1924 AD
January:
James Ramsay Mac Donald became the new
British Labour Prime Minister as the Labour
Party in England, finally won government
in the British Elections
in their own right
for the
first time in British history, and it was
arranged for
William T. Cosgrave,
the leader
of the Irish Free State
to
meet with
Sir James Craig,
the
"Official" Unionist
leader,
in London, to set up the Boundary Commission for the
other 6 Counties artificially partitioned
from the 9 in the Ulster Province.
(James Craig
again refused to nominate
anyone as their representative
on the
Commission, and said,
"He would not give up an inch.)"
William T. Cosgrave, the
Irish Free State leader /
Taoiseach, agreed with
James
Ramsay Mac Donald to allow the
British Labour Government to
amend the
Anglo - Irish Treaty, and also for
them to nominate a
representative
on behalf of the Ulster Unionists who would
not, and he appointed
Joseph Fisher, a
lawyer from the
Ulster Province and
editor of a pro - Unionist newspaper, and
the Boundary Commission was set up for
a year. James
Ramsay Mac Donald
the
British
Labour Prime Minister was to only hold office for
another
9
months.
The artificial
partition Boundary
Commission finally met, under the chairmanship of the
British representative,
Justice Feetham,
who was from
South Africa,
and they were to
sit for a further year, trying to dissect the 9 Counties in the
Ulster
Province, with
Eoin Mac Neill
the previous Commander in Chief of the Irish Volunteers
representing the Irish Free State.
April:
The anti - Treaty
Irregular IRA prisoners, that were being held in the
26 Counties in the
Irish Free State,
had their rules
relaxed and
Eamonn de Valera
was
now allowed contact with
Austin Stack,
and his mother
who lived in America, and as he
was associated with the
American
Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic
they
had been working
for his release. The
Irregular IRA
had agreed to support the political
Sinn Fein Party,
and
a
General Amnesty Bill
was passed, to release all of the
Irregular IRA prisoners
in the Irish Free State.
October: Stanley Baldwin, as the new leader of the Tory Conservatives were able to win back the government in England, who were then to remain in power there for the following 4 1/2 years until 1929.
Sir
James Craig,
told the British
Conservative Government
that he would resign as the
Prime Minister
of
the
Ulster "Official" Unionist Stormont
Government
in
the 6
artificially partitioned
Counties from the 9
in the Ulster
Province, if any of the
territory was removed from under their control, and then lead the defence of that territory. The original
intention of both
Arthur Griffith
and
Michael Collins,
on behalf
of the future Irish Free State
in
agreeing to the Anglo - Irish Treaty
on the
artificial border
in the first place, was
in anticipation that Ireland
would be made whole again given enough time. Unfortunately this was not to
come about in the foreseeable future, as
they had hoped, as the British Imperial Government always had a
2/3
majority in the decision making process, which was naturally always to rule the day, as they
had tried to secure some
further fertile land in
Co. Donegal
from the Irish Free State.
Eoin Mac Neill had
resigned in protest, and their report was never published or
acted upon, and later on
James Craig was to meet with
William T. Cosgrave in
London, where they agreed that the existing border was preferred.
In the
6 Counties artificially partitioned
from the 9 in the Ulster Province, an Education Act
was to
be bought in to encourage a mixed system were
Catholics and
non - Catholics could be educated together, but those non - Catholics
there who were against it
organized the
United Education Committee,
as their
Grand Orange Order Lodge
was
also against any "mixed" education. (In Derry
and Dungannon
they also
became
notorious for discrimination against the
Irish
Catholics there especially in relation to
housing).
July 16th: The 15,000 anti - Treaty Irregular IRA prisoners, that were being held in the 26 Counties in the Irish Free State, were released, including Eamonn de Valera, who was at this time now back in Arbour Hill Prison.
John Devoy the long time leader of the Clann na Gael in America, who had laboured long for Irish Independence, was now able to personally visit Ireland and also died this year.
Dr.
Dignan
the newly
elected Catholic
Bishop of Clonfert in
Co. Galway
in the south of the
Connacht Province,
forecast at Loughrea,
that the dead set
Irish Republicans would soon be
in power in Ireland although
they were still against
taking up their
seats.
Eamonn de Valera
declared, that he
would, if he could get around the
Oath
of Allegiance to the
German British King, as he had already previously set up an
illegal
Emergency Government
with himself
as President
and
Minister for Foreign
Affairs. Eamonn de Valera was
still also
the member for Co. Down
in the
6 Counties
artificially partitioned from the
9 in the Ulster
Province, that were now
under the control of the
Ascendancy
Official Unionists
and
British Conservative Government rule.
September 1st:
Dawson Bates,
the
Minister for Home Affairs,
in the
6 Counties artificially partitioned
from the 9 in the Ulster Province
issued an order
in Belfast in
Co. Antrim,
prohibiting
Eamonn de Valera from
entering Co. Down
or anywhere else in the
6
Counties, except for
Co. Antrim,
as the elections were coming up for the
British
Westminster Parliament,
and he
said he would be arrested if he attended there.
October 24th:
Eamonn de Valera
went up to Newry in
Co. Down, in the
6 Counties
artificially partitioned from the
9 in the
Ulster Province, where he was
arrested by the
Royal Ulster Police / R.U.C.,
and
the next day he was put back across the artificial
partition border into the other 26
Counties in the
Irish Free State with a
Notice of
Prohibition.
November 1st:
Eamonn de
Valera, now went up to
Co. Sligo in
the north - west of the Connacht Province,
then across
to
Co. Derry in the
6 Counties artificially partitioned
from the 9 in the Ulster Province,
while trying to reach his constituency in Co. Down, where he was
arrested once again,
and taken to Belfast in
Co. Antrim were he
was charged and given a month's imprisonment in
Solitary Confinement, but in reality he
was only
to be
actually held for
3 days
until
after the election was over. Even though a protest was made to the
Stanley Baldwin the Conservative
Prime Minister of Britain he did nothing about
it. November 28th:
Eamonn de
Valera was once again taken to the artificial
partition border
in Ireland, were
he was released once again into the other
26
Counties in the
Irish Free
State by the Royal
Ulster Constabulary / R.U.C.
By
now there was a trend in
5
of the Bye -
Elections
that were
carried out in the
26 Counties in the
Irish Free State,
for an increasing amount of votes to go once
again towards the political
Sinn Fein
Party.
In the
6 Counties artificially partitioned
from the 9 in the Ulster
Province, now under the control of the Stormont
/ Great
Mountain Government, led by
James Craig
the Ascendancy "Official" Unionist
leader,
the
curfew imposed since
1922 on
Belfast in
Co. Antrim was finally withdrawn. The
Official Unionist
Government then altered the
Local Ward boundaries to favour the
non - Catholic vote, by introducing
property owning qualifications to be entitled to vote, which favoured the more
prosperous non - Catholics, by
allowing up to
6
votes each.
All of this gerrymandering of the voting rights was
to reduce the
Irish Nationalist majorities on the
Local Councils back to
2,
instead of the original
25.
The
highest rainfall period ever recorded in
Ireland was on
Bally na Hinch Loch were there were
309 rainy days this year.
John Mitchell, the previous Young Irelander leader, died this year in America, whose father had been a Presbyterian minister who had been frustrated by the control of the Presbyterian Church over the Orange Order in the Ulster Province, and become a Unitarian minister instead at Newry in Co. Down, which had, had a great influence on John Mitchell's life, Thomas Davis ("You must educate to be free.") and other journalists had also been involved in the Young Irelander movement. Due to the apathy of the various British Conservative Governments to the Irish people during the Great Famine, they had founded the Young Irelander Association to bring about Irish Independence as an Irish Nation in its own right initially by democratic means. John Mitchell had been born in 1815 in Co. Derry in the north - east of Ulster, and was educated at Trinity College in Dublin, and in 1841 produced The Nation newspaper, with another of their members Charles Gavin Duffy (who became Premier of Victoria), to try and bring about democratic reform in Ireland, and in 1845 he had been arrested by the British Conservative Government and charged with sedition for his democratic views. In 1846 he was to co - found the Young Irelander Association, but was to withdraw from it due to the frustration of gaining any chance of obtaining rural reform in Ireland from the British Conservative Government by democratic means and he was finally convinced, as usual, that armed insurrection would be the only way to achieve it in Ireland. In 1848 he was arrested again, and sentenced to 14 years Transportation, and he was to be treated so badly in prison in Co. Cork, that this had upset and caused many of the Young Irelanders to finally arrive at the same conclusion. He was Transported at first to Bermuda and then onto Tasmania (Van Dieman's Land) in Australia, from where he was to escape from in 1853, and go onto America and found another Irish newspaper there, to try and bring about Irish Independence. In 1875 he was elected a member of the Westminster Parliament in England for Co. Tipperary in the north - east of the Munster Province, and although 27 years had since elapsed, a new warrant was issued by the British Conservative Government for his arrest if he was to take it up.
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