ON THIS DATE (30TH AUGUST) 182 YEARS AGO : A NEW NATIONALIST VOICE IS 'PRESSED' INTO ACTION.
The front page of the first copy of 'The Cork Examiner' newspaper (pictured), which was produced on Monday, 30th August 1841 - 182 years ago on this date.
'The paper was founded by John Francis Maguire under the title 'The Cork Examiner' in 1841 in support of the Catholic emancipation and tenant rights work of Daniel O'Connell...the first issue of the newspaper appeared on 30 August 1841. Maguire was a barrister and an MP who supported an independent parliament for Ireland. From its inception, 'The Cork Examiner' was an advocate of constitutional nationalism.
The newspaper was originally an evening paper which appeared three times weekly...the newspaper's printing presses printed the First National Loan for the Sinn Féin Finance Minister, Michael Collins, in 1919, leading to the British authorities briefly shutting down the paper.
Ironically, the I.R.A. damaged the newspaper's printing presses in 1920, which were again destroyed by the anti-Treaty I.R.A. in 1922...' (from here.)
The newspaper had also found itself in difficulty in 1919 when it was closed down by Westminster for two days, in reprisal for it having published a Sinn Féin advertisement asking for donations towards a £250,000 fund that the republican organisation was trying to raise to further its objectives.
It had similar trials and tribulations the following year, 1920, when Westminster failed to get the results it wanted in the 15th January 1920 Elections in Ireland, so Westminster went to 'Plan B' - they called in British Army General 'Sir' Nevil Macready and appointed him as the
'Commander-in-Chief' of the their forces in Ireland.
General 'Sir' Nevil 'Make Ready' Macready, one of many British bully-boys inflicted on the Irish.
Macready was known to be in favour of martial law and the imposition of a complete military dictatorship on the island and, in December 1920, he told his political masters in Westminster that his "military governors" in Ireland had been given 'permission' "to inflict punishments" on the local population following any IRA operation in that local area - "Punishments will only be carried out on the authority of the Infantry Brigadier who, before taking action, will satisfy himself that the people concerned were, owing to their proximity to the outrage or their known political tendencies, implicated in the outrage...the punishment will be carried out as a Military Operation and the reason why it is being done will be publicly proclaimed." ('1169' comment - this was, in effect, carte blanche to the British military to do as they liked in Ireland.) However, as a 'pr stunt', in the belief that he could portray himself as something other than the vicious bastard he was, Macready implemented a policy by which those to be 'punished' were given one hours notice to remove any valuable foodstuffs, hay or corn, but not furniture, from their homes, which
were then reduced to rubble by the use of explosives.
But, generous to a fault as Westminster was (and is...!) to us Irish, a slightly different variation of this punishment was applied to those who lived in terraced houses - the furniture was to be removed from the dwelling and burned in the street!
On the 3rd January 1921, in Middleton, Cork, the British reduced seven houses to rubble "in official reprisal" for an IRA ambush carried out in the area, on 29th December 1920, in which three RIC/Tan members were killed. 'The Cork Examiner' newspaper carried a report of that particular IRA operation -
'Attack on Police at Midleton.
Followed by Ambush.
Two constables dead.
Closing on to ten o'clock at night when the police patrol standing at a corner of the main street were attacked by a large number of men who fired on them from three directions. The firing was of rapid but short duration. The ten policemen were considerably outnumbered, and taken as they were, completely by surprise, they had little time to put up a defence. One of them, Mullen, was shot by one of the first few shots discharged. He was killed instantly. A telephone call was made to Cork, and some lorries of police and ambulances set out and had nearly got to Midleton by 11.30pm.
The procession of lorries and ambulances, it is stated, had their way further impeded about two miles from the town, by obstacles, such as heavy branches of trees, lying on the roadway. They were just within two miles of the town, at a point where boreens cut off the main road, when fire was opened on the last lorry.
A sharp encounter ensued. In all, three policemen died as a result of the shooting.'
It was also on that same date (ie 3rd January 1921) that 'The Cork Examiner' newspaper printed a statement from the British, in which they outlined their position and intentions regarding that IRA attack - that statement declared that the "authorities" were going to destroy some nearby houses "as the inhabitants were bound to have known of the ambush and attack, and they neglected to give any information either to the military or police authorities."
Seven houses were chosen and the families in them were given one hour to remove any money or valuables, but not furniture. The houses were then destroyed as, indeed, was Macready's reputation in this country (and that of his kind in Westminster) so much so that he had failed so miserably in encouraging locals to support* him, his troops and their ideals that he had no reason not to try and bully and intimidate the locals into supporting him and his fellow thugs.
True to form for all imperialists.
(*Macready asked influential trade union leader Tom Foran to assist him to "get a grip" in Ireland, to which Foran stated - "William O'Brien, kidnapped by your predecessor and deported, is the person best qualified to give the most authentic information respecting the Labour movement in Ireland...it is useless attempting to 'get a grip on the conditions in this country' until you let go your grip on the citizens of this country.." - Macready obviously ignored that good advice and attempted to do the opposite.)
Anyway - in 1996, in a move to increase readership, its title was changed from 'The Cork Examiner' to 'The Examiner' and, in 2000, it became 'The Irish Examiner' but is now, unfortunately, an echo chamber for Leinster House propaganda.
'KEOGHBOYS OF THE 1950's...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
Mr George Coburn TD, the next speaker, stated that the importance of demonstrations such as the one in Ballycastle was that they were not provocative.
Mr PS Donegan TD did, however, to put it in vulgar parlance, "take the cake", and proceeded to point out without, of course, stating the specific incidents, how the direct attacks on the British military in this country resulted in a strengthened and more incited border patrol by the 'Special Constabulary' in the Six Counties, and in the recent shootings by that body.
"During the last six months the consequences of an incorrect approach to the eventual unity of a Christian Ireland have been amply displayed. Armed men have made incursions into this State within a State, and within a nation, in the mistaken belief that force can only be met by force and coercion by similar coercion.
Sadly, the obvious truth that like begets like was only too clearly displayed in recent incidents at the Border when one perfectly innocent young man lost his life and others, injured and uninjured, have stood the gravest danger of losing theirs..."
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (30TH AUGUST) 101 YEARS AGO : IRA ATTACK STATERS IN BANTRY, COUNTY CORK.
On the 30th August 1922 - 101 years ago on this date - IRA Volunteers from the Cork No. 5 Brigade arrived in the town of Bantry, in County Cork, to take the Post Office building back from the Free State Army, who were in occupation of it.
The rebels succeeded in capturing several buildings located near their objective but, as they were consolidating their gains, four of their number were killed - Brigadier General Gibbs Ross, Captain Patrick Cooney, Quartermaster Donal McCarthy and Lieutenant Michael Crowley, and one Free State soldier, a Captain John Hourihane - who had previously been an IRA Volunteer in the Cork No. 5 Brigade - was also killed in the battle.
The loss of four of their Officers led to the IRA retreating.
BRIGADIER COMMANDANT GIBBS ROSS, GLANDART, BANTRY.
CAPTAIN PATRICK COONEY, BRIDGE ST, SKIBBEREEN.
LIEUTENANT DONAL MCCARTHY, CARRIGBAWN, DRINAGH.
LIEUTENANT MICHAEL CROWLEY, REENOGREENA, GLANDORE.
'LIFE’S GREATEST SACRIFICE : FOR LIBERTY, FREEDOM, AND HAPPINESS.'
On the 30th August, 1920, Westminster imposed a curfew (10.30pm to 5am) for the Belfast area that was to last, with variations in the times, until 1924!
On the 30th August, 1921, Eamon de Valera replied to a letter he had received from Llyod George on the 26th August, in which Mr de Valera "stressed" how important it was 'that Ireland's declaration of independence and Britain's refusal to accept it' was. The same man was later to accept a so-called 'Free State' within Ireland and accept Britain's refusal to withdraw, politically and militarily, from all of Ireland.
In 'disturbances' in Belfast on the 30th August 1921 (mostly in the New Lodge Road, North Queen Street and York Street areas), nine people were killed : Stephen Cash, William Kennedy, William Smith, Annie Watson (5 years young), Henry Robert Bowers, Samuel Ferguson, John Coogan, Thomas McMullan and Charles Harvey.
On the 30th August 1922, the Free State administration in Leinster House issued an 'order' that any of its members involved in the anti-Treaty campaign should be arrested and also declared that any of its members currently in prison (ie anti-Treaty politicians) would not be released for the purpose of attending meetings of the institution (as they could rekindle old political passions in some Free Staters, no doubt).
On the 30th August 1922, a British Intelligence Officer, Lieutenant Richard James Story, was found dead in Dublin -
'King’s Shropshire Light Infantry.
Lieutenant Story, a native of Wrington Somerset, was found at 11.35pm on Wednesday the 30th of August 1922 near Island Bridge Dublin, he had been shot in the head.
Initially it was suspected, and some witnesses testified, that Storey had shot himself but Storey’s revolver was produced in evidence and testimony given that the gun had not been fired for several weeks. A verdict of death due to laceration of the brain caused by a bullet fired by some person unknown was returned...' (more here.)
The 'story' is that that man, the army, agency, and political grouping that he represented shouldn't have been in Ireland, and they still shouldn't be here.
IRELAND ON THE COUCH...
A Psychiatrist Writes.
'Magill' commissioned Professor Patricia Casey to compile an assessment of Irish society at what may emerge as the end of a period of unprecedented growth and change.
This is her report.
From 'Magill Magazine' Annual, 2002.
We assert our right to get a drink when or where we want it, and our individual needs take precedence over minor inconveniences that may be imposed when more restrictive laws are considered.
Meanwhile, we proclaim a desire to tackle the alcohol problem by our constant reference to underage drinking, when all the evidence is that the problem is not confined to the under-18's but exists among the over-18's also. This double-think is a recurring attribute of much of modern Ireland.
Ireland, enveloped by rapid social change - particularly in areas of personal morality - has shifted from the absolute certainties and authoritarianism of the past to moral relativism, at least in the area of parenting.
The 1950's have been blamed for many of Ireland's ills, and there has been a rush to jettison any disciplinarian residue from that period. So the child-centredness of Dr Spock, the parenting guru, has been adopted with gusto.
The result for parents is not so much that they do not wish their children to be well-behaved and responsible as that they are uncertain of how they should instill values lest they be dubbed backwoods people.
This ambivalence leads to a reticence in addressing a range of behaviours and values that include alcohol and drugs, relationships, the influences of pop music, abortion etc but, by their reluctance, parents have disempowered themselves and created a vacuum.
Stepping into the breach has been the State, whether by design or default, with the addition of more and more courses of a personal development nature to the already overcrowded school curriculum. To religion has been added 'Civic, Political and Social Studies', 'Relationship and Sexuality Education' and a pilot scheme for boys called 'Exploring Masculinities'... (MORE LATER.)
'IN ANSWER TO CHURCH AND STATE AND IN DEFENCE OF IRISH REPUBLICANISM...'
Address to the Annual General Meeting of Comhairle Uladh (Ulster Executive) in Cootehill, County Cavan, on Sunday, November 22nd, 1987, by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, Uachtarán, Sinn Féin Poblachtach.
Comhaírle Uladh AGM, November 22nd, 1987.
The obvious inference of all this is that the British Occupation Forces in Ireland are morally right while the 'natives' who resist them are morally wrong.
But the 'natives' in this case are Irish people exercising the prerogative - some would say the duty - of resisting foreign aggression in their own land, a right common to all peoples on the face of the earth. However, the Catholic Church never said officially that the 1916 Rising was justified - quite the contrary, in fact - or that the partition of Ireland and the continuation of British imperialist rule here in new forms was unjust.
Similarly, the orchestrated reaction to what happened in Enniskillen is in sharp contrast to the low-key attitude or total ignoring of other occasions of great loss of life in Ireland since 1969.
One of the first major tragedies was in December 1971 when McGurk's Bar in North Queen Street in Belfast was demolished by a loyalist bomb and 15 nationalist people - the youngest aged 8 years and the eldest aged 80 - were killed. It was ignored...(MORE LATER.)
Thanks for the visit, and for reading,
Sharon and the team.
SEARCHING ITS OWN MEMBERSHIP, BUT NOT ITS CONSCIENCE...
In the 1900's, this newspaper was closed down (temporarily) by Westminster because it was thought by the British to be too inclined towards the IRA's objectives - today, however, it is practically kept afloat by British proxies in Kildare Street in Dublin...
Ireland, 1922 - the State administration in Leinster House searched its own membership (but not its conscience) and ordered that certain political colleagues (!) should be 'arrested' by State forces and others should be barred from attending its meetings...
Ireland, 2002 - Was that when the worm started turning re 'Civic, Political and Social Studies', 'Relationship and Sexuality Education' and a pilot scheme for boys called 'Exploring Masculinities' were introduced to young people...?
Ireland, 1922 - This British military operative was found dead in Dublin after leaving a party, somewhat the worse for wear : he was armed, but his gun hadn't been fired...
We'll be covering the above pieces, and a few more, on this blog on Wednesday, 30th August 2023 ; all related to Irish history and Irish politics, from all 32 Counties - give us a shout on the 30th, and we'll show ya wha' we got!
Thanks for the visit, and for reading,
Sharon and the team.
ON THIS DATE (23RD AUGUST) 225 YEARS AGO : A FRENCH BATTLECRY ON IRISH SOIL.
"UNION, LIBERTY, THE IRISH REPUBLIC!"
- the words and ideals proclaimed in Ballina, County Mayo, on the 23rd August 1798 - 225 years ago on this date - by French General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert, who had landed with 1,090 seasoned French troops (including 80 officers) at Cill Chuimin (Kilcummin) on the 22nd August.
Three expeditions to aid the 'United Irishmen' were authorised by the French Directory in July of 1798 ('In 1791, the newly installed French government offered military assistance to any group who wanted to overthrow their own King. This was very worrying for the surrounding monarchies of England, Spain, Germany and Austria..' - from here) and command of the first and smallest of these was given to General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert (pictured).
His small fleet of three frigates, under the command of Chef de Division André Daniel Savary, landed at Cill Chuimin (on August 22nd, 1798).
They marched by night across the mountains in torrents of rain (a distance of about 18 miles which, it has been estimated, would take maybe six hours to do on foot) and then a surprise attack at dawn ; and a masterly assault by General Jean Sarrazin (who later disgraced himself) on the British 'defenders' left flank gave warning of what was to come : brave Mayo men faced pounding artillery with nothing but pikes hammered out by skilled blacksmiths who had worked night and day for five days.
'Erin's sons be not faint-hearted
Welcome! Sing then Ca ira
From Killala they are marching
To the tune of Viva La!
They come, they come, see myriads come
Of Frenchmen to relieve us ;
Seize, seize the pike, beat, beat the drum
They come, my friends, to save us.'
To confuse the enemy further, General Humbert suddenly changed tactics - he launched his full reserve, and changed from closed formation to open file. Rising up in his saddle, and brandishing his sword, he gave the order, in Irish - "Eirinn go Brach!"
The drums sounded the 'pas de charge' and a blue line, now within a few paces of the British troops, regrouped back into closed lines and moved swiftly forward , their bayonets gleaming in the morning sun, a fierce and threatening determination in their countenances.
The famed army of the French Revolution was here in the fields of Mayo : veterans of many victorious campaigns on the continent, men who had endured much and who believed passionately in their cause. They had measured their enemy and marked them down as 'the defenders and upholders of tyranny and injustice'. The Sasanaigh and their Irish militias and Yeomen hesitated, and then turned their backs and fled in terror.
In Humbert's footsteps we commemorate today
in 1798 they came our way.
Arriving in three ships, the British flags flew
to conceal a plan that no British man knew.
At Kilcummin they landed, Irish pikemen joined the might,
and together they marched with Killala in sight.
The town was captured, Bishop Stock’s palace was made
the Franco-Irish headquarters where new plans were laid.
On August 23rd Ballina was the next plan,
between Moyne and Rosserk abbeys' the British, they ran.
The British we'll beat them, Érin go Bragh,
as they made their way to Béal an Átha.
They reached Ballina August 24th that morning,
but before the British departed they left a warning.
They captured Patrick Walsh and hung him from a crane,
the British departed, a United Irishman slain.
In Ballina the French marched through Barr na Dearg and Bóthar na Sop
with straw torches and a mattress, their way was lit up.
The people excited, a sight to behold,
as the flames of the night lit up buttons of gold.
From Ballina they left to Castlebar they go,
and marched through the mountains, a route the British didn't know.
Humbert captured Castlebar and the British they flee
in panic leaving behind cannon and artillery.
But at Ballinamuck Humbert faced a tough fight,
General Lake and troops behind him and Lord Cornwallis on his right.
The British overtook them, the battle no more,
many Irish were butchered, the French returned to their shore.
In memory of 1798, Ballina streets renamed,
Walsh, Tone, Teeling and Humbert who came to bring victory to Ireland, make her shores free,
to make her the ruler of her own country.
(Ann Marie Murphy, from here.)
'KEOGHBOYS OF THE 1950's...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
Mr Michael O'Neill MP expressed his intention of exposing the "armed banditti" at Westminster ; it should be very beneficial to Ireland to let the Parliament at Westminster into the secret of what is going on in Ireland!
The Ballycastle business was even more hateful and would make any Irishman half worthy of the name blush with shame in front of the world. The account in 'The Derry Journal' newspaper states at the outset -
"Only a small number of extra of extra police (sic) were drafted into the town...", though there were 30 bands and a lengthy procession. They started by playing 'Faith of Our Fathers' and then mention was made of the death of Arthur Leonard by the chairman, Mr Hugh O'Donnell, who then stated that there was a limit to the patience of the Irish people and he thought that that patience was at breaking point.
It was up to Catholics to stand shoulder-to-shoulder and sink their differences as never before, he said - "right was might and would prevail". And that is the keynote of these sickening sycophants with their ferocious Catholicity and lack of Christianity ; they endeavour to keep the Catholic and Protestant people in Ireland at each other's throats... (MORE LATER.)
42ND ANNUAL HUNGER STRIKE COMMEMORATION FOR PEACE WITH JUSTICE : SATURDAY 26TH AUGUST 2023, 2.30PM, EAST END, BUNDORAN.
Organised by the 1981 H-Block Martyrs Committee of Bundoran/Ballyshannon, County Donegal.
On Saturday 26th August 2023, the Bundoran/Ballyshannon H-Block Committee will be holding a rally in Bundoran, Donegal, to commemorate the 42nd Anniversary of the 1981 Hunger Strike and in memory of the 22 Irish republicans that have died on hunger strike between 1917 and 1981 ; those participating have been asked to form-up at 2.30pm at the East End.
All genuine Irish republicans are welcome to attend!
Unseen Sorrow. (By Bobby Sands.)Her tears fall in the darkness as the rain falls in the night,
silvery tears like silvery rain, hidden out of sight,
the stars fall from her eyes like floating petals from the sky,
is there no one in all this world who hears this woman cry?
A simple little floating dreamy thought has stired this woman's heart,
the golden sleepy dream of yesterdays before they were apart,
what comfort can there be found for a petal so fair and slim
alone in a forest dark of sorrow she weeps again for him?
Warm silver rolling tears blemish a once complexion fair,
that once shown in the fairest radiance midst a cloak of golden hair,
and the children whimper and cry for a father's care
and love they've never known.
Who sees their little tears of innocent years,
as the winds of time are blown?
What sorrow will you know tonight,
when all the worlds asleep,
when through the darkness comes the wind
that cuts the heart so deep.
For there is no one there to dry your tears,
or your children's tears who cling around your frock,
when there has been another bloody slaughter,
in the dungeons of H Block.
Saturday, 26th August 2023, 2.30pm, East End, Bundoran, County Donegal.
IRELAND ON THE COUCH...
A Psychiatrist Writes.
'Magill' commissioned Professor Patricia Casey to compile an assessment of Irish society at what may emerge as the end of a period of unprecedented growth and change.
This is her report.
From 'Magill Magazine' Annual, 2002.
Further proof that our young people are drinking to excess comes from the fact that there has been a 300-fold increase in the number of teenagers being treated for alcohol-related disorders in our psychiatric hospitals over the past three years.
Garda figures for 1999 show that almost 4,500 young people came to their attention for drunkenness, an increase of 1,300 in two years.
Lederman in the 1960's identified a close association between the per-capita consumption of alcohol and dependence and, on that basis alone, the up-and-coming generation is likely to be afflicted by an epidemic of alcoholism unless a pattern of more responsible consumption emerges.
In spite of this, we seem unconcerned at proposals to liberalise our licensing laws, and opening hours have already been extended without a whimper in order to benefit the tourist industry... (MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (23RD AUGUST) 65 YEARS AGO : IRISH TRICOLOUR + RUC = BEING SHOT DEAD.
Internment under the 'Offences Against the State Act' was enacted on the 4th July 1957 and, by October 1958, there were 141 detainees in the Curragh, with morale being described as 'very low'.
A total of 206 internees were detained by the State in that Camp, all of whom had been released by March 1959, as the State administration considered the IRA to be a spent force and the latter's political, military and paramilitary colleagues in the Occupied Six Counties were of the same frame of mind, to the extent that the pro-British 'police force' in that part of Ireland, the RUC, felt secure in declaring that they had a top-level informer in the IRA leadership, whom they codenamed 'Horsecoper', and had it on his/her information that the IRA had 455 members in Dublin and about 500 members in the rest of the Free State.
However, 'demoralised/a spent force' or not, both British-established administrations in Ireland - Leinster House and Stormont - were still attempting to 'put the boot in' on republican activity and continued to operate 'Most Wanted' lists, where those named on same would be seized on sight, or worse.
One man that that British 'police force' were particularly interested in was James Crossan, a native of Baunboy in Cavan, and a prominent Sinn Féin organiser (and IRA intelligence officer and active member of the Teeling Flying Column) in the border area.
On Saturday, 23rd August 1958 - 65 years ago on this date - James Crossan and one of his neighbours, Seán Reilly, were in a van on their way to Swanlinbar, in Cavan - only a stones throw from the British-imposed 'border' with Fermanagh - to collect a flag and finalise details for a demonstration to be held the next day (Sunday August 24th) in Ballyconnell.
Having done their business in Swanlinbar, the two men, and a local youth and Sinn Féin member, Ben McHugh, decided to go for a pint ; in the pub they met up with two friends from County Fermanagh.
Near the end of the night, the barman, Thomas McCarron, asked James Crossan's friend, Seán Reilly, if he would drop him and the two men from Fermanagh to the border, to collect a van belonging to one of the men, Glover Rooney, a cattle dealer from Kinglass, Macken, in County Fermanagh (the other man was Stanley Moffat, a sergeant in the B-Specials!), and Reilly agreed.
He parked his van about 100 yards from the border and about 300 yards from Mullan British customs post in Fermanagh ; James Crossan and the young McHugh got out with the three northerners and all five walked towards where the van was parked, near the border. With the few drinks on him and the time of the day it was - about 3am - Seán Reilly fell asleep in the van.
The sound of gunfire woke him and flares lit-up the sky around him; he got out of the van and saw two RUC men about 30 yards in front of him - they were running towards the British customs post. It later transpired that the five men (Crossan, McHugh, the barman and the two Fermanagh men), all unarmed, parted company on the Cavan side of the border at about 3.30am and, as Crossan and McHugh were walking back to the van, Crossan, 26 years of age, was shot dead by a group of RUC men who had positioned themselves on the southern side of the border.
Ben McHugh was arrested, and Crossan's body was taken to Enniskillen. The RUC claimed that they had come across an IRA reconnaissance mission of Mullan British customs post, which was a total fabrication ; at the inquest (held in Enniskillen) no witnesses were called and no attempt was made to investigate the circumstances of the shooting. The coroner simply justified Crossan's death as "justifiable homicide".
James Crossan was given a republican funeral and was buried in Kilnavert Cemetery, County Cavan, on the 26th August 1958.
When the fairy-like dew, the grass is adorning,
a volley rang out without any warning,
a young man fell dead in the cold grey of morning.
God bless you, God rest you, James Crossan from Bawn.
Forget not this young man, so gay and so cheery,
in working for Erin, he never grew weary,
But he'll toil never more round his own loved Clonleary.
God bless you, God rest you, James Crossan from Bawn.
There's no sleep for the Specials, they're tumblin' and tossin'
they are haunted with fear, every man every gossan,
for they'll pay for it yet, those who murdered James Crossan.
God bless you, God bless you, James Crossan of Bawn. (From here.)
'IN ANSWER TO CHURCH AND STATE AND IN DEFENCE OF IRISH REPUBLICANISM...'
Address to the Annual General Meeting of Comhairle Uladh (Ulster Executive) in Cootehill, County Cavan, on Sunday, November 22nd, 1987, by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, Uachtarán, Sinn Féin Poblachtach.
Comhaírle Uladh AGM, November 22nd, 1987.
A Papal Rescript against the Fenians was sought by English diplomacy and obtained at the First Vatican Council in 1870, and the 'Plan of Campaign' in the Land War was condemned from Rome in 1886-7.
But it took until 1987 to witness the spectacle of the porch of a Catholic Church being turned into a British Crown Forces barracks through the distribution therein of leaflets calling on Irish people to become informers to the British against their fellow-countrymen and women.
A statement ordered to be read at all Masses in Ireland on Sunday, November 15th, condemned not all violence, including British and loyalist, but only "republican violence" ; the violence of the oppressor escaped censure or even mention while the physical resistance of the oppressed was alone declared to be evil.
A call was made for support for the "police forces" North and South, which includes the RUC and, by extension, the UDR and the British Army...
(MORE LATER.)
Thanks for the visit, and for reading,
Sharon and the team.
"...THE GOLDEN SLEEPY DREAM OF YESTERDAYS."
A brilliant military tactician, this foreign army man agreed with his comrades-in-arms that the British military and political presence had no place in Ireland, and he determined himself to do something about it...
"Right was might and would prevail", declared this nationalist supporter, but he was taken to task by the Republican Movement for those and other comments...
From 1981 - "A simple little floating dreamy thought has stired this woman's heart, the golden sleepy dream of yesterdays before they were apart, what comfort can there be found for a petal so fair and slim, alone, in a forest dark of sorrow, she weeps again for him..."
Although hoping that Irish republican resistance was on the wane, the British 'security forces' in Ireland reckoned it had a score to settle with this one man in particular and were determined to settle it. It was in August, in the late 1950's, when the opportunity to do so presented itself to those British gunmen...
In the late 1980's, these 'Men of God' allowed themselves to become official recruiters for the British Army in Ireland and (ab)used their position in society by availing of their 'stage' to vocally sell-out their fellow Irishmen and women...
Thanks for the visit - and please check back with us again on Wednesday, 23rd August 2023.
See ye all then!
Sharon and the team.
ON THIS DATE (16TH AUGUST) 103 YEARS AGO : AN IRISH FIGHTER IN A BRITISH 'COURT OF JUSTICE'.
Pictured : Terence MacSwiney, his wife Muriel and their daughter, Máire, photographed in 1919.
On August 12th, 1920, in Cork, British forces 'arrested' Terence MacSwiney (and other members of the Cork IRA) for possession of 'seditious articles and documents', and for the possession of a cipher key which, they claimed, would enable the user to read coded messages sent by the RIC and, to ensure conviction, they accused him of three other counts of 'sedition'.
Terence MacSwiney was summarily 'tried' by the British on the 16th of August, 1920 - 103 years ago on this date - and sentenced to two years imprisonment in Brixton Prison, away from his family and supporters ; he immediately began a hunger strike in protest against his conviction, and was joined by ten other political prisoners (including Maurice Crowe [Tipperary] and Michael Fitzgerald).
Terence MacSwiney was born on the 28th March 1879, and was the Commandant of the 1st Cork Brigade of the IRA and was the elected Lord Mayor of Cork.
He died after 74 days on hunger strike (a botched effort to force feed him hastened his death) in that prison (Brixton) on the 25th October, 1920, and his body lay in Southwark Cathedral, in London, where tens of thousands of people paid their respects.
He summed-up the Irish feeling at that time (a feeling and determination which is still prominent in Irish republicans to this day) -
"The contest on our side is not one of rivalry or vengeance but of endurance. It is not those who can inflict the most but those who can suffer the most who will conquer. Those whose faith is strong will endure to the end in triumph."
"If I die I know the fruit will exceed the cost a thousand fold. The thought of it makes me happy. I thank God for it. Ah, Cathal, the pain of Easter week is properly dead at last..."
- Terence MacSwiney wrote these words in a letter to Cathal Brugha on the 30th of September, 1920, the 39th day of his hunger strike. The pain he refers to is that caused by his failure to take part in the 1916 Easter Rising - contradictory orders from Dublin and the failure of the arms ship, 'The Aud', to land arms in Tralee left the Volunteers in Cork unprepared for the fight.
In his book 'History of the Irish Working Class', Peter Berresford Ellis wrote :
"On October 25th, 1920, Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney - poet, dramatist and scholar - died on the 74th day of a hunger-strike while in Brixton Prison, London. A young Vietnamese dishwasher in the Carlton Hotel in London broke down and cried when he heard the news - "A Nation which has such citizens will never surrender". His name was Nguyen Ai Quoc (pictured) who, in 1941, adopted the name Ho Chi Minh and took the lessons of the Irish anti-imperialist fight to his own country..."
On the 13th March, 1920, Terence MacSwiney was unanimously elected as the 'Lord Mayor of Cork' by that city's Corporation (he donated his salary for the position to an outside organisation and received no salary for the other position he held at that time - Brigadier of the No. 1 Brigade, Cork IRA) -
"I shall be as brief as possible. This is not an occasion for many words, least of all a conventional exchange of compliments and thanks. The circumstances of the vacancy in the office of Lord Mayor governed inevitably the filling of it. And I come here more as a soldier stepping into the breach, than as an administrator to fill the first post in the municipality.
At a normal time it would be your duty to find for this post the councillor most practical and experienced in public affairs. But the time is not normal. We see in the manner in which our late Lord Mayor was murdered an attempt to terrify us all. Our first duty is to answer that threat in the only fitting manner by showing ourselves unterrified, cool and inflexible for the fulfillment of our chief purpose - the establishment of the independence and integrity of our country — the peace and the happiness of our country. To that end I am here.
I was more closely associated than any other here with our late murdered friend and colleague, both before and since the events of Easter Week, in prison and out of it, in a common work of love for Ireland, down to the hour of his death. For that reason I take his place. It is, I think, though I say it, the only fitting answer to those who struck him down.
Following from that there is a further matter of importance only less great — it touches the efficient continuance of our civic administration. If this recent unbearable aggravation of our persecution by our enemies should cause us to suspend voluntarily the normal discharge of our duties, it would help them very materially in their campaign to overthrow our cause. I feel the question of the future conduct of our affairs is in all our minds. And I think I am voicing the general view when I say that the normal functions of our corporate body must proceed, as far as in our power lies, uninterrupted, with that efficiency and integrity of which our late civic head gave such brilliant promise.
I don't wish to sound a personal note, but this much may be permitted under the circumstances — I made myself active in the selection of our late colleague for the office of Lord Mayor. He did not seek the honour and would not accept it as such, but when put to him as a duty he stepped to his place like a soldier.
Before his election we discussed it together in the intimate way we discussed everything touching our common work since Easter Week. We debated together what ought to be done and what could be done, keeping in mind, as in duty bound, not only the ideal line of action but the practical line at the moment as well. That line he followed with an ability and success all his own.
Gentlemen, you have paid tribute to him on all sides. It will be my duty and steady purpose to follow that line as faithfully as in my power, though no man in this Council could hope to discharge its functions with his ability and his perfect grasp of public business in all its details and as one harmonious whole.
GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND.
PROCLAMATION.
Whereas an unconstitutional and usurping Junta, set up at the dictation of the British Government and calling itself the "Provisional Government of Ireland," is and has been pledging the credit of the nation without the sanction of Dáil Eireann, the Parliament and Government of the Republic, and contracting debts and liabilities in various ways, including the purchase of military supplies and war material, and is further seeking to create vested interests by filling vacant offices and making appointments to new offices ;
And whereas the so-called Provisional Government has been proclaimed an illegal body by the Government of the Republic ;
Therefore, it is hereby proclaimed and notified to all whom it may concern that all such debts contracted or to be contracted, and appointments made, or to be made, by the said Provisional Government without the sanction of Dáil Eireann, the Parliament and Government of the Republic, are, and shall be illegal, null and void, and will not be recognised by the State.
(Signed) Aibhistin de Staic (Austin Stack)
Minister for Finance.'
In May 1923, the defence of the (32-County) Republic by armed struggle was suspended : from April 1922 until May 1923, the fighting had raged throughout the country (all 32 Counties of it) until the republican forces, encircled and isolated, were forced to dump arms. The republican army had lost some of its best leaders ; the republican institutions had been smashed, 11,316 republican fighters were still interned and British interests were being protected, by the 26-County Staters, 'with an economy of English lives.'
That same political junta is still here, in this Free State, still operating from Leinster House in Kildare Street, in Dublin and it's still wreaking political and financial havoc in the part of Ireland that it claims to have jurisdictional control over.
Those who operate under its 'writ' are, for the most part, millionaire/extremely wealthy businessmen and women and/or so-called 'landlords', and have no empathy with the people they purport to govern over.
The 'Free State' was spawned, in Ireland, on the 6th December 1922 and, in a nutshell, it has been all downhill since then, politically and morally. We need a new beginning ; a 'New Ireland'.
The alternative is to continue to put so-called 'new oil' (political candidates) into a seized 'engine' (Leinster House) in the hope that it will work.
IRELAND ON THE COUCH.
A Psychiatrist Writes.
'Magill' commissioned Professor Patricia Casey to compile an assessment of Irish society at what may emerge as the end of a period of unprecedented growth and change.
This is her report.
From 'Magill Magazine' Annual, 2002.
There was a perception of the Irish as a rural people ; priest-ridden and repressed but warm and friendly.
Over the past decade that image has metamorphosed and we are now seen as artistically sophisticated, socially progressive, chic and wealthy.
Many of these changes are positive, but there are indicators that at least some of this restyling has brought a raft of problems that could scarcely be comprehended in a sociological report.
We have always had a very friendly relationship to alcohol, and the pub has been an integral part of Irish culture. Regrettably, this relationship seems to be turning sour as we consume more and more alcohol. Teenagers and young adults drink prodigious amounts, yet they fail to identify any message in the findings of a recent EU survey which demonstrated that Ireland's young people had the largest intake of alcohol in Europe... (MORE LATER.)
'IN ANSWER TO CHURCH AND STATE AND IN DEFENCE OF IRISH REPUBLICANISM...'
Address to the Annual General Meeting of Comhairle Uladh (Ulster Executive) in Cootehill, County Cavan, on Sunday, November 22nd, 1987, by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, Uachtarán, Sinn Féin Poblachtach.
Comhaírle Uladh AGM, November 22nd, 1987.
No generation of Irish republicans since the foundation of republicanism in Ireland by Wolfe Tone has been exempt from their strictures ; the United Irishmen, the Young Irelanders, the Fenians, the Land League, the men and women of Easter Week 1916, the Irish Republican Army in the Black-and-Tan War, in the war against the Free State, in 1931, in 1956 and in line of unbroken condemnation to the present day.
Denial of the sacraments and of church services for republican dead, excommunication in 1920 and again in 1922, exiling, silencing and punishment of brave priests eg Fathers Albert and Dominic and Father Michael O'Flanagan, who brought religious consolation to active republicans, are all part of this sorry tale. And in spite of it all, the Irish people have in the main clung tenaciously to their religious beliefs, wisely 'rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's'.
The altar has many times been made a pro-British political platform down the years... (MORE LATER.)
16TH AUGUST 1919...
On the 16th August 1919 - 104 years ago on this date - Michael Collins, who was then still an Irish republican and a member of the GHQ Staff of the IRA, visited the Cork area and, as arranged beforehand, held a meeting with representatives of the Cork IRA.
The meeting took place in a town called Caheragh, in Drimoleague, and was presided over by Mr Collins, who announced several changes to the command structure of the 3rd West Cork Brigade of the army (pictured).
Seán Hayes, Hugh Thornton, Liam Deasy, Michael McCarthy, Pat Harte, Denis O'Shea and Ted O'Sullivan were all either promoted or demoted by Mr Collins, in what is said to be the last visit that he made to any of the three Cork Brigades during that period in our history.
After he took the soup, Mr Collins found himself in the Cork area again and, on the evening of the 22nd of August, 1922, Mr Collins and his Free State military escort took a wrong turn (another one...) and, on seeing a man they presumed was a local, pulled-in and asked him for directions.
The local, a Mr Dinny Long (an IRA man) put them on the right road, so to speak, and sent them on their way to an area known as 'the Mouth of Flowers', better known to outsiders as Béal na mBláth.
Mr Long had recognised Collins and got word to his comrades, and a certain IRA man, Liam Deasy, helped to organise a 'street party' for his old ex-republican Commanding Officer. The rest is history...
16TH AUGUST 1920...
British Army Private AE Nunn and some of his colleagues had been tasked with guarding a British Army airplane which crashed to earth on the 15th August, 1920, in the vicinity of Kanturk, in County Cork.
The Kanturk Company of the IRA heard about the incident and arrived at the scene on the same day and opened fire on Private Nunn and his colleagues and, in the firefight, Private Nunn was killed.
The following day, Monday, 16th August 1920 - 103 years ago on this date - Private Nunn's colleagues, assisted by RIC men, raided Jack O'Connell's home at Derrygallon, in Cork, and pulled him and his IRA comrade, Patrick Clancy, out of the house. Both men (pictured) were bayoneted and then shot dead.
The British raiding party later claimed that both men were killed while "resisting arrest".
16TH AUGUST 1920...
Kerry No. 2 Brigade of the IRA had received information that an RIC motorised patrol would be passing over Beaufort Bridge, in their operational area (between Killorglin and Killarney) at a certain time, on the 16th August (1920) and an ambush position was established.
The car with the (armed) RIC men arrived on the bridge at the expected time and was fired on, in the belief that the RIC would vacate the vehicle to defend themselves and try and retain ownership of the car.
Instead, although being fired on, the car sped up and hightailed it off the bridge!
16TH AUGUST 1920...
In June, 1920, RIC District Inspector William Harding Wilson was part of an RIC patrol driving through the village of Templetouhy, in County Tipperary, when they were fired on by the IRA ; bullets grazed his head but, although injured, he survived.
That same RIC operative, Wilson, was later said by the IRA to have been involved in the killing of IRA Captain (Borrisoleigh Company, Tipperary No.2 Brigade) Michael Small, who was shot dead on the 4th July, 1920, while he was crossing a field close to where an IRA ambush had taken place.
On the 16th August 1920 - 103 years ago on this date - an IRA 'Active Service Unit' was sent to the townland of Templemore, in Tipperary, to deal with the RIC man and, as he was about to enter the Post Office in that village at about 6.45pm, a shot rang out from a near-by laneway and RIC DI Wilson fell to the ground, having been shot in the head.
His colleagues in the British Army and the RIC went berserk and they went into the town of Templemore and burnt down the Town Hall (pictured) and three creameries in Castleiney, Killeen and Loughmore, and shops and houses were looted and destroyed.
However, during the fiery destruction of the Town Hall, two British soldiers (from the Northampton Regiment) received mortal injuries ; Lance–Corporal Herbert Fuggle died from burns and Lieutenant-Colonel Sidney Beattie was injured and died later from his wounds.
RIP Captain Michael Small.
Thanks for the visit, and for reading,
Sharon and the team.
