1946 - 1948 AD
1946
The population in
Eire
was now up to
2,955,167
and in the City of
Dublin
in the mid - east of Southern Leinster
it was up to
300,000
with
80,000 in
the City of
Cork in Co. Cork in
Southern Munster.
George Gavin Duffy,
the son of Charles Gavin Duffy the previous
Young Irelander who had left Ireland under disgust
with the British Imperial Government's treatment of the Irish population and became
the Premier of Victoria in Australia,
now became the
3rd President
of
Ireland.
Sean Mac Bride,
the son of John Mac Bride and
Maude Gonne,
who was a lawyer and the former I.R.A
Chief of Staff, founded the new Republican political Party,
the
Clann na Poblachta Party,
due to the lack of
any progress on the artificial border
partition of
Ireland,
by Eamonn de Valera and the
Fianna Fail Government.
February:
General Elections
were held again in
Ireland / Eire
were
Sean Mac Bride's
Clann na Poblachta
won
10
seats and formed an alliance with the
Fine Gael Party
the political successor of
William T. Cosgrave's
old
Cuman na nGaedhal Party.
March:
The Irish - Americans from the
Clann na Gael
reorganized themselves in
America.
March 9th:
Prominent IRA
members were arrested by Eamonn de
Valera's Fianna Fail Party Government in
Eire, but the
anti - Treaty IRA
influence was to continue to still grow until
1949 and
Sean Mac Caughey
the previous Chief of Staff of the
IRA
in 1941,
died on a
hunger strike in
Maryborough
Prison still fully
committed to the cause of dismantling the British Imperial Government's artificial
partition of the
6 Counties
from the 9
in the Ulster Province, and the
reunification of
Ireland.
April:
The League of Nations
was dissolved and replaced by the
United Nations
Organization.
September 10th: A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice in the Fianna Fail Government in Eire / Ireland advised the German detainees still being held that they would be given the right of asylum in Ireland and they moved to Dublin later on were they endeavoured to make a living as Captain Goertz stayed on with the Farrell sisters, and Walter Simon returned to Germany.
1947
April 12th:
Eamonn de
Valera's Fianna Fail Government in Eire
now had all the
German agents who were previously released and offered asylum, re -
arrested and taken to
Mountjoy Prison
after giving in to
Allied
pressure to have them extradited for interrogation
and
Captain
Goertz fearing
Allied reprisal wrote personally
to him
to obtain asylum while
Willy Preetz, Ernst Weber - Drohl, Dieter
Gaertner and
Herbert Tributh
were
transported to Germany
by the
American Air Force.
Werner Unland
successfully
fought his deportation while
Captain Herman Goertz
and
Guenther Schuetz
were given
a deferment.
May: Captain
Hermann Goertz
previously a German
agent married
Una Mackey a nursing sister
he met at Athlone in
Co. Westmeath in the north - west of the
Leinster Province.
May 23rd: Captain Herman
Goertz
took a dose of
Potassium
Cyanide rather than return to
Germany and
John Costello
a member of
the Committee
later on
inquiring into his death called on the other members not to do anything to
besmirch his memory.
May 26th: Captain Herman
Goertz
was buried in Deans Grange
non - Catholic Cemetery in
Dublin
and amongst the mourners were
Seamus O Donovan,
Anthony Deery, Werner
Unland and
Charles Mac Guinness.
July:
The political Sinn Fein Party
now
produced the United Irishmen
newspaper. -
October:
Sean Mac Bride
and
Patrick Kinnane
won by -
elections on behalf of the
Clann na
Poblachta, which now loomed as a threat to Eamonn de Valera's
Fianna Fail Party.
James Larkin,
the great
Irish
Labour leader, died
this year.
1948
Eammon
de Valera
the leader of the
Fianna Fail
Irish Government was worried by the inroads of
the Clann na Poblachta
under the
leadership of
Sean
Mac
Bride so he called an early
General Election
and the catch cry used against the
Fianna Fail
Government was, "Put Them Out"
the same one that the Fianna Fail had used against the previous
Fine Gael Government
of William T. Cosgrave to get into power
during 1932. The
Irish people now wanted a
change after
16
years
of the
Fianna Fail Party
and
Eammon
De
Valera..
February 4th: Of the 147 seats the Fianna Fail Party under Eammon de Valera returned the largest single party majority with 68, but their first preference votes were down, with the Independents gaining 22 seats and the smaller parties combined their votes and the Fianna Fail Party was defeated by a Fine Gael Party Coalition. The Fine Gael Party with 31 seats, Labour with 19 seats, Clann na Poblachta with 10 seats under Sean Mac Bride together with other smaller parties combined giving them 75 seats. The leader of the Fine Gael Coalition was to be a compromise candidate, John A. Costello, who was a barrister and who had been the Attorney General in 4 previous Fine Gael Governments up to their defeat in 1932. Eamonn de Valera had been nominated at the Taoiseach / Prime Minister but lost out to John A. Costello by 75 votes to 70 who had not even been the leader of Fine Gael, but was put forward when Sean Mac Bride would not wear their leader, Richard Mulcahy as the new Prime Minister. John A. Costello who was born in 1891 and who would die in 1976 was to be the one who would finally make Erie into the Republic of Ireland instead of Eamonn de Valera who everyone had been expecting to.
The
Fine Gael Coalition
Government in Eire /
Ireland was now mainly in
2 Factions which
included the
Left Wing / Clann na Poblachta
under
Sean Mac Bride,
the son of
John Mac Bride
who had been executed by
the British Imperial Government after the
1916 Easter Rising
and
Maude Gonne Mac Bride. The
Clann
na Pobhlachta with
10 seats
had combined with the
Irish Labour
Party to
be known as
National
Labour. Sean Mac Bride
became the Minister for External
Affairs
in the
Fine Gael Coalition
Government and the Clan
na Poblachta Party
leader until 1951,
and
Sean Mac Eoin became the
Minister for Justice
until
1951 and released all of the
IRA
prisoners previously held by Eamonn de Valera's
Fianna Fail Party.
July: The first issue of the
United Irishmen
newspaper
was
put out by
Seamus O Kelly
assisted by
the old Republicans
and it was
later on taken over by the
anti - Treaty IRA,
and
Michael Traynor resigned from the paper as he would not be a party
to organizing the youth of Ireland
to use force for the mere sake of using force.
August 6th:
William Norton
now the
Tanaiste / Deputy Premier
of the
Fine Gael Coalition
Government stated in the
Dail Eireann /
Irish Parliament that it was in the national interest to abolish the
External Relation Act
pertaining
to the British King,
and he was
supported by
Eammon de Valera
who was still the leader of
the
Fianna Fail Party, now in Opposition.
The
Irish Labour Party
had always been against it and
Sean Mac Bride's
Clann na
Poblachta was committed to repeal it.
September:
John A. Costello
who was now the Taoiseach
/ Prime Minister of Eire /
Ireland was attending a
Commonwealth Bar Association conference in
Canada were he confirmed that the
report in the papers about the intention to repeal the
External Relations Act
was
correct and he was snubbed by the British
Imperial
Governor General Field
Marshall Earl
Alexander who was a
non - Catholic and the son of an
English Earl who had
Estates in
Co. Tyrone
in Central Ulster Province. This snub was the
final straw for
John A. Costello.
December 21st:
The eventual break was made with
Britain
as
Ireland
withdrew
from the
British Commonwealth
and the Republic of Ireland Act
was passed to which name
Eamonn de Valera
took
exception as he considered the
Republic already existed, and that it was actually only the
Repeal of the External Relations Act,
so
John A. Costello informed him that the name
Eire / Ireland
would remain the
same, but now it would be the
Republic
of Ireland.
Count George Noble Plunkett, the father of Joseph Mary Plunkett who was executed by the British Imperial Government as a signatory of the Proclamation in the 1916 Easter Uprising, died at 97 years of age and was a true Irish patriot.