This IRA Volunteer is said to have been shot by a one-time prison comrade of his, on the 'un-official' instructions given to the gunman (and his colleagues) by a high-ranking Free Stater...
From 1955 - 'These elections offer the people in the Six Counties the opportunity to voice their demand for freedom and the withdrawal of England's troops from Irish soil...'
As a young boy, this republican joined Na Fianna Éireann in 1971 and progressed to the ranks of the IRA very quickly. He escaped capture on a number of occasions but was eventually 'arrested' by the British in 1973 and interned in Long Kesh until 1975. When released, he reported back to the IRA for active service straight away...
From 1987 - "The people are told they should be ashamed to be Irish and even the singing of national ballads is attacked while the wearing of the Poppy is extolled. There seems to be no limit to the amount of national abasement sought..."
We'll be filling-in the missing pieces to the above on Wednesday, 2nd August 2023, and the lads tell me that we'll also have a few paragraphs about a very young 'millionaire' related (!) to this blog. Yeah - your guess is as good as mine...!
Thanks for the visit - please check back with us again on Wednesday, 2nd August 2023.
See yis then!
Sharon and the team.
ON THIS DATE (26TH JULY) 109 YEARS AGO : HOWTH GUNS AND A BRITISH MASSACRE ON THE DUBLIN QUAYS.
'A nationalist depiction of the shootings at Bachelor's Walk, in which British troops killed three civilians...' (from here.)
In the early afternoon of Sunday, 26th July, 1914 - 109 years ago on this date - a consignment of over one-thousand rifles and ammunition for same was landed at Howth harbour, in Dublin, and unloaded by the newly-formed 'Irish Volunteers', assisted by members of Na Fianna Éireann.
On its way in to Dublin city, the republican convoy was halted by a force of about fifty British RIC 'policemen' and over one-hundred British soldiers from the 'Kings Own Scottish Borderers', known as the 'Kosbies'.
Thomas MacDonagh.
Darrell Figgis.
And we're back in Dublin, mostly in one piece (!), after our assault on the South-East - Waterford, Kilkenny, Carlow, Wexford and Tipp - where eight (supposed) adults and eleven children introduced ourselves (!) to various venues and establishments in mostly flying visits (...not always our choice!) but, happy to say, we didn't loose any of our group. Not permanently, anyway...!
And, among other items on our list, is the blog post, and we'll be back here on Wednesday, 26th July 2023, with these few items :
Families out for a walk, in July 1914, on the Dublin Quays, had no idea of how the group of armed British soldiers, also on the Quays, were going to tell them how to disperse...
From 1955 - 'Imperial policy never changes unless it is forced by outside circumstances to change...'
A brilliantly confused famous Irishman (and 'Superman'!) talks about the Irish 'famine' and how it effected his family...
In Ireland, poor widows and helpless chimney sweeps do not, apparently, live in the real world...
From 1987 - "A veritable tidal wave of hysteria has been launched at the Irish people through the mass media ; a hate campaign against Irish republicans has been worked up day by day over the past two weeks..."
Thanks for droppin' by - hope ya check in with us again on Wednesday, 26th July 2023.
See yis then!
Sharon and the team.
IRELAND, 1921 : THE IRA "EXPRESSED A WISH TO MEET THEM IN AN OPEN FIGHT SOON.."
On the 6th of May, 1921, IRA Commandant Michael J. Marren, who was in command of at least forty Volunteers (with Thady McGowan as second-in-command ; incidentally, both men were carpenters by trade and, in May 1920, they had made a coffin for use in an IRA operation, during which 60 IRA Volunteers acted as a funeral party...but that's another story...!), placed his men along both sides of the railway line near Seefin ((Suí Finn), in County Sligo. The group were armed with between ten and fifteen rifles and various other firearms.
On one side a hilly bank about 35 feet high and some 125 yards long was occupied by some of the Volunteers and one of them, a scout (possibly Volunteer Edward Doherty, who had carried out operations like this before), had been sent ahead to a near-by train station (in Kilfree) where he was to board a train containing enemy forces travelling in the direction of Seefin ; a train arrived in that train station on which British forces were travelling in the direction of the ambush position and the IRA scout got onboard.
When the train was approaching the IRA ambush position, at about 2pm, the scout gave the signal that there were armed enemy forces on board and Michael Marren and Thady McGowan stood on the line and stopped it at Seefin level crossing (between Kilfree Junction and Ballymote) with a red flag, after signalling to the engine-driver to stop.
The train pulled up to a halt, and a few Volunteers took control of the engine compartment : Michael Marren (carrying a 'Peter the Painter' handgun on him) and Thady McGowan (carrying a revolver in his pocket) boarded the train at one end and slowly made their way through the carriages, while two other armed Volunteers, Frank Higgins (from Culfadda) and Pa Coleman (from Ballymote) made their way, slowly, through the carriages, from the other end of the train. All civilians on board were ordered to leave the train, which they did.
When they came near the carriage where the British Auxiliaries and RIC men were, the British invaders opened fire on the IRA men, who immediately took cover between the carriages.
The IRA Volunteers on the railway bank then opened heavy fire on the carriages occupied by the British forces, and the gun battle lasted for approximately thirty minutes, but then the eleven British Auxiliaries and their two RIC colleagues surrendered ; they were disarmed, and any ammunition and paperwork they were carrying was taken from them and the train was allowed to proceed on its journey until it arrived at a point between Kilfree and Boyle where the IRA men stopped the train and got off it.
During the earlier gunfight, a calf grazing in a nearby field was killed, but there were no IRA casualties in the operation.
'The Freemans Journal' newspaper of May 9th, 1921, reported - "It is stated that the Auxiliaries thanked the Republicans on parting for the courteous treatment they received and that the latter expressed a wish to meet them in an open fight soon..."
A British Army Major, Edward Sidney C. Grune (pictured), was on board that train and later recounted his experience of meeting the enemy at such close quarters -
"All off! Everybody off the train! Everybody off the train, and hurry up!
I found myself looking at the bank of a high cutting, over the top of which projected a varied assortment of rifle barrels. I crossed quickly to the other side of the carriage and, looking out of the window, saw a number of men standing with their various weapons at the 'ready position' along the full length of the train.
The guard of the train next came bolting along the corridor, and asked, 'Are you armed?' but he was too agitated to wait for a reply.
I was handed over to the man who appeared to me to be the leader of the raiding party. A small notebook which had been taken away from me unluckily contained an old visiting card of mine. I was asked if the name on the card was mine, and as my name was on the back of my collar, I thought it best to agree.
I was then asked what I was doing, and I replied that I was just going into Boyle for the afternoon. I was asked if I was travelling on duty,
and replied in the negative, and that I was going in for a dance that evening.
There were about fifty or sixty men employed on the raid. Both sides of the train had been picqueted, some were removing the mailbags, sentries were posted on the engine and on the brake van. A number of others were visible on the horizon, with flags, watching the roads.
Before leaving, Marron (sic) said 'good-bye' and asked me to take a message to one of his pals who was a prisoner in Boyle Barracks. He then left the train, and I noticed a number of young women on the platform whom I suspected of receiving the arms of the raiders for safe custody..."
The Sligo RIC County Inspector's report for the month of May 1921 reported 39 'outrages', including 26 robberies of arms, mails etc, and two attacks on RIC men and British Auxiliaries. It mentioned in particular the 6th May train hold-up and the Keash ambush on the 23rd May, but not the 26th May incident. It was reported in 'The Daily Railway Situation' reports as follows :
'27/5/21 : On 26th inst between Ballymote and Kilfree the 13.40 hrs mail train Sligo to Dublin was held up and boarded by armed men at 14.05. These men travelled on the train to a point between Kilfree and Boyle where they stopped the train and detrained...'
On the 12th July 1921 - 102 years ago on this date - IRA Commandant Michael J. ('Sonny') Marren (32), Officer Commanding of the Ballymote Battalion IRA, was drowned accidently at Strandhill, in County Sligo. After his body had been recovered from the sea and buried in Mount Irwin Cemetery, near Gurteen, Canon O'Connor officiated at the graveside.
In his eulogy he said -
"...a brave soldier or a more fearless companion of the Irish cause never breathed the breath of life ; a man universally beloved by his own people and by everyone within the circle of his acquaintance..."
Thousands of IRA men march behind his coffin at his funeral and the local newspapers reported that, as the funeral cortege left Sligo, it was met by a lorry of British military. The officer in charge of the British soldiers had his men dismount and stand to attention, with arms reversed, along the
road.
We have no idea who that officer was. It is very unlikely to have been British Army Major Edward Sidney C. Grune, but the soldiers were members of the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment, which had been in constant conflict with IRA Commandant Michael J. Marren and his rebel fighters.
The Lament for Commandant Marren (composed by Tom Lavin of Coolboy, Ballyrush, Co. Sligo).
'The West is now eclipsed in the mourning,
for the bravest is laid in the tomb,
the death of Commandant Marren,
has cast o’er Connaught a gloom.
He fought for the cause of old Ireland,
and evaded arrest for five years,
beloved by all his companions,
and the pride of the bold Volunteers.
Young Marren he loved his dear country,
with a love that can ne’er be surpassed,
a hero and also a brave leader,
he was true to the cause till the last.
When oft times out-numbered in action,
he fought with a verdure so bold,
that he captured those vicious brown-foxes,
by the men of the Green, White and Gold.
The Green, White and Gold were his colours,
by their aid he would fight night and day,
it was woe to the man who would tempt him,
by the cause of those colours betrayed.
The brown-foxes anxiously sought him,
but needless to say ‘twas in vain,
he was hid from those tyrant traitors,
by the invisible band of Sinn Fein.
As a leader no man could surpass him,
for he acted with judgement and skill,
in the ranks a place is left vacant,
that no man ever can fill.
In conflict he was a brave soldier,
and no cowardice did ever show,
in planning he could not be equalled,
for he always out-numbered his foe.
When the truce of old Ireland was called on,
as a free man for Strandhill he was bound,
and when out for a dip in the ocean alas :
young Marren was drowned.
When the news of his fate circulated,
it filled every heart with dismay,
for to think that a brave noble leader,
could be cold ‘neath the depth of the sea.
Volunteers sure they came from all over,
when they heard this companion was drowned,
night and day they kept searching the ocean,
'till at length his dead body was found.
The grief of his parents and comrades,
as they stood on the strand on that day,
when his remains were washed in by a springtide,
they all bent down for to pray.
The day of the funeral was touching,
when 6,000 marched four men deep,
the dead march was played on the brass band,
t'would make the hardest heart weep.
Many friends as they stood by the grave-side,
requested the people to pray,
when relating the tragic occurrence,
to 'Sonny' a tribute did pay.
High masses were offered in many a place,
from Sligo to his native Gurteen,
and the numbers that attended those masses,
will forever remember the scene.
Three volleys were filled 'mid the silence,
and the last part were sounded 'mid tears,
the Rosary was recited in Irish,
for the rest of young Marren the brave.
IRA Commandant Michael J. ('Sonny') Marren, 12th July 1921 - 102 years ago on this date.
RIP.
'NORTHERN IRELAND' FLAG ACT...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
The 'Northern Ireland' entity was an expedient creation of the British Government ; it has been, and is, subsidised by them (inadequately) to maintain a defensive perimeter.
The second paragraph is the essence of sound common sense. The differences between Northern Protestants (I assume that the majority of the members of the USDAW trade union are Protestants) are very, very slight.
If, once the fear fostered alike by English and some Irish politicians, that a free Ireland would mean victimisation for Protestants, was dispelled, a free, united and prosperous Ireland would be very close to reality.
(END of ' 'Northern Ireland' Flag Act' ; NEXT - 'Westminster Elections', from the same source.)
'LAW AND SOCIETY :
IS IT TIME TO ASK QUESTIONS OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION...?
We have always been a society with a facility for the creation of myths. However, not even the most dewy-eyed devotee of the dreams of the Celtic Twilight could have invented the present status of the legal profession in Ireland.'
By John Drennan.
From 'Magill Magazine', November 2001.
Against a backdrop such as this, the relationship of utter thralldom between the Dail (sic - Leinster House) and the law library was epitomised by the call by Fine Gael, Labour and the Greens for a tribunal of inquiry into the McBrearty affair. Perhaps the same people should read up on the transcripts of the 'Kerry Babies Inquiry'.
These calls represent another example of how the principle of the separation of powers, in which a healthy democracy gives equal rights to the parliament, the government and the courts, has been abrogated to the point where attorney generals are now more powerful than ministers.
The legal profession directs, and ministers duly sue Brigid McCole or Kathryn Sinnott, and ignore the plight of HIV-positive haemophiliacs.
After all, it is much easier to follow legal advice than to make tough decisions oneself, especially when those decisions pose a difficult choice between social morality and tempting political expediency...
(MORE LATER.)
'WAITING TO FALL...'
If this year sees the end of the 'Age of Tribunals', it won't be a moment too soon.
By John Drennan.
From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.
If Frank Dunlop's house of cards begin to sway, or the sort of lawyers who cost €25,000 rather than €2,500 a day start issuing writs over the revelations in the Moriarty Tribunal, or the public start to ask where the charge sheets are, or a brave opposition (admittedly that's unlikely!) start to ask questions, we may yet discover that the glow surrounding our tribunals is that of a twilight rather than the dawn.
Like a pre-Good-Friday-Agreement North of Ireland, tribunals are a flawed entity. Just as the fissures in the North meant the collapse of that statelet was inevitable, at some stage our tribunals will collapse under the weight of their internal contradictions.
This alone justifies our optimism that 2003 may yet be the year where we witness the death* of the 'Age of Tribunals'.
(* '1169' comment - unfortunately not : let the new Tribunal begin...!)
(END of 'Waiting To Fall' ; NEXT - 'In Answer To Church And State And In Defence Of Irish Republicanism', from 1987.)
Thanks for the visit, and for reading,
Sharon and the team.
We won't be here next Wednesday, 19th July 2023 : the childer are on their holliers but that doesn't mean that we can all relax. The opposite, indeed - the three of us that run this blog all have young children or grandchildren (enough, between us, to practically fill a football stadium, never mind field a team!) and there's a right gang of us heading off on a road-trip on Sunday 16th for about a week.
We'll be back on Wednesday, 26th July 2023 with, among other pieces, a few paragraphs to do with seaside weapons and some other implements which were used, with deadly force, on the Quays in Dublin.
Keep the Faith, and please check back with us on the 26th!
GRMA!
ON THIS DATE (5TH JULY) 83 YEARS AGO : THOMAS ÓG MacCURTAIN'S STATED LAST DAY ON EARTH...
Tomás Óg MacCurtain, left, 33 years of age, pictured in Cork in 1948 (thanks to Brendan O'Neill for the pic!).
In Cork, in 1920, Irish republican Tomás MacCurtain was elected as 'Lord Mayor' of the city, just one of the many changes that resulted from the 15th January local council elections that were held in Ireland that year, in which Sinn Féin won control of 11 out of 12 cities and boroughs - the only municipal council in all Ireland left under Unionist control was in Belfast ; out of 206 councils elected on the island, 172 now had a
republican/nationalist majority.
The British had 'outlawed' Dáil Éireann (the 32-county body, not the pretend 'Irish parliament' in Kildare Street, in Dublin, which Free Staters claim, falsely, to be the same institution), which had directed all local council's in Ireland to break their connection with the (British) Dublin Castle system of local administration and, within months, most of the local councils in the country were reporting to the republican administration.
Incidentally, that All-Ireland (32 County) Dáil continued to function underground until 1938, when it delegated its executive powers to the Army Council of the IRA, in accordance with a resolution of the First Dáil in 1921. With the 1969 split, Tom Maguire, the last and faithful survivor of the All-Ireland Dáil, stated that the Provisional IRA was the successor of the 1938 body - similarly, following the 1986 split, he nominated the Continuity IRA as the legitimate IRA. Tom Maguire died in 1993 (on this date [5th July] incidentally - see our piece on the man, elsewhere in this post), aged one-hundred-and-one (101).
Anyway - back to Tomás Óg who, in the year that his father was elected as 'Lord Mayor' of Cork, was only five years of age. He developed an interest in all things Irish, encouraged as much by his mother, Eibhlís Breathnach (pictured), as well as his father and, as an adult, became every bit as active in Irish republicanism as was his father, and quickly became a trusted and leading republican, sitting on the Executive of the IRA.
This, plus his family history, marked him out to the Free State 'authorities' as 'a person of interest'.
On Wednesday, 3rd January 1940, in St. Patrick Street in Cork, Tomás Óg was jumped-on by a number of Free State Special Branch men, who had decided to 'arrest' him - he fought with them and, in the scuffle, a gunshot was fired. A Free State detective, from Union Square Barracks, by the name of Roche, who in particular had been harassing Tomás Óg for weeks, fell to the ground - he was fatally wounded and died the next day.
On the 13th June 1940, the Free State 'Special Criminal Court' sentenced Tomás Óg MacCurtain to death, to be carried out on the 5th July 1940 - 83 years ago on this date.
An application for 'Habeas Corpus' was lodged and the execution was postponed for a week, but the Free State Supreme Court then dismissed the appeal. The whole country was divided over the issue - some demanded that he be put to death immediately as a 'sign' from the Fianna Fail administration that they were serious about 'cracking-down' on their former comrades in the IRA, while others demanded that he be released.
Finally, on the 10th July 1940, the Free Staters issued a statement - "The President, acting on the advice of the government, has commuted the sentence of death on Tomás (Óg) MacCurtain to penal servitude for life."
It has since been alleged that a sister of Cathal Brugha's widow, who was then the Reverend Mother of an Armagh Convent, had requested that her 'boss', Cardinal MacRory, should 'speak to' Eamon de Valera about the case. This, if indeed it did happen, and the fact that Tomás Óg's father had actually shouldered a gun alongside many members of the then Fianna Fail administration (before they went Free State, obviously), saved his life.
Tomás MacCurtain (Senior) died in 1920, at only 36 years of age, and his son, Tomás Óg, died in 1994, at 79 years of age.
'NORTHERN IRELAND' FLAG ACT...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
An amendment, tabled by the Belfast branch, seeks to replace the last paragraph by the words - 'This conference, upholding the principles of political democracy and especially the British people's conception of democratic government, acknowledges the right of the people of Northern Ireland (sic) to elect a government of their choice.
It is also of the opinion that the flaunting and parading of flags and emblems are the devices and tactics of reactionary bigots who seek to divert the attention of the workers from the real social issues and true causes of exploitation.'
The first paragraph of the amendment would be very sensible if the word 'Northern' was left out of it. As it stands it is ridiculous ; 'Northern Ireland', or rather the six north-east counties of Ireland, is not, never has been and never can be a political or economic entity...
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (5TH JULY) 161 YEARS AGO : DEATH OF THE NATION'S SHAMROCK.
In Dublin, on the 8th October 1822, a child was born (out of wedlock - a 'mortaler' in those days!) to Mary Williams and a Tipperary Count, Nicholas D'Alton ; the child, Richard Dalton Williams (pictured), was reared at Grenanstown, Nenagh, County Tipperary and, at the age of ten, began his education at St. Stanislaus School, Tullabeg, in County Laois, and then at St. Patricks College, County Carlow, where he stayed until he was 21 years of age.
By the time he left that college he was fluent in three languages, and was studying medicine in St Vincent's Hospital in Stephens Green, in Dublin, preparing himself for a career as a doctor.
He combined both 'crafts' to produce a poem, which he called 'The Dying Girl' -
'From a Munster vale they brought her,
from the pure and balmy air ;
An Ormond peasant's daughter,
with blue eyes and golden hair.
They brought her to the city
and she faded slowly there -
consumption has no pity
for blue eyes and golden hair.' (From here.)
His first published poem was entitled 'The Munster War Song' and it appeared in 'The Nation' newspaper on the 7th January, 1843, under the pseudonym 'Shamrock' (at the time of its publication, he was actually in the process of moving from Carlow, to Dublin, to study medicine in St Vincents Hospital).
'The Nation' newspaper received a great response to Williams' poem, and 'Shamrock' became a regular contributor, with works such as 'Sisters of Charity' and 'The Haunted Man', which raised the profile and readership of the newspaper and of 'Shamrock' himself.
As well as the poems, 'The Nation' newspaper published a series of humorous articles from Richard Dalton Williams, entitled 'Misadventures of a Medical Student', and described the author, 'Shamrock' (in its July 1851 issue), in the following terms - "His intellect is robust and vigorous, his passion impetuous and noble, his perception of beauty most delicate and enthusiastic ; his sympathies take in the whole range of human affections, and his humour is irresistible. We think, indeed, that 'Shamrock' excels all his contemporaries in imagination and humour."
By now he was a member of the 'Young Ireland' Movement, and put his medical training to good use during 'The Great Hunger' of 1845-1849, by helping to ease the suffering of hundreds of cholera victims ; he was a hardened opponent of British misrule in Ireland and had joined the 'Irish Confederation' group, which was founded in January 1847 by William Smith O'Brien and other 'Young Irelanders' who had disagreed with Daniel O'Connell's 'Repeal Association'.
He was quickly elected to leadership level in the 'Confederation' and was the driving force behind a short-lived newspaper called 'The Irish Tribune', which he published with the assistance of 'Young Ireland' leader, Kevin Izod O'Doherty ; the first issue was published in June 1848, but only five issues of the weekly 'paper made it on to the streets before it was suppressed by the British in early July of that year. But
the British used 'The Irish Tribune' newspaper as a reason to arrest both men, and they were charged under the 'Treason-Felony Act' with "intent to depose the queen and levying war."
A famous barrister of the time, Samuel Ferguson, defended both men in a trial which lasted five months and caused great embarrassment to the British.
Eventually, in November 1848, Williams and O'Doherty were acquitted ; Williams went back to studying medicine, and qualified as a doctor, in Edinburgh, in July 1849.
In June 1851, he emigrated to America and, whilst in New Orleans, met and married an Irish woman, Elizabeth Connolly ; the couple moved to a town called Thibodeaux in Louisiana, where he wrote his last poem - 'Song of the Irish-American Regiments' -
'We have changed the battle-field,
but the cause abandoned never -
here a sharper sword to wield,
and wage the endless war for ever.
Yes! the war we wage with thee -
that of light with power infernal -
as it hath been still shall be,
unforgiving and eternal.' (From here.)
On the 5th July, 1862 - 161 years ago on this date - just shy of his fortieth birthday, Richard Dalton Williams, 'Shamrock of the Nation', died in America of consumption in Thibodeaux, Louisiana.
A patriot, a poet and a publisher, Dr Richard Dalton Williams is one of the hundreds, if not thousands, of almost unknown and/or practically forgotten Irish men and women that played their part in the on-going struggle to remove the British presence from Ireland. They deserve to be remembered somewhere : 'Now thou art a sink of evil — a serpent's nest — a tiger's den — an Iron-crowned and armed devil, having power to torture men.'
'LAW AND SOCIETY :
IS IT TIME TO ASK QUESTIONS OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION...?
Yet, in other more fundamental ways, certain members of the legal profession have questions to answer, but will almost certainly never be forced to do so by our current social consensus.
Certainly, there have been legal actions which have been far from edifying sights ; the cessation of the mini CTC signalling system inquiry, in particular, was not impressive to watch. There, we were treated to the unique claim that the constitutional rights of a dead person should stop a public inquiry!
Most citizens would like to see these types of inquiries move ahead, and positive results achieved. Yet that hasn't been the case with many.
The Lindsay Tribunal, for instance, has been so unimpressive that the Irish haemophiliacs are on the point of declaring no confidence in whatever findings it may issue. Given that the tribunal is not investigating the circumstances of 95 per cent of the infections, it is not difficult to understand why they are taking such a negative position.
Meanwhile, the Flood Tribunal is set fair to last for a decade and cost £100m.
Most are agreed that prosecutions or sentences for corruption are unlikely. With the possible exception of Michael Lowry, this is also likely to be the case with the Moriarty Tribunal. Even then, however, Michael Lowry is likely to be prosecuted under the Revenue Acts rather than as a direct result of any tribunal report...
(MORE LATER.)
1921 : BRITISH ARMY PATROL SURRENDER TO TOM MAGUIRE AND HIS MEN.
On March 7th 1921, the IRA's South Mayo Flying Column (pictured), under the command of Tom Maguire - who died 30 years ago on this date (5th July 1993) - surrounded a British army patrol at Kilfall between Ballinrobe and Castlebar forcing it to surrender and give up their arms. The patrol were then released unharmed. Tom Maguire’s personal account of the engagement is given in the book 'Survivors' by Uinsean MacEoin...
'On May 3rd of 1921, Tom Maguire led an ambush party on an RIC patrol in Tournakeady, Co. Mayo during which four RIC men were killed. Following the engagement, Maguire’s flying column made their escape to the Partry Mountains which lie to the west of Lough Mask. They were pursued by a large force of British soldiers and policemen who used an aeroplane to monitor the progress of the column.
A number of skirmishes ensued during which Tom Maguire was wounded and his adjutant killed. There is some dispute about the number of British casualties but fokelore has it that they were substantial. The column managed to escape with no further casualties...
Tom Maguire was elected to the Dáil elections of 1921, 1922 and 1923. He took the anti-treaty side in the Civil War and was a member of the anti-treaty IRA executive which commanded the anti-treaty army.
He was captured by the National Army (sic) and though he was told he was to be executed, his life was spared. However, his younger brother Seán, aged 17, was executed in Tuam on 11th April 1923 along with six others. These men are known today as the 'Tuam Martyrs'..'
In June 1923 General Maguire escaped from Athlone Barracks and was never re-captured.
Along with other surviving faithful members of the Second Dáil - the last All-Ireland parliament - he delegated Executive Authority to the Army Council of the IRA in 1938. In December 1969, he recognised the Provisional Army Council as the legitimate successor to the 1938 body -
"The majority of the delegates at the December 1969 IRA Convention, having passed the resolution referred to above, proceeded to elect an Executive which in turn appointed a new Army Council, committed to implement the resolution. That Convention had neither the right nor the authority to pass such a resolution.
Accordingly, I, as the sole surviving member of the Executive of Dáil Éireann and the sole surviving signatory of the 1938 Proclamation, hereby declare that the resolution is illegal and that the alleged Executive and Army Council are illegal, and have no right to claim the allegiance of either soldiers or citizens of the Irish Republic.
The delegates who opposed the resolution, together with delegates from units which were not represented at the Convention, met subsequently in Convention and repudiated the resolution. They re-affirmed their allegiance to the Irish Republic and elected a Provisional Executive which, in turn, appointed a Provisional Army Council.
I hereby further declare that the Provisional Executive and the Provisional Army Council are the lawful Executive and Army Council respectively of the IRA* and that the governmental authority delegated in the Proclamation of 1938 now resides in the Provisional Army Council and its lawful successors. I fully endorse their call for support from Irish people everywhere towards the realisation of the full freedom of Ireland.."
Dated the 31st day of December, 1969.
Signed : THOMAS MAGUIRE, (Tomas Mac Uidhir) Comdt. General."
NOTE - *Following the 1986 division, Comdt. General Thomas Maguire nominated the Continuity IRA as the legitimate IRA.
Tom Maguire is one of the many Irish republican men and women that the Republican Movement was, is and always will be guided by : when the majority of (P)IRA and (P)Sinn Féin decided to abandon abstentionism in the 1969/70 split, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and Dáithí Ó Conaill sought and secured Maguire's recognition of the Provisional IRA as the legitimate successor to the 1938 Army Council.
Of the seven 1938 signatories, Tom Maguire was the only one still alive.
Likewise, in the aftermath of the 1986 split in the Republican Movement, Tom Maguire signed a statement in 1986 which was issued posthumously, in 1996 : he conferred this legitimacy on the Army Council of the Continuity IRA, who provided a firing party at Maguire's funeral in 1993 - he was 101 years of age when he died on the 5th July 1993 - 30 years ago, on this date.
Comdt. General Tom Maguire (28th March 1892 – 5th July 1993) remains an inspiration for Irish republicans to this day.
'WAITING TO FALL...'
If this year sees the end of the 'Age of Tribunals', it won't be a moment too soon.
By John Drennan.
From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.
The outcome of the Moriarty Tribunal will be no different.
Like the Flood Tribunal, the good tribunal is legally 'sterile' - this means that even if it finds that Michael Lowry, for example, engaged in corrupt acts, it can impose no sanction other than the withholding of legal fees, and inflicting the kind of public embarrassment which will increase Lowry's majority in Tipperary by a thousand votes.
Of course, Mr Lowry could, in such an instance, be tried for corruption. But the present state of the law means that none of the evidence accumulated by the tribunal could be used. A Garda investigation would have to start from scratch.
You might think that this is a bit of a waste of six years and €20m!
We must be the only nation (sic) in the western world to choose something which is legally sterile as our 'main weapon' in the was against corruption. How easily we are pleased. For the moment our tribunals are safe, but their future prosperity is dangerously reliant upon the foundations of sand that a skim-doctor called Frank Dunlop is providing...
(MORE LATER.)
Thanks for the visit, and for reading,
Sharon and the team.
LEGAL FINDINGS STYMIED FOR FEAR OF UPSETTING A DEAD MAN...!
Within months of the British having 'outlawed' the 32-County Dáil Éireann, local councils in Ireland had decided to ignore the British directive and were reporting, and supporting, our own political administration in our own country. This, obviously, led to tensions...
We're in 'Marching Season' in the Occupied Six Counties and, in 1955, a British trade union tabled a motion regarding "..the flaunting and parading of flags and emblems", stating quite clearly that to do so in areas where the 'Orange Order' and other loyalist paramilitary groupings were operating was "the devices and tactics of reactionary bigots.."
This man, who committed a mortal sin before he was even born (!), involved himself in the struggle for Irish freedom and died, still a revolutionary force to be reckoned with, in the 1860's, but is not remembered as much or as often as he deserves to be...
So dodgy have been the State-instigated 'Tribunals of Inquiry' (into political/criminal occurrences in this Free State) that the 'Powers-That-Be' took it on themselves to severely limit one such 'Tribunal' least it breech the constitutional rights of a dead man...!
This Irish rebel, who took the fight to the British in Ireland in the 1920's, was over 100 years old when he died and left a political legacy behind him that still reverberates to this day...
We'll have the above and, I'm told, one other piece, ready for ya on Wednesday, 5th July 2023 so, like yerselves, I'm gonna have to wait until then to find out how exactly you can 'commit a mortal sin' before you are even born...?!
See ya on the 5th - thanks for the visit!
Sharon and the team.
ON THIS DATE (28TH JUNE) 101 YEARS AGO : FREE STATERS USE BORROWED WEAPONS FROM WESTMINSTER AGAINST THEIR OLD COMRADES.
"For a little while on the morning of the attack on IRA Headquarters, Four Courts, Dublin, 28th June 1922 (101 years ago, on this date), Liam Mellows and I shared vigil at one of the barricaded upper windows, and watched the city bestir itself, within our arc of vision, to the noise of rifle fire and light artillery fire. We thought our thoughts.
Two men, obviously workmen making their way along the quays to their jobs, started us speculating on what role the trade unions would have been guided into were James Connolly alive and the Republic under attack.
It was the first time I heard Mellows on the play of social forces in the crisis of the Treaty ; I was present at the Dáil Éireann session when he made his speech against the Treaty but, while what he said then impressed me greatly, it gave no indication of the pattern of ideas he uncovered now.
The Four Courts fell and its garrison became prisoners, and with it members of the IRA Executive - Rory O'Connor, Liam Mellows, Joe McKelvey and Peadar O' Donnell. In the angry mood of the thronged cells in Mountjoy Jail, the prisoners instinctively turned to Mellows as the one among us who must, somehow, be able to explain how the Republican Army could permit itself to be overrun by much weaker military forces and why certain men of courage, hitherto devoted to independence, should choose to enter on a road of struggle to overthrow the Republic and raise on its ruins a parliament which rested on the penal British Government of Ireland Act 1920.." (From 'There Will Be Another Day', by Peadar O'Donnell, first published in January 1963.)
'..on the 14th April 1922, Anti-Treaty forces under the command of Rory O'Connor occupied the Four Courts and several other buildings in Dublin city. A tense stand off between Pro and Anti-Treaty Forces commenced. Anti-Treaty forces hoped that their occupation of the courts would ignite a confrontation with British troops and thus unite the pro and anti Treaty forces. However, this hope never materialised.
Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith ('1169' comment - Both Free Staters, pro-Treaty - they were sold a pup, and they tried to sell it to others by subterfuge - in Griffith's own words "I have signed a Treaty of peace between Ireland and Great Britain. I believe that treaty will lay foundations of peace and friendship between the two Nations. What I have signed I shall stand by in the belief that the end of the conflict of centuries is at hand..") came under increasing pressure from London to assert the new governments authority in Dublin and remove those occupying the courts...on the 22nd June 1922, two men assassinated soldier and Unionist politician Sir Henry Wilson in London.
Though it was stated that the men were acting on their own initiative, it was suspected that they were acting on orders from Anti-Treaty forces. This action produced an ultimatum from the British government, that they would attack Anti–Treaty forces in the Four Courts unless the Free State government took action. Collins issued a final ultimatum to those occupying the courts. The three-armed parties involved had now reached a point of no return.
Civil War was now inevitable...on the 28th June 1922 (101 years ago, on this date) at 04.10 hours, the bombardment commenced. Shelling was to continue for a number of days..' (from here.)
Michael Collins (left) and his bodyguard, Emmet Dalton.
Emmet Dalton led the Free State attack on the Four Courts ; he was an Irish rebel-turned-Free Stater, who was born in America on March 4th 1898 and died in Dublin on March 4th 1978 - his 80th birthday, and also the bicentenary of the birth of the man he was named after - Robert Emmet.
Dalton sold out in favour of the 'Treaty of Surrender' in 1921 and made a (Free State) name for himself by attacking republican positions from the sea, actions that his British paymasters considered as having 'turned the tide' against the Irish republican resistance.
He was with Michael Collins on the 22nd of August 1922 when the latter was shot dead by republican forces in West Cork (Béal na mBláth) and is said to have propped up a dying Collins to place dressings on his wound. He resigned from the Free State Army shortly after Collins was killed, and was appointed as the clerk of the Free State Senate, but resigned from that, too, three years later, and opened a film production company, Ardmore Studios, near Bray, in Wicklow. He died, aged 80, on the 4th of March 1978, the same date and month that he had been born on, and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.
He, Collins, Griffith and those others were wrong at the time when they propagandised that their 'treaty' offered "the end of the conflict of centuries" as they were experienced enough to realise that that wasn't the case.
They cursed the rest of us for their own ends.
'NORTHERN IRELAND' FLAG ACT.'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
It was reported in 'The Evening Mail' newspaper on the 14th March 1955 that -
'The annual conference of the 'Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers Union', at their Easter Conference at Blackpool, will discuss the 'Northern Ireland (sic) Flag and Emblem (Display) Act 1954'.
A resolution from the Manchester Textile Branch calls on the government "to use its good offices with the Northern Ireland (sic) Government" to secure the repeal of the Act.
'Enactment such as this by a legislative body which is bolstered and subsidised by Britain is contrary to the British people's conception of democratic government, and violates every principle of freedom', says the proposal...'
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (28TH JUNE) 225 YEARS AGO - 'UNITED IRISHMEN' LEADER EXECUTED BY THE BRITISH.
'Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey was captured within a few weeks by the British and was 'tried', convicted and hanged on the 28th June 1798 (225 years ago, on this date) at the bridge of Wexford. His body was then beheaded, the torso thrown into the River Slaney and his head displayed on a spike at the courthouse in Wexford town....' - from a piece we wrote here on the 31st May, 2017, as it was on that date (31st May) that the 'United Irishman' in question, Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey, '..was appointed by the approximate four-thousand strong rebel army in that area (Wexford) as their Commander-in-Chief..' (from here.)
We won't re-post the whole piece but, having said that, we couldn't let the date pass without referencing its relevance to the man, and drawing your attention to this article, from the 'Library Ireland' website :
'Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey (was) an estated gentleman of about £3,000 a year, in the County of Wexford, a barrister, and commander of the Wexford insurgents in 1798. He was born about 1762, educated at Trinity College, Dublin, studied at the Middle Temple, and was called to the Bar in 1782. Before the insurrection of 1798 he "was in tolerable practice as a barrister, and was extremely popular with all parties. He was high-spirited, kind-hearted, and good-tempered, fond of society, given to hospitality, and especially esteemed for his humane and charitable disposition towards the poor."
He resided at Bargy Castle, and when the insurgents took the field in May 1798, in the north of the county, Harvey, with his friends Colclough and FitzGerald, was immediately imprisoned in Wexford on suspicion.
After the defeat of the royalists at the Three Rocks, Wexford was evacuated by the small garrison that remained, and the prisoners were on 30th May released by the inhabitants, who implored Harvey to intercede with the insurgents for the safety of the town. This he did, and upon its being occupied by the insurgents he was appointed Commander-in-Chief...' (from here.)
Farewell to Bargy’s lofty towers, my father’s own estate
And farewell to its lovely bowers, my own ancestral seat
Farewell each friend and neighbour, that once I well knew there
My tenants now will miss the hand that fostered them with care.
Farewell to Cornelius Grogan, and to Kelly ever true
John Coakley and good Father Roche, receive my last adieu
And fare-thee-well bold Esmond Kyan, though proud oppression’s laws
Forbid us to lay down our lives, still we bless the holy cause.
Farewell my brave United men, who dearly with me fought
Though tyrant might has conquered right, full dearly was it bought
And when the sun of freedom shall again upon you shine
Oh, then let Bagenal Harvey’s name array your battle line.
Although perchance it may be my fate, in Wexford town to die
Oh, bear my body to the tomb wherin my fathers lie
And have the solemn service read, in Mayglass holy towers
And have twelve young maids from Bargyside, to scatter my grave with flowers.
So farewell to Bargy’s lofty towers, since from you I must part
A stranger now may call you his, which with sorrow fills my heart
But when at last fate shall decree that Ireland should be free
Then Bagenal Harvey’s rightful heirs shall be returned to thee.
Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey 1762 - 1798.
'LAW AND SOCIETY :
IS IT TIME TO ASK QUESTIONS OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION?
We have always been a society with a facility for the creation of myths. However, not even the most dewy-eyed devotee of the dreams of the Celtic Twilight could have invented the present status of the legal profession in Ireland.'
By John Drennan.
From 'Magill Magazine', November 2001.
The dominant viewpoint is that barristers are currently playing a crucial role in exorcising political corruption in Ireland, as dodgy politicians, bankers and others experience the modern-day equivalent of the religious missions of the 1950's.
Within the Dail (sic) politicians defer to them, whilst within the media no one seriously questions practitioners of the law because they are seen to be beyond reproof and rather powerful enemies. Whispers of discontent about the salaries of top barristers in cases funded by the taxpayer tend to be no more than just whispers - the kind of bugbear so beloved of taxi-drivers and lefty students.
Most other people simply accept the payment of fees of £1,500 per day* to each senior counsel as a necessary evil in a society where truth lies at the bottom of a tribunal...
(*'1169' comment - that figure [£1,500] was the standard in 2001 ; today [2023], senior counsel get a 'brief fee' of €1,716 and 'refresher fees' of €858 per day. The 'brief fee' for junior counsel and solicitors is now €1,144 and 'refresher fees' are €572 and €418 per day, respectively.)
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (28TH JUNE) 101 YEARS AGO : FREE STATERS (WESTMINSTER PROXIES) DELIVER ULTIMATUM TO THE IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY.
On the 26th June, 1922, Leo Henderson and a group of 'Irregulars/Dissidents' left the then republican-occupied Four Courts (which had been taken over on the 14th of April by anti-treaty forces) '..and arrived at Ferguson's garage on Dublin's Baggot Street, accusing them of doing business with Belfast ; this was, they said, in violation of the boycott the IRA had placed on the city due to violence against nationalists there. Leo Henderson, their leader, seized a number of cars at gunpoint, and was on the point of driving back to the anti-Treaty stronghold of the Four Courts when he was arrested by pro-Treaty/Free State troops. Henderson's comrades in the Four Courts in response arrested a pro-Treaty General, JJ O’Connell (pictured) and, within 24 hours, Free State artillery was battering at the walls of the Four Courts in central Dublin.
The first shots of the Irish Civil War were caused by a row over selling cars to Belfast...' (from here.)
Not altogether the full story, although the 'bones' of what actually happened are there.
Harry Ferguson's garage was a well-known Belfast automobile company, with a branch on Baggot Street, in Dublin. It was known to be unsympathetic to the 'Irregulars' and had blatantly ignored an overall directive from the IRA that for-profit business dealings with Belfast should cease until business bosses in that city took steps to ensure the safety of their nationalist workforce.
Leo Henderson and his men commandeered about 15 cars which had been sent, for sale, to Dublin from Belfast - the IRA's intention, as well as to be seen enforcing the 'Belfast Trade Boycott', was to use the vehicles, as part of the war effort, against the continuing British political and military presence in the Six Occupied Counties and in their campaign to overthrow the then-fledging Free State political administration.
Leo Henderson was captured by the Staters, with ex-IRA man Frank Thornton in command of them and, when the IRA leadership heard that Henderson had been 'arrested', they discussed abducting Collins himself or Richard Mulcahy in retaliation, but decided instead to seize Free State General Jeremiah Joseph (JJ) 'Ginger' O'Connell, who was Richard Mulcahy's Deputy Chief-of-Staff.
At 11.15pm on the night of Tuesday, 27th June, 1922, 'Ginger' was arrested in Dublin by the IRA after an evening out with his girlfriend - the couple had gone to the theatre and, after the girlfriend was dropped home, 'Ginger' went to McGilligan's Pub in Leeson Street for a few pints. As he left the pub, the IRA seized him and held him in the republican-occupied Four Courts ; Ernie O'Malley actually telephoned Free State General Eoin O'Duffy, who was in Portobello Barracks, and told him that 'Ginger' will be returned to the Staters in exchange for Leo Henderson.
The republicans knew that 'Ginger' was valued by Collins and his renegades - he was one of the few that eagerly conveyed the 'cancel-the-Rising'-order
from Eoin MacNeill in 1916 and both Collins and Mulcahy regarded him as a safe pair of hands.
Collins's political and military bosses in London were notified about 'JJ Ginger' being held in republican custody and made it clear to Collins that if he and his Free State colleagues didn't take steps to remove the republicans from the Four Courts, they would - the Staters had already decided to attack their former comrades in the Four Courts and had already accepted the offer from Westminster of equipment with which to carry-out the task ; British artillery, aircraft, armoured cars, machine guns, small arms and ammunition were by then in the possession of Collins and his team, who then used the 'JJ kidnap'-incident to press ahead with the assault.
At 3.40am, on Wednesday, 28th June 1922 - 101 years ago on this date - the republican forces inside the Four Courts were given an ultimatum from Collins - 'surrender before 4am and leave the building'.
The republicans ignored the threat and held their ground and, less than half-an-hour later - at about 4.30am - the Staters opened fire on the republicans with British-supplied 18-pounder guns and practically destroyed the building (pictured), an act which was described as "..a major national calamity..an assault on the collective memory of the nation..such actions are considered as war crimes..a cultural atrocity.."
The IRA held out for two days before leaving the building, but fought-on elsewhere in Dublin until early July, 1922, with Oscar Traynor (who later joined the Fianna Fáil party) in command.
'JJ Ginger' was rescued by his Stater colleagues on Friday, 30th June 1922 when they finally managed to enter the then shell of a building where the Four Courts once stood and, within months, he was demoted from a Lieutenant-General to a Major-General and then to a Colonel, a position he was to remain at.
He got married in 1922 and, between 1924 and 1944 (he died in the Richmond Hospital in Dublin from a heart attack on the 19th February of that year), he was shifted around like a pawn on a chess board : chief lecturer in the FS Army school of instruction, director of Number 2 (Intelligence) Bureau, OC equitation school, quartermaster-general and director of the military archives.
We wonder did he consider himself to be the man who, alongside Westminster and his Free State comrades, started a Civil War in Ireland...?
'WAITING TO FALL...'
If this year sees the end of the 'Age of Tribunals', it won't be a moment too soon.
By John Drennan.
From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.
Ironically, it is at their moments of supposedly great triumph that the most serious flaw of the tribunals is unmasked.
The wonderful 'Flood Tribunal' report revealed that Tom Brennan knowingly misled the tribunal, John Finnegan had given false and misleading accounts, 'Rambo' Burke had received corrupt payments, James Stafford was a liar and so forth.
The list of those who hindered and obstructed the tribunal ran to six pages and consisted of 18 names.
But four months after the report, the tranquillity of those gentlemen's lives - one high-profile raid by the CAB on Ray Burke's house aside - is as undisturbed as the conscience of a tribunal barrister...
(MORE LATER.)
Thanks for the visit, and for reading,
Sharon and the team.
.jpg){kind=link}
