1169 And Counting.....

"THE GENTLEMANY NATURE OF THE IRISH REBELS" IS CONDEMNED.

2026-05-27T10:38:14.990+00:00

ON THIS DATE (27TH MAY) 148 YEARS AGO : BIRTH OF A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT MEMBER-IN-WAITING.

'Francis Sheehy-Skeffington did not enter his wife Hanna's details on the 1911 Census form at their home...as the suffragettes had a campaign of non-cooperation with the 1911 Census.

Francis recorded four people in the house : himself (aged 32), his one year old son (Owen) and two female servants, Philomena Morrissey (aged 23) and Mary Butler (aged 21).

The enumerator, James Crozier, attempted to circumvent the boycott by recording Hanna’s details, but almost all of the information was incorrect.

He entered her name as Emily, (but her correct name was Johanna), had the wrong age of 28 (her real age was 33), he recorded their marriage as 3 years in length (but they had been married for 8 years) and recorded her place of birth as Dublin (she was born in Kanturk, Co. Cork).

He was correct in recording that they had had one child and that this child was alive (Owen Lancelot) ; the enumerators, who were from the police force, had extensive powers to make enquiries locally about those who refused to fill out the form.

Johanna Mary Sheehy (pictured, in 1912, on her release from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin), known as Hanna, was born in Kanturk, County Cork, in May 1877. She belonged to a prosperous farming and milling family. Her father, David Sheehy (1844-1932), was a member of the IRB and later an MP, and had been imprisoned no less than six times for revolutionary activities. Hanna was a highly influential figure during the suffragette movement and was also active in the realms of socialism and Irish independence.

She married Francis Skeffington in 1903. They joined their names together on marriage, a symbol of the equality in their relationship. Both were founder members of the Irish Women’s Franchise League in 1908 which fought for women’s suffrage. They had one child, Owen Lancelot, in 1909. She was fired from her teaching post in 1912 following her arrest for breaking windows during a militant suffragette protest.

In 1912 she and her husband founded the 'Irish Citizen' newspaper. She was active in the labour movement assisting in the soup kitchen at Liberty Hall in 1913.

Like her husband, Hanna was a pacifist. She attended a meeting in Wexford organised by John Redmond for conscription to the British Army. Huge crowds attended as conscription was so popular and trains had been organised from Waterford and Kilkenny. Redmond was about to address the audience when a very heavily veiled Hanna stood up on a box asking people to repudiate Redmond and his recruiting. She was torn down from the box by the crowd and her clothes almost ripped from her.

She was very badly mistreated by the crowd and if it were not for the intervention of the police and some members of the public she would have been thrown into Wexford Bay ;

"A much battered and torn and, I am sure, very much bruised, Mrs Skeffington was rescued".

During the Rising Hanna did not join the rebels but she brought food and messages to the various outposts. Her elderly uncle, a priest named Eugene Sheehy, a well-known Land League and IRB member, was at the GPO as a confessor to the rebels. She was in the confidence of some of the leadership as they selected her to act as a member of a civil provisional government to come into effect if the Rising was prolonged (she was to be one of five members of the Provisional government to be set up once the rebellion was victorious).

She considered the Rising as the first point in Irish History where the struggle for women’s citizenship and national freedom converged. Her husband Francis, who was not involved in the Rising, was arrested while trying to prevent looting. He was detained by Captain Bowen-Colthurst and shot without a trial. She refused £10,000 in compensation and instead looked for a court martial for her husband’s killer.

After the Rising she worked tirelessly to convince the American public to support the Irish cause and conducted a series of lectures there to raise funds. She went to America with Margaret Skinnider and Nora Connolly but the US authorities did not want her there as she was "talking too much" and so she returned to Ireland.

In 1917 she was appointed to the executive of Sinn Féin, rising to become the Director of Organisation. In the War of Independence she served as a judge in the Republican law courts in Dublin and during the Civil War she helped to set up the Women’s Prisoners’ Defence League. In the 1930’s Hanna was assistant editor of An Phoblacht. She died in April 1946 and is buried beside her husband Francis in Glasnevin...' (from here.)

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.'

That headstone dates Hanna's death as 'May 1878', and other sources cite her date of birth as '24th May'. But, either way, in our opinion, the Lady deserves a write-up and also deserves to be remembered more than she is.

On the 27th May, 1919, a Mr Walter Hume Long (pictured, the '1st Viscount Long'!) wrote to his friend, a Mr David Lloyd George (the 'Prime Minister of the United Kingdom') offering his opinion that it was not yet the time for declaring the Sinn Féin organisation to be an 'illegal' body.

Mr Long was aware that if Sinn Féin were 'outlawed' the RIC, the pro-British 'police force' in Ireland, would come under ever more pressure and he knew they wouldn't be able 'to hold the line'.

So he suggested holding off until the RIC were 'overhauled' first, telling Mr George that the chief RIC officers were either incompetent or worn out, suggesting that the then RIC 'Inspector General', a Mr 'Sir' Joseph Aloysius Byrne (who was appointed in 1916) had lost his nerve and should be replaced.

Mr Byrne had initiated a policy of compulsory retirement of RIC members whom he considered "unfit for service", which didn't go down well in political or military circles in Westminster as it was precisely the "unfit for service" (ie 'the loose cannon')-types that they wanted to 'police' Ireland!

Mr Long opined that a Mr Thomas James Smith (Belfast City Commissioner since 1909), a hardline RIC supporter in Belfast, would be spot-on for the position, I say, what...!!

This issue was discussed between the politicians for a few months and, on the 10th November (1919), the British 'Lord Lieutenant of Ireland', Field Marshal John Denton Pinkstone French ('1st Earl of Ypres, KP, GCB, OM, GCVO, KCMG, PC...' ETC ETC!) wrote to Mr 'Sir' Joseph Aloysius Byrne ordering him to take one month's leave "to rest himself" (Mr French could not actually sack the man, as that would require input from the British Treasury and there was no guarantee that Treasury management would agree with the move).

Mr Byrne assured all and sundry that he was grand (!) and sure he took the few weeks off anyway but, when he returned to work in early December, he found that "desks containing his private papers had been sealed" and Mr Smith was sitting behind his desk, the locks on which had been changed, as had Mr Byrne's career trajectory!

Flexing his new muscles on the 6th July, 1920, the then 'Inspector General of the RIC', Mr 'Sir' Smith, issued a decree to the media and to his troops -

"No authorised persons will be allowed to arrogate to themselves the duties of the police. Any such gathering of Volunteers will be an illegal assembly, the local police should take steps to disperse it and arrest the leaders. Military aid may be invoked where necessary..."

Needless to say, the IRA ignored his 'warning' and continued to militarily defend themselves and their country.

His failed decree might have had some bearing on the fact that, within five months of him having issued it, he retired from his position with that paramilitary 'police force', on two-thirds of his salary.

Indeed, between the 1st May 1920 and the 31st July 1920, more than 500 members of that grouping also resigned/retired.

They were no doubt just as demoralised as Mr Smith was.

Incidentally, the official file on Mr 'Sir' Thomas James Smith is in the British 'National Archives' in Kew, London and, when the man retired, his file was sealed for 26 years...

==========================

THE GREAT OIL AND GAS ROBBERY...

From 'Magill' Magazine, October 2005.

"I spent an hour with Micheál Ó Seighin (pictured), one of the Rossport Five.

Micheál received us very graciously in the small visiting box. He is a small, quietly-spoken man in his late 60s.

"Tá sibhse ag dhéanamh obair go hiontach. Congratulations. Bhí an scéal Dé Luan go han, han mhaith. Ceim mhór", he said..."

Micheál Ó Seighin.

Michael McDowell.

Pat Rabbitte.

Micheál said all of this in a quiet understated way and every so often he would chuckle as he responded to our questions.

For example, when I asked him what was the pipeline like he said - "Shell told us it was a very thick pipeline. We told them that the pipeline might be very thick but we're not."

I had heard that heavy metal deposits were being dumped back into the sea. He is obviously a man who thinks and ponders on all these matters and in response to my questions he gave detailed answers.

"Yes", he said, "Originally they wanted to dump it in Broadhaven Bay which is a special area of conservation under the EU and it is also internationally important because it supports important populations of birds, among them Brent Geese.

That stretch of coast used to have the best sea angling in western Europe - seven different types of whale and dolphin breed in the bay.

Carrowmore Lake is the supplier of water for this region and is protected as a 'Natura 2000' site on the UN list of protected conservation areas, and it will be badly damaged. Shell were told all of this and so was the Government."

Our discussion turned to the bog through which the pipe is being laid which, in some parts, is 30 feet deep, and below that is the dóib ('1169' comment - dóib [pronounced doh-ib] is an Irish word referring to sticky mud - 'daub' - or plaster-clay and, in the context of Irish bogs, it refers specifically to a type of heavy, viscous mud or clay found deep within the soil). Dóib causes the bog to move.

Micheál told us of a neighbour's experience when he built a septic tank ; the dóib lifted the tank, and another neighbour had a similar experience with the foundations for a hayshed.

According to local people, sections of the pipe are sinking in the bog...

(The third [ie last] pic above shows a Mr Patrick Rabbitte, ex-State Labour Party leader and ex-'State Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources' ; Mr Rabbittee retired as State Labour Party leader in 2007, and from political life altogether in 2016, on a combined pension package worth over €2 million to him!)

(MORE LATER.)

ON THIS DATE (27TH MAY) 158 YEARS AGO : "FENIAN HANGED IN PUBLIC" ANNOUNCEMENT IN ENGLAND.

'The last man to be publicly executed in England has had a plaque erected in his memory at a mass grave in London. Michael Barrett came from a small farm in Drumnagreshial, Fermanagh, and was 27 when he was publicly hanged in front of Newgate Jail in London in May 1868...(he) was a member of the Fenians and had been found guilty of blowing up the wall of Clerkenwell House of Detention in London in 1867...(his) guilt was never clearly established and the evidence given by witnesses at the trial was questionable...' (from here.)

Michael Barrett's body was left hanging for about one hour, in full public view, outside Newgate Prison, and his body was then removed by prison staff and he was put in a grave within the prison walls : he remained there for 34 years before the British were shamed into placing his remains into a box and burying him in the City of London Cemetery in Ilford, East London.

At the time they executed him, their 'queen', Victoria, expressed her disappointment that 'only one person was caught' for the deed and suggested that, in any future such incident, the police should simply lynch, on-the-spot, any Irish suspects rather then give too much publicity to the Irish fightback.

An unsurprising comment, really, from the 'Famine (sic) queen' who, to put it mildly, 'had no real compassion for the Irish people in any way'.

'It was on a bright may morning, in the year of 68,

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 to free Ireland...' (from here.)

RIP Michael Barrett, Bold Fenian Man ; 1841 - 26th May 1868.

ON THIS DATE (27TH MAY) 228 YEARS AGO : BATTLE OF OULART HILL, WEXFORD.

On the 27th of May, 1798 (Whit Sunday) , a few hundred well armed British Kingsborough militiamen and yeomanry from the North Cork Militia were sent to Oulart (Abhallghort/Orchard), in Wexford, to quell 'native unease' and, as expected, they plundered and caused havoc on their journey to 'put manners' on those Irish men and women who had assembled, approximately one-thousand strong, in Oulart, under the leadership of Fr.John Murphy, General Myles Byrne, from Ballylusk, and General Edward Roche of Garlough, Castlebridge.

A description of the battle can be read here, but suffice to quote one paragraph from that link :

'...the (British) militiamen were soon completely overrun, and must have seen their fate written in the pent-up hatred on the rebels' faces. They turned and fled for their lives, spilling down the slopes from where they had come just a few minutes before.

Some ran for miles before being overtaken, impaled and gutted.

They begged for mercy in both Gaelic and English. They blessed themselves and shouted out prayers, since many of their number were themselves Catholic, but received absolutely no pity from the rebels.

To the insurgents, the men begging for their lives were the same ones who had so recently burned out and murdered their neighbours and friends. The merciless pikemen offered no quarter, and the detested North Cork Militia disappeared forever on the bloody slopes of Oulart Hill....'

One of the above-mentioned leaders, Myles Byrne (who lived long enough to serve as an officer in Napoleon's 'Irish Legion') was born in Monaseed in Wexford, on March 20th, 1780, and was only a boy when he witnessed the attacks by the yeoman militia and other mercenaries which England let loose in Wexford in 1798.

But he took his place in the United Irishmen and fought through the Wexford campaign, joined Michael Dwyer afterwards in Wicklow, later came to Dublin and was a comrade and friend of Robert Emmet in the continuation of '98 which failed so sadly in 1803.

He was sent by Emmet (then on the run) to France to seek assistance from Thomas Addis Emmet and the other exiled United Irishmen and went with no hesitation, in the hope that he would return in the ranks of a conquering army and, for over 30 years, he followed the flag of France across the battlefields of Europe, whilst seeking out information from all sources on the situation in Ireland.

After his retirement in 1835, when all hope of striking a blow for his own country had failed, he settled in Paris and continued to write, off and on, for twenty years, right up to the day of his death in 1862.

His widow published his memoirs in three volumes and the story was published in serial form in the 'Shamrock' newspaper of Dublin, in 1869, and reprinted in the 'Irish Weekly Independent' in 1898.

In his memoirs, he was critical of the "gentlemany nature" of the rebel approach, believing them to have been "too willing to negotiate and to accept (British) government protections and non-existent government good faith".

Whilst in Paris, his home was a 'safe house' for all who had ever served Ireland and one of the most welcome visitors to his home was that fine old soldier John Mitchel, who described Myles Byrne as "..a tall figure, the splendid ruin of a soldier d'elite , bearing himself still erect under the weight of eighty winters. The grey eye is keen and proud, the thin face bronzed and worn by war and weather, and the whole bearing gives the idea not of decrepitude, but of a certain dashing gallantry.

He has marched over half of Europe, and stood full often at the head of his regiment on the rough edges of battle in Spain, in Germany, in Greece and other, earlier memories, cloud at times his clear grey eyes ; and through and beyond the battle smoke and thunder of all Napoleon's fields, he has a vision of the pikemen at New Ross, and hears the fierce 'hurrah' on Oulart Hill..."

Myles Byrne died in France on Friday 24th January 1862, aged 82, and was buried in Montmarte Cemetery ('The Hill Of Martyrs'), Paris, in a grave marked with a Celtic Cross (since replaced with a different headstone) , inscribed with the words -

'Sincerement Attache A L'Irlande : Son Pays Natal, IL A Fidelement Servi La France, Sa Patrie Adoptive.'

The words on the new headstone read -

'Here lies Myles Byrne, Lieutenant Colonel in the service of France.

Officer of the legion of Honour.

Knight of St Louis, born at Monaseed in the county Wexford in Ireland, 20th March 1780. Died at Paris, the 24th January 1862, his long life was distinguished by the constant integrity and loyalty of his character and by his high-minded principles.

Sincerely attached to Ireland, his native land, he gave faithful service to France, the country of his adoption.'

Myles Byrne done more for Ireland on that one day, 228 years ago on this date, then some will do in a lifetime.

RIP General Myles Byrne.

27th-28th May, 1920 : "In 1867, the Fenians attacked a British military outpost at Kilmallock in County Limerick, but were repelled ; fifty-three years after that event, the Fenians (IRA) decided to burn the outpost (then an RIC barracks) to the ground..."

60+ armed republican Volunteers from East Clare, Cork, Tipperary and West Limerick, including Volunteers Tim Crowley, Jack McCarthy, Michael Brennan (Officer Commanding East Clare Brigade), Donnacha O'Hannigan, Jeremiah O'Mahoney, Sean Finn (Officer Commanding West Limerick Brigade), Garrett McAuliffe, Patrick Clancy, Larry McNamee, Edmond Tobin, P Hannigan, Tadgh Crowley, Denis Lacey, D P McCarthy, Connie Mackey, J Lynch and J O'Brien.

Volunteer Thomás Malone (aka 'Seán Forde', pictured, above) and Volunteer Seán Wall (pictured, below) played prominent parts in the operation - there were about 30 armed foreign 'police men' in a well-fortified barracks, roads into and out of the area were blocked by the armed rebels, neighbouring buildings were availed of in the fight, and there were casualties...

..we have penned a few paragraphs about this military operation elsewhere in this blog post ; two for the price of one, yer gettin'...!

==========================

On the 11th November, 1919, British forces raided a Dáil Éireann office in Dublin (76 Harcourt Street) and, among other items robbed by them - and damage caused - was at least one box containing Dáil Éireann-headed notepaper.

Over the following weeks and months 'orders' were issued on Dáil Éireann notepaper to various Dáil Éireann departments leading to missed meetings, misinformation, people being named in the wrong etc and some more serious issues.

On the 18th May, 1920, Arthur Griffith (Acting President and Minister for Home Affairs, Dáil Éireann) again contacted a Lieutenant-Colonel Mr 'Sir' Walter Edgeworth-Johnstone (KBE, CB etc!), the 'Chief Commissioner' of the then British 'police' in Ireland, the DMP, demanding the return of all the Dáil Éireann headed paper his grouping took during the Harcourt Street intrusion.

On the 27th May (1920), Mr 'Sir' Johnstone wrote back to Mr Griffith declaring "that no notepaper or any writing paper was removed from 76 Harcourt Street or taken possession of by police or by the military...", which prompted Mr Griffith to issue another public statement confirming that official notepaper was indeed among the items removed from Harcourt Street by British forces during the November 1919 raid.

Mr Griffith again referenced the fact that 'The Irish Bulletin' had previously released photographs of British Army documents which were written on the stolen notepaper and a statement from a neutral typefounder/typecaster/die-sinking expert saying that the typeface on those documents was an exact match for the typeface on death notices written on Dáil Éireann notepaper which had been sent to Dáil Éireann members.

The republican newspaper also published a copy of a British Army intelligence report from a British Army Captain, a Mr Frederick Harper-Shove, to one of his 'intelligence department' buddies, a British Army Major, Jocelyn Lee 'Hoppy' Hardy -

"Dear Hardy,

Have been given a free hand to carry on, and everyone has been charming.

Re our little stunt, I see no prospects until I have things on a firmer basis, but still hope and believe there are possibilities..."

The "little stunt" was probably a reference to the 'false flag' orders/instructions he and his people were placing in Irish republican circles, in the hope that it would lead to IRA members executing their own people in the belief that they had been 'turned'.

When not trying to stitch good people up, Mr Harper-Shove was apparently stitching himself up - his military 'Medal Index Card' contains complaints from his superior officers that he was fond of wearing medals to which he was not entitled and, in his dealings with the 'Herbal Medicine' (!) industry, Mr Harper-Shove was known as a Lieutenant-Colonel, a rank he was never entitled to!

Mr Frederick Harper-Shove was attached to the 'BA General Staff, Intelligence', and was better known in BA circles as a 'spy instructor' - he mostly operated from the 'spy school' in Hounslow, in West London, in a premises known as 'Cavalry Barracks/Silent Section'.

Despite his many enemies, he managed to stitch-up (!) a long life for himself - he died in 1974 in his own country, at 88 years of age, in Gateshead, in Tyne and Wear, North East England.

That much, at least, is true about the man...

==========================

As Mr 'Sir' Johnstone was writing his 'don't-know-nothin'-letter to Mr Griffith, a British Army Private, a Mr Joseph Clarkson (19, 'Service Number 51979'), attached to 'The King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment', was on guard duty outside the British 'Chief Secretary's Lodge' in the Phoenix Park in Dublin when a gunshot was discharged.

Mr Clarkson fell to the ground, dead.

The poor young man had been "accidently shot dead by a fellow British Army soldier..."

He is buried in Ince-in-Makerfield Cemetery on the Warrington Road in Lower Ince, in Wigan, Greater Manchester, in his own country.

==========================

THE MONTH UNSPUN...

The stories that hit the headlines.

From Magill magazine, August 2002.

For its part, the government claimed that it had tried to draw up a list of protected sporting events in the past, but the moves had been blocked by the FAI, the IRFU and the GAA.

But there was more to government utterances on the matter than met the eye.

The government is now in the process of drawing up a list of protected sports events, and it is not likely that any of the above-mentioned organsations will risk public outrage by trying to interfere.

The GAA has already said it had "no objection", according to 'The Irish Times', to the inclusion of the senior All-Ireland finals on the list.

The proposed list is not due to be finalised until mid-September, with Sky's coverage beginning with Ireland V Switzerland in October and, if that game is live on Sky but not on RTE, expect things to get messy.

('1169' comment - next 'Unspun' piece : deportation orders...)

(MORE LATER.)

On the 4th May, 1921, the '5th Division' of the British Army began an eight-day 'round-up drive' in the Mullingar, Tullamore and Longford areas of Ireland and "captured a number of wanted men" (...their own claim was that the 'drive' began on the 4th and resulted in the capture of 35 'terrorists').

On the 27th May, they geared-up in armoured columns and cavalry and, this time, used their colleagues in the RIC as 'point and spotters' (ie 'expendable') and headed off on another 'round-up drive', and intended to stay out until mid-June.

They had five counties in mind, and left from their base in the Curragh, County Kildare, for Offaly, Westmeath, Longford, Cavan and Monaghan (and paid a 'visit' to County Leitrim as well).

They captured a few more rebels but afterwards admitted... "..as in the first operation the results were disproportionate to the exertions of men and horses, owing to the difficulty of identification.."

However, their efforts didn't put the IRA out of business - Irish men and women carried-on and had no "difficulty of identification" when it came to knowing who had placed themselves as the enemies of Irish freedom...

==========================

On the same date that the second wave of 'armoured cars and tanks and guns' were leaving their Curragh base on the hunt for Irish rebels, 'The Cork Constitution' newspaper reported that four houses belonging to anti-republican/pro-unionist families in Cork City had been attacked and burnt down.

Historian Dr John Borgonovo later opined that these burnings were a counter-reprisal by the IRA for the burning of four local homes by the British Army after the ambush on an RIC patrol in Blackpool, County Cork, on May 14th, in which three RIC members were killed.

Incidentally, in 1921, the IRA targeted over 40 country estates, or 'Big Houses', across County Cork.

These burnings were primarily retaliation for the destruction of republican homes by Crown forces, or were strategic military operations to prevent British forces from using the properties as a barracks.

==========================

As that newspaper was reporting on trouble in Cork, about 260 miles up the road (420km approximately) in Belfast, an internal IRA GHQ memo was received by the leadership of the 3rd Northern Division.

The memo expressed concern in relation to the alleged lack of discipline on the part of 'IRA juniors' (ie street-level Volunteers) in Belfast.

The Belfast Brigade operated under the command structure of the 3rd Northern Division of the IRA and, due to its geographic isolation from Dublin (no mobile phones or email in those days!) and the intense sectarian violence in that northern city - it was engulfed in severe communal violence as well as guerrilla warfare - the Volunteers sometimes had to act with local pressures in mind, rather than on official IRA GHQ policy.

Understandable, in our opinion ; the British military and political presence caused additional problems in that part of our country, due to anti-republican/pro-unionist elements pressuring Westminster to go ahead with their plan to partition that part of Ireland.

==========================

Volunteer Patrick Boland, the Captain of the Crossard Company (pictured), East Mayo Brigade, IRA, was from Cluain Gamhnach (Cloongawnagh/Cloongownagh) near Toureen, in County Mayo.

On the 27th May (1921) he was 'arrested' by the British Army (2nd Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) near his home and, they claimed, attempted to escape and was shot dead by them.

Reports at the time stated that... "..his body was reportedly severely mutilated...(it is) believed he was tortured by Lieutenant Anderson of the Argyll and Southern Highlanders, stationed in Claremorris..".

The name 'Lieutenant Anderson' is said to be a pseudonym used by a British agent who knew that if he owned-up to his many deeds, using his real name, his last such deed would indeed be his last such deed...

RIP Volunteer Captain Patrick Boland.

==========================

As Volunteer Captain Patrick Boland was being 'arrested', about 90 miles (140km) up the road in Donegal, RIC member James Doherty (24, 'Service Number 74307') was "accidentally shot dead by a fellow RIC man...".

We couldn't find any more information on the circumstances involved or on Mr Doherty himself.

==========================

DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...

Desmond Boomer, a Belfast engineer working in the Libyan oil-fields, disappeared seven years ago.

Officially, the plane on which he was a passenger crashed as a result of mechanical failure and pilot error.

But is that the real story?

Or were the Irishman and his fellow passengers unwitting victims of the shady war between Islamic fundamentalism and Mossad, Israel's intelligence network?

A special 'Magill' investigation by Don Mullan, author of 'Eyewitness Bloody Sunday'.

From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.

On the 31st October, 1995, crowds gathered outside the Maltese Embassy in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, protesting about Shqaqi's assassination.

On the 1st November, 'The Times' newspaper in Malta reported on its front page that the crowds "warned Valletta of unspecified retaliation if it did not arrest the killers of Islamic Jihad chief Fathi Shqaqi..."

Reuters reported that "crowds demonstrated in Tripoli's streets and outside the Maltese Embassy, carrying portraits of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and shouting their anger and denunciation of this abominable crime.."

The Libyan news agency JANA went fuirther - it reported that the crowd outside the embassy "read out a message to the Maltese urging them to arrest Shqaqi's killers or bear responsibility for the consequences of the killing on Libyan-Maltese ties. The Maltese authorities and the ruling party there bear full responsibility if they do not arrest the terrorists and bear the responsibility for its results on all aspects of Arab-Maltese cooperation."

Arab reaction to Shqaqi's murder was not confined to Libya.

The crowd at his funeral in Palestine, where he was declared a martyr, was estimated at a quarter of a million...

(MORE LATER.)

ON THIS DATE (27TH MAY) 106 YEARS AGO : IRA OPERATIONS BEGIN TO ATTACK BRITISH FORCES IN THEIR BARRACKS IN LIMERICK.

The building, above, which was used at the time as a barracks for a British 'police force' in Ireland.

In 1867, the Fenians attacked a British military outpost at Kilmallock in County Limerick, but were repelled ; fifty-three years after that event, the Fenians (IRA, with Volunteers Thomas Malone amd Sean Wall in command) decided to burn the outpost (then an RIC barracks) to the ground.

This was officially an East Limerick IRA operation but Volunteers from East Clare, Cork, Tipperary and West Limerick took part in the attack, among whom were Volunteers Tim Crowley, Jack McCarthy, Michael Brennan (O/C East Clare Brigade), Donnacha O'Hannigan, Jeremiah O'Mahoney, Sean Finn (O/C West Limerick Brigade), Garrett McAuliffe, Patrick Clancy, Larry McNamee, Edmond Tobin, P Hannigan, Tadgh Crowley, Denis Lacey, D P McCarthy, Connie Mackey, J Lynch and J O'Brien.

The building was a two-storey, solid masonry structure with steel shuttering and was set back from the road ; it housed an RIC garrison of two sergeants, Messrs. Thomas Kane and Tobias O'Sullivan, and between seventeen and twenty-eight 'constables', all armed, and was known to be a 'tough' building.

But it had one possible weakness - its roof.

A house to the right-hand side of the barracks, which was owned by the Carroll family, was taller than the barracks, and had a 'skylight' in its attic. Clery's Hotel and a bank practically faced the barracks, as did a shop, owned by the O'Herlihy family. If, during the attack, RIC reinforcements from other areas were to attempt to rescue their colleagues they would find the routes into the town barricaded by armed IRA units.

Sixty IRA Volunteers were organised for the operation ; at least half of them, plus some local men, went out on the night of 27th May (1920) and blocked a number of roads leading to Kilmallock.

IRA leader Tom Malone ('Sean Forde') and his unit took over Carrolls house, Tim Crowley and his Volunteer group took control of Cleary's Hotel, D. O'Hannigan was in charge of a unit of IRA men which occupied the bank and J. McCarthy and an IRA unit moved in to O'Herlihy's shop for the night. Michael Brennan, an IRA leader from East Clare, was also in the shop.

A few Volunteers were positioned near outhouses at the rear of the barracks.

Just after midnight, IRA leader Tom Malone and his men took it in turns to lob heavy objects out of the skylight of the Carrolls' house, the objective being to break a hole through the roof of the barracks, into which prepared petrol-bombs could be thrown ; when Volunteer Malone's first object hit the roof, the IRA units positioned around the barracks opened fire on the front and rear of the building and, within minutes, the RIC men trapped in the building were shooting back.

While this gun-fight was going on, Malone and his men succeeded in breaching the roof - dozens of parafin and petrol bombs were thrown through the hole, followed by a flaming torch and a grenade : the building was now on fire.

By 2am (approximately two hours after the attack began) the upper storey of the barracks was about to collapse on top of the ground-floor section, where the RIC men were now confined : the IRA stopped the attack and advised the RIC to throw out their weapons and then come out themselves. The RIC refused the offer.

However, all was not as it seemed to the attackers ; the RIC men had been retreating to the outbuildings at the back of the barracks, braving the sniper-fire from the IRA Volunteers rather than face the onslaught coming through the front of the building.

By about 7am, with the barracks now a smouldering ruin, it was obvious that a fresh plan and re-deployment of the Volunteers would be necessary if the RIC were to be removed from the various outhouses they were now in, and the order was given for the IRA to withdraw ; one Volunteer, Liam Scully, from Glencar, County Kerry, was dead (and is buried in Reilig na Tríonóide [the Old Church] Graveyard [Templeglantine Cemetery], in the townland of Templeglantine West in County Limerick) and an RIC Sergeant, a Mr Thomas Kane, and one of his 'constables', a Mr Joseph Morton, were dead - six more RIC men were seriously wounded, two of whom were named as a Mr Arthur Hooey and a Mr Barry.

The Kilmallock attack, on 28th May, 1920 - in the middle of the Tan War - was one of the most prolonged and fiercest battles of that period. The actual battle itself began on the 27th of May, 1920, 106 years ago on this date.

Incidentally, local folklore has it that the rebels in 1920 were repeated name for name and, in many cases, in blood relationship, with the rebel attackers on that barracks during the Fenian Rising on March 6th 1867.

RIP Volunteer Liam Scully.

In late May, 1922, a Mr David Lloyd George (pictured), the 'Prime Minister of the United Kingdom', was 'conducting Empire business' in Genoa, Italy, when he was contacted by his office and reminded that he was due to meet on the 27th with a political delegation from the Free State in Ireland.

'That's a damned nuisance...', says he to himself, '..sure isn't the whole partition of Ireland issue settled...?!'

Anyway - he made it back to Westminster on the 20th and, on the 26th, he examined the 'Treaty document' (written by, among others, Messrs Hugh Kennedy, James Douglas and Professor Alfred O'Rahilly) which the Staters had delivered to himself and his administration.

And it wasn't to their liking.

At the meeting on the 27th (May, 1922), he didn't hold back - he told the Staters that the new Free State constitution was a republican one (!) with a "thin veneer" ('spoonful of sugar', if you like!) and a complete evasion of the Treaty, and declared that the Irish would be sent a list of British objections to their draft constitution by May 29th.

Also, a Mr Churchill referenced 'Article 17' of the Treaty (of Surrender) [which obliged the Staters to sign a declaration of adherence to the Treaty] and told 'Collins Crew' that if Article 17 did not apply then "the process of the transfer of function does not go forward anymore".

It later transpired that Mr Churchill had already made contingency plans, which were approved by "a subcommittee of the 'Committee for Imperial Defence'...", no less (!) chaired by Mr Churchill, to occupy the waterline of lakes and rivers running from Dundalk to Letterkenny "to defend the North against invasion [by the Staters]" (sic- how do you invade your own country?!).

Other (cringe-inducing) meetings were held on the 29th and the 30th May (1922) and also on the 1st June (it transpired after his 1st June meeting with the Staters that Mr Churchill had also held a meeting with British military chiefs to draw up a plan for the full military reconquest of Ireland!), in which the Brits put the Staters in their place and, on the 2nd June, Mr Arthur Griffith, speaking for the Stater delegation, wrote to Mr David Lloyd George saying, in effect - "OK, boss - you win. We'll sign whatever ya want, just let us have part-control over 26 of our own 32 counties, a titled office job, decent salary and pension and the job's done.."

And Stater politicians in that same Leinster House institution are still selling us out today, 2026, but this time it's to the EU/UN/WEF, who have sent hundreds of thousands of their foot-soldiers here already - the 'asylum seekers/refugees/migrants/vagrants' that gather at practically every street corner in almost every village, town and city in this God-forsaken corrupt State...

==========================

On the 27th May, possibly in the hope of putting pressure on the British at the meeting in Westminster that same day, the Staters back home in Dublin issued a 'Proclamation from the Provisional Government' stating that an election would be held in the new 'Free State' on the 16th June.

Nomination forms for that election referred to elections to the 'Provisional Parliament pursuant to the Free State (Agreement) Act' (and not for the Third Dáil) and, later that same day (27th May 1922), a 'Lord Viscount of Derwent', a Mr Edmund Bernard FitzAlan-Howard (pictured, the British-imposed 'Lord Lieutenant of Ireland' ie the representative of the British Crown in Ireland, a position often referred to as the 'Viceroy of Ireland') declared that "the Parliament of Southern Ireland was dissolved and I hereby call a Parliament to be known as and styled the Provisional Parliament..."

Mr FitzAlan-Howard was a lucky man - he died of natural causes on the 18th May, 1947, at the age of 91, at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor, Berkshire, in his own country, England, and is buried at the Arundel Roman Catholic Cemetery at Arundel Castle.

One of his ancestors, 'the 2nd/9th Earl of Arundel' who bore the same name, was not as lucky - he was beheaded for high treason on the 17th November, 1326.

'High Treason' is heredity, it seems...

==========================

On the same day that the Staters issued their 'Proclamation from the Provisional Government' in Dublin, about 105 miles (165km) up the road in Belfast, three people were shot - a Mr William Smyth (21) was shot dead in the Short Strand, a Mr Robert Rainey (50) was shot when he went to the aid of a man injured in disturbances in the Cullingtree Road area and a five-years-young child, Georgina Campbell, was shot by a sniper allegedly operating from St Matthew's Church.

Those poor people might not have known it at the time, but they had been abandoned to their fate that same day by the Staters in Westminster.

==========================

Between the dates May 27th and June 10th, 1922, the build-up to and actual clash between the 'Ulster Special Constabulary', the British Army, the Free State army and the IRA - 'The Battle Of Pettigo' - took place along the Donegal/Fermanagh Border.

It was the last occasion that the Free Staters and the IRA fought side-by-side against British and pro-British forces.

The British military occupied Pettigo, a small village and townland on the border of County Donegal and County Fermanagh, until January 1923, when it was handed over to Free State troops and stayed in Belleek until August 1924, when the RUC and the 'Specials' took over the security (!) of the village -

'Pettigo, that little dismembered village, half in County Fermanagh, half in County Donegal, half free and half unfree, recalls to thousands of us very vivid memories of our Pilgrimage to Saint Patrick's Purgatory, Lough Derg.

...the stand made by less than one hundred IRA Volunteers against overwhelming numbers of British forces and lasting over a week, began on Saturday, May 27th 1922.

On that day a hundred Specials crossed Lough Erne in a pleasure steamer named 'The Lady of the Lake', towing a number of small boats, and landed above Belleek.

They (the pro-British 'Special Constabulary') marched to Magheramenagh Castle, the residence of the late Reverend L. O'Kierans, the Parish Priest of Pettigo, and ordered him to leave immediately, which he did.

A party of thirty IRA Volunteers advanced down the railway line towards Magheramenagh Castle but on their way there they were intercepted by a patrol of Specials who engaged them and then retreated to Magherameena Castle, pursued by the IRA Volunteers.

The Specials then abandoned the Castle for good, retreated to their boats on the Lough and withdrew in them to the Buck Island in Lough Erne, where they were reinforced by another hundred Specials with medical attendants who treated their wounded.

The Volunteers had suffered but a few minor injuries...' (...more here.)

==========================

As 'The Battle Of Pettigo' was kicking off, about 122 miles (195 km) down the road in Dublin, a smaller battle was taking place.

A British Army 'Lance Corporal', a Mr George Albert Emery ('Service Number M/25319'), from London, England, attached to the 'Royal' Army Service Corps Motor Transport Division in Dublin, was in the College Green area of the city with an army buddie of his, a 'Private' Dean, standing beside their sidecar-mounted motorbike.

At about 12.40pm on that day (27th May 1922) two men approached them and ordered them to move away from the motorbike ; a verbal/physical scuffle ensued and five gunshots were fired.

Both of the BA soldiers were seen to stagger ; Mr Emery fell to the ground, got back up, moved unsteadily towards nearby Church Lane and managed to set foot on Saint Andrew Street where he fell down again - dead.

Mr Emery had been shot three times - once in the neck and once in each lung.

Mr Dean survived the day.

The two other men left the scene.

==========================

Around the same time as College Green in Dublin was thrown into a panic, about 103 miles (166km) across the country and up the road a bit an 'ex'-RIC 'Sergeant', a Mr James Greer, was taken out of his house in Cootehall (near the town of Boyle) in County Roscommon and shot dead.

Mr Greer's son, Thomas, who lived just down the road from his father and was an 'ex'-member of the ADRIC* anti-republican semi-paramilitary grouping was also paid a visit that same day.

He was removed from his house and shot dead as well.

The Greers name had surfaced during an IRA investigation into the killing of Fr Michael Griffin, as had the name of another ADRIC member, a Mr Nichols, and 'Lord Haw-Haw' (a Mr William Joyce).

(*The ADRIC's were known as 'Pound-a-Day' men by the rebels, as that's how little they sold their 'service' for.)

RIP Fr Michael Griffin.

==========================

ON THIS DATE (27TH MAY) 71 YEARS AGO - ELECTION VICTORY ANNOUNCED FOR SINN FÉIN IN THE O6C.

'SINN FÉIN VICTORY.

Two Prisoner Candidates Elected To Thirty-Two County Parliament!

Northern republicans on road to freedom : Thursday, May 26th 1955, is a landmark in Irish history.

A new chapter has been opened.

The total vote cast for Sinn Féin candidates, great though it was, is of secondary importance to the new spirit of co-operation and voluntary service to Ireland that has spread throughout the country.

We are proud of the response made by the republicans in the North to Ireland's call for freedom and unity ; after years of betrayal and confusion - in spite of enemy tactics to disrupt and 'friendly' efforts to discourage - the republicans of the North have proved that the courage and idealism of the O'Neills and the O'Donnells lives on.

The election is a phase in the Sinn Féin campaign to organise all Irishmen into one united people to end forever British occupation and influence in Ireland, to restore to the Irish people their fundamental right to govern themselves and to develop the resources of Ireland for the happiness and prosperity of the Irish people.

It is now the task and duty of all Irishmen (sic) to rally to the support of Northern republicans in their demand for a 32-County Parliament.

Sinn Féin has the plans, you have the power - join Sinn Féin and unite the Nation!'

(From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, June, 1955 ; please note that the Sinn Féin organisation referenced in the above piece has no connection, except verbally [according to the PSF grouping] to the Stormont and Leinster House political party which is a political service provider for both the Free State and British administrations in this country.)

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - much appreciated!

Sharon and the team.

(We'll be back here on the blog on Wednesday, 17th June, 2026, and 'lil auld me will be on 'X' and Facebook between now and then, if yer missin' me all that much!

Myself and one of my teams in the company I work for, and with, have been requested to travel to our Galway office to reorganise/tweak the internal structures, and the company have booked us in to a [5 Star 'sleek urban retreat', if ya wouldn't mind!] hotel so I won't be in Dublin for at least ten days, never mind being in a position to work on the blog.

Only hope I don't come back with a culchie accent. Or an African one...)

"BURIED QUIETLY IN THE PRESENCE OF STRANGERS..."

2026-05-13T09:49:32.148+00:00

ON THIS DATE (13TH MAY) 174 YEARS AGO : 'LADIES LAND LEAGUE' FOUNDER BORN.

Anna Catherine Parnell, pictured, was born 'Catherine Maria Anna Mercer Parnell' on the 13th May, 1852 - 174 years ago, on this date - at Avondale House in Rathdrum, County Wicklow. She was the tenth of eleven children of John Henry Parnell, a landlord, and Delia Tudor Stewart Parnell, an Irish-American woman (the daughter of Admiral Charles Stewart of the US Navy).

Anna and one of her sisters, Fanny, worked with their brother, Charles (Stewart Parnell) in agitating for better conditions for tenants and, on the 31st January in 1881, the two sisters officially launched a 'Ladies Land League' which, at its full strength, consisted of about five hundred branches and didn't always see eye-to-eye with its 'parent' organisation, the 'Irish National Land League'.

In its short existence, it provided assistance to about 3,000 people who had been evicted from their rented land holdings to assist and/or take over land agitation issues, as it seemed certain that the 'parent' body was going to be outlawed by the British.

And, sure enough, the British Prime Minister, Mr William Ewart Gladstone, introduced and enforced a 'Crimes Act' that same year, 1881 (better known as the 'Coercion/Protection of Person and Property Act') which made it illegal to assemble in relation to certain issues and an offence to conspire against the payment of rents 'owed' which, ironically, was a piece of legislation condemned by the same catholic church which condemned the 'Irish National Land League' because that Act introduced permanent legislation and did not have to be renewed on each political term.

And that same church also condemned the 'Ladies Land League' to the extent that Archbishop McCabe of Dublin instructed priests loyal to him "..not to tolerate in your societies (diocese) the woman who so far disavows her birthright of modesty as to parade herself before the public gaze in a character so unworthy of a Child of Mary...".

The best that can be said about that is that that church's 'consistency' hasn't changed much over the years, and that it wasn't only a religious institution which made an issue out of women being politicised - 'In the year in which the Ladies' Land League was formed, Ireland was first mentioned in the 15 January 1881 issue of the 'Englishwoman's Review'.

Tellingly, this was a report headed 'Women Landowners in Ireland' (and) there was also a small report of a 'Catholic Charitable Association' being formed 'by a number of Irish ladies for aiding the families of poor or evicted tenants'.

The addition of the phrase "It is distinctly understood that the society shall take no part whatever in political agitation.." reveals the disapproval felt by the journal for those engaged in that agitation *. The formation of the Ladies' Land League was then noted : 'In anticipation of Government action against local branches of the Irish National Land League, arrangements are being made for the establishment of a Ladies' Land League throughout Ireland. Such a movement has already been organised in America, where Mrs Parnell, the mother of the Member for Cork, is the President, and Miss Fanny Parnell and Mr John Stewart, the sister and brother of Mr Parnell, MP, are acting as organisers.

The Irish movement will be led by the wives of the local leaders of the existing league, and will devote themselves to the collection of funds...' ** (from here).

* / ** - That periodical was assembled and edited by, and for, middle-class women of the day (late 19th/early 20th century) and, while it did cover and promote economic independence for women, occupation outside of the home for women, the need for better educational facilities for women to enable and encourage women to seek employment in 'the male professions' ie politics and medicine, it was truly of its day in that it was felt to be a bridge-too-far to call for women to take to the streets for the right to be more than 'just' fund-raisers.

In short, the authors were, in effect, confining themselves to be further confined.

In October 1881, Westminster proscribed the 'Irish National Land League' and imprisoned its leadership, but the gap was ably filled by the 'Ladies Land League' until it was acrimoniously dissolved on the 10th August 1882, 19 months after it was formed.

Anna's brother, Charles, died in 1891 and, somewhat disillusioned with the political society that she lived in, she moved to the south of England and went by the name 'Cerisa Palmer'.

On the 20th September in 1911, when she was living in Ilfracombe in Devon, England, at 59 years of age, she went for her usual daily swim but got into difficulties ; her plight was noticed from the shore but she was dead by the time help arrived.

She was buried quietly in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church in Ilfracombe, in the presence of just a handful of strangers.

RIP Catherine Maria Anna Mercer Parnell.

On the 13th May, 1919, nine armed IRA Volunteers (Seamus Robinson, Tom Breen, Sean Treacy [all 3rd Tipperary Brigade], Ned 'Eamon' O'Brien, James Scanlon, J J O'Brien, Sean Lynch, Edward Foley and James 'Goorty' McCarthy) met up as arranged in Knocklong Railway Station in County Limerick.

Their intention was to rescue one of their comrades, Volunteer Seán Hogan (pictured) a POW, who was being transported by four RIC members - Messrs. Wallace, Enright, Ring and Reilly. two of whom - Mr Wallace and Mr Enright - were killed in their attempt to prevent the rescue.

Four of the IRA Volunteers were injured during the successful operation.

Four months afterwards, six Volunteers were 'arrested' by the British and charged with the 'murder' of the two RIC members ; three of these men were charged with taking part in the rescue. They were Volunteer Edward Foley, who did take part in the rescue, and two Volunteers who did not take part in it - Patrick Maher and Michael Murphy.

After many postponements and change of venues, the three Volunteers were found guilty ; Volunteers Edward Foley and Patrick Maher were hung by a British hangman on the 7th June, 1921, in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, and Volunteer Michael Murphy was released after the 'Treaty of Surrender' was signed.

We wrote on this blog in more detail about this rescue operation...

==========================

On the same date that IRA Volunteers in Limerick were taking physical action against the British military and political presence in Ireland, 'The Times' newspaper in London was writing about that same problem.

Commenting of the visit of the American delegation to Ireland (specifically the 'American Commission on Irish Independence [ACII]'), 'The Times' wrote that "...the effect of the visit is the submergence of every policy of the moderation so that a full Republic is now the irreducible minimum of hundreds of thousands of nationalists.."

The high-powered delegation was investigating the political conditions in Ireland, and met with the newly elected leaders of the (32-County) Dáil Éireann, and voiced support for the Irish drive for self-determination and world-wide recognition of the Irish Republic.

'The Times' newspaper was a Westminster mouthpiece and its uneasiness re the delegation was a reflection of the fears felt by the British Cabinet.

Incidentally, 'The Times' was wrong ; Irish nationalists, then and now, were and are of the political opinion that 'the British can stay but they'll have to treat us better', whereas republicans, then and now, were and are of the political opinion that nothing less than a full British military and political withdrawal from Ireland will suffice.

But not to worry - there's Irish people, too, who still don't know the difference...

==========================

THE GREAT OIL AND GAS ROBBERY...

From 'Magill' Magazine, October 2005.

"I spent an hour with Micheál Ó Seighin (pictured), one of the Rossport Five.

Micheál received us very graciously in the small visiting box. He is a small, quietly-spoken man in his late 60s.

"Tá sibhse ag dhéanamh obair go hiontach. Congratulations. Bhí an scéal Dé Luan go han, han mhaith. Ceim mhór", he said..."

Micheál Ó Seighin.

Michael McDowell.

Pat Rabbitte.

A Mr Martin Ferris, a Leinster House politician, had been at the Leinster House committee which had questioned the Minister Noel Dempsey the evening before, and he gave Micheál an account of that meeting and they discussed the Government's handling of the issue.

Micheál Ó Seighin stated -

"I told Shell a few years ago that this whole issue was going to end up in disaster. I said at the beginning that this cannot work. Go back to the drawing board, we told them. But Shell wouldn't listen.

They got a weak government with corrupt ministers and took everything they could ; if they had handled these matters differently we would have worked with them, but they didn't.

The pipeline breaches all of the safety codes, but I knew nothing about any of these things before this but now I know an awful lot - there are three codes and the pipe contravenes them all ; the British codes for safety, the Irish codes, and the US codes.

Normally production pipelines are not run past houses and there are very strict regulations, but all of these are breached.

When Frank Fahy was the minister he moved to sign a compulsory requisition order in the dying days of the last government, and this effectively gave Shell the right to proceed.

The government moved without a safety report but, subsequently, a safety report was done by a company associated with Shell. When that was revealed an independent safety review was ordered and we're waiting for that report..."

(The third [ie last] pic above shows a Mr Patrick Rabbitte, ex-State Labour Party leader and ex-'State Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources' ; Mr Rabbittee retired as State Labour Party leader in 2007, and from political life altogether in 2016, on a combined pension package worth over €2 million to him!)

(MORE LATER.)

In 1920, in Ireland, the pro-British 'police force', the RIC, continued to experience low morale, high resignation rates and a popular boycott, and were frustrated about their lot in life, God help them.

And, to add to their woes, their paymasters in Westminster were actively further militarising their role and let loose the Black and Tans, who were chaperoned into towns, villages and cities by the RIC, thus separating 'the cops' even more from the citizens they were supposedly 'serving'(!).

On the 13th May (1920), the people of the village of Thurles, in County Tipperary, were woken by the sound of gunshots and explosions as the RIC targeted houses which they suspected to be the homes of IRA Volunteers and Sinn Féin members and/or supporters.

The RIC and their pro-British sympathisers described (and dismissed) outrages like that as 'targeted retaliatory strikes' but, as should have been expected, the shootings and bombings on the civilian population had the opposite effect and actually strengthened the rebel 3rd Tipperary IRA Brigade!

==========================

On the same day that anti-republican elements were causing trouble in Thurles, about 125 miles (200km) up the road and over on yer left (!) in the village of Ballinrobe, in the county of Mayo, the Dáil Éireann Minister of Agriculture, a Mr Arthur ('Art') James Kickham O'Connor (pictured, a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State poacher) in connection with the formation of a land arbitration court ; he was assisted in this endeavour by a Mr Kevin O'Shiel (another republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State poacher) and they heard their first major case on the 17th of that month.

Most fitting, really, as both men were to go on to play a part in giving away six of their own counties...

==========================

While the two lads were in Mayo discussing land, their then rebel comrades in Ulster were clearing some of it themselves.

The recently evacuated RIC Barracks in the town of Burnfoot, in County Donegal, was burnt down by Volunteers attached to the Derry City Battalion and, on that same date, the RIC Barracks in Carrigans, in East County Donegal, was also attacked.

As those two republican operations were taking place, other rebel Volunteers forced entry into the income tax office in Bishops Street in Derry City and burned as many tax records as they could lay their hands on.

Hitting the Brits in the pocket...!

==========================

At the same time that income tax records were being liberated in Ulster, about 240 miles (380km) down the road, in Cork City, the body of a British Army Corporal, a Mr John Matthews (57, 'Service Number 243310'), from Saint Helen's, in Lancashire, in England, was discovered in a pond in the city centre.

Mr Matthews was attached to the '1st East Kent Regiment' ('the Buffs'), and was a 'Military Clerk' at the 6th Division Headquarters in Victoria Barracks in Cork.

His body was said to have some marks on it, but his clothes were not torn ; a post-mortem stated that he drowned accidently.

Mr Matthews is buried in Saint Helen's Cemetery, in Lancashire, in his own country, England.

==========================

THE MONTH UNSPUN...

The stories that hit the headlines.

From Magill magazine, August 2002.

Expect some efforts to give convincing reassurance that standards will be reviewed but, if George Bush's efforts at same in the US recently are anything to go by, the average investor will remain hugely sceptical.

The general feeling among the public was that the FAI betrayed Irish soccer for seven-and-a-half million pieces of silver, according to 'The Sunday Independent' newspaper.

'The Irish Times' speculated that Bertie Ahern was afraid to offend Sky's owner Rupert Murdoch, who is never afraid to push a preferred political candidate through his media empire, and owns 'The Sunday Times' and 'The News Of The World', two newspapers which, 'The Times' claimed, supported Fianna Fáil in the last two elections.

'The Sunday Times', though, was quick to respond to that allegation and labelled it nonsense.

In addition, it took its courage in hand and quoted Irish legend Paul McGrath condemning the deal as "moneygrabbing".

'The Star' newspaper, meanwhile ran a 'Justice For Fans' campaign...

(MORE LATER.)

On the 13th May, 1921, nominations closed for election to "the parliaments of Northern and Southern Ireland.." (sic).

124 Sinn Féin and 4 Unionists candidates were nominated for as many seats in the 'Southern Parliament' and, as no opposing candidates were nominated, they were all effectively elected ie all 128 candidates for 'the House of Commons of Southern Ireland' were returned unopposed because no rival candidates were nominated by the (13th May) deadline.

The result was - Sinn Féin 124 seats, 'Independent Unionists' 4 seats (representing Dublin University/Trinity College).

The election in the Six Counties, however, was highly contested, with 77 candidates contesting for 52 seats, with polling to be held on the 24th May ; those elections were held under 'The Government of Ireland Act 1920', which aimed to establish two 'Home Rule parliaments' in Ireland, effectively partitioning the island.

The result was - The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) won a landslide victory with 40 seats, while Sinn Féin and the Nationalist Party won 6 seats each.

In 1921, there were notable actual political differences between the established political parties in relation to partition and the British military and political presence in Ireland, but not so today, in 2026 - UUP, (P)SF, SDLP etc are all working with Westminster to maintain and enforce partition in Ireland, and some even claim it's the republican position to do so!

Anyway : re the 'nominations closed' date and its aftermath - more details here.

==========================

On the same date that those election nominations closed, IRA Volunteer Seán 'John' Joseph Magee (23, a 'Section Commander' in the rebel ranks), who worked outside the Movement as a railway clerk, was in the family home at Millgrange, Greenore, County Louth, when armed Black and Tan mercenaries stormed the house.

The intruders pulled Volunteer Magee from the house and shot him in the head.

An RIC 'County Inspector' investigated (!) the shooting and wrote a report claiming that the IRA were responsible, a propaganda trick common in those days.

Volunteer Magee is buried in Kilwirra Graveyard in Carlingford, County Louth.

'PUBLIC MEMORIAL

Erected to the memory of SECt. COMd. JOHN JOSEH MAGEE IRA, Cooley, Who nobly gave his young life in the cause of Irish Independence.

May 13th 1921.'

RIP Volunteer Seán 'John' Joseph Magee.

==========================

At the same time as the Tans raided the Magee house in Millgrange, Greenore, County Louth, their colleagues in the British Army were 135 miles (215 km) down the road in the townland of Knocknagress, in the civil parish of Tullaroan, in County Kilkenny, approaching a house to search it.

Armed IRA Volunteers from the 7th Battalion, Kilkenny Brigade and the No. 2 ASU of Tipperary No. 2 Brigade were inside the house, and fought their way out of the trap ; most of the rebels escaped, but two wounded fighters were captured - Volunteers Seán Quinn and Patrick Walsh.

Both men were taken to the BA military barracks in County Kilkenny but it was too late for Volunteer Quinn, who died there ; his comrade, Volunteer Walsh, died five days later during an attempt to amputate his leg.

The IRA investigated the shootings and discovered that two local men, farm labourers - a Mr Michael O'Keefe and a Mr Martin Dermody - had informed the enemy about the presence of the rebels in the house.

The informers were executed.

==========================

On the 12th May (1921), British Army soldiers were closing-in on the Ryan house in Ballybrack, Annacarty, in County Limerick.

The Ryans were a republican family - two of the Ryan brothers, Michael (27) and Thomas, were attached to the 3rd Battalion, Tipperary Brigade IRA, and one of their sisters, Nance, was an active member of Cumann na mBan.

The British were aware of their republican connections and were looking to 'interview' Michael, who was 'on the run' ; acting on information from an informer, the foreign soldiers (on pushbikes) were in the process of surrounding the Ryan house when Michael and Thomas made a run for it.

The two Volunteers entered a field and ran downhill towards the cover of the bushes along a small stream.

The BA soldiers opened fire, Michael fell, was captured by the enemy and brought to the Military Hospital in Tipperary, where he died in the early hours of the 13th.

On the 1st June that year, the shooting was briefly mentioned in Westminster -

'Mr. Mosley asked the Chief Secretary whether he will make inquiries into the circumstances under which Michael Ryan of Ballybrack, was shot, while crossing one of his father’s fields, by armed forces of the Crown on 12th May last?

Sir H. Greenwood : The Court of Inquiry in this case found that deceased was shot by members of the Crown forces in the execution of their duty, he having failed to halt when called upon to do so, and that no blame attached to any member of the Crown forces. According to the evidence, Ryan was on the road when challenged by the patrol, but he jumped a hedge and endeavoured to get away. He was called upon to halt three times before he was fired upon.

Major M. Wood : How far was this man away when he was called upon to halt?

Mr. Mosley : How many men, can the right hon. Gentleman say, have been shot in Ireland for this kind of thing?

Mr. Speaker : I think notice should be given of that question...'

IRA Acting Company Captain Michael Ryan is buried in Kilpatrick Cemetery, Annacarty, County Tipperary.

RIP Volunteer Michael Ryan.

==========================

In early April, 1921, a London, England man, a Mr Albert Edward Skeats (24), decided to seek adventure in Ireland and went and joined the RIC.

He was given a few weeks 'training' and sent to the RIC Barracks in Cabinteely, Dublin, 'to keep British law and order' (!) in that part of Ireland which, unfortunately for Mr Skeats, 'F Company', 6th Battalion, Dublin Brigade IRA were maintaining Irish law and order in already.

That particular barracks had been attacked twice in April by the rebels and also on the 10th and the 12th May ; on the 13th May, as Mr Skeats was standing outside the rear of the barracks, a single shot was fired at him and he fell to the ground, seriously wounded.

Mr Albert Edward Skeats died from his wound on the 28th May 1921.

A short-lived 'adventure'.

==========================

DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...

Desmond Boomer, a Belfast engineer working in the Libyan oil-fields, disappeared seven years ago.

Officially, the plane on which he was a passenger crashed as a result of mechanical failure and pilot error.

But is that the real story?

Or were the Irishman and his fellow passengers unwitting victims of the shady war between Islamic fundamentalism and Mossad, Israel's intelligence network?

A special 'Magill' investigation by Don Mullan, author of 'Eyewitness Bloody Sunday'.

From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.

Despite this, the question on many people's mind was the identity of the Maltese pilot.

Cecila Aquilina, mother of Matthew Aquilina, says that suspicion centered on Captain Bartolo, principally because of the photographs of the aircraft which appeared in 'KullHadd' on the 5th November.

Two vital questions still hang unanswered - who was the source of the articles that appeared to finger Carmelo Bartolo as a possible accomplice in the assassination of the Jihad leader, and what was the motivation behind them?

In February 1996, Desmond Boomer's wife Mandy visited Malta in search of the truth and met a journalist named Joe Mifsud during her visit ; she told 'Magill' she would never forget his opening remarks to her.

They had barely shaken hands when he declared - "This was an unfortunate accident and nothing but that..."

This comment was made by Joe Mifsud eight months before Tunisian fishermen allegedly found the wreckage of Flight 9H-ABU and less than two months after the mysterious disappearance...

(MORE LATER.)

The Athy area of County Kildare had a history in the 1920's of being "a garrison town" ie overall, more inclined to support the State forces rather than the rebels - the 'Irregulars' and, indeed, it was said to have gained and/or reinforced that reputation during the 1798 Rising.

On the 13th May, 1922, the home and outhouses of a "substantial farmer" in Russellstown, Athy - a Mr Edward Condell - were attacked and damaged by fire by an IRA ASU.

That wouldn't be the last such operation either...

==========================

In early April, 1922, the Free State Army Commandant in County Leitrim, a Mr Harold McKeon, issued a public proclamation prohibiting land seizures in the district 'under his control' (Oh the irony - the Staters were at that time and, indeed, still are today, assisting the British to seize Irish land!).

On the 9th of that month, William Blennerhassett, a (Protestant) farmer, was evicted, along with his wife and seven children, from their farm at Culleneghy, Beaufort, near Killarney, in County Kerry, by a group of armed and masked men.

A local man, a Mr John Murphy, had had his family members evicted from that farm, by the British, in the 1880's, and tensions were understandably high in the area because of that and other Westminster-encouraged intrusions into Irish matters.

The following day, however, the local IRA Battalion Officer Commanding, Volunteer Patrick Allman, reinstated the Blennerhassett family on the farm, which was not an acceptable outcome to many of the locals, so some of them decided to take a legal case regarding the proper ownership of the farm.

On the 13th May the farm was attacked, and a three-day siege ensued, during which both Mr Blennerhasset and his son were wounded.

Eventually, the Blennerhassets surrendered but brought their case to the High Court in Dublin and, on the 16th June, the High Court ruled in favour of the Blennerhassett family in their land dispute with Mr John Murphy and his supporters.

On the 20th December, 1922, the farmhouse was burnt down.

==========================

In a somewhat related matter and similar issue to the above-mentioned Blennerhassett/Murphy case, on the 13th May, 1922, 'The Roscommom Herald' newspaper reported on a court case taken against a Mr Patrick Gilhooley and a Mr Bernard Gilhooley, who were charged with seizing the land of a neighbour.

A republican court was convened in the town of Drumsna, County Leitrim, and the Gilhooley brothers explained their reason for taking the land - their father who, they said, "was fond of a drop and he was not as cute as Mr Fox was..." had, in 1897, sold the land to Mr Fox, and his sons wanted it back.

After the court threatened to imprison the brothers, they gave a legal undertaking to vacate the land.

The old saying 'as stupid as a fox' could be worked in here...!

==========================

On the same day that that newspaper report was published, an 'Orange Order' member, a Mr Robert Beattie who, when not marching through nationalist areas, worked as a postman, was delivering letters in Butler Street in Belfast when he was shot dead.

On the 17th (May 1922), as he was being buried, shots were fired at the funeral cortege.

==========================

On the 13th May, 1922, British Army Gunner James Henry John Rolfe (20), from the town of Slough, in England, and one of his pals, Gunner Alfred Porter, both attached to Marlborough Military Barracks (now known as McKee Barracks, on Blackhorse Avenue, in Dublin), were walking along Batchelors Walk in Dublin City Centre when they noticed two 'drunk men' walking towards them.

When the two 'drunks' got close to them, they pulled out handguns and told the two British Army Gunners to hand over their weaponry, which the Gunners did, reluctantly.

Being from what he no doubt considered to be 'a better Class', Mr James Henry 'Gunner' Rolfe actually demanded a receipt (!) for the equipment from the two men, one of whom looked at him, asked him what did he say and, before he could repeat his demand, shot him in the neck, killing him.

Mr Rolfe had enlisted in the 'Royal Garrison Artillery' of the British Army on the 2nd February in 1920, at 18 years of age.

Gunner Alfred Porter ('Service Number 1421448'), who wasn't arrogant enough to ask for a receipt, walked away from that encounter in the same good health that he entered into it ; he died in October 1968, in Bristol, in his own country, England, at 74 years of age.

Incidentally, at the inquest into the shooting of Mr Rolfe, the coroner asked the jury to bring in a verdict of wilful murder but the jury refused - they returned a verdict of "..death from shock and haemorrhage as a result of wounds inflicted by a person or persons unknown..."

And that was the 'receipt' they handed over to the coroner...

==========================

Following the death of IRA Chief of Staff Volunteer Liam Lynch on the 10th April, 1923, the Deputy Chief of Staff, Volunteer Frank Aiken (who assumed the position of Chief of Staff on the 20th April) called for a joint meeting of the Republican Government and the IRA, which was held in a venue in Santry, Dublin, on the 13th to the 14th May.

After lengthy discussions, the assembly instructed Volunteer Aiken to order an IRA ceasefire and the dumping of arms, and to announce those orders on May 24th.

An internal memo to all IRA Officers stated -

"The dumping of arms does not mean that the usefulness of the IRA is past, or release any member of it from his duty to his country.

On the contrary a disciplined Volunteer force, ready for any emergency, will be a great strength to the Nation in its march to Independence.

It is clearly our duty to keep the Army Organisation intact."

The 'Dump Arms' order stated -

"The Government and Army Council have decided to order that armed resistance to the Free State 'Government' will cease. To avoid armed conflicts it is necessary that the arms of all ranks be dumped.

Comrades ; the arms with which we fought the enemies of our country are to be dumped.

The foreign and domestic enemies of the Republic have for the moment prevailed.

We took up arms to free our country, and we'll keep them until we see an honourable way of reaching our objective without arms."

A Mr Éamon de Valera issued an accompanying statement -

"The Republic can no longer be defended successfully by your arms.

Further sacrifice of life would now be in vain and continuance of the struggle in arms unwise in the national interest and prejudicial to the future of our cause."

Volunteers were instructed to take adequate measures to protect themselves and their munitions ; arms dumps were built in the corners of fields (where three fields met) or near safe houses, and were frequently constructed using corrugated steel roofs and concrete sides, buried in ditches or mountainsides.

Internal IRA documents from 1924 showed that the IRA held over 5,000 weapons in these secret locations, not all of which have been discovered by the Staters, in our opinion.

The 1924 'Dump Arms' order was a tactical withdrawal : instead of handing over weapons, IRA units were instructed to put them aside for future use, but the leadership that came into play in 1983 traded those and other weapons for seats at Westminster, Stormont and Leinster House.

Eternal shame, everlasting reproach and perpetual humiliation on them for that.

==========================

On the 13th May, 1924, the 'Secretary of the Free State Department of Local Government', a Mr Edward Patrick (EP) McCarron, issued a directive instructing that no appointment (or salary increase) would be given to any local government officer unless they made a declaration swearing allegiance to the Irish Free State and its constitution.

Even before he issued that diktat, Mr McCarron, a long-time career 'civil servant' under the British administration in Ireland, was seen as a controversial figure within Free State political circles as he had shown great allegiance and a strong dedication to Westminster, while assisting them to implement their writ in Ireland as an official of their 'Local Government Board'.

The response from local councils was characterised by deep division, significant resistance and, ultimately, a major loss of local autonomy as the 'FS Department of Local Government' used the oath requirement to purge political opposition, as a State Minister could then dissolve the entire elected body and replace it with a Leinster House-imposed/appointed commissioner.

Indeed, in 1924, both Cork Corporation and Dublin Corporation were dissolved and replaced by imposed/appointed/selected commissioners who strictly enforced Leinster House policies.

The 'McCarron Directive' was in fact a purge which removed republicans from the local civil service of the new Free State, to be replaced by lackeys, ensuring that the administrative machinery of the new corrupt entity was operated by those who had sworn allegiance to a paypacket and a pension, regardless of who was paying it, as opposed to having sworn allegiance to their conscience.

==========================

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - much appreciated!

Sharon and the team.

(We'll be back here on the blog on Wednesday, 27th May 2026, and 'lil auld me will be on 'X' and Facebook between now and then, if yer missin' me all that much..!)

SLAVERY - "THE IRISH WERE TARGETED THE MOST..."

2026-04-29T09:56:00.000+00:00

Three different dates listed by our six sources for this shooting in 1919 - 15th April, 25th April and 29th April, and an unlikely scenario.

A British Navy vessel had docked near the village of An Rinn (Ring Village) in the county of Waterford (possibly docked in Helvick Harbour/Helvick Head) and some of the crew members left the ship to have a look around the village.

They ended up in a local pub ('Draper's') in which a few Irish republicans from the area were having a pint and a chat.

The situation in the pub got a bit tense, and voices were raised - and this is the unlikely scenario bit : one of the republicans, a man named Michael Walsh (22,an IRA Volunteer, by some accounts) is said to have left the pub to go for assistance - from the RIC!

As he was walking up to the door of the nearby Ballinagoul RIC barracks a single gunshot was fired at him, through the door of the building.

The bullet struck him in his throat, he fell, the noise of the gunshot drew people to where he was and he was rushed to hospital (probably Dungarvan Workhouse Hospital, later renamed 'St Joseph's', now known as 'Dungarvan Community Hospital') where the medics opened him up from his back and extracted the bullet.

He appeared to be recovering from the wound, but didn't : he died on either the 11th May or the 15th May - both dates stated by different sources.

His funeral took place at Ring, County Waterford, where a large crowd from all parts of the county turned out in attendance, including some members of the Volunteer movement dressed in uniform. The roadsides en route to the village of Ballinagoul were lined with Sinn Féin flags, and music was provided by the Waterford Sinn Féin Brass Band who had travelled from Dungarvan for the occasion.

As the funeral procession made its way from Mr Walsh's home to the church, a distance of about a mile, the band alternatively struck up 'Wrap the Green Flag Round Me', 'A Nation Once Again' and 'The Soldiers Song'.

The unlikely scenario we mentioned is that any IRA Volunteer would purposely and actively seek out the RIC (a pro-British grouping) for its assistance in defusing a tense situation where other (pro-)British forces (Navy, in this instance) are 'getting loud' with Irish republicans...?!

Anyway - the RIC man who fired the shot that struck and killed Michael Walsh was a Mr Michael McCarthy ('Service Number 66105') who, after the shooting, was put in for a transfer out of Waterford by his RIC bosses, citing reasons of personal safety ; they wanted to place him in an RIC Barracks in County Antrim (Templepatrick/Dunmurry), about 350km (220 miles) away, where he supposedly wouldn't be known : he objected to the proposed transfer, probably having fooled himself that, in Waterford, he knew who to be wary of and who to look out for, but his objection was rejected.

He resigned from the RIC on the 2nd June, 1920, with "no bad mark on his service record" - the magistrate involved in the Waterford shooting case had decided that "there was no case to answer...", referencing the RIC man's claim that Michael Walsh "had rushed towards the barracks shouting, 'Give up your arms, you will have to fight now...' "

RIP Michael Walsh.

==========================

On the same date that a pro-British militia gunman fired that shot in Waterford, another of that ilk fired a shot about 290 km (185 miles) away, up the road in Hollywood, in County Down.

That bullet, 'accidently' fired by a 'Somerset Light Infantry' comrade of British Army Private Charles Bernard Kirk ('Service Number 44458'), hit Mr Kirk who died from the wound.

The man was buried in his own country, in New Basford Cemetery, Nottingham, England.

==========================

In December, 1918, the 'Irish Parliamentary Party' ('IPP') was practically wiped-out at the polls by the then Sinn Féin organisation, which led to some verbal and physical jostling between members and supporters of both.

They emerged from that election campaign as a diminished, non-governing 'opposition' half-party, even more ineffectual than they had been before it.

On the 29th April (1919), 'The Waterford Standard' newspaper carried a report that a recent street brawl in Waterford City had resulted in the death of an 'IPP' member, a Mr William Grant.

We couldn't find any more information about that incident or about Mr Grant.

==========================

ON THIS DATE (29TH APRIL) 110 YEARS AGO : REPUBLICAN 'SURRENDER ORDER' AND FR. ALOYSIUS.

On Saturday, 29th April, 1916 - 110 years ago on this date - Pádraig Pearse issued the 'Surrender Order' on behalf of the Irish republican forces who were taken part in the (Easter) Rising in Ireland against the forces of the Crown -

"In order to prevent the further slaughter of Dublin citizens, and in the hope of saving the lives of our followers now surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered, the members of the Provisional Government present at Headquarters have agreed to an unconditional surrender, and the Commandants of the various districts in the City and Country will order their commands to lay down arms.

P. H. PEARSE.

29th April, 3.45 p.m., 1916."

Approximately 64 rebels, 132 crown force members and 230 civilians had been killed. About 2,500 people had been wounded, and the centre of Dublin was devastated by the British shelling.

Sometimes overlooked and/or deliberately played-down is the role that the Capuchin Friars took on during the 1916 Rising, including that of their input regarding the 'Surrender Order' -

'..the Capuchin Friars were heavily involved with the surrender - after the initial surrender had taken place between General Lowe, Patrick Pearse with Nurse Elizabeth O'Farrell as the 'runner' (and) in all the discussion between the British Forces and the Irish Military Army. They ably assisted Nurse Elizabeth O’Farrell [Cumann na mBan] with the task of delivering the surrender order to the other leaders all around the outskirts of Dublin in their strategic positions i.e Eamonn Ceant, Thomas MacDonagh , Dev Valera et.al.

Of course General Lowe, not wanting to take any chances that these surrender orders would not be safely delivered...ordered two of his officers to accompany them. They then went to Dublin Castle to deliver the surrender message..' (from here.)

'While many clerics have supported the armed struggle of the IRA since 1916, the Capuchin Friars have been particularly noted for their republicanism. One such Capuchin was Fr Aloysius Roche, the son of an Irish father and English mother, born in Scotland in 1886. He studied for the priesthood and, following his ordination, he was transferred to Dublin where he was attached to the Capuchin Order in Church Street.

During Easter Week 1916, Fr Aloysius along with Frs Albert, Augustine and Dominic brought spiritual aid to the Volunteers in the numerous garrisons and outposts throughout Dublin. Following Pádraig Pearse’s surrender on Saturday, 29 April 1916, Fr Aloysius spent the next day carrying the surrender order to the main garrisons on the south side of the city. In the early hours of the morning of 3rd May, Fr Aloysius administered the last sacraments to Pearse, MacDonagh and Thomas Clarke, the first three leaders of the Rising to be executed.

On 7th May, he met John Dillon, a leading member of the Irish Parliamentary Party, who agreed to do all in his power to persuade the British government to stop the executions. And it was largely due to his efforts that Dillon, five days later, during a debate on the rising in the House of Commons, launched a blistering attack on the British government’s handling of the situation in Ireland.

Earlier that day, Fr Aloysius accompanied James Connolly by ambulance from Dublin Castle to Kilmainham Gaol for execution and stood behind the firing squad as they fired the final volley. During the Tan and Civil Wars he was an enthusiastic and practical supporter of the national struggle and continued his republican allegiance throughout the following decades...' (from here).

Incidentally, the 'Fr Dominic' mentioned, above, was Fr Dominic O'Connor (Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, pictured, being led away by Free Staters from 'the battle of the Four Courts', in 1922) - it is recorded that the then 'President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State' [aka 'Taoiseach'], Mr WT Cosgrave, did not agree with the political outlook voiced by the Capuchins and he wrote to the Archbishop, Edward J Byrne, to voice his objections and, in one such letter, actually accused Fr Dominic of "treasonous acts"!

Fr Dominic was, at the time, the chaplain to the local IRA Cork Brigade, and is on record for a reply he gave to the church hierarchy in relation to their anti-republican/pro-British sermons :

"Kidnapping, ambushing, and killing obviously would be grave sins or violation of Canon Law.

And if these acts were being performed by the Irish Volunteers as private persons, they would fall under excommunication.

But they are doing them with the authority of the Republic of Ireland.

Hence the acts performed by the Volunteers are not only not sinful, but are good and meritorious...therefore the excommunication does not affect us. There is no need to worry about it.

There is no necessity for telling a priest in confession that you went to Mass on Sunday, so there is no necessity to tell him one is in the IRA, or that one took part in an ambush or killing etc".

In another letter of complaint that he sent, Mr Cosgrave referred to a different priest, a Fr John Costello, and complained to the Archbishop that that priest had made it his business to approach Free State troops, in 1922, and called on them to lay down their arms ; when they declined to do so, he would call them "murdering green Black and Tans"!

As 'Lord Cosgrave' probably said, in private -

"It rings in my ears as kind of what miserable drones and traitors have I nourished and brought up in my household, who let their lord and president be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born cleric?

Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?" (!)

Sometimes one has to be 'meddlesome' in order to be honourable...

THE GREAT OIL AND GAS ROBBERY...

From 'Magill' Magazine, October 2005.

"I spent an hour with Micheál Ó Seighin (pictured), one of the Rossport Five.

Micheál received us very graciously in the small visiting box. He is a small, quietly-spoken man in his late 60s.

"Tá sibhse ag dhéanamh obair go hiontach. Congratulations. Bhí an scéal Dé Luan go han, han mhaith. Ceim mhór", he said..."

Micheál Ó Seighin.

Michael McDowell.

Pat Rabbitte.

"Is this where you get your visits?"

"We get closed visits", he said. "There is a screen between us and our families. We have no physical contact on visits."

"Even the Brits don't do that", I said.

Micheál grinned at us.

"I knew nothing about prisons before coming here but the people who are in and out of jail hate Cloverhill. They say that it is worse than the Joy and the Midlands. I suppose it's to deal with the drugs problem. Drugs are creating havoc everywhere it seems. I never knew it was so bad until I came here.

I've met some young men here who are not going to last on the outside. They told me that. One of them, he's from Ballymun, was telling me about the turf wars. 'Two things I'm sure of', he told me, 'I'll be back on drugs when I get out. And I'll be killed.'"

It was obvious that Micheál cared deeply about all this.

He had a book with him - 'Nature's Way', by Ian Stewart, and I told him that we had left some books in for him and the other men.

"This book is about chaos", he said ; "A butterfly can flap its wings in Tokyo and cause a storm halfway across the world..."

(The third [ie last] pic above shows a Mr Patrick Rabbitte, ex-State Labour Party leader and ex-'State Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources' ; Mr Rabbittee retired as State Labour Party leader in 2007, and from political life altogether in 2016, on a combined pension package worth over €2 million to him!)

(MORE LATER.)

ON THIS DATE (29TH APRIL) 427 YEARS AGO : DEVIL CHRISTENED ON EARTH.

"The term 'slavery' is rarely associated with the white race, although during the 1600's this was the most significant portion of the market.

More specifically, the Irish were targeted the most and the fact that the population of Ireland fell by 850,000 in the space of one decade highlights just how brutal things were...he (Oliver Cromwell, pictured) is one of the main reasons why the situation got to this point.

His fanatical anti-Catholic views meant that any action he took over the Irish was brutal to say the least and as well as utilising the conquest of Ireland for religious and political means, he was bidding to cleanse the country of Catholics.

In achieving this, selling the Irish off as slaves was one of his biggest weapons, but he also made sure life was as difficult as possible for those that did stay by burning off their crops, removing them from their land.." (from here.)

Pictured - some of Oliver Cromwell's Irish victims, sold as slaves and 'sex workers' to the highest bidder.

On the 29th April, 1599 - 427 years ago on this date - a baby boy, Oliver Cromwell, who had been born on the 25th April, was christened in Saint John the Baptist church in Huntingdon, England.

Decades later, when someone was trawling through the birth records for that period, they came across an unofficial addendum to that particular entry : it read -

"England's plague for five years..."

Cromwell should need no introduction to readers of this blog, but some readers may not be aware of the significance of a particular date - the 3rd September - in relation to the time he wreaked havoc on this Earth.

That creature died on that date in 1658, and it was also on that same date, in 1649, that he began his nine-day siege of Drogheda after which thousands of its inhabitants were butchered (..but they deserved it, according to the man himself - "This is a righteous judgement of God upon these barbarous wretches, who have imbrued their hands in so much innocent blood..").

The infamous 'Death March', which he forced on his enemy after the battle of Dunbar, took place on the 3rd September (in 1650) and, one year later on that same date - the 3rd September, in 1651 - he wallowed in more blood and guts, this time in his own country, at the battle of Worcester.

And, somewhere in between wrecking havoc and stealing and selling Irish children, he found the time (on the 27th September in 1649) to write to his political bosses in London :

'FOR THE HONOURABLE WILLIAM LENTHALL, ESQUIRE, SPEAKER OF THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND :

Dublin, 27th September 1649.

Mr. Speaker - I had not received any account from Colonel Venables - whom I sent from Tredah to endeavour the reducing of Carlingford, and so to march Northward towards a conjunction with Sir Charles Coote - until the last night. After he came to Carlingford, having summoned the place, both the three Castles and the Fort commanding the Harbour were rendered to him. Wherein were about Forty Barrels of Powder, Seven Pieces of Cannon ; about a Thousand Muskets, and Five-hundred Pikes wanting twenty. In the entrance into the Harbour, Captain Fern, aboard your man-of-war, had some danger ; being much shot at from the Sea Fort, a bullet shooting through his main-mast. The Captain's entrance into that Harbour was a considerable adventure, and a good service ; as also was that of Captain Brandly, who, with Forty seamen, stormed a very strong Tenalia at Tredah, and helped to take it ; for which he deserves an owning by you.

Venables marched from Carlingford, with a party of Horse and Dragoons, to the Newry ; leaving the place, and it was yielded before his Foot came up to him. Some other informations I have received form him, which promise well towards your Northern Interest ; which, if well prosecuted, will, I trust God, render you a good account of those parts. I have sent those things to be presented to the Council of State for their consideration. I pray God, as these mercies flow in upon you, He will give you an heart to improve them to His glory alone ; because He alone is the author of them, and of all the goodness, patience and long-suffering extending towards you. Your army has marched ; and, I believe, this night lieth at Arklow, in the County of Wicklow, by the Sea-side, between thirty and forty miles from this place. I am this day, by God's blessing, going towards it.

I crave your pardon for this trouble; and rest, your most humble servant, OLIVER CROMWELL.

P.S. I desire the Supplies moved for may be hastened. I am verily persuaded, though the burden be great, yet it is for your service.

If the Garrisons we take swallow-up your men, how shall we be able to keep the field? Who knows but the Lord may pity England's sufferings, and make a short work of this?

It is in His hand to do it, and therein only your servants rejoice. I humbly present the condition of Captain George Jenkin's Widow. He died presently after Tredah Storm. His Widow is in great want.

The following Officers and Soldiers were slain at the storming of Tredah: Sir Arthur Ashton, Governor; Sir Edmund Varney, Lieutenant-Colonel to Ormond’s Regiment; Colonel Fleming, Lieutenant-Colonel Finglass, Major Fitzgerald, with eight Captains, eight Lieutenants, and eight Cornets, all of Horse; Colonels Warren, Wall, and Byrn, of Foot, with their Lieutenants, Majors, etc; the Lord Taaff’s Brother, an Augustine Friar; forty-four Captains, and all their Lieutenants, Ensigns, etc; 220 Reformadoes and Troopers; 2,500 Foot-soldiers, besides the Staff-Officers, Surgeons, etc.'

A butcher of even his own forces.

But he was appreciated in some circles...

On the 29th April, 1920, an estimated 3,000 people over-filled the Market Square in the village of Athy, in the county of Kildare.

They were there to say a loud and genuine 'Fáilte Abhaile!' ('Welcome Home!') to IRA Volunteer Eamon ('Edward/Ned') Malone, from the locality of Barrowhouse, Dunbrin, in that same county.

IRA Commandant Eamon Malone had been 'arrested' by the British in 1919 and held in Mountjoy Jail, in Dublin, where he went on hunger-strike before being released.

His uncle was Reverend James J. Malone, an author and a Catholic Priest based in Australia, and his cousin, Christiana, was a member of Cumann na mBan in the area.

Incidentally, Volunteer Eamon Malone formed a branch of 'The Irish Volunteers' in Athy in 1917, and had assisted in the formation, locally, in July 1914, of a branch of Cumann na mBan and, in August 1914, he had assisted in establishing the republican youth group Na Fianna Éireann in the area.

Volunteer Eamon 'Edward/Ned' Malone died from asthma-related illnesses at 45 years of age in 1939, in Sutton, County Dublin, and is buried in Barrowhouse Cemetery, in Kildare.

(The one 'downer' from the 'Welcome Home!' rally on the 29th was that a Mr Arthur James Kickham ['Art'] O'Connor delivered the 'Welcome Home' speech ; Mr O'Connor was a 'republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher'.)

RIP Volunteer Eamon 'Edward/Ned' Malone.

==========================

On the 29th, as British soldiers and their spies were watching Market Square, Athy, for the homecoming ceremony, other British soldiers, hoping that there were no spies around, were undertaking a 'ceremony' of their own!

Some of the British troops from the 'Royal Horse Artillery' (pictured), who were billeted in Kildare town, met with some of the local IRA Volunteers, as arranged, and the deal was struck ; the rebels purchased 17 revolvers and 723 rounds of ammunition from the enemy troops, and both sides went back to their bases, all in good form!

It sounds unlikely, but it actually happened more than some readers might know about - arms sales from British soldiers to the IRA were a frequent and significant source of weaponry, particularly in Dublin and other garrison towns.

Disgruntled or sympathetic British soldiers, often looking to make extra money or to escape military life, sold their equipment regularly ; the Dublin Brigade IRA, for example, managed to purchase hundreds of rifles from a British Army Quartermaster at Wellington Barracks (Dublin) - in one known instance, two Irish-born British Army soldiers smuggled 4,000 rounds of .303 ammunition from the Athlone barracks and sold the packages to the IRA, with a few revolvers and rifles thrown-in to sweeten the deal, and BA troops stationed at Richmond Barracks (Dublin) were known to sell quantities of rifles to the rebels for £4 each!

In areas outside of Dublin, some British soldiers heading home on leave would sell their service rifles to local Volunteers because they "hated soldiering" and wanted extra money for their journey home and, in one instance that is known about (in 1922), a heavy-duty 'Hotchkiss Machine Gun' was sold to the IRA by British Army engineers who were converting a British naval vessel for civilian use.

Arms were not only sold but also frequently taken, traded, or seized by the IRA from RIC and British Army installations throughout the country and abroad - IRA agents/middlemen (like Owen Moore and Thomas Treacy) operated in London, securing revolvers and ammunition through local gunsmiths and underworld contacts and, in Scotland, the IRA cultivated links with German arms dealers and even broke into university chemistry departments to manufacture explosives.

Also, a steady supply was available from demobilised soldiers who, after 'WWI', kept their service weapons as souvenirs and were often willing to sell them on the black market for cash, and those weapons would be smuggled into Ireland hidden in legitimate cargo ; crates of rifles were smuggled through Liverpool and Southampton by sympathetic Irish dockers and crew members.

Once landed, small arms and ammunition would be carried by Cumann na mBan women, who used their status as civilians to transport such 'contraband' in personal luggage or, before being landed in Ireland, the weaponry would be loaded at sea onto fishing trawlers and yachts.

Indeed - many times throughout this on-going struggle, we have felt like we were all at sea, but we've always managed to reach the shore...

==========================

As that deal was being processed in Athy, County Kildare, about 75km (45 miles) up the road and over to the right (!), in the village of Rush, County Dublin, it was announced locally that an RIC member who had been shot by the IRA on the night of the 20th April was "still dangerously ill" in the Mater Hospital, in Dublin.

Mr John Brady (50, with about 25 years 'service in the force'), an RIC sergeant, was wounded in an attack on Rush RIC Barracks and died from his wounds on the 9th May.

He was born in Bray, County Wicklow, into a farming household, and is buried in Saint Brigid's Cemetery in Killoughter, County Cavan.

==========================

THE MONTH UNSPUN...

The stories that hit the headlines.

From Magill magazine, August 2002.

Expect some efforts to give convincing reassurance that standards will be reviewed but, if George Bush's efforts at same in the US recently are anything to go by, the average investor will remain hugely sceptical.

FAI TAKES SKY-DIVE :

Fresh from the controversial events surrounding Roy Keane's departure from Ireland's World Cup campaign, the FAI sold the rights to our home qualifying matches for the European Championships to SKY for €7.5m, believing the deal was too good to turn down.

RTE claimed that the FAI finished negotiations with the broadcaster unexpectedly and had no way of knowing what RTE's highest bid would be and, meanwhile, TV3 had obtained the rights to screen the matches one hour after they had finished.

The government initially claimed that there was nothing they could do about the sale, until it emerged that the EU's 'Television Without Frontiers' directive could still apply, and Ireland soccer matches, along with other notable sporting events such as the All-Ireland final, could be protected in the same way as Wimbledon and the FA Cup are in England ; in a final twist, Sky bid for Ireland's away matches also, but as yet have not obtained them...

(MORE LATER.)

On the 29th April, 1921, eleven RIC members (including a 'police sergeant' and a 'district inspector') were travelling in two Crossley Tender trucks and, near Castlelack National School (about five miles from the town of Bandon, County Cork) they came across a ten-foot-wide trench in the road, dug by IRA Volunteers to impede the movement of enemy forces.

The two top RIC members ordered the other nine men to get out of the trucks and fill the trench in - they disembarked, placed their rifles against a fence and set to work.

One of them, a Mr John Edward Bunce (31, 'Service Number 79386'), a married man from the county of Kerry, was told to place himself on guard duty, and he headed towards a nearby piece of high ground.

Just as he did so a gunshot was fired, and Mr Bunce collapsed and slipped down from his vantage point.

One of his RIC buddies went over to him and found that he was bleeding from both legs, was in shock and in pain.

It transpired that one of the rifles which had been propped-up against the fence had fallen over and, on hitting the ground, had discharged one shot, which passed through Mr Bunce's legs.

As his pals tried to stop the bleeding, Mr Bunce shouted at them "What are my wife and kiddies going to do now..?" - he was still in shock, was hemorrhaging, and died from the wound.

The RIC record of the shooting stated that it was "..another case of ignorance in handling arms..the safety catch was off and no reason for it..."

('1169' comment - the 'Police Remembrance Trust' organisation gives a wrong date and incorrect location for the shooting ; as they might say themselves - "no reason for having done that, except carelessness...")

==========================

At the same time as Mr Bunce lay dying in a muddy field, one of his military bosses, 'Field Marshal' (!) Mr John French (pictured), was feeling hard done by about 250 km (155 miles) away up the road and over a bit on yer right (!), in Dublin.

In 1918, Mr French had been appointed by his friends in Westminster as the 'Lord Lieutenant of Ireland' (the 'Viceroy') but a new face and attitude was needed for the position in 1921 as a 'peace initiative' with Mr Michael Collins and his people was being discussed - Mr French, a reminder of the bad old days (!) had to go.

The man wasn't too happy about his enforced 'career move' but found himself between a rock and a hard place - he was being replaced as 'Lord Lieutenant' by a Mr Edmund Talbot ('1st Viscount FitzAlan of Derwent' - !), a friend of his, so he 'left office' a bit quieter than he otherwise might have!

And we're sure that his appointment a few months afterwards as the '1st Earl of Ypres', and the £50,000 'retirement grant' that was thrown in with the title, and his later appointment as 'Captain of Deal Castle' in Kent, in his own country had nothing a'tall to do with him accepting the move...!

==========================

On the 15th September, 1920, a Mr Sean O'Callaghan (28), an ex-British Army soldier ('Royal' Munster Fusiliers and the Worcestershire Regiment) was shot dead by the IRA in Cork City.

Mr O'Callaghan was employed by the British Army as a clerk in Victoria Barracks in Cork City and was arrested by two IRA men (Volunteer Patrick Collins and Volunteer Jeremiah Keating) from 'G Company', 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade IRA, and taken to the Farmer's Cross area of the city.

He was shot dead and his remains were never recovered ; he had discussed IRA business over a phone which had an IRA tap on it with a British Army Captain, a Mr Kelly, who was the 'Intelligence Officer' for the BA 6th Division and, during their discussion, a Mr Stephen O'Callaghan (no relation) was mentioned.

Mr Stephen O'Callaghan (29), also an ex-British Army soldier who had also 'served' with the 'Royal' Munster Fusiliers and the Worcestershire Regiment, was an out-of-work dock labourer who was trying to get by on a BA disability pension.

On the 29th April, 1921, he was shot dead in Cork by the IRA, who pinned a 'SPY'S BEWARE!' notice to his coat.

==========================

DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...

Desmond Boomer, a Belfast engineer working in the Libyan oil-fields, disappeared seven years ago.

Officially, the plane on which he was a passenger crashed as a result of mechanical failure and pilot error.

But is that the real story?

Or were the Irishman and his fellow passengers unwitting victims of the shady war between Islamic fundamentalism and Mossad, Israel's intelligence network?

A special 'Magill' investigation by Don Mullan, author of 'Eyewitness Bloody Sunday'.

From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.

The front-page article, written by journalists Joe Mifsud and Felix Agius, claimed that the Shqaqi assassins may have left Malta on a Maltese private plane, flown by a Maltese pilot.

Alarmingly, the paper printed alongside this story a photograph of an aircraft which the bereaved families say was similar to one owned by Captain Bartolo.

'The Times Of Malta' newspaper, four days later, led with the headline - 'Shqaqi's Assassins May Have Left Malta On Private Plane' ; the article, penned by journalist Sharon Spiteri, stated that the Maltese police had received information from Interpol detailing how the assassins left the island.

That newspaper stated that no further details could be given, citing security reasons for this, but the article went on to state that "...other sources said the police were working on the theory that the men left the island on board a private plane hired from a local company and flown by a Maltese pilot.."

But, the following day, that newspaper carried a small front-page article saying that the Maltese police commissioner had refuted those assertions...

(MORE LATER.)

On the 29th April, 1922, 'The Roscommon Herald' newspaper reported on the burning of the Parke Masonic Hall in Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim : the structure had been deconstructed (!) by the IRA ('the Irregulars') as per their intention to deny resources to British and pro-British forces.

Ballinamore, County Leitrim : The Masonic Hall in that town was noted as one of the first to be destroyed ; the IRA attacked it in the early hours of the 17th April 1920.

Dublin : On April 24–25th, 1922, the IRA seized the Freemason Hall on Molesworth Street, occupying it for 38 days.

Ballinasloe, County Galway : A Masonic Hall was attacked by "the Irregulars" in July 1922.

Wexford : The front of a building was partially burned by armed men on the 23rd November, 1922.

Mullingar, County Westmeath : Armed men raided a Masonic Hall, smashing windows and furniture, and poured petrol over the debris, but complete destruction was reportedly prevented by the intervention of a local priest.

Raphoe, County Donegal : the IRA commandeered and fortified the Masonic Hall on the 28th April, 1922, using it as a garrison.

Dundalk, County Louth : The Masonic Hall was raided, with books and property seized ; the members were given notice to leave the town and most of them fled to Belfast.

Freemasonry in Ireland during the 1920's was considered by the IRA to be a pro-British and imperialist-minded organisation ; they were not a formal military unit campaigning against the IRA, but they were associated with the British 'Establishment' and the Unionist movement, making them targets for republican attacks.

==========================

On the 29th April, 1922, 'The Clare Champion' newspaper reported that a 91-year-old man, a Mr James McGuane, Coolmeen, West Clare, had been taken from his bed and shot.

Mr McGuane died from his wound.

This was apparently the result of an agrarian dispute, and we could find no information regarding the who, what and why.

==========================

ON THIS DATE (29TH APRIL) 110 YEARS AGO - THOMAS PATRICK ASHE / BATTLE OF ASHBOURNE.

Thomas Patrick Ashe, pictured, was born in Lispole, in County Kerry, on the 12th of January, 1885, the seventh of ten siblings. He was active in Irish republicanism, trade unionism and cultural circles, and commanded the 5th Battalion of the Dublin Brigade which won the Battle of Ashbourne on the 29th of April 1916 (a battle which lasted for over five hours), 104 years ago on this date. He qualified as a teacher in 1905 at De La Salle College, Waterford and after teaching briefly in Kinnard, County Kerry, in 1906 he became principal of Corduff National School in Lusk, County Dublin.

He was a fluent Irish speaker and a member of the Keating branch of the Gaelic League and was an accomplished sportsman and musician setting up the Round Towers GAA Club as well as helping to establish the Lusk Pipe Band. He was also a talented singer and poet who was committed to Conradh na Gaeilge.

The funeral procession in Dublin, 30th September 1917 (pictured) for Thomas Ashe, an IRB leader who died on the 25th September that year, after being force fed by his British jailers - he was the first Irish republican to die as a result of a hunger-strike and, between that year and 1981, twenty-one other Irish republicans died on hunger-strike.

The jury at the inquest into his death found "..that the deceased, Thomas Ashe, according to the medical evidence of Professor McWeeney, Sir Arthur Chance, and Sir Thomas Myles, died from heart failure and congestion of the lungs on the 25th September, 1917 and that his death was caused by the punishment of taking away from the cell bed, bedding and boots and allowing him to be on the cold floor for 50 hours, and then subjecting him to forcible feeding in his weak condition after hunger-striking for five or six days.."

Michael Collins organised the funeral and transformed it into a national demonstration against British misrule in Ireland ; armed Irish Republican Brotherhood Volunteers in full uniform flanked the coffin, followed by 9,000 other IRB Volunteers and approximately 30,000 people lined the streets.

A volley of shots was fired over Ashe's grave, following which Michael Collins stated - "Nothing more remains to be said. That volley which we have just heard is the only speech which it is proper to make over the grave of a dead Fenian."

The London-based 'Daily Express' newspaper perhaps summed it up best when it stated, re the funeral of Thomas Ashe, that what had happened had made '100,000 Sinn Féiners out of 100,000 constitutional nationalists.'

The level of support shown gave a boost to Irish republicans, and this was noted by the 'establishment' in Westminster - 'The Daily Mail' newspaper claimed that, a month earlier, Sinn Féin, despite its electoral successes, had been a waning force.

That newspaper said -

'..It had no practical programme, for the programme of going further than anyone else cannot be so described. It was not making headway. But Sinn Féin today is pretty nearly another name for the vast bulk of youth in Ireland..'

Politically, he was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and established IRB circles in Dublin and Kerry and eventually became President of the Supreme Council in 1917. While he was actively and intellectually nationalist he was also inspired by contemporary socialism.

Ashe rejected conservative Home Rule politicians and as part of that rejection he espoused the Labour policies of James Larkin. Writing in a letter to his brother Gregory he said "We are all here on Larkin's side. He'll beat hell out of the snobbish, mean, seoinín employers yet, and more power to him".

He supported the unionisation of north Dublin farm labourers and his activities brought him into conflict with landowners such as Thomas Kettle in 1912. During the infamous lockout in 1913 he was a frequent visitor to Liberty Hall and become a friend of James Connolly. Long prior to its publication in 1916, Thomas Ashe was a practitioner of Connolly’s dictum that "the cause of labour is the cause of Ireland, the cause of Ireland is the cause of labour".

In 1914, he travelled to the United States where he raised a substantial sum of money for both the Gaelic League and the newly formed Irish Volunteers of which he was an early member.

Volunteer Ashe founded the Volunteers in Lusk and established a firm foundation of practical and theoretical military training, and provided charismatic leadership first as Adjutant and then as O/C (Officer Commanding) the 5th Battalion of the Dublin Brigade.

He inspired fierce loyalty and encouraged personal initiative in his junior officers and was therefore able to confidently delegate command to Charlie Weston, Joseph Lawless, Edward Rooney and others during the Rising and, most significantly, he took advantage of the arrival of Richard Mulcahy at Finglas Glen on the Tuesday of the Rising and appointed him second in command.

The two men knew one another through the IRB and Gaelic League and he recognised Mulcahy’s tactical abilities. As a result he allowed himself to be persuaded by Mulcahy not to withdraw following the unexpected arrival of the motorised force at the Rath crossroads.

At Ashbourne on the 28th of April, Volunteer Ashe also demonstrated great personal courage, during a battle which lasted over five hours, first exposing himself to fire while calling on the RIC in the fortified barracks to surrender and then actively leading his Volunteers against the RIC during the fight.

After the 1916 Rising he was court-martialled (on the 8th of May 1916) and was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life.

He was incarcerated in a variety of English prisons before being released in the June 1917 general amnesty and immediately returned to Ireland and toured the country reorganising the IRB and inciting civil opposition to British rule.

In August 1917, after a speech in Ballinalee, County Longford, he was arrested by the RIC and charged with "speeches calculated to cause disaffection" ; he was detained in the Curragh camp and later sentenced to a year's hard labour in Mountjoy Jail - he became O/C of the Volunteer prisoners, and demanded prisoner-of-war status and, as a result, he was punished by the Governor.

He went on hunger strike on the 20th September 1917 and five days later died as a result of force-feeding by the prison authorities. He was just 32 years old.

The death of Thomas Ashe resulted in POW status being conceded to the Volunteer prisoners two days later.

Thomas Ashe's funeral was the first public funeral after the Rising and provided a focal point for public disaffection with British rule. His body lay in state in Dublin City Hall before being escorted by armed Volunteers to Glasnevin Cemetery.

30,000 people attended the burial where three volleys were fired over the grave and the Last Post was sounded. While imprisoned in Lewes Jail in 1916, Thomas Ashe had written his poem 'Let Me Carry Your Cross for Ireland, Lord' which later provided the inspiration for the Battle of Ashbourne memorial unveiled by Sean T. O'Kelly on Easter Sunday, 26th April 1959 at the Rath Cross in Ashbourne :

Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord, the hour of her trial draws near, and the pangs and the pains of the sacrifice, may be borne by comrades dear.

But, Lord, take me from the offering throng, there are many far less prepared, through anxious and all as they are to die, that Ireland may be spared.

Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord, my cares in this world are few, and few are the tears will for me fall, when I go on my way to You.

Spare Oh! spare to their loved ones dear, the brother and son and sire, that the cause we love may never die, in the land of our heart's desire!

Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord! Let me suffer the pain and shame, I bow my head to their rage and hate, and I take on myself the blame.

Let them do with my body whate'er they will, my spirit I offer to You, that the faithful few who heard her call, may be spared to Roisin Dubh.

Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord! For Ireland weak with tears, for the aged man of the clouded brow, and the child of tender years.

For the empty homes of her golden plains, for the hopes of her future, too! Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord! For the cause of Roisin Dubh.

(from here.)

Thomas Patrick Ashe - born 12th January 1885, died, at 32 years of age, on the 25th September 1917.

On the 29th April, 1924, 'The Daily Herald' newspaper printed an article under the heading 'Ulster Boundary Crisis', in which it condemned the pro-partition, anti-Irish 'Ulster Clauses' of the 1921 Treaty of Surrender.

The newspaper was not favoured by the political leadership in Westminster as it was not a 'propaganda pusher' for the 'Establishment' and was not as anti-Irish republican as Mr Lloyd George and his 'learned colleagues' would have liked.

The 'Ulster Clauses' (Articles 11 to 15, mostly) established the political mechanisms for the Occupied Six Counties to opt out of the new Irish Free State, should the (pro-British) Stormont administration decide to do so which, of course, was why the British established Stormont in the first place!

The 'Opt-Out' options, referenced in Articles 11 and 12, allowed for a 'grace period' of one month for Stormont politicians to judge the Leinster House (Free State) set-up and decide, basically, whether the occupied area should join the Staters or express allegiance to Westminster (a foregone conclusion, obviously, otherwise the 'option' would not have been offered!).

In its objection, the newspaper referenced Article 12, which established a 'Boundary Commission' ; the newspaper editor knew that such a commission, and its objective, would perpetuate the conflict rather than resolve it.

'The Daily Herald' frequently highlighted how the 'Ulster Clauses' and, indeed, the British military and political presence in Ireland, led to violence in the Occupied Six Counties and elsewhere in Ireland, viewing it as a direct result of Lloyd George's divisive policy, designed by him and his for political expediency.

A mainstream media outlet that's not bought by the politicians is sorely missed...

==========================

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated!

Sharon and the team.

(We'll be back on Wednesday, 13th May 2026 - we're taking a 'lil more time off before then, 'cause me and himself are off soon for a few days in Waterford, so the 13th is an 'almost defo' date but...ah sure, ya know yerself...!)

'GOODBYE TO THE SUN'S WARM KISS...'

2026-04-26T06:58:00.002+00:00

...AND WE'RE BACK (RELUCTANTLY...)!

Yes, we're back in Dublin, Ireland, from our 'lil adventures in the Canary Islands, Morocco, Western Sahara, Spain, Mauritania, Madeira, the Savage Islands, Cape Verde, the Azores and - really amazing - the three uninhabited volcanic islands that the captain of our boat and his staff brought us to ; once-in-a-lifetime treats and, of course, we left no trace of our presence behind us on those three untouched paradises, and were very careful not to.

Goodbye to the sun's warm kiss -

'Before the sun lies down to sleep,

the suitcase closed, the sandy shore

becomes a memory in the mind,

as we bid goodbye to ocean's roar,

and leave the sunny days behind...

The five of us are going for a 'Recovery Break' (!) to Waterford or Galway in early May and we're going back to continue our travels in the Macaronesia/North Atlantic Ocean area in September/October but, before I go anywhere, meself and the two lads will be droppin' a few of our usual posts here, starting back this Wednesday, 29th April 2026.

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated : see yis all on the 29th!

Sharon and the team.

MAURITANIA, MADEIRA AND THE SAVAGE ISLANDS...

2026-03-18T11:44:00.001+00:00

CANARY ISLANDS, MOROCCO, WESTERN SAHARA, SPAIN...

...and maybe/probably even Mauritania, Madeira, the Savage Islands, Cape Verde and the Azores!

That's why you're seeing this post instead of our usual offering - 'cause we're getting ready to head off on our holliers!

The hubby and three of my brothers are building (another!) extension on one of our daughters houses and the grandchildren are getting to the age now where they don't call in as often as we'd like to see them (and as often as they used to!) and, as we have the use of a villa in the Canary Islands until around mid-April and, thanks to a good friend of ours in the airline business, near-enough open-ended return flights, meself and the Girl Gang are off to pool-side atein' and drinkin' in the sunshine!

It's the same villa that we stayed in last year, mostly availed of then as our base, as we intend to do now - a wardrobe with bedrooms and a kitchen - and, like our last stay in that beautiful house, we're not gonna be in it every day or night, as we travel extensively to and from the near-by(ish!) sun-soaked and beach-trapped islands.

I'll still be posting on 'X' and 'Facebook', although it will be mostly holiday pics, just to annoy yis!

We should be back on the '1169' blog sometime between mid-April 2026 and the end of that month ; either that or we could be still in custody on any one of the sun-soaked islands that we'll be attacking over the next few weeks!

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated - and I'm gonna miss ye all.

...but me and the Girl Gang have each other for company so I reckon I'll get over it..!

Sharon and the team.

THE BIRTH OF 'THE RISING OF THE MOON'...

2026-03-15T21:47:00.000+00:00

ON THIS DATE (15TH MARCH) 174 YEARS AGO : IRELAND WITNESSES THE BIRTH OF 'THE RISING OF THE MOON'.

On the 9th March, 1907, a play entitled 'The Rising of the Moon', by Isabella Augusta Persse Gregory ('Lady Gregory', pictured) premiered in Dublin in the Abbey Theatre, and was also produced by that venue.

The cast included W G Fay, J M Kerrigan, J A O'Rourke and Arthur Sinclair :

'On a moonlit night at an Irish wharf by the sea, three Irish policemen in the service of the occupying English government pasted up wanted posters for a clever escaped political criminal. Convinced that the escaped rebel might creep to the water's edge to be rescued by sea, they all hoped to capture him for the hundred-pound reward and perhaps even a promotion. The Sergeant sent his two younger assistants with the only lantern to post more leaflets around town while, uneasily, he kept watch at the water's edge. A man in rags tried to slip past the Sergeant, explaining that he merely wanted to sell some songs to incoming sailors...'

The lady author was born in Roxborough House, near Loughrea in County Galway, and was schooled at home by a nanny, Mary Sheridan, who obviously passed-on her interest in Irish history to her pupil.

At 28 years young, Isabella married 'Sir' William Henry Gregory, who 'owned' a large estate at Coole Park, near Gort, in County Galway, thus conveying on her the title 'Lady' : as a 'Lady of Leisure' who now found herself in the 'Big House' she availed of the large library and, when not reading, accompanied her husband on business trips throughout the world.

Her education, the library and her foreign travels sparked within her a love of the written word and she quickly became a published author.

Her husband died when she was 41 years of age but she continued to live in 'the Big House', where her interest in all things Irish was nurtured, to the point that she practically converted the house into a 'retreat' for those who, like her, were smitten by Ireland and its troubled history - Edmund John Millington Synge, William Butler Yeats (and his brother, Jack, a well-known painter), George Bernard Shaw (who described her as "the greatest living Irishwoman") and Sean O'Casey were amongst those who visited regularly and, indeed, she was believed to have had romantic connections with the poet Wilfrid Blunt and a New York lawyer, John Quinn.

Despite her privileged lifestyle (or, indeed, perhaps due to it, as it afforded her the time to 'look within her soul') Isabella Augusta Persse Gregory, who had a regular 'audience' with the 'Upper Class' of the day, loudly declared to all and sundry that it was "..impossible to study Irish history without getting a dislike and distrust of England..".

A 'poacher-turned-gamekeeper', if you like but, unusual in our history, one who 'turned' the right way.

She died in that 'Big House' on the 22nd May 1932, at 80 years of age, and is fondly remembered by those of us who share her convictions and agree with her "impossible to study..." declaration.

The academic Mary Catherine Gunning Colum said of her -

"With all her faults and snobbery, she was a great woman, a real leader, one of those who woke up Ireland from the somnolence and lassitude it was too prone to fall into. It is very doubtful that Yeats could have produced as much work as he did without her help. It is almost certain that, but for Lady Gregory, the Irish national theatre would have remained a dream, or ended in being that failure that so many hopeful undertakings in Ireland became."

RIP Isabella Augusta Persse Gregory : 15th March 1852 - 22nd May 1932.

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated!

Sharon and the team.

1923 : FSA SOLDIER CALLS HIS COMRADES "A MURDER MACHINE..."

2026-03-12T14:17:00.000+00:00

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

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

On March 6th, 1923, five Free State soldiers, including Captains Michael Dunne and Joseph Stapleton of the Dublin Brigade, were killed in Knocknagoshel, County Kerry, by a booby trap mine.

The target of the trap was a local man by the name of Paddy 'Pats' O'Connor who, according to the IRA, was a notorious torturer of prisoners, who had joined the Free State army because of the treatment of his father by the local IRA.

The Dublin Guards, who had been in Kerry since the previous August, were commanded by Paddy O'Daly, who was furious over the booby trap, and it subsequently became clear that he was responsible for what took place following the Knocknagoshel incident.

At around 2am on March 7th, 1923, nine IRA prisoners, many of whom had been tortured, were brought to Ballyseedy wood where they were told that they were to remove an "irregular road block".

However, it was clear to the men what was in store for them when they had been shown 9 coffins in the barracks.

Each were offered a cigarette and told it would be "the last you'll have".

They were then tied together to the mined road block and blown up ; some of the men were still alive and were finished off by grenade and machine gun.

Unbeknownst to the Free State troops one man was blown clear and managed to escape - his name was Stephen Fuller (to become a FF 'TD' in 1937) .

Because the bodies were so badly mangled all nine coffins were filled with the remains of the eight who perished.

This led to a near riot in Tralee when the coffins were handed over to the families at the gates of Ballymullen barracks ; the families broke open the coffins to try and identify the remains.

Later on the same day a very similar incident took place at Countess Bridge in Killarney, where five IRA prisoners where asked to remove a mined road block which was also blown up. Three of the men who lay wounded were finished off by grenade.

Again, amazingly, a fifth man named Tadhg Coffey survived, and escaped.

Five days later 5 more men were killed near Bahaghs workhouse in Cahersiveen.

In order to prevent any more escapes the men were first shot in the legs, and they were then put over a mine and blown up.

When the details slowly emerged about what really happened the Free State government was forced to call an inquiry into 'the incident' and they appointed none other than Major General Paddy O'Daly to oversee the court of inquiry.

But it was never going to be anything other than a whitewash.

One Free State soldier, a Lieutenant, a Mr W McCarthy, resigned his commission after the incident and called his colleagues "a murder gang" and a Free State Army Captain, a Mr Niall Harrington (author of the book 'Kerry Landings'), of the Dublin Brigade, reported that "the mines used in the slaughter of the prisoners were constructed in Tralee under the supervision of two senior Dublin Guards officers".

But neither he nor Lieutenant McCarthy was ever called to testify...

The 'Bahagh's Massacre' took place in Cahersiveen, County Kerry, 103 years ago on this date.

RIP to those brave Volunteers.

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated!

Sharon and the team.

1867 - "SURRENDER IN THE NAME OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC...!"

2026-03-04T10:11:00.000+00:00

'The Fenians challenged the police in the 'Name of the Irish Republic' to surrender and give up their arms.

Tim Daly reached for Sub-Constable O’Donnell's gun and as the two men struggled over the gun, a shot rang out and Sub-Constable Patrick Sheedy fell, mortally wounded.

Next, Constable O’Donnell was shot in the head but only lightly wounded.

The other two constables fled, in opposite directions, as a fusillade rang out...'

(From here.)

On the 4th March, 1867, 'Sub-Constable' Mr Patrick Sheedy (42) was one of at least four 'police constables' who would have been 'detailed to duty' for the following day - 'Skellig Night', an Irish carnival/festival of sorts (!) in the Munster area of Ireland, when Fenians decided to flex their muscles in support of the Rising that had been planned for that date.

Mr Sheedy and his colleagues didn't have a good time at it...

==========================

ON THIS DATE (4TH MARCH) 138 YEARS AGO : "GRACE UNKNOWN...."

Grace Gifford Plunkett (pictured) was born on this date (4th March) in 1888, in Dublin.

She attended art school here and in London and, in 1915, at the age of 27, she 'stepped out' with the then editor of 'The Irish Review' magazine, a Mr Joseph Plunkett, one of the founders of the 'Irish Volunteer' organisation.

He was imprisoned in Kilmainham Jail in Dublin for his part in the 1916 Easter Rising and was condemned to death by firing squad : he asked Grace to marry him and, on the 3rd of May 1916, at 6pm, in Kilmainham Jail, Grace Gifford and Joseph Plunkett were married, with two prison officers as witnesses and fifteen British soldiers 'keeping guard' in the same cell.

The couple were allowed ten minutes together, before Grace was removed from her husband ; he was executed by the British hours later, on the 4th May, 1916.

Grace Gifford Plunkett was at that time on the Executive of the then Sinn Féin organisation, and spoke out against the Treaty of Surrender.

Like all anti-treaty activists (then as now) she was constantly harassed by Free State forces and was no stranger to the inside of prison cells, and was on a 'watch list' by the Leinster House administration.

She had no home, little money and was despised by the State 'authorities' - selling her drawings and illustrations gave her a small irregular income, as she moved from rented flat to rented flat and ate in the cheapest restaurants she could find.

She died suddenly, and alone, on the 13th of December 1955, aged 67, in a flat in South Richmond Street in Portobello, Dublin, and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.

'Rougher than Death the road I choose

Yet shall my feet not walk astray,

Though dark, my way I shall not lose

For this way is the darkest way.

Now I have chosen in the dark

The desolate way to walk alone

Yet strive to keep alive one spark

Of your known grace and grace unknown...'

(from here.)

THE GREAT OIL AND GAS ROBBERY...

From 'Magill' Magazine, October 2005.

"I spent an hour with Micheál Ó Seighin (pictured), one of the Rossport Five.

Micheál received us very graciously in the small visiting box. He is a small, quietly-spoken man in his late 60s.

"Tá sibhse ag dhéanamh obair go hiontach. Congratulations. Bhí an scéal Dé Luan go han, han mhaith. Ceim mhór", he said..."

Micheál Ó Seighin.

Michael McDowell.

Pat Rabbitte.

On Friday 23rd September, a senior political delegation met with the Taoiseach, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Justice to discuss the evolving peace process. All in attendance agreed privately, and later publicly, that it was a good and positive engagement.

And so it was.

When it was over I took Michael McDowell to one side and shook hands.

"Am I still barred from visiting the Rossport Five?", I asked him.

"Yes", he said.

"Why?", I asked.

"Because that's my decision", he said.

On Wednesday 28 September I did get a visit to Cloverhill, but it wasn't with the Minister's permission. The Ó Seighin family gave up one of their visits so that I could spend an hour with Micheál Ó Seighin, one of the Rossport Five.

Micheál received us very graciously in the small visiting box ; he is a small, quietly-spoken man in his late 60s.

"Tá sibhse ag dhéanamh obair go hiontach. Congratulations. Bhí an scéal Dé Luan go han, han mhaith. Ceim mhór"?, he said.

"Tá a lán le dhéanamh go foill", I said. "Cad é mar atá rudaí anseo?"

"Tá muid maith go leor. We are getting a huge amount of support. Up to 140 cards a day so that helps and I had my mind made on this for a long time. We had really no choice and the other lads are very strong."

"It's a long time to be here. How are your families?", I asked.

"The entire community is with us and all of our families are totally committed. We're very well organised over the last number of years..."

(The third [ie last] pic above shows a Mr Patrick Rabbitte, ex-State Labour Party leader and ex-'State Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources' ; Mr Rabbittee retired as State Labour Party leader in 2007, and from political life altogether in 2016, on a combined pension package worth over €2 million to him!)

(MORE LATER.)

A worrying development for the British, or so it might have seemed at the time, but Westminster's insistence to US President Woodrow Wilson that the Irish situation was 'a domestic/internal issue' won out in the end.

T'was on the 4th March in 1919 that the 'United States House of Representatives' voted overwhelmingly that the Paris Peace Conference should favourably consider Ireland’s claim to self-determination (the vote was 261 for, 41 against, and the US Senate did the same on the 6th of June that same year).

An Irish-American delegation had met with Mr Woodrow Wilson in New York earlier on that same day and, even though Mr Wilson didn't actually commit himself to outrightly supporting Irish aspirations for self-determination, he let it be known to the delegation that it wasn't something he was opposed to, and suggested that their case might be better heard at the 'League of Nations' - the delegation 'read between the lines' and the meeting got a bit heated.

But Mr Wilson and his team stayed 'on the fence', carefully, not majorly offending either camp ; that's politics for ya - and a lost opportunity...

==========================

THE MONTH UNSPUN...

The stories that hit the headlines.

From Magill magazine, August 2002.

'The Irish Independent' newspaper reported on 4th July that Elan chief executive Donal Geaney had the full confidence of his board.

Six days later he had resigned and been replaced by a five-member executive committee.

'The Irish Times' quoted newly-appointed Elan chairman Dr Garo Armen -

"The board decided to change top management because it deemed that it was necessary for the company to strengthen its cash position, restructure itself and reduce its cost base substantially."

'The Financial Times' newspaper reckoned that Wall Street's love affair with Ireland was now over and that.. "...not many doors will be opening for Elan for some time to come."

Elan's suspect accounting practices have come in the wake of similar revelations from Enron and Worldcom, and have started Wall Street thinking that loose accounting standards are a major problem in more than one company...

(MORE LATER.)

"As a protest against the present regime of coercion and the imprisonment of Irishmen for holding political opinions not approved of by the military governors of this county, we wish to inform you that the military point-to-point advertised for Boston will not be allowed to be held..."

- a statement issued on the 4th March, 1920, by Irish republicans and other concerned locals, and sent to 'The Secretary, Boston Point-to-Point, Rathangan, County Kildare' (the "regime of coercion" refers to the imposition of martial law and the use of the 'Defence of the Realm Act' (DORA) to 'arrest' Sinn Féin members and Irish Volunteers).

'Boston' is a townland in the Red Hills area, near the village of Rathangan, in County Kildare, and the "military point-to-point" mentioned in the statement is a reference to a steeplechase horse race which had been organised by British Army officers, stationed in Ireland, affiliated to the '12th Lancers' and the '6th Dragoon Guards Carabiniers'.

The 'festivities' (?!) were to be held on Wednesday, 17th March 1920 (Saint Patrick's Day) and were intended to be 'a jolly day out' for British Army and political 'Toffs', their wives, husbands, girlfriends, mistresses and supporters.

There was frequent targeting of these 'social and sporting events' as a form of protest and disruption against British rule in Ireland and, while some of the horse races were actually, physically disrupted and interfered with, the mere threat of disruption could often be enough to result in the event being cancelled or postponed - psychological warfare.

As it transpired, the Paddy's Day outing didn't go ahead on the announced day, but a scaled-down version took place six days later (on the 23rd), in a less-relaxed atmosphere...

At the same time as the 'Call It Off'-statement was delivered to the Toffs in Kildare, about 130 km(80 miles) across the country and down a fair bit, in the village of An Bhuaile Dhubh (Bouladuff, aka 'The Ragg'), 5 miles outside of Thurles and 3 miles from Borrisoleigh, in the county of Tipperary, three armed Volunteers (James Stapleton, Patrick O'Brien and James Larkin) attached to the Mid Tipperary Brigade (No.2) of the IRA were having a meeting in Fanning's Pub (/grocer shop) when two armed and uniformed RIC members walked in.

The IRA men pulled out their revolvers and told the RIC members to surrender but, instead, they went to draw their guns and were fired on - one of them, a Mr John Martin Heanue (24, from Galway), was badly wounded and died the following day.

The IRA men then left the area.

In a later-to-be-discovered related incident, on the night of the 28th March/morning of the 29th, six masked men called to the nearby home of Volunteer Thomas Dwyer (21) and shot him dead, as his younger sister looked on.

But 'long lie the fox' -

...on the 7th July 1921 (16 months after Volunteer Thomas Dwyer was shot dead and was buried in Drom Cemetery, County Tipperary), the body of a man was discovered at a quiet crossroads near the village of Bonniconlon, a village in the barony of Gallen, in north County Mayo.

The body was that of a 'retired' RIC Sergeant, a Mr Anthony Foody.

Tied around his neck was a sign -

'Remember Dwyer and The Ragg.'

RIP Volunteer Thomas Dwyer.

As that gunplay in the pub was taking place in Tipperary, about 135km (82 miles) up the country and over a bit to the left (!), a farmer from the village of Ardskamore (aka 'Ardkillmore'), near the town of Corofin in County Galway - a Mr Martin Cullinane (/Cullinan) - was visiting a neighbour, a Mr John Lardner, when a group of armed men approached the house.

A bullet was fired through a window in the house, striking Mr Cullinane and killing him.

IRA or British forces?

No claim of responsibility was made.

==========================

DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...

On the 4th March, 1921, IRA Units in Kildare destroyed/disabled bridges and roads in Castledermot, Monasterevin, Kilcrow and Burtown and, as that infrastructure was hit, the Crown Forces in Dublin were 'building up' the infrastructure they had imposed on the city in mid-January that year.

That infrastructure took the form of a curfew which was centered on, but not confined to, the North King Street, Capel Street, and Church Street areas of Dublin city centre, between the hours of 10pm and 5am, with '40-hour lockdowns' implemented without notice.

On the 4th March (1921), the curfew area was extended to a massive area of 36 square miles, spanning from Chapelizod to Ballybrack and Glasnevin to Terenure, with public travel now 'forbidden'/strictly limited between the hours of 9pm to 5am.

However, republican Volunteers continued to impose their own 'curfew' on those imposers and imposters...

In late February 1921, IRA Intelligence in the town of Cashel, in County Tipperary, mapped the movements of an RIC member, a Mr James R Beasant (25), from Wiltshire, in England, who had joined that grouping in December 1920.

After 'work' on a Friday evening, Mr Beasant was a regular in Cantwell's Pub (pictured) on the corner of Main Street and John Street, in Cashel, where he had a few pints before heading to his house.

That information was passed to the 3rd Tipperary Brigade of the IRA and, towards the last days of February (1921) an IRA meeting to discuss the issue was held in M/s Anastasia ('Stasia') Nevin's house, which was only a few doors away from that pub.

Four Volunteers - Patrick Hogan (aka 'Seán Hogan'), Patrick Keane, Thomas Nagle (aka 'Jack Nagle') and William O'Donnell - and Stasia herself, were tasked with the operation to pay Mr Beasant a visit and a plan of action was put together.

On Friday, the 4th March, having confirmed that Mr Beasant was, as usual, in the pub, the four Volunteers called into Stasia.

Volunteer Hogan gave Stasia a small revolver, which she put in her handbag and, as per the plan, she left the house to stand down the road, on lookout duty.

On a 'coast clear' signal from Stasia, the four Volunteers left the house and walked the few doors down the road to the pub entrance.

Volunteer O'Donnell (the then 0fficer Commanding 'A' Company, 2nd Battalion IRA) later reported on the operation -

"All four of us carried revolvers.

Volunteers Keane and Nagle stayed in Miss Nevin's in John Street and Volunteer Hogan and I stayed in SD Ryan's of Friar Street.

Local Volunteers, who acted as scouts, kept us informed of the movements of the RIC.

At about 7 pm on the night of the 4th March, 1921, a scout reported that two RIC men were drinking in Cantwell's public house at the corner of John Street and Main Street and they were separate, one was drinking in the kitchen and the other was in the shop.

Volunteer Hogan then decided that Volunteer Nagle and himself would enter Cantwell's by the side door, Volunteer Nagle to go into the kitchen to deal with the RIC man there, while he himself would attack the RIC man in the shop.

Volunteer Keane and I were to stand on the footpath just outside Cantwell's shop to deal, if necessary, with an RIC patrol which might be expected in the vicinity around that time.

During the time which elapsed from the scout seeing the RIC men until our arrival at Cantwell's, the two RIC men had left and another one - Beasant - had entered the shop and the RIC patrol, too, had arrived in the vicinity and were standing at the railings of Corcoran's Hotel, about 50 yards away down the street.

Volunteer Hogan was unaware of the patrol's presence when he entered Cantwell's, but Volunteer Keane and I saw them as they stood chatting to each other when we took up our position.

Volunteer Hogan fired point blank at Beasant, who was sitting in the shop, but it had no effect.

He fired four more shots at him but, except for a slight scratch wound, the shots had no effect and Beasant then closed with Volunteer Hogan and gasped his right arm ; Volunteer Hogan changed the gun to his left hand and fired again, but still without effect.

Meanwhile, Volunteer Nagle, seeing no RIC man in the kitchen, came back out to the shop, where he saw Volunteer Hogan and Beasant struggling with each other.

Volunteer Nagle fired, hitting Beasant in the head, and the latter then fell dead.

Volunteer Keane and I had not expected to hear more than two shots or three at the most and, after hearing the fifth shot, he remarked to me that the boys must be in trouble inside and suggested that we should go in.

I told him that we had better watch the RIC patrol who, by the way, if they heard the muffled sound of the shots, did not take any notice, but remained where they were.

After the pause and hearing Volunteer Nagle's shot, we did go to the door to see what was happening and, to our relief, met Volunteers Hogan and Nagle coming out.

We got out of the town immediately and, taking to the fields, reached Woodenstown early next morning, where we rested in a farmer's house.

Here we met Volunteer Seumas Robinson, the Brigade 0fficer Commanding, who remarked that he had just heard that a Black and Tan had been shot in Cashel the night before.

He added that he also heard that a girl had been wounded in the shooting - that was the first intimation we got that Miss Julia Cantwell, who had been hiding behind the counter at the end of the shop, had been wounded..."

As the Volunteers were leaving the pub, Stasia walked in the opposite direction, down Main Street, and went to the cinema which was filled with British soldiers and she made sure that she was noticed by the officers, knowing that an alibi as to her whereabouts at the time of the shooting would be necessary.

Indeed, there was such a crowd of soldiers at the cinema, that a gallant British Army officer escorted her home afterwards, making sure that herself and her little handgun in her handbag got home safely..!

On the same day that Mr Beasant drank his last pint, about 140km (85 miles) down the road, a female resident of the Kilcatherine Parish in the Eyeries district of West Cork - a M/s Bridget Noble (née Neill) - was on her way to Castletownbere (/Castletown Berehaven) in Cork, when she was arrested by the IRA between Ardgroom and her destination.

Having searched her house in her absence on the 4th (by order of the Captain of the Ardgroom Volunteer Company), acting on information, the rebels found a letter to her from the RIC 'Head Constable' asking her to meet him in Castletownbere and they caught up with her just past the village of Ardgroom, on the Beara Peninsula, on her way to that meeting (the search party also found five half-torn letters from other RIC members and two photographs of RIC men).

Her constant contact with the RIC had been noticed by Volunteers from 'C Company' of the Castletownbere Battalion, as had her 'friendship' with the local RIC sergeant, whom she met up with more than once in a private house.

M/s Noble had previously had her hair forcibly shorn by the IRA as a warning to stop associating with enemy forces, but still she persisted ; indeed, she reported that IRA action to her friends in the RIC, and gave them the names of seven Volunteers whom she claimed were responsible for the punishment action.

Having been arrested by the rebels on the 4th March (1921), she was questioned and put on trial on the 13th, found guilty, and executed on the 15th.

A report on the case was prepared by the Cork No. 5 Brigade HQ and sent to their Dublin GHQ in October that year, as her execution caused some unease within the ranks of the rebel Movement who, generally, were not in favour of shooting women, as was stated in 'IRA General Orders'.

Incidentally - M/s Bridget Noble was one of three women executed by the IRA as informers during that period of our on-going struggle ; the other two were Maria Georgina (Mary) Lindsay and Kate (Kitty) Carroll.

M/s Noble's husband received £1,500 in compensation from the British government.

==========================

ON THIS DATE (4TH MARCH) 16 YEARS AGO : GREEN ISLE FOODS ISSUE COVERED BY MEDIA.

Statement released on Wednesday, 3rd March 2010, by SIPTU (...and carried by the media on the 4th and afterwards).

'History of Green Isle Foods dispute ; Workers in Green Isle Foods have embarked on a course of action not seen in Ireland for many years. Members of the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) have been left on the picket line for six months by their employer and the parent company, Northern Foods in Britain.

The basic facts ; in December 2008, a TEEU member opened a new icon on his computer entitled 'Boardroom'.

He assumed it was an information bulletin.

In fact it had been sent to him by mistake instead of to a senior member of management with a similar name.

He did not pay much attention to the contents until a file appeared on the site in March 2009 containing restructuring proposals that involved making six TEEU members redundant.

The engineer showed his manager the file and shared the information with a number of fellow employees.

When the company realised its error it insisted that all employees who may have accessed the 'Boardroom' folder sign a document confirming that they had done so and accepting it was a serious disciplinary offence for which they faced dismissal.

The members asked their union for advice.

When the TEEU sought to represent them the company refused to entertain the union.

The men were suspended on full pay, while Green Isle Foods applied to the High Court for an order seeking full disclosure from the employees along with exemplary damages for breach of contract, confidentiality, interfering with the company's business and all legal costs - including interest.

The TEEU represented the men in court and after hearing the evidence Judge Mary Laffoy recommended that the parties agree a mutually acceptable process for resolving the problem.

An agreement was reached by which all suspensions were lifted, the men returned to work and they agreed to co-operate with the company investigation, which dragged on from early April until mid June 2009.

Eamon Devoy, General Secretary Designate of the TEEU, eventually wrote to the company on June 17th, asking that the inquiry into 'Boardroom' be wound up because of the stress it was causing employees.

Instead, the company said it had begun what it claimed was a second investigation, wholly unrelated to the first, on the previous day, June 16th, into the storage of inappropriate emails on PCs.

On June 18th it also issued the findings of its first investigation.

This found the company IT systems were not secure or properly monitored, and there was no evidence to suggest information from the 'Boardroom' folder had been given to anyone outside the company.

Meanwhile, the company pursued its second investigation without any involvement from the TEEU, whose members refused to engage in the new process without union representation.

The same individuals were investigated as in the 'Boardroom' inquiry and, while it remains unclear if this investigation was ever concluded, the men were dismissed at the end of what had proven a very secretive process, on July 10th, 2009.

Their appeals were rejected on July 31st, and the company rejected an offer by the Labour Relations Commission to intervene.

Having failed to find some means of resolving the dispute through negotiation, mediation and dialogue, the TEEU served strike notice on Green Isle Foods.

The response of the company was to bring in strike breakers, who were in place even before pickets were mounted at the end of August 2009.

Meanwhile, the other TEEU members, whose positions had been identified as redundant in the 'Boardroom' file, received satisfactory redundancy settlements ; the crucial difference was that they were employees of ESS, a subcontractor on the Green Isle Foods site which recognises unions.

Green Isle Foods has sought to portray the dispute as one involving the downloading of pornographic (material) from the internet, but in fact the Green Isle Foods system does not allow employees access to the internet, let alone the ability to download material.

In the case of two TEEU members who were dismissed, they opened unsolicited emails which had nothing to suggest the material was inappropriate and, in one case, the man was dismissed for failing to delete the email subsequently from his in-box although he did not show it to anyone else.

The source of the unsolicited emails has never been identified by the company.

The third employee was dismissed because he brought a memory stick to work with film and video game material on it which was not pornographic images, but which the company claimed could breach copyright law if used on its equipment.

After being on the picket line for over four months the TEEU referred the dispute to the Labour Court, which heard the case on December 4th, 2009.

The company refused to attend, saying it did not recognise unions and therefore the Labour Court was an inappropriate forum to resolve the dispute but, nevertheless, it was represented at the hearing by IBEC.

The Court issued a recommendation on December 8th, 2009, stating it was satisfied the dismissals were unjustified, that there should be an immediate return to work, full reinstatement of the men and compensation for loss of earnings.

In the event that this was not acceptable to the two sides the Court recommended that they should agree, through a third party if necessary, on a compensation package for the men.

When the company rejected this proposal the Court recommended, on January 5th, 2010, that the sacked men receive €40,000, €60,000 and €80,000 respectively, reflecting their lengths of service (seven, 10 and 16 years), if they were not reinstated as previously recommended.

When the company continued to ignore the Labour Court recommendations, the shop stewards, Jim Wyse and Declan Shannon, requested meetings with the company locally to resolve the dispute through direct talks, and even offered to negotiate on the Labour Court terms.

Management met them briefly for a few minutes on three occasions over four weeks but did not even bother to make a note of the men's proposals before rejecting them.

It was after this final rebuff that the workers decided to adopt a hunger strike strategy ; they had spent six months on the picket line during the worst winter weather for 40 years and their families were experiencing extreme economic hardship.

They felt it was the last means available to bring pressure to bear on a company that was impervious to all the normal rules of industrial relations or common decency.

Jim Wyse became the first hunger striker on February 17th - he volunteered to go first because it was his suggestion, John Guinan joined him on February 24th and John Recto joined the Green Isle Foods hunger strike on March 3rd, 2010.

Some hours before he joined Jim Wyse and John Guinan on hunger strike, John Recto was asked to call into Naas Garda Station, where he was informed that his work visa has been revoked.

He was told he has until March 8th to leave the country.

He is from the Philippines and has been working at Green Isle Foods for the past three years, and his wife and three children, aged six, seven and one year old, are living with him in Naas ; his youngest child was born in Ireland.

End of SIPTU statement.'

To a certain extent, this is the fault of those that work for a wage/salary and the overall Trade Union movement.

The three of us involved with this blog work outside (and inside) the home, for a wage/salary, and are union members.

We are, in our separate places of employment, in senior management positions and are therefore, thankfully, able to sort any disputes that arise in-house, in a fair-to-all manner, without calling in TU reps who, anyway, are busy campaigning for foreign vagrants and/or decorating their offices with queer/rainbow flags and bunting.

It is as much the fault of the Trade Union movement because they have become 'soft' and over-friendly with politicians and company bosses : in truth, the Trade Union leadership have more in common - and not only in relation to the money they 'earn' - with those two groups, in that they lack the moral courage to stand by their (stated) convictions and alleged intention - to protect that what we already have, in the workplace, and to seek to improve conditions for the working class.

We, the tax-paying working class, have been sold out four times over - by ourselves, for not only not whole-heartedly fighting back but for not actually leaving blood on the streets in our attempt to do so, by the self-serving and (pension-)time-serving millionaire politicians in this State, by the business owners, bosses and management and, finally, by 'our' trade union movement, who have shown that, once bought, they stay bought.

We should be thoroughly ashamed of ourselves.

('1169' comment ; after 15 days on hunger-strike, the issue was settled. Some details here.)

On the night of the 4th March/morning of the 5th, 1922, the hall door of a house in Swinford, County Mayo, came crashing in and an armed man wearing a disguise walked in.

The man of the house, a Mr John O'Dowd, a 'retired' RIC Sergeant, was sitting at the fireside with his wife.

The wife grabbed a chair, jumped up and placed herself between her husband and the Volunteer, just as the Volunteer fired a shot, which went through the chair and hit the wife, piercing a lung.

He fired at least two more shots, and hit Mr O'Dowd twice, then left the scene.

Mr O'Dowd was seriously injured, but recovered.

His wife didn't.

RIP Mrs O'Dowd.

==========================

ON THIS DATE (4TH MARCH) 222 YEARS AGO - 'CONVICTS' REVOLT : 'VINEGAR HILL' NSW UPRISING.

On this date in 1804, an uprising was held by the 'Castle Hill Convicts' in New South Wales, Australia, led by Irish rebel Phillip Cunningham, a Kerryman, born at Glenn Liath ('Grey Glen'), Moyvane.

Although not a lot is known about this Irish hero, it is recorded that he moved to Clonmel, Tipperary, in the 1790's, and worked as a stonemason, supplementing his income from same by opening up a small pub.

Peter Cunningham and about two hundred other 'convicts' turned on the Redcoat soldiers who had imprisoned them, locked them up and broke into a weapons hut.

Martial law was declared as a result, in the Sydney area, and residents in the town of Parramatta were advised to assemble at the docks, ready to flee the area if needed.

The rebels had by now based themselves on a hilltop and declared it to be their 'Vinegar Hill'.

A Major George Johnson and his men from the New South Wales Corps and a detachment of fifty mercenaries from the 'Loyal Association' marched through the night and a short battle commenced in and around 'Vinegar Hill', ending the rebellion. Peter Cunningham was later executed without trial.

'The Sydney Gazette' newspaper covered(/coloured) the event, in its edition of the 11th March 1804, in the following manner -

'REBELLION AT CASTLE HILL.

Major Johnston on arriving at Toongabbee, received information that a considerable Body were on their way to the Hawkesbury.

Notwithstanding the fatigue of his small Detachment in marching up from Sydney and the distance they had gone since, they immediately ran in good Order, with their followers, and after a pursuit of Seven Miles farther, Major Johnston and a Trooper, who had preceded the Detachment, came up with the rear of the Insurgents at 11 o'clock, whose number have since been ascertained to be 233 men, armed with Musquets, Pistols, Swords etc., and a number of followers which they had taken from the Settlers.

After calling to them repeatedly they halted, and formed on the rise of a Hill: The Major and Trooper advanced within pistol shot, and endeavoured to persuade them to submit to the Mercy that was offered them by the Proclamation, which they refused.

The Major required to see their Chiefs, who after some deliberation met them half way, between the Detachment and Insurgents, when by a great presence of mind and address the Major presented his pistol at the head of the Principal leader (Phillip Cunningham), and the Trooper following his motions, presented his Pistol also to the other leader's head (William Johnston) and drove them into the Detachment without the least opposition from the body of the Insurgents..'

That rebellion may very well have been shortlived and its leader, Peter Cunningham, almost forgotten in our history, but it, and he, live on in the memory of every Irish republican to this day.

As it should be.

"Convicted Spy.

Tried And Executed By The IRA."

- a note pinned to a body found by Free State Army soldiers on the 4th March, 1923, near the village of Clerihan (/Ballyclerahan), Clonmel, County Tipperary.

The remains were those of a Mr Thomas McGrath, a British Army soldier who had joined the then new Free State Army.

He had been executed on the 2nd March.

==========================

BORN ON THIS DATE (4TH MARCH) THE SAME DATE THAT HE DIED, AND NAMED AFTER AN IRISH HERO WHO WAS BORN ON THAT SAME DATE 120 YEARS BEFORE HIM!

Emmet Dalton (pictured, on the right, with Michael Collins), Irish rebel-turned-Free Stater, was born in America on March 4th 1898 and died in Dublin on March 4th 1978 - his 80th birthday, and also the bicentenary of the birth of the man he was named after, and whose Cause he belittled - *Robert Emmet.

Mr Dalton was educated at the O'Connell School in Drumcondra, Dublin and, as a young adult, became interested in the political teachings of a Mr John Redmond, so much so that he joined the British Army, serving as a 2nd Lieutenant with the 7th Battalion of the Dublin Fusiliers.

He would have been present at the Somme in September 1916 when over 4,000 Irish soldiers died (including his friend, Tom Kettle) and, indeed, won a 'Military Cross' for '..leading forward to their final objective companies which had lost their officers. Later, whilst consolidating his position, he found himself with one sergeant, confronted by 21 of the enemy, including an officer, who surrendered when he attacked them..'.

He further served the British 'war effort' in Palestine, where he trained a sniper patrol and also served as a British Army staff officer in France.

He was demobilised, in Germany, in 1919, at the age of 21, and returned to Dublin, becoming the 'Director of Training' for the Irish Republican Army, but he sold out in favour of the 'Treaty of Surrender' in 1921 and made a (Free State) name for himself by attacking republican positions from the sea, actions that his British paymasters considered as having 'turned the tide' against the Irish republican resistance, and also led the Free State attack on the Four Courts in Dublin on the 28th June 1922.

He was with Michael Collins on the 22nd of August 1922 when the latter was shot dead by republican forces in West Cork (Béal na mBláth) and is said to have propped up a dying Collins to place dressings on his wound.

He resigned from the Free State Army shortly after Collins was killed (his brother, Charlie, stayed on and made an equally bad name for himself), and was appointed as the clerk of the Free State Senate, but resigned from that, too, three years later, and opened a film production company, Ardmore Studios, near Bray, in Wicklow.

He died, aged 80, on the 4th of March 1978, the same date and month that he had been born on, and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.

Rumours persist that Mr Dalton himself shot Collins dead, as per instructions from Westminster...?

(*...few words [!] elsewhere in this post about the brave Irish rebel.)

"The Ulster Protestants are the spoiled children of politics who are incapable of making concessions..."

-Mr William Thomas Cosgrave (pictured), the then 'President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State, leader of the Cumann na nGaedheal political party and the Leinster House member for the Carlow–Kilkenny constituency' (and, as if that wasn't pensions enough for him, he was, when he spoke those words, only about three weeks away from also taking on the position of Free State Minister for Defence!).

Or at least that's what a Mr Norman George Loughnane claimed Mr Cosgrave said, at a meeting with his boss, a Mr Lionel Curtis.

Mr Loughnane was a British government official (a 'Principal Officer' in the British Treasury), a former administrator in Dublin Castle, and was also associated with the British 'Ministry of Pensions' in Westminster, and Mr Curtis once 'served' as the 'Colonial Office Adviser on Irish Affairs' for the Brits.

Mr Cosgrave and Mr Loughnane were themselves like "spoiled children" with all their salaried positions, and poor Mr Curtis was like the child who was last in getting to the sweet jar/piggy bank...

==========================

ON THIS DATE (4TH MARCH) 248 YEARS AGO : 'DARLING OF ERIN' BORN.

Robert Emmet was born on the 4th March, 1778, a son of Dr Robert Emmet and Elizabeth Mason.

His father served as state physician to the vice-regal household but was a social reformer who believed that in order to achieve the emancipation of the Irish people it was first necessary to break the link with England.

Robert Emmet (Jnr) was baptised on March 10th in St Peter's Church of Ireland in Aungier Street, Dublin, and attended Oswald's School in Dropping Court, off Golden Lane, in Dublin and, from there, he went to Samuel Whytes School in Grafton Street, quite near his home, and later to the school of the Reverend Mr Lewis in Camden Street.

He entered Trinity College, Dublin, in October 1793 at the age of fifteen and a half where he practiced his oratorical skills in the Historical and Debating Societies and one of his friends there was the poet Thomas Moore.

There were four branches of the 'United Irishmen' in TCD and Robert Emmet was secretary of one of them but, after an inquisition, presided over by Lord Chancellor Fitzgibbon, Emmet became one of nineteen students who were expelled for United Irishmen activity.

Although not active in the 1798 Rising, Robert Emmet was well known to the British authorities and by April 1799, when Habeas Corpus had been suspended, there was a warrant issued for his arrest, which he managed to evade and, early in 1801, accompanied by a Mr Malachy Delany of Cork, he travelled throughout Europe, and made Paris his headquarters - it was there that he replaced Edward Lewis as the liaison officer between Irish and French republicans.

While in Paris, he learned about rockets and weapons, and studied a two-volume treatise by a Colonel Tempelhoff which can be examined in the Royal Irish Academy, with the marginal notes given the reader some insight into Emmet's thinking.

Following the signing of the 'Peace of Amiens' by France and England in March 1802, the United Irishmen that were being held as prisoners in Fort George were released and many such as Thomas Russell and Thomas Addis Emmet made there way to Paris.

Emmet returned to Ireland in October 1802 and began to plan for a rising and, in March 1803, at a meeting in Corbet's Hotel, 105 Capel Street, Dublin, Emmet briefed his key organisers.

In April 1803 Emmet rented an isolated house in Butterfield Lane in Rathfarnham as a new base of operations and Michael Dwyer, a 1798 veteran, suggested his young niece as a suitable candidate to play the role of the 'housekeeper'.

Born in or around the year 1778, Ann Devlin soon became Robert Emmet's trusted helper and served him loyally in the months ahead.

Shortly afterwards he leased a premises at Marshalsea Lane, off Thomas Street, Dublin, and set up an arms depot there, for the manufacture and storage of weapons for the incipient rising.

Former soldiers mixed their practical skills with the scientific knowledge that Robert Emmet had acquired on the continent, and an innovative rocket device was produced.

Elaborate plans were drawn up to take the city and in particular Dublin Castle : supporters from the surrounding counties of Kildare, Wicklow and even Wexford were pledged to assist.

Emmet bided his time, waiting for an opportune moment when English troops would be withdrawn to serve in the renewed war in France, but his hand was forced when a premature explosion on the evening of July 16, 1803, at the Patrick Street depot, caused the death of John Keenan and, even though there was no obvious wide scale search or arrest operation by the British following the explosion, the leadership of the movement decided to set July 23, 1803 (the following Saturday) as the date for the rising.

Emmet hoped that success in Dublin would inspire other counties to follow suit.

Patrick M. Geoghegan, in a recent publication, says that "..the plan for taking Dublin was breathtaking in its precision and audacity. It was nothing less that a blueprint for a dramatic coup d'état. Indeed, over a century later, Pearse and Clarke would also refer to the plan for their own rising.."

Emmet's plan depended on two factors - arms and men and, as Geoghegan states, when the time came, Robert Emmet had not enough of either - events went dramatically wrong for him.

On the appointed day his plans began to unravel ; Michael Dwyer and his promised 300 men did not get the word until Sunday July 24th and, the previous day, an excess of men had moved in to Dublin from Kildare and could not be concealed in the existing depots so they spread out around the city pubs and some started drinking. Others, after inspecting the existing arsenal and finding many pikes but few muskets or blunderbusses, went home unimpressed.

Because he had alerted other countries and still had the element of surprise, Emmet decided not to postpone the Rising thus, shortly after seven o' clock on Saturday July 23rd, 1803, Robert Emmet in his green and gold uniform stood in the Thomas Street, Dublin, depot and, to the assembled rebels, read out his proclamation, declaring that the Irish nation was about to assert itself in arms against foreign rule.

But again events conspired to thwart the rebels - coaches commissioned for the attack on Dublin Castle were lost and erroneous information supplied that encouraged pre-emptive strikes, meant that confusion reigned.

Also, the novel rocket signals failed to detonate.

Emmet's own forces, who were to have taken the Castle, dwindled away and, throughout the remainder of that evening, there were skirmishes at Thomas Street and the Coombe Barracks but he decided to terminate operations and leave the city.

For the English Army, which included Daniel O' Connell, it was then merely a mopping-up operation : in the aftermath, the English arrested and tortured Anne Devlin, even offering her the enormous sum of £500 to betray Robert Emmet - she refused.

Emmet himself took refuge in the Harold's Cross area of Dublin, during which he met with his mother and Sarah Curran but, on Thursday August 25th, 1803, he was finally arrested.

It has been stated by others that a £1000 reward was paid by Dublin Castle to an informer, for supplying the information which led to his capture.

Robert Emmet's misfortunes did not stop on his arrest : he had the misfortune to be defended by one Leonard McNally who was trusted by the United Irishmen but, after McNally's death in 1820, it transpired that he was a highly paid government agent and, in his role as an informer, that he had encouraged young men to join the rebels, betrayed them to Dublin Castle and would then collect fees from the United Irishmen to 'defend' those same rebels in court!

Emmet was tried before a 'Special Commission' in Green Street Court House in Dublin on September 19th, 1803 ; the 'trial' lasted all day and by 9.30pm he was pronounced guilty.

Asked for his reaction, he delivered a speech which still inspires today, closing by saying that he cared not for the opinion of the court but for the opinion of the future -

"..when other times and other men can do justice to my character.."

Robert Emmet was publicly executed on Tuesday September 20th outside St Catherine's Church in Dublin's Thomas Street.

The final comment on the value of Robert Emmet's Rising must go to Séan Ó Brádaigh, who states that to speak of Emmet in terms of failure alone is to do him a grave injustice - he and the men and women of 1798 and 1803 and, indeed, those that went before them, set a course for the Irish nation, with their appeal to Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter, under the common name of 'Irishman', which profoundly affected Irish life for more than two centuries and which will, we trust, eventually bear abundant fruit.

Finally, it was not only college-educated men and women like Robert Emmet (ie those who might be perceived as being 'upper class') who decided to challenge Westminster's interference in Irish affairs in 1803 : so-called 'working class' men and women also acknowledged the need for such resistance - Edward Kearney, carpenter, hanged, Thomas St / Owen Kirwin, tailor, hanged, Thomas St, September 1st 1803 / Maxwell Roche, slator, hanged, Thomas St, September 2nd 1803 / Denis Lambert Redmond, coal facer, hanged, Coalquay (Woodquay) Dublin, / John Killeen, carpenter, hanged, Thomas St, September 10th 1803 / John McCann, shoemaker, hanged at his own doorstep, Thomas St, September 10th 1803 / Felix Rourke, farm labourer, hanged, Rathcoole, Dublin, September 10th 1803 / Thomas Keenan, carpenter, hanged, Thomas St, September 11th 1803 / John Hayes, carpenter, hanged, Thomas St, September 17th 1803 / Michael Kelly, carpenter, hanged, Thomas St, September 17th 1803 / James Byrne, baker, hanged, Townsend St, Dublin, September 17th 1803 / John Begg, tailor, hanged, Palmerstown, Dublin, September 17th 1803 / Nicholas Tyrrell, factory worker, hanged, Palmerstown, Dublin, September 17th 1803 / Henry Howley, carpenter, hanged, Kilmainham Jail, Dublin, September 20th 1803 / John McIntoch, carpenter, hanged, Patrick St, Dublin, October 3rd 1803 - there are dozens more we could list here, but suffice to say that 'class' alone was not then, nor is it now, a deciding factor in challenging British military and political interference in this country.

'Justice' is the deciding factor in that equation.

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated!

Sharon and the team.

(We'll be back on Wednesday, 18th March 2026 - and we'll be making a 'lil holiday announcement then ; we're taking a couple of weeks off, 'cause me and the Girl Gang are off soon on our rambles abroad, starting in the Canary Islands, so the two lads here will take a break, as well. And, as we say here - (MORE LATER - on the 18th!)...)

IRELAND, 1921 - THE PRO-BRITISH PARAMILITARY GROUPING 'THE IDENTIFICATION COMPANY'...

2026-02-18T00:29:00.001+00:00

Our information suggests that, on the 18th February, 1849, a 'Constabulary of Ireland' member, a Mr Henry Madden (31), "...accidentally sustained an injury in non-suspicious circumstances while on duty..".

Whatever happened him, he died from that injury the next day.

The poor man is all but forgotten now, and we have no more details about him or the 'accident' that killed him.

==========================

THE GREAT OIL AND GAS ROBBERY.

From 'Magill' Magazine, October 2005.

"I spent an hour with Micheál Ó Seighin (pictured), one of the Rossport Five.

Micheál received us very graciously in the small visiting box. He is a small, quietly-spoken man in his late 60s.

"Tá sibhse ag dhéanamh obair go hiontach. Congratulations. Bhí an scéal Dé Luan go han, han mhaith. Ceim mhór", he said..."

Micheál Ó Seighin.

Michael McDowell.

Pat Rabbitte.

Some time ago I contacted Cloverhill prison to arrange a visit with the five men imprisoned there at that time for breaching the injunction by Shell which denied them the right to protest against the huge gas pipeline being driven through their land in west Mayo.

The prison authorities were very cooperative.

It is normal practice for public representatives to visit prisoners, even in Northern Ireland (sic) where the British administration facilitates such visits.

But the Minister of Justice Michael McDowell (pictured, centre) takes a different view and on the eve of the visit I learned that I was barred from Cloverhill.

I immediately contacted the Department of Justice and spoke to the Secretary General who could offer me no explanation for this arbitrary decision...

(The third [ie last] pic above shows a Mr Patrick Rabbitte, ex-State Labour Party leader and ex-'State Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources' ; Mr Rabbitte retired as State Labour Party leader in 2007, and from political life altogether in 2016, on a combined pension package worth over €2 million to him!)

(MORE LATER.)

"I can best describe the situation here (in Ireland) as something in the nature of an incipient Boer War.

Now what was the history of the Boer War?

At first we tried to capture their strongholds and engage them in pitched battles and afterwards we covered the country with a network of 'flying columns'.

But they remained unconquered until we wired them all up inside concentration camps.

This is really how we won the Boer War, and it is the only way we will settle this business here..."

- a British 'Sir', a Mr John Denton Pinkstone French (pictured), the '1st Earl of Ypres' and the British 'Chief of the Imperial General Staff' (1912–1914) and the 'Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1918–1921), in a letter he wrote, on the 18th February 1920, to a colleague of his, a Mr James Ian Macpherson, who served as the 'British Chief Secretary for Ireland'.

Pot, kettle black with Mr Pinkstone French, the blighter (!) - for all his talk ("..pitched battles...flying columns..unconquered...wired them all up.."), his tenure of the 'British Expeditionary Force' (BEF) during 'World War I' was marked by failure ; his military orders led to high casualties and he was said by his own people to be "..temperamentally unsuited, often struggling with strategy..a fount of all that is slimy in our national life..a terribly pathetic figure, such a little while ago the hero of England and now goes out to nothing..." - he was forced to resign his commission in December 1915 and placed in Ireland where, it seems, it was considered that he would cause less damage.

Mr MacPherson got off lightly - in the British 'House of Commons', on the 3rd April, 1919, he admitted that when answering parliamentary questions..."all I can do is stand up and read a carefully prepared answer, prepared by somebody else, as best I can.."

Two chancers, by all accounts, using Ireland to grift their way to a British pension for life.

On the same date that one of those flim-flam polo-militarys was writing to the other, 'The Irish Times' newspaper (!) was doing some flim-flamming of its own.

In an Editorial on Westminster's so-called 'Better Government of Ireland Bill', the Editor wrote that the document "..had not a single friend in either hemisphere, outside Downing Street...".

'The Irish Times' was experiencing one of its recurring struggles with being disobedient which, again, it would follow with a plea for divine forgiveness to whatever 'Establishment' was in power on the day!

Four years before its "not a single friend" outburst (!), the same 'newspaper' had described the (1916) Rising as a "malignant growth" and a "criminal act", and called for an immediate, harsh military response by the British, calling for a severe "surgeon's knife" approach "to eliminate sedition" and, on the 10th May, 1916, defended the executions of the leaders, saying they knew the consequences.

That media outlet let it be known that it 'viewed the Rising as a threat to order'.

And today, 2026, it maintains its pro-Free State, West Brit attitude (founded in March, 1859, for a Protestant readership and supported 'the British Union' from day one), which it has extended to include the 'Woke' illness (pro-vagrant, queers, lesbians, he/she advocates and the other 'LGBTQIA+' (!) etc afflicted people and groups).

The sooner the better it won't have "a single friend" left itself.

==========================

DINNY LACEY, 1890 - 1923 ; IRA GUERRILLA FIGHTER .

In the small town of Attybrack, near Annacarty, in County Tipperary, a child born in the year 1890 was to know of no other way of life except that of with a gun in both hands.

At about twenty-three years young, Dinny Lacey joined the 'Irish Volunteers' and met, among others, Sean Treacy (six years later [ie 1919] that same man, Sean Treacy, was one of the two IRA leaders [the other being Dan Breen] that shot two RIC members dead in Soloheadbeg in County Tipperary - the IRA wanted the quantity of gelignite which the British 'policemen' were guarding. Sean Treacy was himself shot dead in Dublin's Talbot Street on the 15th October 1920, by a British intelligence officer named Price).

It was through Sean Treacy that Dinny Lacey was sworn in to The Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1914 and it was those two rebels, alongside Dan Breen, that organised a much-feared fighting unit in Tipperary which sought-out the enemy ; Dinny Lacey, in particular, was known to be deeply angry that the 1916 Rising had not taken hold in the rest of the country as much as it had in Dublin.

He wanted confrontation with the British, and had no time for 'letting things lie'- he was in good company!

The Tipperary area was well-organised from an Irish Republican point-of-view ; the IRA were so strong in the area that they were able to set-up and run two small ammunition factories, one each in the villages of Knockharding and Shrough.

Dinny Lacey was appointed 'Officer Commanding' of the 3rd Tipperary Brigade No. 1 Flying Column, which controlled the South Munster area - it was Sean Treacy's position, but he had been shot dead by the British in Dublin.

Dinny Lacey and his 'Flying Column' IRA Unit were relentless in their pursuit of the British - he knew the countryside extremely well and had learned much from Sean Treacy : he hit and disappeared.

He was also known to be tough with his own men, did not suffer fools, but never asked anything of them which he was not willing to do himself.

When the 'Treaty of Surrender' was signed at Downing Street in London on the 6th December, 1921, Dinny Lacey and his men were living 'on the run' and only a handful of his Unit left, two or three of whom joined the Free State Army, with the same number of men just going home.

The majority of the IRA Flying Column stayed true, and carried on with the fight for the complete removal of the British military and political presence from Ireland and, as with their fight against the British, they didn't wait to be attacked - they took the fight to the Staters.

The 3rd Tipperary Brigade IRA, with Dinny Lacey in command, hit hard ; in the months following the December 1921 sell-out, Lacey's Unit raided the Free State Barracks in Clonmel, County Tipperary, and removed all the equipment (weapons , ammunition etc) that they wanted, with the result that they were now 'kitted-out' even better than before.

Dinny Lacey and his men controlled the North Munster area to such a degree that it was practically a 'no-go' zone for the Staters, and stayed that way for most of 1922.

Also, during that same year, the townlands around Carrick-on-Suir (outside Clonmel, County Tipperary) were controlled by Dinny Lacey's Unit until December(1922) when the Free State Army forced them out.

The Free State Administration in Dublin's Leinster House had had enough ; they sent a force of approximately one-thousand State troops into the area where Dinny Lacey and the 3rd Tipperary Brigade operated from, with orders to hunt them down.

The rebel Unit were tracked to the Glen of Aherlow area (near the village of Lisveranane, in Tipperary) and were eventually corraled in a house in Ballydavid (near Bansha, Tipperary) ; realising that their only way out was through the ranks of their enemy, they exited the house with all guns blazing.

Dinny Lacey and his men got as far as the boundary fence of the property when the man beside Volunteer Lacey was wounded ; stopping to help the injured man, Dinny Lacey was shot dead.

The date was the 18th February, 1923, he was thirty-three years of age, and had spent the final ten years of his life 'on-the-run'- 9 years hunted by the British and 1 year with the Free Staters on his tail.

He was an outstanding guerrilla leader, uncompromising in his demands - a full British military and political withdrawal from the island of Ireland.

"Why are the English there anyway,

as they kill with God on their side?

Blame it on the kids and the IRA,

as the bastards commit genocide..."

- John Lennon, 'The Luck of The Irish'.

RIP Volunteer Denis 'Dinny' Lacey, 31st May 1889 – 18th February 1923.

ON THIS DATE (18TH FEBRUARY) 105 YEARS AGO : IRISH REPUBLICAN VOLUNTEER POW 'TRANSFERRED FOR EXECUTION...'

"I DON'T WANT TO LET DOWN THE WITNESSES WHO GAVE EVIDENCE FOR ME...." -

- the words of Volunteer Patrick Moran (pictured) , Adjutant of D Company Irish Volunteers, 2nd Battalion (Dublin), to his comrades Ernie O'Malley (who had passed himself off to the British as 'Bernard Stewart') and Frank Teeling as they were about to walk to freedom through a gate in Kilmainham Jail in Dublin, which they had forced open, on the 14th of February 1921.

Volunteer Moran believed he would be found innocent at his 'trial' and saw no reason why he should take the opportunity to escape.

He was a 'dangerous man', as far as Westminster was concerned, and had been imprisoned in Dublin Castle on the 7th of January 1921 and charged with the 'murder' of two British Army/paramilitary gang members, Ames and Bennett, after been mistakenly identified as having been involved in the shooting dead of both men - Lieutenant Peter Ashmun Ames and British Army Lieutenant George Bennett (both of whom were in command of 'The Cairo Gang') on the 21st of November 1920 at 38 Upper Mount Street in Dublin.

He stayed behind on the night of the prison break ,refusing to take part in same, having encouraged Simon Donnelly to go in his place, a decision which was was to cost Patrick Moran his life.

On the 15th of February 1921, he was put on 'trial' (during which sixteen people and an RIC man verified he was elsewhere!) but was, as expected, found 'guilty' and, three days later - on the 18th of February 1921, 105 years ago today - was transferred to Mountjoy Jail, Dublin.

On Wednesday, 9th of March 1921, Patrick Moran was sentenced to death and he was executed by hanging five days later, on Monday, the 14th of March.

He had defended the integrity of his country in Jacob's Factory Garrison during Easter week in 1916, where he served under Thomas MacDonagh, and had been imprisoned at Knutsford and Woorwood Scrubs in England, and in Frongoch Internment Camp in Wales.

He is one of 'The Forgotten Ten' in that he, and his nine comrades, were 'forgotten' by the State but have always been remembered by Irish republicans.

Finally, the planning and execution of the escape itself is worthy of a few paragraphs :

On the 11th February 1921, Frank Teeling and Ernie O'Malley were joined in Kilmainham Jail by Simon Donnelly, who was taken into their confidence and told of the up-coming plan of escape.

The peep-holes in the cell doors were three inches in diameter and, if one of the men could get his arm through it, it would be possible to open the door from the outside ; the plan then was to make their way to the yard, as the men had noticed that the door leading from the prison to the yard was usually left closed-over, but not locked, and then cross the yard to a large iron gate on the west side of the jail, cut the bolt on same and escape.

A 'Plan B' had been made in case the bolt cutter should fail - IRA Volunteers from 'F' Company, Fourth Battalion, Dublin Brigade, would take up positions outside the prison wall with a rope ladder and, awaiting an agreed signal, throw in the rope attached to the ladder, so that the prisoners could haul the ladder over to their side of the wall.

Oscar Traynor, (pictured) IRA Dublin Brigade O/C, had secured a bolt cutter and that, along with two revolvers, were packaged and smuggled into the prison by a friendly British soldier.

The prisoners were not sure that the bolt cutter would be up to the job but were determined to carry out the escape plan, as Frank Teeling was in line for execution ; on the night of February 13th, 1921, the three men made their way to the outer prison gate but, as the handles of the bolt cutter were incorrectly fitted, they were unable to cut the bolt.

They went to 'Plan B', and gave the signal for their comrades on the other side of the prison wall to throw in the rope attached to the ladder - the rope jammed on top of the wall and snapped when the men outside attempted to pull it back to them.

The three prisoners had no alternative but to return to their cells.

The following day, the British soldier who was in on the plan repaired/adjusted the handles on the bolt cutter and, that night, at 6.30pm, the three prisoners decided to make another escape attempt.

The three Irish republican prisoners again made their way down to the gate and, this time, the bolt cutter worked.

They used butter and grease, which they saved from their meals, to help ease the remaining portion of the corroded bolt out from its latch and two of the men got their revolvers at the ready as the third man pulled on the heavy door which creaked open sluggishly on its rusty hinges and the three men walked out!

Simon Donnelly had tried to persuade Patrick Moran to join them, but Volunteer Moran - who was not involved in shooting Ames or Bennett, and had what he considered the perfect alibi for that night - refused to leave the prison except by the front gate as a free man.

Patrick Moran paid with his life for relying on British justice : not the first innocent man to be put to death by the British, and not the last Irish person to be punished by them in revenge.

RIP Volunteer Patrick Moran.

ON THIS DATE (18TH FEBRUARY) 78 YEARS AGO....

"On my way to Knocksedan a little before mid-day I called at the Post Office in Lusk for stamps.

The postmistress, whom I knew very well, asked me to accompany her to her sitting room.

There she told me that she had just delivered a wire in code from Dublin Castle to the Lusk police sergeant, and she was familiar with the code from frequent messages.

This particular one to the police sergeant was to the effect that he was to make immediate arrangements for the arrest of Ashe and myself!

I mention this incident because I think that similar messages were sent to various Volunteer centres in the country, and because it tends to show that the Rising leaders were right in their view that there was to be a general swoop by Dublin Castle on that day.

The police attack was being directed by a District Inspector Smyth, an ex-Army officer and, at the other end (Southern or Cross Roads) a County Inspector Gray was directing operations.

Gray was severely wounded early in the fighting, leaving Smyth in sole command and, soon after Frank Lawless's arrival, an intermittent duel began between his and Smyth's squad.

Smyth was eventually mortally wounded by a shot from Lawless, leaving the police without a leader, with the result that they lost morale and, very soon after Smyth being knocked out, Lawless and his Volunteer squad came out on the roadway, firing intermittently, and moved at the double towards the motor cars.

On seeing them, some of the police peared from under cover of the cars with their hands up..."

- the above is taken from 'Document W.S.97' , a statement made on the 18th February 1948 by Dr. Richard Francis Hayes (pictured), a medical officer and Commandant of the 5th Battalion, Dublin Brigade of the Irish Volunteers, as part of a questionnaire into Volunteer activities in north county Dublin during Easter Week, 1916.

Volunteer Hayes and his men were active in Donabate, Swords, Garristown and Ashbourne and, following the Rising, he was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment but was released in June 1917, but was imprisoned again for republican activities between May 1918 and March 1919 and from November 1920 to July 1921.

However, he ruined his credentials by supporting the Treaty of Surrender and entered the Westminster-imposed Leinster House institution in 1922 and soon after joined the Free State 'Cumann na nGaedheal' party.

To his credit, he resigned from Leinster House in 1924 and turned his back completely on political life, perhaps because he realised that that which he fought for as a republican was not obtainable through the politics of the Free State and its 'parliament', Leinster House?

He died on the 16th of June, 1958, in his 80th year, and is buried in Deansgrange Cemetery, in Dublin.

ON THIS DATE (18TH FEBRUARY) 180 YEARS AGO : ATTEMPTED GENOCIDE RAISED IN THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT, REPORTED ON BY THE MEDIA.

On the 17th February, 1846, speaking in the British so-called 'House of Commons', Daniel O'Connell (pictured) raised, among other issues, the potato blight in Ireland, and the effect it was having on 'her majesty's subjects' on that island.

The 'servants of the people' in that political institution were only too aware of the suffering that the Irish were trying to live through, and Mr O'Connell was aware of that, but he was hoping that his comments would be carried in the newspapers and reach a wider audience, which they did on the 18th February (1846) and afterwards.

This is an extract of the speech he delivered -

"...It was certain that there was a fearful prospect of a most calamitous season before the people of Ireland. The extent of that calamity had been disputed, and there had been a time when there was a prospect of some portion of it being possibly averted..the calamity was pressing, was imminent – more pressing, more imminent, and more fearful than that House was aware of. In order to understand it, it was right that the House should be made aware of the state of Ireland before the calamity, had impended.

The last Population Returns of 1841 showed that, out of the whole rural population of Ireland, 46 per cent lived in a single room ; the entire human family and the pigs occupied the same apartment together. The next fact was, that of the civil population – that is, of the inhabitants of towns – 36 per cent lived in a single room, and that two or three families sometimes occupied the same room.

An account of all cattle, sheep, and swine, imported into Great Britain from Ireland, from the 10th day of October, 1845, to the 5th day of January, 1846 ; oxen, bulls, and cows, 32,883 ; calves, 583 ; sheep and lambs, 32,576 ; swine, 104,141..more than half the potato crop is unfit for human food, and the disease is progressing. More than half the labourers are unemployed, and are likely to continue so for the next three months, and during the months of July and August, as the farmers will not have money nor food to give them.

The agricultural labourers of Ireland suffer the greatest privations and hardships ; that they depend upon precarious and casual employment for subsistence ; that they are badly housed, badly fed, badly clothed, and badly paid for their labour ; that it would be impossible to describe adequately the sufferings and privations which the cottiers and labourers and their families in most parts of the country endure ; that in many districts their only food is the potato, their only beverage water ; that their cabins are seldom a protection against the weather ; that a bed or blanket is a rare luxury ; and that nearly in all, their pig and their manure heap constitute their only property ; that a large proportion of the entire population comes within the designation of agricultural labourers, and endure sufferings greater than the people of any other country in Europe have to sustain..." (from here.)

The finely-suited 'parliamentarians' in that institution were aware of the suffering endured by the Irish, as policies enacted and enforced by Westminster was responsible for the genocide being played-out in Ireland, but they didn't care, as they themselves were not only not affected by those conditions but actually benefited, financially, from same ; Irish land, free of impoverished 'tenants', was more valuable and easier to sell than if the same land was sold with 'troublesome tenants' on it.

That mindset is still prevalent in British 'High Society' to this day, but here's a newsflash for our snob British readers, for 'our own' gombeen snobs in Leinster House and for the 'asylum-seeking/refugee/migrant/vagrant'-pushing EU : we ain't goin' nowhere ; this is our country, not a dumping ground or a political and/or military base for your good selves.

Take your unwanted debris back to your own country, and leave us in peace!

THE MONTH UNSPUN...

The stories that hit the headlines.

From Magill magazine, August 2002.

Elan's accounts for 2002 were published on the 9th July, ending any hope that the drugs company may recover its past glories and causing severe embarrassment for the Irish-American investors who had defended it.

A company that had taken 33 years to build had fallen into despair in just six months.

The problems were essentially twofold - Elan's accounting practices made investing in the company look less risky than it actually was, and the Alzheimer's drug that the company was developing in the hope that it would be "the big one", failed clinical tests.

The "big one", therefore, never materialised, and Elan's complex system of shared investments could no longer bear the strain - one billion euro was knocked off the value of the 'National Pensions Reserve Fund' as a result of the chaos...

(MORE LATER.)

"The general condition of the county is unsatisfactory.

There were 18 outrages as compared with 27 committed during the previous month.

On 18/2/21 the Postmaster at Navan disappeared. He has not since been heard of and it is suspected that he has been the victim of foul play..."

- RIC report for Navan, County Meath, February 1921.

In the early hours of Friday morning, 18th February, 1921, a Protestant man, a Mr Thomas Hodgett (55, pictured), a Postmaster, was abducted from his home near Navan, in County Meath, by three armed men who claimed to be from the IRA.

He was taken away by the men, shot dead and his remains were thrown into the River Blackwater, but were not found until one month later.

The British claimed that his killing "was a Sinn Féin outrage against the minority religion...", but the IRA and local republicans denied all knowledge of the killing.

'The Irish Bulletin' newspaper investigated the shooting and stated that 'it was carried out by a County Inspector of the RIC and a notorious sergeant from Dublin Castle...'

Further words were exchanged between the IRA and the British, but no answers were forthcoming as to the 'who and why' of the shooting dead of Mr Hodgett.

Until 32 years later, that is...

"Three men were responsible for that murder. They were a policeman (sic) from Dublin Castle named Igoe, a civilian named Brady from Dublin, who was shot at the Bull Wall, Dublin a few weeks later, and RIC County Inspector Egan..."

- part of a letter written on the 13th January, 1953, by a Mr Gilbert, who lived beside the Hodgett family.

RIC Chief Constable Eugene Igoe, a Galway man, was in charge of a semi-'official' sub-unit of the RIC known as 'The Identification Company', whose function was to patrol the streets of Dublin searching for IRA men on the run who had come to the city for safety ; they were also known for occasionally shooting dead innocent civilians and leaving bogus IRA notes reading 'Death To Spies And Informers' on the corpses, making the murders appear to be the work of the IRA.

Mr (John Ellard) Brady was a 21-year-old man who was shot and killed by the IRA in Dublin in June 1921.

He was supplying information to the Crown Forces.

Mr Brady was sitting on a sea wall (near the Bull Wall area of Clontarf, Dublin) with two other men, a Mr Thomas Halpin (an ex-British Army soldier) and a man named Denver, when they were targeted by the IRA's 'F Company', 2nd Battalion.

Both Mr Brady and Mr Halpin were killed.

RIC 'County Inspector' (William) Egan had already been named, two years before Mr Gilbert named him, in a 'Bureau of Military History' (BMH 1951) statement as having played a part in the abduction and shooting dead of the Postmaster, Mr Thomas Hodgett.

The investigation in the 1950's indicated that the real cause for the murder of Mr Thomas Hodgett was that he, unfortunately and inadvertently, divulged information through an indiscretion, picked-up on by British operatives in Dublin Castle, which made the local RIC and British Army look incompetent in the eyes of their Headquarters and had signed his own death warrant in doing so.

RIP Mr Thomas Hodgett.

On the same day that poor Mr Hodgett was abducted by armed pro-British forces, their colleagues about 50km (30 miles) down the road, in Dublin, sealed-off Mountjoy Square and went house-to-house searching for rebels and military equipment, but left the area empty-handed.

"Sinn Féin Courts started to function, and one of the trials was the eviction of a British ex-soldier from one of my father's houses at 63 Blarney Street, Cork..."

- Volunteer PJ Murphy, Cork, recalling the details, years later, of an event which he was involved in :

"..after the trial, Walsh gave the names of the court and the local Volunteers to the RIC and was rewarded with money for this information.

His sister got the draft and went to cash it in the local shop, where it was reported to the local Volunteers, and Walsh was arrested by the IRA, sentenced to be deported, left the country and went to Wales.

After a few months he returned.

We made two attempts to arrest him, and on each occasion he got away from us ; on the first occasion by diving into a shop full of women and children, and the second time by throwing himself off a high wall.

On each occasion he went to the military barracks and brought the military to our homes.

While with the British in Cork Military Barracks, Walsh fell into bad health and they transferred him to the Cork workhouse (the Workshop Infirmary, Douglas Road). One night in February 1921 he was brought out on a stretcher to the backgate of the workhouse and shot dead by the IRA..."

A letter which was written and signed by a British Army Captain, a Mr Campbell Joseph O'Connor Kelly ('Sixth Division Intelligence Officer') came to light about one week after Mr Walsh had been executed (18th February 1921), in which Mr Kelly stated that the informer had been rescued in the past by his troops when they raided the Cork Mental Asylum where he was being detained by the IRA.

After they had rescued him, the British sent him to England to lie low, but he soon ended up in Ireland again.

It was an armed six-man Volunteer ASU (under the command of Volunteer Thomas Crofts, 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade), wearing disguises, that removed that informer from his hospital bed, carried him down the stairs from his ward, out the workhouse gate, onto the road, and shot him dead.

The Officer Commanding of the Cork IRA 2nd Battalion, Volunteer Michael Murphy, described Mr Walsh the informer as "a definite spy and a low type".

A card was pinned to the body -

'Caught at last. Spies and informers beware. IRA.'

On the same day that one informer was paying his dues, another one was earning his keep in that same county.

British Army soldiers 'came across' an arms dump owned by the Kilbrittain Company of the Cork No. 3 Brigade of the IRA and took the munitions into their custody.

The haul would have consisted of between 15 and 20 shotguns (many of which were collected voluntarily during the 1918 conscription scare), about 20 'Service Rifles' (probably Lee-Enfield brand), a small number of revolvers and other handguns, 'home-made' bombs and mines, gelignite, guncotton and hundreds of rounds of bullets for the guns on site.

The equipment would have been wrapped in canvas, oiled, and hidden in bunkers with corrugated steel roofs, typically located in field corners near safe houses to allow for quick access by IRA Flying Columns.

As those British looters were looting Irish freedom equipment, 'The Times Of London' newspaper carried a news article about the 'Oxford Union' having voted 219 to 129 in favour of condemning the British government's actions in Ireland.

Appreciated, lads and lassies, thanks - but any chance ye could have organised a whip-around for a few bob to replace some missing items...?

On the 18th February, 1921, newspapers in Ireland covered the 'arrest' on the previous day, by pro-British forces, of a member of the pro-British 'police force', the 'Dublin Metropolitan Police' (DMP).

A Mr Eamon 'Ned' Broy (pictured, a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State poacher) was a DMP officer, working as a spy for the rebels, who morphed into a Free Stater who worked to a British agenda for anti-republican Leinster House conformists ( confusing, isn't it!) and was 'arrested' by his own people on the 17th for "collaborating with the enemy".

Documents that he had typed for a Sinn Féin contact (a M/s Eileen McGrane [MacCarvill]) were found and his involvement with the rebels was discovered.

Mr Broy was charged with 'high treason' and imprisoned in Arbour Hill Prison, in Dublin, and was only released in August that year (1921).

He worked as a secretary/bodyguard for/to the Irish Treaty (of Surrender) negotiators and, after partition was forcibly accepted and implemented he joined the new Free State Air Corps with the rank of Commandant (later promoted to Colonel).

All of his personas died in January, 1972, at 85 years of age, in Rathgar, Dublin.

On the same date that those newspapers were writing about Mr Broy, about 50 miles (75 km) across the country and down a bit, in the RIC Barracks in the town of Monasterevin, in County Kildare, a 34-year-old RIC member, a Mr Thomas Bradshaw ('Service Number 63555', with 14 years 'service' in that grouping), from Newport, in County Tipperary - a troubled man - was ordered to prepare himself for 'patrol duties' in the morning.

He must have slept uneasily that night because the following morning (19th February 1921) he went into the stables attached to the RIC Barracks, removed his Webley MkVI revolver (serial number 391534) from its holster, placed the barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

The gunshot was heard by three of his RIC colleagues, a Mr James May ('Service Number 72428'), a Mr Abraham Harvey ('Service Number 74540') and a Mr Patrick Ryan ('Service Number 57520'), who rushed to the stables and found Mr Bradshaw on the ground, with blood pouring from the back of his head, but still breathing, laboriously.

He died minutes later.

==========================

DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...

Desmond Boomer, a Belfast engineer working in the Libyan oil-fields, disappeared seven years ago.

Officially, the plane on which he was a passenger crashed as a result of mechanical failure and pilot error.

But is that the real story?

Or were the Irishman and his fellow passengers unwitting victims of the shady war between Islamic fundamentalism and Mossad, Israel's intelligence network?

A special 'Magill' investigation by Don Mullan, author of 'Eyewitness Bloody Sunday'.

From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.

Journalists Neil Livingstone and David Halevy claim the mission to assassinate Shqaqi was codenamed 'Operation Caesarea' and, according to the two journalists, by September 1995 some 40 well-equipped Mossad agents were in Malta posing as "rich tourists together with their wives".

They monitored Shqaqi as he passed through Malta on his way to Libya.

On the day Shqaqi boarded the ferry, the Mossad base in Malta was promptly notified and, again according to the two journalists, a speedboat then carried the operation's commander and hit men to Malta from Sicily.

Shqaqi booked into 'The Diplomat Hotel' in Sliema and went out for some early afternoon shopping. Two Mossad agents on a dark blue Yamaha XT motorcycle approached him and called his name...

(MORE LATER.)

ON THIS DATE (18TH FEBRUARY) 130 YEARS AGO : JOHN REDMOND'S UNHEEDED PLEA IN WESTMINSTER FOR IRISH POLITICAL PRISONERS IS PUBLICISED.

On the 17th February 1896, John Redmond (pictured) secured speaking time in the Westminster Parliament to discuss the plight of Irish political prisoners held in prison by the British political administration.

Such was the dire conditions endured by our prisoners, two 'Irish Unionist' (Free Stater) members of that political administration - Mr Horace Plunkett and Mr W.E.H. Lecky - actually supported Mr Redmond in his attempt to secure some sort of justice for those POW's.

During his plea to 'The House', it was announced on the 18th that he had said..

"...many hon. Members seemed to think that because it was contended that these were political prisoners who ought to be released, the Irish Members were thereby claiming that political offences ought not to be punished.

Nothing could be more absurd.

What they said was that there was a distinction drawn by all the nations in the world between the treatment of political offences and offences which sprang from the ordinary criminal instincts of mankind, and in dealing with every other nation in the world except with Ireland, England had been the first to draw this distinction...

...all persons to-day would admit that John Mitchell (pictured) was a political offender, but Englishmen of his day did not admit it, and they passed a special Act of Parliament dealing with the subject of treason in order that he might be treated, not as a political offender, but as an ordinary criminal.

All men of all parties admitted that the Fenians were political offenders, but anyone who listened to the speech of the hon. Member for South Mayo (Mr. Davitt) the other night, who knew his history, and heard what he suffered in prison, would recognise that though he was a political offender he was not treated as such.

In this case the Government still maintained the fiction that these men were not political prisoners ; but when all these men had been released, and when another generation of Englishmen looked back on these transactions, they would, perhaps, be just as willing to admit that they were political prisoners as men of the present day were willing to admit that the hon. Member for South Mayo (Mr. Davitt) and John Mitchell were political prisoners of their day...

Michael Davitt.

...was it not a disgraceful thing for England and for the Imperial Parliament that every generation with relentless regularity had in face a question of amnesty? England's Government of Ireland involved this — that she was almost the only country in Europe which was never, by any chance, without some political prisoners in her gaols.

An amnesty movement had become part of recognised political life in Ireland ; he remembered that the first political meeting he ever attended was an amnesty meeting.

The first debate he ever heard in the House was when, some 20 years ago, he came to listen to his father making a speech in favour of the amnesty of the political prisoners of his day.

Irishmen had recently been blamed for telling the English people that in any foreign complications they had not the sympathy of the Nationalists of Ireland.

Irishmen would have been liars and hypocrites if they had said anything else..." (From here.)

Mr Redmond and company were 'put in their place', albeit eloquently, by the political Dandies they were sitting with, which wasn't the first time that such proceedings ended in that manner.

Indeed, Thatcher did much the same, although less eloquently.

The only solution is to ensure that there are no more Irish political prisoners been held for political ransom by Westminster and the best way to ensure that is by Westminster withdrawing, politically and militarily, from Ireland.

Until that happens, we will always, regrettably, have Irish men and women incarcerated for political actions against the Crown.

ON THIS DATE (18TH FEBRUARY) 82 YEARS AGO : LAST FULL DAY ON EARTH FOR A REBEL POACHER-TURNED-FREE STATE MILITARY GENERAL.

'JJ O'Connell (pictured) joined the Irish Volunteers in 1914, becoming Chief of Inspection in 1915, and travelled the country organising volunteer corps, as well as contributing to the Irish Volunteer's journal and delivering lectures on military tactics to both the Volunteers and Na Fianna Éireann.

He also delivered a series of lectures about the famous Irish battles to the Gaelic League in Dublin (but) was not a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood as he believed that soldiers should not be a part of secret societies...

At the time the 1916 Easter Rising, O'Connell was operating in Dublin under instruction from Joseph Plunkett.

He was dispatched to Cork by Eoin MacNeill to try to prevent the Rising. Following the Rising, he was arrested and held in Frongoch internment camp from April to July 1916.

In 1918 he was again arrested and interned, spending time in Wandsworth Prison with Arthur Griffith for the alleged involvement in the fabricated German Plot.

During the Irish War of Independence, he was a member of the Irish Republican Army headquarters staff, as Assistant Director of Training and, after the killing of Dick McKee, as Director of Training. He coordinated, and was the principal lecturer, for a training course for military officers.

The course was run clandestinely in the premises of the Topographical Society on Gardiner Street in Dublin. A sympathetic doorkeeper allowed O'Connell's group in at night when the society was not present. Topics delivered by O'Connell included tactics, ordinance and engineering. In the IRA split after the Anglo-Irish Treaty was ratified, O'Connell took the pro-Treaty side...' (from here.)

On the 26th June, 1922, Leo Henderson and a group of 'Irregulars/Dissidents' left the then republican-occupied Four Courts, which had been taken over on the 14th of April by anti-treaty forces '..and arrived at Ferguson's Garage on Dublin's Baggot Street, accusing them of doing business with Belfast ; this was, they said, in violation of the boycott the IRA had placed on the city due to violence against nationalists there.

Leo Henderson, their leader, seized a number of cars at gunpoint, and was on the point of driving back to the anti-Treaty stronghold of the Four Courts when he was arrested by pro-Treaty/Free State troops.

Henderson's comrades in the Four Courts in response arrested a pro-Treaty General, JJ O’Connell and, within 24 hours, Free State artillery was battering at the walls of the Four Courts in central Dublin. The first shots of the Irish Civil War were caused by a row over selling cars to Belfast...' (from here.)

Not altogether the full story, although the 'bones' of what actually happened are there ; Harry Ferguson's garage (pictured) was a well-known Belfast automobile company, with a branch on Baggot Street, in Dublin.

It was known to be unsympathetic to the 'Irregulars' and had blatantly ignored an overall directive from the IRA that for-profit business dealings with Belfast should cease until business bosses in that city took steps to ensure the safety of their nationalist workforce.

Leo Henderson and his men commandeered about 15 cars which had been sent, for sale, to Dublin from Belfast - the IRA's intention, as well as to be seen enforcing the 'Belfast Trade Boycott', was to use the vehicles, as part of the war effort, against the continuing British political and military presence in the Six Occupied Counties and in their campaign to overthrow the then-fledging Free State political administration.

Leo Henderson was captured by the Staters, with ex-IRA man Frank Thornton in command of them and, when the IRA leadership heard that Henderson had been 'arrested', they discussed abducting Collins himself or Richard Mulcahy in retaliation, but decided instead to seize Free State General Jeremiah Joseph (JJ) 'Ginger' O'Connell, who was Richard Mulcahy's Deputy Chief-of-Staff.

At 11.15pm on the night of Tuesday, 27th June, 1922, 'Ginger' was arrested in Dublin by the IRA after an evening out with his girlfriend - the couple had gone to the theatre and, after the girlfriend was dropped home, 'Ginger' went to McGilligan's Pub in Leeson Street for a few pints and, as he left the pub, the IRA seized him and held him in the republican-occupied Four Courts.

Ernie O'Malley actually telephoned Free State General Eoin O'Duffy, who was in Portobello Barracks, and told him that 'Ginger' will be returned to the Staters in exchange for Leo Henderson.

The republicans knew that 'Ginger' was valued by Collins and his renegades - he was one of the few that eagerly conveyed the 'cancel-the-Rising'-order from Eoin MacNeill in 1916 and both Collins and Mulcahy regarded him as a safe pair of hands.

Collins's political and military bosses in London were notified about 'JJ Ginger' being held in republican custody and made it clear to Collins that if he and his Free State colleagues didn't take steps to remove the republicans from the Four Courts, they would - the Staters had already decided to attack their former comrades in the Four Courts and had already accepted the offer from Westminster of equipment with which to carry-out the task.

British artillery, aircraft, armoured cars, machine guns, small arms and ammunition were by then in the possession of Collins and his team, who then used the 'JJ kidnap'-incident as a further 'reason' to press ahead with the assault.

At 3.40am, on Wednesday, 28th June 1922, the republican forces inside the Four Courts were given an ultimatum by Collins and his men, acting in support of Westminster - 'surrender before 4am and leave the building'.

The republicans ignored the threat and held their ground and, less than half-an-hour later - at about 4.30am - the Staters opened fire on the republicans with British-supplied 18-pounder guns and practically destroyed the building (pictured), an act which was recently described as "..a major national calamity..an assault on the collective memory of the nation..such actions are considered as war crimes..a cultural atrocity.."

The IRA held out for two days before leaving the building, but fought-on elsewhere in Dublin until early July, 1922, with Oscar Traynor (who later joined the Fianna Fáil party) in command.

'JJ Ginger' was rescued by his Stater colleagues on Friday, 30th June 1922 when they finally managed to enter the then shell of a building where the Four Courts once stood and, within months, was demoted from a Lieutenant-General to a Major-General and then to a Colonel, a position he was to remain at.

He got married in 1922 and, between 1924 and 1944 (he died, aged 56, in the Richmond Hospital in Dublin from a heart attack on the 19th February of that year), he was shifted around like a pawn on a chess board : chief lecturer in the FS Army school of instruction, director of Number 2 (intelligence) bureau, OC equitation school, quartermaster-general and director of the military archives.

We wonder did he consider himself to be the man who helped give 'credence' to the Civil War...?

"We no longer recognise the authority of the present head of the army, and renew our allegiance to the existing Irish Republic..."

- part of a Proclamation issued on the 18th February 1922 to Michael Collins, Richard Mulcahy and other pro-Treaty leadership figures from the Officer Commanding of the Mid-Limerick Brigade IRA, Volunteer Liam Forde.

The split between Irish republicans and the Stater renegades was widening.

That Brigade was the first military unit of the IRA to formally break with the pro-Treaty Free State administration : it was a direct act of defiance against the Pro-Treaty leadership following the signing of the Treaty of Surrender in December 1921, which Irish republicans viewed (and still view) as a betrayal of the Republic.

Those repudiated by the republican forces included Michael Collins, Richard Mulcahy (the FS 'Minister of Defence') and Eoin O'Duffy (the 'Chief of Staff' of the Stater Army).

The IRA, rightly, no longer felt bound by the decisions of a political administration which now swore allegiance to the English Crown.

On the cusp of civil war...

In an unrelated/coincidental development in London, as Volunteer Forde and his fighters were making the lie of the land clear to the Staters, a British Army Field Marshall, a Mr Henry Wilson, stepped down as 'Chief of the Imperial General Staff' and, back in Ireland, at that same time, Ballylongford and Ballybunion RIC barracks in County Kerry were handed over to the IRA.

The then British Prime Minister, a Mr David Lloyd George, had his hands full on that 18th February - wondering whether his proxy Free State militia in Ireland could take on and defeat the Irish republican forces, who he could get to replace Mr Wilson (!), and what use would the IRA make of the two surrendered barracks?

As Mr George was juggling his 'what ifs' in London on the 18th, the uncertainties for an RIC member in Belfast had been removed.

The RIC 'Sergeant', a Mr Eugene Ahern (51), a Cork man, was due to be buried the next day in Emlaghfad Graveyard, which is located about one mile from the town of Ballymote, in County Sligo.

On the 15th of February, 1922, Mr Ahern and his patrol returned to Springfield Road Barracks in Belfast and were packing-up for the night ; the RIC member beside him was dismantling his machine-gun (he had removed the ammunition drum but never cleared the barrel) when the gun went off.

The bullet in the barrel caught Mr Ahern in his side, nearly blowing him off his feet ; he was rushed by his colleagues to the near-by 'Royal Victoria Hospital' but died within minutes of being admitted.

He was buried on the 19th.

In Sligo, as stated - not in his native Cork.

The day before Mr Ahern was buried, news broke of the death of a member of the Black and Tans in Limerick, a Scottish man, Mr Lauchlan McEdward (20, 'Service Number 81157').

Mr McEdward, described by some British sources as "a Scottish Temporary Cadet with the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)" and by others as "a Black and Tan during the Irish revolutionary period..." was said by those sources to have met his death "during an incident involving the accidental discharge of a gun that was being unloaded" and/or "fatally shot while out walking when attacked by several gunmen...".

The (deliberate, in our opinion) obfuscation would be done for a number of reasons - to mask the shame on him and his family for being associated with that gang of lowlife armed paramilitary thugs, to prevent an attack on those attending his funeral service by those opposed to the Black and Tans and/or in an attempt to confuse the enemy on the reliability and accuracy of their intelligence networks.

And in yet another 'accidental death', on the same date that Mr McEdward's killing was announced, an 'Ulster (sic) Special Constabulary' patrol was 'on checkpoint duty' at a location known locally as 'Spawell', between Enniskillen and Kinawley, in County Fermanagh, when a lorry failed to stop for them.

So they opened fire on it.

The lorry stopped abruptly at an impromptu angle and some of the USC checkpoint party approached it, cautiously, guns at the ready.

They opened the drivers door and discovered that the driver, now dead, was one of their own - 'Special Constable' James McInnes (25).

Ooops...

==========================

ON THIS DATE (18TH FEBRUARY) 103 YEARS AGO : IRA VOLUNTEER'S LAST NIGHT WITH HIS MOTHER.

On the 19th February, in 1923, IRA officer Thomas O'Sullivan, of Ballineanig, Kerry, was shot dead by a Free State Army officer near Dingle, in that same county.

The Stater who shot him was an ex-IRA man who had been expelled from the Republican Movement for misconduct and, as such, must have felt right at home with his new comrades.

This account of the death of Volunteer Thomas O'Sullivan is taken from Dorothy Macardle's book 'The Tragedies Of Kerry' -

' "I had twelve children, but I had none like him," Mrs. O'Sullivan says.

Tom was twenty-two years old when he was killed ; he was a teacher of Irish and a fisherman, and he was a Volunteer since the Black-and-Tan time ; he was Commandant of his Battalion when he died.

They (the Staters) came raiding for him in December, with their lorries, but his mother got him away. He was going fishing and had his hand on the kettle, going to make himself a cup of tea, when she ran in with the warning and he made out through the back door. She lifted a bucket and went up the road towards them thinking to hold them awhile in talk.

"Who's that man running?", the officer shouted to her, and she called back "I don't know at all.."

"You know well, you devil!" he answered, "'Tis your son, Tom," and he went down on his knee and fired. The bullet slit Tom's jersey, but Tom was not hurt. But the danger to him seemed more than she could bear.

"Wisha, give me your gun," she said to Tom that night, "and I'll carry it into town for you."

"No, mother," he answered, "that's what I'll never do. I didn't take my oath to break it," he said. "I know what's before me, and I'm satisfied to face that."

He used to come home sometimes, never to sleep, but maybe to change his clothes. He came in on the eighteenth of February (1923). His mother thought he looked troubled. "Have you any letter from Dan?" he asked her at once. Dan, his brother, was in jail. She gave him the letter and he read it under the lamp.

"Dan's all right," he said with relief in his voice, and gave her the letter again. Then he said, "Come down with me now."

She went with him down the bohereen.

It was getting dark and she could not well see his face. Suddenly he put his arms round her. "Goodbye, mother," he said.

"Why do you talk like that, Tom," she said, half-crying, "and you always so brave?"

"Ah, mother," he answered, "I'll be under locks from you soon." He took her hand then and they walked together a little further on.

He was going to sleep in a house across the fields, where he'd be safe, he said.

He started to go but came back to her again : "You're not ashamed of me, mother?" he asked her. It was in Irish, the speech of her heart, that she answered him.

In the dark of the night a man came to her door. It was Bob McCarthy, Tom's friend : she knew him well.

"'Tis pity to be disturbing you," he said, "but the Staters are in the fields below. Where's Tom?"

She told him and he ran out.

She was on her knees praying when she heard a shot fired. She started up and drew the bolt and ran out. She stood, crying out her prayers and blessings, against the gable of the house when she heard another shot and another again.

The man who was with Tom hiding in a hollow knows what happened then, but he is a prisoner, sentenced to fifteen years.

Only the little that he told to a fellow-prisoner, since released, is known -

"They were hiding and spoke to one another, not thinking the enemy were near, but they heard a voice call out suddenly : "That's O'Sullivan! I know his talk." They knew the man who spoke. He had been expelled from the Volunteers for misconduct and was a Free State Officer now. His kind were the most vindictive, always. Tom O'Sullivan must have known that this was death. The man saw him and fired, and Tom fell.

He was badly wounded and put his hands up as he lay on the ground.

"I surrender to you," he said. "Get a priest for me before you do any more." The man fired again and Tom moaned, "O Jesus and Mary come against me" and died.

Bob McCarthy evaded the enemy that night. He had another month to live. It was he who came to Mrs. O'Sullivan to tell her that her son was dead...'

That Free State officer, and other sleveen's of his type, still reside in, and operate from, Leinster House.

Parasites.

RIP Volunteer Thomas O'Sullivan.

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated!

Sharon and the team.

(We'll be back on Wednesday, 4th March 2026.)

1922 - IRA DELIVER NOTICE TO MICHAEL COLLINS : "WE NO LONGER RECOGNISE YOUR AUTHORITY..."

2026-02-14T19:53:00.000+00:00

1923 - A REBEL'S MOTHER GOES FOR A LAST WALK WITH HER SON...

'1920's Ireland : a high-ranking British 'Earl' who nixered (!) as an 'Imperial Staff' member wrote to a toff buddy of his about comparisons he noticed between the Irish rebels and those he claimed to have fought against in the Boer War...'

...and that's one of the twenty-four pieces we'll be posting here on Wednesday, 18th February, 2026, including one poignant article from the 1920's about an 'on-the-run' Volunteer who knew in his heart and soul that he was walking with his Mother for the last time.

'Munster, 1900's - in an area well-secured by the rebels, the British believed they could still transport munitions from one of their bases to another but, on this particular transportation journey, they were introduced to a reason as to why such movements were not advisable for them...'

'1920's - this rebel POW wasn't involved in the shootings that the British said he carried out and had over one dozen witnesses that placed him elsewhere ; he was offered an open door, literally, to simply walk out of prison, but refused, on a point of principle, because he was being charged with something he didn't do. He should have known that 'principle' would mean nothing to the British...'

And that's all yis are gettin' for now!

We'll fill yis in with the rest of the above, and 21 other happenings from our on-going pro-Irish campaigns, on Wednesday, 18th February, 2026.

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated! - see ye on Ash Wednesday, 18th.

Sharon and the team.

CONSTANCE GEORGINA GORE-BOOTH MARKIEVICZ - FOREVER TARNISHED.

2026-02-04T00:23:00.000+00:00

ON THIS DATE (4TH FEBRUARY) 158 YEARS AGO - CONFUSED PATRIOT BORN.

"Countess Markievicz chaired the founding meeting of Fianna Fáil and was a Fianna Fáil TD..."

- Micheál Martin , Fianna Fáil.

'Return of IRA prisoners, June 1917 : Countess Markievicz arrives at Liberty Hall, Dublin.'

Constance Georgina Gore-Booth was born in Buckingham Gate, London (the first of five children), on the 4th of February 1868, in what was then considered to be a 'high class' family - her father, Henry (the 'Fifth Baronet of Sligo') was a landowner and businessman, and her mother, Georgina (who died in January 1927, the same year as her daughter, Constance) , had her own connections to British 'high society', as she was the granddaughter of the 'Earl of Scarborough'.

Constance was raised on the family estate at Lissadell, in Sligo and, at 19 years of age, was 'presented' to Britain's 'Queen' Victoria , as was the custom in those days within her social group.

It was when she was in Paris to further her education (at the Julian School) in the late 1890's that she met a Polish 'Count', Casimir Dunin-Markievicz - he was already married at the time, but his wife died in 1899, and he and Constance got married in 1900.

They had one child together, Maeve Allys (who was raised by her grandmother, as her own mother, Constance, was heavily involved in politics) , who was born in Lissadell in 1901 and, two years later, the family moved to Dublin (prompting George Russell [AE/Æ/Aeon, his 'pen name'] to comment "...the Gore-Booth girl who married the Polish Count with the unspellable name is going to settle near Dublin...we might get the materials for revolt..")

Her interest in social issues brought her into contact with Irish republicans and others who were agitating for change in society and, to her credit, she remained steadfast to her republican beliefs -

"The old idea that a woman can only serve her nation through her home is gone.

Now is the time, on you the responsibility rests.

It may be as a leader, it may be as a humble follower, perhaps in a political party, perhaps in a party of your own, but it is there.

So many of you, the young women of Ireland, are distinguishing yourselves every day and coming more and more to the front ; we [older people] look to you with great hopes and a great confidence that in your gradual emancipation you are bringing fresh ideas, fresh energies.

Women, from having until very recently stood so far removed from all politics, should be able to formulate a much clearer and more incisive view of the political situation than men - you will go out into the world and get elected on to as many public bodies as possible..."

- Constance Markievicz, in a speech she gave to the Irish Women's Franchise League in 1915.

She was one of only two female officers that bore arms during the 1916 Rising, for which she was sentenced to death, a sentence later commuted to life imprisonment, but was released in June 1917.

In 1918 she was the first woman to be elected to the English 'House of Commons', but she never took her seat - instead, with other elected republicans, she helped to establish the First Dáil and served as 'Labour Minister' in that proud institution.

She opposed the Treaty of Surrender and played an active part in the struggle against the British-imposed 'parliament' that followed.

However, she joined de Valera and others and assisted with the formation of the 'Fianna Fáil' party, which was founded on the 23rd of March, 1926 and, the following year, she was elected as a Fianna Fáil candidate to the then-new Leinster House Free State parliament - but never took her seat, this time due to illness.

The poor woman suffered from peritonitis, and the treatment she received for same was administered too late : she died, at 59 years of age, as a member of Fianna Fáil - for which she will be forever tarnished, in our opinion - in a Dublin hospital at 1.25am on the 15th of July, 1927.

On the 4th February, 1919, newspapers in Ireland and England (and further afield) all led on their front pages with the same story - a prison escape by Irish republican rebels which had taken place the previous day.

In September 1919, the British declared Dáil Éireann to be an "illegal assembly" and it was forced to go 'underground' but, 'underground' or not, it still functioned.

Michael Collins and Harry Boland made plans to rescue de Valera from Lincoln Jail (pictured) in England and, on the 3rd February 1919 -

'..here is what actually happened at Lincoln Jail.

As de Valera regularly served Mass in the church jail, it was an easy matter for him to pocket a few candles.

He melted these down and took an impression of the Chaplain's master key. As there were double locks on every door, the master key was a must.

There were two ordinary keys made that didn't work : De Valera made the first impression and had it smuggled out of prison and sent to Gerard Boland in Dublin, who sent back the key in a Christmas cake but it didn't turn the lock.

A second impression was made which was sent to Manchester where craftsmen cut what they thought was a true replica but it, too, was a fiasco.

At that juncture Peter De Loughry told dev to have a blank key sent into the prison with a file, saying: "I'll cut it myself".

The blank key and the file arrived this time in a birthday cake and Peter, who was an expert locksmith, easily cut a perfect replica.

Outside waiting at the last gate to freedom were Michael Collins and Harry Boland and, as Collins spied Dev, Milroy and McGarry coming towards the door, he inserted another key, which he believed would open the last door to freedom.

He attempted to turn the lock, giving the key a powerful twist, but It broke in the lock. Collins was raging - "I've broken the key in the lock ; what are we going to do now?"

Dev muttered something while inserting the key Peter De Loughry had cut for him. It knocked out the broken part and with one turn the lock clicked open.

The five men shook hands and disappeared into the night. Peter De Loughry did not escape with the others as he had but a few weeks left to serve out his sentence...'

Rumours persist to this day that Westminster allowed de Valera to escape as they were aware that he would soon turn his back on republicanism and accept Westminster-imposed Free State structures, which he did in 1926, to the degree that he executed former comrades to help safeguard the British presence in Ireland.

Damn those weak locks in Lincoln Jail and damn those that followed de Valera through a 'constitutional door' and into Leinster House.

On the same day that those newspapers were - SHOCK! HORROR! - reporting on the audacity of rebel prisoners escaping, British politicians were meeting up in their so-called 'House of Commons'.

From Ireland, the 26 Unionist MPs and the 7 Nationalist MPs were in attendance, but none of the 73 Sinn Féin MPs turned up - they had their own Irish parliament in their own country to attend.

A British MP, a Mr Horatio Bottomley (! -pictured), took offence to the absence of the Irish rebels and proposed that a statutory instrument - 'the Call of the House' - be employed to compel them to attend.

That instrument had not been used in Westminster for 83 years as those employed (!) on the Grand Benches valued their free time during 'working hours' and Mr Bottomley's boss, a Mr Bonar Law, exhaled deeply and loudly at the very notion (!) and declared -

"The Government does not propose to take any action in the matter."

All members then went back to sleep.

Except, probably, Mr Bottomley...

==========================

GAS LADS...

The massive finds of oil and gas on our western seaboard could ensure Ireland's financial security for generations.

Wealth approximating that of the Arab countries is within our grasp, but the Irish government seems content to sell off our birthright for a handful of votes and a few dollars.

In a special 'Magill' report, Sandra Mara investigates just what we are giving away, and why.

From 'Magill' magazine, March 2002.

Some of those most directly affected in the West, meanwhile, told 'Magill Magazine that "..this is an opportunity for an incoming government to re-write our history - to return the family silver - by amending the terms and conditions of this most unusual, and seemingly inequitable, deal."

They say that, for them, this will be a major election issue.

They told 'Magill' -

"Only those politicians guaranteeing a reassessment of the deal and a restoration of an interest in our natural resources will get our vote."

('1169 Comment' - Ireland sits on an Atlantic margin geologically similar to Norway's North Sea yet, while Norway built a $1.5 trillion sovereign wealth fund from oil and gas, Leinster House politicians, led [by the nose] by a Mr Leo Varadkar, banned offshore exploration in 2019 and remains between 75% to 80% import-dependent (from England) for gas.

If developed, under proper political leadership, this whole country - North, South, East and West - could be energy self-sufficient, slash household bills, fund the entire HSA budget from royalties and still have hundreds of billions left for future generations, just like Norway, which is not only self-sufficient in its gas supply, but is also one of the world's net exporters of natural gas, producing at least 27 times more natural gas than it consumes.

Instead, we pay Arabs while leaving Irish hydrocarbons literally untapped in the ground...)

(END OF 'GAS LADS' : NEXT - 'The Great Oil And Gas Robbery', from 2005.)

ON THIS DATE (4TH FEBRUARY) 105 YEARS AGO : LAST DAY ON EARTH FOR AN UNWITTING FEMME FATALE.

Kitty O'Shea (pictured), was born as Katherine (/Katharine) Wood in 1846, on the 30th January ; she matured into an unwitting femme fatale, and is said to be practically solely responsible for 'the most notorious scandal of the late Victorian Age' - the downfall of Charles Stewart Parnell and the split which followed in the 'Home Rule Movement'.

'Kitty' was a name she would have hated, as it was slang for a woman of loose morals.

In fact, she only loved two men in her life and married both of them, though the marriage to Charles Stewart Parnell was to prove tragically short-lived as he died in her arms after a few brief months of happiness.

She was born Katharine Wood in 1845, and was known as Kate to her family. Her father was a baronet, a member of the British aristocracy and her brother a Field Marshall, although their grandfather had started life as an apprentice and was a self-made man.

The Woods were closely linked with the Gladstone family and Katharine often acted as a go-between with William Gladstone when Parnell was trying to persuade the British government to grant Ireland independence. She had married William O'Shea at the age of twenty-one, not long after the death of her father, and the marriage had produced a son and two daughters.

Mr O'Shea neglected his wife and pursued his own pleasures while she was often left to bring up the children alone, while also looking after her elderly aunt. She played the part of a dutiful wife, however, and hosted dinner parties to help her husband's career.

Mr Parnell, an important figure in Irish politics, was always invited, always accepted and yet never showed up.

Annoyed and perplexed by these apparent snubs she went to confront him in person at his office in Westminster in July 1880, and the effect was immediate ;

"This man is wonderful and different," she was to write later.

CS Parnell was a bachelor who had once loved and been rejected, and never took an interest in women again until he met Katharine. It was a suicidal love as she was married to a fellow Irish MP and was a respectable wife and mother.

The power of the attraction between the two, however, was impossible to resist and before long they were living together in her home in Eltham in the suburbs of London.

They had an illicit 'honeymoon' in Brighton and Katharine was to bear three children to Parnell while still married to O'Shea, the first of whom died soon after being born. It is even thought that she bore Parnell a son who could take his name after they finally married, although this child was stillborn.

Mr O'Shea (pictured) knew of the relationship but turned a blind eye to it. Then the Aunt died and left Katharine a large inheritance and he decided to divorce his wife and shame Parnell publicly.

The ensuing scandal ruined Parnell's career and his health.

His traditional supporters in Catholic Ireland turned away from him when they learned he had been living with a married woman even though he and his beloved Katharine became man and wife after they married at Steyning register office in Sussex, the county where they made their home.

In an attempt to revive his flagging fortunes, Parnell went to Ireland and spoke at a public meeting in County Galway. He was caught in a thunderstorm and developed a chill from which he never recovered. Seriously ill, he returned to be with Katharine and died soon afterwards. They had been married for only four months.

It is estimated that half a million people lined the streets of Dublin to pay their respects to Parnell as his coffin was taken to Glasnevin cemetery to be buried near Daniel O'Connell.

Later Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins were also laid to rest nearby.

On the granite stone above his grave lies just one word – 'Parnell', enough to identify Ireland’s flawed hero whose dream of a free and united country at peace with Britain was destroyed by his love for a married woman.

And what happened to Kitty, as the world now knew her?

It was all too much for her and she lived out her days quietly in Sussex.

She never married or fell in love again but looked after her children and died at the age of seventy-five.

When she was buried, only her immediate family came to the funeral and on her grave monument were the names of both her husbands with that of Parnell, the great love of her life, above that of O'Shea who gave her the name she is known by.

There is no sign of 'Kitty', however.

By the gravestone is a plaque placed by the Parnell Society with Parnell's promise to her:

"I will give my life to Ireland, but to you I give my love..."

Katharine Wood died on the 5th February 1921, at 75 years of age, in Littlehampton in Sussex, England, and is buried there.

RIP Katharine Wood.

On the 4th February, 1920, an armed IRA ASU met up in Kevin Street, in Dublin, and made their way to the DMP ('police) Barracks on the street.

On arrival, they noticed a small entry point to the sleeping quarters was unattended and open, and they lobbed a bomb into the room.

It exploded, causing extensive damage, but no casualties.

THE IRA ASU returned safely to base.

"People in the inner circles of unionism were opposed to the inclusion of Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan in a Northern Ireland (sic) assembly because that would provide such an access of strength to the Roman Catholic party, that the supremacy of the Unionists could be seriously threatened.

There is a real danger that on certain questions the Unionist Labour Party in Ulster (sic) might vote with the Roman Catholics..."

- A Mr Walter Long (pictured), in a report he delivered to the British Cabinet on the 4th February, 1920.

Mr Long was well got with the then 'powers-that-be' in Westminster - he was an ex-'Chief Secretary for Ireland' (appointed by 'Lord' Arthur James Balfour, the '1st Earl of Balfour') and was closely connected to unionists in Ireland.

On the 24th February (1920), the British Cabinet held a meeting at which they took Mr Long's 'advice'(warning) on board and they announced, internally, that they would be agreeable to grant the Irish unionists 'a Northern Ireland (sic) of six counties'.

Very generous of them, to be sure...

At the same time as Mr Long was 'advising' the British Cabinet in Westminister, about 350 miles (550km) away in another country, Ireland, the Thornton brothers were out in Galway, having a few pints.

One of them, Pat, was an ex-member of 'The Connaught Rangers Regiment' (aka 'The Devil's Own' - Mr Thornton fought with them in 'World War One') of the British Army but had been 'invalided out' of that grouping in November 1915.

He was known to be a bit of a mouthy character, who enjoyed pushing his weight around and, drunk or sober, would let it be known that he didn't favour the rebel Movement in Galway or Ireland.

But he was well-in with the 453 Crown Force members that were then stationed in Galway town, the 352 stationed in Ballinasloe, the 135 in Oranmore and with the smaller detachments in Gort (57) and Tuam (46).

However, other people, too, had made his acquaintance.

As the Thornton brothers left the pub on that night (4th February 1920) they were surrounded by a group of armed men who took Mr Pat Thornton to one side.

They beat him until he fell to the ground and then shot him dead.

The RIC later stated that "...he was unpopular in the area, had a bullying disposition, and he and his brothers were opposed to Sinn Féin.."

The group of armed men were never apprehended.

==========================

ON THIS DATE (4TH FEBRUARY) 130 YEARS AGO : DEATH OF 'SPERANZA OF THE NATION' ANNOUNCED.

"No voice that was raised in the cause of the poor and oppressed, none that denounced political wrong-doing in Ireland, was more eagerly listened to than that of the graceful and accomplished woman known in literature as 'Speranza' and in society as Lady Wilde..." - Martin MacDermott.

Lady Jane Wilde ('Speranza of The Nation' aka 'John Fanshaw Ellis') née Jane Francesca Elgee, mother of Oscar Wilde, died in London from bronchitis on the 3rd February 1896.

At the time, Oscar was incarcerated in Wandsworth Prison, serving a two year hard labour sentence for 'gross indecency' – homosexuality.

Despite her dying wish, she was not allowed to see him.

Lady Jane Wilde was famous in her own right as a writer and poet : she was an ardent nationalist in addition to being a staunch feminist. Her most famous poem is probably 'The Famine Year' -

The Famine Year (The Stricken Land).

Weary men, what reap ye?—Golden corn for the stranger.

What sow ye?— human corpses that wait for the avenger.

Fainting forms, hunger–stricken, what see you in the offing?

Stately ships to bear our food away, amid the stranger’s scoffing.

There’s a proud array of soldiers — what do they round your door?

They guard our masters’ granaries from the thin hands of the poor.

Pale mothers, wherefore weeping — would to God that we were dead;

Our children swoon before us, and we cannot give them bread.

Little children, tears are strange upon your infant faces,

God meant you but to smile within your mother’s soft embraces.

Oh! we know not what is smiling, and we know not what is dying;

We’re hungry, very hungry, and we cannot stop our crying.

And some of us grow cold and white — we know not what it means;

But, as they lie beside us, we tremble in our dreams.

There’s a gaunt crowd on the highway — are ye come to pray to man,

With hollow eyes that cannot weep, and for words your faces wan?

No; the blood is dead within our veins — we care not now for life;

Let us die hid in the ditches, far from children and from wife;

We cannot stay and listen to their raving, famished cries —

Bread! Bread! Bread! and none to still their agonies.

We left our infants playing with their dead mother’s hand:

We left our maidens maddened by the fever’s scorching brand:

Better, maiden, thou were strangled in thy own dark–twisted tresses —

Better, infant, thou wer't smothered in thy mother’s first caresses.

We are fainting in our misery, but God will hear our groan:

Yet, if fellow–men desert us, will He hearken from His Throne?

Accursed are we in our own land, yet toil we still and toil;

But the stranger reaps our harvest— the alien owns our soil.

O Christ! how have we sinned, that on our native plains

We perish houseless, naked, starved, with branded brow, like Cain’s?

Dying, dying wearily, with a torture sure and slow —

Dying, as a dog would die, by the wayside as we go.

One by one they’re falling round us, their pale faces to the sky;

We’ve no strength left to dig them graves — there let them lie.

The wild bird, if he’s stricken, is mourned by the others,

But we — we die in a Christian land — we die amid our brothers,

In the land which God has given, like a wild beast in his cave,

Without a tear, a prayer, a shroud, a coffin or a grave.

Ha! but think ye the contortions on each livid face ye see,

Will not be read on judgement–day by eyes of Deity?

We are wretches, famished, scorned, human tools to build your pride,

But God will take vengeance for the souls for whom Christ died.

Now is your hour of pleasure — bask ye in the world’s caresses;

But our whitening bones against ye will rise as witnesses,

From the cabins and the ditches, in their charred, uncoffin’d masses,

For the Angel of the Trumpet will know them as he passes.

A ghastly, spectral army, before the great God we’ll stand,

And arraign ye as our murderers, the spoilers of our land.

Folklore has it that, as she lay dying in her home (146 Oakley Street, Chelsea), on the 3rd February 1896, aware that her request to visit her son, Oscar, had been refused, her 'fetch' (apparition) appeared before Oscar in his cell.

Oscar was physically unable to arrange the details for his mother's funeral and that onerous task fell to his brother, William ('Willie') Charles Kingsbury Wilde who, unfortunately, was penniless.

Oscar managed to scrap together the bare amount to pay for the funeral service (which was held on the 5th February at Kensal Green Cemetery in London) but the family could not afford a headstone and so Jane Wilde was buried 'anonymously in common ground'.

The 'Oscar Wilde Society' later erected a Celtic Cross monument in her memory in the cemetery in the late 1990's.

As Oscar himself might have observed -

"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination."

THE MONTH UNSPUN...

The stories that hit the headlines.

From Magill magazine, August 2002.

One major question needs to be answered -

Will people named in the report who acted illegally be pursued?

"Yes!", is the answer to that question if Enda Kenny is to be believed - he said in 'The Irish Times' that both the government and Opposition spoke in "one voice" on this issue and that possible prosecutions would be investigated "with vigour".

Vigour, though, may not be enough, and the reality is that very little else can be expected now that the Ansbacher report has been published.

Still, it will make good kindling for those winter fires...

(MORE LATER.)

One of 'The Big Houses' in County Meath, in Ireland, was a 100-roomed Palladian House, 'the ancestral seat of the Viscounts Langford and the Barons Langford...' - a mansion, known as 'Summerhill House' (pictured).

The British were known to 'commandeer' houses of that nature and repurpose them as 'Area HQ's', and the IRA were known to stop them from doing so.

On the night of the 4th February, 1921, the IRA took over the mansion and all lands attached, distributed the lands and farms of the estate equally between the estate workers and their families and set fire to the property.

The buildings were almost completely destroyed but stood, as ruins, until they were totally demolished in 1970.

On the 2nd February, 1921, two Crossley Tender lorries carrying 17 British Army Auxiliaries were driving between the towns of Granard and Ballinalee, in County Longford.

As those Crown Forces were passing through the village of Clonfin(/Cloonfin), they drove into an ambush position which had been established by Volunteer Seán MacEoin (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher) and 20 of his rebel fighters in the IRA Longford Flying Column.

The rebels exploded a landmine under the lead lorry which wounded all the Auxiliaries in that lorry and killed the driver, and then opened fire on the second lorry.

The disoriented enemy troops, who were low on ammunition as they weren't expecting a gunfight on their travel, tried to fight back but the advantage was with the IRA and the Auxiliaries surrendered.

Eight of the foreign Auxie gunmen were wounded, and two more of their number died at the scene - a Mr Francis Craven ('ADRIC Service Number 1305', who had been wounded in the leg, and was killed by a bullet in the neck as he was bandaging his leg) and a Mr John Houghton ('ADRIC Service Number 1375').

Two of the wounded Auxie gunmen - a Mr George Bush ('ADRIC Service Number 1073') and a Mr Harold Clayton (pictured, above, 'ADRIC Service Number 1514') died from their wounds on the 4th February(1921).

(More about the Clonfin Ambush can be read here.)

On the 25th January, 1921, a Mr Edward Carson (pictured), the leader of the 'Ulster(sic)Unionist Party (UUP)' and 'Member of Parliament' for the Belfast Duncairn district, received a formal invitation from Westminster to become the first 'Prime Minister of Northern Ireland' (sic).

Mr Carson refused the invitation and, on the 4th February (1921), he resigned his position as the leader of the UUP (and was replaced by 'Sir' James Craig).

In his resignation speech to his fellow unionists, Mr Carson stated that Catholics have nothing to fear from the Protestant majority (in the Six Counties) and urged his colleagues "to give the same rights to the religion of our neighbours...", which was an implied, unspoken acceptance that Catholics did (rightly) fear the Protestant majority and an acknowledgement that that majority denied religious rights to their neighbours.

However, the Brits still favoured him - in late May that year, Westminster appointed him as a 'Lord of Appeal in Ordinary' (!)and, in early June, he was 'Created a Life Peer', and took that 'title'.

Ah sure he would have been better off altogether if he had told them to feck off years before...!

(...few more paragraphs about Mr Carson down below..)

After an attempt by armed men to lift him off the street, a man from Youghal, in County Cork - a Mr Alfred Kidney (a 31-year-old unemployed cabinetmaker), an ex-British Army soldier who maintained his contacts within that foreign army - was wary for his safety, especially when he was out and about.

And, as he was out and about on the 4th February 1921 on North Main Street in the town of Youghal, he was shot twice and "quickly succumbed" to his wounds.

His father received £750 (about €55,000 in todays money) in a compensation payment from Westminster...

On the same day that Mr Kidney met his maker, a few short miles away a rebel Volunteer, Lieutenant Patrick Crowley Junior (26, pictured) unfortunately met his -

"Volunteer Patrick Crowley remained at this time in our district (Maryborough/Timoleague, County Cork).

He was awaiting an appendix operation, and a bed was prepared by us for him - he had his meals in our house after being told there was no raiding parties expected.

Unfortunately, the place was surrounded this morning (4th February 1921) by military in single formation which closed in on the suspected houses.

When word came, Paddy and my brother ran by a fence for cover, only to run into Major Percival himself. They retraced their steps, Percival following and firing.

My sister and I ran after the two boys, hoping to save them from the firing, as we felt sure he would not fire on us. Then my sister caught Percival by the legs, he was on a gate, and held him fast, even though he beat her knuckles with a gun.

When he could not release himself, he pointed the gun at our brother and said he would shoot him dead if she did not let him go. We had hoped by this time that Paddy had got well away.

He was followed by Percival and was found stretched dead about a quarter of a mile from our home by a Cumann na mBan girl that was crossing to let us know of the raid.

My sister and I, with a few others, brought the body back to our house before the military had time to collect it. They came along with a local RIC man to identify the body but did not interfere again.

He was waked and buried from our house in Clogagh and was given full military honours, and Volunteer Charlie Hurley spoke at the grave after his burial..."

- Volunteer Mary Walsh of the Kilbrittain Cumann na mBan organisation.

"His death was a bitter blow to us all. From 1917 he had been a most active Volunteer and an outstanding leader..."

- Volunteer Liam Deasy, Commanding Officer of the Cork No. 3 Brigade (also known as the West Cork Brigade) of the Irish Republican Army.

In early January, 1921, on raiding the Crowley family house in the village of Kilbrittain in County Cork, again, and finding that rebel Volunteer, Lieutenant Patrick Crowley Junior, was not there, the Crown Force raiding party burned the family home down.

On the 4th February, 1921, celebrating their kill, those same Crown Force elements (from the 'Essex Regiment') drove into Kilbrittain Village and demolished the Crowley family shop.

Volunteer Lieutenant Patrick Crowley Junior is buried in Clogagh Cemetery in Timoleague, Carbery East, in County Cork.

RIP Volunteer Patrick Crowley.

On that same day, a few short miles away from where rebel Volunteer Lieutenant Patrick Crowley Junior was shot dead by Mr Percival, eight out of the ten Volunteers captured by the British at the Dripsey ambush site (on the 28th January 1921) were brought before a British Army court martial in Victoria Barracks in Cork City.

The other two rebel soldiers - Volunteer Jim Barrett and Volunteer Denis Murphy - were too badly wounded to be moved at that time : Volunteer Barrett had had one of his legs amputated but the operation went wrong and the poor rebel soldier died, and Volunteer Murphy, on recovering somewhat, was told on the 9th March that, on full recovery, he will be executed but that sentence was later commuted to 25 years imprisonment.

However ; the eight Volunteers - Patrick O'Mahony, Timothy McCarthy, Thomas O'Brien, Jeremiah O'Callaghan, Daniel O'Callaghan, John Lyons, Eugene Langtry and Denis Sheehan - with charged with 'levying war against His Majesty', a charge which carried the death penalty.

The 28th February was set as the date of execution.

It was during an IRA investigation after the failed ambush that it came to light that a local 'Lady of the Manor', a Mrs Mary Maria Georgina Lindsay, had informed to the Crown Forces about the up-coming ambush - Mrs MMG Lindsay had instructed her chauffeur, a Mr James Clarke, to drive her to the enemy forces with the information.

So the IRA paid Mrs MMG Lindsay and her staff a visit and took the woman and her driver away as hostages and, on the 26th February (1921), two letters were delivered to the 'General Officer Commanding' of the British Army 6th Division in Ireland, a Lieutenant General 'Sir' Edward Peter Strickland, KCB, KBE, CMG, DSO ETC ETC.

One of those letters was from the IRA, and stated.. "...if the five of our men taken at Dripsey were executed as scheduled on Monday morning 28th February 1921 by the military, the IRA would execute Mrs Lindsay and her chauffeur James Clarke, who have been convicted of spying and are under sentence of death.."

The second letter was from the Lady herself to Mr Strickland -

"I have just heard that some of the prisoners taken at Dripsey are to be executed. I write to beg that you will use your influence to prevent this taking place. My life will be forfeited for theirs, as they believe I am the direct cause of their capture.

I implore you to spare these men for my sake..."

No mention of the chauffeur.

Mr Strickland contacted his fellow KCB, KBE, CMG, DSO ETC ETC, a certain 'Sir' Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready, and the two of them discussed the quandary they had got themselves into.

The two of them agreed that the executions of the IRA Volunteers should go ahead, on the 28th, and it did.

Mrs Mary Maria Georgina Lindsay and her chauffeur, Mr James Clarke, were executed by the IRA on the 14th March, 1921, at Flagmount, in the Réileán (Rylane) district of Cork.

The Intelligence Officer of the Cork Number 1 Brigade IRA issued the following statement -

"In Mrs Lindsay's case, the death sentence passed by the IRA followed a flagrant and deliberate action against the Army, that of conveying information to the occupation forces in regard to the Dripsey ambush.

Even after sentence had been passed, an official letter from the Cork Number 1 Brigade to Major General Sir E. P. Strickland indicated that the sentence would not be carried out if the prisoners taken at Dripsey were treated as prisoners of war.

The communication was ignored and Mrs Lindsay was shot."

RIP to those brave IRA Volunteers.

As those eight rebels were appearing in that British 'court', about 85km (55 miles) up the road and westward across the country, the elderly proprietor of the Central Hotel (pictured) in Listowel, County Kerry, a Mr Jeremiah Galvin, was one of about 100 local men that had been forced, at gunpoint, by the Crown Forces, to clear blockages (pictured - trees, concrete blocks, old carts etc) from nearby roads, which had been placed there by the IRA, to draw the enemy forces out into the open.

As the men were being marched back to the town of Listowel after a days forced labour, Mr Galvin collapsed and died on the side of the road.

RIP Mr Jeremiah Galvin.

At the same time as that poor man died on a Kerry road, about 300 km (185 miles) up the road in Belfast, the first 'B Special' patrol (pictured) made its appearance on the streets - their colleagues in the 'A Special' grouping had been unleashed on the public in December, 1920.

And the Crown Forces were out in Dublin, too, on that same day - a Crossley Tender truck carrying British Army Auxiliary troops was driving down Eden Quay towards Liberty Hall when it came under attack from a rebel ASU comprising Volunteers from 'Section 1 Dublin Brigade IRA ASU', Volunteer Christopher Byrne from the 2nd Battalion and rebels from 'C Company' of the 4th Battalion, under the command of Volunteer Thomas Flood.

The Volunteers launched their attack but it didn't go as planned - IRA Section Commander Volunteer Thomas McGrath was shot through the leg during the engagement and three other rebels were wounded and captured.

On the 4th February, 1921, the 'County Kildare Farmers Union' was holding a local get-together in the Town Hall in the village of Naas, in County Kildare.

The British 'authorities' were wary of any organised body of Irish people because, inevitably, politics would be discussed, the seeds of rebellion could be sown or nurtured and contacts etc could be made.

So they sent in their soldiers and their 'police force', the RIC, carrying revolvers and rifles with fixed bayonets, and broke up the gathering.

Presumably contacts were made between the Farmers Union and the 'authorities' because, a few months later, another such Farmers Union get-together was held in the same venue but, this time, it was 'allowed' to proceed.

A resolution was raised, discussed and passed at that second meeting -

'That we, the farmers of North Kildare in the public meeting assembled, call upon the deputies representing this county in Dail Eireann to vote for the ratification of the Peace Treaty (sic).

We believed that the treaty contained all the essentials of national freedom, of economic development and lays the foundation of peace with honour, and that ratification is the only course open to Dail Eireann in the best interests of our nation.

We record our profound conviction that it is the bounden duty of the deputies indicated by the very designation of their office to faithfully and scrupulously interpret in their votes the will of the people by not only voting for, but using their influence to secure the ratification of the pact signed by the Irish Plenipotentiaries.'

Now THAT'S something the 'authorities' could approve of...

==========================

ON THIS DATE (4TH FEBRUARY) 206 YEARS AGO : FAMILY OF A 'UNITED IRISHMAN' FOUNDING FATHER GATHER FOR LAST MOMENTS.

"Nor one feeling of vengeance presume to defile

The cause, or the men, of the Emerald Isle..."

- the words of William Drennan (pictured), physician, poet, educationalist political radical and one of the founding fathers of the 'Society of United Irishmen', who was born on the 23rd May in 1754.

As well as his involvement with the 'United Irishmen', William Drennan will be forever associated with the descriptive term 'Emerald Isle' being used as a reference for Ireland, although he himself stated that that expression was first used in an anonymous 1795 song called 'Erin, to her own Tune'.

When he was 37 years of age, a group of socially-minded Protestants, Anglicans and Presbyterians held their first public meeting in Belfast and formed themselves as 'The Belfast Society of United Irishmen' (the organisation became a secret society three years later), electing Sam McTier as 'President', strengthing the link that William Drennan had forged with that revolutionary organisation - Sam McTier was married to Martha, who was a sister of William Drennan.

He was born on the 23rd May, 1754, at the manse of the First Presbyterian Church, Rosemary Street, Belfast, where his father was the minister.

A doctor by profession, he became one of the pioneers of inoculation against smallpox.

He became one of the founder members of the United Irishmen and, upon moving to Dublin in 1789, was appointed its Chairman.

After he was tried and acquitted of sedition in 1794, he withdrew from the movement and emigrated to Scotland but remained committed to his politics ; he married Sarah Swanwick in 1800, and they had four sons and a daughter.

'When Erin first rose from the dark-swelling flood,

God blessed the green island, he saw it was good.

The Emerald of Europe, it sparkled and shone,

in the ring of this world, the most precious stone.

In her sun, in her soil, in her station thrice blest,

With her back towards Britain, her face to the West,

Erin stands proudly insular, on her steep shore,

And strikes her high harp 'mid the ocean's deep roar...' (from here.)

The family were right to gather on the 4th : William Drennan died on the 5th (February 1820), at 66 years of age, and is buried in Clifton Street Graveyard, Belfast.

His coffin was carried by an equal number of Catholics and Protestants, and clergy from different denominations were in charge of the ceremony, as per his request.

RIP William Drennan.

DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...

The rebel Ladies worked long and hard that day and night, the 4th February 1922, re-checking the venue (the Round Room of Dublin's Mansion House), the seating arrangements, the stage etc - in final preparation for their 'Special Convention' to be held in that venue the following day.

The Treaty of Surrender was up for debate within the Cumann na mBan organisation and the delegates (about 500 Ladies) were confident that the majority of those voting would stand by their Irish republican beliefs and vote 'Yes' to reject that foul document.

And so it was - 419 voted to reject the Treaty, 63 to accept it - the first major militant Irish group to officially split over the Treaty.

The group of Treaty-supporting activists left Cumann na mBan and formed themselves into a new group, 'Cumann na Saoirse' and, a few years later, when the Fianna Fail party was founded, more Cumann na mBan members left the organisation to join Eamon de Valera in his new party.

Also, in the mid-1930's, yet another group from within Cumann na mBan left to form 'Mna na Poblachta' but the Cumann na mBan organisation itself stayed true to its republican principles in 1970 and again in 1986, when opportunists again left the then Republican Movement to seek their political (and financial) fortunes in constitutional political assemblies.

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

On the 4th February, 1922, Irish and English newspapers published articles on the shooting dead the previous day of two RIC members.

A Mr William Gourlay (32), from Lanark in Scotland, and a Mr Frank Kershaw (23), from Lancashire in England, left Green's Pub in Lisdoonvarna, County Clare and were shot dead shortly afterwards.

Mr Gourlay had eight months 'service' with the RIC, and his drinking buddy, Mr Kershaw, had twelve.

==========================

ON THIS DATE (4TH FEBRUARY) 105 YEARS AGO : DUBLIN-BORN UVF LEADER RESIGNS HIS POLITICAL POSITION.

Edward Carson, born in Dublin in 1854, died in Kent, England, in 1935, age 81.

Mr Carson was born in Dublin in 1854,and was educated at Portarlington School, Trinity College, and King's Inns.

He died at 8am on the 22nd October 1935 on the Isle of Thanet in Kent, England.

His beloved empire had conveyed the title of 'Right Honourable The Lord Carson KC PC' on him, a prefix he was delighted to take with him to his grave.

He was virulently anti-(Irish) republican, and never hesitated to encourage others to despise those he considered to be of a 'lower class' -

"We must proclaim today clearly that, come what will and be the consequences what they may, we in Ulster will tolerate no Sinn Féin - no Sinn Féin organisation, no Sinn Féin methods.

But we tell you (the British Government) this : that if, having offered you our help, you are yourselves unable to protect us from the machinations of Sinn Féin, and you won't take our help ; well then, we tell you that we will take the matter into our own hands.

We will reorganise, as we feel bound to do in our own defence, throughout the province, the Ulster Volunteers.

And those are not mere words.

I hate words without action..."

- the 'not mere words' of then soon-to-be paramilitary leader Edward Carson ('Lord Carson of Duncairn') at an 'Orange' rally in Finaghy, Belfast, County Antrim.

Mr Carson was a staunch supporter of the Irish (pro-British) Unionists and, at 38 years young, was elected as a Unionist MP (to Westminster) for Dublin University and, again at that same age, was appointed (British) 'Solicitor General for Ireland'.

He served as the 'Solicitor General for England' from 1900 to 1905, and was also an Irish barrister, a judge and politician, and the leader Of 'The Irish Unionist Alliance' and 'Ulster Unionist Party'.

At 57 years of age (in 1911*) he was elected leader of the 'Ulster Unionist Council' (UUC) and helped to establish the 'Ulster Volunteer Force' (UVF), a pro-British militia (*he wrote to his friend James Craig, pictured, re his UUC leadership that he intended "...to satisfy himself that the people really mean to resist. I am not for a game of bluff and, unless men are prepared to make great sacrifices which they clearly understand, the talk of resistance is useless...") .

On the 3rd of September 1914, in an address he delivered in Belfast to the 'UUC', he stated -

"England's difficulty is not Ulster's opportunity. However we are treated, and however others act, let us act rightly.

We do not seek to purchase terms by selling our patriotism...." (A lesson there, without doubt, for all the gombeens that inhabit the Leinster House institution!)

From 1915 to 1916 he served as the British Attorney General, and was appointed as the 'First Lord of the Admiralty' in 1916 (until 1917) and was a member of Lloyd George's War Cabinet from 1917 to 1918.

Westminster thought so highly of him that they offered him an even bigger 'prize' - that of the 'Premiership' of the new Six County 'State' - but he refused, and retired from public life and resigned as *leader of the Ulster Unionist Party on the 4th February 1921, at 67 years of age (* he was replaced by a Mr James Craig) .

Mr Carson had held that position since 1910, when he was elected to lead the 'Irish Unionist Party' - he was then appointed a 'Lord of Appeal in Ordinary' ['law lord'], entering the 'House of Lords' on the 24th May that year.

In June 1935, at 81 years of age, Mr Carson contracted bronchial pneumonia but, even though he recovered some good health within weeks, a few months later his strength weakened again and he died on the 22nd of October, 1935.

ON THIS DATE (4TH FEBRUARY) 145 YEARS AGO : 'LAND LEAGUE' LEADER ANNOUNCED 'TO HAVE BEEN ARRESTED BY BRITISH FORCES'.

On the 21st October 1879 a meeting of concerned individuals was held in the Imperial Hotel in Castlebar, County Mayo, to discuss issues in relation to 'landlordism' and the manner in which that subject impacted on those who worked on small land holdings on which they paid 'rent', an issue which other groups, such as tenants' rights organisations and groups who, confined by a small membership, agitated on land issues in their own locality, had voiced concern about.

Those present agreed to announce themselves as the 'Irish National Land League' (which, at its peak, had 200,000 active members) and Charles Stewart Parnell (who, at 33 years of age, had been an elected member of parliament for the previous four years) was elected president of the new group and Andrew Kettle, Michael Davitt, and Thomas Brennan were appointed as honorary secretaries.

The leadership had 'form' in that each had made a name for themselves as campaigners on social issues of the day and were, as such, 'known' to the British authorities ; Michael Davitt, who was born into poverty in Straide, Mayo, on the 25th of March, 1846 - at the time of the attempted genocide/ An Gorta Mór - was the second of five children, and was only four years of age when his family were evicted from their home over rent owed, and the dwelling was destroyed by the evicting militia.

His father, Martin, was left with no choice but to travel to England to look for a job.

Martin's wife, Sabina, and their five children, were given temporary accommodation by the local priest in Straide.

The family were eventually reunited, in England, where young Michael attended school for a few years.

His family were struggling, financially, so he obtained work, aged 9, as a labourer (he told his boss he was 13 years old and got the job - working from 6am to 6pm, with a ninty-minute break and a wage of 2s.6d a week) but within weeks he had secured a 'better' job, operating a spinning machine but, at only 11 years of age, his right arm got entangled in the machinery and had to be amputated.

There was no compensation offered, and no more work, either, for a one-armed machine operator, but he eventually managed to get a job helping the local postmaster.

He was sixteen years young at that time, and was curious about his Irish roots and wanted to know more - he learned all he could about Irish history and, at 19 years young, joined the Fenian movement in England.

Two years afterwards he became the organising secretary for northern England and Scotland for that organisation but, on the 18th July 1870 - in his early 20's - he was arrested in Paddington Station in London after the British had uncovered an IRB operation to import arms.

He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, on a 'hard labour' ticket, and served seven years in Dartmoor Prison in horrific conditions before being released in 1877, at the age of 31, on December 19th.

Almost immediately, he took on the position as a member of the Supreme Council of the IRB and returned to Ireland in January 1878, to a hero's welcome.

At the above-mentioned meeting in the Imperial Hotel in Castlebar he spoke about the need "..to bring out a reduction of rack-rents...to facilitate the obtaining of the ownership of the soil by the occupiers...the object of the League can be best attained by promoting organisation among the tenant-farmers; by defending those who may be threatened with eviction for refusing to pay unjust rents; by facilitating the working of the Bright clauses of the Irish Land Act during the winter; and by obtaining such reforms in the laws relating to land as will enable every tenant to become owner of his holding by paying a fair rent for a limited number of years..."

In January 1881, Westminster introduced a 'Land Act' ('Coercion/The Protection of Person and Property Act') which was the first of over a hundred such 'laws' that aimed to suppress the increasing discontent in Ireland with British 'landlordism' and it was under those 'laws' that, on the 3rd February, 1881, Michael Davitt was arrested for being too 'outspoken' in his speeches (he had then only recently addressed a crowd in Loughgall, County Armagh : "Landlords of Ireland are all of one religion. Their god is mammon and rack-rents and evictions their only morality while the toilers of the fields – whether Orangemen, Catholics, Presbyterians or Methodists – are the victims...").

While in prison, he was elected MP for Meath but was disqualified from taking his seat as he was 'an incarcerated felon'.

Michael Davitt died at 60 years of age in Elphis Hospital in Dublin on the 30th of May 1906, from blood poisoning - he had a tooth extracted and contracted septicaemia from the operation.

His body was taken to the Carmelite Friary in Clarendon Street, Dublin, then by train to Foxford in Mayo and he was buried in Straide Abbey, near where he was born.

RIP Michael Davitt.

On the 4th February, 1923, between 150 and 200 delegates attended a conference in Dublin organised by a grouping calling itself 'The Neutral IRA Members Association' ('NIRAMA'), which had been formed by ex-Volunteers Donal O’Hannigan, MJ Burke and Florrie O’Donoghue, among others.

The organisation (which claimed to have about 20,000 members) expressed opposition to the on-going Free State executions of IRA POW's and called on the Free State Army and the IRA to hold one month's ceasefire/truce, during which each entity should examine the possibility of disbanding itself and joining together to form one army, composed entirely of Volunteers who were in the pre-Truce IRA.

The 'NIRAMA' suggested that, during the month-long truce, peace proposals be exchanged between the FSA and the IRA, but both sides rejected that suggestion.

Volunteer Tomás Ó Deirig (Thomas Derrig, a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher), the then Adjutant General of the IRA, advised de Valera that accepting the 'NIRAMA' proposals would be tantamount to surrendering the Republic - de Valera agreed, and added that he didn't trust ex-Volunteer Florrie O’Donoghue.

In a meeting with two members of the Executive Council of 'The Neutral IRA' (Donal O'Hannigan and MJ Burke) to discuss their proposals, a Mr William Thomas Cosgrave, the 'President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State' (ie the 'PM' - plus, he doubled-up as the 'FS Minister for Finance' on occasion) said that any such truce would place his administration at a tactical disadvantage as his opponents would gain if the peace talks failed or succeeded, due to the fact that he and his would have gone back on their pledge not to negotiate.

He also said that, in his opinion, the IRA leadership could control, at most, only 90 per cent of its forces and that the remainder could do a lot of damage.

"I am not going to hesitate..." he told the two 'NIRAMA' representatives, "..if we have to exterminate ten thousand republicans, the three million of our people is bigger than this ten thousand..."

'The Irish Times', which was then a newspaper rather than that which it is today, a Leinster House PR broadsheet published daily, quoted a Mr Kevin O'Higgins, the then 'Vice-President of the Executive Council of the Free State' (plus - he doubled-up as the 'FS Minister for Home Affairs') as describing the 'NIRAMA' as either 'moral cowards who knew that the anti-Treaty campaign was wrong and were afraid to say so or physical cowards who thought that it was right but were afraid to participate...'.

A plague on BOTH of their houses, in our opinion.

Finally - somewhat exasperated that their venture had failed, the 'NIRAMA' began to wind down their organisation and, by late March 1923, it effectively ceased to exist.

Worth a shot.

But then, so were the Staters...

==========================

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated!

Sharon and the team.

(We'll be back on Ash Wednesday, 18th February 2026.)

IRELAND, 1903 - "THE MATERIALS FOR REVOLT..."

2026-01-30T12:56:00.000+00:00

THE 'CALL OF THE HOUSE' FOR IRISH REBELS IN A BRITISH PARLIAMENT.

1921 - the British took rebel fighters as hostages and announced they were going to execute them, so the IRA investigated their capture and discovered that two local 'toffs' had involved themselves in that capture.

The two wannabe aristocrats were paid a visit by the rebels, taken into custody and those holding the rebel fighters were contacted...

..and that's just one of the twenty-six pieces we'll be posting about on Wednesday, 4th February, 2026 : it's one example out of many in our history that show how expendable Irish people were, and are, to Westminster ; the two touts in question were trying to curry favour - ingratiate themselves with the British political and military establishments in Ireland - through their obsequious behaviour, but it didn't work out like that for them.

1920 - these Irish brothers were known to be 'loud shapers', a bit 'mouthy', in their locality, and at least one of them had British Army connections, which he maintained.

That man was writing cheques that his body couldn't cash, and one night a foreclosure order (!) was issued...

Ex-British Army/RIC etc 'servicemen/women' were generally left in peace by the rebels in their area (although an eye was kept on them) providing they kept their distance from the foreign military and from the IRA.

But sometimes that grace was misinterpreted as 'weakness'...

1919 - this British MP was so annoyed (!) with the political representatives of the Republican Movement that he thumbed through the 'rule book' - the British one - and loudly called for a political measure, a rap on the knuckles, if you like, that hadn't been used in over eight decades, to be resurrected and used against those political reps.

Even his own colleagues looked over their glasses at him!

And, as stated, that's just three of the twenty-six pieces we'll be posting here on Wednesday, 4th February 2026.

So don't have us looking over OUR bleedin' glasses at YOU on the 4th, after we notice yer absence...!

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated!

Sharon and the team.

(...and we'll hopefully see ya again, on the 4th.)

"IF WE WAITED FOR ORDERS, NOTHING WOULD HAPPEN..."

2026-01-21T11:16:00.002+00:00

On the 21st January, 1847, an 'Irish Constabulary/Constabulary of Ireland' officer, a Mr James Crowley (26), was on duty as a 'payroll escort' in Tipperary, Ireland.

He was accompanying a Board of Works wages clerk who was on his rounds to distribute wages for hundreds/thousands of labourers employed on so-called 'famine relief projects' and the clerk would have been carrying a significant amount of cash.

Local men, aware of the timing of the wages delivery and the route used, set up an ambush position and when the 'wages party' appeared, they waylaid them.

'Constable' Crowley attempted to stop them and was shot dead.

We have no more information on this incident.

==========================

ON THIS DATE (21ST JANUARY) IN IRISH HISTORY 107 YEARS AGO...

...an Chéad Dáil Éireann (the First Dáil) convened in Dublin's Mansion House.

Cathal Brugha was elected as 'Acting President' in place of Eamonn de Valera, who was at that time still in a British jail - he had contested a seat in the 14th December 1918 election for the Falls constituency of Belfast but lost to local 'United Irish League' leader, Joe Devlin, by 8,488 votes to 3,245.

All those elected in Ireland in that 1918 election were invited to the Mansion House for that first meeting but the Unionist MP's refused, as did those elected under the banner of a so-called 'United Irish League'(UIL) - the parliamentary nationalists (ie John Redmond's men).

In the Mansion House that day, 37 of the 73 Sinn Fein TD's (referred to as 'MP's' in Westminster) made a 'Declaration of Independence' (the remaining 36 Sinn Fein TD's were still in British jails) -

"We, the elected representatives of the ancient Irish people in National Parliament assembled, do, in the name of the Irish nation, ratify the establishment of the Irish Republic and pledge ourselves and our people to make this declaration effective by every means at our command.

We ordain that the elected representatives of the Irish people alone have power to make laws binding on the people of Ireland and that the Irish Parliament is the only parliament to which that people will give its allegiance.

We solemnly declare foreign government in Ireland to be an invasion of our national right which we will never tolerate and we demand the evacuation of our country by the English garrison..."

On that same day (21st January 1919) , two RIC men were shot dead in Soloheadbeg in County Tipperary by the IRA ; the cartload of gelignite they were guarding was the target, but they wouldn't hand it over without a fight. They lost.

That IRA unit was led by Dan Breen and Seán Treacy, who had acted without approval from Michael Collins (military) or Eamonn de Valera (political).

Dan Breen was called on to account for his IRA Unit's actions on that day by his own leadership, and said that he explained to them that the target that day was the cartload of gelignite, not the RIC men who were guarding it. He later told his comrades -

"If we were to have waited for orders from Headquarters or Dáil Éireann, nothing would ever have happened. We had had enough of being pushed around and getting our men imprisoned while we remained inactive. It was high time that we did a bit of the pushing. We considered that this business of getting in and out of jail was leading us nowhere."

The response to the shooting of the two RIC men was mixed ; Michael Collins stated -

"The sooner fighting is forced and a general state of disorder created throughout the country, the better it will be for the country. Ireland is likely to get more out of a general state of disorder than from a continuance of the situation as it now stands."

Dan Breen himself wrote -

"The clergy, the public and the press had unanimously condemned our action. At this time, scarce a word would be heard in our defence. Our former friends shunned us. Even from the Irish Volunteers, who were now known as the Irish Republican Army, we got no support.

We took the action deliberately, having thought over the matter and talked it over between us.

Treacy had stated to me that the only way of starting a war was to kill someone, and we wanted to start a war, so we intended to kill some of the police whom we looked upon as the foremost and most important branch of the enemy forces.

The only regret that we had following the ambush was that there were only two policemen in it, instead of the six we had expected..."

The only query any Irish republican could have with the above comment would be a correction regarding who 'started the war' - not the men and women in the Mansion House, or Dan Breen or Seán Treacy (pictured, above), but those in Westminster and Whitehall in London who to this day - 107 years after the above-mentioned events - persist in interfering in Irish affairs.

(...few more words below re an Chéad Dáil Éireann.)

ON THIS DATE (21ST JANUARY) 105 YEARS AGO : NEWS BREAKS THAT THE IRA IN CLARE HAD AMBUSHED BRITISH FORCES.

On the 20th January 1921, over thirty men of the East Clare Brigade of the IRA ambushed an RIC patrol at Glenwood near Sixmilebridge, County Clare, killing six of their number.

The well organised rebels suffered zero casualties and captured a significant amount of guns and ammunition.

Numerous houses in the general area were burned by the RIC that evening in reprisal for the attack.

'In mid January 1921, orders were sent to all six battalions of the East Clare Brigade asking all available IRA Volunteers to assemble at Parker’s house, Castlelake on the morning of the 20th of January.

The officers of the Brigade had decided to attempt to ambush the regular RIC patrol travelling from Sixmilebridge to Broadford.

On the appointed day, thirty seven I.R.A Volunteers reported for duty.

Half of them carried rifles while the remainder were armed with shotguns and revolvers.

A number of the republicans who had arrived unarmed volunteered as scouts.

Volunteer Joseph Clancy of Kilkishen, a local and a former soldier in the British Army, suggested a suitable location for the attack at the rear entrance to Glenwood House, Michael Brennan accepted his advice and divided up the men into different sections and explained the plan of attack.

At Glenwood, the republican scouts were posted along the road a short distance in both directions from the IRA's new position and the thirty or so remaining IRA Volunteers were divided into three sections, under the command of Michael Brennan, his brother Austin Brennan of Meelick and Tom McGrath of O'Callaghan’s Mills.

The men in Michael Brennan’s section were all armed with rifles and positioned along a high stone wall just north of the gate to Glenwood house ; the stone wall would give them a good cover from enemy fire and a direct line of fire for about fifty or sixty yards.

'Michael Brennan himself was armed with a revolver and stood a few yards behind the men in his group positioned along this wall, Joseph Clancy was hidden behind a large holly bush on top of the wall keeping watch along the road as the other Volunteers remained hidden, and Austin Brennan's group of Volunteers equipped with rifles and shotguns, was placed fifty yards further north behind another stone wall.

The remaining men under Tom Mc Grath's command were located along the edge of a field a hundred yards to the south of the gate armed with revolvers.

The ambushers were to hold their fire, until riflemen under Michael Brennan’s command attacked the lorry.

At about 4pm, a motorised patrol of ten armed Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and Black and Tan members, travelling from Sixmilebridge to Broadford, approached the back gate of Glenwood house.

Waiting for them, concealed behind the walls of the Glenwood estate, was a group of approximately 37 armed IRA volunteers from the East Clare Brigade of the IRA, led by Michael Brennan of Meelick. As the British patrol passed by the gates, a fusillade of gunshot, fired by the waiting group, struck them.

Six RIC and Black and Tans were killed, two were injured and two escaped unhurt, and one IRA volunteer was injured.

The ambush party withdrew in good order through the forest and mountains to the East of Glenwood, towards Oatfield. The surviving members of the British patrol made their way back to Sixmilebridge.

The local people, on hearing of the news of the ambush, braced themselves for the inevitable retribution which would follow. In an orgy of violence on that evening and in the following days, Black and Tans and Auxiliaries burned houses, destroyed property and terrorised and assaulted local people...' (from here.)

The destructive and vindictive nature of the British forces that remain in Ireland today are felt by republicans in the Occupied Six Counties and, even though those forces wear a different uniform to that displayed by the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries, their methods and their objective is the same.

And the resolve of Irish republicans, too, is the same.

21st January 1919 - action taken politically and militarily :

On that date in 1919, Sinn Féin Teachtaí Dála ('TD's', elected representatives) held their first meeting of Dáil Éireann (Irish Assembly/ Parliament) in the 'Round Room' of the Mansion House in Dublin.

Of the 69 Sinn Féin TD's elected, only 27 were present ; 36 of them were recorded as "fé ghlas ag Gallaibh" ("imprisoned by foreigners") and another 4 were recorded as "ar díbirt ag Gallaibh" ("deported by the foreign enemy").

Mr Cathal Brugha was elected 'Acting President of the Ministry' ('Pro Tempore') and Mr Sean T. O'Kelly was elected as 'Ceann Comhairle' ('Speaker of the House').

A 'Provisional Constitution of Dáil Éireann' was unanimously adopted, they agreed (again) to 'The Declaration of the Republic', the 'Democratic Programme' (discussion/proposed changes to the existing education system, reform of the 'Poor Law Act' and other social reforms) was accepted and a 'Message to the Free Nations of the World' was issued.

As that political business was being discussed in Dublin, Volunteers attached to the South Tipperary Brigade of the rebel Movement ambushed an enemy munitions convoy carrying gelignite for a quarry in the Soloheadbeg area (about four miles from Tipperary Town and about one mile from Limerick Junction), during which two RIC members - a Mr James McDonnell (56), from Belmullet, in County Mayo (a widower, with six children) and a Mr Patrick O'Connell (36), unmarried, a native of Coachford, in County Cork - were shot dead.

The driver of the vehicle, a Mr James Godfrey, and a County Council employee, a Mr Patrick Flynn, were unhurt (the Volunteers got the gelignite but missed the detonators which were in Mr Flynn's coat pocket).

More detail about that operation can be read here.

As the Dáil in Dublin was discussing its options and the Volunteers in Tipperary were limiting the options of their enemies, four Volunteers in Usk Prison in Wales were expanding their options.

On day one, the rebel POW's handed their prison-issue clothes/uniform back to the prison governor, a Mr Young, and informed him that not alone would they not be needing or wearing his uniforms, but they would be staying dressed in their own clothes, would be associating freely with each other, would be receiving and sending letters as they seen fit and would be smoking cigarettes in their cells when the mood to do so took them.

Mr Young contacted his boss in the British Home Office in London and was instructed to allow them those 'privileges'!

The republican rebels - Joseph McGrath (TD), Barney Mellows, Frank Shouldice and George Geraghty - used a smuggled key made from a copy of a warder's key, a sympathetic guard and clever coded messages to facilitate their breakout and subsequent escape, on the 21st January 1919, by car and train (Pontypool Railway Station and Pilemile, Newport, Shrewsbury and Liverpool Stations).

In Liverpool Station, they made contact with Volunteers Thomas O'Loughlin and Stephen Lanigan who secured safe passage to Dublin for the four rebels, who reported back for duty after being de-briefed.

==========================

GAS LADS...

The massive finds of oil and gas on our western seaboard could ensure Ireland's financial security for generations.

Wealth approximating that of the Arab countries is within our grasp, but the Irish government seems content to sell off our birthright for a handful of votes and a few dollars.

In a special 'Magill' report, Sandra Mara investigates just what we are giving away, and why.

From 'Magill' magazine, March 2002.

In the run-up to the election, the taxpayers of Ireland should be demanding answers to the enigma of the Corrib gas deal.

It was a deal described on 21st June last in Leinster House by Joe Higgins "as an outrageous robbery of an extremely valuable asset that properly belongs to the people.." which, he said, "..has been handed over to Enterprise Oil.

The commercial and economic benefit from it has been handed lock, stock and barrel by a Fianna Fail-dominated government to yet another multinational corporation on foot of a deal which they cannot possibly believe is so favourable to them, with no royalties, and with a corporation tax rate which they can write off against expenses not only incurred in Ireland but elsewhere.

Incredibly, when the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Frank Fahey, stood up in Leinster House and asked how much value should be placed on the one trillion cubic feet of gas estimated to be in the Corrib field, the minister, on behalf of the government, admitted that he had no idea how much this resource was worth..."

(MORE LATER.)

ON THIS DATE (21ST JANUARY) 124 YEARS AGO - BIRTH OF KEVIN GERARD BARRY ANNOUNCED.

On the 20th January, 1902, a baby boy was born in Dublin who was to capture world support and sympathy while still in his teens : the child's name was Kevin Gerard Barry (pictured), and he was born into a strong Irish republican family which could trace members of its clan as having been active in 1798 with Wolfe Tone.

Kevin Barry, 18 years young, was executed on the 1st November 1920 in Mountjoy Jail, Dublin, and was the first Irish republican to be 'officially' executed by the British since 1916.

At the time of his death his eldest brother, Mick, was OC of the Volunteers in an area known as 'Tom Beithe' (Tombeagh), a townland in Hacketstown Civil Parish, in Barony, County Carlow, and his sister, Sheila, was in Cumann na mBan.

He was captured while on active service outside the entrance of Monk's bakery in Dublin.

Although, as stated, born in Dublin, he spent much of his life at the family home in Tombeigh, and both sides of his family - the Barry's and the Dowling's - came from the Carlow area, and some of his ancestors had fought in 1798.

He attended national school in Rathvilly, Carlow, for a few years, before going to Belvedere College in Dublin where he was a medical student.

Kevin Barry's body was not returned to his family for burial ; he was interred within the prison confines of Mountjoy Jail and was the first of what was to become know as 'the Forgotten Ten'.

Because Munster and a small part of Leinster was under martial law those executed there were shot as soldiers but, as Dublin was under civilian law, those executed in Mountjoy were hanged.

In his 'Sworn Statement' ('written testimony'), Kevin Barry wrote -

"I, Kevin Barry, of 58, South Circular Road, in the County of Dublin, Medical Student, aged 18 years and upwards, solemnly and sincerely declare as follows : On the 20th of September, 1920, I was arrested in Upper Church Street by a Sergeant of the 2nd Duke of Wellington's Regiment and was brought under escort to the North Dublin Union, now occupied by military.

I was brought into the guard room and searched.

I was then moved to the defaulter's room by an escort with a Sergeant-Major, who all belonged to 1st Lancashire Fusiliers, and I was then handcuffed.

About 15 minutes after I was put into the defaulter's room, two Commissioned Officers of the 1st Lancashire Fusiliers came in, accompanied by 3 Sergeants of the same unit. A military policeman who had been in the room since I entered it remained.

One of the officers asked me my name, which I gave, and he then asked me for the names of my companions in the raid. I refused to give them.

He tried to persuade me to give the names and I persisted in refusing. He then sent a Sergeant for a bayonet. When it was brought in the Sergeant was ordered by this officer to point the bayonet at my stomach.

The same questions as to the names and addresses of my companions were repeated with the same results. The Sergeant was then ordered to turn my face to the wall and point the bayonet to my back. The Sergeant then said he would run the bayonet into me if I did not tell. The bayonet was then removed and I was turned round again.

This officer then said that if I still persisted in this attitude he would turn me out to the men in the barrack square and he supposed I knew what that meant with the men in their present temper. I said nothing.

He ordered the Sergeants to put me face down on the floor and twist my arm. I was pushed down onto the floor after my handcuffs were removed.

When I lay on the floor one of the Sergeants knelt on the small of my back, the other two placed one foot each on my back and left shoulder and the man who knelt on me twisted my right arm, holding it by the wrist with one hand while he held my hair with the other to pull back my head. The arm was twisted from the elbow joint. This continued to the best of my knowledge for 5 minutes. It was very painful.

The first officer was standing near my feet and the officer who accompanied him was still present. During the twisting of my arm the first officer continued to question me for the names and addresses of my companions and the names of my Company Commander or any other (IRA) officer I knew. As I still refused to answer these questions I was let up and handcuffed.

A civilian came in and he repeated the same questions with the same results. He informed me that if I gave all the information I knew, I could get off.

I was then left in the company of the military policeman. The two officers, three sergeants and civilian all left together.

I could certainly identify the officer who directed the proceedings and put the questions. I am not sure of the others except the Sergeant with the bayonet.

My arm was medically treated by an officer of the Royal Army Medical Corps attached to the North Dublin Union the following morning and by the prison hospital orderly afterwards for 4 or 5 days.

I was visited by the Court Martial Officer last night and he read the confirmation of sentence of death by hanging to be executed on Monday next.

I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing same to be true and by virtue of the Statutory Declarations Act, 1835.

Declared and subscribed before me at Mountjoy Prison in the County of the City of Dublin, 28th October, 1920.

(Signed) MYLES KEOGH, a justice of the peace for said County.

KEVIN GERARD BARRY."

Canon John Waters, the prison chaplain, wrote to Kevin Barry's mother with a description of his final moments :

"His courage was superhuman and rested I am sure, on his simple goodness and innocence of conscience. You are the mother, my dear Mrs Barry, of one of the bravest and best boys I have ever known, he went to the scaffold with the most perfect bravery, without the slightest faltering, 'til the very last moment of his life..."

Incidentally, while speaking to Mrs Barry, Canon Waters opined that young Kevin "...does not seem to realise he is going to die in the morning.." to which she asked what was meant by that comment : the priest replied that Kevin "...is so gay* and light-hearted all the time (but) if he fully realised it he would be overwhelmed..."

Mrs Barry took offence at those words and replied - "Canon Waters, I know you are not a republican. But is it impossible for you to understand that my son is actually proud to die for the Republic?"

The wise Canon didn't argue back.

It was on this date - 21st January - 106 years ago, that Kevin Barry's death was announced.

(*'Gay' - 'happy', not as it would be interpreted today.)

ON THIS DATE (21ST JANUARY) 54 YEARS AGO : DEATH OF A GAMEKEEPER-TURNED-POACHER REPORTED TO BE IMMINENT.

"Garda Special Branch - Britain’s lackeys : Gombeen men lured down from the mountains of Kerry by the smell of fresh meat.." - so summarised Brendan Behan the men of Special Branch over 50 years ago. Some things have changed since then, they now have the odd female detective and on rare occasions you may even hear a Dublin accent from the men in the (Ford) Mondeo. To republican activists they are synonymous with harassment and thuggery..." (from here.)

'Col. Eamon Broy, who died on Saturday at his home, Oaklands Drive, Rathgar, Dublin, aged 85, was a former Commissioner of the Garda Siochana.

During the War of Independence he was one of Michael Collins’s three 'contacts' among the detective force in Dublin Castle and played a leading part in breaking the secret information system there.

A native of Rathangan, Co. Kildare, he joined the old D.M.P. in his youth and was attached to G Division – the secret service arm of the British administration in Ireland and, during this period, he and his police colleague, David Neligan*, formed the heart of Collins’s intelligence service.

Between 1917 and 1921 they fed him with vast amounts of highly classified information and warnings.

Col. Broy was arrested by the British in February, 1921, and imprisoned in Arbour Hill until the Truce.

He was subsequently secretary of the then (Free State) Department of Civil Aviation and later adjutant of the first Irish Air Corps, with the rank of commandant. On his promotion to colonel he was made OC of the ground organisation of the corps.

In 1922 he became secretary to the D.M.P. and on the formation of the Dublin Metropolitan Garda in 1925 he was appointed chief superintendent and, in 1929, he was transferred to the Depot, Phoenix Park, as commandant.

In February, 1933, he became chief of the Detective Division in succession to Col. David Neligan and inside a month was appointed Commissioner of the Garda Siochana to replace General Eoin O’Duffy who had been dismissed by the Government.

In the same year Col. Broy established a new force attached to the Special Branch, to deal with the situation arising from the refusal of some farmers to pay rates during the period of the Blueshirt movement.

The members were drafted to parts of the country (sic) where the no-rates campaign was in progress, and they escorted bailiffs on cattle seizures and were involved in many violent incidents...he retired in 1938...and died on the 22nd January, 1972, aged 85...'

(*David Neligan was another gamekeeper-turned-poacher ; he was a particularly vicious Free State operative who 'made his name' in the fight against republicans in Kerry during the Civil War. His overall intention was to wreak havoc on the Republican Movement and he had no hesitation in turning his weapon on those he had once fought alongside.)

We have written about those 'gamekeepers-turned-poachers' before - here, and here, for instance - and, in time, there will be many other opportunities (and requirements) for other writers to do the same.

In early January, 1920, an 'RIC District Inspector' in Belfast, a Mr William Charles Forbes Redmond (46, pictured), a married man from the town of Newry, in County Down, was promoted to the position of 'Second Assistant Commissioner of the DMP' and, with much less fanfare, he was - internally - also welcomed in as the 'Head of DMP's 'G' Intelligence Division', where he was in charge of about ten 'detectives'.

He was tasked by Westminster "to take care of political crime", as the British called it, and to do so urgently - three of his fellow 'G Men' had been executed by the IRA in the previous six months and he prepared himself for a visit to Dublin to evaluate the situation for himself.

And the IRA in Dublin knew he was coming...

Volunteer Frank Thornton had been sent by IRA Intelligence to Belfast to collect a file on Mr Redmond from one of its operatives, an RIC Sergeant, a Mr Matt McCarthy (a Kerry man), who was stationed in Chichester Street RIC Barracks in Belfast.

The RIC operative wasn't working alone - Mr Redmond's secretary, an RIC detective, Mr Jim McNamara, was also working for the IRA and, between the both of them, they got Volunteer Thornton into the barracks and gave him a photograph of Mr Redmond and other details, including his travel itinerary, which showed that he was to travel to Dublin on the 21st January (1920).

That information was brought back to Dublin and a plan to execute Mr Redmond was put in place.

"If we don’t get that man, he'll get us, and soon..."

- part of the briefing given to the five IRA ASU's assembled to deal with Mr Redmond in Dublin.

On Wednesday, 21st January (1920), at about 5.45pm, Mr Redmond left his office in Dublin Castle to walk home, a route which took him into Grafton Street/Harcourt Street in Dublin City Centre.

One of the five IRA ASU's (consisting of Volunteers Thomas Keogh, Joseph Dolan and Patrick ['O] Daly*) spotted Mr Redmond on Harcourt Street at about 6pm and walked up to him outside the old 'Standard Hotel' and Volunteer [O'] Daly shot him once in the head.

Mr Redmond died a few minutes later from the wound.

(* Within less than a year, Volunteer ['O] Daly would morph from a republican gamekeeper into a Free State poacher and turn on his IRA ASU comrades.)

As part of its political work, the (republican) Dáil established a 'Commission of Inquiry into the Industry and Resources of Ireland' to survey Irish resources, with a Mr John O'Neill as Chairperson and a Mr Darrell Figgis as Secretary (...both of whom were republican-gamekeepers-turned-Free State poachers.)

This was part of the Dáil's broader economic efforts, alongside establishing courts and managing finances etc, and Irish republicans, unionists and non-aligned business-people and workers were requested to contribute to the group with ideas to develop the Irish economy and to promote and encourage industrial development.

Westminster, however, viewed the group as a threat, banned publication of its activities and used its troops in Ireland to stop its public hearings.

But the Commission carried on, as best it could under those enforced conditions and, in mid-January 1920, announced that it had booked Cork City Hall for a public meeting to be held over three days - the 21st, 22nd and the 23rd.

British Army soldiers moved in in force and stopped the Cork City Hall meetings, which went 'underground' and were held in different venues ; indeed, at one such 'underground' meeting, a British Army Sergeant carrying a hangman's rope approached Mr Darrell Figgis 'to make an example of him' but was physically stopped in his tracks by a Mr Maurice George Moore, a member of the Commission and an ex-Colonel in the British Army's Connaught Rangers Regiment!

The Commission later decided, for reasons of public safety, to restrict its work to private consultations with interested parties including County Councils and business groups, working around British-imposed and enforced restrictions as best it could, concluded its proceedings and published its final reports in early 1922.

==========================

THE MONTH UNSPUN...

The stories that hit the headlines.

From Magill magazine, August 2002.

'The Sunday Times' believed that Ansbacher is "just the tip of the iceberg", as the State High Court inspectors "did not have the power to investigate other companies they suspected of facilitating tax evasion."

'The Observer' quoted the government as saying that there was little chance of the individuals and corporations named in the report facing criminal prosecution.

But Mary Harney, in the same newspaper, said the report "is a damning insight into a world of conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion over a long number of years..".

Ben Dunne, meanwhile, speaking in 'The Sunday Independent' newspaper, came up with the quote of the day when he said he "couldn't care less about Mary Harney and Ansbacher", while 'The Sunday Business Post' newspaper explained that some Ansbacher account-holders were turning on their advisors and claiming they were unaware that they were taking part in a tax evasions scheme...

(MORE LATER.)

ON THIS DATE (21ST JANUARY) 103 YEARS AGO : CONFIRMED - 11 IRA PRISONERS HAD BEEN PULLED FROM THEIR CELLS AND EXECUTED BY FREE STATERS.

On the 20th January in 1923, Free State forces removed 11 of the IRA prisoners ('Irregulars') they were holding and executed each one of them.

Sixteen months previous to executing those men, Leinster House politicians had signalled their intent to do so in order to secure their own positions in the new Free State, declaring that those IRA men were fighting against what they described as 'a legitimate Irish authority..'

About one year before that awful day, those Free State executioners would have fought on the same side, in the fight against Westminster, as those they executed on that Saturday, 20th January 1923.

Five IRA men were executed by firing squad at about 8am that day, in Custume Barracks, Athlone, County Westmeath :

Thomas Hughes, from Bogginfin, Athlone, who was Lieutenant Commandant, 'Officer Commanding Munitions', Western Division I.R.A. He had served as Captain with the 3rd Engineers Dublin Brigade and was also 'Officer Commanding Munitions' in Athlone.

Michael Walsh, born in Derrymore, County Galway ; he was Vice-Commandant, 2nd Battalion No. 1 Brigade, Western Division.

Herbert Collins, a native of Kickeen, Headford, County Galway, who was captured at Currahan and charged with being in possession of arms and ammunition.

Stephen Joyce, a native of Derrymore, Caherlistrane, County Galway and Martin Burke, a native of Caherlistrane, County Galway - he was Officer Commanding, Active Service Unit Number 3 Brigade, Western Division.

Four of the IRA men - Michael Brosnan of Rathenny, Tralee, County Kerry, John Clifford of Mountlake Caherciveen, County Kerry, James Daly from Knock, Killarney, County Kerry and James Hanlon of Causeway, Tralee, County Kerry - were executed at Ballymullen Barracks, Tralee, Kerry : they were 'found guilty' of being in possession of arms and ammunition under the 'Emergency Powers Act' but local opinion was that the four men were put to death because of on-going attacks on the railway system in the Kerry area.

Two IRA men were executed at Limerick Jail : Commandant Cornelius 'Con' McMahon, Limerick, and fellow Limerick man Volunteer Patrick Hennessy.

Both men were charged with the destruction of Ardsollus railway station in County Clare on the 14th of January 1923 and were 'found guilty' of same and of being in possession of guns and ammunition.

Patrick Hennessy was secretary of Clare County Gaelic Athletic Association and a member of the county team, and Con McMahon had served a term in prison in Limerick Jail in 1920.

Also, for the record, between 17th November 1922 and 2nd May 1923, seventy-seven Irish republican prisoners were removed from their prison cells and shot dead by order of the Free State administration. In this post we name those 77 men and list where each man was executed and the date of same. We do so in the hope that these men will never be forgotten :

1922-

James Fisher, Dublin, November 17th.

Peter Cassidy, Dublin, November 17th.

Richard Twohig, Dublin , November 17th.

John Gaffney, Dublin, November 17th.

Erskine Childers, Dublin, November 24th.

Joseph Spooner, Dublin, November 30th.

Patrick Farrelly, Dublin, November 30th.

John Murphy, Dublin, November 30th.

Rory O Connor, Dublin, December 8th.

Liam Mellows, Dublin, December 8th.

Joseph McKelvey, Dublin, December 8th.

Richard Barrett, Dublin, December 8th.

Stephen White, Dublin, December 19th.

Joseph Johnston, Dublin, December 19th.

Patrick Mangan, Dublin, December 19th.

Patrick Nolan, Dublin, December 19th.

Brian Moore, Dublin, December 19th.

James O'Connor, Dublin, December 19th.

Patrick Bagnel, Dublin, December 19th.

John Phelan, Kilkenny, December 29th.

John Murphy, Kilkenny, December 29th.

1923-

Leo Dowling, Dublin, January 8th.

Sylvester Heaney, Dublin, January 8th.

Laurence Sheeky, Dublin, January 8th.

Anthony O'Reilly, Dublin, January 8th.

Terence Brady, Dublin, January 8th.

Thomas McKeown, Louth, January 13th.

John McNulty, Louth, January 13th.

Thomas Murray, Louth, January 13th.

Frederick Burke, Tipperary, January 15th.

Patrick Russell, Tipperary, January 15th.

Martin O'Shea, Tipperary, January 15th.

Patrick McNamara, Tipperary, January 15th.

James Lillis, Carlow, January 15th.

James Daly, Kerry, January 20th.

John Clifford, Kerry, January 20th.

Michael Brosnan, Kerry, January 20th.

James Hanlon, Kerry, January 20th.

Cornelius McMahon, Limerick, January 20th.

Patrick Hennesy, Limerick, January 20th.

Thomas Hughes, Westmeath, January 20th.

Michael Walsh, Westmeath, January 20th.

Herbert Collins, Westmeath, January 20th.

Stephen Joyce, Westmeath, January 20th.

Martin Bourke, Westmeath, January 20th.

James Melia, Louth, January 22nd.

Thomas Lennon, Louth, January 22nd.

Joseph Ferguson, Louth, January 22nd.

Michael Fitzgerald, Waterford, January 25th.

Patrick O'Reilly, Offaly, January 26th.

Patrick Cunningham, Offaly, January 26th.

Willie Conroy, Offaly, January 26th.

Colum Kelly, Offaly, January 26th.

Patrick Geraghty, Laoise, January 27th.

Joseph Byrne, Laoise, January 27th.

Thomas Gibson, Laoise, February 26th.

James O'Rourke, Dublin, March 13th.

William Healy, Cork, March 13th.

James Parle, Wexford, March 13th.

Patrick Hogan, Wexford, March 13th.

John Creane, Wexford, March 13th.

Séan Larkin, Donegal, March 14th.

Tim O'Sullivan, Donegal, March 14th.

Daniel Enright, Donegal, March 14th.

Charles Daly, Donegal, March 14th.

James O'Malley, Galway, April 11th.

Francis Cunnane, Galway, April 11th.

Michael Monaghan, Galway, April 11th.

John Newell, Galway, April 11th.

John McGuire, Galway, April 11th.

Martin Moylan, Galway, April 11th.

Richard Hatheway, Kerry, April 25th.

James McEnery, Kerry, April 25th.

Edward Greaney, Kerry, April 25th.

Patrick Mahoney, Clare, April 26th.

Christopher Quinn, Clare, May 02nd.

William Shaughnessy, Clare, May 02nd.

Those 77 men did not take up arms in the belief that they were fighting for the establishment of a morally corrupt so-called 'half-way-house' institution, nor did they do so to assist the British in the 'governance' of one of their 'part' colonies or to turn the country into a dustbin for foreign vagrants to nest in.

That which those brave men and many other men and women fought for remains to be achieved.

On the night of the 20th January, 1921, and the early hours of the 21st, a mixed gang of RIC, Black and Tans and British Army 'Royal Scots Fusiliers', travelling from Gormanstown in County Meath to the south of Ireland, were having a drinking session in the town of Portlaoise, County Laois, in Ireland.

When the bar closed, four of them decided to go back to the small hotel they were staying in (Kelly's Hotel) in the belief that they could continue drinking there.

Their drunken ramble back to the hotel took them noisily down Lyster's Lane and it was there that one of them, a Mr William John Wilton, an RIC member, realised that one of his 'old pals', a Mr Thomas Lawless (47), an ex-British Army soldier, lived in one of the houses in that Lane.

The RIC member unholstered his revolver and repeatedly banged and kicked that house door, demanding that he and his drunken mates be allowed in or that 'Tommy' should come out drinking with them.

Mr Lawless shouted through the door for them to go away, and the RIC member fired a shot through the door, killing him.

The RIC member, Mr William John Wilton, was later found guilty at a Military Court of manslaughter and, on the 27th May, was sentenced to ten years penal servitude but, when the shooting had been forgotten about by all but Mrs Agnes and her seven children, the RIC member was, on the 9th March 1922, remitted of his sentence and released to continue his drinking and shooting.

On the 21st January, 1921, the Eleventh Session of Dáil Éireann took place, but only twenty-two of the elected members were present.

The 'missing majority' were either 'on the run' from the Crown Forces or imprisoned, as the entire Dáil had been 'outlawed' by Westminster.

The following proposal was put to the floor, voted on, and passed -

"That this Session of the Dáil now adjourn owing to its inability to discuss adequately important questions of policy in the unavoidable absence of responsible Ministers.

Most Ministers could not attend because they had reason to fear it would be dangerous to come here, that certain Members of the Dáil would be well known and there was serious danger of their being followed and tracked..."

The Assembly adjourned and, shortly afterwards, members were contacted by the Dáil Secretariat staff and a new session was organised.

On the morning of the 21st January, 1921, two RIC members attached to Ballincollig Crown Force Barracks in County Cork - a Mr Henry Joseph Bloxham (a 'Sergeant', 40, 'Service Number 58519', a Mayo man, twenty-two years a member) and a Mr John Larkin (a 'Head Constable, Service Number 55799') changed back into their civilian clothes, retrieved two pushbikes from the barracks shed, said their goodbyes to their Crown Force colleagues and cycled off in the direction of the small town of Waterfall, about 7km (4 miles) away.

The IRA in the area were aware of their travel plans and the Ballincollig Company of the Cork Number 1 Brigade had organised for four Volunteers from the Third (Ovens) Battalion of that Brigade - Volunteers Leonard Murphy, James Murray, Daniel Donovan and Jerry O'Shea - to meet them (!) on their journey.

Local rumour had it that the two plain-clothed RIC members were carrying confidential dispatches from a spy but, whether they were or not, the IRA was still interested in them.

The two cyclists had travelled a few miles when the IRA ASU opened fire on them - with bullets whizzing around them, they cycled hell for leather to get past the ambush position but to no avail.

Mr Bloxham was hit three times and fell to the ground, dead, and his companion, Mr Larkin, was wounded, but kept going.

It is presumed that the IRA searched Mr Bloxham's body because, when he was discovered on the road later that day by his Crown Force colleagues, he had "...three gunshot wounds and a wound under the heart, caused by a sharp instrument.."

A knife wound, perhaps, inflicted by one of the Volunteers as a warning to other Irishmen carrying information and/or working for and with the Crown Forces?

Incidentally, Mr Bloxham's father, John, also worked for the Crown Forces but his sister, Elizabeth (Bessie), a domestic science teacher, wrote articles for 'The Irish Review', 'The United Irishman' and 'The Irish Volunteer' periodicals, was a founder member of Cumann na mBan (and a part-time chief organiser for the organisation) and was a prominent suffragist and a member of 'The Irish Women's Franchise League'.

A woman after me own heart...!

On the same date that the Volunteers in Cork were dealing with that fine woman's brother, their Volunteer comrades in the Drumcondra area of Dublin were planning to deal with his RIC colleagues.

But it didn't go as planned.

'Section 1 of the Dublin Brigade IRA ASU', under the command of Volunteer Frank Flood, had prepared themselves to ambush an RIC patrol but had not bargained on the lorry-load of British Auxiliaries who arrived on the scene.

A gunfight ensued, which ended with the capture of six Volunteers, one of whom, Volunteer Michael Magee, died from his wounds.

On the 23rd February (1921), a British Army Lieutenant Colonel, a Mr Powell, presided over a two-day court martial for the five surviving Volunteers at which they were found 'guilty of High Treason', an offence punishable by the death penalty (the specific form of 'High Treason' they were charged with was 'Levying War against the King in his Realm...').

However, one of the Volunteers, Dermot O'Sullivan (17), had his sentence commuted to penal service for life because of his age.

The four Volunteers to be executed were -

Frank Flood (19 years old, from 30 Summerhill Parade, Dublin, a third year engineering student, single, a lieutenant in H Company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade IRA);

Patrick Doyle (29 years old from 1 Saint Mary's Place, Dublin, a carpenter, married with one child and wife pregnant with twins, a member of F Company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade, IRA);

Thomas Bryan (22 years old from 14 Henrietta Street, Dublin, an electrician, married with no children, a member of the No. 3 Company, 5th Battalion, Dublin Brigade, IRA.);

Bernard Ryan (20 years old from 8 Royal Canal Terrace, Dublin, apprentice tailor, member of F Company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade).

On the 14th March, 1921, the British hung those four brave Irish rebels.

Incidentally, Volunteer Patrick Doyle's wife, Louise, last saw her husband (a prison visit) on the 12th March, 1921, and brought with her their three-year-old daughter and their newly born twin girls.

On their way back home, one of the twins, Louisa Patricia Doyle, died in her mother's arms.

The poor child was buried the same morning that her father was hung.

Unimaginable grief. So sad.

(It should be noted that, as no member of the Crown Forces was actually killed during or because of the failed ambush on the 21st January 1921, the 'next most serious charge' that could be brought against the participating rebels was the charge that was brought against them - 'High Treason against the King of England/Levying War against the King in his Realm...'.)

RIP Volunteers Michael Magee, Frank Flood, Patrick Doyle, Thomas Bryan and Bernard Ryan.

RIP Louisa Patricia Doyle.

On the same date that those brave Volunteers in Dublin were unknowingly taking part in their last operation, a young British Army soldier in Tipperary Military Barracks - a Mr William Arthur George ('Reference Number 5095164') was involved in a lorry accident which killed him.

He was attached to the '1st Royal Warwickshire Regiment' of that foreign army, and is buried in his own country, in Birmingham and, about 200 miles (340km) up the road, in Belfast, at the same time, a civilian, a Mr Daniel Horner, died from injuries he received during earlier disturbances in Belfast which were caused by the presence of other British Army soldiers.

"Sometime about the 20th (January 1921) we were going to a place called Castletownkenneigh and in the early hours of the morning we held up a spy on the road.

We took him along with us and the following morning he was tried by court-martial and shot and left on the road, labelled..."

- an IRA witness statement, 1921.

"Another spy, Lynch, was noticed going around, and we noticed that the people he talked to were bitter and, we suspected, active enemies of ours in Bandon.

One day he came to a lad and he said he had heard there was to be a raid that night and not to sleep at home.

The lad passed on the word, but the other fellows mentioned in Bandon did not change their houses that night and were captured in the raids.

This young lad did not sleep at home and so escaped.

That was enough for us.

The spy was court-martialled and was shot.

Why did he pass on the word (about the raids)?

Maybe to make friends with this young lad, for he (Daniel Lynch) had been going around with younger Volunteers and had promised them revolvers, and he had been anxious to make contacts with young Volunteers..."

- Volunteer Flor Begley to Volunteer Ernie O'Malley.

Some of the Volunteers of the Timoleague Company of the First Battalion 3rd (West) Cork Brigade IRA had been watching Mr Daniel Lynch since at least late August, 1920, when they lost one of their Army comrades, Volunteer Timothy Fitzgerald, who was attached to the Mount Pleasant IRA Company (he was from the townland of Gaggan, near the town of Bandon).

As stated above, the IRA took Mr Lynch into custody on the 20th and court-martialed and executed him on the 21st near the village of Timoleague, and his body was buried beside a quarry in the locality of Killeady, near Blarney, in Cork.

'The lorry was going at a good speed when suddenly it was met by a hurricane of lead from about 50 men concealed behind the trees.

District Inspector Clarke fell wounded from the first volley. The steering column was broken in the hand of the driver, Constable Seabright. The tank and car were riddled and the lorry ran against the bank, turning over on its side and throwing the occupants, still under a withering fire, onto the road. The district inspector, the sergeant and two of the constables never rose, but the others replied as vigorously as they could...'

- a report from 'The Saturday Record and Clare Journal Newspaper' on the 21st January, 1921, on an IRA ambush which had taken place the previous day -

"That affray was the fourth ambush which I have experienced in three days.

The car, containing ten men, was nearing Glenwood when, on rounding a bend in the road, about 100 men suddenly appeared from behind a hedge.

A volley of shots was heard, and bullets hit the car from all directions. D.I. Clarke was the first man to be hit.

He was sitting by my side when a bullet entered his left shoulder. He shouted 'Drive on, Sievwright, I am hit'.

A terrific and uninterrupted rain of rifle bullets followed. I opened the throttle, and tried to race through, but just as I reached mid-way between the fire the car stopped, and a bullet grazed my hands at the wheel.

D.I. Clarke fell out of the car on to the road and crawled by the roadside for several yards. The men behind the hedge turned their attention to him, and made him the target for the whole of their fire.

He was riddled with bullets and killed outright..."

- Mr George FS. Sievwright, the driver of the RIC lorry, which he was driving from Sixmilebridge to Broadford.

That IRA ambush took place on the 20th January 1921 near the village of Glenwood, in County Clare, and made the headlines for the media on the 21st.

Three Black and Tan terrorists - Mr Michael Moran (from Castlebar in County Mayo), Mr Frank Morris (from London, England) and a Mr William Smith (from Kent, England) - were killed in the ambush, as were three RIC members - a Mr Mulloy (from County Mayo), a Mr John Doogue (from County Laois) and Mr William Clarke (28, from County Armagh).

Mr Clarke (pictured) had previously 'served' as a Lieutenant in the 15th 'Royal Irish Rifles Ulster (sic) Division' and as a Sergeant in the 'Canadian Mounted Infantry'.

It seems they weren't the only ones who always 'got their man...'.

As Mr Clarke and his colleagues were coming under fire in County Clare, about 85 miles (135km) down the road in County Cork, a British Army Officers 'servant', a Mr Herbert Eagling, was being rushed to the Central Military Hospital in Cork.

Mr Eagling had been accidentally (!) shot by a fellow British soldier in the abdomen at Ballyvonare Military Camp, Buttevant, in County Cork ; it was recorded 'that a fellow servant was cleaning his Officer's pistol when it 'went off' '.

His wound became infected and he died that day from peritonitis ('inflammation of the peritoneum, typically caused by bacterial infection either via the blood or after rupture of an abdominal organ') and he died in that hospital.

Mr Eagling ('Service Number 7810783') was 23 years of age, he was born in Norfolk, in England, and was hoping to work his way up the ranks in the British Army Machine Gun Corps (Infantry).

He is buried in Hingham Cemetery in Norfolk.

==========================

DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...

Desmond Boomer, a Belfast engineer working in the Libyan oil-fields, disappeared seven years ago.

Officially, the plane on which he was a passenger crashed as a result of mechanical failure and pilot error.

But is that the real story?

Or were the Irishman and his fellow passengers unwitting victims of the shady war between Islamic fundamentalism and Mossad, Israel's intelligence network?

A special 'Magill' investigation by Don Mullan, author of 'Eyewitness Bloody Sunday'.

From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.

The families fear a conspiracy of silence between Malta and Tunisia, and they believe that this is shown by the failure of both governments to properly investigate the alleged accident in a coherent, transparent and sensitive manner, particularly given the international dimensions of their tragic loss.

Amongst several anomalies, they point to the delay and eventual failure of the Tunisian government to hand over the alleged original recording of Captain Bartolo's last flight for forensic analysis, the failure to identify or properly question the fishermen who allegedly found the wreckage, and the failure to have the wreckage sent for forensic examination at an independent and properly equipped laboratory to establish how long the plane lay on the seabed and whether any traces of human tissue could be found in the wreckage.

The Boomer, Williams and Aquilina families believe their loved ones may have been unwittingly caught in the crossfire of the murky Arab-Israeli conflict ; specifically, they point to a dramatic killing that occurred on the island of Malta five weeks earlier...

(MORE LATER.)

On the 21st January, 1922, 'Sir' James Craig, the 'Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (sic)', contacted Mr Michael Collins, the 'Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State' (and the 'Minister for Finance' in that recently-spawned institution) and told him that he would see to it that the attacks on Catholics in 'Ulster' (sic) would stop and Catholic workers in Belfast shipyards would be properly protected if he, Collins, would see to it that the 'Belfast Boycott' would end.

And lo and behold but didn't that boycott come to an end that same month, but the (unofficially Stormont-sanctioned) attacks on Catholics didn't and still haven't to this day.

It should be noted that that meeting came about because Mr Winston Churchill had 'leaned on' Mr Craig to bring it about - indeed, Mr Churchill gave the two men a loan of his London office to meet in!

Incidentally, during their discussions, both men agreed to accept the findings of the 'Boundary Commission', but both men altered their positions later - they both practiced the political art (!) of saying whatever it takes to get the ball over the line, then cry 'FOUL!!' later...

On the same day that Mick and Jim were coddin' themselves in Winnies office in London, a group of concerned Irish and other nationalities assembled in Paris, France, for the 'Convention of the Irish Race'.

"There is a country more ready than any other to lift painting into its rightful place, and that is Ireland, this land of ours. Painting is the freest of the Arts. The artist must himself be free and his country must be free.

The Irish blood is full of freedom..."

-Jack B. Yeats's speech at the Convention in Paris.

This was a world-wide gathering of Ireland's sons and daughters, held from the 21st January (1922 - a date chosen to commemorate the first sitting of the Dáil in 1919) to the 28th January, and was attended by over a hundred delegates from 22 countries.

Representatives from the newly-engineered Irish Free State showed up (with a Mr Eoin MacNeill in charge of them), as expected and, also as expected, used the occasion to promote the Treaty of Surrender, which led to verbal disputes with Irish republicans who were present including - unfortunately - a Mr Éamon de Valera, who argued against that Treaty which he was later to support!

An 'association(/party)' was formed at the Convention* (*which, on a vote, agreed to support the Treaty) called 'Fine Ghaedheal' which helped to promote the Irish republican Cause but, such was the political clout of the 'Establishment' figures ranged against it, it effectively collapsed in around June that same year.

My people, the indigenous Irish, could do with another such Convention ; six of our counties are still under the British jurisdictional writ, the Free Staters in Leinster House have long since abandoned accountability to anyone except themselves, the EU, WEF and the WHO and, on top of that, we have new intruders coming in daily...

On the 21st January, 1922, the IRB 'District Centre' in Cork passed a resolution condemning its own Supreme Council's previous statements (12th December 1921 and 12th January 1922) in which the Treaty of Surrender was supported.

The resolution also called for their Council to resign and, on hearing this, other Centres do likewise and cease to function in disgust.

A Mr Michael Collins was a high-ranking member of the Supreme Council and guided it in support of the Treaty and, in that same month, he was also busy elsewhere - establishing the new Free State Army.

On the 1st October, 1924, the FSA morphed itself into 'Óglaigh na hÉireann' (sic) and, by coincidence (!), it was around that time that the IRB ceased to exist...

The day before the IRB in Cork passed that resolution, about 100 km (60 miles) up and across the country, rebel Volunteers came across an RIC/Black and Tan lorry in for repairs in a garage in Edward Street, in Tralee, in County Kerry.

When they made a move to commandeer it, enemy troops opened fire on them, and a gunfight ensued, but the rebels returned safely to base.

The next day (21st), the RIC found the rebels and, again, shots were exchanged (in what the Staters called "an unauthorised action").

One of the rebels - Volunteer Patrick (Percy) Hannafin (21, pictured) - was hit, as was an RIC member.

Volunteer Hannafin was a member of the Tralee Fianna (Na Fianna Éireann), and obtained the rank of adjutant for that Sluagh ('unit') NFE, and was active with the 1st and 9th Battalions of the Kerry No. 1 Brigade IRA.

That brave young man died from his wounds on the 27th January 1922, and is buried in the family plot in the Old Rath Cemetery, Tralee, County Kerry.

RIP Volunteer Patrick (Percy) Hannafin.

As the RIC and the IRA clashed on that street in Tralee, about 300km (185 miles) up and across the country, the manufactured political leadership of the spawned Free State were having a chat in an office in Dublin.

They decided to establish a 'new police force' - the 'Civic Guard' - unarmed, and with a Mr Michael Staines (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher) as its commissioner.

On the 9th February (1922), the 'Civic Guard' began to take over 'policing duties' from the RIC and the grouping was renamed 'An Garda Síochána na hÉireann' ('Guardians of the Peace in Ireland'! - sic) under the 'Garda Síochána (Temporary Provisions) Act' on the 8th August, 1923.

The uniform changed many times over the years, but the 'do-my-masters-bidding'-regardless'-attitude and corruption remained as, indeed, it does to this day.

==========================

ON THIS DATE (21ST JANUARY) 53 YEARS AGO : MEDIA REPORTS THAT SACKVILLE PLACE IN DUBLIN HAD BEEN BOMBED BY LOYALISTS.

FOR THE SECOND TIME IN SEVEN WEEKS.

A photograph from the scene of the loyalist bombing in Dublin on Saturday 20th January 1973, in which one man died (29-year-old Scottish born Thomas Douglas, a bus conductor) and 13 people were injured.

'On Saturday 20 January 1973, seven weeks after the December 1972 bombings, a further bomb exploded in Dublin city centre killing one man...unbelievably, the location was once again Sackville Place and the bombers were now beginning to thumb their noses at the security forces...by choosing to bomb the same location twice within seven weeks...the bombing was never claimed by the organisation which carried it out, but no one was in any doubt that loyalists were involved...the bomb, which contained 20 pounds of explosives, was planted in a red Vauxhall Viva car, registration number EOI 1129, which was hijacked in Agnes Street off the Shankill Road in Belfast that morning...' (from here).

Regardless of how active their campaign is in Dublin (or elsewhere in Ireland) or whether they claim responsibility for their actions or not, the fact remains that as long as Westminster continues to maintain a political and military presence in Ireland the loyalists can be 'activated' anytime the British administration feels it would be advantageous to do so. The loyalists and other pro-British elements can only be neutralised when Westminster stops interfering in this country.

"The policy of militant action by the anti-Treaty army is slowly changing to one of sheer destructiveness and obstruction of Civil Government..."

- A report issued by the Free State Army to their political enablers in Leinster House, on the 21st January, 1923.

Yet it was the Free State Army that brought about significant and brutal destruction while solidifying its control within the State, during the final months of the Civil War, primarily focusing on eliminating the remaining IRA forces and their infrastructure, through aggressive military operations, 'official' executions, and reprisals.

The most notorious actions occurred in March 1923, particularly in County Kerry ; in revenge for the deaths of five FSA soldiers at Knocknagoshel, the Stater troops (under Paddy [O]'Daly, a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State poacher) used landmines to blow up 17 IRA POW's at Ballyseedy, Countess Bridge, and Bahaghs, often leaving only one survivor to escape, to spread fear among the rebel ranks.

The Staters 'formally executed' 81 (some sources put the number at 83) Irish republicans during the Civil War, with a significant number occurring in 1923, including 34 in January 1923 alone.

As well as their 'formal executions', many "unauthorised" or extrajudicial killings of IRA POW's occurred.

Instances of assault, sexual violence, and property destruction (such as the burning of Bessborough House in Kilkenny in March 1923 to prevent its use by the rebels) against civilians suspected of aiding republicans were also reported.

The Free State exchequer estimated that the war against its own brothers and sisters...'largely due to the (Free State) army's operations to combat the guerrilla campaign, reached approximately £17 million by September 1923...'

The Staters paid, financially, at least £17 million in the early 1920's to uphold the British writ in Ireland, but paid much more than that, morally, in doing so.

Incidentally, by May 1923 the Free State Army had grown to over 50,000 men and now that the Stater politicians didn't need such expensive cannon-fodder, they talked about letting more than half of them go.

In the autumn of 1923 it was decided to reduce the strength of their army and "to reorganise it for peacetime", which entailed a reduction of 30,000 personnel.

A small group of Stater officers (led mainly by former members of Collins’ Intelligence Unit - oh the delicious, callous irony!) attempted to resist the efforts to demobilise officers (feck the ordinary foot soldier!), and that evolved into what has been called the 'Army Mutiny' of March 1924.

What a shame they didn't turn on each other as viciously as they had turned on their brothers and sisters in the rebel army...

==========================

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated!

Sharon and the team.

(We'll be back on Wednesday, 4th February 2026.)

AN IRISH REBEL, HIS WIFE, AND THEIR DAUGHTER...

2026-01-18T17:58:00.000+00:00

AN IRISH REBEL, HIS WIFE, AND THEIR DAUGHTER...

We'll be posting at least sixteen pieces here on Wednesday, 21st January, 2026, mentioning various political and military instances and incidents that took place in Irish history between the 1840's and the early 2000's, but one of them in particular has thrashed and crushed me, personally, and fairly mopped the floor with the two lads, too. We can't get it out of our heads.

This dreadful incident left the three of us with aching souls and hearts.

Out of the many occurrences that have taken place in Ireland, North, South, East and West as a result of the political and military interference here by Westminster and by their proxies in Leinster House, this is one of the saddest episodes we've come across.

Unimaginable grief.

It's to do with an Irishman, in the 1920's, who rose up against British injustice and was caught and punished by them for doing so. He was a married man, sentenced to death by the British but allowed one last visit from his family.

It was on the way home from that visit that a second tragedy for the family occurred followed by a third tragedy for the family on the very day that the British hangman was oiling the lever...

Heartbreaking.

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated.

We'll be back on Wednesday, 21st January 2026.

Sharon and the team.

1921 - IRA STAGED WITHDRAWAL, SECTION BY SECTION...

2026-01-07T00:24:00.000+00:00

On the 7th January, 1920, the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in Ireland, a 'General Sir' Mr Nevil Macready, and his GHQ Staff, issued an order to their Divisional Commanders to prepare lists of the commanders, officers and prominent members of the IRA in their areas.

So-called 'legal warrants' for the arrests of the rebels named on those lists would be drawn up and made available for collection by what was deemed by the British to be the 'competent military authority' in Ireland - the commanding officers of British Army Divisions and/or designated brigade commanders.

Rebels who were 'arrested' would be subject to 'Regulation 14b (of the) Defence of the Realm Act' ie interned and then deported to England unless evidence of a criminal offence was discovered, in which case they were to handed over to 'the civil power'(the RIC).

These 'arrests' were to be synchronised across British Army Divisions in Ireland on the night of the 23rd/morning of the 24th January(1920) and the 'competent military authority' carrying them out was 'authorised' to search individuals and buildings for arms, explosives and 'seditious literature' at any time of the day or night provided 'the greatest care and consideration was given to law-abiding citizens, women and children...'!

Oh well that's different then - "We're gonna storm your house and pull it apart but we'll do it with the greatest care and consideration..."

At the same time as Mr Macready and his Staff were issuing their 'raid gently' order, the 'General Officer Commanding Dublin District' of the British Army, a Mr 'Sir' Gerald Farrell Boyd (pictured) declared that the Dublin District was to be considered, jurisdictionally, to be a 'British Army Division'-area of operations rather than what it was up until then - a Brigade Area of the 5th Division of the BA.

Mr Boyd and his people were aware of the level of resistance offered by the Dublin rebels and were re-organising in the hope that they could get the better of it.

On the same date that Mr Boyd issued his 'regroup' instructions, his armed men (BA and RIC) raided the Sinn Féin Bank (pictured) in No. 6 Harcourt Street in Dublin, with the intention of closing it down and boarding-up the building.

The bank manager (and sole employee), a Mr David Kelly, approached the raiding party and demanded to see the 'warrant' - the 'closure order' - as he was entitled to know whether it was the RIC or the BA that had issued it ; this legal 'interference' stalled proceedings for perhaps 30 minutes but didn't prevent it, and the building was duly boarded up (...and the whole banking operation quickly resumed operations at No. 3 Harcourt Street!).

The raiding party got back in their trucks and drove up the road to No. 76 Harcourt Street, where Michael Collins sometimes operated from (the Dáil's 'Department of Finance', if you like!) but he wasn't in at the time - so they boarded-up that building as well!

On the same date that the British closed down the above two Irish institutions, a new one opened up.

Under the guidance and directorships of Robert Barton, Henry Gratten-Bellew, Erskine Childers, Edward Stephens and James MacNeill, 'The National Land Bank' held its first general meeting in Dublin, with a Mr Lionel Smith-Gordon responsible for the day-to-day running of the bank.

Within days they had acquired a premises to operate from - No. 68 Lower Leeson Street in Dublin City Centre (pictured) - and were aware that banking institutions that were not 'loyal to the Crown' were liable to be paid a visit by Crown agents, so they transferred their funds to about twenty co-operative banks, mainly in the north of England, for safe-keeping.

The existing Westminster-established 'Irish Land Commission' office/department was re-established/beefed-up by the Staters in 1923, to challenge the pro-Irish 'National Land Bank' and, within about three years, the latter found itself in a vulnerable position, financially.

The 'official banker' to the new Irish Free State administration, the so-called 'Bank of Ireland', saw its opportunity to move in for the kill and, in 1926, took over 'The National Land Bank'.

The 'Bank of Ireland' entity continued the operations of the 'Land Bank' for the short time it took them to announce the closures of most of its offices and the rebranding of them as 'The National City Bank Ltd' before fully merging them in to 'The Bank of Ireland Group' in 1969.

'The National Land Bank' started out as an institution to provide safeguards to working-class people and small farmers but, once the Staters got hold of it, it became yet another soulless place that would lend you money if you could prove that you didn't need it...

==========================

ON THIS DATE (7TH JANUARY) 104 YEARS AGO : ROUSING ANTI-TREATY SPEECH DELIVERED IN DÁIL ÉIREANN.

Henry James 'Harry' Boland (pictured, 27th April 1887 – 2nd August 1922).

"I rise to speak against this Treaty because, in my opinion, it denies a recognition of the Irish nation.

I object to it on the ground of principle, and my chief objection is because I am asked to surrender the title of Irishman and accept the title of West Briton.

I object because this Treaty denies the sovereignty of the Irish nation, and I stand by the principles I have always held — that the Irish people are by right a free people.

I object to this Treaty because it is the very negation of all that for which we have fought.

It is the first time in the history of our country that a body of representative Irishmen has ever suggested that the sovereignty of this nation should be signed away.

We secured a mandate from the Irish people because we put for the first time before the people of Ireland a definite issue ; we promised that if elected we would combat the will, and deny the right of England in this country, and after four years of hard work we have succeeded in bringing Ireland to the proud position she occupied on the fifth December last ('1169' Comment - on the 5th December [1922], Westminster enacted 'The Irish Free State Constitution Act', which gave 'legal sanction' to the new Constitution of the Irish Free State. That was sold by Michael Collins and his Stater comrades as "the freedom to achieve freedom...").

The fight was made primarily here in Ireland ; but I want to say that the fight that was made in Ireland was also reflected throughout the world and we — because we had a definite object — had the sympathy of liberty-loving people everywhere.

I have taken one oath to the Republic and I will keep it. If I voted for that document I would work the Treaty, and I would keep my solemn word and treat as a rebel any man who would rise out against it.

If I could in conscience vote for that Treaty I would do so, and if I did I would do all in my power to enforce that Treaty ; because, so sure as the honour of this nation is committed by its signature to this Treaty, so surely is Ireland dead.

We are asked to commit suicide and I cannot do it....."

(7th January, 1922, from here.)

It is generally considered that Harry Boland was the first man to be 'unofficially executed' by a Michael Collins-controlled Free State death squad on the evening of Sunday 30th July/early Monday morning 31st July 1922 and, following that shooting, in the Grand Hotel in Skerries, Dublin, the State gunmen issued this statement (on Monday 31st July 1922) -

"Early this morning a small party of troops entered the Grand Hotel to place Mr. H.Boland TD under arrest.

Mr. Boland had been actively engaged in the irregular campaign.

When accosted in his bedroom he made an unsuccessful attempt to seize a gun from one of the troops and then rushed out to the door.

After firing two shots at random and calling on Mr. Boland to halt, it was found necessary to fire a third shot to prevent an escape.

Mr. Boland was wounded and removed to hospital.

A man giving his name as John J. Murphy, with residence at 3 Castlewood Avenue, Ranelagh, Dublin, who was found with Mr. Boland, was taken prisoner.

Subsequently he was identified as Joseph Griffin* , an active irregular, belonging to Dublin."

(*'1169' Comment - Joe Griffin was an IRA operative within the Movement's Intelligence Department.)

One of the Free State troops present at the time stated afterwards - "Mr.Boland was wanted and we went to the hotel and two or three of us entered his room. He was in bed. We wakened him and he got up out of bed and partly dressed himself. He had no gun.

Suddenly he turned and rushed to tackle one of our fellows for his gun. A shot was fired over his head to desist but he continued to struggle and almost had the gun when a second shot was fired and Mr.Boland was wounded."

The bullet entered his right side near the ribs, passed through his body and came out through his left side causing very serious injuries.

A photograph of the actual bullet which killed Harry Boland....

...and his funeral service, Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.

Although unarmed at that moment, as admitted by his executioners, caught by surprise and outnumbered (a "small party" of Free State troops were in the room at the time) the Staters attempted to present the execution of Harry Boland as 'a killing in self-defence' ie 'he attempted to jump us and then tried to flee...'.

They had learned that script from their British colleagues.

Harry Boland died from his wounds on the 2nd August 1922, in St. Vincents Hospital, Dublin and, as he lay waiting for death, he told family members that the Stater who shot him had been imprisoned with him in Lewes Prison, in England, for Irish republican activity, but he refused to put a name to him.

The funeral expenses were taken care of by the Cumann na Poblachta organisation.

'Boland's mix of animal charm, gregariousness, wit and a dash of ruthlessness made him an influential and formidable character. Though not an intellectual in his manner he was a clear thinker, a forceful orator and a graceful writer....' (from here.)

Thankfully, there are those like him who continue to this day to work for the Movement.

RIP Volunteer Henry James 'Harry' Boland.

GAS LADS...

The massive finds of oil and gas on our western seaboard could ensure Ireland's financial security for generations.

Wealth approximating that of the Arab countries is within our grasp, but the Irish government seems content to sell off our birthright for a handful of votes and a few dollars.

In a special 'Magill' report, Sandra Mara investigates just what we are giving away, and why.

From 'Magill' magazine, March 2002.

The Corrib co-venturers estimate that on-going employment would be "..in the region of 50 to 65 people, most of whom would be likely to reside locally."

In an October 1998 report on the Corrib North region, international consultants 'Wood McKenzie' (independent oil and gas assessors within Natwest's Market Corporate and Investment Division) indicated that the find could yield between five and seven trillion cubic feet ('TCF') of gas.

Current estimates for the immediate Corrib area is around one 'TCF', with a monetary value of almost €3 billion and, if the area does yield seven 'TCF', then the find could be worth in excess of €21 billion, and this, with write-offs and tax breaks, a no-royalties deal and no State cut, means that 'Enterprise Energy Ireland' can make massive profits for its stated capital costs of €634 million, plus ancillary costs...

(MORE LATER.)

ON THIS DATE (7TH JANUARY) 103 YEARS AGO : LEINSTER HOUSE ANNOUNCES INTERNALLY THAT FIVE IRA MEN ARE TO BE EXECUTED.

In memory of Leo Dowling, Sylvester Heaney, Laurence Sheeky, Anthony O'Reilly and Terence Brady.

'Laurence Sheeky had a remarkable short life. He was just 22 when he was executed in 1923 during a turbulent time in Irish history...(he) was born 1901, the son of Patrick and Margaret Sheeky, in Braystown, Robinstown Co. Meath. He joined the (Free State) Army and in 1922 Private Sheeky was assigned to Baldonnel Aerodrome to guard aircraft.

Around this time the Leixlip Flying IRA Column was founded and its leader, Patrick Mullaney, a teacher from Balla, Co. Mayo, would often visit Baldonnel and became very friendly with the Free State soldiers, Laurence Sheeky amongst them.

On the 27th September 1922 the provisional (FS) government granted itself emergency powers, that any civilian charged with taking up arms against the State or even possessing arms could be tried in a military court and face the death penalty.

Still, such a sentence did not impact on Laurence's Republican feelings and he decided to join the Flying Column.

In December 1922, the Column came under attack after taking over Grangewilliam House in Leixlip and after a fierce gun battle, 20 IRA gunmen were captured, Sheeky and Sylvester Heaney from Dillonstown amongst them as well as Thomas McCann from Duleek Street, Drogheda, who had also been stationed at Baldonnel.

They were put on trial and the death sentence was handed down to Sheeky and Heaney, who was just 19 at the time.

Three others would also be put to death and (as confirmed, internally, on the 7th), on the 8th January 1923, the five were executed by firing squad.

Laurence Sheeky's family were never told about his execution and his parents learned of their son's death on their way to Ardee by a family friend who sympathised with them.

In 1938, Laurence Sheeky's body was brought home to Co Meath and he was buried in the new cemetery on the Boyne Road with full military honours...

After a skirmish on the border of County Kildare and County Meath, the Meath Anti-Treaty IRA column, consisting of 22 men under Paddy Mullally is captured. The Republicans attack a Free State supply column near Leixlip. One Republican and one Free State soldier are killed in the action and three Republicans are wounded. Five of the Anti-Treaty men, who had previously deserted from the National (FS) Army, are executed in Dublin on 8 January 1923 for "treachery".

Three Meath men were executed in 1923, Two, Laurence Sheeky from Braytown and Terence Brady from Wilkinstown, were executed in Portobello on 8th January 1923 and Thomas Murray from Kilcarn but originaly from Whitecross Co, Armagh was executed on 13th January 1923 in Dundalk Jail.

Laurence Sheeky and Terence Brady were executed with comrades Leo Dowling from Askinran Co, Kildare, Sylvester Heavey from Dillonstown Co, Louth and Anthony O`Reilly from Celbridge Co, Kildare. All five who deserted from the National army were arrested in Leixlip Co, Kildare on 1st December 1922 when an attack was carried out on an army (FS) supply lorry which had broken down in the townland of Collinstown on the Maynooth road.

In follow up searches carried out by the Free State army a number of confrontations occurred with insurgents resulting in over twenty insurgents being arrested.

During the battles three insurgents were wounded and a Free State soldier killed. Twenty one rifles, a Thompson sub-machine gun, six revolvers, a Lewis sub-machine gun, grenades and a substantial amount of ammunition were recovered.

The five - Sheeky, Brady, Dowling, Heavey and O'Reilly - were brought to Kilmainham Jail and Court Marshalled on 11th December 1922. The charges were as follows:

1) "TREACHERY ON THE 1ST DECEMBER 1922 IN THAT THEY AT LEIXLIP, CO, KILDARE ASSISTED CERTAIN ARMED PERSONS IN USING FORCE AGAINST THE NATIONAL ARMY"

2) "TREACHERY COMMUNICATING AND CONSERTING WITH ARMED PERSONS MENTIONED IN THE FIRST CHARGE, IN THE PLACE AND AT THE TIME MENTIONED"

All five were found guilty of both charges and sentenced to death. The men were executed on 8th January 1923 at Keogh barracks and were buried there, however, just a year later, the bodies were handed over to the families for burial in their own home towns...' (from here.)

In memory of those Irish republicans executed by colleagues who were led astray and turned against them.

ON THIS DATE (7TH JANUARY) 86 YEARS AGO : MEDIA REPORT THAT REPRESSIVE FREE STATE LAWS WERE TO BE UPDATED.

On the 7th January, 1940, media reports concentrated on the previous days announcement by the then Free State President, Douglas Hyde (pictured) : he had stated that it was his intention to convene his 'Council of State' (this was the first such meeting ever of said body) to discuss a bill he was asked to sign, concerning an amendment to the heavy-handed 'Offences Against the State Act 1939', which would have allowed the Leinster House administration to intern Irish-born citizens in a move said to be necessary in the Free State's fight against the IRA.

It should be noted that those who wanted that power fully intended to use it against men and women that they had fought side-by-side with only twenty years previously.

On the 8th January 1940 the 'Council' held a meeting in a Free State residence in Dublin's Phoenix Park (behind closed doors, minutes not made public) following which Hyde announced that he was going to refer the proposed amendment/legislation to the Free State 'Supreme Court', stating that he also intended to seek a judgement on the 'Offences Against the State (Amendment) Bill 1940' in its entirety.

The 'Supreme Court' replied that, in its opinion, 'it was within the power and the authority of the Oireachtas, consistent with the Constitution, to enact such legislation'.

Mr Hyde then signed the necessary paperwork, no doubt having convinced himself that he had done all in his power to prevent further injury to the republicans he would have associated with during his years as a member of the 'Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language', the 'Gaelic League' and the 'Gaelic Journal'.

But easing your conscience isn't the same as cleansing it.

The leadership of the East and West Waterford Brigades of the IRA (Volunteers Pax Whelan, Paddy Paul, George Lennon and Pat Keating) assembled their sixty fighters and told them that an ambush had been planned for the night of the 7th January (1921).

A small section of the rebels would attack the RIC barracks in Tramore, County Waterford, in the knowledge that those inside the barracks would call for assistance from their grouping based in Waterford City, who would send one or two lorries of armed men in response.

The lorry/lorries would drive through Pickardstown Cross on their way to Tramore Barracks, which is where the majority of the IRA Brigade were waiting for them.

But four lorry-loads of armed British soldiers were sent and, just as they approached the ambush position, one of the IRA Volunteers fired a shot prematurely, removing the element of a surprise attack and alerting the enemy forces.

A gun battle ensued but, being low on ammunition, the Volunteers had to stage a withdrawal, section by section.

Four rebel fighters were hit - Volunteers Michael McGrath, Thomas O'Brien, Michael Wyley and Nicholas Whittle - with Volunteers McGrath and O'Brien dying from their wounds.

Volunteers Wyley and Whittle were brought to a hospital in Waterford and were receiving treatment when other IRA men entered the ward to remove them and their bodyguards as the Crown Forces were on their way to 'arrest' them ; an RIC Sergeant, a Mr John Greene, who was friendly to the IRA and the Cause, had tipped the rebels off about the impending hospital raid.

The IRA party vacated the building before the BA/RIC raiders arrived.

In late June/early July 1921, an 'action audit' was carried out by the IRA on its structure in the Waterford area and, on the 6th July, the East and West Waterford Brigades were amalgamated, with Volunteer Pax Whelan as Officer Commanding and Volunteer Paddy Paul as Training Officer.

Incidentally, RIC Sergeant John Greene (50), from County Offaly, who spent 29 years in the RIC in Waterford and was a valuable asset for the rebels for all of those years, was found dead in a laneway in Waterford City in September 1921 (after the July 1921 ceasefire but before the Treaty of Surrender was signed).

His Crown Force 'colleagues' claimed it was "suicide"...

RIP Volunteer Michael McGrath and Volunteer Thomas O'Brien.

And RIP RIC Sergeant John Greene.

IRA Volunteer Seán MacEoin (pictured, at the time the Officer Commanding of the Longford Brigade, but later a 'republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State poacher'), known as 'the Blacksmith of Ballinalee' (because that was how he earned his living) was on the Crown Force 'Most Wanted' list in 1921.

He was temporarily keeping a low profile in a cottage (owned by a M/s Anne Martin and her sister) in the townland of Cill Sruthla (Kilshruley) near Ballinalee in County Longford, when a knock came to the door.

An RIC 'District Inspector', a Mr Thomas James McGrath (30), a Limerick man, accompanied by his Black and Tan comrades, were at the outside of the cottage door, seeking to question the Martin sisters on their knowledge as to the whereabouts of Volunteer MacEoin.

The then rebel quickly opened the door and shot the RIC man in the head, killing him instantly, shot at a Tan, wounding him, and lobbed a grenade into the middle of the raiding party, wounding most of them, and escaping in the confusion.

'There is joy in the heart of old Ireland today,

because of a man who has well won his day,

for courage and daring - oh! - he is the boy.

A son of old Ireland, her pride and her joy,

when surrounded by foes sure he fought to the last, and never a thought for his own life he cast...'

At the same time as Volunteer MacEoin was getting himself out of trouble, 120km up the road (about 75 miles) in the townland of Carrickbrack, County Armagh, three pro-British USC members were walking into it.

An IRA ambush, that is : the three USC members were wounded, and the IRA ASU returned safely to base.

The following night, in revenge, one shop and a number of houses were burned to the ground in the townland "by men in uniform" and, four days later, "six masked men" forced entry into the home of a Mr John Doran, in the townland of Keggal, in Camlough, County Armagh and, at gunpoint, removed John and his brother, Michael, from the house.

Once outside, they shot John dead, but Michael escaped.

RIP Mr John Doran.

As the USC Crown Forces were walking into an ambush in Armagh, roughly 130 km (85 miles) down the road in Dublin, an IRA Volunteer was lifted off the street by a group of RIC members -

"We were completely surrounded by the murder gang.

We were taken to Wicklow Street and made stand against the wall.

After some twenty minutes the chief of the murder gang (RIC 'Head Constable' Eugene Igoe) with a squad of 7 or 8 men made me walk into Greek Street where I was again stopped and questioned.

When I refused to run I was pushed into the middle of the street and shot from a range of three or four yards.

I got 6 or 7 bullets ; stomach, hip and leg.

I was then taken and thrown into a truck, then taken to the Bridewell where, even though I was in very bad shape, I was subjected to brutal treatment.

I was kicked and beaten, and my teeth knocked out with the blows from the butts of revolvers.

In fact, it is impossible to describe the brutal treatment I was subjected to..."

-Volunteer Thomas 'Sweeney' Newell, January 1921.

Volunteer Newell (who had seen active service with the rebels in 1916 and was also active afterwards) had had 'contact' with Mr Igoe before and could easily identify him in a crowd, so the Dublin IRA requested the IRA leadership in Galway to send him across the country to them to assist in positively identifying the 'Head Constable', who was known to be in Dublin.

On the 7th January, 1921, he was waiting, as arranged, outside McBirney's department store on Aston Quay in Dublin City Centre to be met by a member of the IRA's Intelligence Department when he spotted Mr Igoe and about twenty other RIC members, all in plain clothes.

He followed the gang at a safe distance but, when he got to the corner of Grafton Street and Wicklow Street, they were waiting and pounced on him.

They gave him a few kicks and punches and marched him into Dame Street, told him to tell them why he was following them - he didn't - gave him another beating and took him across the River Liffey to Greek Street where they shot him four times.

The badly-injured Volunteer was then dragged/lifted to an RIC truck and driven to the near-by Bridewell Barracks where he was questioned and beaten again, but gave his interrogators no information.

Suspecting he was about to die on them without revealing his intentions, they rushed him to the 'King George V' hospital where he was operated on then, later, having recovered somewhat, they took him (in December [1921]) to the Mater Hospital, where he was operated on at least twice more.

Volunteer Thomas 'Sweeney' Newell was not fit enough to be released from hospital until September 1922 (among his other injuries, he had lost three inches [75mm] from his right leg) - twenty months after the RIC nearly killed him.

He returned to a hero's welcome in Galway and reported back to the IRA for Active Service but, because of his injuries, he was placed in the Intelligence Department rather than on military operations.

That brave rebel died on the 12th January, 1960, at 67 years of age ; a rebel until his last breath.

Mr Igoe, a Mayo man, died on a farm in County Antrim in 1969.

Probably a pig farm.

RIP Volunteer Thomas 'Sweeney' Newell, 1893-1960.

==========================

THE MONTH UNSPUN...

The stories that hit the headlines.

From Magill magazine, August 2002.

All 10,000 pages of the 'Ansbacher Report' were made available to anyone who cared to read them on the morning of 6th July 2002.

Some 190 Irish clients of the bank were named, with reports careful to point out that not all the individuals and companies involved had evaded tax.

According to the report, the 'Ansbacher (Cayman)' scheme involved breaking laws under the Companies Act, the Banking Act, the Income Tax Act and the Corporation Tax Act.

The report also stated that the Central Bank had sufficient powers to stop the scheme even before the introduction of the 1989 Central Bank Act, and had been aware of the tax evasion scheme since 1976...

(MORE LATER.)

"The Ulster Question hardly figured in the Dáil’s subsequent Treaty debates.

It is indeed astonishing that in a public debate which took some 338 pages to record, only nine of those pages are devoted to partition.

The private sessions are even less revealing, as fewer than five of 182 pages deal with Ulster..."

- Author Kevin Matthews.

On the 7th January, 1922, the Third Session of the Second Dáil was held in Dublin ; this was the debate on the 'Treaty of Surrender' at which a vote on that monstrosity would be held.

Volunteer Henry James 'Harry' Boland, not long back home from a tour of the United States, began proceedings with a strong pro-Irish, anti-Treaty speech (referenced elsewhere in this blog post) and Volunteer Cathal Brugha launched a fierce attack on Michael Collins, stating that he was "merely a subordinate in the Department of Defence" who held a very high opinion of himself.

Arthur Griffith (pictured) got the last word in with a long speech in which he claimed that the Treaty gave the Irish people the freedom to shape their destiny for the first time in centuries whereas, in reality, it eventually gave the politicians in Leinster House the imprimatur to sell what little freedom we had to Brussels and other corporate institutions in return for an aggregate GDP increase consisting of a huge and on-going poisoned influx of welfare-dependant 'asylum seekers/refugees/migrants/vagrants' into this 81.25% of a country - this morally-redundant State - that that accursed Treaty spawned.

However - on that date, the 7th January 1922 - those present at the Third Session of the Second Dáil voted to approve that Treaty by 64 votes to 57 ; 7 votes on the 7th - the 'Seventh Sin', Sloth, the last of the traditional 'Seven Deadly Sins' in Christian teaching (alongside Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, and Wrath) representing spiritual laziness, apathy, a failure to do good, rather than just physical laziness, though it encompasses a lack of care and effort to live virtuously and fulfill spiritual duties.

How apt.

"If Ireland – or England – expects that a Golden Age is dawning I hope that they won’t be too roughly disillusioned.

It is huge gamble and we are groping in the dark..."

- a Mr Mark Sturgis (pictured), the Westminster-appointed 'Assistant Under-Secretary for Ireland' from 1920 to 1922.

There was nothing of a gamble about it, Mr Sturgis - it was "a grope in the dark" by a rapist...

The IRA split apart over that foul document, as the British knew they would.

The leadership of the republican-gamekeepers-turned-Free State poachers included Richard Mulcahy, Eoin O'Duffy, J J O'Connell, Gearóid O'Sullivan, Sean McMahon, Michael Collins, Diarmaid Hegarty, Emmet Dalton and Piaras Béaslai.

The Irish Republican leadership included Rory O'Connor, Liam Mellows, Sean Russell, Seamus O'Donovan, Cathal Brugha, Austin Stack and Oscar Traynor.

On the same date that the Treaty of Surrender was accepted by a 7-man majority, the RIC began its disbandment procedures and, by September that year (1922), it 'officially/formally' ceased to exist.

However, the mentality of its operatives and its objectives lived on in the 'two new police forces' which were then established - the 'Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC)' in the Occupied Six Counties and the 'Civic Guard' in the Free State.

At least 1,500 ex-RIC men joined the 'new' RUC (forming over half of its initial strength) and about 200 more of them joined the 'Civic Guard'.

Basically, they simply switched uniform.

==========================

DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...

Desmond Boomer, a Belfast engineer working in the Libyan oil-fields, disappeared seven years ago.

Officially, the plane on which he was a passenger crashed as a result of mechanical failure and pilot error.

But is that the real story?

Or were the Irishman and his fellow passengers unwitting victims of the shady war between Islamic fundamentalism and Mossad, Israel's intelligence network?

A special 'Magill' investigation by Don Mullan, author of 'Eyewitness Bloody Sunday'.

From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.

Of particular note was Dr Farrugia's criticism that the Board had failed to investigate allegations made by Captain Bartolo's family that "certain threats of physical harm" had been made against him in the days leading up to his disappearance.

Dr Farrugia said -

"These allegations raised the possibility of foul play aimed at the pilot in the days leading to his departure on the outbound flight from Malta to Djerba. If factually correct, they could have placed the whole incident on a totally different investigative plane."

The fact that Captain Carmelo Bartolo appeared to be in real danger in the days leading up to the disappearance of Piper 9H-ABU is, for members of the Boomer, Williams and Aquilina families, the most possible reason for their loved ones' disappearance - not a plane crash...

(MORE LATER.)

ON THIS DATE (7TH JANUARY) 39 YEARS AGO : NEWS BREAKS OF THE STATE CAPTURE OF AN IRA OTR.

On Easter Sunday morning, 1978, seven Donegal Provo recruits crossed the border to Derry City ; they had been chosen to form the Colour Party for the Easter Commemoration ceremony that afternoon, leading the Easter Parade through the Creggan and Bogside, where Dáithí Ó Conaill would deliver the oration.

After the event, the Colour Party members went into the Rossville Street flats, stripped off their paramilitary clothes and dark glasses and got into casual clothes.

The back road from Creggan to the border had been checked and cleared, they were assured.

Some of the seven men wanted to go for a few pints and then take the bus home but, under protest, they all piled into the one car and were driven off.

The joint British Army/RUC patrol which intercepted them minutes later already had photographs of all seven men taken from a helicopter during the Easter Parade. IRA membership would be easy to prove.

Two of the seven men detained were from Letterkenny in County Donegal ; Patrick McIntyre of Ard O'Donnell and his colleague, Jim Clarke (pictured).

Patrick McIntyre is the fifth of a family of nine, who did his 'Leaving Certificate' (school examination) in 1976 and, after taking a six months AnCo (State work-training) course, started working on a building site in Letterkenny. As a youth, Patrick was, as friends describe him, a 'withdrawn kind of a lad'.

His involvement with the IRA was to surprise the entire family, but he had been impressed by the 1916 plaque in Saint Eunan's College, by the sight of Derry refugees taking shelter in Letterkenny, of the (Free State) Army on stand-by near the border, by emotive speeches by politicians and by the 'Arms Trial'.

He mixed with Official Sinn Fein members in the early 1970's : they held meetings in a room over a pub in Letterkenny where local issues were discussed. But he always stayed clear of public displays and not a word was said at home.

However - the IRA Colour Party had now been detained by the British 'security forces' and, after 14 months on remand in the North, Patrick McIntyre came before a judge ; he was in deep trouble, as he had signed a statement admitting involvement in the attempted 'murder' of a UDR member ('Ulster[sic] Defence Regiment', a pro-British militia) near Castlederg in County Tyrone, in late 1977.

Volunteer McIntyre refused to recognise the court, was convicted and given a fifteen year jail sentence ; Jim Clarke was also jailed for the Castlederg attack - he got eighteen years.

The first part of their detention was spent in Crumlin Road Prison and the two men were then transferred to the Kesh at a time when the campaign for retention of political status was intensifying ; they took part in the Blanket Protest and were still there during the 1981 Hunger-Strike.

They were two of the 38 inmates who escaped from the prison in September 1983. Patrick McIntyre managed to stay loose for two days ; cameramen were alerted to film him and another escaper, Joe Corey, being recaptured near Castlewellan, County Down.

Re-captured within two days after the September 1983 jail-break, Patrick McIntyre (pictured) had to wait three years and three months to get a second chance ; with less than six months of his original sentence left, he was due three days 'rehabilitation parole' as Christmas 1986 approached.

The prison authorities opposed his release because the trial of the Maze escapers was pending, but McIntyre defeated their objections before the courts.

The Provisionals approved his absconding - they believed the recently introduced 'rehabilitation' gimmick was geared to cause divisions in their structures within the prisons. By December 20th, 1986, the RUC were looking for him but he was over the border, in Donegal, getting his hair tinted!

On the twisty main road between Killybegs and Kilcar, in West Donegal, there is a white flat-roofed dwelling in the townland of Cashlings ; some Gardai consider it 'a safe house'.

Raymond 'The Rooster' McLaughlin, a well-known IRA activist, was suspected of stopping off there not long before he drowned, accidentally, in a pool, in County Clare, in 1985.

Shortly after eight o'clock on the morning of 6th January 1987, Aiden Murray and other armed Free State detectives raided the house.

They roused a young man from his sleep - he was wearing pants only and, when asked his name, he hesitated before telling them he was 'Colm McGuire'.

He requested to see a doctor and solicitor and refused to answer any further questions.

Detective Aiden Murray promptly arrested 'McGuire' on suspicion of being a member of the IRA.

The Gardai were back at base in Ballyshannon with their prisoner soon after nine o' clock ; they still had no official identity for him and, in accordance with his wishes, a local solicitor, John Murray, was sent for ; he arrived and, after consulting with the man in the cell, he told gardai during a casual conversation that the prisoner was Patrick McIntyre of Ard O'Donnell, Letterkenny.

The gardai say that minutes afterwards they received information which possibly linked McIntyre to a robbery in Ballyshannon before Christmas and that they began questioning him about this crime.

By mid-morning the word was out in Donegaland, by the 7th, his 'arrest' was in the newspapers and on television : Paddy McIntyre had been collared and the prospect of extradition loomed.

By that afternoon, a Belfast solicitor, Pat Finucane, was contacting a colleague in Dublin.

The legal defence was prepared in the tiny rooms over a swop-shop along Ormond Quay, near the Four Courts, in Dublin, where solicitor Anne Rowland, a native of Ballina, County Mayo, set up her own firm.

Her penchant is for the cut and thrust of criminal cases and, on accepting the McIntyre brief, she immediately sought out barrister Patrick Gageby - they had worked together before ; Evelyn Glenholmes and Gerard Tuite (pictured) were among those they had represented.

Rowland and Gageby immediately agreed that their defence case would focus on the circumstances of McIntyre's arrest and detention and they were told that an extradition application would come before District Justice Liam McMenamin at Ballyshannon District Court.

Before leaving for County Donegal, Rowland put the state on notice that she would require in court the garda who performed the Section 30 arrest and the Garda Officer who signed the order extending Patrick McIntyre's detention for a second 24 hour period.

About one hundred Sinn Féin protestors had gathered outside the court as Patrick McIntyre was escorted from a prison vehicle and, in the melee, nobody noticed three plainclothes detectives sliding another man past - RUC member Robert Herron.

He was needed to identify Patrick McIntyre.

As he rose to speak, Sinn Féin members immediately headed for the exits but gardai told them the doors would have to be kept closed.

Then, his identity unknown to those outside, the RUC man was discreetly and safely brought past the crowds before the hearing ended.

Chief Superintendent Patrick Murphy was in the witness box - a stranger to the area, he had been transferred from Limerick to Letterkenny, in Donegal, on promotion, the previous October.

Murphy gave evidence of signing the Section 30 Extension Order for a second 24 hour period and State Solicitor Ciaran McLoughlin asked him nothing further.

District Justice McMenamin had no questions, and Defence Counsel Patrick Gageby kept quiet.

Chief Superintendent Patrick Murphy left the witness box ; defence counsel Patrick Gageby didn't even attempt to smile, but he did believe that 'the door had been left ajar'.

In an earlier case, Patrick Gageby and Anne Rowland had unsuccessfully appealed the three convictions of County Louth men in the Drumree Post Office murder trial - Garda Frank Hand had been killed in an armed robbery.

In the Court of Criminal Appeal, however, Gageby had spotted one sentence and quietly filed it away.

He now suggested that Chief Superintendent Murphy had not informed the court of his state of mind when signing the extension order - it had not been proven that the garda officer had the requisite mental element to justify the detention : State Solicitor Ciaran McLoughlin was quickly on his feet trying to answer the point, but District Justice McMenamin adjourned the hearing to consider this and other legal matters raised.

When the case came before District Justice McMenamin again in Donegal town, he again heard Defence Counsel Patrick Gageby question the validity of the Section 30 extension, but Judge McMenamin dismissed the arguments and granted the extradition order.

An appeal was immediately lodged in the High Court.

McIntyre's case was becoming something of a cause célèbre ; on March 10th (1987), when Leinster House met to elect a leader ('Taoiseach'), Independent Donegal Leinster House member, Neil Blaney (pictured), demanded that the extradition arrangements between Britain and Ireland "be repealed so that in the interim a young county man of mine, by name McIntyre, be not extradited."

But when the case came before Mr Justice Gannon in the High Court in May 1987, Defence Counsel Patrick Gageby had further 'ammunition' - as well as the ruling in the McShane, McPhilips, Eccles (Drumree) case which included this phrase in relation to the person issuing extension orders -"is bona fide suspected by him of being involved in the offence for which he was arrested."

Gageby had the additional support of a Supreme Court ruling of April 3rd (1987) which confirmed that a Chief Superintendent must give evidence of his suspicions when he is issuing an extension order ; it is not sufficient to confirm that he issues the order, he must say why.

Patrick McEntee SC had been added to the defence team - McIntyre's supporters were confident of victory.

On the afternoon of 7th May 1987, Patrick McIntyre was freed, courtesy of a legal loophole which has since been closed ; the Provisionals had a motorbike waiting outside the courtroom and he was driven off at high speed and was within seconds in city centre traffic. Garda had eighteen further warrants in relation to Patrick McIntyre ; his extradition was still being sought by the British, but he was then on the run.

OTR Patrick McIntyre net with a journalist in a nondescript suburban room.

His physical appearance has not altered since the Donegal court hearings - maybe he is a little less fidgety, but he speaks in a soft voice which frequently quivers. The sentiments are resolute. He was sleeping when the gardai came to the house in south Donegal, he says :

"I gave the surname of the people who own the house but they didn't believe me. They said I was Patrick McIntyre."

Yet the evidence given by gardai in court suggested that the prisoner was not positively identified until solicitor John Murray named him in Ballyshannon garda station, and It was also stated that the detectives went to Kilcar after a 'tip-off' that an armed man or men had been seen in the area.

It appears the gardai were not aware they would find Patrick McIntyre in the house, and it has not been possible to establish whether they knew him by sight ; they seem to have 'struck lucky' - and then got the procedure wrong.

As Patrick McIntyre says -

"The situation I'm in now prevents me from walking around in this country. I am not wanted for anything in this jurisdiction ; I am being sought for things related to the British administration. If the Birmingham Six were in the 26 Counties now, they could and would be extradited. If the British issue warrants for any person's extradition, the request will come before the Irish courts and the person opposing it must pay his own costs."

The free legal aid scheme does not apply to extradition cases and costs in the Patrick McIntyre case, expected to run into several thousand pounds, will be paid by Sinn Féin.

Asked about his family and his future, Patrick McIntyre stares at the floor -

"They let me out for three days to attend my mother's funeral in March. I was told the best I could expect was to go there escorted, in handcuffs, but I fought the case for compassionate bail in the High Court and won.

Then there was a rumour that the decision might be appealed by the state and I was thinking about that all the way during the journey from Dublin to Donegal. That was a shattering experience.

I tried to spend the three days with my family. There were thousands of people at the funeral and at the house. It was the first time that we had the family together for a long time, and we had photographs taken.

I met a lot of people that I grew up with.

Just before I left, my sister gave me a Saint Patrick's Day card that my mother had written, to me, in Saint Luke's Hospital..."

A knock comes to the door - it is time for him to go. What does he intend to do now?, I ask-

"Make it third time lucky. Or at least stay out longer than the past two times...", he replies.

THIS DATE, THE 7TH JANUARY, 155 YEARS AGO : EVE OF THE BIRTH OF A 40,000-STRONG PRO-BRITISH PARAMILITARY LEADER.

"..James Craig (pictured) was born in Belfast in 1871, son of a distiller. He was a millionaire by the age of 40 – much of his money coming from his adventures in stockbroking...he first distinguished himself in the (British) Army. Everybody had enjoyed the first Boer War so much that they decided to do it all over again and from 1899 Craig served as an officer in the 3rd Royal Irish Rifles. He was, at one point, imprisoned by the Boers and was finally forced home by dysentery in 1901..." (from here.)

Before the British partitioned Ireland in 1921, pogroms by loyalists in Belfast were carried out by the 'Ulster Volunteer Force' (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary outfit, with the British Army and the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) looking on, but not intervening.

The loyalist political leader, James Craig , who was concerned at the level of resistance to pro-British misrule, realised that the British hold on the island was slipping but was determined to protect his own patch, in the North-Eastern corner - he insisted that Westminster establish a 'Special Constabulary' to assist the British Army and the RIC and, at a meeting of the British Cabinet on 6th September, 1920, he got his wish ; a force of "well-disposed and loyal citizens" was to be established for operational purposes in the North-Eastern Counties only - the Six County area.

This new unit was to be known as the 'Ulster Special Constabulary' and was to be divided into three sub-units ; the A, B and C Specials.

The A-Specials were a full-time unit, and were based in RIC barracks, thus allowing more 'police officers' free to leave their desks and assist their colleagues in cracking skulls in Nationalist areas ; the B-Specials were a part-time but fully-armed unit, that were sent out on patrol duty, with or without the British Army or RIC and the C-Specials, a reserve unit for those eager to serve 'Queen and Country' on a 'call-us-if-you-need-us' basis (and it's those same paramilitary thugs that Leinster House sought to honour ; only a politically-immature and subservient 'Irish parliament' would wish to commemorate those who accepted arms and political direction from a foreign government, and used both, in an attempt to extinguish all things Irish).

James Craig also played a role in 'maintaining the empire' after Ireland had been partitioned ; in 1924, by then anointed as a 'Sir', James Craig was also enjoying power and position as the British-appointed 'Prime Minster' of the Stormont 'government' in the occupied Six Counties, was in a foul mood - his temper tantrums could be traced back to a certain clause in the then three-year-old 'Treaty of Surrender'.

The clause ('Article 12' of that treaty) which established a boundary commission re the imposed artificial border between 26 Irish counties and six other Irish counties, and which was agreed to by the British reluctantly (under protest, if you like).

The agreed terms of reference for that commission was '..to determine in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants so far as may be compatible with economic and geographic conditions, the boundaries between Northern Ireland (sic) and the rest of Ireland..'

That body consisted of three members, one from each political administration - Dublin (represented by Free State 'Minister for Education', Eoin MacNeill), Stormont (the representative for which, Joseph R. Fisher, was put in place by the British, as 'Ulster' refused to put forward a representative, which should have brought that abomination to an end, there and then) and Westminster, and was 'Chaired' by Justice Richard Feetham, a South African Judge (and a good friend of the British 'Establishment') who also happened to be the British representative on the Commission ; in other words, the Staters meekly observed as the British picked two of the three representatives!

The British (in the guise of 'Sir' James Craig, one of their main players) were determined that the 'Boundary Commission' "..would deal only with minor rectifications of the boundary.." while Michael Collins claimed that the Free Staters would be offered "..almost half of Northern Ireland (sic) including the counties of Fermanagh and Tyrone, large parts of Antrim and Down, Derry City, Enniskillen and Newry...", to which the then British 'Colonial Secretary to Ireland', Winston Churchill, replied, stating that the possibility of the 'Boundary Commission' "..reducing Northern Ireland (sic) to its preponderatingly Orange (ie Unionist) areas (is) an extreme and absurd supposition, far beyond what those who signed the [1921] Treaty meant.."

Eoin MacNeill, the Free State representative on the commission, stated that the majority of the inhabitants of Tyrone and Fermanagh, and possibly Derry, South Down and South Armagh would prefer their areas to be incorporated into the Free State rather than remain as they were ie 'on the other side of the border', under British jurisdiction, but the other two (Westminster-appointed) members of the commission, Fisher and Chairperson Feetham, then disputed with MacNeill what the term 'in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants' actually meant.

When MacNeill reported back to his Free State colleagues and voiced concern over the way the 'Boundary Commission' was doing its business, he was more-or-less told to just do his best - his colleagues were 'comfortable' by then ; they had status, careers and a bright (personal) future ahead of them.

The 1916 Rising had taken place eight years ago, the Treaty of Surrender had been signed three years ago and now the Stormont 'Prime Minister', 'Sir' James Craig, was threatening 'to cause more trouble' if the Boundary Commission recommended change.

The Staters thought it best just to be seen going through the motions, regardless of whether anything changed or not, especially when they considered the threat from the Stormont 'Minister for Education', 'Lord' Londonderry (pictured, on the left, posing with friends) -

"If by its findings any part of the territory transferred to us under the Act of 1920 is placed under the Free State, we may have to consider very carefully and very anxiously the measures which we shall have to adopt, as a government, for the purpose of assisting loyalists whom your commission may propose to transfer to the Free State but who may wish to remain with us, with Great Britain and the Empire."

Then, on the 7th October 1924, 'Sir' James Craig (the Stormont 'Prime Minister') took to the floor in Stormont and made a speech directed at Westminster - Craig knew his British 'friends' well enough to know that they would not hesitate to cross him : he stated in his speech that an "unfavourable" decision by the commission would see him resign as Stormont 'Prime Minister' and take charge of at least 40,000 armed men who were of similar mind with him, and that they would not rule out any steps necessary "to defend their territory".

Eoin MacNeill had his 'concerns' further added to when the 'Boundary Commission' stated that, in actual fact, the Free State should transfer some of its territory to the Six County 'State'!

He finally resigned in disgust on the 21st November 1925 (his absence thus further rendering that Commission 'unconstitutional') and, in a parting shot, the British claimed that, before he resigned, he had agreed that the Free State should cede some territory to the 'Northern Ireland State', a claim which may or may not have prompted him to also resign (on the 24th November 1925) from the Free State administration.

Within days (that is, on the 3rd December 1925), all those that were still involved with the 'Boundary Commission' farce agreed that the 'border', as fixed 5 years earlier in the '1920 Government of Ireland Act' and as stated in the 1921 'Treaty of Surrender', would so remain, and an agreement was signed to that effect by all concerned.

Those representatives also agreed that the 'findings' of that body should be kept hidden and, indeed, that paperwork was only published for the first time 44 years later, in 1969!

The Free Staters in Leinster House could (and should) have taken a legal case stating that the Boundary Commission was not properly constituted, as per the agreed 1921 Treaty, thereby highlighting, on an international stage, British duplicity - but that would have required 'balls', excuse the language, and the Free Staters, then, as now, have none.

'Sir' James Craig, 69 years of age, was in his house with his wife in Glencraig in County Down on the 24th November, 1940 (the same year that he tried to persuade Winston Churchill to invade the Free State!) when he dropped dead in his armchair.

His body was entombed on the grounds of Stormont Castle, along with all the other Irish ills that are located there.

LADIES DAY - PAY ATTENTION, LADS : IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO APOLOGISE AND PULL YER WEIGHT...!

Beannachtaí ar Lá Nollaig na mBan!

Yesterday, January 6th, was marked by Nollaig na mBan or 'Women's Little Christmas', in celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany in Ireland - Nollaig na mBan or 'Women's Little Christmas'.

On this day it is the tradition in Ireland for the women to get together and enjoy their own Christmas, while the men folk stay at home and handle all the chores.

It is also common for children to buy their mothers and grandmothers presents on this day, though this custom is gradually being overtaken by 'Mothers Day'.

"I sometimes think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability..."

- Oscar Wilde.

Happy Nollaig na mBan to all our readers, especially the Ladies!

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated!

Sharon and the team.

(We'll be back on Wednesday, 21st January 2026 - near the end of the first month already...!)

IRELAND 1920's : KEEPING BAD COMPANY FOR GOOD REASONS...

2026-01-02T23:26:00.000+00:00

"TREACHERY!!", THE STATERS ROARED AT THEIR OWN FOR TURNING...

...even though, unfortunately, not enough of them did.

'Ireland, 1920's : the six-year-old British DORA was used again against 'Enemies of the Crown' but, this time, Westminster's 'police force' in Ireland were to be allowed 'first refusal' in order to help circumvent any legalities that might arise further down the line...'

- that's the bare bones (almost!) of one of the twenty-two pieces we'll be posting here on Wednesday, 7th January 2026, in our first post of this new year in which, among other years and decades, we'll be referencing Irish history and political pieces from the 1920's, 40's and 70's.

'Ireland, 1920's - this man, 'Mr Murphy', like the rebel leader in whose company he was caught, was an influential and formidable character who inspired fear in the enemy and respect within the ranks of the rebels...'

'Ireland, 1920's - "Treachery!!", the Staters roared, as they realised that some of their own were only keeping company with them to gain access to information, arms and equipment which they passed over to their true comrades in the rebel army...'

'Ireland, 1920 : this loyalist political leader was concerned at the level of resistance to British misrule in the country, particularly in 'his patch' and, being a wealthy, well-connected businessman, set about organising a semi-official grouping, politically and physically armed, and was soon in command of tens of thousands of other anti-Irish elements...'

And there'll be a special mention to our female readers, in regards to a special day for us, in Ireland and abroad because...well, because we ARE special and we deserve it!

So do, please, give us a shout back here on Wednesday, 7th January 2026 : make it yer resolution to do so!

Thanks for the visit, and for reading, and we'll have more of that for ya on the 7th.

Sharon and the team.

1919 - "THE IRISH ARE NOT A DEEP-THINKING PEOPLE..."

2025-12-17T08:44:00.001+00:00

On the 18th December, 1919, Irish and British newspapers reported that, during a Q+A session in the 'House of Commons' in London, which took place the previous day, a Mr Winston Churchill (pictured), the British 'Secretary of State for War and Secretary of State for Air' (!) stated that there was 43,000 British soldiers in Ireland, costing the British taxpayer £860,000 per month.

Those same newspapers rarely mentioned it at the time or later but, between 1919 and the spring of 1921, the unemployment level in Britain rose from 3.9% to over 20% and, in May of 1921, that level actually showed an increase to 23.4%.

That £860,000 could have been put to a worthwhile purpose each month - should have been spent at home on their own social services rather than on maintaining military and political control on a country foreign to them.

On the same day (17th December 1919) that his colleague, Mr Churchill, admitted to wasting £860,000 a month, a British 'Field Marshal', a Mr John French ('Sir John Denton Pinkstone French, 1st Earl of Ypres and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland') wrote the following memo for his diary-

"The Irish are an impulsive and quick-witted, but not a deep-thinking, people.

Their real feeling was never in favour of a Republic, or indeed, of any form of complete separation..."

Mr French was born in Kent, in England, but always considered himself an 'Irishman' due to his family's Anglo-Irish roots in County Roscommon.

He should have thought deeper about it...

As Mr French was feeling his Irishness, an accident occured in the Sinn Féin Hall in an area known as Briosc-Choill ('Briskil') Newtown Forbes, in Clongesh Civil Parish, Barony, County Longford.

IRA Volunteer John Mahon was hit in the accidental discharge of a weapon by a comrade, Volunteer Peter Nolan, and died from his wound.

RIP Volunteer John Mahon.

==========================

61 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH : CHE GUEVARA LANDS IN IRELAND.

Che Guevara being interviewed in Dublin Airport by RTE's Seán Egan : the result was first aired on RTE television on the 18th December in 1964. He was travelling to Algeria from New York when the plane he was on was redirected from Shannon to Dublin due to bad weather.

On the 14th June 1928, Celia de la Serna y Llosa, from Rosario in Argentina, gave birth to her fifth child, a boy, who her and her husband, Ernesto Guevara Lynch, named as Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna, better known to the world as Che Guevara.

Celia's mother was from Galway and moved to South America where she married into the Guevara family.

Having Irish roots, Guevara visited this country a number of times and it was during one such visit in the early 1960's, to Kilkeel, in British-occupied County Down, that Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick encountered the man.

The young artist, then a teenager and a student at Gormanstown College, was helping to pay his way through college by working part-time in the Marine Hotel pub in Kilkeel, where his mother was from.

Jim happened to be on the premises on the same morning that Che Guevara and two of his colleagues walked in and ordered glasses of Irish whiskey.

He recognised Guevara immediately and got chatting to him about his Irish roots, and was told by Guevara that he had an Irish grandmother and that her mother, his great-grandmother, a woman named Isabel, was from Galway, and that he had other family connections with the Cork area.

However, now, perhaps, more so than in the 1960's, 'money talks' and local politicians listen : to destroy a Jim Fitzpatrick work of art for such short-term gain is the very mindset that Che Guevara tried to overcome and, unfortunately, there are not enough Che Guevara types left in this world to do that.

GAS LADS...

The massive finds of oil and gas on our western seaboard could ensure Ireland's financial security for generations.

Wealth approximating that of the Arab countries is within our grasp, but the Irish government seems content to sell off our birthright for a handful of votes and a few dollars.

In a special 'Magill' report, Sandra Mara investigates just what we are giving away, and why.

From 'Magill' magazine, March 2002.

For its part, 'Enterprise Energy Ireland' claims that the capital cost of bringing Corrib gas ashore will be in the region of €634 million between 2000 and 2005, with estimated additional costs of €152 million to connect up to the main Galway ring later this year.

While much of this will represent outlay in respect of equipment - which can be off-set against taxation - it states that there will be "a significant number of workers involved, around 500 for two seasons on the off-shore pipeline and terminal, and 1,000 for one season on the pipeline to Galway."

They admit, however, that "..while many of these workers would not be local residents, they will be based in the area during construction.

The local spend generated by these workers will exceed €25 million over two seasons of construction and, in addition, significant sums will be spent on local supplies for the construction sites.

While it is difficult to be precise about how many temporary jobs might be created, it is reasonable to estimate that it could run into hundreds..."

(MORE LATER.)

On the 17th December, 1920, an RIC member, a 'District Inspector' in that grouping, Mr Philip O'Sullivan, met his fiancé, a Miss Moore, at the GPO in O'Connell Street in Dublin, as arranged, and the pair of them went for a ramble down nearby Henry Street.

Days previously, the young lady had been advised to have nothing to do with him, as he was a marked man because of his membership of that paramilitary organisation and because he used his position within that organisation to assist the Black and Tans, but she dismissed that advice.

Volunteer Ned Kelliher had been monitoring Mr O'Sullivan's movements for about a week and had told his comrade, Volunteer Joseph Byrne, that the RIC member would be on Henry Street between 6pm and 7pm on the 17th, with Miss Moore, and Volunteer Byrne and three other Volunteers patrolled the street, looking for him.

When they seen him, they approched and one of the Volunteers shot him in the head ; Miss Moore grabbed the revolver before he could fire a second shot but a second shot was fired into Mr O'Sullivan by one of the other Volunteers.

There was panic in the street, enabling the Volunteers to leave the scene and return safely to base.

The RIC man was rushed to Jervis Street Hospital and died there an hour later.

Two or three hours later, on that same day, about 155km (97 miles) up the road, in Swanlinbar, County Cavan, an RIC 'Sergeant', a Mr Charles Morahan ('Service Number 57996'), left Swanlinbar RIC Barracks on foot patrol with three other RIC members - Mr Peter Shannon ('62069'), Mr John Collins ('60999') and a Mr William Francis Joseph Halligan ('66590').

The four of them were walking towards the Enniskillen Road in the north of the town when shots were fired at them.

RIC member Mr Peter Shannon was hit three times as he ran for cover, which he found behind a low wall, where he died from his wounds.

RIC member Morahan was hit in the head with shotgun pellets, but lived to tell the tale.

The Volunteers, about 20 of them, were attached to the Corlough Battalion, West Cavan Brigade IRA and, at the same time as they were withdrawing from the scene of the ambush, some of their comrades called to the house of another RIC member, a Mr Patrick Mulligan, but left on discovering that he wasn't there.

Other Battalion Volunteers called to the house where RIC member Francis Byrne lived and shot him - he fell to the floor, his wife screamed, the Volunteers left - they returned shortly afterwards to ensure he was dead but his distraught wife went to attack them ; they let her be and left the house.

Mr Byrne survived, living to tell the tale.

"Any war, to be just and lawful, must be backed by a well-grounded hope of success.

What hope of success have you against the mighty forces of the British Empire?

None!

None whatever.

And, if it's unlawful, as it is, every life taken in pursuance of it is murder..."

Catholic Bishop Patrick Finegan, in a statement he released on the 17th December 1920.

Mr Finegan was known, apparently, for his 'piety, scholarship and patriotism' and had, earlier in that same year (summer, 1920, addressing an audience in Cootehill, County Cavan), gone on record for assuring those listening that "..it was true that God forgave even the murderer (sic)...".

Then, as now, Catholic priests with Irish republican leanings existed but - again, then as now - their pastoral letters etc can be (and were) misrepresented and/or outright censored, as mentioned here (see, for instance, the notifications for the 10th and 13th December, 1920, on that link).

The bottom line, however, in our opinion, is to 'put not your trust in princes' : if something is so wrong (such as British military and political interference in Irish affairs and/or the literal and purpose swamping of this State and Country with 'asylum seekers/refugees/migrants/vagrants', for example) then that wrong must be righted, by any means possible.

==========================

THE MONTH UNSPUN...

The stories that hit the headlines.

From Magill magazine, August 2002.

What unionists say they want is positive action from the IRA to advance the peace process, and not statements that they feel are politically motivated.

David Trimble, in particular, has been forceful on this point - issuing an ultimatum to Tony Blair that the Prime Minister must expel Sinn Féin from the Executive if the IRA refuses to abandon all paramilitary activity, Tony Blair, in turn, has said the IRA must abide by strict ceasefire criteria laid down in the past week.

Given that it is difficult to see this happening, the onus could be put back on Tony Blair very quickly...

(MORE LATER.)

On the 17th December, 1921, the pro-British newspaper 'The Belfast Newsletter', in an Editorial on the Treaty of Surrender, described that Treaty as "a betrayal of Ulster(sic)..." but, as the saying goes - 'It's hard to tell who has your back, from who has it long enough just to stab you in it'.

Weeks after that Treaty had come into operation (ie on the 23rd January 1922 ; it was signed and accepted by the Staters on the 6th December 1921 but it only came into full effect and 'formally established' the Irish Free State on the 6th December, 1922, one year later) that same newspaper said that if the Leinster House administration is prepared to take an attitude of goodwill to the Stormont administration "then the Treaty is likely to turn out a blessing to the whole of Ireland..."!

Same as it always was and always will be until the 'Irish Issue' is finally settled : pro-British supporters in Ireland will always warm to anything which has the welcome effect, as they see it, of dividing their opponents.

"The English have made a greater concession than we. They have given up their age-long attempt to dominate us..."

- Michael Collins, in a letter he wrote on the 17th December 1921, to his fiancée, Kitty Kiernan (pictured).

Well - Mr Collins was right about one thing : M/s Kiernan was his fiancée.

"The British broke the Treaty of Limerick, and we'll break this Treaty too when it suits us, when we have our own army..."

When Mr Collins and other turncoats like him assembled their own army, they tasked it with upholding partition and hunting down and executing the brave men and women of the IRA that they had once fought alongside.

Their oath to the Irish Republic - that's what Mr Collins and his ilk 'broke' :

'I, (name), do solemnly swear that I will uphold and defend the Irish Republic and the Government of the Irish Republic which is Dáil Éireann against all enemies both foreign and domestic ; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. That I take this obligation freely without mental reservation or purpose of evasion, so help me, God.'

Instead, the Staters took the following oath -

'I, (name), do solemnly swear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State as by law established, and that I will be faithful to H. M. King George V, his heirs and successors by law in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and her adherence to and membership of the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of Nations.'

Don't know if Kitty took the same oath or not, but shame on those who did.

Incidentally, Francis Thomas Aiken, a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher, stated that Eoin O'Duffy, another republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher, had told him that the signing of the Treaty (and, therefore, the taking of the 'loyal to the Commonwealth' oath) "was a trick. IRA GHQ had only approved the Treaty in order to get the arms to continue the fight...".

And trick it was - but it was those oath-takers who were being tricked...

On the same day that Mr Michael Collins was whispering sweet nothings (literally) to his Kitty, the Third Session of the Second (Republican) Dáil (Day Four) was in session in Dublin -

"I know perfectly well I have charge of four thousand men. I do not here hesitate to say that number.

But of that four thousand I have a rifle for every fifty. Now that is the position as far as I am concerned and I may add that there is about as much ammunition as would last them about fifty minutes for that one rifle.

Now people talk lightly of when we are going to war. I hold they do not know a damn thing about it.

I hold further the Treaty is called a bird in the hand. I hold that that bird in the hand can be turned to Ireland's interests, not to put or to have only one rifle in the hands of every fifty men but to put one rifle in every man's hand..."

- Séan MacEoin (pictured), yet another republican-gamekeeper-turned Free State-poacher, speaking at that Dáil session.

And Mr MacEoin and his type did indeed "put one rifle in every man's hand", but those rifles were turned against their old comrades, not against the British.

Speaking at that same Dáil session, Mary MacSwiney (pictured), who lived as she died (in 1942) - a true Irish republican - knew that the majority of the public would grasp any straw if they were led to believe that, in doing so, the war would end and a fitting political solution would ensue :

She said that the people were not in a position, a frame of mind, to decide, because they "had been in slavery for 120 years and longer" and that, because they would be unable to decide as a free people, it was up to the members of the Dáil to decide for them, stating - "We cannot compromise but I ask you to vote in the name of the dead to unite against this Treaty and let us take the consequence".

She continued -

"This ratification must go to the people not yet trained out of the slavery which the last 100 years have put into these souls. As to whether the majority of the people would take it, what would the majority in 1916 have taken?

Somebody quoting Pádraig Pearse said 'We have lost this battle but we have saved the soul of the nation', and if you tomorrow ratify this Treaty you would have done the best you could to undo Pádraig Pearse's work and to lose the soul of the nation, for we have to face the fact that our people are only gradually coming out of the slavehood.

It was the minority in 1916 that made 1918 possible ; it was that minority all along that made it possible to have this offer today..."

That was the start of the Dáil debates on the Treaty of Surrender and, just over one year later, the assembly unfortunately voted 64 to 57 to accept the Treaty.

For shame, in our opinion.

On that same date (17th December 1921), about 170km (107 miles) up the road in Belfast, that same issue - the British military and political presence in Ireland - was also causing trouble.

Three men - Mr Walter Pritchard (30), Mr John McMeekin (41) and Mr Edward Brennan (22) - were shot by snipers, and a shopkeeper, a M/s Frances Donnolly(/Donnelly) was shot and wounded by a member of the USC.

The poor woman died from her wound two days later.

"We shall be a free people.

Some say that our freedom is limited, but if we look around and examine the small nations of the world, we will realise that we will have to bow in this wicked world to the forces of might..."

- Mr James Nicholas Dolan (pictured), in one of his pro-Treaty speeches, 17th December 1921.

A republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher who knew, like the other wannabe Staters, that Westminster was not willing to move on the question of partition, but could live with that - 'we will be a free people...well..not really..'

As Mr Dolan was being economical with the truth, about 170km (107 miles) up the road in Belfast, some of those that he allegedly supported were facing reality.

An IRA ASU were in the process of carrying out an arms raid in Balmoral Military Camp in Belfast but they were caught by the British soldiers there, and six Volunteers were captured.

As those Irishmen were looking for equipment with which to free Ireland, newspapers reported that Englishmen in the political administration in London had, the previous day, tightened the noose on that desire.

They were voting on the Treaty of Surrender and those Englishmen in the so-called 'British House of Commons' voted 401 to 58 in support of that vile document and their colleagues in the 'House of Lords' voted 166 to 47 in favour.

Voting to decide the fate and fortune of their neighbours...

==========================

DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...

Desmond Boomer, a Belfast engineer working in the Libyan oil-fields, disappeared seven years ago.

Officially, the plane on which he was a passenger crashed as a result of mechanical failure and pilot error.

But is that the real story?

Or were the Irishman and his fellow passengers unwitting victims of the shady war between Islamic fundamentalism and Mossad, Israel's intelligence network?

A special 'Magill' investigation by Don Mullan, author of 'Eyewitness Bloody Sunday'.

From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.

Paul Lehman was heard saying to his lawyer "I have no difficulty in answering that", to which his lawyer responded "Okay".

Mr Lehman then said "Yes sir, I believe that to be the case", and he was then asked if he could be certain that the aircraft crashed on the night in question, to which he replied "No sir, I can't say that for sure."

In August, 1999, Dr. Christian Farrugia, a Maltese lawyer, wrote to the chairman of the Maltese Board of Inquiry criticising its failure to properly investigate the disappearance of the aircraft -

"The Board did not manage to procure the very best evidence available (and) opted to rely on incomplete testimony and procedurally defective documentation when other alternative routes existed.

This will impinge on the integrity of the Board's final conclusions..."

(MORE LATER.)

On the 17th December, 1922, thousands of Irish people took to the streets of Dublin to wave goodbye (!) to British soldiers who had been ordered by Westminster to vacate the newly-spawned Irish Free State, as per the Treaty of Surrender stipulation.

The politicians in Westminster were comfortable in doing this because they were handing control of their then newest acquisition from actual British political and military forces to pro-British political and military forces.

The last 3,500 British troops in Dublin marched from their various barracks (including the former British General Headquarters at Parkgate Street and the 'Royal Barracks', now Collins Barracks) to the North Wall area of Dublin Port.

They boarded ships, including the SS Arvonia, and sailed for home, in England.

A British Army Captain, a Mr Henry Robinson, was said to be the very last soldier to board his ship at 3:45pm, on that date, the 17th December 1922.

So here's to you, Mr Robinson, but there are still about 2,000 armed British soldiers in Ireland, in our six north-eastern counties ; hopefully their ship will sail soon...

As Mr Robinson and his grouping were waving goodbye to Dublin, and it to him, I'm sure, about 165km (103 miles) down the road a train was brought to a sudden stop.

Volunteer Captain Thomas Keating was in command of a column of rebels (who were headquartered in the Comeragh Mountains) and they had removed a section of track on the Mallow to Waterford railway line, forcing the train to come to a stop outside the town of Cill Mhíodáin (Kilmeaden/Kilmeadan).

The IRA then boarded it and, as a section of the men removed the mailbags, other rebels removed the passengers.

The mailbags were put carefully to one side, a distance away from the train, and the passengers were told to walk the five mile distance back to the station where they had got on.

The mailbags usually contained information of use to the rebels, and destroying traintrack infrastructure etc disrupted the Stater army and its transport and communication lines.

The train engine, two carriages and the guards van were set on fire and, before the fires had fully caught, the train driver was told to start the engine and drive the train forward, onto the missing track - he refused, was put off the train and a rebel hand done the job instead.

The train derailed, toppled over and burned itself into a state of uselessness.

The rebel fighters returned safely to base.

(RIP Volunteer Captain Thomas Keating.)

==========================

55 YEARS AGO TODAY (17TH DECEMBER 1970) : EVE OF THE FORMATION OF A LOYALIST DEATH-SQUAD.

The 'Ulster Defence Regiment', a pro-British loyalist paramilitary gang, was established by Westminster on the 18th December 1970 and continued to uphold the British writ, as the UDR, until 1992, when they were amalgamated with the 'Royal Irish Rangers' to form the 'Royal Irish Regiment'.

In every country it occupied (...and in every country it continues to either occupy or take an 'interest' in) Britain, like other imperialist forces, recruits a native 'workforce' which it uses to serve its interests.

In the mid-to-late 19th Century in Ireland, for instance, Westminster decreed that the then Irish police force be re-named the 'Royal Irish Constabulary', a move which the then British 'queen', Victoria, was strongly in favour of, as a 'reward' to them in payment for the cruel manner in which they dealt with the Fenian Rising.

In the early 1920's, after Britain had partitioned Ireland, the paramilitary RIC groupings in the Six Counties were re-classified as the 'RUC', 'U' for 'Ulster' ('1169...' comment : sic - Ulster has nine counties , not six) and a new pro-British death squad was also established - the 'USC' (or the 'B Specials', as they were better known) , comprised of native loyalist/unionist supporters, sharing a common hatred of all things Irish.

British military forces show proper respect for their flag.

'The Specials' were left with more or less a free rein by Westminster to 'maintain (English) law and order' in that part of Ireland but they dirtied their own doorstep so often that Westminster, long embarrassed by having to clean up after them so often, produced a report which, basically (much to the disgust of the local 'powers-that-be') , called for their reign to be brought to an end but, by coincidence (!) , a new pro-British murder gang was formed : the UDR.

This latest reincarnation of the RIC/RUC/USC/B Specials (which also 'traded' as the 'UVF') had, by 1992, ran out of doorsteps to dirty and, in that age-old British 'tradition', was 're-launched/re-named' as the 'Royal Irish Regiment' (RIR), on 1st July 1992.

But regardless of what name or uniform Westminster dresses them up as (or in) they will remain what they have always been - mercenary boot-boys in military garb, whether in Ireland or abroad.

And they will continue to meet the same response that their ilk so readily dish out to those that dare challenge the 'might of the British Empire'.

One of the many problems that partitioning Ireland brought for Westminster, God help them, to be sure, was the subject of social welfare payments to, for instance, an unemployed man or woman in England compared to an unemployed man or woman in the British-occupied six north-eastern counties of Ireland.

It was with this in mind that the then British 'Under-Secretary for Ireland', a Mr John Anderson (' 'Sir' John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley') wrote to a colleague of his in the British Ministry of Labour on the 17th December, 1924.

Mr Anderson was concerned "that amalgamation of the British and Northern Ireland (sic) unemployment insurance would be an admission that the 'Government of Ireland Act 1920' was unworkable" because, under that Act, the Stormont administration were expected to fund all such social services from the tax they raised in the occupied zone but, the pool being smaller to draw from than the pool in England, a pound-for-pound payment match wasn't possible.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave...!

Unionists were insisting that an unemployed person in, say, Belfast, should be on the same welfare payment as an unemployed person in, say, Bristol, as that person was just as British, they claimed, and should be entitled to the same social payments.

But the smaller kitty wouldn't allow for that.

The issue was verbally pondered over and kicked down the road until March, 1925, when the Stormont 'Prime Minister', a Mr James Craig ('1st Viscount Craigavon PC NI DL' ETC ETC!) wrote to a Mr Churchill, the then 'Chancellor of the British Exchequer' in Westminster, demanding that the funds from which Westminster paid out, for instance, welfare payments, should be amalgamated with the funds which Stormont used for same - and he said he would resign if that was not done.

And, that same month, a Mr John Miller Andrews, the 'Stormont Minister for Labour', wrote to his political pal, a Mr Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart ('Lord Londonderry, the 7th Marquess of Londonderry'!), telling him -

"The plain truth is that we cannot carry on as a Government here (ie the Occupied Zone in Ireland) unless our working classes enjoy the same social standards as their brother Trade Unionists in Great Britain..."

And t'was in that same month also (March 1925) that Mr Churchill recorded in his diary that the provision of social services depends on a "sufficiently large area and large numbers of trades" (ie a sufficiently big kitty) and that the Six County area, on its own, could obviously not match the kitty in England.

And, lo and behold, also in March, 1925, the Cabinet in London agreed that "on the grounds of equity" Britain should assist Stormont in its "difficulties" with its unemployment insurance fund issue, and authorised Mr Churchill to donate £650,000 to that Stormont fund.

But, again, questions were raised about giving that money as to do so "would be a departure from the spirit, if not the terms, of the Treaty...", as Mr Anderson again put it, and Mr Churchill agreed with him, saying that it would involve a substantial modification of the '1920 Government of Ireland Act' but that might not be such a bad thing, says he - doing so would gave "the southern Irish an object lesson in the value of the British connection...".

Put manners on them, so to speak...

However, it was a hot subject which politicians realised they could loose votes, support, pay and perks over, so they did what they always do, and what they continue to do : pass the buck - a committee of civil servants (not dependant on votes from the public ie 'the permanent government') was formed to deal with the issue!

That committee devised a complex arrangement which essentially gave a major financial underwriting, using British Exchequer funding, of Stormont's unemployment insurance fund (the 'Unemployment Insurance Act 1926 [Ireland]') and they also shortened parliamentary discussion time of the legislation as they were aware that their political bosses "would face a revolt from their own backbenchers who, despite economic hardship throughout Britain, were being told that prudence required continuing reductions in government spending..." yet here they were pumping much-needed money into their 'Irish project'!

A programme about oily, slippery political toads and hucksters comes to mind...

==========================

THE LAST WEEK IN DECEMBER 229 YEARS AGO IN IRELAND...

Bad weather prevented French troops from landing in Bantry Bay , Cork, Ireland in 1796.

Near the end of December in 1796, Wolfe Tone arrived in Bantry Bay, Cork, with French General Hoche and a fleet of thirty-five ships, carrying about 15,000 troops, but fog and other bad weather prevented them from landing.

Some of the ships sank, and a despondent Wolfe Tone recorded the following in his journal at that time -

"This damned fog continues without interruption.

I asked General Cherin what we should do in case they did not rejoin us.

He said that he supposed General Grouchy would take the command with the troops we had with us, which, on examination, we found to amount to about 6,500 men.

The Captain has opened a packet containing instructions for his conduct in case of separation, which order him to cruise for five days off Mizen Head and, at the end of that time, proceed to the mouth of the Shannon, where he is to remain three more, at the end of which time, if he does not see the fleet or receive further orders by a frigate, he is to make the best of his way back to Brest....".

On 21st December, this entry was recorded in his journal -

"There cannot be imagined a situation more provokingly tantalising than mine at this moment, within view, almost within reach of my native land, and uncertain whether I shall ever set foot in it.

We were near enough to toss a biscuit ashore..."

On the 26th, he wrote -

"We have now been six days in Bantry Bay, within 500 yards of the shore, without being able to effect a landing.

All our hopes are now reduced to getting back safely to Brest...".

The French armada was forced, by the weather, to return to France and an opportunity to change the history of this country and, likely enough, the on-going political conflict here, went with it.

In December 1923, the Free State administration enacted a new law which it called 'The Loans and Fund Acts' as part of its strategy to get its foul hands on Irish republican funds.

Under this new law, the Staters assembled a list of those who had contributed to the Republican Loan Fund and contacted them, telling them that it was their intention to repay them with a 40% return on their investment.

But it wasn't the Staters money to make deals over ; it was raised by Irish republicans with a 32-County Ireland in mind, not a 26-County Free State within Ireland and, to rub salt into the wound, the Free State Minister for Finance (who was also the FS Minister for Local Government), a Mr Ernest Blythe (a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher) stated, in Leinster House (on the 13th December 1923)-

"If it had not been for the generosity and faith of the people who subscribed to the Loan, there would be no Free State today..."

Mr Blythe was gaslighting the people - as an ex-republican, he would have been aware that, as we stated above, that money was raised by Irish republicans with a 32-County Ireland in mind, not a 26-County Free State within Ireland.

A legal battle over the proper ownership of that fund continued until the 17th December, 1925, when the Free State Supreme Court ruled against a Mr Stephen O'Mara (pictured, one of the three trustees of the fund) and unanimously upheld the decision of a lower State court that the Free State government had the right to appoint new trustees to the fund (which had about £1,100,000 in its kitty).

But the Staters were still locked out from accessing the money, as the three (original) trustees (Éamon de Valera, Dr Michael Fogarty and Stephen O'Mara) refused and/or neglected to co-operate with the Free State court decision.

The legal tussle continued until, in February 1927, the Free State Supreme Court appointed a Mr William Norman to replace Mr de Valera as one of the three trustees and the Staters finally 'legally' raided the funds held in the Dáil Loan accounts.

Drochrath ort le caoi a bheith ort!

==========================

UP THE REPUBLIC - OUR DAY WILL COME !
NOLLAIG SHONA DAR LEITHEOIRI !

Ar eagle an dearmaid...

Ba bhrea an rud e siocháin bhuan bunaithe ar an gceart a bheith againn in Éireann. Is i an bronntanas is fearr a d'fheadfaimis a thabhairt duinn fein agus dar gclann.

Coinniodh an ceart agus an tsiocháin uainn le breis agus ocht gcead bliain, de bharr ionradh, forghabhail agus miriaradh na Sasanach. Socrú ar bith a dheantar in ainm mhuintir na hÉireann agus a ghlacann le riail Shasana agus a dhaingnionn an chriochdheighilt, ni thig leis an ceart na an tsiocháin bhuann a bhunu.

Ni dheanfaidh se ach la na siochána buaine a chur ar an mhear fhada agus an bhunfhadb a thabhairt do ghluin eile. Tharla se seo cheana nuair a siniodh Conradh 1921 agus cuireadh siar ar mhuintir na hÉireann e in ainm na siochána.

Éire a bheith saor agus daonlathach, an cuspoir ceanna a bhi i gceist ag Wolfe Tone agus ag na Poblachtaigh uile anuas go dti 1916 agus an la ata inniu ann.

Rinne a lan fear agus ban croga iobairti mora, thug a mbeatha fiu, ar son na cuise uaisle seo.

CEART. SAOIRSE. DAONLATHAS.

A PEACEFUL CHRISTMAS TO OUR READERS!

Least we forget...

A just and permanent peace in Ireland is most desirable. It is the greatest gift we could give to ourselves and our children.

We have been denied justice and peace for more than eight centuries, because of English invasion, occupation and misrule of our country.

Any arrangement which, in the name of the Irish people, accepts English rule and copperfastens the Border will not bring justice and lasting peace. It will only postpone the day of permanent peace, handing over the basic problem to another generation.

This happened before when the Treaty of 1921 was signed and was forced on the Irish people in the name of peace.

Irish republicans cherishes the objective of a free, democratic Ireland, as envisaged by Wolfe Tone and all republicans down to 1916 and our own day. Many brave men and women sacrificed a lot, even their lives, for this noble Cause.

JUSTICE. FREEDOM. DEMOCRACY.

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - it's appreciated by us.

Hope yis all have the craic over the Christmas and New Year, 'cause we're sure gonna... ; )

Sharon and the team.

(We'll be back on Wednesday, 7th January 2026 - now get outta here, will ya ; ya must have parcels to wrap...!)

IRELAND, 1920's - PARTITIONING THE PAYMENTS...

2025-12-12T19:24:00.000+00:00

ONE OF THE MANY PROBLEMS IN PARTITIONING IRELAND...

'Ireland, 1920's - one of the many problems that partitioning Ireland brought for Westminster, God help them, to be sure, was the subject of social welfare payments to, for instance, an unemployed man or woman in England compared to an unemployed man or woman in the British-occupied six north-eastern counties of Ireland...'

Making chalk of one and cheese of the other - but the smell, appearance and taste of the 'cheese' in Ireland worried the political representatives of the cheddar who depended on them for votes, so something had to be done and the issue, and other connected hackles, were raised with the big cats in Westminster...

That's just one slice (!) of the roughly twenty-five pieces we'll be writing about on Wednesday, 17th December, 2025, and here's a few more for yer plate...

'Ireland, 1922 - the politicians in Westminster were comfortable in doing this because they were handing control of their then newest acquisition from actual British political and military forces to pro-British political and military forces...'

'1920's - speaking in Leinster House, this rebel woman took to the floor and shamed the men in that institution, referencing Pearse and 'minorities from the past' but to no avail : the men were referencing their future political careers...'

'Ireland, 1960's - 'Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act' had yet to be imposed and RTE and other media outlets were scrambling to interview him but, if this world figure was still alive and landed in the State today, they would deem him to be a 'terrorist' and imprison him...'

'1970's, Occupied Six Counties - name change, uniform change...but the attitude and objective remained the same...'

So...

..chalk and cheese mightn't mix but, if ya have an interest in Irish history and Irish politics, from today and yesterday, all 32 Counties - then yerselves and ourselves will get along just fine : chalk (!) us in for a visit on Wednesday, 17th December 2025.

Don't have us to come down the bleedin' chimney after ya...!

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated : see ya again on the 17th!

Sharon and the team.

STATERS 'OFFICIALLY' ACCEPT THE ENFORCED PARTITION OF IRELAND.

2025-12-03T10:06:00.000+00:00

"It was agreed that the ultimate aim of the (British) Government's policy in Ireland was a united Ireland with a separate parliament of its own, bound by the closest ties to Great Britain, without offending the Protestants of Ulster (sic)..."

- a statement issued by the British cabinet, on the 3rd December 1919, after those politicians had had a discussion on 'the Irish Question'.

Needless to say, "the Protestants of Ulster" (sic) or, at least, the political leadership of same, were practically up in arms when they heard about the "separate parliament" discussions and, on the 15th December, that cabinet stated that they had held meetings with (Six County) Unionist leadership figures and agreed with the Unionists, who were "doubtful whether a Northern Parliament (sic) of Ireland would be able effectively to govern three Ulster counties - Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan - where there was a Nationalist majority".

Of the remaining six counties - Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Derry and Tyrone - Fermanagh and Tyrone also had Nationalist majorities but, with the aid of a manipulated vote (ie a gerrymandering protocol) and supine Free State politicians in the Twenty-Six Counties, the London politicians and the Ulster Unionists knew they could enforce their illegitimate writ in those two Irish counties.

And so it remains today.

"Any attempt at secession (by the Staters) will be fought with the same determination, with the same resources, with the same resolve as the Northern States of America put into the fight against the Southern States. It is important that that should be known, not merely throughout the world, but in Ireland itself..."

- Mr David Lloyd George (the British PM at the time), 22nd December, 1919.

Before and after the 15th December "Doubtful" statement and between then and the 22nd, the British Government and Unionists in Ireland cobbled-together a plan which they themselves, in-house, referred to as 'The Fourth Home Rule Bill' but were devious enough to call, in public, 'The Better Government of Ireland Bill'.

The pro-British political boss in Ulster, a Mr James Craig (the '1st Viscount Craigavon'!) knew the score and convinced the others that a Six County 'State' within the Nine-County Ulster would be easier to ~~gerryman~~...manage... (!) and, on the 23rd December, 1920, ~~'The Fourth Home Ru...~~ (oops!) - 'The Better Government of Ireland Bill'...received 'Royal Assent', meaning it became 'law'.

That new 'law' introduced two 'parliaments' - one for the six-north eastern counties of Ireland and one for the other twenty-six counties - which sounds, and IS, equally as ludicrous today as it was then!

The London political boss, Mr David Lloyd George, also knew the score ; when introducing the new 'law', he declared -

"There is a path of fatality which pursues the relations between the countries and makes them eternally at cross purposes..."

And - again - so it remains today...

==========================

ON THIS DATE (3RD DECEMBER) 48 YEARS AGO : STATE MEDIA REPORT THAT AN ESCAPED IRA LEADER HAD BEEN CAPTURED AFTER 50 MONTHS ON THE RUN.

In March 1973, IRA leader Joe Cahill was arrested by the Free State Navy in Waterford, aboard the Claudia, a ship from Libya loaded with five tons of weapons, and was sentenced to three years imprisonment, and another IRA leader, Seamus Twomey (pictured), was appointed IRA Chief of Staff.

In early October that year, Twomey was caught and arrested by the Free Staters and imprisoned in Mountjoy Jail, which meant that three top IRA operatives (Twomey, J.B. O'Hagan and Kevin Mallon) were now housed in the one location - and the IRA wanted them back!

An 'American businessman', a 'Mr. Leonard', approached the manager of the 'Irish Helicopters' company at Dublin Airport and discussed hiring a helicopter for an aerial photographic shoot in County Laois and, after being shown the company's fleet of helicopters, this 'businessman' booked a five-seater Alouette II helicopter for October 31st.

'Mr Leonard' arrived at Irish Helicopters on the day and was introduced to the pilot of the helicopter, a Captain Thompson Boyes, who was instructed to fly to a field in Stradbally, County Laois, to pick up photographic equipment.

After landing, the pilot saw two armed and masked men approaching the helicopter from nearby trees and he was held at gunpoint and told he would not be harmed if he followed instructions.

'Mr Leonard' left the area with one gunman, while the other gunman climbed aboard the helicopter armed with a pistol and an Armalite rifle. Captain Boyes was told to fly towards Dublin following the path of railway lines and the Royal Canal, and was ordered not to register his flight path with Air Traffic Control.

As the helicopter approached Dublin, Captain Boyes was informed of the escape plan and instructed to land in the exercise yard at Mountjoy Prison.

On Wednesday, 31st October 1973, at 3.40pm in the afternoon, the Alouette II helicopter landed in the 'D Wing Exercise Yard' of Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, when a football match was taking place between the prisoners, and Twomey, O'Hagan and Mallon jumped aboard, but were quickly spotted (!) by an alert (!) prison screw who used his training and power of intuition to take immediate action - he *called on the screws at the gate to close them over as he feared the helicopter was trying to escape (*according to the RTE 'Scannal - Prison Break' programme!).

Another IRA prisoner who was in the yard at the time recalled how an embarrassed screw told him that he had apologised to the prison governor in relation to the incident, saying that he thought the helicopter contained a visiting (Free State) Minister for Defence (and well-known publican) Paddy Donegan : the IRA prisoner replied that, in fact, "..it was our Minister of Defence leaving...!"

All three men reported back to the IRA and continued their work for the Movement but, after a few weeks of freedom, Kevin Mallon was recaptured at a GAA Dance in the Montague Hotel in Co. Laois on 10th December 1973, J.B.O'Hagan was recaptured in Dublin in early 1975 and Seamus Twomey managed to remain uncaptured until December 2nd, 1977, after the Special Branch came across him in a 'suspicious car' parked in Sandycove, in Dublin.

He had managed to evade the forces of 'law and order', North and South, for fifty months, despite been hunted by the best that Leinster House and Westminster could throw at him!

GAS LADS...

The massive finds of oil and gas on our western seaboard could ensure Ireland's financial security for generations.

Wealth approximating that of the Arab countries is within our grasp, but the Irish government seems content to sell off our birthright for a handful of votes and a few dollars.

In a special 'Magill' report, Sandra Mara investigates just what we are giving away, and why.

From 'Magill' magazine, March 2002.

Noel Tracey, (State) Minister for Science, Technology and Commerce, told the gathering at the annual dinner of the Institute of Petroleum in November last -

"The Tosco transaction represents an excellent deal for Ireland.

It radically improves the situation for both the refinery and the terminal by placing them squarely within the fold of a major integrated oil business, where opportunities for profitable trading are maximised and a culture of investment in both plant and people predominates."

Joe Higgins, though, condemned the sale of INPC in the Dail (sic), saying that it was "a policy which has been dictated not by the interests of working or ordinary people, but by the interests of multinational corporations exerting huge pressure on governments."

Industry experts say that INPC, which dealt with the retail end of the business, was well placed to win contracts from organisations such as the ESB, Iarnrod Eireann and other State agencies for the supply of fuel, and at the time of the sale already had a substantial turnover...

(MORE LATER.)

ON THIS DATE (3RD DECEMBER) 138 YEARS AGO : EVE OF THE BIRTH OF A 'TROUBLESOME WOMAN'.

'4th December 1887 - Winifred Carney, trade unionist and revolutionary, is born in Bangor, Co. Down.

Winifred Carney was a suffragist and an advocate for trade unions. She was an activist in the Irish Textile Workers Union and became James Connolly's personal secretary while he was based in Belfast in 1912. She was active in organising solidarity work for workers during the Dublin Lockout and she joined Cumann na mBan.

She became involved in the Easter Rising when Connolly asked her to come to Dublin to work for him. She was the only woman who participated in the initial occupation of the GPO where the Irish Citizen Army set up its headquarters. She was armed with a typewriter and a revolver.

Winifred was well known for her reputation of being a crack shot. She was among the final group to leave the GPO (along with Elizabeth O’Farrell and Julia Grennan) as she would not leave the wounded Connolly. She was arrested and taken to Kilmainham Gaol and later Aylesbury prison and was released in December 1916. Winifred died in 1943 and is buried in Belfast...' (From here.)

"The conditions of your toil are unnecessarily hard, that your low wages do not enable you to procure sufficiently nourishing food for yourselves or your children, and that as a result of your hard work, combined with low wages, you are the easy victims of disease, and that your children never get a decent chance in life, but are handicapped in the race of life before they are born.."

- part of the speech which Winifred Carney and James Connolly prepared for his speech to millworkers in Belfast in late 1911. Connolly was the Belfast Organiser for the ITGWU at the time, and Carney was just a few weeks away from becoming the full-time Secretary of the then newly-formed 'Irish Textile Workers' Union'.

On the 4th of December 1887, Alfred and Sarah Carney welcomed the birth of their sixth child, Winifred, into their existing family - three boys (Ernest, Louie and Alfred) and two girls ( Maud and Mabel).

The family were then living in Bangor, County Down but, not long after Winifred was born, the marriage broke down and Sarah moved with the children to Carlisle Circus in Belfast, where she started a small shop.

Winifred found work as a teacher and developed a love for the Irish language, joining the Gaelic League to further her interest and, at 27 years of age, she joined (membership number 56077) the then newly-formed 'Cumann na mBan' organisation and, indeed, was present in Wynn's Hotel in Dublin in April 1914 when that organisation was founded.

Her duties included teaching first aid to the other members as well as training in the use of weapons, as she was known to be proficient in that particular field (a skill no doubt learned due to her activity with the 'Irish Citizens Army', which she joined on its formation in 1913).

This was two years before the (1916) Easter Rising and, due to her connection with James Connolly and her membership of various republican/nationalist organisations, Winifred Carney knew that an action against British interference in Ireland was being discussed and she was determined to play her part in any such blow against the 'empire' and said as much to Connolly, who by then had stationed himself in Dublin to assist the workers there in what became known as 'the great lock out'.

Winifred Carney stayed in Belfast, collecting whatever money she could for the Dublin strikers and billeting as many families of the strikers as she could. Connolly kept her up to date on developments and, when the time came - April 1916 - he asked her to come to Dublin to help with the preparations for a rising against Westminster, which she did.

At first she was 'jobbed' in Liberty Hall, writing dispatches and mobilisation orders etc but, on the day the rising began - 24th April 1916 - as an Adjutant in the Irish Citizen Army, she carried both 'tools of her trade' into the GPO : a typewriter and a revolver.

During the early stages of the week-long battle she was the only female in the building and, towards the end of that particular battle (..but not the end of the fight itself!) she refused orders at the time to leave the premises, as did her two colleagues, Julia Grenan and Elizabeth O'Farrell.

Altogether, there was a total of thirty-four women in the GPO at the time, members of the 'Irish Citizens Army' and 'Cumann na mBan', thirty-one of whom followed orders and vacated the building, with the wounded.

The female Volunteers were also tasked with carrying military instructions around the city during which trips they gathered intelligence on the strength and locations of the enemy and carried as much food and ammunition as they could safely deliver to their comrades.

The Rising ended when Winifred Carney, Nurse Elizabeth O'Farrell and Julia Greenan, who were by now based in the Moore Street Headquarters as there was no safety or shelter to be had in the remains of the GPO, were instructed to deliver a surrender notice to British General Lowe, stating the following -

'In order to prevent further slaughter of the civil population and in the hope of saving the lives of our followers, the members of the Provisional Government present at headquarters have decided on an unconditional surrender, and commandants or officers commanding districts will order their commands to lay down arms.

P.H. Pearse, Dublin, 30th April 1916.'

Winifred Carney, Brigid Foley, Maire Perolz, Nell Ryan and Helena Moloney were the five female Volunteers that were deported to prisons and internment camps in England and Wales, following the surrender, as were 1,836 male Volunteers, and approximately 80 other female Volunteers were taken, firstly, to Richmond Barracks and then to Kilmainham Jail and, although most were released within a week, Winifred Carney, Helena Moloney and Nell Ryan were held captive in Aylesbury Prison in Buckinghamshire in England until the 24th December (1916).

They had been offered early release if they signed an undertaking "...not to engage in any act of a seditious character.." but they had refused to do so.

She maintained her republican principles in the years that followed, despite being targeted repeatedly by agents of the State and, despite many personal setbacks (most of which were related to her strong political beliefs) she never compromised her republicanism.

When ill health forced her off the picket and protest lines she continued to verbally challenge the State at every opportunity until even that became too much for her : she died at fifty-five years of age on the 21st November 1943, just as opposed to Free Staters and partition as she had always been, and is buried in Milltown Cemetery in Belfast.

On the 3rd December, 1920, Galway County Council discussed and agreed a 'Peace Resolution' which called on the Irish republican, 32-County Dáil Éireann to negotiate a truce with the British.

Pro-British presstitute 'journalists' in England and in Ireland reported, gleefully, that the resolution was bitterly criticised by the Republican Movement, including (ironically) by Michael Collins, and newspaper reports mentioned that the British took it as an indication that rebel resolve was weakening.

However, on closer examination, the truth emerged later but, as usual with all things spun by politicians and their hirelings in the media, it didn't receive the same coverage as the original article.

Six members out of the 32 members of Galway County Council turned up for the meeting (six not being a quorum), as the other 26 were 'on the run' from foreign gunmen, and those six elected reps did indeed discuss a 'Peace Resolution' but did not pass it as an agreed motion.

But the lie was half way around the world before the truth even got its trousers on / falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it / a lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on...!

On the same date that six Galway political sleveens were sleveening their way into notoriety, IRA GHQ issued 'General Order No.15 [New Series]', authorising IRA Brigade Commanders to collect funds in their area to financially support the Movement.

The Commanders were told to be thorough in their endeavours and to approach everyone "except declared enemies", and leaflets were drawn-up, printed and distributed, similiar to this one which was delivered practically door-to-door in the Cork IRA Brigade No.3 area -

'A collection is being made in this area, by authority of the General Head Quarters of our Army, to enable me to carry on the work of arming the Volunteers in this Brigade, and so sustaining and increasing the fight waged against the enemy here.

You are asked to subscribe a fair amount.

It is for your own protection as well as for the national good.

The enemy forces are running loose whenever they get an opportunity.

They are murdering defenceless people.

They are pillaging, burning, outraging, wherever they go.

Arms are needed to meet them and to beat them.

Money is required to get the arms.

That is the plain statement of the case.

It is no appeal ; it is just a request to every man and every woman who believes in Ireland to help the Army of Ireland to carry on the fight.

During the next week collectors appointed by the Officer-in-charge of the area will call on you...'

The IRA Brigade Commander for the 3rd (West) Cork area, Volunteer Tom Barry, later reported back to GHQ that over £5,000 had been collected in three nights in his area - the citizens were willing, as was their army!

On the same date that IRA GHQ issued 'G Order 15 [NS]', Archbishop Patrick Joseph Clune (pictured) was visiting Arthur Griffith and Eoin MacNeill (Irish-republican-gamekeepers-turned-Free State poachers) in Mountjoy Jail in Dublin.

Two days previously, Mr Clune had had a chat 'about peace in Ireland' with a Mr David Lloyd George and he was due to meet with Michael Collins (another republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher) the next day (4th).

However, the British demand that the IRA must surrender their arms meant that nothing came from those talks.

As Mr Clune was visiting the poachers in the 'Joy (!), the then ten-year-old 'Church of England Peace League' issued a statement in London condemning reprisals in Ireland which they said undermined "the very foundations of justice and order..."

A purposely ambiguous position, as it's not clear whether that church grouping were referencing British Army revenge attacks on civilians or IRA attacks on the British military...?!

On the same date that that church body were formulating their murky statement, a patrol of five RIC members, led by a Mr Daniel McMorrow ('Service Number 60344') were leaving their barracks in the town of Youghal, in County Cork, and were crossing the old metal 'Blackwater Bridge' when shots were fired at them.

An IRA ASU, with Volunteer James Mansfield (3rd Battalion, West Waterford Brigade) in command, had established an ambush position and the RIC members were now in the middle of it.

One of the RIC members was hit and fell to the ground ; his colleagues took whatever cover they could find as bullets bounced off the ground beside them.

Job done, the rebels returned to base.

The wounded RIC man, a Mr Maurice Prendiville (/Prenderville, 46, 'Service Number 57219'), a married man with six children, from Kerry, was carried by his buddies to nearby Torrens Chemist shop where he died from his wounds.

Mr Prendiville had 26 'years of service' with that paramilitary grouping, and two of his brothers - James and Edmund - were also tied-up with it.

Incidentally, Mr Prendiville and one of his RIC pals, a Mr Peter Ryan ('Service Number 62404') had been captured by the IRA during an ambush at Piltown Cross, Waterford, on the 1st November (1920) but both were released unharmed on the understanding that they would resign from the RIC.

Neither of them did.

Also incidentally (!) -

The family which owned the chemist shop, the Torrens, had come to the attention of the rebels before the 3rd December 1920 -

'Notice to quit Ireland within 7 days or die -

We hereby give you solemn notice to leave this country within 7 days or forfeit your life.

So take your choice.

It's up to yourself, beware, for this is no idle threat.

Signed J.K.A.'

- a note delivered to John Morrison Torrens from the IRA in that area, after Mr Torrens and his family had again given assistance to enemy forces.

Indeed, a letter dated December 1920, and signed by a 'JJ Carroll, Captain, County Inspector's Office', surfaced afterwards, in which Mr Torrens was thanked.. "..for kindness to wounded officers on two recent occasions, on behalf of the Royal Irish Constabulary..."

The Torrens family duly left Ireland.

On the 3rd December, 1920, 'The Spectator Magazine' in London claimed that the British Government's failure to enlist the support of Britsh public opinion for its policies (!) in Ireland was the result of its failure to use its propaganda resources to the fullest.

Looking for extra ad revenue, perhaps...?!

==========================

THE MONTH UNSPUN...

The stories that hit the headlines.

From Magill magazine, August 2002.

In general, it was welcomed among the major parties, although David Trimble was extremely cautious in his optimism.

Trimble had questioned in the House of Commons what role Sinn Féin should play in the Executive in the absence of concrete evidence of a republican transition from violence to democracy.

The fact that the timing of the statement strengthened Sinn Féin's position in that discussion was hardly coincidental, 'The Irish Times' newspaper believed.

The 'paper argued that the statement, along with two acts of decommissioning and Alex Maskey's recent Somme commemoration, could be used to allay unionist anger over violence in Belfast, the murder (sic) of alleged drug dealers and the events in Colombia - all indications, it would seem, that the IRA ceasefire is not being maintained...

(MORE LATER.)

On the 3rd December, 1921, in a show of strength in the days before the 'Treaty of Surrender' was signed (6th December, 1921, at 10 Downing Street in London, England), about 2,000 IRA Volunteers held a parade through the town of Kilreekil, in County Galway.

The rebels were inspected by Volunteer leadership figures Richard Mulcahy and Michael Brennan : two Irish republican-gamekeepers-turned-Free State-poachers.

The irony, for shame.

==========================

DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...

Desmond Boomer, a Belfast engineer working in the Libyan oil-fields, disappeared seven years ago.

Officially, the plane on which he was a passenger crashed as a result of mechanical failure and pilot error.

But is that the real story?

Or were the Irishman and his fellow passengers unwitting victims of the shady war between Islamic fundamentalism and Mossad, Israel's intelligence network?

A special 'Magill' investigation by Don Mullan, author of 'Eyewitness Bloody Sunday'.

From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.

The Maltese Report fails to note, however, that the wife and children of Carmelo Bartolo publicly stated, through their lawyer, in 'The Times' newspaper, Malta, on the 23rd April 1999, that they did not recognise the voice on the tape as that of their loved one.

Paul Lehman, the Piper Corporation Senior Accident Investigator, told the Maltese Board of Inquiry that following his examination of the recovered wreckage he was satisfied it belonged to Piper Lance 9H-ABU and that it was his expert opinion the aircraft had crashed into the sea.

On Thursday June 14th 2001, Cormac Boomer telephoned Mr. Lehman at the Piper Corporation headquarters in Florida.

A number of telephone calls were made before he was eventually put through to a woman who identified herself as a lawyer who was in the presence of Paul Lehman. Lehman and the lawyer conducted the telephone conversation by conference.

Boomer asked Lehman if he would be willing to give an interview for a television documentary, and his lawyer replied that questions would need to be forwarded in advance before a decision could be taken.

Then he asked Lehman if he was satisfied the aircraft had crashed into the sea...

(MORE LATER.)

As a 14-years-young teenager, John Dooley from Loughbrown, Newbridge, in County Kildare, joined Na Fianna Éireann and, shortly afterwards, started work in a gravel pit in Knockbrown, County Wexford, which was owned by the Great Southern and Western Railway Company.

He stayed with NFÉ and the gravel pit job for five years, then abandoned the NFÉ, the gravel pit job and his principles for a 'career as a soldier' with the newly-spawned Free State Army (which he joined on the 4th July, 1922, 'Service Number 401').

He was part of an FSA military convoy (he was driving one of the trucks) which, on the 1st December 1922, was travelling from the village of Wellington Bridge, in the south of County Wexford (about fifteen miles west of Wexford Town) into Wexford Town when an IRA landmine exploded under the lorry.

The young Mr Dooley was seriously injured and died from his wounds on the 3rd December.

One of his Stater comrades, a Mr Washington, also from Newbridge, was actually blown out of the truck and into the air by the explosion but, when he landed, his only injury was a sprained ankle.

'Tugann an Diabhal aire dá mhuintir féin' ('The Devil looks after his own').

As Mr Washington was landing on his arse in County Kildare, 250 km (about 155 miles) away, across the country and down the road a bit in Castleisland, County Kerry, a 26-year-old man, Mr William Brosnan, who kept himself to himself, had locked-up his butchers shop on Main Street and was walking home.

It was his usual routine - doors closed to the public at about 8.30pm, sweep the floor, lights off, close door and lock it, walk home.

As he was walking down Main Street he was shot dead.

The Free State Army had declared a 9pm curfew for that night and a motorised FSA patrol passed him on the street, no questions, no warning - one of the State gunmen simply shot him dead.

They at least had the decency not to plant a firearm on him.

Marbhfháisc air!

RIP Mr William Brosnan.

At about the same time that poor Mr Brosnan was locking-up his shop, 100 km (about 62 miles) away across the country, in County Cork, a Free State Army member, a Mr George McGlynn, and his colleagues, were trying to escape from an IRA ambush in the village of Ballyvourney.

Mr McGlynn was badly wounded and died from his injuries the next day.

The Stater Army had him on their books as a 'Sergeant' ('Service Number 20743') and a 'Corporal' ('Service Number 56600').

He was from Forge, New Row, Naas, County Kildare, and died on the 4th December 1922 in the Mercy Hospital in Cork.

==========================

ON THE 2ND DECEMBER 105 YEARS AGO - QUESTIONS ASKED IN WESTMINSTER RE 'ESCAPING' IRISH PRISONERS BEING SHOT BY BRITISH FORCES IN IRELAND ARE SIDE-STEPPED, BUT COVERED BY SOME NEWSPAPERS ON THE 3RD.

Ireland, 1920 : a flavour of the chaos inflicted here by the British political and military presence : in January that year, the 1st Cork Brigade of the IRA captured Carrigtwohill 'Royal Irish Constabulary' (RIC) barracks.

In February, the 'Home Rule Bill' was published, in which Westminster voiced its intention to establish a 128-member 'parliament' in Dublin and a 52-member 'parliament' in Belfast despite knowing, from previous partition experiments, that two 'parliaments' in one country was a receipe for political disaster.

Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork, Tomás Mac Curtain, was murdered in his house by British forces in March.

In April, a hunger-strike began in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin by IRA prisoners who were demanding POW status.

In May that year, forty IRA prisoners who were on hunger-strike in Wormwood Scrubs in London, England, were released and in June an armed British militia in Ireland, the RIC, got the go-ahead from Westminster to'officially' shoot republicans dead.

In July 1920, those deemed not fit for the regular British forces in Ireland were given a new home in the 'ADRIC' ('Auxiliary Division Royal Irish Constabulary') and in August Terence MacSwiney went on hunger-strike in Brixton Prison in England.

In September the 'Black and Tans' destroyed more than fifty properties in Balbriggan town in Dublin, a British militia, the 'USC', was established in October, in November fourteen British spies were executed in Dublin by the IRA and in December 1920 Westminster declared 'Martial Law' in Cork, Kerry, Limerick and Tipperary.

Questions re 'the Irish situation' surfaced occasionally in the grand halls of Westminster and, on the 2nd December 1920 (covered by some newspapers on the 3rd), the following exchange took place in that venue but was dismissed by the chairperson as 'the wrong question having been asked' :

Lieut-Commander KENWORTHY asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland how many prisoners in Ireland have been shot dead while trying to escape, according to police reports, up to the end of November of this year and during the present year; how many have been wounded; and how many of these were handcuffed at the time of their death or wounding?

Mr. GALBRAITH asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland what is the total number of persons who have been shot at in Ireland when attempting to escape from custody; and how many of such persons have been wounded and killed, respectively?

Mr. HENRY : According to the police reports the number of prisoners fired at while attempting to escape from custody within the period from 1st January to 30th November, 1920, is 11. Of these nine were killed and two wounded. One of the prisoners killed and one of those wounded are stated to have been handcuffed while attempting to escape.

Lieut-Commander KENWORTHY : Is the right hon. and learned Gentleman aware that when the bodies have been given to the relatives that in many cases those men have been found to be riddled with bullets through the head: how does he think that men can try to escape from police lorries; and can he inform me if all these cases have been investigated by a court of inquiry?

Mr. HENRY : I must have notice of that question.

Mr. MacVEAGH : Can the Attorney-General say whether the figure he has quoted includes those shot dead on the allegation that they were attempting to resist arrest?

Mr. HENRY : The question put to me was as to the number of men shot whilst attempting to escape from custody.

Lieut-Commander KENWORTHY : Surely the right hon. and learned Gentleman can say whether there has been an inquiry into these cases, in view of the very serious allegations made and reported in the newspapers throughout the country?

Major O'NEILL : Is the right hon. and learned Gentleman aware that when General Lucas was captured, the officer who was captured with him attempted to escape, and was shot by the Sinn Feiners?

Mr. MacVEAGH : Also does the right hon. and learned Gentleman know that when General Lucas was released he stated that he had been treated with the greatest consideration by his captors?

Mr. SPEAKER : We are getting a long way from the question on the Paper...

(HANSARD 1803–2005 ? 1920s ? 1920 ? December 1920 ? 2 December 1920 ? Commons Sitting ? IRELAND. ESCAPING PRISONERS [SHOOTING]. HC Deb 02 December 1920 vol 135 cc1410-1 1410.)

That was 105 years ago and shows that those political defenders of British imperialism were as quick then as they are now to use obfuscation in an attempt to 'neutralise' an embarrassing situation.

But Irish republicans had been fighting the British writ in Ireland centuries before the Westminster parliament was established and - no obfuscation here - will continue to do so, in one form and/or another, until they remove themselves, politically and militarily, from our country!

As a teenager, James Woods (pictured), who was born in March 1900, from Ballyreen, Lisdoonvarna, County Clare, studied to be a teacher and acquired a position as a trainee teacher, but left after one year and joined the Volunteer Movement.

When the Free State 'An Garda Síochána' was established in February 1922, he showed an interest in that grouping and, in November that year, he paid a visit to their recruitment office at Ship Street Barracks in Dublin and joined up ('Service Number 2358'), as did two of his brothers.

Young James (23) was sent to 'do his duty' in Bantry Garda Barracks in County Cork and, six months later, he was promoted to the rank of sergeant and, within weeks, he was transferred to Scartaglen Garda Barracks in the Sliabh Luachra area of County Kerry.

On the night of the 3rd December, 1923, six armed and masked men entered the barracks and took control of it, holding the occupants - Sergeant Woods and one other Garda member - at gunpoint ; they were there to confiscate weapons, uniforms and any other material they deemed useful.

The armed men ordered Sergeant Woods to hand over his weapons and his uniform and, when he resisted them, he was shot and died instantly.

Mr Woods is the first State cop to have died 'in the line of duty'.

==========================

ON THIS DATE (3RD DECEMBER) 54 YEARS AGO : NEWS BREAKS THAT THREE IRA PRISONERS HAD JOINED NINE OF THEIR COMRADES!

Crumlin Road Jail, Belfast (pictured) - known for its good quality bed sheets...

In November 1971, there were more than 700 IRA prisoners being held in Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast, with at least the same number again 'housed' in Long Kesh and other prisons.

All had access to an exercise yard and, in Crumlin Road Jail, the escape committee decided to use that yard as part of their plan to free three of their number - Martin Meehan, Anthony 'Dutch' Doherty and Hugh McCann.

The plan was for the three men to hide themselves under a sewer manhole in about two feet of water, which they did, for about five hours.

As luck would have it, when they eventually let themselves out, a thick fog had settled in the area, giving good cover. They ran for the prison wall and, using bed sheets which they had roughly fashioned into a rope ladder, with a home-made 'hook' tied to the top of the 'ladder', they managed to scale the wall.

Within hours, Martin Meehan and Hugh McCann were in a safe house in the Free State and their comrade, Anthony Doherty - who stayed in Belfast following the escape - joined them two weeks later.

Incidentally, on the 17th November 1971 - about two weeks before the above-mentioned 'rope ladder' escape - nine other IRA prisoners had also escaped from that same prison with the use of rope-ladders!

The nine were Thomas Kane, Seamus Storey, Bernard Elliman, Danny Mullan, Thomas Fox, Tom Maguire, Peter Rogers, Christy Keenan and Terrence 'Cleaky' Clarke and all of them escaped in two cars which were waiting for them on the near-by Antrim Road.

To add further to the distress caused to the then British 'Home Affairs Minister', Brian Faulkner, and his side-kick, 'Sir' Edmund Compton ("...torture would never happen in a British jail..") by those jail breaks, they were referenced in a popular song of the time -

OVER THE WALL.

In Crumlin Road Jail all the prisoners one day

took out a football and started to play,

and while all the warders were watching the ball

nine of the prisoners jumped over the wall!

Over the wall, over the wall,

who would believe they jumped over the wall?

over the wall, over the wall,

It's hard to believe they jumped over the wall!

Now the warders looked on with the greatest surprise

and the sight that they saw brought tears to their eyes,

for one of the teams was not there at all

they all got transferred and jumped over the wall!

Now the governor came down with his face in a twist

and said "Line up those lads while I check out me list,"

but nine of the lads didn't answer at all

and the warder said "Please Sir, they're over the wall."

The 'security forces' were shook to the core

so they barred every window and bolted each door,

but all their precautions were no use at all

for another three prisoners jumped over the wall!

Then the news reached old Stormont, Brian Faulkner turned pale

when he heard that more men had escaped from his jail,

said he - "Now we'll have an enquiry to call, and we'll get Edmund Compton to whitewash the wall."

Ah, whitewash : the second-favourite liquid used in Westminster, after Earl Grey, of course!

The newspapers made for good reading on the 3rd December, 1971...!

The much vaulted and 'Establishment'-lauded so-called 'Tripartite Agreement' was agreed to and signed on the 3rd December, 1925, by representatives from the Westminster, Leinster House and Stormont administrations.

In effect, by agreeing to the document, and signing it, the Staters were 'officially' accepting the enforced partition of Ireland.

The three political entities consented to suppress the report of the 'Boundary Commission' (that report was suppressed for 44 years ie it wasn't released until 1969!), that the partition/border between the Free State and the Occupied Six Counties was to remain unchanged, that issues regarding republican prisoners held in those Six Counties would be the imprimatur of Westminster (and Stormont would accept that that is the case ; Leinster House not even mentioned), that the Staters would be freed from 'Article 5'* financial penalties, that the powers (!) granted to the so-called 'Council of Ireland' (a GONGO agency/talking shop, which never even held one meeting!)) would be transferred to Stormont and, finally, that "the two Irish governments (sic - Stormont and Leinster House were being referenced ie two 'governments' actually spawned by the British!) would meet together, as and when necessary, for the purpose of considering matters of common interest..." (the actual 'common interest' that both entities shared was to maintain the imposed border ie to keep the country partitioned).

That last clause ("common interest") was never invoked and Mr Cosgrave and Mr Craig were never to meet again!

The Irish historian, Maureen Wall (pictured, née McGeehin), summed-up the farce by declaring -

"Ambiguities were now at an end ('1169' comment - verbally, at least!).

This time the unionists had got all they wanted, and the agreement bore the signatures not only of the British and Free State representatives but, for the first time, the signatures also of the representatives of Northern Ireland (sic)..."

The British civil servant and 'Irish Under-Secretary' in Westminster, a Mr James McMahon, stated -

"The Boundary Commission crisis was resolved surprisingly easy when British financial generosity allowed the three governments (sic) to come to an agreement that buries the commission’s findings..."

A Mr FE Smith (the '1st Earl of Birkenhead'), a prominent British politician who had involved himself in the various 'Treaty of Surrender' events, in a letter he wrote to one of his political buddies, 'Lord Reading', the British 'Lord Lieutenant of Ireland', said -

"...both the Northern Ireland and Free State governments (sic) developed a friendly and competitive enthusiasm in the task of plundering us..." (pot calling the kettle black right there!).

And, finally, speaking in Westminster about the Boundary Commission plunder (!), the then British 'Chancellor of the Exchequer', a Mr Winston Churchill stated -

"The Irish question will only be settled when the human question is settled..."

The so-called 'Irish question' will only ever be properly settled when the British finally withdraw, politically and militarily, from Ireland.

(*'Article 5' left the Staters liable for a share of British public debt and, under that Article, Leinster House had actually agreed [!] to repay compensation payments it got from Westminster for damage etc done here between July 1914 and November 1918 during 'World War 1'...!)

==========================

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated.

Sharon and the team.

(We'll be back on Wednesday, 17th December, 2025, which will be our last post for this year.)

IRELAND, 1920's - FUNDING THE FIGHT ; MUNITIONS MONEY.

2025-11-28T11:52:00.000+00:00

Ireland, late 19th Century - this astute young girl witnessed the suffering around her, in her family and in her neighbourhood but she couldn't just accept it as her lot.

The astute young girl grew into a questioning teenager and, finally, into a "troublesome woman", which she remained for the rest of her life, working in the rebel movement alongside other "troublesome women..."

We'll be posting the details of that "troublesome woman" and her equally troublesome (!) colleagues on Wednesday, 3rd December 2025, along with about eighteen other pieces, all connected with Irish history and Irish politics, from today and yesterday - all 32 Counties!

And if yer not interested in troublesome Irish women (...but ya are, aren't ya..?!), then what about this -

Westminster, 1900's - "Two separate parliaments" for Ireland was brought up in a discussion that British politicians were having about Ireland. The Loyalists in Ireland 'boxed clever' and turned the conversation into one about three particular counties in Ireland which would more than likely scupper that plan...

...but if that doesn't whet yer appetite..well, there's somethin' major wrong with ya - sure who, with an interest in our history, wouldn't want to know which three Irish counties were deemed troublesome (see wha' I done there?!) by Irish people who supported a foreign political entity?!

However...if yer still hesitant about checking back with us on Wednesday, 3rd December 2025, then maybe this will entice ya -

"The West's Awake..." - awake, that was, to the scheme attempted, in the early 1900's by local politicians in the west of Ireland, to spike the freedom struggle and sow dissent within the Republican Movement. But when the facts and figures were revealed, the scheme collapsed...

...and if that doesn't do it for ya, we'll also be writing about bombs, bullets and bucks -

1920's, funding the fight - the call from the rebels for 'munition money' was sent out verbally and in leaflets around the country and it was gladly acceded to by a willing public who were being trashed by armed, foreign thugs...

So do, please, give us a shout on the 3rd - 'cause I'm one troublesome young wan ya don't wanna have to apologise to for yer absence..!

Thanks for the visit, for reading, and for puttin' up with me auld guff - appreciated.

Sharon and the team.

(...and we'll appreciate it all the more if ya DO call back on Wednesday the 3rd - but ya know ya will!)

CHURCHILL, 1920 - "TWO OFFICERS WERE CAPTURED BY THE REBELS..."

2025-11-19T10:26:00.000+00:00

On the 19th November, 1919, the newspapers in Ireland carried a piece about an event which took place the previous day, concerning the 'arrest' of an IRA Volunteer by the Crown Forces.

Volunteer Edward Malone, from the village of Dún Brinn (Dunbrin), near Athy, in County Kildare, had been hunted by the British since April that year and, on the 18th, was staying in the house in Ballycullane, County Kildare (about 7km [4.50 miles] from his own village) of his cousin, Volunteer Michael Malone, who was the Captain of 'A Company, 3rd Battalion, Carlow-Kildare Brigade IRA'.

British Army soldiers raided the house and captured Volunteer Edward Malone : early in 1920, Volunteer Malone and other POW's went on hunger-strike and, following a massive general strike and public protests, the POW's were released in April that year.

His own house in Dún Brinn had been raided and searched by the British on the 31st October, 1918 (IRA documents were found), and again on the 13th February, 1919, and a rifle was found.

Incidentally, when the split in the IRA occurred in January 1922 over the 'Treaty of Surrender', those who remained true to the Cause included Volunteers Patrick Mullaney (the Commander of the IRA Eastern Division's 1st Brigade), Edward Malone, James Farrell, Jim Farrell, Thomas Farrell, John Farrell, Michael O'Neill, Diarmuid O'Neill, Robert Crone, Jack O'Connor, William Kearney, Jack Dempsey, John Byrne, Pat Holmwood, Paddy Campbell, Pat Nolan and at least six other brave men - including five Free State Army soldiers who were operating with the IRA.

The Free Staters referred to that IRA Unit as 'Mullaney's Men'...

==========================

"MURDER BY A PERSON OR PERSONS UNKNOWN..."

Theobald Wolfe Tone was born on the 20th June, 1763 - the exact time and date of his death are unknown.

He was sentenced to death on the 10th November 1798 and, on the 11th November, he was informed by his gaolers that he would be publicly hanged on the following day, Monday, at one o'clock.

It is generally accepted that Wolfe Tone died on the 19th November 1798 but, in fact, he could have been murdered at any time during the previous week, and there is no doubt, and none of us should be in any doubt, of his murder by British Crown agents.

It is time now, once and for all, to bury the lie that Wolfe Tone took his own life.

These false stories were put out at the time not just to cover up the murder but also as black propaganda to denigrate Tone and the Cause he cherished with all his being. The proof of their successes in trying to destroy Wolfe Tone's character is still evident today over 200 years later.

Yes, the British establishment was expert at that time at covering up their crimes, even more successful than they are today. Many historians to this day trot out the same British lies, as if they were gospel, that Tone committed suicide ; they quote all sorts of stories to 'back-up' their claims.

They use the most abominable argument that especially as Wolfe Tone was of the Protestant faith it would not be repugnant for him to take his own life : I say here and now that this was and is the most objectionable of arguments. It was against everything Tone dedicated and gave his life for, namely, to substitute the common name of Irishman for the religious denominations.

To spread the lie and imply that somehow being a Protestant made it acceptable to commit suicide is to be against all Wolfe Tone stood for.

The argument is still going on with new books being written about Tone and praised and published by the present establishment who are as much against what Tone stood for as were the British establishment of the time, and as they still are today.

Why do the establishment, British and Irish, make such a case for Wolfe Tone's suicide?

Because to face the truth might make people today see the light and not just follow Tone's teachings but practice them.

It is often quoted also that Tone's son accepted his father's suicide ; even if this were true it is of no consequence as what he thought one way or the other has no bearing on the facts. How did Tone's son know how long his father lay dying? There was no way he could know, no more than anyone else - at no time were any visitors allowed into see Wolfe Tone.

Tone's father tried every possible move through the courts to get his son free.

His lawyer applied for and was immediately granted a writ of Habeas Corpus by Chief Justice Lord Kilwarden. Major Sandy, in charge of the barracks, was recognised generally as being a man with scant regard for justice or truth.

It has been stated as proof of Tone's suicide that a man of Sandy's calibre and his hirelings wouldn't do such a botched murder that would take eight days for the victim to die. But how do we know how long Wolfe Tone took to die? It could very well have been eight minutes, not eight days.

The only evidence ever produced to support the suicide verdict is an account from a French royalist, a Doctor Lentaigne, of whom little is known. This same doctor was by his being a royalist first, and working for the British Army, doubly opposed to all Wolfe Tone would stand for.

How anyone with the remotest feeling for justice or truth could accept the word of such a man under the circumstances at the time is an insult to ordinary intelligence. But then as the old cliche says - 'where ignorance is bliss it's folly to be wise.'

The secrets of a state prison at that period in history are seldom penetrated and even today would be virtually impossible.

Abundant proof is available even today if a thorough search was to take place but we who wish to know the truth have only to know the man : he had dedicated himself to his principles and had seen his friends and compatriots, including his brother, hanged, and he would not let them or his country down by taking his own life.

Without knowing the man, even reading his last letters is enough to disprove the abominable lie that he committed suicide.

Did he not write to his wife -

"My mind is as tranquil this moment as at any period in my life."

One only has to read his last speech from the dock at his trial to see and understand the character of the man. Just to quote a few lines is enough to convince any fair mind of the impossibility of Wolfe Tone committing suicide ; only the avowed enemies of truth and justice could dare say otherwise -

"Mr. President and gentlemen of the Court Martial : I mean not to give you the trouble of bringing judicial proof to convict me legally to having acted in hostility to the government of his Britannic Majesty in Ireland. I admit the fact from my earliest youth, I have regarded the connection between Ireland and Great Britain as the curse of the Irish nation and felt convinced that, whilst it lasted, this country could never be free nor happy."

Regarding the French, Wolfe Tone said -

"Attached to no party in the French Republic, without interest, without money, without intrigue, the openness and integrity of my views raised me to a high and confidential rank in its armies ; under the flag of the French Republic, I originally engaged with a view to save and liberate my own country. For that purpose, I have encountered the chances of war, amongst strangers.

For that purpose, I have repeatedly braved the terrors of the ocean, covered as I knew it to be, with the triumphant fleets of that power, which it was my glory and my duty to oppose. I have sacrificed all my views in life ; I have courted poverty, I have left a beloved wife, unprotected children I adored, fatherless.

After such sacrifices, in a cause which I have always conscientiously considered as the cause of justice and freedom - it is no great effort, at this day, to add the sacrifice of my life.

To the eternal disgrace of those who gave the order, I was brought hither in irons, like a felon.."

During his last speech from the dock, Wolfe Tone stated -

"I mention this for the sake of others, for me I am indifferent to it. I am aware of the fate which awaits me, and scorn equally the tone of complaint and that of supplication. Whatever be the sentence of this court, I am prepared for it. Its members will surely discharge their duty ; I shall take care not to be wanting in mine."

Tone's use of the word 'eternal' and 'his duty' are obvious references to God and posterity and he would have been fully aware and very careful about their use. Any study of the man and any understanding of him as a person to those who wish to see the truth can only draw the one conclusion.

To quote just a line or two from his last letters to his wife : "..be assured I will die as I have lived, and that you will have no cause to blush for me. Adieu, dearest love, keep your courage as I have kept mine. My mind is as tranquil this moment as at any period of my life."

Are these the words of a man contemplating suicide?

No!

Wolfe Tone knew that suicide would have damned his reputation irreparably and consequently the cause he dedicated his life to. There is only one conclusion to be drawn, knowing the man - 'murder by a person or persons unknown.'

(The above is an edited version of a lecture delivered to Dublin republicans by Joe Egan in November 1989. Joe was a member of the RSF Education Department at the time.)

GAS LADS...

The massive finds of oil and gas on our western seaboard could ensure Ireland's financial security for generations.

Wealth approximating that of the Arab countries is within our grasp, but the Irish government seems content to sell off our birthright for a handful of votes and a few dollars.

In a special 'Magill' report, Sandra Mara investigates just what we are giving away, and why.

From 'Magill' magazine, March 2002.

In a sale which appeared to net the State €126 million, the real gain is another matter.

The State agreed to write off over €101 million in debts, believed to have been incurred in the refurbishment of INPC just prior to the sale.

In terms of guarantees, INPC gave an undertaking that it will underwrite any claims for environmental damage or pollution up to €95, and provide an open-ended guarantee in regard to any claims in respect of the Whiddy Island incident, where the oil tanker 'Betelgeuse' exploded some years ago.

These guarantees and undertakings could potentially not alone wipe out any perceived gains, but leave the State in a negative-equity position...

(MORE LATER.)

ON THIS DATE (19TH NOVEMBER) 105 YEARS AGO : 'HANSARD' TRANSCRIPT OF DEBATE ON CAPTURE OF FOUR ENGLISH OFFICERS IN CORK BY REBELS MAKES THE HEADLINES.

(Or - 'Rebel motor cars? - BAN THEM!')

This discussion in the British 'House of Commons' on the 18th November, 1920, was commented on in the newspapers of the day on the 19th November -

HANSARD 1803–2005 - 1920s - 1920 - November 1920 - 18 November 1920 - Commons Sitting - IRELAND.

OFFICERS CAPTURED.

HC Deb 18 November 1920 vol 134 cc2072-4

Mr. PENNEFATHER (by Private Notice) asked the Secretary of State for War whether he had any information to impart relating to the four officers taken by force out of a train at Waterfall, County Cork, the day before yesterday, and carried off in rebel motor cars, and whether, in view of this further proof of the assistance to crime afforded by privately-owned motor cars, the Government would at once prohibit their use in the disturbed areas?

Mr. DEVLIN : "What is a "rebel motor car"?

The SECRETARY of STATE for WAR (Mr. Churchill): "The only information which I have at present is that two Education Officers, Captain M. H. W. Green, Lincolnshire Regiment, and Captain S. Chambers, Liverpool Regiment, and an officer of the Royal Engineers, Lieut. W. Spalding Watts, were captured by the rebels.

I understand that Captain Green and Lieutenant Watts might have been witnesses of a murder of a police sergeant and that Captain Chambers was the principal witness against Father O'Donnell, who was arrested in October, 1919, for seditious speeches.

Presumably, these are the reasons why they were kidnapped, but I do not know the circumstances of their capture. With regard to the last part of the hon. Member's question, I think ample powers already exist under the Restoration of Order in Ireland Regulations.

Certain restrictions regarding the use of motor vehicles are already in force, and I understand that further drastic restrictions will come into operation on 1st December."

Mr. TERRELL : "Have these officers been released?"

Mr.CHURCHILL : "No."

Mr. DEVLIN : "The right hon. Gentleman brings in the trial, and the statement that Father O'Donnell was arrested for seditious language. For what reason ho dons (sic - 'he done'?) that, I do not know. Will he state that the court-martial acquitted him of that charge?"

Mr. CHURCHILL : "I did not attach importance to that. I have given the answer specially framed for me in answer to this question."

Mr. DEVLIN : "Who framed it for you?"

Mr. CHURCHILL "I had no communication whatever with the hon. Member (Mr. Pennefather), and there is no ulterior design behind the framing of the answer." (From here.)

We also found the following information in relation to this incident :

Capt M H W Green - removed and shot. Capt S Chambers - removed and shot. Lt W S Watts - removed and shot...there were 4 officers in mufti in a 3rd class compartment travelling from Cork (they thought it less conspicuous to travel 3rd class). There were 10 people in the compartment. The officers were en route to Bere Island. The soldiers were Lt R R Goode (inspector of Army Schools), Capt Reedy R.E., Chambers and Green.

The train stopped at Waterfall, 6 miles from Cork.

Three armed civilians entered their compartment. Looking at Chambers one of these armed men said "That is one of them" and looking at Green said "That is the other".

Chambers and Green were then marched out with their hands up and were last seen at the bridge over the railway....In 'The Year of Disappearances' (link here) the author makes a case for mistaken identity, for the Green the IRA wanted being George Edward Green, and not MHW Green...Watts had decided to travel First Class and was by himself.

Reedy only realised Watts was missing when the train got to Kinsale Junction and he could not find Watts...Goode added to his statement that he knew that Chambers had been responsible for the arrest of Father O'Donnell (Chaplin to the Australian Forces) in Oct 1919 for seditious language....Goode also said that Chambers and Green had the previous week been witnesses to the murder of 2 RIC constables at Ballybrack in the course of a railway journey.

Goode believed that Green was carrying an automatic pistol, but believed that the others were unarmed...1921 Nov 29- The IRA confirm that the men were executed, but details of their burial place did not emerge... (from here) and these British Army documents also make for interesting reading.

The lesson, whether it should have been learned in 1920 (if not centuries earlier!) or will be learned even at this late stage by those who think they have secured their political future and that of this Free State, is a simple one : 'Ireland unfree shall never be at peace'.

On the 19th November, 1920, 'The American Commission on Conditions in Ireland' held its first public hearing in Washington, America.

That organisation was established chiefly by the New York newspaper 'The Nation' and US Senators, Congressmen, Mayors, and other activists were quick to get involved, as the British military and political presence in Ireland was making world headlines at the time.

It's work included collecting first-hand accounts of British violence and atrocities in Ireland to maintain international attention on the situation and to further inform public and political opinion. The official 'ACCI' reporter, Albert Coyle, published over 1,100 pages of testimonies that documented the conflict.

Despite receiving invitations to attend, both Field Marshal 'Lord' John French, the '1st Earl of Ypres' who, as the '(British) King's Representative in Ireland', was their 'Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Forces' and, as such, their 'Lord Lieutenant' in this country, and 'Sir' Hamar Greenwood, who was the (British) 'Chief Secretary for Ireland' and, according to Westminster, was "responsible for the administration of the country (Ireland) and the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)...", refused to attend.

And, actually, no-one from 'the British side' turned up...!

"You have killed one of my sons but I have more that will take up the fight..."

- Mr Martin Clancy, November 1920, speaking to the Black and Tans and RIC members who were harassing the mourners at the funeral of his son, Volunteer Second Lieutenant Patrick Clancy (19), Drangan Company, 7th Battalion, Third Tipperary Brigade IRA.

On the same date that the British shunned the Washington meeting, one of their Army Lieutenants in Ireland, a Mr Edward Litchford (aka 'Edward Litchfield', Lincolnshire Regiment, pictured) was in the vicinity of Corbally/Ballylusky, near Newton, Drangan, in County Tipperary, when he spotted Lieutenant Patrick Clancy, pulled out his pistol and shot Volunteer Clancy dead.

The British Army shooter was put on an IRA 'shoot-on-sight' list and his name came up in an 'IRA Witness Statement' about operations which took place in late 1920 -

"I was 'on the run' and spent practically all my time with Volunteer Donovan and some others who were also 'on the run' in the 7th Battalion area.

I remember Volunteer Donovan telling us that he had orders from G.H.Q. to shoot a Lieutenant Litchford (/field) of the British Army who was then stationed in (the village of) Killenaule, and Volunteer Donovan in turn gave us orders that if the opportunity ever came our way we were to shoot Litchfield on sight.

On a few occasions we went into Killenaule at night and patrolled the streets there but failed to see Lieutenant Litchfield.

In the search of the (confiscated) mails (page 38, here) afterwards we found three silver medals - one which I possess now. It is inscribed - 'To Lieutenant E.R. Litchford, Lincolnshire Regiment, for gallant conduct in Ireland, 19th November, 1920'..."

On the 20th March, 1921, Volunteers attached to the ASU of the 7th (Callan) Battalion, Kilkenny Brigade, acting on information supplied to them, took up an ambush position at the back gate of a lodging house in Mullinahone, County Tipperary, where an RIC member, a Mr William Campbell, was staying.

Mr Campbell was 'on sick leave' and was apparently expecting a visit from Mr Litchford, who never showed.

When Mr Campbell stepped out into the backyard of the premises, the Volunteers shot him dead.

Also, in early July 1921, the IRA received information that Mr Litchford would be 'out and about' in the village of Mulliahone (County Tipperary) on the 10th of that month, showing a BA sergeant, a Mr John William Reynolds, the lie of the land.

An ambush position was established and, when two British Army men in Lincolnshire Regiment attire entered the ambush position, IRA Volunteers opened fire on them.

The sergeant died at the scene, the other foreign soldier - a Lieutenant Rowles, not the man they were after - was seriously injured.

Incidentally, four months after Volunteer Patrick Clancy was buried, one of his brothers, Martin (Jnr), an IRA Volunteer himself, was attending an IRA Battalion meeting (of the IRA No. 3 Brigade) with eleven of his comrades, in a venue in Knockroe, in County Tipperary, when British Army soldiers from the Lincolnshire Regiment, under the command of a Lieutenant Ormond, stormed the venue.

In the melee that followed, two IRA Officers - Volunteer Patrick Hackett and Volunteer Richard Fleming - were shot dead, and Volunteer Martin Clancy was wounded and placed under 'arrest' but, rather than be burdened with a wounded man, a British soldier shot him dead.

Mr Martin Clancy Snr buried another son.

(Note - a sister to Volunteers Patrick and Martin (Jnr) Clancy, Josephine [Kiely], was a member of Cumann na mBan // - and, somehow, Mr Litchford survived until 1984, and is buried in his own country, in Saint Edmonds, in Suffolk, England. Droch chrích ort...)

RIP Volunteers Patrick Clancy, Martin Clancy Jnr, Patrick Hackett and Richard Fleming.

On the same date that Volunteer Patrick Clancy was shot dead (19th November 1920), British Army Intelligence operatives were searching through files and other paperwork that had been taken in house raids on the 26th October and the 10th, 17th and on that same date, the 19th, of November.

Liam Hayes (pictured, a republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher), at that time an IRA Volunteer who was working within the 'Republican Loan Department' in the Movement, lived at No. 49 Longwood Avenue in Portobello, in Dublin and, on the 10th November (1920), the British Army raided the house.

The IRA Chief of Staff at that time, Volunteer Richard Mulcahy (another republican-gamekeeper-turned-Free State poacher), was in the house at time of the raid, but he managed to escape (..luckily enough...?!) .

But CoS Volunteer Mulcahy left his files and paperwork in the house and, on the 19th of that month, while they were sifting throught the paperwork they had removed earlier during the various raids, British operatives came across the names and locations of about 200 IRA Officers/Volunteers, all of whom had to go 'on the run'.

They also came across detailed plans for attacks on infrastructural plants in England which, obviously, had to be abandoned.

As the British sifters of papers were sifting papers in their then Dublin Castle HQ, 260km (about 160 miles) away down the country, in the village of Dúras (Durrus) in West Cork (about 10km/6 miles from the town of Bantry) their comrades in the RIC were, as ever, getting rowdy with four IRA Volunteers they had captured and placed under 'arrest'.

The four rebels - Volunteer Maurice Donnegan (Officer Commanding 5th Battalion, Cork No.3 Brigade), Volunteer Captain Ralph Keyes (Bantry Company), Adjutant Seán Cotter (5th Battalion) and Volunteer Cornelius O'Sullivan - were each given the digs and were more than likely about to be executed on the spot by the RIC.

A British Army Colonel, a Mr Percy Hudson, attached to the 'King's Liverpool Regiment' (who was a Lieutenant-Colonel around the time of the 1916 Rising and was eventually promoted to the position of Major) and some of his soldiers, who were on that 'seek and detain' operation with the RIC, intervened, and more than likely literally saved the lives of the four Volunteers.

Credit where it's due - fair play to Mr Hudson for that!

==========================

THE MONTH UNSPUN.

The stories that hit the headlines.

From Magill magazine, August 2002.

An Apology Of Sorts.

The IRA released a statement four days before the 30th anniversary of 'Bloody Friday' apologising for the "deaths and injuries on non-combatants" which they had caused over the course of their campaign, and acknowledged the "grief and pain of their relatives."

Nine people were killed and more than 100 injured on 'Bloody Friday', 21st July 1972, when the IRA exploded over 20 bombs around Belfast.

According to the statement... "..the process of conflict resolution requires the equal acknowledgement of the grief and loss of others..", and the IRA is... "..totally committed to the peace process* and to dealing with the challenges and difficulties which this presents.".

The IRA has never apologised for its actions before, so the value of the statement to the peace process* should not be underestimated, the newspapers believed...

(*)

(MORE LATER.)

'West Belfast erupted.

Bullets raked the city’s trams.

Rival nationalist and loyalist snipers traded shots from rooftops.

Mobs burned rows of houses, especially along the unofficial frontier between catholic and protestant neighbourhoods...'

"We turned a corner then a shout in a Southern brogue - 'Halt, hands up!'

Jack Donaghy was using a Peter Painter 12 rounder (Mauser C96 automatic pistol). He opened fire, three policemen fell, one killed, two wounded."

'The dead policeman was Constable Thomas Conlon, based in Springfield Road barracks ; the two wounded were Constable Edward Hogan and the driver of the Crossley tender, Special Constable Charles Dunne.

Conlon, a catholic policeman originally from Roscommon, was viewed by the IRA as being sympathetic – according to Montgomery, "he was good at giving tips of police raids."

The most immediate response to the ambush was that a GAA club hall was burned down in Raglan Street that night, where it was stated that "a German rifle and a thousand rounds of ammunition" were found by police during a follow-up search. As no loyalists could have penetrated so deep into the Lower Falls, the hall must have been burned by the police. This was merely a foretaste of what was to come...'

(From here.)

The disturbances detailed above began on the 10th July 1921 and lasted until the 15th July, and resulted in the deaths of at least 20 people with injuries to many more, with over 200 houses destroyed.

Small(ish) skirmishes followed until, on the 19th November that year, nationalists were again put in a position where they had to defend themselves - riots broke out in the east side of Belfast and in the York Street area (and in the townland of Baile Mhic Gearóid [Ballymacarrett], Knockbreda area, the following day), which lasted into the night of the 25th (November 1921), during which at least 30 people lost their lives.

North, South, East or West in Ireland or any other country that they have 'kept the peace in' - the British political and military presence leaves bloodshed behind it...

==========================

DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...

On the 19th November, 1922, the newspapers in the Free State (and some newspapers further afield) all carried the same front page - that four IRA Volunteers had died the previous day in Dublin when the landmine they were working on exploded.

The Volunteers - Captain Thomas Maguire (Dublin), Lieutenant Patrick Egan (Limerick), Thomas S. Whelan (Limerick) and Bernard Curtis (pictured, Dublin) - were preparing an ambush position on the Naas Road (beside Lansdowne Valley, near Inchicore) for FSA members who were driving back to their Baldonnel base from guard duty in Kilmainham Jail.

RIP Volunteers Thomas Maguire, Patrick Egan, Thomas S. Whelan and Bernard Curtis.

==========================

ON THIS DATE (19TH NOVEMBER) 105 YEARS AGO : NEWS BREAKS OF AN IRA SHOPPING TRIP FOR AIRPLANE PARTS...

On the 18th November 1920, an aeroplane made an emergency landing in a field near Punches Quarry in Cratloe, County Clare, and word quickly spread in the area that the craft was fitted-out with a machine gun.

The British 'authorities' heard about the incident, as did the local IRA unit, and the former ordered their man in the area, 2nd Lieutenant MH Last, to organise a platoon from 'C' Company, 'Oxon and Bucks' (the 'Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry' regiment) and get to the site to guard the wreck, which they did and, in an act of bravado (given the times that were in it!) the British forces apparently posted no sentries and built and lit a large fire to make themselves comfortable.

The IRA, too, had arrived on site, with Volunteer Joe Clancy in command, and a gun battle ensued -

'1920 Nov 18. A platoon from "C" Company, 1st Battalion of the Ox and Bucks were guarding the crashed RAF plane near Punches Quarry, Cratloe area. They were under the command of 2nd Lieutenant M.H.Last. A group of I.R.A. volunters led by Joe Clancy (Brigade Training Officer East Clare Brigade) had seen the plane come down and got together an attacking group from IRA men hiding out at Hogans house in Cratloe.

Their objective was to capture the aeroplane's machine gun.

After dusk Clancy and his group climbed to the top of Punches Quarry and opened fire at 17.30 on the unsuspecting Ox and Bucks troops who were grouped round a large bonfire that they had lit to keep themselves warm. The IRA said that there were no sentries posted...'- more here.

ON THIS DATE (19TH NOVEMBER) 105 YEARS AGO : NEWS OF BRITISH REPRISAL KILLINGS IN CORK.

On the 17th November 1920, a 46-year-old Kerry-born RIC Sergeant, a Mr James O'Donoghue, who had 22 years 'service' in that particular 'police force' and was about to be promoted to Head Constable, was shot dead in White Street in Cork city by three IRA men (Charlie O'Brien, Willie Joe O'Brien and Justin O'Connor) , who were standing in a gateway, waiting for a target that never showed.

The IRA unit were about to leave the area when they were spotted by O'Donoghue, who had just left his home at Tower Street, in full uniform, to make his way to the RIC barracks at Tuckey Street, about a half-mile of a walk from his house.

According to reports of the incident, the RIC man "came upon" the IRA men and he was shot dead as a result.

The next day - the 18th November (1920), a gang of masked men, believed to be RIC and/or Black and Tans from the Tuckey Street barracks, forced their way in to the O'Brien house, looking for Charlie and Willie Joe ; they shot Charlie, leaving him for dead, and then shot his brother-in-law, Eugene O'Connell, who died at the scene.

The British execution gang then broke into the near-by home of Patrick Hanley and shot him dead, and then turned their guns on his friend, Stephen Coleman, severely wounding him, and a James Coleman was also attacked by the gang and shot dead.

An IRA investigation into how the IRA unit had been exposed led the organisation to believe that informers had been at work and three men were shot dead as a result - John Sherlock, 'Din-Din' O'Riordan and Eddie Hawkins (whose father, Dan, was seriously wounded in that action).

Incidentally, a week after they killed the RIC man, the Cork Command IRA officially apologised in writing to his family and let it be known that they were 'furious' that their Volunteers had taken it on themselves to carry-out that operation.

No such apology was issued by the RIC or the Black and Tans.

And, in our opinion, no such apology should have been issued by the Cork Command.

ON THIS DATE (19TH NOVEMBER) 152 YEARS AGO : 'HOME RULE' ISSUE MAKES THE HEADLINES AGAIN.

'ISAAC BUTT (1813-1879) POLITICIAN, BARRISTER AND PHILOSOPHER (pictured).

Isaac Butt was born in Glenfin, Donegal, on the 6th September 1813. His father, the Reverend Robert Butt, became Rector of St. Mary's Church of Ireland, Stranorlar, in 1814, and Isaac spent his childhood years in Stranorlar.

His mother's maiden name was Berkeley Cox and she claimed descendency from the O'Donnells.

When Isaac was aged twelve he went as a boarder to the Royal School Raphoe and at the age of fifteen entered Trinity College Dublin.

He trained as a barrister and became a member of both the Irish Bar and the English Bar.

He was a conservative lawyer but after the famine ('1169' comment - it was an attempted genocide) in the 1840s became increasingly liberal. In 1852 he became Tory MP at Westminster representing Youghal, Co. Cork and in 1869 he founded the Tenant League to renew the demand for tenant rights.

He was a noted orator who spoke fervently for justice, tolerance, compassion and freedom, and always defended the poor and the oppressed. He started the Home Rule Movement in 1870 and in 1871 was elected MP for Limerick, running on a Home Rule ticket.

He founded a political party called 'The Home Rule Party' in 1873. By the mid 1870s Butt's health was failing and he was losing control of his party to a section of its members who wished to adopt a much more aggressive approach than he was willing to accept.

In 1879 he suffered a stroke from which he failed to recover and died on the 5th May in Clonskeagh, Dublin. He was replaced by William Shaw who was succeeded by Charles Stewart Parnell in 1880. Isaac Butt became known as "The Father of Home Rule in Ireland".

At his express wish he is buried in a corner of Stranorlar Church of Ireland cemetery, beneath a tree where he used to sit and dream as a boy.' (from here.)

On the 18th November, 1873, a three-day conference was convened in Dublin to discuss the issue of 'home rule' for Ireland and, it being such an outrageous notion (!) at the time, its first day received massive media coverage the following day, 'Day 2' of the conference, the 19th November, 1873 - 152 years ago on this date.

The conference had been organised, in the main, by Isaac Butt's then 3-year-old 'Home Government Association', and was attended by various individuals and small localised groups who shared an interest in that subject.

Isaac Butt was a well-known Dublin barrister who was apparently viewed with some suspicion by 'his own type' - Protestants - as he was a pillar of the Tory society in Ireland before recognising the ills of that creed and converting, politically, to the 'other side of the house' - Irish nationalism, a 'half way house', if even that - then and now - between British imperialism and Irish republicanism ie Isaac Butt and those like him made it clear that they were simply agitating for an improved position for Ireland within the 'British empire', as opposed to Irish republicans who were demanding then, and now, a British military and political withdrawal from Ireland.

Over that three-day period the gathering agreed to establish a new organisation, to be known as 'The Home Rule League', and the minutes from the conference make for interesting reading as they highlight/expose the request for the political 'half way house', mentioned above -

'At twelve o'clock, on the motion of George Bryan, M.R, seconded by Hon. Charles Ffrench, M.P., the Chair was taken by William Shaw, M.R.

On the motion of the Rev. P. Lavelle, seconded by Laurence Waldron, D.L., the following gentlemen were appointed Honorary Secretaries : — John O.Blunden, Philip Callan M.P, W.J.O'Neill Daunt, ER King Harman and Alfred Webb. ER King Harman read the requisition convening the Conference, as follows : —

We, the undersigned feel bound to declare our conviction that it is necessary to the peace and prosperity of Ireland, and would be conducive to the strength and stability of the United Kingdom, that the right of domestic legislation on all Irish affairs should be restored to our country and that it is desirable that Irishmen should unite to obtain that restoration upon the following principles : To obtain for our country the right and privilege of managing our own affairs, by a Parliament assembled in Ireland, composed of her Majesty the Sovereign, and the Lords and Commons of Ireland.

To secure for that Parliament, under a Federal arrangement, the right of legislating for, and regulating all matters relating to the internal affairs of Ireland, and control over Irish resources and revenues, subject to the obligation of contributing our just proportion of the Imperial expenditure.

To leave to an Imperial Parliament the power of dealing with all questions affecting the Imperial Crown and Government, legislation regarding the Colonies and other dependencies of the Crown, the relations of the United Empire with Foreign States, and all matters appertaining to the defence and the stability of the Empire at large...' (from here.)

The militant 'Irish Republican Brotherhood' (IRB) was watching those developments with interest and it was decided that Patrick Egan and three other members of the IRB Supreme Council - John O'Connor Power, Joseph Biggar and John Barry - would join the 'Home Rule League' with the intention of 'steering' that group in the direction of the IRB.

Other members of the IRB were encouraged to join the 'League' as well, and a three-year time-scale was set in which to completely infiltrate that grouping.

However, that decision to infiltrate Isaac Butt's organisation was to backfire on the 'Irish Republican Brotherhood' : the 'three-year' period of infiltration ended in 1876 and in August 1877 the IRB Supreme Council held a meeting at which a resolution condemning the over-involvement in politics (ie political motions etc rather than military action) of IRB members was discussed.

After heated arguments, the resolution was agreed and passed by the IRB Council, but not everyone accepted that decision and Patrick Egan, John O'Connor Power, Joseph Biggar and John Barry refused to accept it and all four men resigned from the IRB ; they had become 'comfortable' in the political arena.

Charles Stewart Parnell was elected as leader of the 'Home Rule League' in 1880 and it became a more organised body - two years later, Parnell renamed it the 'Irish Parliamentary Party' and the rest, as they say, is history...

On the 19th November, 1924, the British Government agreed to hand £1 million over the following twelve months to finance the 'Ulster Special Constabulary' ('USC' - A, B and C Specials), three of its paramilitary groupings in Ireland.

It was also agreed that Mr Winston Churchill, the British 'Chancellor of the Exchequer' (and future British PM) should hold on to an extra £250,000 to spend on the 'Specials' at his own discretion ie recruitment, bullets and bribes etc.

And that government also approved Mr Churchill as the only conduit between the British Exchequer and Mr James Craig, the 'the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland' ie "...listen, James, if ya need a few extra shillings for recruitment, bullets and bribes, just gimme a shout..".

In October the following year (1925), Mr Churchill told Mr Craig that he had an extra £500,000 to give him for the 'USC' : recruitment, bullets and bribes don't come cheap, ya know...

On the same date that the Brits had agreed to hand over the big money to their surrogates in the Occupied Six Counties, a delegation of concerned nationalists from Tyrone, Strabane and Keady (all areas in the O6C) was meeting with Mr William T. Cosgrave, the 'President of the Free State Executive Council' ('Head of Government', or the equivalent of 'Taoiseach') in Dublin -

"If it's a bad report, (Eoin) MacNeill should not sign. This view is generally held..."

- the advice offered to Mr Cosgrave, from the delegation, in relation to the findings of the Boundary Commission which, the delegation stated, should not issue any report at all rather than issue a 'border-remains-as-is' report!

In other words - 'if it's a bad-news report, bury it...' - and the Staters have been burying that particular issue re the O6C, among others, ever since...

And, as that delegation were offering their 'bury it' advice, the politicians in Leinster House voiced approval for the notion that acceptance of the Treaty (of Surrender) must not be construed by Westminster as there being even more Irish territory to be had ie "Ah Jaze, Mr Churchill, leave us something here that we can tax, will ya..."

Disgusting cockroaches, all of them, filled with void.

==========================

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated.

Sharon and the team.

(We'll be back on Wednesday, 3rd December, 2025.)

1920's - WORKING WITHIN, AND AGAINST, THE BELLY OF THE BEAST...

2025-11-15T23:52:00.000+00:00

IRA OPERATIVES WITHIN THE FSA IN THE 1920's...

This IRA ASU in Leinster, in the 1920's, had a number of serving Free State Army soldiers working with it and, when the split over the Treaty of Surrender took place, the Unit stayed true to its roots and the IRA/FSA soldiers stayed as they were : working for the Cause from within the enemy camp...

That's one of about seventeen pieces we'll be posting about on Wednesday, 19th November 2025, and it's in relation to men who joined the Free State Army - but their hearts weren't in it.

They made contact with the rebels, and it was decided that they should remain within the belly of the beast, and work for the struggle from there...

A lecture delivered in a republican education class 36 years ago questioned the narratives surrounding the death in prison of a republican activist which three political institutions - Leinster House, Stormont and Westminster - continue to present as something other than it could have been, and possibly was...

1920's, Westminster - during a verbal exchange in which 'the Irish situation' was discussed, the dynamics of the fighting rebels and their ability to, apparently (!), indoctrinate a certain form of mechanical transportation raised a few heckles among the learned friends (!) present...!

...and we'd bleedin' love it if our own learned friends (!) could give us a look-see on the 19th for a few more paragraphs on the above three pieces, and a few words on about fourteen other bits and pieces!

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated.

Sharon and the team.

(...and we'll appreciate it all the more if ya call back on Wednesday, 19th November, 2025 - ya know ya wanna!)

THE WAR IN DEFENCE OF THE ALL-IRELAND REPUBLIC.

2025-11-05T10:17:00.000+00:00

On the 5th November, 1920 (listed in some sources as the 8th November), 21-year-old IRA Volunteer Michael Maguire, from Ardfert, in County Kerry, who earned his living as a shopkeeper, was 'arrested' by the Black and Tans and taken to the British Army barracks in the town of Causeway, a distance of about 14 miles (12 km) from the shop he worked in, in Ardfert.

Volunteer Maguire was then shot dead in that barracks.

No doubt in celebratory mood, the Tans took to the streets again and came across a mother and daughter - Teresa Ann O'Connell, 15 years young, and Ellen (née Landers), from the North Commons area.

It was said later that the Tans were of the opinion that young Teresa Ann was a member of Cumann na mBan, so they shot her - she died in the arms of her mother.

Days afterwards, another version of the murder was being whispered in the area - that two of the Tans were in dispute over which one was the best shot and, it seems, the 15-year-old child was just target practice...

(It should be noted that the murder of Teresa Ann O'Connell was never 'officially registered' with the 'British National Archives' in Kew, London, and the British military file on the poor girl was sealed until 1949, after which it was deemed to be an 'Open Document, Open Description, Public Record'. 29 years after the murder...)

RIP Volunteer Michael Maguire and Teresa Ann O'Connell.

On the same date that the Tans were practicing their shooting skills in Kerry, down the road and about 70 miles (101 km) across the country, in County Cork, the British Army's Hampshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion, was, it later claimed, out in force (between twenty and thirty of them) in the town of Youghal "investigating an attack on the police (sic) barracks..."

But there was no such attack.

The 'Hampshire Tigers', as that regiment called themselves, had been in the town earlier and had attempted to bully and intimidate the locals, who fought back as best they could ; now those armed thugs were back to, they later claimed, look into reports that an armed man had been seen in the vicinity of a barber shop in the town.

'The Cork Examiner' newspaper (which was a genuine newspaper then) reported that...

"..a party of twenty or thirty troops, fully armed, left the barracks for the town, where they started firing indiscriminately with rifles and revolvers and the letting-off of hand-grenades, with Verey lights and bombs adding to the pandemonium.

One soldier was killed, more than probably by the wild firing of a comrade.

On their way back to the barracks, they seriously wounded a poor man named Casey, the father of four young children, one an infant..."

During their first incursion into Youghal, the 'Tigers' had smashed the windows of Bransfield Barbers as part of the general mayhem they inflicted on the town, and were now back with bigger numbers, allegedly "searching for an armed man".

During their indiscriminate shooting and bombing, one of their own - a Mr William George King (22), from Liss, in East Hampshire, in England - was shot dead by, they claimed...

'...a bullet fired from across the street or from the barber shop's backyard. Private King was part of a group of soldiers who entered Bransfield's Barber Shop in Youghal to search for a reported armed man.

While inside the shop, King was shot. Accounts differ slightly, but suggest he was hit either as he was breaking into the backyard or by a civilian with a revolver who disappeared out the back.

Other soldiers testified that they were fired upon by IRA men from shops across the street, which is likely how King was killed - by a revolver bullet fired at close range from the yard of a house from which fire was opened on the troops...'

Whether shot dead by his own during the disruption they were causing or by an IRA Volunteer, Mr King is buried in England, his own country, in Saint Mary's Churchyard in Liss, East Hampshire.

At the same time that Mr King was 'visiting' a barber shop in the town of Youghal, some of his Crown Force comrades (from the 'Royal Marine Artillery 8th Battalion') were in the coastguard station in the village of Union Hall, in Cork.

Three rifle shots rang out in the building, and three 'Royal Marine' soldiers fell to the floor, wounded.

One of them, or one of their other colleagues had, it was later claimed, accidentally (!) fired three rounds from his rifle, all of which hit a fellow soldier.

Two of them recovered, but the third man - a Mr Percy Victor Starling (26), 'Service Number 13560' (with seven years 'service') from Brierly Hill in the 'Ceremonial County' of Staffordshire, in England - died three days later from his wound.

Mr Starling is buried in the Old Church Cemetery, on the outskirts of the town of Cobh, in Cork.

Incidentally, that graveyard contains three mass graves and several individual graves, including the remains of 193 victims of the passenger ship 'RMS Lusitania', which was sunk by a German torpedo off the Old Head of Kinsale in May 1915 with the loss of more than 1,100 lives.

Also, there are about 130 'Commonwealth' burials of the 1914-1918 period commemorated in that cemetery, 14 non-'World War' service burials are located there, and one Belgian Foreign National is buried in that graveyard.

Mr Starling (who had only got married three weeks before he was shot) joined them there on the 8th October 1920.

==========================

GAS LADS...

On the 10th October, 1969, 'The Hunt Report' recommended that the RUC (which had been formed on the 5th April 1922) should be changed into an unarmed force, that the 'B Specials' (the 'Ulster Special Constabulary') should be disbanded and a new reserve force be established, to be known as the 'Ulster Defence Regiment'.

The RUC name was given to the then-existing RIC force on the 1st June 1922 in an attempted sleight-of-hand manoeuvre to present an existing pro-British paramilitary force as a 'new entity' and that 'new entity' - the RUC - was, in turn, amalgamated into the 'new' PSNI on the 4th November 2001 - 24 years ago - and announced, in the media, as 'progress', on the 5th.

This was another tweaking of the name and uniform of a paramilitary outfit (and they've done it again!), as the 'police force' in that part of Ireland are still administered by Westminster and are as anti-republican as they were when they bore the 'RIC' name, and maintain the same structure and objective as when they were known by that latter name.

The more gullible in Leinster House and elsewhere among us (although they are well salaried to be so or, at least, to give the impression that they are that gullible) profess themselves convinced that a new day has dawned, ignoring the fact that the shadow in the room is caused by an elephant that they themselves have encouraged.

A UVF GUNRUNNER ON BEHALF OF THE SETTLERS : COLONEL FREDERICK HUGH CRAWFORD CBE, DIED ON THIS DATE (5TH NOVEMBER) 73 YEARS AGO.

Born in Belfast on the 21st August 1861, died in his 92nd year on the 5th November 1952.

His father, James, was a factory owner in Belfast (manufacturing starch) but Frederick struck out on his own, becoming an engineer with a shipping firm before taking to a military life, which brought him into the Boer War.

"From these settlers sprang a people, the Ulster-Scot, who have made themselves felt in the history of the British Empire and, in no small measure, in that of the United States of America....I am ashamed to call myself an Irishman.

Thank God I am not one. I am an Ulsterman, a very different breed..."

- Mr Crawford, describing himself, echoing the misguided feelings of his friends in the UUC, UVF and the URC.

On the night of the 24th April, 1914, Frederick Crawford, the 'Director of Ordnance HQ Staff UVF' (who was cooperating re acquiring arms with, and for, the 'Ulster Unionist Council') and the main instigator in an operation in which over 25,000 guns were successfully smuggled into Ireland, witnessed his plans come to fruition - for at least the previous four years, he and some other members of the 'Ulster Reform Club' had been making serious inquiries about obtaining arms and ammunition to be used, as they saw it, for 'the protection of fellow Ulstermen'.

Advertisements had been placed in newspapers in France, Belgium, Germany and Austrian newspapers seeking to purchase '10,000 second-hand rifles and two million rounds of ammunition...' and, indeed, between August 1913 and September 1914, it is known that Crawford and his colleagues in the UVF/URC/UUC obtained at least three million rounds of .303 ammunition and 500 rifles, including Martini Enfield carbines, Lee Metford rifles, Vetterlis and BSA .22 miniature rifles, all accompanied by their respective bayonets, and six Maxim machine guns (from the Vickers Company in London for £300 each).

The ads were placed and paid for by a 'H.Matthews, Ulster Reform Club' (Crawford's middle name was Hugh and his mother's maiden name was Matthews) an action which some members of the Club objected to, leading to Crawford resigning from that group (and describing the objectors as "a hindrance"): he described that period in his life as being "...so crowded with excitement and incidents that I can only remember some of them, and not always in the order in which they happened.."

Mr Crawford and his UVF/URC/UUC colleagues had ordered some munitions from a company in Hamburg, in Germany, and had paid a hefty deposit up front but, months later, as they had not heard from the company, Crawford was sent there to see what the delay was and discovered that the German boss, who was in Austria while Crawford was in Germany, had informed Westminster about the order and was asked by that institution not to proceed with same - the deposit would not be returned and the deal was off, as far as the company was concerned.

Crawford tracked him down, in Austria, and called him and his company "swindlers" and was then told of a similar 'deal' involving that arms company regarding Mexican purchasers who also got swindled but, on that occasion, words and bullets were exchanged, the latter from gun barrels!

At 60 years of age (in 1921) he was named in the British 'Royal Honours List' as a 'CBE' (' Commander of the Order of the British Empire') and he wrote his memoirs in 1934 at 73 years of age.

He died, in his 92nd year, in 1952, on the 5th November - 73 years ago on this date - and is buried in the City Cemetery in the Falls Road in Belfast.

The then British PM, 'Sir' Basil Brooke, described him as "...a fearless fighter in the historic fight to keep Ulster British.."

Whatever about his 'successes on the battlefield', he was apparently less successful in his family life -

"What sort of man was my Father ? .....as a boy and as a man he was never very intelligent.

He was an unconscious bully and for that reason unloved by his children.

Each in turn left the home as soon as we became adults and were able to do so. The U.V.F rifles - I think about 15,000 were stored and kept in good condition in a shed in the grounds of Harland and Wolff where I once saw them. For legal reasons they were in my father’s name.

After the retreat from Dunkirk, Britain was desperately short of arms and wanted to purchase the U.V.F rifles. As you are now aware my father was not a very intelligent person and a hopeless business man. My father’s chartered accountant sent word to him to say that Sir Dawson Bates wanted to meet him about something important.

Accordingly my father went to the accountant’s office where his old friend Sir Dawson Bates was waiting for him, “Ah Fred, so glad you’ve come”. The three, my father, the accountant and Sir Dawson Bates sat down at a table.

There Sir Dawson carefully explained the desperate need Britain had for arms and asked my father, for patriotic reasons, to release the rifles – it would only be a simple matter of signing a prepared document.

My father, in the presence of the Accountant and Sir Dawson Bates, for patriotic reasons, signed the document without reading it.

It conveyed ownership of the rifles from my father to Sir Dawson Bates who sold them to the British Government for I believe £2 a barrel - an unholy trio had been cheating him for years ; his estate agent who collected all revenues due to my father was keeping most of it.

His Chartered Accountant was presenting false figures for income tax purposes and all this skulduggery was made legal by the co-operation of his trusted friend, his solicitor..." (from here.)

Colonel Frederick Crawford CBE proudly worked for, and aided and abetted, British imperialism only to be used, abused and cheated by that same system.

A lesson (which will no doubt go unheeded) to be learned, even at this late stage, by those who, today, work that imperialist system in this country, north and south.

On the 5th November, 1921, a Mr David Lloyd George ('1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfo'), the then British Prime Minister, and a Mr James Craig ('1st Viscount Craigavon PC, PCNI, DL' ETC!), the then 'Stormont Prime Minister' in the then (and now!) nine-county Province of Ulster, had a chat between themselves in Downing Street, London.

Mr George was strongly considering placing the new Stormont 'parliament' in a subordinate political position to an All-Ireland 'parliament' (a 'peace-offering on paper' to the Irish rebels?) in what was to become the so-called 'Free State', and must have been so happy (!) when he found that Mr Craig was luke-warm about the suggestion, and didn't completely dismiss it out of hand.

Or was Mr Craig simply buying time for himself, and intending to get one over on his colleague, Mr George?

For t'was on the 6th November (1921) - the following day - that Mr Craig took himself off to the office of the then British 'Secretary of State for War', a Mr 'Sir' Laming Worthington-Evans ('1st Baronet', pictured, above), and he also had a chat with British Field Marshal Mr 'Sir' Henry Hughes Wilson (also a '1st Baronet'!), who was the then 'British Chief of the Imperial Staff', don't ya know...

It apparently didn't take much convincing for the pair of '1st Baronets' (...pair of wha', Shar...?!) to come to the conclusion that Mr Craig himself should, essentially, be placed in command of two of the pro-British paramilitary forces in Ireland - the RIC and the 'A,B,C Special Constabulary'- which he was.

With this newly-acquired authority under his belt, Mr Craig went back to Downing Street and advised Mr George (and anyone else that would listen to him!) that he would not be in favour of the 'subordinate parliament' idea, and a Mr 'Sir' Edward Carson (top pic, on the left, sitting, the 'Attorney General and Solicitor General for England, Wales and Ireland') supported him in saying that, as did a Mr Andrew Bonar Law, a well-got British politician (top pic, on the right, standing and, at that time, the soon-to-be British Prime Minister himself).

"Bonar Law is rampaging. He is seeing red on the subject of Ulster..."

- Mr Neville Chamberlain, who was British PM from May 28th 1937, to May 10th 1940.

Mr Chamberlain also voiced concern that other political 'big wigs' - such as Mr George Nathaniel Curzon, the 'Right Honourable Sir' Laming Worthington-Evans ('Bt GBE' ETC!) and a Mr Stanley Baldwin (another soon-to-be British PM) who were known to be supporters of the Bonar Law fella, would use the opportunity to assist in outing Mr George from office.

"A despairing Llyod George, more depressed than at any time since the conference had begun, finally accepted that Craig would 'not budge an inch'; he told Thomas Jones (British civil servant) to prepare (Arthur) Griffith and (Michael) Collins for the break-up of the conference..."

- Historian Ronan Fanning.

Westminster's main man in the North of Ireland, Mr James Craig, had pulled a quick one on his boss in London!

==========================

ON THIS DATE (5TH NOVEMBER) 51 YEARS AGO : DAY ONE OF 18 YEARS - JUDITH THERESA WARD 'CONVICTED ON ALL COUNTS'.

Judith Ward (pictured), an 'IRA activist', was arraigned on the 3rd October 1974 at Wakefield Crown Court, West Yorkshire, England, on an indictment containing 15 counts : Count 1: causing an explosion likely to endanger life or property on the 10th September 1973, at Euston Station, Count 2: a similar count relating to the explosion on the motorcoach on the M62 on the 4th February 1974, Counts 3-14: twelve counts of murder relating to each of the persons killed in the explosion on the motorcoach and Count 15: causing an explosion as before on February 12, 1974, at the National Defence College at Latimer.

She pleaded "not guilty" to all counts but, on the 4th November 1974, she was convicted on all counts, by a majority of ten to two on Count 1 and unanimously on all the others.

She was sentenced to five years' imprisonment on Count 1, 20 years' imprisonment concurrently on Count 2, life imprisonment for the murder Counts 3-14 and to 10 years on Count 15, to be served consecutively to the 20 years on Count 2, making a determinate sentence of 30 years.

It took eighteen years of campaigning to have her conviction quashed, which it was on the 11th May 1992 and it transpired that she had changed her 'confession' several times and that the police and the prosecution selected various parts of each 'confession' to assemble a version which they felt comfortable with!

One of the main pieces of forensic evidence against her was the alleged presence of traces of nitroglycerine on her hands, in her caravan and in her bag. Thin layer chromatography and the Griess test were used to establish the presence of nitroglycerine but later evidence showed that positive results using these methods could be obtained with materials innocently picked up from, for instance, shoe polish, and that several of the forensic scientists involved had either withheld evidence or exaggerated its importance.

Her book, 'Ambushed - My Story' makes for interesting reading and allows the reader to draw comparisons with the injustices suffered by the Maguire Seven, the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four ; a total of 18 innocent people, including Judith Ward (13 men, 3 women and two children) who, between them, spent a total of 216 years in prison.

Anne Maguire, a mother of 5 children, was menstruating heavily and denied all toiletries for a week, and was beaten senseless and Carol Richardson, who didn't even know she was pregnant, miscarried in Brixton Prison days after her arrest.

Pat O'Neill, who had minutes before entered the Maguires house to arrange for a baby-sitter when the police arrived, was told by a cop to swear that he saw a big cardboard box on Maguires table or else he would be done, but he refused to lie - he served eleven years. On his release, he found his marriage was broken beyond repair and that his six children had left the family home.

How many more Irish children will have to 'leave the family home' before the British eventually give a date for their political and military withdrawal from Ireland, because the situation as it now (and still) exists here is that their very presence continues to be objected to by Irish republicans and continues to give rise to unrest.

And, if our history is to be used as a yardstick, that will always be the case, regardless of where the outsider comes from.

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON...

Had the electoral rules entitled him to run again for the White House in 2000, few are in any doubt that Bill Clinton would be at this present moment in time relaxing in the Oval House, toying with a fat cuban and possibly smoking a cigar...

From 'Magill' Annual, 2002.

As Beckett once said -

"When you're up to your neck in shit, all you can do is sing..."

And what better blustering tenor to hear emanating from the Park in a few years than that of Wild Bill?

Harangued by unresolved court cases, heavily in debt, at the mercy of continually prying journalists and still smiling, his essential indomitable insouciance could be a lesson to us all in these times of coming hardship.

True, Bill's side of the deal would bring him about the same level of real power as wielded by the average president of an American high school class, but a man of his wiles could easily use the country (sic) to establish a world-wide power base opposed to George Bush's America, and few would be opposed to renaming the Presidential abode something a bit more fiesty, such as 'Kandahar'.

In terms of our next President, 'Magill' suggests William Jefferson Clinton ; if he has taught us anything, it is that anything is possible if you can manage to bend the rules and just keep smiling.

(END of 'William Jefferson Clinton' ; NEXT - 'Unspun : The Stories That Hit The Headlines', from 2002.)

NOVEMBER, 71 YEARS AGO : 'ISSUED BY THE ARMY COUNCIL, ÓGLAIGH NA hÉIREANN, NOVEMBER 1954...'

From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, December 1954.

"The people of Ireland have a decision to make ; let them think well on it, because they will stand at the bar of history to answer for it and let it not be said of this generation that they failed those who once again have hurled defiance at the crumbling ramparts of that imperial and blood-stained power which for so long has kept our country under the iron heel of oppression.

England still holds part of our land by force and, in the eight hundred years of occupation, never once has she given the slightest measure of amelioration except under force or the threat of force.

The dispassionate logical conclusion to be drawn from the history of the two countries is that Ireland can only achieve unity and freedom when the whole people of Ireland tell the British Army to get out or be driven out..."

Today, British politicians continue to claim jurisdictional control over six Irish counties and they militarily enforce that control. There are an acknowledged ('officially admitted') 1,830 British military personnel in that part of Ireland ('1,740 BA, 80 RAF, 10 'Royal' Navy') and then there are the other intruders, armed with knives and machetes.

They, too, need to be removed...

On the 5th November, 1922, the newspapers covered an FSA attack the previous day in which the IRA Commandant of the Northern, Eastern and Western Commands (and the Assistant Chief of Staff of the Republican Army), Earnán Ó Máille (Ernest Bernard Malley, pictured), was in his temporary Headquarters in Ailesbury Road in Dublin (Sighle Humphreys's home) when armed Free Staters broke down the door and rushed in.

A gunfight ensued, during which Commandant Ó Máille was seriously wounded, as was M/s Eileen Flanagan, the housekeeper, and a Stater soldier, a Mr Peter McCartney (from County Leitrim) was shot dead.

Commandant Ó Máille was 'arrested' by the Staters, and taken prisoner.

Within weeks he undertook a hunger-strike (which he endured for forty-one days) and, in July 1924, was the last POW to be released from internment, in very poor health.

He went to Europe and then North Africa to gather his strength and returned to Ireland after two years, tried to take up from where he left off in his medical studies but for various reasons couldn't do so, went to America to meet exiled Irish republicans for discussions about launching a pro-Irish newspaper, a fund-raising venture which also took him to Mexico.

Nothing came of the newspaper attempt, but he did begin to write about his experiences in the war in Ireland, returned home and, on the 27th September, 1935, in London, married his sweetheart, Helen Huntington Hooker (pictured).

Commandant Ernie O'Malley died, at 59 years of age, in Howth, County Dublin, on the 25th March, 1957.

RIP Volunteer Earnán Ó Máille.

On the same date that the newspapers reported on the IRA HQ raid (5th November 1922), about 165km (105 miles) up the road in Belfast, a Mr 'Sir' Richard Dawson Bates ('1st Baronet OBE PC JP DL' ETC ETC!), the Stormont 'Minister of Home Affairs', acknowledged to himself and to his political crony buddies that the sectarian nature of their Six-County 'Statelet' needed a gloss of white-washing.

He issued internment orders against four 'Ulster Protestant Association' (UPA) anti-republican paramilitaries in Belfast and, in the following six weeks, another 12 'UPA' members had been interned and still others jailed for firearm offences.

However, his placed cloak didn't cover all the misdeeds of the failed political entity he sought to control -

"There can be no denying that this (temporary removal of the UPA threat) could have been achieved earlier and lives saved had the Stormont government been willing to use its powers as fully against loyalists as it did against nationalists..."

- author Patrick Buckland.

No matter how you try to dress-up a rotten tooth, it's still a rotten tooth...

As Master Bates (!) was showing his cloak to the media, Volunteers attached to the No. 4 Brigade of the 3rd Western Division of the IRA, acting under orders from their Commanding Officer, Volunteer Francis Joseph Carty (a republican gamekeeper-turned-Free State-poacher), were approaching two men in the village of Tubbercurry, in the county of Sligo.

Those two men were shot dead.

Four days previous to those shootings, eight Volunteers from that IRA Division had been 'arrested' by the Staters, on foot of information supplied to them by those two men.

IRA Chief of Staff, Volunteer Liam Lynch, heard of the shootings and issued an order that the IRA Officers responsible for that operation should be suspended from operational duties, as they were in direct contravention of IRA General Order No.6, which stipulated that those accused of spying will be tried in an IRA court, not shot dead without trial.

The COS order was issued and received...but not enforced.

As the two spies were falling to the ground in Sligo, about 240km (150 miles) down the country in Kilkenny, an IRA POW, Volunteer Robert Kenny (mentioned here), was escaping from Kilkenny Jail, rumoured later to have done so with the assistance of an FSA sentry, proving that not all spies are bad...

==========================

DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...

On the 5th November, 1924, newspapers in the State announced that, the previous day, the Leinster House administration "had declared an amnesty by discontinuing criminal proceedings for crimes committed during the Civil War* (*the war in defence of the All-Ireland Republic, June 1922 - May 1923 ; 'officially', that is...)..."

The (on-going) republican struggle was not then, and is not now, a "criminal proceeding", nor is it a "crime" to fight for an Ireland for the Irish!

The historian William Kissane greeted the Leinster House declaration by stating that it "marked the real end of the Irish civil war..." ; as we said above - 'officially', that is...

On the same day that those newspapers assisted Stater politicians in demeaning the republican struggle, other politicians, local to the area, in Naas No. 1 Rural District Council, discussed and passed a motion expressing sympathy to the parents and relatives of seven IRA Volunteers who were executed by Leinster House operatives in 1922 and who were re-interred, in 1924, in Grey Abbey Graveyard in Kildare.

Those local politicians also condemned "the disrespectful attitude of the Free State military at the graveside..."

The seven executed Volunteers were placed (dumped) in holes in the ground in the Curragh Detention Barracks "after being found guilty of various acts against the State during the Irish Civil War..." : in 1924, their remains were exhumed, placed in state, and were re-buried in Grey Abbey with a new gravestone erected over their graves.

RIP Commandant Brian Moore, Volunteer Patrick Nolan, Volunteer Patrick Mangan, Volunteer Patrick Bagnall, Volunteer Jackie Johnston, Volunteer Stephen White and Volunteer James O'Connor (who was later re-interred in his native Tipperary).

==========================

ON THIS DATE (5TH NOVEMBER) 376 YEARS AGO : LAST DAY ALIVE ON EARTH FOR A BRAVE IRISH REBEL...

Eoghan Ruadh O’Neill : "We thought you would not die, we were sure you would not go, and leave us in our utmost need to Cromwell’s cruel blow..."

Eoghan Ruadh O'Neill (Owen Roe O'Neill), a seventeenth-century Irish soldier, son of Art O'Neill and younger brother of Hugh O'Neill, died on 6th November 1649 in Cloughoughter Castle in County Cavan, at the age of 59.

His mother was born into the O'Raghallaigh clan in that county.

Eoghan Ruadh was considered by Charles I of England to be a loyal subject and soldier but, at 37 years of age, he petitioned the Spanish monarchy to invade Ireland and called for Ireland to be placed under Spanish protection, but nothing came of his endeavours.

However, he maintained his opposition to the English presence in Ireland and, in 1642, at the age of 52, he arrived back in Ireland with 300 soldiers to play his part in the Rising that was then one year old.

He sought to overturn the 'Ulster Plantation' and return the lands to those that had been evicted by the English.

In August 1649, Oliver Cromwell landed in Ireland, supported by at least 20,000 armed men, prompting O'Neill to join forces with the Earl of Ormond to fight for Irish ways but O'Neill died shortly afterwards, apparently poisoned.

Thomas Davis wrote the following Lament for Eoghan Ruadh O'Neill :

Did they dare, did they dare, to slay Eoghan Ruadh O’Neill?

Yes, they slew with poison him they feared to meet with steel.

May God wither up their hearts! May their blood cease to flow,

May they walk in living death, who poisoned Eoghan Ruadh.

Though it break my heart to hear, say again the bitter words.

From Derry, against Cromwell, he marched to measure swords:

But the weapon of the Sassanach met him on his way.

And he died at Cloch Uachtar, upon St. Leonard’s day.

Wail, wail ye for the Mighty One. Wail, wail ye for the Dead,

Quench the hearth, and hold the breath—with ashes strew the head.

How tenderly we loved him. How deeply we deplore!

Holy Saviour! but to think we shall never see him more!

Sagest in the council was he, kindest in the hall,

Sure we never won a battle—’twas Eoghan won them all.

Had he lived—had he lived—our dear country had been free:

But he’s dead, but he’s dead, and ’tis slaves we’ll ever be.

O’Farrell and Clanricarde, Preston and Red Hugh,

Audley and MacMahon—ye valiant, wise and true:

But—what are ye all to our darling who is gone?

The Rudder of our Ship was he, our Castle’s corner stone.

Wail, wail him through the Island! Weep, weep for our pride!

Would that on the battlefield our gallant chief had died!

Weep the Victor of Beinn Burb—weep him, young and old:

Weep for him, ye women—your beautiful lies cold!

We thought you would not die—we were sure you would not go,

And leave us in our utmost need to Cromwell’s cruel blow—

Sheep without a shepherd, when the snow shuts out the sky—

O! why did you leave us, Eoghan? Why did you die?

Soft as woman’s was your voice, O’Neill! bright was your eye,

O! why did you leave us, Eoghan? Why did you die?

Your troubles are all over, you’re at rest with God on high,

But we’re slaves, and we’re orphans, Eoghan! — why did you die?

It is from that spirit that traditional Irish republicans take heart - knowing that even though we have lost 'fights' in the past, the 'battle' itself is not yet over...

Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated.

Sharon and the team.

(We'll be back on Wednesday, 19th November, 2025.)

"INNOCENT OF ALL CHARGES" - AFTER OVER 200 YEARS...

2025-11-01T23:19:00.002+00:00

From the 1920's - an interesting story (sure aren't they all??!) about double-dealing between at least half-a-dozen very high-ranking British military and political leaders in relation to 'security issues' in the Six County area, during which the Leinster House administration in the so-called 'Free State' was referenced...

- that's one of about twenty pieces we'll be posting about on Wednesday, 5th November 2025, and sure there's bound to be at least one of them that'll catch yer attention!

If not that one, then wha' 'bout this -

An IRA statement from over 70 years ago bears an uncanny and corresponding similarity to the state of play today, in this State...

But if yer whistle is still not wet, try this -

Ireland, 1920's - an IRA 'General Order' was breached by IRA Officers and two foreign agents paid the price. The IRA Officers were notified that the Chief of Staff wanted to see them...

And if that don't do it for ya, sure ya can feck off...

...just make sure that yer back here on the 5th!

See y'all then, hopefully!

Sharon and the team.

1921 - 'ANTI-SINN FÉIN SOCIETY' MEMBERSHIP LIST LOCATED BY THE IRA.

2025-10-22T08:30:00.000+00:00

"Sixty-one persons have been convicted since 1st January last for complicity in attacks on military or police (sic), or on police barracks (sic).

In 21 cases, sentences of penal servitude for periods exceeding two years have been inflicted, and there have been 20 cases of sentences of imprisonment with hard labour for periods of two years.

In the remaining 20 cases, sentences ranging from 18 months to one months imprisonment with or without hard labour were imposed.

There has been no case in which capital punishment has been inflicted..." (*)

(* Not 'officially', anyway.)

- the words of the British 'Chief Secretary for Ireland', a Mr 'Sir' Thomas Hamar Greenwood (pictured), 1st Viscount Greenwood, PC, KC ETC ETC in the British 'House of Commons', on the 21st October, 1920, and reported on in newspapers on the 22nd.

Mr Greenwood also stated that, between the months of January 1919 and the 21st of October 1919, about 127 (political) meetings had been prohibited, 22 newspapers suppressed, 16 creameries had been totally destroyed and 11 creameries had been partially destroyed or damaged.

So - a perfectly normal ten month period in British-occupied Ireland, then...

On the same day that people were reading the newspaper reports in which Mr Greenwood was basking in the destructiveness of his 'Empire', the 10.45am express train from Cork ran into trouble in Newbridge, in County Kildare.

For t'was in the Newbridge Station that British Army soldiers boarded the train, on their way to no doubt give Mr Greenwood more material to write about, when the railway workers said "NO!!" - and refused to operate the train until the foreign gunmen disembarked!

And the same thing happened later that day with the 1.15pm train from Dublin : when it arrived at the Sallins Station, in County Kildare, the workers refused to proceed until the foreign gunmen disembarked.

The reason given was 'health and safety' - the British Army soldiers were likely to be attacked by the IRA, which put the workers and other passengers in danger etc etc but...ah, sure, ya know yerself... ;-) !

And I'd say that those soldiers of the 'Empire' were disappointed that they couldn't get up the country to the county of Leitrim, about 140km (90 miles) from Kildare where, on that same date (the 22nd October 1920) their equally-armed and troublesome comrades were burning the local hall (community centre) in the small town of Aughavas, but they probably made it for the 'Greenwood Goodies' that took place in Leitrim over the following two weeks - town halls were burned down by those armed thugs in the villages of Annaduff, Fenagh, Gorvagh, Gowel and Ballinamore.

Had those bowsies taken the time to read that days 'Times of London' newspaper (22nd October 1920) they might have had a change of heart (!) because of a write-up in it about the 'Cambridge Union Society' having discussed and passed a motion condemning the British government's actions in Ireland ; a game-changer, if ever there was one, for sure...

On that same date (22nd October 1920), 'The Cork Constitution' newspaper reported that the Mayor of Wexford, a Mr Richard Corish, had received a threatening letter from "the Wexford Branch" of a pro-British grouping, the so-called 'Anti-Sinn Féin Society' ('ASFS').

The letter stated that there would be "severe reprisals against Sinn Féin supporters in the event of the shooting or wounding of government officials (sic)..."

That 'organisation' was known by the IRA to be a loose network of pro-British intelligence agents involved in 'counter-insurgency' activities, on a 'plausible deniability'-basis by Westminster ; indeed, on the 25th November (1920), Mr Greenwood stated, in Westminster -

"The Government have no information concerning this so-called society, and no branch of the public service in Ireland has relations with any such organisation..." (From Hansard HC Deb Vol 135 c645W).

The grouping made itself a target for the IRA and, when located, its members and leadership were executed ; for instance, a Mr James Charles Beale, an 'ASFS' leader, was shot dead in February 1921 and his living quarters were searched.

An 'ASFS' membership list was found, leading to the execution of 13 other pro-British spies and marauders and the IRA let it be known that they had names, addresses and contact details for other members and supporters and those people were advised to back off, which they did, rather sharpishly, as the British themselves might put it...

By March, 1921, the grouping had outlived its usefulness to the British and had effectively ceased to exist.

"We approached (RIC member) Cullen's house and knocked at the door.

He asked who was there and we said 'Open up in the name of the IRA'.

Cullen refused to open the door.

Volunteer Andrew Kirwan then fired a revolver shot up towards the roof of the house and Volunteer Walter Walsh and I began to break in the door with a hatchet we had with us.

When Cullen heard us smashing the door he went upstairs and threw a grenade out through the window ; it landed about three-quarter ways across the street before it exploded.

Volunteer Walsh and I fell down with the blast and then got up and ran around a corner out of range.

Volunteer James Power, who was some way out on the road, went across the street and into the chapel yard after the explosion, but we lost him in the darkness.

I set out for the IRA Commandant's house at Ballycraddock, about four miles distant, with a view to getting hold of a few rifles and, when I returned to the village of Kill ('1169' comment - the village of Kill in Waterford, not Kildare) later that night I found that our men had dispersed to their homes.

The following day I heard that Volunteer James Power had been badly wounded the previous night by the grenade thrown by the RIC man, Cullen.

Volunteer Power had apparently gone home a distance of over a quarter of a mile the previous night in spite of his bad wound.

We brought Doctor (Joseph C.) Walsh of Bunmahon (pictured) to attend him but it was no use, as the poor fellow died three days afterwards and is buried in Kill Graveyard.

At the time of Volunteer Power's death it was said by his relatives that he died of pneumonia, and everybody - except those of us who really knew - believed that.

The idea was, of course, to keep the British ignorant of the truth and so save his people from raids or, maybe, arrest..."

- a statement from one of the IRA Volunteers who was on that military operation with Volunteer James Power.

(Incidentally, a well-known [apparently?!] British comedian [!] with a very poor grasp of Irish history has a family connection with an IRA Volunteer of the same name as the Volunteer we wrote about, above, who is also from Waterford, and was actually on the same military operation as Volunteer Power ; more here.)

RIP Volunteer James Power.

On the same day that Volunteer Power was caught-up in the grenade explosion, 150 km/95 miles or so up the road in County Offaly, the newly formed Flying Column from the Athlone Battalion IRA were waiting at an ambush point they had established in the Parkwood area of Clara, County Offaly (just inside the Offaly border, outside the town of Moate).

Volunteers James Tormey and George Adamson were in command of the rebels who, with limited ammunition, were waiting for an RIC patrol (19 armed members) to pass that way, on its journey from Gormanstown Barracks in County Meath to the town of Ballinasloe, in the East of County Galway.

At about 1pm, three Crossley Tender trucks drove up to the ambush point, the first of which the rebels allowed pass unhindered - but a continuous fusillade of shots from revolvers and rifles stopped the second truck immediately.

Intermittent fire was returned and, as the rebels were low on ammunition, they used the last of their firepower to withdraw from the scene.

One of the RIC members, a Mr Harold Biggs (23, 'Service Number 73983'), from London, died the following day from his wounds.

Mr Biggs had only joined the RIC on the 9th October that year but, even at the young age he was when he died, he had eight years of military training to his 'credit' : at 15 years young he had joined the British Army but was discharged a year later and re-enlisted at 18 years of age.

Before he was discharged, he had been wounded in France, had been a member of the London Metropolitan Police (from which he resigned after four months) and then continued his military 'career' with the RIC in Ireland.

He ended it here, too...

On the same day of that successful IRA ambush (22nd October 1920), the villages of Moate and Horseleap, in County Westmeath, and the village of Killbeggan, on the border between County Westmeath and County Offaly, were attacked and terrorised by armed Crown Force members, many civilians were wounded and a former 'Irish Parliamentary Party' urban councillor, a Mr Michael Burke (50, pictured), was shot dead by the foreigners.

Those Crown Force revenge attacks were raised in the British 'House of Commons', and a Mr Thomas Hamar Greenwood ('1st Baron Greenwood' - him again!) replied to the concerns expressed -

"It is inevitable that in the conditions prevailing in Ireland, the innocent should sometimes suffer for the acts of the wrongdoer..."

It should not have been "inevitable", but Mr Greenwood died peacefully ('unspecified causes') at 78 years of age, in London, on the 10th September, 1948.

Marbhfháisc air!

Léan léir air!

Drochbhreith ort!

Díth béasa ort!

"The creation of the Special Constabulary would place the lives of Catholics at the mercy of opponents, armed by the British government.

If I had the power, I would organise special constables to fight your special constables.

The Chief Secretary is going to arm pogromists to murder the Catholics. Their pogrom is to be made less difficult. Instead of paving stones and sticks they are to be given rifles..."

- Mr Joe Devlin, addressing Mr Hamar Greenwood in the British 'House of Commons', on October 25th, 1920.

The occasion was necessitated due to an order issued on the 22nd October by the British military and political 'Head Office' in Ireland, in Dublin Castle that, under the British 'Special Constabulary Ireland Acts of 1832 and 1914', a 'Special Constabulary' was to be created for Ireland, recruitment for which was to commence on November 1st.

Four groupings were to be established ; full-time 'A Specials', part-time 'B Specials', reserve force 'C Specials' and 'CI Specials', consisting of loyalist paramilitary members.

In order to lessen opposition to this new group of bandits, guarantees were given that the 'Specials' would not be let loose on their own ie only allowed out accompanied by, and under the command of, an RIC member - a faulty warranty, if ever there was one!

Overall, the financial situation faced at the time by Westminster would indicate that they were reluctant to recruit more soldiers and RIC members for placement in Ireland and believed they could get the same results (ie defeat the Irish opposition to their presence) by initiating a new (para-)military force.

"I sincerely trust there is no foundation for this rumour.

You cannot in the middle of a faction fight (sic) recognise one of the contending parties and expect it to deal with disorder in the spirit of impartiality and fairness essential in those who have to carry out the Orders of the Government..."

- 'Sir' John 'Pompous John' Anderson (pictured), the British 'Under Secretary For Ireland' (appointed to that position on the 16th May that year), in a letter he wrote to a Mr Bonar Law, on the 2nd September, voicing his opposition to the formation of any new 'official' (para-)military grouping.

British Army General 'Sir' Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready was not in favour of the new grouping, and the British 'Chief of the Imperial Staff', 'Sir' Henry Hughes Wilson, also spoke out against the 'Specials' (but Mr Wilson later publicly changed his opinion of them - on St Patrick's Day in 1922, of all days, when he called for an increase in the number of 'Special Constables' especially, he said, the 'C Specials'!)

"The proposal to arm 'well-disposed citizens' raised serious questions of the sanity of Government...", wrote 'The Daily Mail' newspaper on the 15th September, stating that it shows that the British Government had abandoned any pretence of impartiality.

"Membership of the Special Constabulary was a perfect fit for all the eager spirits who have driven nationalist workmen from the docks or have demonstrated their loyalty by looting Catholic shops...", wrote 'The Westminster Gazette' newspaper, on the 16th September.

"The special constables would prove to be nothing more and nothing less than the dregs of the Orange lodges, armed and equipped to overawe Nationalists and Catholics...", wrote 'The Fermanagh Herald' newspaper, on the 27th November.

At the time and, indeed, since then, various political authors have stated that the formation of the 'USC' gave the Stormont administration "the ability to legitimise the UVF as an arm of the state, thereby controlling its unruly nature, while harnessing its power...in the summer of 1920 loyalist violence predominated where the balance of forces favoured the UVF, such as Belfast, Lisburn and Banbridge or Cookstown in Tyrone. The creation of the 'USC' facilitated the westward spread of unionist violence...it is likely that some police officers (sic) were guilty either of direct involvement in the murder of Catholics, or else of collusion with loyalist terrorists. Certainly the Specials became pariah figures for many Catholics...in essence, the arming of the majority against a minority..."

British imperialism the world over - set the majority against the minority by fostering religious and ethnic divisions : divide and rule...

(The 'Ulster Special Constabulary' (USC) was 'officially disbanded' in March 1970, with most of its members being absorbed into a new part-time grouping, the 'Royal Ulster Constabulary' and its 'Reserve Force', and/or the new 'Ulster Defence Regiment' (UDR), equally treacherous outfits.)

==========================

GAS LADS...

Listed in one of our sources was an unfortunate incident involving an IRA Volunteer, Hugh O'Neill who, in October, 1921, is said to have accidentally shot himself in his hand.

He was treated for the injury but tetanus set in and he was taken to a hospital in Newry, County Down, but died from the disease on the 22nd of that month.

This incident is not recorded anywhere else, at least not where we could find a record of it.

On the 17th October, 1921, Volunteers attached to the 2nd Battalion of Kerry No 2 Brigade of the IRA were securing an arms dump which was located on a farm in the village of Molahiffe, near the village of Firies, in County Kerry (underground passages ran from Molahiffe to Firies and were used by the rebels).

Volunteer Maurice 'Mossie' Casey was working on gunpowder supplies when the area he was working in exploded.

Badly burnt, he was taken to Tralee Union Infirmary but he couldn't be saved - the poor man died there on the 22nd of that month.

Circumstances at the time dictated that Volunteer Casey be buried in a local cemetery without a grave marker : those circumstances changed in time but not, unfortunately - God forgive us - for Volunteer Casey.

Not until 2016, that is - the 'National Graves Association' (NGA) take up the story -

"In 1921 Volunteer Mossie Casey died a terrible death after being horribly injured in an explosion while on active service near the village of Firies in County Kerry.

He was buried under a green patch of grass in a local cemetery without a marker.

Mossie Casey and his grave were soon forgotten by a nation who quickly consigned his memory to the national amnesia, even though he had died a dreadful death for the (limited) freedom that they now enjoyed.

After three years of investigations the cemetery and eventually the exact location of the forgotten, unmarked grave was identified by the NGA.

And so, after 95 years of lying forgotten, and with assistance of two local men who gave very generously of their time and skill, the NGA erected a headstone (pictured) over that fallen soldier.

Let all who pass now know that Vol Mossie Casey died for Ireland and will not be forgotten..."

RIP Volunteer Maurice 'Mossie' Casey (and sincere apologies for our carelessness).

==========================

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON...

Had the electoral rules entitled him to run again for the White House in 2000, few are in any doubt that Bill Clinton would be at this present moment in time relaxing in the Oval House, toying with a fat cuban and possibly smoking a cigar...

From 'Magill' Annual, 2002.

Firstly, niggling constitutional issues regarding our favourite President's right to a nomination could be swept aside by a referendum of the type we as a nation (sic) seem somewhat addicted to ; in the clause which demands that the President be a citizen of the republic of Ireland (sic) we need only insert the caveat 'unless the President's name is William Jefferson Clinton'. That motion would be passed with record approval.

We could, while we are at it, make him exempt from any other Irish laws which he might deem unsavoury or unwarranted so that he might enjoy a smoother presidential ride on this side of the Atlantic than he has done heretofore.

Secondly, with his faded good looks, financial problems, and uncertainty about the future, the man from Little Rock personifies the current post-Tiger Zeitgeist like no other could...

(MORE LATER.)

DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...

Desmond Boomer, a Belfast engineer working in the Libyan oil-fields, disappeared seven years ago.

Officially, the plane on which he was a passenger crashed as a result of mechanical failure and pilot error.

But is that the real story?

Or were the Irishman and his fellow passengers unwitting victims of the shady war between Islamic fundamentalism and Mossad, Israel's intelligence network?

A special 'Magill' investigation by Don Mullan, author of 'Eyewitness Bloody Sunday'.

From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.

At a sitting of the Maltese Board of Inquiry on the 14th May, 1997, Piper Corporation Senior Accident Investigator, Paul Lehman, "..made reference to the missing alternator belt and the depletion of the aircraft battery..."

According to the inquiry report -

"He affirmed that a fully charged battery would render 30 minutes of energy but, considering the energy required to start the aircraft engine, the remaining battery life would not be more than 10-15 minutes.

Moreover, he asserted that in flight, once the battery went flat, the pilot would have lost all communications."

If, therefore, the aircraft did manage to start up and take off with a fully charged engine, Paul Lehman's expert opinion suggest that the energy remaining would allow the pilot to communicate for a maximum of 10 to 15 minutes, meaning that by between 3.54am and 3.59am communications between the missing aircraft and Djerba ATC would begin to fail...

(MORE LATER.)

In mid-October, 1922, the Free State Army were searching part of a mountain range, in the Woodhouse area, in Waterford for IRA rebels.

An IRA ASU was thought to be on the run in that area, with Volunteer Patrick Curran in command, and it was this Unit's ambush position that the FSA troops came across.

In the inevitable gunfight, two FSA soldiers, both from Waterford - a Mr Patrick Foley and a Mr Laurence Phelan - were killed.

At around that same time (3am-ish), across the country, eastwards, about 58 km (36 miles) away, a five-man IRA Unit, with Volunteer Robert Lambert in command, had established their own ambush position on a railway bridge over the main Ferrycarrig to Wexford road.

They were lying in wait for a FSA Lancia armoured car, which was fitted-out with steel plates on each side, front and back, but no added protection on its roof.

As it passed under the bridge, the IRA opened fire on it with heavy weaponry, opening its roof, through which a Mills Bomb was dropped from the bridge into it.

The bomb exploded in the vehicle, killing four of the occupants - Mr Christy Kearns (a Dublin man), Mr Patrick O’Connor (Wexford), Mr William Doyle (Wexford) and a Mr Peter Behan (Kildare) - and three of their FSA colleagues - Mr John Murphy, Mr James Kirwan and a Mr William Jones - were badly wounded.

The driver of the armoured Lancia lost control of the vehicle and crashed it into a wall.

The IRA Unit returned safely to base.

On that same date (22nd October 1922), about 115km (70 miles) to the west, an FSA soldier on sentry duty in Cashel, County Tipperary - a Mr James Burke - shot himself dead with his own gun.

As Mr Burke's life came to an end, 80km (about 50 miles) down the road in Cork, a Free State Army Brigadier-Commandant, a Mr Ahern, and his soldiers, were waiting outside a Catholic Church in the townland of Rathduane, Caherbarnagh, in Drishane Civil Parish, County Cork.

As the Mass-goers came out, the FSA grouping closed-in on two men that they suspected were IRA Volunteers, and 'arrested' both of them.

As the FSA bandits were returning the prisoners to their Millstreet Barracks, they were ambushed at Annagloor by the IRA, who opened fire from both sides of the road.

One of their number, a Mr Thomas Mahony (19), received a serious wound in the stomach and died at Blarney while being rushed in a military ambulance to the Mercy Hospital in Cork city.

And again, on that same date, and also in Cork (about 60km/35 miles from the Annagloor shooting), on Curragh Hill, near the town of Clonakilty, an FSA patrol was heading to the town of Rosscarbery with orders for their troops based there.

The IRA had set-up an ambush position, with a Thompson machine gun and small arms, and opened fire on the Staters, killing one of them, a Mr Daniel Sullivan.

His body was taken to O'Donovan's Hotel, in Clonakilty.

The 22nd October 1922 - a bad day for the Leinster House Army.

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Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated.

Sharon and the team.

(We'll be back on Wednesday, 5th November, 2025.)