ON THIS DATE (25TH SEPTEMBER) 102 YEARS AGO : IRISH HUNGER-STRIKER MURDERED BY FORCE-FEEDING.
"You cannot put a rope around the neck of an idea...you cannot confine it in the strongest prison cell that your slaves could ever build.." - the words of Séan O'Casey, in relation to the murder of Thomas Ashe.
The funeral procession in Dublin, 30th September 1917 (pictured), for Thomas Ashe, an IRB leader who died on the 25th September that year - 102 years ago on this date - after being force fed by his British jailers.
He was the first Irish republican to die as a result of a hunger-strike and, between that year and 1981, twenty-one other Irish republicans died on hunger-strike. The jury at the inquest into his death found "..that the deceased, Thomas Ashe, according to the medical evidence of Professor McWeeney, Sir Arthur Chance, and Sir Thomas Myles, died from heart failure and congestion of the lungs on the 25th September, 1917 and that his death was caused by the punishment of taking away from the cell bed, bedding and boots and allowing him to be on the cold floor for 50 hours, and then subjecting him to forcible feeding in his weak condition after hunger-striking for five or six days.."
Michael Collins organised the funeral and transformed it into a national demonstration against British misrule in Ireland ; armed 'Irish Republican Brotherhood' Volunteers in full uniform flanked the coffin, followed by 9,000 other IRB Volunteers, and approximately 30,000 people lined the streets. A volley of shots was fired over Ashe's grave, following which Michael Collins stated - "Nothing more remains to be said. That volley which we have just heard is the only speech which it is proper to make over the grave of a dead Fenian."
The London-based 'Daily Express' newspaper perhaps summed it up best when it stated, re the funeral of Thomas Ashe, that what had happened had made '100,000 Sinn Féiners out of 100,000 constitutional nationalists.' The level of support shown gave a boost to Irish republicans, and this was noted by the 'establishment' in Westminster - 'The Daily Mail' newspaper claimed that, a month earlier, Sinn Féin, despite its electoral successes, had been a waning force. That newspaper said - '..It had no practical programme, for the programme of going further than anyone else cannot be so described. It was not making headway. But Sinn Féin today is pretty nearly another name for the vast bulk of youth in Ireland...'
The hour of her trial draws near,
And the pangs and the pains of the sacrifice
May be borne by comrades dear.
But, Lord, take me from the offering throng,
There are many far less prepared,
Through anxious and all as they are to die
That Ireland may be spared.
Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord
My cares in this world are few,
and few are the tears will for me fall
When I go on my way to You.
Spare Oh! Spare to their loved ones dear
The brother and son and sire,
That the cause we love may never die
In the land of our Heart's desire!
Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord!
Let me suffer the pain and shame
I bow my head to their rage and hate,
And I take on myself the blame.
Let them do with my body whate'er they will,
My spirit I offer to You,
That the faithful few who heard her call
May be spared to Roisin Dubh.
Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord!
For Ireland weak with tears,
For the aged man of the clouded brow,
And the child of tender years;
For the empty homes of her golden plains,
For the hopes of her future, Too!
Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord!
For the cause of Roisin Dubh.
ISSUED BY THE ARMY COUNCIL, ÓGLAIGH NA hÉIREANN, NOVEMBER 1954...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, December 1954.
"In the long years since the British first invaded our country, each generation has been faced with the problem of attaining freedom and in every age young men ('1169' comment - ..and women) have been found who were prepared to work and suffer, to fight and, if necessary, to die to achieve the ideal of a free Ireland.
Conflict has inevitably arisen between those imbued with this ideal and the old conservative politicians who had nothing to offer except vain hopes and specious promises. The men and women of the last generation will remember how the conflict arose between the 'Irish Volunteers' and the so-called 'parliamentarians' of that day who held that while England was embarrassed by war , Irishmen should not press their demands for freedom. They will remember that they had to chose between 'the elected representatives of the Irish people' in Westminster, who were prepared to stand hat-in-hand before their masters and beg for a measure of freedom, and the 'Irish Volunteers' and the 'Citizen Army' whose proclamation of the Irish Republic in 1916 began what was probably the most glorious period of resurgence in the history of our country.
They will remember that the 'elected representatives of the Irish people' condemned the 1916 Rising as 'foolish and criminal' and applauded the execution of the sixteen leaders whose names will live when the doubtful fame of the politicians is lost in merciful oblivion. The history of Ireland has been made up of short periods of national resurgence followed by long years of disillusion, bitterness and political intrigue. But in the long bitter years between the periods of resurgence that voice crying in the wilderness has never been wanting - the one or two unrepentant idealists who, in the face of all the pomp and circumstances of parliamentary and political futility, have proclaimed the truth and have undergone imprisonment and death rather than accept the shame and the lie..." (MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (25TH SEPTEMBER) 36 YEARS AGO - IRA H-BLOCK PRISON ESCAPE.
THE LONG KESH ESCAPE - SUNDAY 25th SEPTEMBER 1983. From 'IRIS' magazine, November 1983.
"We perceived the escape as a military operation from beginning to end. It could not have been achieved in any other way, and the ASU - as Volunteers in the Irish Republican Army - were under strict orders throughout from an Operations Officer whose judgement was crucial and whose every order had to be obeyed. Every Volunteer was under a tight brief.." - IRA statement.
It was this precision of planning, exclusively revealed in a detailed interview by key ASU personnel involved, that lay behind the almost incredible escape of 38 Republicans on Sunday 25th September 1983 from what is generally believed to be the most secure prison in Western Europe - the H-Blocks of Long Kesh. At 2.15pm that day, three IRA Volunteers carrying concealed pistols fitted with silencers, which had been smuggled into the prison, moved into the 'Central Administration' area (the 'Circle') of H7-Block on the pretext of cleaning out a store. Fifteen minutes later they were joined by a fourth armed Volunteer ; control of the 'Circle', with its numerous alarm bells, was vital for the escape's success and had to be carried out simultaneously with the overpowering of prison Screws in the four wings of H7-Block.
Minutes later three other Volunteers - armed with pistols, hammers or chisels - took up key positions near Screws positioned by alarm buttons, on the pretext of carrying out orderly duties, while Brendan 'Bic' McFarlane (the H-Block Officer Commanding during the hunger-strike) was allowed through two locked grilles into the hall of the Block on cleaning duties - his job was to arrest the Screw there and, on a given signal - once everyone was in position - IRA Volunteers overpowered and arrested all the prison Screws in the Block, many of the Volunteers subsequently changing into their uniforms. During the seizure of control one Screw - on duty in a locked control room - was shot twice in the head when he ignored orders to lie on the floor and instead made a lunge for the alarm. Control of the Block was completed when 'Bic' McFarlane, accompanied by two IRA Volunteers dressed as Screws, arrested the Screw on duty in the front gate enclosure. It was now about 2.45pm.
Some time later the food lorry bringing evening meals to H7 (pictured) arrived ; 37 IRA Volunteers climbed into the back while another lay on the floor of the cab holding a gun on the Screw driving the lorry. The lorry then drove through a series of 'security gates' in the Long Kesh complex manned by unsuspecting Screws and in full view of armed British sentry posts. It eventually arrived at a 'tally hut' close to a back gate of the prison camp ; the plan was to arrest the Screws in the 'tally hut' and, leaving five Volunteers in control, drive the food lorry a further quarter mile to the front gate 'tally hut' which the escapees would then take control of, leaving two Volunteers there, before driving out in the food lorry to freedom.
Meanwhile, the five Volunteers in the first 'tally hut' would obtain a Screw's car from the adjoining car park, drive to the front gate where the two Volunteers in control there would clamber into the boot, and also make their escape. That was the plan of escape ; unfortunately, it was not to be - the plan of escape began to go wrong at the first 'tally-hut' due to there being larger numbers of Screws coming on duty than anticipated. While the escapees kept arresting more and more Screws, the situation got out of control and the alarm was raised. At this point the escapees were forced to make a run for it on foot across fields, many of them successfully commandeering local cars. In the final melee several Screws were stabbed and one escapee, Harry Murray (pictured), was shot and wounded.
It was inevitable, given the eventual breakdown of the plan, that there would be some re-arrests, some within minutes and some within two days of the break-out. Nonetheless, the massive total of 19 Republican prisoners of war did successfully escape and eventually reach freedom - to the massive embarrassment of the British and the jubilation of Nationalists throughout the 32 Counties !
The 19 H-Block escapees that were then at liberty are - Kevin Barry Artt, (24) North Belfast ; Paul Brennan (30) Ballymurphy ; Seamus Campbell (26) Coalisland, County Tyrone ; James Clarke (27) Letterkenny, County Donegal ; Seamus Clarke (27) Ardoyne ; Gerard Fryer (24) Turf Lodge ; Dermot Finucane (22) Lenadoon ; Kieran Fleming (23) Derry ; Anthony Kelly (22) Derry ; Gerry Kelly (30) Belfast ; Anthony McAllister (25) Belfast ; Gerard McDonnell (32) Belfast ; Seamus McElwair (22) Scotstown, County Monaghan ; Brendan McFarane (31) Ardoyne ; Padraic McKearney (29) Moy, County Tyrone ; Dermot McNally (26) Lurgantarry, North Armagh ; Robert Russell (25) Ballymurphy ; Terence Kirby (27) Andersonstown and James Smith (38) Ardoyne.
ONE IN FOUR ON LOW PAY...
Colm Keena reports on a new survey on low pay and talks to workers caught in the trap. By Colm Keena.
From 'Magill' Magazine, May 1987.
Since 1982, the ICTU has had the introduction of a statutory national minimum wage as an item of policy. They propose the introduction of a minimum wage equal to the average gross pay for adult industrial workers, with a fall-back position of 80% of the same - £188 and £150 respectively, at mid-1985 rates. So far, little has been achieved in relation to this objective.
The ICTU has, for some years, been recommending to affiliated unions that they seek flat rate increases, or set floors in the case of percentage increases - "The issue of low pay in the public and private sector is high on the agenda in the current discussions between the government and the ICTU," according to one union official attending those talks. It may also be agreed "..to look at the issue of a statutory minimum wage at a later date but the notion of giving increases to low paid workers and skipping the rest is not on," according to the official. Low pay has had high priority for some time. But never too high.
(END of 'One In Four On Low Pay' ; Next - 'Street Talk', from USI News, February 1989.)
'PATTERN UNCHANGED'.
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, January 1955.
1848 : 'Green Street this morning was unusually astir with crowds of persons seeking admission to the Court. Double patrols of mounted police rode through the city, and strong bodies of the same force and the foot police were stationed about the Court.
At an early hour the police, in still greater numbers than on the preceding days, were drawn up in the vicinity of Green Street, forming barriers at the entrance of every street leading directly to the Courthouse, which few persons were allowed to pass without receiving some insult to remind them that the police and not the people were masters in the streets of Dublin - the military were in readiness, the Court was packed with constables...' - the 'trial' of John Mitchell, as reported in 'The Nation' newspaper.
1954 : 'Each side of the doorway stands an armed policeman, tunics closed tight to the neck, long close-fitting coat belted by the conspicuous holster and belt. From the holster protrudes the menacing revolver, a challenge in itself which encourages no smart cracks.
All around the public gallery, and interspersed through the crowd there and at all exits, in passages and at the entrances to seats, policemen are stationed, the inevitable revolver prominently in front in all cases. Security measures are at perfection point, no chink shows in the curtain, and any attempt at rescue has been made not only impossible but unthinkable. The queen's men stand firm.' - the 'trial' of the Omagh men, as reported in 'The Mayo News' newspaper.
106 years between those two 'trials' - one conducted by the British 'authorities' in Dublin Castle and the other conducted by a British proxy administration in Leinster House - against the same enemy, Irish republicanism.
(END of 'Pattern Unchanged'. Next - 'Magnificent Support For Prisoners' Families', from the same source.)
Thanks for reading, Sharon.
ON THIS DATE (18TH SEPTEMBER) 168 YEARS AGO : DEATH OF AN IRISH HEROINE.
'Anne Devlin was born in County Wicklow around the end of the 1770s into a nationalist family. In 1800, Anne met Robert Emmet and moved into his house to assist him in his plans for an uprising in Dublin. On the evening of the 23rd July, 1803, the rising went ahead in Dublin, but despite taking the British authorities by surprise, the rebellion collapsed.
Anne and her eight year old sister were arrested. She was interrogated and tortured in order to get information about the whereabouts of Emmet. She refused to speak. On the 20th September 1803 Emmet was executed on Thomas Street, Dublin.
She was kept in solitary confinement in Kilmainham Gaol in squalid conditions and was subjected to brutal treatment, but consistently refused to cooperate despite the fact that her entire family were also being held. She was finally released in 1806. Anne Devlin died in September 1851 in the Liberties area of Dublin’s city centre ('1169' comment - she died from starvation on the 18th of that month ; 168 years ago on this date). She was buried in a paupers plot in Glasnevin Cemetery, but following the efforts of a Doctor Richard Madden she was exhumed and reinterred with a headstone..' (From here.)
On the 2nd March 1914, Patrick Henry Pearse, 37 years of age, delivered the following address to a packed venue in the 'Academy of Music' in Brooklyn, New York : "Wherever Emmet is commemorated let Anne Devlin not be forgotten. Bryan Devlin had a dairy farm in Butterfield Lane ; his fields are still green there. Five sons of his fought in '98. Anne was his daughter, and she went to keep house for Emmet when he moved into Butterfield House. You know how she kept vigil there on the night of the rising. When all was lost and Emmet came out in his hurried retreat through Rathfarnham to the mountains, her greeting was — according to tradition, it was spoken in Irish, and Emmet must have replied in Irish - "Musha, bad welcome to you! Is Ireland lost by you, cowards that you are, to lead the people to destruction and then to leave them ?" "Don’t blame me, Anne, the fault is not mine", said Emmet. And she was sorry for the pain her words had inflicted, spoken in the pain of her own disappointment. She would have tended him like a mother could he have tarried there, but his path lay to Kilmashogue, and hers was to be a harder duty.
When Major Sirr (pictured) came out with his soldiery she was still keeping her vigil. "Where is Emmet?", they demanded to know. "I have nothing to tell you," she replied, and to all their questions she had but one answer : "I have nothing to say ; I have nothing to tell you." They swung her up to a cart and half-hanged her several times ; after each half-hanging she was revived and questioned : still the same answer. They pricked her breast with their bayonets until the blood spurted out in their faces. They dragged her to prison and tortured her for days. Not one word did they extract from that steadfast woman. And when Emmet was sold, he was sold, not by a woman, but by a man — by the friend that he had trusted — by the counsel that, having sold him, was to go through the ghastly mockery of defending him at the bar. The fathers and mothers of Ireland should often tell their children that story of Robert Emmet and that story of Anne Devlin. To the Irish mothers who hear me I would say that when at night you kiss your children and in your hearts call down a benediction, you could wish for your boys no higher thing than that, should the need come they may be given the strength to make Emmet's sacrifice, and for your girls no greater gift from God than such fidelity as Anne Devlin's.."
Anne Devlin was an Irish republican famous for her involvement with the United Irishmen, and enduring terrible conditions, as well as torture, when imprisoned by British forces in Ireland. She died, aged 71, on the 18th September, 1851 - 168 years ago on this date.
ON THIS DATE (18TH SEPTEMBER) 173 YEARS AGO - BIRTH OF A 'FENIAN UNIONIST'.
James Standish O'Grady (Anéislis Séamus Ó Grádaigh, pictured) was born on the 18th September, in Cork, in 1846 - 173 years ago on this date.
He was a 'mixed bag' of a person, having been born into the 'landlord class' but, at the same time, possessing enough cop-on to realise that if a political/financial/social system lacked the (minor) benefits to the less well-off of a 'trickle down' effect, then trouble was guaranteed.
He was of the opinion that he had more in common with the Irish 'aristocracy' than he had with his own 'class' in the fine halls and castles of Westminster and, witnessing the suffering in Ireland, apparently felt that England had somehow betrayed its standing and reputation (!) in the world because of the way the Irish were been treated.
'The Pictorial Times', a popular newspaper of the day, described the then attempted genocide of the Irish people in the following report, dated the 10th October, 1846 - 'Around them is plenty ; rickyards, in full contempt, stand under their snug thatch, calculating the chances of advancing prices ; or, the thrashed grain safely stored awaits only the opportunity of conveyance to be taken far away to feed strangers...but a strong arm interposes to hold the maddened infuriates away. Property laws supersede those of Nature. Grain is of more value than blood. And if they attempt to take of the fatness of the land that belongs to their lords, death by musketry is a cheap government measure to provide for the wants of a starving and incensed people..'
Mr O'Grady realised that the unrest among the Irish could at least be lessened, if not smoothed-over completely, if only his own type on what he no doubt regarded as 'the main land' would be 'fair' towards those they were thieving from and, to that end, he wrote to those that had influence over those he called 'the landlords of Ireland' - "I say that even still you are the best class in the country, and for the last two centuries have been ; but, see, the event proves that you were not good enough, had not virtue enough. Therefore you perish out of the land, while innumerable eyes are dry.
Christ save us all, you read nothing, know nothing. This great modern, democratic world rolls on with its thunderings, lightnings and voices, enough to make the bones of your heroic fathers turn in their graves, and you know nothing about it, care nothing about it.
Of you, as a class, as a body of men, I can entertain not the least hope ; indeed, who can? If you are quite satisfied to lose all that you have inherited, to be stripped naked, and in the slime to wrestle with dragons and gorillas hereafter for some morsel of official income which you will not get, then travel that way. If you are satisfied to see all the worth, virtue, personal refinement, truth and honour which you know to be inherent in your own order wiped, as with a sponge, out of Ireland - maybe a bloody sponge - then travel that way.
If you wish to see anarchy and civil war, brutal despotisms alternating with bloody lawlessness, or, on the other side, a shabby, sordid Irish Republic, ruled by knavish, corrupt politicians and the ignoble rich, you will travel the way of égalité."
His plea for 'fair play' for the Irish fell on deaf ears, but he was right in regards to this State ('the republic') 'being ruled by knavish, corrupt politicians and the ignoble rich..', and that remains the case, but that would probably be little comfort to him as he lay on his deathbed in Shanklin, Isle of Wight, in England, in 1928 - he was 81 years of age when he went to his grave, leaving behind a reputation, among some, of being a 'Fenian Unionist'.
'ISSUED BY THE ARMY COUNCIL, ÓGLAIGH NA hÉIREANN, NOVEMBER 1954...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, December 1954.
"The principle which republicans have held down through the years has been that England had no right to legislate for Ireland, that England had no right to set up these two States and, since they were founded on the 'Better Government of Ireland Act', no republican could give allegiance to either of them without a breach of principle, no matter what internal changes may have been brought about in either or both.
The constitutional changes in the 26-County State have made no change in the principle involved and the declaration of a Republic which recognised the unnatural division of our country and expressed only a pious hope for future re-integration did nothing more than make confusion more confounded and the glib use of such terms as 'freedom in this part of Ireland' has served only to lull the youth of the country into a false sense of national well-being.
The stand republicans have always taken is that Ireland is a single entity and that it is as great an insult to the people of the 26 Counties to have the Tricolour and the National Anthem banned in Belfast as if the same ban were in force all over Ireland. As long as one square foot of Irish soil is occupied by a foreign army Ireland cannot be said to be free. The ideals of our patriot dead have not being realised and as long as that army of occupation holds a part of our country by naked force it is idle to express hopes for unification somewhere in the distant future and an illusion to think that Britain, who never gave anything to anybody except under duress, will suffer a change of heart and in a burst of magnanimity will hand back that portion of our country which she has annexed by force and holds with an army of occupation..." (MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (18TH SEPTEMBER) 152 YEARS AGO : TWO IRISH FENIANS RELEASED FROM BRITISH PRISON VAN.
"These Irish are really shocking, abominable people. Not like any other civilised nation..." - the words of Britain's 'Queen' Victoria, on hearing about the 'Manchester Outrage', as she called it. Her comments were replied to by one of the 'uncivilised Irish' people she was speaking about : "I will die proudly and triumphantly in defence of republican principles and the liberty of an oppressed and enslaved people..." - the words of 18-years-young William Allen, from Bandon, County Cork. The "outrage", as far as the British are concerned, anyway , began on the 11th September that year (1867) (...although, in reality, it began for us Irish in 1169) when, in the early hours of the morning of Wednesday, 11th September 1867, two men were arrested by police in Shudehill, Manchester, on suspicion that they were about to commit a robbery.
The two men were charged under the 'Vagrancy Act' and were detained in police custody, and it was then they were recognised, by fellow Irishmen in British police uniforms, as Colonel Thomas J.Kelly and Captain Timothy Deasy (both pictured), two known Fenians. Their comrades in Manchester, which was the 'Bandit Country' of its day, vowed to free the two men and, on the 18th of September, 1867 - 152 years ago today - as a prison van carrying the two men (and a 12-years-young boy, plus three female prisoners) was travelling on the Manchester to Salford road, on its way to 'deposit the cargo' in Belle Vue Gaol on the Hyde Road in Gorton, Manchester, accompanied by a team of 12 horse-mounted policemen, it was attacked by about 50 Fenians. Kelly and Deasy were handcuffed and locked in two separate compartments inside the van, guarded by a police sergeant, a Charles Brett, and, as such, were unable to assist their comrades outside.
The mounted police escort fled the scene on seeing the number of attackers but Brett was obviously unable to do so : the Fenian rescuers were unable to force open the van and advised Sergeant Brett that it would be for his own good to open the doors and let the prisoners go. Brett refused the offer, and was looking through the keyhole to further assess his situation when one of the rescuers decided to shoot the lock apart - the bullet went through the keyhole and hit Brett in the head, killing him instantly. One of the female prisoners had the good sense to take the keys from his pocket and hand them out through an air vent to those outside, and Kelly and Deasy were taken to safety.
ON THIS DATE (4TH SEPTEMBER) 49 YEARS AGO : AMERICA, ARROGANCE AND ALLENDE.
"I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people..." - the chilling words of Henry Kissinger, in relation to Chile, but directed at Salvador Allende (pictured), in particular.
In 1964, four million dollars was a huge amount of money ; that was the year, and that was the amount, that the CIA spent in securing the election of the 'Christian Democrats' in Chile. However, six years later, it looked like a change of leadership was on the way - the socialist, Salvador Allende, was ahead in the polls, prompting the above-mentioned quote from Henry Kissinger.
American interests in Chile were worried, as was the CIA ; two US multi-national firms, I.T.T. and Anaconda Copper, offered the CIA $1,500,000 to stop Allende - the CIA told them to start an 'anti-Allende' campaign themselves with that money, as the Agency had its own 'war-chest' for just such a purpose. However, US money and propaganda against him or not, on the 4th September 1970 - 49 years ago on this date - Salvador Allende won the election ('..he won the 1970 Chilean presidential election as leader of the Unidad Popular ('Popular Unity') coalition..on 4 September 1970, he obtained a narrow plurality of 36.2% to 34.9% over Jorge Alessandri, a former president, with 27.8% going to a third candidate (Radomiro Tomic) of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC)..' - from here.) His victory was to be verified by the Chilean Congress on the 24th October 1970, prompting the CIA to increase their anti-democracy efforts. They tried to bribe the Chilean Congress with $250,000, but failed ; they knew that the head of the Chilean Armed Forces, a General Rene Schneider, would not support unconstitutional means to remove Salvador Allende from 'play', but the CIA shipped guns into the country anyway, in a diplomatic bag - and Schneider himself was removed from the scene!
Three years later, and after spending $8 million dollars, the CIA were successful - Allende and thousands of his supporters were tortured and killed and a (U.S. friendly) military junta was installed in Chile. Salvador Allende is gone, but American political arrogance is alive and well. It's too late now to properly repair the damage that Donald Trump has done, but perhaps future Office holders will take heed of the words of American poet, Maya Angelou ;
'History, despite its wrenching pain,
cannot be unlived,
but, if faced with courage,
need not be lived again'.
'ISSUED BY THE ARMY COUNCIL, ÓGLAIGH NA hÉIREANN, NOVEMBER 1954'.
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, December 1954.
"The Irish people have been given in the last few weeks statements from the leaders of all the political parties in Ireland, North and South, on their attitude and policy in regard to the British occupation of a portion of our country which they euphemistically call 'partition'. Now that all have spoken it appears to those whose task it is to guide the Irish Republican Army that the Irish people are entitled to a statement from them on their principles and policy and on the view they take on the continued presence on Irish soil of a British army of occupation.
'The Better Government of Ireland Act', passed in Westminster in 1920, divided our country in two and left Britain in direct control, and in military possession of, our six north-eastern
counties.
No Irishman of any shade of political view voted for that Act. The military powers of defence of the Six Counties were reserved to Britain so that the continued occupation of that territory was assured no matter what type of government might evolve in the area, as Mr Lloyd George made quite clear in a letter to Lord Craigavon - "Ulster, whether she wills or not, must not be allowed to merge with the rest of Ireland." The Act, which divided Ireland into two States, set up the Free State of 26 counties and 'the State of Northern Ireland', composed of the six north-eastern counties..." (MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (4TH SEPTEMBER) 168 YEARS AGO : BIRTH OF A LAND LEAGUE FOUNDER.
"It will be our duty, and we will set about it without delay, to disorganise and break up the Irish Constabulary that for the past 30 years have stood at the back of the Irish landlords - bayonet in hand. The pay of these men, which is taken out of the pockets of the Irish tenants, is voted yearly in the English Parliament, and not an Irish member could be found to protest against it. Let us now see that, instead of the twelve hundred thousand pounds a year which is devoted to pay the Irish Constabulary, that not one hundred thousand will go for that purpose : then I would like to see the landlord who would face the Irish tenant. I tell you that the hour we take away the bayonet of the Irish policeman that hour the landlords will come to ask us for a settlement of the land question..." - John Dillon (pictured), 1880.
John Dillon was born on the 4th September 1851 - 168 years ago on this date - and was educated at Trinity College Dublin and the Catholic University of Louvain, before studying medicine and eventually qualifying as a surgeon. He was active in the Land League and was among those who organised a campaign whereby tenants paid their rents to the League instead of their landlords and, if the tenants doing so were evicted, they would receive financial assistance from a general fund established for that purpose. As a result of his involvement in this campaign, he spent a number of months in jail.
In 1880, he was elected as an M.P. for Tipperary but resigned from that seat in 1883 for health reasons ; he was elected again in 1885 for the East Mayo area, an area which he spoke up for, politically, until 1918, when he lost his seat in the election held in December that year ; Éamon de Valera outpolled him by 4,461 votes.
He was torn between his heart and his head in regards to the 1916 Rising ; he couldn't bring himself to support the 'dissidents' but neither could he fully condemn them - "I say I am proud of their courage and, if you were not so dense and so stupid, as some of you English people are, you would have had these men fighting for you, and they are men worth having...ours is a fighting race...the fact of the matter is that what is poisoning the mind of Ireland, and rapidly poisoning it, is the secrecy of these trials and the continuance of these executions. I do not think Abraham Lincoln executed one single man, and by that one act of clemency, he did an enormous work of good for the whole country. Why cannot you treat Ireland as Botha treated South Africa - victims of misdirected enthusiasm and leadership? (The rebels showed..) conduct beyond reproach as fighting men. I admit they were wrong ; I know they were wrong ; but they fought a clean fight, and they fought with superb bravery and skill, and no act of savagery or act against the usual customs of war that I know of has been brought home to any leader or any organised body of insurgents.."
He died, aged 76, on the 4th of August, 1927, and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, in Dublin.
ONE IN FOUR ON LOW PAY...
Colm Keena reports on a new survey on low pay and talks to workers caught in the trap. By Colm Keena.
From 'Magill' Magazine, May 1987.
John and Maire have been married for four years and live in a privately rented flat in the centre of Dublin. The flat is small, and a fireplace in the sitting room is the only source of heating. Recently, the health authorities deemed their flat to be unsuitable for families, being damp, cold, dark and crowded. John and Maire's two-year-old child is often sick, and has twice been to hospital. They pay £15 per week for the flat.
John works in a furniture warehouse ; it's a small business, with a total workforce of seven. After tax, he has only a little over £100 to support himself and his family and, because he's working, he's not eligible for a medical card. Marie has developed a skin rash from the damp accommodation, and the medical bills for her and their baby make a serious dent in the family purse. John has no prospect of improving his earnings, there is no contributory pension and no opportunity for saving.
Rita also lives with her husband in privately rented accommodation in Dublin's city centre. Her husband works in the coal business and his income varies considerably. Rita, who is in her late forties, works for a number of hours each evening in a contract cleaning firm, 'International Contract Cleaners' of Ringsend, cleaning offices in the Pearse Street area... (MORE LATER.)
'STUDENTS HISTORIC DEMONSTRATION...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, January 1955.
In Dublin, on December 11th last (1954), 2,300 students marched through the principal streets pledging support for the republican prisoners in what was undoubtedly the most forceful student demonstration ever staged in this country. Chanting anti-British slogans and singing national songs, the demonstrators marched behind a coffin draped with the Union Jack and borne along on the shoulders of six six-foot, determined, young men, to a mass meeting in O'Connell Street.
The Meeting : Seamus Soraghan BL, Chairman, opening the meeting, referred to the rally as the biggest he had ever seen and congratulated the students on their magnificent demonstration in support of a cause worthy of the highest praise. Referring to the heroism of the prisoners, he said that their bravery in battle and noble dignity in the dock had won the respect of their most bitter enemies.
Billy Flynn, medical student, UCD, asked the meeting to reflect soberly on the ideals which the prisoners held - "No government is entitled to deny to any man the right of fighting for his country. Those men were the disciples of Padraig Pearse and the cream of this generation. The ideal of Ireland free had so consumed their minds that these men were prepared to sacrifice life if necessary in its attainment. Let their bravery and their principles be our guide in the struggle ahead."
Brendan O' Dubhghaill, UCD Arts, read the 1916 Proclamation after which he led the huge meeting in singing 'A Nation Once Again' and then Seosamh Mac Criostail, UCD Law, said what a pity it was that Earnest Blythe, Lionel Booth and other political leaders were not on the platform to see and hear the answer that young Ireland was giving to the insults and the denunciations which those men had levelled at the IRA... (MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DAY NEXT WEEK (WEDNESDAY 11TH SEPTEMBER 2019).....
...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 (18th September) ; this coming weekend (Saturday/Sunday 7th/8th September) is spoke for already with a 650-ticket raffle to be run for the Dublin Executive of RSF 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, 9th September, in Dublin, meaning that we will not have the time to post here on Wednesday 11th. But we'll be back, as stated above, on Wednesday 18th September with, among other pieces...well..we don't know, yet, 'cause we're too busy trying to explain to wannabe punters why they can't actually have a ticket for Sunday 8th because there ain't any LEFT!!
Thanks for reading, Sharon.
ON THIS DATE (28TH AUGUST) 154 YEARS AGO : EVE OF THE BIRTH OF AN IRISH REVOLUTIONARY.
"If the Germans landed in Ireland, taking it by force of arms, they would have just as much right to it as England...fight for Ireland and be buried in consecrated ground, not dying like those in France, to be thrown into a *bode.." - Tomás Ceannt, speaking at a public meeting in Ballynoe, County Cork, on the 2nd January 1916 (* borehole/hole in the ground).
Tomás Ceannt (Thomas Kent) was born on the 29th August, 1865 - 154 years ago, tomorrow - in Bawnard House, Castlelyons, in Cork, the fourth of seven sons and two daughters, for David and Mary Kent. The Kent family had a long tradition of fighting against social and political injustices : 'His family were squeezed off their land by the British Crown's incremental rate increases. Thomas Kent left for Boston in the United States, but returned to Ireland several years later, owing to illness. Himself and his three brothers became radicalised, and were often jailed for their political activities, chiefly their support for the Land League and their membership of the Irish Volunteers. When the Easter Rising kicked off in April 1916, Tomás Ceannt, then 50 years of age, and his brothers, obeyed Eoin MacNeill's countermanding order and stayed home, Kent having planned to head to Dublin to fight. In a swoop for known republican sympathisers, however, the RIC made a dawn raid on the Kent family home in Castlelyons.
The Ceannts resisted arrest and had a shoot-out with the RIC, which lasted four hours. The RIC's head constable was killed, his face blown off, before the Ceannts surrendered. When they arrested Tomás Ceannt..he was paraded through the town of Fermoy a bit like Jesus Christ. His hands were tied and he had no shoes — he wasn't allowed wear any boots. He was humiliated...his mother was 89 and she was cooling down the guns and supplying her sons with ammunition during the raid. (The RIC) humiliated her as well. She was too old to walk so they put her on a cart with her dying son, the youngest son, Richard. He suffered from his nerves, as they said in those days. He had mental issues...he was terrified when he was arrested and he ran away and was shot in the back. He was dying. He died about a day later from his wounds...' (from here).
Thomas and his brother, William, were charged by the British with 'armed rebellion' - the brother was acquitted, but Thomas was found guilty and sentenced to death. Another brother, David, was 'found guilty' of the same charge and received a death sentence, but this was commuted to five years penal servitude. On the 9th May 1916, Tomás Ceannt was put to death by firing squad and his body was placed in a hole in the ground of Cork Prison, where he lay for 99 years : in 2015, the Free State administration, still attempting to associate themselves with those who fought against British rule, shamefully re-buried that Irish republican in a televised display of pomp and ceremony and it and the 'establishment' it spawned practically crawled over themselves to be seen to be associated with such a man. After their taxpayer-funded meal and drinks, they reverted to condemning those who continue to fight for the freedom of this country. Disgusting behaviour from a disgusting political 'elite'.
'A PLACE WITH THE HEROES...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, December 1954.
Grant me a place with the heroes, Lord,
Who nourished freedom's glow,
When every slave had mourned his chain
and harkened to the foe.
I'd guard it well, had I the soul,
of Lynch or Cathal Brugha ;
No foeman's wiles could dim their zeal,
their guide was Róisín Dubh.
Grant me a place with the heroes, Lord,
Who fell since Thirty-Nine,
Though o'er their graves the slave and foe
to black their names, did join.
Perchance that end will be my lot,
Yet grant it, Lord, to me ;
I'll care not for the foe or slave,
but serve my land and Thee.
Grant me a place with the heroes, Lord,
Who blessed the bygone years,
That I might serve with pulsing blood,
Above youth's hopes and fears.
I'll dance no reels, or drink no toasts,
But strive for liberty,
I'll have no fun, but sword and gun,
'till Erin's soil is free. (By Tomas De Staic)
(END of 'A Place With The Heroes' ; next -'Issued By The Army Council, Óglaigh na hÉireann, November 1954', from the same source.)
ON THIS DATE (28TH AUGUST) 159 YEARS AGO : BRITISH LAND-GRAB IN IRELAND AGAIN DEEMED 'LAWFUL'.
'LANDLORD AND TENANT LAW AMENDMENT ACT, IRELAND 1860.
An Act to consolidate and amend the Law of Landlord and Tenant in Ireland, 28th August 1860. Interpretation of terms :
1. In the construction of this Act the following words and expressions shall have the force and meaning hereby assigned to them, unless there be something in the subject or context repugnant thereto : The word 'person' or 'party' shall extend to and include any body politic, corporate, or collegiate, whether aggregate or sole, and any public company :
The word 'lease' shall mean any instrument in writing, whether under seal or not, containing a contract of tenancy in respect of any lands, in consideration of a rent or return :
The word 'lands' shall include houses, messuages, and tenements of every tenure, whether corporeal or incorporeal :
The word 'acre' shall mean statute acre :
The word 'landlord' shall include the person for the time being entitled in possession to the estate or interest of the original landlord, under any lease or other contract of tenancy, whether the interest of such landlord shall have been acquired by lawful assignment, devise, bequest, or act and operation of law, and whether he has a reversion or not :
The word 'tenant' shall mean the person entitled to any lands under any lease or other contract of tenancy, whether the interest of such tenant shall have been acquired by original contract, lawful assignment, devise, bequest, or act and operation of law :
The expression 'perpetual interest' shall comprehend, in addition to any greater interest, any lease or grant for one or more than one life, with or without a term of years, or for years, whether absolute, or determinable on one or more than one life, with a covenant or agreement by a party competent thereto, in any of such cases, whether contained in the instrument by which such lease or contract is made or in any separate instrument, for the perpetual renewal of such lease or grant :
The word 'rent' shall include any sum or return in the nature of rent, payable or given by way of compensation for the holding of any lands :
The word 'agreement' shall include every covenant, contract, or condition expressed or implied in any lease :
The word 'county' shall extend to and include a city and county, and a riding of a county :
The expression 'chairman' shall mean the chairman of the quarter sessions of the county, and shall extend to and include the recorder of Dublin and of Cork, and the recorder of any borough or town in Ireland under the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act, 1840, and their deputies lawfully appointed :
The expression 'clerk of the peace' shall extend to and include the registrar of civil bills for the City of Dublin, and also the acting or deputy clerk of the peace, or registrar or other officer discharging the duties of such clerk of the peace or registrar.
2. In citing this Act it shall be sufficient to use the expression 'The Landlord and Tenant Law Amendment Act, Ireland, 1860...' (from here.)
Twenty million acres of land in Ireland ; 661,931 'tenants' (ie native Irish) in Ireland and 19,284 'landlords' (ie British Planter) in Ireland. If the 'landlord' could get rid of the 'tenants' they could increase the size of 'their' ranches. In the late 1850's, an unscrupulous businessman named John George Adair arrived in the Derryveagh area of County Donegal and, by guile, hook and crook, within one year of being in the area, 'owned' more than ninty square miles of the surrounding countryside. Adair imported black-faced sheep from Scotland and allowed them to wander on 'his' land, as livestock was a more valuable 'commodity' than the natives were.
The British 'landlords' were not alone in thinking that they could do as they wished with 'their' holdings in Ireland ; their bigotry was shared by the political establishment in Westminster and its Vichy-styled political leadership in Ireland. In 1860, the British-appointed Attorney General in Ireland, Richard (Rickard) Deasy, had his 'Act' passed into 'law' in this country - it was known as 'The Landlord and Tenant Law Amendment (Ireland) Act of 1860', but was better known as 'Deasy's Act' and, in short, it removed whatever insignificant amount of protection that the 'tenant' had in relation to their rights and those of the 'landlord' ; it allowed the British 'landlords' a 'free-hand' to do as they choose with 'their' Irish 'tenants'.
This new 'law' allowed the British to set, amend, introduce and/or change any terms which the 'tenant' had with the 'landlord' and defined the contract between both parties as "..deemed to be founded on the express or implied contract of the parties and not upon tenure or service". 'Landlords' were already aware that it was more profitable for them to have livestock on 'their' land rather than the poor 'tenants' who leased the land and were encouraged to shift the Irish off the land, 'legally', knowing that any 'rights' that the evicted family may have had prior to the enactment of the new 'law' no longer existed. The Derryveagh 'landlord', John George Adair, and many others, lost no time in moving against the families living on 'their' estates ; within a few months, evictions were taking place at a recorded level of twenty a week ; Adair had already attempted to have the families on 'his' estate evicted for 'stealing' his Scottish (black-faced) sheep - if the sheep, while wandering free, should end up near a persons cabin, that 'tenant' was accused of stealing the animal!
Adair changed the 'terms and conditions' of the manner in which he 'leased' the land to his existing 'tenants' and did not bother to notify them. Those families were served with eviction notices, and Adair then notified the 'police-force' and requested the British military to accompany the eviction party while it carried-out its 'mandate'. In two days, in April 1861, in Derryveagh, Donegal, Adair and his party of licenced bandits physically removed forty-seven families from their miserable dwellings, burnt the roofs of same and, before the fire was extinguished, levelled the walls. Whole families lived in ditches ; no food, no income, no shelter, no hope.
Adair left such destruction and destitution in his wake that foreign newspapers sent over reporters to follow him , and their words and sketches were sent out world-wide. Irish exiles were furious, and did what they could to help their fellow-countrymen and women back home. In Australia, for instance, a 'Donegal Relief Fund' was established, and paid for most of Adair's victims to re-settle in Australia.
That same British mentality exists to this day, and no amount of 'Treaties' or 'border polls' will solve the problem. A British political and military withdrawal will.
ONE IN FOUR ON LOW PAY...
Colm Keena reports on a new survey on low pay and talks to workers caught in the trap. By Colm Keena.
From 'Magill' Magazine, May 1987.
The number of regular part-time employees rose from 22,600 to 37,600 between 1977 and 1984, and many of these workers are also considered to be low paid. John Blackwell (UCD) defines some 44,000 (46%) of women workers as low paid ; in industry, well over half of all female employees are low paid, and the same is true for women in retail distribution and only slightly less so for women in wholesale distribution.
In any industry where there is a relatively large number of women workers, wage levels are kept down and the 'age-earnings' profile for women - the rate at which earnings increase as the worker passes through their working lives - is slower for women than for men. He also reports that one out of every two school-leavers entering employment works for less than £55 per week. Seven out of every ten workers below the age of 20 are low paid. In supermarkets, take-away restaurants and shops, there is a particularly high concentration of young female workers on low pay - those businesses were the focus of a recent report by RTE's 'Today Tonight' on low pay.
In the restaurants on Dublin's O'Connell Street, 'Magill' magazine has established, the large number of young, part-time workers earn the following rates : McDonalds £1.84 per hour, Burger King £1.55, Pizzaland £1.80 and, in Flanagan's, some workers were getting £10 for a nine-hour shift...
(MORE LATER.)
'STUDENTS HISTORIC DEMONSTRATION'.
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, January 1955.
In Dublin, on December 11th last (1954), 2,300 students marched through the principal streets pledging support for the republican prisoners in what was undoubtedly the most forceful student demonstration ever staged in this country. Chanting anti-British slogans and singing national songs, the demonstrators marched behind a coffin draped with the Union Jack and borne along on the shoulders of six six-foot, determined, young men, to a mass meeting in O'Connell Street.
As the parade passed the GPO, a youth emerged from the coffin, threw out the British flag on to the roadway and, waving the Tricolour aloft as he stood high in the coffin - still standing tall on the six shoulders - led the mass of students in a mighty cheer for the prisoners. The rally was indeed an inspiring sight and an historic occasion, for it marked the first ever rally of students in support of the republican soldiers.
The most remarkable thing about the demonstration was that it attracted a united front of students, was the most orderly and enthusiastic rally seen in the city for many years and earned the suspicion of press and radio. The latter imposed a virtual publicity curtain and if anything did their best to discredit the students and the demonstration, thus revealing their latent fear of any intrusion by students on national issues. It is understood that subsequent to the meeting, a big number of students enrolled in the republican movement thereby showing their readiness to prove the sincerity of their demonstration in a more positive manner... (MORE LATER.)
Thanks for reading, Sharon.
