ON THIS DATE 101 YEARS AGO : FIRST DAY OF A LON-ANNOUNCED (AND IMAGINED) 'NEW NATION'!
A LESS-THAN-USELESS FAILED INSTITUTION.
(No, not Leinster House - that it is the above goes without saying!)
We refer to the so-called 'League of Nations' organisation which , on this date in 1923 - 11th September - opened its doors on 'Day 1' of having somehow officially announced the 'birth of a new nation' - Ireland, all 26 of its 32 Counties, that is!
The new entity (!) was, unbelievably, allowed membership of that August body (!) as "a nation".
This despite the fact that the application was endorsed by a (Free State) political administration which was in turmoil and had only just 'officially' emerged from a war with its neighbour, Britain, the effects of which were still being felt in the country as a whole and, indeed, are still being felt to this day, as the issue remains unresolved.
The 'main man' at the time, in this then war-torn State, William T. Cosgrave - a republican-poacher-turned-Free State-gamekeeper - was delighted that the Free State was 'allowed' to join the then four year-old 'League', which was considered by both the home-grown and foreign political 'Establishment' as a 'sacred circle'.
The British representative in that failed grouping, amongst others, gave what was described at the time as an "..eloquent speech...a spontaneous manifestation of good-will toward Ireland (sic) (in which) felicitations were extended...(to the new member)..."
And why wouldn't Westminster (and its 'friends' in Ireland and abroad at the time) welcome an acknowledgement by Cosgrave and his ilk that, to all intent and purpose, they agreed with Westminster that the part of Ireland handed back to 'the Irish' was indeed considered to be a 'nation', as it helped propagate the lie that the (still occupied) six north-eastern counties of Ireland were "part of the Empire".
Mr Cosgrave died 48 years ago but the political fault-line he so ably gave succor to in 1923 (and before and after that year) lives on after him.
Nothing to be proud of.
On the 11th September, 1919, a Mr George Frederick Ernest Albert (aka 'King George V of England', pictured) asked his 'Lord Privy Seal of England', a Mr Bonar Law, what measures the British government were taking to protect... "..the lives of unoffending people in Ireland, and what measures were to be brought into parliament for the government of the country..?"
The "unoffending people" in Ireland were, no doubt, those who weren't fighting against the savage hordes unleashed on them by Mr Albert and the political savage hordes he surrounded himself with.
Anyway - the poor man wasn't in the best of health, and he died, at 70 years of age, on the 20th January, 1936, in London, from a purposely-administered drug overdose.
Whether his death was an act of euthanasia, medically assisted suicide or murder, he should have been more concerned about his own governance than that of a country foreign to him...
==========================
On the 11th September, 1919, a British Army soldier attached to the 1st Battalion of the North Staffordshire Regiment, a Mr Samuel Morley (34, 'Service Number 46695'), killed himself in the Curragh, in County Kildare.
He is buried in Stoke-on-Trent (Hartshill) Cemetery, in England.
==========================
On the night of the 11th September, 1919, the IRA raided the home of Mrs Florence Watt-Smyth, in Castlewarden, County Kildare, and took away any arms and munitions they found there.
A lineage between the woman of the house and a Lieutenant Colonel Gerald Watt-Smyth, from Larne, in County Antrim, seems possible, and would explain why the rebels were convinced that weapons were in the house.
If our family connections are accurate, the couple had a two-year-old child, James, at the time of the raid, who was born in Naas, County Kildare, and who followed his father into a life in the British Army.
When James was 27 years of age he was stationed in Burma (Staff Captain in the 'Special Operations Executive Force 136') and is listed as 'KIA, February 1945', and is buried in Taukkyan War Cemetery, in Burma ('Myanmar').
==========================
WHY DOESN'T THE CENSUS ADDRESS ETHNICITY...?
By Niina Hepojoki.
From 'Magill' Magazine, March 2002.
It has been suggested that James Joyce was one of the first artists ever to imagine a world without foreigners.
In his essay 'Strangers in Their Own Country', Professor Declan Kiberd defines this Joycean world as... "..one possible once men and women begin to accept the foreigner in the self* and the necessarily fictive nature** of all nationalisms, which are open to endless negotiations."***
('1169' comment -* There is no "foreigner in the self" [except, perhaps, for those that are 'Woke'] as far as any indigenous people should be concerned ; we are what we are, and shouldn't seek to change our very DNA to suit anybody.
** - Nationalism is not of a "fictive nature" ; rather it is of a factual narrative and nature.
*** - "endless negotiations" ie 'those are my principles, and if you don't like them...well, I have others...' ; the very 'building blocks' of a 'Woke' structure!)
In September 1999, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) piloted a version of a question which mixed together nationality and ethnic origins.
This pilot came out of a public consultative process, which resulted in a government memorandum from the CSO recommending that the question be included in the 2001 census.
However, none of the consulted bodies were happy about the wording of the question.
The government decided against the inclusion of ethnicity, quoting, for instance, "the sensitivity of the issue" as one of the reasons. Sources involved in the pilot say that ethnicity as a question in the census form remains a "controversial issue" ; some fears have also been expressed about the possibility that the census could be hijacked*...
(* Not "hijacked", but availed of, to point out that, then - 2002 - the State was being filled-up with foreigners.
Now - 2024 - we're full. And have been for over a decade, at least.)
(MORE LATER.)
John Toner was born on the Newtownards Road in Belfast in 1870 and, when he was 20 years of age, he got a job in the Belfast shipyards but, in his late 40's, now living in Cable Street in the city, had to give it up for health reasons - it was tough, noisy industrial work, and he had damaged his hearing (tinnitus?) from the constant din.
He still needed to earn a living and was trying to do so as a carter and, on the evening of the 11th September, 1920, as he was on his way home from his rounds, he was shot dead by a British Army soldier.
The soldier later stated that John Toner was in breach of the curfew and refused to stop when shouted at to do so, so he shot him.
Mr Toner was practically deaf.
The poor man is buried in Dundonald Cemetery, in Belfast ('Grave Number E6 152').
==========================
ONE-ARMED BANDIT...
On the 11th September, 1920, at least four men in disguise entered the yard of Kilkenny Post Office, attacked a Post Office driver, beat him up, bound and gagged other employees and stole eleven full bags of post.
The raiding of Post Offices and removing postbags was one of the ways that the IRA gathered intelligence so, naturally, they were blamed for the raid, even though they denied it.
On the night of the 10th October, what was said to be the same gang of men drove, in a hired car, to the home of a Mr John Power, in Thomastown, County Kilkenny, who was the manager of a creamery business and, at about 2am, banged on his halldoor, shouting "Come down and open the door immediately. We are the Black and Tans..!"
On opening the door, Mr Power was bundled back inside, all house lights were turned off and his safe was robbed of about £75, a fortune in those days - the daily pay of a Private in the British Army at that time was about two shillings, and there were 20 shillings in one pound : about 3 years wages for a British Army soldier was taken in that house raid.
However, it is believed that Mr Power, in his report about the robbery, wrote that one of the raiders had no left arm, a description that fitted one of the 11th September Post Office raiders.
Newspaper reports had recorded the recent dismissal of a one-armed British Army Auxiliary Major, a Mr Ewen Cameron Bruce (pictured) for 'conduct unbecoming an officer' - the man was a thug, and would apparently do anything for money.
An investigation revealed that British Army Auxiliary Major Ewen Cameron Bruce and his nephew, Temporary Cadet Alan Thomas Bruce, had recently hired a car and picked up two other men - a Lieutenant Cooper and a Sergeant Blake of the British Army Devonshire Regiment - and the four men carried out both of the robberies.
All the thieves were members of the 'Auxiliary Division' of the RIC based in Woodstock House, Inistioge, in County Kilkenny, and it was discovered that the mail bags from the Post Office raid were taken back to 'A Coy' British Army base at Inistioge, where they were looted for cash and other valuables.
Incidentally, Mr Bruce, who was wounded five times in July 1917 in France at the 'Battle of Passchendaele', losing his left arm as a result, had legged it back home to England when the finger started to be pointed at him and was arrested by his own people there and returned to Ireland to stand trial ; he got away lightly, too - a one-year prison sentence, with his nephew, Temporary Cadet Alan Thomas Bruce, receiving a three-month sentence.
Also, on the same date (11th September 1920) that Mr Bruce and his fellow bandits were going to or coming from the Post Office that they robbed, the Newbridge and Athgarvan Companies of the 7th Brigade Kildare IRA were out and about themselves, raiding several venues where they knew arms and munitions could be had.
Different priorities...
"Sir,
The desire you express on the part of the British Government to end the centuries of conflict between the peoples of these two islands, and to establish relations of neighbourly harmony, is the genuine desire of the people of Ireland.
I have consulted with my colleagues and secured the views of the representatives of the minority of our Nation in regard to the invitation you have sent me.
In reply, I desire to say that I am ready to meet and discuss with you on what bases such a Conference as that proposed can reasonably hope to achieve the object desired.
I am, Sir,
Faithfully yours,
Eamon de Valera."
- the text of a letter sent from a Mr Éamon de Valera, in the Mansion House, Dublin, to a Mr David Lloyd George, in London, on the 8th July, 1921.
It was known at the time that, as part of their 'peace' offering, the British were intending to partition Ireland, an intention which was focussing the minds of many people, and groups, in Ireland.
On the 14th July, the meeting was held in London and, although no actual agreement was recorded as having being made, Mr Lloyd George made it clear that neither a republic nor independence for all 32 counties of Ireland was on the table, adding that he (Mr Lloyd George)could "...put a soldier in Ireland for every man, woman and child in it.." if the IRA did not immediately agree to stop fighting.
Way to 'negotiate', Mr George ; de Valera wanted an Ireland entirely separated, politically and militarily, from Britain, while the British insisted that loyalty to their 'King' and some form of 'association' must remain.
Meanwhile, at home, in August, Mr de Valera secured political approval to change the 1919 Dáil Constitution to 'upgrade' his official office from 'Prime Minister/Chairman of the Cabinet' to the title of 'President of the Republic' and, in his 'new' position, on the 11th September, he received a delegation from County Down, described as a 'joint Nationalist-Sinn Féin delegation', who expressed misgivings in relation to the country being partitioned, as did similar delegations he met with from Derry, Antrim, Belfast and the Glens.
'For' and 'against' opinions were expressed, and one speaker, an elected councillor, a Mr James Baird (a 'Rotten Prod'!), opined that... "...partition would place power in the hands of those responsible for the pogroms.."
And partition did just that - 'placed power in the hands' of Westminster and its puppet/Vichy 'parliament' in that part of Ireland, the Stormont Administration.
==========================
On the 11th September, 1921, Michael Collins released figures showing that 1,700 Irish republicans were still interned by the British and another 1,500 were separately serving prison sentences (including 40 women).
Within a few months, Mr Collins and his Stater colleagues and comrades were doing the same, and worse, to Irish republicans (...including women).
==========================
THE FORGOTTEN PEOPLE.
Emigration from Ireland to the United States continued throughout the 1990's, although the reasons were no longer so bluntly economic.
Now, in the wake of September 11th, the US authorities have been granted increased powers to investigate legal status, and Irish illegal emigrants are more vulnerable than ever before.
By Mairead Carey.
From 'Magill Annual', 2002.
The crackdown and its consequences ; a prisoner serving a life sentence in upstate New York left Ireland with his family at the age of two. Seventeen years ago he was convicted of murder and is currently serving out the final days of his sentence.
He is due out on parole in the coming days, and will be released into the custody of the 'Immigration And Naturalisation Service' (INS) and, because his family never took citizenship, he will be immediately deported to Ireland.
As far as the American authorities are concerned, he is Irish, even though he has spent 43 of his 45 years in the US.
There are some in the US who believe that this case is a measure of things to come ; in the aftermath of the attacks on September 11th, there is a growing intolerance to the undocumented.
Mohamed Atta was an illegal, and so were the other 17 hijackers.
A crackdown is being called for, and the thousands of Irish who are living in the US illegally will not be immune from any new measures brought in...
(MORE LATER.)
Eoin O’Duffy, left in pic, inspects a guard of honour in 1933 ; 'He was an IRA man, a supporter of the Treaty and of the Irish Free State, a fascist and...a defender of democracy..' (!)
On the 11th September, 1922, Free State Army General Eoin O'Duffy was appointed the first Commissioner of the new Free State 'Civic Guard' which, in August 1923, was renamed as the 'Garda Síochána na hÉireann' and from 1925 referred to as 'An Garda Síochána'.
Mr O'Duffy must have been glad that he and his people had no jurisdiction in our six north-eastern counties because, on the same date that he was appointed, the 'Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1922' received 'Royal Assent' ie it came into force which, among other civil misdeeds, abolished proportional representation in local government elections and required a 'Declaration of Allegiance' from persons elected to, or employed by, local political authorities.
And we'd take an educated guess here and suggest that one of the first cases to be investigated by Mr O'Duffy and his colleagues could have been to find out who it was that fired a shot at the FSA Bishop's car from the ruins at Jigginstown Castle in Naas, County Kildare, as it drove past, on the 11th September (1922) : the Catholic Church leadership was about to annouce that those who shoulder weapons against the Free Staters were to be banned from the Church Sacraments.
The Jigginstown Castle sniper gave them their answer...
==========================
A Mr Denis Whelan, a labourer, from the Dublin Road, Maudlins, Naas, in County Kildare, was 'arrested and detained' by Free State soldiers on the 11th September, 1922 ; there is no record of what happened to Mr Whelan, or who he was, but a man by that name, and from Maudlins, was known to be an IRA Volunteer with the 1st Battalion, 7th Brigade of the 1st Eastern Division of the IRA, and he would have been known in the Kill, Kilteel, Rathmore and Straffan areas.
==========================
"They (the IRA) have now adopted a type of warfare, of which they have years of experience.
They now operate over territory which they know.
They are now better armed and better trained than they were against the British.
In short, they* have placed me and my troops in the same position as the British were a little over a year ago..."
- Free State Army Major General James Emmet Dalton (pictured), in a letter he sent on the 11th September, 1922, from Cork, to his Commander-in-Chief, Michael Collins, both of whom were republican-gamekeepers-turned-Free State-poachers.
* - It wasn't the IRA who placed the FSA in that position ; they did that to themselves.
==========================
On the 11th September, 1922, comment was raised in Leinster House in relation to their army having attacked the IRA rebels in the Four Courts in Dublin, on the 28th June.
Their 'Minister for Justice', a Mr Kevin O'Higgins (pictured), declared -
"We had very good reason to believe that we anticipated by a couple of hours the creation of conditions under which this Parliament never would have met – conditions that would have brought back the British power – horse, foot, artillery and the Navy – in hostile relations to this country..."
Ironic, considering that it was Mr O'Higgins and his political and military colleagues, supported by their owners in Westminster, who posed the biggest threat to Ireland, and still do.
Also, before they went home after their days work on the 11th, the members said a few words about the then on-going strike by Post Office workers and a vote was held which showed that the majority of those politicians were against recognising the right of public servants to strike.
"Hostile relations" indeed.
The next day (12th September), the 'President of the Executive Council' of the Free State, a Mr William Thomas Cosgrave (pictured) stated -
"The action taken was not for the mere formula of the supremacy of parliament, but a formula for the security of the people, of the security of their lives, and the value of their money in the country..."
The only people that have ever had "security" in this State, and that have got "value" from it, are the State 'Establishment', not the ordinary people.
In fact, it was, and is, that same 'Establishment' that have, and are, destroying whatever hope the ordinary people have for 'security and value'.
After Mr Cosgrave finished his spiel, those present in Leinster House held a vote on the motion 'That the Dáil (sic) approves of the action that the Government has taken and is taking to assert and vindicate the authority of this House...' and, not surprising, that motion is passed by 54 votes to 15, proving that (political) contortionists can clap themselves on the back.
==========================
In a letter he sent to Mary MacSwiney on the 11th September, 1922, Mr Éamon de Valera stated -
"Reason rather than faith has been my master.
For the sake of the cause I allowed myself to be put into a position which it is impossible for one of my outlook and personal bias to fill with effect for the party.
Every instinct of mine would indicate that I was meant to a dyed-in-the-wool Tory, or even a Bishop, rather than the leader of a revolution..."
Would have been better all around, Mr de Valera, had you followed your instincts...
==========================
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.)
REPUBLICANS AND THE STATE :
In a statement on July 25th, 1987, Thomas Maguire wrote -
"I refer to my statement, dated 22nd day of October, 1986, and I speak again, as the sole surviving Teachta Dála of the Second Dáil Éireann, and the sole surviving member of the Executive of the Second Dáil.
In that statement, I referred to my recognition in December, 1969, of the Provisional Army Council of the IRA, which had remained true to the Irish Republic, as the lawful Army of the Thirty-Two-County Irish Republic.
I also stated on 22nd October, 1986, that I did not recognise the legitimacy of an Army Council, styling itself 'the Council of the Irish Republican Army', which lent support to any person or organisation styling itself Sinn Féin, and prepared to enter the partition parliament of Leinster House.
I referred, as well, to the IRA Convention, which had taken place shortly before the 22nd October, 1986. The Executive of the IRA had, by a majority, oppopsed entering Leinster House..."
(MORE LATER.)
On the 11th September, 1923, 'The London Times' newspaper wrote that 'Article 12' of the Treaty would result in a "considerable modification of the present boundary", a kite-flying exercise in support of other pro-British loyalists who were opposed to Westminster abandoning them, as they saw it, by the issue of partitioning Ulster ie for maintaining jurisdictional control over only six of Ulster's nine counties.
'Article 12' stated -
'If before the expiration of the said month, an address is presented to His Majesty by both Houses of the Parliament of Northern Ireland to that effect, the powers of the Parliament and Government of the Irish Free State shall no longer extend to Northern Ireland, and the provisions of the Government of Ireland Act., 1920 (including those relating to the Council of Ireland) shall, so far as they relate to Northern Ireland continue to be of full force and effect, and this instrument shall have effect subject to the necessary modifications.
Provided that if such an address is so presented a Commission consisting of three Persons, one to be appointed by the Government of the Irish Free State, one to be appointed by the Government of Northern Ireland and one who shall be Chairman to be appointed by the British Government shall determine in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants, so far as may be compatible with economic and geographic conditions, the boundaries between Northern Ireland and the rest of Ireland, and for the purposes of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, and of this instrument, the boundary of Northern Ireland shall be such as may be determined by such Commission.'
The reason the Free Staters 'reluctantly accepted' both of those paragraphs was because of the wording "...in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants, so far as may be compatible with economic and geographic conditions, the boundaries between Northern Ireland and the rest of Ireland.."
which, they professed to believe, meant that they could eventually vote the Six Counties out of existence!
This talking shop/kicker-of-cans-down-the-road commission continued to talk and kick cans until November 1925, when it announced it had completed its work and then released its final report, to great acclaim. Not.
Incidentally, on this date - the 11th September - in 1925, the Chairman of the Boundary Commission, Mr Justice Richard Feetham (a [pro-British] South African Supreme Court judge) issued a 'Chairman's Memorandum' in which he outlined what was described as "a very restrictive view of the Commission's work under Article 12.." ie 'we won't be changing it, never mind tweaking it. Take it as is or leave it...'
The Staters took it, and announced it as a victory!
We have wrote about that can-kicking enterprise before, and no doubt will refer to it in the future.
==========================
Thanks for the visit, and for reading!
Sharon and the team.
Ireland, 1920's - this man was a top operator in Ireland for Westminster in their military campaign against the Irish rebels but, like his political and military bosses, he was fond of taking what wasn't his.
But someone had taken something from him that wasn't theirs and left him exposed for all to see...
That short promo piece about a British gunman in Ireland in the 1920's who paid a price - an arm and a leg, you could say - for attempting to cash-in on his notoriety is one of seventeen articles we'll be posting about here on Wednesday, 11th September 2024.
Still in the 1920's, we'll have a few paragraphs on a then nine-month international organisation which exposed its inherent bias when it was approached, favourably, by representatives from an entity other than what that particular organisation professed to champion...
And, from more than twenty years ago, a timely piece on Irish citizenship in America, criminality and deportations - "...he is Irish, even though he has spent all but two years of his life in the US. He will be deported..."
A lesson there for Leinster House politicians, who have made this State a safe haven for the detritus from 3rd World prisons and, in doing so, abandoned the health and safety concerns - morally, financially and physically - of the indigenous Irish.
...plus 14 more pieces : we'll be comin' atya on Wednesday, 11th September 2024 with all the above. Sure all's ya need is a bucket of popcorn...!
Thanks for the visit, and for reading ; see yis on the 11th!
Sharon and the team.
ON THIS DATE (4TH SEPTEMBER) 54 YEARS AGO : AMERICA, ARROGANCE AND ALLENDE.
"I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people..." - the chilling words of Henry Kissinger, in relation to Chile, but directed at Salvador Allende (pictured), in particular.
In 1964, four million dollars was a huge amount of money ; that was the year, and that was the amount, that the CIA spent in securing the election of the 'Christian Democrats' in Chile.
However, six years later, it looked like a change of leadership was on the way - the socialist, Salvador Allende, was ahead in the polls, prompting the above-mentioned quote from Henry Kissinger.
American interests in Chile were worried, as was the CIA ; two US multi-national firms, I.T.T. and Anaconda Copper, offered the CIA $1,500,000 to stop Allende - the CIA told them to start an 'anti-Allende' campaign themselves with that money, as the Agency had its own 'war-chest' for just such a purpose.
However, US money and propaganda against him or not, on the 4th September 1970 - 54 years ago on this date - Salvador Allende won the election ('..he won the 1970 Chilean presidential election as leader of the Unidad Popular ('Popular Unity') coalition...on 4 September 1970, he obtained a narrow plurality of 36.2% to 34.9% over Jorge Alessandri, a former president, with 27.8% going to a third candidate (Radomiro Tomic) of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC)..' - from here.)
His victory was to be verified by the Chilean Congress on the 24th October 1970, prompting the CIA to increase their anti-democracy efforts.
They tried to bribe the Chilean Congress with $250,000, but failed ; they knew that the head of the Chilean Armed Forces, a General Rene Schneider, would not support unconstitutional means to remove Salvador Allende from 'play', but the CIA shipped guns into the country anyway, in a diplomatic bag - and Schneider himself was removed from the scene!
Three years later, and after spending $8 million dollars, the CIA were successful - Allende and thousands of his supporters were tortured and killed and a (U.S. friendly) military junta was installed in Chile.
Salvador Allende is gone, but American political arrogance is alive and well. It's too late now to properly repair the damage that Donald Trump has done, but perhaps future Office holders (Donald Trump?!) will take heed of the words of American poet, Maya Angelou ;
'History, despite its wrenching pain,
cannot be unlived,
but, if faced with courage,
need not be lived again'.
The RIC barracks in Drumquin, in County Tyrone, was raided by the IRA on the 26th August 1920, an operation which resulted in the death of one IRA man and one RIC member, with one other uniformed member of that British force being injured (later receiving £500 compensation for his injuries).
A large haul of arms was captured by the IRA Unit, which consisted of Dr Joseph Patrick McGinley (pictured, a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher [subsequently joined the Fine Gael party]), Sam O’Flaherty, John McGroarty, Michael Doherty, James Curran, Henry McGowan, Patrick McGlinchey, Jim Dawson, Anthony Dawson, Eamon Gallagher, Hugh McGraughan, Hugh Sweeney, William McLaughlin, Patrick McMonagle, James McMonagle, Hugh McGrath, John McLaughlin, Edward McBrearty, J.J. Kelly, James McCarron, John Flaherty, Jim Hannigan, John Byrne, Edward Thomas Coyle and Michael Bogan.
But more weapons and munitions were needed, and a plan was devised on how to obtain them.
On the agreed date - Saturday, 4th September 1920 - Hana (Hannah) Blaney, a Volunteer in Cumann na mBan, scouted the area around the Coast Guard station at Fanad, in County Donegal, and reported back to IRA leader Dr Joseph Patrick McGinley that the only enemy forces were inside the station - that the coast was clear (!) other than that.
The Volunteers moved in on the building and were fired on as they did so, and returned fire - a gunfight ensued but, realising they were outnumbered, those inside surrendered and the IRA took control of the station.
Between nine and eleven revolvers, one thousand rounds of ammunition for same, various other small arms and some boxes of gelignite were liberated, and repurposed (!) by the rebels but, had they been a few days earlier, they would have obtained more - most of the military munitions had been transferred to a ship anchored in the bay days previously.
And Dr McGinley was later to 'repurpose' himself, as stated above - speaking during the 'Treaty Debates', he voiced support, and voted for, the 'Treaty of Surrender', stating -
"I have no qualms about the oath which I took in coming to the assembly.
The people sent me here to get absolute separation if I could - I am for absolute separation if I could see a way out - but they sent me here to use my own free will*.
If I could not get absolute separation at the present time I was to take something by which we could work output own independence in the long run. I think in voting for this treaty I am voting according to the mandate* which my constituents gave me when sending me here..."
*His mandate, and that of the IRA and the Republican Movement, was to obtain a 32-County Irish Republic, not a 26-County Free State within that Republic.
==========================
On the 20th March, 1920 (his 36th birthday), the Irish republican Lord Mayor of Cork, Tomás Mac Curtain (March 20th 1884 - March 20th 1920) was shot dead in front of his wife and son by a group of men with blackened faces, who were found to be members of the 'Royal Irish Constabulary' (RIC) by the official inquest into the event.
His comrade, Terence MacSwiney (pictured) was shortly afterwards elected as the commander of the Cork Number 1 Brigade of the IRA and the new Lord Mayor of Cork.
Volunteer MacSwiney was 'arrested' in City Hall, Cork, by the British Crown Forces, on the 12th August (1920) for possession of "seditious articles and documents", and possession of a cypher key.
He was 'tried by a court' on the 16th August and sentenced to two years imprisonment at Brixton Prison in England, and went on hunger-strike, as it was his only means to continue the fight against the British military and political presence in Ireland.
The local, national and international media were following and reporting on the case, day-by-day, and Westminster was worried about the publicity that their interference in Ireland was receiving on the world stage.
On the 4th September, 1920, David Llyod George, the British Prime Minister, who was in Lucerne, in Switzerland, at the time, wrote to a Mr Bonar Law, who was one of his trusted MP's and was said to be "at the centre of government", expressing concern about the world-wide publicity being given to Volunteer MacSwiney's hunger-strike and about 'the Irish situation' overall -
"His release would completely disintegrate and dishearten the Police Force (sic) in Ireland and the Military. We might as well give up attempting to maintain (sic) law and order in Ireland..."
"Maintain law and order in Ireland" indeed! It was because of their presence in Ireland that law and order broke down.
Volunteer Terence MacSwiney died on the 25th October, 1920, after 74 days on hunger strike.
RIP.
(Incidentally, also during Volunteer MacSwiney's hunger-strike, three IRA operatives - Patrick 'Pa' Murray, Jerry Dennehy and Jack Cody - were sent to London to plan the assassination of a senior British government minister in the event of Volunteer MacSwiney's death ; however, shortly after he was buried, 'unofficial discussions about discussions' began between Irish republicans and Westminster about a truce [those discussions became 'official' on the 11th October 1921] and the London operation was put on hold.)
==========================
Percy Harold C Turner was born in 1894 in Guildford, in West Surrey, in England and, as a young adult, joined 'A Coy 1st The Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment' of the British Army (pictured, 'Service Number 6076392').
He was only 26 years of age when he died in the Military Hospital, in Victoria Army Barracks, in Belfast, Ireland, from an unexplained leg wound.
Gangrene had infected the wound, and he died on the 4th September, 1920.
==========================
On the 31st July, 1893, Douglas Hyde, Eoin MacNeill, Fr. Eoghan Ó Gramhnaigh (Eugene O'Growney) and others formed 'The Gaelic League' organisation, with the aim of restoring, maintaining and promoting the Irish langauge and culture.
The organisation flourished, running Irish language classes throughout Ireland, teaching people how to read and write in our own language and conducting its business as Gaeilge, and was particularly successful in the Kildare area.
Eoin MacNeill, Douglas Hyde and Fr. O'Growney, pictured in 1904.
Westminster, however, viewed the League in a somewhat different light after 1916 and, by 1920, it was unofficially considered to be an anti- (British) Establishment group ; the IRA, overall, was a force to be reckoned with, as its Volunteers were trained to a high level and the Republican Movement as a whole was a tightly-organised entity and, like the League, they had a strong presence in the Kildare area.
In July 1920, an IRA training camp was established at Ladytown, Naas, County Kildare, under the control of Peadar McMahon (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State poacher), an IRA GHQ organiser at the time and, in August (1920), a 'Big House' - Dowdingstown House, in the townland of Baile Dúidín, four miles south of Naas - was repurposed by the IRA as battalion headquarters, and fortnightly meetings of the battalion council were held there.
The Kildare Battalion, which controlled North Kildare and adjoining areas, was reorganised in September (1920) and two new battalions were formed : the 'Kildare Number 1', encompassing the northern region, with Patrick Colgan in command, and the remaining area became 'Kildare Number 2', with Thomas Harris in charge.
Try as they did, the Crown Forces were, as was said at the time, 'put to the pin of their collar' in the Kildare area and throughout the country in attempting to best the rebels (for example, 1,590 RIC members resigned during 1920 [and 1,428 in 1921]) so, in Kildare, the British reverted to an 'indirect approach' - on the 4th September, 1920, the 'Gaelic League' building in Kildoon, County Kildare, was burned to the ground by 'persons unknown'.
But the struggle continued in Kildare, to the point that the British still considered the county of Kildare to be "in a deplorable state..."!
==========================
WHY DOESN'T THE CENSUS ADDRESS ETHNICITY...?
By Niina Hepojoki.
From 'Magill' Magazine, March 2002.
It has been suggested that James Joyce was one of the first artists ever to imagine a world without foreigners.
In his essay 'Strangers in Their Own Country', Professor Declan Kiberd defines this Joycean world as... "..one possible once men and women begin to accept the foreigner in the self* and the necessarily fictive nature** of all nationalisms, which are open to endless negotiations."***
('1169' comment -* There is no "foreigner in the self" [except, perhaps, for those that are 'Woke'] as far as any indigenous people should be concerned ; we are what we are, and shouldn't seek to change our very DNA to suit anybody.
** - Nationalism is not of a "fictive nature" ; rather it is of a factual narrative and nature.
*** - "endless negotiations" ie 'those are my principles, and if you don't like them...well, I have others...' ; the very 'building blocks' of a 'Woke' structure!)
These are crude figures, and the report stresses the importance of identifying the presence of institutional racism in Ireland*.
However, the report also gives rise to another very interesting question - what the researchers of the study found especially tricky was the creation of a representative sample within Ireland's ethnic minorities ; this is because there exist no official figures on the breakdown of different ethnic groups in this country (sic).
Dr Eoin O'Mahony said -
"There are figures on how many refugee applications the State has received and how many have been granted, however we don't know how many people belong to which ethnic group.
We don't know exactly how many people of African origin live here, or how many Pakistanis, for example. Any research into racism cannot in this situation be representative."
The primary way of gaining this type of data would be to introduce a question of ethnicity in the census but, despite the initial hope of introducing ethnicity as a question on this year's census form, the earliest date by which a respondent's ethnic origin will possibly be recorded is 2006...
(*"Institutional racism" in this State is reflected in the manner in which migrants here are, for instance, provided with a roof to shelter under ahead of the indigenous Irish and the manner in which the qualifying criteria for the main State [taxpayer-funded]-'Back To Work' scheme ['CE'] has been 'adjusted' for foreigners only.)
(MORE LATER.)
On the 24th May, 1921, Michael Collins contested elections as a Sinn Féin candidate for An Dara Dáil (the Second Dáil Éireann, which convened from the 16th August 1921 until the 8th June 1922) for two seats - Armagh and Cork Mid, North, South, South East and West - both of which he won.
On the 4th September that year (1921), Mr Collins was one of the main speakers at a political meeting held in the grounds of St. Patrick's College in Armagh City (pictured - Eoin O'Duffy was another), which was attended by an estimated 10,000 people (and a large force of IRA Volunteers were also present).
In his speech, he declared -
"In common with all other Republican candidates in this election, I go forward not as an individual seeking any distinction, but as the exponent of a National principle.
We go forward not accepting the Partition of Ireland Act, but rejecting it.
Ireland free as a Sovereign Entity or Ireland divided, with a minority of her population petted and pampered by the English are the alternatives today.
Ireland has room for all her people."
It was what the 'Irish News' newspaper described as "his first official visit to the city", and was the first time he had appeared in public since his name became known, to the world, literally, as the Commander in Chief of the Republican Forces but, among Irish Republicans, his name was shortly to be known as the man who took weapons from the British and used them against those he had once fought with, against the British.
Incidentally, at that 4th September meeting in Armagh, Eoin O'Duffy (another republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher) threatened pro-British unionists that he would "use the lead on them, if necessary, if they decided they were against Ireland and against their fellow countrymen.." for which he was removed as 'Northern Truce Liaison Officer' and was replaced on that useless talking shop by a Mr Frank Crummey.
Also, on his way home from that meeting, IRA Volunteer John Quigley was killed, but we are unable to find out where, or by whom ; indeed, there is a dearth of information on Volunteer Quigley, but he may have been active with the Truagh Company, 2nd Battalion East-Clare Brigade IRA.
==========================
ON THIS DATE (4TH SEPTEMBER) 173 YEARS AGO : BIRTH OF A LAND LEAGUE FOUNDER.
"It will be our duty, and we will set about it without delay, to disorganise and break up the Irish Constabulary that for the past 30 years have stood at the back of the Irish landlords - bayonet in hand.
The pay of these men, which is taken out of the pockets of the Irish tenants, is voted yearly in the English Parliament, and not an Irish member could be found to protest against it.
Let us now see that, instead of the twelve hundred thousand pounds a year which is devoted to pay the Irish Constabulary, that not one hundred thousand will go for that purpose : then I would like to see the landlord who would face the Irish tenant.
I tell you that the hour we take away the bayonet of the Irish policeman that hour the landlords will come to ask us for a settlement of the land question..." - John Dillon (pictured), 1880.
John Dillon was born on the 4th September 1851 - 173 years ago on this date - and was educated at Trinity College Dublin and the Catholic University of Louvain, before studying medicine and eventually qualifying as a surgeon.
He was active in the Land League and was among those who organised a campaign whereby tenants paid their rents to the League instead of their 'landlords' and, if the tenants doing so were evicted, they would receive financial assistance from a general fund established for that purpose.
As a result of his involvement in this campaign, he spent a number of months in jail.
In 1880, he was elected as an M.P. for Tipperary but resigned from that seat in 1883 for health reasons ; he was elected again in 1885 for the East Mayo area, an area which he spoke up for, politically, until 1918, when he lost his seat in the election held in December that year ; Éamon de Valera outpolled him by 4,461 votes.
He was torn between his heart and his head in regards to the 1916 Rising ; he couldn't bring himself to support the 'dissidents' but neither could he fully condemn them -
"I say I am proud of their courage and, if you were not so dense and so stupid, as some of you English people are, you would have had these men fighting for you, and they are men worth having...ours is a fighting race...the fact of the matter is that what is poisoning the mind of Ireland, and rapidly poisoning it, is the secrecy of these trials and the continuance of these executions.
I do not think Abraham Lincoln executed one single man, and by that one act of clemency, he did an enormous work of good for the whole country.
Why cannot you treat Ireland as Botha treated South Africa - victims of misdirected enthusiasm and leadership*? (The rebels showed...) conduct beyond reproach as fighting men.
I admit they were wrong ; I know they were wrong** ; but they fought a clean fight, and they fought with superb bravery and skill, and no act of savagery or act against the usual customs of war that I know of has been brought home to any leader or any organised body of insurgents.."
He died, aged 76, on the 4th of August, 1927, and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, in Dublin.
(*Westminster is guilty of that towards Ireland and the Irish and, as a result of their continuing "misdirected enthusiasm and leadership", they are still claiming and operating military and political jurisdictional control over six Irish counties.)
(**No, they weren't wrong, no more than Mr Dillon was wrong to challenge the "English Parliament" and its representatives in this country in the manner in which he did, even though his opponents and his lukewarm supporters told him "you were wrong".)
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.
If George Bush Jnr has his way with the US Congress and receives a multibillion dollar programme to wage war on the global South in retaliation for recent events, it could provide a shot in the arm for the very companies that are leaving Ireland because of poor global demand.
Could the future of the 'Celtic Tiger' be tied to that of the US war machine?
Allah, help us!
(END of 'So, Farewell Then, Celtic Tiger' : NEXT - 'The Forgotten People', from the same source.)
In January, 1922, the British military and their 'police force' in Ireland, the RIC, began to hand over the barracks they were sheltering in to the army of the newly established Irish Provisional Government, the IRA.
On Thursday, January 26th, 150 British officers and soldiers vacated Clogheen Barracks, in County Tipperary ; on Saturday 28th, Mallow Military Barracks, in County Cork, was handed over to IRA Commandant General Liam Lynch and on Sunday the 29th, in Cahir, County Tipperary, the British '2nd Brigade Royal Filed Artillery' vacated and handed over the barracks.
On the 31st January, the headquarters of the Auxiliary Division of the RIC, at Beggar's Bush Barracks, Haddington Road, in Dublin, was formally handed over to the IRA ; Commandant-General Seán McMahon, First Quartermaster of the IRA, and Commandant James Emmet Dalton, IRA Chief Liaison Officer, took over the barracks from Mr. Alfred Cope, Assistant Under-Secretary, Dublin Castle, and a General Wood, Commander of the Auxiliary RIC, and on Wednesday, 1st February (1922), in Sligo, the '1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment' handed over the barracks they were in (at the courthouse).
The RIC Barracks in Dromahair, in County Leitrim (pictured), was similarly surrendered to the IRA in early 1922 but, when the IRA split, the Free Staters took control of it.
On the 4th September 1922, the IRA forced the Staters out of it and took it back under republican control.
In a statement released afterwards, Free State Army 'General Officer Commander' Seán MacEoin (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State poacher) later claimed that his garrison had surrendered the barracks due to dissatisfaction with pay and supplies...!
==========================
On the 4th September, 1922, an IRA Flying Column attached to Kerry Number 3 Brigade ambushed a Free State Army patrol in the townland of Ohermong, near Caherciveen, in County Kerry.
Two Stater soldiers were killed - Lieutenant Clement Cooper (22), from Kilcummin, in County Kerry, and Sergeant John O'Donoghue (23), and one IRA Volunteer, James 'Jama' O'Connell was wounded, but lived to fight another day.
Incidentally, Mr Cooper had fought with the IRA before joining the FSA ; he is buried in the same plot as Mr O'Donoghue in Killavarnogue Cemetery in
Caherciveen, in County Kerry.
==========================
In July, 1922, the Free State Army finally succeeded in removing Waterford City from the control of the 'Irregulars' - the IRA, after a battle which lasted for about four days.
The IRA were using 'conventional/open confrontation' and guerrilla tactics and, while they may have lost Waterford, they hadn't gone away (!) and were still in Waterford, 'hitting and hiding'.
In early September, 1922, a number of engagements took place in that city - the rebels attacked the Manor Street RIC barracks, and shots were also fired at Lady Lane Barracks, hoping to draw the Staters out, but they didn't respond, and stayed indoors.
However, an elderly lady, Katie Walsh (66), was shot and killed while reading in her sitting room in Number 13 Bakehouse Lane near the Lady Lane Barracks, on the 4th September (1922).
The poor woman was shot in the arm and called out to her upstairs neighbours to come down to her, which they did, and they then rushed for help and asked other neighbours to get the priest, doctor, RIC and her son but, a few minutes after the priest and doctor arrived, the poor woman died.
==========================
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.)
REPUBLICANS AND THE STATE :
In a statement dated December 31st, 1969, Thomas Maguire said -
"The delegates who opposed the resolution, together with delegates from units which were not represented at the Convention, met subsequently in Convention and repudiated the resolution.
They re-affirmed their allegiance to the Republic and elected a Provisional Executive which in turn appointed a Provisional Army Council.
I hereby further declare that the Provisional Executive and the Provisional Army Council are the lawful Executive and Army Council respectively of the IRA and that the governmental authority delegated in the Proclamation of 1938 now resides in the Provisional Army Council and its lawful successors.
I fully endorse their call for support for Irish people everywhere towards the realisation of the full freedom of Ireland."
Dated: 31st December 1969.
Signed : Thomas Maguire, Comdt. Gen. (Tomás Mac Uidhir).
In 1986 there was another split in the Republican Movement and, again, it was over the issue of recognition of the 26-County State...
(MORE LATER.)
"The cause of death was shock and haemorrhage, the result of gunshot wounds inflicted by Joseph Barry in the execution of his duty.
We consider the order issued a disgrace with regard to prisoners. We consider the other prisoners in the cell should have been produced as witnesses..."
-a note on the Death Certificate of Irish republican prisoner, Patrick Joseph O'Hanlon, who was sixteen years of age.
The young Volunteer (8th Battalion, 3rd Tipperary Brigade) was shot by FSA Private Joseph Barry, a sentry, in Kilkenny Jail, on the 4th September 1923, and was taken to the Curragh Military Hospital in County Kildare, where he died.
His death was registered on the 19th September, 1923, on foot of information received from the Coroner for South Kildare, following an inquest held on the 16th September, 1923, and he is buried with his comrades in the Republican Plot in Saint Mary's Cemetery in Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary.
Ar Deis Dégo Raibh a n-Anamacha ('A Chance To Have Their Souls Saved').
==========================
Thanks for the visit, and for reading!
Sharon and the team.
Kerry, 1920's - this IRA Volunteer changed sides and shouldered a weapon for the enemy he had been fighting against. He was sent to a different townland in his own county to do battle against his old comrades but they no longer had any friendship towards him...
...and we're back (...what do ya mean ya didn't notice our absence...??!) after our family fling in, incidentally, Kerry!
Dozens of us - we made a long weekend out of it, lock-ins, rebel songs, breakfast at Tiffanys (seriously!) between 3am and 4amish, caught-up with old comrades, colleagues, friends and had a good chat, I'm told (!) with col ceathracha cousins and chancer Kerry lads who swore blind they were related to us!
And I swear blind here, readers, if yis don't check back with us on Wednesday, 4th September 2024....yis will miss the closing chapters in the above, and these...
Waterford, 1920's - guerrilla warfare on the streets, so most civilians stayed indoors. This elderly lady was in her house, reading a newspaper, when shots were heard outside. Then her neighbours heard shouts for help...
Kildare, 1920's - this rather tame nationalist group were an easy target for the British, and so it was that they were victimised for 'the sins of the father...'
Westminster, 1920's - the Irish republican struggle was receiving world-wide attention and publicity, and the British PM didn't favour the coverage, so he wrote a fairly telling letter to his (unofficial) second-in-command...
We have a 15-part post almost ready to go, for the 4th - so give us a shout then, won't ya...?
Thanks for the visit, and for reading ; see ya Wednesday 4th!
Sharon and the team.
