ON THIS DATE (1ST MARCH) 20 YEARS AGO : A NON-SLEEPING EGG CURRIE SPEAKS...
"We didn't sleep.." - the reply given by Tory politician Edwina Currie to a 'Twitter' user who stated she had slept with John Major. In the same year that she had put all her eggs in one basket, she was named as runner-up to Margaret Thatcher in BBC Radio 4's 'Women of the Year' poll but it is for her snide remark about the Irish that she is best remembered for here : she was quoted in 'The Sun' newspaper on the 1st March 1997 - 20 years ago on this date - giving her views on Irish people - "They're so intelligent, the Irish. Give them an education and they can do anything. I remember the first time I met an Irish accountant. I laughed because I couldn't believe it : an Irish accountant...!"
Oh but we're good with figures, Edwina : 1+1+6+9 = 848 and 26+6 = 1. And you can count on that.
PROSE AND CONS.
By prisoners from E1 Landing, Portlaoise Prison, 1999.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS :
Grateful thanks to the following for their help, support, assistance and encouragement, and all those who helped with the typing and word processing over the past few months. Many thanks to Cian Sharkhin, the editor of the book, Mr Bill Donoghue, Governor, Portlaoise, Mr Seán Wynne, supervising teacher, the education unit in Portlaoise Prison and the education staff, especially Zack, Helena and Jane. Education officers Bill Carroll and Dave McDonald, Rita Kelly, writer, print unit, Arbour Hill.
First Print : November 1999, reprinted March 2000, illustrations by D O'Hare, Zack and Natasha. Photograph selection : Eamonn Kelly and Harry Melia.
CALMING THE STORM. (By M O'Callaghan.)
I hear the wind
feel the storm
walked with raindrops
just this morn
solitary silence
within the confines
my mind's alert
listens intently
fired up now
named her place
Eireann's Isle
today she's graced
momentarily though it seems
clouds of darkness
beseeching me
drifting slowly
listless sleep.
(Next - 'Candlelight', by M. O'Callaghan.)
ON THIS DATE (1ST MARCH) 52 YEARS AGO : IRISH PATRIOT RE-INTERRED IN GLASNEVIN CEMETERY, DUBLIN.
Pictured, left - Roger Casement's body being re-interred (on Monday, 1st March 1965 - 52 years ago on this date) in the Republican Plot in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, having been released by the British from Pentonville Prison in Islington, North London.
He was born on the 1st September, 1864, in Sandycove, County Dublin, the son of Captain Roger Casement of the 3rd Dragoon Guards of the British Army and Anne Jephson from Mallow, County Cork. His mother had him secretly baptised in her own religion, Roman Catholic, but he was raised in the Protestant faith of his father. As both his parents died young, Roger was taken in by an uncle, near Ballycastle, County Antrim, and educated as a boarder at the diocesan school in Ballymena.
From 1895 onwards he held consular appointments at various locations in Africa, including Boma in the Congo (1904) where, for the British Foreign Office, he investigated Belgian human rights abuses of the indigenous people. Later, in Peru, he was commissioned to undertake a report on the reported abuse of workers in the rubber industry in the Putumayo basin, which earned him a knighthood after his findings were published as a parliamentary paper (1911). He had been a member of the Gaelic League and became increasingly radicalised by the opposition of the Ulster unionists to Home Rule from 1912 onwards and wrote nationalist articles under the pseudonym 'Seán Bhean Bhocht'.
He rarely receives a mention when it comes to the writers and poets of 1916 ("Of unmatched skill to lead by pathways rife/With danger and dark doubt, where slander's knife/Gleamed ever bare to wound, yet over all/He pressed triumphant on-lo, thus to fall" - 'Parnell', by Roger Casement) yet his reports from the Putumayo and from the Congo show a writer of great talent. His descriptions of the horrendous brutality inflicted on innocent and perfectly peaceful native inhabitants was enough to force a change of policy with regard to the treatment of workers and slaves on the rubber plantations. Casement wrote in 1911 that "..the robbery of Ireland since the Union has been so colossal, carried out on such a scale, that if the true account current between the two countries were ever submitted to any impartial tribunal, England would be clapped in jail..". For his part in trying to stop that robbery he was convicted of treason by the British and sentenced to death after a three-day 'trial' (held at the Old Bailey in London between the 26th and the 29th of June 1916, where he was prosecuted by 'Sir' Edward Carson, the Orange Order bigot).
His speech from the dock is not as appreciated as it should be - "With all respect I assert this Court is to me, an Irishman, not a jury of my peers to try me in this vital issue for it is patent to every man of conscience that I have a right, an indefeasible right, if tried at all, under this Statute of high treason, to be tried in Ireland, before an Irish Court and by an Irish jury. This Court, this jury, the public opinion of this country, England, cannot but be prejudiced in varying degree against me, most of all in time of war. I did not land in England; I landed in Ireland. It was to Ireland I came; to Ireland I wanted to come; and the last place I desired to land in was England. But for the Attorney General of England there is only "England"— there is no Ireland, there is only the law of England — no right of Ireland; the liberty of Ireland and of the Irish is to be judged by the power of England. Yet for me, the Irish outlaw, there is a land of Ireland, a right of Ireland, and a charter for all Irishmen to appeal to, in the last resort, a charter that even the very statutes of England itself cannot deprive us of — nay, more, a charter that Englishmen themselves assert as the fundamental bond of law that connects the two kingdoms.." (...more here).
I say that Roger Casement
did what he had to do.
He died upon the gallows,
but that is nothing new.
Afraid they might be beaten
before the bench of Time,
they turned a trick by forgery
and blackened his good name.
A perjurer stood ready
to prove their forgery true;
they gave it out to all the world,
and that is something new.
For Spring Rice had to whisper it,
being their Ambassador,
and then the speakers got it
and writers by the score.
Come Tom and Dick, come all the troop
that cried it far and wide,
come from the forger and his desk,
desert the perjurer's side.
Come speak your bit in public
that some amends be made
to this most gallant gentleman
that is in quicklime laid. (From here.)
Roger Casement was sentenced to "death by rope" on the 29th June 1916 and was executed by the British on the 3rd of August that year in London, England. On the 1st March 1965 - 52 years ago on this date - his remains were re-interred in the Republican Plot of Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.
RICOCHETS OF HISTORY.
At the end of a year in which *IRA decommissioning has been met with widespread euphoria, Phil Mac Giolla Bháin takes a stubborn look at the facts and concludes that the celebration party may be a little premature. From the 'Magill Annual 2002' (*PIRA).
The IRA's guns have been a central theme of my life. I grew up listening to how they were acquired and why they had to be used. My Westmeath grandfather was apprenticed out to Westport to a man who would teach him tailoring. There he met my grandmother, a Derrig.
The Derrigs were 'out' in 1916 and ran the IRA in West Mayo after they came back from Frongoch. By that time my grandfather had inherited his father's job as a guard on the train from Westport to Dublin. Passing through martial law areas freely, he took dispatches encrypted by his young wife all the way to the general headquarters of the IRA, to 'Mick'. Back in the west, he ran an entire underground communications system and, in 1935, the '(State) Bureau of Military History' asked him how many volunteers he lost : his disdainful reply to the Free State clerk was - "Lost men? We never lost a dispatch..." He also had a gun, and he never lost that either. Guns, he deemed, were the necessary tools with which to accomplish an important national task.
Mayo's guns went up to the border the year before I was born. I sat as a boy in his widow's front room in James Street, Westport, listening to the events of August 1971 and I knew what the man on the radio was on about, as my mother and I had just taken a coach through Belfast on Monday 9th August 1971. She had thought that Monday would be quieter... (MORE LATER).
ON THIS DATE (1ST MARCH) 36 YEARS AGO : BOBBY SANDS BEGAN HIS HUNGER STRIKE IN LONG KESH PRISON.
The 1981 hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during this on-going struggle by Irish republican prisoners ; a 'blanket protest' began in 1976 when the British government withdrew 'Special Category Status' for political prisoners and, in 1978, after a number of attacks on prisoners leaving their cells to 'slop out', the protest escalated into the 'dirty protest', where prisoners refused to leave their cells to wash and covered the walls of their cells with excrement. In 1980, seven prisoners participated in the first hunger strike, which ended after 53 days then, on Sunday, 1st March 1981 - 36 years ago on this date - (P)IRA POW Bobby Sands began his hunger strike.
He received widespread media attention for his protest and more so when, on the 9th April 1981, he was elected as an abstentionist member in a Leinster House (Free State 'parliament') election, after being nominated to contest the seat by Dáithí Ó Conaill, the then vice president of the then Sinn Féin organisation. Bobby Sands was, as far as Irish republicans are concerned, a 'Teachta Dála' (TD) who was elected to take a seat in a 32-county Irish parliament, unlike the Free State representatives who sit in an institution in Kildare Street in Dublin today and claim to be 'TD's in an Irish parliament' and, indeed, Bobby's motives and those of Dáithí and the other then Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle members who nominated him to contest the election were pure, unlike the motives of the self-serving time-keepers who sit in that Kildare Street premises today : the motives of the former involved a principled unwillingness to allow themselves and the struggle they were part of to be criminalised and to highlight to the world that they were fighting a political struggle against Westminster and its allies in this country.
Bobby Sands was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for his alleged part in a fire-bombing campaign which, as part of an economic war against the British presence in Ireland, targeted business premises (in this instance, the Balmoral Furniture Company) with the intention of making it financially unviable for Britain to maintain its grip on that part of Ireland, a fact which present-day Provisional Sinn Féin and other Leinster House members seek to ignore or gloss over when referencing the so-called 'ineffectual/grubby deeds' of those who continue that struggle today.
On the 9th April , 1981, Bobby Sands was elected by 30,492 of those that voted in the Fermanagh/South Tyrone district, prompting, years later, this thesis from a republican leader : "Contrary to allegations made in the news media, there was not a straight line from the election of Bobby Sands in 1981 to the Stormont Agreement of 1998. Rather was the line from March, April and May 1981 to the same months in 1998 disfigured and distorted by an internal power-struggle for the leadership of Sinn Féin accompanied and followed by deceit and artifice as the ideals of Bobby Sands were steadily perverted and a section of the then powerful revolutionary Republican Movement turned into a constitutional party.." (from here). Bobby Sands, 9th March 1954 – 5th May 1981. RIP.
GROWING UP IN LONG KESH...
SIN SCÉAL EILE.
By Jim McCann (Jean's son). For Alex Crowe, RIP - "No Probablum". Glandore Publishing, 1999.
Biographical Note : Jim McCann is a community worker from the Upper Springfield area in West Belfast. Although born in the Short Strand, he was reared in the Loney area of the Falls Road. He comes from a large family (average weight about 22 stone!). He works with Tús Nua (a support group for republican ex-prisoners in the Upper Springfield), part of the Upper Springfield Development Trust. He is also a committee member of the 'Frank Cahill Resource Centre', one of the founders of 'Bunscoil an tSléibhe Dhuibh', the local Irish language primary school and Naiscoil Bharr A'Chluanaí, one of the local Irish language nursery schools.
His first publication last year by Glandore was 'And the Gates Flew Open : the Burning of Long Kesh'. He hopes to retire on the profits of his books. Fat chance!
PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE (does my head in...)
Inside our 'survival bags' was our equipment ie Mars Bar, boiled sweets, tobacco and cigarette papers (whether you smoked or not!), plasters, a lace with a knot in it for garrotting people and stuff, a box of matches, an apple and a piece of charcoal. This was for either blackening your face in case of night survival or for gunshot wounds etc, and we had to carry the 'survival kits' at all times except for visits.
In order to ensure that we would be ready to survive at a moment's notice, the cage staff would carry out spot checks (we were dependent on a friendly member of the staff giving us a warning about an impending spot check). This would give us a chance to steal someone's Brandy Balls or Big Kelly's Turkish Delight to replenish our missing, presumed eaten, 'survival equipment'.
Anyone who had the misfortune to be missing any item out of his 'survival kit' could find himself cleaning toilets for a week or brushing the compound but, thankfully, we managed to survive it! The months before had seen us organised into different sections - we had section leaders and section Training Officer (T.O.), and their task was to whip us into an effective fighting force. The entire cage became an assault course - the canteen had blankets put over the windows and the light bulbs were removed. You couldn't see anything at all. Your eyes couldn't become used to the dark. There was absolutely no light. Tables and chairs were set up as barriers that had to be got over, under or gone round... (MORE LATER).
ON THIS DATE (1ST MARCH) 169 YEARS AGO : 'STARVATION FEVER' ARTICLE PUBLISHED.
An article entitled 'Starvation Fever of 1847' was published in the 'Dublin Medical Press' periodical on this date - 1st March - 169 years ago (1848). The author was a Dr. Daniel Donovan, Skibbereen, Cork, and that article helped to focus world attention on the 'Great Hunger' that was obliterating the Irish people at that time-
'Dr. Donovan...emerges as one of the most heroic figures of An Gorta Mór...a bold and successful surgeon, an oculist and a general practitioner, a talented and prolific author and a champion of the oppressed and destitute Irish people..(he) was unambitious and unselfish and chose to remain in Skibbereen where patients came to consult him not only from other parts of Ireland but from England and Scotland, some even taking
the long Atlantic crossing from America..' (from here).
In the article, Dr. Donovan wrote "Although the fever which committed such frightful ravages during the entire of 1847 has in a great degree subsided, yet we cannot, I fear, hope that the enemy is altogether subdued, more particularly as want and misery (to an extreme degree) are likely to be the lot of the majority of our population for the ensuing spring and summer; and the privations of the poor, as regards food (and) clothes seemed last year to generate that epidemic which, like the rod of Aaron, has swallowed up the memory of its predecessors, and compared with which the pestilence of 1741 (proverbially known as the 'year of slaughter') scarcely deserves notice.
Golden corn for the stranger.
What sow ye?
Human corpses that wait for the avenger.
Fainting forms, hunger-stricken, what see you in the offing?
Stately ships to bear our food away, amid the stranger's scoffing.
They guard our masters' granaries from the thin hands of the poor.
Pale mothers, wherefore weeping?
Would to God that we were dead.
Our children swoon before us, and we cannot give them bread ...we are wretches, famished, scorned, human tools to build your pride,
But God will yet take vengeance for the souls for whom Christ died.
Now is your hour of pleasure
bask ye in the world's caress;
But our whitening bones against ye will rise as witnesses,
From the cabins and the ditches, in their charred, uncoffin'd masses,
For the Angel of the Trumpet will know them as he passes.
A ghastly, spectral army, before the great God we'll stand,
And arraign ye as our murderers, the spoilers of our land.
That good woman sums-up the despair and anger felt then, and still felt to this day. As it should be.
Thanks for reading, Sharon.
ON THIS DATE (22ND FEBRUARY) 28 YEARS AGO : MISPLACED 'PRIDE'...
..and, unfortunately, the potential for more of same remains.
An unusual piece for us, given the point of view of this blog and the point of view of the man featured in the article, but the dates coincide (ie this being the 22nd February) plus it is in relation to the 'Irish issue' and, as stated, the potential for it to happen again remains in place, unfortunately, because Westminster continues to claim political jurisdiction over a part of Ireland, and enforces that claim militarily.
A member of the British 'Royal Corps of Transport', Lance Corporal Norman James Duncan (27) (pictured, above), was shot dead on the 22nd February 1989 - 28 years ago on this date - when a British Army military bus was waiting to clear a road junction. The driver, Lance Corporal Duncan, was driving from Ebrington B.A. Barracks in Derry to a near-by primary school to collect the children of his comrades when '...a man jumped out of a nearby car, walked over to the bus and fired 15 shots at the driver, hitting him six times in the head and abdomen...' (from here.)
This shooting was well reported on at the time (as, indeed, was only proper) - 'Lance Corporal Norman Duncan (27) was shot dead by an IRA Unit as he drove from Ebrington Barracks in Derry to the nearby Ebrington Primary School to collect the children of British soldiers in a school bus. He was a native of Craigellanchie in Scotland...married with 3 children and a soldier with the Royal Corps of Transport holding the rank of Lance-Corporal, (he) was driving a minibus from Ebrington Barracks to Ebrington Primary School to collect children when he was shot by the IRA in Londonderry's Bond Street. Duncan left Ebrington barracks at 1:40PM to collect the children of soldiers. As the minibus slowed at a junction, a car pulled up alongside and a gunman got out, walked over to the bus and fired at least 15 shots at the driver. Duncan was hit in the head and upper body 6 times and died almost immediately. A witness told the inquest that he saw the soldier "bouncing about inside the minibus". Duncan was due to leave Northern Ireland in 4 weeks time. A police spokesman said that (he) was very popular with his superiors and other soldiers and added: "He was a quiet man by nature but was always willing to help his colleagues regardless of the additional hours it meant working". After the attack, the (British) army carried out a review on its arrangements for carrying school children to and from local schools. LEST WE FORGET!' (From here.)
'The 170-seat parish church in the Speyside village of Craigellachie was packed for the funeral service yesterday of Lance-Corporal Norman Duncan, who was shot dead in Northern Ireland last week while driving a
minibus to collect Army children from a primary school in Londonerry. Lance-Corporal Duncan, 27, was a driver with the Royal Corps of Transport. He was buried with full military honours at Aberlour Cemetery. He was a married man with three children, and had been due to leave the Army in June...' (from here.)
'ROYAL CORPS OF TRANSPORT : DUNCAN - Lance-Corporal Norman J. - 22nd February 1989 - Aged 27. Shot when driving a minibus to collect children from Ebrington Primary School in Londonderry. From Banffshire, Scotland.' (From here.)
There are other such tributes etc here and here, for example but, regardless, Westminster continues to place its military personnel in harm's way in Ireland (and elsewhere) all in the 'name of Empire'. Perhaps when they leave the EU, they might hold a referendum on 'leaving' the 'elsewhere' countries, too. For the sake of their own people, if nothing else.
PROSE AND CONS.
By prisoners from E1 Landing, Portlaoise Prison, 1999.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS :
Grateful thanks to the following for their help, support, assistance and encouragement, and all those who helped with the typing and word processing over the past few months. Many thanks to Cian Sharkhin, the editor of the book, Mr Bill Donoghue, Governor, Portlaoise, Mr Seán Wynne, supervising teacher, the education unit in Portlaoise Prison and the education staff, especially Zack, Helena and Jane. Education officers Bill Carroll and Dave McDonald, Rita Kelly, writer, print unit, Arbour Hill.
First Print : November 1999, reprinted March 2000, illustrations by D O'Hare, Zack and Natasha. Photograph selection : Eamonn Kelly and Harry Melia.
THE SYSTEM. (By Harry Melia.)
Tried to break my spirit
tried to take my pride
deep down inside
the hatred I could not hide.
Got me as a kid
they're to blame for what I did.
Pulls the strings
tried to make people dance
can one get a chance?
Builds you up
gives you a name
sets you up
makes you a shame.
(Next - 'Calming the Storm', by M. O'Callaghan.)
TRADE UNIONS AND CAPITALISM IN IRELAND....
The role of the trade union movement in Ireland in relation to the continued imperialist occupation of the North and to the foreign multi-national domination of the Irish economy - both north and south - remains an area of confusion for many people. John Doyle examines the economic policy of the 'Irish Congress of Trade Unions' (ICTU) and the general failure of the official Labour movement to advance the cause of the Irish working class, except in terms of extremely limited gains. From 'Iris' magazine, November 1982.
By mimicking the 'left' of the Labour Party, the Workers Party have made temporary gains in the Free State, though they have become increasingly redundant in the North. Yet, despite their greater efficiency and comprehensiveness of policy, they are no nearer James Connolly than the Labour Party.
THE WAY FORWARD.
The political and social crisis inside and outside the trade union movement requires as a base line that republicans and all genuine progressives come together in a sort of economic broad front to head the new political direction forward.
Just as socialists must play their full part in the liberation struggle, so republicans must orientate themselves seriously into urgent work on the trade unions, now. (Provisional) Sinn Féin can be the catalyst for the building of Connolly's vision, if the effort is made*. (*'1169' comment : "Connolly's vision" did not extend to implementing British rule in one part of Ireland while working, politically, within the confines of Free Statism in another part of Ireland, as anyone with a 'republican vision' will confirm.)
(END of 'Trade Unions And Capitalism In Ireland' : next - 'Ricochets Of History', from 2002).
GROWING UP IN LONG KESH...
SIN SCÉAL EILE.
By Jim McCann (Jean's son). For Alex Crowe, RIP - "No Probablum". Glandore Publishing, 1999.
Biographical Note : Jim McCann is a community worker from the Upper Springfield area in West Belfast. Although born in the Short Strand, he was reared in the Loney area of the Falls Road. He comes from a large family (average weight about 22 stone!). He works with Tús Nua (a support group for republican ex-prisoners in the Upper Springfield), part of the Upper Springfield Development Trust. He is also a committee member of the 'Frank Cahill Resource Centre', one of the founders of 'Bunscoil an tSléibhe Dhuibh', the local Irish language primary school and Naiscoil Bharr A'Chluanaí, one of the local Irish language nursery schools.
His first publication last year by Glandore was 'And the Gates Flew Open : the Burning of Long Kesh'. He hopes to retire on the profits of his books. Fat chance!
PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE (does my head in...)
James Young was shouting his catch-phrase : "Stap fightin'..." on Cage 22's radio, storm clouds were-a-gatherin' and I for one wasn't a happy POW. Negotiations broke down at the wire and the screws stormed off. A few minutes later another tobacco tin flew across between Cage 7 and Cage 22 - "Everybody, meeting in the canteen."
Gerry stood out in front of the ranks of men ar sochra (at ease) in the canteen - "We're refusing to lock up," he said. This was part of an ongoing tactic against the screws and their policy of trying to break our spirit and moral, and was designed by us to be more disruptive than destructive, although we were always prepared for both.
The standard day in Long Kesh started at about 6.30am when the huts were unlocked until 9.00pm, as it was at that time that the huts, with us in them, were locked up for the night. We were told to await further orders and dismissed. Our minds raced back to the fire and how most of us were experiencing a déjá vu type thing. The months before we had been receiving training in survival and, to this end, we had been supplied with survival kits, comprising of a cloth bag with a string through the top, which you pulled to tighten. (MORE LATER).
ON THIS DATE (22ND FEBRUARY) 185 YEARS AGO : FIRST INTERMENT IN GLASNEVIN CEMETERY.
'Beneath
Lie The Remains of
MICHAEL
The Beloved Son of MICHAEL CAREY
Of Francis Street
Who Was The First Ever Interred
in This Cemetery
22nd February 1832'(the inscription on Michael Carey's headstone, pictured, left, in Glasnevin Cemetery).
In 1821, in Dublin, a child, Michael Carey, was born in the slums of Francis Street ; his father, Michael, worked as best he could as a scrap metal dealer/labourer, and his mother, Bridget, was a 'stay-at-home' wife. When he was only 11-years-young, Michael fell victim to 'consumption', now known as tuberculosis, and his parents moved him to a 'safer' part of Dublin - Phibsborough - in the hope of giving him a chance to get his strength back to fight the illness, but to no avail - the poor young lad died, and is recorded as being the first person to be buried in the then new (Glasnevin) graveyard (in an area known as Curran's Square, in a graveyard to be later known as 'Prospect Cemetery') on Wednesday 22nd February 1832 - 185 years ago on this date.
Another very sad episode in relation to 'consumption' ('congestion of the lungs/weak action of the heart') and the then new graveyard is that of a William Pope : he buried his three-year-old daughter, Margaret, then, three days later, buried his one-year-old son, Patrick. William and his wife persevered as best they could but tragedy struck again five years later - another son, John, died - he was only one year 'old', too. Four years later, they buried another daughter, Elizabeth - she was only a week old. The father, William, died at 81 years of age, having witnessed almost his entire family die before him. His 'cause of death' was listed as 'old age', but safe to say he died from a broken heart. So sad.
Thanks for reading, Sharon.
ON THIS DATE (8TH FEBRUARY) 170 YEARS AGO : 'THE LIBERATOR' PLEADS - 'ONE IN FOUR WILL DIE UNLESS YOU HELP...'
On the 8th February 1847, the then 72-year-old 'Liberator', Daniel O'Connell (pictured, left) delivered his last speech in the British 'House of Commons' : his words were in connection with the so-called 'Irish famine' (An Gorta Mór) and, in it, he stated - "Ireland is in your hands and in your power. If you do not save her, she cannot save herself. And I solemnly call on you to bear in mind what I am telling you now in advance, something of which I am absolutely certain, that one out of every four of her people will soon die unless you come to her aid..." The use of the term 'famine', in this instance, is a misnomer if ever there was one - 'In the early summer of 1845, on the 11th September of that year, a disease referred to as blight was noted to have attacked the crop in some areas. In that year, one third of the entire crop was destroyed. In 1846, the crop was a total failure. This report came from a Galway priest - "As to the potatoes, they are gone – clean gone. If travelling by night, you would know when a potato field was near by the smell. The fields present a space of withered black stalks..." Though 1847 was free from blight, few seed potatoes had been planted...yet the country was producing plenty of food. As the Irish politician, Charles Duffy wrote: "Ships continue to leave the country, loaded with grain and meat." As food was scarce people would eat anything such as nettles, berries, roots, wildlife, animals, dogs and cats in order to survive...' (from here.)
O'Connell pleaded with Westminster to save the people of Ireland who were being decimated by sickness and disease, caused by a lack of nourishment, and requested that, instead of building roads and other such infrastructure, the money available for same should be used to encourage the Irish to cultivate the soil to plant oats and barley etc, and a 'compromise' (of sorts) was arrived at - cheap Indian corn was brought into Ireland, for the people, sometimes on the same ships that, when unloaded, would then be loaded again with Irish-produced oats and barley - 'cash crops', according to the landlords, for export, not for home consumption!
The imported 'corn' was considered by the Irish to be a type of animal feed, the grain of which was so tough as to cause great pain and, even at that, the amount of it imported was inadequate for the number of people in need.
Daniel O'Connell died, age 72, in Genoa, Italy, 13 weeks after his 8th February speech and, as he requested, his heart was buried in Rome and the remainder of his body was buried in Glasnevin, Dublin. Father Ventura of the Theatine Order delivered the oration, during which he stated - "My body to Ireland – my heart to Rome – my soul to heaven : what bequests, what legacies, are these! What can be imagined at the same time more sublime and more pious than such a testament as this! Ireland is his country – Rome is the church – heaven is God. God, the Church and his country – or, in other words, the glory of God, the liberty of the Church, the happiness of his country are the great ends of all his actions – such the noble objects, the only objects of his charity! He loves his country and therefore he leaves to it his body; he loves still more the Church and hence he bequeaths to it his heart ; and still more he loves God, and therefore confides to Him his soul! Let us profit then, of this great lesson afforded by a man so great – a man who has done such good service to the Church, to his country, and to humanity..." It was on this date - 8th February - 170 years ago that Daniel O'Connell delivered his last speech in the British 'House of Commons'.
PROSE AND CONS.
By prisoners from E1 Landing, Portlaoise Prison, 1999.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS :
Grateful thanks to the following for their help, support, assistance and encouragement, and all those who helped with the typing and word processing over the past few months. Many thanks to Cian Sharkhin, the editor of the book, Mr Bill Donoghue, Governor, Portlaoise, Mr Seán Wynne, supervising teacher, the education unit in Portlaoise Prison and the education staff, especially Zack, Helena and Jane. Education officers Bill Carroll and Dave McDonald, Rita Kelly, writer, print unit, Arbour Hill.
First Print : November 1999, reprinted March 2000, illustrations by D O'Hare, Zack and Natasha. Photograph selection : Eamonn Kelly and Harry Melia.
THE JOINT. (By Harry Melia.)
Tears in my eyes
I get the skins, a bit of hash
and make a nice skinner
to decorate my lip.
A couple of drags, the mind blows
funny thoughts, laughing to myself,
as a spider looks like a giant monster.
Giggles, a fit of laughter,
screw's eyes looking through the peephole
think I'm mad.
I start to sing
think I'm Tom Jones, belting out
'She's a Lady'
the lads shouting "Belt Up!"
out the windows.
Laughter, more laughter,
the tape plays, I dance
oh so much fun
what a few puffs can do
are you alright?
give us a light.
Mind gone astray
left this prison for another day
beautiful thoughts, so much fun
light another joint
the party's just begun.
(Next - 'The System', by Harry Melia.)
ON THIS DATE (8TH FEBRUARY) 31 YEARS AGO : ONE EPISODE IN THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH...
'A Jury in Abbeville, Louisiana, in the United States, yesterday (ie Friday, 7th February 1986) awarded one million dollars in damages to an eleven-year old boy, who was molested by a priest, Father Gilbert Gauthe (pictured, left) now in jail for sexually abusing three dozen alter boys.
The boy's parents, Glenn and Faye Gastal, refused 'out of court' settlements and sought twelve million dollars in their lawsuit against the Catholic Church because, they said, it harboured the priest even after learning that he was a child molester. The predominantly Catholic jury also awarded the boy's parents 250,000 dollars. The abuse started when the boy was seven years of age. Father Gilbert Gauthe was sentenced to twenty years in prison last October (ie October 1985) after admitting he molested the children at Saint John Parish Church in the community of Esther. The Lafayette Diocese has settled lawsuits with thirteen families against Father Gilbert Gauthe for a reported five-and-a-half million dollars, with not one of those thirteen cases going to trial...' (from 'The Evening Press' newspaper, 8th February 1986 ; thirty-one years ago on this date.)
These are the same self-righteous hypocrites that, at the drop of a Bishop's hat, will - and have - condemned Irish men and women for challenging, and seeking to change, the political and social system in Ireland. A corrupt system which nurtures a corrupt Church.
TRADE UNIONS AND CAPITALISM IN IRELAND....
The role of the trade union movement in Ireland in relation to the continued imperialist occupation of the North and to the foreign multi-national domination of the Irish economy - both north and south - remains an area of confusion for many people. John Doyle examines the economic policy of the 'Irish Congress of Trade Unions' (ICTU) and the general failure of the official Labour movement to advance the cause of the Irish working class, except in terms of extremely limited gains. From 'Iris' magazine, November 1982.
By mimicking the 'left' of the Labour Party, the Workers Party have made temporary gains in the Free State, though they have become increasingly redundant in the North. Yet, despite their greater efficiency and comprehensiveness of policy, they are no nearer James Connolly than the Labour Party.
THE WAY FORWARD.
The alternative to the current disarray within the labour movement, and the lack of socialist perspectives, is not to be found in theoretical tracts or in abusive rhetoric, but in sound agitational work based on the enormous militant potential of grass-roots trade unionists. While capitalism in Ireland is relatively stable, its foundations are uncertain, and the false base of foreign investment will assuredly lead to a political crisis in coming years.
Equally, the terms of IMF reflotation loans will become increasingly harsh, and capitalism's ability to maintain social consenus will falter. In this situation, industrial action alone, and isolated defensive actions by the most militant unions, will not be enough to deal with the situation.
It is only by political action paralleling industrial might that the trade unions will become a genuine force for lasting social change. Naturally, this work will not take place in isolation from the national struggle against imperialism. ('1169...' comment - that "work" should "not take place in isolation from the national struggle against imperialism", but our history proves otherwise : those that have left the republican movement over the years have, on entering Leinster House and/or Stormont [Westminster next?], concentrated their political efforts on 'social change' issues for their own re-election purposes and, occasionally, would pay lip service to "the national struggle against imperialism".) (MORE LATER).
GROWING UP IN LONG KESH...
SIN SCÉAL EILE.
By Jim McCann (Jean's son). For Alex Crowe, RIP - "No Probablum". Glandore Publishing, 1999.
Biographical Note : Jim McCann is a community worker from the Upper Springfield area in West Belfast. Although born in the Short Strand, he was reared in the Loney area of the Falls Road. He comes from a large family (average weight about 22 stone!). He works with Tús Nua (a support group for republican ex-prisoners in the Upper Springfield), part of the Upper Springfield Development Trust. He is also a committee member of the 'Frank Cahill Resource Centre', one of the founders of 'Bunscoil an tSléibhe Dhuibh', the local Irish language primary school and Naiscoil Bharr A'Chluanaí, one of the local Irish language nursery schools.
His first publication last year by Glandore was 'And the Gates Flew Open : the Burning of Long Kesh'. He hopes to retire on the profits of his books. Fat chance!
PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE (does my head in...)
We sat down on the chairs that were right up against the wire of the cage at the gate, and it begins : "You filthy swine! You rotter! You are a blackguard, my good man...you carbuncle on the backside of humanity...you filthy rotten scoundrel...you premarital accident...Glasgow Celtic FOREVER...!", we shouted, gratuitously.
"What the fuck's going on here?", asked the Adjutant. "Well, we thought since the really bad abuse wasn't working that we would try a different tack." "Just you do what you're told and stop messing about." The messing about stopped and thank God my mum wasn't there to hear Messrs Barnes, Burns, Wilson, Tolan and her own son abusing the screws.
A halt was called not long later and an assistant governor and a chief screw approached Cage 7, and stood at the wire talking to the IRA officer commanding of the sentenced prisoners. They were very agitated and animated, and threats were being made from both sides. "I'll send the soldiers in," said the assistant governor. "I'll burn the Camp," replied the OC... (MORE LATER).
ON THIS DAY NEXT WEEK (WEDNESDAY 15TH FEBRUARY 2017)...
..we won't be posting our usual contribution, and probably won't be in a position to post anything at all until the following Wednesday (22nd Feb) ; this coming weekend (Saturday/Sunday 11th/12th) is spoke for already with a 650-ticket raffle to be run for the Cabhair group in a venue on the Dublin/Kildare border (work on which begins on the Tuesday before the actual raffle) and the 'autopsy' into same which will take place on Monday evening, 13th, in Dublin, meaning that we will not have the time to post here. But we'll be back, as stated above, on Wednesday 22nd, unless we win the 'big bucks' at the weekend..!
Thanks for reading, Sharon.
ON THIS DATE (1ST FEBRUARY) 139 YEARS AGO : 1916 SIGNATORY BORN.
On the 1st February 1878 - 139 years ago on this date - a child, Thomas, was born in Cloughjordan in Tipperary, into a household which would consist of four sons and two daughters - the parents, Joseph and Mary (Louise Parker) MacDonagh, were both employed as teachers in a near-by school. He went to Rockwell College in Cashel, Tipperary, where he entertained the idea of training for the priesthood but, at 23 years of age, decided instead to follow in his parents footsteps and trained to be a teacher. He obtained employment at St Kieran's College in Kilkenny and, while working there, advanced his interest in Irish culture by joining the local 'Gaelic League' group and was quickly elected to a leadership role with same - '..by 1905 he had left the League and moved on to teach at St Colman’s College, Fermoy, where he also established himself as a published poet. Three years later he moved to a new position, as resident assistant headmaster at St Enda's, Patrick Pearse's school then based in Ranelagh. In 1911, after completing his BA and MA at UCD, he was appointed lecturer in English at the same institution. In 1912 he married Muriel Gifford, sister of Grace, who would later marry Joseph Plunkett in Kilmainham Gaol.
In the years prior to the Rising MacDonagh became active in Irish literary circles and was a co-founder of the Irish Review and, with Plunkett, of the Irish Theatre on Hardwicke Street. MacDonagh was a witness to Bloody Sunday in 1913 and this event appears to have radicalised him so that he moved away from the circles of the literary revival and embraced political activism. He joined the Irish Volunteers in December 1913 and was appointed to the body's governing committee. In 1914 he rejected John Redmond's appeal for the Volunteers to join the fight in the First World War. On 9 September 1914 he attended the secret meeting that agreed to plan for an armed insurrection against British rule. By March 1915 he had been sworn into the ranks of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and was also serving on the central executive of the Irish Volunteers, was director of training for the Volunteers and commandant of the 2nd Battalion of the Dublin Brigade...' (more here.)
At the age of 38, he joined his comrades in challenging a then world power, England, over the injustices which that 'world leader' was inflicting in Ireland and, with six of his comrades, he signed a proclamation in 1916 declaring the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, free of any external political or military interference. He was found guilty by a British court martial that followed the 1916 Rising, and was sentenced to death. He was executed by firing squad on the 3rd May 1916 on the same day as Pearse and Tom Clarke. His friend and fellow poet Francis Ledwidge wrote a poem in his honour after his death (Ledwidge, the 'Poet of the Blackbirds', fought for the British in the 'First World War' and was injured in 1916 - he was recovering from his wounds in hospital when news reached him of the Rising and he let it be known that he felt betrayed by Westminster over its interference in Ireland) -
Lament for Thomas MacDonagh.
He shall not hear the bittern cry
In the wild sky where he is lain
Nor voices of the sweeter birds
Above the wailing of the rain.
Nor shall he know when loud March blows
Thro' slanting snows her fanfare shrill
Blowing to flame the golden cup
Of many an upset daffodil.
And when the dark cow leaves the moor
And pastures poor with greedy weeds
Perhaps he'll hear her low at morn
Lifting her horn in pleasant meads.
In his address to the court martial, Thomas MacDonagh said : "Gentlemen of the court martial, I choose to think you have done your duty according to your lights in sentencing me to death. I thank you for your courtesy. It would not be seemly for me to go to my doom without trying to express, however inadequately, my sense of the high honour I enjoy in being one of those predestined to die in this generation for the cause of Irish freedom. You will, perhaps, understand this sentiment, for it is one to which an Imperial poet of a bygone age bore immortal
testimony : "Tis sweet and glorious to die for one's country." You would all be proud to die for Britain, your Imperial patron, and I am proud and happy to die for Ireland, my glorious fatherland...there is not much left to say. The Proclamation of the Irish Republic has been adduced in evidence against me as one of the signatories. I adhere to every statement in that proclamation. You think it already a dead and buried letter - but it lives, it lives! From minds alive with Ireland's vivid intellect it sprang, in hearts alive with Ireland's mighty love it was conceived. Such documents do not die.
The British occupation of Ireland has never for more than one hundred years been compelled to confront in the field of flight a rising so formidable as that which overwhelming forces have for the moment succeeded in quelling. This rising did not result from accidental circumstances. It came in due recurrent reasons as the necessary outcome of forces that are ever at work. The fierce pulsation of resurgent pride that disclaims servitude may one day cease to throb in the heart of Ireland — but the heart of Ireland will that day be dead. While Ireland lives, the brains and brawn of her manhood will strive to destroy the last vestige of foreign rule in her territory. In this ceaseless struggle there will be, as there must be, an alternate ebb and flow. But let England make no mistake. The generous high-bred youth of Ireland will never fail to answer the call we pass on to them, will never full to blaze forth in the red rage of war to win their country's freedom. Other and tamer methods they will leave to other
and tamer men ; but for themselves they must do or die. It will be said our movement was doomed to failure. It has proved so. Yet it might have been otherwise.
There is always a chance of success for brave men who challenge fortune. That we had such a chance, none know so well as your statesmen and military experts. The mass of the people of Ireland will doubtless lull their consciences to sleep for another generation by the exploded fable that Ireland cannot successfully fight England. We do not propose to represent the mass of the people of Ireland. We stand for the intellect and for immortal soul of Ireland. To Ireland's soul and intellect, the inert mass drugged and degenerated by ages of servitude must in the destined day of resurrection render homage and free service receiving in turn the vivifying impress of a free people. Gentlemen, you have sentenced me to death, and I accept your sentence with joy and pride since it is for Ireland I am to die. I go to join the goodly company of men who died for Ireland, the least of whom is worthier far
than I can claim to be, and that noble band are themselves but a small section of the great, unnumbered company of martyrs, whose Captain is the Christ who died on Calvary. Of every white robed knight of all that goodly company we are the spiritual kin. The forms of heroes flit before my vision, and there is one, the star of whose destiny chimes harmoniously with the swan song of my soul. It is the great Florentine, whose weapon was not the sword, but prayer and preaching ; the seed he sowed fructifies to this day in God's Church. Take me away, and let my blood bedew the sacred soil of Ireland. I die in the certainty that once more the seed will fructify."
Thomas MacDonagh - born 1878, executed by Westminster 1916.
PROSE AND CONS.
By prisoners from E1 Landing, Portlaoise Prison, 1999.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS :
Grateful thanks to the following for their help, support, assistance and encouragement, and all those who helped with the typing and word processing over the past few months. Many thanks to Cian Sharkhin, the editor of the book, Mr Bill Donoghue, Governor, Portlaoise, Mr Seán Wynne, supervising teacher, the education unit in Portlaoise Prison and the education staff, especially Zack, Helena and Jane. Education officers Bill Carroll and Dave McDonald, Rita Kelly, writer, print unit, Arbour Hill.
First Print : November 1999, reprinted March 2000, illustrations by D O'Hare, Zack and Natasha. Photograph selection : Eamonn Kelly and Harry Melia.
WASTED TIME. (By Harry Melia.)
In the base such peace and quiet
I lie on my bed and my mind
goes back in time.
Seventeen years a lifetime
if only I could start again.
Always on my mind
I'm hand in hand with my wife
all the wonderful times we shared
screw - checking the door
locks my mind again.
I'm in the prison ten years now
Dublin has changed
making me afraid when I think of going home
as the time draws nearer I'm scared
but don't know why.
Never happened me before
If only I could turn back the hands of time
change and everything would be fine
the good times are back
all the love, fun and craic
Wasted time. So much wasted time.
(Next - 'The Joint', by Harry Melia.)
1ST FEBRUARY (ST. BRIGID'S DAY)- THE DAWN OF THE 'CELTIC SPRING'.
St. Brigid's Well, in Clondalkin, Dublin (pictured,left) is a local landmark that is considered to be a 'magic well' of sorts and was, 'back in the day', situated on what was known as 'Brideswell Common', an abandoned piece of land which travellers passed on their way to Kildare. The 'Well' and surrounding land was 'owned' by William Francis Caldbeck Esq., who rented it to a Mr. Ormsby. The 'Commons' area at that time consisted of just two fields with a rough lane dividing them , and a natural spring which the locals named 'St.Brigid's Well' , in honour of St.Brigid who, according to folklore, would baptise so-called 'pagans' in the waters of the Well - and, in return, the locals payed particular homage to her on the 1st February each year : 'the Feast Day of St. Brigid', one of four major 'fire' festivals (known as 'quarter days' in Irish mythology - the other three such 'days' are Beltane, Lughnasadh, and Samhain). St. Brigid was a 'fire goddess', and a perpetual flame burns in her honour at a shrine in Kildare, not too far from the Clondalkin site.
Infants that died before they could be baptised were said to be buried in this immediate area as a lease signed by Caldbeck allowed for burials in a 'ground [area] of 4 perches...' and this and the fact that St. Brigid made regular 'pit stops' there soon ensured that the Well became a 'special place' , the waters of which were said to improve the eyesight of young girls , once their eyes were washed with a wet cloth which was then hung on the nearest tree to dry - as the cloth dried , the eyesight of the girl who had been washed with it improved. Another belief associated with St. Brigid is that of the 'Brigid's Bed', where single females of the area would each make a doll (a 'Brideog') to represent Brigid and dress it with as much colour as they could and then make a bed for the doll to lie in.
On St. Brigid's Eve (31st January), the girls and young women would gather together in one house to stay up all night with the 'Brideog', and are then visited by all the young men of the community who must ask permission to enter the home, and treat them and the doll with respect. We still have girls, young women and young men in this world today, but 'respect' for them is in short supply, it seems...
TRADE UNIONS AND CAPITALISM IN IRELAND....
The role of the trade union movement in Ireland in relation to the continued imperialist occupation of the North and to the foreign multi-national domination of the Irish economy - both north and south - remains an area of confusion for many people. John Doyle examines the economic policy of the 'Irish Congress of Trade Unions' (ICTU) and the general failure of the official Labour movement to advance the cause of the Irish working class, except in terms of extremely limited gains. From 'Iris' magazine, November 1982.
Since the 1930's, the majority of trade unionists in the Free State have supported Fianna Fáil, initially because of its populist policies and 'republican' image, more so today because of traditional voting patterns and Fianna Fáil's residual nationalist image. Equally in the North, partition has inevitably polarised trade unionists along nationalist and unionist lines.
These patterns have not been broken, because of the inadequacy of the Labour Party in the Free State and its rejection of James Connolly's socialism, and also because - it must be said - of republicans' practical (and sometimes political) inability to come properly to grips with social issues over the same period.
Equally, the partitionist and economistic positions of the 'Workers' Party' offer no alternative to the sterile contortions of the Labour Party and their refusal to advance socialist policies. (MORE LATER).
ON THIS DATE (1ST FEBRUARY) 94 YEARS AGO - 'BIG HOUSE ON THE HILL' BURNED DOWN BY THE IRA.
On the 1st February 1923, the IRA burned down what they obviously perceived to be a symbol of 'British landlordism' in County Mayo - 'Moore Hall', which was at the time associated with a Free State 'Senator', Colonel Maurice Moore.
By all accounts, Maurice Moore himself was a 'mixed bag', politically speaking, and the Moore clan themselves had the reputation as 'not the worst' to deal with : a family member from 'the old days', John, fought alongside the 'United Irishmen' in 1798 and was captured by the British and sentenced, by 'Lord' Cornwallis, to deportation and, during 'An Gorta Mór', it is recorded that no one died on 'their' lands from hunger during that period and no evictions took place. The 'Senator Colonel' '..served with the Connacht Rangers in the Boer War and became involved with human right issues (and) is credited by many as the founder of The Irish Volunteers. He was appointed by the First Dáil as envoy to South Africa in 1920 (and) served in the (FS) Seanad from 1923 under both W T Cosgrave and E DeValera where he moved legislation for the return of Irish prisoners in English jails (and) was also deeply involved with the establishment of the co-operative movement in Ireland...' (from here).
Peadar O'Donnell, in his book 'There will be Another Day', touched on a meeting he had with the man : "..Senator Colonel Maurice Moore called at my home with the manuscript of a pamphlet he proposed to publish - 'British Plunder and Irish Blunder', and he hoped that I might use it serially in 'An Phoblacht'. I knew of Colonel Moore's sustained protest in the Free State Senate against the payment of land annuities to Britain, on the ground that the Free State was under no legal obligation to pay them. I did not seek him out, and 'An Phoblacht' took little notice of his speeches. For one thing I held it against him, as I held it against W.B. Yeats , that he allowed himself to be nominated to membership of so mean a body as the Free State Senate (and) for another thing, adventuring as I was beyond the limits of IRA policy in my use of 'An Phoblacht', it would not occur to me to link up with a Free State Senator who could invoke no better argument than British Acts of Parliament.."
However - regarding the burning of 'the Big House on the Hill' : the following letter, from George Moore, was published in 'The Morning Post' newspaper on the 14th February 1923, thirteen days after the fire :
I was sitting in my lodge reading when armed men who where perfect strangers to me came to the door and demanded the keys. I asked what for, and was told that a column was going to be put up for the night. I wanted to go over, but would not be allowed; other armed men were patrolling the road from Annie's Bridge to Murphy's Lodge. I had no option but to give up the keys, and suspecting what was on I pointed out to the leader that the house was not Colonel Moore's property. This had no effect. I sat up all night, hoping that when all would be clear I could save even a portion of the library. At four o'clock I heard four loud explosions. At five I went to the place and found the whole house a seething mass of flames. I at once saw that all was hopeless. A fire brigade would be powerless, so firmly had the flames gripped the entire building.
I could do nothing but stand by and await the end with the same feeling that one has when standing by the open grave of a very dear friend. I do not say this in a 'Uriah Heapish' way, for I really loved that old house. To me it was a modern edition of King Tutankhamen's tomb. At six o'clock the roof fell in with a terrific crash. When the fire died down I got ladders up to the library windows, hoping to save even a few books, but nothing living could enter, so fierce was the heat. When Mr Ruttledge returns I would like to have instructions as to what is to be done. There is several feet of litter on the ground floor. I don't know if it be worth while to remove this – except steel or iron one cannot hope to find anything. In one sense, perhaps, the house had outlived its usefulness, but still it would be a pity even now to let it become a real ruin. If nothing else be done I would suggest building up all the lower windows to prevent people trafficking in and out as they please.
These lines will seem to many too simple to be considered as 'literature' ; the many like ornament. But the simple directness of the lines appeals to me ; I doubt the story could have been better told ; and if they recall to others, as they did to me, Virgil's celebrated words, Sunt laerimae verum ['These are the tears of things'], they will justify their publication.
– Yours, etc., George Moore, 121 Ebury Street, London, S.W.1'
The Moore family may indeed not have been 'the worst in the world' but their unfortunate connection, at that time, to the 'landed gentry', was their downfall on that particular occasion.
GROWING UP IN LONG KESH...
SIN SCÉAL EILE.
By Jim McCann (Jean's son). For Alex Crowe, RIP - "No Probablum". Glandore Publishing, 1999.
Biographical Note : Jim McCann is a community worker from the Upper Springfield area in West Belfast. Although born in the Short Strand, he was reared in the Loney area of the Falls Road. He comes from a large family (average weight about 22 stone!). He works with Tús Nua (a support group for republican ex-prisoners in the Upper Springfield), part of the Upper Springfield Development Trust. He is also a committee member of the 'Frank Cahill Resource Centre', one of the founders of 'Bunscoil an tSléibhe Dhuibh', the local Irish language primary school and Naiscoil Bharr A'Chluanaí, one of the local Irish language nursery schools.
His first publication last year by Glandore was 'And the Gates Flew Open : the Burning of Long Kesh'. He hopes to retire on the profits of his books. Fat chance!
PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE (does my head in...)
For the rest of the day we were to take turns sitting at the gate of Cage 22 and the other cages shouting abuse at the screws. I'm talking serious slander here, the mortal sin stuff. We were broken up into sections and allocated a time for when we had to take our place at the gate.
As the canteen staff we were told to take our turn after the evening meal - the canteen staff of Cage 22 at that time could abuse non-stop for Ireland, but don't get me wrong : we could curse like the best of them but this was very demeaning and belittling to us. This was not out of any vestige of respect for the screws, as we had none. This was for ourselves.
We listened to our comrades during the course of the day screaming abuse at the screws. Every swear word you could think of clustered together in sentences, paragraphs and then some. The tirade of abuse lasted a good eight hours and then it was our turn. We protested to Martin who told us orders were orders and that while the Cage staff didn't like it either there was nothing could be done... (MORE LATER).
Thanks for reading, Sharon.
'BLOODY SUNDAY' PICKET, SATURDAY JANUARY 28TH, 2017, O'CONNELL STREET, DUBLIN.
After a peaceful civil rights march on January 30, 1972 - from Creggan to Free Derry Corner - units of the British Army Parachute Regiment opened fire with automatic rifles and shot dead 13 unarmed civilians, injuring many more. It was later revealed that some days prior to the massacre, the British soldiers involved had been briefed to 'shoot to kill' at the march.
"This Sunday became known as 'Bloody Sunday' and bloody it was. It was quite unnecessary. It strikes me that the (British) army ran amok that day and shot without thinking of what they were doing. They were shooting innocent people. They may have been taking part in a parade which was banned, but that did not justify the troops coming in and firing live rounds indiscriminately. I would say without reservations that it was sheer unadulterated murder. It was murder, gentlemen" - the words of British Major Hubert O'Neill, Derry City Coroner, at the conclusion of the inquests on the 13 people killed by the British Army.
On Saturday January 28th next, a picket to mark the 45th anniversary of that massacre will be held at the GPO in Dublin, from 12 Noon to 1.45pm. All welcome!
PROSE AND CONS.
By prisoners from E1 Landing, Portlaoise Prison, 1999.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS :
Grateful thanks to the following for their help, support, assistance and encouragement, and all those who helped with the typing and word processing over the past few months. Many thanks to Cian Sharkhin, the editor of the book, Mr Bill Donoghue, Governor, Portlaoise, Mr Seán Wynne, supervising teacher, the education unit in Portlaoise Prison and the education staff, especially Zack, Helena and Jane. Education officers Bill Carroll and Dave McDonald, Rita Kelly, writer, print unit, Arbour Hill.
First Print : November 1999, reprinted March 2000, illustrations by D O'Hare, Zack and Natasha. Photograph selection : Eamonn Kelly and Harry Melia.
THE PADDED CELL. (By Harry Melia.)
In the padded cell I sit
humiliated, dejected, depressed,
it seems that no-one cares, do they?
Am I forgotten?
I hear a jangle of keys
I bang, shout, curse
it seems there's no-one there, is there?
At last some one comes, my saviour
from this hell, or not...
"WHAT DO YOU WANT?" the screw shouts at me
Just to talk, Guv, I say meekly
"NOT A CHANCE LAD", he grunts
Is this real or an illusion?
(Next - 'Wasted Time', by Harry Melia.)
TRADE UNIONS AND CAPITALISM IN IRELAND....
The role of the trade union movement in Ireland in relation to the continued imperialist occupation of the North and to the foreign multi-national domination of the Irish economy - both north and south - remains an area of confusion for many people. John Doyle examines the economic policy of the 'Irish Congress of Trade Unions' (ICTU) and the general failure of the official Labour movement to advance the cause of the Irish working class, except in terms of extremely limited gains. From 'Iris' magazine, November 1982.
As stated earlier, the fundamental weakness of the trade union movement in Ireland today is its lack of a clear socialist ideology. In 1914, just prior to the outbreak of war, the then 20-year-old 'Irish Trade Union Congress' restructured itself as the 'Irish TUC and Labour Party', as a result of a proposal promoted by the 'Dublin Trades Council' and supported by James Connolly.
Yet that early conception, of a mass working-class political organisation with revolutionary socialist policies linked to a general trade union of industrial workers, has failed to materialise in the intervening years.
Why this has been so can largely be attributed to the official labour movement's voluntary distancing from the national struggle but other aspects which prevented the building of a political and industrial organisation of the Irish working class are relevant here. Primary among those aspects was that those who carried Connolly's policies forward were nearly all caught up in the developing national struggle, their energies concentrating on immediate objectives of surviving the massive repression across the country and defending the basic organisation against the general reaction and the sectarianism of the 1920's and early 1930's. (MORE LATER).
ON THIS DATE (25TH JANUARY) 140 YEARS AGO : BIRTH OF A REBEL PRIEST.
Patrick Canon Murphy was born at Whitehill, Kilmore, in County Wexford on the 25th January 1877 - 140 years ago on this date. He studied for the priesthood in Rome and at Clonliffe College in Dublin and, at 23 years young, in 1900, he was ordained as a priest. In 1955, at 78 years of age, he made the following statement to the Free State 'Bureau of Military History' : "I was a Member of the House of Missions, Enniscorthy, from 1900 to 1935. In that year I was appointed Parish Priest, Glynn, where I am now. I had a big share in starting the Gaelic League and the County Feis etc in the county. I was for some years a member of the Coisde Gnotha, Dublin. I was associated with Sinn Féin, the Volunteers and every National Movement..."
Easter Sunday, 1916 -"Knowing the plan of operations allotted to them, the Enniscorthy Battalion of the Irish Volunteers were at noon on Easter Sunday 'standing at arms' at their headquarters in 'Antwerp'. Officers
and men were greatly disturbed on the arrival of "The Sunday Independent" newspaper which contained John McNeill's countermanding of the Rising...Captain Seamus Doyle, Captain Rafter, Dr. Dundon, J.J ('Ginger')O'Connell and others were soon on the bridge and it was decided to call a Council of War at once to discuss the situation. We
assembled at the residence of Mrs. William Murphy on the MillPark Road. There were present the above mentioned and also Miss Ryan and myself. After a long deliberation it was decided to obey McNeill's Orders and to await developments. On the following day rumours of the Rising in Dublin had reached
Enniscorthy , on receipt of which officers and men, impatient at their inactivity, were anxious to come to the aid of their comrades in Dublin. Yet no mobilisation orders were issued. Commandant Galligan, who was to take command of the field forces of the Battalion, was in Dublin. Finally the Volunteers decided to take action on their own. On Wednesday afternoon all the officers of the Battalion, with two exceptions, assembled in the Athenaeum and decided to mobilise. Commandant Galligan arrived from Dublin with instructions from James Connolly that the Enniscorthy Volunteers were to take over the railway so as to prevent reinforcements reaching Dublin through
Rosslare. They were, also, to capture all points of advantage at all costs, but not to waste their ammunition on stone buildings such as the R.I.C. Barracks.
The Rising in Enniscorthy began about 2 o'clock on Thursday morning. About 200 Volunteers in full war-kit assembled in the Athenaeum which was taken over and (used as) the headquarters of the staff. The Republican Flag was hoisted over the building, there to remain until the morning of the surrender, when it was taken down and
handed to the writer in whose possession it still remains. A Proclamation signed by Captain Seamus Doyle, Adjutant, was posted on the Market House stating that the town was in the possession of the Volunteers. Early on Thursday morning an order was issued closing all public houses with the result that during the four days of republican rule not a single person was under the influence of drink. On the same morning the railway station
was taken over and a train on the way to Arklow was held to be used in case of emergencies. A party of men were sent to loosen the metals on the railway line over The Boro River. They were fired on by the police who captured one man and wounded another.
No attempt was made to capture the R.I.C. barracks. A few shots were fired from the turret rock wounding Constable Grace who was lying in bed close to a window in the line of fire. The first day's events are described by Captain J.R. Etchingham in his account of the Rising in Enniscorthy written at the headquarters in the Athenaeum : "We have had at least one day of blissful freedom. We have had Enniscorthy under the laws of the Irish Republic for at least one day and it pleases me to learn that the citizens are appreciably surprised. We closed the public houses. We established a force of Irish republican police, comprising some of Enniscorthy's most respectable citizens, and a more orderly town could not be imagined. Some may attribute this to the dread of our arms. Yet, strange to state, it is not true. True, we commandeered much needed goods from citizens who were not in the past very friendly to our extreme views. The wonder to me is how quickly a shock changes the minds of people.."
How Enniscorthy mobilised on this morning makes you feel optimistic. We never intended to attack the police, barracks or Post Office of Enniscorthy, or elsewhere. The action of Constable Grace in firing the first shot resulted in a desultory fire. It brought about a casualty to a little girl and a wound to himself. We hold all the town and approaches. We have cut the wires, blown up the Boro bridge and so assured that the men of Dublin will not have added to their foes further reinforcements through Rosslare.
April 30th 1916 : I did not get time to scrawl anything yesterday but 'permits' to residents of Enniscorthy and visitors to pass through our lines. We are working like steam engines, the staff has been 23 of
the hands on duty. Bob Brennan presides at the staff headquarters, his desk being the billiard table of the Athenaeum on which is all the commandeered stuff. The police are in a bad way in this isolated barrack by the Quay.
We have some difficulty in keeping the fighting heroes of our little army from capturing the building. We refuse to allow this, though we know the beseiged would welcome even an attack by rotten egg-throwers to give them an excuse for surrendering. Indeed, this is confirmed by the result of an interview arranged by us between the besieged and the members of the Enniscorthy Urban Council. The District Inspector Hegarty assured the deputation that he regretted he could not accede to their terms to lay down arms and don the ordinary clothes of citizens of the Irish Republic. We will not waste ammunition on this little force which will come out to satisfy the searching demand of the stomach. The town is very quiet and orderly. We are commandeering all we require and we have set up different departments.
The people of the town are great. Our order to close up the public houses shows to what an extent these buildings are in disorder. We were all discussing the bright prospect and even our most bitter enemies give
to us unstinted praise. The manhood of Enniscorthy is worthy of its manhood. They are working for us like the brave hearts they are. God bless you all brave people of this historic old town. It is 5.45 a.m. and Captain Dick King and myself get to bed. Dick is great! Of the day's doings I may note occupation of the National Bank and the Institute for strategical reasons. We also occupied Ferns. Bravo Ferns! You hold the remains of Dermot MacMurrough but you boys of today are true as steel.
Rumours of an attack on Enniscorthy : By the end of the week about 2,000 English troops from the Curragh and elsewhere had assembled in Wexford town. They were under the command of Colonel
French, a Wexford man, who happened to be on furlough at the time. In addition to the regular forces, many of the Redmond Volunteers and sworn—in Specials offered their services. Rumours of an attack on Enniscorthy reached town. Fearful of loss of life and destruction of property a number of leading citizens formed themselves into a Peace Committee. Rev. R. Fitzhenry, Administrator, and Rev. John Rossiter visited the republican headquarters. What transpired is thus recorded by Captain J.R. Etchingham : "We discuss things and ultimately agree to recognise an armistice. We discuss terms of peace conditionally on the English Military Authorities issuing a proclamation in the four towns of Wexford of this action and that we will not compromise in one comma our principles. We are not averse if an almost bloodless blow wins Independence".
A meeting of the members of the Peace Committee is held and Father Fitzhenry, Citizens P. O'Neill and S. Buttle go to Wexford. Next comes the return of the Wexford deputation and we know by the face of Father Fitzhenry that he considers he has had bad news. We assemble and listen to the result of the interview. It is unconditional surrender. A copy of a special edition of the "Free Press" is produced which announces the unconditional surrender of our noble Commandant Pearse. Copies of the telegrams purporting to have come to the County Inspector of Police were given to Father Fitzhenry. One asks all units of Irish Volunteers to surrender. Seamus Doyle is the first to wonder at this strange method adopted by P. H. Pearse of communicating the position of his followers and proposes that if he receives a corroboration from Commandant Pearse in his own handwriting, signed in a manner only known to them both, we would consider the situation. Commandant Brennan will not agree to that. He feels England equal to the trick of deceiving us by a knowledge of this gained through the Postal Telegraph Service. I agree with Bob and express wonder why, if Colonel French is the leading authority under Martial Law, the message did not come to him and not to the C.I. of the R.I.C. Eventually we agree to stand by our determination not to lay down our arms unless we are granted a personal interview with P.H. Pearse. The members of the deputation agree that our view is a reasonable one. Seamus Doyle offered to go up in the custody of two military men to interview Pearse. We all ask to put this statement in writing and we keep a copy which runs :
'Irish Republican Headquarters, April 29th, 1916 -
With regard to the communication laid before the Staff by the Peace Committee we have to state that in view of the affirmation contained therein, to prevent useless bloodshed and destruction of property, we are prepared to obey Commandant Pearse's Order to lay down our arms if we can be assured that Order has been issued. This assurance we can only accept from Commandant Pearse himself, and in order to satisfy ourselves entirely on this point, we ask
that a pass through the English lines to Commandant Pearse be issued to Captain Seamus Doyle who will, if necessary, travel under military escort.Captain Robert Brennan.
Captain Seamus Doyle.
Lieutenant Michael de Lassaigh.
Seamus Rafter, Captain.
Captain J.R. Etchingham.
Captain R. F. King.'
There you see the names of the leaders of the "Wexford Revolt" of 1916. Lieutenant M de Lacy, who joined us and worked like half a dozen men as Civil Minister, did not hesitate a moment in signing the document although he could easily have avoided it. He is a married man in a good position. That is the spirit which proves to the world that Ireland has, as the Professor puts it, the germ of rebellion against foreign rule.
Well we have had a few days' Republic in Enniscorthy". The communication signed by the republican Officers was conveyed to Colonel French by the above-mentioned citizens of the Peace Committee. Colonel French agreed to the request and addressed a letter to Captain Brennan, stating that if Captains Doyle and Etchingham went to
Ferrycarrig they would be taken through the English lines and conveyed under safe conduct to Dublin to interview Commandant Pearse :
"We were brought to the British Headquarters which, as well as I remember, were at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham ; thence we were brought to Arbour Hill Barracks, attended by quite a number of staff officers. We were escorted into the Main Hall, and the cell door was unlocked and flung open, the officers remaining in the hall. As we entered, Pearse was rising from a mattress in the far end of the cell, upon which he had been lying covered with his great coat. He wore the uniform of the Irish Volunteers, which was complete, except for the Sam Browns belt. The rank—badges were still on the collar of his tunic. I wrote in another place that he seemed to be physically exhausted, but spiritually exultant, and that description must stand. He told us that the Dublin Brigade had done splendidly — five days and five nights of almost continuous fighting - of The
O'Rahilly’s heroic death in Moore Street, and of the no less heroic death of our countryman, Captain Tom Weafer, at his position in the Hibernian Bank in O'Connell Street. The surrender was ordered, he told us, to save the lives of the people of Dublin, who were being shot by the British in the streets, adding that he saw them
being shot himself. We asked him to give us a written order to bring back with us. The military warder, who was present during the interview, produced writing materials and, when the order was written, brought
it outside to have it examined by some of his officers. While he was absent, Pearse said in a whisper, "Hide your arms, they’ll be needed later", and so we said farewell. The memory of the handclasp and the smile remains with me".
Whilst Captains Doyle and Etchingham were away, District Inspector McGovern, R.I.C., Arklow, and Rev. Owen Kehoe, C.C., Camolin, arrived in a motor car carrying a white flag and bearing the surrender order of Commandant
Pearse. He was told of the events on the spot and returned to Arklow. Captains Doyle and Etchingham returned late on Sunday night and gave an account of their interview with Commandant Pearse. With regret the officers and men agreed to obey the order from Pearse - to surrender - which they did on Monday morning to Colonel French. The military took the six officers who were conveyed under escort to Wexford. They were later tried by Courtmartial and
condemned to death, but the sentence was commuted to Penal Servitude for five years.
Signed: Patrick Murphy P.P.
Date : 22nd July 1955." (From here.)
Disturbing, to put it mildly, that those that sit in Leinster House and Stormont seek to claim political lineage with the men and women of the calibre of those mentioned above. They are as different as chalk and cheese and will never command the same respect as those that 'went out' in 1916, and before and since then, to remove the British presence from Ireland, politically and militarily. This country is blessed to have had such people.
GROWING UP IN LONG KESH...
SIN SCÉAL EILE.
By Jim McCann (Jean's son). For Alex Crowe, RIP - "No Probablum". Glandore Publishing, 1999.
Biographical Note : Jim McCann is a community worker from the Upper Springfield area in West Belfast. Although born in the Short Strand, he was reared in the Loney area of the Falls Road. He comes from a large family (average weight about 22 stone!). He works with Tús Nua (a support group for republican ex-prisoners in the Upper Springfield), part of the Upper Springfield Development Trust. He is also a committee member of the 'Frank Cahill Resource Centre', one of the founders of 'Bunscoil an tSléibhe Dhuibh', the local Irish language primary school and Naiscoil Bharr A'Chluanaí, one of the local Irish language nursery schools.
His first publication last year by Glandore was 'And the Gates Flew Open : the Burning of Long Kesh'. He hopes to retire on the profits of his books. Fat chance!
PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE (does my head in...)
The Staff of Cage 22 were running about : there was something on. There was nobody laughing so we knew it could be serious. Packy Nolan was laughing but that meant nothing. We think that was the shape of his face, like the permanent laugh that Mary Robinson always had on her face. The word was that we were supposed to be getting moved down to Cage 11 ; the months of physical training and survival techniques were finally to be put to the test. The feeling of hopelessness engulfed the Camp.
The time in question was about seven months or so after the 'Fire of Long Kesh' : just after Christmas in 1975 we had been moved up to Cage 22 which had been temporarily rebuilt along with Cages 6, 7 and 23. The gable walls of these huts were wooden and they were built in a hurry to re-house us and, while we were in those cages, the bottom end of the Camp - Cages 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 - were being rebuilt with brick gables.
The O.C. of Cage 22, who we'll call 'Gerry', assembled us in the canteen and informed us that we were supposed to be moving to Cage 11 but that the O.C. of the sentenced republican prisoners had told the screws that we would not be moving. Sin é! But soon another comm (empty tobacco tin with note in it) was winging its way between Cage 7 and Cage 22, and it was brought into Gerry who read the contents and then called another meeting. This meeting was hastily arranged in the canteen and Martin, the adjutant (a Dublin man) read it out loud. (MORE LATER).
Thanks for reading, Sharon.
