AN APOLOGY TO OLIVER HOYLE, WILLIAM BURKE AND CHRISTOPHER BYRNE.
When Ireland called forth her true sons of the heather,
O'Boyle was the foremost to answer the call,
The sons of the Rosses he banded together,
To drive the oppressor from dark Donegal.
'Neil O ‘Boyle was born, on a small farm, at Leac Eineach near Burtonport, County Donegal in 1898. It was here in the Breac Ghaeltact area of the Rosses that the young Boyle's character was formed and his determination strengthened. According to his schoolmates he was tall for his age, lanky and silent. Not overly particular about his appearance, he always appeared to have something on his mind. He had a look in his eye "as if he was going to do something".
They led young Michael Barrett to the scaffold at Newgate,
He was indeed a Fenian but they blamed him in the wrong,
They had to have a scapegoat and Michael was the one.
He came from north Fermanagh near the county Donegal,
And he had lived through the hunger, Michael seen it all,
He went away to Glasgow like so many from this land,
There he joined up with the Fenian’s to help free Ireland...' (from here.)
Michael Barrett, Bold Fenian Man ; 1841 - 26th May 1868.
NO RIGHT OF APPEAL...
Why the media consensus on a broad range of issues is increasingly disturbing. By John Drennan.
From 'Magill' Annual, 2002.
The real problem with Cardinal Connell is that our liberal elite don't like his views on morality ; unfortunately, you will observe, the Cardinal is not a great believer in moral equivalence. He tells it in black and white.
"Oh, right then..." sez the plain people of Ireland, "...a bit like Mary Ellen Synon, is he? Oh, he's fair game, so.."
('1169' comment - ironic that the author should seek to claim that Ms Synon is a 'black and white person', as her support for, among her many other oddities, the Ku Klux Klan, is well known.)
Note to the plain people of Ireland : this is not you talking, but rather the mythical, spectral 'plain people of Ireland' who jostle raucously in the corner of every Dublin newsroom. So be quiet and listen - the good Cardinal's first faux pas occurred after a function organised by the Taoiseach to celebrate Mr Connell's elevation to the position of Cardinal. Bertie respected his guest so much he brought his mistress...our apologises... - partner - along to the festivities. Not a problem, perhaps.
Even the Cardinal was prepared to turn a blind eye until he received his invite in which he was graciously invited by the happy couple. This was a ridiculous mistake which absolutely did not have to happen, and placed a senior churchman in an unforgivably difficult position... (MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (26TH MAY) 124 YEARS AGO - BIRTH OF AN ANTI-TREATY IRA COMMANDER.
On the 26th May, 1897 - 124 years ago on this date - Ernie O' Malley, fighter and author
(Earnán Ó Maille, pictured, in 1921, in Dublin Castle, during his 'arrest' - he was using the alias 'Bernard Stuart'), was born in Castlebar, in County Mayo.
On August 10th and 11th, 1924, the remaining original members of the pre-Civil War Irish Republican Army Executive (that is those of them who had opposed and fought against the Treaty of Surrender in 1921), together with the co-opted members of the Executive during the Civil War (about 26 people in all), met secretly to review the past and decide policy for the future.
Ernie O' Malley was voted on the 'Sub-Commission Committee to the Executive for Emergency Consultative Purposes', and it was he who proposed the following motion, at this first post-Civil War general meeting of the Executive : 'That Volunteers be instructed not to recognise Free State and Six County Courts when charged with any authorised acts committed during the War or for any political acts committed since, nor can they employ legal defence except charged with an act liable to the death penalty.' This motion was passed unanimously, and that refusal to recognise those courts in one way or another lasted until the 1970's.
An important theme of his books is the treatment of republican prisoners , who were even then denied prisoner-of-war status : a concern for all IRA men unaccepted as political prisoners or prisoners-of-war, and all his life he supported their lonely cause. He himself had taken part in the mass hunger-strike of October/November 1923, although medically exempted and suffering intense pain from old wounds and bed sores, for the length of its 41 days and being one of the four in Kilmainham Jail who had wanted to continue.
While in exile in America, Ernie O' Malley's diaries showed support for the republican prisoners in the Free State, of whom he wrote - " ...who are there for the very same reason that the men we read of and revere were imprisoned ." Back in Ireland, at a meeting in 1939 of the Irish Academy of Letters, he voted in favour of Peadar O' Donnell's motion that a concert be organised to support dependants of IRA prisoners - not surprisingly the motion was rejected. His was the drama and sacrifice of a really doctrinaire republican - a very brave man, at once ruthless and sensitive, whose contrasting traits of character are well revealed in his autobiographical writings. He was very nearly killed in November 1922 when Free State troops besieged his headquarters, ensuring ill health that affected him for the rest of his life and very likely resulted in his comparatively early death, aged 57.
But while not shirking the possibility of death in action, he fought for military victory, and for a time believed that it was possible. An old Ulster proverb says it is easy to sleep on another man's wound : there are many in Ireland today who rest cruelly or carelessly on the hardships and sufferings of brave men and women who fought and still fight for their country's freedom. The only books Ernie O' Malley wrote were about the Irish wars and it is in those that he should be most remembered.
Ernie O' Malley's book 'On Another Man's Wound' records the war against the British forces from 1916 until the calling of the 'Truce' in July 1921 and is told by one who volunteered for Oglaigh na hEireann in 1917 and by 1921 was Officer Commanding of the 2nd Southern Division and, later, Assistant Chief of Staff in the Civil War. It is an exciting read, always enthralling, beautifully written, and far and away the best of the Tan War books.
Ernie O' Malley was brave and energetic in his total dedication to the Republic as proclaimed in Easter Week 1916 : his personal adventures, dramatic and varied, are an integral part of the wider significances of the national struggle. Unlike some of his companions who later called themselves 'the Old IRA' or 'the Neutral IRA', he did not change his republican beliefs - indeed, he recognised that some Irish have always helped in the conquest (those people and groups are what we on this blog refer to as 'service providers' ; they can be found everywhere, in all walks of life, and cohabit with each other in the posh halls and corridors of Leinster House and Stormont, to name but two such venues).
During the 'National Emergency' years of World War Two, de Valera himself was very keen to have so famous a fighter as Ernie O' Malley join the Free State army and pressure was put on him to follow many renowned republicans into its ranks . O' Malley asked - "Would I have to inform on my former comrades and work against them? But of course! Join? Certainly not!" And that was that. Indeed, only a month or so before his last illness he was writing in his diary - "I can never see a peeler without feeling uneasy.."
Hopefully, Ernie O' Malley's books should fire the imagination of a new generation of Irish republicans. In so many ways 'On Another Man's Wound' relates to what is happening today between the British and Irish nations. It is tragic that his wartime experiences should remain so pertinent but, nevertheless, those experiences are a source of guidance and encouragement to those who continue the struggle today. That book is one to convert the unbeliever and to inform the ignorant, just as Ernie O' Malley himself turned to republicanism at Easter 1916 when as a young medical student he witnessed Padraig Pearse reading the Proclamation outside the GPO in Dublin and then followed the subsequent events of the Rising.
His well-to-do family never discussed national politics at home - his elder brother was an officer in the British Army and died in that service, but Ernie devoted the best years of his life to the fight for the Irish Republic, so that in 1923 the Sinn Féin news-sheets claimed that he had '..perhaps the greatest individual record during the Tan War and was one of the bravest soldiers who ever fought for the independence of Ireland.' He wanted to show the struggle of a mainly unarmed people against the might of an 'empire' and his book pays constant tribute to the heroism of a risen people.
He was famed for his own courage, although like the truly brave he freely admitted to feelings of fear and inadequacy. Undeterred by mass condemnations from the British and their Irish allies, by newspapers and professional politicians and by the Catholic Hierarchy, between 1919 and 1921 the Irish Republican Army waged a war that also involved shooting 'policemen', executing British Officers, burning buildings, punishing spies and informers - in short, all those actions which Westminster and Leinster House vie with each other in condemning today. And Ernie O' Malley was very active in all such actions.
Ernie O' Malley was very active in attacks on British Army barracks, ambushes, raids and always in organisation and leadership crucial for the building of a people's army. He fought the Auxiliaries, an elite group of ex-BA officers attached to the RIC - a sort of 1920 SAS. He admitted that the RIC had "the guts to stick it out" but insisted "we can't admire Irishmen who fight for foreigners against us." His books are still useful handbooks for contemporary guerrillas.
A significant section of 'On Another Man's Wound' concerns his eventual capture by British forces in Inistioge, County Kilkenny, on 9th December 1920 (a notebook found on him had the names of all the members of the 7th Battalion IRA (Callan) of the West Kilkenny brigade - many of whom were subsequently arrested) and the torture and imprisonment he underwent at the hands of the British Army, including his interrogation ordeal in Dublin Castle, the 'Castlereagh of the Tan War'. Threatened with hanging for an action he did not commit, in the midst of brutal questioning, Ernie O' Malley replied - "With us hanging is no disgrace." It is a revealing line, and one which puzzled his British torturers, who never will understand the mentality, motivation and moral strength of their opponents.
The prison chapters of his books illustrate how he and his comrades defied the prison system and bewildered their guards who, as O' Malley stated, "..had been told that we were murderers. That meant an image from a Sunday newspaper - twitching hands and furtive walk, or sullen hardness. They heard us laugh and sing, rag and annoy each other, joke and refuse to take prison regulations seriously.." But he pays tribute, too, to those who showed humanity to prisoners, which makes his verdicts on the others and on the British caste system all the more convincing.
After an historic escape from Kilmainham Jail on the 14th February 1921, Ernie O' Malley returned to the Martial Law areas and an intensified war campaign, until he was first baffled, then broken-hearted by the truce called in July 1921. One of the grimmest incidents had taken place one month previously, when Ernie O' Malley, as Officer Commanding of the IRA Division involved, had taken it upon himself to execute three captured British Army officers because "..any officers we capture in this area are to be shot until such time as you cease shooting your prisoners.."
He wanted the Irish Republican Army to have status abroad, rather than be hidden behind the image of a suffering colonial people. As he bluntly put it to his affronted superiors later in 1921 - "We (the IRA) had never consulted the feelings of the people. If so, we would never have fired a shot. If we gave them a good strong lead, they would follow." If his books were required reading in schools and universities, instead of the shoneen or revisionist or simply non-existent versions of modern Irish history, then the people of Ireland would be better prepared to achieve a true independence. As Ernie O' Malley wrote of the best of the IRA recruits, in words that typify his own unyielding spirit - "At times one came across a man who had been born free. There was no explaining it. One just accepted and thanked God in wonder!"
Ernie O' Malley's two books are best read together : it is in 'The Singing Flame' that the British faces fade and are replaced by Irish counterparts and the high noon of summer darkens to the Mulcahy/Cosgrave years. Of course 'The Singing Flame' is partisan ; one intended by its author as support for the republican tradition - with the 'cult' of 1916 transformed into the 'cult' of 1922, where the Four Courts of Dublin stands in place of the GPO. It is also an exciting story, full of incidents and answering some questions that had been posed for half a century ; relating his Civil War days as Assistant Chief of Staff in Dublin where he commanded future Fianna Fail ministers like Sean Lemass and Tom Derrig, while leading a hunted existence in a city resembling Belfast of the 1970's.
The second of the books also has clear lessons for today, containing many parallels and the same abuse and falsified arguments used against the republicans then as now. In the early days of the Civil War, Ernie O' Malley and his IRA Company heard a priest at Mass denounce them as looters and murderers : "The Hand of God was against us.." , according to the priest, he said. His officers wanted to walk out, but he motioned them to remain ; "If we were going to be insulted when we could not hit back, we might as well be dignified. It was good to get out in the fresh air again."
He could have accepted power and privilege under the Free State but he remained faithful to the Republic and rejected both the 1921 Treaty and de Valera's alternative Document No. 2. He told a Free State general, J.J. 'Ginger' O' Connell, at the time of the Treaty debates - "You'll have to fight in our area if you are false to your oath. That's where you'll meet with immediate and terrible war."The irony was pointed : Lloyd George had threatened an "immediate and terrible war" if the Treaty was not accepted.
True to his word, when the 1921 Treaty was ratified, Ernie O' Malley's Second Southern Division IRA was the first to renounce its allegiance to both IRA GHQ and Dail Eireann : in the war against the Staters, Ernie O' Malley was (Acting) Assistant Chief of Staff to Liam Lynch and was also Officer Commanding of the Ulster and Leinster Commands. Liam Lynch was in the South/Cork area while Ernie O' Malley remained based in the enemy's stronghold of Dublin. He wrote of waging a guerrilla warfare that, this time, for him, was urban based rather than rural and, when asked by a journalist why the IRA were still fighting, he replied : "I think they think they're fighting for a younger generation." Ernie O' Malley was 24 years of age at that time.
He himself knew that he was fighting imperialists, both British and Irish varieties, and believed that the Free State Cabinet and a few Catholic bishops should not be immune from the war. He also recognised and acknowledged the great support given to the republican cause by Cumann na mBan and other Irish republican women, and one feature of his books is the courage, strength and involvement of such women. As he wrote - "During the Tan War the girls had always helped but they had never sufficient status. Now they were our comrades, loyal, willing and incorruptible comrades. Indefatigable, they put the men to shame by their individual zeal and initiative."
His book 'The Singing Flame' reveals much of Free State treachery and covers inside stories of the critical months before the IRA attack on the Four Courts began, and he paints a vivid picture of the war. But perhaps the most important pages are the prison chapters, detailing the scenes of prison life in Portobello Barracks, in Mountjoy, in Kilmainham Jail and in the Curragh internment camps, highlighting the deaths of comrades and the hunger-strike. Despite his wounds (hit over 20 times by Free State gunfire), the threats of execution, and a wasting sickness worsened by forty-one days on hunger-strike, Ernie O' Malley was a leading challenge to "..the petty automatons that help to keep one captive..". Some of his most inspiring passages in 'The Singing Flame' concern that 'other war' that prisoners fought : in jail.
Then as now, Irish republican prisoners fought against criminalisation and for prisoner-of-war status : as Ernie O' Malley wrote - "Free men cannot be kept in jail, for their spirits are free. In our code, it is the duty of prisoners to prove that they cannot be influenced by their surroundings. Make the enemy feel a jailer but be free yourself." An appendix of prison letters documents that spirit of defiance. Not surprisingly, O' Malley was the last republican leader to be released from the Curragh in July 1924, although he had been confined to bed with his many wounds for most of his imprisonment : despite medical operations, he carried in his body five bullets to the grave.
When 'The Singing Flame' was published in 1978, twenty-one years after his death, the chief political book reviewer of 'The Irish Times' newspaper saw Ernie O' Malley as "..the unrepentant Fenian and perhaps even as the very first Provisional.." ('1169' comment : we disagree - O' Malley fought against the Free Staters and Westminster, he didn't administer political or military 'control' on their behalf.) Ernie O' Malley was one of the bravest, most idealistic, most dedicated and determined of socialist republican fighters, ruthless against imperialism, but chivalrous in war.
On the 30th June 1922, Ernie O' Malley, as Officer Commanding of his IRA Garrison, most unwillingly surrendered the destroyed Four Courts in Dublin : when Free State officers accused him of deliberately causing the fire and the great explosion that had wrecked the building, he denied that republicans had set off a mine - "It was the spirit of freedom lighting a torch. I'm glad she played her part." Two years before he died he wrote - "The spirit of freedom is immeasurable and its strength can suddenly increase in unexpected ways."
The time will come when through that Spirit of Freedom the Irish Republic will not just be realised in the mind, and then the epitaphs of those like Ernie O' Malley and Bobby Sands and Francis Hughes can indeed, together with that of Robert Emmet, be truly written, as part of a living tradition.
(This is an edited version of an article we first posted here in 2008.)
'FORCE : MORAL OR PHYSICAL...?'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, March, 1955.
Out of O'Connell's moral force was begotten the 'Irish Parliamentary Party' ; out of the 'Young Ireland' movement was begotten the Republican Brotherhood and the Rising of 1916.
Britain, by ruthlessness and intrigue, crushed the flowering of freedom and imposed by force - the threat of immediate and terrible war - the partition of our country and the disunity of our people.
We do not doubt the sincerity of Mr. Cosgrave and his colleagues when they advocate the use of "moral pressure". We do not doubt the sincerity of any Irishman who advocates policies different from ours. But we do doubt their wisdom. In the face of present-day realities, in the face of our history and our traditions, there can be only one wise national policy - to break the connection with England, and be prepared to meet British force with Irish force when necessary.
(END of 'Force : Moral or Physical?' ; NEXT - 'Talk, Force and Politicians', from the same source.)
ON THIS DATE - 26TH MAY - IN THE FOLLOWING YEARS :
On the 26th May 1798 – United Irishman Rebellion : The rebels are defeated at Tara Hill ; this marks the end of the rebellion in Co Meath. Rebellion begins in Co Wexford. Fr John Murphy and local people confront the Camolin yeomanry at The Harrow. Thomas Bookey, Lieutenant of the yeomanry, is killed.
On the 26th May 1919 – Members of (the 32-County) Dáil Éireann sent a statement concerning 'Ireland’s Case for Independence' to the Paris Peace Conference.
On the 26th May 1919 – Capture and destruction at Ticknock, Co Dublin of military field kitchen and 2 mules in the charge of 2 unarmed soldiers, by members of the 3rd Battalion Dublin Brigade IRA.
On the 26th May 1921 – Attack on Naval base and wireless station Dún Laoghaire. When the attack was in progress one hour, a (British) armoured car leading a party of troops from the naval base advanced up Marine road. Another party from the wireless station proceeded from Clarence St. Both patrols were attacked on the way and shortly after capturing Georges St. they (British patrols) clashed and opened fire on each other. They suffered some killed and 5 wounded before they realised their mistake.
On the 26th May 1954 – Birth of Mickey Devine, a volunteer of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) who died on the 1981 hunger strike.
THE ACTRESS AND THE IRA MAN.On the 26th May 1979 – Death of actor, George Brent (pictured, with Bette Davis). Born in Ballinasloe, Co Galway, during the Irish War of Independence, Brent was part of the IRA. He fled Ireland with a bounty set on his head by the British government, although he later claimed only to have been a courier for guerrilla leader and tactician Michael Collins. He eventually moved to Hollywood, and made his first film in 1930. Highly regarded by Bette Davis, he became her most frequent male co-star, appearing with her in 13 films :
'...(she) wrote about Brent as a courier for Collins, but also about his second job as Collins' doppelganger. "In Dublin," she wrote, '..his most convincing double was a young actor George Brendan Nolan. A tall, well-built young man that fit Collins’s official description, Nolan was interested in the stage but was also a full member of the Fianna Éireann. For many months he played the dangerous but successful role of stand-in for Ireland’s most wanted man. He would conspicuously attend a public meeting or event as a 'Big Fella' in expensive suits and, since the (British) authorities were never quite sure what Collins looked like, they would follow him, thereby leaving the real leader free to go about his business.
Then, suddenly, in 1920, Brent disappeared. "Dublin Castle issued a warrant for Nolan’s arrest that charged him with treason against the state, a crime punishable by execution, Collins’s spies immediately informed the leader who thus arranged Nolan’s urgent, secret escape out of Cobh harbor in County Cork. As the Black and Tans thundered through the quiet village of Watergrasshill, just 12 miles away, bent on arresting Nolan, he was already bound for New York and a new life. They had missed their quarry by only a few hours..." (from here.)
'George Brent' was born George Patrick Nolan, in Galway, on the 15th March 1904 ; he died in Solana Beach, in California, on the 26th of May, 1979, 42 years ago on this date.
Thanks for reading,
Sharon.
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE...!
BREAKING NEWS!!
EXCLUSIVE TO THIS BLOG!!!
A world-renowned Hollywood actress and an IRA man on the run ; on Wednesday, 26th May 2021, we'll be breaking our silence on this story.
We received information about the actress and the IRA man last week and have been, since then, verifying the details through other sources and we are 100% certain of our facts.
The actress in question will be forever associated with the elite of Hollywood and rightly so, in our opinion, as she has earned her stripes and proved her worth in the dozens of films she has starred in, with 'top billing', deservedly so, but the piece we will be posting here on Wednesday, 26th May 2021, will no doubt come as a surprise and a shock to most if not all of our readers.
The IRA man with whom she gladly associated was so effective at what he done for the cause of Irish freedom, having first been trained in Na Fianna Éireann, that the British Government charged him with 'treason'( punishable by 'execution'), put a price on his head and sent one of their paramilitary gangs to kill him. His Irish republican comrades were aware that that had happened and managed to get him safely out of the country...
Names will be named and all will be explained here on Wednesday, 26th May, 2021.
Thanks for reading, see ya on Wednesday!
Sharon.
ON THIS DATE (19TH MAY) 112 YEARS AGO : BIRTH OF OWEN LANCELOT 'SKEFF'.
The inscription on the Sheehy Skeffington headstone reads - 'Sacred to the memory of Mrs. Rose Skeffington, born Magorrian in Ballykinlar, Co. Down. Died at Ranelagh, Dublin 16th April 1909.
And Francis Sheehy Skeffington her son / murdered in Portobello Barracks April 26th, 1916 and his wife Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, Feminist, Republican, Socialist, Born May 1878 / Died April 1946.
And their son Owen Lancelot Sheehy Skeffington, born May 19th 1909, died June 7th, 1970 who, like them, sought truth / taught reason and knew compassion.'
Owen Lancelot Sheehy Skeffington was born in Lower Leeson Street, in Dublin, on the 19th May 1909 - 112 years ago on this date - into a politically and socially active family (both his parents were in agreement that the child should not be baptised as they were not fully supportive of any particular structured religion) : his father, Francis, was executed by firing squad in Easter Week, 1916, on orders issued by 'guilty-but-insane' British Army Captain J.C. Bowen-Colthurst and his mother, Johanna Mary 'Hanna', was a social activist and a supporter of the 'Irregulars' (although she did briefly flirt, politically, with Fianna Fáil, when they were first spawned).
When he was three years young, his father took him to Mountjoy Jail, in Dublin, to visit his mother, who was a 'guest' in that institution for a couple of months, having upset the 'political establishment' by her actions in defence of women's rights : the favour was returned two years later when his mother took him to the same prison to visit his father, who was 'guesting' there in payment for his part in the anti-conscription campaign!
As a young man, Owen was educated in America and in Sandford Park School in Dublin and supported himself by teaching the French language in Trinity College in Dublin where he made a name for himself as '...a brilliant orator, a fearless champion of civil and human rights, and an inspiring teacher, known simply and affectionately to generations of Trinity students as 'Skeff'...'
He involved himself in Free State politics and sat in the State Senate on a number of occasions between 1954 and the year he died (from a heart attack), 1970. He would not have found much 'truth, reason and/or compassion' in that institution.
'AITHBHEOCHAINT NA GAEDHILGE.'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, June, 1955.
Ní gá annseo a rá go bhfuil an sprid náisiúnta lag. Tá sé chómh dona agus a bhí riamh - muna bhfuil sé níos mease. Faoi láthair tá an tír múchta i nGalldachas agus má leannann an sceal mar atá bhféidir nach fada go mbeidh ar Náis iúntacas chómh marbh le h-Art - agus cé raghaidh chun na socraide?
Sé an locht is mó na nach dtuigeann fiú amháin na daoine ar a dtugtar 'fior-Ghaedhil' an ceist i gceart.
National Apostacy - what led to this national apostacy? One thing only, a shallow and perverted interpretation of Ireland's claim to sovereignty! If they have had the audacity to tell you, as they have, that Ireland is free, or worse still, that "this part" (a cursed phrase) of Ireland is free, is it not obvious that such people have a compromisable notion of 'freedom'?
How can we expect them to approach Aithbheochaint na Gaedhilge in the true spirit...? (MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (19TH MAY) 223 YEARS AGO : 'REBEL IRISH LORD' CAPTURED BY THE BRITISH.
'Lord' Edward Fitzgerald (pictured) was born on the 15th October 1763, in Carton House, County Kildare ; he was the 12th child of the first 'Duke' of Leinster and Emilia Mary, who was the daughter of the 'Duke' of Richmond.
At 16 years young he joined the 'Sussex Militia' and was posted to America on 'active service' - he was severely wounded at the battle of Eutaw Springs, when he was 18 years young (in 1781) and returned to Ireland. At 25 years young he went to Canada and re-joined the British Army, following which 'adventure' he again returned to Ireland and was elected as M.P. for Kildare.
The events at a political 'Dinner Party' which he attended one night was to have a profound effect on his 'career', as his refusal to hide his 'rebel streak' had immediate consequences ; he joined in a toast to the abolition of hereditary titles and was, shortly afterwards, 'cashiered' (ie "discharged with ignominy") from the British Army (and from the 'Establishment' ie 'those that dinner-partied'!).
He went to Paris in 1792, at 29 years young and, two days after Christmas that year, he married a 19-years-young girl, Pamela, thought to be the daughter of Mme de Genlis. It was generally accepted that Pamela's father was the 'Duke' of Orleans - a 'family connection' which was to re-bound on Edward Fitzgerald a few years later (incidentally - while in Paris, 'Lord' Edward Fitzgerald stayed with a certain Mr. Thomas Paine, pictured.)
In 1793, Mr. and Mrs. Fitzgerald returned to Dublin and lived in Frascati House in Blackrock ; three years later (ie 1796), 'Lord' Edward Fitzgerald travelled to Basel in France with Arthur O'Connor and Wolfe Tone to seek assistance with an armed Rising against the British ; but his above-mentioned 'family connections' were raised at a meeting with the French military - he got a 'frosty' reception from the French because his wife was considered to be connected to the 'Royalists'!
However, the honesty of his political conviction became obvious to the hosts, and his statement to them (the 'French Directory') that the strength of the United Irishmen organisation stood at approximately 280,000 armed men helped convince them to send assistance - the 'Hoche Expedition'
Edward Fitzgerald was not with the rest of the leadership of the United Irishmen organisation in March 1798 at the home of Oliver Bond in Bridge Street, Dublin, when the British raided and 'arrested' those within, acting on information sold to them by the informer Thomas Reynolds. When British Major Henry Sirr (pictured) realised that Fitzgerald was not amongst those captured, he offered a 'bounty' of £1,000 for information leading to his capture.
Edward Fitzgerald ('wanted for treason') went 'on-the-run' but, two months later (ie on May 19th, 1798 - 223 years ago on this date) Major Sirr's men raided a house on Thomas Street, in Dublin (after receiving information from another informer, Francis Magan) where Fitzgerald was staying ; a struggle ensued, during which Edward Fitzgerald shot one of his attackers dead but was himself shot in the arm - he died, apparently from that wound, in Newgate Prison, on the 4th June 1798, at 35 years young.
NO RIGHT OF APPEAL...
Why the media consensus on a broad range of issues is increasingly disturbing. By John Drennan.
From 'Magill' Annual, 2002.
However, as smiling refugee children were featured on every bulletin, there was a relative absence in coverage of any of the World Trade Centre funerals.
Sadly, the station's slip continued apace as it described Mr bin Laden as a "Saudi dissident". Apparently, over in Montrose, Mr bin Laden is no more sinister a figure than Peter Weir. The next threat came from an ogre called Desmond Connell - himself a dissident against the new clerical ethic of keeping one's gob shut - who is such a threat to society that he has been the subject of two media scandals this year.
"Bejaysus", sez the plain people of Ireland, "he must be a terrible important man indeed to be pulled up so constantly by them journalist fellas..." Er, no - he's actually the leader of an embattled religious minority now that consumerist secularism has become the state religion. As liberals, we really should be championing his right to free speech...
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (19TH MAY) 124 YEARS AGO : OSCAR WILDE RELEASED FROM PRISON.
On the 19th May 1897 - 124 years ago on this date - Oscar Wilde was released from prison ; he had been given a sentence of two years hard labour for gross indecency - homosexuality - which was illegal in Britain at the time. His 'relationship' with 'Lord' Alfred Douglas was the 'sin' involved.
Oscar was forty years old at the time, and the 'Lord' Alfred was sixteen years his junior but knew how to manipulate circumstances and individuals. He was of slim build, said to be handsome and used his demeanour to balance his feckless attitude towards finances and other people's feelings in general. And poor Oscar was taken in by him, as were young boys and other men, when the 'Lord' strutted his stuff in Oxford.
After his release, Oscar was given a temporary roof over his head by a socially-conscienced and open-minded man of the cloth, Stewart Headlam, as interesting a character as Oscar Wilde was ; he was married to a lesbian (Beatrice Pennington) and also maintained 'close relations' with known homosexuals William Johnson and C.J. Vaughan, among others ;
'...he was a member of the Fabian Society, a Christian Socialist who attacked the wide gap between rich and poor and warned the working class that they should distrust middle-class reformers (and) he presented Jesus Christ as a revolutionary. He believed that that God's Kingdom on earth would replace a "competitive, unjust society with a co-operative and egalitarian social order.." '
(from here).
In prison, Oscar's health deteriorated due to his living conditions (he was not used to roughing it, in that particular manner) and, on his release, came to rely on alcohol to get him through the day. He died in Paris, on the 30th of November, 1900, at 46 years of age, from cerebral meningitis following an ear infection.
'Yes, death. Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one's head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forget life, to be at peace. You can help me. You can open for me the portals of death's house, for love is always with you, and love is stronger than death is..' - Oscar Wilde.
'FORCE : MORAL OR PHYSICAL?'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, March, 1955.
Mr Cosgrave at the Fine Gael Ard Fheis made quite clear the essential difference between the so-called 'nationalists' and the Republican Movement ; he stated that "...partition could only be ended speedily by the exercise of moral pressure and persuasion.."
One hundred and twenty years ago Daniel O'Connell misled the Irish people into acceptance of his policy of 'moral force' ; moral force did not prevent the ships laden with Irish wheat and oats leaving Ireland while the population was decimated by famine (sic) and emigration. John Mitchel, with clarion call, urged his countrymen to arm. Their wealth and lives were being stolen under the protection of British guns. Only guns could talk to guns.
The brave and the true of that generation rallied to Mitchel's call but, before they were properly organised, the British Government passed a new coercion act - 'Treason Felony' - to deal with the dangerous situation of Irishmen armed to resist British aggression. The question is - which policy was best for Ireland? O'Connell's moral force or Mitchel's physical force...? (MORE LATER.)
Thanks for reading,
Sharon.
ON THIS DATE (12TH MAY) 105 YEARS AGO - NO PLACE AT THAT TABLE FOR THIS CHAIR.
If we had more time, we would give a brief history and/or mention of all those Irish men and women for whom this month carries special significance, but such is the level of destruction wrought on this country by the British over an on-going period of more than 850 years, and the huge number of Irish 'dissidents' that tried to right those wrongs, we are unable to do so but, nonetheless, we will try to do those brave people justice by posting a few words about just one of them - James Connolly, executed by the British on the 12th May 1916 - 105 years ago on this date.
All shared the same objective : to remove the British military and political presence from Ireland, not to be co-opted onto its 'board of management', as those in Leinster House and Stormont have been.
James Connolly was born on June 5th, 1868, at 107, the Cowgate, Edinburgh. His parents, John and Mary Connolly, had emigrated to Edinburgh from County Monaghan in the 1850s. His father worked as a manure carter, removing dung from the streets at night, and his mother was a domestic servant who suffered from chronic bronchitis and was to die young from that ailment.
Anti-Irish feeling at the time was so bad that Irish people were forced to live in the slums of the Cowgate and the Grassmarket which became known as 'Little Ireland'. Overcrowding, poverty, disease, drunkenness and unemployment were rife - the only jobs available was selling second-hand clothes and working as a porter or a carter.
James Connolly went to St Patricks School in the Cowgate, as did his two older brothers, Thomas and John. At ten years of age, James left school and got a job with Edinburgh's 'Evening News' newspaper, where he worked as a 'devil', cleaning inky rollers and fetching beer and food for the adult workers. His brother Thomas also worked with the same newspaper.
In 1882, aged 14, James Connolly joined the British Army in which he was to remain for nearly seven years, all of it in Ireland, where he witnessed first hand the terrible treatment of the Irish people at the hands of the British. The mistreatment of the Irish by the British and the landlords led to Connolly forming an intense hatred of the British Army.
While serving in Ireland, he met his future wife, a Protestant named Lillie Reynolds. They were engaged in 1888 and the following year Connolly discharged himself from the British Army and went back to Scotland. In 1890, he and Lillie Reynolds were wed in Perth and, in the Spring of that year, James and Lillie moved to Edinburgh and lived at 22 West Port, and joined his father and brother working as labourers and then as a manure carter with Edinburgh Corporation, on a strictly temporary and casual basis.
He became active in socialist and trade union circles and became secretary of the 'Scottish Socialist Federation', almost by mistake. At the time his brother John was secretary; however, after John spoke at a rally in favour of the eight-hour day he was fired from his job with the corporation, so while he looked for work, James took over as secretary. During this time, Connolly became involved with the Independent Labour Party which Kerr Hardie formed in 1893.
In late 1894, Connolly lost his job with the corporation. He opened a cobblers shop in February 1895 at number 73 Bucclevch Street, a business venture which was not successful. At the invitation of the Scottish socialist, John Leslie, he came to Dublin in May 1896 as paid organiser of the 'Dublin Socialist Society' for £1 a week. James and Lillie Connolly and their three daughters, Nora, Mona and Aideen set sail for Dublin in 1896, where he founded the Irish Socialist Republican Party in May of 1896.
In 1898, Connolly had to return to Scotland on a lecture and fund-raising tour. Before he left Ireland, he had founded 'The Workers' Republic' newspaper, the first Irish socialist paper, from his house at number 54 Pimlico, where he lived with his wife and three daughters. Six other families, a total of 30 people, also lived in number 54 Pimlico, at the same time!
In 1902, he went on a five month lecture tour of the USA and, on returning to Dublin, he found the ISRP existed in name only. He returned to Edinburgh where he worked for the Scottish District of the Social Democratic federation. He then chaired the inaugural meeting of the Socialist Labour Party in 1903 but, when his party failed to make any headway, Connolly became disillusioned and in September 1903, he emigrated to the USA and did not return until July 1910. In the US, he founded the Irish Socialist Federation in New York, and another newspaper, 'The Harp'.
In 1910, he returned to Ireland and in June of the following year he became Belfast organiser for James Larkin's Irish Transport and General Workers Union. In 1913 he co-founded the Labour Party and in 1914 he organised, with James Larkin, opposition to the Employers Federation in the Great Lock-Out of workers that August. Larkin travelled to the USA for a lecture tour in late 1914 and James Connolly became the key figure in the Irish Labour movement.
The previous year, 1913, had also seen Connolly co-found the Irish Citizen Army, at Liberty Hall, the headquarters of the ITGWU - this organisation, the ICA, was established to defend the rights of the working people. In October 1914, Connolly returned permanently to Dublin and revived the newspaper 'The Workers' Republic' that December following the suppression of his other newspaper, 'The Irish Worker'. In 'The Workers' Republic' newspaper, Connolly published articles on guerrilla warfare and continuously attacked the group known as The Irish Volunteers for their inactivity. This group refused to allow the Irish Citizen Army to have any in-put on its Provisional Committee and had no plans in motion for armed action.
The Irish Volunteers were by this time approximately 180,000 strong and were urged by their leadership to support England in the war against Germany. It should be noted that half of the Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers were John Redmond's people, who was the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party. The Irish Volunteers split, with the majority siding with Redmond and becoming known as the National Volunteers - approximately 11,000 of the membership refused to join Redmond and his people.
However, in February 1915, 'The Workers' Republic' newspaper was suppressed by the Dublin Castle authorities. Even still, Connolly grew more militant. In January 1916, the Irish Republican Brotherhood had became alarmed by Connollys ICA manoeuvres in Dublin and at Connollys impatience at the apparent lack of preparations for a rising, and the IRB decided to take James Connolly into their confidence. During the following months, he took part in the preparation for a rising and was appointed Military Commander of the Republican Forces in Dublin, including his own Irish Citizen Army. He was in command of the Republican HQ at the GPO during Easter Week, and was severely wounded. He was arrested and court-martialed following the surrender.
On May 9th, 1916, James Connolly was propped up in bed before a court-martial and sentenced to die by firing squad - he was at that time being held in the military hospital in Dublin Castle. In a leading article in the Irish Independent on May 10th William Martin Murphy, who had led the employers in the Great Lock-out of workers in 1913, urged the British Government to execute Connolly.
At dawn on May 12th 1916 - 105 years ago on this date -James Connolly was taken by ambulance from Dublin Castle to Kilmainham Jail, carried on a stretcher into the prison yard, strapped into a chair in a corner of the yard and executed by firing-squad. Connolly's body, like that of the other 14 executed leaders, was taken to the British military cemetery adjoining Arbour Hill Prison and buried, without coffin, in a mass quicklime grave.
The fact that he was one of the seven signatories of the 1916 Proclamation bears evidence of his influence. He had told the Irish Citizen Army, on 16th April, 1916, that "..the odds are a thousand to one against us, but in the event of victory, hold onto your rifles, as those with whom we are fighting may stop before our goal is reached..."
He died, strapped to a chair, but that should not be seen to infer that he wanted that chair placed at a table where a compromise would be the outcome.
James Connolly, 5th June 1868 - 12th May 1916. Executed by the British at 47 years of age.
'WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION.'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, June, 1955.
WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION, BODENSTOWN, SUNDAY 19TH JUNE.
Parade will leave Sallins at 2.30pm. Oration by Eamonn Thomas, Dublin.
Thomas White, Los Angeles, will speak on behalf of Clan na Gael, America.
Special trains will leave Kingsbridge at 12.15pm, returning from Sallins at 6.30pm.
Commemoration Ceilidhe ; in the Mansion House. Ceol Colmcille, 8.0 to 11.30, Tickets 2/-.
BREAK THE CONNECTION WITH ENGLAND.
Published by the Republican Publications, Seán Treacy House, 94 Seán Treacy Street, Dublin, and printed by the Marian Printing Company Limited, 33 Rutland Place North, North Circular Road, Dublin.
(Please note - some details here in regards to the up-coming Bodenstown Commemoration for 2021.)
(END of 'Wolfe Tone Commemoration': NEXT - 'Aithbheochaint Na Gaedhilge', from the same source.)
ON THIS DATE (12TH MAY) 105 YEARS AGO : SEÁN MacDIARMADA EXECUTED BY THE BRITISH.
Seán MacDiarmada (pictured) was born in January 1883 in Corranmore (near Kiltyclogher), in County Leitrim, and studied at the local national school, before attempting to qualify as a teacher but he failed the exams.
He worked for a short time as a gardener in Edinburgh, in Scotland, later moving to Belfast where he lived between 1905 and 1906 and, while there, he joined the 'Ancient Order of Hibernians' (AOH) but his views of the national situation became ever more radicalised and by 1906 he had been sworn in as a member of the 'Irish Republican Brotherhood'.
He was one of the major strategists behind the planning of the 1916 Easter Rising, although most of his work in that regard was done 'off radar' and at great physical discomfort to himself - he was partially disabled by polio, but never let that interfere with his work to remove the British military and political presence from Ireland.
On the 12th of May, 1916 - 105 years ago on this date - Seán MacDiarmada [and James Connolly] were executed by a British Army firing squad in Kilmainham Jail in Dublin.
His last letter, written to his comrade John Daly, read as follows -
'Kilmainham Prison,
Dublin,
May 11th 1916.
My Dear Daly,
Just a wee note to bid you Goodbye. I expect in a few hours to join Tom and the other heroes in a better world. I have been sentenced to a soldiers death - to be shot tomorrow morning .
I have nothing to say about this only that I look on it as a part of the day's work. We die that the Irish nation may live. Our blood will rebaptise and reinvigorate the old land. Knowing this it is superfluous to say how happy I feel.
I know now what I have always felt, that the Irish nation can never die. Let present day place hunters condemn our action as they will, posterity will judge us aright from the effects of our action.
I know I will meet you soon, until then GoodBye. God guard and protect you and all in No. 15. You have had a done trial, but I know quite well that Mrs. Daly and all the girls feel proud in spite of a little temporary and natural grief, that her son and the girls, their brothers as well as Tom are included in the list of honours.
Kindly remember me especially to Mrs. Clarke and tell her I am the same Seán that she always knew.
God Bless you all,
As ever,
Sincerely Yours,
Seán MacDiarmada.'
"We bleed that the nation may live. I die that the nation may live. Damn your concessions England, we want our country..." ; Seán MacDiarmada, 27th January 1883 – 12th May 1916.
ON THIS DATE (12TH MAY) 102 YEARS AGO : SEÁN HOGAN AND THE STATION OF KNOCKLONG.
Seán Hogan (pictured) was practically still in his teenage years when he was appointed as one of those in command of the 'Third Tipperary Brigade' of the IRA, a leadership group which became known by the British as 'The Big Four' - Dan Breen, Seán Treacy, Seamus Robinson and Seán Hogan.
Seán was born in Tipperary in 1901 and, at just 18 years of age, he took part in the Soloheadbeg ambush on the 21st of January in 1919, in which two Crown force personnel (James McDonnell and Patrick O'Connell) were killed as they drew their weapons. The British went all out to capture or execute those responsible and, on the 12th of May 1919 - 102 years ago on this date - Seán was taken prisoner at a friends house, the Meagher's, at Annfield, in Tipperary, and taken to Thurles RIC barracks to be held overnight, and then transported to Cork.
The following morning he was taken by a four-man armed British military escort to Knocklong train station and the five men got on board a train ; Hogan, who was handcuffed, was put sitting between RIC Sergeant Wallace and Constable Enright, both of whom were armed with revolvers, and Constables Ring and Reilly, carrying shotguns, sat opposite the three men.
Seán Hogan, pictured, thought to be about 20 years young when this photograph was taken.
An IRA unit, led by Seán Treacy, Dan Breen, Seamus Robinson and Eamonn O'Brien, and including Ned Foley, Seán Lynch, John Joe O'Brien, Ned O'Brien and Jim Scanlon (all from the East Limerick Brigade IRA) located the compartment where Seán was being held against his will and Seán Treacy and Eamonn O'Brien drew their revolvers and walked through the train to the compartment ; on entering same, they loudly instructed all present to put their hands up and called for Seán to make his way to them.
RIC Constable Enright placed his revolver against Hogan's neck, using him as a shield, but was shot dead as he did so, as both Treacy and O'Brien had fired at him (Eamonn O'Brien was to say later that they would not have shot Enright had he not attempted to attack Hogan) and Seán, still handcuffed, took that opportunity to land a two-handed punch to the face of Constable Ring, who was sitting opposite him.
Seán Treacy and RIC Sergeant Wallace were trading punches, as were Eamonn O'Brien and Constable Reilly, when one of the IRA men managed to take Reilly's shotgun from him and smashed him over the head with it. He collapsed in a heap on the carriage floor. Constable Ring, meanwhile, found himself on the platform, having exited the carriage through a window, and withdrew from the area.
Seán Treacy and RIC man Wallace were still trying to get the better of each other, with Treacy telling Wallace to give it up as he was outnumbered and had lost his prisoner, but Wallace refused to do so. Both men were now grappling for Wallace's Webley revolver and Wallace managed to get enough control over it to fire a shot, which hit Seán Treacy in the neck - in that same instance, IRA man Eamonn O'Brien fired at Wallace, killing him instantly. Treacy survived, and was recorded later as saying "I thought I was a dead man. I had to hold my head up with both hands, but I knew I could walk."
Seán Hogan remained active in the struggle : he operated in Dublin, Kilkenny and Tipperary, was involved in the 'French Ambush' and was also heavily involved in raids on various RIC barracks and remained active until the Treaty of Surrender was being discussed, a 'compromise' which he was unable to support or condemn - he left the Republican Movement at that point and returned to Tipperary, to try and earn a living as a farmer. But he couldn't, and moved to Dublin where he got married and fathered a child, but the times were tough, economically, and he and his family could only afford to live in a slum tenement building in North Great George's Street.
He was suffering from depression at this stage and voiced disappointment that the Ireland he was living in was not that which he had fought for. He died, penniless, at 67 years of age, in 1968, and was buried in Tipperary town.
The news has spread through Ireland and spread from shore to shore
Of such a deed, no living man has ever heard before
From out a guarded carriage mid a panic stricken throng
Seán Hogan, he was rescued at the station of Knocklong
When a guard of four policemen had their prisoner minded well
As the fatal train sped o’er the rails, conveying him to his cell
The prisoner then could scarce foretell, of hearts both brave and strong
That were planning for his rescue at the station of Knocklong
The shades of eve were falling fast when the train at last drew in
It was halted for an hour or so by a few courageous men
They sprang into the carriage and it did not take them long
'Hands up or die' was the rebel cry at the station of Knocklong
King George’s pampered hirelings, they shrivelled up with fear
And thought of how they placed in cells, full many a Volunteer
Now face to face with armed men, to escape, how they did long
But two of them met with traitors deaths at the station of Knocklong
From Sologhead to Limerick, such deeds as these were never seen
And devil a tear was ever shed for Wallace of Roskeen
They did old England's dirty work and did that work too long
But the renegades were numbered up at the station of Knocklong
Now rise up Mother Erin and always be of cheer
You’ll never die while at your side there stand such Volunteers
From Dingle Bay to Garryowen, the cheers will echo long
Of the rescue of Seán Hogan at the station of Knocklong.
NO RIGHT OF APPEAL...
Why the media consensus on a broad range of issues is increasingly disturbing. By John Drennan.
From 'Magill' Annual, 2002.
The media consensus in favour of moral equivalence proved it could transcend boundaries, as Fintan O'Toole tutted about the American tendency "to divide the world between the forces of God and Satan", stating that "American fundamentalism" was as bad as that of Afghanistan. Every two-bit Irish hack who weighed in against America in those first few days after September 11th was writing, in his or her head, against the vast media consensus which supported America in everything it did.
The only problem was that the consensus didn't exist ; instead, in column after column of pseudo-outspoken caution, the reaction became the norm. Call it liberal posting, call it intellectual laziness, call it what you will - Irish journalists were frenziedly reading the collected works of Robert Fisk and Nick Cohen and weighing in behind the anti-American cause without remotely understanding the issues the way that either of these journalists do.
Mary Ellen Synon's response to this blather would have been interesting. However, as we have noted, Mary Ellen was taken care of a bit earlier in the year. The real triumph of programming belonged to 'Questions And Answers' as in two consecutive weeks not one pro-American sentiment was expressed by its audience. It was about the only place in the world where Mr Osama Bin Laden would have felt comfortable. Eventually, even RTE's 60's flower-power liberal anti-American collective realised there was a need for a bit more subtlety ; after all, even 'The Irish Times' was being neutral on the war. The station's 'Robinsonistas' promptly discovered a humanitarian crisis. They were only four years late...
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (12TH MAY) 40 YEARS AGO : 'THE BOY FROM TAMLAGHTDUFF' DIES ON HUNGER-STRIKE.
"I have no prouder boast than to say I am Irish and have been privileged to fight for the Irish people and for Ireland. If I have a duty I will perform it to the full in the unshakable belief that we are a noble race and that chains and bonds have no part in us..." - these are the words of Hunger Strike Francis Hughes, written in a letter addressed to the people of South Derry and surrounding areas five days before he embarked on his hunger strike.
He was born into a republican family on the 28th of February 1956, the youngest son amongst ten children, in Tamlaghduff, County Derry. He left school at 16 years young and started working with a relative as a painter and decorator, a job he excelled at and could have made a good living from, but the political and military atmosphere of trying to live in an occupied area made his mind up for him : in his late teenage years, like so many other young adults before and since, he joined the IRA.
In March, 1978, Francis, 23 years of age, was badly wounded after a gunbattle with British forces ("Francis Hughes was very active in the area. I arrested him after an IRA gun battle in which a soldier was killed. Hughes had escaped but a large chunk of his thigh bone had been shot away. We were there in the dark of night, with torches, following a trail of bullets, blood and a beret he'd discarded when crawling away. He hid for hours in thorn bushes until he was in such pain that he shouted to a soldier. He was very dehydrated but as he was being carried away on a stretcher, he raised a clenched fist and yelled 'Up the Ra...!" -from here) and the British breathed a sigh of relief ; 'the most wanted man in the North' had been imprisoned and neutralised. They thought.
But, on Sunday, the 15th of March, in 1981, the British had to think again - Francis Hughes joined Bobby Sands on hunger-strike. Bobby died on the 5th of May and Francis died on the 12th of May - 40 years ago on this date - still fighting against the British military and political presence in Ireland.
'As I walked through the Glenshane Pass I heard a young girl mourn
"The boy form Tamlaghtduff" ,she cried, "is two years dead and gone"
How my heart is torn apart this young man to lose
Oh I'll never see the likes again of my young Francis Hughes.
For many years his exploits were a thorn in Englands side
The hills and glens became his home there he used to hide
Once when they surrounded him he quietly slipped away
Like a fox he went to ground and kept the dogs at bay.
Moving round the countryside he often made the news
But they could never lay their hands on my brave Francis Hughes
Finally they wounded him and captured him at last
From the countryside he loved they took him to Belfast.
Oh from Musgrave Park to the Crumlin Road and then to an H-Block cell
He went straight on the blanket then on hungerstrike as well
His will to win they could never break no matter what they tried
He fought them every day he lived and he fought them as he died.
As I walked through the Glenshane Pass I heard a young girl mourn
'The boy form Tamlaghtduff 'she cried 'is two years dead and gone'
How my heart is torn apart this young man to lose
Oh I'll never see the likes again of my young Francis Hughes.'
Francis Hughes, IRA Volunteer, 1956 - 1981.
'WITH THE IRA IN THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM.'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, March, 1955.
These men achieved much because they were prepared to give much. They saw the relations between themselves and their country in terms of giving, not taking. They were prepared to give their minds, their energies and, if necessary, their lives, to the service of their country and the knowledge that they were serving their country was the only reward they either sought or desired.
If we are to take up the task where they left off we must relearn this lesson of service.
Join the Republican Movement!
(END of 'With The IRA In The Fight For Freedom' ; NEXT - 'Force : Moral Or Physical?', from the same source.)
Thanks for reading,
Sharon.
