PETER O 'NEILL CROWLEY , CORK FENIAN, KILLED BY THE BRITISH IN TIPPERARY , 1867 .....

..... after three weeks in hiding in Kilclooney Wood in Tipperary , the three Irish rebels (Peter O'Neill Crowley , John McClure and Edward Kelly) were found by the British and , in the ensuing gun-battle, Crowley was killed . McClure and Kelly were later sentenced to life imprisonment .....


The county of Cork practically came to a standstill for the funeral of Peter O'Neill Crowley , in his native Ballymacoda ; the Fenian leader John Devoy said of the man -

" Peter O'Neill Crowley was one of the best men in the Fenian Movement , and Ireland never gave birth to a truer or more devoted son . His devotion to the cause of Irish liberty was sublime and his courage dauntless . "

The two men captured in Kilclooney Wood in Tipperary after the gun-battle , John McClure and Edward Kelly , were released four years later , in the 'general amnesty' of that year (1871).

Incidentally , the 'Kilclooney Wood Engagement' is considered to be the last action of the 1867 Fenian Rising ..... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :


JOHN LINNANE OF LISTOWEL .

" John Linnane was a man of strong enthusiam and resolution , and such a man becomes loved and trusted in a time of national struggle . His religious conviction , his love of the Irish language , and his fearless activity as a soldier were an inspiration to all who knew him during ten difficult years .

He was killed on the thirteenth of April , nineteen-twenty-three , not far from the field in Gortaglanna where his old comrade-in-arms, Patrick Walsh, was murdered in nineteen-twenty-one by Black and Tans. John Linnane and Dick Bunyan and John Mullaney had a dug-out in a hayshed in Trineragh . (MORE LATER)>



A TALE OF TWO SHITTIES ...... Scene One - a distinguished building in Dublin > NOW READ ON .....

LIGHTS ! QUIET ON SET ! AND... ACTION -

DRUM ROLL < ORCHESTRA < and VOICEOVER ......


"Psst ! Hey Buddy .....
....wanna do a job for me ?

Don't matter what skills ya have , or if ya have a trade or not , man - and it's 'white-collar' stuff , won't dirty the hands - well, not with real dirt , ha-ha ! Inersted ? Here's your cut :

We start ya on a cool EURO 1541 a week , but it don't stop there - an associate of ours , right, Marty , from Kerry - hangs with the 'Adams Family' , this guy - shakin' down the 'one-five-four-one' grand on a weekly basis and, get this , buddy - Marty clicks another EURO 885 a week in - HA! HA! - "expenses" !

JEEZE , man , ya'd be crazy notta ! I mean it , dude , - EURO 2426 a week , every week ." Marty was sent in by 'Big Jer' , the Boss - " Gotta shake things up in there , Marty " , Big Jer said . "Sure thing," said Marty . But that's not the way it panned out .....


Marty got soft , ya know- comfortable - the broad was offa his back , things lookin' pretty good . So , Marty says to Bossman Jer - " Cut me some slack , man ; gimme time to stash some padding for the 'down-the-road' , like - you OK with that , boss ? " The Big Guy eyed up Marty : "Sure thing, Marty," he replied , " been there , done that , wrote the book , know what ya mean " , he said , winking .

But Jer was'nt finished - "Just one thing, man ..." . Marty froze : he knew from experience how good a huckster the boss was - he started to sweat . He knew well what Jer was capable of from the ( not so ) bad 'old days' ..... But he need'nt have worried - the boss knew the meaning (and price) of loyality : " Don't let the Family down , man " Jer said , walking towards a nervous Marty , "and pretty soon a weeks poke of EURO 2426 will be loose change . At my level , we call that a fair day's take ! "
The two men laughed out loud and hugged each other . Then , out of no-where, everything started shaking ; stuff falling offa the shelves , a real mess , and the very ground they were standing on pitched and rolled .

The bodyguards legged it , their new-found 'friends' standing in the background got offside , and all around them came crashing down .

"EARTHQUAKE !" , shouted Marty . "No " , said Jer , "I've seen this before . It's our own fault for having this conversation in the G P O " .


[END] (or is it.....?)


SOURCE -

financial figures : courtesy of the Free State 'Oireachtas' , released on Saturday 2nd August last - under the 'Freedom of Information Act' .


WORDS -

all my own . Really .


DRAMATIS PERSONAE -

Ah , ya know yourself ...
(.... go figure , buddy !)


FOREIGN RELEASE -

Yes . As a short play entitled 'Embarras de Richesses' .


CHANCE OF A HAPPY ENDING -

As we say in this business : " Enfants Perdus" .

PETER O'NEILL CROWLEY , CORK FENIAN , KILLED BY THE BRITISH IN TIPPERARY , 1867 .....


....when they realised that the Fenian Rising had failed , Peter O'Neill Crowley and his second and third in command, John McClure and Edward Kelly , issued an order to their men to disperse .....


After the 'dispersal' order was given (towards the end of the first week in March 1867) , the three Fenian leaders - Crowley , McClure and Kelly - fled to the limited safety of Kilclooney Wood in County Tipperary .

On 31st March , 1867, a large force of British soldiers entered Kilclooney Wood and 'scouts' from the same force soon located the whereabouts of the three Irish rebels . Within hours they were surrounded by the enemy and ordered to surrender ; they refused . The three were well-armed , and fought courageously , but were no match for the numbers ranged against them .

The gun-battle lasted for several hours ; it ended when Peter O'Neill Crowley died , with at least three gunshot wounds to his body . John McClure and Edward Kelly were arrested and were later sentenced to life imprisonment . (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :

JACK FLEMING OF TRALEE ...

....a member of the IRA since 1914 , Jack Fleming joined an established column of the Volunteers in 1922 : the Free State troops occupying Tralee were aware of his movements ....

" He caused enquiries to be made ,in the following March , by a friend : he wanted to know whether it would be safe for him to sleep at home . A direct message from the Free State Barracks was the reply - " He will be safe when he gives up his gun. " Jack Fleming went into hiding then ; he had no thought of purchasing safety at a price .

On the twenty-eight of March the house where he was sleeping was searched for him and he was found . He was taken to Ballymullen Barracks , that sinister building which the people of Tralee pass even now with shrinking , such screams of agony used to sound , a year ago, from the Intelligence Room. It is only from a score of vague , inconsecutive narratives told by soldiers and by men who were prisoners there , that what happened then can be made out at all .

Jack Fleming was taken out during the night ; he was brought to the prison , half a mile away, before daylight, dying or dead ; his body was refused to his people . No more is known . No more is known except this one thing - he could have saved himself had he chosen to be a traitor , and he chose to die .


[END]


BRUSSEL'S 'BULL' ....

..... in July , 1986 , the (then) EEC (now 'EU') made a decision to feed calves on cheap surplus butter rather than making it available to the poor . This move was backed by Britain , Denmark and the Netherlands because , they said , it would have little effect on levelling excess butter stocks if it were given to the poor ! (See 'The Evening Press' , 16th July , 1986 , page 4 ).

..the 'Straight Banana' proposal from those clowns was a laugh at the time , but when you hear of the above nonsense it takes the smile from your face .


GAY ? - no , just queer ....

.... Eamonn Dunphy used to be a member of the British Labour Party , but later supported Fine Gael . He stated - " Capitalism is the lesser of the two conflicting evils in the world ." (The other , he said , was Marxism.) He joined Fine Gael the night Charles Haughey became Free State Taoiseach , saying "Fine Gael is the most liberal party in this country (sic)" . (See 'In Dublin' magazine , issue 259, 24th July 1986 , page 9.)

Now THAT'S something the bouncer should do him for ....

PETER O'NEILL CROWLEY , CORK FENIAN , KILLED BY THE BRITISH IN TIPPERARY , 1867 .....

.....in March 1867 , Peter O'Neill Crowley and his Fenian 'Circle' attacked an armed coastguard station at Knockadoon ....


The Knockadoon coastguard station , located about eight miles from Youghal in Cork , was staffed by ten armed employees ; they were over-powered and held captive and their rifles and ammunition taken . It is not perhaps as well known as it should be , but the 'main' Fenian Rising of 1867 lasted for just over twenty-four hours , although isolated attacks on the British continued for a few weeks .

When Peter O'Neill Crowley and his second and third in command , John McClure and Edward Kelly , realised that the Rising had failed , they knew the British would be determined to 'round-up' the leadership ; they issued orders to their 'Circle' to disperse ..... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle , first published in 1924 -

JACK FLEMING OF TRALEE :


" Surely , in all wars , the most piteous stories are those that , to the worlds end, will never be told . To meet death in the night , alone among mocking enemies, knowing that no message from him will ever reach his comrades, that lies only will be told of him by his slayers , that the one sweet reward of sacrifice - a name remembered with love and praise among his people , may even be stolen from him in death - this, surely , is the hardest martyrdom a soldier can be called upon to endure .

There are men of Kerry who have died so , the manner of their end unknown . But this much is known of them - they could have saved themselves had they chosen to surrender to their torturers , to betray their comrades or to desert their cause . All that is known of their enemy's policy proves this : those who died knew a way to save themselves ; if they died it was because they would not take that way . Jack Fleming was best known in Tralee as a great lover of music and a skilled player of the pipes .

He had been a member of the Volunteers since nineteen-fourteen . In August , nineteen-twenty-two , he joined a column , but this was not known, he thought, to the Free State troops occupying Tralee ...... (MORE LATER)>



FILLING UP WITH IT ......>

....according to the 'Dubliners Diary' column of the old 'Evening Press' newspaper (12th September , 1992, page 11 - a Wednesday, if memory serves..) : British King George V once advised his sons - "In this business , it is wise never to pass up an opportunity to relieve yourself."

-- was the man full of piss , or was he just 'taking' it ?

-- or was he letting his sons know he was aware that they were full of s**t ?


FULL OF IT .....>

...... " 1916 challenges Irish nationalists to work to oppose any arrangement based on partition ; any such arrangement is doomed to failure ."

-- 'AP/RN' , 28th March , 1991 , page 2 . (...except, of course , Stormont and Leinster House - two parliaments set up by the British to maintain the imposed division on this island.)



.....AND OVER-FLOWING WITH IT -->

<-- " Accommodations with British-designed frameworks fly in the face of true justice and freedom ."

-- Brendan 'Bik' McFarlane , Provo leader , as quoted in 'AP/RN' , 2nd May , 1991 (page 7). Note that date - 2nd May 1991 ; on practically the same date (5th) of the same month (MAY) ten years earlier (1981) , Bobby Sands died on hunger-strike .

Had Bobby Sands or any of the ten men that died on hunger-strike that year made "accommodations with the British" they would not have died on hunger-strike .

Those men did not die so that others could make careers for themselves in Stormont and Leinster House by making "accommodations" with the Establishment ....

PETER O'NEILL CROWLEY , CORK FENIAN , KILLED BY THE BRITISH IN TIPPERARY , 1867 .....


...... 35-years young Cork man Peter O'Neill Crowley was in command of a Fenian 'Circle' of over one-hundred men .....


It is almost certain that Crowley and his 'Circle' were involved in the capture of the RIC Barracks at Ballynockane , County Cork, on the night of the 5th March , 1867 ; Fenian leaders J F X O'Brien , Michael O'Brien and William Mackey Lomasney had combined their forces into one 'Circle' consisting of over two-thousand Fenian fighters and , in early March 1867 caused havoc in Cork for the British administration -

- as well as capturing the Ballynockane RIC Barracks (and removing anything of value to the Fenian war effort) the Fenian's sabotaged large sections of rail-track used by the 'Great Southern and Western Railway' , destroyed the 'points-system' belonging to same and rendered inoperable the telegraph system in the district . In that same month (March 1867) , Peter O'Neill Crowley and his group attacked an armed coastguard station at Knockadoon .... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :


JAMES WALSH OF CURROW -

" The killing of prisoners seemed to have become an almost mechanical practice in Kerry in March and April of nineteen-twenty-three . Over twenty were murdered on the roadsides of Kerry within twenty days . Some of them were Republican soldiers taken with arms and sentenced by their gaolers to death ; some were men taken unarmed in their own homes and killed by their captors out of hand . On March 22nd , James Walsh was taken , unarmed ; he was kept for a few days in Castleisland .

On Tuesday , the 27th, at about six in the morning , the prisoners were called out by Lieutenant McGinn . The street was lined with soldiers and two more prisoners , just captured, Daly and O'Rahilly, were there . The prisoners were marched along the Cordal Road and just outside Kingwilliamstown , at the cross of Glountane , a party of soldiers led Walsh away .

The people of Mount Falvey heard shots , but did not discover their meaning until evening , when they found James Walsh dead by the roadside , with a bullet wound in his head .

[END]



HE SHOULD KNOW ......

..... In 'The Sunday Tribune' of 31st January , 1993 , (page A11) , British 'Lord' Harold Wilson was quoted as having once said that -

- " a lie can be half way around the world before the truth has got its boots on ! " (...but not before you can put the boot in , eh, Harold ?)


..... AND SHE SHOULD KNOW BETTER ... >

< In an article published in 'The Sunday Tribune' on 10th January 1993 (page B6) , 'Workers Party', no, sorry - Democratic Left- oops! - eh, oh,whats it now ; that group that ex-WP/DL leader Pat Rabbitte leads now - yeah: the 'Labour Party' , that's the one .

Where was I ? Right - well , in the issue of the 'Trib' mentioned up above (somewhere) , one of Pat's buddies , Liz McManus , stated -

- " Notwithstanding the prayers as gaeilge (ie in Irish) and the Celtic motif , what is remarkable about 'Dail Eireann' (sic) is how BRITISH (her emphasis) the place is . More British very likely , than the British themselves these days ." (Whatcha mean "these" days , Liz?)


As 'Rabbie' Burns wrote in 'Tam O'Shanter' , Liz -

-- " I wonder it didna turn thy stomach ."
(But when your stomach's as strong as your neck is hard .....)

PETER O'NEILL CROWLEY , CORK FENIAN , KILLED BY THE BRITISH IN TIPPERARY , 1867 .


A child born in the townland of Ballymacoda in County Cork , in 1832 , learned how to make a living from the land and was considered in the locality , as a young adult , to be what would now be called "a pillar of society" ; he was known as an expert farmer and had a wide circle of friends .

An Irish Republican at heart , Peter O'Neill Crowley joined the Fenian Movement in Cork and rose quickly through the ranks - at 35 years young , he was in command of a 'Fenian Circle' , which numbered more than one hundred men . (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :


BOB McCARTHY OF MONAREE ....

....captured by the Free Staters on the 24th March , 1923, the man who had fought with his comrades against the British Black and Tans was now being tortured by those same men that he once fought with , now wearing Free State Army uniforms ; they beat him senseless and stoned him with bricks . His sister was eventually let in to see him in Dingle Workhouse and he told her of his shotgun , still in the family house .....


" " Give it up to them when they come ," he said, "for the sake of the people of Monaree ." "Let me take the cap off your head," she said . It was crusted with blood . But he answered : " No, no, let it alone." "You are suffering," she said then , breaking down , "and you don't want me to see ." Bob seemed to tired to talk to her . "Our Lord suffered more," is all he said . Then the soldiers put her outside the gate .

An escort came out for him from Tralee ; the officer who shot Tom Sullivan was in charge . What they did to Bob on the road will never be known . They buried him in the Workhouse in Tralee .

[END]



... a tax on children's shoes ? - JOLLY GOOD ! ......... ~

You're on the ball out there !

A reader left a message in the site guestbook pointing out that it was a M/S Margaret Downes who interviewed Fine Gaeler Avril Doyle (see yesterday's piece) for the 'SBP' ; dunno wha' exactly Doyler said to her but , in that 'SBP' article , Maggie wrote -

- " Fine Gaeler's believe themselves to be the epitome of good breeding with superior taste ." Hear , Hear ! Always considered it so , meself ....


.........~ and worth every penny >

< .... In January 1993 , French industrialist Bernard Tapie was ordered by the French courts to pay one franc (then worth twelve old Free State pennies) in damages for calling Jean-Marie Le Pen , the then leader of the right-wing National Front , a bastard !

Better end for now , otherwise Fine Gael could cost me a pretty penny (groan)!

PATRICK O'DONOGHUE AND 'THE IRISH EXILE' REPUBLICAN NEWSPAPER , AUSTRALIA .....


.....within months of his release in March 1851 , Patrick O'Donoghue was again arrested and sent out of the district to 'work' , once again, on a chain-gang ; he was released after three months and dumped in another district , Launceston .....


While en route to his new destination , under guard, Patrick O'Donoghue's comrades rescued him and stowed him on the 'SS YARRA YARA' which was headed for Melbourne ; he laid low there and , again with the help of the 'Young Ireland' Movement , escaped to San Francisco .

On 26th January , 1850 , the first edition of 'The Irish Exile' newspaper was published in Australia , the first Irish Republican 'paper to be printed on that continent - on 22nd January , 1854 , the author, owner and publisher of that newspaper , Patrick O'Donoghue , died in San Francisco .

In Ireland , he took up arms against the British presence - in Australia , he continued the fight as best he could and , in America, he died ; his tired , battered and bruised body unable to keep up with his rebel mind . The man was ostracised by the British and their allies , and his work for Irish freedom suppressed by them : but the memory of Patrick O'Donoghue is still with us .....

[END]



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 ;


BOB McCARTHY OF MONAREE .

Bob McCarthy met with a death less merciful than his friend's . The enemies of the Republic had a great deal against him , for he had fought the Black-and-Tans in Dublin and the Free State troops in Kerry and was well-known. He was captured on March the twenty-fourth (1923), in Dunshean . He was sitting in a friend's house with a child on each knee when the soldiers rushed in and struck him on the head with a revolver . He was taken to Dingle and kept in the Workhouse that night . His sister heard that he was a prisoner and went in to Dingle and stood at the gate imploring the soldiers to let her in . She stood there hour after hour , though they refused her . She could not help crying , but she would not go away . At last they let her in and brought her to the yard .

The soldiers were kicking a football and her brother was among them . They were forcing him to kick the ball . He was swaying on his feet and was all stained and dusty . When she went to him he stared and seemed not to know her. His eyes were half-closed and there was blood on his head . "Oh, Bob, do you not know me ?" she asked him , and he said slowly : "You are my sister." They had beaten him , he told her , and stoned him with bricks . He seemed troubled about a shotgun that was in the house . (MORE LATER)>




SAME AS IT EVER WAS .......

.... on 10th January 1993 (a Sunday , if memory serves...) the Free State 'Labour Party' held a "Special Conference" to discuss forming an administration in Leinster House with one of the other parties , to make up the numbers required to obtain power ; the then leader of that party , Dick Spring , stated (amongst other things) --

---- " Let them sneer as we build houses on a scale not seen in many years , as we tackle waiting lists in the health service , as we bring Irelands commitment to the Third World up to international standards and as we take a seventy-five per cent cut in salary to put us on the minimum wage ." (WELL ok , then - that last part I just put in to keep ya all on yiser toes ; but the "sneer-houses-tackle-health service-Third World" diatribe is all Dick's doing : honestly - see 'The Sunday Business Post' , 17th January 1993, page 12).

The poor 'oul Dick that he is , he never did get his arse on the top seat in Leinster House : which is maybe just as well .....

..... in 1988 (see the same issue of 'The S B P' , page 12) Fine Gael Leinster House member Avril Doyle stated : " I can't think of anything worse than being Taoiseach . You'd want to be a masochist to become even leader of the party ." MASOCHIST ? So that's what happened our own 'Tricky Dicky' - he ended up as the cowboy in the 'Village People' and made enough money to buy-out the YMCA !

PATRICK O'DONOGHUE AND 'THE IRISH EXILE' REPUBLICAN NEWSPAPER , AUSTRALIA ......


.....the success of the newspaper brought it , and its owner/editor/publisher Patrick O'Donoghue to the attention of the pro-British authorities , and he was arrested for 'leaving the allocated district' by the District Governor Sir William Denison .....


Patrick O'Donoghue was sentenced to work for one year with a chain-gang , wearing a convicts uniform and 'living' in a convict station - in effect, a large 'out-house' . In March 1851 he was released and taken back to Hobart Town ; he promptly put 'The Irish Exile' newspaper back into print again , and began writing about his prison experience , as a political prisoner, forced by Governor Denison and his administration to suffer the same prison conditions as rapists , muggers and thieves .

Once again , the Governor moved against the newspaper - within months of his release , Patrick O'Donoghue found himself back on a chain-gang, this time further afield , at Cascades Penal Station . After three months of limb-wrenching slavery , Governor Denison ordered that O'Donoghue be released and sent out of the district , to Launceston . (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle , first published in 1924 -

THOMAS O'SULLIVAN OF BALLINEANIG .....


.....Tom O'Sullivan was sleeping in a 'safe-house' when the Staters called ; his mother heard the shots and stood crying , then she heard more shots . The man with Tom later told a fellow-prisoner what had happened .....


" They were hiding and spoke to one another , not thinking the enemy were near , but they heard a voice call out suddenly : "that's Sullivan ! I know his talk ." They knew the man who spoke . He had been expelled from the Volunteers for misconduct and was a Free State Officer now . His kind were the most vindictive , always . Tom O'Sullivan must have known that this was death . The man saw him and fired , and Tom fell . He was badly wounded and put his hands up as he lay on the ground . "I surrender to you," he said . " Get a priest for me before you do any more ." The man fired again and Tom moaned, "O Jesus and Mary come against me" and died .

Bob McCarthy evaded the enemy that night . He had another month to live . It was he who came to Mrs. O'Sullivan to tell her that her son was dead . " [ END] .



.....welcome to the (smoke) FREE 'nanny' STATE -

-- the proposed all-out ban on smoking , due to be introduced in this State on 1st January next in public buildings , workplaces (if we still have any) pubs etc (to be enforced by a new division of the Free State Gardai , the 'Packetpigs' who , in turn, will get information from their touts , the 'cigcops' .....) is not a new concept in the arena of 'State Control' :

...... George Bernard Shaw once said (in relation to the Irish Censorship of Publications Act , which was passed in 1929) - " We shall never be easy until every Irish person is permanently manacled and fettered , gagged and curfewed, lest he should let the truth out about something " .

...... Edna O'Brien said , re the same 1929 Act - "There's more kinds of bondage than one !"


However , if the 'Packetpigs' catch ya havin' a sly smoke in a musty corner of the damp cellar in your local , and question you re your knowledge of the new 'law' , you could use the same defence that Free State Civil Servant Padraig O'hUiginn used in the 'Beef Tribunal' : " I was not aware that I was aware if I was aware " .

Then , when the 'Packetpigs' are trying to figure that out , ya leg it ....

PATRICK O'DONOGHUE AND 'THE IRISH EXILE' REPUBLICAN NEWSPAPER , AUSTRALIA .....


.....there were thousands of Irish deportees in the British penal colony and police garrison of Hobart Town , Australia, where Irish rebels were sent by the British ; one of their number , Patrick O'Donoghue , decided to publish a weekly newspaper , 'The Irish Exile' , aimed at , and for, those political prisoners .....


By all accounts , the arrival of the 'The Irish Exile' newspaper caused a stir ; it contained a regular column by the Fenian John Martin , who wrote about the Repeal Movement in Ireland , it had articles detailing periods of Irish history and it published Irish poetry and Irish ballads -- that mixture , along with local news and the 'comings and goings' of the thousands of Irish deportees themselves , ensured the success of the newspaper .

It also ensured that Patrick O'Donoghue and his enterprise came to the attention of the (pro-British) authorities , and the Governor , Sir William Denison, in an attempt to close 'The Irish Exile' down , arrested O'Donoghue and had him charged with 'leaving the allocated district' - Irish deportees were not allowed to leave the 'open prison' where they were dumped ...... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :


THOMAS O'SULLIVAN OF BALLINEANIG ......

.....Thomas O'Sullivan's mother gave him his brothers letter - the brother , Dan, was in jail ; Tom read it under the lamp ......


" "Dan's all right," he said with relief in his voice , and gave her the letter again. Then he said, "Come down with me now ." She went with him down the bohereen. It was getting dark and she could not well see his face. Suddenly he put his arms round her . "Goodbye, mother," he said . "Why do you talk like that , Tom ," she said , half-crying , "and you always so brave ?" "Ah, mother," he answered , "I'll be under locks from you soon ." He took her hand then and they walked together a little further on . He was going to sleep in a house across the fields , where he'd be safe , he said. He started to go but came back to her again :

" You're not ashamed of me, mother ?" he asked her . It was in Irish , the speech of her heart , that she answered him . In the dark of the night a man came to her door . It was Bob McCarthy , Tom's friend : she knew him well . " 'Tis pity to be disturbing you," he said , "but the Staters are in the fields below. Where's Tom ?" She told him and he ran out . She was on her knees praying when she heard a shot fired . She started up and drew the bolt and ran out . She stood , crying out her prayers and blessings, against the gable of the house when she heard another shot and another again .....

The man who was with Tom hiding in a hollow knows what happened then , but he is a prisoner , sentenced to fifteen years . Only the little that he told to a fellow-prisoner , since released, is known .... (MORE LATER)>



IN GOOD COMPANY .......

.... yesterday we mentioned Martin and Theresa Ferris , the wanna-be Kerry 'dynasty' : but that's not all that's happening in the political world of 'warm-the-seat' .....

Joe Costello (Free State Labour Party) is doing it with his wife , Emer (!) , Brendan Howlin is doing it with his brother ,Ted (wha?) and so is Willie Penrose (no - not with Brendans brother ; with his own brother , John).

.... and as for the soldiers of opportunity , Fianna Fail ~ Margaret Cox and Kieran Phelan are both playing musical chairs with their brothers , while Sean Ardagh , Noel O'Flynn and Batt O'Keeffe, amongst other Fianna Fail luminaries, are giving their sons the seat-shaped 'thin-edge-of-the-wedge' ....

...... AND BLESSED FROM ABOVE FOR DOING IT -

- The word 'NEPOTISM' comes from Nepote , the Italian for 'Nephew' , and it stems from the time of Pope Innocent VIII who gave important posts to his nephews , regardless of their merit ! (And if the Italian's had'nt done it then , our own local political 'mafia' would have ...)

'Innocent' no more !

PATRICK 0' DONOGHUE AND 'THE IRISH EXILE' REPUBLICAN NEWSPAPER , AUSTRALIA .......


.....sentenced to death for his part in the 1848 Rising , Patrick O'Donoghue was 'spared' and his sentence commuted to transportation for life to the penal colony in Australia ; a death sentence by another name - six months at sea , a 14,000 -mile journey on board a 'slave-ship' - many did'nt make it ......


In the Autumn of 1849 ,'The Swift' , the ship carrying Patrick O'Donoghue and hundreds of other Irish rebel prisoners arrived in Australia , and the deportees were moved to Hobart Town , a (pro-British) police garrison town . They were closely monitored by the authorities , as per orders issued by the local Governor , Sir William Denison , who had no time for the Irish .

There was no work , no 'dole' , no state assistance and no-one to care whether you lived or died . In January 1850 , using materials he had begged and borrowed , Patrick O'Donoghue published , in Hobart Town, what was intended to be a self-financing newspaper - the weekly 'The Irish Exile' . There were thousands of Irish deportees in the district , and the 'paper was aimed at , and for, them ...... (MORE LATER)>




THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle ; first published in 1924 -

THOMAS O SULLIVAN OF BALLINEANIG -


" "I had twelve children , but I had none like him," Mrs. O'Sullivan says .

Tom was twenty-two years old when he was killed ; he was a teacher of Irish and a fisherman , and he was a Volunteer since the Black-and-Tan time ; he was Commandant of his Battalion when he died . They came raiding for him in December , with their lorries, but his mother got him away . He was going fishing and had his hand on the kettle , going to make himself a cup of tea , when she ran in with the warning and he made out through the back door . She lifted a bucket and went up the road towards them thinking to hold them awhile in talk .

" Who's that man running ?" the officer shouted to her , and she called back, "I don't know at all ." "You know well, you devil !" he answered . " 'Tis your son, Tom," and he went down on his knee and fired . The bullet slit Tom's jersey , but Tom was not hurt . But the danger to him seemed more than she could bear . "Wisha, give me your gun ," she said to Tom that night , "and I'll carry it into town for you ." "No, mother," he answered, "that's what I'll never do . I did'nt take my oath to break it, " he said . "I know what's before me , and I'm satisfied to face that ."

He used to come home sometimes , never to sleep, but maybe to change his clothes . He came in on the eighteenth of February . His mother thought he looked troubled . "Have you any letter from Dan ?" he asked her at once . Dan , his brother, was in jail. She gave him the letter and he read it under the lamp . (MORE LATER)>



KEEPING IT IN THE (Adams) FAMILY......

.....In an interview in 'Hot Press' magazine on 25th January , 1990 , (page 28) , Gerry Adams was questioned about the 1986 Sinn Fein Ard Fheis (when Adams and his followers left the Republican Movement to form a new Free State political party) and he stated -

" I pointed out in my presidential speech at the time that for too long republicans had 'left politics to the politicians' with the result that the ambitious and self-seeking were allowed to climb to power on the back of sacrifices made by generations of republicans " . Well said , Gerry - but I wonder would Theresa Ferris agree with you ? This 23-years young lass is to fill the seat on Kerry County Council soon to be vacated by her father , Martin , who will then no doubt find it easier to concentrate on his career in Leinster House .

And if Martin should decide to go for a seat in Brussels , who will be 'parachuted' in to fill his Leinster House seat .....? (Shades of Fianna Fail-'ism' : they went in to Leinster House to "change the system" only to find that the system changed them !)

Oh! what a tangled web we weave ......

PATRICK O'DONOGHUE AND 'THE IRISH EXILE' REPUBLICAN NEWSPAPER , AUSTRALIA.


In July 1848 , a man from Clonegall , County Carlow , Patrick O'Donoghue ( a member of the 'Young Ireland' Movement) was one of the many Irish rebels arrested following the failure of the 1848 Rising ; these men and women were 'tried' before what the British termed a 'Special Commission' and , at one such 'trial' in Clonmel in County Tipperary , in October 1848 , Patrick O'Donoghue was found guilty and sentenced to death .

That death sentence was later commuted to transportation for life to the penal colony in Australia ; a death sentence by another name - the British Administration knew well that the six-month , 14,000 mile-journey to Australia , on board a 'slave-ship' , would finish most , if not all, of the Irish rebels , who had been treated like vermin while awaiting transportation . (MORE LATER)>




THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle , first published in 1924 -

JOHN KEVINS OF BEAUFORT ......


..... a little girl walking on the main road saw (Free State) soldiers with a cart far up a lane . They were putting something wrapped in a blanket into the cart ......


" One of the soldiers was at the hotel later . He said - " The prisoner died on the road . " The Red Cross man , who had been awake all night , was sleeping there on a sofa . They woke him and said to him , "Your patient is dead ." He stared at them wildly , his face white . "Would the wound have killed him ?" , they asked . He said nothing , but shook his head . " It was I turned the mother back on the road , " a soldier who was drunk , said to Miss Sullivan later on . "I was sorry for that - I was sorry for the grey-haired woman - I was not sorry for him - he would have done the same to me , but I was sorry for the grey-haired woman . I have a mother myself , and I would not like her to see the deed that was done ... "

"I'll not forget the things she said to me ," he added , "when I turned her back - she gave hard words ." "I will tell you, then," Miss Sullivan replied, "what she said to me . She said'What could those poor decent boys do?' "

"Jesus," exclaimed the soldier , paling and sobering . "Oh, Jesus, did she say that ?" "



CHEQUE-MATE ........(and/....


" We owe it to the least fortunate of our citizens to ensure that public decisions affecting everyone's welfare are taken only on the grounds of equity and the public good , and to ensure that possession of wealth can never purchase private political favours ."

---- Bertie Ahern , present leader of Fianna Fail and current Free State Taoiseach , giving his response to the publication of the McCracken Tribunal findings , as quoted in 'The Sunday Tribune' , 12th May , 2002 , page 10.


...........or)......BUT THEN HE GOES AND SPOILS IT ALL BY SIGNING SOMETHING STUPID LIKE...

....ONE THOUSAND SIX-HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN CHEQUES -

-- The same Bertie Ahern co-signed most of the 1,615 cheques drawn on the Fianna Fail leaders allowance account from 1984 to 1992 ; better known as 'The Haughey Years' !

Ahern said he had no recollection of a cheque for £25,000 (that's twenty-five thousand old Free State punts- convert it yourself ; I have no recollection of saying I'd do it for ya) made out to cash and signed by him and Haughey on 16th June , 1989 - the day after the general election that year .

The cheque was discovered in an account linked to Haughey .



Is Bertie still married ? Or divorced ? Is 'she' still the girlfriend ? Or is 'she' the ex ? Where was the man educated ? And is 'that' degree really his ?

DOES'NT MATTER -
-- with his 'do-as-I-say-and-not-as-I-do' attitude , the man can ride out any storm.....

..... or claim to have no recollection of any storm !

ATTEMPTED TUNNEL ESCAPE FROM CORK JAIL , 1940 .....


....the result of the Free State 'inquest' into the shooting dead of IRA man John Kavanagh on 3rd August , 1940 (while "attempting to escape") was never made known ......


The IRA internees in Cork Jail were swiftly moved to the Curragh Camp in County Kildare - day's before that move took place , the IRA had buried John Kavanagh (a Cork man) in the Republican Plot in St Finbarrs Cemetery in Cork .

The three tunnel survivors - Denis Joseph O'Sullivan , Cornelius Byrd and Roger Ryan - were charged , on 2nd October 1940, in the 'Special Court' in Dublin with attempting to rescue prisoners from Cork Jail ; O'Sullivan got four years , and Byrd and Ryan each received two years .

I searched my files for more information on Broy Harrier Detective Jim Moore , but found only a fleeting reference to him being in charge of all Cork operations against the Republican Movement . I was curious as to whether he ever emerged from his own blinkered tunnel .



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle ; first published in 1924 --

JOHN KEVINS OF BEAUFORT ....

.... John Kevins lay wounded in a shop at Carenahone , outside Beaufort, surrounded by Free State troops under the command of Captain Bishop of the Dublin Guards .....


" Nobody told John's mother that night . It was a night of cruel frost and east wind . At midnight , Kevins was moved down to the barracks ; at six o'clock , soldiers came to Sullivan's for a cart to take him to Killarney . The Red Cross man protested , offered to go for an ambulance , wanted to accompany the prisoner himself ; this was not allowed . Miss Sullivan went and told the mother , and Mrs. Kevins hurried to the barracks gate . " Let me send for an ambulance, " she pleaded, " and I will pay for it myself . " The answer was "No!" " Will you not let me in to see my boy ? " The answer was "No" , again . " Won't you let me go with him ? " The soldiers were ordered to push her out of the road .

" Don't you know, " she said , " if I saw one of yourselves lying there wounded that I'd help you ? I'd wash you , I'd bandage you , I'd do for you whatever I could - and will you not let me see my poor boy ? " Gently as they could , the soldiers pushed her back from the road . They were slow in doing it , and she saw the cart pass . She saw John lying back in his shirt only ; she called out to him , "Good-bye, John" and he lifted his arm and held it up . He held it up a long time .... When they had passed she turned and saw the mail cart standing at the hotel . It was the goodness of God , she thought, the pity of Mary ! It would be going the Killarney road . She climbed up and the driver started , following the rear-guard of the cart . She could not see the cart itself because of the bends in the road but she hoped , every moment , to see it again .

Then one of the soldiers shouted - " You, there , the boy's mother ! get down and go home !" and she was forced to turn back . The driver of the mail cart was forced to stay where he was for a long time . Whatever he heard or saw it was never told . A man working in the fields heard a terrible scream ; a little girl walking on the main road saw soldiers with a cart far up a lane . They were putting something wrapped in a blanket into the cart . (MORE LATER)>



GUESS WHO ..... (part four) -

.... said .....

..... " Well ,um, somethings neither good nor bad but thinking makes it so , I suppose , as Shakespeare said . "

.... and .....

..... " I believe what I said yesterday ... I don't know what I said, er , but I know what I think and...well , I assume its what I said ."

.... and .....

..... the answer is .....

..... DONALD RUMSFELD , the U S Secretary of Defence , speaking at a U S Department of Defence press conference in 2002 . His boss , George W Bush Jnr , could'nt have put it better himself ....

( See 'The Sunday Business Post' , 1st June last , page 19.)

ATTEMPTED TUNNEL ESCAPE FROM CORK JAIL , 1940.......


...... four IRA men were working in the tunnel on 3rd August , 1940, when one of a group of about ten Broy Harriers fired into it with a Thompson sub-machine gun ......


John Kavanagh died in the tunnel and Roger Ryan was seriously wounded . The other two Volunteers , Denis Joseph O'Sullivan and Cornelius Byrd , escaped injury as they had been round a bend in the tunnel when the shots were fired in ; they were dragged out and arrested .

It was known that John Kavanagh had been shot a number of times in the chest , so questions were asked when the Free State Justice Minister, Gerry Boland, (Fianna Fail) stated that both Kavanagh and Roger Ryan had been shot while attempting to escape ; Boland's answer to the questions was to invoke the 'Emergency Powers Act' , under cover of which the Free Staters prohibited the media from reporting the incident and also allowed the State to cancel the coroner's inquest (by jury) into the death of John Kavanagh .

To try and obtain a gloss of respectability for his actions , Boland conducted his own 'inquest' and one of his own people was put in charge of it - the 'results' of same were never made known ..... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle, first published in 1924 -


JOHN KEVINS OF BEAUFORT .....

.... John Kevins' mother went to her son , an IRA Volunteer, deep in the mountains, to warn him to be careful ; she went home comforted.....

" On March the 15th (1923) , late in the evening, John came down to a shop at Carenahone, outside Beaufort , where they used to buy cigarettes . The shop door was open and the light streamed out , shining on John Kevins' face as he came up . A man in a trench coat , carrying a rifle, stepped out of the shadow, and asked his name . "I'm Kevins ," he replied, "who are you ?" The man lifted his rifle and fired , and John staggered into the shop . There were more men there . "Put another in him," Bishop said .

But the woman of the house rushed between them . "You'll not murder the man in my house," she cried out . "Send for the priest !" A soldier , too, tried to stop murder being done . They left him there , alone with a girl . The priest came and went . The wound was in the shoulder . "This wound won't kill me," John said to the girl . "I don't feel too bad ; I wonder could I escape ?" She went out , but came back shaking her head . "The house is surrounded." "Then the hounds are up for my blood," John said .

Bishop went down for a drink to Miss Sullivan's hotel ; it was his driver who told her sister , the nurse, that a man was wounded above . "He's not too bad," he said; "He can talk away." "I'll let nobody see him," Bishop said . "I have sent up my own Red Cross man ". "What wounds has he ?" she asked , and Bishop answered "He has two." It was not true yet . When Father Dennehy saw him he had only one . Nurse Sullivan implored Bishop to let her go to the wounded man . "It was for me," she told him, "that John sent for his own prisoner, Dempsey. Surely you will let me go ?"

"I'll let no one at all see him," Bishop replied . Nobody told John's mother that night . " (MORE LATER)>



GUESS WHO ..... (part three)--


....said the following ......

..... " I would not say that the future is necessarily less predictable than the past - I think the past was not predictable when it started ."


..... and ......
... " I also know that stating what might be preferable , er , is simply stating what might be preferable ."


..... and ......
... " Near my Office is an American flag done in ....origami.... that's one of those words that I have'nt mastered yet ."


----- (MORE [and answer] LATER)>

ATTEMPTED TUNNEL ESCAPE FROM CORK JAIL , 1940......


.... the IRA were determined to break their imprisoned comrades out of Cork Jail .....


An asylum on College Road in Cork shared a high side-wall with the Jail and , from a secluded corner of the asylum grounds, it was decided to dig a tunnel under the wall and into Cork Jail . In mid-July , the IRA put the plan into action and for the next two weeks all went well ; the equipment was up to the job , the Volunteers worked in shifts and 'look-outs' were in position . But the Broy Harriers (Free State detectives) , under Detective Jim Moore, were monitoring the whole scene .....


On the 3rd August , 1940 , four IRA men were in the tunnel - John Kavanagh , Denis Joseph O'Sullivan , Cornelius Byrd and Roger Ryan : it is thought that John Kavanagh was coming up out of the tunnel , having passed Roger Ryan , who had his back to the opening . At least ten 'Harriers' , armed with sub-machine guns , were crouched-down at the opening , and one of them opened fire with a Thompson Gun into the tunnel ...... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle , first published in 1924 .....


JOHN KEVINS OF BEAUFORT ......

....the captured Free State Officer was Colonel Dempsey of the Dublin Guards , an important capture for the IRA : the gun-battle had left him wounded in the eye .....

"( ..... the local IRA leader ) John Kevins had him cared for in a farmhouse and sent for Nurse Sullivan of Beaufort and for Dr. Carey , of Killarney, Medical Officer to the Brigade . Dr. Carey examined the wound and said it could not be satisfactorily treated except in a hospital . John Kevins asked him to take Dempsey to Killarney in his own car . He released the two 'Red Cross soldiers' at the same time .

Captain Bishop , of the Dublin Guards, took the clothes from some of the prisoners in Bahaghs Workhouse , and with a gang of Free State Officers, dressed in the soft hats and trench coats of Volunteers, went to Glencar . All were armed and Bishop carried a Thompson gun . It was the day of Seumas Taylor's funeral , the 14th of March (1923) ; people on the roads took them for Volunteers and answered their questions as to the identity of certain men . But one old man grew suspicious and called in a loud voice to another - " Would'nt you say there's five or six hundred of the Volunteers marching in the funeral the day ? " . Bishop and his gang changed their minds and travelled to Beaufort .

Beaufort was John Kevins' home . A week before his mother had a dream that troubled her . She saw John with blood on his forehead . She thought it was a foreshadowing of death . She travelled far into the mountains and found him , meaning to warn him because of her dream, but she found him so light-hearted and confident that for the world she could not have said a gloomy word . " Let you make your mind easy ," he said to her, " 'twould take a thousand to catch us here . " She went home comforted , her dream untold . " (MORE LATER)>



GUESS WHO ...... (part two..) --

-- .... told the 'New York Times'...
.... " Once in a while , I'm standing here, doing something . And I think 'what in the world am I doing here ?' It's a big surprise ! "

--
.... told a reporter ...
.... " If I know the answer , I'll tell you the answer , and if I don't , I'll just respond , cleverly ! "

--
.... the same person also said ...
... " I think what you'll find , I think what you'll find is , whatever it is we do substantively , there will be near-perfect clarity as to what it is . "

--
.... and ...
... " It will be known , and it will be known to the Congress, and it will be known to you , probably before we decide it, but it will be known . "

.... (MORE [and answer] LATER)>

( Great to be back ... have washed the Tramore sand out of my system and if I never see another bleedin' egg sambo ....)



ATTEMPTED TUNNEL ESCAPE FROM CORK JAIL , 1940.


The IRA bombing campaign in England , which started in 1939, prompted the Free State administration to double their efforts in the 26-Counties in regards to putting the Movement out of business ; Volunteers were either arrested and imprisoned , interned or shot dead and , by the summer of 1940 , the IRA was virtually decimated .

The 'Broy Harriers' (Free State detectives) were given a free hand , with the then Fianna Fail State Justice Minister Gerry Boland willing to excuse them any deed if it served the purpose of the Staters and the Brits. In Cork , Detective Jim Moore was in charge of the Broy Harriers and had been involved in the conversion of Cork Prison into a military detention centre ; IRA prisoners were interned there and their comrades in the area were determined to break them out ....... (MORE LATER) >



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY by Dorothy Macardle, first published in 1924 -

JOHN KEVINS OF BEAUFORT :

" No problem that confronted the IRA during the civil war was more difficult than the question of the disposal of the hundreds of prisoners who fell into their hands . A fight in which all the prisoners are held by one side is hard on those prisoners , but the IRA controlled no buildings where captives could be detained . To kill or ill-use a prisoner in any way was impossible : there was no alternative but to disarm the men and set them free to hunt their captors again . Throughout the campaign this was done .

In the winter of 1922 , Captain John Kevins and his company were attacked on the hill called 'The Devil's Punch-bowl' in the Macgillicuddy Reeks . Their attackers were driven off and left one wounded officer behind. Kevins saw two of the retreating officers put down their rifles , kneel down by their wounded officer and affix 'Red Cross' badges to their sleeves. He came down to the three prisoners , protesting against men who had come out as combatants wearing the 'Red Cross' . He had the book of 'Red Cross' regulations in his pocket and showed them that it was a breach of these.

The officer proved to be Colonel Dempsey , of the Dublin Guards . It was an important capture. To hold him as a hostage might stop the killing of prisoners which was being practised , by Act of Parliament , by the other side . But Dempsey was wounded in the eye . (MORE LATER)>



GUESS WHO .....

.... said , to a meeting of his Department of Defence last year -

" As we know , there are known knowns . There are things we know we know . We also know there are known unknowns . That is to say , we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknowns unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know ".

.... the same speaker was asked what he knew of the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden -

" We do know of certain knowledge that he is either in Afghanistan , or in some other country , or dead ."

.....and was also asked if the U S would go to war without the Brits backing them -

" Their situation is distinctive to their country and they have a government that deals with a parliament in their way , distinctive way, and what will ultimately be decided is unclear as to their role,um, that is to say their role in the event a decision is made to use force. "


......and no , it's not Homer !

( MORE [and answer] LATER)>

ELIZABETH O'FARRELL ......

..... a protest meeting had been arranged for College Green, in Dublin, in early January 1957, to condemn the British for the deaths of Sean Sabhat and Feargal O'Hanlon ; Elizabeth O'Farrell , now in her mid-60's, addressed the crowd of thousands and praised the men and women that were carrying on the struggle to remove the British presence .....


Elizabeth O'Farrell died within months of making that speech ; on the 25th June, 1957, in her 60's, she passed away at Fatima House , in Bray, County Wicklow, leaving behind a legacy of forty-four years work in the Republican Movement. Without people of that calibre , the Movement could not have survived .



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :

FRANK GRADY OF GLENBEIGH -

.... pulled out from a line of IRA prisoners, Frank Grady was shot dead by Free Stater 'Tiny' Lyons ; he was buried among wild violets and gorze , in the corner of a windy field .....

" In spite of spies and soldiers on every road , the people came down from the glens and mountains to his funeral and followed like a chieftain's host . In spite of a menacing aeroplane dipping and circling overhead , three of his hunted comrades came down from Coomasalarn , waded through a river carrying their rifles , and fired the last post over his grave .

There are few, now, in those glens who will make friends with the army that murdered Frank Grady ; the road he walked in , unswerving, is the road they will follow now . In death as in life he is "a great leader of men."



du CANN CAN DO .....

.... in 'The Sunday Business Post' of 29th December 1996 ('Last Post' Column, page 36), it was reported that American journalist Maureen Orth had interviewed Sir Edward du Cann , former Chairperson of the British Conservative Party , during which he said -

" We English are very badly equipped to deal with the Irish , because we are not poets . The Irish are all poets . The English find them impossible to understand - why they fight each other , why they're so dogmatic , why they speak with such a total lack of logic , wholly ignoring the point of view of the Unionists . There's no reality in Ireland . It's a land of fairies , pixies and leprechauns . "


.....well begosh and begorrah Sirr , and ya do be findin' it hard ta understand us ; sure are'nt we dogmatic , not logical and we do fight with each other don't we not ?

And is'nt it only after takin' ya over 800 years ta find that out ?

Ya must be slower than us , Sirr , seen as yur still here an' all ......

------------ -------------- ------------------ ---------------- ---------------- --------------------- -------------------- ----------------- --------------------- ----------------------- -------------------- ----------------------------- --------------------- --------------------------- ----------------------------- ---------------------- ---------------


AND ON THAT NOTE -

'1169 ....' has the bags packed , the sambos wrapped and the milk cancelled ; should be back on Tuesday 29th July (or before then , if the few bob runs out ....) - 'till then , Slan Anois .

( And we'll be sayin' that to you too, Sirr , someday .....).

ELIZABETH O'FARRELL .....

....within days of the shooting dead of Sean Sabhat and Feargal O'Hanlon on 1st January , 1957, Elizabeth O'Farrell and her friend and comrade Sighle Grenan addressed a crowd of thousands in College Green in Dublin .....

To deafening cheers from the crowd , Elizabeth O'Farrell spoke of her support and admiration for fighters like Sabhat and o'Hanlon , and told the crowd that Padraig Pearse and James Connolly , whom she herself had fought beside, would be proud of the men and women that were carrying on the struggle .

(Tomorrow [Saturday July 19th] - the death of Elizabeth O'Farrell : due to holidays , it will be the 'Last Post' from '1169...' until Tuesday July 29th ; our HQ is being abandoned and the staff de-camping to Waterford for a week or so . Normal service will resume thereafter .....).



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle , first published in 1924 -

FRANK GRADY OF GLENBEIGH -

....Frank Grady's body had been found in a cowshed ; local women had strewn clean hay over the blood-soaked ground and lit a candle and said litanies for his soul .....


" The father came with a cart for his dead son , his daughter with him . The priest turned the girl back . "She would have fainted," he said, "if she had seen what I saw." The mother waited below in the house , not believing at all what she had been told . "I never would believe he was dead," she moaned, "till I saw him lying on the floor."

He was buried in a little, unfenced patch of consecrated ground where grey boulders and gravestones lean against one another, among wild violets and gorze, in the corner of a windy field . " (MORE LATER)>



I'M RIGHT(wing),THE WORLD IS WRONG.....

" 'Bloody Sunday' was orchestrated confrontation and the ensuing tragedy has been shamelessly exploited by evil men ."

----Andrew Hunter MP, then Chairperson of the British Conservative 'Northern Ireland'(sic) Committee , January 1997.

.....maybe they really ARE out to get ya, Andrew - and, if not, they should be !


WELL,eh, LET'S NOT BE TO HASTY 'BOUT THAT .....

Also in January 1997, the 'W.T.P.A.N' Party in the Six Counties (that's the 'Where The Provos Are Now' Party- ie the SDLP) issued a challenge to the Provos to drop abstentionism at Westminster , and received the following reply from Francie Molloy : " Irish politicians should not exaggerate the value of attendance in the London Parliament . The refusal of (Provisional) Sinn Fein representatives to take an oath of allegiance to the English queen has not prevented us from representing our electorate . "

HOWEVER.... in like a speeding bullet with his own reply was Provisional Sinn Fein Leinster House employee Micheal MacDonncha , who stated : "The challenge to republicans themselves remains also- the challenge to adapt all their strategies and tactics to take full advantage of every political opportunity for the advancement of the republican cause ."

--- that , by the way, is political shorthand for "If we can advance our careers in Leinster House, why not Westminster ? "

(Above details from AP/RN, January 9th, 1997, page 9 .)

ELIZABETH O'FARRELL......

......speaking vehemently against the 1921 'Treaty of Surrender' , Elizabeth O'Farrell (then only in her late 20's) urged Republicans to continue the fight ....

When the Treaty was signed, she carried on with her work on behalf of those still fighting for the 32-County Republic and was one of the many steadfast Republican's that ensured the Movement lived on . For the next thirty-odd years she continued her work , usually in the background - fund-raising , organising meetings, transport , and safe-houses for those 'on-the-run' , gathering information and recruiting new members .

On 1st January , 1957, an IRA operation at Brookeborough Barracks went wrong , and two IRA men died - Sean Sabhat and Feargal O'Hanlon ; within days , a protest meeting was called for College Green in Dublin and a stage was erected. Nurse Elizabeth O'Farrell, now in her mid-60's , and her life-long friend and comrade Sighle (Sile) Grenan (they first met each other at the Cumann na mBan meeting forty-four years earlier, and had become like sisters since then) addressed the crowd of thousands in College Green ...... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :

FRANK GRADY OF GLENBEIGH -

....after being shot twice by Free Stater 'Tiny' Lyons at point-blank range, Frank Grady fell back on the road, his arms flung out .....

" Conn Crimmin , one of the prisoners from Cahirciveen, sprang forward . He was a first-aid man. He was kept back until Frank was dead , then Lyons said "Do what you can for him now" . He was pushing his gun into the faces of the other prisoners and seemed eager to kill more , but Captain Foley held him back . "You'll do for the mines," Lyons said to the rest ; and to Denis Daly he said, "You'll fit well to lay over a mine." Conn Crimmin and four soldiers had taken a door from a shed and would have carried Frank's body into a house. "Bring him in to me here," a widow was calling from her door. Lyons said there was no time to waste and made the soldiers throw the body into a cowshed by the wayside. He ordered the soldiers to take off the boots, but not one would obey. He went on with the prisoners then to Killorglin.

Father O'Reilly met a boy on the road ; he was crying ; he said, "Frank Grady is dead" . Father O'Reilly found his body in the cowshed ; women had strewn clean hay over the blood-soaked ground and lit a candle and said litanies for his soul ". (MORE LATER)>



MEET EDDIE's BROTHER ~ ALSO A JOKER ......


Writing in 'The Sunday Independent' on 26th January , 1997, John A Murphy, Professor of Irish History in University College, Cork, stated -

" Only the politically retarded and the ideological malcontents refuse to recognise the state. They nurture fantasies about restoring an all-Ireland republic . Is it not time in this 75th anniversary year of independence (sic) to rid ourselves of this fantasy ? ".

---- it's a "fantasy" that has lived with people for more than 800 years , Mr Murphy , and it has been "fantised" about by those that are still being commemorated to this day .

When was the last time anyone marched in your honour, 'spud' ? .

ELIZABETH O'FARRELL.....

... on Saturday 30th April 1916 , under orders from Padraig Pearse, Elizabeth O'Farrell met with British Brigadier-General Lowe and conveyed to him Pearse's decision to surrender .....

At 3.30pm that same day (Saturday, 30th April, 1916) she accompanied Pearse to the corner of Parnell Street (then known as 'Great Britain Street') and Moore Street and was present when Padraig Pearse surrendered to Lowe. She spent the rest of that day and most of the following day delivering the order of surrender to the various Republican garrisons throughout Dublin city.

Still a young woman (in her early 20's) but marked by the British as 'a danger to society' , Elizabeth O'Farrell went 'underground' and did tremendous work for the Movement , all in a 'behind-the-scenes' capacity ; she vehemently opposed the 'Treaty of Surrender' in 1921 and urged Republicans to continue the fight ...... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :

FRANK GRADY OF GLENBEIGH .....

.... on the morning of Sunday, the eleventh of March (1923) , prisoners from Cahirciveen were brought as far as Mountain Stage, to be handed over there to an escort from Killarney, under 'Tiny' Lyons .....

".....when Lyons arrived his Lieutenant , McGuinness, carried out a round-up in the Glen . They brought a number of captured men up to the road near the station-masters house, and a crowd of people gathered to see who had been taken.There was a tall, fair man who, when questioned, said that his name was Shea . McGuinness asked boys on the road if that was his name , and everyone answered "I don't know" . Kicks and blows failed to make anyone tell .

The prisoners were lined up on the side of the road along with those from Cahirciveen . The young fair man was at the end ; he was dressed ready for Mass; no arms had been found with him . He was laughing in the faces of his captors, unperturbed. Lyons was passing up the file of prisoners , asking each his name, and came to the last . Among the soldiers were men from Glenbeigh and a whisper "Tis Frank Grady", went round. Some hundred and fifty people witnessed what happened then . Lyons put out his hand, saying "Hello Frank" and Frank gave it a friendly grasp. Lyons had a 'peter-the-painter' (revolver) in his left hand. He changed it to his right, holding it by the barrel, when he said "You made a good job of Carragh Bridge".

Then the gun, swung powerfully, crashed into Frank's face. While Frank put his hand up to his head and stood swaying, Lyons reversed the gun and fired . The shot went through Frank's wrist and head . He fired again , and Frank fell back on the road, his arms flung out ...... " (MORE LATER)>



HOLD THE FRONT PAGE ! STOP PRESS ! -
- FREE STATE AIR CORPS TO AID IRAQ !!

Speaking at the RACO conference in 1994 , the then Free State Air Corps Commandant , Dermot Donnelly stated , re a European role in any Gulf War -

" Do we want to be part of the genocide ? Do we want to be responsible for children in Iraq at present having operations without anaesthetics and dying for want of cheap and readily available drugs ? Had we been in a European Army we would share some of the responsibility for these obscenities " .

And here we are , nine years on and, thanks to Bertie and that spineless lot in Leinster House , handing Shannon and Baldonnel over to the U S Army : we "share some of the responsibility for the obscenities " committed by Bush and Blair in their recent adventure .

Tell them that , Dermot .....


WHATEVER YOU SAY , SAY NOTHING - part two ....

RE yesterdays 'BLOODY SUNDAY' post :

.... a Conor , in Limerick, left a message in the guestbook reminding me that the then 'Irish Transport and General Workers Union' (now 'SIPTU') described the event as " One more in the long list of savage and inhuman acts perpetrated on the people of Ireland by the forces and agents of the British Crown " .

...and fair play to them for doing so , Conor : BUT... the very same "forces and agents of the British Crown" are still here , and SIPTU are very quiet .......

ELIZABETH O'FARRELL .......

.....she joined Cumann na mBan at its inaugural meeting in November 1913 , when she was just twenty-years young.....

In April 1916 , Elizabeth O'Farrell travelled the country carrying the mobilisation order from Padraig Pearse to the various Volunteer units - this document contained details of the planned manoeuvres for Easter Sunday , 23rd April 1916, and it was a measure of the esteem with which she was regarded that she was chosen for that mission .

A nurse by profession, Elizabeth O'Farrell was one of the Cumann na mBan contingent who attended the wounded and dying inside the GPO , and was one of the last rebels to leave that building on 29th April . The following day (Saturday 30th April, 1916) , under orders from Padraig Pearse, she met with British Brigadier-General Lowe, at 12 noon, and conveyed to him Pearse's decision to surrender ..... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :


FRANK GRADY OF GLENBEIGH -

" Frank Grady was well known since 1916 among the glens of West Kerry as "a great leader of men" . His home was in Glenbeigh , but it was unsafe for him to go there ; he could only visit it, watchfully, now and then. In March 1923, he had been ill and was resting not very far from Glenbeigh. Three times in one week Free State troops raided his fathers cottage and found no trace of him . Their manner was menacing , and the old man knew that murder had been done in the last few days at Gleesk and Ballyseedy and at Killarney and at Glencar.

He went out and found his son and warned him to be minding himself well. He was their only boy, loved with the deep, vehement love given in Ireland to a kind son of whom his people are proud. On the morning of Sunday, the eleventh of March (1923) , prisoners from Cahirciveen were brought as far as Mountain Stage, to be handed over there to an escort from Killarney, under 'Tiny' Lyons....... (MORE LATER)>



WHATEVER YOU SAY , SAY NOTHING...

.... in the days after 'BLOODY SUNDAY' (30th January 1972 , Derry) when fourteen unarmed Irish civilians were shot dead by British soldiers , the following was said -

" Even if they (the marchers) were in technical breach of the recently-imposed ban on demonstrations, this act by British troops was unbelievably and savagely inhuman " - Jack Lynch , Free State 'Taoiseach' at the time.

" (we demand) a political solution that will get the British Army out of this country forever " - Fine Gael leader Liam Cosgrave .

" (We condemn) the brutal and barbarous killings by the British Army " - Free State Labour Party leader at the time, Brendan Corish .

A meeting of staff and students in St Patricks College , Maynooth, called for the total withdrawal of British troops from Ireland ; they also made a point of regretting the College's "own inactivity and the apathy of the (Free State) government and people which has contributed to the continuation of injustice and oppression " .

----- why does it take the deaths of Irish people , by the British forces of occupation, before other Irish people speak out ?

ELIZABETH O'FARRELL :

29th April , 1916 - the GPO, surrounded by British troops, is in ruins ; the Irish Republicans inside the crumbling building know they have to evacuate - they fight their way out and make it as far as Moore Street , where they establish a new Headquarters at number 16 : amongst the bunch of 'terrorists, criminals and dissidents' (who, incidentally, had no mandate from the people) was a young Dublin woman , in her early 20's , whose work for Irish freedom has been all but overshadowed by those she worked with .....

Elizabeth O'Farrell was born in Dublin during the early 1890's and dedicated over forty years of her life to the Republican cause ; as a teenager she joined 'Inghinidhe na hEireann' and, at about the age of twenty-years young (in November 1913),she joined Cumann na mBan at its inaugural meeting . (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY, by Dorothy Macardle, first published in 1924 -

Joe and Seumas Taylor of Glencar :

.... Seumas Taylor , a Prisoner Of War, was taken out by the Free Staters and shot dead on the roadside - when his people went to Tralee they were given a broken, shot-riddled body in a rough wooden case. They could not recognise their son ....

" He was buried beside his brother in Glencar , on the fourteenth of March (1923) when FRANK GRADY was buried in Glenbeigh . A group of Free State Officers , under Colonel Bishop, all heavily armed, were recognised in the neighbourhood that day. They had hidden their uniforms and dressed in the weather-stained trench coats of the IRA. If any Republican soldier should be so reckless, it was thought, as to come down from the mountains now, he would meet Seumas Taylor's fate .

The Volunteers came down a hundred strong , and marched to their dead comrade's grave . The Empire's weapon of murder was to fail again " .



KETTLE KALLING .....

... " I think those who are begging should be hosed down and the disgrace of cardboard city should be broken up . Most of the others (beggars) are scum " .

----- so said British Tory MP Terry Dicks , on Friday 10th January 1997 .

Yeah , take them off the streets , Terry - maybe you and Edwina could give them counting lessons before you brand them on the forehead with an 'X' .....