"WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?" - SHAMELESS GOMBEENS GO ON THE RECORD.

"WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME...?"

"I have a question for you Nina, I have a question for you. What's in it for me?," he asks. McElvaney goes on to say that he would be able to help and queries again, "What are you putting on the table for me...are you going to pay me by the hour or by the job?," he asks during the same conversation. After 'Nina' tells McElvaney that she's coming to Ireland he tells her to "...have plenty of Sterling with you. Ten grand would be a start...if you let me down, there'll be war.."

The above headline (link) and the paragraph following it, 'featuring' (now former) Fine Gael politician Hugh 'I-trapped-RTE-and-my-own-party' McElvaney, is just one example of how politics 'work' in this corrupt State. All Leinster House-based political parties have an endless supply of in situ and/or up-and-coming political representatives that are aware that they have, at best, on average about four years in between elections in which to feather their own nest.

There are three solutions to the political gombeen men and women that contaminate political society in this backward Free State : vote NOTA (1) and keep doing so at all elections, State and local, until such time as the political establishment concede that it is a new political system (2) that's needed, not 'new' political reps to carry-on working the present corrupt system. And this is the third solution, for those who don't wait to wait for (1) or (2) to materialise.





PROSE AND CONS.

By prisoners from E1 Landing, Portlaoise Prison, 1999.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS :

Grateful thanks to the following for their help, support, assistance and encouragement, and all those who helped with the typing and word processing over the past few months. Many thanks to Cian Sharkhin, the editor of the book, Mr Bill Donoghue, Governor, Portlaoise, Mr Seán Wynne, supervising teacher, the education unit in Portlaoise Prison and the education staff, especially Zack, Helena and Jane. Education officers Bill Carroll and Dave McDonald, Rita Kelly, writer, print unit, Arbour Hill.

First Print : November 1999, reprinted March 2000, illustrations by D O'Hare, Zack and Natasha. Photograph selection : Eamonn Kelly and Harry Melia.

CARING PERSON.

You are the one

who cares for the poor

and disadvantaged in Ballyfermot

visits the prisoners since the late 70's

bring them clothes and money

gets them jobs and flats.



Dozens never went back in again



You are the one who tried

so hard

to save so many more,



They are full of joy



You are the one who shows love

Sister Caoimhín.

John Doran.

(Next : 'Wee Kitten'. )







IS PEACE SAFE WITH ANDREWS....?

Where politics once stagnated, events in Northern Ireland now chase each other helter-skelter. As 'Magill' went to press, a new joint government document turned recent perceptions head over heels. Fionnuala O'Connor charts the doubts behind the instant reactions. From 'Magill' magazine, February 1998.

But the SDLP leader's profile in the talks process generally is curious. Like the Taoiseach's special adviser on the north, Martin Mansergh, Hume was out of the country on the crucial weekend. He has been more absent than present for much of the process to date, say participants. Dublin might well have difficulty deciding where SDLP authority now lies, other parties suggest.

"Hume can't stand this stuff now," said a former fan who hopes against hope, "I think he might be pacing himself for the final stretch." Another is glad the famously impatient SDLP leader has paid sparing visits to the talks. "He'd be climbing the walls if he was here more. You can see him deciding to switch off for the good of his health. The head goes down on the arms. I don't know if he actually sleeps."

It is of course possible that nationalist, particularly republican, discontent with Dublin and London is exaggerated as part of a general 'positioning' by all parties—gearing up as negotiation on specifics becomes unavoidable. "Everybody's posturing," said one tired politician. "Everybody's positioning at this stage." (MORE LATER.)





1916 - WHAT DID IT MEAN FOR IRISH WOMEN....?

By Ursula Barry.

. What is there for women in Ireland to commemorate in 1916? Did the 1916 Proclamation and the subsequent 'Democratic Programme of the First Dáil' contain radical or revolutionary statements on the position of women in Irish society that were later betrayed or sold out in the process of establishing the Free State?

From 'Iris' magazine, Easter 1991.

Within 20 years of the establishment of the Free State a legislative framework had been put in place reflecting conservative and reactionary thinking with particularly serious implications for women. Women who had played a key role in both republican and workers' organisations as well as asserting their own demands for the vote were systematically excluded from public life and constrained to the private domestic sphere in both the Free State and the North.

But more than that : social life was viciously suppressed in the Free State, where literature, film, sexual expression and even dancing were the target of repressive laws. The 1920's saw the denial of the right to civil divorce, the virtual exclusion of women from jury service and the savage censorship of films and other publications.

During the 1930's the focus shifted inevitably towards sex as contraceptives were outlawed, in a piece of legislation that simultaneously penalised brother-keepers, and the 'Public Dance Halls Act' of 1935 gave district justices the power to regulate and control public dances, a move directly in line with a Catholic Church pastoral on 'the evils of modern dancing' a few years earlier and in that same year the 'Conditions of Employment Bill 1935' imposed a maximum proportion of women workers in industry and gave the State minister for labour the right to prohibit women completely. So much for equal opportunities! (MORE LATER.)





ON THIS DATE (9TH DECEMBER) 42 YEARS AGO : ANOTHER FALSE TREATY ACCEPTED BY THE FREE STATERS.

The 'Sunningdale Agreement' was an attempt in 1973 by Westminster at a 'power-sharing' arrangement between the British political establishment and Irish 'civil-right' nationalists regarding the British-occupied six north-eastern counties of Ireland. The document was signed by British PM Edward Heath and Free State 'Taoiseach' Liam Cosgrave on the 9th December 1973 at Sunningdale Park Hotel in Berkshire, England, and spawned a 'power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive' and a cross-border 'Council of Ireland', both of which were rejected by the then republican movement (but which were accepted by the UUP, the SDLP, Free State Labour Party and the Alliance Party) and, indeed, the whole set-up collapsed within a year and 'direct rule' from Westminster was imposed.

When, 25 years after Sunningdale (ie in 1998) a similar half-way-house treaty was being promoted by the political establishments in this country and England and by the Provisional organisation, the republican leadership here again spoke out about yet another bad treaty - "...the great unanswered question before history is why did Paisley on the one hand and the present Provo leadership on the other not accept and work the Sunningdale Agreement of 1973 which offered more and for which less was to be paid than the 1998 Belfast Agreement? Did we, as a people, have to endure 25 years more of sacrifice and suffering until both elements were poised to divide the major share of the spoils of office between them...when the Framework Documents were issued in 1995 (what) Irish people were facing was a repeat of Sunningdale with the Provos on board this time. Indeed, the British Prime Minister Edward Heath is reported as saying that "..the Good Friday Agreement was modelled on Sunningdale. But the present prime minister has never acknowledged that. He may even be ignorant of it for all I know. But obviously we know the people who were working out the new agreement went back over the whole of Sunningdale and more or less copied it." But the Stormont Deal was actually less than Sunningdale. The l973 Agreement provided for an evolving Council of Ireland while the 1998 accord contains the possibility of merely cross-border bodies which would be responsible to the New Stormont and cannot grow and develop without the permission of that Unionist-dominated assembly. Further, the 26-County State has paid more for the Stormont Agreement than it did for Sunningdale. Articles 2 and 3 of the 1937 Constitution were not given away in 1973; in 1998 they were and the nationalist people of the Six Occupied Counties were reduced – in the eyes of the 26-County State – to the level in rights of people with one Irish grandparent living as far away as Australia or New Zealand..."

The republican position, then as now, can be summed-up in the words of Seán MacDiarmada - "We bleed that the nation may live. I die that the nation may live. Damn your concessions, England; we want our country."





ON THIS DATE (9TH DECEMBER) 58 YEARS AGO : UNITED IRISHMEN, THE LONDON TIMES AND POLITICAL ACTORS...

The following article was published in 'The United Irishman' newspaper in January 1958 - 'An article in 'The London Times' newspaper of December 9th, 1957, entitled 'Actors In The Political Scene', stated : 'The country families of the North of Ireland, after surrendering control to the captains of industry for a long period , are well established in the present government.' There, perhaps, is the key to the whole situation : the 'lords of land' and the 'barons of industry' who together make up the Tory-Unionist Ascendancy, the 'master-minds' with Britain's Tories, of the anti-freedom struggle in Ireland. These are the 'gentry' who imposed their views on the Orange rank-and-file under the guise of religion - the ones who stand to lose most by separation from Britain. It is those gentlemen who act as Britain's puppets in Ireland : even those who consider themselves as 'left-wingers' can be enticed to forget where they came from.

In a fit of pitiful pleading, David Bleakley stated : "It is an anachronism that an economically insecure Northern Ireland should exist in the midst of an industrially thriving British community. Ulster's labour force is ready, anxious and able to work its way through to prosperity. All it asks is to be given the tools and the jobs." He should have said that the whole concept of Occupied Ireland is an anachronism - that the only way we can all 'work our way through to prosperity' is by first winning vocational independence and driving British imperialism from our land. That would be wisdom but one does not expect wisdom for Ireland in the columns of 'The London Times' newspaper...'

The word 'anachronism' ('something [such as a word, an object, or an event] that is mistakenly placed in a time where it does not belong in a story, movie, etc/ a person or a thing that seems to belong to the past and not to fit in the present..') is apt when describing the continuing military and political occupation of part of Ireland by Westminster, but unfortunately it's not only in the columns of English newspapers that such wisdom is absent. We have, and always have had, our 'Times' readers here, too.





ON THIS DAY NEXT WEEK (WEDNESDAY 16TH DECEMBER 2015).....

...we won't be posting our usual contribution, and probably won't be in a position to post anything at all ; this coming weekend (Saturday/Sunday 12th/13th December 2015) is spoke for already with a 650-ticket raffle to be run for the Cabhair organisation in a venue on the Dublin/Kildare border (work on which begins on the Tuesday before the actual raffle) and the 'autopsy' into same which will take place on Monday evening 14th in RSF Head Office on Parnell Street in Dublin and then it's straight back to the preparations for the Cabhair Christmas Swim, which is the 39th successive such event. Our next 'normal' (!) post will be on Wednesday 23rd December 2015, although if anything grabs our attention between this and then we might do a 'ghoster' - but it would wannabe good!

Thanks for reading, Sharon.

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THIS FREE STATE CAREER POLITICIAN IS ON €1989 A WEEK AND HAS 7 'ASSISTANTS' IN HIS OFFICE!

POW PICKET TO BE HELD AT 12.45PM, GPO, DUBLIN, ON SATURDAY 5TH DECEMBER 2015.

As the bureaucrats, speculators and presidents alike,

Pin on their dirty, stinking, happy smiles tonight,

The lonely prisoner will cry out from within his tomb,

And tomorrow’s wretch will leave its mother’s womb! (Bobby Sands, from here.)

An hour-long picket in support of Irish republican POW's will be held at the GPO in O'Connell Street, Dublin, on Saturday 5th December 2015, starting at 12.45pm. All genuine republicans welcome!







PROSE AND CONS.

By prisoners from E1 Landing, Portlaoise Prison, 1999.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS :

Grateful thanks to the following for their help, support, assistance and encouragement, and all those who helped with the typing and word processing over the past few months. Many thanks to Cian Sharkhin, the editor of the book, Mr Bill Donoghue, Governor, Portlaoise, Mr Seán Wynne, supervising teacher, the education unit in Portlaoise Prison and the education staff, especially Zack, Helena and Jane. Education officers Bill Carroll and Dave McDonald, Rita Kelly, writer, print unit, Arbour Hill.

First Print : November 1999, reprinted March 2000, illustrations by D O'Hare, Zack and Natasha. Photograph selection : Eamonn Kelly and Harry Melia.

PUNISHMENT CELL.

One more sleepless night to go

as the rain pours down

onto the roof,top block

into the gutter down

the half broken drainpipe

the rain comes gushing through

my broken window.



Thunder and lightening

shaking and frightened

I see my reflection

in the water on the floor.



I stand naked

on the stripped bare bed

in the dark basement : cell number 13.

John Doran.

(Next : 'Caring Person'. )







IS PEACE SAFE WITH ANDREWS....?

Where politics once stagnated, events in Northern Ireland now chase each other helter-skelter. As 'Magill' went to press, a new joint government document turned recent perceptions head over heels. Fionnuala O'Connor charts the doubts behind the instant reactions. From 'Magill' magazine, February 1998.

A man known for the moderation of his language says - "Bertie Ahern's channel to David Trimble, alongside Trimble's access to Blair, that's damaged the possibility of building up the talks themselves. Trimble loves this notion of the three prime ministers in conclave. Why would he lower himself to negotiate at Stormont when a prime minister and a taoiseach are his to command?"

British and Irish ministers together emphasised that these were merely propositions for 'heads of agreement', an agenda rather than a blueprint. It took several days for Sinn Féin disquiet to emerge in detailed form, echoed in an IRA statement with an ominous ring. This stated baldly that "...yet another British prime minister had succumbed to the Orange card.." , that the document was not a basis for a lasting peace settlement and that "meaningful inclusive negotiations" were crucial, with the implication that these had been blocked off.

SDLP negotiating strategy demands at least a public show of approval for anything Dublin has jointly signed whereas Sinn Féin is more openly disappointed. After the obstruction they saw in John Major, the SDLP and Sinn Féin alike accept that Tony Blair's Labour government decided to go with the peace process as defined for them by Dublin : that is, to test the proposition that this could end violence and deliver a stable settlement. Blair's policy has caused tremors - his "no united Ireland in the lifetime of the youngest person in this room"-remark , Mo Mowlam's visit to the UDA. Northern nationalists never imagined that the weakest link in the process might turn out to be an Irish government led by Fianna Fáil.

"It could be that they underestimated Adams's objections before they finally signed up to these heads of agreement. It could be that this was purely intended to kickstart negotiations. That's the best interpretation possible. That's what the SDLP profess to believe, though I don't think they do," says the veteran observer. He wonders again why Bertie Ahern was not better advised, if not by officials then by someone like John Hume. (MORE LATER.)







1916 - WHAT DID IT MEAN FOR IRISH WOMEN?

By Ursula Barry.

. What is there for women in Ireland to commemorate in 1916? Did the 1916 Proclamation and the subsequent 'Democratic Programme of the First Dáil' contain radical or revolutionary statements on the position of women in Irish society that were later betrayed or sold out in the process of establishing the Free State?

From 'Iris' magazine, Easter 1991.

Certainly it is true that the 1916 Proclamation called for a radical democratic republic based on principles of equality and justice with a national government "...representative of the whole people of Ireland, and elected by the suffrages of all her men and women..the republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and all of its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past." Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington, a major feminist activist, was to be one of five members of the Provisional government to be set up once the rebellion was victorious.

Three years later, the 'Democratic Programme' of the First Dáil (where Constance Markievicv followed Alexandra Kollontai in the Soviet Union as the second female national public representative) asserted its commitment to "...the principles of liberty, equality and justice for all.." and declared that "...the duty of the nation (is) to assure that every citizen shall have opportunity to spend his or her strength and faculties in the service of the people (and) the right of every citizen to an adequate share of the produce of the nation's labour.." Very little of this kind of radical democratic republicanism was to survive amongst those who shaped the Free State over the following decades. (MORE LATER.)







WHAT'S MY JOB? €1989 A WEEK TO HIRE MORE ASSISTANTS!?

'...then there are the expenses. MEPs are refunded the cost of travel upon provision of a receipt, and are also entitled to a fixed allowance based on the distance and duration of the journey (including to the airport, etc, for the flight) but there’s no information about the allowance. Is it €1 or €10, and how is it verified and is it tax-free? Added to this is the tax-free, €4,243 for ‘travel’ to meetings within member states. But that’s not all. There is also the tax-free, €304 per day to cover the 'cost' of accommodation and lunch, which is €152 a day when outside the EU, with travel and hotel costs paid directly....' (from here.)

And now, it transpires, some MEP's have more 'assistants' (the minimum wage for whom, as set by the parliament in Brussels and paid by us taxpayers, is €750 a week!) than they must surely know what to do with. Nessa Childers ('Independent', ex-State Labour Party) , for instance, has 3 full-time assistants, Mairéad McGuinness (Fine Gael) has 5, as has Luke Flanagan, ('Independent') and Provisional Sinn Féin's Matt Carthy, who is obviously busier than his above-mentioned colleagues, has 7 (6 of whom are based in Ireland, the other one is in the bank vault that is the Brussels parliament)!

Incidentally, MEP's have agreed a rather tasty redundancy package for themselves - in their first year of 'retirement' they will receive 60% of their salary, 45% in their second year and 30% in their third year. We only hope their poor assistants will be looked after just as well. But no, on second thoughts, we don't - because we taxpayers will have to foot that bill, too.





ON THIS DATE (2ND DECEMBER) 38 YEARS AGO : ESCAPED IRA LEADER CAPTURED AFTER 50 MONTHS ON THE RUN.

In March 1973, IRA leader Joe Cahill was arrested by the Free State Navy in Waterford, aboard the Claudia, a ship from Libya loaded with five tons of weapons, and was sentenced to three years imprisonment, and another IRA leader, Seamus Twomey (pictured, right), was appointed IRA Chief of Staff. In early October that year, Twomey was caught and arrested by the Free Staters and imprisoned in Mountjoy Jail, which meant that three top IRA operatives (Twomey, J.B. O'Hagan and Kevin Mallon) were now housed in the one location - and the IRA wanted them back!

An 'American businessman', a 'Mr. Leonard', approached the manager of the 'Irish Helicopters' company at Dublin Airport and discussed hiring a helicopter for an aerial photographic shoot in County Laois and, after being shown the company's fleet of helicopters, this 'businessman' booked a five-seater Alouette II helicopter for October 31st. 'Mr Leonard' arrived at Irish Helicopters on the day and was introduced to the pilot of the helicopter, a Captain Thompson Boyes, who was instructed to fly to a field in Stradbally, County Laois, to pick up photographic equipment.

After landing, the pilot saw two armed and masked men approaching the helicopter from nearby trees and he was held at gunpoint and told he would not be harmed if he followed instructions. 'Mr Leonard' left the area with one gunman, while the other gunman climbed aboard the helicopter armed with a pistol and an Armalite rifle. Captain Boyes was told to fly towards Dublin following the path of railway lines and the Royal Canal, and was ordered not to register his flight path with Air Traffic Control. As the helicopter approached Dublin, Boyes was informed of the escape plan and instructed to land in the exercise yard at Mountjoy Prison.

On Wednesday, 31st October 1973, at 3.40pm in the afternoon, the Alouette II helicopter landed in the 'D Wing Exercise Yard' of Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, when a football match was taking place between the prisoners, and Twomey, O'Hagan and Mallon jumped aboard, but were quickly spotted (!) by an alert (!) prison screw who used his training and power of intuition to take immediate action - he *called on the screws at the gate to close them over as he feared the helicopter was trying to escape (*according to the RTE 'Scannal - Prison Break' programme!). Another IRA prisoner who was in the yard at the time recalled how an embarrassed screw told him that he had apologised to the prison governor in relation to the incident, saying that he thought the helicopter contained a visiting (Free State) Minister for Defence (and well-known publican) Paddy Donegan : the IRA prisoner replied that , in fact, "...it was our Minister of Defence leaving...!"

All three men reported back to the IRA and continued their work for the Movement but, after a few weeks of freedom, Kevin Mallon was recaptured at a GAA Dance in the Montague Hotel in Co. Laois on 10th December 1973, J.B.O'Hagan was recaptured in Dublin in early 1975 and Seamus Twomey managed to remain uncaptured until December 2nd, 1977 - 38 years ago on this date - after the Special Branch came across him in a 'suspicious car' parked in Sandycove, in Dublin. He had managed to evade the forces of 'law and order', North and South, for fifty months, despite been hunted by the best that Leinster House and Westminster could throw at him!





ON THIS DATE (2ND DECEMBER) 44 YEARS AGO : THREE IRA PRISONERS JOIN NINE OF THEIR COMRADES!

Crumlin Road Jail, Belfast (pictured, left) - known for its good quality bed sheets...

In November 1971, there were more than 700 IRA prisoners being held in Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast, with at least the same number again 'housed' in Long Kesh and other prisons. All had access to an exercise yard and, in Crumlin Road Jail, the escape committee decided to use that yard as part of their plan to free three of their number - Martin Meehan, Anthony 'Dutch' Doherty and Hugh McCann. The plan was for the three men to hide themselves under a sewer manhole in about two feet of water, which they did - on the 2nd December 1971, 44 years ago on this date - for about five hours. As luck would have it, when they eventually let themselves out, a thick fog had settled in the area, giving good cover. They ran for the prison wall and, using bed sheets which they had roughly fashioned into a rope ladder, with a home-made 'hook' tied to the top of the 'ladder', they managed to scale the wall. Within hours, Martin Meehan and Hugh McCann were in a safe house in the Free State and their comrade, Anthony Doherty - who stayed in Belfast following the escape - joined them two weeks later.

Incidentally, on the 17th November 1971 - about two weeks before the above-mentioned 'rope ladder' escape - nine other IRA prisoners had also escaped from that same prison with the use of rope-ladders! The nine were Thomas Kane, Seamus Storey, Bernard Elliman, Danny Mullan, Thomas Fox, Tom Maguire, Peter Rogers, Christy Keenan and Terrence 'Cleaky' Clarke and all of them escaped in two cars which were waiting for them on the near-by Antrim Road. To add further to the distress caused to the then British 'Home Affairs Minister', Brian Faulkner, and his side-kick, 'Sir' Edmund Compton ("...torture would never happen in a British jail..") by those jail breaks, they were referenced in a popular song of the time -

OVER THE WALL.

In Crumlin Road Jail all the prisoners one day

took out a football and started to play,

and while all the warders were watching the ball

nine of the prisoners jumped over the wall!



Over the wall, over the wall,

who would believe they jumped over the wall?

over the wall, over the wall,

It's hard to believe they jumped over the wall!



Now the warders looked on with the greatest surprise

and the sight that they saw brought tears to their eyes,

for one of the teams was not there at all

they all got transferred and jumped over the wall!



Now the governor came down with his face in a twist

and said "Line up those lads while I check out me list,"

but nine of the lads didn't answer at all

and the warder said "Please Sir, they're over the wall."



The 'security forces' were shook to the core

so they barred every window and bolted each door,

but all their precautions were no use at all

for another three prisoners jumped over the wall!



Then the news reached old Stormont, Brian Faulkner turned pale

when he heard that more men had escaped from his jail,

said he - "Now we'll have an enquiry to call, and we'll get Edmund Compton to whitewash the wall."





ON THIS DATE (2ND DECEMBER) 95 YEARS AGO - QUESTIONS IN WESTMINSTER RE 'ESCAPING' IRISH PRISONERS BEING SHOT BY BRITISH FORCES IN IRELAND ARE SIDE-STEPPED.

Ireland, 1920 : a flavour of the chaos inflicted here by the British political and military presence : in January that year, the 1st Cork Brigade of the IRA captured Carrigtwohill 'Royal Irish Constabulary' (RIC) barracks, in February the 'Home Rule Bill' was published, in which Westminster voiced its intention to establish a 128-member 'parliament' in Dublin and a 52-member 'parliament' in Belfast despite knowing, from previous partition experiments, that two 'parliaments' in one country was a receipe for political disaster, Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork, Tomás Mac Curtain, was murdered in his house by British forces in March, in April a hunger-strike began in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin by IRA prisoners who were demanding POW status, in May that year forty IRA prisoners who were on hunger-strike in Wormwood Scrubs in London, England, were released and in June an armed British militia in Ireland, the RIC, got the go-ahead from Westminster to'officially' shoot republicans dead.

In July 1920, those deemed not fit for the regular British forces in Ireland were given a new home in the 'ADRIC' ('Auxiliary Division Royal Irish Constabulary') and in August Terence MacSwiney went on hunger-strike in Brixton Prison in England. In September the 'Black and Tans' destroyed more than fifty properties in Balbriggan town in Dublin, a British militia, the 'USC', was established in October, in November fourteen British spies were executed in Dublin by the IRA and in December 1920 Westminster declared 'Martial Law' in Cork, Kerry, Limerick and Tipperary.

Questions re 'the Irish situation' surfaced occasionally in the grand halls of Westminster and, on the 2nd December 1920 - 95 years ago on this date - the following exchange took place in that venue but was dismissed by the chairperson as 'the wrong question having been asked' :

Lieut-Commander KENWORTHY asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland how many prisoners in Ireland have been shot dead while trying to escape, according to police reports, up to the end of November of this year and during the present year; how many have been wounded; and how many of these were handcuffed at the time of their death or wounding?

Mr. GALBRAITH asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland what is the total number of persons who have been shot at in Ireland when attempting to escape from custody; and how many of such persons have been wounded and killed, respectively?

Mr. HENRY : According to the police reports the number of prisoners fired at while attempting to escape from custody within the period from 1st January to 30th November, 1920, is 11. Of these nine were killed and two wounded. One of the prisoners killed and one of those wounded are stated to have been handcuffed while attempting to escape.

Lieut-Commander KENWORTHY : Is the right hon. and learned Gentleman aware that when the bodies have been given to the relatives that in many cases those men have been found to be riddled with bullets through the head: how does he think that men can try to escape from police lorries; and can he inform me if all these cases have been investigated by a court of inquiry?

Mr. HENRY : I must have notice of that question.

Mr. MacVEAGH : Can the Attorney-General say whether the figure he has quoted includes those shot dead on the allegation that they were attempting to resist arrest?

Mr. HENRY : The question put to me was as to the number of men shot whilst attempting to escape from custody.

Lieut-Commander KENWORTHY : Surely the right hon. and learned Gentleman can say whether there has been an inquiry into these cases, in view of the very serious allegations made and reported in the newspapers throughout the country?

Major O'NEILL : Is the right hon. and learned Gentleman aware that when General Lucas was captured, the officer who was captured with him attempted to escape, and was shot by the Sinn Feiners?

Mr. MacVEAGH : Also does the right hon. and learned Gentleman know that when General Lucas was released he stated that he had been treated with the greatest consideration by his captors?

Mr. SPEAKER : We are getting a long way from the question on the Paper...

(HANSARD 1803–2005 ? 1920s ? 1920 ? December 1920 ? 2 December 1920 ? Commons Sitting ? IRELAND. ESCAPING PRISONERS [SHOOTING]. HC Deb 02 December 1920 vol 135 cc1410-1 1410.) (From here.)

That was 95 years ago and shows that those political defenders of British imperialism were as quick then as they are now to use obfuscation in an attempt to 'neutralise' an embarrassing situation. But Irish republicans had been fighting the British writ in Ireland centuries before the Westminster parliament was established and - no obfuscation here - will continue to do so, in one form and/or another, until they remove themselves, politically and militarily, from our country!

Thanks for reading, Sharon.

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"WE ADMIT TO NO CRIMES...."

PROSE AND CONS.

By prisoners from E1 Landing, Portlaoise Prison, 1999.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS :

Grateful thanks to the following for their help, support, assistance and encouragement, and all those who helped with the typing and word processing over the past few months. Many thanks to Cian Sharkhin, the editor of the book, Mr Bill Donoghue, Governor, Portlaoise, Mr Seán Wynne, supervising teacher, the education unit in Portlaoise Prison and the education staff, especially Zack, Helena and Jane. Education officers Bill Carroll and Dave McDonald, Rita Kelly, writer, print unit, Arbour Hill.

First Print : November 1999, reprinted March 2000, illustrations by D O'Hare, Zack and Natasha. Photograph selection : Eamonn Kelly and Harry Melia.

MEMORIES OF YOU.

Brendan Kennelly

I met you in the Joy

in the early eighties

I can still picture you sitting

beside the school window

it was a summer's day.



Middle-aged you wore

a beige cap

receding shoulder length

black hair greying

blue eyes

warm smile

clean shaven

heavy built.

Check coat

white open neck shirt

black pants brown shoes

spoke

with a Kerry accent

recited poetry

and when you raised your foot

I could see a hole in your shoe

the light was shining through

the room was electric

with a crowd of inmates.



I heard you on the radio

many times over the years

read some of your books

was inspired by you

Rain Man don't go away

I want you to stay.

John Doran.

(Next :'Punishment Cell'. )





IS PEACE SAFE WITH ANDREWS....?

Where politics once stagnated, events in Northern Ireland now chase each other helter-skelter. As 'Magill' went to press, a new joint government document turned recent perceptions head over heels. Fionnuala O'Connor charts the doubts behind the instant reactions. From 'Magill' magazine, February 1998.

The paper eventually presented as the two governments' 'heads of agreement' was meant to kickstart real negotiation when talks reconvened after Christmas on January 12th. As that date approached, loyalists suggested their cease-fires were precarious, and their imprisoned leaders were visited in quick succession by David Trimble and British Secretary of State Mo Mowlam. Then, journalists sympathetic to the Ulster Unionists ran predictions that the document would show Tony Blair meeting a unionist prescription for a settlement firmly bounded by the union (with Britain).

A frantic weekend of phone calls between Tony Blair, in Tokyo, and the Taoiseach produced a result less strident than the leaks but left many nationalists rattled. A northern assembly got prominence while unionists' chief bugbears, the kernel of the framework, were omitted : the proposition of equality for nationalists and unionists inside Northern Ireland (sic) and the potential for North-South structures to develop.

Bertie Ahern had to take responsibility for the unseemly fluster of his own dealings with Tony Blair, said one non-nationalist observer. But sooner or later a Dublin-directed disaster was inevitable : "I can say this, the Shinners and the SDLP won't. There's no consistency. Ray Burke looked strong, did alright, but he was distracted and he hardly got his feet under the table. David Andrews doesn't do the work. Nobody on his own side tells him when he goofs. Dublin's all over the place, puffing David Trimble up on the one hand, leaving Sinn Féin out of the room one minute, sucking up to them and annoying the SDLP the next. Now this." (MORE LATER.)





CONDITIONS IN ENGLISH JAILS....

Like their comrades in the H-Blocks and Armagh, the Irish POW's in England have resisted criminalisation against all the odds, with the same conviction articulated by Joe O'Connell, speaking from the dock at the Old Bailey during the 1977 'Balcombe Street' trial - "We admit to no crimes. The real crimes and guilt are those British imperialism has committed against our people." From 'Iris' magazine, July/August 1982.

The fact is that these prisoners are being held as political hostages, a punitive warning to others who may bring the war into England that they can expect to spend their natural lives imprisoned on foreign soil in brutal and hostile conditions, isolated from comrades, friends, family and community.

It is an indication of the courage and political strength of these prisoners that they have not only sustained themselves mentally, even in extreme isolation, but have persisted in protesting for their beliefs inside the jails, with their pens, or from the prison rooftops or barricaded in their cells.

Like their comrades in the H-Blocks and Armagh, the Irish POW's in England have resisted criminalisation against all the odds, with the same conviction articulated by Joe O'Connell, speaking from the dock at the Old Bailey, during the 1977 Balcombe Street trial : "We admit to no crimes, the real crimes and guilt are those British imperialism has committed against our people."

[END of 'Conditions in English Jails'. Next : '1916- What did it mean for Irish women?' , from 'Iris' magazine, Easter 1991.)







ON THIS DATE (25TH NOVEMBER) 102 YEARS AGO : 'IRISH VOLUNTEER' GROUP FOUNDED IN DUBLIN.

On the 11th of November in 1913 in Dublin, in the then 68-year-old Wynn's Hotel on Lower Abbey Street, a group of Irishmen and women held a meeting to discuss the formation of an 'Irish National Volunteer Force'. Those present at that meeting and/or at five other such meetings which were held immediately afterwards in the space of a two-week period, included Sean Fitzgibbon, John Gore, Michael J Judge, James Lenehan, Michael Lonergan, Peadar Macken, Seamus O'Connor, Colm O'Loughlin, Peter O'Reilly, Robert Page, George Walsh, Peadar White and Padraig O'Riain, amongst others (all of whom were well known in Irish nationalist circles ie Sinn Féin, Cumann na mBan, Na Fianna Éireann, the Gaelic League, the IRB, the Irish Citizen Army, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Irish Parliamentary Party and the United Irish League).

Then, on the 25th November 1913 - 102 years ago on this date - the inaugural enrolment meeting for the 'Irish Volunteers' was held at the Rotunda Rink in Dublin, to "secure the rights and liberties common to all the people of Ireland". That meeting was overseen by a Provisional Committee consisting of thirty members, all of whom had been elected at the above-mentioned meetings. A week previous to the formation of the 'Irish Volunteers', Jim Larkin and James Connolly had formed the 'Irish Citizen Army', and both groups were in competition for members, the former on a 32-county basis whereas the latter was confined to the Leinster area, although attempts were made, through trade union structures, to recruit in Cork, Belfast, Derry, Sligo, Limerick, Kilkenny, Waterford, Dundalk, Galway and Wexford, but with no success. Also, those joining the 'Volunteers' were supplied with a uniform and other equipment while those joining the 'ICA' had to purchase same themselves. Relations between the two organisations were not the best, as the 'Volunteers' allowed, for instance, employers to join and this at a time when employees and other trade unionists would most likely be 'ICA' members or supporters and, actually, when the 'Volunteers' were in conference for the first time (25th November 1913) 'ICA' members and supporters loudly made their presence felt and they also objected in print - their first leaflet stated that the 'Volunteers' were controlled by those who were opposed not only to trade unionism but also to workers rights re conditions etc.

Within a few months, however, the animosity had lessened to the extent that there was some official co-operation between both groups at the Wolfe Tone commemoration in June 1914 and again in October that year during the events held to commemorate Charles Stewart Parnell, and both groups joined forces at Easter 1916 and took part side-by-side in the Rising, the 100th anniversary of which will be marked in a national commemoration in Dublin on Saturday 23rd April next.







ON THIS DATE (25TH NOVEMBER) 94 YEARS AGO : BRITISH 'SERVICE PROVIDERS' IN IRELAND PREPARE TO TURN THEIR BORROWED* WEAPONRY ON IRISH REPUBLICANS (*Borrowed from the British).

On the 25th November 1921 - 94 years ago on this date - Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith arrived in Dublin, from London, where they had taken part in negotiations on a 'Peace Treaty' with the British and one of the clauses that caused dissension in the ranks of the Irish republicans was a British demand that 'Ireland shall recognise the British Crown for the purposes of the Association as symbol and accepted head of the combination of Associated States'. The military and political sections of the republican movement were split over what the British demanded and what they should be given and Collins, among others, sensed that an 'in-house' compromise was not going to be reached and, by February 1922, he was openly recruiting for a new 'National Army' from among those who, like himself, reluctantly (?) accepted the 'Peace Treaty' : he was assembling, in effect, an armed military junta in Ireland to enforce British demands re their 'Treaty'. Collins and his people assured Westminster that they would secure the 'Treaty' and all it encompassed and, on the 6th December 1921, the 'Treaty', which partitioned Ireland, was signed. The British began to withdraw their own proper soldiers from the bases which they had been occupying and some of these bases were then taken over by Irish republicans and, in late June 1922, the new Free State Army borrowed heavy weaponry from their new allies in Westminster and proceeded to enforce the British writ in Ireland. The rest, as they say, is history but, incredibly, the lessons learned remain unheeded by some (and more so by others) but have been taken on board by republicans who continue to campaign for a full British military and political withdrawal from Ireland, despite the best efforts of the above-linked advocates of accommodation.







ON THIS DATE (25TH NOVEMBER) 90 YEARS AGO : FREE STATE LEADERS FURTHER HUMILIATED BY THE BRITISH.

On the 25th November 1925 - 90 years ago on this date - the then Free State President, William Cosgrave, and his 'Minister for Home Affairs', Kevin O'Higgins, arrived in Downing Street in London for a meeting with British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin and Stormont 'Prime Minister' 'Sir' James Craig. Within nine days (ie by the 3rd December 1925), the Free Staters had been 'sold' a(...nother!) 'pup' by the British. On the 3rd December 1925, all those present at a meeting (ie all those mentioned above) agreed that the 'border', as fixed 5 years earlier in the '1920 Government of Ireland Act' and as stated in the 1921 Treaty of Surrender, would so remain, and an agreement was signed to that effect by those present. But the British, no doubt smelling fear and relief at the same time from the Free Staters, wanted more 'concessions' : they pushed for, and got , a separate agreement that the 'Council of Ireland' (a 'talking-shop' which the 1921 Treaty promised to set-up) be scrapped (even though it had not, in fact, ever been established!) and, as a final insult to the Free State 'negotiators', the British demanded that they repay the compensation which Westminster had paid to them for damage which the British themselves had caused in Ireland during the Black and Tan War!

And, in for a (British) penny, in for a (British) pound - no doubt by now realising the 'calibre' of the men they were up against, the British also insisted, and again, got, a commitment from the Free Staters that they would continue to pay land annuities to the British Exchequer! The above shambles , and many others, occurred during 'negotiations' between Westminster and the then newly-minted Free State administration during meetings which were held as part of the 'Boundary Commission' remit, a useless talking shop which the Staters shamelessly sold to their own followers as a 'political vehicle' which they could use to wring concessions from Westminster. For instance, On 2nd February 1922, a meeting was held between Michael Collins and the Stormont 'Prime Minister', 'Sir' James Craig. Voices were raised over the issue/structure/terms of reference of the Boundary Commission, and the meeting ended abruptly over the matter. However, 'spin' and 'PR' (media manipulation) was immediately employed by both sides - at a press conference following that failed meeting, 'Sir' James Craig (Stormont 'PM') claimed that the British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, had assured him that the Boundary Commission "... would deal only with minor rectifications of the boundary ..." ; in effect, that the Boundary Commission was a useless 'talking-shop' which had only been set-up to help the Free Staters to 'sell' the 'six County idea' to other Free Staters. However, Michael Collins claimed that he had left that same meeting with a promise, from the British, "...of almost half of Northern Ireland (sic) including the counties of Fermanagh and Tyrone, large parts of Antrim and Down, Derry City, Enniskillen and Newry." Obviously, both men could not have been right ; it is straightforward to state that the 'Boundary Commission' idea was a 'sweetener', if you like, to be used by both sides to convince their respective 'flock' that the British were really on their side!

We wrote about that 'Commission' and all its failings, in consecutive posts, beginning here (click on the 'Newer Post' link for part 2, and same again for part 3 etc).





A FEW PICS FROM THE 111TH ARD FHEIS OF (REPUBLICAN) SINN FÉIN, SATURDAY/SUNDAY 21ST/22ND NOVEMBER 2015.

10am, Saturday 21st November 2015 - Ard Fheis business beginning.

Ard Fheis graphics, Saturday 21st November 2015...



..and a few random pics from both days :

(and more here, from 'Facebook'.)





Thanks for reading, Sharon.

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A PAIN IN THE BUTT !

PROSE AND CONS.

By prisoners from E1 Landing, Portlaoise Prison, 1999.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS :

Grateful thanks to the following for their help, support, assistance and encouragement, and all those who helped with the typing and word processing over the past few months. Many thanks to Cian Sharkhin, the editor of the book, Mr Bill Donoghue, Governor, Portlaoise, Mr Seán Wynne, supervising teacher, the education unit in Portlaoise Prison and the education staff, especially Zack, Helena and Jane. Education officers Bill Carroll and Dave McDonald, Rita Kelly, writer, print unit, Arbour Hill.

First Print : November 1999, reprinted March 2000, illustrations by D O'Hare, Zack and Natasha. Photograph selection : Eamonn Kelly and Harry Melia.

FEAR.

Never give into it or anyone

it will only create

problems mentally

and physically it will paralyse you



Chase it and it will run from you

life forever

people thrive on weakness

they will respect you if you stand

up to them

don't let anybody push you

into something you may not wish to do

or you will regret it in time to come

people suffered for so long

and hadn't got the courage to fight it

many people wish they had done something

about it years ago



Start today there's no tomorrow

and you will never look back

be the one don't wait for someone

to do it for you

let fear, fear itself.

John Doran. (Next :'Memories of You'. )





IS PEACE SAFE WITH ANDREWS....?

Where politics once stagnated, events in Northern Ireland now chase each other helter-skelter. As 'Magill' went to press, a new joint government document turned recent perceptions head over heels. Fionnuala O'Connor charts the doubts behind the instant reactions. From 'Magill' magazine, February 1998.

The present spiral of violence was initially due to two groups outside the talks - the tiny, discredited 'Irish National Liberation Army' (INLA) , which has a history of murderous internal feuding and crime, and the more mysterious 'Loyalist Volunteer Force' (LVF), originally largely composed of UVF dissidents, which exists to oppose and undermine the ceasefires of the larger UDA and UVF. Both of the maverick groups are excluded from talks because they refused to call cease-fires and both bitterly oppose the talks format and the prospect of any compromise it might produce.

LVF leader Billy Wright's killing by the INLA inside the Maze prison was followed by a string of loyalist killings of catholics, another INLA killing, and more catholic deaths. To those who feel most vulnerable in the wider population, arguments about throwing parties out of talks are not the priority. Steel bars have gone back up inside front doors, gates on the bottom of stairs - in a small supermarket on the fringe of a loyalist district, the catholic owner took a sledge-hammer and broke a crude hole in the back wall of the shop. He did it without thinking about how to block it at night, his only though being escape.

UDA man Jim Guiney had been trapped days before by his INLA killers in his own small shop, hemmed in by rolls of marked-down carpet ; his killing shook the tiny UDP. He was close to two party delegates at Stormont - UDP leader Gary McMichael and David Adams - and by all accounts was a strong supporter of negotiations. McMichael and Adams are liked in the talks : "It was uncomfortable to watch, but I felt for them too", said a delegate from another small party who saw the news come in. Another noted the UDP's confusion - "They kept saying 'he's not a shooter, he's not a shooter.' "

Another participant declared - "It's clear the UDA don't listen to Gary McMichael or Davy Adams, but I don't know about John White." In talks where many others have violent records, White's convictions for two particularly gruesome killings all of 22 years ago should not lend him the image he seems to relish as hard man to the diplomacy of Gary McMichael and the soft-spoken David Adams. Even John White's credentials seem to have failed to reach the other hard men. The probability of a UDA split now hangs over the UDP, and the possibility of their being allowed to come back into talks. (MORE LATER.)





CONDITIONS IN ENGLISH JAILS....

Like their comrades in the H-Blocks and Armagh, the Irish POW's in England have resisted criminalisation against all the odds, with the same conviction articulated by Joe O'Connell, speaking from the dock at the Old Bailey during the 1977 'Balcombe Street' trial - "We admit to no crimes. The real crimes and guilt are those British imperialism has committed against our people." From 'Iris' magazine, July/August 1982.

Although many prisoners' families live in Ireland, only four prisoners have ever been repatriated , and then only after a 205-day force-fed hunger-strike. Yet it is official British Home Office policy to transfer prisoners to jails close to home, and British soldiers are automatically sent back to England or Scotland in the few cases where they have been sentenced for their criminal activities in the North. The 'closed' visit, strip-searching, the harassment of relatives on visits and the issue of repatriation have been the chief areas of protest by the republican prisoners in English jails over the years.

Over the next two or three years most of the shorter-term prisoners will be released. In previous years eleven republican prisoners have been released, and the latest releases were Tony Madigan and Brian McLaughlin, released in June, and Fr. Patrick Fell and David Owen who were released in July. This will leave a core of republican prisoners serving life or more, such as Joe O'Connell, serving 'life plus 159 years' (!) , who have lost all remission.

Repeated demands that these prisoners should be allowed to serve their sentences in Ireland have been refused - the original grounds given by the British Home Office were the inadequacy of secure prison conditions in the North, but since the building of the H-Blocks and new prison facilities at Magheraberry this is even more batantly untrue than before. (MORE LATER.)





ON THIS DATE (18TH NOVEMBER) 95 YEARS AGO : BRITISH REPRISAL KILLINGS IN CORK.

On the 17th November 1920, a 46-year-old Kerry-born RIC Sergeant, James O'Donoghue, who had 22 years 'service' in that particular 'police force' and was about to be promoted to Head Constable, was shot dead in White Street in Cork city by three IRA men (Charlie O'Brien, Willie Joe O'Brien and Justin O'Connor) , who were standing in a gateway, waiting for a target that never showed. The IRA unit were about to leave the area when they were spotted by O'Donoghue, who had just left his home at Tower Street, in full uniform, to make his way to the RIC barracks at Tuckey Street, about a half-mile of a walk from his house. According to reports of the incident, the RIC man "came upon" the IRA men and he was shot dead as a result.

The next day - the 18th November (1920), 95 years ago on this date - a gang of masked men, believed to be RIC and/or Black and Tans from the Tuckey Street barracks, forced their way in to the O'Brien house, looking for Charlie and Willie Joe ; they shot Charlie, leaving him for dead, and then shot his brother-in-law, Eugene O'Connell, who died at the scene. The execution gang then broke into the near-by home of Patrick Hanley and shot him dead, and then turned their guns on his friend, Stephen Coleman, severely wounding him, and a James Coleman was also attacked by the gang and shot dead. An IRA investigation into how the IRA unit had been exposed led the organisation to believe that informers had been at work and three men were shot dead as a result - John Sherlock, 'Din-Din' O'Riordan and Eddie Hawkins (whose father, Dan, was seriously wounded in that action).

Incidentally, a week after they killed the RIC man, the Cork Command IRA officially apologised in writing to his family and let it be known that they were 'furious' that their Volunteers had taken it on themselves to carry-out that operation. No such apology was issued by the RIC or the Black and Tans.





ON THIS DATE (18TH NOVEMBER) 95 YEARS AGO : 'HANSARD' TRANSCRIPT OF DEBATE ON CAPTURE OF FOUR ENGLISH OFFICERS IN CORK BY "REBELS".

HANSARD 1803–2005 - 1920s - 1920 - November 1920 - 18 November 1920 - Commons Sitting - IRELAND.

OFFICERS CAPTURED.

HC Deb 18 November 1920 vol 134 cc2072-4

Mr. PENNEFATHER (by Private Notice) asked the Secretary of State for War whether he had any information to impart relating to the four officers taken by force out of a train at Waterfall, County Cork, the day before yesterday, and carried off in rebel motor cars, and whether, in view of this further proof of the assistance to crime afforded by privately-owned motor cars, the Government would at once prohibit their use in the disturbed areas?

Mr. DEVLIN : "What is a "rebel motor car"? "

The SECRETARY of STATE for WAR (Mr. Churchill): "The only information which I have at present is that two Education Officers, Captain M. H. W. Green, Lincolnshire Regiment, and Captain S. Chambers, Liverpool Regiment, and an officer of the Royal Engineers, Lieut. W. Spalding Watts, were captured by the rebels. I understand that Captain Green and Lieutenant Watts might have been witnesses of a murder of a police sergeant and that Captain Chambers was the principal witness against Father O'Donnell, who was arrested in October, 1919, for seditious speeches. Presumably, these are the reasons why they were kidnapped, but I do not know the circumstances of their capture. With regard to the last part of the hon. Member's question, I think ample powers already exist under the Restoration of Order in Ireland Regulations. Certain restrictions regarding the use of motor vehicles are already in force, and I understand that further drastic restrictions will come into operation on 1st December."

Mr. TERRELL : "Have these officers been released?"

Mr.CHURCHILL : "No."

Mr. DEVLIN : "The right hon. Gentleman brings in the trial, and the statement that Father O'Donnell was arrested for seditious language. For what reason ho dons (sic - 'he done'?) that, I do not know. Will he state that the court-martial acquitted him of that charge?"

Mr. CHURCHILL : "I did not attach importance to that. I have given the answer specially framed for me in answer to this question."

Mr. DEVLIN : "Who framed it for you?"

Mr. CHURCHILL "I had no communication whatever with the hon. Member (Mr. Pennefather), and there is no ulterior design behind the framing of the answer." (From here.)

We also found the following information in relation to this incident :

Capt M H W Green - removed and shot. Capt S Chambers - removed and shot. Lt W S Watts - removed and shot... there were 4 officers in mufti in a 3rd class compartment travelling from Cork (they thought it less conspicuous to travel 3rd class). There were 10 people in the compartment. The officers were en route to Bere Island. The soldiers were Lt R R Goode (inspector of Army Schools), Capt Reedy R.E., Chambers and Green. The train stopped at Waterfall, 6 miles from Cork. 3 armed civilians entered their compartment. Looking at Chambers one of these armed men said "That is one of them" and looking at Green said "That is the other". Chambers and Green were then marched out with their hands up and were last seen at the bridge over the railway....In 'The Year of Disappearances' (link here) the author makes a case for mistaken identity, for the Green the IRA wanted being George Edward Green, and not MHW Green...Watts had decided to travel First Class and was by himself. Reedy only realised Watts was missing when the train got to Kinsale Junction and he could not find Watts...Goode added to his statement that he knew that Chambers had been responsible for the arrest of Father O'Donnell (Chaplin to the Australian Forces) in Oct 1919 for seditious language....Goode also said that Chambers and Green had the previous week been witnesses to the murder of 2 RIC constables at Ballybrack in the course of a railway journey...Goode believed that Green was carrying an automatic pistol, but believed that the others were unarmed...1921 Nov 29- The IRA confirm that the men were executed, but details of their burial place did not emerge... (from here) and these British Army documents also make for interesting reading.

The lesson, whether it should have been learned in 1920 (if not centuries earlier!) or will be learned even at this late stage by those who think they have secured their political future and that of this Free State, is a simple one : 'Ireland unfree shall never be at peace'.





ON THIS DATE (18TH NOVEMBER) 95 YEARS AGO : IRA GO SHOPPING FOR AIRPLANE PARTS....

On the 18th November 1920 - 95 years ago on this date - an aeroplane made an emergency landing in a field near Punches Quarry in Cratloe, County Clare, and word quickly spread in the area that the craft was fitted-out with a machine gun. The British 'authorities' heard about the incident, as did the local IRA unit, and the former ordered their man in the area, 2nd Lieutenant MH Last, to organise a platoon from 'C' Company, 'Oxon and Bucks' (the 'Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry' regiment) and get to the site to guard the wreck, which they did and, in an act of bravado (given the times that were in it!) the British forces apparently posted no sentries and built and lit a large fire to make themselves comfortable.

The IRA, too, had arrived on site and a gun battle ensued - a report of the fight is carried here (see 'Incident at Cratloe'), but we're still trying to find out if the IRA got airborne that year or not...!





ON THIS DATE (18TH NOVEMBER) 142 YEARS AGO : 'HOME RULE' ISSUE INTENSIFIES.

'ISAAC BUTT (1813-1879) POLITICIAN, BARRISTER AND PHILOSOPHER (pictured, left).

Isaac Butt was born in Glenfin, Donegal, on the 6th September 1813. His father, The Reverend Robert Butt, became Rector of St. Mary's Church of Ireland, Stranorlar in 1814 so Isaac spent his childhood years in Stranorlar. His mother's maiden name was Berkeley Cox and she claimed descendency from the O'Donnells. When Isaac was aged twelve he went as a boarder to the Royal School Raphoe and at the age of fifteen entered Trinity College Dublin.

He trained as a barrister and became a member of both the Irish Bar and the English Bar. He was a conservative lawyer but after the famine in the 1840s became increasingly liberal. In 1852 he became Tory MP at Westminster representing Youghal, Co. Cork and in 1869 he founded the Tenant League to renew the demand for tenant rights. He was a noted orator who spoke fervently for justice, tolerance, compassion and freedom. He always defended the poor and the oppressed. He started the Home Rule Movement in 1870 and in 1871 was elected MP for Limerick, running on a Home Rule ticket. He founded a political party called The Home Rule Party in 1873. By the mid 1870s Butt's health was failing and he was losing control of his party to a section of its members who wished to adopt a much more aggressive approach than he was willing to accept. In 1879 he suffered a stroke from which he failed to recover and died on the 5th May in Clonskeagh, Dublin. He was replaced by William Shaw who was succeeded by Charles Stewart Parnell in 1880. Isaac Butt became known as "The Father of Home Rule in Ireland". At his express wish he is buried in a corner of Stranorlar Church of Ireland cemetery, beneath a tree where he used to sit and dream as a boy.' (from here.)

On the 18th November, 1873 - 142 years ago on this date - a three-day conference was convened in Dublin to discuss the issue of 'home rule' for Ireland. The conference had been organised, in the main, by Isaac Butt's then 3-year-old 'Home Government Association', and was attended by various individuals and small localised groups who shared an interest in that subject. Isaac Butt was a well-known Dublin barrister who was apparently viewed with some suspicion by 'his own type' - Protestants - as he was a pillar of the Tory society in Ireland before recognising the ills of that creed and converting, politically, to the 'other side of the house' - Irish nationalism, a 'half way house', if even that - then and now - between British imperialism and Irish republicanism ie Isaac Butt and those like him made it clear that they were simply agitating for an improved position for Ireland within the 'British empire', as opposed to Irish republicans who were demanding then, and now, a British military and political withdrawal from Ireland.

Over that three-day period the gathering agreed to establish a new organisation, to be known as 'The Home Rule League',and the minutes from the conference make for interesting reading as they highlight/expose the request for the political 'half way house', mentioned above - 'At twelve o'clock, on the motion of George Bryan, M.R, seconded by Hon. Charles Ffrench, M.P., the Chair was taken by William Shaw, M.R. On the motion of the Rev. P. Lavelle, seconded by Laurence Waldron, D.L., the following gentlemen were appointed Honorary Secretaries : — John O.Blunden, Philip Callan M.P, W.J.O'Neill Daunt, ER King Harman and Alfred Webb. ER King Harman read the requisition convening the Conference, as follows : —

We, the undersigned feel bound to declare our conviction that it is necessary to the peace and prosperity of Ireland, and would be conducive to the strength and stability of the United Kingdom, that the right of domestic legislation on all Irish affairs should be restored to our country and that it is desirable that Irishmen should unite to obtain that restoration upon the following principles : To obtain for our countiy the right and privilege of managing our own affairs, by a Parliament assembled in Ireland, composed of her Majesty the Sovereign, and the Lords and Commons of Ireland.

To secure for that Parliament, under a Federal arrangement, the right of legislating for, and regulating all matters relating to the internal affairs of Ireland, and control over Irish resources and revenues, subject to the obligation of contributing our just proportion of the Imperial expenditure. To leave to an Imperial Parliament the power of dealing with all questions affecting the Imperial Crown and Government, legislation regarding the Colonies and other dependencies of the Crown, the relations of the United Empire with Foreign States, and all matters appertaining to the defence and the stability of the Empire at large....' (from here.)

The militant 'Irish Republican Brotherhood' (IRB) was watching those developments with interest and it was decided that Patrick Egan and three other members of the IRB Supreme Council - John O'Connor Power, Joseph Biggar and John Barry - would join the 'Home Rule League' with the intention of 'steering' that group in the direction of the IRB. Other members of the IRB were encouraged to join the 'League' as well, and a time-scale was set in which to completely infiltrate the 'League' - three years. However, that decision to infiltrate Isaac Butt's organisation was to backfire on the Irish Republican Brotherhood : the 'three-year' period of infiltration ended in 1876 and in August 1877 the IRB Supreme Council held a meeting at which a resolution condemning the over-involvement in politics (ie political motions etc rather than military action) of IRB members was discussed ; after heated arguments, the resolution was agreed and passed by the IRB Council, but not everyone accepted that decision and Patrick Egan, John O'Connor Power, Joseph Biggar and John Barry refused to accept the decision and all four men resigned from the IRB.

Charles Stewart Parnell was elected as leader of the 'Home Rule League' in 1880 and it became a more organised body - two years later, Parnell renamed it the 'Irish Parliamentary Party' and the rest, as they say, is history (with an interesting tangent along the way) !





OUR BLOG POST NEXT WEDNESDAY 25TH NOVEMBER 2015...

...WILL BE HALF THIS SIZE!



Smaller than our usual offering, that is - time constraints, that's why! We've been working for the last week or so on the Ard Fheis Clár (32 pages, 93 motions) and other related material (bookings, hotel arrangements, visitors etc) and the event itself will be held this coming weekend, Saturday/Sunday 21st and 22nd November, in a Dublin venue, which means spare time is scarce.

And coming up hot on the heels of that event a 650-ticket fund-raising raffle for Cabhair (booked in for Sunday 13th December) has yet to be fully organised following which preparations for the Cabhair Christmas Day Swim have to be continued with. We will post a piece next Wednesday (25th November 2015) but it will be only (probably) half the quantity but quality won't be affected. Says she, clapping herself on the back....!

Thanks for reading, Sharon.

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