ON THIS DATE (16TH AUGUST) 103 YEARS AGO : AN IRISH FIGHTER IN A BRITISH 'COURT OF JUSTICE'.
Pictured : Terence MacSwiney, his wife Muriel and their daughter, Máire, photographed in 1919.
On August 12th, 1920, in Cork, British forces 'arrested' Terence MacSwiney (and other members of the Cork IRA) for possession of 'seditious articles and documents', and for the possession of a cipher key which, they claimed, would enable the user to read coded messages sent by the RIC and, to ensure conviction, they accused him of three other counts of 'sedition'.
Terence MacSwiney was summarily 'tried' by the British on the 16th of August, 1920 - 103 years ago on this date - and sentenced to two years imprisonment in Brixton Prison, away from his family and supporters ; he immediately began a hunger strike in protest against his conviction, and was joined by ten other political prisoners (including Maurice Crowe [Tipperary] and Michael Fitzgerald).
Terence MacSwiney was born on the 28th March 1879, and was the Commandant of the 1st Cork Brigade of the IRA and was the elected Lord Mayor of Cork.
He died after 74 days on hunger strike (a botched effort to force feed him hastened his death) in that prison (Brixton) on the 25th October, 1920, and his body lay in Southwark Cathedral, in London, where tens of thousands of people paid their respects.
He summed-up the Irish feeling at that time (a feeling and determination which is still prominent in Irish republicans to this day) -
"The contest on our side is not one of rivalry or vengeance but of endurance. It is not those who can inflict the most but those who can suffer the most who will conquer. Those whose faith is strong will endure to the end in triumph."
"If I die I know the fruit will exceed the cost a thousand fold. The thought of it makes me happy. I thank God for it. Ah, Cathal, the pain of Easter week is properly dead at last..."
- Terence MacSwiney wrote these words in a letter to Cathal Brugha on the 30th of September, 1920, the 39th day of his hunger strike. The pain he refers to is that caused by his failure to take part in the 1916 Easter Rising - contradictory orders from Dublin and the failure of the arms ship, 'The Aud', to land arms in Tralee left the Volunteers in Cork unprepared for the fight.
In his book 'History of the Irish Working Class', Peter Berresford Ellis wrote :
"On October 25th, 1920, Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney - poet, dramatist and scholar - died on the 74th day of a hunger-strike while in Brixton Prison, London. A young Vietnamese dishwasher in the Carlton Hotel in London broke down and cried when he heard the news - "A Nation which has such citizens will never surrender". His name was Nguyen Ai Quoc (pictured) who, in 1941, adopted the name Ho Chi Minh and took the lessons of the Irish anti-imperialist fight to his own country..."
On the 13th March, 1920, Terence MacSwiney was unanimously elected as the 'Lord Mayor of Cork' by that city's Corporation (he donated his salary for the position to an outside organisation and received no salary for the other position he held at that time - Brigadier of the No. 1 Brigade, Cork IRA) -
"I shall be as brief as possible. This is not an occasion for many words, least of all a conventional exchange of compliments and thanks. The circumstances of the vacancy in the office of Lord Mayor governed inevitably the filling of it. And I come here more as a soldier stepping into the breach, than as an administrator to fill the first post in the municipality.
At a normal time it would be your duty to find for this post the councillor most practical and experienced in public affairs. But the time is not normal. We see in the manner in which our late Lord Mayor was murdered an attempt to terrify us all. Our first duty is to answer that threat in the only fitting manner by showing ourselves unterrified, cool and inflexible for the fulfillment of our chief purpose - the establishment of the independence and integrity of our country — the peace and the happiness of our country. To that end I am here.
I was more closely associated than any other here with our late murdered friend and colleague, both before and since the events of Easter Week, in prison and out of it, in a common work of love for Ireland, down to the hour of his death. For that reason I take his place. It is, I think, though I say it, the only fitting answer to those who struck him down.
Following from that there is a further matter of importance only less great — it touches the efficient continuance of our civic administration. If this recent unbearable aggravation of our persecution by our enemies should cause us to suspend voluntarily the normal discharge of our duties, it would help them very materially in their campaign to overthrow our cause. I feel the question of the future conduct of our affairs is in all our minds. And I think I am voicing the general view when I say that the normal functions of our corporate body must proceed, as far as in our power lies, uninterrupted, with that efficiency and integrity of which our late civic head gave such brilliant promise.
I don't wish to sound a personal note, but this much may be permitted under the circumstances — I made myself active in the selection of our late colleague for the office of Lord Mayor. He did not seek the honour and would not accept it as such, but when put to him as a duty he stepped to his place like a soldier.
Before his election we discussed it together in the intimate way we discussed everything touching our common work since Easter Week. We debated together what ought to be done and what could be done, keeping in mind, as in duty bound, not only the ideal line of action but the practical line at the moment as well. That line he followed with an ability and success all his own.
Gentlemen, you have paid tribute to him on all sides. It will be my duty and steady purpose to follow that line as faithfully as in my power, though no man in this Council could hope to discharge its functions with his ability and his perfect grasp of public business in all its details and as one harmonious whole.
GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND.
PROCLAMATION.
Whereas an unconstitutional and usurping Junta, set up at the dictation of the British Government and calling itself the "Provisional Government of Ireland," is and has been pledging the credit of the nation without the sanction of Dáil Eireann, the Parliament and Government of the Republic, and contracting debts and liabilities in various ways, including the purchase of military supplies and war material, and is further seeking to create vested interests by filling vacant offices and making appointments to new offices ;
And whereas the so-called Provisional Government has been proclaimed an illegal body by the Government of the Republic ;
Therefore, it is hereby proclaimed and notified to all whom it may concern that all such debts contracted or to be contracted, and appointments made, or to be made, by the said Provisional Government without the sanction of Dáil Eireann, the Parliament and Government of the Republic, are, and shall be illegal, null and void, and will not be recognised by the State.
(Signed) Aibhistin de Staic (Austin Stack)
Minister for Finance.'
In May 1923, the defence of the (32-County) Republic by armed struggle was suspended : from April 1922 until May 1923, the fighting had raged throughout the country (all 32 Counties of it) until the republican forces, encircled and isolated, were forced to dump arms. The republican army had lost some of its best leaders ; the republican institutions had been smashed, 11,316 republican fighters were still interned and British interests were being protected, by the 26-County Staters, 'with an economy of English lives.'
That same political junta is still here, in this Free State, still operating from Leinster House in Kildare Street, in Dublin and it's still wreaking political and financial havoc in the part of Ireland that it claims to have jurisdictional control over.
Those who operate under its 'writ' are, for the most part, millionaire/extremely wealthy businessmen and women and/or so-called 'landlords', and have no empathy with the people they purport to govern over.
The 'Free State' was spawned, in Ireland, on the 6th December 1922 and, in a nutshell, it has been all downhill since then, politically and morally. We need a new beginning ; a 'New Ireland'.
The alternative is to continue to put so-called 'new oil' (political candidates) into a seized 'engine' (Leinster House) in the hope that it will work.
IRELAND ON THE COUCH.
A Psychiatrist Writes.
'Magill' commissioned Professor Patricia Casey to compile an assessment of Irish society at what may emerge as the end of a period of unprecedented growth and change.
This is her report.
From 'Magill Magazine' Annual, 2002.
There was a perception of the Irish as a rural people ; priest-ridden and repressed but warm and friendly.
Over the past decade that image has metamorphosed and we are now seen as artistically sophisticated, socially progressive, chic and wealthy.
Many of these changes are positive, but there are indicators that at least some of this restyling has brought a raft of problems that could scarcely be comprehended in a sociological report.
We have always had a very friendly relationship to alcohol, and the pub has been an integral part of Irish culture. Regrettably, this relationship seems to be turning sour as we consume more and more alcohol. Teenagers and young adults drink prodigious amounts, yet they fail to identify any message in the findings of a recent EU survey which demonstrated that Ireland's young people had the largest intake of alcohol in Europe... (MORE LATER.)
'IN ANSWER TO CHURCH AND STATE AND IN DEFENCE OF IRISH REPUBLICANISM...'
Address to the Annual General Meeting of Comhairle Uladh (Ulster Executive) in Cootehill, County Cavan, on Sunday, November 22nd, 1987, by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, Uachtarán, Sinn Féin Poblachtach.
Comhaírle Uladh AGM, November 22nd, 1987.
No generation of Irish republicans since the foundation of republicanism in Ireland by Wolfe Tone has been exempt from their strictures ; the United Irishmen, the Young Irelanders, the Fenians, the Land League, the men and women of Easter Week 1916, the Irish Republican Army in the Black-and-Tan War, in the war against the Free State, in 1931, in 1956 and in line of unbroken condemnation to the present day.
Denial of the sacraments and of church services for republican dead, excommunication in 1920 and again in 1922, exiling, silencing and punishment of brave priests eg Fathers Albert and Dominic and Father Michael O'Flanagan, who brought religious consolation to active republicans, are all part of this sorry tale. And in spite of it all, the Irish people have in the main clung tenaciously to their religious beliefs, wisely 'rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's'.
The altar has many times been made a pro-British political platform down the years... (MORE LATER.)
16TH AUGUST 1919...
On the 16th August 1919 - 104 years ago on this date - Michael Collins, who was then still an Irish republican and a member of the GHQ Staff of the IRA, visited the Cork area and, as arranged beforehand, held a meeting with representatives of the Cork IRA.
The meeting took place in a town called Caheragh, in Drimoleague, and was presided over by Mr Collins, who announced several changes to the command structure of the 3rd West Cork Brigade of the army (pictured).
Seán Hayes, Hugh Thornton, Liam Deasy, Michael McCarthy, Pat Harte, Denis O'Shea and Ted O'Sullivan were all either promoted or demoted by Mr Collins, in what is said to be the last visit that he made to any of the three Cork Brigades during that period in our history.
After he took the soup, Mr Collins found himself in the Cork area again and, on the evening of the 22nd of August, 1922, Mr Collins and his Free State military escort took a wrong turn (another one...) and, on seeing a man they presumed was a local, pulled-in and asked him for directions.
The local, a Mr Dinny Long (an IRA man) put them on the right road, so to speak, and sent them on their way to an area known as 'the Mouth of Flowers', better known to outsiders as Béal na mBláth.
Mr Long had recognised Collins and got word to his comrades, and a certain IRA man, Liam Deasy, helped to organise a 'street party' for his old ex-republican Commanding Officer. The rest is history...
16TH AUGUST 1920...
British Army Private AE Nunn and some of his colleagues had been tasked with guarding a British Army airplane which crashed to earth on the 15th August, 1920, in the vicinity of Kanturk, in County Cork.
The Kanturk Company of the IRA heard about the incident and arrived at the scene on the same day and opened fire on Private Nunn and his colleagues and, in the firefight, Private Nunn was killed.
The following day, Monday, 16th August 1920 - 103 years ago on this date - Private Nunn's colleagues, assisted by RIC men, raided Jack O'Connell's home at Derrygallon, in Cork, and pulled him and his IRA comrade, Patrick Clancy, out of the house. Both men (pictured) were bayoneted and then shot dead.
The British raiding party later claimed that both men were killed while "resisting arrest".
16TH AUGUST 1920...
Kerry No. 2 Brigade of the IRA had received information that an RIC motorised patrol would be passing over Beaufort Bridge, in their operational area (between Killorglin and Killarney) at a certain time, on the 16th August (1920) and an ambush position was established.
The car with the (armed) RIC men arrived on the bridge at the expected time and was fired on, in the belief that the RIC would vacate the vehicle to defend themselves and try and retain ownership of the car.
Instead, although being fired on, the car sped up and hightailed it off the bridge!
16TH AUGUST 1920...
In June, 1920, RIC District Inspector William Harding Wilson was part of an RIC patrol driving through the village of Templetouhy, in County Tipperary, when they were fired on by the IRA ; bullets grazed his head but, although injured, he survived.
That same RIC operative, Wilson, was later said by the IRA to have been involved in the killing of IRA Captain (Borrisoleigh Company, Tipperary No.2 Brigade) Michael Small, who was shot dead on the 4th July, 1920, while he was crossing a field close to where an IRA ambush had taken place.
On the 16th August 1920 - 103 years ago on this date - an IRA 'Active Service Unit' was sent to the townland of Templemore, in Tipperary, to deal with the RIC man and, as he was about to enter the Post Office in that village at about 6.45pm, a shot rang out from a near-by laneway and RIC DI Wilson fell to the ground, having been shot in the head.
His colleagues in the British Army and the RIC went berserk and they went into the town of Templemore and burnt down the Town Hall (pictured) and three creameries in Castleiney, Killeen and Loughmore, and shops and houses were looted and destroyed.
However, during the fiery destruction of the Town Hall, two British soldiers (from the Northampton Regiment) received mortal injuries ; Lance–Corporal Herbert Fuggle died from burns and Lieutenant-Colonel Sidney Beattie was injured and died later from his wounds.
RIP Captain Michael Small.
Thanks for the visit, and for reading,
Sharon and the team.
BY GUM (!) but we've been busy beavers here in '1169 Towers' over the past week!
I'm told that we'll have a 9-parter ready to be unleashed on Wednesday, 16th August 2023, including a few paragraphs about two opposing armies, in 20th Century Ireland, who, at the same time, showed an interest in a piece of equipment that fell to earth, landing in an Irish county...
If that's not to your liking, there's gonna be a few other paragraphs about an immigrant kitchen worker in London who had an interest in the political and military turmoil in Ireland and learned lessons from what was happening here. He brought that knowledge back to his own country...
This political 'Senator' somehow considered it a good move to sing the praises of the A, B and C 'Specials', but was taken to task for being so naive...
In the 1920's, the IRA issued a warning about the financial activities of an "usurping junta" which was operating in the State, and advised institutions to avoid doing business with it...
And that's some of the nine pieces that we'll be writing about, here, on Wednesday, 16th August 2023, but it probably won't be an early morning post, as we're waiting on confirmation (or otherwise!) of a few of the names we'll be mentioning, and we might not have same until early afternoon on the 16th.
So bear with us - not bleedin' often we ask ya to do anything for us, is it...?!!
Thanks for the visit - and please do check back with us again on Wednesday, 16th August 2023 (...we need the 'clicks' to get us to two million hits..!)
See ye all then!
Sharon and the team.
ON THIS DATE (9TH AUGUST) 82 YEARS AGO : REVOLUTIONARY IRISHMAN EXECUTED BY THE STATERS.
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 agreed control over them then), British Army Officers mutinied in objection.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Ireland, other forces were recruiting : the 'Irish Citizen Army' was recruiting for volunteers, as was the then Sinn Fein organisation, 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 neighbourhood, 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 Ireland (which, by then, had been forcibly partitioned), 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, and British political leaders were voicing support for the bigots - indeed, 'Sir' Basil Brooke actually boasted that he had "not a Roman Catholic about my own place"!
Also, the then British Stormont Minister for Labour, a Mr. J. M. Andrews (pictured), 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 (who is) 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 that anti-Nationalist grouping, 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, Richie Goss was picked-up by the Free State Special Branch (political police) and asked to account for his movements ; he refused to do so, 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' when, in Dundalk, County Louth, on the 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 Gardai ('police') were assisted by a local man, a Mr. Joseph McGrory, from Chapel Street, Dundalk : two IRA men were jailed as a result of the evidence given by Mr McGrory.
On the night of the 11th February 1934, a bomb was thrown through the front window of the McGrory house, and the explosion killed his wife. On the 23rd March 1934, 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.
Those men were 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, Mr Finnigan was already in jail, 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 Seán Russell (pictured), 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.
Within months, Richie Goss 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 - 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 in September that year (1939) ; on the 2nd September 1939, the Leinster House Administration (the Free Staters) 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."
On the following day (3rd September 1939), the 'Emergency Powers Bill' was enacted (ie to all intent and purpose it was martial law) and, 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 in Dublin.
The men 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 and, in July 1941, when he was staying in the house of a family named Casey in Longford, 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 and, on the 8th August that year, Richie Goss was taken, under armed guard, from Mountjoy Jail in Dublin and he was put in the back of a truck. He was forced to sit on his own coffin on the journey from Dublin to Portlaoise Jail.
On the 9th August 1941 - 82 years ago on this date - 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 the following 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 indepdence 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.
Richard Goss 1915 - 1941.
'KEOGHBOYS OF THE 1950's.'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
The AOH in Ireland were ever noted for their wretched cringing before Imperial England and for their sectarianism.
Afraid to join the professed Unionists in open condemnation of freedom-loving Irishmen, unwilling to give the slightest approval to anything with a separatist flavour, they wobble on a middle line pretending to be champions of the Faith.
They are neither fish, flesh nor good red herring.
In the village where I was born, they were chiefly noted for the brave way they played 'Faith Of Our Fathers', striking the same chord as the 'Pope's Brass Band' of 100 years ago, and of their invariable rendering of 'A Nation Once Again'.
This noteworthy body of men have come forward again to demonstrate their many faces. The 'Derry Journal' newspaper gives interesting accounts of their gatherings in Ballycastle and Drumquin on St Patrick's Day...
(MORE LATER.)
INTERNMENT IN OCCUPIED IRELAND : 9TH AUGUST 1971.
'During the 9th August 1971 and the early hours of the 10th August Northern Ireland (sic) experienced the worst violence since August 1969...in a series of raids across Northern Ireland (sic), 342 people were arrested and taken to makeshift camps. There was an immediate upsurge of violence and 17 people were killed during the next 48 hours.
Of these 10 were Catholic civilians who were shot dead by the British Army.
Hugh Mullan (38) was the first Catholic priest to be killed in the conflict when he was shot dead by the British Army as he was giving the last rites to a wounded man. Winston Donnell (22) became the first Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) solider to die in 'the Troubles' when he was shot by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) near Clady, County Tyrone...internment was to continue until 5th December 1975.
During that time 1,981 people were detained ; 1,874 were Catholic/Republican...' (from here.)
'The morning of Monday the 9th of August, 1971 was misty in Ballymurphy, a public housing estate of white semi-detached houses, the model of 1960s modernity, in west Belfast, under Divis Mountain.
This morning, though, the dawn gloom was broken by the piercing headlights of British Army armoured cars, which disgorged squads of beret-wearing paratroopers. Doors were kicked in and men, often addled by sleep, dragged away.
Before long, the predominantly nationalist area had woken up amid howls of rage from the families of those who had been taken...' (from here.)
Internment in Ireland, by the British or their proxies in the Free State, was one of the weapons used by those who were (and still are) fighting against the reunification of this country.
On the 6th July, 1957, the fortnightly meeting of the then Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle was being held at the party's Ard Oifig (Head Office) at 31 Wicklow Street in Dublin.
The meeting was raided by the Garda Special Branch and seven members of the Ard Chomhairle were 'arrested' and detained ; among those 'arrested' and interned were the President of Sinn Féin, Patrick MacLogan, the Vice-President Tom Doyle and the National Secretary Michael Traynor.
This signalled the imposition of internment without trial by Éamon de Valera's Fianna Fáil Free State administration, which was (and still is) based in Leinster House, in Kildare Street, in Dublin.
At the December 1957 meeting of Drogheda Corporation, a debate was held on the internment issue, after a letter re same, from the Sinn Fein Publicity Committee protesting against the internment of the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle, was read into the minutes.
Alderman Peter Moore and Councillor Harry Pentony spoke out strongly against the 26-County government's policy in introducing 'The Offences Against the State Acts', with the latter saying that they had a right to protest against internment without trial, not only of the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle, but also of all the young men that were held in custody behind the barbed-wire fences of the Curragh Camp.
He stated that no one was safe under the present State laws, and declared that even he could be interned for what he was saying at the Council meeting, and asked the assembled County officials "is this freedom?".
Alderman Peter Moore said he admired the stand taken by Councillor Pentony and said that he, too, had his duties as an Irishman, and stated that the other Councillors were all aware of where he stood in relation to Internment -
"We are the greatest nation of hypocrites in the world. The political parties in this country have perpetuated unemployment and emigration and we are worse off now than we were in 1922! The republicans are the only consistent element in the country today. They stand to gain nothing and to lose all."
Referring to the freedom movement in Occupied Ireland, he said the young men involved were right and should be admired. They went out to attack the institutions of the British Government and the British 'Monarchy', and their ideals were the ideals of Wolfe Tone, Robert Emmet and the men and women of 1916.
Speaking on the internment of Irishmen without trial he said that the situation in the so-called "Free Ireland" could only be compared with that prevailing under the "Kádár Regime", in the Six Counties, and behind the 'Iron Curtain'.
Larry Grogan, a Sinn Féin election candidate for the Louth constituency, who was one of those interned in the Curragh Camp, was referred to by Alderman Moore when he said that he was proud to say Drogheda had made its contribution to the Republican Movement and they now had this man in prison that "...the latchet of whose shoe many of those who liked to talk of all they did for Irish Freedom are not worthy to loose."
Concluding the Council debate, the Mayor of Drogheda, Councillor Eugene Hughes, said - "As long as there is one British soldier on Irish soil, there will be young Irishmen willing to go out and sacrifice their lives for freedom."
Unfortunately, Councillors today are, to put it mildly, not as concerned about the on-going British military and political claim of jurisdictional control over six Irish counties and are more interested in pushing and promoting a 'Woke Agenda', as they somehow believe that chasing that particular vote will get them a seat in Leinster House or a position with one of the thousands of NGO's in this State. They are now available for sale to the highest bidder.
'LAW AND SOCIETY :
IS IT TIME TO ASK QUESTIONS OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION...?
We have always been a society with a facility for the creation of myths. However, not even the most dewy-eyed devotee of the dreams of the Celtic Twilight could have invented the present status of the legal profession in Ireland.'
By John Drennan.
From 'Magill Magazine Annual, 2002.
The law exists to protect us but, as with the moral law of the Church, those who devote their lives to it should be under its closest scrutiny, precisely because they are more empowered by it than anyone else in our society.
It is time that journalism and politics started asking difficult questions of the legal profession. For starters, we can look into the scandal of the family courts, and then go on to ask who benefits the most from our relatively new-found public tribunal culture.
Only then will we even begin to redress the balance of power between the people and the courts.
(END of 'Law And Society : Is It Time To Ask Questions Of The Legal Profession?' : NEXT - 'Ireland On The Couch', from the same source.)
'IN ANSWER TO CHURCH AND STATE AND IN DEFENCE OF IRISH REPUBLICANISM...'
Address to the Annual General Meeting of Comhairle Uladh (Ulster Executive) in Cootehill, County Cavan, on Sunday, November 22nd, 1987, by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, Uachtarán, Sinn Féin Poblachtach.
Comhaírle Uladh AGM, November 22nd, 1987.
The Catholic Church Establishment has been called in to prop up a tottering colonialism in the Six Counties.
They have certainly over-reached themselves in their efforts to outpace the various Protestant Churches in condemnations of republicans and in invoking sanctions against them.
This is in keeping with the role of the Catholic Hierarchy ever since the Penal Laws were relaxed and they came 'off the run' themselves with the withdrawal of the bounty price on the heads of Catholic clergy.
From the foundation of Maynooth College with British government money in 1795 and the adoption in Ireland of the democratic ideal and the principles of the American and French Revolutions, the Bishops - with a few honourable exceptions - have acted as moral policemen of British rule in Ireland...
(MORE LATER.)
Thanks for the visit, and for reading,
Sharon and the team.
..AS WITH THE MORAL LAW OF THE CHURCH.."
This British 'Sir' took control of a pro-British militia in Ireland and worked with them to obtain ten's of thousands of rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition for those weapons.
His political bosses in Westminster voiced concern (perhaps afraid he would use that by-now well-armed militia against them...) and they attempted to make a move against their 'Sir' and his gang, but backed-off when British Army officers mutined in objection...
Turncoats ; these Irish 'men of the Cloth' actually had a bounty put on their heads by the British but, after they reached an agreement of sorts with the bounty payers, they themselves put a 'religious bounty' on the heads of their fellow Irish men and women...
Ireland, July 1957 : a Sinn Féin meeting was taking place in Wicklow Street, in Dublin, when Éamon de Valera's Fianna Fáil Free State administration decided to implement a British weapon which had been used, by the British, on them. The State 'Special Branch' busted their way into the Wicklow Street building...
From 2002 - 'The law exists to protect us but, as with the moral law of the Church, those who devote their lives to it should be under its closest scrutiny, precisely because they are more empowered by it than anyone else in our society...'
From 1987 - "The Catholic Church Establishment has been called in to prop up a tottering colonialism in the Six Counties. They have certainly over-reached themselves in their efforts to outpace the various Protestant Churches in condemnations of republicans and in invoking sanctions against them..."
Thanks for the visit - and please check back with us again on Wednesday, 9th August 2023.
See ye all then!
Sharon and the team.
ON THIS DATE (2ND AUGUST) 101 YEARS AGO : DEATH OF "AN INFLUENTIAL AND FORMIDABLE" IRISH REPUBLICAN SOLDIER.
Henry James 'Harry' Boland (27th April 1887 – 2nd August 1922). "I rise to speak against this Treaty because, in my opinion, it denies a recognition of the Irish nation...I object to it on the ground of principle, and my chief objection is because I am asked to surrender the title of Irishman and accept the title of West Briton...I object because this Treaty denies the sovereignty of the Irish nation, and I stand by the principles I have always held — that the Irish people are by right a free people.
I object to this Treaty because it is the very negation of all that for which we have fought. It is the first time in the history of our country that a body of representative Irishmen has ever suggested that the sovereignty of this nation should be signed away..we secured a mandate from the Irish people because we put for the first time before the people of Ireland a definite issue ; we promised that if elected we would combat the will, and deny the right of England in this country, and after four years of hard work we have succeeded in bringing Ireland to the proud position she occupied on the fifth December last.
The fight was made primarily here in Ireland ; but I want to say that the fight that was made in Ireland was also reflected throughout the world ; and we — because we had a definite object — had the sympathy of liberty-loving people everywhere....I have taken one oath to the Republic and I will keep it.
If I voted for that document I would work the Treaty, and I would keep my solemn word and treat as a rebel any man who would rise out against it. If I could in conscience vote for that Treaty I would do so, and if I did I would do all in my power to enforce that Treaty ; because, so sure as the honour of this nation is committed by its signature to this Treaty, so surely is Ireland dead.
We are asked to commit suicide and I cannot do it..we are asked to annihilate the Irish nation. This nation has been preserved for seven hundred and fifty years, coming down in unbroken succession of great men who have inspired us to carry on. We were the heirs of a great tradition, and the tradition was that Ireland had never surrendered, that Ireland had never been beaten, and that Ireland can never be beaten.." (7th January, 1922, from here.)
It is generally considered that Harry Boland was the first man to be 'unofficially executed' by a Michael Collins-controlled Free State death squad, on the evening of Sunday 30th July/early Monday morning 31st July 1922 and, following that shooting, in the Grand Hotel in Skerries, Dublin, the State gunmen issued this statement (on Monday 31st July 1922) -
"Early this morning a small party of troops entered the Grand Hotel to place Mr. H.Boland T.D., under arrest. Mr. Boland had been actively engaged in the irregular campaign.
When accosted in his bedroom he made an unsuccessful attempt to seize a gun from one of the troops and then rushed out to the door. After firing two shots at random and calling on Mr. Boland to halt, it was found necessary to fire a third shot to prevent an escape. Mr. Boland was wounded and removed to hospital.
A man giving his name as John J.Murphy with residence at 3 Castlewood Avenue, Ranelagh, Dublin, who was found with Mr. Boland, was taken prisoner. Subsequently he was identified as Joseph Griffin* , an active irregular, belonging to Dublin."
(*'1169' Comment - Joe Griffin was an IRA operative within the Movement's Intelligence Department.)
One of the Free State troops present at the time stated afterwards -
"Mr.Boland was wanted and we went to the hotel and two or three of us entered his room. He was in bed. We wakened him and he got up out of bed and partly dressed himself. He had no gun. Suddenly he turned and rushed to tackle one of our fellows for his gun. A shot was fired over his head to desist but he continued to struggle and almost had the gun when a second shot was fired and Mr.Boland was wounded."
The bullet entered his right side near the ribs, passed through his body and came out through his left side causing very serious injuries.
A photograph of the actual bullet which killed Harry Boland....
...and his funeral service, Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.
Although unarmed at that moment, as admitted by his executioners, caught by surprise and outnumbered (a "small party" of Free State troops were in the room at the time) the Staters attempted to present the execution of Harry Boland as 'a killing in self-defence' ie 'he attempted to jump us and then tried to flee...'.
They had learned well from their British colleagues.
Harry Boland died from his wounds on the 2nd August 1922 - 101 years ago on this date - in St. Vincents Hospital, Dublin and, as he lay waiting for death, he told family members that the Stater who shot him had been imprisoned with him in Lewes Prison, in England, but he refused to put a name to him.
When his sister, Kathleen, asked him who had fired the shot he refused to tell her, saying "The only thing I'll say is that it was a friend of my own that was in prison with me, I'll never tell the name and don't try to find out. I forgive him and I want no reprisals".
The funeral expenses were taken care of by the Cumann na Poblachta organisation.
'Boland's mix of animal charm, gregariousness, wit and a dash of ruthlessness made him an influential and formidable character. Though not an intellectual in his manner he was a clear thinker, a forceful orator and a graceful writer....' (from here.)
Thankfully, there are those like him who continue to this day to work for the Movement...
'WESTMINSTER ELECTIONS...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
We are interested in the date of the election because, with the election, the people in the Six Counties will have the opportunity to voice their demand for freedom and the withdrawal of England's troops from Irish soil.
We must have a well-organised election machine in operation so that every single vote for separation can be cast.
We must have the necessary funds to conduct the campaign successfully.
(END of 'Westminster Elections' ; NEXT - 'Keoghboys of 1950's', from the same source.)
ON THIS DATE (2ND AUGUST) 42 YEARS AGO - DEATH OF A 'REVOLUTIONARY LARK'.
'As Ireland buries her heroes and martyrs,
Britain should hang her head in shame,
As Kieran Doherty fought for freedom
And gave his life to Ireland's name...' (from here.)
"On July 13th, 1981, we were shocked and dismayed to hear that Martin Hurson had been violently ill and had died unexpectedly and prematurely. The next significant development was the British government-sponsored intervention of the 'International Red Cross' (IRC), which tried to initiate direct dialogue between the Brits and ourselves - the Brits rejected this and suggested mediation based on their July 8th statement, which was aimed at defeating us and unproductive, and we rejected this as futile.
We pointed out to the IRC that, as the Brits were not interested in an honourable settlement, their interest in the IRC must logically be to use them ; a Red Cross delegate asked for a further break-down of our July 4th statement and was initially refused. However, after discussion, we complied and issued the August 6th statement and asked the British government, the Dublin government, the SDLP and the Catholic Church to respond to our statement. Soon Kieran Doherty, Kevin Lynch and Thomas McElwee were to be murdered by Britain.." - part of the text of a statement released by the H-Block 'Blanket Men', announcing the end of the 1981 Hunger-Strike, as published in 'IRIS' magazine, Vol. 1 No.2, November 1981.
Kieran hailed from the Andersonstown area of Belfast, being born into a family with a proud history of republican activity. He was a keen sportsman and won a minor Antrim county medal in 1971 for St. Theresa's GAC.
After seeing loyalist gangs burning nationalists out of their homes while the RUC and British army stood idly by, he joined Na Fianna Éireann in the autumn of 1971. His outstanding ability led to him progressing to the ranks of the IRA very quickly. After evading capture on a couple of occasions, he was eventually arrested in early 1973 and interned in Long Kesh until November 1975. Upon his release he reported back to the IRA for service straight away.
In April 1976 he was involved in an operation which saw his comrade Sean McDermott killed and Mairead Farrell of future Gibraltar fame arrested. In August of that year he was arrested and and remanded to Crumlin Road Jail, where he often received ill treatment for refusing to bend the knee to the screws.
In January 1978 he was sentenced to 18 years in the H-Blocks ; He joined the blanket protest immediately and found himself in relentless conflict with the screws. He always resisted their efforts to enforce degrading anal searches, and in July 1978 he had to be hospitalized after taking a severe beating.
He became fluent in his native tongue during his imprisonment, which was used as a weapon against the prison regime. As the painful struggle for political status continued, he joined the hunger strike on May 22nd 1981. In June he was elected as TD for the Cavan/Monaghan constituency during the 26-county general election with an impressive tally of 9,121 first preference votes, only 303 votes behind the sitting Free State minister for Education. He died on August 2nd 1981 - 42 years ago on this date - after 73 agonizing days of hunger strike. He was buried with full military honours in Milltown Cemetery.
He was 25 years of age.
Between the years 1917 and 1981, twenty-two Irish men died on hunger-strike in our on-going fight for Irish freedom :
Thomas Ashe, Kerry, 5 days, 25th September 1917 (force fed by tube , died as a result).
Terence MacSwiney, Cork, 74 days, 25th October 1920.
Michael Fitzgerald, Cork, 67 days, 17th October 1920.
Joseph Murphy, Cork, 76 days, 25th October 1920.
Joe Witty, Wexford, 2nd September 1923.
Dennis Barry, Cork, 34 days, 20th November 1923.
Andy O Sullivan, Cork, 40 days, 22nd November 1923.
Tony Darcy, Galway, 52 days, 16th April 1940.
Jack 'Sean' McNeela, Mayo, 55 days, 19th April 1940.
Sean McCaughey, Tyrone,22 days, 11th May 1946 (hunger and thirst strike).
Michael Gaughan, Mayo, 64 days, 3rd June 1974.
Frank Stagg, Mayo, 62 days, 12th February 1976.
Bobby Sands, Belfast, 66 days, 5th May 1981.
Frank Hughes, Bellaghy (Derry), 59 days, 12th May 1981.
Raymond McCreesh, South Armagh, 61 days, 21st May 1981.
Patsy O Hara, Derry, 61 days, 21st May 1981.
Joe McDonnell, Belfast, 61 days, 8th July 1981.
Martin Hurson, Tyrone, 46 days, 13th July 1981.
Kevin Lynch, Dungiven (Derry), 71 days, 1st August 1981.
Kieran Doherty, Belfast, 73 days, 2nd August 1981.
Tom McIlwee, Bellaghy (Derry), 62 days, 8th August 1981.
Micky Devine, Derry, 60 days, 20th August 1981.
"It is not those who can inflict the most, but those that can suffer the most who will conquer" - Terence MacSwiney.
'LAW AND SOCIETY :
IS IT TIME TO ASK QUESTIONS OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION...?
We have always been a society with a facility for the creation of myths. However, not even the most dewy-eyed devotee of the dreams of the Celtic Twilight could have invented the present status of the legal profession in Ireland.'
By John Drennan.
From 'Magill Magazine Annual, 2002.
Overwhelmingly male?
Devotees of an impenetrable scholastic language which is used to exclude the outside world?
The preserve of one class?
Defenders of the powerful and the wealthy against the voiceless masses?
Censors of a free press?
Feared by politicians and worryingly unaccountable?
These descriptions were all, at one point in modern Irish history, levelled at another large Irish institution whose day has now passed.
And yet, in our inimitable way in this State, we are happy to live unquestioningly under the template set up by the new secular church of the legal profession...
(MORE LATER.)
'IN ANSWER TO CHURCH AND STATE AND IN DEFENCE OF IRISH REPUBLICANISM...'
Address to the Annual General Meeting of Comhairle Uladh (Ulster Executive) in Cootehill, County Cavan, on Sunday, November 22nd, 1987, by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, Uachtarán, Sinn Féin Poblachtach.
Comhaírle Uladh AGM, November 22nd, 1987.
The people are told they should be ashamed to be Irish and even the singing of national ballads is attacked while the wearing of the Poppy is extolled.
There seems to be no limit to the amount of national abasement sought and certain public persons and media personalities would appear to want to roll back history by hauling down our National Tricolour and substituting for it the Union Jack.
Opposition and government representatives and spokespersons are abject in their submissiveness to British demands on the Extradition Act and, as the crisis continues, the British Ambassador is a frequent visitor to Leinster House even while prolonged meetings of the Fianna Fail parliamentary party debate the purchase price on the Hillsborough Deal.
Who is calling the tune in the corridors of power these days?
We know for certain that the taxpayers of the 26 Counties are paying over one million pounds per day to support directly British rule in Ireland...
AND FINALLY...!
We couldn't let it go without mention (well...we could have, but we didn't wanna!) ; on the 2nd August 2021, we proudly posted the following piece -
'OVER ONE MILLION HITS. AND COUNTING...!
It has taken us a good few years to get here although, really, we never started this blog with a 'hits/views' objective in mind. But, having said that, it's a nice place to have arrived at!
Our 'Junior' dips in to our stat counter now and then, out of curiosity, more than as some sort of ego trip or whatever, and we know that we have regular readers from, among other places, this country - Ireland - from England, Scotland, Wales and the USA. We have had well-known film actors, authors, television 'celebrities' and politicians not only read our blog but avail of some of our output in their own work.
We have been watched by the White House and monitored by Moscow, and 'hit on' by all places in between and, over the years, we have been approached three times, by different professional entities, offering to 'monetise' this blog ie take it off a blog platform and turn it into "a real website behind a paywall". Out of courtesy (not curiosity!) we met reps from each entity and politely declined their offers.
We are not in this for financial gain. Our intention, way back when we started this blog (on the old 'Pyra Labs' platform!) was, and still is, to write about an issue which the three of us are committed to - the unjust and unwanted British military and political presence in this country.
We are Irish republicans, and proud to be so. We are the 'Irish dissidents' and the 'Irish terrorists' that the State political 'establishment' here, in Dublin, warn you against as do, no doubt, the political administrations in whatever country you are reading this in.
But we are not 'bad' people. We are, as stated, 'committed' people. We always knew we had an 'audience' out there, and we hope you'll stay with us as we strive to increase our readership.
Finally, thanks to all our sources and our fact-checkers for their assistance over the years. Sure we couldn't have done it without yis!
And thanks, again, to our many readers for checking-in on us as often as you do. Appreciated.
Sharon,
on behalf of the '1169 And Counting' team. GRMA agus slán go fóill anois.'
That was from two years ago on this date when, after years of hard graft and three keyboards (!), we finally crossed the 'million hits' barricade. And now we're striving for two million ; never bleedin' happy, are we...!
Thanks again for the visit, and for reading,
Sharon and the team.
