Web layout by SAOIRSE -- Irish Freedom
December 5, 2000
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THE December 1950 issue of An tÉireannach Aontaithe/The United Irishman leads on its front page with a headline “Stormont prepared!” and sub-headings “Northern police get military training” plus ‘Commando tactics for RUC and B-Specials”.
The report itself says: “From a debate in Stormont it has been obligatory on all members of the RUC and B-Specials to undergo a special course of training in general Commando warfare.
“Sir Basil Brooke [Stormont Prime Minister] admitted that this was so and emphasised the point that it was done to protect the Six Counties against any attempt to incorporate them in a United Ireland.”
Accordingly even as the last Republican prisoners were being released from Belfast jail in the autumn of 1950, Stormont was getting ready for the next round of the battle for Irish national independence.
There was no hesitation there in facing reality and what the unionist leadership knew to be inevitable. The “UI”, as it became known colloquially, noted there were 3,000 RUC and about 12,000 B-men, the latter recruited exclusively from members of the Orange Order. Then there was the British army, “many thousands strong to protect the Border and ensure that England will have a secure foothold in Ireland in times of war”.
It went on: “In spite of all these facts the anti-partitionists, North and South, still seek the peaceful solution to the problem.” The Free State had an army costing many millions of pounds annually, allegedly “to protect the State in the event of war”. They were never given a chance of driving out the enemy from our shores, “which the great majority of the younger men would do with a will”. The sad fact was that “the authorities accept the 26 Counties as ‘Ireland’ and have abandoned any idea of ever restoring the 32-County Republic”.
The report concluded: “But there are thousands of young men who will not take their lead from Leinster House and who are prepared to use all and every means to restore the republic of Pearse. Sir Basil Brooke knows this and hence his haste to augment the British forces in north-east Ulster.”
The same front page reports on the British and US military attachés to Dublin attending Free State artillery practice in the Glen of Imaal and expresses concern about a link-up with the Western Powers in the event of WWIII.
It accuses Seán MacBride — not for the first time in the Republican monthly — of trying to “strike a bargain about Partition before he formally joins the Atlantic pact (NATO)”.
Mac Bride as Foreign Minister in Dublin had been pushing the idea of leaving Stormont as it was and seeking the transfer of Westminster powers over it to Leinster House — an idea first put forward by de Valera in an interview with a London evening paper in 1938.
Both MacBride’s and de Valera ideas were miscalled a “federal solution” which it most certainly was not. It merely provided for a continuance of entrenched unionist hegemony within a regional experiment in Ireland.
Also criticised was MacBride’s apparent willingness for the 26-County State to join NATO as a quid pro quo. He said in later life that while the State could in the future pull out of NATO the British government could hardly return to Ireland once it left. At successive Ard-Fheiseanna of Clann na Poblachta he had firmly ruled out the use of physical force to deal with the British government’s presence in Ireland.
Obviously he was trying to use the constitutional position of the 26-County State to advance towards the national objective of a free and united Ireland. This, of course, would involve bargaining and Republicans were well aware of John Redmond’s deal in 1914.
He chose a path which sacrificed 50,000 Irish lives to England’s war against Germany. In return he got the obliteration of his Irish Party, no Home Rule and the regime of the Black-and-Tans.
Meanwhile in Leinster House on October 26, John A Costello, head of the Coalition Administration answered a question regarding the admission of elected representatives from north of the Border to the 26-County assembly.
His government had decided not to sponsor any proposals for their admission either to the 26-County Dáil or Seanad. A nationalist MP had already been elected in a by-election who was pledged to sit in Leinster House rather than in Stormont.
But the 26-County politicians were not prepared to break the confines of the Westminster “Government of Ireland Act” of 1920 or the Treaty of Surrender of 1921 which set up their assembly at Leinster House.
Costello’s statement clarified the position of all parties there. He spoke for those supporting his administration, while previous utterances by de Valera made it clear that the Fianna Fáil party were in complete agreement with this policy.
No reason was given for this refusal which the “UI” headed “Nobody from the North need apply — Leinster House bans Northern representatives”. People were left to think the worst in the absence of justification.
It was a slap in the face to constitutional nationalists in the Six Counties. Republicans, of course, simply said “I told you so”. Then it was put about that the four cross-Border bodies being set up at the time would eventually grow into a free and united Ireland. Fifty years later we are told that six such bodies will do the job. Fool me once, etc.
But one man who spoke out in letters to the press was Father (later Canon) Tom Maguire, PP of Newtownbutler, Co Fermanagh. He summed up as follows: “The unrepentant politicians are a national danger.” The “UI” felt the word “party” would be more accurate than “unrepentant”.
Father Tom concluded: “The feeling here is that we are losing our opportunities to force the issue and that another party must take the political floor at the next election and test the constitutional effort to its utmost limits, and if that fails we must start where 1921 left off.” The “UI” agreed that opportunities to force the issue had been and were being lost, but creating another political party would simply cause division and confusion with the same result in the end.
“The remedy is more certain to come from our effort to organise the people of Ireland in a nation-wide movement analogous to that in existence prior to the Truce of 1921.”
Clearly frustration was building up in those who sought to “force the issue” and they would in time turn to organisations other than those of the constitutional nationalists north or south of the Border.
And Canon Tom Maguire of Newtownbutler would not be found wanting when the time came to “force the issue”. He was to the fore right up to his death in 1968, Beannacht Dé len a anam dílis.
Two things have altered not Since the world began:
The beauty of the wild green earth And the bravery of man.
Never were Ireland’s sons and daughters lacking in bravery when it came to facing the foreign foe for the national independence of their country.
As our coverage of the period 1938-1950 draws to a close we list the casualties of the “1940”s as it is called — those who in their generation made the supreme sacrifice for Irish freedom.
On this page may be read the 33 names on the Roll of Honour 1936-46, from Seán Glynn of Limerick to Seán McCaughey of Belfast.
Also reproduced here is an addendum to that Roll of Honour — the listing of eleven more Irish Republicans who were released from prison and concentration camp when it was obvious they were about to die.
Their captors sought to shirk responsibility for their deaths while in their care, and they did not release them until death was close at hand. Earlier discharge from the rigours of imprisonment and proper medical treatment could have saved their lives.
These eleven also died for Ireland as surely as did those who faced the firing squad, the English hangman or death on hunger strike. Frightful prison conditions struck them down in the prime of their young manhood.
From Aonghus McNulty who lies at rest in Achill island, to Jack McLoughlin in the surrounds of Fenagh Abbey, Co Leitrim an d Willie Gaughran interred in the same plot as Richard Goss in St Patrick’s Cemetery, Dundalk, their graves have become places of pilgrimage.
Local people have taken them to their hearts and they are honoured in the course of Easter commemoration or other ceremonies throughout the year.
Séamus Keenan of Derry city, it will be recalled, was the father of Seán Keenan in whose memory a fitting memorial was raised recently in the Bogside under Derry’s Walls. When he was released to die Seán and his brothers Terry and Dan remained in captivity.
The sacrifice of these eleven arose directly from the grim ordeal of imprisonment in the 1940s and has the same validity as the other 33. Henry O’Kane possessed a spirit of fire within a frail and weakened body, yet he did not flinch when called on.
God rest them, all 44 of them, and may their noble spirits continue to inspire their successors to even greater efforts “for the Cause of long-downtrodden man”. Beannacht dílis Dé ortha ar fad.
By the end of 1950 the Republican Movement, shattered by the combined action of Westminster, Stormont and Leinster House in the 1940s, was under reconstruction. In the 1950 Easter Statement from the Army Council of Óglaigh na hÉireann, read at all 1916 commemorations held in Ireland and abroad, the leadership had the courage to acknowledge “the mistakes of the past” — principally in regard to the 26 Counties.
They took action to avoid a repetition of such mistakes. In their decisions at the 1948 General Army Convention they had laid down a policy of (1) pursuing a successful military campaign against the British Occupation Forces in the Six Counties and (2) refraining from any offensive action against the 26-County State.
This was the Movement’s policy and it would be adhered to, even in the most trying circumstances. But by 1950 Republicans were on the march again.
(More next month. Refs. An tÉireannach Aontaithe/The United Irishman, December 1950 and January 1949; The IRA in the Twilight Years 1923-48,edited by Uinseann Mac Eoin.)
Seán Glynn, Limerick. Died in Arbour Hill, September 13, 1936.
Peter McCarthy, Dublin. Shot by police, June 15, 1937.
Jimmy Joe Reynolds, Leitrim. Killed in accidental explosion, November 28, 1938.
John James Kelly, Clady, Tyrone. Killed in accidental explosion, November 28, 1938.
Charles McCafferty, Tyrone. Killed in accidental explosion, November 28, 1938.
Christy Bird, Dublin. Accidentally shot while training, May 13, 1939.
Peter Barnes, Banagher, Offaly. Hanged in Winson Green Prison, Birmingham, England, February 7, 1940.
James McCormack, Mullingar, Westmeath. Hanged in Winson Green Prison, Birmingham, England, February 7, 1940.
Tony Darcy, Headford, Co Galway. Died on hunger strike, April 16, 1940.
Seán McNeela, Ballycroy, Co Mayo. Died on hunger strike, April 19, 1940.
Seán Martin, Ballymacarrett, Belfast. Killed in accidental explosion, April 25, 1940.
John Joe Kavanagh, Cork. Shot by police near Cork jail, August 3, 1940.
Seán Russell, Dublin. Died overseas, August 14, 1940.
Patrick McGrath, Dublin. Executed, Mountjoy prison, September 6, 1940.
Thomas Harte, Lurgan, Co Armagh. Executed, Mountjoy prison, September 6, 1940.
Jack Gaffney, Belfast. Died on prison ship Al Rawdah, November 18, 1940.
Barney Casey, Co Longford. Shot by military police, Curragh Camp, December 16, 1940.
Bob Clancy, Waterford. Died in Curragh Military Hospital, June 12, 1941.
Richard Goss, Dundalk. Executed in Portlaoise Prison, August 9, 1941.
Joseph Malone, Belfast. Died in Parkhurst Prison, Isle of Wight, January 21, 1942.
George Plant, Tipperary. Executed in Portlaoise Prison, March 5, 1942.
Terence Perry, Belfast. Died in Parkhurst Prison, Isle of Wight, July 7, 1942.
Gerry O’Callaghan, Belfast. Killed in action, August 31, 1942.
Thomas Williams, Belfast. Hanged in Crumlin Road Jail, Belfast, September 2, 1942.
Patrick Dermody, Co Cavan. Killed in action, September 30, 1942.
Maurice O’Neill, Cahersiveen, Co Kerry. Executed in Mountjoy Prison, November 12, 1942.
John Hinchy, Co Louth. Died in Mountjoy Prison, December 28, 1942.
Jackie Griffith, Dublin. Shot by police, July 4, 1943.
Séamus (Rocky) Burns, Belfast. Killed in action, February 12, 1944.
John Doyle, Belfast. Accidentally shot dead while training on his 16th birthday, April 10, 1944.
Charles O’Hare, Armagh. Died Isle of Man Internment camp, June 2, 1944.
Charles Kerins, Tralee. Hanged in Mountjoy Prison, December 1, 1944.
Seán McCaughey, Aughnacloy, Tyrone. Died on hunger strike, Portlaoise Prison, May 11, 1946.
Aonghus McNulty, Mayo. Died after release from Curragh Internment Camp, 1941.
Seán Dolan, Derry city. Died after release from Belfast Jail, October 25, 1941.
Cathal Kerr, Down. Died after release from Belfast jail, 1941..
John McLoughlin, Leitrim. Died after release from Curragh Internment Camp, 1942.
Seán Kilroy, Mayo. Died after release from Curragh Internment Camp, 1942.
J Rooney, Armagh. Died within week of release from Belfast Jail, 1942.
Joe McGinley, Derry city. Died a fortnight after release from Belfast jail. Contracted TB in jail. August 13, 1943.
James Keenan, Derry city. Died after release, October 6, 1943.
John Curran, Co Down. Died after release from Belfast Jail, 1943.
William Gaughran, Dundalk. Died after release from Camphill Prison, England, 1947.
Henry O’Kane, Derry city. Died after release from Belfast Prison, May 1947.
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Web layout by SAOIRSE -- Irish Freedom December 5, 2000 Send links, events notifications, articles, comments etc, to the editor at: saoirse@iol.ie marked "attention web-editor". |