1961 - 1964 AD
1961
The
population of the
Irish Republic (26 Counties)
began to increase again and was
now at
2,818,341,
and
the population in the
6 Counties artificially partitioned from the
9 in the
Ulster Province
by the British Imperial Government
was now
1,425,642.
The
Irish Republican Government
(26 Counties)
applied for European Economic
Community /
E.E.C.
membership for Ireland.
October:
A General Election
was held in the Irish Republic (26 Counties) and
Sean Lemass was returned as the Fianna Fail Prime Minister, and appointed
Charles Haughey
the Minister for Justice,
with no political
Sinn Fein Party
members elected at all, while the
Irish Labour Party
under
the leadership of
Brendan Corish where to increase their numbers in the
Dail Eireann
/ Irish
Assembly up until
1965.
November:
In the
6 Counties
artificially partitioned from the
9 in the Ulster
Province and still under
the control of the
Ascendancy
Official Unionist Stormont Government and
Harold Mac Millan the British Conservative Prime Minister, a
Stormont R.U.C.
police patrol
was ambushed at Flurry Bridge
near Jonesboro
in Co. Armagh in
the south- east of the Ulster Province.
The attack was
condemned strongly by
Sean Lemass the Prime
Minister of Ireland, and he reintroduced
Military Tribunals
after
an absence of
20 years
in
Ireland.
December: National Television was finally introduced into Ireland, which was to have a great impact on what was really going on in the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, for the whole World to see, especially the constituents in Britain itself.
1962 February 26th: in the 6 Counties artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, the IRA who were now under Rory Brady, gave up their previous resistance to the British Imperial Occupation on the artificial border. There had been 600 individual conflicts carried out and the cost to the "Official" Unionist Stormont Government had been 700,000 pounds damage with 6 R.U.C. police killed and 32 injured, along with 9 of the IRA killed and 46 imprisoned, besides all of those who had also been imprisoned there. The IRA in these 6 Counties in Ulster, now dumped their arms, giving as their reason, a lack of support and the general public's attitude towards the whole sorry mess, and rediscovered Socialism through the Wolfe Tone Society. An Amnesty was given to all IRA prisoners who were to be released.
1963 At this time the President of the U.S.A, the Speaker of the U.S.A. House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of the Senate and the Chairman of the U.S.A. National Committee were all Irish - American Democrats.
Membership
for
Ireland
was vetoed by the
E.E.C / European
Economic Community, as was also that of
Britain.
March:
In the 6 Counties
artificially partitioned from the
9 in the Ulster Province
by the British Imperial Government,
Captain Terence O Neill
a Liberal "Official" Unionist,
who had been
born in
London and educated at
Eton and who was later to be created
Lord
O Neill by the British
Government, was to become the leader
in the Official Unionist Stormont Government until
1969. Under his administration although he was always talking
about reform, he
was always subject to great pressure from the hard - line
Ascendancy Official Unionists there,
especially
William Craig, and
the Rev.
Ian Paisley
the
diehard religious extremist.
The Stormont Ascendancy Parliament continued to exclude
Irish
Catholics there from
the
housing trusts,
from the Committee
to oversee University
expansion,
and from the
Public Boards. Besides this Captain Terence O Neill,
had also previously stated that if the
Irish Catholics
in these 6 Counties
in Ulster made any money, they would
try and live like the non - Catholics,
and so despite early hopes under his administration the economic and blatant political
discrimination against them was to continue on. Eventually in the future, due to
ever increasing
pressure from the
Civil Rights
groups, he was to try to introduce some reforms, and
was even to meet secretly with
Jack Lynch
who would then be the new
Prime Minister /
Taoiseach of
Ireland,
and the
leader of the
Fianna Fail Party, in
Dublin.
Although he was to receive
150,000 messages of support for his efforts to bring about
reform, he was
still to be forced to resign by the
hard - line
Ascendancy "Official" Unionists,
who were always really
in control in or out of the Ascendancy Parliament. They would then
put in another of his class in
James Chichester
- Clark. who they were of the opinion
would not bow to
pressure for Civil Rights
reform there, but he too was soon to be replaced by them also, and they then put in an even
more hard - liner
in
Brian Faulkner as their man, and this was to be all stirred along by the
constant agitation of the
intolerant Rev.
Ian Paisley
the religious extremist.
His continual personal inflammatory sectarian and ethnic interference, was to bring about many innocent deaths and injuries
to the general population there whether Irish
Catholic or non - Catholic. This would would finally lead on to Direct Rule
by the
British Imperial Government
as their Ascendancy
experiment
was to
fail totally after causing so much terrible wastage, misery,
religious bigotry and a great loss of human life and suffering.
At
this time in these 6 Counties in the
Ulster Province, the
Homeless Citizen's League
was to be set up by
Patricia Mac Lusky
at
Dungannon in
Co. Tyrone
in
Central Ulster, to try and obtain homes for the
Irish Catholic
families in the area
there. One third
of the
Irish Catholics in these 6 Counties also
accepted the
Stormont
Constitution, while all up
83 % of them at this time
also
disapproved of using any type of force to try and end the artificial
partition
of
Ireland.
In the
Irish Republic,
the priests at
the
Ballintober Abbey in
Co. Mayo
in the mid - west of the Connacht Province, that had been originally built by
the O Connor
Kings of
Connacht,
that had been burnt
down by
Oliver Cromwell's forces in
1653 AD, had still
continued to hold a
Catholic Mass there for the previous
750
years
regardless of what occurred there. (It
was to be restored up until
1966.)
Roy Johnston the Socialist member of the James Connolly Society returned to Ireland from England, where he had been associated and influential on Cathal Goulding who had been serving a prison term there for carrying out an IRA raid and he was then to begin a new political programme involving the IRA, utilising Socialist principles.
Sir Alec Douglas - Home became the new British Conservative Prime Minister until 1964.
1964 Harold Wilson,
became
the new Prime Minister
in the British Labour Government
until 1970,
and he
made a friendly gesture towards
Ireland
and
Eamonn de Valera,
by
allowing the remains of
Roger Casement
to be taken
from Pentonville Jail
in
England and returned
to
Ireland for burial, as he
had personally wished, and a grave had been prepared by the shore of
Mulough Bay in the
Ulster Province. There had been
many representations made to previous
British Prime Ministers
for his
return, but with no result, as the Imperialist,
Sir Winston Churchill
had told
Eamonn de Valera
it was
against British Law,
and it
couldn't possibly be done.
Cathal Goulding, who had been influenced by the Socialist, Roy Johnston, now stated that the IRA would work within the system to achieve their aims of a re - unified Ireland, and both the IRA, and the political Sinn Fein Party, now had a left wing political stance.
Brendan Corish
was at this time still the leader of the
Irish Labour Party.
-
Sean O Casey
(1880 - 1964)
the socialist playwright, who was a Gaelic
speaker, and who had been reared as a non - Catholic, and
who wrote
Juno and the Paycock, and
The Plough and the Stars, died this year.
Brendan Behan
(1923 - 1964)
the well known
Irish writer, also
died this year, and was taken from
Donnybrook to be interred at
Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.
In the
6 Counties artificially partitioned
from the 9 in the
Ulster Province,
the the hard - line religious extremist, the
Rev.
Ian Paisley who was the leader of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster,
which in reality had no connection to the real
Presbyterian Church,
was
finally jailed
for promoting anti -
Catholic rioting. He had created only great hardship and misery for all
of those involved, while he
pandered to the most basic instincts and the
enduring siege mentality of his followers there.
Bernadette Devlin
who was to play a very important role in bringing about reform in the
6 Counties artificially partitioned
from the 9 in the Ulster Province,
which were still
under the control of the Ascendancy Official Unionist Stormont Parliament, for which she would suffer terrible injuries, became a member of the
Young Socialist Alliance
to try and initially bring about relief there in her own home territory.
-
Patricia Mac Lusky
was also joined in her endeavours by her husband, and the
Homeless Citizen's League
became
known as the Campaign for Social Justice,
to also try and obtain normal
Civil Rights
in these 6 Counties, in
Ulster, by using statistics,
that openly disclosed what was really going on there under the Ascendancy
"Official" Unionist Stormont Government.
October: There was 2 days of rioting carried out in Belfast in Co. Antrim in the north - east of the Ulster Province, when the Stormont R.U.C. police raided the Irish Catholic area in the Falls Road, and 21 R.U.C. and 50 civilians had to be taken to hospital.