EASTER MONDAY (28TH MARCH) 2016 IN DUBLIN.
'Here's to the men who, Easter Week, in the glorious year '16,
flying out the folds of Freedom's Flag - the orange, white and green.
Here's to the men who, fighting, fell, and here's to the men who died,
at dawnlight pale, in Kilmainham Jail, with the martyrs smile of pride.' (From here.) You will see men (and women!) like those mentioned above, in Dublin, on Easter Monday, 28th March 2016, at the Easter commemoration at the GPO in O'Connell Street. Those attending are requested to assemble at the Garden of Remembrance at 2pm for the parade to the GPO. Also, a brief mention for the following Easter commemorations, which are being held in areas that are not too far from Dublin city centre - EASTER SATURDAY, MARCH 26TH, 2016:
KILDARE - Assemble at Republican Plot, St Corban's Cemetery, Naas, Co Kildare at 12 noon. CARLOW - Assemble at Republican Plot, Carlow Cemetery at 2pm.
EASTER SUNDAY, MARCH 27TH, 2016:
CRUMLIN, DUBLIN - Laying of wreath and the reading of the Proclamation at the Eamon Ceannt Monument, Sundrive Park, Crumlin at 12 noon. DEANSGRANGE, DUBLIN - Assemble at gates of Deansgrange Cemetery, Dun Laoghaire at 1pm for parade to the Republican Plot.
BEING REMEMBERED ON A MEMORIAL WITH YOUR MURDERER.
"..the names of those who died on the rebel side should not share a commemorative plaque or monument of any kind with those who on behalf of British rule summarily abused and executed them..." (from here.)Words fail me. Almost. The political establishment in this State should really do now that which they should have done in 1916 - apologise to Westminster and offer financial repatriation to those whose teat they have never left since 'birth'. They are so divested of moral reference points in relation to what was being sought here in 1916 that they feel more empathy towards the British forces than they do to the men and women of the Rising that they falsely claim lineage from. Not so much 'take it down from the mast' as don't even handle it in the first place, as you will surely infect it with the burden you carry - a strain of self-loathing which, if you had a conscience, would leave you too ashamed to get up in the morning. But you haven't, and it doesn't.
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.
JOURNEY.
Sometimes I think we're on a journey
searching for some meaning to it all
always reaching out to find that something
some kind of answer or a call
But I've seen that deep curiosity
come out and sparkle up your mind
and I've seen those eyes fill with wonder
as you were taken by surprise.
So we take this tide of life
and fight the rocks and shallows of this world
as we're swept along thru' the sands of time
the stars will always burn
for our journey.
And you were filled with compassion
for what those years have brought to you
and you did open like a butterfly
as you emerged from your cocoon
and there was a voice now inside you
which you recognised as your own
as you strolled deeper into this world
you knew you were not alone.
So we take this tide of life
and fight the rocks and shallows of this world
as we're swept along thru' the sands of time
the stars will always burn
for our journey.
Now we're oceans in this mystery
and its truth is closer too
'cause you got a glow deep inside me
and I got a glow inside of you
and in this beauty of simplicity
deep in our hearts we beat as one
and I'm touched by the wonder of each moment
to know our lives have just begun.
So we take this tide of life
and fight the rocks and shallows of this world
as we're swept along thru' the sands of time
the stars will always burn
for our journey.
Dermot Griffin.
EXPLOSIVE QUESTIONS....
'Magill' magazine has unearthed new information which raises a grim but important question : were explosives from within this Republic used in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings? It is a question which, bizarrely, also encompasses the controversial Dónal de Róiste case. By Don Mullan, author of the book 'The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings'.From 'Magill' magazine, February 2003.
THE McCRANN REPORT.
At the time of Dónal de Róiste's undoing, Patrick Walsh held the rank of captain. Both men were questioned by a superior officer during the period and, in an interview with this journalist on 7th May 2002, Patrick Walshe said - "I have always believed that information taken from me at the interrogations was misconstrued and resulted in injustice being done to Dónal." When the Judge Advocate General, Oonah McCrann, completed her review of army files related to de Róiste's 'retirement' on 17th September 2002, Walshe's suspicions seemed to be confirmed. He says he felt physically sick when he saw the extent to which his interrogation had been interpreted in a way which helped to destroy the promising military career of his best friend.
On page 10 of the McCrann Report the Judge Advocate General refers to a document on de Róiste's files concerning his relationship with an alleged subversive whom she chose to refer to as 'Mr X', despite the fact that his name was already in the public domain - Padraig Dwyer. She writes - "The document notes that Captain Walshe was interviewed and while he could not recollect ever having met Mr X with ex-Lieutenant Roche he did remember ex-Lieutenant Roche discuss with another friend Mr X's involvement with the Gardai in Ballyfermot in October 1968. Captain Walshe also recollected ex-Lieutenant Donal Roche telling him that Mr X had been at the car auction in Clancy Barracks and that he was sure that he was seen with Mr X by 'S branch man.' "
In a sworn affidavit, dated 17th December 2002, Patrick Walshe states - "I did not make any such statement during my interrogation. My recollection of this matter is definite." (MORE LATER.)
GROWING UP IN LONG KESH...
SIN SCÉAL EILE.
By Jim McCann (Jean's son). For Alex Crowe, RIP - "No Probablum". Glandore Publishing, 1999.
Biographical Note : Jim McCann is a community worker from the Upper Springfield area in West Belfast. Although born in the Short Strand, he was reared in the Loney area of the Falls Road. He comes from a large family (average weight about 22 stone!). He works with Tús Nua (a support group for republican ex-prisoners in the Upper Springfield), part of the Upper Springfield Development Trust. He is also a committee member of the 'Frank Cahill Resource Centre', one of the founders of 'Bunscoil an tSléibhe Dhuibh', the local Irish language primary school and Naiscoil Bharr A'Chluanaí, one of the local Irish language nursery schools.
His first publication last year by Glandore was 'And the Gates Flew Open : the Burning of Long Kesh'. He hopes to retire on the profits of his books. Fat chance!
"MY FINGER CAME OFF...."
I caught a glimpse of his hand as I sped past him and, right enough, his finger was missing. "Right, Dede," I said, "give me a minute..." This might seem a bit cruel, but I reasoned in that split second that Dede had at least nine fingers left and the 'Man of the Match' award was still very much to be decided upon and was now between Barnes and myself, as usual. But Dede's interruption was enough to put me off my run. "Christ sake, Dede, could you not have waited a minute? You could see I was on a run there..." By this time Dede had actually fainted and couldn't sense my sense of frustration with him. I put my disappointment behind me and rushed to his aid.
When we eventually revived him, we found out that his finger really was missing, so I suppose his interruption seemed important enough to him. "Where is it?" I enquired. "It fell into Cage 9", he muttered. "How did that happen", I asked. "I was getting a leg-up at the wire to put an ounce of tobacco into the cage when I lost my balance and as I fell back the ring on my finger caught on the razor wire and whipped the finger off."
I ran down down to Cage 9 and a crowd of fellows were standing around the errant finger as it lay on the ground in the cage. "Hand me that up," I said to Sess, a big guy from Ballymurphy, who looked the most sensible of the throng of rubber neckers. "Fuck off", said Sess. "I'm not touching that thing, it's all gooey." Sess was the image of Paul McCartney and had his hair done the same way as McCartney and wore the same clothes as McCartney and played the lead guitar like McCartney played the bass guitar - badly. He once had an audition to join a group called 'The Donnelly Trio', who were the resident band in the Nail Bomb Sports and Leisure Shebeen (a quaint rustic drinking den) in Lady Street in Belfast but, unfortunately, while they had all the equipment - amps, loudspeakers etc, all of it second hand - their electricity had been turned off some weeks previous to his audition, thereby ruining any chance Sess had of impressing all six members of the group assembled there. (MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (23RD MARCH) 170 YEARS AGO : BRITISH HOUSE OF 'LORDS' MEMBER ACKNOWLEDGES THEIR 'DISGRACEFUL CONDUCT IN IRELAND'.
On the 23rd March, 1846 - 170 years ago on this date - a member of the British House of 'Lords', Henry George Grey, the 3rd Earl Grey (pictured, left) stood up in that institution and delivered his 'Ireland is our Disgrace' speech : "The evils of that unhappy country are not accidental, not temporary, but chronic and habitual. The state of Ireland is one which is notorious. We know the ordinary condition of that country to be one both of lawlessness and wretchedness. It is so described by every competent authority.
There is not an intelligent foreigner coming to our shores, who turns his attention to the state of Ireland, but who bears back with him such a description.
Ireland is the one weak place in the solid fabric of British power—Ireland is the one deep (I had almost said ineffaceable) blot upon the brightness of British honour. Ireland is our disgrace. It is the reproach, the standing disgrace, of this country, that Ireland remains in the condition she is. It is so regarded throughout the whole civilized world. To ourselves we may palliate it if we will, and disguise the truth; but we cannot conceal it from others. There is not, as I have said, a foreigner — no matter whence he comes, be it from France, Russia, Germany, or America — there is no native of any foreign country different as their forms of government may be, who visits Ireland, and who on his return does not congratulate himself that he sees nothing comparable with the condition of that country at home.
If such be the state of things, how then does it arise, and what is its cause? My Lords, it is only by misgovernment that such evils could have been produced: the mere fact that Ireland is in so deplorable and wretched a condition saves whole volumes of argument, and is of itself a complete and irrefutable proof of the misgovernment to which she has been subjected."
The words of what must be, to date - and in relation to Ireland, anyway, whatever about his other dealings - the last honest politician in Westminster, and a man who wasn't just 'an ordinary backbencher' and, as such, was listened to more so than a 'seat-filler' would be : he came up through the 'ranks' as 'Viscount Howick' before obtaining his title as a 'Lord' and was under-secretary for the British 'colonies' for three years following which he was under-secretary in the British Home Office. He was the British 'secretary of war' for five years and, as a 'Lord', he became the effective leader of the Whig Party and was given the top job in the British 'Colonial Office'.
Perhaps the fact that he was one of fifteen children opened his mind to 'thinking outside the box' in relation to the (on-going) crimes committed by his fellow politicians in Ireland! An honest politician, in that regard, anyway, none of whom are now to be found in Westminster, or Stormont, or Leinster House, for that matter, as those institutions are now packed to the rafters with self-serving political misfits who consider, verbally and/or by deed, that what they call 'the Irish question' was finally solved in 1998 when the Stormont Treaty was implemented. Hopefully it won't take all concerned another 847 years before they realise that that isn't the case.
ON THIS DATE (23RD MARCH) 169 YEARS AGO : THE DISPOSSESSED ASSIST THE DISPOSSESSED.
Alex Pentek's 'Kindred Spirits' structure (pictured, left) , located in Bailic Park in Midleton, County Cork, consists of nine 20-foot stainless steel eagle feathers and represents "...the Choctaw's help to Ireland.." during An Gorta Mór : "By creating an empty bowl symbolic of the Great Irish Famine (sic) formed from the seemingly fragile and rounded shaped eagle feathers used in Choctaw ceremonial dress, it is my aim to communicate the tenderness and warmth of the Choctaw Nation who provided food to the hungry when they themselves were still recovering from their own tragic recent past", stated the artist.
On the 23rd March, 1847 - 169 years ago on this date - the Choctaw Indians assembled in Scullyville, Oklahoma and, despite being politically dispossessed victims themselves, they collected about $170 (equivalent to about $70,000 today) which they forwarded to Ireland. Their donation was remarkable because they had suffered terrible hardships themselves in the years before An Gorta Mór as they were evicted from their native lands of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi just 16 years earlier and were forced to walk 500 miles to their new 'home' of Oklahoma, which the American government had chosen for them. The walk became known as the 'Trail of Tears' due to the suffering endured by the tribes during the enforced exodus. Many perished before completing the journey - indeed, of the 21,000 Choctaws who started the journey, more than half perished from exposure, malnutrition and disease before they reached their new 'home'.
Ironically, one of those in charge of the eviction was Andrew Jackson, the son of Irish immigrants who, on the 4th March 1829, in an attempt to 'sell' the idea that the native Indians would be getting a good deal in 'moving'off their land, stated - "It will be my sincere and constant desire to observe toward the Indian tribes within our limits a just and liberal policy, and to give that humane and considerate attention to their rights and their wants which is consistent with the habits of our Government and the feelings of our people..." but the same man showed his true colours two years later when he stated - "It is pleasing to reflect that results so beneficial, not only to the States immediately concerned, but to the harmony of the Union, will have been accomplished by measures equally advantageous to the Indians. What the native savages become when surrounded by a dense population and by mixing with the whites may be seen in the miserable remnants of a few Eastern tribes, deprived of political and civil rights, forbidden to make contracts, and subjected to guardians, dragging out a wretched existence, without excitement, without hope, and almost without thought..." He dismissed them as the so-called 'bed blockers' of their day, or worse.
To the Andrew Jackson's of this world we say 'shame on you', and to the brave and decent Choctaw's and those like them we say 'Yokoke' !
ON THIS DATE (23RD MARCH) 90 YEARS AGO : A TERRIBLE GLUTEI IS BORN.
It was on this date - 23rd March - in 1926 that political opportunists attempted to hoodwink an Irish revolutionary movement into supporting constitutional politics and, when they failed in their attempt, they abandoned republicanism and established a 'catch-all' political party populated, then and now, by 'wide boys' who figured they were entitled to a cushy career in politics : 'In response to the signing of the Boundary Agreement (see 'Micheál Martin/Gerrymandering' piece, here) between Great Britain and Ireland in December 1925, an extraordinary meeting of Sinn Féin was held in March 1926 to discuss the future of the party. Failing to get an agreement*, Eamon de Valera resigned as leader of Sinn Féin and took rapid steps to establish a new national movement.." (*"an agreement", that is, to [as stated above] abandon republicanism and 'become politically respectable', as some would have it) (from here) and this - 'Fianna Fáil was founded on 23 March 1926 when a group of Dail deputies led by Eamonn De Valera split from Sinn Féin. This happened because De Valera's motion calling for elected members be allowed to take their seats in the Dáil, if and when the controversial Oath of Allegiance was removed, failed to pass at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis..' (from here.)
Incidentally, the same issue (re becoming a constitutional political party) was pushed to the surface once more in 1986 by, again, those who desired to be (bought and) paid politicians which, among other happenings, prompted IRA Commandant General Tom Maguire (who, incidentally, was born on what is Easter Monday this year - the 28th March - in 1892, and died in his 101st year, in 1993) to issue the following statement :
The above is in answer to that age-old question - 'What's the difference between Fianna Fáil and Provisional Sinn Féin?' Answer : 60 years!
ON THIS DATE (23RD MARCH) 82 YEARS AGO : THREE IRISH REPUBLICANS, THREE MONTHS IN JAIL, THREE WORDS - "ENTER INTO RECOGNISANCES".
(Picture [left] from here.) On the 23rd March 1934 - 82 years ago on this date - Richie Goss and two others, James Finnigan and Matt McCrystal, were sentenced to three months in jail because they refused to "enter into recognisances" ie 'explain their whereabouts' on the night of 'the McGrory incident...'
Ireland 1915 ; The 'Irish Volunteer' Movement had split ; approximately 170,000 men stayed with John Redmond and fought with England in the belief that to do so would guarantee a form of 'Home Rule' for Ireland - but about 10,000 men broke away as they had no faith in Redmond's plan. Months earlier, British 'Sir' George Richardson had taken command of the Ulster Volunteer Force (a pro-British militia) and had landed about 25,000 rifles and two-and-a-half million rounds of ammunition at Larne in County Antrim - when the British Government in Westminster attempted to move against the UVF (as they had no control over them them), British Army Officers mutinied in objection. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Ireland, other forces were recruiting : Irish republicans were re-grouping ; the 'Irish Citizen Army' was recruiting for Volunteers, as was Sinn Féin, the 'Irish Republican Brotherhood' and John Redmond's 'United Irish League'. There was turmoil in the country.
A child was born into the above circumstances in Dundalk, in County Louth. He was child number three in the family, and one more was to be born after him. This third child in the Goss family, Richard, went to a local school and, like others in the Goss neighborhood, tried to get work locally when he was finished his schooling - he was successful, and got a job in Rasson's Shoe Factory in Dundalk. The troubled times he lived in got his attention and, at 18 years young (in 1933), Richie Goss joined the North Louth Battalion of the IRA , and trained in the use of explosives. At that time in the then 12-years-partitioned Ireland, the anti-Catholic bigots of the then two-year-old 'Ulster Protestant League' were in full swing ; nationalists all over the Six Counties were being hammered. British political leaders were voicing support for the Unionists - indeed , 'Sir' Basil Brooke actually boasted that he "had not a Roman Catholic about my own place" and the then British Stormont Minister for Labour, a Mr. J. M. Andrews, spoke out about what he termed "a foul smear" - that of "another allegation made against the (British) government, which is untrue : that, out of 31 porters at Stormont, 28 are Roman Catholic. I have investigated the matter and I have found that there are 30 Protestants and only one Roman Catholic, there only temporarily." The British Loyalists, too, in the form of the Orange Order, were putting pressure on the Nationalists in the Six Counties - the then 'Grand Master' of the anti-Nationalist 'Orange Order', a (British Senator) 'Sir' Joseph Davison, stated - "When will the Protestant employers of Northern Ireland (sic) recognise their duty to their Protestant brothers and sisters and employ them to the exclusion of Roman Catholics? It is time Protestant employers realised that whenever a Roman Catholic is brought into their employment it means one Protestant vote less. It is our duty to pass the word along - Protestants employ Protestants."
That was the sentiment of those times - the blatant sectarianism that existed, and which Richie Goss, amongst others, hoped to bring to an end. He was 18 years young, an IRA member and learning to use explosives - in early 1934, at 19 years of age, he was picked-up by the Free State Special Branch (political police) and asked to account for his movements ; he refused, and was brought before a Free State Military Tribunal and sentenced to three months in prison. The prison sentence was related, according to the 'Court', to what became known as 'The McGrory Incident' : in Dundalk, County Louth, on 9th January 1934, a debt-collector (who was also said to be a member of the right-wing 'Blueshirt'[Fine Gael] party) was held-up by armed men and his bag of cash was taken. In making inquiries in the area about the robbery, the Free State Gardaí (police) were assisted by a local man, a Mr. Joseph McGrory, from Chapel Street, Dundalk and two IRA men were jailed as a result of the evidence given by McGrory. On the night of 11th February 1934, a bomb was thrown through the front window of the McGrory house ; the explosion killed Joseph McGrory's wife.
On the 23rd March 1934 - 82 years ago on this date - Richie Goss and two others, James Finnigan and Matt McCrystal, were sentenced to three months in jail because they refused to "enter into recognisances" ie 'explain
their whereabouts' on the night of the McGrory incident. Then, in early July 1935, four IRA men were arrested and charged with the death of Mrs McGrory - Richie Goss, Eamon Coffey, Thomas Walsh and Bernard Murphy, all from Dundalk. The Free Staters had received information from an informer that five men were responsible for 'the McGrory Incident' - the four men named above, and one other - James Finnigan. However, Finnigan was already in jail again, this time serving fifteen months for possession of weapons. The informer was Matt McCrystal, an IRA man and, on his evidence, the first-ever 'murder trial' before a Free State Military Tribunal went ahead. But it was not successful : on the 20th July 1935, after a five-day hearing, all the accused were acquitted.
Richie Goss was ordered to go to Dublin by Sean Russell, the then IRA Chief of Staff, in early 1938, as his expertise in explosives was needed to prepare for the up-coming bombing campaign in England and, within months, he was in England, helping to organise IRA Units, safe-houses etc for the campaign ; he was arrested in Liverpool in May 1939 for refusing to account for £20 in his possession(!) and was sentenced to seven-days in Walton Jail and, when released, he reported back to the IRA in London. About two months later he returned to Ireland but was unlucky enough to be grabbed by the Free Staters in their round-up of known and suspected IRA members and supporters.
On the 2nd September 1939, the Leinster House Administration had issued a statement saying that, because of "the armed conflict now taking place in Europe, a national (sic) emergency exists affecting the vital interests of the State" and, the following day (3rd September 1939), the 'Emergency Powers Bill' was enacted (ie to all intent and purpose - 'martial law'). Days later (on the 8th September 1939) a new Free State Minister for 'Justice' was appointed - the ferociously anti-republican Gerald Boland. All known or suspected Irish Republicans were rounded-up, but a republican-minded lawyer, Sean MacBride (whose parents had fought alongside the IRA) supported the republican prisoners and, on the 1st December 1939, due to a 'habeas corpus' application, Richie Goss and fifty-two other Republican prisoners were released from Mountjoy Jail and all reported back to their IRA Unit's and continued the fight - Richie Goss was promoted to the position of Divisional Officer Commanding of the North-Leinster/South Ulster IRA. In July 1941, Richie Goss was staying in the house of a family named Casey in Longford when it was surrounded by Free State troops and Gardai ; a shoot-out ended in the capture of the then twenty-six years young Richie Goss and the wounding of a Free State Army Lieutenant, resulting in a charge of attempted murder against Goss. A Free State Military Tribunal returned a 'guilty' verdict on Richie Goss and he was sentenced to death. That was in July 1941 ; on the 8th August 1941, Richie Goss was taken, under armed guard, from Mountjoy Jail in Dublin and was put in the back of a truck, in which he was forced to sit on his own coffin on the journey from Dublin to Portlaoise Jail. On the 9th August 1941, Richie Goss, 26 years young, was shot dead by a Free State firing squad and buried in Portlaoise Prison yard. In September 1948 - seven years after his execution - his remains were released and re-interred in Dowdallshill Cemetery in Dundalk, County Louth.
A well-known Irish republican of the time (and still remembered by the Movement to this day) Brian O'Higgins, wrote in the 1950 edition of 'The Wolfe Tone Annual' -
"On September 18th 1948, the bodies of Patrick McGrath, Thomas Harte, George Plant, Richard Goss, Maurice O'Neill and Charles Kerins were disinterred in prison yards and given to their comrades and relatives for re-burial among their own. These men were condemned to death and put to death as criminals, as outlaws, as enemies of Ireland. Today, that judgement and verdict is reversed, even by those who were and are their opponents, and they are acknowledged to be what we have always claimed them to have been - true comrades of Tone, of Emmet, of Mitchel, of the Fenians, and of all the heroic dead of our own day and generation. There was no bitterness in their hearts towards any man or group of men, no meanness in their minds, no pettiness or brutality in their actions. They were, and are, worthy to rank with the greatest and noblest of our dead, and the younger men we salute and pray for and do homage to today are worthy to be their comrades. The only shame to be thought of in connection with those republicans is that Irishmen slew them and slandered them, as Irishmen had slain and slandered the men of 1922, for the 'crime' of being faithful soldiers of the Republic of Ireland. Let us remember that shame only as an incentive to action and conduct that will make recurrence of it impossible ever again. Wolfe Tone built his plan for true independence
on the resistance tradition of all the centuries from the beginning of the conquest to his own day, and these men who were his faithful followers, knew no plan but his would ever end English domination in Ireland.
Those who would make all Ireland free must follow in his and their footsteps or fail. Men talk foolishly today, as they and others have talked for many futile years, of 'declaring' the Republic of Ireland. There is no need to declare it. Wolfe Tone and Robert Emmet founded it and made it known to the world.
Daniel O'Connell reviled and repudiated it, but John Mitchel and Fintan Lalor stood beneath its banner and gave it their allegiance. The Fenians made it articulate and preserved it through two generations until the men and women of 1916 proclaimed it in arms. The whole people of Ireland accepted it a few years later, giving it the most
unanimous vote that has ever been cast in this country, and it was established and declared on January 21st, 1919. It has never been dis-established since, but it has been suppressed by falsehood and by force, and it is suppressed at this moment. Against that force and falsehood, against that unjust and unlawful suppression, the men we honour today - Patrick McGrath, Thomas Harte, George Plant, Richard Goss, Maurice O'Neill and Charles Kerins - did battle unto death. Their blood cries out for only one vengenance - the restoration of the suppressed Republic of Ireland." - Brian O'Higgins, as quoted in 'The Wolfe Tone Annual', 1950, speaking about the remains of the six Irish rebels which were handed-over to their comrades and relatives on the 18th September 1948, an event in which today's date - the 23rd March - had an unfortunate part to play.
BETWEEN NOW AND EASTER MONDAY 28TH MARCH 2016, WE WON'T BE GATHERING MOSS, TIME IS ON OUR BACK AND WON'T BE ON OUR SIDE!
Between now and Easter weekend, we are helping to prepare and distribute leaflet packs in relation to Easter commemorations being held in the Leinster area and, on Easter Saturday (26th March) we will be in Kildare and then Carlow helping to distribute same and then, on Sunday (27th), we'll be back in Dublin to do much the same job in the Crumlin and Deansgrange areas before, finally, repeating the exercise in Dublin city centre on Easter Monday, 28th March. Then we'll go for a meal and a few drinks!
Our workload won't allow us time to put a blog post together for Wednesday, 30th March 2016, and it will be Wednesday, 6th April 2016, before we can do so, and one of the occurences we will be mentioning then is in connection with an IRA man who lost his life to British forces partly because he wouldn't sing the British national anthem...
Check back with us then - Wednesday, 6th April 2016.
Thanks for reading, Sharon.
FREE STATERS AND 1916 - DIVESTED OF MORAL REFERENCE POINTS.
An extra finger in Cage 9, Long Kesh (pictured, left)...Kilmainham Jail at dawn, with the martyrs looking on...fighting the rocks and shallows of this world, from Portlaoise Prison....Ex-Free State army member claims statement falsified...a 'black-and-white' admission of guilt re mistreating the Irish...1847 - the dispossessed assist the dispossessed...Ireland, 1926 - arse-muscles get organised and sh1t on the rest of us!...3 men, 3 words and 3 months in jail... ..see this blog, Wednesday 23rd March 2016.
Thanks for dropping by, Sharon.
ON THIS DATE (9TH MARCH) 62 YEARS AGO : IRISH REPUBLICAN ICON BORN.
Bobby Sands (pictured, left) - born on this date (9th March) 62 years ago (1954).
Bobby Sands was born on the 9th March 1954 - 62 years ago on this date - in Belfast and, on the 9th April 1981, he was elected as 'an abstentionist member of parliament' (having received 30,492 votes) after being nominated to contest a seat by Dáithí Ó Conaill, the then vice president of the then Sinn Féin organisation. Bobby Sands was, as far as Irish republicans are concerned, a 'Teachta Dála' (TD) who was elected to take a seat in a 32-county Irish parliament, unlike the Free State representatives who sit in an institution in Kildare Street in Dublin today and claim to be 'TD's in an Irish parliament' and, indeed, Bobby's motives and those of Dáithí and the other then Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle members who nominated him to contest the election were pure, unlike the motives of the self-serving time-keepers who sit in that Kildare Street premises : the motives of the former involved a principled unwillingness to allow themselves and the struggle they were part of to be criminalised and to highlight to the world that they were fighting a political struggle against Westminster and its allies in this country. Others, however, are not as principled when it comes to issues of this magnitude.
Bobby Sands was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for his alleged part in a fire-bombing campaign which, as part of an economic war against the British presence in Ireland, targeted business premises (in this instance, the Balmoral Furniture Company) with the intention of making it financially unviable for Britain to maintain its grip on that part of Ireland, a fact which present-day Provisional Sinn Féin members seek to ignore or gloss over when referencing the so-called 'ineffectual/grubby deeds' of those who continue that struggle today. On the 9th April, 1981, Bobby Sands was elected by 30,492 of those that voted in the Fermanagh/South Tyrone district, prompting, years later, this thesis from a republican leader : "Contrary to allegations made in the news media, there was not a straight line from the election of Bobby Sands in 1981 to the Stormont Agreement of 1998. Rather was the line from March, April and May 1981 to the same months in 1998 disfigured and distorted by an internal power-struggle for the leadership of Sinn Féin accompanied and followed by deceit and artifice as the ideals of Bobby Sands were steadily perverted and a section of the then powerful revolutionary Republican Movement turned into a constitutional party..." (from here).
Bobby died in Long Kesh Prison on the 66th day of his hunger-strike on the 5th May, 1981, at 27 years of age and, on Thursday 5th May 2016, a black flag vigil will be held in his memory on the traffic isle facing the GPO in O' Connell Street, Dublin city centre, from 4pm to 5.30pm. And a picket to show support for republican prisoners will be held this Saturday (12th March) at the same location, from 12.45pm to 1.45pm. 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.
MEMORIES.
Isabella I love you
more than you'll ever know
I really really felt this love
the morning I had to go
Although you won't remember
and were probably too young to see
the first night I set eyes on you
you meant the world to me
Then you seemed to grow and grow
and never seemed to stop
I realised this one morning
as you were climbing from your cot
Your first love was a rabbit
it's funny you couldn't see
he was shaking and afraid of you
behind the Christmas tree
The reason why he felt like this
he was never on the ground
instead you held him in your arms
and always upside down
He was also a little terror
which could not be left alone
'cause if you took your eyes off him
you'd be left without the phone
All these lovely memories of you
are not on any shelf
they're locked deep within my heart
and the key I keep myself.
Jason Flynn.
EXPLOSIVE QUESTIONS.
'Magill' magazine has unearthed new information which raises a grim but important question : were explosives from within this Republic used in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings? It is a question which, bizarrely, also encompasses the controversial Dónal de Róiste case. By Don Mullan, author of the book 'The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings'.From 'Magill' magazine, February 2003.
PART ONE : THE PANDORA'S BOX.
Who was it in 1997 who saw the potential of Dónal de Róiste's controversial 1969 'retirement' from the Irish Army* (ie the Free State army) as a stake to destroy the heart of his sister Adi Roche's presidential campaign? Whoever it was has only succeeded in opening up a Pandora's Box and the ramifications have yet to be fully realised. A former Irish Army* commandant, Patrick Walshe, a soldier with an unblemished record who served both the Irish state and the United Nations with distinction, has his suspicions about the source of the leak - "The details of Donal's case would have been known to very few at the time of its introduction in the presidential race. I believe the information had to come from an army or ex-army source," he told 'Magill'.
Walshe is a key player in the Dónal de Róiste saga : his allegations may ultimately force the Irish state to admit that a terrible wrong was done to de Róiste. Walshe was ex-Lieutenant de Róiste's best friend in the army : both men loved traditional Irish music and travelled the length and breadth of the country during their free time to participate in various sessions.
The notion of a friendship between Walshe and anyone who associated with republican subversives - the contentious allegation levelled against, and denied by, de Róiste - is extraordinarily unlikely, for reasons that will soon be explained... (MORE LATER.)
GROWING UP IN LONG KESH...
SIN SCÉAL EILE.
By Jim McCann (Jean's son). For Alex Crowe, RIP - "No Probablum". Glandore Publishing, 1999.
Biographical Note : Jim McCann is a community worker from the Upper Springfield area in West Belfast. Although born in the Short Strand, he was reared in the Loney area of the Falls Road. He comes from a large family (average weight about 22 stone!). He works with Tús Nua (a support group for republican ex-prisoners in the Upper Springfield), part of the Upper Springfield Development Trust. He is also a committee member of the 'Frank Cahill Resource Centre', one of the founders of 'Bunscoil an tSléibhe Dhuibh', the local Irish language primary school and Naiscoil Bharr A'Chluanaí, one of the local Irish language nursery schools.
His first publication last year by Glandore was 'And the Gates Flew Open : the Burning of Long Kesh'. He hopes to retire on the profits of his books. Fat chance!
"MY FINGER CAME OFF."
It was one of my finest hours. I had already scored a hat trick, the first in my long but not too illustrious career. My first goal was a volley-cum-tap-in from a distance of two feet. I had run round the keeper and was delighted to find Barnes' volley just about to enter the net and, seizing the opportunity, I smashed the ball into the empty net, to my great delight and Joe Barnes' disgust. "McCann, ye bastard, that was my goal...", he yelled.
"Joe, I couldn't take a chance on it, after all we're only winning 13-nil," , I replied. The annoying thing was he had already scored nine goals and was trying to claim 'my' goal. I shrugged off his pettiness and assumed my position, hiding behind the opposition's goalkeeper. Offside can be so subjective. My next two goals couldn't have been more different, while remaining fundamentally basic. I can't remember much about my second - when the ball rebounded off the back of my head into the net, I was nearly knocked out by the force of it!
My third was put through the keeper's leg (Barnes was the master of this, if nothing else!) and I tapped it in from behind the keeper again. One person's instinctive striker is another person's poaching bastard. It was well into the second half when it happened : personally it couldn't have came at a worse moment for me as I was on my first ever mazy run with the ball. My head, eye and brain co-ordination were as one , I was floating down the wing, the sun was on my back and the wind was blowing through the fantastic head of hair that I possessed at that time. I beat one man - it was only Bobby Darling, and anyone who knows Bobby will understand the significance of this. And also people who watch 'The Simpson's' , especially Homer. But it was comprehensive.
Dede McTasney came running up to me. "Hold on, Dede, you're not playing...," I shrieked at him. "MY FINGER CAME OFF...!", he screamed... (MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (9TH MARCH) 95 YEARS AGO : IRA MAN WHO REFUSED THE OPPORTUNITY TO ESCAPE WAS DECLARED 'GUILTY' BY HIS BRITISH CAPTORS AND THEN EXECUTED.
IRA Volunteer Patrick Moran (pictured, left):"I don't want to let down the witnesses who gave evidence for me..."
- the words of Patrick Moran, Adjutant of D Company Irish Volunteers, 2nd Battalion (Dublin), to his comrades Ernie O'Malley (who had passed himself off to the British as 'Bernard Stewart') and Frank Teeling as they were about to walk to freedom through a gate in Kilmainham Jail in Dublin, which they had forced open, on the 14th of February 1921. Patrick Moran believed he would be found innocent at his 'trial' and saw no reason why he should take the opportunity to escape.
He was a 'dangerous man', as far as Westminster was concerned, and had been imprisoned in Dublin Castle on the 7th of January 1921 and charged with the 'murder' of two British Army/paramilitary gang members, Ames and Bennett, after been mistakenly identified as having been involved in the shooting dead of both men - Lieutenant Peter Ashmun Ames and British Army Lieutenant George Bennett (both of whom were in command of 'The Cairo Gang') on the 21st of November 1920 at 38 Upper Mount Street in Dublin. Patrick Moran stayed behind on the night of the prison break ,refusing to take part in same, having encouraged Simon Donnelly to go in his place, a decision which was was to cost Patrick Moran his life.
On the 15th of February 1921, he was put on 'trial' (during which sixteen people and an RIC man verified he was elsewhere!) but was, as expected, found 'guilty' and, three days later - on the 18th of February 1921 - he was transferred to Mountjoy Jail, Dublin. On Wednesday, 9th of March 1921 - 95 years ago on this date - Patrick Moran was sentenced to death and he was executed by hanging five days later, on Monday, the 14th of March. He had defended the integrity of his country in Jacob's Factory Garrison during Easter week in 1916, where he served under Thomas MacDonagh, and had been imprisoned at Knutsford and Woorwood Scrubs in England, and in Frongoch Internment Camp in Wales. He was one of 'The Forgotten Ten' in that he, and his nine comrades, were 'forgotten' by the State but have always been remembered by the Republican Movement.
Finally, the planning and execution of the escape itself is worthy of a few paragraphs : On the 11th February 1921, Frank Teeling and Ernie O'Malley were joined in Kilmainham Jail by Simon Donnelly, who was taken into their confidence and told of the up-coming plan of escape. The peep-holes in the cell doors were three inches in diameter and, if one of the men could get his arm through it, it would be possible to open the door from the outside ; the plan then was to make their way to the yard, as the men had noticed that the door leading from the prison to the yard was usually left closed-over, but not locked, and then cross the yard to a large iron gate on the west side of the jail, cut the bolt on it and escape. A 'Plan B' had been made in case the bolt cutter should fail - IRA Volunteers from 'F' Company, Fourth Battalion, Dublin Brigade, would take up positions outside the prison wall with a rope ladder and, awaiting an agreed signal, throw in the rope attached to the ladder, so that the prisoners could haul the ladder over to their side of the wall.
Oscar Traynor (on the left, in this photograph), IRA Dublin Brigade O/C, had secured a bolt cutter and that, along with two revolvers, were packaged and smuggled into the prison by a friendly British soldier. The prisoners were not sure that the bolt cutter would be up to the job but were determined to carry out the escape plan, as Frank Teeling was in line for execution ; on the night of February 13th, 1921, the three men made their way to the outer prison gate but, as the handles of the bolt cutter were incorrectly fitted, they were unable to cut the bolt. They went to 'Plan B', and gave the signal for their comrades on the other side of the prison wall to throw in the rope attached to the ladder - the rope jammed on top of the wall and snapped when the men outside attempted to pull it back to them. The three prisoners had no alternative but to return to their cells. The following day, the British soldier who was in on the plan repaired/adjusted the handles on the bolt cutter and, that night, at 6.30pm, the three prisoners decided to make another escape attempt.
The three Irish republican prisoners again made their way down to the gate and, this time, the bolt cutter worked. They used butter and grease, which they saved from their meals, to help ease the remaining portion of the corroded bolt out from its latch and two of the men got their revolvers at the ready as the third man pulled on the heavy door which creaked open sluggishly on its rusty hinges and the three men walked out! Simon Donnelly had tried to persuade Patrick Moran to join them, but Moran - who was not involved in shooting Ames or Bennett, and had what he considered the perfect alibi for that night - refused to leave the prison except by the front gate as a free man. Patrick Moran paid with his life for relying on British justice : as stated above, on Wednesday, 9th of March 1921 - 95 years ago on this date - Patrick Moran was sentenced to death and he was executed by hanging five days later, on Monday, the 14th of March. Not the first innocent man to be put to death by the British, and not the last Irish person to be punished by them in revenge.
A "WORM WITH LEGS" WHO ROARED LIKE A LION!
Adam Smith (pictured, left), the 'Father of Economics'. He was born in Scotland (on a date unknown) and baptised there on the 16th June 1723, and is perhaps best known for his work entitled 'The Wealth of Nations' (which he wanted to call 'An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations').
It was on this date, the 9th March, 240 years ago (in 1776) that the above-mentioned book was published. He lived in late 18th Century Edinburgh, and was shunned completely by society ; he was known to ramble around in a trance, not properly dressed, and was of a very nervous disposition (ie he 'twitched' constantly) and spoke loudly to himself. His appearance was said to be that like a "worm with legs". He never married and lived all his life with his mother. While ostracised by the establishment of the day, he certainly had their measure - "People of the same trade seldom meet together even for merriment and diversion but the conversation always ends in a conspiracy against the public" and was wary of politicians : "There is no art that one government sooner learns from another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people."
A far-sighted man, in our opinion, mentally ahead of those that considered themselves the superior class. Just thought we'd give him a quick mention!
ON THIS DATE (9TH MARCH) 109 YEARS AGO : DUBLIN WITNESSES 'THE RISING OF THE MOON'.
On the 9th March, 1907, a play entitled 'The Rising of the Moon', by Isabella Augusta Persse Gregory (Lady Gregory, pictured, left) premiered in Dublin in the Abbey Theatre, and was also produced by that venue. The cast included W G Fay, J M Kerrigan, J A O'Rourke and Arthur Sinclair : 'On a moonlit night at an Irish wharf by the sea, three Irish policemen in the service of the occupying English government pasted up wanted posters for a clever escaped political criminal. Convinced that the escaped rebel might creep to the water's edge to be rescued by sea, they all hoped to capture him for the hundred-pound reward and perhaps even a promotion. The Sergeant sent his two younger assistants with the only lantern to post more leaflets around town while, uneasily, he kept watch at the water's edge. A man in rags tried to slip past the Sergeant, explaining that he merely wanted to sell some songs to incoming sailors...' (from here.)
The lady author was born in Roxborough House, near Loughrea in County Galway, and was schooled at home by a nanny, Mary Sheridan, who obviously passed-on her interest in Irish history to her pupil. At 28 years young, Isabella married 'Sir' William Henry Gregory, who 'owned' a large estate at Coole Park, near Gort, in County Galway, thus conveying on her the title 'Lady' : as a 'Lady of Leisure' who now found herself in the 'Big House' she availed of the large library and, when not reading, accompanied her husband on business trips throughout the world. Her education, the library and her foreign travels sparked within her a love of the written word and she
quickly became a published author.
Her husband died when she was 41 years of age but she continued to live in 'the Big House', where her interest in all things Irish was nurtured, to the point that she practically converted the house into a 'retreat' for those who, like her, were smitten by Ireland and its troubled history - Edmund John Millington Synge, William Butler Yeats (and his brother, Jack, a well-known painter) , George Bernard Shaw (who described her as "the greatest living Irishwoman") and Sean O' Casey were amongst those who visited regularly and, indeed, she was believed to have had romantic connections with the poet Wilfrid Blunt and a New York lawyer, John Quinn.
Despite her privileged lifestyle (or, indeed, perhaps due to it, as it afforded her the time to 'look within her soul') Isabella Augusta Persse Gregory, who had a regular 'audience' with the 'Upper Class' of the day, loudly declared to all and sundry that it was "..impossible to study Irish history without getting a dislike and distrust of England..". A 'poacher-turned-gamekeeper', if you like but, unusual in our history, one who 'turned' the right way. She died in that 'Big House' on the 22nd May 1932, at 80 years of age, and is fondly remembered by those of us who share her convictions and agree with her "impossible to study..." declaration. The academic Mary Colum said of her - "With all her faults and snobbery, she was a great woman, a real leader, one of those who woke up Ireland from the somnolence and lassitude it was too prone to fall into. It is very doubtful that Yeats could have produced as much work as he did without her help. It is almost certain that, but for Lady Gregory, the Irish national theatre would have remained a dream, or ended in being that failure that so many hopeful undertakings in Ireland became."
Isabella Augusta Persse Gregory : 15th March 1852 - 22nd May 1932.
ON THIS DAY NEXT WEEK (WEDNESDAY 16TH MARCH 2016).....
...we won't be posting our usual contribution, and probably won't be in a position to post anything at all until the following Wednesday ; this coming weekend (Saturday/Sunday 12th/13th March 2016) is spoke for already with a 650-ticket raffle to be run for the Dublin Executive of Sinn Féin Poblachtach 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 Dublin, meaning that we will not have the time to post here. But we'll be back, as stated above, on Wednesday 23rd March 2016, with an 'ON THIS DATE...' piece concerning a Blueshirt debt collector, a Dundalk tout and two IRA men...see ye then!
Thanks for reading, Sharon.
14 YEARS FOR NOT FOLLOWING THE PRESCRIBED 'STRAIGHT LINE'.
This young boy didn't follow the 'straight line' that the political establishment wanted...
Heard about the Blueshirt debt collector, a Dundalk tout and two IRA men...? // this woman had everything going for her but her hatred of injustice prevented her from benefiting from her good fortune...// this powerhouse of a man rambled about the place in a trance, couldn't dress himself properly, looked very uncomfortable with and within himself and shouted at himself constantly - but his political thesis amazed those who weren't good enough to mock him...// this IRA man thought the British were out for justice but soon discovered it was revenge they wanted...// Bobby Sands - no straight line to Stormont...
Check in with us again on Wednesday 9th March 2016.
Thanks, Sharon.
SPOILED TRAITORS AND AUSTERITY ON FRIDAY 26TH FEBRUARY 2016!
'None of the above : the system is corrupt!'
- a purposely spoiled ballot paper (left) which was cast in Dublin Mid-West on Friday 26th February 2016 in the State general election but, as expected, enough votes were cast on the day to ensure the possibility of an administration being formed. Eventually, that is, as no one party received an overall majority and, at the time of writing, alleged behind-the-scenes talks are taking place between various political groupings in the hope that they can agree, between them, on how exactly to share out the financial spoils generated by the citizens.
Those interested in the outcome can satisfy their curiosity here (...just ignore the '65% national turnout' claim as only 26 of our 32 counties had the opportunity to spoil their vote or not!) but, safe to say - regardless of which combination of robber baron occupies the Kildare Street castle (and this is our best guess, based on past experience) - it will only favour the inhabitants of same, for at least five years. Then, no doubt, that crowd will be voted out and the grouping that were just recently voted out will be voted back in. As Henry Louis Mencken said - "Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule — and both commonly succeed, and are right."
But well done, anyway, to whoever it was that improved these election posters in the hope of reminding those considering voting for those featured on them just what it is they would be voting for -
Joanna Tuffy, State Labour Party, who lost her seat but is not yet homeless...
John Curran, Fianna Fail, won a seat but, even if he hadn't, wouldn't be facing eviction anyway...
..no more than Mrs Fitzgerald would have been. She held on to seat, as it transpired, and it would surely have been a crime had she not done so..!
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.
STARTING OVER.
Excited and aroused I await my dream
to be released from this how hard it may seem
on this day I always can trust
it's just for this high I crazily lust
Return of my confidence does brighten the days
just briefly my troubles get lost in the haze
the spoils from this game arouses the crowd
reflects on the days I was quiet proud
I'm more entranced than the average man
I used to be good and know I still am
the first time was good I nearly got caught
maybe some day they'll carry me off
This past time and I just fade into one
this game can expand from father to son
I'm still young it's not too late now
will I give it all up or do I know how?
I'm really quiet close just a break away
from straightening things out and being ok
I can help myself to regain my glory
with a little twist to the same old story
Now I see it's everyone for themselves
this causes a burning within me it dwells
I am the one that pays for this game
it bestows maybe riches none welcome fame
Family will listen but really don't hear
they will always hide invisible tears
now I grow tired of all this greed
and chart a course to set things free.
Jason Flynn.
IRISH POLITICAL PRISONERS IN ENGLAND....
There are currently 52 sentenced Irish republicans in jails in England. Although they are continually transferred from one 'maximum security' jail to another, the list below is a fairly accurate guide to where they are presently being held. Included in the list, where known, are their prison numbers. Anyone able to send a card or letter to any of these prisoners should ensure that they include the correct number and full address, since otherwise it is unlikely they will be received.
From 'IRIS' magazine, July/August 1982.
In order to highlight the plight of all these prisoners, Sinn Féin is organising a programme of activity during the month of August. The theme of this year's anniversary of internment demonstrations will emphasise 1) the two blanket man, Patrick Hackett (see 'Chapter 4', here) and Michael Murray; 2)the use of solitary confinement ; 3)conditions in control units; 4)visits, and 5)the right to repatriation on demand.
(END of 'Irish Political Prisoners In England' : Next - 'Explosive Questions', from 'Magill' magazine, 2003.)
GROWING UP IN LONG KESH...
SIN SCÉAL EILE.
By Jim McCann (Jean's son). For Alex Crowe, RIP - "No Probablum". Glandore Publishing, 1999.
Biographical Note : Jim McCann is a community worker from the Upper Springfield area in West Belfast. Although born in the Short Strand, he was reared in the Loney area of the Falls Road. He comes from a large family (average weight about 22 stone!). He works with Tús Nua (a support group for republican ex-prisoners in the Upper Springfield), part of the Upper Springfield Development Trust. He is also a committee member of the 'Frank Cahill Resource Centre', one of the founders of 'Bunscoil an tSléibhe Dhuibh', the local Irish language primary school and Naiscoil Bharr A'Chluanaí, one of the local Irish language nursery schools.
His first publication last year by Glandore was 'And the Gates Flew Open : the Burning of Long Kesh'. He hopes to retire on the profits of his books. Fat chance!
FOREWORD.
When Comrade McCann asked me to write the foreword for his up and coming work I had two questions for him : 1)Is there any danger of me being charged as an accessory after the fact in connection with the felonies spoken of in his writing 'Portrait of the Author as a Young Chuck?' and 2)Will I receive any payment in the way of royalties on the back of any success the book may enjoy? The answer to the first question was "One never knows in these volatile post-conflict situations" and the second question was answered "No chance!" So in spite of the risk of imprisonment and despite the lack of remuneration I have agreed to do it anyway.
Most people's perception of Long Kesh and other jails has been shaped, in the main, by press reports, a lot of which were based upon statements from civil servants or over zealous republican PRO's. Of course all is fair in the propaganda war but some of these reports have painted Long Kesh like a scene from a Beckett play with hundreds of grey, broken, depressed beings in a featureless grey environment waiting for Godot.
Jim McCann's stories illustrate the human spirit and in particular republican spirit in the face of adversity. In the worst possible situations republicans have turned the situations and conditions meant to break them into stimulating, positive and even happy environments where revolutionary zeal was nurtured and honed and the craic was 90. More power to your pen, comrade.
Tommy Gorman, February 1999.
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (2ND MARCH) 145 YEARS AGO : BRITISH PM ACKNOWLEDGES 'HOME RULE' ISSUE RE IRELAND.
"Nothing that is morally wrong can be politically right" - William Ewart Gladstone (pictured, left) , British Prime Minister for four terms : 1868 to 1874, 1880 to 1885, six months in 1886 and then from 1892 to 1894.
On the 2nd March 1871 - 145 years ago on this date - William Ewart Gladstone, the British Prime Minister, publicly acknowledged for the first time, during a speech in the 'House of Commons', the high levels of support in Ireland for those who were questioning the position of Ireland within the then 'British Empire' but his colleagues in the British 'Liberal Party' let it be known they were uneasy about such a proposition being highlighted. Regardless, Gladstone continued to put out 'feelers' re that issue and is on record for declaring that it was his mission "to pacify Ireland".
In May 1882 he appointed his nephew, 'Lord' Frederick Cavendish, as the new 'British Chief Secretary' in Ireland and Cavendish, in turn, appointed Thomas Henry Burke as his 'Under-Secretary' and perhaps it was because both men were put to death by the Irish 'Invincibles' on their arrival in Ireland that Gladstone was encouraged to deal with his 'Irish problem' : he persevered with attempting 'to solve the Irish problem' and four years later (ie in 1886) , in a three-hour speech, he presented, to the British 'House of Commons', a 'Home Rule' bill for Ireland which sought an Irish Parliament to be established in Dublin but with Westminster retaining control of matters to do with defence, foreign affairs, customs and excise, trade, postal services, currency and the appointment of law judges. The proposed 'Irish Parliament' would consist of one chamber which would house those elected by the people and those placed within by the Crown ('peer/nobleman'), and an 'Irish MP' would not be entitled to sit at Westminster. Irish commentators were disappointed that 'Irish MP's' should be excluded from Westminster and also voiced caution in relation to the powers that Westminster retained re defence, foreign affairs etc and, once again, Gladstone's own colleagues in the 'British Liberal Party' felt that too much power was being given to Ireland - 93 of them actually voted against it, splitting the party and defeating the bill.
A lesson should have been learned then - in 1886, 130 years ago - that a limited form of 'granted' jurisdictional control and sovereignty from Westminster re Ireland is, in the words of William Ewart Gladstone, "morally wrong" and will not be accepted by Irish republicans as "politically right".
ON THIS DATE (2ND MARCH) 102 YEARS AGO : PEARSE IN NEW YORK DELIVERS EMMET COMMEMORATION SPEECH.
On the 2nd March 1914 - 102 years ago on this date - Patrick Henry Pearse, 37 years of age, delivered the following address to a packed venue, the 'Academy of Music' in Brooklyn, New York. Robert Emmet was born in Dublin on the 4th March, 1778 :
"We who speak here tonight are the voice of one of the ancient indestructible things of the world. We are the voice of an idea which is older than any empire and will outlast every empire. We and ours, the inheritors of that idea, have been at age-long war with one of the most powerful empires that have ever been built up upon the earth; and that empire will pass before we pass. We are older than England and we are stronger than England. In every generation we have renewed the struggle, and so it shall be unto the end. When England thinks she has trampled out our battle in blood, some brave man rises and rallies us again; when England thinks she has purchased us with a bribe, some good man redeems us by a sacrifice. Wherever England goes on her mission of empire we meet her and we strike at her: yesterday it was on the South African veldt, today it is in the Senate House at Washington, tomorrow it may be in the streets of Dublin. We pursue her like a sleuth-hound; we lie in wait for her and come upon her like a thief in the night: and some day we will overwhelm her with the wrath of God.
It is not that we are apostles of hate. Who like us has carried Christ's word of charity about the earth? But the Christ that said, "My peace I leave you, My peace I give you," is the same Christ that said "I bring not peace, but a sword." There can be no peace between the right and wrong, between the truth and falsehood, between justice and oppression, between freedom and tyranny. Between them it is eternal war until the wrong is righted, until the true thing is established, until justice is accomplished, until freedom is won. So when England talks of peace we know our answer: 'Peace with you? Peace while your one hand is at our throat and your other hand is in our pocket? Peace with a footpad? Peace with a pickpocket? Peace with the leech that is sucking our body dry of blood? Peace with the many-armed monster whose tentacles envelop us while its system emits an inky fluid that shrouds its work of murder from the eyes of men? The time has not yet come to talk of peace.' But England, we are told, offers us terms. She holds out to us the hand of friendship. She gives us a Parliament with an Executive responsible to it. Within two years the Home Rule Senate meets in College Green and King George comes to Dublin to declare its sessions open. In anticipation of that happy event our leaders have proffered England our loyalty. Mr. Redmond accepts Home Rule as a "final settlement between the two nations"; Mr. O'Brien in the fullness of his heart cries "God Save the King"; Colonel Lynch offers England his sword in case she is attacked by a foreign power.
And so this settlement is to be a final settlement. Would Wolfe Tone have accepted it as a final settlement? Would Robert Emmet have accepted it as a final settlement? Either we are heirs to their principles or we are not. If we are, we can accept no settlement as final which does not "break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils"; if we are not, how dare we go on an annual pilgrimage to Bodenstown, how dare we gather here or anywhere to commemorate the faith and sacrifice of Emmet? Did, then, those dead heroic men live in vain? Has Ireland learned a truer philosophy than the philosophy of '98, and a nobler way of salvation than the way of 1803? Is Wolfe Tone's definition superseded, and do we discharge our duty to Emmet's memory by according him annually our pity? To do the English justice, I do not think they are satisfied that Ireland will accept Home Rule as a final settlement. I think they are a little anxious today. If their minds were tranquil on the subject of Irish loyalty they would hardly have proclaimed the importation of arms into Ireland the moment the Irish Volunteers had begun to organise themselves. They had given the Ulster faction which is used as a catspaw by one of the English parties two years to organise and arm against that Home Rule Bill which they profess themselves so anxious to pass: to the nationalists of Ireland they did not give two weeks. Of course, we can arm in spite of them: today we are organising and training the men and we have ways and means of getting arms when the men are ready for the arms. The contention I make now, and I ask you to note it well, is that England does not trust Ireland with guns; that under Home Rule or in the absence of Home Rule England declares that we Irish must remain an unarmed people; and England is right. England is right in suspecting Irish loyalty, and those Irishmen who promise Irish loyalty to England are wrong.
I believe them honest;* but they have spent so much of their lives parleying with the English, they have sat so often and so long at English feasts, that they have lost communion with the ancient unpurchasable faith of Ireland, the ancient stubborn thing that forbids, as if with the voice of fate, any loyalty from Ireland to England, any union between us and them, any surrender of one jot or shred of our claim to freedom even in return for all the blessings of the British peace. I have called that old faith an indestructible thing. I have said that it is more powerful than empires. If you would understand its might you must consider how it has made all the generations of Ireland heroic. Having its root in all gentleness, in a man's love for the place where his mother bore him, for the breast that gave him suck, for the voices of children that sounded in a house now silent, for the faces that glowed around a fireside now cold, for the story told by lips that will not speak again, having its root, I say, in all gentleness, it is yet a terrible thing urging the generations to perilous bloody attempts, nerving men to give up life for the death-in-life of dungeons, teaching little boys to die with laughing lips, giving courage to young girls to bare their backs to the lashes of a soldiery.
It is easy to imagine how the spirit of Irish patriotism called to the gallant and adventurous spirit of Tone or moved the wrathful spirit of Mitchell. In them deep called unto deep: heroic effort claimed the heroic man. But consider how the call was made to a spirit of different, yet not less noble mould; and how it was answered. In Emmet it called to a dreamer and he awoke a man of action; it called to a student and a recluse and he stood forth a leader of men; it called to one who loved the ways of peace and he became a revolutionary. I wish I could help you to realise, I wish I could myself adequately realise, the humanity, the gentle and grave humanity, of Emmet. We are so dominated by the memory of that splendid death of his, by the memory of that young figure, serene and smiling, climbing to the gallows above that sea of silent men in Thomas Street, that we forget the life of which that death was only the necessary completion: and the life has perhaps a nearer meaning for us than the death. For Emmet, finely gifted though he was, was just a young man with the same limitations, the same self-questionings, the same falterings, the same kindly human emotions surging up sometimes in such strength as almost to drown a heroic purpose, as many a young man we have known. And his task was just such a task as many of us have undertaken: he had to go through the same repellent routine of work, to deal with the hard, uncongenial details of correspondence and conference and committee meetings; he had the same sordid difficulties that we have, yea, even the vulgar difficulty of want of funds. And he had the same poor human material to work with, men who misunderstood, men who bungled, men who talked too much, men who failed at the last moment.
Yes, the task we take up again is just Emmet's task of silent unattractive work, the routine of correspondence and committees and organising. We must face it as bravely and as quietly as he faced it, working on in patience as he worked on, hoping as he hoped: cherishing in our secret hearts the mighty hope that to us, though so unworthy, it may be given to bring to accomplishment the thing he left unaccomplished, but working on even when that hope dies within us. I would ask you to consider now how the call I have spoken of was made to the spirit of a woman, and how, equally, it was responded to.
Wherever Emmet is commemorated let Anne Devlin not be forgotten. Bryan Devlin had a dairy farm in Butterfield Lane; his fields are still green there. Five sons of his fought in '98. Anne was his daughter, and she went to keep house for Emmet when he moved into Butterfield House. You know how she kept vigil there on the night of the rising. When all was lost and Emmet came out in his hurried retreat through Rathfarnham to the mountains, her greeting was — according to tradition, it was spoken in Irish, and Emmet must have replied in Irish — "Musha, bad welcome to you! Is Ireland lost by you, cowards that you are, to lead the people to destruction and then to leave them?" "Don’t blame me, Anne; the fault is not mine", said Emmet. And she was sorry for the pain her words had inflicted, spoken in the pain of her own disappointment. She would have tended him like a mother could he have tarried there, but his path lay to Kilmashogue, and hers was to be a harder duty.
When Sirr came out with his soldiery she was still keeping her vigil. "Where is Emmet?" "I have nothing to tell you," she replied. To all their questions she had but one answer: "I have nothing to say; I have nothing to tell you." They swung her up to a cart and half-hanged her several times; after each half-hanging she was revived and questioned: still the same answer. They pricked her breast with their bayonets until the blood spurted out in their faces. They dragged her to prison and tortured her for days. Not one word did they extract from that steadfast woman. And when Emmet was sold, he was sold, not by a woman, but by a man — by the friend that he had trusted — by the counsel that, having sold him, was to go through the ghastly mockery of defending him at the bar.
The fathers and mothers of Ireland should often tell their children that story of Robert Emmet and that story of Anne Devlin. To the Irish mothers who hear me I would say that when at night you kiss your children and in your hearts call down a benediction, you could wish for your boys no higher thing than that, should the need come they may be given the strength to make Emmet's sacrifice, and for your girls no greater gift from God than such fidelity as Anne Devlin's.
It is more than a hundred years since these things were suffered; and they were suffered in vain if nothing of the spirit of Emmet and Anne Devlin survives in the young men and young women of Ireland. Does anything of that spirit survive? I think I can speak for my own generation. I think I can speak for my contemporaries in the Gaelic League, an organisation which has not yet concerned itself with politics, but whose younger spirits are accepting the full national idea and are bringing into the national struggle the passion and the practical-ness which marked the early stages of the language movement. I think I can speak for the young men of the Volunteers. So far, they have no programme beyond learning the trade of arms; a trade which no man of Ireland could learn for over a hundred years past unless he took the English shilling. It is a good programme; and we may almost commit the future of Ireland to the keeping of the Volunteers. I think I can speak for a younger generation still: for some of the young men that are entering the National University, for my own pupils at St. Enda's College, for the boys of the Fianna Eireann.
To the grey-haired men whom I see on this platform, John Devoy and Richard Burke, I bring, then, this message from Ireland that their seed-sowing of forty years ago has not been without its harvest, that there are young men and little boys in Ireland today who remember what they taught and who, with God's blessing, will one day take, or make an opportunity of putting their teaching into practice."
*"... they have spent so much of their lives parleying with the English, they have sat so often and so long at English feasts, that they have lost communion with the ancient unpurchasable faith of Ireland.." Indeed they have, but it is questionable whether they ever had that faith in the first place, morally and physically so, rather than just verbally?
ON THIS DATE (2ND MARCH) 23 YEARS AGO : WESTMINSTER CONFIRMS IT IS "NOT INDIFFERENT, NOT NEUTRAL" RE THE SIX IRISH COUNTIES IT OCCUPIES.
"The (British) government will, as I said in December, warmly, solemnly and steadfastly uphold Northern Irelands (sic) status. We are not indifferent, we are not neutral". - the words of then British 'Direct Ruler' for the Six Counties, Patrick Mayhew, on 2nd March 1993 (pictured). Irish republicans have always dismissed the propaganda lie from Westminster and its allies here in this State that it was a 'peace-keeping force' in Ireland and we welcome confirmation of that fact from the source itself. All that's required now is that they clear off altogether, perhaps to one of the many other 'trouble spots' they are associated with. Or perhaps they can find a new location in which to hone their 'peace keeping' skills but, either way, they should realise this is the 21st century and their 'empire' is finished. Go on home...
ON THIS DATE (2ND MARCH) 21 YEARS AGO : PSF LEADERSHIP DECLARE "PARTITION UNRAVELLING"!
On Saturday 25th February 1995, the Provisional Sinn Féin political party held its Ard Fheis in the Mansion House in Dublin and a report on same was carried in that party's newspaper, 'AP/RN', on the 2nd March 1995 - 21 years ago on this date. The Chairperson of their 'Women's Department' and an EEC/EU election candidate for them for a seat in Brussels and a UNISON official, Anne Speed, practically received a standing ovation when she took to the stage and stated - "Partition is unravelling before our eyes." Interestingly, less than a decade before she took an interest in partition, Anne had 'unravelled' herself from a Trotskyist support group - 'From 1982 on, a number of ('Peoples Democracy') activists left them and joined Sinn Féin. At a PD national conference in 1986, a group including Anne Speed proposed the dissolution of the group and that the members all join SF as individuals. This position was defeated by 19 votes to five. A few weeks later the minority of five resigned from PD followed by their supporters and joined Sinn Féin...' (from here.)
Anne's colleague, Gerry Adams, standing in front of the partitioned Ireland he has assisted in maintaining.
That was, as stated, 21 years ago, which was three years before Anne Speed and her colleagues in the leadership of that party actually played a leading role in securing the partition of this country by promoting and signing the 1998 Stormont Treaty which, like a previous effort, was sold to almost* all and sundry as a start in removing the British political and military presence from this country whereas what both actually delivered was an attempted unravelling of republicanism but, both in 1921 and 1998, the attempt only weakened Irish republicanism rather than unravel it. (*Those with a proper understanding of republicanism warned against so-called 'stepping stones' and have been proved right re same.)
Thanks for reading, Sharon.
LEINSTER HOUSE ELITE BARTER WITH EACH OTHER OVER SHARING FINANCES GENERATED BY THE STATE CITIZENS.
"None of the above - the system is corrupt!" - a spoiled ballot paper (pictured, left) from the 26-County election, Friday, 26th February 2016.Two that won and one that lost have their 'achievements' added to their 26th February 2016 posters...starting over in Portlaoise Prison...two IRA Blanketmen from the 1980's...Jim McCann writes from Long Kesh...British PM verbally nods towards British misrule in Ireland...British 'Direct Ruler' in Ireland confirms they are "not neutral"...ex-republican declares that "partition is unravelling"...Padraig Pearse in Brooklyn, New York, commemorates Robert Emmet ; see this blog, Wednesday 2nd March 2016.
Thanks for reading, Sharon.
