On the 14th February, 1919, word began to circulate in Maddenstown, the Curragh, County Kildare, and surrounding districts, of a shooting that had happened the previous day.
It wasn't long before bad news was confirmed : a local man, in his 40's, a Mr Patrick Gavin, who worked for about 15 years as a farmhand for a Mr Moore, from the townland of Tully, was driving a bullock to a market at the Newbridge Fair when he was shot dead by a British soldier.
The British Army soldier, a Private Arthur Gay from the 'Duke of Wellington Regiment', was one of three soldiers on sentry duty when, he claimed, he was attacked by Mr Gavin, who was carring a stick. His two armed colleagues were elsewhere (!) when Private Gay "was attacked by Patrick Gavin" and, when the two of them arrived at the scene (!), they said, Mr Gavin was dead from a gunshot wound.
At the 'inquest', the jury (!) stated that perhaps only more experienced soldiers should be placed on sentry duty, and then discharged Private Arthur Gay from the 'court'.
Case closed.
==========================
'SINN FÉIN NOTES...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
GLASGOW...
Weekly concerts and dancing competitions are held at various centres, and a commemoration will be held at the grave of Thomas Brady, former chairman (sic) of the Cumann, on Easter Sunday and, that same night, a concert will be held in aid of An Cumann Cabhrach.
NEW CUMANN.
New Cumann have been formed during the past month in Carrickmacross, in County Monaghan, in Galway City, Carlow, and Hilltown, in County Down.
'IRISH MONETARY REFORM ASSOCIATION' JOINS SINN FÉIN.
We are very glad and proud to welcome into our organisation the members of the 'Irish Monetary Reform Association'. The following statement has been released to the press for publication...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 14th February, 1920, at least 120 armed IRA Volunteers, led by Eoin O'Duffy (pictured - a republican gamekeeper-turned Free State poacher) armed with a dozen rifles, twenty revolvers and about thirty shotguns, made their move to capture their first RIC barracks in Ulster at Ballytrain, County Monaghan.
The barracks housed between about six and ten armed RIC members and those inside were ordered by the IRA to surrender - they refused the offer - but accepted same soon after when an explosion caused a large hole to appear in the gable wall of the building (...courtesy of some gelignite liberated from Monaghan County Council builders yard!).
Any weapons and ammunition on the premises were taken by the IRA and the RIC members were released.
It has been recorded that, among the IRA Volunteers who took part in that attack were Ernie O'Malley, Dan Hogan, Seamus McKenna, Terry Magee, James Flynn, Phil Marron, P J Daly, John Donnolly, Thomas Donnelly, Patrick McDonnell, Charles Walton, Barney Marron and Patrick McCabe, and first aid was given to any of the RIC members who were injured in the explosion.
However, within about one month of that raid for arms, most of those who took part were 'arrested' by British forces but, by then, the liberated weapons had been dispersed to other IRA Units.
==========================
The funeral of IRA Commandant Diarmuid Hurley.
On the 14th February, 1920, an IRA Unit under the instruction of Commandant Diarmuid Hurley captured an RIC Barracks at Castlemartyr, in County Cork.
Commandant Hurley was killed by enemy forces on the 28th May, 1921 (funeral pic, more information here) -
'In the month of September, so charming,
It is well I remember the day,
Five thousand, in order, were marching,
How sadly our bands did play.
After Diarmuid's remains,
Whose blood flowed in streams,
When he fought for old Ireland and you,
In that dear sainted plot, he will ne'er be forgot,
Where he sleeps with his comrades so true...'
==========================
On the 14th February, 1920, Mr Michael Ensko, a 26-year-old shoemaker by trade, from Drumbiggle in County Clare, died after being hit by a British Army lorry. He left behind a wife, Bridget, and two daughters, Bridget and Teresa.
RIP.
==========================
On the 14th February, 1920, the 'Buttevant Soldiers Home' in Buttevant, County Cork, which was attached to Buttevant British Army Military Barracks, went on fire, and the Attendant of the premises, who slept there, a lady named Ella Constance Wood, died in the fire.
The British military and political leadership held an 'inquest' on the same day (14th), an unusual development, and agreed on the wording for the 'Certificate of the Fact of Death' - "shock caused by burning".
If the fire had been considered to be other than accidental (ie arson) the inquest would not have been held so quickly, I presume?
==========================
On the 14th February, 1920 (...this shooting has also been stated to have occurred on the 17th and the 25th, but our sources continue to list it as having happened on the 14th), a Mrs Ellen Morris (aged 61 and a mother of 15 children), who lived in Ballagh, near Gorey, in County Wexford, was disturbed in her house by six armed men.
The men were looking for any weapons that might have been in the house, as one of her sons was in the British 'Royal Army Service Corps' and, for his own safety and that of his family, would probably have kept a firearm, or firearms, in the house.
The woman of the house got to her feet, grabbed a spade and went for one of the men with it ; he shot her dead.
One of the residents in the house wanted to leave to get a priest, but was told to stay put. When they had finished their business, the IRA told the residents not to leave the house for two hours - the six men then left.
Later that year (1920) thirteen men were brought to 'trial' over the shooting and one of them, John Lacy (18), admitted firing the shot but said that it was not intentional.
An RIC man, who was 'working the case', had collected statements but he was shot dead before he could present his 'evidence'. John Lacy pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received 18 months in prison with hard labour.
==========================
SO, FAREWELL THEN, CELTIC TIGER.
It had to happen, sooner or later.
Most of the pundits and economists were too busy singing the Celtic Tiger's praises to notice, but a few critical observers worried all along about the weaknesses of a boom economy that depended so much on a few companies from one place - the United States.
By Denis O'Hearn.
From 'Magill' Annual 2002.
As long as the historic US economic boom continued, the Irish economy could grow on its back.
But once the boom ended - and it went on much longer than anyone could have imagined a decade ago - the possible consequences for Ireland should have been obvious.
Now the boom is over, and the US is heading into a recession that will undoubtedly be deepened by the fallout from September 11th. North Americans, they say, will stop travelling and stop buying.
The southern Irish economy, which was humming along at ten per cent growth, already seemed headed for two straight quarters of zero growth, even before the attacks. That is some people's definition of a recession.
Only last year top economists were predicting rapid economic growth for at least another five years. Now people are beginning to ask what happened - and what will happen...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 1st February, 1921, an informer named Thomas Bradfield (56), from Knockmacool, Willsgrove, in County Cork, was shot dead by the IRA.
On the 14th February, 1921, at about 2am, two men from the 'Anti-Sinn Féin Society' broke into the Coffey family home in Breaghna, Desertserges, in County Cork, and quickly opened the locked front door, where about ten 'off duty' British Army soldiers (from the 'Essex Regiment') and various Black and Tans were waiting.
Two young men in the house, James (24) and Timothy Coffey (23), who both lived in Breaghna, County Cork, both IRA Volunteers ('Numbers 66 and 67' on a 'hit list' of 168 names compiled by the British, from information supplied to them by informers) were dragged from their beds, taken outside, and marched away.
They were forced into a near-by field (farmed by a neighbour, a Mr O'Donoghue) where they were beaten and interrogated about the shooting dead of the informer Bradfield.
The two brothers, Jim and Tim Coffey, were then shot dead.
The two men who had broken into the house were tracked down and the West Cork IRA later released a statement - "Two members of the ('Anti-Sinn Féin Society') gang were arrested, court-martialed and shot without delay".
==========================
In February, 1921, RIC member John Carroll arrived in the village of Ballywilliam, County Wexford, to visit his father.
After his visit, he disappeared.
On the 14th February, his blindfolded body was found in a field near Nenagh, in County Tipperary ; he had been shot in the head by IRA Volunteers under the command of Michael McCormack (an IRA GHQ organiser).
His family were told by the IRA that they would pay a visit to the man of the house and his three other sons if there were any reprisals but, soon after, a Mr Denis Hayes (a cousin of the Carrolls) had his house burned down ; rumour had it that Mr Hayes had tipped-off the IRA that RIC member John Carroll would be in Ballywilliam, visiting his family.
But, codladh an ghioria, on the 12th June the following year (1922), the Carroll house was burned down, and a Mr Patrick Carroll was shot dead.
==========================
On the 14th February, 1921, the 'General Officer Commanding' of the 5th Division of the British Army, 'Sir' Major-General Hugh Sandham Jeudwine (pictured), wrote to the 'General Officer Commanding' of the British Army in Ireland, General Nevil Macready (the last in a long line of 'Commanders of the British Army' in Ireland) and opined that martial law should be imposed on the whole country as this "...would substitute for the present divided control by military and police (and) under martial law, the extreme penalty should be relentlessly enforced for levying war, or carrying or using guns.."
Mr Jeudwine was an effective military operative but is said to have 'earned a reputation for unpopularity'. He died on the 2nd December, 1942, aged 80, in Surrey, in martial law-free England.
==========================
John O'Leary (33), an ex-British Army soldier, was shot dead by members of the 2nd Battalion, Cork Number 1 Brigade, IRA, near his home at 30 Gerald Griffin Avenue in Cork City, on the 14th February, 1921 (NOTE - other dates given for this shooting are the 12th and 15th February).
His active military 'career' was brought to an end after he lost a leg in 'World War 1', and he then took up a position with British Army Captain Campbell Joseph O’Connor Kelly ('OBE, MC, MM'!) in the 'Intelligence (6th) Division' in the British Army's Victoria Barracks in Cork.
Four IRA Volunteers, dressed in plainclothes, stopped him about a hundred yards from his house and asked to see his documents, and he showed them his barracks pass. After having confirmed his identity, he was shot three times and died of his wounds three days later in the North Infirmary Hospital, in Cork.
Michael Murphy, Commander of the Second Battalion of the Cork No. 1 Brigade, IRA, later recalled the liquidation of British Army Captain Kelly's associates : "Captain Kelly was in charge of the British intelligence system here. He had six intelligence officers on his staff. Each of them was wiped out one after the other..."
==========================
On the 14th February, 1921, James Charles Beale (an Englishman married to a Sarah Blemens) was shot dead by the IRA in the Wilton area of Cork.
Sarah Blemens father and brother (James and Frederick) had been kidnapped and shot in November 1920 by the IRA, who stated that they were members of an anti-Sinn Féin organisation with connections to the Cork YMCA and Cork Freemasons.
Mr Beale worked as a manager at the Woodford and Bourne Company in Patrick's Street in Cork, a grocers and wine merchants and, as he left work on the 14th at about 6pm and made his way home, he was intercepted by Jeremiah Keating and John Horgan from 'G Company', 2nd Battalion, Cork Number 1 Brigade IRA, and driven to the Wilton area of the city and shot dead.
A placard stating - 'Convicted Spy. The penalty for all those who associate with the Auxiliary Cadets, the Black and Tans, and the RIC. IRA. P.S. Beware' was attached to his body.
It is thought that the IRA had acquired information on those three men through details which they came across from mail bag grabs, which they had in their possession.
The IRA stated that they were watching "...the approaches to College Road. We spotted Beale as he was crossing Southgate Bridge en route to his home. We got revolvers, picked up Beale and brought him by car to the Wilton district, where he was shot...we found in his possession papers giving valuable information relating to the spy organisation with which he was connected.
In our opinion the shooting of Beale broke the back of the anti-IRA-Sinn Féin organisation in Cork City. As a result of disclosures which came to light in the papers found on Beale, members of his organisations were picked up by other IRA Companies in the city and suitably dealt with. This had a discouraging effect on the Anti-Sinn Fein League which faded out, thus removing a serious threat to the Cork IRA..."
James Charles Beale's name appears in the 'Compensation Commission Register' (dated 14th February 1921) with the notation - 'Agreed 50/50' split on liability between British and Irish. Compensation of £900 was awarded. His widow Sarah Beale was awarded compensation of £3,250, and his children Matilda and Ross of Southsea in Portsmouth in England were granted compensation of £900..'
==========================
Between the 13th and the 14th of February, 1921, the IRA trenched roads in South Kildare, Booleigh and Kilmeade, felled trees across roads at Mullaghmast and between Bolton Hill and Castledermot and from Kilkea to Castledermot, to slow down enemy movement.
==========================
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.)
'WHY WE WANT RECRUITS'.
(Padraic H. Pearse, May 1915.)
"We want recruits because we have work for them to do. We do not propose to keep our men idle. We propose to give them work — hard work, plenty of work. We would band together all men capable of working for Ireland and give them men’s work.
We want recruits because we are able to train them. The great majority of our officers are now fully competent to undertake the training of Irish Volunteers for active service under the conditions imposed by the natural and military facts of the map of Ireland. Those officers who are not so competent will be made competent in our training camps during the next few months.
We want recruits because we are able to arm them. In a rough way of speaking, we have succeeded already in placing a gun and ammunition therefor in the hands of every Irish Volunteer that has undertaken to endeavour to pay for them. We are in a position to do as much for every man that joins us.
We may not always have the popular pattern of gun, but we undertake to produce a gun of some sort for every genuine Irish Volunteer ; with some ammunition to boot.
Finally :
We want recruits because we are absolutely determined to take action the moment action becomes a duty. If a moment comes — as a moment seemed on the point of coming at least twice during the past eighteen months – when the Irish Volunteers will be justified to their consciences in taking definite military action, such action will be taken..."
(MORE LATER.)
On the 14th February, 1922, a British Army Lieutenant, John Hubert Wogan-Browne (pictured), was buried in Naas, in County Kildare.
He had been shot in the head on the 10th February during an IRA fund-raising operation in Kildare Town, when a British Army regimental payroll was targeted outside 'The National Bank'.
The money was being carried by the British Army man ; the IRA knew there would be between £135 and £500 in cash in his possession, but he fought with the Volunteers to hold on to the money.
Michael Collins was, at that time, in command of the newly-spawned Free State Army and, on hearing of the shooting, he contacted Mr Winston Churchill
and assured him that he would do all in his power to bring those IRA Volunteers to justice, as any good servant would do, and told him that his men would assist the RIC and the British Army in finding those who had carried out the robbery and the shooting.
Then, on the 13th February, Mr Collins telegrammed Mr Churchill to inform him that three IRA Volunteers had been 'arrested for the crime' - "Have just been informed by telephone that we have captured three of those responsible for the attack on Lieutenant Wogan-Browne. Everyone, civilian and soldier, has co-operated in tracking those responsible for abominable action. You may rely on it that those whom we can prove guilty will be suitably dealt with..."
Mr Collins had somewhat placated his political and military mentors in Westminster with his 'we will pursue them' statement and, later, done the same in his own country - no trial was ever held, no-one was imprisoned for the robbery or the shooting. Disgraceful that he had ever placed himself in the position where he had to turn on his own countrymen and women to please the British.
==========================
On the 14th February, 1922, British Army Field-Marshall 'Sir' Henry Wilson (pictured), who was on the verge of retiring from his position as 'Chief of the Imperial Staff' (!) suggested to Winston Churchill and his 'British Cabinet Committee on Ireland' that "nothing could solve the Irish problem (sic) except re-conquest..."
And poor Mr Churchill and his Cabinet had their hands full - they were also dealing with a suggestion from Mr James Craig, the '1st Viscount Craigavon', that 5,000 'Special Constabulary' (pictured) should be mobilised to invade the Free State!
Mr Churchill 'compromised' with both men and their 'suggestions' - he sent three (more) battalions of British soldiers to patrol and secure their imposed border in Ireland!
==========================
ON THIS DATE (14TH FEBRUARY) 103 YEARS AGO : IRA MAN WHO REFUSED THE OPPORTUNITY TO ESCAPE WAS DECLARED 'GUILTY' BY HIS BRITISH CAPTORS AND THEN EXECUTED.
IRA Volunteer Patrick Moran (pictured): "I don't want to let down the witnesses who gave evidence for me..." - the words of Patrick Moran, Adjutant of D Company Irish Volunteers, 2nd Battalion (Dublin), to his comrades Ernie O'Malley (who had passed himself off to the British as 'Bernard Stewart') and Frank Teeling as they were about to walk to freedom through a gate in Kilmainham Jail in Dublin, which they had forced open, on the 14th of February 1921 - 103 years ago on this date.
Patrick Moran believed he would be found innocent at his 'trial' and saw no reason why he should take the opportunity to escape.
He was a 'dangerous man', as far as Westminster was concerned, and had been imprisoned in Dublin Castle on the 7th of January 1921 and charged with the 'murder' of two British Army/paramilitary gang members, Ames and Bennett, after been mistakenly identified as having been involved in the shooting dead of both men - Lieutenant Peter Ashmun Ames and British Army Lieutenant George Bennett (both of whom were in command of 'The Cairo Gang') on the 21st of November 1920 at 38 Upper Mount Street in Dublin.
Patrick Moran stayed behind on the night of the prison break ,refusing to take part in same, having encouraged Simon Donnelly to go in his place, a decision which was was to cost Patrick Moran his life.
On the 15th of February 1921, he was put on 'trial' (during which sixteen people and an RIC man verified he was elsewhere!) but was, as expected, found 'guilty' and, three days later - on the 18th of February 1921 - he was transferred to Mountjoy Jail, Dublin.
On Wednesday, 9th of March 1921, Patrick Moran was sentenced to death and he was executed by hanging five days later, on Monday, the 14th of March.
He had defended the integrity of his country in Jacob's Factory Garrison during Easter week in 1916, where he served under Thomas MacDonagh, and had been imprisoned at Knutsford and Woorwood Scrubs in England, and in Frongoch Internment Camp in Wales.
He was one of 'The Forgotten Ten' in that he, and his nine comrades, were 'forgotten' by the State but have always been remembered by the Republican Movement.
Finally, the planning and execution of the escape itself is worthy of a few paragraphs : On the 11th February 1921, Frank Teeling and Ernie O'Malley were joined in Kilmainham Jail by Simon Donnelly, who was taken into their confidence and told of the up-coming plan of escape. The peep-holes in the cell doors were three inches in diameter and, if one of the men could get his arm through it, it would be possible to open the door from the outside.
The plan then was to make their way to the yard, as the men had noticed that the door leading from the prison to the yard was usually left closed-over, but not locked, and then cross the yard to a large iron gate on the west side of the jail, cut the bolt on it and escape.
A 'Plan B' had been made in case the bolt cutter should fail - IRA Volunteers from 'F' Company, Fourth Battalion, Dublin Brigade, would take up positions outside the prison wall with a rope ladder and, awaiting an agreed signal, throw in the rope attached to the ladder, so that the prisoners could haul the ladder over to their side of the wall.
Oscar Traynor (on the left, in this photograph), IRA Dublin Brigade O/C, had secured a bolt cutter and that, along with two revolvers, were packaged and smuggled into the prison by a friendly British soldier. The prisoners were not sure that the bolt cutter would be up to the job but were determined to carry out the escape plan, as Frank Teeling was in line for execution ; on the night of February 13th, 1921, the three men made their way to the outer prison gate but, as the handles of the bolt cutter were incorrectly fitted, they were unable to cut the bolt.
They went to 'Plan B', and gave the signal for their comrades on the other side of the prison wall to throw in the rope attached to the ladder - the rope jammed on top of the wall and snapped when the men outside attempted to pull it back to them. The three prisoners had no alternative but to return to their cells.
The following day, the 14th February, 1921, the British soldier who was in on the plan repaired/adjusted the handles on the bolt cutter and, that night, at 6.30pm, the three prisoners decided to make another escape attempt.
The three Irish republican prisoners again made their way down to the gate and, this time, the bolt cutter worked. They used butter and grease, which they saved from their meals, to help ease the remaining portion of the corroded bolt out from its latch and two of the men got their revolvers at the ready as the third man pulled on the heavy door which creaked open sluggishly on its rusty hinges and the three men walked out!
Simon Donnelly had tried to persuade Patrick Moran to join them, but Moran - who was not involved in shooting Ames or Bennett, and had what he considered the perfect alibi for that night - refused to leave the prison except by the front gate as a free man.
Patrick Moran paid with his life for relying on British justice : as stated above, on Wednesday, 9th of March 1921, Patrick Moran was sentenced to death and he was executed by hanging five days later, on Monday, the 14th of March.
Not the first innocent man to be put to death by the British, and not the last Irish person to be punished by them in revenge.
Thanks for the visit, and for reading.
Sharon and the team.
From 1921 - three members of this extended family were shot by the IRA for their anti-republican activity, which led to some public unease in the areas where they lived.
Then paperwork came to light which exposed the actions of the three men and pinpointed their political allegiance, and named others who felt as they did...
From 1922 - Michael Collins confirmed to Churchill in Westminster that he would capture the IRA Volunteers that had killed a British Army Lieutenant in Ireland and bring them to justice, but...
...and speaking of Mr Churchill, the poor man had other Irish-related issues on his plate : his own people wanted him to militarily invade the Free State!
This imprisoned IRA man had the opportunity to escape from British custody, and had the means to do so, but decided to stay where he was. It was a bad call - he barely lived long enough to regret it...
It being St Valentine's Day on Wednesday, 14th February 2024 (...yeah, that's right, lads - forget it at your peril..!) we're putting together 18 pieces about Irish men and women that had real desire, attraction and love...for their country, that is, and we write about how they expressed those emotions.
So there ya have it - breakfast in bed, and a fair bit of reading (four sample pieces above) to be gettin' on with, on Wednesday, 14th February 2024. Just make sure you don't get yer toast crumbs on the page.
Or else...!
Thanks for reading - see yis on Wednesday 14th!
Sharon and the team.
ON THIS DATE (7TH FEBRUARY) 84 YEARS AGO - WESTMINSTER EXECUTES TWO IRA VOLUNTEERS.
James McCormack (aka 'James Richards') was born in Mullingar in County Westmeath in 1910, and he joined a unit of the IRA in Tullamore, County Offaly, the same county where his comrade, Peter Barnes, was born - in the town of Banagher, in 1907.
'I have the honour to inform you that the Government of the Irish Republic [32 counties], having as its first duty towards its people the establishment and maintenance of peace and order here, demand the withdrawal of all British armed forces stationed in Ireland. The occupation of our territory by troops of another nation and the persistent subvention here of activities directly against the expressed national will and in the interests of a foreign power, prevent the expansion and development of our institution in consonance with our social needs and purposes, and must cease.
The Government of the Irish Republic believe that a period of four days is sufficient notice for your Government to signify its intentions in the matter of the military evacuation and for the issue of your Declaration of Abdication in respect of our country. Our Government reserves the right of appropriate action without further notice if upon the expiration of this period of grace, these conditions remain unfulfilled...' - IRA ultimatum to the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, 12th January, 1939.
Thirteen days later - on Friday, the 25th August (a few days before Hitler's German army invaded Poland) - an IRA man from Cork, Joby O'Sullivan, was strolling through Broadgate, in Coventry, wheeling a push bike, on his way to a police station. The bike repeatedly got stuck in tram tracks on the road and, frustrated, he removed it from the road and propped it up against a wall.
The bike had an armed bomb in the basket that was fixed to the handlebars, which had been wired up to an alarm clock timer, which was set for about 2.30pm. He left it there, and walked away. The five-pound bomb exploded prematurely, killing five people and injuring dozens more - it was one of about 150 IRA bombing incidents in England at that time, targeting infrastructure such as electricity stations, post offices, gas stations and government buildings.
Not long after the explosion, Peter Barnes (who was in London on the day of the explosion) was arrested at the lodgings he was staying in and, three days after that, James McCormack (aka 'James Richards') was pulled-in along with the other tenants of the house he was staying in. The 'trial' began in December (1939) and both men were convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. Throughout the court case, James McCormack remained silent until he told the court - "As a soldier of the Irish Republican Army, I am not afraid to die, for I am dying in a just cause."
Peter Barnes stated to the court - "I would like to say as I am going before my God, as I am condemned to death, I am innocent, and later I am sure it will all come out that I had neither hand, act or part in it. That is all I have to say." In his last letter (to his brother) he wrote - 'If some news does not come in the next few hours all is over. The priest is not long gone out, so I am reconciled to what God knows best. There will be a Mass said for us in the morning before we go to our death. Thank God I have nothing to be afraid of. I am an innocent man and, as I have said before, it will be known yet that I am.'
In the last letter he ever wrote, James McCormack said - "This is my farewell letter, as I have been just told I have to die in the morning. As I know I am dying for a just cause, I shall walk out tomorrow smiling, as I shall be thinking of God and of the good men who went before me for the same cause." (That letter was addressed to his sister, as both of his parents were dead.)
In Winson Green Prison, Birmingham, at 8.50am on Wednesday, 7th February 1940 - 84 years ago on this date - the two men received a final blessing. Minutes later they walked together to the scaffold and were hanged by four executioners.(...short video here, in relation to those two men, and a few paragraphs re Jimmy Steele...)
One of the few Irish republicans to be charged by Westminster with "treason felony" (an archaic charge originally devised for John Mitchel, the Young Ireland leader, in 1848) Jimmy Steele, who was born in Belfast on the 8th August, 1907, lived his life as a soldier, writer and poet, and devoted his 63 years in this world to the Republican Movement and the cause of Irish freedom.
At the age of 12, he joined Na Fianna Éireann and was active with his young comrades in assisting the Volunteers in his own area, the New Lodge Road, during the Tan War. Following the Treaty of Surrender in December 1921, and the split in the Movement, Steele remained true to his republican principles and, in the early 1920's, he joined the IRA.
Arrested twice - in 1923 and 1924 - he was held for several months in Crumlin Road Jail. Following his release later that year and the freeing of the internees in 1925, he assisted with the re-organising of the IRA and NFÉ in Belfast. On the 25th April 1936, while attending an IRA court-martial in connection with the abortive Campbell College raid in December 1935, at the rooms of the Craobh Rua Club at Crown Entry in Belfast, Steele and most of the Belfast Battalion Staff were 'arrested' by British forces.
On the 29th May 1936, he was charged with 'treason felony' and, along with twelve others, was found guilty and sentenced to five years penal servitude in Crumlin Road Jail.
Released in May 1940, he reported back to the Army leadership and continued on as before.
While 'on the run', he married Anna Crawford, a member of Cumann na mBan who came from a staunch republican family ; unfortunately, married life in freedom was to be short-lived - the following December he was re-arrested and sentenced to ten years in jail. In January 1943, along with Patrick Donnelly, Ned Maguire and Hugh McAteer, Steele escaped from Crumlin Road Jail.
Despite a reward of £3000 being offered by the Stormont administration for his capture and his photograph being displayed throughout the Six Counties, he reported back for active service and was appointed Adjutant of the Northern Command Staff IRA.
He figured in two major operations during his brief period of freedom : in March 1943, along with Liam Burke and Harry White, he organised and assisted in the escape of 22 IRA Volunteers from Derry Jail and, in April 1943, he participated in the Broadway Cinema operation on the Falls Road when armed Volunteers took over the cinema and stopped the film while Steele and McAteer went on stage and read a statement from the IRA Army Council.
The two men finished off the nights entertainment for the packed cinema by reading the 1916 Proclamation!
By May 1943, Steele was back in jail, this time sentenced to twelve years. When he was released in September 1950, he was the last republican prisoner of that era to be freed, leaving Crumlin Road Jail empty of political prisoners for the first time since partition. During the following years, Steele edited two Belfast newspapers - 'Glor Uladh' and ' Resurgent Ulster', and was the main author of two books published by the National Graves Association - 'Antrim's Patriot Dead' and 'Belfast Patriot Graves'.
On the 21st December 1957, following the beginning of the IRA's Border Campaign, internment was once more introduced in the Six Counties and Steele was among the 167 republicans interned in Crumlin Road Jail - he was released three years later and reported back to the IRA.
He was an outspoken opponent of the policies being pursued by the leadership of the Republican Movement and, in an oration at the re-interment of the remains of Peter Barnes and James McCormick at Mullingar, County Westmeath, in July 1969, he severely criticised the leadership and in particular the running-down of the IRA.
Within six months (January 1970) the inevitable split in the Republican Movement occurred and, following 'the parting of the ways' Jimmy Steele, a member of the IRA's Belfast Brigade Staff and the Provisional Army Executive (a position he held until his death) was active in Belfast re-organising and re-arming IRA units to defend nationalist areas from attack by Orange mobs backed-up by the B-Specials and RUC.
A founder member of ' Republican News' in June 1970, the four-page weekly paper under the editorship of Steele soon had a circulation of 15,000 copies per week. Jimmy Steele was Editor of that 'paper when he died on the 9th August, 1970, at 63 years of age : more than twenty of those 63 years were spent in jail.
Steele by name, and Steele by nature - hard to break.
On the 7th February, 1919, the British war ship HMS Hyderabad (pictured), a 'Q' ship, specially designed with a shallow draught that would allow a torpedo to pass underneath it, was on a'goodwill visit' to Dublin.
A ship worker (a 'stoker'), 'Royal' Navy Reserve man Arthur William Young, from Yorkshire, fell overboard from the vessel at Alexandra Basin in Dublin Port, and drowned.
==========================
'SINN FÉIN NOTES...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
CORK...
CUMANN BRIAN DIOLUN.
The activities of the Brian Dillon Cumann, Cork, augur well for the future of the organisation in the St Patrick's Parish area of the city.
In order to form a common basis on which discussions could be held, it was decided that all members of the Cumann should read certain passages from books by Padraic Pearse and other notable writers, and then hold a general discussion.
This is to be recommended strongly as the Cumann can derive immense benefit from such discussions.
TIPPERARY.
The Nenagh Cumann held a special general meeting on Tuesday, 8th February. Arrangements were made to intensify the drive to spread the organisation into adjoining areas.
Paddy McLogan presided at the meeting which was very enthusiastic, and the out-going Officer Board was re-elected for a further 12 months.
GLASGOW.
The Connolly Sinn Féin Cumann, Glasgow, has its headquarters at 150 Gorbals Street, and its membership is showing a steady increase...
(MORE LATER.)
On the 7th February, 1920, a house in Cloncurry, County Kildare, was surrounded by a patrol from the British 'police force' in Ireland, the RIC, who were supported by their comrades in the British Army.
The house belonged to, and was lived in, by a widow woman, a Mrs Ennis, who was told by the invaders that they were searching for 'a fugitive (political) offender..'
The poor woman heard later that two other small houses nearby (belonging to a Mr John Feeney and a Mr Tom Harris) were also intruded on that night, and a local graveyard was 'searched' (desecrated) by the same gang of marauders.
==========================
On the 7th February, 1920, a group of RIC members were huddled around the open fire in their barracks in Moyne, County Tipperary, making preparations to go out and terrorise the locals.
Some of them would have been checking their boots and their batons, while others were checking and cleaning their guns, getting ready for the 'sport' when, suddenly, a shot rang out.
The RIC members ducked, dived and ran for cover, the 'Night Guard' didn't know which way to jump, and the sleeping RIC members woke with the noise and stumbled out to the day room to see what was happening. Except for a 'Constable' Edward Mulholland (32), a 15-year 'veteran' and "a powerfully built Sligo man", who "reeled and collapsed" near the fire - he had been shot in the back.
It transpired that one of RIC member Mulholland's colleagues had been cleaning his revolver when it went off, killing RIC man Mulholland, and ending that 15-year terror spree.
==========================
ON THIS DATE (7TH FEBRUARY) 177 YEARS AGO : 'THE LIBERATOR' FINALISES HIS PLEA TO WESTMINSTER - 'ONE IN FOUR WILL DIE UNLESS YOU HELP...'
On the 7th February 1847, the then 72-year-old 'Liberator', Daniel O'Connell (pictured) put the final touches to his last speech in the British 'House of Commons' : his words were in connection with the so-called 'Irish famine' (attempted genocide) and, in it, he stated - "Ireland is in your hands and in your power. If you do not save her, she cannot save herself. And I solemnly call on you to bear in mind what I am telling you now in advance, something of which I am absolutely certain, that one out of every four of her people will soon die unless you come to her aid..." The use of the term 'famine', in this instance, is a misnomer if ever there was one - 'In the early summer of 1845, on the 11th September of that year, a disease referred to as blight was noted to have attacked the crop in some areas. In that year, one third of the entire crop was destroyed. In 1846, the crop was a total failure. This report came from a Galway priest - "As to the potatoes, they are gone – clean gone. If travelling by night, you would know when a potato field was near by the smell. The fields present a space of withered black stalks..." Though 1847 was free from blight, few seed potatoes had been planted...yet the country was producing plenty of food. As the Irish politician, Charles Duffy wrote: "Ships continue to leave the country, loaded with grain and meat." As food was scarce people would eat anything such as nettles, berries, roots, wildlife, animals, dogs and cats in order to survive...' (from here.)
O'Connell was to plead with Westminster to save the people of Ireland who were being decimated by sickness and disease, caused by a lack of nourishment, and request that, instead of building roads and other such infrastructure, the money available for same should be used to encourage the Irish to cultivate the soil to plant oats and barley etc and, eventually, a 'compromise' (of sorts) was arrived at - cheap Indian corn was brought into Ireland, for the people, sometimes on the same ships that, when unloaded, would then be loaded again with Irish-produced oats and barley - 'cash crops', according to the landlords, for export, not for home consumption!
The imported 'corn' was considered by the Irish to be a type of animal feed, the grain of which was so tough as to cause great pain and, even at that, the amount of it imported was inadequate for the number of people in need.
Daniel O'Connell died, age 72, in Genoa, Italy, 13 weeks after his February 1847 speech and, as he requested, his heart was buried in Rome and the remainder of his body was buried in Glasnevin, Dublin.
Father Ventura of the Theatine Order delivered the oration, during which he stated -
"My body to Ireland – my heart to Rome – my soul to heaven : what bequests, what legacies, are these! What can be imagined at the same time more sublime and more pious than such a testament as this! Ireland is his country – Rome is the church – heaven is God. God, the Church and his country – or, in other words, the glory of God, the liberty of the Church, the happiness of his country are the great ends of all his actions – such the noble objects, the only objects of his charity! He loves his country and therefore he leaves to it his body; he loves still more the Church and hence he bequeaths to it his heart ; and still more he loves God, and therefore confides to Him his soul! Let us profit then, of this great lesson afforded by a man so great – a man who has done such good service to the Church, to his country, and to humanity..."
It was on this date - 7th February - 177 years ago that Daniel O'Connell finalised his last speech to the British 'House of Commons', which he delivered the next day.
In the 1920's in Ireland, the IRA hindered enemy movement by felling trees, destroying bridges and digging trenches across roads.
On the 7th February, 1921, local men were filling-in one such road trench either because it didn't suit them to have the road trenched or because they didn't want the British forces inconvenienced.
The IRA happened upon the scene, in Cooraclare, County Clare, and fired a few shots in the general direction of the civilian 'road workers' to scare them off but one of them, a Mr Patrick Falsey (24) was hit, and died that same evening.
Poor compensation for Mr Falsey's family, I know but, after some public pressure, his father received £700 in compensation from the British 'authorities'.
==========================
On the 7th February, 1921, three wanted IRA men were captured by the RIC in Kilfennora, in County Clare.
The three Volunteers - John Joe Neylon (IRA Captain, Ennistymon Company, 4th Battalion, Mid-Clare Brigade), Tom McDonagh and Joe Murphy - were 'roughly handled' for a few days, before they were given over to the British Army.
They were tortured by, and under the orders of, a British Army Sergeant, a David Finlay, but all three Volunteers survived the ordeal and lived to fight another day.
Sergeant David Finlay, however, who stood his ground (!) in County Clare, was shot dead in Ennis, County Clare, on the 13th January 1922.
But he wasn't tortured beforehand, except mentally and morally, perhaps...
==========================
Elizabeth 'Letty' Bray, a deaf woman, was out and about in the Castle Street area (pictured) of Belfast on Monday, 7th February, 1921, when she was badly wounded by a British soldier, and died from her wound in the Mater Hospital 12 days later.
The British Army Sergeant who was present on the day stated that the woman had ignored an order to stop (the poor woman was deaf) and, anyway, the soldier had fired his weapon at her when he wasn't ordered to do so!
An RIC member who was also present on the day declared that the soldier could easily have simply "caught the girl if he wanted to".
Saved himself the walk, I suppose...
==========================
IRA Captain/Section Commander Patrick O'Driscoll was accidently killed by one of his comrades near Skibbereen, County Cork, on the 7th February 1921.
IRA Commander Tom Barry witnessed the tragedy, telling how, when an IRA sentry was going off duty, Commander Barry asked him to state what his duties were, for the benefit of Captain O'Driscoll -
"About halfway through his recital a shot rang out and Pat O'Driscoll swayed towards me. Catching him, I lowered him gently, but he was dead before I placed him on the ground.
I turned to the man who had shot him. His face was a mask of consternation, and he dropped the Webley revolver. I spoke to him, but he could not answer, and then, with a moan, he too collapsed, for the man he had accidentally shot was his best friend..."
==========================
On the 7th February 1921, an RIC member from Ardnaree, in County Mayo, James Nixon (34) ('Service Number 64718') was in a Crossley Tender truck in the Mount Talbot area of County Roscommon with his colleagues when one of them, who was sitting behind 'Constable' Nixon, discharged his carbine rifle.
The round hit RIC man Nixon in the hip and he died from the wound on the 2nd March 1921.
==========================
On the 7th February, 1921, the IRA ambushed an 'Ulster Special Constabulary' patrol in Warrenpoint, County Down : a USC officer was killed and two other members wounded by gunfire and grenades.
==========================
On the 7th February, 1921, a group of young boys were playing a game of hurling in Knocknagree, in County Cork, and a small crowd of people had assembled to watch the game.
The match was interrupted by the arrival of three British Army lorries (from the 6th Division of the British Army) which approached the village from the Gneeveguilla direction.
Suddenly, for no reason, two long bursts of gunfire were directed from one of the lorries at the hurlers and the small crowd, who scattered in all directions. Soldiers jumped from the vehicles and ran on to the pitch, firing as they went.
When the firing stopped, three boys had been shot ; Michael John Kelleher (14) lay dead, and two of the Herlihy brothers, Michael (13) and Dónal (12) had been badly wounded.
In what they termed an 'Official Report' into the shootings, the British Army claimed that they were "returning fire" but all local accounts vehemently denied this, and in the 'Official Record' of the British Army's 6th Division, no ambush is recorded for the day...
==========================
ON THIS DATE (7TH FEBRUARY) 38 YEARS AGO : ONE EPISODE IN THE 'SECRET' HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH...
'A Jury in Abbeville, Louisiana, in the United States, yesterday (ie Friday, 7th February 1986) awarded one million dollars in damages to an eleven-year old boy, who was molested by a priest, Father Gilbert Gauthe (pictured) now in jail for sexually abusing three dozen alter boys.
The boy's parents, Glenn and Faye Gastal, refused 'out of court' settlements and sought twelve million dollars in their lawsuit against the Catholic Church because, they said, it harboured the priest even after learning that he was a child molester. The predominantly Catholic jury also awarded the boy's parents 250,000 dollars. The abuse started when the boy was seven years of age. Father Gilbert Gauthe was sentenced to twenty years in prison last October (ie October 1985) after admitting he molested the children at Saint John Parish Church in the community of Esther. The Lafayette Diocese has settled lawsuits with thirteen families against Father Gilbert Gauthe for a reported five-and-a-half million dollars, with not one of those thirteen cases going to trial...' (from 'The Evening Press' newspaper, 8th February 1986 ; thirty-eight years ago on this date.)
These are the same self-righteous hypocrites that, at the drop of a Bishop's hat, will - and have - condemned Irish men and women for challenging, and seeking to change, the political and social system in Ireland.
A corrupt system which nurtures a corrupt Church.
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 dissenting voices were stifled by an authoritarian Church in the past, it is the liberal opinion formers and media acolytes who enforce censorship today.
This would not be so worrying if it did not preclude open debate of the multitude of problems that assail modern Ireland.
Ireland has come through a period of very rapid social change in the past 30 years ; as a nation we remain materially contented but socially and emotionally vulnerable - the religious revival may spring from this realisation.
Meanwhile, parents are in a state of disquiet and ambivalence, and community life as we traditionally know it may be slowly crumbling. Far from being a place for open discussion, modern Ireland is very harsh on those who point out its flaws.
However, the recent downturn in our suicide rate, always a good barometer of our social health, may be a portent that the tide of disintegration has been stemmed.
Let us truly hope so.
(END of 'Ireland On The Couch' : NEXT - 'So, Farewell Then, Celtic Tiger', from 'Magill' Annual, 2002.)
The 'Royal' Dublin Fusiliers (pictured) was an infantry regiment of the British Army which was formed on the 1st July, 1881.
It was one of eight Irish regiments raised largely in Ireland, and served the counties of Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow and Carlow, and recruited in the east of Ireland mostly.
The last detachment of this regiment left Naas Barracks on the 7th February, 1922, on their way to Bordon, in Hampshire, England, where they amalgamated
with their the 1st Battalion, before being disbanded in June 1922, as were five other 'RDF' regiments. The 'RDF', despite its 'Dublin' title, were apparently about as fair to the Irish in Ireland as their British Army comrades were...
==========================
On the 7th February, 1922, a pre-arranged evacuation of Kilkenny Military Barracks took place between the British and the Free State Army.
Since 1803, the barracks had housed over sixty Infantry Regiments of the British Army and also operated as the 'Brigade Headquarters of Artillery' from 1908, and 'The King’s Overseas Dominions Regiment' (!) [a cavalry detachment] also sheltered there.
On that date, the Free State Army, having exchanged pleasantries with their colleagues in the British Army, moved in to the premises and used it as the British had used it - to quell the republican struggle. More information here.
==========================
"Do my darling use your influence now for some sort of moderation or at any rate justice in Ireland. Put yourself in the place of the Irish. If you were ever leader you would not be cowed by severity and certainly not by reprisals which fall like the rain from Heaven upon the Just and upon the Unjust. It always makes me unhappy and disappointed when I see you inclined to take for granted that the rough, iron-fisted 'Hunnish' way will prevail..."
The Monaghan Footballers 'Arrest' of 1922 included an action which took place when..."Eoin O’Duffy sent IRA units across the border on Feb 7 (1922). They met more resistance than expected but still seized 43 Unionists and brought them back across the border as hostages to stop the three executions in Derry...'
Three IRA Volunteers - Pat Leonard, Thomas O'Shea and Patrick Johnstone - were due to be hung by the British in Derry Jail but had their sentences commuted to 15 penal years servitude and were eventually released in August 1925.
This story can be read here in some detail.
==========================
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.)
'WHY WE WANT RECRUITS'.
(Padraic H. Pearse, May 1915.)
"The faith is that Ireland is one, that Ireland is inviolate, that Ireland is worthy of all love and all homage and all service that may lawfully be paid to any earthly thing ; and the hope is that Ireland may be free.
In a human sense, we have no desire, no ambition but the integrity, the honour, and the freedom of our native land.
We want recruits because we are sure of the rightness of our cause. We have no misgivings, no self-questionings. While others have been doubting, timorous, ill at ease, we have been serenely at peace with our consciences. The recent time of soul searching had no terrors for us. We saw our path with absolute clearness ; we took it with absolute deliberateness.
We could do no other. We called upon the names of the great confessors of our national faith, and all was well with us. Whatever soul-searchings there may be among Irish political parties now or hereafter, we go on in the calm certitude of having done the clear, clean, sheer thing. We have the strength and the peace of mind of those who never compromise. We want recruits because we believe that events are about to place the destinies of Ireland definitely in our hands, and because we want as much help as possible to enable us to bear the burden.
The political leadership of Ireland is passing to us not, perhaps, to us as individuals, for none of us are ambitious for leadership and few of us fit for leadership ; but to our party, to men (sic) of our way of thinking : that is, to the party and to the men (sic) that stand by Ireland only, to the party and to the men (sic) that stand by the nation, to the party and to the men (sic) of one allegiance..."
(MORE LATER.)
The 'Ulster Protestant Association' (UPA) evolved (!), in July 1920, out of the 'Belfast Protestant Association', an organisation which was established for the expulsion of Catholics and "rotten Prods", as they put it, from 'their' areas in Belfast.
On the 7th February, 1923, the 'Northern Ireland (sic) Minister of Home Affairs', a 'Sir' Richard Dawson Bates, received a report on the activities of the 'UPA'.
An RUC member, an 'officer' - District Inspector R.R. Spears - told 'Sir' Bates that, over the period since it came to official attention in the autumn of 1920, it ran four 'branches' (in Ballymaccarrett, York Street, Shankill and the Ormeau Road) and that "..the whole aim and object of the club (!) is simply the extermination of Catholics by any and every means.."
Mr Spears estimated that the 'UPA' had killed at least six Catholics between June and October 1922.
Author Alan F. Parkinson wrote that "...loyalists of one hue or another were probably responsible for well over half of the terror-related fatalities in the North. The response of the (Stormont) authorities (sic) to the threat of loyalist terror seemed to many to be half-heated and belated in nature and only got going once the IRA's campaign had petered out.."
Collusion was, and is, no illusion.
==========================
¡VOLVEMOS EN MARZO!
The five of us had such a brilliant time in Spain that we've booked it again, for next month (March 2024)!
We usually save like mad for our New York holiday each year and, between that few bob and a bit of luck we had on 'the Markets' (...set-up and managed for us by a family member, a part-time trader who knows his beans from his onions!) we have the cash and we booked our flights and our accommodation.
We can't all get a month or six weeks off from home and outdoor work commitments at the same time to travel to New York (not worth our while going for a week or two) but we can all get the time for a few weeks in Spain again, so that's what we've done!
It hasn't got the same buzz as NYC, but it's a break in guaranteed sunshine with guaranteed great company, sight-seeing, shopping, food etc, so the plan has been made and paid for, but it's not for a few weeks yet. For those that might have missed it, I put up a few posts on 'X' and 'Facebook' about our recent sojourn in that wonderful country, and I'll be doing the same again in March.
And now for some even better news - we'll be here again (on the blog, silly, not Spain...) next Wednesday, 14th February 2024!
Thanks for the visit, and for reading.
Sharon and the team.
DIA DHUIT. TÁIMID AR AIS...SAGHAS AR..!
Hola! ¡Estamos de vuelta... más o menos...!
Hello! We're back...sort of..!
Shivering here, in wet and windy 14°C in Ireland, compared to the sun-drenched 27°C we enjoyed in España!
And we had a Ball ; weather, shopping, sight-seeing, food, few (!) drinks, great company, and even more shopping. And we never even needed bail money, 'cause the Spanish cops were very understanding...!
We enjoyed it so much that the five of us actually went ahead and...ah sure ya wouldn't be interested, probably just think that I'm rubbing yer noses in it, been bitchy, like...
..but I'll more than likely say a few extra words about it on Wednesday, 7th February 2024, when we post our 20-piece offerings - yeah, that's right - we'll have a 20 piece post ready for yis all (...including our friends in the Gorbals who, we're told, will be looking in with interest!) and we'll be covering the following issues, and way more -
In the early 1920's, this Stormont Minister asked for, and received, a report/update on a certain loyalist 'club' and this was given to him by a high-ranking RUC member : a well-known book author apparently got wind of the transaction and had a few words to say about it as, indeed, did the high-ranking RUC member...
In 1915, Irish republicans knew that a political and military storm was coming and soul-searched to find an alternative path to remove the British political and military presence from Ireland but, when they found that no such alternative existed, they readied themselves for the inevitable...
Which highly placed British politician's wife sat him down and wagged her finger at him about how he was mistreating the Irish, asking him directly if he would put up with such abuse if he found himself in the position that he and his had placed the Irish in...?
This 'royal' regiment of the British Army had to pack-up from their headquarters in County Kildare and prepare themselves for their return from whence they came. We don't actually know how they felt about it, nor do we care...
From the early 2000's - the problems that beset Ireland then can be seen, today, as only a temporary inconvience, although it didn't seem so at the time...
This particular organisation, rooted in Ireland, managed to spread its tentacles worldwide, but met a 'speed bump' in Louisiana, in the United States...
Ireland, early 1920's, a group of young lads were playing in a field when English soldiers played a 'game' of their own with them - blood was spilt...
...and that's only seven out of the twenty pieces we're gonna have for ya on Wednesday, 7th February, 2024, plus there'll be a few words said about our Spanish Stroll...!
Right : 'nuff said for now - see yis on the 7th!
Thanks for reading,
Sharon and the team.
