1920 AD - 3 / July - September
July 1st:
David Lloyd - George
the British Coalition Prime Minister was now sure that his
British
Government's
"Murder Gang" in
Ireland were killing 2
Sinn Fein Party
supporters to
every 1 of the British
Military
forces killed, so he abolished the
Coroners Inquests in
Ireland
altogether and put in
British Military Inquiries
instead to suite.
July:
Meanwhile in America, Eamonn de Valera
through the auspices of
Frank P. Walshe
made further contacts there to put pressure on the
American Democratic Party delegates attending the
Democratic Convention
in
San Francisco, as he also wanted them to
support a plank in their platform for the
Recognition
of the
Irish Republic, but it too was knocked back by their resolutions committee.
Edward L. Doherty
who was
based in California
was one of
those who spoke up
strongly in it's favour at the
Convention and although it was certainly backed up by many other speakers, they
too were only able to achieve
"Sympathy with Ireland."
The
British Imperial Government's
1,500
Auxiliaries who were ex -
British Army officers, who had been recruited by
General
Tudor for double pay, and
known as the R.I.C. Divisions
were given a Police Sgt.
ranking
under
the
British Military General Crozier, and as
previously desperate
unemployed men they were to be known as
"Tudor's Toughs" who had really only been trained to shoot and
throw bombs.
They were at first placed in the
Curragh barracks
and then posted
throughout Ireland
where they were to
be set up
in any of the
Irish houses
they could take over and commandeer, and would fight till the death
while driving around in British R.A.F.
Crossley Tenders, that carried
12
men. They were
neither Police nor Army, but
existed somewhere in between the two British
Imperial Government forces, and were a law unto themselves while carrying out
their dreaded operations in Ireland,
answering to no one. One of the places they secured was the
Guinness Castle at
Macroom in
Co. Cork
in
Southern Munster were they just evicted those
persons who were in charge there.
Michael Collins was now under extreme pressure from this new British Imperial Government terror campaign, as the Irish did not have the resources to stand up against the British Imperial Government's total military onslaught, but knew he could rely on their usual British brutality and stupidity and the usual friction that would eventually occur amongst the different British Military forces that they were made up of. This would then also bring about further scrutiny and a more sympathetic World opinion for the terrible things that were happening to the population in Ireland under the British Imperial Empire.
July: During
this month
9 more
Irish
civilians were killed, including a
youth who was just holding a meeting with his friends,
and all up 70
people from the Irish population were to be wounded within
only a month, as these rampant
British
Imperial Government
forces also carried out their continuing attacks on
the individual towns
in the various Counties in Ireland, including
Ballinine, Ballyanders, Bantry,
Carrick on the Shannon,
Clondulane, Emly, Enniscorthy, Fermoy, Kilcommon, Limerick, Lismore, Newcastle
West, Newtown Mount Kennedy, Pennywell, Rearcross, Swords, Templemore, Thurles,
Tuam and Union Hall.
The amount now raised in Ireland alone towards the Irish National Loan for the establishment of the Irish Republic, was well above their original target that the 1st Dail Eireann had previously set, and this was despite all the purging by the British Imperial Government forces to try and stop it from happening, and their various attempts to try and seize the funds, with each subscriber to the Irish National Loan risking arrest and imprisonment . Other monies were also being received from all over the World, while many of the the Irish people themselves were being arrested also by the British Government forces for either commending the Irish National Loan to any one else, or even assisting in promoting it's success.
July 12th:
Meanwhile, up in Belfast in
Co. Antrim in the
north - east of the Ulster
Province
the
"Official Unionists"
made an address to the non - Catholic
workers in the shipyards there, calling for the use of revolvers,"
To drive the
Fenians out" and immediately
further sectarian attacks
were then once again carried out on the Catholic
Irish workers in that
area and also in other northern Ulster townships, where they burnt and looted their homes.
Although these may be loosely termed sectarian
riots, they were bought about basically by
the unemployment, mismanagement and the
policies then being carried out there by the "Official Unionist"
Stormont Government. These particular riots were to last
for
3
days
during which time 18
people were
killed and 200
were injured
there by the anti - Catholic
rioters who were being stirred on by the ingrained "siege mentality," bigotry and
any other agenda connivance, and no protection was given to the
people there by the
British
Government Military forces.
Edward Carson the
leader of the Ulster
"Official Unionists"
then made another fiery speech in
Derry there in the same vein, and similar sectarian
riots were then to occur in
other areas of the 6 artificially partitioned Counties
from the 9
in the Ulster Province," over
the following 12
months.
Meanwhile
in America, Eamonn de Valera
the President of the 1st Dail Eireann
addressed a
Labour Party group
there who were willing to pledge their support towards the
Recognition of the Irish Republic,
but who had no hope of winning the
American Presidential election, and in the meantime,
John Devoy from the
Clann na Gael there was continuing to keep up his personal attacks on
Eamonn de Valera.
July
19th: Further riots occurred again in the
6 Counties artificially partitioned
from the 9 in the
Ulster
Province, which were to last for
another
5 days, that were now under the control of the British
Imperial Government's installed "Official Unionist Government" involving further bloodshed and
further destruction to property, which were once again not
halted by the British
Imperial Government Military
forces there. The rioters carried the
Union Jack before them as they continued to
besiege the Catholic
Irish population
there and
thousands of the Irish Catholics there were
then forced to flee from their particular living area in fear
of losing their lives. This was part of the agenda and strategy
being utilised at this earlier period to bring about further ethnic and
religious cleansing from the 6 Counties in
Ulster, with
violence also occurring in both the towns of Lisburn and
Bangor.
July
23rd: On this day 2,000
Irish railway men were
suspended by the
British Government
authorities in
the Dublin Castle (The Devil's 1/2
Acre) during the
Railway Strike when
they
refused to
transport the
British
Imperial Government Military forces
and their ammunition throughout Ireland.
The 1st Dail Eireann - 1st Irish Assembly declared that all Religious Tests on anyone at all in the Irish population were illegal, and the political Sinn Fein Party declared a boycott on all the goods in Belfast in Co. Antrim in the north - east of the Ulster Province to try and stop the continuing sectarian attacks being carried out on the Catholic Irish population there. Joseph Mac Donagh was appointed by the 1st Dail Eireann to carry it out with the Irish Volunteers / I.R.A. and the boycott soon became widespread.
August 4th: The
Irish National Loan
for the establishment of Irish Independence, that was being collected in
Ireland for the recognition of
the Irish Republic
was still growing, and as a measure of its real importance to the people of
Ireland it was by now up
to 357,000 pounds.
August 8th:
Terence Mac Swiney
the new
Lord Mayor of
Cork
in Southern Munster had replaced
Thomas Mac Curtin
who had
been murdered by the British
Imperial Government's "Murder Squad, and he too was now arrested by the
R.I.C. - Black & Tans
together
with 10
other
Irishmen, and he was
then personally charged with
carrying an Irish Volunteer / I.R.A.
code on his
person.
During the "Troubles" in the area embracing the vicinity of the
City of
Cork
there was a fair proportion
of active I.R.A.
. Irish Volunteer forces
and the
general Irish population in that area were
to suffer greatly under the continuing terrorising acts
that were carried out
there by the
British Government
forces, who were
also to be defeated there on many occasions,
much to their disgust.
August 12th: Terence Mac Swiney the Lord Mayor of Cork and the 10 other Irishmen were charged by a British Imperial Court Martial and he received 2 years imprisonment and was also deported out of Ireland to Brixton Prison in England, and in protest he went on a hunger strike as did 20 of the Irish Volunteers who were also being held at this time in the Cork Jail in Southern Munster.
August 14th: On this date Patrick Lynch who lived in Co. Limerick in the mid - north - west of the Munster Province was forcibly taken from out of his bed by the British Imperial Government Military forces and his bullet - riddled body was later found in the region. (On this same night there was also an attack carried out on the R.I.C. Barracks at Ballinlough in Co. Roscommon in the east of the Connacht Province were there is a memorial to the Irish who were also killed there).
In
the town of
Lisburn,
in Co. Antrim in the north - east of the
Ulster Province, an
R.I.C. police inspector was
killed
and many riots broke out and the
British Conservatives were now
finally
backing off with their unlimited support for the
"Official
Unionists"
in control of the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the
9 in the Ulster Province,
and the
British Government under David
Lloyd - George were now
looking for the best terms that they could get to settle the
"Troubles" in Ireland that they had continued to create.
Sir Neville Mac Ready
the British
Imperial Government Military commander in Ireland, in an attempt to stop the actual British Military
forces in Ireland from
getting the direct blame for the
terrible horrifying deeds being carried out by the British Government Auxiliaries attached to the
British Government's stronghold in Dublin
Castle (The Devil's 1/2 acre) to give their separate
British Military forces some sought of identifying uniform. (In response they
gave them Tam O Shanters to
wear on their heads).
September: Inspector
Burke, a member of the
Black & Tan
R.I.C police, was shot
dead in
the town of Balbriggan
near
Dublin
after he and his brother
Sgt.
Burke together with
3
of the
British Imperial Government Auxiliaries
were refused drinks at
a local hotel and asked to leave the premises and after
they refused to go the
I.R.A / Irish Volunteer police were called to
remove them from the premises and the
Black & Tan Auxiliaries
then pulled out
their guns. A shoot out then occurred in which
Sgt.
Burke was killed and his
brother was wounded, and the I.R.A.
/ Irish Volunteer police members then left the scene. The
British Government's Black & Tan R.I.C.
in the town of
Gormanston, acting under orders
from their officers, then attacked the actual township of
Balbriggan again
that night and killed
James Lawley
the father of
9
children, and
John Gibbons in his own home, and
wrecked the town and set fire
to 40
of the homes there. Some of the
R.I.C. who were
shocked by the
orders that were given to them to carry out these
appalling attacks on the Irish
population there deserted the R.I.C altogether, and came out and made
personal public statements about the
details of the terrible acts that were done there. The British
Government's Black & Tan R.I.C.
forces
also carried out another raid setting fire to the town of
Lahinch in
Co. Clare
in the north - west of the Munster Province where they
shoved
Connolly
/ Ua Conghaile one of the town's
residents into a burning building were he was burnt alive, and they also attacked the
area to the west of Co. Clare,
as a further
reprisal, but there they were to be driven off by the
I.R.A. / Irish Volunteers. Nearby in
Co. Galway
in Southern Connacht they took the
2
Loughnane
/ Ua
Lachtnain brothers and tied
their legs together onto the back of a truck and dragged them around
the district until they
their lifeless bodies were completely bruised and battered, and they then threw them in the loch
/
lake there.
The
British Imperial Government's
Black & Tan R.I.C Auxiliaries
with their rifle butts crushed the head of
Nicholas Prendergast /
de Priondragas in
Fermoy, who was a Co. Cork
language teacher and then
threw his body into the river, and then broke into and
burnt a shop belonging
to
James Dooley
/ Seamus Ua Dubhlaoich and threw him
into the river
also,
then fired shots at him,
and when the fire brigade arrived to put out the fire, they pulled their guns on them
and cut their fire hoses.
Also in
Co. Cork, for
no reason at all, they shot dead
Timothy Crowley / Tadhg Ua
Cruadhlaoich
after his car had broken down, and also the
73
year
Canon
Magner
/ Maingneir who was in the car with him.
Their other friend who was also in the
car was a magistrate who was able to escape
and make out a
complaint against them and because of his position the British
Government had to charge one of their
Auxiliaries, who
as usual they declared was
not not actually responsible due to insanity. They then placed a
10 p.m. curfew on the City of
Dublin
were the members of the Irish
population there were
then, either arrested or shot on site, depending on the
personal disposition of the
British
Government forces involved, once again with no
recourse.
Cathal Brugha
/ Charles Burgess
the 1st Dail Eireann
Minister for Defence
put it to the
Dail Eireann Cabinet
to also carry out similar reprisals against the
British Military
forces but this
was not accepted by the
Dail Eireann
/ Irish Assembly Cabinet as they considered only
those responsible should be made to pay for their own
appalling actions in Ireland. James O Beirne
/ Seamus Ua Birn
from the
Co. Cork Volunteers I.R.A.
was supposed to take care of two of the
Auxiliaries he
was holding captive but he
decided to let them go and this was to
save his life later on in
Dublin when he was to be caught there
carrying a gun and one of them repaid his humanity at this time by letting him go also.
The
staid, Cathal Brugha
/ Charles Burgess, the
1st Dail Eireann
Minister for Defence and
Chief of Staff of the Irish Volunteers
/ I.R.A. and
Austin Stack / Stac
by now were both resolved to have the same attitude towards
Michael Collins,
to whom they were now showing outright
personal animosity, which was especially noticeable after
Liam Mellowes their other
associate returned from
America.
Cathal Brugha now also took
over as the Director of Purchases
and the 3 of them joined
forces
personally against Michael Collins, while
Richard Mulcahy the
Deputy Chief of Staff tried to
maintain peace between them.
The
British Imperial Government's
new 4th
Irish Home Rule Bill / Government of Ireland Act 1920 was passed, which
artificially partitioned
Ireland under
British Imperial Law into
2 parts to suite the
Ascendancy in
Belfast in the north - east of
the
Ulster Province under the
control of the
"Official
Unionist" leader,
Edward Carson. Despite their best efforts to have complete control
there in the 6 Counties of
Ulster, due to their loaded bases their
Proportional Representation measure was to
backfire when the
Irish Nationalists
there
where still able to gain the
majority in 25
of the
76 Councils.
James Craig another "Official Unionist"
leader who was to be their main man there, who would be their
Prime Minister in
1921 was so worried
about this democratic result then that
he had to pass a
Bill in the
Belfast Assembly
so that local
office holders had to pledge their obedience to the
Northern Ireland Constitution
as
laid out in the 1920 British
Government Act.
September 20th: Kevin Barry,
an 18 year old student, who was
an Irish Volunteer
was
captured while he and some other members were trying to disarm
British Imperial Military
personnel in the
streets of Dublin,
and he was
taken to a nearby British
Government Army
barracks were he was beaten up and then sentenced to death by a
British Court Martial for his
previous actions.
September 22nd: John Lynch
from Killmallock in
Co. Limerick in the mid - north - west of the
Munster Province arrived
into Dublin City
just to give
Michael Collins
the
23,000
pounds
that he had collected for the
Irish National Loan, but
during the night he too was shot dead in his bed by the
British "Murder Gang" who
were
also to kill, amongst many others, the "aged" father of
O
Carroll, who was a
Dublin Irish Volunteer,
who they could not find at home
personally. They
were wantonly allowed in Ireland to kill anyone, anywhere, in cold blood who they
even suspected as being a member of the
Irish Volunteers,
together with
many other unfortunates also in the Irish population, just for no reason,
who were not even
Irish Volunteer
members, as
they had carte blanch from
David Lloyd - George the British Prime Minister and Sir Hamar Greenwood
to do so.
A
personal friend of
Michael Collin's
was
Brigadier General
Tom Hales the
commander
of the
Cork
Irish Volunteers / I.R.A. 3rd Brigade
and he
and his comrade,
Harte were taken prisoner by the
British Government's Essex Military Regiment who then
beat them up
pretty badly and wrapped them up in
explosives, but then suddenly decided to take them into
Bandon
barracks. On arriving there they once again beat
them up
and put them in front of a firing squad, then decided to take to
Harte with a pair of
pincers, crushing his fingernails one by one until he
finally went insane, and the result of
this horrific treatment was that he finally had to be committed to a
Lunatic Asylum.
Tom Hales
was then
imprisoned and because of the horrific torture involved the
British
Government's Essex Military Regiment was put on notice by the
Irish Volunteers
to receive special attention in the future. The
British
Imperial Government forces also carried out raids on the towns of
Cobh in
Co. Cork,
Ennistymon in Co. Clare, and their
British Government's 17th Lancer Regiment also attacked
Mallow in Co. Cork where they became known as
the
"Mallow Murderers," and they also attacked a crowd in
the town of
Arklow in Co.
Wicklow
in the south - east of the
Leinster Province
killing one person and wounding another.
The
Irish
Transport & General Workers Union
organized a General shut down
in support of the Irish Republican
prisoners
who were now on a hunger strike
in anticipation of being declared what they really were, "political
prisoners."
September 28th: Liam Lynch
and the Cork Irish
Volunteers
No 2 Brigade
now attacked the British
Imperial Government forces
at the
Mallow Military Barracks,
which
was the first
British Military
barracks
to be
captured, and
most of the R.I.C.
huts in
Co. Clare in the north -
west of the Munster Province were now
also burnt together
with the church at
Clarecastle, so the
British Government sent
their Navy destroyers up the Shannon River.
It had finally reached the point of no return, and it was now on for young and old, and
16 members of the R.I.C.
/ Royal Irish Constabulary police, who were still operational and known to
be pro - British
Government and against
Irish Self
Determination
were killed, and
another
20 were wounded.
Eventually things got so bad that the
British
Military General,
F. P. Crozier
in Ireland was forced
to dismiss a number of the
British Government Auxiliaries for their various
horrific crimes, and his dismissal power was then
taken away from him, so he resigned, stating that he could no longer
maintain
the discipline among his men, especially after he had discovered one of their plots, which was to drown
Michael Fogarty,
the
Catholic Bishop of Killaloe in Co. Clare,
in the
River Shannon.
The
Dail
Eireann Irish Republican Courts
were now operating in
27 of
the 32 Counties in
Ireland in opposition
to the British Law.
The
political
Sinn Fein
/ Irish Republican Party
came out in the General Elections and again won 172
seats out
of the 206 available in the
Boroughs and the
Urban local elections, and they
still refused to take up the Oath of
Allegiance to the German
Hanoverian British
monarch and also their
seats in the Westminster Parliament in England.
September: Meanwhile in America, Eamonn de Valera drew up a proposal in the form of a letter outlining 7 reasons why Ireland should receive it's Independence from British Imperialism, which was to be forwarded as an official representation to the President of the United States.
September - End: Another 80 people were killed in further rioting in the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province and a boycott was declared in Tuam in Co. Galway in Southern Connacht.
Home Page Return to Celtic Heritage On to 1920 AD / 4 - October