1921 AD - 3 / April to May
"2nd Dail Eireann / 2nd Irish Assembly"
1921 AD April 1st: At this time Michael Collins in Dublin, was operating his "Intelligence Office" from Patricia Hoey's home, which was also "raided" by the British Imperial Coalition Government Dublin Castle's forces and she was "arrested," but was still able to arrange to have a "message" successfully delivered to warn him not to turn up the next morning, where the British Imperial Government Forces were waiting to ambush him.
The
American Association
for the Recognition of the Irish Republic, had now grown to
500,000
members in America, and many of the branches from the
Friends of Irish
Freedom there had now also joined in with them.
Sir Hamar Greenwood's weekly summary, on behalf of the British Imperial Coalition Government produced a Press Release from Dublin Castle (The Devil's 1/2 Acre), stating that, "Eamonn de Valera belonged to a race of "treacherous murderers" (Spanish) and has inducted Ireland into the murderous treachery of his race" and Eammon de Valera sent a copy, of what was in reality a "bigoted racial" statement, to the Spanish Ambassador in London, and it was distributed throughout the "Spanish" speaking World, to the further detriment of the British Coalition Government. General Crozier, the British Imperial Military commander, now "resigned" from his untenable British Coalition Government position in Ireland.
Portobello
and
Wellington
in
Dublin
were the site of the
British
Imperial Military Barracks there.
April 21st: Lord
Derby,
arrived into
Dublin,
who was acting on behalf of David Lloyd - George
the British
Coalition Prime Minister, to try an arrange a "meeting" with the various "factions" in
Ireland, which was in reality to turn out to be an attempt to try and create a
"split", between the ideals of
the Catholic Church
and the
members of the
1st Dail
Eireann / 1st Irish Assembly and he first
met with
Cardinal
Logue in
Co. Armagh
in the south - east of the Ulster Province, and then with
Eamonn de Valera at
James O Mara's home in
Fitzwilliam Place in
Dublin, but nothing was
to come
of it and he also tried to get
Eammon de Valera and
Arthur Griffith to meet with
David
Lloyd - George the British Coalition Prime Minister in
London,
but it also came
to nothing. Seeing the way the
"wind" was
now blowing,
Eamonn de Valera now
decided not to push any further for
Michael Collins to go to
America, mainly because of
Lord Derby's visit, as due to
Michael Collins
outstanding commitment to the cause of Ireland, he would surely be
"made use of" if any real negotiations were begun.
April 29th:
Eamonn Duggan,
who was still being held "prisoner" in
Mountjoy Jail in
Dublin along with
Arthur Griffith the original "Acting - President of the 1st
Dail Eireann," reported to
Michael Collins on the
"approach" the
4 men, who were being held there, had previously also received on behalf of the British
Imperial Coalition Government from
Lord Derby.
May: 50 men from the I.R.A. / Irish Republican Army's Dublin Brigade, were from now on formed in to a full time "Active Service Unit / A.S.U.," with similar activities to those carried out by the IRA Squad on behalf of the Irish Volunteers Intelligence Department and over 100 "raids" were now to be carried out against the British Imperial Government Military Forces, including those by the Co. Donegal I.R.A. Brigade, under Peadar O Donnell, with the one carried out on the "Charlemont Fort" situated on the Blackwater River in Co. Armagh in the south - east of the Ulster Province, which they "burnt" as this was in one of the 6 Counties "artificially partitioned" from the 9 Counties in the Ulster Province, under the control of the British Imperial Government and the Ascendancy "Official" Unionists there.
May - July:
The British
Imperial Coalition Government, pushed on with their "artificial partition"
of the
6
Counties from the 9
Counties in the
Ulster Province in Ireland,
as their
Irish
4th Home Rule
Bill was given
British Royal Assent, and
they prepared to hold
General Elections for their
2 new "divided colonial" parliaments in
Ireland,
that they had now "artificially" created,
due to their previous British
Imperial
legislation and
continual Ascendancy
May:
The new Ascendancy
"Official" Unionist Government
to be in control in the
6
Counties "artificially partitioned" from the
9 Counties in the
Ulster Province, which was to be eventually set up in
a new parliament building in
Stormont
at Belfast in Co. Antrim
in the north - east of the Ulster Province, was now to be made
"official" under
British Imperial Law
and the
"Official" Unionist
Council were to become the new
Ascendancy "Official"
Unionist Party, and were
to rule the Irish population there
totally as they liked for another
50 years, as
they were to continue to carry on as a further extension to the
formerly "bigoted"
Ascendancy Parliament
that had
controlled Ireland
for over
the last 300
years. This particular
British Imperial Government Act, was to
culminate in the further "deaths" of many more thousands of
people within the
Irish population, under the
continuing British Imperial Military Forces
and their political control,
and by the ongoing and continuing "devolution" of human rights, gerrymandering and
basic indifference
to human lives.
The whole "sorry mess" was to continue on until the massive
"bloodbath,
and gross intolerance," was to become so bad that it could no longer be "tolerated"
by any decent thinking human being as the
oppressed
Irish families there in these
particular "artificially partitioned" 6 Counties of
Ulster Province, were to have to continue to live and die there, in what was
in reality their own original traditional part of
Ireland,
for the next 50 years under total Ascendancy control.
The rest of the Country in the other
26 Counties in
Ireland would be eventually finally Independently Free of the
previous, despicable
ethnic, sectarian and economic domination of their basic human rights after many
more there would also continually "give up their lives" for this to occur.
May 2nd: As the
"General Elections"
were soon to be held again,
Sir
Alfred Cope the
British Imperial Coalition Government appointed Under - Secretary
in Ireland,
set up in the
Dublin Castle, persuaded
James Craig, the
Ascendancy
"Official" Unionist
leader, to have a meeting with
Eamonn de Valera the Priomh Aire
of the 1st Dail Eireann / 1st Irish Assembly
as he
wanted them to generally discuss the initial setting up of the "artificial partition"
of the
6 Counties
from the actual 9 Counties from the
Ulster Province, by the
British Coalition Government.
May 4th:
Sean Mac
Eoin,
the commander of the I.R.A.
Volunteer Longford Brigade in the
north - east of Northern Leinster, had
by now recovered from his "wounds" while he was in prison, and was waiting for the
British Imperial Coalition Government
to put him before their
British Court Martial, and
Emmet Dalton the
"Director of Training"
together with
Joseph Leonard,
Patrick Mac Rae, Thomas Keogh,
Francis Bolster and
William Stapleton decided to make an attempt to
try and "rescue"
him so they commandeered a British
Imperial
Military armoured car, to try and free him from the prison in
Mountjoy, and although they were able to make
their way in to the jail, they were soon forced
to retreat, when they became engaged in a running gun battle.
May 5th:
James Craig,
the leader of the "Official" Unionists
in the 6 Counties "artificially partitioned" from
the 9 Counties in the Ulster Province,
met with
Eamonn de Valera the Priomh
Aire of the 1st Dail Eireann at
Tom Greene's house on
Howth Road in
Dublin,
to where he had been escorted by members of the
I.R.A. Volunteers,
although
he was still very ill at ease, but they were to come to "no conclusions," as he considered
that the "Immoral
Union"
with
England was binding on
all the
Irish people, while
Eamonn de Valera
tried to
convince him that the methods used originally to bring it about were
morally wrong.
Eamonn de Valera,
also felt that this was a matter, which could only be solved by
discussions between the actual "creator" of this
ongoing conflict, the
British
Imperial Government, and the "elected" representatives of the
"majority" of the people of
Ireland, as the
"Official"
Unionists
were in reality
only a
"minority" section in the whole of the
total
Irish population. The 1st
Dail
Eireann / 1st Irish Assembly, then let it be known publicly, that they
considered the General
Lower House
Elections for the
British Government's proposed "artificial
partition" of the other 26
Counties in their proposed Southern Ireland, which were also to be held, were actually to
be for the "election" of the
2nd Dail Eireann / 2nd Irish Assembly.
(N.B: The
British Government's "artificially partitioned" elections in Ireland
did not allow for a
Senate.)
Eamonn de Valera,
the Priomh Aire of the 1st Dail Eireann when he was to eventually meet with
Winston Churchill,
was to personally give him a
4
hour
run down on all the
Irish
grievances
back to the first introduction of
"Poyning's"
Irish Ethnic and
Sectarian Penal Laws,
that had originally been imposed by the English Government against the
Irish
population that was always to be "added to" over the previous Centuries.
May 10th:
Eamonn de
Valera the Priomh Aire of the
1st Dail Eireann / 1st Irish Assembly,
reported on his
"unfruitful "meeting with the
British
Imperial Coalition Government's representative,
Lord Derby, to try and further clarify the situation.
May 12th:
The
British Imperial
Coalition Government's
Cabinet,
at this time held a meeting on the
problems that they were having keeping "control " over the
Irish population,
where David
Lloyd - George
their
Prime Minister
and
9
others were "against" any sought of
Truce with the
Irish population, while 5
of them, showing some "actual sensibility" to what was really occurring in
Ireland, "supported one.
May 13th:
For the first time the
British Parliamentary
Elections
were to be based on
"Proportional Representation," which was
brought in intentionally to actually "defeat" the
growing popularity of the "political"
Sinn Fein Party
in Ireland, who were now the "major political party," but in reality they were
not effected by this change, but it did have the added "positive" result of assisting
the Irish
Nationalists in the
6
Counties
"artificially partitioned" from the
9 Counties
in the
Ulster Province.
In the
6
Counties
"artificially partitioned" from the 9
Counties in the Ulster Province
there, to be known as
Northern Ireland,
under the
British Imperial
Government
legislation,
there were to be
52 seats
contested, and by now
Sir
Edward Carson had given up the
leadership of the
Ascendancy
"Official"
Unionist Party, and Sir
James
Craig had become their new
leader and
their
Prime Minister and naturally with the deck now once again
"stacked" to suite the Ascendancy,
40 of the
52 seats went to the
"Official" Unionist Party as
expected, with the other
12 going to the
Irish Republican
and
Irish Nationalist members, who "refused" to attend the
Brtish Government's
"artificially partitioned"
Parliament of
"Northern Ireland" anyway. All of those "elected" there would
"only" recognize the Dail Eireann
/ Irish Assembly as the "legitimate"
Government
of
Ireland, and among
them were 5
members
of the
"political"
Sinn Fein Party,
including
Arthur Griffith
the
original "Vice -
President of the 1st Dail Eireann," who was although still "incarcerated" in
a British Government prison also won seats in both
Co. Fermanagh and
Co. Tyrone
in 2 of the "artificially partitioned"
Counties in the Ulster
Province,
Michael Collins
also won one there in
Co. Armagh,
were he was physically able to attend a rally, and give a speech,
although the British Imperial Government's "Murder Gang"
were waiting for a chance to "kill him.
"Eamonn de Valera also won one seat there in
South Co. Down,
as did Eoin Mac Neill and
Sean Milroy, and all of these
"elected" members there besides,
also held seats in the other
British Imperial Government nominated Southern Ireland, made up of the remaining
26 Counties,
also
divided and
"artificially partitioned" by them to suite their Imperial agenda in Ireland.
The
British
Imperial Government's scheme of allowing
"Proportional
Representation," while endeavouring to "defeat" the
"political"
Sinn Fein
Party, had backfired on
them, as the
Irish Nationalists had also gained the
"majority" in
25 out of the
76 Local
Councils in the 6 Counties
"artificially partitioned" from the 9
Counties in the Ulster
Province. This had
Sir James Craig,
the Ascendancy's "Official" Unionist
leader there really worried, so he eventually had a
Bill "passed" in the
Belfast Assembly in
Co. Antrim, so that
all "local office holders" had to "pledge" their
obedience to the British Imperial Government's "Northern Ireland"
Constitution, as laid down in the
British Imperial Government's 1920 Act.
Meanwhile, the first act of the
Ascendancy
"Official" Unionist Government, when they had gained control of
the 6 Counties "artificially partitioned"
from the 9 Counties in the
Ulster Province, was to
do away
with "Proportional Representation"
for the "Local Government" elections,
while incredulously on the other hand, it
was to be maintained by them for their
Stormont Parliament
elections, to "suite," until
1929,
and
the British Imperial
Government, as usual,
were to do nothing about it.
(Meanwhile, the "artificial
partition"
of Ireland
was to be a "dead issue" in the other
26
Counties, of what was to become known in the future as the
Irish Free
State,
Meanwhile, the "political"
Sinn Fein
Party, was to go ahead and use the
actual elections to bring in their
2nd Dail Eireann
/ 2nd Irish Assembly, and also
"refuse" to
recognise the
British Imperial Government's
Ascendancy "Official" Unionist, "Northern Parliament,"
for
as far as they were concerned the
Irish people were actually holding
their "elections" for
the "whole" of
Ireland,
which encompassed the whole
32
Counties.
From the
26 Counties,
there were
128 members "elected," with
124 of
these being from the "political"
Sinn Fein Party
representatives who were
all
unopposed, and included among these were
Eamonn de Valera,
John Liddy, Patrick Brennan
and
Brian Higgins,
who all won seats in
Co. Clare.
Michael Collins
also won a seat in
South Co. Cork, besides the one he had won in
Co. Armagh,
and they all swore "allegiance" only to represent
Ireland
as a "whole entity," and set up the
2nd Dail Eireann / 2nd Irish Assembly
in
Dublin.
The
elected
Irish
M.P.s / Members of Parliament
were never to meet for the British
Imperial Government's proposed "artificial partition"
of
Ireland
in
their
"Southern Parliament"
at
Dublin, as
only the
4 "Official"
Unionist members from the "Trinity College,"
which was a
Unionist stronghold,
were to show up.
May 18th:
As a precaution now against the future devious plans of the
British
Imperial Government,
Eamonn de Valera
the Priomh Aire of the 2nd Dail Eireann
was moved to
Glenvar at
Blackrock, as there were by now raids
being carried out by the British
Imperial Government
Military Forces on all of the previous premises where he had stayed.
May 19th:
David Lloyd - George
the British
Coalition Prime
Minister, on this day told
Bonar - Law,
the
Conservative leader, that despite the election result, there
was still to be no change in the British
Imperial Government's oppressive policies in Ireland, and that they should show no
sign of weakening of their position against the
Irish
forces.
May 20th: On this day the
British Imperial Government's Dublin Castle's
R.I.C. / "Black & Tans" also
"murdered"
Father
Seamus O Callaghan,
another Catholic
priest, in cold blood, who was a
Gaelic language enthusiast
and it now seemed it was time for the
Irish
Republican Army / I.R.A.
forces to show the "real strength" of their numbers,
even if only for the sake of "publicity," as many of the attacks they had carried out
previously were not recorded "publicly" overseas and they
realised that they now needed to
engage in a "large scale operation," to counteract the
British Imperial Government's
"propaganda," that these
attacks were only being carried out by Irish Rebels.
May 25th:
To this end on this day, the Irish Republicans /
Irish Republican Army / I.R.A. decided to besiege the
Customs House,
which was under the control of the
British Coalition Government's Dublin Castle,
during which time
Eamonn de Valera
was to be stopped and searched twice, and not realising who he was they
also let him go. The
Customs House,
which was
situated on the River Liffey
in
Dublin,
was where the British Imperial Government
kept the "basic records" for all the
"Taxation"
carried out on
Ireland, which included
"Local Government"
and the
"Revenue Records."
In an attempt to destroy these records,
120 members of the
I.R.A. / Irish
Republican Army during the attack were to "burn" all of the contents held in the
building and the men involved
were mostly from the
I.R.A. 2nd Battalion
from the north - east of
Dublin,
together with members from the IRA
Squad and the
Active Service Unit
/ A.S.U.,
and this was to be the "biggest effort" of it's type carried out by them up
to this date. By
coincidence
another attack was also being carried out at this time, on the
British Imperial Government's
Dublin
Castle's "Black & Tan Auxiliaries," who were
patrolling the streets outside the building, while the raid was being carried out
inside, and this
drew "attention" to the real activities of the I.R.A.
in the Customs House, which was to be the cause of
6 of
the I.R.A.
Volunteers being "killed," with
12 others wounded, and the other
70
being eventually forced to
"surrender."
Although the purpose of the attack was "successful," due to the
eventual "propaganda"
it produced, too many of the
I.R.A. Volunteers were "lost"
on this occassion to the cause of
Irish
Independence.
The
I.R.A. General Headquarters Staff
/ G.H.Q. were
to still able to meet
on a weekly basis at either
Barry's
Hotel or at the homes of
Mrs.
O Rahilly and
Mrs.
Humphreys.
May 26th: The 2nd Dail Eireann Finance Ministry offices, under the control of Michael Collins, were "raided" by the British Imperial Government Forces at Mary Street in Dublin, where they missed him again, but took away his young assistant, Bob Conlon, who they were too frightened to harm for fear of what Michael Collins might do about it, but within a few days they also "raided" his other Finance Ministry office in the same street and also raided other I.R.A. buildings, and although he feared that an "informer" was at work, Michael Collins was still able to continue to carry out his financial duties at St. Andrews Street without any further interruptions. The I.R.A. Volunteers were now formed into larger units, where they became known as IRA Divisions made up of all of the members of the Irish Volunteer Brigades, who all joined together and created their own IRA Divisional Staff on a territorial basis.
Home Page Return to Celtic Heritage On to 1921 AD - 4 / June