Saturday, August 09, 2003

PETER O 'NEILL CROWLEY , CORK FENIAN, KILLED BY THE BRITISH IN TIPPERARY , 1867 .....

..... after three weeks in hiding in Kilclooney Wood in Tipperary , the three Irish rebels (Peter O'Neill Crowley , John McClure and Edward Kelly) were found by the British and , in the ensuing gun-battle, Crowley was killed . McClure and Kelly were later sentenced to life imprisonment .....


The county of Cork practically came to a standstill for the funeral of Peter O'Neill Crowley , in his native Ballymacoda ; the Fenian leader John Devoy said of the man -

" Peter O'Neill Crowley was one of the best men in the Fenian Movement , and Ireland never gave birth to a truer or more devoted son . His devotion to the cause of Irish liberty was sublime and his courage dauntless . "

The two men captured in Kilclooney Wood in Tipperary after the gun-battle , John McClure and Edward Kelly , were released four years later , in the 'general amnesty' of that year (1871).

Incidentally , the 'Kilclooney Wood Engagement' is considered to be the last action of the 1867 Fenian Rising ..... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :


JOHN LINNANE OF LISTOWEL .

" John Linnane was a man of strong enthusiam and resolution , and such a man becomes loved and trusted in a time of national struggle . His religious conviction , his love of the Irish language , and his fearless activity as a soldier were an inspiration to all who knew him during ten difficult years .

He was killed on the thirteenth of April , nineteen-twenty-three , not far from the field in Gortaglanna where his old comrade-in-arms, Patrick Walsh, was murdered in nineteen-twenty-one by Black and Tans. John Linnane and Dick Bunyan and John Mullaney had a dug-out in a hayshed in Trineragh . (MORE LATER)>



A TALE OF TWO SHITTIES ...... Scene One - a distinguished building in Dublin > NOW READ ON .....

LIGHTS ! QUIET ON SET ! AND... ACTION -

DRUM ROLL < ORCHESTRA < and VOICEOVER ......


"Psst ! Hey Buddy .....
....wanna do a job for me ?

Don't matter what skills ya have , or if ya have a trade or not , man - and it's 'white-collar' stuff , won't dirty the hands - well, not with real dirt , ha-ha ! Inersted ? Here's your cut :

We start ya on a cool EURO 1541 a week , but it don't stop there - an associate of ours , right, Marty , from Kerry - hangs with the 'Adams Family' , this guy - shakin' down the 'one-five-four-one' grand on a weekly basis and, get this , buddy - Marty clicks another EURO 885 a week in - HA! HA! - "expenses" !

JEEZE , man , ya'd be crazy notta ! I mean it , dude , - EURO 2426 a week , every week ." Marty was sent in by 'Big Jer' , the Boss - " Gotta shake things up in there , Marty " , Big Jer said . "Sure thing," said Marty . But that's not the way it panned out .....


Marty got soft , ya know- comfortable - the broad was offa his back , things lookin' pretty good . So , Marty says to Bossman Jer - " Cut me some slack , man ; gimme time to stash some padding for the 'down-the-road' , like - you OK with that , boss ? " The Big Guy eyed up Marty : "Sure thing, Marty," he replied , " been there , done that , wrote the book , know what ya mean " , he said , winking .

But Jer was'nt finished - "Just one thing, man ..." . Marty froze : he knew from experience how good a huckster the boss was - he started to sweat . He knew well what Jer was capable of from the ( not so ) bad 'old days' ..... But he need'nt have worried - the boss knew the meaning (and price) of loyality : " Don't let the Family down , man " Jer said , walking towards a nervous Marty , "and pretty soon a weeks poke of EURO 2426 will be loose change . At my level , we call that a fair day's take ! "
The two men laughed out loud and hugged each other . Then , out of no-where, everything started shaking ; stuff falling offa the shelves , a real mess , and the very ground they were standing on pitched and rolled .

The bodyguards legged it , their new-found 'friends' standing in the background got offside , and all around them came crashing down .

"EARTHQUAKE !" , shouted Marty . "No " , said Jer , "I've seen this before . It's our own fault for having this conversation in the G P O " .


[END] (or is it.....?)


SOURCE -

financial figures : courtesy of the Free State 'Oireachtas' , released on Saturday 2nd August last - under the 'Freedom of Information Act' .


WORDS -

all my own . Really .


DRAMATIS PERSONAE -

Ah , ya know yourself ...
(.... go figure , buddy !)


FOREIGN RELEASE -

Yes . As a short play entitled 'Embarras de Richesses' .


CHANCE OF A HAPPY ENDING -

As we say in this business : " Enfants Perdus" .

Friday, August 08, 2003

PETER O'NEILL CROWLEY , CORK FENIAN , KILLED BY THE BRITISH IN TIPPERARY , 1867 .....


....when they realised that the Fenian Rising had failed , Peter O'Neill Crowley and his second and third in command, John McClure and Edward Kelly , issued an order to their men to disperse .....


After the 'dispersal' order was given (towards the end of the first week in March 1867) , the three Fenian leaders - Crowley , McClure and Kelly - fled to the limited safety of Kilclooney Wood in County Tipperary .

On 31st March , 1867, a large force of British soldiers entered Kilclooney Wood and 'scouts' from the same force soon located the whereabouts of the three Irish rebels . Within hours they were surrounded by the enemy and ordered to surrender ; they refused . The three were well-armed , and fought courageously , but were no match for the numbers ranged against them .

The gun-battle lasted for several hours ; it ended when Peter O'Neill Crowley died , with at least three gunshot wounds to his body . John McClure and Edward Kelly were arrested and were later sentenced to life imprisonment . (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :

JACK FLEMING OF TRALEE ...

....a member of the IRA since 1914 , Jack Fleming joined an established column of the Volunteers in 1922 : the Free State troops occupying Tralee were aware of his movements ....

" He caused enquiries to be made ,in the following March , by a friend : he wanted to know whether it would be safe for him to sleep at home . A direct message from the Free State Barracks was the reply - " He will be safe when he gives up his gun. " Jack Fleming went into hiding then ; he had no thought of purchasing safety at a price .

On the twenty-eight of March the house where he was sleeping was searched for him and he was found . He was taken to Ballymullen Barracks , that sinister building which the people of Tralee pass even now with shrinking , such screams of agony used to sound , a year ago, from the Intelligence Room. It is only from a score of vague , inconsecutive narratives told by soldiers and by men who were prisoners there , that what happened then can be made out at all .

Jack Fleming was taken out during the night ; he was brought to the prison , half a mile away, before daylight, dying or dead ; his body was refused to his people . No more is known . No more is known except this one thing - he could have saved himself had he chosen to be a traitor , and he chose to die .


[END]


BRUSSEL'S 'BULL' ....

..... in July , 1986 , the (then) EEC (now 'EU') made a decision to feed calves on cheap surplus butter rather than making it available to the poor . This move was backed by Britain , Denmark and the Netherlands because , they said , it would have little effect on levelling excess butter stocks if it were given to the poor ! (See 'The Evening Press' , 16th July , 1986 , page 4 ).

..the 'Straight Banana' proposal from those clowns was a laugh at the time , but when you hear of the above nonsense it takes the smile from your face .


GAY ? - no , just queer ....

.... Eamonn Dunphy used to be a member of the British Labour Party , but later supported Fine Gael . He stated - " Capitalism is the lesser of the two conflicting evils in the world ." (The other , he said , was Marxism.) He joined Fine Gael the night Charles Haughey became Free State Taoiseach , saying "Fine Gael is the most liberal party in this country (sic)" . (See 'In Dublin' magazine , issue 259, 24th July 1986 , page 9.)

Now THAT'S something the bouncer should do him for ....

Thursday, August 07, 2003

PETER O'NEILL CROWLEY , CORK FENIAN , KILLED BY THE BRITISH IN TIPPERARY , 1867 .....

.....in March 1867 , Peter O'Neill Crowley and his Fenian 'Circle' attacked an armed coastguard station at Knockadoon ....


The Knockadoon coastguard station , located about eight miles from Youghal in Cork , was staffed by ten armed employees ; they were over-powered and held captive and their rifles and ammunition taken . It is not perhaps as well known as it should be , but the 'main' Fenian Rising of 1867 lasted for just over twenty-four hours , although isolated attacks on the British continued for a few weeks .

When Peter O'Neill Crowley and his second and third in command , John McClure and Edward Kelly , realised that the Rising had failed , they knew the British would be determined to 'round-up' the leadership ; they issued orders to their 'Circle' to disperse ..... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle , first published in 1924 -

JACK FLEMING OF TRALEE :


" Surely , in all wars , the most piteous stories are those that , to the worlds end, will never be told . To meet death in the night , alone among mocking enemies, knowing that no message from him will ever reach his comrades, that lies only will be told of him by his slayers , that the one sweet reward of sacrifice - a name remembered with love and praise among his people , may even be stolen from him in death - this, surely , is the hardest martyrdom a soldier can be called upon to endure .

There are men of Kerry who have died so , the manner of their end unknown . But this much is known of them - they could have saved themselves had they chosen to surrender to their torturers , to betray their comrades or to desert their cause . All that is known of their enemy's policy proves this : those who died knew a way to save themselves ; if they died it was because they would not take that way . Jack Fleming was best known in Tralee as a great lover of music and a skilled player of the pipes .

He had been a member of the Volunteers since nineteen-fourteen . In August , nineteen-twenty-two , he joined a column , but this was not known, he thought, to the Free State troops occupying Tralee ...... (MORE LATER)>



FILLING UP WITH IT ......>

....according to the 'Dubliners Diary' column of the old 'Evening Press' newspaper (12th September , 1992, page 11 - a Wednesday, if memory serves..) : British King George V once advised his sons - "In this business , it is wise never to pass up an opportunity to relieve yourself."

-- was the man full of piss , or was he just 'taking' it ?

-- or was he letting his sons know he was aware that they were full of s**t ?


FULL OF IT .....>

...... " 1916 challenges Irish nationalists to work to oppose any arrangement based on partition ; any such arrangement is doomed to failure ."

-- 'AP/RN' , 28th March , 1991 , page 2 . (...except, of course , Stormont and Leinster House - two parliaments set up by the British to maintain the imposed division on this island.)



.....AND OVER-FLOWING WITH IT -->

<-- " Accommodations with British-designed frameworks fly in the face of true justice and freedom ."

-- Brendan 'Bik' McFarlane , Provo leader , as quoted in 'AP/RN' , 2nd May , 1991 (page 7). Note that date - 2nd May 1991 ; on practically the same date (5th) of the same month (MAY) ten years earlier (1981) , Bobby Sands died on hunger-strike .

Had Bobby Sands or any of the ten men that died on hunger-strike that year made "accommodations with the British" they would not have died on hunger-strike .

Those men did not die so that others could make careers for themselves in Stormont and Leinster House by making "accommodations" with the Establishment ....

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

PETER O'NEILL CROWLEY , CORK FENIAN , KILLED BY THE BRITISH IN TIPPERARY , 1867 .....


...... 35-years young Cork man Peter O'Neill Crowley was in command of a Fenian 'Circle' of over one-hundred men .....


It is almost certain that Crowley and his 'Circle' were involved in the capture of the RIC Barracks at Ballynockane , County Cork, on the night of the 5th March , 1867 ; Fenian leaders J F X O'Brien , Michael O'Brien and William Mackey Lomasney had combined their forces into one 'Circle' consisting of over two-thousand Fenian fighters and , in early March 1867 caused havoc in Cork for the British administration -

- as well as capturing the Ballynockane RIC Barracks (and removing anything of value to the Fenian war effort) the Fenian's sabotaged large sections of rail-track used by the 'Great Southern and Western Railway' , destroyed the 'points-system' belonging to same and rendered inoperable the telegraph system in the district . In that same month (March 1867) , Peter O'Neill Crowley and his group attacked an armed coastguard station at Knockadoon .... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :


JAMES WALSH OF CURROW -

" The killing of prisoners seemed to have become an almost mechanical practice in Kerry in March and April of nineteen-twenty-three . Over twenty were murdered on the roadsides of Kerry within twenty days . Some of them were Republican soldiers taken with arms and sentenced by their gaolers to death ; some were men taken unarmed in their own homes and killed by their captors out of hand . On March 22nd , James Walsh was taken , unarmed ; he was kept for a few days in Castleisland .

On Tuesday , the 27th, at about six in the morning , the prisoners were called out by Lieutenant McGinn . The street was lined with soldiers and two more prisoners , just captured, Daly and O'Rahilly, were there . The prisoners were marched along the Cordal Road and just outside Kingwilliamstown , at the cross of Glountane , a party of soldiers led Walsh away .

The people of Mount Falvey heard shots , but did not discover their meaning until evening , when they found James Walsh dead by the roadside , with a bullet wound in his head .

[END]



HE SHOULD KNOW ......

..... In 'The Sunday Tribune' of 31st January , 1993 , (page A11) , British 'Lord' Harold Wilson was quoted as having once said that -

- " a lie can be half way around the world before the truth has got its boots on ! " (...but not before you can put the boot in , eh, Harold ?)


..... AND SHE SHOULD KNOW BETTER ... >

< In an article published in 'The Sunday Tribune' on 10th January 1993 (page B6) , 'Workers Party', no, sorry - Democratic Left- oops! - eh, oh,whats it now ; that group that ex-WP/DL leader Pat Rabbitte leads now - yeah: the 'Labour Party' , that's the one .

Where was I ? Right - well , in the issue of the 'Trib' mentioned up above (somewhere) , one of Pat's buddies , Liz McManus , stated -

- " Notwithstanding the prayers as gaeilge (ie in Irish) and the Celtic motif , what is remarkable about 'Dail Eireann' (sic) is how BRITISH (her emphasis) the place is . More British very likely , than the British themselves these days ." (Whatcha mean "these" days , Liz?)


As 'Rabbie' Burns wrote in 'Tam O'Shanter' , Liz -

-- " I wonder it didna turn thy stomach ."
(But when your stomach's as strong as your neck is hard .....)

Tuesday, August 05, 2003

PETER O'NEILL CROWLEY , CORK FENIAN , KILLED BY THE BRITISH IN TIPPERARY , 1867 .


A child born in the townland of Ballymacoda in County Cork , in 1832 , learned how to make a living from the land and was considered in the locality , as a young adult , to be what would now be called "a pillar of society" ; he was known as an expert farmer and had a wide circle of friends .

An Irish Republican at heart , Peter O'Neill Crowley joined the Fenian Movement in Cork and rose quickly through the ranks - at 35 years young , he was in command of a 'Fenian Circle' , which numbered more than one hundred men . (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :


BOB McCARTHY OF MONAREE ....

....captured by the Free Staters on the 24th March , 1923, the man who had fought with his comrades against the British Black and Tans was now being tortured by those same men that he once fought with , now wearing Free State Army uniforms ; they beat him senseless and stoned him with bricks . His sister was eventually let in to see him in Dingle Workhouse and he told her of his shotgun , still in the family house .....


" " Give it up to them when they come ," he said, "for the sake of the people of Monaree ." "Let me take the cap off your head," she said . It was crusted with blood . But he answered : " No, no, let it alone." "You are suffering," she said then , breaking down , "and you don't want me to see ." Bob seemed to tired to talk to her . "Our Lord suffered more," is all he said . Then the soldiers put her outside the gate .

An escort came out for him from Tralee ; the officer who shot Tom Sullivan was in charge . What they did to Bob on the road will never be known . They buried him in the Workhouse in Tralee .

[END]



... a tax on children's shoes ? - JOLLY GOOD ! ......... ~

You're on the ball out there !

A reader left a message in the site guestbook pointing out that it was a M/S Margaret Downes who interviewed Fine Gaeler Avril Doyle (see yesterday's piece) for the 'SBP' ; dunno wha' exactly Doyler said to her but , in that 'SBP' article , Maggie wrote -

- " Fine Gaeler's believe themselves to be the epitome of good breeding with superior taste ." Hear , Hear ! Always considered it so , meself ....


.........~ and worth every penny >

< .... In January 1993 , French industrialist Bernard Tapie was ordered by the French courts to pay one franc (then worth twelve old Free State pennies) in damages for calling Jean-Marie Le Pen , the then leader of the right-wing National Front , a bastard !

Better end for now , otherwise Fine Gael could cost me a pretty penny (groan)!

Monday, August 04, 2003

PATRICK O'DONOGHUE AND 'THE IRISH EXILE' REPUBLICAN NEWSPAPER , AUSTRALIA .....


.....within months of his release in March 1851 , Patrick O'Donoghue was again arrested and sent out of the district to 'work' , once again, on a chain-gang ; he was released after three months and dumped in another district , Launceston .....


While en route to his new destination , under guard, Patrick O'Donoghue's comrades rescued him and stowed him on the 'SS YARRA YARA' which was headed for Melbourne ; he laid low there and , again with the help of the 'Young Ireland' Movement , escaped to San Francisco .

On 26th January , 1850 , the first edition of 'The Irish Exile' newspaper was published in Australia , the first Irish Republican 'paper to be printed on that continent - on 22nd January , 1854 , the author, owner and publisher of that newspaper , Patrick O'Donoghue , died in San Francisco .

In Ireland , he took up arms against the British presence - in Australia , he continued the fight as best he could and , in America, he died ; his tired , battered and bruised body unable to keep up with his rebel mind . The man was ostracised by the British and their allies , and his work for Irish freedom suppressed by them : but the memory of Patrick O'Donoghue is still with us .....

[END]



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 ;


BOB McCARTHY OF MONAREE .

Bob McCarthy met with a death less merciful than his friend's . The enemies of the Republic had a great deal against him , for he had fought the Black-and-Tans in Dublin and the Free State troops in Kerry and was well-known. He was captured on March the twenty-fourth (1923), in Dunshean . He was sitting in a friend's house with a child on each knee when the soldiers rushed in and struck him on the head with a revolver . He was taken to Dingle and kept in the Workhouse that night . His sister heard that he was a prisoner and went in to Dingle and stood at the gate imploring the soldiers to let her in . She stood there hour after hour , though they refused her . She could not help crying , but she would not go away . At last they let her in and brought her to the yard .

The soldiers were kicking a football and her brother was among them . They were forcing him to kick the ball . He was swaying on his feet and was all stained and dusty . When she went to him he stared and seemed not to know her. His eyes were half-closed and there was blood on his head . "Oh, Bob, do you not know me ?" she asked him , and he said slowly : "You are my sister." They had beaten him , he told her , and stoned him with bricks . He seemed troubled about a shotgun that was in the house . (MORE LATER)>




SAME AS IT EVER WAS .......

.... on 10th January 1993 (a Sunday , if memory serves...) the Free State 'Labour Party' held a "Special Conference" to discuss forming an administration in Leinster House with one of the other parties , to make up the numbers required to obtain power ; the then leader of that party , Dick Spring , stated (amongst other things) --

---- " Let them sneer as we build houses on a scale not seen in many years , as we tackle waiting lists in the health service , as we bring Irelands commitment to the Third World up to international standards and as we take a seventy-five per cent cut in salary to put us on the minimum wage ." (WELL ok , then - that last part I just put in to keep ya all on yiser toes ; but the "sneer-houses-tackle-health service-Third World" diatribe is all Dick's doing : honestly - see 'The Sunday Business Post' , 17th January 1993, page 12).

The poor 'oul Dick that he is , he never did get his arse on the top seat in Leinster House : which is maybe just as well .....

..... in 1988 (see the same issue of 'The S B P' , page 12) Fine Gael Leinster House member Avril Doyle stated : " I can't think of anything worse than being Taoiseach . You'd want to be a masochist to become even leader of the party ." MASOCHIST ? So that's what happened our own 'Tricky Dicky' - he ended up as the cowboy in the 'Village People' and made enough money to buy-out the YMCA !

Sunday, August 03, 2003

PATRICK O'DONOGHUE AND 'THE IRISH EXILE' REPUBLICAN NEWSPAPER , AUSTRALIA ......


.....the success of the newspaper brought it , and its owner/editor/publisher Patrick O'Donoghue to the attention of the pro-British authorities , and he was arrested for 'leaving the allocated district' by the District Governor Sir William Denison .....


Patrick O'Donoghue was sentenced to work for one year with a chain-gang , wearing a convicts uniform and 'living' in a convict station - in effect, a large 'out-house' . In March 1851 he was released and taken back to Hobart Town ; he promptly put 'The Irish Exile' newspaper back into print again , and began writing about his prison experience , as a political prisoner, forced by Governor Denison and his administration to suffer the same prison conditions as rapists , muggers and thieves .

Once again , the Governor moved against the newspaper - within months of his release , Patrick O'Donoghue found himself back on a chain-gang, this time further afield , at Cascades Penal Station . After three months of limb-wrenching slavery , Governor Denison ordered that O'Donoghue be released and sent out of the district , to Launceston . (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle , first published in 1924 -

THOMAS O'SULLIVAN OF BALLINEANIG .....


.....Tom O'Sullivan was sleeping in a 'safe-house' when the Staters called ; his mother heard the shots and stood crying , then she heard more shots . The man with Tom later told a fellow-prisoner what had happened .....


" They were hiding and spoke to one another , not thinking the enemy were near , but they heard a voice call out suddenly : "that's 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 . " [ END] .



.....welcome to the (smoke) FREE 'nanny' STATE -

-- the proposed all-out ban on smoking , due to be introduced in this State on 1st January next in public buildings , workplaces (if we still have any) pubs etc (to be enforced by a new division of the Free State Gardai , the 'Packetpigs' who , in turn, will get information from their touts , the 'cigcops' .....) is not a new concept in the arena of 'State Control' :

...... George Bernard Shaw once said (in relation to the Irish Censorship of Publications Act , which was passed in 1929) - " We shall never be easy until every Irish person is permanently manacled and fettered , gagged and curfewed, lest he should let the truth out about something " .

...... Edna O'Brien said , re the same 1929 Act - "There's more kinds of bondage than one !"


However , if the 'Packetpigs' catch ya havin' a sly smoke in a musty corner of the damp cellar in your local , and question you re your knowledge of the new 'law' , you could use the same defence that Free State Civil Servant Padraig O'hUiginn used in the 'Beef Tribunal' : " I was not aware that I was aware if I was aware " .

Then , when the 'Packetpigs' are trying to figure that out , ya leg it ....