ON THIS DATE (18TH OCTOBER) 232 YEARS AGO - 'REFORM DEMANDED FOR ALL'.
On the 18th October 1791 - 232 years ago on this date - a group of socially-minded Protestants, Anglicans and Presbyterians held their first public meeting in Belfast and formed themselves as 'The Belfast Society of United Irishmen' (the organisation became a secret society three years later), electing Sam McTier as 'President' ; he was married to Martha, who was a sister of William Drennan.
The aims and objectives of the Society were revolutionary for the times that were in it, and brought the organisation to the attention of the less 'socially-minded' political (and military) members of the British ruling-class in Dublin, which was then (and, indeed, now!) England's political power-base in Ireland -
'That the weight of English influence in the government of this country is so great, as to require a cordial union among all the people of Ireland, to maintain that balance which is essential to the preservation of our liberties and the extension of our commerce...the sole constitutional mode by which this influence can be opposed, is by a complete and radical reform of the representation of the people in Parliament... no reform is just which does not include every Irishman (sic) of every religious persuasion...'
The Belfast Society also adopted the 'Charter' of 'The United Irishmen' as a whole, and in so doing they drew further attention on themselves from their political enemies, at home and abroad -
'In the present era of reform, when unjust governments are falling in every quarter of Europe, when religious persecution is compelled to abjure her tyranny over conscience, when the rights of men are ascertained in theory, and theory substantiated by practice, when antiquity can no longer defend absurd and oppressive forms, against the common sense and common interests of mankind, when all governments are acknowledged to originate from the people, and to be so far only obligatory, as they protect their rights and promote their welfare, we think it our duty, as Irishmen, to come forward, and state what we feel to be our heavy grievance, and what we know to be its effectual remedy.'
'We have no national government, we are ruled by Englishmen, and the servants of Englishmen, whose object is the interest of another country, whose instrument is corruption, and whose strength is the weakness of Ireland; and these men have the whole of the power and patronage of the country, as means to seduce and subdue the honesty of her representatives in the legislature.
Such an extrinsic power, acting with uniform force, in a direction too frequently opposite to the true line of our obvious interest, can be resisted with effect solely by unanimity, decision, and spirit in the people, qualities which may be exerted most legally, constitutionally, efficaciously, by the great measure, essential to the prosperity and freedom of Ireland, an equal representation of all the people in parliament. Impressed with these sentiments...we do pledge ourselves to our country, and mutually to each other...'
And with those words, the assembled Irishmen - Theobald Wolfe Tone, Thomas Russell, William Sinclair, Henry Joy McCracken, Samuel Neilson, Henry Haslett, Gilbert McIlveen, William and Robert Simms, Thomas McCabe, Thomas Pearce and Samuel McTier, among others - ensured the continuity of the on-going struggle against the British military and political presence in Ireland.
'KEOGHBOYS OF THE 1950's...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
William Keogh was appointed to office in Ireland.
John Sadlier and the other virtuous 'Tenant Righters' accepted offices in the new British ministry in Ireland, all bought by the plums of office.
William Keogh, the new 'Irish Solicitor General', was afterwards made a judge and became noted for his fondness for passing death sentences, and John Sadlier was made one of the 'Lords of the Treasury', lost his head and other people's money and then drank prussic acid.
Another of them, O'Flagherty, also got a 'good post' ; he had the same appititude as Sadlier and Keogh, but he later fled from Ireland.
(END of 'Keoghboys Of The 1950's' ; NEXT - 'First Things First', from the same source.)
ON THIS DATE (18TH OCTOBER) 142 YEARS AGO : IMPRISONED IRISHMEN ISSUE A 'NO RENT' MANIFESTO.
'Fellow-countrymen! - The hour to try your souls and to redeem your pledges has arrived. The executive of the National Land League forced to abandon the policy of testing the land act, feels bound to advise the tenant-farmers of Ireland from this day forth to pay no rents under any circumstances to their landlords until the government relinquishes the existing system of terrorism and restores the constitutional rights of the people. Do not be daunted by the removal of your leaders...do not be wheedled into compromise of any sort by the threat of eviction.
If you only act together in the spirit to which, within the last two years, you have countless times solemnly pledged your vows, they can no more evict a whole nation than they can imprison them. Our exiled brothers in America may be relied upon to contribute, if necessary, as many millions of money as they have contributed thousands to starve out landlordism and bring English tyranny to its knees.
No power on earth except faintheartedness on your own part can defeat you. Landlordism is already staggering under the blows which you have dealt it amid the applause of the world...one more heroic effort to destroy landlordism at the very source and fount of its existence, and the system which was and is the curse of your race and of your existence will have disappeared forever...
No power of legalized violence can extort one penny from your purses against your will. If you are evicted, you shall not suffer ; the landlord who evicts will be a ruined pauper, and the government which supports him with its bayonets will learn in a single winter how powerless is armed force against the will of a united, determined, and self-reliant nation.
Signed CHARLES S. PARNELL, President, Kilmainham Jail
MICHAEL DAVITT, Hon. Sec. Portland Prison ;
THOMAS BRENNAN, Hon Sec. Kilmainham Jail
JOHN DILLON, Head Organizer, Kilmainham Jail;
THOMAS SEXTON, Head Organizer, Kilmainham Jail;
PATRICK EGAN, Treasurer Paris, 1881.'
The above is the wording of a 'NO RENT!' manifesto issued, from prison - on the 18th October 1881, 142 years ago on this date - by the incarcerated leadership of the 'Irish National Land League', calling on small tenant farmers in Ireland to withhold rents 'owed' to their British 'landlords' until such time as the latter agreed to the demand of the 'Land League' for the 'Three F's' - fair rent, fixity of tenure and free sale.
The scale of unrest fostered by British greed can be judged by this article, from 'The Illustrated London News' of the 21st May, 1881 -
'Our Special Artist in the disturbed agricultural districts of the west of Ireland contributes another sketch of the perils that frequently beset a process-server when employed in the legal execution of his duty.
Some remarks on this subject were made last week, having reference to the instance of a landlord near Claremorris, Mr. Walter Burke*, who, finding that none of the ordinary process-servers in the country would venture to go round and deliver writs of ejectment to his defaulting tenants, has resolved to do it himself ; galloping quickly, with his trusty servant, from one farmhouse to another ; entering armed with a loaded revolver, not as a menace to others, but for his own needful protection**, and after showing the legal instrument, of which he leaves a copy, riding off as fast as he came...'('1169' comment - *he paid the price for his bully-boy tactics the following year, in Claremorris...**he wouldn't have needed such "protection" had he been a decent human being in the first place.)
The alphabet of the 'Children's Land League' :
'A is the army that covers the ground ;
B is the buckshot we're getting all round ;
C is the crowbar of cruellest fame ;
D is our Davitt, a right glorious name ;
E is the English who've robbed us of bread ;
F is the famine they've left us instead ;
G is for Gladstone, whose life is a lie ;
H is the harvest we'll hold or we'll die ;
I is the inspector, who when drunk is bold ;
J is the jarvey, who'll not drive him for gold ;
K is Kilmainham, where our true men abide ;
L is the Land League, our hope and our pride ;
M is the Magistrate, who makes black of our white ;
N is no rent, which will make our wrongs right ;
O is Old Ireland, that yet shall be freed ;
P is the Peelers, who sold her for greed ;
Q is the Queen, whose use is not known ;
R is the Rifles, who keep up her throne ;
S is the sheriff, with woe in his train ;
T is the toil that others may gain ;
U is the Union that works bitter harm ;
V is the villain that grabs up the farm ;
W is the warrant for death or for chains ;
X is the ’Express', all lies and no brains ;
Y is 'Young Ireland' spreading the light ;
Z is the zeal that will win the great fight.'
And this is the continuity of that "great fight".
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.
The Irish have always had strong family bonds and a powerful extended family network, a feature that we shared with many of our European neighbours.
Time was, children were born into a family of two married parents, when problems were resolved within the family and childcare for those working outside the home was provided by family or neighbours.
Of course, this family could also be stifling and controlling, and the judgements meted out to those unfortunate enough to have children outside of marriage were harsh and punitive.
The change has been remarkable, with the numbers of children born outside marriage now above 30 per cent. One of the problems that flows from this is the serial father who has no emotional ties to the child, a situation which, according to RE Rowthorn, Professor of Economics at Cambridge, places it at the greatest risk of abuse, both physical and emotional.
In addition, cohabiting relationships are often unstable, with about 50 per cent splitting within ten years...
(MORE LATER.)
BEIR BUA.
The Thread of the Irish Republican Movement from The United Irishmen through to today.
Republicanism in history and today.
Published by the James Connolly/Tommy O'Neill Cumann, Republican Sinn Féin, The Liberties, Dublin.
August 1998.
('1169' comment - 'Beir Bua' translates as 'Grasp Victory' in the English language.)
The great Fenian revolutionary, O'Donovan Rossa, once said -
"It is in the dark days of a nation's distress that the truest of her sons cling closest to her, and those who are ashamed to associate their names with her fallen fortunes or who, by dangers of difficulties, are scared away from giving their assistance, are not the men fitted to raise her to a position of national independence."
Down the years the truth and sincerity of those words ring clear and inspire hope in a freedom struggle characterised as much by endurance as by action.
In giving the Republican Movement 'Beir Bua', the authors have provided not merely a manual for activism but a bible of endurance.
Its pages, like the words of Rossa, will instill Irish republicans with confidence and discipline, it will direct our energies and it will deliver our Republic, but especially in these treacherous times, it will guarantee our survival and bolster our resistance to the oppression which surrounds us daily on all sides... (MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (18TH OCTOBER) 103 YEARS AGO - BRITISH 'HAMAR' PUTS FINISHING TOUCHES TO HIS 'LAW AND ORDER' SPEECH.
British 'Chief Secretary for Ireland', Lieutenant-Colonel 'Sir' Hamar Greenwood (pictured, left, and short video here showing 'the Hamar' rewarding his troops in this country for the destruction they wrought while maintaining 'law and order') promised to put an end to republican "outrages" but that was just another outrageous false promise by the British!
In May 1920 the British Foreign Secretary, 'Lord' Curzon, proposed vigorous 'Indian measures' to suppress the rebellion in Ireland and he and other British imperialist 'gentlemen' formulated a policy with that objective in mind. On the 9th August 1920, the British 'Lords Commissioners' announced that 'Royal Assent' had been granted for the following 14 items -
1. Overseas Trade (Credit and Insurance) Act, 1920.
2. Unemployment Insurance Act, 1920.
3. Restoration of Order in Ireland Act, 1920.*
4. Aberdeen Corporation Order Confirmation Act, 1920.
5. Pilotage Orders Confirmation (No. 3) Act, 1920.
6. Local Government Board (Ireland) Provisional Orders Confirmation (No. 3) Act, 1920.
7. Ministry of Health Provisional Order Confirmation (Chesterfield Extension) Act, 1920.
8. Mid-Glamorgan Water Act, 1920.
9. Wallasey Corporation Act, 1920.
10. Life Association of Scotland Act, 1920.
11. Uxbridge and Wycombe District Gas Act, 1920.
12. Exmouth Urban District Council Act, 1920.
13. North British and Mercantile Insurance Company's Act, 1920.
14. Lever Brothers, Limited (Wharves and Railway) Act, 1920.
On the 18th October 1920 - 103 years ago on this date - the British 'Chief Secretary for Ireland', Lieutenant-Colonel 'Sir' Hamar Greenwood (who later threatened to resign his position if Westminster agreed to a ceasefire with Irish republicans before they had surrendered their weapons!) made final changes to the report on his 'law and order' campaign in Ireland, which he made public the next day -
"The outrages against the police and military forces since the 1st January last, which I regret to say include the loss of no less than 118 lives, are as follows: police killed -100, military killed -18, police wounded -160, military wounded -66. There have been 667 attacks on police barracks, resulting in most cases in their complete destruction. There has been an organised attempt to boycott and intimidate the police, their wives and relations.
The hon. Member will realise that I cannot publish the steps that are being taken to cope with the campaign of murder, outrage and intimidation, but I can assure him that the means available to the Government for protecting all servants of the Crown in the discharge of their duties, and for bringing to justice those who commit or connive at outrages, are steadily improving. The Royal Irish Constabulary is rapidly increasing in numbers owing mainly to the flow of recruits from ex-officers and ex-service men who served in the Army or Navy during the War.
The effective strength of the Force is now higher than it has been for the last 15 years. In the last three weeks alone there have been 194 trials by Court Martial under the 'Restoration of Order in Ireland Act 1920', and 159 convictions. The Forces of the Crown are now effectively grappling with the organised, paid and brutal campaign of murder in Ireland.."
(*The 'Restoration of Order in Ireland Act' was a 'legal' item through which the British could authorise, in Ireland, 'the issue of Regulations under the Defence of the Realm Consolidation Act, 1914, for effecting the restoration and maintenance of order in Ireland where it appears to His Majesty in Council that, owing to the existence of a state of disorder, the ordinary law is inadequate for the prevention and punishment of crime, or the maintenance of order..')
The British claimed that the 'legal' changes had been rendered necessary by the abnormal conditions which at that time prevailed in certain parts of Ireland, where 'an organised campaign of violence and intimidation has resulted in the partial breakdown of the machinery of the ordinary law and in the non-performance by public bodies and officials of their statuary obligations...in particular it has been found that criminals (sic) are protected from arrest, that trial by jury cannot be obtained because of the intimidation of witnesses and jurors, and the local authorities and their officers stand in fear of injury to their persons or property if they carry out their statuary duties...'
The 'Order in Council' provided, among other things, for the putting into operation of many of the existing 'Defence of the Realm Regulations' for the purpose of 'the restoration or maintenance of order, for the trial of crimes by Courts Martial or by specially constituted Civil Courts, and for the investment of those Courts with the necessary powers'.
Also, it was now to be allowed for 'financial punishments' to be implemented - the withholding from local authorities who refuse to discharge the obligations imposed upon them by Statute, financial grants which otherwise would be payable to them from public funds and for the application of the grants so withheld to the discharge of the obligations which the local authority has failed to fulfill, for the holding of sittings of courts elsewhere than in ordinary courthouses, where these courthouses have been destroyed or otherwise made unavailable and 'although the Regulations are not, in terms, restricted to any particular part or parts of Ireland, it is the Government's intention that they shall not be applied in substitution for the provisions of the ordinary law in places where the judicial and administrative machinery of the ordinary law are available, and are not obstructed in their operations by the methods of violence and intimidation above mentioned...for instance, under the Regulations an ordinary crime can only be tried by a Courts Martial or by a specially constituted Civil Court, if the case is referred to the Competent Naval or Military Authority. Instructions will be issued by the Irish Executive to ensure that such cases will not be referred to the Competent Naval or Military Authority except where the prevalence of actual threatened violence or intimidation has produced conditions rendering it impracticable for them to be dealt with by due process of ordinary law...'
GETTING READY...
..FOR A NINE-PARTER ON THE 18TH!
The British presence in Ireland gets its strength from the weakness of the Irish, by seducing, subduing and/or executing those they deem to be strong enough to stand up to them : a lesson from over 230 years ago...
19th Century Ireland - three political 'snakes-in-the-grass' held their venom until they had their victims where they wanted them - at the ballot box, deaf to the 'hiss'...
This 19th Century Irish alphabet became a battle-cry for the dispossessed and the down-trodden, and acted as a rallying point for those opposed to the many State agents who came hammering at their door...
In Ireland, family bonds and a powerful extended family network held the people together but the 'Establishment' viewed such attributes as a challenge to them and endeavoured to 'break the connection'. And they are still doing so...
From 1998 - a published Irish republican work that is not merely a manual for activism but a bible of endurance, which still stands as true today as it did then...
Westminster labeled Irish resistance as acts of murder, outrage and intimidation against the "law and order" of the land and then continued on arming murderers to cause outrage in Ireland with 'lawful' acts of intimidation against the population...
These ex-Irish rebels took the soup as they were counting their thirty pieces of profit and then sought to 'officially honour' the men and women that they had deserted in their rush to get to the soup cauldron and the banker...
In the 1920's in Ireland, this RIC man knew that his actions, and the command structures that he answered to, were in the wrong but, unlike his militia comrades who felt the same way, he just didn't determine to do 'less wrong' - he vowed to 'do right'. And he did...
...and a few words about our recent 'staycation'. But not too many, now, as any details we give may yet be used as evidence against us...!
Thanks for droppin' in, and for reading ; and, with a nine-parter comin' at ya on Wednesday, 18th October 2023, yer gonna have a quare bit of reading to do then. Give us a shout on the 18th...!
Sharon and the team.
ON THIS DATE (27TH SEPTEMBER) 65 YEARS AGO : TWO IRISH REPUBLICAN LEADERS ESCAPE FROM FREE STATE CUSTODY.
On Saturday, 27th September 1958, the Irish republican POW's in the Curragh Internment Camp in County Kildare (of which there were about 150) had put together two football teams and had organised a football match between both sides.
That activity was a distraction for the prisoners and, more importantly, for the Free State Army guards and the other prison staff members, but two of the POW's were not involved in that distraction - they were taking advantgage of it instead!
Dáithí Ó Conaill and Ruairí Ó Brádaigh were lying under a roughly-made grass 'mat' at a less-noticeable section of the metal fence that kept them interned and were using a wire cutters to remove a section of it, which they did, successfully freeing themselves from State custody.
The two men were not only republican comrades and activists, but were to become related through Dáithí's marriage, in 1964, to a fine Donegal Lady, Deirdre Caffrey, who was Ruairí's maternal first cousin (and Deirdre was also sister-in-law to another strong Irish republican, Kevin Mallon).
The successful escape attempt had been authorised by the leadership of the Movement (including Tomás Óg MacCurtain, O/C of the IRA Internees) and meant that Ruairí, who was at the time a Sinn Féin TD (while incarcerated he was elected as a Sinn Féin TD, on an abstentionist ticket, obviously, for Longford–Westmeath in the 1957 State general election), was the first such republican TD to be 'on the run' since the 1920's and, the following month (October 1958) he was appointed as Chief of Staff of the IRA by the leadership (a position he held until May 1959).
That escape (27th September 1958 - 65 years ago on this date) was the second such escape from the Curragh Internment Camp (pictured) that year.
In May, three POW's had got out through a window in the Curragh Military Hospital where they had been patients. Two of them – one from Armagh, the other from Portarlington – were recaptured near Kilcullen in County Meath and the third man, from Dublin, evaded capture for ten days until he was found at house in Gormanstown, in County Meath and, in the first week in December (1958) fourteen Irish republican internees escaped from the internment camp.
That Free State prison was closed on the 11th March 1959, as the Staters in Leinster House were comfortable within themselves that they had consolidated their position in the State.
And they still believe that to be the case...
'KEOGHBOYS OF THE 1950's...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
The policy of 'The Irish Tenant League' was to form a political party pledged to independent opposition in parliament and it was based on a 'Union of Creeds'.
'The Restoration of the Hierarchy Act' and 'The Ecclesiastical Titles Act' started a controversy that threatened 'the Union' ; in Ireland, an ultra-catholic party was formed - 'The Catholic Defence Association' (aka 'Irish Brigade'/Pope's Brass Band').
The chief figures were William Keogh, a lawyer from Athlone, and John Sadlier, a hawker from Tipperary (...more about those two shysters here).
Nominally 'Tenant Righters', those two men caused ill-feeling inside the party, because they were so ferociously catholic. In the Westminster General Election of September, 1852, forty 'Tenant Right' members were returned, including William Keogh, John Sadlier, his brother, nephew and two cousins.
All took a solemn pledge that they would stand together in independent opposition and oppose every ministry that refused to introduce a 'Tenant Right Bill' but, when Lord Aberdeen's ministry was formed, he refused to adopt such a Bill... (MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (27TH SEPTEMBER) 101 YEARS AGO : MORE REPRESSIVE LEGISLATION IMPOSED.
Irish Free State soldiers, left, were given ever more of a free reign to impose the dictat of their paymasters in Leinster House in 1922, with the passing of the gloriously misnamed 'Public Safety Act'.
On the 9th June 1927 a general election was called in the Free State and Fianna Fail won 44 seats to Cosgrave's 47 : de Valera's policy was not to enter the Free State parliament until the Oath of Allegiance to the British monarch was removed but, in that same month, Kevin O' Higgins was assassinated and the Free State government passed a law which would force future Leinster House candidates to swear on their nomination that they would take the Oath of Allegiance.
In August 1927, de Valera led the Fianna Fail elected representatives, many of them with revolvers in their pockets, into Leinster House and signed the Oath of Allegiance document. A second general election was held in September 1927 and Fianna Fail increased its vote, winning 57 seats.
In short, Free Staters were once again in power in the Free State (!) but Irish republicans continued to fight back - on the 21st September 1927, six Free State soldiers were killed in a gun battle with the IRA near Ballina in Mayo and, on that same day, the Free State barracks in Drumshambo in Leitrim was attacked and taken by republicans, during which one Stater was killed.
On the 22nd September a FS soldier was killed and several others and three civilians injured in a gun and grenade attack by the IRA on enemy troops on Eden Quay in Dublin and, on the day that the 'Public Safety Act' was being voted on in Leinster House, several hundred IRA Volunteers attacked the town of Killorglin, in Kerry, and were only denied their victory, after 24 hours of fighting, when more Free State troops arrived in force, from Tralee.
The 'Public Safety Act' had been passed in the Free State assembly by 41 votes to 18 on this date, 27th September (1922), 101 years ago, allowing for the State to execute those captured bearing arms against it and permitting State agents 'to punish anyone aiding and abetting attacks on the National (sic) Forces', and/or anyone having possession of arms or explosives 'without the proper authority' or anyone 'disobeying an Army General Order'.
'Section 5' of the Act declared that "..every person who is a member of an unlawful association at any time after it has become by virtue of this Act an unlawful association shall be guilty of a misdemeanour and shall be liable on conviction thereof to suffer penal servitude for any term not less than three years and not exceeding five years or imprisonment with or without hard labour for any term not exceeding two years..." .
'Section 28' stated that "..any person found guilty by a special court of the offence under the Firearms Act, 1925 (No. 17 of 1925) of having possession of or using or carrying a firearm without holding a firearm certificate therefor, shall if the offence was committed while this Part of this Act is in force be liable to suffer death or penal servitude for life, or any term of years not less than three years, or to imprisonment with or without hard labour for any term not exceeding two years, and shall be sentenced by such court accordingly.."
That 'Act' represented politically and morally corrupt legislation and was enacted by the then, and now, politically and morally corrupt political assembly in Leinster House.
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.
The worst culprits are the new estates that have been built around developing industries or the trendy apartment blocks designed to improve our inner cities.
Many of the inhabitants are mobile young people who see these houses not as homes but as temporary receptacles. Add to this the emptiness that comes from the absence of people during the day as couples go out to work, and the lack of amenities such as shops, bars or post-offices, and they become bleak places indeed. In such an environment, it is possible to be sick for days and have no callers - or to die and lie decaying without being missed.
If our sense of community is under pressure, so too is the traditional family. This is showing itself not so much in the divorce courts yet as in other more nebulous ways.
A recently published international study on depression in the community (in which I was one of the investigators) showed that one of the significant factors associated with the high rate of this condition in urban Ireland is the absence of supports, whilst the very low rate in Spain was equally linked to the protective role that strong ties, especially to the family, can have in ameliorating our stress... (MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (27TH SEPTEMBER) 374 YEARS AGO : A WAR CRIMINAL AND "THE REDUCING OF CARLINGFORD".
Pictured - some of Oliver Cromwell's Irish victims, sold as slaves and 'sex workers' to the highest bidder.
On the 29th April, 1599, a baby boy, Oliver Cromwell, who had been born on the 25th, was christened in Saint John the Baptish church in Huntingdon, England.
Decades later, when someone was trawling through the birth records for that period, they came across an unofficial addendum to that particular entry : it read - "England's plague for five years.." Cromwell should need no introduction to readers of this blog, but some readers may not be aware of the significance of a particular date in this month - the 3rd September - in that creature's life : on that date in 1649, Cromwell began his nine-day siege of Drogheda after which thousands of its inhabitants were butchered, the infamous 'Death March' he forced on his enemy after the battle of Dunbar on the 3rd September 1650 and, one year later on that same date - the 3rd September - he wallowed in more blood and guts, this time in his own country, at the battle of Worcester.
And, somewhere in between wrecking havoc and stealing and selling Irish children, he found the time - on the 27th September in 1649, 374 years ago on this date - to write to his political bosses in London :
'FOR THE HONOURABLE WILLIAM LENTHALL, ESQUIRE, SPEAKER OF THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND :
Dublin, 27th September 1649.
Mr. Speaker - I had not received any account from Colonel Venables - whom I sent from Tredah to endeavour the reducing of Carlingford, and so to march Northward towards a conjunction with Sir Charles Coote - until the last night.
After he came to Carlingford, having summoned the place, both the three Castles and the Fort commanding the Harbour were rendered to him. Wherein were about Forty Barrels of Powder, Seven Pieces of Cannon ; about a Thousand Muskets, and Five-hundred Pikes wanting twenty. In the entrance into the Harbour, Captain Fern, aboard your man-of-war, had some danger ; being much shot at from the Sea Fort, a bullet shooting through his main-mast. The Captain's entrance into that Harbour was a considerable adventure, and a good service ; as also was that of Captain Brandly, who, with Forty seamen, stormed a very strong Tenalia at Treda, and helped to take it ; for which he deserves an owning by you.
Venables marched from Carlingford, with a party of Horse and Dragoons, to the Newry ; leaving the place, and it was yielded before his Foot came up to him. Some other informations I have received from him, which promise well towards your Northern Interest ; which, if well prosecuted, will, I trust God, render you a good account of those parts. I have sent those things to be presented to the Council of State for their consideration. I pray God, as these mercies flow in upon you, He will give you an heart to improve them to His glory alone ; because He alone is the author of them, and of all the goodness, patience and long-suffering extending towards you. Your army has marched ; and, I believe, this night lieth at Arklow, in the County of Wicklow, by the Sea-side, between thirty and forty miles from this place. I am this day, by God’s blessing, going towards it. I crave your pardon for this trouble; and rest, your most humble servant, OLIVER CROMWELL.
P.S. I desire the Supplies moved for may be hastened. I am verily persuaded, though the burden be great, yet it is for your service. If the Garrisons we take swallow-up your men, how shall we be able to keep the field? Who knows but the Lord may pity England's sufferings, and make a short work of this? It is in His hand to do it, and therein only your servants rejoice. I humbly present the condition of Captain George Jenkin's Widow. He died presently after Tredah Storm. His Widow is in great want.
The following Officers and Soldiers were slain at the storming of Tredah: Sir Arthur Ashton, Governor; Sir Edmund Varney, Lieutenant-Colonel to Ormond’s Regiment; Colonel Fleming, Lieutenant-Colonel Finglass, Major Fitzgerald, with eight Captains, eight Lieutenants, and eight Cornets, all of Horse; Colonels Warren, Wall, and Byrn, of Foot, with their Lieutenants, Majors, etc; the Lord Taaff’s Brother, an Augustine Friar; forty-four Captains, and all their Lieutenants, Ensigns, etc; 220 Reformadoes and Troopers; 2,500 Foot-soldiers, besides the Staff-Officers, Surgeons, etc.'
This misfit had another meeting with his lucky date - 3rd September - in 1658, when he was collected from this Earth by his maker.
A pity he was spawned at all.
'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.
But this country of ours can never be put to right until Britain withdraws her armed forces and administration from Ireland and recognises the right of the Irish people acting as a unit to determine their own future. Such is the recognised right of all peoples and the Irish have fought for it longer than most.
Irish republicanism has a high and honourable tradition. For close on two centuries it has called forth unstinting and unselfish service for the freedom of Ireland and the complete social, economic and cultural emancipation of the Irish people.
It still represents the only realistic alternative to the present colonial and neo-colonial morass which engulfs the Irish people.
It seeks to put the people, individually and collectively, in control of their own affairs in their own country. Republican Sinn Féin is confident that such an ideal will yet triumph. (END of 'In Answer To Church And State And In Defence Of Irish Republicanism' : NEXT - 'Beir Bua', from 1998.)
Our families are taking a winter break in a few days time and heading off for a multi-trip 10-day-or-so 'staycation' ('staycaution', more like it..!) and meself and the Girl Gang are doing the same ; altogether, including the children and grandchildren and the '1169' team and the Girls, there'll be twenty-eight of us, in a large, colourful and noisey convoy and, I'm told, we'll be decimatin......visiting (!) Waterford first, then heading to Galway, with a stop or two in between.
Scheduled stops, that is, but sure it's a long road that has no turnin', and we might happen across a little lay-by or two on the way!
Anyway. What has this got to do with you? Feck all, really, 'cepting for the fact that if the '1169' team are there (wherever "there" turns out to be!), we can't be here!
We don't expect to be back in Dublin (...most of them/us [that's my trans moment over..], hopefully!) until maybe between the tenth and twelfth of October, so we probably won't be in a position to post anything on the blog until at least Wednesday 18th October 2023.
I'll maybe still be a-rantin'-and-a-ravin' on Facebook and 'X', so ya could catch me there!
Thanks for the visit, and for reading : hope to see ye all on the 18th October 2023!
Sharon and the team.
The 'score' from this particular sporting occasion was 2 - 0, and it's an 'outing' that is still being talked about in Irish republican circles...!
In the mid-19th Century in Ireland, these two sniveling con-men managed to financially secure themselves, and their family members, at the expense of honest people who took them at their word...
Westminster demanded that an 'Oath of Allegiance' to their 'monarch' be agreed to by Irish republicans, who - rightly - wouldn't do so. But then a crack in the Movement developed, and those who were once dependable activists fell through it...
New families, but family support not to hand ; green-field sites, usually miles from any infrastructural support networks. Living beside strangers with the same concerns. Expensive 'pressure cookers'...
An English madman in Ireland, armed and supported by Westminster, left his mark in blood but someone marked his true presence in ink...
We'll be giving a bit more detail re the above snippets on Wednesday, 27th September 2023, so if you're over this side of the interweb on the 27th, do check in on us, won't ya...!
Thanks for the visit, and for reading : hope to see ye all on the 27th!
Sharon and the team.
ON THIS DATE (20TH SEPTEMBER) 220 YEARS AGO : 'DARLING OF ERIN' BUTCHERED BY WESTMINSTER.
Robert Emmet was born on the 4th March, 1778, a son of Dr Robert Emmet and Elizabeth Mason. His father served as state physician to the vice-regal household but he was a social reformer who believed that in order to achieve the emancipation of the Irish people it was first necessary to break the link with England.
Robert Emmet (Jnr) was baptised on March 10th, 1778, in St Peter's Church of Ireland in Aungier Street, Dublin, and attended Oswald's School in Dropping Court, off Golden Lane, Dublin.
From there he went to Samuel Whytes School in Grafton Street, quite near his home, and later to the school of the Reverend Mr Lewis in Camden Street. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, in October 1793 when he was almost 16 years of age and practiced his oratorical skills in the historical and debating societies. One of his friends at TCD was the poet Thomas Moore.
There were four branches of the 'United Irishmen' in TCD and Robert Emmet was secretary of one of them but, after an inquisition, presided over by Lord Chancellor Fitzgibbon, Emmet became one of nineteen students who were expelled for United Irishmen activity.
Although not active in the 1798 Rising, Robert Emmet was well known to the British authorities and by April 1799, when 'Habeas Corpus' had been suspended, there was a warrant issued for his arrest, which he managed to evade. Early in 1801, accompanied by a Mr Malachy Delany of Cork, he travelled throughout Europe and made Paris his headquarters - it was there that he replaced Edward Lewis as the liaison officer between Irish and French republicans.
While in Paris, Emmet learned about rockets and weapons and studied a two-volume treatise by a Colonel Tempelhoff which can be examined in the Royal Irish Academy, with the marginal notes given the reader some insight into Emmet's thinking.
Following the signing of the 'Peace of Amiens' by France and England in March 1802, the United Irishmen that were being held as prisoners in Fort George were released and many such as Thomas Russell and Thomas Addis Emmet made there way to Paris. Emmet returned to Ireland in October 1802 and began to plan for a rising and, in March 1803, at a meeting in Corbet's Hotel, 105 Capel Street in Dublin, Emmet briefed his key organisers.
In April 1803 he rented an isolated house in Butterfield Lane in Rathfarnham as a new base of operations and Michael Dwyer, a 1798 veteran, suggested his young niece as a suitable candidate to play the role of the 'housekeeper'. Born in or around the year 1778, Ann Devlin soon became Robert Emmet's trusted helper and served him loyally in the months ahead.
Shortly afterwards he leased a premises at Marshalsea Lane, off Thomas Street, Dublin, and set up an arms depot there.
Arms depots were established in Dublin for the manufacture and storage of weapons for the incipient rising. Former soldiers mixed their practical skills with the scientific knowledge that Robert Emmet had acquired on the continent, and an innovative rocket device was produced. Elaborate plans were drawn up to take the city and in particular Dublin Castle : supporters from the surrounding counties of Kildare, Wicklow and even Wexford were pledged to assist.
Emmet bided his time waiting for an opportune moment when English troops would be withdrawn to serve in the renewed war in France, but his hand was forced when a premature explosion on the evening of July 16th, 1803, at the Patrick Street depot, caused the death of John Keenan. Though there was no obvious wide-scale search or arrest operation by the British following the explosion, the leadership of the movement decided to set Saturday July 23rd, 1803 as the date for the rising. Emmet hoped that success in Dublin would inspire other counties to follow suit.
Patrick M. Geoghegan, in a recent publication, says that "the plan for taking Dublin was breathtaking in its precision and audacity. It was nothing less that a blueprint for a dramatic coup d'état. Indeed, over a century later, Pearse and Clarke would also refer to the plan for their own rising.."
Emmet's plan depended on two factors - arms and men and, as Geoghegan states, when the time came, Robert Emmet had not enough of either - events went dramatically wrong for him. On the appointed day his plans began to unravel ; Michael Dwyer (pictured) and his promised 300 men did not get the word until Sunday July 24th and, the previous day, an excess of men had moved in to Dublin from Kildare and could not be concealed in the existing depots so they spread out around the city pubs and some started drinking.
Others, after inspecting the existing arsenal and finding many pikes but few muskets or blunderbusses, went home unimpressed.
Because he had alerted other countries and still had the element of surprise, Emmet decided not to postpone the rising thus, shortly after seven o'clock on Saturday July 23rd, 1803, Robert Emmet, in his green and gold uniform, stood in the Thomas Street, Dublin, depot and, to the assembled rebels, read out his proclamation, declaring that the Irish nation was about to assert itself in arms against foreign rule.
But again events conspired to thwart the rebels - coaches commissioned for the attack on Dublin Castle were lost and erroneous information supplied that encouraged pre-emptive strikes, meant that confusion reigned. Also, the novel rocket signals failed to detonate. Emmet's own forces, who were to have taken the Castle, dwindled away and, throughout the remainder of that evening, there were skirmishes at Thomas Street and the Coombe Barracks but he decided to terminate operations and leave the city.
For the English forces, which included Daniel O'Connell ("It is highly interesting to read that Daniel O'Connell, then a young barrister, enthusiastically joined a lawyer yeomen corps in 1803 to help in the pursuit of the rebels.." - from here), it was then merely a mopping-up operation : in the aftermath, the English arrested and tortured Anne Devlin, even offering her the enormous sum of £500 to betray Robert Emmet - she refused.
Emmet himself took refuge in the Harold's Cross area of Dublin, during which he met with his mother and Sarah Curran but, on Thursday August 25th, 1803, he was finally arrested.
It has been stated by others that a £1000 reward was paid by Dublin Castle to an informer, for supplying the information which led to his capture. Robert Emmet's misfortunes did not stop on his arrest : he was unlucky enough to be 'defended' by one Leonard McNally (pictured) who was trusted by the United Irishmen.
However, after McNally's death in 1820 it transpired that he was a highly paid government agent and, in his role as an informer, he had encouraged young men to join the rebels, betrayed them to Dublin Castle and would then collect fees from the United Irishmen to 'defend' those same rebels in court!
Emmet's 'trial' lasted 11 hours, and he stood for that entire duration, in front of a 'Special Commission' overseen by judge John Toler (better known as 'Hanging Lord Norbury') in Green Street Court House in Dublin on September 19th, 1803.
By about 9.30pm that night he was pronounced guilty and, asked for his reaction, he delivered a speech which still inspires today. He closed by saying that he cared not for the opinion of the court but for the opinion of the future - "..when other times and other men can do justice to my character...". Robert Emmet was publicly executed on Tuesday September 20th, 1803 - 220 years ago on this date - outside St Catherine's Church in Dublin's Thomas Street -
'The gallows on Thomas street was a temporary one which was built with planks and empty barrels and a cross beam on two poles about 12 feet tall. It was almost in the centre of the street...(his) final words on the gallows (were) "My friends, I die in peace and with sentiments of universal love and kindness towards all men"...the executioner began the hanging by dislodging a plank which was on a narrow ledge and Emmet convulsed on the end of the rope for over a half an hour when finally his body ceased to move...beheaded on a butchers block..if the reports of the blood squirting into the crowd when the procedure began are accurate, this would suggest that Robert Emmet was alive and merely unconscious at the time of his beheading...' (from here.)
His grave has yet to be located...
'KEOGHBOYS OF THE 1950's...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
Having likened the 'Ancient Order of Hibernians' various spokesmen to the 'Pope's Brass Band', it will be, I think, no harm to consider the latter and the part they played in Irish history.
In 1850, representatives of catholic and protestant tenants held a national conference and formed 'The Irish Tenant League', the aim of which was to legalise tenant rights and extend it throughout Ireland. It was legal nowhere but existed in Ulster by force of custom.
Its leaders were Sharman Crawford, an Ulster landlord ; Charles Gavin Duffy, who had been a 'Young Irelander' ; Doctor James MacKnight, who edited 'The Banner of Ulster', a presbyterian newspaper, and Frederick Lucas, a convert from Quakerism and, at the time, the editor of the English catholic newspaper 'The Tablet', which was then published in Dublin.
'The League' was strongly supported by clergy, both catholic and presbyterian, and by numbers of professional men... (MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (20TH SEPTEMBER) 109 YEARS AGO : IRISH LEADER CAMPAIGNS FOR RECRUITMENT TO BRITISH ARMY.
John Redmond (left), the leader of the 'Irish Parliamentary Party', was born into a 'Big House'-type Catholic family on the 1st September in 1856 and, after a 'proper' education (in Clongowes College in Kildare and Trinity College in Dublin) he became a political 'player' in the British so-called 'House of Commons', where he supplemented his income as a clerk.
He was only 25 years-of-age when he was first elected as an MP, having worked his way up the establishment ladder.
He was an Irish nationalist (small 'n') politician who, occasionally, campaigned for his followers (and anyone else that would listen to him) to join the British Army in its fight against Germany, and did so infamously, and unashamedly, in a public speech he delivered in Woodenbridge in County Wicklow on this date - 20th September - in 1914, where he stated -
"The interests of Ireland - of the whole of Ireland - are at stake in this war. This war is undertaken in the defence of the highest principles of religion and morality and right, and it would be a disgrace for ever to our country and a reproach to her manhood and a denial of the lessons of her history if young Ireland confined their efforts to remaining at home to defend the shores of Ireland from an unlikely invasion, and to shrinking from the duty of proving on the field of battle that gallantry and courage which has distinguished our race all through its history.
I say to you, therefore, your duty is twofold. I am glad to see such magnificent material for soldiers around me, and I say to you: 'Go on drilling and make yourself efficient for the work, and then account yourselves as men, not only for Ireland itself, but wherever the fighting line extends, in defence of right, of freedom, and religion in this war...' ".
And, unfortunately, in the months that followed his 'call to arms', tens of thousands of Irishmen joined his 'Cause' and fought alongside imperialism to the extent that one of his modern-day political mirror-images all but called Redmond a traitor for encouraging such folly.
Other political leaders did not agree with John Redmond and, among them, was James Connolly, the Irish Trade Union leader, who was also in command of the Irish Citizen Army - he answered Redmond's call thus :
'Full steam ahead, John Redmond said,
that everything was well, chum ;
Home Rule will come when we are dead,
and buried out in Belgium'.
Also, some of John Redmond's own men dis-agreed with his pro-British 'call-to-arms' ; Eoin MacNeill, who was then in a leadership position within the 'Irish Volunteers', was of the opinion that the 'Irish Volunteers' should only use force against the British if* Westminster first moved against them ; a bit 'watery', definitely, but he was, however, against fighting with the British (*if having your country occupied by a foreign power cannot be considered a 'first move against us' then Mr MacNeill had a different understanding of the English language than we have!).
Just over a year after Mr Redmond had delivered his 'join imperialism'-speech in Woodenbridge, a British Army Major-General, 'Sir' Lovick Bransby Friend (..perhaps his parents never bonded with him?) the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in Ireland, said that 1,100 recruits were needed from Ireland every week "to replace wastage" (!) of existing Irish soldiers.
The comments were made at a private conference on recruiting in Ireland that was held under the presidency of the 'Lord' Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Wimborne, at the Viceregal Lodge in Dublin's Phoenix Park, where it was also stated that approximately 81,000 Irishmen had 'heeded Redmond's call-to-arms'.
The political mirror-image, mentioned above, had a point...
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.
If we are apathetic about how our citizens behave, are we also apathetic about their troubles?
There is certainly anecdotal evidence that we are less neighbourly than in times past. If the British are renowned for their reserve, the Irish have an equal measure of extraversion and friendliness but, increasingly, neighbours have just a passing knowledge of each other and may hardly even know each other's names.
Conversations are limited to the few words of greeting in the lift or at the bus stop on the way to work. There is no sense of belonging, no sense that one is part of something larger than oneself, no sense of shared purpose. This fragmentation is as prominent in many of our modern middle-class estates as in areas of poverty and crime.
Of course, estates vary greatly and, as they age, the sense of belonging and of community increases... (MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (20TH SEPTEMBER) 106 YEARS AGO : THE DEATH OF THE FIRST OF OUR TWENTY-TWO HUNGER-STRIKERS.
Thomas Ashe (pictured) was born in Lispole, County Kerry, on the 12th of January 1885 - he was the seventh of ten siblings. He qualified as a teacher in 1905 at De La Salle College, Waterford and after teaching briefly in Kinnard, County Kerry, in 1906 he became principal of Corduff National School in Lusk, County Dublin. He was a fluent Irish speaker and a member of the Keating branch of the Gaelic League and was an accomplished sportsman and musician setting up the Round Towers GAA Club as well as helping to establish the Lusk Pipe Band. He was also a talented singer and poet who was committed to Conradh na Gaeilge.
Politically, he was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and established IRB circles in Dublin and Kerry and eventually became President of the Supreme Council in 1917. While he was actively and intellectually nationalist he was also inspired by contemporary socialism.
Ashe rejected conservative Home Rule politicians and as part of that rejection he espoused the Labour policies of James Larkin. Writing in a letter to his brother Gregory he said - "We are all here on Larkin's side. He'll beat hell out of the snobbish, mean, seoinín employers yet, and more power to him".
Ashe supported the unionisation of north Dublin farm labourers and his activities brought him into conflict with landowners such as Thomas Kettle *. During the infamous lockout in 1913 he was a frequent visitor to Liberty Hall and become a friend of James Connolly. Long prior to its publication in 1916, Thomas Ashe was a practitioner of Connolly’s dictum that "the cause of labour is the cause of Ireland, the cause of Ireland is the cause of labour".
In 1914 Ashe travelled to the United States where he raised a substantial sum of money for both the Gaelic League and the newly formed Irish Volunteers of which he was an early member.
(*'Tom Kettle was a member of the National Volunteers, and in 1914 went to Belgium to buy arms for them. Whilst there, war broke out, and he became convinced of the justice of the Allied cause. He returned to Ireland, and made a series of recruiting speeches, which effectively alienated him from the Nationalist movement. Kettle then joined the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. After the Easter Rising and the murder of Francis Sheehy-Skeffington he asked to be sent to the Front, and was killed on the eve of the Battle of Ginchy, 9 September 1916. His body was never recovered...')
The hour of her trial draws near,
And the pangs and the pains of the sacrifice
May be borne by comrades dear.
But, Lord, take me from the offering throng,
There are many far less prepared,
Through anxious and all as they are to die
That Ireland may be spared.
Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord
My cares in this world are few,
and few are the tears will for me fall
When I go on my way to You.
Spare Oh! Spare to their loved ones dear
The brother and son and sire,
That the cause we love may never die
In the land of our Heart's desire!
Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord!
Let me suffer the pain and shame
I bow my head to their rage and hate,
And I take on myself the blame.
Let them do with my body what'er they will,
My spirit I offer to You,
That the faithful few who heard her call
May be spared to Roisin Dubh.
Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord!
For Ireland weak with tears,
For the aged man of the clouded brow,
And the child of tender years;
For the empty homes of her golden plains,
For the hopes of her future, Too!
Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord!
For the cause of Roisin Dubh.
