Fenian Notes

Easter Week and the War of Independence are one and the same as the physical force struggle today. Those who embrace the “peace” process today to avoid hypocrisy would have to condemn the entire effort from 1916-1922 and to be consistent would have to berate the 1798 Rebellion.

Frankly, fighting the tyranny of the British in any era is quite praiseworthy. Those who fought in 1917 and those who fight in 1997 are both honourable. In every era, where the Irish at home took up the fight against the British, there is a core of support for them in the USA.

One of the most famous of Irish American families, the Kennedys, was never one to help the people of Ireland in the struggle against the British. They, in fact, displayed a deep affection for the British.

The Kennedy economic empire founded by patriarch, Joe Kennedy, is integrally linked to the British “empire”. The retention of power by the British is vital to the interests of the Kennedys.

However, where credit is due, it must be given. The late John F Fitzgerald, father of Rose Kennedy, mother of President John F Kennedy, did do his bit for Ireland.

In the 1916-1922 era, Irish Americans were proud, defiant and courageous, giving unqualified support to the physical force necessary then and now to rid Ireland of the British. The campaign in the US was simplified to one issue supporting the IRA’s physical force campaign against the British.

There was outrage in the States over the execution of Irish leaders who fought during Easter Week. When word came there would be a further fight and help was needed, support was forthcoming despite those who inevitably condemn it.

The main social organisation in the United States was the Ancient Order of Hibernians (American Alliance). Today, it is still the largest, and in its membership is potential support.

Social activity was not the prime focus of the dedicated core of Irish Americans in 1917 after the failed Rising and serious war now threatened. The hard core laid plans to support the war effort.

After Pearse’s surrender, the situation appeared dismal as defeat hung its cloud over Dublin. However, there had been Irish American observers from the States that saw how a group of dedicated soldiers of Ireland could hold the British Empire at bay for a week, badly outnumbered and outgunned.

A secret society was formed in the US based mostly but not entirely in large cities with significant Irish populations. It had but one brief – to procure weapons and money to send to Ireland for the next round in the rebellion. The executions of the leaders of Easter Week brought contributions to the Irish Cause, even from the passive and chronically indifferent.

The secret society named itself after the Irish patriot of 1848, John Mitchell. The John Mitchell Society (JMS) became the gunrunner to the Irish rebels. The JMS consisted of many ordinary Irish people who believed deeply that Ireland, like America, should be free. The group also recruited well-known names of public figures to attach to its banner.

In Boston, for instance, Senator David I Walsh signed on, as did Mayor James Michael Curley and Mayor John F Fitzgerald among others who paid their dues. As it turned out, Boston became the headquarters of the Society. By ship, it was a day closer to Ireland than New York.

The JMS expanded its recruitment into the Boston (and other) Police Force which proved very successful. Some of the officers were able to procure weapons from police armouries for the IRA In addition to arms from various police in the US, there was also a surplus of arms from the First World War after the 1918 Armistice. Weaponry became plentiful, but its shipment to Ireland had to be addressed.

The essential ingredients for arms smuggling were in place among willing conspirators. The police, customs officers, longshoremen and ship’s crews were predominantly Irish-born or Irish American and sympathetic. They were prepared to facilitate the illicit shipments.

Routes for the arms shipments were calculated in such a way to insure some weapons got through. False bottom coffins, trunks and crated farm tools and other items were loaded onto cargo ships bound for Ireland where they would be unloaded by sympathetic longshoremen on the Irish side of the Atlantic.

The weapons that survived the excursion across the sea and brought into Ireland were waiting for Easter Week soldiers when they returned from concentration camps in Britain.

Support from America is essential to the Irish cause and many have been willing to stick their necks out. Some got involved for political reasons, some few for profit, but most did it for pure righteous reasons.

Realising the attacks on politicians who support Irish freedom, any who signed on like John F Fitzgerald, James Michael Curley and David I Walsh deserve their credit. They attended meetings of the JMS knowing full well what they were doing, and that by US law it was illegal.

Those involved in gun-running were willing to pay the price if they were apprehended, but that option was never considered. Their belief was that the only worthwhile focus was arming those willing to fight.

What a pernicious insult to freedom fighters in today’s IRA when so-called political leaders are quick to vilify those efforts in the name of a bogus peace laced with self-interest that offers no fundamental change. Remember peaceful means were tried first and failed utterly. You speak to a tyrant through the barrel of a gun. One of the chief peace processors is US Ambassador, Jean Kennedy Smith, granddaughter of Mayor John F Fitzgerald. Her father was Joseph P Kennedy, Ambassador to England; her brother, President John F Kennedy; her other two brothers, Senators Robert and Ted Kennedy.

I would ask Ambassador Smith if she would acknowledge the work of her grandfather, the gunrunner; who supported physical force and those who utilised it against the British.

By the way, Ambassador Smith chose Ireland as a second choice. Her first choice was to follow in her father’s footsteps as Ambassador to England. She felt more comfortable in London.

Ambassador Smith is against physical force because people are killed. If she condemns Irish Americans who advocate physical force, surely she will publicly condemn her own grandfather, just to be consistent.

The British portray the Irish Americans who, they say, naively give support to the IRA, as mindless, to which view the Kennedys have offered support. Do the Kennedys believe Grandfather Fitzgerald, who knowingly supported the IRA and attended meetings to lend physical presence to that effort, is also mindless?

At one meeting of the JMS a question was posed – whether the group would continue to back the IRA if innocent civilians were killed by accident or otherwise, and if violence became indiscriminate.

The vote carried – yes – without any qualification in support for the IRA. Fitzgerald was present and voted, and the vote was unanimous without abstention or dissent.

The role of Ambassador Smith’s grandfather was well defined. He was to lead the group that worked with sympathetic Boston police to take surplus weapons and seized weapons for the IRA. To do this required altering or destroying records.

My source for the role of the John Mitchell Society, its members (Fitzgerald and others) is impeccable. The story was related in pride, the source was the treasurer of the JMS, who could not believe that the Irish today were not willing to do today what was done before.

Contentious governments call freedom fighters terrorists, but the worst terrorist is a government that tries to crush seekers of freedom. People fight for freedom; they do not fight for peace which ends up being surrender.

The “peace” process is one of freedom limitation where the New Ireland (ÉIRE NUA) plan expands the base of freedom. The latter is the cause of Ireland, while the former is the cause of Britain.

Rebellion today is a continuation of prior rebellions that failed to produce a united state of Ireland. Time does not change what is right – and the legitimacy to pursue it. This was the premise set out at the beginning of this piece.

No one can say 1917 is right and 1997 is wrong, except cowards and hypocrites. We respect those who observe and pursue the continuity of legitimacy that never ends, even when the goal is achieved.
— Peadar Mac Fhínín