struck and then marched on the Palace , bizarrely , after gathering at the only meeting the nervous authorities could'nt forbid - an American Peace Corps Fashion Show !
The Junior Officers took the leadership as 'the creeping coup' of 1974 displaced the Emperor . Finally , Haile Miriam-Mengisty emerged as leader of the revolutionary regime - a government which itself attracted much Western criticism during the 1984/'85 famine . This partially derived from the bloody events of the immediate post-revolutionary period ; many 'aristocrats' and Imperial Officials were executed . Within the military revolutionary 'elite' , opponents of Mengisty and his alies were also shot .......
(MORE LATER).
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
JOHN SADLEIR and WILLIAM KEOGH - 19th Century Irish Turncoats .......
....... At 36 years of age , in 1851 , and a prominent member of the Catholic Church-led lobby group 'The Irish Brigade' , John Sadleir witnessed the introduction by the British of the 'Ecclesiastical Titles Bill ' , which aimed to curb the activities of the Catholic Church .......
It was now 'illegal' to be described as a 'Parish Priest' , 'Bishop' etc - at least it was so in writing ; but this 'law' was not followed-up (ie enforced) on the ground (what we in Ireland would call "an Irish solution to an Irish problem " !). However , enforced or not , the 'Titles Bill' was vehemently opposed by John Sadleir and William Keogh and 'The Irish Brigade' (who were by now known by the nick-name of 'The Popes Brass Band' , such was their support for the Catholic Hierarchy !) ; others , too , were opposed to the 'Bill' ...
... a group known as the 'Tenant Right League' , which had been founded in 1850 by 'Young Ireland' Movement leaders Charles Gavan Duffy and Frederick Lucas (to secure better conditions for those that worked the land) also campaigned against 'The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill' .
The 'Tenant Right League' was formed in City Assembly House in William Street , Dublin , in August 1850 , after a four-day conference , attended by a right mix of people - magistrates , 'landlords' , tenants themselves , priests (of both Catholic and Presbyterian persuasion) and newspaper journalists and editors .......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
KNOCKSAHARING.......
".......According to the Brits , they suffered no casualties due to our ambush -their usual claim ! However , they got far more than they bargained for that day when they met us , instead of the unarmed civilians they were after ......."
" We rejoiced , also, to hear of the destruction of the 'Union of Macroom ' , or the 'Workhouse' , or 'Poorhouse' , as it was variously called ; that cursed institution , and all the others of its kind throughout the country , had been for long the nightmare of the people . For too long they had obtruded their obscene presence between them and the light of God . What untold suffering of mind and body did their vile and ugly walls and gates encompass , not so long ago ! But suffering and despair were not confined to their compass or environs ...
...their influence went abroad like a virulent miasma , like Cromwell's corpse "to poison half mankind." Built , ostensibly , as 'charitable institutions' , the devil quickly became their patron - charity , the most formidable of virtures , was soon deleted from his programme . As an instrument of oppression , the Poorhouse far surpassed the gaol (jail) or the hangman's rope . For it struck at the whole family : first it haunted the parents for , if the 'landlord' wanted their land or they failed to pay the rent , what were their prospects ?
If they had the money they could emigrate - that would be bad enough but , failing that , there was the other 'option' ; the 'Poorhouse' . The prospect of death would not appal an Irish man or woman unduly , but the 'Poorhouse' , where the father would be separated from the mother , and the brother from the sister ...what torture could be more diabolically devised ...?
(MORE LATER).
ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .......
(First published in 'HOT PRESS' Magazine , 6th May 1988 , Volume 12 , No. 8 , page 28).
Re-produced here in 10 parts .
(5 of 10).
Instead a second strategic factor came into play - if Ethiopia's highlands made her impregnable , her coast was a more attractive prospect : now it guards the oil-tanker routes but , in the 19th Century , Britain's most crucial interest was to protect the Suez Canal - Red Sea passage to its Indian empire .
The British did'nt want the rival French interfering so they tolerated and sponsored the Italians as 'junior imperial partners' to gain a foothold on the Eritrean coast . Against this bleak background came the '72/3 famine and the consequent revolution ; this drought , which afflicated all the Sahel countries , was accounted the most devastating in the region since 1913 but the Ethiopian people suffered the greatest ravages through the inexcusable apathy of their government .
Traditional Ethiopian attitudes to famine were fatalistic , indeed almost medieval , in a belief that famine was God's punishment for man's sins that could only be countered by prayer . But Haile Selassie's government denied even the existence of the famine , acting as if the tragedy was merely a seasonal culling of the peasantry .......
(MORE LATER).
....... At 36 years of age , in 1851 , and a prominent member of the Catholic Church-led lobby group 'The Irish Brigade' , John Sadleir witnessed the introduction by the British of the 'Ecclesiastical Titles Bill ' , which aimed to curb the activities of the Catholic Church .......
It was now 'illegal' to be described as a 'Parish Priest' , 'Bishop' etc - at least it was so in writing ; but this 'law' was not followed-up (ie enforced) on the ground (what we in Ireland would call "an Irish solution to an Irish problem " !). However , enforced or not , the 'Titles Bill' was vehemently opposed by John Sadleir and William Keogh and 'The Irish Brigade' (who were by now known by the nick-name of 'The Popes Brass Band' , such was their support for the Catholic Hierarchy !) ; others , too , were opposed to the 'Bill' ...
... a group known as the 'Tenant Right League' , which had been founded in 1850 by 'Young Ireland' Movement leaders Charles Gavan Duffy and Frederick Lucas (to secure better conditions for those that worked the land) also campaigned against 'The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill' .
The 'Tenant Right League' was formed in City Assembly House in William Street , Dublin , in August 1850 , after a four-day conference , attended by a right mix of people - magistrates , 'landlords' , tenants themselves , priests (of both Catholic and Presbyterian persuasion) and newspaper journalists and editors .......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
KNOCKSAHARING.......
".......According to the Brits , they suffered no casualties due to our ambush -their usual claim ! However , they got far more than they bargained for that day when they met us , instead of the unarmed civilians they were after ......."
" We rejoiced , also, to hear of the destruction of the 'Union of Macroom ' , or the 'Workhouse' , or 'Poorhouse' , as it was variously called ; that cursed institution , and all the others of its kind throughout the country , had been for long the nightmare of the people . For too long they had obtruded their obscene presence between them and the light of God . What untold suffering of mind and body did their vile and ugly walls and gates encompass , not so long ago ! But suffering and despair were not confined to their compass or environs ...
...their influence went abroad like a virulent miasma , like Cromwell's corpse "to poison half mankind." Built , ostensibly , as 'charitable institutions' , the devil quickly became their patron - charity , the most formidable of virtures , was soon deleted from his programme . As an instrument of oppression , the Poorhouse far surpassed the gaol (jail) or the hangman's rope . For it struck at the whole family : first it haunted the parents for , if the 'landlord' wanted their land or they failed to pay the rent , what were their prospects ?
If they had the money they could emigrate - that would be bad enough but , failing that , there was the other 'option' ; the 'Poorhouse' . The prospect of death would not appal an Irish man or woman unduly , but the 'Poorhouse' , where the father would be separated from the mother , and the brother from the sister ...what torture could be more diabolically devised ...?
(MORE LATER).
ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .......
(First published in 'HOT PRESS' Magazine , 6th May 1988 , Volume 12 , No. 8 , page 28).
Re-produced here in 10 parts .
(5 of 10).
Instead a second strategic factor came into play - if Ethiopia's highlands made her impregnable , her coast was a more attractive prospect : now it guards the oil-tanker routes but , in the 19th Century , Britain's most crucial interest was to protect the Suez Canal - Red Sea passage to its Indian empire .
The British did'nt want the rival French interfering so they tolerated and sponsored the Italians as 'junior imperial partners' to gain a foothold on the Eritrean coast . Against this bleak background came the '72/3 famine and the consequent revolution ; this drought , which afflicated all the Sahel countries , was accounted the most devastating in the region since 1913 but the Ethiopian people suffered the greatest ravages through the inexcusable apathy of their government .
Traditional Ethiopian attitudes to famine were fatalistic , indeed almost medieval , in a belief that famine was God's punishment for man's sins that could only be countered by prayer . But Haile Selassie's government denied even the existence of the famine , acting as if the tragedy was merely a seasonal culling of the peasantry .......
(MORE LATER).
Monday, June 14, 2004
JOHN SADLEIR and WILLIAM KEOGH - 19th Century Irish Turncoats .......
.......The Irish were 'down' but not 'out' - various secret societies were striking-back as best they could against the ruthlessness of the British 'ruling-class' and their 'Landlords' and agents .......
It was into this era that a child was born in 1815 , in County Tipperary ; John Sadleir . At the time that John Sadleir was growing-up , a man named George Henry Moore (who was connected to , and supported by , the Catholic Church Hierarchy) was organising a 'pressure-group' which was to be called the 'Irish Brigade' to lobby Westminster on behalf of the Catholic Church , its members , and its 'flock' - John Sadleir joined the 'Irish Brigade' lobby-group and became a prominent member of it , as did about twenty liberal-minded British MP's , including William Keogh (who , in later years , was to be appointed a Judge by the British , to act against the Fenians).
When John Sadleir was 36 years of age (in 1851) the British Administration introduced the 'Ecclesiastical Titles Bill' (on 6th February 1851) making it 'illegal' for any Catholic prelate (ie Priest , Arch-Bishop , Bishop etc) to be that which the Vatican claimed him to be - that is , under the 'Ecclesiastical Titles Bill' it was deemed to be 'a crime' to be described as the 'Parish Priest of XXX' , 'Arch-Bishop of XXX' , 'Bishop of XXX' ! In short , the assumption of titles by Roman Catholic Priests was outlawed by Westminster .......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
KNOCKSAHARING.......
".......We had scattered the British Auxiliaries during our ambush , but now they had re-grouped and were coming back on foot ; it was time for us to withdraw ......."
" Leaving my uncle's house , we went southwards to Lios Bui where an aeroplane hovered over us in an azure sky ; it circled about as if looking for a movement of troops - that was one decided advantage we had over the British forces - we could , without aeroplanes , easily discover British troop movements , while it was quite impossible for them to detect ours, for the simple reason that the 'troops' did not exist ! It would require keen eyes to see the seven of us reclining against a rock in the middle of the Lios Bui Bog ...
The day being still young , and we feeling hungry , we crossed the Toon River to the Claonrath houses where we had tea - then , as the sun started to decline , we retraced our steps to Patsy Dineen's where we heard the news of the day . The Auxiliaries had retrieved their comrades and the lorry and started for Macroom but , at Carrigaphooca , three miles from the town , they found the road blocked by trees . In a panic , fearful of another ambush , they tore them away and broke through ; reaching Macroom , they found that the Workhouse had been burned in their absence ! It had not been , for them , a very profitable day - they had , in fact , received what the Irish would call "more kicks than ha'pence !"
We were unable to find out anything about the enemy's losses on that day ; the Auxies reported that they had no casualties , as they would do in any case , but we could not claim that we had inflicted any , even if we had killed numbers of them in the lorries . We had not even the opportunity of seeing what happened to the lorry that was ditched . The one thing certain was that they had got a bad fright - they had come out to Renanirree expecting to find a number of people , unarmed , gathered together in the school or dance hall . Had they found them , they would , like the brutal yeoman Hempenstall , have constituted themselves as judge , jury , hangman , gallows , rope and all......."
(MORE LATER).
ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .......
(First published in 'HOT PRESS' Magazine , 6th May 1988 , Volume 12 , No. 8 , page 28).
Re-produced here in 10 parts .
(4 of 10).
By then , Ethiopia's isolation had led to the romantic European myth of 'Prester John' , a benevolent Christian King encircled by the hordes of pagan Africa ; the reality was less glamorous - by the 19th Century , the 'King of Kings' had only a titular role , with the real powers held by the Provincial 'Lords' . As the European powers began the colonisation of Africa , the Ethiopian monarchy revived ; Emperor Theodorus (1855-1868) was the first to seek to re-establish its powers but when (British) Queen Victoria's minions (through insensitive bureaucratic omission , it must be said) refused to answer a diplomatic letter and he imprisoned the British representatives at his court , a punitive expedition led to his defeat and suicide .
But this colonial foray was'nt a prelude to British conquest . Their campaign had been much aided by the other Ethiopian Lords' refusal to support the unpopular and over-ambitious Theodorus . Besides , the British would soon be embroiled fighting the Mahdi in the neighbouring Sudan .......
(MORE LATER).
.......The Irish were 'down' but not 'out' - various secret societies were striking-back as best they could against the ruthlessness of the British 'ruling-class' and their 'Landlords' and agents .......
It was into this era that a child was born in 1815 , in County Tipperary ; John Sadleir . At the time that John Sadleir was growing-up , a man named George Henry Moore (who was connected to , and supported by , the Catholic Church Hierarchy) was organising a 'pressure-group' which was to be called the 'Irish Brigade' to lobby Westminster on behalf of the Catholic Church , its members , and its 'flock' - John Sadleir joined the 'Irish Brigade' lobby-group and became a prominent member of it , as did about twenty liberal-minded British MP's , including William Keogh (who , in later years , was to be appointed a Judge by the British , to act against the Fenians).
When John Sadleir was 36 years of age (in 1851) the British Administration introduced the 'Ecclesiastical Titles Bill' (on 6th February 1851) making it 'illegal' for any Catholic prelate (ie Priest , Arch-Bishop , Bishop etc) to be that which the Vatican claimed him to be - that is , under the 'Ecclesiastical Titles Bill' it was deemed to be 'a crime' to be described as the 'Parish Priest of XXX' , 'Arch-Bishop of XXX' , 'Bishop of XXX' ! In short , the assumption of titles by Roman Catholic Priests was outlawed by Westminster .......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
KNOCKSAHARING.......
".......We had scattered the British Auxiliaries during our ambush , but now they had re-grouped and were coming back on foot ; it was time for us to withdraw ......."
" Leaving my uncle's house , we went southwards to Lios Bui where an aeroplane hovered over us in an azure sky ; it circled about as if looking for a movement of troops - that was one decided advantage we had over the British forces - we could , without aeroplanes , easily discover British troop movements , while it was quite impossible for them to detect ours, for the simple reason that the 'troops' did not exist ! It would require keen eyes to see the seven of us reclining against a rock in the middle of the Lios Bui Bog ...
The day being still young , and we feeling hungry , we crossed the Toon River to the Claonrath houses where we had tea - then , as the sun started to decline , we retraced our steps to Patsy Dineen's where we heard the news of the day . The Auxiliaries had retrieved their comrades and the lorry and started for Macroom but , at Carrigaphooca , three miles from the town , they found the road blocked by trees . In a panic , fearful of another ambush , they tore them away and broke through ; reaching Macroom , they found that the Workhouse had been burned in their absence ! It had not been , for them , a very profitable day - they had , in fact , received what the Irish would call "more kicks than ha'pence !"
We were unable to find out anything about the enemy's losses on that day ; the Auxies reported that they had no casualties , as they would do in any case , but we could not claim that we had inflicted any , even if we had killed numbers of them in the lorries . We had not even the opportunity of seeing what happened to the lorry that was ditched . The one thing certain was that they had got a bad fright - they had come out to Renanirree expecting to find a number of people , unarmed , gathered together in the school or dance hall . Had they found them , they would , like the brutal yeoman Hempenstall , have constituted themselves as judge , jury , hangman , gallows , rope and all......."
(MORE LATER).
ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .......
(First published in 'HOT PRESS' Magazine , 6th May 1988 , Volume 12 , No. 8 , page 28).
Re-produced here in 10 parts .
(4 of 10).
By then , Ethiopia's isolation had led to the romantic European myth of 'Prester John' , a benevolent Christian King encircled by the hordes of pagan Africa ; the reality was less glamorous - by the 19th Century , the 'King of Kings' had only a titular role , with the real powers held by the Provincial 'Lords' . As the European powers began the colonisation of Africa , the Ethiopian monarchy revived ; Emperor Theodorus (1855-1868) was the first to seek to re-establish its powers but when (British) Queen Victoria's minions (through insensitive bureaucratic omission , it must be said) refused to answer a diplomatic letter and he imprisoned the British representatives at his court , a punitive expedition led to his defeat and suicide .
But this colonial foray was'nt a prelude to British conquest . Their campaign had been much aided by the other Ethiopian Lords' refusal to support the unpopular and over-ambitious Theodorus . Besides , the British would soon be embroiled fighting the Mahdi in the neighbouring Sudan .......
(MORE LATER).
Sunday, June 13, 2004
JOHN SADLEIR and WILLIAM KEOGH - 19th Century Irish Turncoats .......
....... ' The only time an Irish female slept in a bed was when her master was in it , and Irishmen were honoured when that happened ' - such was the attitude of the British 'ruling class' in 18th Century Ireland .......
However , the Irish spirit was strong ; the British 'Landlords' and their agents did not have it all their own way . The so-called " lower-ranks " , the " wretched people " , those who wore " the mark of slavery " , had organised themselves as best they could - secret , underground oath-bound societies fought back -
- the Whiteboys , Oakboys , Moonlighters , the Defenders and the Steelboys ; fences belonging to British 'Landlords' were ripped-up , the 'masters' cattle were taken , his haystacks and crop removed , his 'Big House' attacked and , when possible, levelled and burnt and he himself , and his minions , put to death when the opportunity presented itself to do so .
It was into this 'melting-pot of madness' that a child was born in County Tipperary in 1815 - John Sadleir .......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
KNOCKSAHARING.......
".......Six of the seven British lorries had left the scene - the troops from the seventh one were in hiding , pinned-down by us but still firing back at us . We were about to send a few men to out-flank them ......."
" A shout from Caherdaha Hill drew our attention to the east . A man stood on a fence and pointed downwards to Aha Tiompain . After the first outburst of firing , and as we had watched the British lorries disappear down the road to Macroom , we had heard a wild cheer from the same point . A group that watched there had given vent to their feelings in a 'Gair Caha' . The group was still there but now they had sounded a warning - the Brits had stopped in their lorries just out of our sight , and now they were coming back in skirmishing order along the high ground on both sides of the road . There was no hurry but yet any delay might endanger us .
We had a wholesome respect for the activity and physical fitness of the Auxies , if they found out that only a small group was opposed to them here . Woe to the man or men who allowed them to get the impression that they were weak in any way , for then they followed up relentlessly . In our case they had not yet caught sight of us , and so they would move cautiously . They already had experience of our heavy fire , and I have no doubt , were it not for the ditching of their lorry , they would not have returned at all . But they could not return to Macroom and admit that they had left their comrades to fight it out alone . So they must return to find them , and since we had not a few more men to keep in touch with their flanks , we must withdraw .
Sending the unarmed IRA Volunteer , by a detour to the west , to withdraw my uncle and his comrade , we also moved westwards to meet them , and again crossed the ridge of Knocksaharing and the upper Renanirree Road....... "
(MORE LATER).
ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .......
(First published in 'HOT PRESS' Magazine , 6th May 1988 , Volume 12 , No. 8 , page 28).
Re-produced here in 10 parts .
(3 of 10).
We consider Egypt the premier African civilisation but it was Ethiopia that reincarnated the Nile and its pantheon of Gods . Annually , the rich silt of the Ethiopian highlands passed down the Blue Nile to fertilise Lower Egypt and create the surplus that built the Pyramids and later made those lands the bread-baskets of the Roman Empire , the strategic prize for which Mark Antony courted Cleopatra .
Even then , the highland people had a mysterious , mythic repute , christened the " Ethiopians " , the people with " burnt faces " by the ancient Greeks . Beyond the grasp of the Roman Empire , its Axumite Kings traded myrrh , gold , resins and ivory with Egypt , India and Arabia , finally converting to Coptic Christianity in the 4th Century .
Islam affected but did'nt overpower Ethiopia ; members of Mohammed's inner circle sheltered in Ethiopia before his triumph as the Prophet . Remembering that hospitality and possibly wisely recognising the difficulty of the terrain for any holy war , Mohammed advised his followers " to leave the Ethiopians alone ." Instead Islam gradually infiltrated the Eastern coastlands , threatening only in the 16th Century when the Portuguese helped the Christian rulers ward off a Muslim assault .......
(MORE LATER).
....... ' The only time an Irish female slept in a bed was when her master was in it , and Irishmen were honoured when that happened ' - such was the attitude of the British 'ruling class' in 18th Century Ireland .......
However , the Irish spirit was strong ; the British 'Landlords' and their agents did not have it all their own way . The so-called " lower-ranks " , the " wretched people " , those who wore " the mark of slavery " , had organised themselves as best they could - secret , underground oath-bound societies fought back -
- the Whiteboys , Oakboys , Moonlighters , the Defenders and the Steelboys ; fences belonging to British 'Landlords' were ripped-up , the 'masters' cattle were taken , his haystacks and crop removed , his 'Big House' attacked and , when possible, levelled and burnt and he himself , and his minions , put to death when the opportunity presented itself to do so .
It was into this 'melting-pot of madness' that a child was born in County Tipperary in 1815 - John Sadleir .......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
KNOCKSAHARING.......
".......Six of the seven British lorries had left the scene - the troops from the seventh one were in hiding , pinned-down by us but still firing back at us . We were about to send a few men to out-flank them ......."
" A shout from Caherdaha Hill drew our attention to the east . A man stood on a fence and pointed downwards to Aha Tiompain . After the first outburst of firing , and as we had watched the British lorries disappear down the road to Macroom , we had heard a wild cheer from the same point . A group that watched there had given vent to their feelings in a 'Gair Caha' . The group was still there but now they had sounded a warning - the Brits had stopped in their lorries just out of our sight , and now they were coming back in skirmishing order along the high ground on both sides of the road . There was no hurry but yet any delay might endanger us .
We had a wholesome respect for the activity and physical fitness of the Auxies , if they found out that only a small group was opposed to them here . Woe to the man or men who allowed them to get the impression that they were weak in any way , for then they followed up relentlessly . In our case they had not yet caught sight of us , and so they would move cautiously . They already had experience of our heavy fire , and I have no doubt , were it not for the ditching of their lorry , they would not have returned at all . But they could not return to Macroom and admit that they had left their comrades to fight it out alone . So they must return to find them , and since we had not a few more men to keep in touch with their flanks , we must withdraw .
Sending the unarmed IRA Volunteer , by a detour to the west , to withdraw my uncle and his comrade , we also moved westwards to meet them , and again crossed the ridge of Knocksaharing and the upper Renanirree Road....... "
(MORE LATER).
ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .......
(First published in 'HOT PRESS' Magazine , 6th May 1988 , Volume 12 , No. 8 , page 28).
Re-produced here in 10 parts .
(3 of 10).
We consider Egypt the premier African civilisation but it was Ethiopia that reincarnated the Nile and its pantheon of Gods . Annually , the rich silt of the Ethiopian highlands passed down the Blue Nile to fertilise Lower Egypt and create the surplus that built the Pyramids and later made those lands the bread-baskets of the Roman Empire , the strategic prize for which Mark Antony courted Cleopatra .
Even then , the highland people had a mysterious , mythic repute , christened the " Ethiopians " , the people with " burnt faces " by the ancient Greeks . Beyond the grasp of the Roman Empire , its Axumite Kings traded myrrh , gold , resins and ivory with Egypt , India and Arabia , finally converting to Coptic Christianity in the 4th Century .
Islam affected but did'nt overpower Ethiopia ; members of Mohammed's inner circle sheltered in Ethiopia before his triumph as the Prophet . Remembering that hospitality and possibly wisely recognising the difficulty of the terrain for any holy war , Mohammed advised his followers " to leave the Ethiopians alone ." Instead Islam gradually infiltrated the Eastern coastlands , threatening only in the 16th Century when the Portuguese helped the Christian rulers ward off a Muslim assault .......
(MORE LATER).
Saturday, June 12, 2004
JOHN SADLEIR and WILLIAM KEOGH - 19th Century Irish Turncoats .......
....... Ireland , 18th Century ; as a race , we had almost been ground down - 'Landlords' , over-crowding , poverty , hunger, depression ; a "wretched and destitute people" , as the philosopher Berkeley called us . The British 'ruling class' , too , put the boot in .......
" I hoped to be excused for representing to His Majesty the miserable situation of the lower ranks of His subjects in this kingdom , that from the rapaciousness of their unfeeling landlords and the restrictions on their trade , they are amongst the most wretched people on earth . "
- that was said in 1770 , by the then British Viceroy , who was apparently content to simply report to "His Majesty" on the poverty in this country and not do anything about it . Then , in 1776 , an English agricultural specialist , a Mr. (or should that be 'Master' ?) Arthur Young , wrote (re his visit to Ireland) -
- " Landlords of consequence have assured me that many of their cottiers (ie 'tenants') would think themselves honoured by having their wives or daughters sent for to the bed of their masters , a mark of slavery that proves the oppression under which such people live . The cottages of the Irish, which are called cabins, are the most miserable-looking hovels that can well be conceived .
The furniture of the cabins is as bad as the architecture ; in very many consisting only of a pot for boiling their potatoes , a bit of a table , and one or two broken stools . Beds are not found universally , the family lying on straw . "
So the only time an Irish female slept in a bed was when "her master" was in it - and Irishmen were "honoured" when that happened ! As Oscar Wilde said - " To know nothing about their great men is one of the necessary elements of English education . " Enough said ...
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
KNOCKSAHARING.......
"....... Ireland 1921 ; we were preparing to ambush a patrol of British Auxiliaries near the Macroom Road in Cork ....... "
" We could not get a clear view of the road from where we were , so we decided to send the two local IRA Volunteers across the road into Clohina Wood ; my uncle went with them . They crossed the river by the little plank bridge , and soon signalled to us from an excellent position in the Wood . We had not long to wait - one of our two riflemen returned with a suggestion that their position would be a good one for the Lewis-Gun . I had just told him that since we had little hope of stopping the British lorries , I was going to follow them down the road with a raking fire , and that I had command of all the four hundred yards to Aha Tiompain .
He agreed that I was in a better position , and had mounted the fence to leave when I dragged him down again - the first lorry was almost on the firing line . The chagrin of our riflemen was terrible - my comrade made a movement as if to dash down the steep slope to the road , as he had left his rifle on the other side . I tried to console him - " It will be all right , " I said , " Dan will take care of it . " As if in answer , a rifle spoke loudly from Clohina Wood ; I opened fire into a steel-plated lorry . The British Auxiliaries sat on the floor of that lorry , around the sides , their legs extended inwards . It passed from my sight for the time being , so I turned my attention to the next lorry , and favoured each with a burst of fire , then quickly changed the drum for a full one .
Six British lorries were now speeding down the road to Aha Tiompain - I enfiladed them generally , and the rifles near me were still firing at right-angles to the road . Soon the six lorries , three Tenders and three steel-plated Crossleys , passed from my sight just beyond the cross-roads . The seventh and last British Tender had stopped just underneath us ; it was quite close , too close to sight it even , for it had been 'ditched' under the lee of a high bank . We could not locate a single one of its occupants , but some of them appeared to be very active , for they maintained a heavy fire at us . Our two riflemen in Clohina Wood could not see them because of a thick hedge , on their side of the road . The Auxies could not cross the road to fire through the hedge because of us , but they tried another method .
Crouching under the bank on our side , the Auxies fired grenades over the hedge - but these fell in the Wood and exploded with a lot of noise but did no harm to us . We had brought no hand grenades with us , and now regretted it , for a few grenades dropped over the bank would have routed-out the Auxiliaries on to the road again . It would have been madness to cross the fence and run down the steep slope to fire down on them , so the only method left was to send a few men to have at them from the Renanirree side , if possible ......."
(MORE LATER).
ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .......
(First published in 'HOT PRESS' Magazine , 6th May 1988 , Volume 12 , No. 8 , page 28).
Re-produced here in 10 parts .
(2 of 10).
The Tigreans have been fighting their own battle for independence since the mid-70's ; lately they've been making some progress militarily , the two guerilla groups having delivered a double blow to the Ethiopians around St. Patricks Day last (ie 17th March 1988). The Tigreans attacked the legendary 'royal' city of Axum , while the Eritreans won a critical tank battle in the North . The Ethiopian government's response was swift and dramatic - 'National Mobilisation' was ordered and the government signed an accord with Somalia which would let them re-deploy troops from the South-Eastern frontier for Northern duty . Meanwhile , they evacuated all foreign relief workers from the troubled regions .
In famine terms , the effect could be devastating - even before this latest crisis , Aregani Hajos , Regional Chief of the government's 'Relief and Rehabilitation' Commission estimated that at least two million of the combined 5.7 million population of Eritrea and Tigre were in peril . The famine itself , he believed , was worse than it was in 1984 - 1985 , with only improved logistics and organisation saving the people from equal or greater devastation .
With the escalation of war activities and the evacuation of relief workers , those buffers are no longer in operation . The prospect , indeed , is bleak .......
(MORE LATER).
....... Ireland , 18th Century ; as a race , we had almost been ground down - 'Landlords' , over-crowding , poverty , hunger, depression ; a "wretched and destitute people" , as the philosopher Berkeley called us . The British 'ruling class' , too , put the boot in .......
" I hoped to be excused for representing to His Majesty the miserable situation of the lower ranks of His subjects in this kingdom , that from the rapaciousness of their unfeeling landlords and the restrictions on their trade , they are amongst the most wretched people on earth . "
- that was said in 1770 , by the then British Viceroy , who was apparently content to simply report to "His Majesty" on the poverty in this country and not do anything about it . Then , in 1776 , an English agricultural specialist , a Mr. (or should that be 'Master' ?) Arthur Young , wrote (re his visit to Ireland) -
- " Landlords of consequence have assured me that many of their cottiers (ie 'tenants') would think themselves honoured by having their wives or daughters sent for to the bed of their masters , a mark of slavery that proves the oppression under which such people live . The cottages of the Irish, which are called cabins, are the most miserable-looking hovels that can well be conceived .
The furniture of the cabins is as bad as the architecture ; in very many consisting only of a pot for boiling their potatoes , a bit of a table , and one or two broken stools . Beds are not found universally , the family lying on straw . "
So the only time an Irish female slept in a bed was when "her master" was in it - and Irishmen were "honoured" when that happened ! As Oscar Wilde said - " To know nothing about their great men is one of the necessary elements of English education . " Enough said ...
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
KNOCKSAHARING.......
"....... Ireland 1921 ; we were preparing to ambush a patrol of British Auxiliaries near the Macroom Road in Cork ....... "
" We could not get a clear view of the road from where we were , so we decided to send the two local IRA Volunteers across the road into Clohina Wood ; my uncle went with them . They crossed the river by the little plank bridge , and soon signalled to us from an excellent position in the Wood . We had not long to wait - one of our two riflemen returned with a suggestion that their position would be a good one for the Lewis-Gun . I had just told him that since we had little hope of stopping the British lorries , I was going to follow them down the road with a raking fire , and that I had command of all the four hundred yards to Aha Tiompain .
He agreed that I was in a better position , and had mounted the fence to leave when I dragged him down again - the first lorry was almost on the firing line . The chagrin of our riflemen was terrible - my comrade made a movement as if to dash down the steep slope to the road , as he had left his rifle on the other side . I tried to console him - " It will be all right , " I said , " Dan will take care of it . " As if in answer , a rifle spoke loudly from Clohina Wood ; I opened fire into a steel-plated lorry . The British Auxiliaries sat on the floor of that lorry , around the sides , their legs extended inwards . It passed from my sight for the time being , so I turned my attention to the next lorry , and favoured each with a burst of fire , then quickly changed the drum for a full one .
Six British lorries were now speeding down the road to Aha Tiompain - I enfiladed them generally , and the rifles near me were still firing at right-angles to the road . Soon the six lorries , three Tenders and three steel-plated Crossleys , passed from my sight just beyond the cross-roads . The seventh and last British Tender had stopped just underneath us ; it was quite close , too close to sight it even , for it had been 'ditched' under the lee of a high bank . We could not locate a single one of its occupants , but some of them appeared to be very active , for they maintained a heavy fire at us . Our two riflemen in Clohina Wood could not see them because of a thick hedge , on their side of the road . The Auxies could not cross the road to fire through the hedge because of us , but they tried another method .
Crouching under the bank on our side , the Auxies fired grenades over the hedge - but these fell in the Wood and exploded with a lot of noise but did no harm to us . We had brought no hand grenades with us , and now regretted it , for a few grenades dropped over the bank would have routed-out the Auxiliaries on to the road again . It would have been madness to cross the fence and run down the steep slope to fire down on them , so the only method left was to send a few men to have at them from the Renanirree side , if possible ......."
(MORE LATER).
ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .......
(First published in 'HOT PRESS' Magazine , 6th May 1988 , Volume 12 , No. 8 , page 28).
Re-produced here in 10 parts .
(2 of 10).
The Tigreans have been fighting their own battle for independence since the mid-70's ; lately they've been making some progress militarily , the two guerilla groups having delivered a double blow to the Ethiopians around St. Patricks Day last (ie 17th March 1988). The Tigreans attacked the legendary 'royal' city of Axum , while the Eritreans won a critical tank battle in the North . The Ethiopian government's response was swift and dramatic - 'National Mobilisation' was ordered and the government signed an accord with Somalia which would let them re-deploy troops from the South-Eastern frontier for Northern duty . Meanwhile , they evacuated all foreign relief workers from the troubled regions .
In famine terms , the effect could be devastating - even before this latest crisis , Aregani Hajos , Regional Chief of the government's 'Relief and Rehabilitation' Commission estimated that at least two million of the combined 5.7 million population of Eritrea and Tigre were in peril . The famine itself , he believed , was worse than it was in 1984 - 1985 , with only improved logistics and organisation saving the people from equal or greater devastation .
With the escalation of war activities and the evacuation of relief workers , those buffers are no longer in operation . The prospect , indeed , is bleak .......
(MORE LATER).
Friday, June 11, 2004
JOHN SADLEIR and WILLIAM KEOGH - 19th Century Irish Turncoats .......
....... Six-and-a-half million people on the island of Ireland , supported mostly by the potato crop , which allowed for a 'better' standard of 'living' for the "Irish peasant farmer" . The British 'Landlords' , too , noticed this 'improvement' .......
... 'Rents' were increased at the same period that land was scarce (due to the population increase); the 'rent' for a 'holding' quadrupled between 1760 and 1815 , so the 'holding' (ie small farm) was sub-let , usually to the farmers sons , so that the 'rent owed' for that patch of soil could be shared by the family .
Pressure from the so-called 'Landlords' , over-crowding , poverty , hunger , depression , desperately bad 'living' conditions - such was the scene which a well-known philosopher of the day , Berkeley , witnessed in Ireland in 1750 , prompting him to ask " whether there be upon the earth any Christian or civilised people so beggardly wretched and destitute as the common Irish ? "
I wonder did Berkeley 'philosophise' as to why "the common Irish" were in that position in the first place ? And while we're on the subject of what 'our betters' thought of us , the British Viceroy at the time was also fond of kicking people while they were down.......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
KNOCKSAHARING.......
".......We all agreed that the British Auxiliaries were most likely heading for Renanirree to break-up a Sinn Fein Court , which we knew to have been postponed - we were also in agreement that the Brits would most likely return to their base by the Knocksaharing route ......."
" The seven of us were rushing out the door , through the haggard gate-way , over a fence and making a bee-line for Knocksaharing . A few days before we had heard of the capture , by the enemy , of a bag containing some documents . It was said to belong to a Judge who was on a Circuit of Sinn Fein Courts . In the bag was a reference to the Court which was to have been held at Renanirree on that very day ; needless to say , it was not now being held . But now we had a reasonable clue to the movements of the Auxies . They had gone to see if the Sinn Fein Court was being held at the appointed time . They would not delay there , and since it was not a routine visit they would be of the opinion that there would be no danger in returning by the same road .
Our time was short - to intercept them at the nearest point we would have to travel two miles over hedges and ditches . Renanirree was but three miles from that point . My uncle's house was straight across our path and we found him , with two other local IRA Volunteers , at Carraig a' Radhairc ; they had with them two service rifles from an arms dump and the three of them accompanied us . My uncle's house stood a hundred yards south of the upper Renanirree Road ; we crossed this with some little caution , and went swiftly upwards to the ridge of Knocksaharing , passing by the Mass Rock of Carraig a' tSagairt . Then we quickly descended the northern slope , through small fields of every shape with their big stone fences , which generations had made at a terrible cost of murderous toll .
Soon we reached the spot we sought , a corner of one of these little fields ; it sloped steeply towards the lower Renanirree Road , and was a bad corner to get out of , if one had to . But it commanded a long stretch of the road to Macroom , and was back from it only thirty yards . We had not a long view of the on-coming enemy , and that was one of our fears : if some of the rear lorries stopped to the west of us , the British Auxiliaries could work up an easy gradient and come down on us in the pocket we were in ......."
(MORE LATER).
ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .
(First published in 'HOT PRESS' Magazine , 6th May 1988 , Volume 12 , No. 8 , page 28).
Re-produced here in 10 parts .
(1 of 10).
Ethiopia has been at war for 26 years . In the world's longest-running guerilla struggle , the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) have fought to regain the independence of the province since it was subsumed into the Ethiopian state by Haile Selassie in 1962 . The tragedy is that neither side appears capable of a conclusive military victory - or of gaining sufficient control of the territory to allow unhindered relief operations .
While the soldiers battle , famine victims come eyeball to eyeball with the grim reaper . The war grinds on , pitilessly . The EPLF shelter in impregnable highland strongholds , hiding elaborate underground tunnels to escape the strafing Ethiopian planes : the mountains offer ideal protection for guerrila fighters . Thus the rebels deny the government control of the countryside . The cities , however , remain in government hands .
The Eritreans are firm in their conviction that the war can be won , believing that government conscripts cannot match the passion and commitment of their volunteers indefinitely . But for the government , defeat cannot be contemplated - Eritrean commands Ethiopia's only coastline , making it strategically vital in terms of supply routes . And besides , the concession of independence could only encourage Sudan , Somalia and the Tigreans in the potential dismemberment of Ethiopia ...
(MORE LATER).
....... Six-and-a-half million people on the island of Ireland , supported mostly by the potato crop , which allowed for a 'better' standard of 'living' for the "Irish peasant farmer" . The British 'Landlords' , too , noticed this 'improvement' .......
... 'Rents' were increased at the same period that land was scarce (due to the population increase); the 'rent' for a 'holding' quadrupled between 1760 and 1815 , so the 'holding' (ie small farm) was sub-let , usually to the farmers sons , so that the 'rent owed' for that patch of soil could be shared by the family .
Pressure from the so-called 'Landlords' , over-crowding , poverty , hunger , depression , desperately bad 'living' conditions - such was the scene which a well-known philosopher of the day , Berkeley , witnessed in Ireland in 1750 , prompting him to ask " whether there be upon the earth any Christian or civilised people so beggardly wretched and destitute as the common Irish ? "
I wonder did Berkeley 'philosophise' as to why "the common Irish" were in that position in the first place ? And while we're on the subject of what 'our betters' thought of us , the British Viceroy at the time was also fond of kicking people while they were down.......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
KNOCKSAHARING.......
".......We all agreed that the British Auxiliaries were most likely heading for Renanirree to break-up a Sinn Fein Court , which we knew to have been postponed - we were also in agreement that the Brits would most likely return to their base by the Knocksaharing route ......."
" The seven of us were rushing out the door , through the haggard gate-way , over a fence and making a bee-line for Knocksaharing . A few days before we had heard of the capture , by the enemy , of a bag containing some documents . It was said to belong to a Judge who was on a Circuit of Sinn Fein Courts . In the bag was a reference to the Court which was to have been held at Renanirree on that very day ; needless to say , it was not now being held . But now we had a reasonable clue to the movements of the Auxies . They had gone to see if the Sinn Fein Court was being held at the appointed time . They would not delay there , and since it was not a routine visit they would be of the opinion that there would be no danger in returning by the same road .
Our time was short - to intercept them at the nearest point we would have to travel two miles over hedges and ditches . Renanirree was but three miles from that point . My uncle's house was straight across our path and we found him , with two other local IRA Volunteers , at Carraig a' Radhairc ; they had with them two service rifles from an arms dump and the three of them accompanied us . My uncle's house stood a hundred yards south of the upper Renanirree Road ; we crossed this with some little caution , and went swiftly upwards to the ridge of Knocksaharing , passing by the Mass Rock of Carraig a' tSagairt . Then we quickly descended the northern slope , through small fields of every shape with their big stone fences , which generations had made at a terrible cost of murderous toll .
Soon we reached the spot we sought , a corner of one of these little fields ; it sloped steeply towards the lower Renanirree Road , and was a bad corner to get out of , if one had to . But it commanded a long stretch of the road to Macroom , and was back from it only thirty yards . We had not a long view of the on-coming enemy , and that was one of our fears : if some of the rear lorries stopped to the west of us , the British Auxiliaries could work up an easy gradient and come down on us in the pocket we were in ......."
(MORE LATER).
ETHIOPIA - A Brief History .
(First published in 'HOT PRESS' Magazine , 6th May 1988 , Volume 12 , No. 8 , page 28).
Re-produced here in 10 parts .
(1 of 10).
Ethiopia has been at war for 26 years . In the world's longest-running guerilla struggle , the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) have fought to regain the independence of the province since it was subsumed into the Ethiopian state by Haile Selassie in 1962 . The tragedy is that neither side appears capable of a conclusive military victory - or of gaining sufficient control of the territory to allow unhindered relief operations .
While the soldiers battle , famine victims come eyeball to eyeball with the grim reaper . The war grinds on , pitilessly . The EPLF shelter in impregnable highland strongholds , hiding elaborate underground tunnels to escape the strafing Ethiopian planes : the mountains offer ideal protection for guerrila fighters . Thus the rebels deny the government control of the countryside . The cities , however , remain in government hands .
The Eritreans are firm in their conviction that the war can be won , believing that government conscripts cannot match the passion and commitment of their volunteers indefinitely . But for the government , defeat cannot be contemplated - Eritrean commands Ethiopia's only coastline , making it strategically vital in terms of supply routes . And besides , the concession of independence could only encourage Sudan , Somalia and the Tigreans in the potential dismemberment of Ethiopia ...
(MORE LATER).
Thursday, June 10, 2004
JOHN SADLEIR and WILLIAM KEOGH - 19th Century Irish Turncoats .
Ireland , 1815 - approximately six-and-a-half million people 'lived' on the island of Ireland ; a rise in population of about three-and-a-quarter million since the introduction of the potato into the country in the middle of the 18th Century (ie 1760 - pop. of approximately three-and-a-quarter million ; 1815 - pop. of approximately six-and-a-half million).
With the potato being in itself highly nutritional and a good basis for an adequate diet , as well as being a prolific crop , the poor were able to get better use from what little land they had and use their land to support more people , which led to an increase in the population . Also , the potato needed less land than , for instance , grain , and allowed the farmer to grow other crop elsewhere which he could then sell .
Unfortunately for the Irish 'peasant' farmer (as the Brits described us) , his 'good fortune' was noticed by the British 'Landlords' .......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
KNOCKSAHARING.......
".......We knew they were after us - seven lorry loads of British Auxiliaries in the area . Should we move-out , or stay put ...? "
" We could not block a large percentage of all the roads , since we would greatly harm our own people . Where roads had been trenched , a rough by-pass had been allowed for the use of horse-traffic . The year 1921 had an unusually fine , dry summer , and the motor transport of the enemy often got through the by-passes easily , or crossed trenches over specially made planks . So the game of 'hide-and-seek' went on , and we were now at our wits' end to forecast the Auxiliaries' movements on reaching Renanirree .
They could go on through the glen to Ballingeary , or turn north to Ballyvourney , or south over Doiranaonaig to Inchigeela , or go along the Toon Road a mile to the south of us , and so return to Macroom . Or they could come from the Toon Road past our gate , and go home by the Cross . Or they could come by the upper road from Renanirree to the Cross , and pass within half a mile of us at Bearnasalach . And having come to Bearnasalach they could even say -
- " There's the road to Patsy Dinneen's . He'll be terribly distressed if he hears we passed and never called ..." Three or four of us must have thought of the solution together ; there was a sudden upsurge of men , which nearly wrecked the table . For a moment a babel of short questions and shorter answers - " Sinn Fein Court ! " and "Bloody Judges !" , " Captured documents ! " , "The bag !" ; Renanirree - a Sinn Fein Court , which we knew had been postponed , was to be held there this day . The Auxiliaries would not know it was postponed ......."
(MORE LATER).
A PAINFUL CASE .......
(First published in 'In Dublin' Magazine , 'Under The Bridge' column , 12th November 1987 , Page 4).
Reproduced here in 2 parts .
[2 of 2].
Paul Travers afterwards pleaded guilty . Last month (ie October 1987) the State declined to proceed against Tony Brown on certain charges which had been preferred against him . However , last March (1987) , Garda Martin Caffrey was convicted of using excessive force in order to restrain Tony Brown , who is five foot in height , forty-six years old and suffers from spina bifida .
During his arrest by Garda Martin Caffrey , Brown sustained cuts to his head - one of these cuts required five stitches ; he also had broken bones in both hands , and there was a cut on his left knee . Garda Caffrey said in evidence that that when he tried to handcuff Brown in order to search him for possible weapons , Brown had struggled , and this had necessitated the use of force . Neither man (Travers or Brown) had any weapons .
Paul Travers got eight months in jail for the theft of £130 (Euro 165) . Garda Martin Caffrey was fined £150 (Euro 190) for breaking both hands of a suspect .......
[END of 'A PAINFUL CASE .......'].
(Tomorrow - 'ETHIOPIA : A BRIEF HISTORY..' - from 1988...).
Ireland , 1815 - approximately six-and-a-half million people 'lived' on the island of Ireland ; a rise in population of about three-and-a-quarter million since the introduction of the potato into the country in the middle of the 18th Century (ie 1760 - pop. of approximately three-and-a-quarter million ; 1815 - pop. of approximately six-and-a-half million).
With the potato being in itself highly nutritional and a good basis for an adequate diet , as well as being a prolific crop , the poor were able to get better use from what little land they had and use their land to support more people , which led to an increase in the population . Also , the potato needed less land than , for instance , grain , and allowed the farmer to grow other crop elsewhere which he could then sell .
Unfortunately for the Irish 'peasant' farmer (as the Brits described us) , his 'good fortune' was noticed by the British 'Landlords' .......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
KNOCKSAHARING.......
".......We knew they were after us - seven lorry loads of British Auxiliaries in the area . Should we move-out , or stay put ...? "
" We could not block a large percentage of all the roads , since we would greatly harm our own people . Where roads had been trenched , a rough by-pass had been allowed for the use of horse-traffic . The year 1921 had an unusually fine , dry summer , and the motor transport of the enemy often got through the by-passes easily , or crossed trenches over specially made planks . So the game of 'hide-and-seek' went on , and we were now at our wits' end to forecast the Auxiliaries' movements on reaching Renanirree .
They could go on through the glen to Ballingeary , or turn north to Ballyvourney , or south over Doiranaonaig to Inchigeela , or go along the Toon Road a mile to the south of us , and so return to Macroom . Or they could come from the Toon Road past our gate , and go home by the Cross . Or they could come by the upper road from Renanirree to the Cross , and pass within half a mile of us at Bearnasalach . And having come to Bearnasalach they could even say -
- " There's the road to Patsy Dinneen's . He'll be terribly distressed if he hears we passed and never called ..." Three or four of us must have thought of the solution together ; there was a sudden upsurge of men , which nearly wrecked the table . For a moment a babel of short questions and shorter answers - " Sinn Fein Court ! " and "Bloody Judges !" , " Captured documents ! " , "The bag !" ; Renanirree - a Sinn Fein Court , which we knew had been postponed , was to be held there this day . The Auxiliaries would not know it was postponed ......."
(MORE LATER).
A PAINFUL CASE .......
(First published in 'In Dublin' Magazine , 'Under The Bridge' column , 12th November 1987 , Page 4).
Reproduced here in 2 parts .
[2 of 2].
Paul Travers afterwards pleaded guilty . Last month (ie October 1987) the State declined to proceed against Tony Brown on certain charges which had been preferred against him . However , last March (1987) , Garda Martin Caffrey was convicted of using excessive force in order to restrain Tony Brown , who is five foot in height , forty-six years old and suffers from spina bifida .
During his arrest by Garda Martin Caffrey , Brown sustained cuts to his head - one of these cuts required five stitches ; he also had broken bones in both hands , and there was a cut on his left knee . Garda Caffrey said in evidence that that when he tried to handcuff Brown in order to search him for possible weapons , Brown had struggled , and this had necessitated the use of force . Neither man (Travers or Brown) had any weapons .
Paul Travers got eight months in jail for the theft of £130 (Euro 165) . Garda Martin Caffrey was fined £150 (Euro 190) for breaking both hands of a suspect .......
[END of 'A PAINFUL CASE .......'].
(Tomorrow - 'ETHIOPIA : A BRIEF HISTORY..' - from 1988...).
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