IRELAND 1920 : IRISH CORONER RETURNS A VERDICT OF "WILLFUL MURDER AGAINST DAVID LLOYD GEORGE, PRIME MINISTER OF ENGLAND."

By Peadar O'Donnell ; first published in January 1963.

We had been invited to speak in support of a resolution already passed by Clare County Council - we could not change the resolution and the Cumann na nGael TD (sic) stayed away because he could not support it. De Valera listened in on the exchange between Barrett and me and laughed. He had taken a shot and it missed and that was all about it ; contrary to the popular notion of him, de Valera had a good sense of mischief. In his speech that day he wandered, even rambled , over the whole national scene, but he never once mentioned the word 'bailiff'. I addressed myself to that part of the resolution, and Clare farmers were a good audience for it.

A crowd of us went back to the local hotel and it did not greatly interest me to learn that plain-clothes guards had stationed themselves outside ; detention, even arrest, was a small matter now. But somebody must have concerned himself on my behalf, for I was told to go down to the hall and wait until a two-seater motorcar pulled up at the door. I was to dive into it, and I did as I was bid and found myself with Father Tom Burke, parish priest - or was it Administrator? - of Lahinch. Few "communists" have been so well served by so many priests!

The Bishop of Killaloe, Most Reverend Dr. Fogarty, took alarm at the campaign against land annuities in his diocese - he was a simple, holy man, who was especially simple in his hates, of which he had one great one : the devil, and equally with him all those other wicked spirits who wandered through Ireland for the ruin of souls - the republicans. To win a place in the city state of his hate, he must identify you as a devil - de Valera was a great devil but I was only a shadow on his heels. By myself I might have got by unnoticed , but not now. Dr Fogarty alerted his diocese and for the better protection of his flock he put a new question into the catechism : is it a sin not to pay land annuities? Children for Confirmation were warned that the answer must be spoken clearly - it is a sin not to pay land annuities.... (MORE LATER).



THE ANATOMY OF AN AFTERNOON : THE STORY OF THE GIBRALTAR KILLINGS........

By Michael O'Higgins and John Waters. From 'Magill Magazine' , October 1988.

Officer 'K' , a member of the security forces and of the surveillance team, had been in the car park of the Laguna Estate, beside the Shell petrol station. There was a hedge, about seven or eight feet high, separating the car park from Winston Churchill Avenue. He heard over the radio that the three IRA members were headed in his direction and the first he saw of them was a glimpse of Mairead Farrell and Daniel McCann through the hedge as they walked northwards. As they emerged at the end of the hedge he got a full view of them , talking and laughing as they walked along. Then Soldiers 'A' and 'B' came into his view, roughly twenty feet behind the two. Then he heard a police siren, south of his position, and within a second or so either Soldier 'A' or 'B' shouted a warning , which sounded like "Police! Stop!" McCann and Farrell turned and both Soldiers 'A' and 'B' fired. At this point the soldiers were roughly six or seven feet behind.

He thought that the soldiers pulled their pistols out just after the police siren went off , and this distracted him so he did not see them pulling their weapons. No shots , as far as he could recall at the inquest, were fired at the two while they were on the ground. Officer 'K' walked fifteen to twenty paces southwards before hearing some shots coming from the direction in which he was headed.

Officer 'L' , standing at the corner of Smith Dorrien Avenue, heard a police siren and, within a couple of seconds, the sound of gunfire from the petrol station. She saw Mairead Farrell and Daniel McCann fall and within seconds she heard more gunfire and dropped to the ground. She didn't see Seán Savage or Soldiers 'C' and 'D' , or Officer 'H' . When the firing stopped she got up and walked away. Officer 'P' , of the Gibraltar special branch, who had been tailing Seán Savage earlier in the day, had come back on duty after a break and heard on the radio that the IRA ASU had been spotted heading down Smith Dorrien Avenue. He immediately stopped a German-registered Mercedes, showed the driver his identification and asked him to drive to Winston Churchill Avenue. (MORE LATER).



94 YEARS AGO ON THIS DATE (19TH MARCH)....

...an Irish republican Lord Mayor, elected on the 31st January 1920 - the first Irish republican to hold that position - was assassinated by the British at his home in Thomas Davis Street in Blackpool , Cork (between midnight 19th March 1920 and the next day ,which was his 36th birthday). He was buried in the Republican Plot in St. Finbarr's Cemetery in Cork on Monday 22nd March.

"We find that the late Alderman MacCurtain, Lord Mayor of Cork, died from shock and hemorrhage caused by bullet wounds, and that he was willfully murdered under circumstances of the most callous brutality, and that the murder was organised and carried out by the Royal Irish Constabulary, officially directed by the British Government, and we return a verdict of willful murder against David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of England; Lord French, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; Ian McPherson, late Chief Secretary of Ireland; Acting Inspector General Smith, of the Royal Irish Constabulary; Divisional Inspector Clayton of the Royal Irish Constabulary; District Inspector Swanzy and some unknown members of the Royal Irish Constabulary. We strongly condemn the system at present in vogue of carrying out raids at unreasonable hours. We tender to Mrs. MacCurtain and family our sincerest sympathy. We extend to the citizens of Cork our sympathy in the loss they have sustained by the death of one so eminently capable of directing their civic administration" - the unanimous verdict of the inquest into the murder of Alderman Tomás MacCurtain, Lord Mayor of Cork and considered by many to be the 'inventor' of the 'Flying Column' tactic, as read out on 17th April 1920 by Coroner James J. McCabe. Sixty-four 'policemen' were questioned at the inquest, along with two British military operatives and thirty-one civilians.

His killers, dressed in 'civvies' and speaking with pronounced English accents, were RIC members tasked with the 'job' by their political bosses. And, just two months shy of twenty years later - in January 1940 - those same (British and Free State) political bosses were still after the MacCurtain family : on the 3rd January 1940 , Tomás MacCurtain Junior (Tomas Óg) was jumped-on at the end of St. Patrick Street in Cork city centre by Free State Branch men , one of whom - Detective Garda Roche - had been harassing him for weeks. During the melee, Roche received a gunshot wound from which he died the next day. On 13th June 1940 , the Free State 'Special Criminal Court' sentenced Tomas Óg MacCurtain to death ,sentence to be carried-out on 5th July 1940. An application for Habeas Corpus was lodged and the execution was postponed for a week , but the Free State Supreme Court then dismissed the appeal.

The whole country was divided over the issue - some demanded that MacCurtain be put to death immediately as a 'sign' from the Fianna Fail administration that they were serious about 'cracking-down' on their former comrades in the IRA , while others demanded that he be released. Finally , on 10th July 1940 , the Free Staters issued a statement - "The President , acting on the advice of the government , has commuted the sentence of death on Tomás MacCurtain to penal servitude for life..." It has since been alleged that a sister of Cathal Brugha's widow had intervened on behalf of Tomas Óg MacCurtain to get his death sentence overturned ; the women in question ,who was then the Reverend Mother of an Armagh Convent, had requested that her 'boss', Cardinal MacRory, should 'speak to' Eamon de Valera about the case. This , if indeed it did happen , and the fact that Tomas Óg's father had actually shouldered a gun alongside many members of the then Fianna Fail administration (before they went Free State, obviously) , saved his life. Tomás Óg (1915–1994) continued to be a leading republican and member of the IRA Executive (whose main purpose was to elect the Chief of Staff of the IRA) and was released after seven years.



ON THIS DATE (19TH MARCH) 93 YEARS AGO.

Commandant General Tom Barry , IRA, photographed in (April?) 1921.

In the early hours of Saturday , 19th March 1921, under the command of Tom Barry, from Kerry (the son of an RIC officer who had retired to become a shopkeeper), and Liam Deasy (who, within less than two years afterwards, signed a Free State 'pledge' in exchange for his life) , the West Cork Flying Column of the IRA turned the tables on a British Army and RIC column at Crossbarry, situated about twelve miles south-west of Cork city, despite being outnumbered ten-to-one.

During the hour-long firefight, in which 104 IRA Volunteers (each carrying approximately 40 rounds of ammunition) successfully fought their way out of a 'pincer'-type movement by about 1,200 enemy troops, consisting of British soldiers from the Hampshire and Essex Regiments , Black and Tans and RIC men, three IRA men were killed in action (Peter Monahan, Jeremiah O'Leary and Con Daly) and three others were wounded. Reports varied in relation to British casualties but it seems certain that at least ten of their soldiers were killed and three wounded (more here).

In an interview he gave a number of years later, Tom Barry recalled how "....about two hours had elapsed since the opening of the fight. We were in possession of the countryside, no British were visible and our task was completed. The whole Column was drawn up in line of sections and told they had done well...." and they had indeed 'done well', only to witness, within months, their efforts (ab)used by those who yearned for a political career, which they were given by Westminster in return for their surrender. But, thankfully, although still outnumbered, a republican force still exists to this day.



NA FIANNA ÉIREANN TO PARADE IN DUBLIN ON EASTER MONDAY , 21ST APRIL 2014.

Members of Na Fianna Éireann, pictured at the GPO in Dublin on Easter Monday 2010.

The Sean Healy Sluagh of Na Fianna Éireann, Dublin, will be holding a wreath laying ceremony in Glasnevin Cemetery for Sean Healy on Easter Monday, 21st April, 2014. Fergal Moore (Monaghan) will Chair the event and Dublin Fian Jamie Mullen will lay a wreath and deliver the oration. Those attending are requested to assemble at Doyles Corner in Phibsboro , at 1pm. Immediately following this commemoration, the procession will march from Glasnevin to the Garden of Remembrance from where, at 1.45pm, they will join the RSF parade to the GPO for the Easter Commemoration. Also, please note that on Easter Sunday this year, Republican Sinn Féin will hold its annual Deansgrange Easter Commemoration at 1pm : those attending are asked to assemble at Deansgrange Cemetery gates at 12.45pm.



"OUR POLICE SERVICE" ON THE STREETS OF NYC IN THE ST. PATRICKS DAY PARADE!

OBAMA : "No, Martin, it's not enough that you should not only endorse British rule in Ireland and play your part in administering it. If you want to step further into John Hume's shoes, then you'll have to further endorse the British security services starting , this year, with their police service. Then, next year....."

One good thing to come out of the RUC/PSNI marching in the New York St. Patricks Day parade, as far as Irish republicans are concerned, anyway, was the fact that it further exposed the Provisional Sinn Féin party as the mixture of Workers Party/SDLP that they are. Unbelievable as it sounds and affront to political common sense that it is, there are still those amongst us who consider Adams to be the leader of 'an Irish republican movement' , a 'master strategist' who is still (?) working to achieve his stated objective - that of a British withdrawal from Ireland. And, without a doubt, even when the man publicly abandons his stated objections to British political interference in Ireland, there will still be those who, with a wink and a nudge, will tell you that it's all part of his 'master plan' !

And these comments , from the 'Twitter' page of each of them , will fit in nicely with that charade....

....as their supporters will tell you that it's all part of the 'Provo master plan/long war strategy' and, should those supporters eventually be expelled from their party for questioning the political direction they are going in they will be easily reassured by the leadership that that, too , is all for show, just another piece of the plan. And they'll believe it! Finally , on the subject of 'police' in New York, we came across this pic , which was taken in New York this week -

- and we would like to know why two NYC policemen were posing with tourists in Central Park while members of a criminal gang not only walked the streets of that city but were afforded an official escort to do so....!



OBAMA 'PUTIN' HIS FOOT IN IT......!

A little light relief regarding the escalating situation in Ukraine , and it's a welcome relief : if I have to listen one more time to all the players involved voice 'concern' for 'the freedom of small nations...an infringement of national sovereignty....a minority dictating to a majority...' etc etc - knowing as I do that all those voicing such 'concern' (the EU, Washington, Dublin and especially the British!) are aware of , but totally ignore, the fact that those same 'concerns' could and should be directed at Westminster in relation to its occupation of our six north-eastern counties - then I'll 'cry rivers' myself! As far as I'm concerned, all those involved have interests at heart, not concern, friendship or a sense of fair play. The political muppets in Leinster House are such an unprincipled soft touch that they will slovenly follow either Brussels or Washington's lead in relation to foreign policy and are more delighted with themselves than usual , this time, as Brussels and Washington are at one in this instance in relation to 'the land-grab in Ukraine'. Just, please, don't remind those politicians on Dublin of the land-grab ninty miles up the road from them!

Thanks for reading, Sharon.

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St. PATRICKS DAY (1858) AND THE STRUGGLE FOR IRISH FREEDOM.

ST. PATRICKS DAY 1858 AND THE IRISH STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM.

Joseph Denieffe (left) , one of the founders of the 'Irish Republican Brotherhood'.

Born in Kilkenny City in 1833 , Joseph Denieffe grew up to become a tailor by trade ; still in his early teens , he witnessed Daniel O'Connell's campaign for the 'Repeal of the Act of Union' and would have been just ten years young when approximately one million people assembled at what was known in its day as a "Monster Meeting" at the Royal Hill of Tara in County Meath on 15th August 1843. The young Joseph Denieffe would have heard , on that day , the speech delivered to that vast crowd by Daniel O'Connell, who stated - "We are at Tara of the Kings - the spot from which emanated the social power , the legal authority , the right to dominion over the furthest extremes of the land . The strength and majority of the national movement was never exhibited so imposingly as at this great meeting. The numbers exceed any that ever before congregated in Ireland in peace or war. It is a sight not grand alone but appalling - not exciting merely pride but fear. Step by step we are approaching the great goal of Repeal of the Union , but it is at length with the strides of a giant."

Imagine the scene as a ten-years-young child must have seen it : shoulder-to-shoulder with people packed together as far as a child could see ; one-million people , defiantly cheering and clapping at a lone figure on a wooden platform as he shook his fist and shouted rebelliously in the direction of Westminster. It was a day that was to have a life-long effect on young Joseph Denieffe , and thousands of other young boys and girls , and men and women. When he was twelve years young , Joseph Denieffe would have witnessed the 'Great Hunger' (1845 - 1849) when an estimated one million people died on the land and another one million people emigrated in 'coffin ships'. He would have noticed how Daniel O'Connell and the other career politicians did not suffer, how the Church leaders would bless the dead and pray for the dying before retiring to their big house for a meal, after which they would sleep contently in a warm bed. And a million people died around them.

Others noticed that injustice,too. William Smith O'Brien, a follower of Daniel O'Connell's , was one of the many who had grown impatient ; he helped to establish the 'Young Ireland' group, with the intention of organising an armed rising against the British. Joseph Denieffe joined the 'Young Ireland' group in 1847 (the year of its formation) - he was fourteen years young. He worked with William Smith O'Brien (who , as an 'English Gentleman', was an unusual Irish Rebel - he had been educated at Harrow , had a fine English accent and actually sat in Westminster Parliament for a good few years!) and others for the following four years when , at eighteen years of age(in 1851), the economics of the day dictated emigration.He ended up in New York , and contacted a number of Irish Fenians in that city, including John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny. When he was twenty-two years young in 1855, he assisted in the establishment of an Irish Republican group in America - the ' Emmet Monument Association ' - which sought to raise an army to force England out of Ireland. The 'Emmet Monument Association' decided to send Joseph Denieffe back to Ireland to organise a branch of the 'Emmet Monument Association' there ; by 1856 , a small , active branch of the Association was up and running in County Kilkenny. Its membership included such well-known Irish Rebels as Thomas Clark Luby, Peter Langan and Philip Grey. On hearing of the establishment of the 'Emmet Monument Association' in Ireland and America , another Irish Rebel, James Stephens, returned to Ireland.

James Stephens had taken part in military action against the British in 1848, with William Smith O'Brien , in the town of Ballingarry in Tipperary , and had fled to Paris to escape an English jail sentence, or worse. He returned to Ireland and , by 1857, had set-up a branch of the Emmet Monument Association in Dublin. The leadership of the Emmet Monument Association in America , John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny, then sent one of their most trusted men - Owen Considine - to Ireland to assist in organising a fighting-force in the country. In December 1857 , Joseph Denieffe returned to America on a fund-raising mission ; he stayed there until about March in 1858 and , having raised eighty pounds - a good sum of money in those days - he came back to Ireland. On St Patricks Day that year (17th March , 1858) , Joseph Denieffe made his next move.

Joseph Denieffe , Thomas Clark Luby and James Stephens met, as arranged , on St. Patricks Day in 1858 ; the three Irish Rebels then founded the 'Irish Republican Brotherhood' , a military organisation whose aim was to overthrow British mis-rule in Ireland. The following day , Joseph Denieffe returned to America to continue his fund-raising activities - but political trouble was brewing in America , too. Talk , and fear , of a civil war was everywhere. To make matters worse for Joseph Denieffe's fund-raising efforts , James Stephens and John O'Mahony had fallen-out over the direction that armed resistence to the English was going. America was now home to literally millions of Irish men and women who had been forced to leave Ireland because of British interference and the Great Hunger yet , as far as James Stephens was concerned , John O'Mahony and the American leadership had failed to harness the support amongst the Irish for an armed campaign against the British.

James Stephens accused John O'Mahony and his people in America of being "....Irish tinsel patriots (who make) speeches of bayonets , gala days and jolly nights , banners and sashes , bunkum and filibustering , responding in glowing language to glowing toasts on Irish National Independence over beakers of fizzling champagne....." . It was in the middle of the above turmoil that Joseph Denieffe found himself in America in the early 1860's . Fund-raising in those circumstances was not possible , but he stayed in that country , perhaps hoping that , when things settled down .....

Joseph Denieffe never 'lost the faith'; he was now living in Chicago and was in his early thirtys. He continued his work for Irish Freedom , even though the immediate momentum had been lost. He stayed in America , spreading the word and building contacts for the Irish Republican cause. In 1904, at seventy-one years of age , he wrote a number of articles for the New York newspaper , 'The Gael' ; those articles were later published as a book , entitled 'A Personal Narrative of the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood' (link here) ,and is a fantastic read for those interested in the history of the on-going struggle for full Irish freedom.

At 77 years of age , Joseph Denieffe died in Chicago , on 20th April, 1910. He gave sixty-three years of his life to the Irish cause ,working for the most part either in the background or underground, never seeking the limelight. He is not as well-known as he should be but , like all true Irish Republicans , his objective was to promote and further the Irish cause , not himself.

"This land of mine , the old man said ,

will be alive when we are dead.

My fathers words still ring divine -

"God Bless this lovely land of mine."

Thanks for reading, Sharon.

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IRELAND 1923 : IRA MEN SHOT IN LEGS BY STATERS THEN PLACED OVER A LANDMINE.

By Peadar O'Donnell ; first published in January 1963.

Looking back on it now I am of the opinion that the Galway committees were at once the most advanced in idea, and the best fighting group in the Irish countryside at that time - their weakness was that they had less pattern of organisation than the Donegal team. They had not the same gift for relating themselves to the people around them , they were 'commandos' rather than a movement and I think I should have been more useful to them than I was, and blame myself for some of the mistakes they made.

Whatever danger of arrest faced me must come to head as I arrived for the Ennis rally, although I should get to the outskirts of the meeting without any trouble and should be all right once I got to the platform. There was just the problem of getting from the outskirts of the meeting into the crowd , as the police might easily be mischievous enough to arrest me , with no more in mind than a few hours' detention. I could chuckle at the thought of the relief it would be to de Valera to be rid of me for a couple of hours, without too much hardship to me, for this whole development must be very unwelcome to him.

My safeguard against police interference would be a body of Galway men at hand to bustle me into the crowd and on to the platform. When the time came there was no problem ; I walked to the platform with Paddy Hogan, Labour TD (sic) for Clare, who is now speaker of the Dáil (sic) , with my Galway friends in a cluster on my heels. The Cumann na nGael TD (sic) for County Clare refused the invitation to the meeting, at which Frank Barrett presided. As the meeting was about to open, Barrett leaned over to me to say de Valera wanted the resolution changed, that he could not speak to a resolution which demanded that decrees be suspended , as well as to advocate "NO RENT" openly and honestly. I could chuckle at de Valera's difficulty , for was it not the whole purpose of the staging of the meeting to land him in it? I had a complete answer to his suggestion..... (MORE LATER).



THE ANATOMY OF AN AFTERNOON : THE STORY OF THE GIBRALTAR KILLINGS........

By Michael O'Higgins and John Waters. From 'Magill Magazine' , October 1988.

Officer 'I' , a member of the surveillance team, was on Corral Road, which leads onto Winston Churchill Avenue at 3.40pm when control was handed over to the soldiers. Just after he had learned this on his radio, word came through that the three IRA members had split up. He was on the left side of the road facing towards the Shell station and the entrance to the Landport Tunnel, also knowm as King's Lines, was across the road on his right. He saw Mairead Farrell and Daniel McCann walking towards the Shell station, closely followed by Soldiers 'A' and 'B' and at the same instant he noticed Seán Savage turning into the entrance to the Landport Tunnel across the road.

Then he heard a police siren, though he couldn't see any police car. A second later he heard shots from the direction of the Shell station and saw Soldiers 'A' and 'B' firing and Mairead Farrell and Daniel McCann falling to the ground. One soldier was directly behind the two, the other slightly to the left - out on the road, he thought. He saw the two people hit the ground. He would be asked at the inquest if Soldiers 'A' and 'B' shot the two on the ground. "By the time they were finished firing they were on the ground," he would say.

At the inquest, Paddy McGrory asked Officer 'I' if it was true that he had seen Soldiers 'A' and 'B' fire the last two shots while Mairead Farrell and Daniel McCann were on the ground - "....or in the process of falling..." , Officer 'I' qualified. McGrory pointed out that in a statement he had made to the police he said that he had seen them shot on the ground. "They were more on the ground than standing up. They still moved" , replied Officer 'I' , to which McGrory enquired "On the ground?" Officer 'I' said - "Almost on the ground." McGrory stated "Your evidence to the coroner before was that you saw 'A' and 'B' firing the last few shots into Farrell and McCann when they had just fallen to the ground." Officer 'I' replied "Yes." (MORE LATER).



91 YEARS AGO ON THIS DATE (12TH MARCH) : FREE STATERS SHOOT FIVE IRA PRISONERS IN THE LEGS THEN PLACE THEM OVER A LANDMINE.

Bahaghs Lodge, built in 1833, became Cahersiveen's workhouse in the An Gorta Mór year of 1846. Thousands of destitute people lived there between 1846 and 1921 and many of them died there, to be buried in mass graves at nearby Sugrena churchyard.

On March 6th, 1923, five Free State soldiers, including Captains Michael Dunne and Joseph Stapleton of Dublin Brigade, were killed in Knocknagoshel, Co Kerry, by a booby trap mine. The target of the trap was a particular local fellow by the name of Paddy 'Pats' O'Connor who, according to the IRA, was a notorious torturer of prisoners. O'Connor joined the Free State army because of the treatment of his father by the local IRA.

The Dublin Guards, who had been in Kerry since the previous August, were commanded by Paddy O'Daly. He was furious over the booby trap and it subsequently became clear that he was responsible for what took place following the Knocknagoshel incident. At around 2am on March 7th, 1923, nine IRA prisoners, many of whom had been tortured, were brought to Ballyseedy wood where they were told that they were to remove an "irregular road block". However, it was clear to the men what was in store for them when they had been shown 9 coffins in the barracks. Each were offered a cigarette and told it would be "the last you'll have". They were then tied together to the mined road block and blown up. Some of the men were still alive and were finished off by grenade and machine gun.

Unbeknownst to the Free State troops one man was blown clear and managed to escape. His name was Stephen Fuller (to become a FF 'TD' in 1937) . Because the bodies were so badly mangled all nine coffins were filled with the remains of the eight who perished. This was to lead to a near riot in Tralee when the coffins were handed over the the families at the gates of Ballymullen barracks. The families broke open the coffins to try and identify the remains. Later on the same day a very similar incident took place at Countess Bridge in Killarney where five IRA prisoners where asked to remove a mined road block which was also blown up. Three of the men who lay wounded were finished off by grenade. Again, amazingly, a fifth man named Tadhg Coffey, survived and escaped.

Five days later 5 more men were killed near Bahaghs workhouse in Cahersiveen. In order to prevent any more escapes the men were first shot in the legs. They were then put over a mine and blown up. When the details slowly emerged about what really happened the Free State government was forced to call an inquiry into what happened. They appointed none other than Major General Paddy O'Daly to oversee the court of inquiry in April. It was never going to be anything other than a whitewash. One Free State soldier Lt W McCarthy resigned his commission after the incident and called his colleagues "a murder gang". Capt Niall Harrington (Author of 'Kerry Landings') of the Dublin Brigade reported that "the mines used in the slaughter of the prisoners were constructed in Tralee under the supervision of two senior Dublin Guards officers". But neither he nor Lt McCarthy was ever called to testify. (More here.)

The 'Bahagh's Massacre' took place in Cahersiveen, County Kerry , 91 years ago on this date.



ON THIS DATE (12TH MARCH) 93 YEARS AGO....

A North Longford IRA unit, pictured on a local landmark, 'Crott Mountain', in the early 1920's.

....SEÁN CONNOLLY (1890-1921), OFFICER COMMANDING OF THE LONGFORD BRIGADE IRA WAS KILLED IN ACTION.

The Selton Hill Ambush was an incident during the Irish War of Independence, which occurred on March 11, 1921. An Irish Republican Army flying column was ambushed by members of the Auxiliary Division of the RIC, at Selton Hill, near Mohill, County Leitrim. Six IRA officers of the Leitrim Brigade (including Sean Connolly from Longford, Seamus Wrynne V/C; Joseph O Beirne (or Beirne); John Reilly; Joseph Reilly and Capt M. E. Baxter) were killed. The Auxiliaries were based in the town of Mohill.

Ernie O'Malley states that "Men from the Bedfordshire Regiment were seen by a badly wounded IRA officer, who survived, to use rifle butts on the skulls of two wounded men." He also says that the location of the column was given to the local D/I of the RIC by a doctor who had been in the British Army. The doctor had been given the information by an Orangeman. The Orangeman was later killed by the IRA but the doctor escaped to England. Leavy says six were killed and that they were betrayed by two of their compatriots. He does say that one was promptly executed by the IRA and that the other escaped to England but died later in an accident... (from here.)

This book (left) casts light on Sean Connolly himself - a key figure in the era of the independence struggle in the North Longford region. Written by Ernie O'Malley, the book was edited by his son Cormac. Connolly, whose name is attached to the (FS) military barracks in Longford, was vice-commandant of the North Longford IRA. The book describes his involvement in the Volunteers/IRA from 1916, including episodes such as the destruction of the RIC barracks in Ballinamuck and in Arva in 1920. Connolly was sent by headquarters in Dublin to reorganise the IRA in North Roscommon, and in February 1921, began organising a flying column in South Leitrim. Its most famous action was the ambush at Selton Hill, near Ballinamore, on 11 March 1921, where Connolly was mortally wounded, and five others killed.... (from here and here.)



DARREN'S DAY , BUT NOT QUITE THE 'KING' !

Although he felt like a 'Prince', young Darren, one of our regular Dublin ticket sellers, never quite made it to the level of 'King' : that title went to a man with that surname, 'King' (first name Mick!) who won our first prize (€200) on Sunday last, 9th March, with ticket number 628 , having bought it from Andy C , Dublin 12. Mick , a die-hard Everton follower, was quickly re-named 'two-ton' by his mates, as they settled-in for a few free rounds up at the bar and rapidly 'scored' what must have been a 'ton' of pints (points?) between them, with one such round going 'off side' in our direction!

Meanwhile, back at 'Top Table Castle' , the young 'Prince' , Darren, was doing very well for himself - he walked off the pitch with four in the back of the net, three of which he 'gave away' and one 'own goal'. One of his customers, Dessie, won 3rd prize, €40 (ticket 94) , another, Josh, won 5th prize, €20, (173) and Nellie won our last prize, €20, on ticket 127, while Darren himself won prize number four (€20), with ticket number 596, which he bought from Tom - the reason being that Darren had sold all his own tickets and hadn't got one left for himself!

As Darren was prancing around the lounge, claiming victory and daring anyone to match or beat his score (!) , a lovely young lass from Blanchardstown in Dublin, Roisin E , was collecting her prize of €100 (2nd prize, ticket number 524) and she pulled out prize number six for us , which was won by a local man , Seán Moore (432) , who pulled out prize number seven for us (€20), which was won by Tony, on ticket 153, which he bought from our Owen.

I have no idea who won between Man City and Wigan or Tipperary and Clare or any of the many (seemingly endless!) matches that were held that day, all of which teams were well represented in the hotel, but we enjoyed our fund-raising work on behalf of the Movement and had a great bit of craic as well, as usual. But we're gonna ban young Darren from the next one, and give other people a chance to win...!

Thanks for reading, Sharon.

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'THE ENGLISH MET US WITH SNEERS AND CONTEMPT....'

By Peadar O'Donnell ; first published in January 1963.

The 'Land Annuity' resolution put nothing up to de Valera , but it cleared the ground for our second proposal, and the second resolution fairly tugged at de Valera's coat-tails. It called for a public meeting at Ennis, in support of the resolution already passed against annuities, and it asked all the TD's (sic : members of Leinster House) for the County of Clare to attend and speak. I do not recall now, whether Colonel Moore and I were publicly invited to the platform but I do know that we were both named among the speakers on the posters under our banner-heading 'CALL OFF THE BAILIFFS'. I wrote that poster.

I think it likely that I spent some time in Clare to help Hayes with preparation for the Ennis meeting, not that much preparation was needed for de Valera's name alone would be enough to muster Clare. I remember Father John Fahy called for me at Hayes's home and took me into Galway where his warriors had problems of their own. On the way there, we called on Father Bill Mahony, who was my 'postbox' for Galway. A letter had come by that day's post , from Colonel Moore, which enthused over the good that must come of the Ennis meeting, but it carried a word of warning that worried me. In an underlined footnote he wrote that it would be a great pity if anything should prevent me from getting on the platform at Ennis.

As it happened I had some little cause to fear arrest then, so I went to earth in Galway and, like many other occasions when I was forced off the main road on to the laneways, I benefited greatly from the experience. I got to know the group around Father John, one by one , in their own homes , and I shared fireside chats with them in a setting of their neighbours. We met in conference. (MORE LATER).



THE ANATOMY OF AN AFTERNOON : THE STORY OF THE GIBRALTAR KILLINGS........

By Michael O'Higgins and John Waters. From 'Magill Magazine' , October 1988.

Officer 'M' , the leader of the surveillance operation, had been at the border when Mairead Farrell and Daniel McCann had come in, been driven about in a small beige-coloured car. He was stopped in a traffic jam just beyond the bridge leading from Line Wall Road onto Smith Dorrien Avenue when he heard the sound of gunfire. He looked up and saw a woman he recognised as Mairead Farrell being shot by a soldier- he could only see the top half of her body as his view was partially obscured. She fell to the ground, the soldier was on her left side and she was falling away from him. His impression, he would recall afterwards, was that the soldier had stepped from the footpath onto the road as he was firing at her. Then he noticed a police car go north through the traffic lights with its siren on. He couldn't be sure but he thought the siren might have started just before the gunfire.

Officer 'H' of the surveillance team was positioned in Smith Dorrien Avenue, just short of the junction with Winston Churchill Avenue and he saw the three IRA members at the junction split up and Daniel McCann and Mairead Farrell begin to walk north. There was a police car in the queue of traffic at the lights along Smith Dorrien Avenue with perhaps three to five policemen in it, all of whom appeared to be uniformed.

As he approached the junction, the car moved off. He did not hear the siren as the car drove off and would tell the inquest that the car had travelled all the way up Winston Churchill Avenue and around the sundial roundabout before its siren came on. He was surprised by the siren on account of the arrests which he knew were just about to take place , he said. Some seconds later Mairead Farrell and Daniel McCann looked around and Officer 'H' saw Soldiers 'A' and 'B' adopt a "rigid pose" behind them. At this point his line of vision became obscured by passing pedestrians. He heard the soldiers firing "almost instantly" and saw Mairead Farrell and Daniel McCann fall to the ground. (MORE LATER).



GEORGE PLANT : EXECUTED BY FREE STATERS ON THIS DATE (5TH MARCH) 72 YEARS AGO.

"It is a noble thing to die for your country, it is a useful thing to kill for your county. If you can't be noble just be useful" (George Plant, pictured, left)- put to death by a republican traitor after following IRA orders issued by an IRA informer? George Plant was executed by de Valera's Fianna Fáil administration on the 5th March 1942, and the circumstances leading to that act have left unanswered questions to this day*.

In late August 1940, a Dublin house (22 Lansdowne Road) was raided by the Special Branch and, amongst others, a lorry driver in his mid-twenties, Michael Devereux, from Wexford, was arrested : at the time, Devereux was the Quarter-Master of the IRA in Wexford. He was held and questioned for three days by ex-IRA man (who was once the Commander of 'C' Company, 4th Battalion, IRA, Dublin Brigade) , now Free State Detective, Dinny O'Brien (reg. number 8288) , who made a name for himself with his fellow Staters as 'a good Broy Harrier man'. Michael Devereux was released without charge and, shortly afterwards, the State Gardai 'stumbled upon' a major IRA arms dump in the Wexford area : it had been suggested at the time and since then that the Staters knew about that arms dump weeks before they raided the house in Lansdowne Road but willingly used the circumstances to set up Devereux.

The then new IRA Chief-Of-Staff, Stephen Hayes, ordered George Plant and Kilkenny-man Michael Walsh to execute "the informer Michael Devereux" and, even though the two IRA men were uneasy about the task, and questioned same, they executed him, on the 27th September, 1940 (his body was only located a year later ie 27th September 1941). In October 1941, George Plant was arrested by the Staters and charged (in effect, in front of a Free State Military Tribunal) with the 'murder' of Michael Devereux but the 'trail' collapsed within days as 'witnesses for the prosecution' refused to condemn the man , leaving the State no option but to declare a 'nolle prosequi' , which should have brought the issue to an end. But in December that year (1941), George Plant was re-arrested (under 'Emergency Order 41F') and brought before the 'Special Military Court' (where Free State Army officers act as 'judges' who could only impose the death penalty with no right to appeal) and again charged with the 'murder' of Michael Devereux. Also that same month (December 1941) , in an attempt to wipe-out his former IRA comrades, de Valera enacted an 'Emergency Powers Act' (to be enforced retrospectively, if required) in which 'witness' statements , once given (or, indeed, 'once taken' by the Staters) could be used in court even if the person who 'gave' same withdrew it later and was or was not in court!

At this second 'trail', George Plant was found guilty , sentenced to death and executed in Portlaoise on the 5th March 1942, by firing squad. He was buried at St. Johnstown Cemetery, near Fethard, County Tipperary, following an oration by John McGrath (NGA), who said - "George Plant worshipped at a shrine different to the majority of his fellow countrymen, but like his illustrious co-religionists, Wolfe Tone, Emmet, the Brothers Sheares, and many more, he fearlessly trod the path that they trod to their doom in the cause of Ireland's freedom...."

(*The then IRA Chief-of-Staff, Stephen Hayes, was said to be a paid informer in the employ of de Valera and, to earn his keep, he accused Michael Devereux of revealing the location of the arms dump in order to conceal the fact that he, Hayes, had actually turned it over to de Valera and his fellow Free Staters. Also, George Plant was in the Republican Movement for twenty-five years and, as such, he would have known the 'achilles heel' of many of those who served with him, some of whom , at that time, were now 'respectable' career politicians in the young Free State and, indeed, not long after the man was buried, a Tipperary Churchman found a journal written by George Plant but he destroyed it after reading it as he deemed its contents to be a political game-changer for the Free Staters if it was ever to become public knowledge. Questions were also asked in relation to an IRA bank robbery in 1928 in Tipperary, allegedly carried out by George Plant (then 24 years young) and his brother, Jimmy, after been ordered to do so by ex-IRA man, Frank Aiken (who was a Fianna Fáil member at the time), the proceeds of which were given to Frank Aiken for safekeeping until it was to be handed over to the IRA. The money, however, apparently ended-up in the election coffers of Fianna Fáil and if George Plant knew that then best to silence him....?)



147 YEARS AGO ON THIS DATE (5TH MARCH) : FENIAN RISING (1867).

Fenian flag , 1867.

1867 Irish Fenian Proclamation : 'English Monarchical government a curse...' -

The Irish People of the World.

We have suffered centuries of outrage, enforced poverty, and bitter misery. Our rights and liberties have been trampled on by an alien aristocracy, who treating us as foes, usurped our lands, and drew away from our unfortunate country all material riches. The real owners of the soil were removed to make room for cattle, and driven across the ocean to seek the means of living, and the political rights denied to them at home, while our men of thought and action were condemned to loss of life and liberty. But we never lost the memory and hope of a national existence. We appealed in vain to the reason and sense of justice of the dominant powers. Our mildest remonstrance's were met with sneers and contempt. Our appeals to arms were always unsuccessful.

Today, having no honourable alternative left, we again appeal to force as our last resource. We accept the conditions of appeal, manfully deeming it better to die in the struggle for freedom than to continue an existence of utter serfdom.

All men are born with equal rights, and in associating to protect one another and share public burdens, justice demands that such associations should rest upon a basis which maintains equality instead of destroying it. We therefore declare that, unable longer to endure the curse of Monarchical Government, we aim at founding a Republic based on universal suffrage, which shall secure to all the intrinsic value of their labour. The soil of Ireland, at present in the possession of an oligarchy, belongs to us, the Irish people, and to us it must be restored.

We declare, also, in favour of absolute liberty of conscience, and complete separation of Church and State.

We appeal to the Highest Tribunal for evidence of the justness of our cause. History bears testimony to the integrity of our sufferings, and we declare, in the face of our brethren, that we intend no war against the people of England – our war is against the aristocratic locusts, whether English or Irish, who have eaten the verdure of our fields – against the aristocratic leeches who drain alike our fields and theirs. Republicans of the entire world, our cause is your cause. Our enemy is your enemy. Let your hearts be with us. As for you, workmen of England, it is not only your hearts we wish, but your arms. Remember the starvation and degradation brought to your firesides by the oppression of labour. Remember the past, look well to the future, and avenge yourselves by giving liberty to your children in the coming struggle for human liberty.

Herewith we proclaim the Irish Republic.

The Provisional Government.

The link in the title of this post will give a background to, and details of, the 1867 Rising, leaving us to concentrate on one of the thousands of men and women that struck a blow for Irish freedom in that year - Peter O'Neill Crowley, from Cork, who was killed in Tipperary by the British :

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.

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 2,000 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.

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 John Edward Kelly (see page 5, here) , 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.

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,but 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. The county of Cork practically came to a standstill for Crowley's funeral, 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 John 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 but by no means the end of our on-going struggle for full independence from Westminster interference and misrule in Irish affairs.



JACK THE LAD.....

....Jack Murphy, that is - 57 years ago on this date (5th March) , an unemployed carpenter was elected to Leinster House (with 3,036 first preference votes) as an Independent representative for Dublin South Central but was marked out in that institution for being 'different' (ie 'genuine') and resigned his seat 15 months later, saying - "I was fed up with the callous indifference of the big parties to the situation of the workers."

He was born near Synge Street in Dublin in 1920, and was number thirteen in the family - his parents, five brothers and five sisters. His father was active in republican circles and Jack joined Na Fianna Éireann in 1930, at ten years of age and at 16 years young he joined the IRA. He was interned for republican activity in the Curragh at 21 and released four years later. When he entered Leinster House he divided his monthly wage of £52 into three sections - one-third each to his own family, unemployed action groups and organisations that were trying to look after the old. On resigning his seat in May 1958, he received only £2-1s a week unemployment assistance and could only find short-term temporary work.

In early 1959 he had no option but to emigrate (to Canada), saying - "Since Christmas I have been unable to get any work, apart from a couple of weeks. The building trade is finished. But there is plenty of work if only the Government would put up the money for it instead of putting millions into the purchase of jet planes. Irish tradesmen have emigrated in thousands. And they will continue to go. There is no hope for them here. Many people will say that I am quitting, pulling out in failure. But mostly they will be people with good, solid jobs. If I saw the slightest hope I would stay, I repeat that, but it broke my heart to see my wife trying to get along on a few shillings a week. I tried hard all along and no one can say that I did not try to spotlight the problems and evils of our country.......again let me stress that I am not pulling out from any motive of selfishness. There are fine young men in this country who will lead the people if they are prepared to follow them. I wish those men all the luck in the world. They will need it in their fight to overcome the apathy that is making it all too easy for the big political parties to continue to run the country as if the working people did not matter."

Some of those that worked alongside him in the 1957 election campaign were not in agreement with his decision to resign his seat and there was a falling-out between them but our research for this piece would indicate that Jack Murphy was simply disappointed and frustrated that he found himself powerless in Leinster House to affect real change for the working class, the unemployed and the elderly and, realising that that was the case, saw no benefit in staying there. He died on the 11th of July, 1984. Also elected in that same State election (5th March 1957) were four Irish republicans, for Sinn Féin ,on an abstentionist basis : Ruairi Ó Brádaigh (Longford/Westmeath) , Éineachán Ó hAnnluain (brother of Feargal O'Hanlon, Monaghan constituency) , John Joe Rice (South Kerry) and John Joe McGirl (Sligo-Leitrim) all of whom knew, whilst canvassing for that British-imposed 'parliament', that they, too, would be unable to affect meaningful change for the working class, the unemployed or the elderly and canvassed on the basis that they would not take their seats or their salary. Fifty-seven years have gone by since then, but the Leinster House institution remains as corrupt and ineffectual as it was then.



......AND STAN THE MAN!

Regular readers will know that football games etc leave me cold as I have no interest at all in the sport or in the over-valued millionaire players who 'ply their trade' to the highest bidder on a pitch , but last week one such participant caught my attention : Stan Collymore whom, I'm told, has a 'colourful' ('checkered'?) personal life, to be diplomatic about it. Some of the charges made against the man are disgusting and he wouldn't be on my Christmas card list if even some of the claims made about him are true. Anyway - he tweeted the following last week -

- which could possibly indicate that, at least sometimes, his head is in the right place. In his own parlance : that's a 'score' , Stan, and if you ever run for political office, I'll be one of many to remind you of those comments and to expect you to act on them. Otherwise I'll consider it a 'foul' and reach for a red card.....



AND SPEAKING OF SPORTING EVENTS....

...this Sunday (9th March 2014) Newcastle United and Everton will be kicking a ball to (or at?) each other, as will Blackburn Rovers and Burnley and Hull City and Sunderland and Man City and Wigan, Sheffield and Charlton and, nearer to home, Cork will be up against Derry, Tipperary will be having it out with Clare, the Limerick and Wexford boys will be carrying big sticks as will the lads from Kilkenny and Galway and the teams from Laois and Antrim , not forgetting Waterford who, I'm told, will need way more than mere sticks to beat us Dubs!

And there's about eight other games on as well , all of which guarantee us a more-than-full house that day for the 650-ticket raffle which the Republican Movement in Dublin will be holding in the usual sports hotel on the Dublin-Kildare border and for which yours truly, amongst others, has been booked (pun intended!) to appear. We will post the results here as soon as we can but it probably won't be that Sunday night as we get fed and watered after the event and some bad devil or other keeps spiking our water with alcohol. A foul if ever there was one....!



"NEARLY ALL THE GIRLS STAYED REPUBLICAN, BUT THE MEN SEEMED TO WAVER...."

Cumann na mBan was incredible in its militancy - Eithne Coyle [pictured here, centre , in Carlow, in 1921] (Cumann na mBan President) recalls how ... "...as things developed in 1922 , we could see that the Free State was toeing the line for Britain . Nearly all the girls stayed Republican , but the men seemed to waver....we offer no apology to the rulers North or South of this partitioned land in asserting our rights as freeborn Irish women to repudiate that Treaty and the Imperial Parliament of partioned Ulster . We fight for an Ireland where the exploitation of Irish workers by imported or native capitalists will be ruthlessly exterminated . (We will) put an end for all time to that state of chaos and social dis-order which is holding our people in unnatural bondage...."(From 'History Lives On...' , here.)

Born into a strong republican family in 1897 in Donegal, Eithne Coyle was 20 years of age when she joined Cumann na mBan and within two years she had established a branch of the organisation in Cloughaneely, in West Donegal. She was also active in the Gaelic League and contributed articles for the 'Irish World' newspaper in New York.

She was active at this time in republican circles, carrying messages, reporting back to the local IRA HQ on the movements of enemy forces and assisting in fundraising activities, all of which brought her to the attention of the paramilitary RIC resulting in her house being raided a number of times. Following one such raid, she was arrested and imprisoned in Mountjoy Jail in Dublin , from where, in October 1921, she escaped and made her way to Donegal. The following year she was caught with IRA orders and updates and was imprisoned again and, after her release, she was elected as president of the Cumann na mBan organisation, a position she held from 1926 until 1941. Eithne Coyle died , age 88, in 1985.

You can meet representatives of the Cumann na mBan organisation on Saturday morning, from 11.30am until 5pm approximately, 29th March 2014, in Wynn's Hotel in Dublin city centre - all welcome!

Thanks for reading, Sharon.

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IRISH 'DISSIDENT' GUILTY OF HIGH TREASON.

By Peadar O'Donnell ; first published in January 1963.



'An Phoblacht' had considerable circulation in that area of Clare and there was some correspondence between Seán Hayes, the councillor, and myself, and I visited the Glen a few times. By lucky chance Moss Twomey and I travelled there together and it greatly encouraged Hayes that Moss should speak with lively interest and understanding of the situation in which Hayes found himself. The local people looked to him for leadership.

I was anxious that Clare County Council should adopt the resolution on which Colonel Moore and I rested our campaign - the chairman of the Council was Frank Barrett and the Barrett family was one of the great Fianna Fáil influences in Clare. I knew the man , as we were both members of the IRA Executive in 1922 and we met again in Mountjoy Jail in 1923. He was like the rest of us, anti-landlord, anti-rancher, in the Fenian pattern. His brother Joe was, I think, still a member of the IRA at the time so likely it was on some errand on that level that Moss Twomey and I went to see him.

Joe was an aggressive radical and was already interested in the land annuity agitation - he had no doubts that Frank Barrett would be anxious to give a hand ; the only push he would need would be a word from Moss Twomey, and Moss had no hesitation in encouraging Frank to bring Clare County Council in on our side. Barrett and Seán Hayes managed the matter very well indeed and, with a minimum of previous publicity, our resolution declaring land annuities to be illegal and immoral and demanding that decrees enforcing them be suspended came before the Council and was adopted. This brought the agitation on to de Valera's doorstep, for this was his constituency. But he took no notice of it..... (MORE LATER).



THE ANATOMY OF AN AFTERNOON : THE STORY OF THE GIBRALTAR KILLINGS........

By Michael O'Higgins and John Waters. From 'Magill Magazine' , October 1988.

At the same instant that Soldier 'A' had fired one round into the centre of Daniel McCann's back, he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, the bag which Mairead Farrell was carrying on her left shoulder was moving. She swung her shoulder to the right and brought the bag round towards the middle of her body. He couldn't see her hands but it seemed to him to be an aggressive movement and he shot Mairead Farrell once in the back also. He then turned his fire back on Daniel McCann , shooting a further three rounds into him, as he was falling to the ground - two more into his back and one into his head. McCann fell to the ground, his hands out from his body. By this time, Mairead Farrell was also on the ground. Soldier 'A' did not hear Soldier 'B' firing and, as far as he, Soldier 'A' , was concerned, he was the only one firing at Farrell and McCann. Immediately after the shooting he turned around and at that instant heard a police siren.

Soldier 'B', concentrating on the back of Mairead Farrell in front of him, out of the corner of his eye, noticed Daniel McCann looking over his left shoulder. He heard a "sort of shout" from Soldier 'A'. It wasn't a complete word, more like the start of a word and afterwards he would say that he assumed it to be Soldier 'A' initiating the arrest procedure. At the same instant he heard firing and also saw Mairead Farrell make a sharp movement to the right , as he was simultaneously drawing his gun. Farrell turned slightly, bringing the bag on her left shoulder round and moving her right hand towards the middle of her body. He fired into the centre of her back, but couldn't recall afterwards how many rounds he fired at her.

By then, he would say afterwards, Daniel McCann was "in a threatening position" and was making a movement sideways , towards Soldier 'B'. Soldier 'B' then fired at McCann, but he didn't know how many rounds he fired at him. The two were by now falling to the ground and he turned back towards Mairead Farrell and fired at her again while she was falling to the ground, but he couldn't recall afterwards how many rounds he had fired this time either. All three sets of shots were fired from the same position, Soldier 'B' would say at the inquest. He did not move while he was firing and he fired while in a standing position, with his arms outstretched. In all he fired seven rounds and stopped firing when he saw that both Mairead Farrell and Daniel McCann had their hands out from their bodies and was satisfied that they no longer represented a threat to the Gibraltarian people. (MORE LATER).



ON THIS DATE (26TH FEBRUARY) 52 YEARS AGO.

THE IRA 'BORDER CAMPAIGN' ('Resistance Campaign/Operation Harvest') ENDS.

Photo - IRA Volunteers , pictured around the time of the Border Campaign.

At the time of this IRA campaign , Eamon de Valera's Fianna Fail State administration were of the opinion that it actually began in 1954 , with the raid on Gough Barracks , in Armagh, on Saturday 12th June that year (1954) , in which some 300 weapons were liberated from the British Army. Fianna Fail considered that proof enough that the IRA "...had renewed its activities, was rearming, recruiting young men and engaging in drilling and other manoeuvres...." and indeed they were. On 11th December 1956 , communication was sent to the IRA Volunteers involved - over 150 men - that the operation would begin at midnight on 12th December and , at the appointed time, three IRA flying columns crossed the Free State border to attack British Army depots and administration centres , air fields , radar installations , BA barracks , courthouses , bridges , roads and custom posts : the 'Resistance Campaign/Operation Harvest', had begun proper , being co-ordinated from County Monaghan.

In a letter from the leadership of the then Sinn Féin organisation , which was signed by Maire Ni Gabhan and Miceal Treinfir (see 'Sinn Féin Rally In Dublin', here) and which was sent from the Sinn Féin Office, 3 Lr. Abbey Street, Dublin, the Secretary of each Cumann was instructed to read out a statement after every Mass in their area , on Sunday 16th December (1956), announcing the start of 'the Border Campaign', to achieve "....an independent, united, democratic Irish Republic. For this we shall fight until the invader is driven from our soil and victory is ours..." , an announcement which , later, prompted the then Free State 'Taoiseach' , Fianna Fail's Seán Lemass , to describe the IRA as being "similar to fascists" re its decision to mount such a campaign.

Although it did not achieve its objectives, the Border Campaign kept 'the National Question' in the political forefront , enabled the Republican Movement to make new connections and ensured that valuable operational lessons were learned and documented for the next generation. On 26th February 1962 the IRA, through the Irish Republican Publicity Bureau, in a communication signed by J. McGarrity, sent out the following message: " The leadership of the resistance movement has ordered the termination of the Campaign of Resistance to British Occupation launched on December, 1956. Instructions issued to Volunteers of the Active Service Units and of local Units in the occupied area have now been carried out. All arms and materials have been dumped and all full-time active volunteers have been withdrawn. Foremost among the factors motivating this course of action has been the attitude of the general public whose minds have been deliberately distracted from the supreme issue facing the Irish people – the unity and freedom of Ireland. The Irish resistance movement renews its pledge of eternal hostility to the British Forces of Occupation in Ireland. It calls on the Irish people for increased support and looks forward with confidence – in co-operation with the other branches of the Republican Movement – to a period of consolidation, expansion and preparation for the final and victorious phase of the struggle for the full freedom of Ireland."

Although that Campaign was called off as, indeed, were others like it over the centuries of resistance , opposition to British military and political interference in Irish affairs remains in place and has been bolstered by those 'failed campaigns'. Even when we 'lose' , we win!



THIS DATE (26th February) in 943 AD : THE DEATH OF KING MUIRCHERTACH OF AILEACH.

The Vikings of Dublin got a lucky break when they ambushed 'Muirchertach of the Leather Cloaks/Muirchertach na Cochall Craicinn' and slew him on this day. Muirchertach was heir apparent to the Kingship of Tara - Ireland's most prestigious Royal title.

Muirchertach, son of Niall, i.e. Muirchertach of the Leather Cloaks, King of Aileach and the Hector of the western world, was killed by the 'heathens', i.e. by Blacair son of Gothfrith, king of the foreigner, at Glas Liatháin beside Cluain Chaín, in Fir Rois, on the first feria, fourth of the Kalends of March (26th February). Ard Macha was plundered by the same foreigners on the following day, the third of the Kalends of March.

Muirchertach was the son of Niall Glundubh who had himself been killed fighting the Vikings at Dublin in 919 AD. He had fought and won many battles and in one report is mentioned as leading a naval expedition against the Norsemen of the Hebrides. However he suffered an embarrassing episode in 939 AD when in a surprise raid his enemies' ships raided his fortress of Aileach (outside Derry) and carried him off. He was forced to ransom his own release to regain his freedom. Muirchertach, under the ancient rule of the kingship of Tara alternating between the northern and southern O'Neills, was due to replace King Donnachadh on the latter’s demise. Sometimes though ambition got the better of him and he clashed with his senior colleague and at other times co-operated with him. Muirchertach married Donnchad's daughter Flann, but relations between the two were not good. Conflict between them is recorded in AD 927, 929, and 938.

His most remarkable feat came in 941 AD when he carried out a 'Circuit of Ireland' with a picked force of 1,000 men and secured pledges from all the principal kingdoms and carried away with him hostages as security. The Dalcassians (Brian Boru’s people) alone refused to submit. But Muirchertach eventually handed over all his hostages to Donnachadh as a mark of respect. But his luck ran out in 943 AD when he was taken by surprise by the Vikings of Dublin somewhere near Ardee in County Louth. It looks like Muirchertach was attempting to fend off a raid by them that was heading north towards Armagh when he was taken off guard.

Muirchertach son of Niall, heir designate of Ireland, was killed in Áth Firdia by the 'foreigners' of Áth Cliath (Dublin) on February 26th, 943 AD.



160 YEARS AGO ON THIS DATE (26th February) : 'GUILTY' OF HIGH TREASON BUT PARDONED AND TRANSPORTED.

William Smith O'Brien : died at 61 years of age in Wales, having been exiled from Ireland by the British.

On the 17th October 1803, 'Sir' Edward O'Brien (the '4th Baronet' of Dromoland Castle, County Clare) and his wife, Charlotte (nee Smith) - well established political conservatives and supporters of the Orange order - celebrated the birth of their second son, whom they named William (in later years, after inheriting land from his mother, William added the surname 'Smith' to his name) . He was educated at Harrow, in London, and Trinity College in Cambridge (he was later to describe his education thus : "I learnt…much that was evil and little that was good...") and, at 25 years of age (in 1828) he was elected to Westminster for the Conservative Party (for the Ennis constituency), a position he held for four years and, at 29 years young, he married Lucy Caroline Gabbett, and they had seven children together. At 32 years of age he won a seat to represent Limerick. He was a strong supporter of Catholic emancipation and, at 40 years of age, he joined Daniel O'Connell's anti-union 'Loyal National Repeal Association', which he left three years later. Within a few years, he had joined the 'Young Irelanders' organisation and helped to establish within it a group called 'The Irish Confederation' which organised as best it could for an armed uprising in Ireland against British rule , but the timing was wrong: Ireland was experiencing 'An Gorta Mór', and its remaining people were too exhausted for anything other than trying to stay alive.

One of the leaders of 'The Young Irelanders' , John Mitchel , was 'arrested' for writing " ...wild and menacing words ..." then , in April 1848 , the 'Treason Felony Act' was introduced , followed by the suspension of 'Habeas Corpus' on July 25th , 1848 ; William Smith O'Brien recognised that the British were 'battening down the hatches' and, with John Mitchel in a British prison , he was in command. He called for an immediate Rising against the British and an attempt at a rebellion did take place on the 29th July 1848 in Tipperary but it failed , leading to the arrest of the leaders of the 'Confereration' , Thomas Francis Meagher, Terence McManus, Patrick O'Donohoe and William Smith O'Brien (who was arrested on the 6th August 1848 and tried at a special sitting of the district court at Clonmel, Co. Tipperary : he was sentenced to death on 10th October 1848) , all of whom were deemed by the British to be guilty of High Treason and were sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered.

Following the court case, meetings were held in Ireland and England with the aim of raising a petition against the severity of the sentences and pointing out that the jury involved had recommended clemency but were ignored by the judge - over 80,000 people willingly listed their names, addresses, occupations etc (in what is considered to be the first mass political petition movement) resulting in the sentences being commuted to transportation for life. The four 'dissidents' left Ireland on the 29th July 1849 for exile in Van Diemen's Land. On the 26th February 1854, O'Brien won a conditional pardon which banned him from entering Ireland and he and his family moved to Brussels where, amongst other duties, he wrote a political book : he won his final pardon two years later, in May 1856, and returned to Ireland to a hero's welcome. Asked how he now felt about his actions, he replied - "I had firmly resolved not to say or write or do anything which could be interpreted as a confession on my part that I consider myself a 'criminal' in regard to the transactions of 1848...." .

His wife died in Ireland on the 13th June 1861 , and he himself passed away three years later, in his 61st year, in Bangor, Wales, and is buried in Rathronan Churchyard in Limerick. The inscription on the family headstone reads - 'Here lies Edward William, eldest son of William Smith O'Brien, a just man, a lover of his people. Born 24 January 1837 Died 21 January 1909.

William Smith O'Brien, Born 17 October 1803 Died June 1864.

Lucy Caroline O'Brien, Born 23 September 1811 Died 13 June 1861'.

Like his son, Edward , William Smith O'Brien was 'a just man, a lover of his people...' and, least we forget, a 'dissident' of his day.



NOT A HOUSE FOR JUNK MAIL , OR JUNK CALLERS!

The above banner was put up in the past week on a house in Dublin in connection with the council elections taking place this May. The three political parties mentioned (and others unmentioned and unmentionable!) are, between them, responsible for new taxes being loaded on an already-overtaxed workforce and an overburdened unemployed workforce. A 'Household Tax' morphed into a property tax, which obliges householders to pay a yearly sum to the State for having the cheek to own the roof over their heads, a tax on water, a tax on septic tanks, a broadcasting tax (which , believe it or not, is a State demand for money not from the broadcaster but from those with the potential capability to receive that which is broadcast!) , an increase in the USC tax , and an increase in the PRSI tax. The same political gypsies, tramps and thieves are responsible for families being evicted from their homes and for the closure of hospital wards and, indeed, the closure of actual hospitals in the State.

The "unmentioned and unmentionable" mentioned (!) above are those not named on the banner but who are quite content to sit beside those mentioned and vote with and for them, if in doing so they can prolong the political administration and the gravy train which nurtures it and them. Those individual political parties are only a symptom of the problem , that problem being a corrupt State. And no amount of banners will fix that.

Thanks for reading, Sharon.

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