IRA flying column

http://www.flickr.com/photos/militaryarchives/9662345347/

A picture of an IRA flying column from the war of Independence. Students of Irish history have been trying to identify the unit. The picture may have been taken after the truce. There were even some pictures taken by IRA units with their old foes-RIC British Army etc. Much to the chagrin of Collins

Accident of Birth

Accident of Birth

A short story inspired by an idea


Washington 1940. (Somewhere past the horizon)
He would let the man speak. Anything else would be wrong. It would be petty.
It would detract from the solemnity of the moment. Even at Weddings the Priest allowed for dissent
How did the Vice president say it? ``The Buck stopped here'!''
For a moment The President felt a smithereens of sympathy for his guest.
The Viscount Halifax. A tall spry Man. Born into a Big House. With a crippled hand.
In another walk of life. That would have made Halifax a pauper.
Yet an accident of Halifax birth. His name written on a baptismal certificate in some English country Parish. Made him a man of means
The president found his memory leading him down the lanes again.
Halifax and him, were alike. It was an accident of birth that had been his salvation too
He had been spared, when all else where killed. He had survived. He remembered the city of his birth, full of ragged people off the ships from the old country, hungry and desperate
He realized now he had been the first of them. The first into exile. He would never see his Grandmothers cottage again It had almost been too much.
Left alone with his Nerves, had been to know purgatory in this life. Yet purgatory is not Hell. In its cleansing fires. One feels the presence of the Almighty
one night, he had heard a voice Perhaps it was God. Or one of the Saints.
Lord knows he had never mentioned it to a Priest.
It had been hard enough trawling for votes in Alabama, as it was without mentioning that
The voice had told him that he had been spared for a reason. That God had a plan
for him. He had been a soldier. He was a Soldier A soldier with destiny
So he had spoken out. Against the War. Against all wars. He had spoken for the Small farmer. He had spoken for the Church. He had opposed the Industrialists, the Bankers and the Bluebloods. The economic Royalists
He stood shoulder to shoulder, with Protestants, Jews Negros and even Chinamen.
For God, and the Republic. He had remade himself.
The American people had heard him. The American people had done more. They had
elected him.
The Englishman had finished speaking.

``Well Mr President? ‘’The Viscount began....

`` We will not open our ports''
Those were the final words on the matter of Eamon DeValera.
New Yorker, and sometime Irish rebel. President of the
United States of America......

The day of the demagogue

The Triumph of the Demagogue

The president called for quiet. His voice sharp with anger. The telegram boy looked about the room, the lad was visibly shaking. A Navy Yeoman knocked on the door, and saluted and handed the President another telegram.

In an ash tray cigarette burned away to nothing.

In an Ante chamber the Ambassador was praying quietly.  He was not supposed to do so in public.  That upset people. The regime was sensitive about how other saw it.

An aide approached the Ambassador and Demanded he follow him

This was it then, the horse had left its stall. The  farm, the country had been gambled. It was more than a case of losing their shirts. If something went wrong they would hang.

The man he served had escaped a firing squad at least twice. This time there would be no intercession, no truce, no amnesty.

The Americans made him wait

He could  hear their President curse.  He saw Marine, and Navy officers enter the office. They glared at him, but said  nothing

Through the thick carpets and  heavy oak doors. The diplomat heard their President express himself.

``They should know their place…Their  leader was a demagogue.  A man who should have been hanged.  A bandit that had taken  power with a revolver in his pocket. A religious bigot. A fool who ranted and raged about lost territories. He had even given himself a stupid title..Warleader or something’’

Quite frankly the time was to kick him square in the pants. The President was reading the reports, from the British.  The British were screaming about false uniforms , cover of darkness. A betrayal

The Ambassador looked at his watch. Now was the moment  

``Turn the son of a bitch on’’

 In accented English, the minister for information spoke.  His parents had sacrificed much for his  Jesuit education, now it  must not fail him. The British were by no means vanquished.

Now waited for the photo finish, which would decide their fates. The rent was in the bookies hands

The minister spoke to the American people. He asked them for understanding he begged them for patience.

They had not wanted war. They had only acted, to protect themselves. They wanted the Americans to intervene to help them. To help them defend the common Christian civilisation, of Europe,  of the British commonwealth of America. They had acted to save lives. Surely the Americans did not want war between two great nations. Not when the real enemy the godless monster lay unchecked to the East

``Turn  that off.. the President barked

Send him in’’

The Naval officers spoke first, crowding him. Shouting threatening, pounding fists. Talking of ships and guns.  An Army officer from the Air corps  made horrible allusions about bombs and gas

The American president  spoke.. he spoke of his anger, and  his contempt..how he wished the British had finished them off in the last war

``If you ever pull something like this again…another stupid operation like this one and I swear…’’

The Ambassador from Eire breathed in…the  gamble had worked. They would be allowed to keep their gains,  in return for entering the war

Today in History

Irish forces reclaim Bere Island, Lough Swilly in Donegal
Treaty ports under nominal British control since  the signing of the treaty. They had been neglected

 Strictly speaking Belfast was a treaty point. A feint by David Lloyd George or a safeguard for the Admiralty if Irish unity ever emerged

Churchill never forgave Chamberlain signing over the Treaty ports

Removal of laws against Whiteboys

http://www.thejournal.ie/obsolete-laws-ireland-1100130-Sep2013/

Whiteboys were agarian protest movement-White is the french colour. the white cockade the Jacobites. The Whiteboys can be seen loosely as the fathers of the IRA and the modern Irish state.
While it would be a mistake to view the Whiteboys as a proto-IRA or Fenian Brotherhood. As  a secret society acting against Landlords, and strong farmers and often RC Priests.( The animus against Priest was the fees charged for Baptisms and such-Its not until the devotional revolution that modern Irish Catholicism emerges ) The idea of our law, versus their law maintained

Today in History

The anniversary of the races of castlebar

Today in History

Anniversary of the Omagh Bomb

Bog Body in Laois

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/laois-bog-body-said-to-be-world-s-oldest-1.1483171

I wonder if the bog, was there at the time

No longer standing Idly by...

http://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/no-longer-standing-idly-by-irish-army-contingency-plans-1969-70/

See my AH, so you think you have got troubles.
This is the most debated ``What if '' of modern Irish history

The society of friends in Irish history

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/how-the-quakers-changed-ireland-for-good-29450045.html

Two other facts, worth remembrance

Mulcachy's mother was a Quaker

Per Tim Pat Coogan's the IRA there was a half baked scheme for Dev and Craig to reunite under the leadership of an Irish American Quaker

Irish neutrality

http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/extract-the-daily-problems-in-maintaining-irelands-neutrality-during-ww2-933123-Jul2013/

Irish nuclear war leaflet

http://imgur.com/gallery/Zp2JE/


Irish government pamphlet what to do in case of a Nuclear war

Actually the leaftlet is  interesting as a piece of social history. The booklet talks about first aid. Saying
that the untrained first aider, oft does more harm then good. YET if someone is
clearly dying, then you SHOULD act

Also for post Nuclear  war story writes. 

Lots of advice directed at farmers. For example per the leaflet potatoes are
more or less safe-The heart of a hayrick is safe. 

Also artifical  insemanation is common on Irish farms, at this time

Yola and Fingalian

http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/column-yola-and-fingalian-%e2%80%93-the-forgotten-ancient-english-dialects-of-ireland-985649-Jul2013/

Apart from the interesting use of the adjective multicultural. This is the tongue that the Butlers and Ormonds would have spoken,What John de Courcey would have spoken to his falconer in

Memoir of the Easter Rising

A British chaplain's memoir of the Rising. I did not know that Asquith visited so soon afterward
It also adds fuel to the fire if Connolly was reconciled to the Church before he died, argument

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/lost-memoir-tells-how-james-connolly-returned-to-his-faith-before-execution-29297110.html

Though Connolly would not rejoice, about the story being carried by the Independent.-His foes in the Lockout

News on the Potato blight

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22596561

This year has been a bad year for the Irish potato as it happens
Note the BBC, simply mentions people starving but neglects any historical context. Surely the poor policies of Brian XI King of Ireland are to blame

The Down Survey

http://downsurvey.tcd.ie/index.html

Sir William's Petty mapped Ireland for the commonwealth.
It has been reconstructed.

Decade of rain

Discovery of 20-year long rainfall in Ireland in 2345 BC revealed

Expert says it proves Noah's flood really did happen back then

By

 IRISHCENTRAL STAFF WRITERS,

Published Sunday, May 5, 2013, 7:46 AM

Updated Sunday, May 5, 2013, 7:46 AM

New evidence has found that Ireland had to endure 20 years of non-stop rain back in 2345 BC - just around the time of Noah's Biblical flood.

While many would say it rains quite a lot in Ireland now, new evidence has found that the Emerald Isle had to endure 20 years of non-stop rain back in 2345  BC - just around the time of Noah's Biblical flood.

On Sunday, RTE One's 'Secret's of the Irish Landscape' will reveal that this period of continual rainfall makes it possible that the biblical story of the great flood really did happen, TheJournal.ie reports.

"According to the ancient Annals of the Four Masters, the whole of Ireland had to be evacuated at this time,” says Professor Mike Baillie from Queen's University in Belfast.

"We believe this global event was caused by a big explosive volcanic eruption which loaded the atmosphere with dust to reflect the sunlight away and cause widespread cooling at the earth’s surface."

Baillie discovered that freak weather events such as the great flood tend to occur about every thousand years.

The last freak weather event occurred in Ireland in 540 AD, when it rained for 10 years straight.

************

This is maddening. There may be an interesting and historically important story here. If there was a decade of non stop in 540s.  Then I presume, it affects most of the Irish sea. So Scotland, Wales, West Country.
Now who else is thinking of Arthur?  Its an interesting if that is the right word, tragedy. A time, when nothing is ever dry. Everywhere is muddy. Firewood is useless. Water water everywhere...

1913 Dublin Lockout.

http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/extract-the-strikers-and-scabs-of-the-dublin-1913-lockout-photos-864355-Apr2013/#slide-slideshow1 

Pictures of the Dublin Lockout. Dublin, was militant before the Great war

Black gold in Kerry

http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/oil-porcupine-basin-kerry-petrel-853171-Apr2013/

I have an idea, for an Alternate history story. With Ireland entering a resource boom in the 1960s.
The idea was uranium mining in Donegal, gave a third Blaney Brother who was an engineer, a powerbase. With that powerbase, he intervened in Northern Ireland. Think Cansore point on steroids.

Interesting to think what Ireland could have done if Fracking was developed in the 1970s

From the roof of the college of surgeons

http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/extract-from-the-roof-of-the-college-of-surgeons-the-volunteers-watched-the-city-burn-849284-Apr2013/

Another history of the events, of the Easter rising. Focusing on one of the female volunteers

Cu Chulainn gets a superhero makeover as myth goes graphic

Cu Chulainn gets a superhero makeover as myth goes graphic

This is not the first version of the Tain, in comic book form surely? Slaine in 2000ad draws deep from the well of Celtic/Irish myth. 

Shanty Irish

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/us/secrets-of-duffys-cut-yield-to-shovel-and-science.html?smid=pl-share

The Irish in America. I should write an AH on them. 

Chilling tape reveals TD laughed about executing 'spies'

Chilling tape reveals TD laughed about executing 'spies'

Martin Corry, who would later discuss in the Dail, the use of Gas, against Northern Ireland
The Anglo Irish war in West Cork, was not a gentleman's affair. It is important in my opinion. to remember this when thinking about the origins of the Irish Civil war. The Western units thought they had won,and won hard. 

Redheads taking over the media. O/T

This is Candace from Phineas and Ferb

This is Gwen from Ben 10

Daphne from Scooby do. There is a new adaption,

Merida from Blaze

I realize this is off topic. However Ireland and Scotland have the most redheads, in the world

WEEKEND BIG READ: Surviving Ireland's death row | Irish Examiner

WEEKEND BIG READ: Surviving Ireland's death row | Irish Examiner

A different time. Ireland, has the death penalty. In `So you think you've got troubles'' I have the Irish state using the death penalty out of desperation when faced with spilling over of the Northern crisis. While I use this as a means to an end, of keeping Ireland out of the EEC and then EU.
Its notable that France had the death penalty into the 1970s

******************

Peter Pringle, son is now an Independent TD. I wonder if similar would have happened in the So you think you've got troubles universe?  Please remember I am not here to comment on politics, per se

Great Famine spud returns after almost 170 years

Great Famine spud returns after almost 170 years

A taste of history. You can actually taste what they ate, day in, day out. In Kerry before the famine. What immigrants in the shanty towns, of the USA remembered. Note that what was once a staple of peasants is now a rare dish. A tribute to Irish agribusiness

I have not written a Famine AH. Though perhaps I should. I have seen speculation that without the great famine, the population of Ireland would be 20 million. You are then subtracting several million people from the UK, and the US population. The descendants of famine emigrants. A US without the Irish famine is very different. No Democratic machine. No JFK.

Oh and Hooligans would be called something else

Ireland's Napoleonic-era signal towers

Ireland's Napoleonic-era signal towers

There was one of these overlooking my family farm in Donegal. I remember the walk up to the tower. My father associated it wrongly with the Spanish Armada. At the time, Donegal, was beyond the reach of the crown. However Sir William Docwra by building a small fort, in between the Irish lines managed to divide and disrupt the Irish in the 9 years war

For an AH about the French Republic invading Ireland in the 1790s..

http://www.uchronia.net/bib.cgi/label.html?id=grifthatmo

I would recommend

http://www.amazon.com/Year-Liberty-History-Great-Rebellion/dp/0349112525  For the depressing reality of the 1798 rebellion.

Garda Adrian Donohoe killed in the line of duty

Murder of garda condemned

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan and other Garda officers at a briefing for the media outside Dundalk Garda station today. Photograph: Collins

Related

• Murder inquiry as Garda shot dead in Dundalk raid | 26/01/2013
• Rural garda stations to close | 26/01/2013

External

• Garda

The Irish Times takes no responsibility for the content
or availability of other websites

There has been widespread condemnation of the murder of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe in the course of an attempted armed robbery in Dundalk last night.

President Michael D Higgins said he was “deeply shocked” to learn of the murder.

"This is a dreadful crime and all Irish people will be truly appalled by it," he said.

“I wish to extend my deepest sympathy to the late Garda’s family and all to all of his colleagues. I have already conveyed my condolences to the Garda Commissioner.”

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he learned of the shooting with “deep shock and great sadness”.

“This was an outrageous act of cold blooded violence that has left a family without a husband and father and the Garda Siochana without a brave and valued member,” Mr Kenny said.

“On behalf of the Government and of the people I would like to express my condolences to Adrian’s wife and children and to all his extended family at this unbearably sad time.”

Mr Kenny also expressed his sympathies to Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan and “all of Adrian’s colleagues in An Garda Siochána who I know will spare no effort in bringing to justice those responsible for this appalling crime”.

Speaking at Garda Headquarters early this morning, Mr Callinan said he was “deeply saddened” to hear of the death of his colleague.

“At this time my thoughts and prayers and those of the entire force are with the family, friends and close colleagues of Adrian.”

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said the killing of a garda in the line of duty was "shocking" and a "heinous criminal act". He said his thoughts were with the family, colleagues and friends of the deceased garda.

Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton said the shooting dead of the garda was "really an attack on Irish society" and was a "sobering" event.

Fianna Fáil Leader Micheál Martin said the "cowardly act of violence" had caused "revulsion and rage in homes across the country today".

"It represents a direct assault on our society and our sense of community. It deserves a response on the same scale. No stone should be left unturned and no resource denied to the gardaí in their pursuit and prosecution of those responsible and all associated with them."

Fine Gael TD for Cork East and chair of the Oireachtas justice committee, David Stanton, described the murder as “horrific”.

“I would like to express my horror and anger at the murder of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe who was going about his duties protecting the people of this country. He was gunned down with warning as he sought to prevent a robbery,” Mr Stanton said.

He expressed his deepest sympathies to Det Garda Donohoe’s family and colleagues.

“Every effort will be made to bring these killers to justice. Detective Donohoe was working on behalf of the Irish people and any attack on the gardai is an attack on every man, woman and child in this country.”

Louth Fine Gael TD Peter Fitzpatrick also condemned the murder.

"I have known Detective Donohoe for many years. I played football with him and managed his local GAA team. He was a gentle giant whose wife and three children meant the world to him. As a volunteer in his local community, he was loved and respected by all who knew him," he said.

"This horrific and senseless murder has deeply shocked the community, his family and colleagues and everyone who knew him."

Mr Fitzpatrick said gardaí and the PSNI were "working closely together to track down these cowardly murderers and every effort will be made to ensure that these four criminals will be found and brought to justice".

Louth Fianna Fáil TD Seamus Kirk said Det Garda Donohoe "was a highly respected member of our community and was very much involved in local life. His senseless death has left all of us mourning".

Archbishop of Armagh: Dr Richard Clarke said the first thoughts must be with Det Garda Donohoe's wife Caroline and his family.

"Those of us of religious faith will hold them in our prayers. The callous taking of any human life is a vicious insult against humanity and against the God who gives us life. In addition, the murder of a servant of society in pursuit of his or her duties is an assault on society itself and each one of us. Let us never become indifferent to the reality that we have all been attacked by this deed."

He said his Church of Ireland colleague, Archbishop of Dublin Dr Michael Jackson joined with him in expressing "on behalf of the whole Church of Ireland our absolute censure of this action and our sincere sympathy to Detective Garda Donohoe’s family".