ON THIS DATE (19TH MAY) 112 YEARS AGO : BIRTH OF OWEN LANCELOT 'SKEFF'.
The inscription on the Sheehy Skeffington headstone reads - 'Sacred to the memory of Mrs. Rose Skeffington, born Magorrian in Ballykinlar, Co. Down. Died at Ranelagh, Dublin 16th April 1909.
And Francis Sheehy Skeffington her son / murdered in Portobello Barracks April 26th, 1916 and his wife Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, Feminist, Republican, Socialist, Born May 1878 / Died April 1946.
And their son Owen Lancelot Sheehy Skeffington, born May 19th 1909, died June 7th, 1970 who, like them, sought truth / taught reason and knew compassion.'
Owen Lancelot Sheehy Skeffington was born in Lower Leeson Street, in Dublin, on the 19th May 1909 - 112 years ago on this date - into a politically and socially active family (both his parents were in agreement that the child should not be baptised as they were not fully supportive of any particular structured religion) : his father, Francis, was executed by firing squad in Easter Week, 1916, on orders issued by 'guilty-but-insane' British Army Captain J.C. Bowen-Colthurst and his mother, Johanna Mary 'Hanna', was a social activist and a supporter of the 'Irregulars' (although she did briefly flirt, politically, with Fianna Fáil, when they were first spawned).
When he was three years young, his father took him to Mountjoy Jail, in Dublin, to visit his mother, who was a 'guest' in that institution for a couple of months, having upset the 'political establishment' by her actions in defence of women's rights : the favour was returned two years later when his mother took him to the same prison to visit his father, who was 'guesting' there in payment for his part in the anti-conscription campaign!
As a young man, Owen was educated in America and in Sandford Park School in Dublin and supported himself by teaching the French language in Trinity College in Dublin where he made a name for himself as '...a brilliant orator, a fearless champion of civil and human rights, and an inspiring teacher, known simply and affectionately to generations of Trinity students as 'Skeff'...'
He involved himself in Free State politics and sat in the State Senate on a number of occasions between 1954 and the year he died (from a heart attack), 1970. He would not have found much 'truth, reason and/or compassion' in that institution.
'AITHBHEOCHAINT NA GAEDHILGE.'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, June, 1955.
Ní gá annseo a rá go bhfuil an sprid náisiúnta lag. Tá sé chómh dona agus a bhí riamh - muna bhfuil sé níos mease. Faoi láthair tá an tír múchta i nGalldachas agus má leannann an sceal mar atá bhféidir nach fada go mbeidh ar Náis iúntacas chómh marbh le h-Art - agus cé raghaidh chun na socraide?
Sé an locht is mó na nach dtuigeann fiú amháin na daoine ar a dtugtar 'fior-Ghaedhil' an ceist i gceart.
National Apostacy - what led to this national apostacy? One thing only, a shallow and perverted interpretation of Ireland's claim to sovereignty! If they have had the audacity to tell you, as they have, that Ireland is free, or worse still, that "this part" (a cursed phrase) of Ireland is free, is it not obvious that such people have a compromisable notion of 'freedom'?
How can we expect them to approach Aithbheochaint na Gaedhilge in the true spirit...? (MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (19TH MAY) 223 YEARS AGO : 'REBEL IRISH LORD' CAPTURED BY THE BRITISH.
'Lord' Edward Fitzgerald (pictured) was born on the 15th October 1763, in Carton House, County Kildare ; he was the 12th child of the first 'Duke' of Leinster and Emilia Mary, who was the daughter of the 'Duke' of Richmond.
At 16 years young he joined the 'Sussex Militia' and was posted to America on 'active service' - he was severely wounded at the battle of Eutaw Springs, when he was 18 years young (in 1781) and returned to Ireland. At 25 years young he went to Canada and re-joined the British Army, following which 'adventure' he again returned to Ireland and was elected as M.P. for Kildare.
The events at a political 'Dinner Party' which he attended one night was to have a profound effect on his 'career', as his refusal to hide his 'rebel streak' had immediate consequences ; he joined in a toast to the abolition of hereditary titles and was, shortly afterwards, 'cashiered' (ie "discharged with ignominy") from the British Army (and from the 'Establishment' ie 'those that dinner-partied'!).
He went to Paris in 1792, at 29 years young and, two days after Christmas that year, he married a 19-years-young girl, Pamela, thought to be the daughter of Mme de Genlis. It was generally accepted that Pamela's father was the 'Duke' of Orleans - a 'family connection' which was to re-bound on Edward Fitzgerald a few years later (incidentally - while in Paris, 'Lord' Edward Fitzgerald stayed with a certain Mr. Thomas Paine, pictured.)
In 1793, Mr. and Mrs. Fitzgerald returned to Dublin and lived in Frascati House in Blackrock ; three years later (ie 1796), 'Lord' Edward Fitzgerald travelled to Basel in France with Arthur O'Connor and Wolfe Tone to seek assistance with an armed Rising against the British ; but his above-mentioned 'family connections' were raised at a meeting with the French military - he got a 'frosty' reception from the French because his wife was considered to be connected to the 'Royalists'!
However, the honesty of his political conviction became obvious to the hosts, and his statement to them (the 'French Directory') that the strength of the United Irishmen organisation stood at approximately 280,000 armed men helped convince them to send assistance - the 'Hoche Expedition'
Edward Fitzgerald was not with the rest of the leadership of the United Irishmen organisation in March 1798 at the home of Oliver Bond in Bridge Street, Dublin, when the British raided and 'arrested' those within, acting on information sold to them by the informer Thomas Reynolds. When British Major Henry Sirr (pictured) realised that Fitzgerald was not amongst those captured, he offered a 'bounty' of £1,000 for information leading to his capture.
Edward Fitzgerald ('wanted for treason') went 'on-the-run' but, two months later (ie on May 19th, 1798 - 223 years ago on this date) Major Sirr's men raided a house on Thomas Street, in Dublin (after receiving information from another informer, Francis Magan) where Fitzgerald was staying ; a struggle ensued, during which Edward Fitzgerald shot one of his attackers dead but was himself shot in the arm - he died, apparently from that wound, in Newgate Prison, on the 4th June 1798, at 35 years young.
NO RIGHT OF APPEAL...
Why the media consensus on a broad range of issues is increasingly disturbing. By John Drennan.
From 'Magill' Annual, 2002.
However, as smiling refugee children were featured on every bulletin, there was a relative absence in coverage of any of the World Trade Centre funerals.
Sadly, the station's slip continued apace as it described Mr bin Laden as a "Saudi dissident". Apparently, over in Montrose, Mr bin Laden is no more sinister a figure than Peter Weir. The next threat came from an ogre called Desmond Connell - himself a dissident against the new clerical ethic of keeping one's gob shut - who is such a threat to society that he has been the subject of two media scandals this year.
"Bejaysus", sez the plain people of Ireland, "he must be a terrible important man indeed to be pulled up so constantly by them journalist fellas..." Er, no - he's actually the leader of an embattled religious minority now that consumerist secularism has become the state religion. As liberals, we really should be championing his right to free speech...
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (19TH MAY) 124 YEARS AGO : OSCAR WILDE RELEASED FROM PRISON.
On the 19th May 1897 - 124 years ago on this date - Oscar Wilde was released from prison ; he had been given a sentence of two years hard labour for gross indecency - homosexuality - which was illegal in Britain at the time. His 'relationship' with 'Lord' Alfred Douglas was the 'sin' involved.
Oscar was forty years old at the time, and the 'Lord' Alfred was sixteen years his junior but knew how to manipulate circumstances and individuals. He was of slim build, said to be handsome and used his demeanour to balance his feckless attitude towards finances and other people's feelings in general. And poor Oscar was taken in by him, as were young boys and other men, when the 'Lord' strutted his stuff in Oxford.
After his release, Oscar was given a temporary roof over his head by a socially-conscienced and open-minded man of the cloth, Stewart Headlam, as interesting a character as Oscar Wilde was ; he was married to a lesbian (Beatrice Pennington) and also maintained 'close relations' with known homosexuals William Johnson and C.J. Vaughan, among others ;
'...he was a member of the Fabian Society, a Christian Socialist who attacked the wide gap between rich and poor and warned the working class that they should distrust middle-class reformers (and) he presented Jesus Christ as a revolutionary. He believed that that God's Kingdom on earth would replace a "competitive, unjust society with a co-operative and egalitarian social order.." '
(from here).
In prison, Oscar's health deteriorated due to his living conditions (he was not used to roughing it, in that particular manner) and, on his release, came to rely on alcohol to get him through the day. He died in Paris, on the 30th of November, 1900, at 46 years of age, from cerebral meningitis following an ear infection.
'Yes, death. Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one's head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forget life, to be at peace. You can help me. You can open for me the portals of death's house, for love is always with you, and love is stronger than death is..' - Oscar Wilde.
'FORCE : MORAL OR PHYSICAL?'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, March, 1955.
Mr Cosgrave at the Fine Gael Ard Fheis made quite clear the essential difference between the so-called 'nationalists' and the Republican Movement ; he stated that "...partition could only be ended speedily by the exercise of moral pressure and persuasion.."
One hundred and twenty years ago Daniel O'Connell misled the Irish people into acceptance of his policy of 'moral force' ; moral force did not prevent the ships laden with Irish wheat and oats leaving Ireland while the population was decimated by famine (sic) and emigration. John Mitchel, with clarion call, urged his countrymen to arm. Their wealth and lives were being stolen under the protection of British guns. Only guns could talk to guns.
The brave and the true of that generation rallied to Mitchel's call but, before they were properly organised, the British Government passed a new coercion act - 'Treason Felony' - to deal with the dangerous situation of Irishmen armed to resist British aggression. The question is - which policy was best for Ireland? O'Connell's moral force or Mitchel's physical force...? (MORE LATER.)
Thanks for reading,
Sharon.
ON THIS DATE (12TH MAY) 105 YEARS AGO - NO PLACE AT THAT TABLE FOR THIS CHAIR.
If we had more time, we would give a brief history and/or mention of all those Irish men and women for whom this month carries special significance, but such is the level of destruction wrought on this country by the British over an on-going period of more than 850 years, and the huge number of Irish 'dissidents' that tried to right those wrongs, we are unable to do so but, nonetheless, we will try to do those brave people justice by posting a few words about just one of them - James Connolly, executed by the British on the 12th May 1916 - 105 years ago on this date.
All shared the same objective : to remove the British military and political presence from Ireland, not to be co-opted onto its 'board of management', as those in Leinster House and Stormont have been.
James Connolly was born on June 5th, 1868, at 107, the Cowgate, Edinburgh. His parents, John and Mary Connolly, had emigrated to Edinburgh from County Monaghan in the 1850s. His father worked as a manure carter, removing dung from the streets at night, and his mother was a domestic servant who suffered from chronic bronchitis and was to die young from that ailment.
Anti-Irish feeling at the time was so bad that Irish people were forced to live in the slums of the Cowgate and the Grassmarket which became known as 'Little Ireland'. Overcrowding, poverty, disease, drunkenness and unemployment were rife - the only jobs available was selling second-hand clothes and working as a porter or a carter.
James Connolly went to St Patricks School in the Cowgate, as did his two older brothers, Thomas and John. At ten years of age, James left school and got a job with Edinburgh's 'Evening News' newspaper, where he worked as a 'devil', cleaning inky rollers and fetching beer and food for the adult workers. His brother Thomas also worked with the same newspaper.
In 1882, aged 14, James Connolly joined the British Army in which he was to remain for nearly seven years, all of it in Ireland, where he witnessed first hand the terrible treatment of the Irish people at the hands of the British. The mistreatment of the Irish by the British and the landlords led to Connolly forming an intense hatred of the British Army.
While serving in Ireland, he met his future wife, a Protestant named Lillie Reynolds. They were engaged in 1888 and the following year Connolly discharged himself from the British Army and went back to Scotland. In 1890, he and Lillie Reynolds were wed in Perth and, in the Spring of that year, James and Lillie moved to Edinburgh and lived at 22 West Port, and joined his father and brother working as labourers and then as a manure carter with Edinburgh Corporation, on a strictly temporary and casual basis.
He became active in socialist and trade union circles and became secretary of the 'Scottish Socialist Federation', almost by mistake. At the time his brother John was secretary; however, after John spoke at a rally in favour of the eight-hour day he was fired from his job with the corporation, so while he looked for work, James took over as secretary. During this time, Connolly became involved with the Independent Labour Party which Kerr Hardie formed in 1893.
In late 1894, Connolly lost his job with the corporation. He opened a cobblers shop in February 1895 at number 73 Bucclevch Street, a business venture which was not successful. At the invitation of the Scottish socialist, John Leslie, he came to Dublin in May 1896 as paid organiser of the 'Dublin Socialist Society' for £1 a week. James and Lillie Connolly and their three daughters, Nora, Mona and Aideen set sail for Dublin in 1896, where he founded the Irish Socialist Republican Party in May of 1896.
In 1898, Connolly had to return to Scotland on a lecture and fund-raising tour. Before he left Ireland, he had founded 'The Workers' Republic' newspaper, the first Irish socialist paper, from his house at number 54 Pimlico, where he lived with his wife and three daughters. Six other families, a total of 30 people, also lived in number 54 Pimlico, at the same time!
In 1902, he went on a five month lecture tour of the USA and, on returning to Dublin, he found the ISRP existed in name only. He returned to Edinburgh where he worked for the Scottish District of the Social Democratic federation. He then chaired the inaugural meeting of the Socialist Labour Party in 1903 but, when his party failed to make any headway, Connolly became disillusioned and in September 1903, he emigrated to the USA and did not return until July 1910. In the US, he founded the Irish Socialist Federation in New York, and another newspaper, 'The Harp'.
In 1910, he returned to Ireland and in June of the following year he became Belfast organiser for James Larkin's Irish Transport and General Workers Union. In 1913 he co-founded the Labour Party and in 1914 he organised, with James Larkin, opposition to the Employers Federation in the Great Lock-Out of workers that August. Larkin travelled to the USA for a lecture tour in late 1914 and James Connolly became the key figure in the Irish Labour movement.
The previous year, 1913, had also seen Connolly co-found the Irish Citizen Army, at Liberty Hall, the headquarters of the ITGWU - this organisation, the ICA, was established to defend the rights of the working people. In October 1914, Connolly returned permanently to Dublin and revived the newspaper 'The Workers' Republic' that December following the suppression of his other newspaper, 'The Irish Worker'. In 'The Workers' Republic' newspaper, Connolly published articles on guerrilla warfare and continuously attacked the group known as The Irish Volunteers for their inactivity. This group refused to allow the Irish Citizen Army to have any in-put on its Provisional Committee and had no plans in motion for armed action.
The Irish Volunteers were by this time approximately 180,000 strong and were urged by their leadership to support England in the war against Germany. It should be noted that half of the Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers were John Redmond's people, who was the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party. The Irish Volunteers split, with the majority siding with Redmond and becoming known as the National Volunteers - approximately 11,000 of the membership refused to join Redmond and his people.
However, in February 1915, 'The Workers' Republic' newspaper was suppressed by the Dublin Castle authorities. Even still, Connolly grew more militant. In January 1916, the Irish Republican Brotherhood had became alarmed by Connollys ICA manoeuvres in Dublin and at Connollys impatience at the apparent lack of preparations for a rising, and the IRB decided to take James Connolly into their confidence. During the following months, he took part in the preparation for a rising and was appointed Military Commander of the Republican Forces in Dublin, including his own Irish Citizen Army. He was in command of the Republican HQ at the GPO during Easter Week, and was severely wounded. He was arrested and court-martialed following the surrender.
On May 9th, 1916, James Connolly was propped up in bed before a court-martial and sentenced to die by firing squad - he was at that time being held in the military hospital in Dublin Castle. In a leading article in the Irish Independent on May 10th William Martin Murphy, who had led the employers in the Great Lock-out of workers in 1913, urged the British Government to execute Connolly.
At dawn on May 12th 1916 - 105 years ago on this date -James Connolly was taken by ambulance from Dublin Castle to Kilmainham Jail, carried on a stretcher into the prison yard, strapped into a chair in a corner of the yard and executed by firing-squad. Connolly's body, like that of the other 14 executed leaders, was taken to the British military cemetery adjoining Arbour Hill Prison and buried, without coffin, in a mass quicklime grave.
The fact that he was one of the seven signatories of the 1916 Proclamation bears evidence of his influence. He had told the Irish Citizen Army, on 16th April, 1916, that "..the odds are a thousand to one against us, but in the event of victory, hold onto your rifles, as those with whom we are fighting may stop before our goal is reached..."
He died, strapped to a chair, but that should not be seen to infer that he wanted that chair placed at a table where a compromise would be the outcome.
James Connolly, 5th June 1868 - 12th May 1916. Executed by the British at 47 years of age.
'WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION.'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, June, 1955.
WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION, BODENSTOWN, SUNDAY 19TH JUNE.
Parade will leave Sallins at 2.30pm. Oration by Eamonn Thomas, Dublin.
Thomas White, Los Angeles, will speak on behalf of Clan na Gael, America.
Special trains will leave Kingsbridge at 12.15pm, returning from Sallins at 6.30pm.
Commemoration Ceilidhe ; in the Mansion House. Ceol Colmcille, 8.0 to 11.30, Tickets 2/-.
BREAK THE CONNECTION WITH ENGLAND.
Published by the Republican Publications, Seán Treacy House, 94 Seán Treacy Street, Dublin, and printed by the Marian Printing Company Limited, 33 Rutland Place North, North Circular Road, Dublin.
(Please note - some details here in regards to the up-coming Bodenstown Commemoration for 2021.)
(END of 'Wolfe Tone Commemoration': NEXT - 'Aithbheochaint Na Gaedhilge', from the same source.)
ON THIS DATE (12TH MAY) 105 YEARS AGO : SEÁN MacDIARMADA EXECUTED BY THE BRITISH.
Seán MacDiarmada (pictured) was born in January 1883 in Corranmore (near Kiltyclogher), in County Leitrim, and studied at the local national school, before attempting to qualify as a teacher but he failed the exams.
He worked for a short time as a gardener in Edinburgh, in Scotland, later moving to Belfast where he lived between 1905 and 1906 and, while there, he joined the 'Ancient Order of Hibernians' (AOH) but his views of the national situation became ever more radicalised and by 1906 he had been sworn in as a member of the 'Irish Republican Brotherhood'.
He was one of the major strategists behind the planning of the 1916 Easter Rising, although most of his work in that regard was done 'off radar' and at great physical discomfort to himself - he was partially disabled by polio, but never let that interfere with his work to remove the British military and political presence from Ireland.
On the 12th of May, 1916 - 105 years ago on this date - Seán MacDiarmada [and James Connolly] were executed by a British Army firing squad in Kilmainham Jail in Dublin.
His last letter, written to his comrade John Daly, read as follows -
'Kilmainham Prison,
Dublin,
May 11th 1916.
My Dear Daly,
Just a wee note to bid you Goodbye. I expect in a few hours to join Tom and the other heroes in a better world. I have been sentenced to a soldiers death - to be shot tomorrow morning .
I have nothing to say about this only that I look on it as a part of the day's work. We die that the Irish nation may live. Our blood will rebaptise and reinvigorate the old land. Knowing this it is superfluous to say how happy I feel.
I know now what I have always felt, that the Irish nation can never die. Let present day place hunters condemn our action as they will, posterity will judge us aright from the effects of our action.
I know I will meet you soon, until then GoodBye. God guard and protect you and all in No. 15. You have had a done trial, but I know quite well that Mrs. Daly and all the girls feel proud in spite of a little temporary and natural grief, that her son and the girls, their brothers as well as Tom are included in the list of honours.
Kindly remember me especially to Mrs. Clarke and tell her I am the same Seán that she always knew.
God Bless you all,
As ever,
Sincerely Yours,
Seán MacDiarmada.'
"We bleed that the nation may live. I die that the nation may live. Damn your concessions England, we want our country..." ; Seán MacDiarmada, 27th January 1883 – 12th May 1916.
ON THIS DATE (12TH MAY) 102 YEARS AGO : SEÁN HOGAN AND THE STATION OF KNOCKLONG.
Seán Hogan (pictured) was practically still in his teenage years when he was appointed as one of those in command of the 'Third Tipperary Brigade' of the IRA, a leadership group which became known by the British as 'The Big Four' - Dan Breen, Seán Treacy, Seamus Robinson and Seán Hogan.
Seán was born in Tipperary in 1901 and, at just 18 years of age, he took part in the Soloheadbeg ambush on the 21st of January in 1919, in which two Crown force personnel (James McDonnell and Patrick O'Connell) were killed as they drew their weapons. The British went all out to capture or execute those responsible and, on the 12th of May 1919 - 102 years ago on this date - Seán was taken prisoner at a friends house, the Meagher's, at Annfield, in Tipperary, and taken to Thurles RIC barracks to be held overnight, and then transported to Cork.
The following morning he was taken by a four-man armed British military escort to Knocklong train station and the five men got on board a train ; Hogan, who was handcuffed, was put sitting between RIC Sergeant Wallace and Constable Enright, both of whom were armed with revolvers, and Constables Ring and Reilly, carrying shotguns, sat opposite the three men.
Seán Hogan, pictured, thought to be about 20 years young when this photograph was taken.
An IRA unit, led by Seán Treacy, Dan Breen, Seamus Robinson and Eamonn O'Brien, and including Ned Foley, Seán Lynch, John Joe O'Brien, Ned O'Brien and Jim Scanlon (all from the East Limerick Brigade IRA) located the compartment where Seán was being held against his will and Seán Treacy and Eamonn O'Brien drew their revolvers and walked through the train to the compartment ; on entering same, they loudly instructed all present to put their hands up and called for Seán to make his way to them.
RIC Constable Enright placed his revolver against Hogan's neck, using him as a shield, but was shot dead as he did so, as both Treacy and O'Brien had fired at him (Eamonn O'Brien was to say later that they would not have shot Enright had he not attempted to attack Hogan) and Seán, still handcuffed, took that opportunity to land a two-handed punch to the face of Constable Ring, who was sitting opposite him.
Seán Treacy and RIC Sergeant Wallace were trading punches, as were Eamonn O'Brien and Constable Reilly, when one of the IRA men managed to take Reilly's shotgun from him and smashed him over the head with it. He collapsed in a heap on the carriage floor. Constable Ring, meanwhile, found himself on the platform, having exited the carriage through a window, and withdrew from the area.
Seán Treacy and RIC man Wallace were still trying to get the better of each other, with Treacy telling Wallace to give it up as he was outnumbered and had lost his prisoner, but Wallace refused to do so. Both men were now grappling for Wallace's Webley revolver and Wallace managed to get enough control over it to fire a shot, which hit Seán Treacy in the neck - in that same instance, IRA man Eamonn O'Brien fired at Wallace, killing him instantly. Treacy survived, and was recorded later as saying "I thought I was a dead man. I had to hold my head up with both hands, but I knew I could walk."
Seán Hogan remained active in the struggle : he operated in Dublin, Kilkenny and Tipperary, was involved in the 'French Ambush' and was also heavily involved in raids on various RIC barracks and remained active until the Treaty of Surrender was being discussed, a 'compromise' which he was unable to support or condemn - he left the Republican Movement at that point and returned to Tipperary, to try and earn a living as a farmer. But he couldn't, and moved to Dublin where he got married and fathered a child, but the times were tough, economically, and he and his family could only afford to live in a slum tenement building in North Great George's Street.
He was suffering from depression at this stage and voiced disappointment that the Ireland he was living in was not that which he had fought for. He died, penniless, at 67 years of age, in 1968, and was buried in Tipperary town.
The news has spread through Ireland and spread from shore to shore
Of such a deed, no living man has ever heard before
From out a guarded carriage mid a panic stricken throng
Seán Hogan, he was rescued at the station of Knocklong
When a guard of four policemen had their prisoner minded well
As the fatal train sped o’er the rails, conveying him to his cell
The prisoner then could scarce foretell, of hearts both brave and strong
That were planning for his rescue at the station of Knocklong
The shades of eve were falling fast when the train at last drew in
It was halted for an hour or so by a few courageous men
They sprang into the carriage and it did not take them long
'Hands up or die' was the rebel cry at the station of Knocklong
King George’s pampered hirelings, they shrivelled up with fear
And thought of how they placed in cells, full many a Volunteer
Now face to face with armed men, to escape, how they did long
But two of them met with traitors deaths at the station of Knocklong
From Sologhead to Limerick, such deeds as these were never seen
And devil a tear was ever shed for Wallace of Roskeen
They did old England's dirty work and did that work too long
But the renegades were numbered up at the station of Knocklong
Now rise up Mother Erin and always be of cheer
You’ll never die while at your side there stand such Volunteers
From Dingle Bay to Garryowen, the cheers will echo long
Of the rescue of Seán Hogan at the station of Knocklong.
NO RIGHT OF APPEAL...
Why the media consensus on a broad range of issues is increasingly disturbing. By John Drennan.
From 'Magill' Annual, 2002.
The media consensus in favour of moral equivalence proved it could transcend boundaries, as Fintan O'Toole tutted about the American tendency "to divide the world between the forces of God and Satan", stating that "American fundamentalism" was as bad as that of Afghanistan. Every two-bit Irish hack who weighed in against America in those first few days after September 11th was writing, in his or her head, against the vast media consensus which supported America in everything it did.
The only problem was that the consensus didn't exist ; instead, in column after column of pseudo-outspoken caution, the reaction became the norm. Call it liberal posting, call it intellectual laziness, call it what you will - Irish journalists were frenziedly reading the collected works of Robert Fisk and Nick Cohen and weighing in behind the anti-American cause without remotely understanding the issues the way that either of these journalists do.
Mary Ellen Synon's response to this blather would have been interesting. However, as we have noted, Mary Ellen was taken care of a bit earlier in the year. The real triumph of programming belonged to 'Questions And Answers' as in two consecutive weeks not one pro-American sentiment was expressed by its audience. It was about the only place in the world where Mr Osama Bin Laden would have felt comfortable. Eventually, even RTE's 60's flower-power liberal anti-American collective realised there was a need for a bit more subtlety ; after all, even 'The Irish Times' was being neutral on the war. The station's 'Robinsonistas' promptly discovered a humanitarian crisis. They were only four years late...
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (12TH MAY) 40 YEARS AGO : 'THE BOY FROM TAMLAGHTDUFF' DIES ON HUNGER-STRIKE.
"I have no prouder boast than to say I am Irish and have been privileged to fight for the Irish people and for Ireland. If I have a duty I will perform it to the full in the unshakable belief that we are a noble race and that chains and bonds have no part in us..." - these are the words of Hunger Strike Francis Hughes, written in a letter addressed to the people of South Derry and surrounding areas five days before he embarked on his hunger strike.
He was born into a republican family on the 28th of February 1956, the youngest son amongst ten children, in Tamlaghduff, County Derry. He left school at 16 years young and started working with a relative as a painter and decorator, a job he excelled at and could have made a good living from, but the political and military atmosphere of trying to live in an occupied area made his mind up for him : in his late teenage years, like so many other young adults before and since, he joined the IRA.
In March, 1978, Francis, 23 years of age, was badly wounded after a gunbattle with British forces ("Francis Hughes was very active in the area. I arrested him after an IRA gun battle in which a soldier was killed. Hughes had escaped but a large chunk of his thigh bone had been shot away. We were there in the dark of night, with torches, following a trail of bullets, blood and a beret he'd discarded when crawling away. He hid for hours in thorn bushes until he was in such pain that he shouted to a soldier. He was very dehydrated but as he was being carried away on a stretcher, he raised a clenched fist and yelled 'Up the Ra...!" -from here) and the British breathed a sigh of relief ; 'the most wanted man in the North' had been imprisoned and neutralised. They thought.
But, on Sunday, the 15th of March, in 1981, the British had to think again - Francis Hughes joined Bobby Sands on hunger-strike. Bobby died on the 5th of May and Francis died on the 12th of May - 40 years ago on this date - still fighting against the British military and political presence in Ireland.
'As I walked through the Glenshane Pass I heard a young girl mourn
"The boy form Tamlaghtduff" ,she cried, "is two years dead and gone"
How my heart is torn apart this young man to lose
Oh I'll never see the likes again of my young Francis Hughes.
For many years his exploits were a thorn in Englands side
The hills and glens became his home there he used to hide
Once when they surrounded him he quietly slipped away
Like a fox he went to ground and kept the dogs at bay.
Moving round the countryside he often made the news
But they could never lay their hands on my brave Francis Hughes
Finally they wounded him and captured him at last
From the countryside he loved they took him to Belfast.
Oh from Musgrave Park to the Crumlin Road and then to an H-Block cell
He went straight on the blanket then on hungerstrike as well
His will to win they could never break no matter what they tried
He fought them every day he lived and he fought them as he died.
As I walked through the Glenshane Pass I heard a young girl mourn
'The boy form Tamlaghtduff 'she cried 'is two years dead and gone'
How my heart is torn apart this young man to lose
Oh I'll never see the likes again of my young Francis Hughes.'
Francis Hughes, IRA Volunteer, 1956 - 1981.
'WITH THE IRA IN THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM.'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, March, 1955.
These men achieved much because they were prepared to give much. They saw the relations between themselves and their country in terms of giving, not taking. They were prepared to give their minds, their energies and, if necessary, their lives, to the service of their country and the knowledge that they were serving their country was the only reward they either sought or desired.
If we are to take up the task where they left off we must relearn this lesson of service.
Join the Republican Movement!
(END of 'With The IRA In The Fight For Freedom' ; NEXT - 'Force : Moral Or Physical?', from the same source.)
Thanks for reading,
Sharon.
ON THIS DATE (5TH MAY) 40 YEARS AGO : BOBBY SANDS DIES ON HUNGER STRIKE IN LONG KESH PRISON.
The 1981 hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during this on-going struggle by Irish republican prisoners ; a 'blanket protest' began in 1976 when the British government withdrew 'Special Category Status' for political prisoners and, in 1978, after a number of attacks on prisoners leaving their cells to 'slop out', the protest escalated into the 'dirty protest', where prisoners refused to leave their cells to wash and covered the walls of their cells with excrement.
In 1980, seven prisoners participated in the first hunger strike, which ended after 53 days then, on Sunday, 1st March 1981, (P)IRA POW Bobby Sands began his hunger strike.
He received widespread media attention for his protest and more so when, on the 9th April 1981, he was elected as an abstentionist member in a Leinster House (Free State 'parliament') election, after being nominated to contest the 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 today : 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.
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 and other Leinster House 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 Sands, 9th March 1954 – 5th May 1981. RIP.
'CORK MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, June, 1955.
It will be emphasised that the restoration of our language and culture is an important part of our programme ('1169' comment - "our ancient history and culture..").
Voluntary workers and funds are urgently needed and any help, no mater how small, will be appreciated. Anybody willing to help can report to Election Headquarters, Thomas Ashe Memorial Hall, or ring Cork 24700 or Cork 23661.
(END of 'Cork Municipal Elections' ; NEXT - 'Wolfe Tone Commemoration', from the same source.)
ON THIS DATE (5TH MAY) 142 YEARS AGO : 'FATHER OF HOME RULE' DIES IN DUBLIN.
'ISAAC BUTT (1813-1879) POLITICIAN, BARRISTER AND PHILOSOPHER (pictured).
Isaac Butt was born in Glenfin, Donegal, on the 6th September 1813. His father, The Reverend Robert Butt, became Rector of St. Mary's Church of Ireland, Stranorlar in 1814 so Isaac spent his childhood years in Stranorlar. His mother's maiden name was Berkeley Cox and she claimed descendency from the O'Donnells. When Isaac was aged twelve he went as a boarder to the Royal School Raphoe and at the age of fifteen entered Trinity College Dublin.
He trained as a barrister and became a member of both the Irish Bar and the English Bar. He was a conservative lawyer but after the famine ('1169' comment - it was an attempted genocide) in the 1840s became increasingly liberal. In 1852 he became Tory MP at Westminster representing Youghal, Co. Cork and in 1869 he founded a 'Tenant League' to renew the demand for tenant rights. He was a noted orator who spoke fervently for justice, tolerance, compassion and freedom. He always defended the poor and the oppressed.
He started the Home Rule Movement in 1870 and in 1871 was elected MP for Limerick, running on a Home Rule ticket. He founded a political party called 'The Home Rule Party' in 1873. By the mid 1870s Butt's health was failing and he was losing control of his party to a section of its members who wished to adopt a much more aggressive approach than he was willing to accept. In 1879 he suffered a stroke from which he failed to recover and died on the 5th May (1879) - 142 years ago on this date - in Clonskeagh, Dublin.
He was replaced by William Shaw who was succeeded by Charles Stewart Parnell in 1880. Isaac Butt became known as "The Father of Home Rule in Ireland". At his express wish he is buried in a corner of Stranorlar Church of Ireland cemetery, beneath a tree where he used to sit and dream as a boy.' (from here.)
On the 18th November, 1873, a three-day conference was convened in Dublin to discuss the issue of 'home rule' for Ireland. The conference had been organised, in the main, by Isaac Butt's then 3-year-old 'Home Government Association', and was attended by various individuals and small localised groups who shared an interest in that subject.
Isaac Butt was a well-known Dublin barrister who was apparently viewed with some suspicion by 'his own type' - Protestants - as he was a pillar of the Tory society in Ireland before recognising the ills of that creed and converting, politically, to the 'other side of the house' - Irish nationalism, a 'half way house', if even that - then and now - between British imperialism and Irish republicanism ie Isaac Butt and those like him made it clear that they were simply agitating for an improved position for Ireland within the 'British empire', as opposed to Irish republicans who were demanding then, and now, a British military and political withdrawal from Ireland.
Over that three-day period the gathering agreed to establish a new organisation, to be known as 'The Home Rule League',and the minutes from the conference make for interesting reading as they highlight/expose the request for the political 'half way house', mentioned above - 'At twelve o'clock, on the motion of George Bryan, M.R, seconded by Hon. Charles Ffrench, M.P., the Chair was taken by William Shaw, M.R.
On the motion of the Rev. P. Lavelle, seconded by Laurence Waldron, D.L., the following gentlemen were appointed Honorary Secretaries : — John O.Blunden, Philip Callan M.P, W.J.O'Neill Daunt, ER King Harman and Alfred Webb. ER King Harman read the requisition convening the Conference, as follows : —
We, the undersigned feel bound to declare our conviction that it is necessary to the peace and prosperity of Ireland, and would be conducive to the strength and stability of the United Kingdom, that the right of domestic legislation on all Irish affairs should be restored to our country and that it is desirable that Irishmen should unite to obtain that restoration upon the following principles : To obtain for our countiy the right and privilege of managing our own affairs, by a Parliament assembled in Ireland, composed of her Majesty the Sovereign, and the Lords and Commons of Ireland.
To secure for that Parliament, under a Federal arrangement, the right of legislating for, and regulating all matters relating to the internal affairs of Ireland, and control over Irish resources and revenues, subject to the obligation of contributing our just proportion of the Imperial expenditure. To leave to an Imperial Parliament the power of dealing with all questions affecting the Imperial Crown and Government, legislation regarding the Colonies and other dependencies of the Crown, the relations of the United Empire with Foreign States, and all matters appertaining to the defence and the stability of the Empire at large...' (from here.)
The militant 'Irish Republican Brotherhood' (IRB) was watching those developments with interest and it was decided that Patrick Egan and three other members of the IRB Supreme Council - John O'Connor Power, Joseph Biggar and John Barry - would join the 'Home Rule League' with the intention of 'steering' that group in the direction of the IRB. Other members of the IRB were encouraged to join the 'League' as well, and a time-scale was set in which to completely infiltrate the 'League' - three years.
However, that decision to infiltrate Isaac Butt's organisation was to backfire on the Irish Republican Brotherhood : the 'three-year' period of infiltration ended in 1876 and in August 1877 the IRB Supreme Council held a meeting at which a resolution condemning the over-involvement in politics (ie political motions etc rather than military action) of IRB members was discussed ; after heated arguments, the resolution was agreed and passed by the IRB Council, but not everyone accepted that decision and Patrick Egan, John O'Connor Power, Joseph Biggar and John Barry refused to accept the decision and all four men resigned from the IRB.
Charles Stewart Parnell was elected as leader of the 'Home Rule League' in 1880 and it became a more organised body - two years later, Parnell renamed it the 'Irish Parliamentary Party' and the rest, as they say, is history.
Parnell's predecessor, bar one, Isaac Butt, died in Dublin on this date, 5th May, 142 years ago.
NO RIGHT OF APPEAL...
Why the media consensus on a broad range of issues is increasingly disturbing. By John Drennan.
From 'Magill' Annual, 2002.
The reaction of the people of Ireland against the media consensus was heartening, no matter what your views might be on the merits or otherwise of European integration.
It showed that we do not, after all, live in a society where the views of a nation are sculpted by self-appointed political arbiters. We just live in a society where the self-appointed arbiters believe the myth, and everyone else generally takes little notice. The 'No To Nice' campaign taught us all a few lessons in listening to the people on the ground. Quite simply, they were on message with the only person who really counts - 'Joe Public'.
'Nice' was followed by the continued outworking of the ILDA/ASTI (trade union)
war. Oddly enough, no sooner had the ATGWU accepted ILDA into its capacious folds than its General Secretary and some of his staff were suspended by their mother union for such horrors as the cooking of fish in a canteen and the possession by one of them of a mug which showed a half-naked woman when something hot was poured into it. This wasn't a harassment case - this was high farce.
But the finest hour of the craven journalistic cabal was yet to come ; as bodies still burned in the tinder of the World Trade Centre, the RTE/Irish Times/Last Word-collective was on the job immediately as we were warned that we should be wary of the US embrace... (MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (5TH MAY) 105 YEARS AGO : JOHN MACBRIDE EXECUTED BY THE BRITISH.
John MacBride (pictured, sometimes written as 'John McBride', Seán Mac Giolla Bhríde) was born on the 7th May, 1868, in Westport, County Mayo. He was a leading figure in the 'Irish Republican Brotherhood' in that county but, at 28 years of age, he left Ireland for South Africa, where he organised an Irish Transvaal Brigade to fight with the Boers.
After the war, he moved to Paris and married Maude Gonne, but they went their separate ways in 1906, and he returned to Ireland, where he resumed his contact with the IRB. He wasn't involved with the planning of the 1916 Easter Rising, but played his part as Adjutant to Thomas MacDonagh in Jacob's Factory. The British put him to death on the 5th May, 1916.
Sixteen Irish republicans, including the seven signatories of the 1916 Proclamation, were executed by the British, after the Rising, while hundreds were imprisoned and interned in England and Wales. Within two days of the ending of the Rising, 'court martials' were convened by the British at Arbour Hill and Richmond Barracks - one of the first to face 'court-martial' was Padraig Pearse, the President of the newly-proclaimed Irish Republic (32-Counties, NOT a 26-County State) and commander-in-chief of the Republican Army.
On May 2nd, 1916, he was sentenced to death and despite a plea that his life be forfeit and that those of his comrades be spared, his request was rejected. During the following ten days, 15 republicans were 'court-martialled', sentenced to death and executed. On the morning of May 3rd, 1916, Pearse and Thomas J Clarke, the veteran Fenian and first signatory of the Proclamation, and Thomas MacDonagh, commander of the 2nd Battalion at Jacob's factory, were executed by firing squad in the yard of Kilmainham Jail.
The following day, four more executions took place - Joseph Plunkett (GPO Garrison), Edward Daly (commander of the Four Courts Garrison), Willie Pearse (GPO) and Michael O'Hanrahan (second-in-command at Jacobs factory). Major John MacBride, a veteran of the Boer War in South Africa, who fought at Jacobs factory, was the only execution carried out on May 5th, 1916 ; 105 years ago on this date.
'COMMENTS...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, March, 1955.
Watch Your Imagination : "Fianna Fáil is going to capture the imagination of the people as it did in the earlier stages of the great national (sic) reconstruction drive", said Mr Erskine Childers, in Dublin, recently. It seems as if the truth is out at last that Fianna Fáil worked on the people's imagination for almost 20 years and, not content with that innings, the Party is planning another 'Operation Imagination'. Fool me once...
Westminster Elections :
A 'Newsweek' report states that Conservative Party strategists, who had been planning towards Autumn elections this year, now confide that unless the Far East situations clears up, elections will be put off until the Spring of 1956. Sinn Féin will contest all 12 seats in the Six Counties area and among the Sinn Féin nominations are a number of the republican prisoners at present under sentence in Belfast and English jails.
(END of 'Comments' ; NEXT - 'With The IRA In The Fight For Freedom', from the same source.)
Thanks for reading,
Sharon.
