Featured Blog Posts - The Wild Geese2024-03-19T04:15:47Zhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blog/feed?promoted=1&xn_auth=noThis Week in the History of the Irish: March 17 - March 23tag:thewildgeese.irish,2024-03-17:6442157:BlogPost:3088482024-03-17T02:02:37.000ZThe Wild Geesehttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/TheWildGeese
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84716679?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84716679?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="225"></img></a> <strong><font color="#008040"><b><span>DOMHNAIGH</span></b></font></strong><span> </span>-- On<span> </span><font color="blue">March 17, 1858</font>, James Stephens founded the<span> </span><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/cp/store.aspx?s=wgtstore2">Irish Republican Brotherhood</a><span> </span>in Dublin at the same time as John O'Mahoney was founding the…</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84716679?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84716679?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="225" class="align-right"/></a><strong><font color="#008040"><b><span>DOMHNAIGH</span></b></font></strong><span> </span>-- On<span> </span><font color="blue">March 17, 1858</font>, James Stephens founded the<span> </span><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/cp/store.aspx?s=wgtstore2">Irish Republican Brotherhood</a><span> </span>in Dublin at the same time as John O'Mahoney was founding the American branch of the revolutionary group. O'Mahoney gave the organization the better-known name<span> </span><a href="http://www.cafeshops.com/wgtstore2" target="new"><em>Fenians</em></a>, in honor of the<span> </span><i>Fianna</i>, the soldiers led by<span> </span><i>Fionn Mac Cuchail</i>, the heroic warrior of Irish legend.</p>
<p><span><strong>(Right: From the "<i><span class="font-size-1">From Atlas and Cyclopedia of Ireland.)</span></i></strong></span></p>
<p>The Fenians were the first truly worldwide revolutionary organization, with branches in France, England, Ireland, Australia, Canada, and the United States. The group raised millions of dollars among Irish exiles in the U.S. to support efforts at gaining Ireland her independence, setting a precedent that continues. Though the founders of the<span> </span><a href="http://www.cafeshops.com/wgtstore2" target="new">Fenians</a><span> </span>never saw their goal come to fruition, Ireland's freedom was built on the foundation they laid down.</p>
<p><font color="#008040"><b><strong><span>DOMHNAIGH</span></strong></b></font><span> </span>-- On<span> </span><font color="blue">March 17, 1800</font>, Charles James Patrick Mahon, soldier and politician, was born in Ennis, Co. Clare. He joined Daniel O'Connell's Catholic Association and helped him win Clare's seat in Parliament in 1830. After falling out with O'Connell, he went abroad and began a series of amazing (if all true) adventures. He was served in the Czar's bodyguard, was a general and an admiral in<span> </span><a>South America</a><span> </span>and fought on the side of the North in the<span> </span><a>American Civil War</a>. During the course of all this, he was said to have fought 13 duels. Mahon then served in Napoleon's III's army before returning to Irish politics, where he was elected MP (Member of Parliament) from Carlow. Mahon died in London on June 15, 1891, having lived (if only half the adventures he claimed are true) an incredibly full life.</p>
<p><strong><font color="#008040"><b><span><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84716715?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84716715?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>MÁIRT</span></b></font><span> </span>-</strong><span> </span>On<span> </span><span>March 19, 1921</span><span> </span>Tom Barry and the West Cork Flying Column ambushed crown forces at Crossbarry, County Cork during the Irish War of Independence. The British had learned that <a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-battle-of-crossbarry-breaking-the-back-of-the-british-occupat" target="_self">the Flying Column’s HQ’s was in the Crossbarry</a><span> </span>area from a volunteer captured at the Upton ambush in February. Several groups of British troops from the Hampshire and Essex Regiments, over 1,000 total, from the Bandon, Cork, Ballincollig, Kinsale, and Macroom area moved in, trying to surround and capture the entire group of Volunteers. There were slightly over 100 Volunteers in the area. As is often the case with such a complicated operation involving the coordination of several groups of troops, the timing was not good. The operation began in the early morning hours, with the troops going house to house, arresting all military-age men. Charlie Hurley, the commander of the Cork # 3 Brigade, who had been wounded at the Upton, was surprised in a house at 6:30 am. He refused to surrender, wounding British Major Hallinen of the Essex regiment before being killed himself.</p>
<p>Barry, who had served in the British army in World War 1, had been alerted around 2:30 a.m. and roused his men. Quickly realizing from reports of British troops in several directions, Barry got his forces organized. Though he was outnumbered, the British were divided and he had the advantage of interior lines. They probably expected the Irish to run or take a defensive posture, but Barry took the initiative away from them by setting up two ambushes with mines and attacking them. The first engaged the troops coming from the west in three lorries, routing them, with Flor Begley, an intelligence officer, playing traditional Irish war songs on his pipes as they opened fire. It was perhaps the last time the “war pipes” ever sounded in battle on the island. As the British survivors ran for their lives, the Volunteers burned the lorries. Barry's excellent positioning of his other troops allowed them to surprise and drive off the British in the other direction, as well. Barry was then able to consolidate all his troops and make their escape from the British trap. Encountering one more group of British, he had his entire 100-man unit fire a volley at them, scattering them.</p>
<p>It was one of the larger actions of the war, and one of the most embarrassing defeats for the British, who claimed they faced over 300 Volunteers perhaps to decrease their embarrassment, or perhaps that just reflected how well the Irish had taken advantage of their interior lines. The British admitted to 10 killed, though the Irish claimed they had killed over 30. The Irish had four killed. Barry had definitely proven himself a formidable guerrilla commander.</p>
<ul>
<li>Read more about the ambush here:<span> </span><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-battle-of-crossbarry-breaking-the-back-of-the-british-occupat" target="_self">The Battle of Crossbarry: ... 'Who Piped Old Ireland Free'</a></li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84716585?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84716585?profile=original" class="align-right" width="293"/></a><font color="#008040"><b><span>CÉADAOIN</span></b></font><span> </span>-- On<span> </span><font color="blue">March 20, 1780</font>, Miles Byrne, United Irishman and officer in Napoleon's Irish Legion, was born in County Wexford. He was active in the 1798 Rising in Wexford and fought all its major battles, right through the rebels' climactic defeat at Vinegar Hill.</p>
<p><span class="font-size-1"><strong>(Right: The banner of Napoleon's Irish Legion)</strong></span></p>
<p>He escaped to the hills and served with Michael Dwyer until the failure of the rising led by Robert Emmet, a close friend of Byrne, in 1803. Byrne traveled to France hoping to arrange for more French aid to Ireland, but after failing in that he joined the<span> </span><a href="http://www.cafeshops.com/wgstore3" target="new">Irish Legion</a><span> </span>assembling in the<span> </span><a href="http://www.cafeshops.com/irishbrigade_fr" target="new"><u>French army</u></a>. He had a long career in the service of France. Byrne rose to command a regiment and was made a chevalier of the Legion of Honor. After his retirement, he wrote his<span> </span><i>Memoirs</i>, which were published in 1863, a year after his death in Paris.</p>
<p><font color="#008040"><b><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84704915?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="150" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84704915?profile=RESIZE_180x180" class="align-left"/></a><span>DEARDAOIN</span></b></font> -- On<span> </span><font color="blue">March 21, 1763</font>, William MacNeven, United Irishman, was born in Aughrim, County Galway.</p>
<p><b><span class="font-size-1">(left: The emblem of the United Irishmen. It reads "Equality" above and "It is new strung and shall be heard" below.)</span></b></p>
<p>Educated in the medical profession in Austria, where his uncle was a physician to the Empress, MacNeven returned to Ireland to practice in 1783. He was sworn into the United Irishmen by Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Arrested with most of the other leaders of the United Irishmen on<span> </span><a>March 12, 1798</a>, MacNeven was imprisoned at Fort George in Scotland. Released in 1802, he traveled to France and for a time was an officer in Napoleon's Irish Legion, but departed when it was clear that the French would not be sending troops to Ireland again. Emigrating to the United States, MacNeven settled in New York City, where he had a distinguished career in medicine, worked among the growing Irish community there, and also published several books. MacNeven died in the city on July 12, 1841.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.knight.org/advent/cathen/09506b.htm" target="new">The Catholic Encyclopedia on William James MacNeven</a></li>
</ul>
<p><font color="#008040"><b><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84716659?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="400" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84716659?profile=RESIZE_480x480" class="align-right"/></a><span>DEARDAOIN</span></b></font> -- On <font color="blue">March 21, 1921</font>, Irish Volunteers of the Kerry No. 2 Brigade ambushed a train at Headford, County Kerry, during the Irish War of Independence. In many parts of Ireland, the war was increasing in intensity as the winter turned into spring. They had learned that a detachment of the Royal London Fusiliers would be traveling from Kenmare to Tralee, and would have to change trains in Headford. Commandant Danny Allman commanded about 30 Volunteers in the ambush. The British would have approximately the same number on the train, which also contained many Irish civilians.</p>
<p>Unusually for the Irish railroad system, the train arrived earlier, barely over 10 minutes after the Volunteers arrived to prepare the ambush. Luckily most of the civilians had disembarked prior to the soldiers, but a few were still on the landing as the firing began. As the soldiers began to debark, the Volunteers opened fire with devastating effect. The British had a Vickers machine gun in front of the engine but the Volunteers were able to kill or wound the entire five-man crew manning it fairly quickly. Meanwhile, the soldiers still inside the train's cars returned fire. It was a very long battle by the standard of the Irish War of Independence and the largest engagement in Kerry during the war. After about 50 minutes another train arrived carrying more British soldiers, and the Volunteers scattered into the countryside.</p>
<p>The British had suffered at least 8 dead and 12 wounded. The Volunteers had 2 killed, Commandant Allman and Lt. Jimmy Baily and, in addition, three civilians died in the crossfire and two others were wounded. Hardly a day had gone by in the month of March without some sort of attack by the Volunteers in some part of the island. The world was taking notice and the British government was starting to feel the pressure. </p>
<p><iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-MtKjh9rdrg?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0"></iframe>
</p>
<p>Read more about<span> </span><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-headford-ambush-time-runs-out-in-kerry" target="_self">the Headford Ambush HERE</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84704836?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="220" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84704836?profile=RESIZE_320x320" class="align-left"/></a></p>
<p><font color="#008040"><b><strong><span>SATHAIRN</span></strong></b></font> -- On <font color="blue">March 23, 1862</font>, Irish-born Union <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1410788954?ie=UTF8&tag=thewildgeeset-20&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=1410788954">General James Shields</a> (left: pictured during the Mexican War) defeated <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&keywords=Stonewall%20Jackson&tag=thewildgeeset-20&index=books&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325">Stonewall Jackson's</a> Confederates at the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1572492953?ie=UTF8&tag=thewildgeeset-20&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=1572492953">Battle of Kernstown</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=thewildgeeset-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1572492953" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0"/>, Virginia, during the American Civil War. Just a few miles south of Winchester, in the Shenandoah Valley, a thunderous exchange of artillery fire around midday signaled the battle's start. At first, Jackson's men drove in the Federal line. Jackson had received a false report about the strength of the Federal forces around Kernstown, and he believed he was only facing a rear guard. In fact, Shields had 9,000 men there, outnumbering Jackson's 4,000 by better than two to one. About 3 o'clock, Shields' Federal forces counterattacked. When Confederate Brigadier General Richard Garnett's brigade ran out of ammunition, Jackson ordered a retreat, which precipitated a general retreat of the Confederate line. Jackson lost 455 men killed or wounded and several hundred captured. The Federals lost 553 killed or wounded and 23 missing. Although Jackson had lost this first major battle of what would come to be known as his <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807832006?ie=UTF8&tag=thewildgeeset-20&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=0807832006">Valley Campaign</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=thewildgeeset-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0807832006" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0"/>, his actions had already alarmed authorities in Washington enough for them to reduce the number of troops that they would send to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0873386035?ie=UTF8&tag=thewildgeeset-20&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=0873386035">Major General George B. McClellan</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=thewildgeeset-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0873386035" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0"/> on the Virginia peninsula. In the coming weeks, Jackson will exacerbate those fears. For Tyrone-born James Shields, Kernstown would be the pinnacle of a rather lackluster performance during the Civil War. Still, Shields would go on to become the only man to serve in the U.S. Senate from three different states, and how many of his colleagues in the Senate, or anywhere else, could boast of having once bested the great Stonewall Jackson in independent command?</p>
<p><span class="font-size-4"><strong>VOICES</strong></span></p>
<p><b><i>'Ere long there shall be an Irish Army on Irish hillsides, ready to do battle for Irish independence and drive back from the green and sacred Isle of Erin those ruthless tyrants who have desolated our homes and driven us wandering exiles over the whole earth.'</i></b><br/><span> -- John O'Mahoney, co-founder of the Fenian Brotherhood.</span></p>
<p><b><i>'About two hours had elapsed since the opening of the fight; we were in possession of the countryside; no British were visible and our task was completed. The whole Column was drawn up in line of sections and told they had done well.'<br/></i></b> <i> -- Tom Barry on the Crossbarry Ambush</i></p>
<p><b><i>'Walking on bright winter days along the Avenue of the Champs Elysées, a tall erect figure, magnificent in old age . . . memories clouding at times his clear grey eyes; and through and beyond the battle-smoke and thunder of all Napoleon's fields he has a vision of the pikemen of New Ross and hears the fierce hurrah of Oulart Hill.'</i></b><br/> <span> -- Ulster-born journalist and revolutionary John Mitchel on Miles Byrne, whom Mitchel met while living in exile in Paris.</span></p>
<p><strong><em>We had no prepared positions and scrambled into position as best we could. I was in a section commanded by Davit McCarthy. We were on the railway embankment with very little cover, but a good field of fire. I think most of the military were put out of action early on, but some two or three got down on the tracks under the train and kept up a continuous fire. No doubt they could have been dislodged, but a full train of troops entered the station and we had to withdraw.</em></strong><br/> <span> -- Denis Prendiville Kerry #2 Brigade on the ambush </span><span>at Headford, County Kerry</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-4"><strong>March - Márta</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>BIRTHS</strong></span></p>
<p><span><strong>17, 1800</strong> - Charles James Patrick Mahon (Soldier, politician - Ennis, Co. Clare)<br/><strong>17, 1820</strong> - Patrick Edward Connor (Union General - Co. Kerry)<br/><strong>17, 1877</strong> - Michael O'Hanrahan (Author, revolutionary - New Ross, Co. Wexford.)<br/><strong>18, 1881</strong> - George (Seoirse) Clancy (nationalist and politician - Grange, Co. Limerick.)</span><span><strong><br/>20, 1780</strong> - Miles Byrne (United Irishman, Officer in Napoleon's Irish Legion - Co. Wexford.)</span><span><strong><br/> 21, 1763</strong> - William MacNeven (United Irishman - Aughrim, Co. Galway.)</span><strong><br/> 22, 1848</strong> - Sarah Purser (Artist - Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin)</p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>SIGNIFICANT EVENTS</strong></span></p>
<p><span><strong>17, 1771</strong> – The “Friendly Sons of St. Patrick” is founded in Philadelphia.<br/><strong>17, 1776</strong> – In honor of Irishmen in the Colonial army, Gen. Washington designates “St. Patrick” as the armies countersign that day.<br/><strong>17, 1858</strong> - James Stephens founds the Irish Republican Brotherhood (Fenians) in Dublin.<br/><strong>17, 1899</strong> - First issue of Gaelic League’s An Claidheamh Soluis.<br/><strong>17, 1923</strong> - <a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/bold-mike-mctigue-the-st-patrick-s-day-champion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mike McTigue wins the Light-Heavyweight Championship</a> by decision victory over “Battling” Siki in Dublin.<br/><strong>18, 1801</strong> - Ambrose O'Higgins, Viceroy of Peru, dies in Lima.<br/><strong>18, 1825</strong> - Catholic Association dissolved by Unlawful Societies Act nine days earlier.<br/><strong>18-19, 192</strong>1 – The West Waterford <a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/co-waterford-burgery-ambush-march-19-1921" target="_self">Irish Volunteers ambush the Black &Tans at “The Burgery,”</a> 2 volunteers, 1 Black & Tan and 1 RIC constable died.</span><strong><br/>19 March 1919</strong><em> -</em> IRA volunteers raid Collinstown airfield (now Dublin Airport) outside Dublin and capture 75 rifles and 4,000 rounds of ammunition<br/> <strong>19, 1921</strong> - <a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-battle-of-crossbarry-breaking-the-back-of-the-british-occupat" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tom Barry and the West Cork Flying Column</a> ambushed crown forces at Crossbarry, Co. Cork.<span><strong><br/> 20, 1868</strong> – Dublin native George Cartwright, a Union Col. in the Civil War, dies in Charleston, SC.<br/> <strong>20, 1919</strong> The Dublin Brigade of the Irish Volunteers capture 75 rifles and over 4000 rounds of ammo from the Collintown Aerodrome<br/><strong>20, 1920</strong> - Tomás MacCurtain, Lord Mayor of Cork, murdered in his home by RIC.<br/> <strong>20, 1964</strong> - Author Brendan Behan dies in Dublin.</span><span><strong><br/> 21, 1881</strong> - Peace Preservation Act for Ireland legalizes special coercive powers.<br/> <strong>21, 1914</strong> - Curragh Mutiny - British officers refuse to move against Irish Unionists.<br/></span> <strong>21, 1921</strong> - Co. Longford Volunteer leader Seán MacEoin is arrested in Mullingar railway station.<br/> <strong>21, 1921</strong> - <a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-headford-ambush-time-runs-out-in-kerry" target="_self">Irish Volunteers of the Kerry #2 Brigade ambush a train at Headford</a>, Co. Kerry during the Irish War of Independence.<br/> <strong>22, 1841</strong> – Formation of the Irish Emigrant Society in New York.<br/> <strong>22, 1921</strong> - <a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-irish-war-of-independence-the-lispole-ambush-avoiding-disaste" target="_self">Irish Volunteers and Black & Tans engage in a gun battle</a> at Lispole, Co. Kerry during the Irish War of Independence.<br/> <strong>23, 1535</strong> - Sir William Skeffington captures Maynooth Castle, stronghold of "Silken" Thomas Fitzgerald in one of the first recorded uses of siege artillery.<br/> <strong>23, 1847</strong> - Choctaw Indians collect money to donate to starving Irish Hunger victims.<br/> <strong>23, 1862</strong> - <a href="http://thenewwildgeese.com/profiles/blogs/james-j-shields-tyrone-native-served-america-well-and-often" target="_self">Irish-born Union General James Shields</a> defeats Stonewall Jackson at the Battle of Kernstown, Virginia, during the American Civil War.<br/> <strong>23, 1921</strong> - <a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-scramogue-ambush-roscommon-steps-up" target="_blank" rel="noopener">North and South Roscommon brigades of the Irish Volunteers</a> ambush a convoy of British soldiers and RIC at Scramoge, killing 4.<br/> <strong>23, 1921</strong> – Six Volunteers from the 1<sup>st</sup> Battlion, Co. Cork are killed in Clogheen after their location is betrayed by a loyalist informer. </p>The Man Behind the Long Green Lines (and It's Not Patrick) - Part Onetag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-01-21:6442157:BlogPost:736232014-01-21T03:30:00.000ZThe Wild Geesehttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/TheWildGeese
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84703292?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84703292?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="300"></img></a> <strong><span class="font-size-2">By James Doherty</span></strong></p>
<p><strong>Waterford City, Ireland</strong> - From his perch as rector of the Irish College of St. Isidore in Rome, Waterford-born Franciscan Friar Luke Wadding welcomed a steady stream of refugees from the land of his birth - men forced to leave Ireland to pursue their vocations. He came to understand then,…</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84703292?profile=original"><img width="300" class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84703292?profile=RESIZE_320x320"/></a><strong><span class="font-size-2">By James Doherty</span></strong></p>
<p><strong>Waterford City, Ireland</strong> - From his perch as rector of the Irish College of St. Isidore in Rome, Waterford-born Franciscan Friar Luke Wadding welcomed a steady stream of refugees from the land of his birth - men forced to leave Ireland to pursue their vocations. He came to understand then, perhaps better than any man, that the fate of the beleaguered land of his birth was tied to the fate of the Church in Ireland.</p>
<p>Fortunately, Wadding, despite a humble mien, was shrewd, committed and in a unique position to bolster both church and country, though today his role as a relentless advocate for Ireland is little known. Perhaps his most astounding legacy is, quite simply, the hundreds of St. Patrick's Day celebrations worldwide that will unwind in the coming weeks. By his unstinting and largely unsung support for his countrymen, he vastly extended the fame of the Irish for centuries to come.</p>
<p>Wadding was born October 16, 1588, in the city of Waterford, in what must have seemed a particularly dark time for the Irish. Only weeks prior to Wadding's birth, dozens of ships from the defeated Spanish Armada wrecked on Ireland's Atlantic coast. The defeat of the Spanish fleet two months prior represented a defeat for both the Irish, who counted on Spain for help in freeing itself from English control, and the Church, which the English would suppress with renewed vigor for decades to come.</p>
<p>Luke's deeply religious parents christened him two days later, on the feast of St. Luke, and gave their son the saint's name. At the age of 14, Luke Wadding lost both of his parents, and his care was entrusted to an older brother, who sent the young Wadding to a seminary in Lisbon, Portugal.</p>
<p>In those years of religious suppression, Waterford sent so many sons abroad to train for the religious orders that the city earned itself the sobriquet of Parva Roma, or "Little Rome." One of Luke Wadding's brothers, Ambrose, became a Jesuit, and he had cousins who joined the Franciscans and the Jesuits. Wadding maintained close contact through his life with members of the religious orders in Ireland, which helped him remain well-informed on developments there.</p>
<p>In 1613, while in Portugal, Wadding was ordained and started to preach in Portuguese and Catalan. Indeed, Wadding would go on to master Latin, Hebrew, Greek, Italian and Spanish. He initiated what would become a glowing academic career, and would go on to write the history of the Franciscan order and to edit the first edition of the writings of the order's founder, St. Francis of Assisi.</p>
<p>Wadding wrote copiously, covering every aspect of political and theological life in the 17th century. A survey of his voluminous writings was launched in 2007 at University College Dublin, which holds thousands of manuscripts in its library, and is far from complete. More manuscripts are held in Dublin, by the Franciscans, and in Rome. He wrote in Irish, Old English and Latin, complicating the work of curating his archives.</p>
<p>The young Wadding's potential as a theological scholar was recognized when, in 1618, Spanish monarch Philip III, who allied himself with the Franciscans, requested that Wadding join a delegation being sent to Rome. Based in the Eternal City, Wadding found himself at the heart of the spiritual and temporal power of the Church.</p>
<p></p>
<center><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84703402?profile=original"><img width="250" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84703402?profile=RESIZE_320x320"/></a><span class="font-size-3"><strong>Arms and an Envoy for Ireland</strong></span></center>
<p><b><span class="font-size-1"><br/></span></b></p>
<p>Two passions drove Wadding: his Franciscan order (Order of Friars Minor) and the advancement of the Catholic cause in Ireland. In 1625, Wadding established the Irish College of St. Isidore in Rome. Dozens of St. Isidore's Franciscans were martyred after they returned to Ireland. Under Wadding's leadership, St. Isidore's served as an unofficial embassy and refuge in Rome for Irish Catholics. In the preface to one of his books, Wadding wrote, "I could only write this work in the early hours of the night, since I was so taken up by many cares during daytime hours."</p>
<p>Wadding's support for the Irish cause was not limited to matters of faith. When revolt broke out in Ireland in the 1640s, Wadding encouraged Owen Roe O'Neill, a nephew of "The Great O'Neill," Hugh, to return to Ireland to support the rising. Wadding also gained the assignment of Giovanni Battista Rinuccini as papal nuncio to the Irish Confederate government (along with arms, 20,000 pounds of gunpowder and 200,000 silver dollars). With this, Wadding was the first to achieve diplomatic recognition for an independent Ireland.</p>
<p>When the Irish forces under O'Neill were victorious at Benburb, County Tyrone, on June 5, 1646, Wadding performed a Te Deum (a liturgical ceremony of celebration) and hung the captured English standards in St. Peter's Basilica. Wadding's role was highlighted when the Franciscan liaison to the rebels told Wadding "should your health fail … our enterprise will come to naught." After O'Neill's mysterious death near Cavan in November 1649, the rising was doomed. When Oliver Cromwell arrived in Ireland, he crushed all resistance. Indeed, Father Richard Sinnot, a close friend of Wadding's, was one of many killed when Cromwell sacked Wexford. <span style="color: #006600; font-weight: bold;">WGT</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: bold;">Read Part 2:</span> <a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/luke-wadding-the-man-behind-the-long-green-lines-part-two" target="_self">A Saint Becomes 'An Occasion'</a></p>
<p> </p>
<table align="center" width="100%">
<tbody><tr><td><font style="font-weight: bold;" size="-1">RELATED RESOURCES</font><br style="font-weight: bold;"/><ul style="font-weight: bold;">
<li><a href="http://www.franciscanfriarstor.com/">The Mass Association of the Franciscan Friars</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.franciscanfriars.com/europe/">Franciscan Friars of Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.franciscanstor.org/">Franciscans, Third Order Regular</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Benburb">Battle of Benburb</a></li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="font-weight: bold;"></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.com/page/st-patrick-s-day-2015-headquarters" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84703474?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" class="align-full"/></a></p>West Cork’s Hales Family: Giving All for Irish Freedomtag:thewildgeese.irish,2024-02-01:6442157:BlogPost:3089232024-02-01T06:00:00.000ZJoe Gannonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JoeGannon
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12368696288?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12368696288?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="680"></img></a></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">S</span>eán Hales, a TD (member of the Dáil Éireann) from County Cork</strong>, and Padraig Ó Maile, a TD from County Mayo, emerged from the Ormond Hotel along the north bank of the Liffey River in Dublin at about 2:30 PM on December 7, 1922. Just the day before, the Free State had been formally established by…</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12368696288?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12368696288?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="680" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">S</span>eán Hales, a TD (member of the Dáil Éireann) from County Cork</strong>, and Padraig Ó Maile, a TD from County Mayo, emerged from the Ormond Hotel along the north bank of the Liffey River in Dublin at about 2:30 PM on December 7, 1922. Just the day before, the Free State had been formally established by an Act of the British Parliament. They intended to board a hackney cab and make the short ride to the Dáil Éireann.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12369151052?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12369151052?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="350" class="align-left"/></a>The Irish people were embroiled in an increasingly brutal Civil War. Hales needed no reminder that many such wars are often “brother against brother.” Seán was from one of the most staunchly Republican families in West Cork, but he had taken the pro-treaty side in the Civil War. He had three brothers, Tom, William, and Robert, who were fighting with the IRA on the anti-treaty side. Or at least they had been. In the last three months, all three had been captured by Free State forces.</p>
<p>As they walked to the cab, Hales and Ó Maile were under the watchful eye of a member of the IRA’s Dublin No. 1 Brigade. Hales began to climb into the cab as the man rushed forward, pulling a pistol and opening fire at the two men and then running down the street. Both men were hit, but Ó Maile’s wound was less serious. He screamed at the driver, John Kennedy, to “GET AWAY!” and quickly drove off. They reached the nearby Jervis Street Hospital in minutes, but it was too late. Seán Hales was dead.</p>
<p>It was barely over three months since the Free Staters had buried their leader, Michael Collins. Seán’s brother, Tom, had commanded the Republican group that ambushed and killed him at Béal na Bláth, less than 10 miles from Brandon. Now, two TDs had been wounded, with one dead on the streets of Dublin. This war between former comrades was about to get even more vicious.</p>
<p>The Hales family, of Knocknacurra, Ballinadee, Bandon Co. Cork, was heavily involved in the nationalist and then Republican movements of the late 19<sup>th</sup> and early 20<sup>th</sup> century. Robert Hales, a farmer, and Margaret (nee Fitzgerald) Hales were fluent Irish speakers, something that was often an indication of nationalist principles at the time. They made sure their children learned the language as well. Robert was a very successful farmer, one of the earliest to use threshing machines and a steam tractor in the area. He was also a successful horse and cattle breeder. The family was well off and thus had much to lose by becoming involved in the coming struggle for freedom.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12369152865?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12369152865?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="300" class="align-right"/></a>Robert had been involved with the opposition of the landlord system in Ireland and supported nationalist William O’Brien. The couple would have nine children who came into adulthood in the turbulent period as nationalism spread throughout Ireland. Their first was Bessie in 1874, followed by Anne (1878), Hannah (1879), Seán (1880), Donal (1884), Robert (1886), Madge (1890), William (j1891), and Tom (1892).</p>
<p>Most of the children were members of the GAA (GAA crest, right), with Seán, Robert, and Tom being excellent athletes and local champions. They also joined the Gaelic League. Membership in both organizations was often an indication of Republican leanings. All of the children but the two eldest daughters would be deeply involved in the coming freedom struggle. The price the family would pay for their service to Ireland would be immense.</p>
<p>Long before the Easter Rising, the Hales brothers showed they were ready to oppose the government physically. On May 20, 1907, Seán and the teenage Tom led a group of friends in rescuing two of their father’s cows from the Bandon pound. It was not done without a fight, as the rescuers’ wooden clubs bested police batons. Seán was arrested the next day and served a two-week sentence.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, the young Hales brothers and sisters became involved with the nationalist organization that sprung up around the island in the first two decades of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. The youngest brother, Tom, first joined the Irish Volunteers, the military group that would fight the War of Independence, when it began recruiting in Cork in 1913. Seán, Bob, and William soon joined as well. Donal was then in Italy but would also work for the Republican movement during the war. Sister Madge would also be involved in helping the cause, though she did not join the Cumann na mBan. Seán, Tom, William, and possibly Bob joined the secretive Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB).</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12369163499?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12369163499?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="280" class="align-left"/></a>In 1915, Seán Hales asked Terence MacSwiney, Vice-O/C of the Cork Brigade (left), to allow Ballinadee to form their own company. He claimed they could eventually muster 100 men, “nearly all over six feet.” The request was granted, and though he may have exaggerated their recruit’s height, they would ultimately come close to the 100-member level. It is an indication of the esteem in which the Hales’ youngest brother, Tom, was held by Seán and others that he was appointed the C/O of the company. Overall, however, the company seemed to be a family enterprise.</p>
<p>By all accounts, the Hales did a very good job organizing, training, and equipping their company. Every member of the company donated money to help buy arms. The company was so well regarded that a group of them were sent to be part of the honor guard for the funeral of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, where Padraig Pearse gave his famous oration. Tom Hales commanded the group and was able to meet and talk with the ill-fated Pearse.</p>
<p>On Easter Sunday 1916, the Ballinadee company mustered with orders to march to Kerry. They planned to meet the arms shipment coming into the Banna Strand with Roger Casement. However, as happened in other parts of the island, Eoin MacNeill’s order canceling the rising caused chaos. Tom was put in charge of several companies, including the Ballinadee company under Seán for the march to Kerry. They had nearly reached Macroom when Tomás MacCurtain and Terence MacSwiney arrived with news of MacNeill’s order. Tom wanted to ignore the order and continue, but the majority voted to turn back.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12369164458?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12369164458?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="290" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>On Monday, with word arriving of the fighting in Dublin, Tom and Seán bristled under the orders to take no action. Seán nearly defied orders to attack two local Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) barracks but was dissuaded by Tom. Days went by with no action despite news of the continuing battle in Dublin. As an indication of how well-armed the Ballinadee company then was, Tom offered the Brigade 40 to 50 Lee-Enfield rifles wiith ammunition at one point. During the War of Independence, few companies were ever that well-armed.</p>
<p>The abortive rising proved to be a disaster for the Hales family. The Volunteers around the island were ordered to stand down and surrender their arms. The Hales resisted disarming their company, but most were lost or surrendered by members of the company in the coming weeks. The RIC arrested Robert and William in a raid on the family home, along with Terence MacSwiney. Seán was on the run for several days, then was arrested in Knocknacurra. Only Tom managed to avoid arrest. The brothers were all sent to Richmond Jail in Dublin.</p>
<p>All three arrested brothers were eventually moved to Frongoch Internment Camp in Wales. While collecting all the Volunteer prisoners in one place may have saved the British money, it would prove to be a miscalculation in the years to come. The camp has since then been called “The University of Revolution.” Most of the future leaders of the Volunteers’ military organization were there. Ideas on strategies and tactics for the coming war were exchanged, and relationships were developed. Seán already knew Michael Collins, but at Frongoch, their relationship became more robust.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>Below: Recreation inside the huts at Frongoch. (W.J. Brennan-Whitmore, "With the Irish in Frongoch" [1917])</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12369164862?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12369164862?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>By early 1917, the Frongoch prisoners had all been released. The Hales brothers and other local prisoners were welcomed back as heroes. They immediately immersed themselves in the growing republican movement. The brothers and their father joined Count Plunketts’s Irish League.</p>
<p>The Volunteer Company in Ballinadee became disorganized in the Hales brothers’ absence. They soon had it back in shape, but many of the previous members did not rejoin. Across the island, however, the British threat to institute conscription in Ireland swelled the Volunteer’s ranks. By mid-1917, Tom was C/O of the new Bandon Battalion, and Seán commanded the Ballinadee Company again.</p>
<p>In May 1918, the RIC arrived at the Hales farm in force to arrest the brothers as part of the bogus “German Plot” that accused Irish Republicans of assisting the Germans. Only Seán was there, and as they tried to handcuff him, he resisted, and he was so strong they were unable to accomplish it. As this was going on, the Hales’ 13-year-old cousin, Michael Fitzgerald, got away from the house and got word of the raid out to Tom and William.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: Members of the Essex Regiment and RIC Constables in Bandon.)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12369463492?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12369463492?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>They rushed back to the farmhouse with their sister Madge and friends Mick and Cornelius Flynn. The four men moved around in the woods, attempting to look like a large number of Volunteers. Madge went to the house trying to convince the Constables they were outnumbered and surrounded. Two of the twelve there put down their arms and resigned. Another would resign later. Given later events, they probably did not regret that decision over the next few years.</p>
<p>During this confusion, Seán slipped out of the house and escaped. In July, Tom and William had another close call in a raid on the house, barely escaping with the RIC opening fire on them. The island was slipping further and further toward open rebellion, and Irish Volunteers and IRB were preparing for it. In January 1919, Tom was appointed C/O of the new 3<sup>rd</sup> (West) Cork Brigade, and Seán moved up to C/O of the Bandon Battalion. William was made head of the Ballinadee IRB.</p>
<p>The Hales family was so enmeshed in the Irish War of Independence that even Donal, living in Genoa, Italy, contributed. Michael Collins brought him into the IRB arms smuggling efforts. Madge was a conduit from Donal to Collins and also became part of Collins’ network of covert agents.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84717055?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84717055?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="300" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>The family made another contribution to the coming fight in 1919 when they helped recruit the man who was, arguably, the best Flying Column C/O of the war: Tom Barry (left). Barry served in the British Army in WWI, and his father was an RIC Constable until he was ten. However, he immersed himself in Irish history since returning home from the war. Barry enrolled in Skerry College, Cork City, where he met Bill Hales. It was a fateful meeting that profoundly affected his life and Irish history.</p>
<p>Barry’s independent study of Irish history may have laid the groundwork for his joining the Republican movement, but meeting Bill Hales put the process into overdrive. Barry was invited home by Bill one night and became a frequent guest after that. Around their hearth, elder Robert regaled Barry with stories for the ’98 Rising, the United Irishmen, the “Great Hunger,” the Fenians, and the Land League.</p>
<p>It may well have been Barry’s developing relationship with the Hales that resulted in the RIC picking him up on the streets of Bandon one day in the late spring or early summer. They treated him roughly, and it was another case of an overzealous punishment leading to negative results for the Crown, much like the post-Easter Rising. He approached West Cork Brigade intelligence officer Seán Buckley about joining the Volunteers shortly after this incident. A British Army veteran with a family RIC connection was naturally suspect, but his Hales family connection helped get him enlisted. The rest, as they say, is history.</p>
<p>With the massive victory of Sinn Fein in the 1918 elections and the forming of independent Dáil Éireann on January 27, 1919, the shooting war began. One of the earliest organized ambushes was in the 3<sup>rd</sup> Brigade area was by the Kilbrittain Company in Rathclarin, though none of the Hales were directly involved. One Volunteer and one British soldier died, but the success of all Volunteer ambushes, especially early on, was judged by the capture of arms and ammunition. They captured five rifles and 200 rounds of ammunition for them.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12369517069?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12369517069?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="200" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>It took months for the Volunteers in Cork and elsewhere to obtain enough arms and training to engage the Crown forces seriously. The war would not begin in earnest until 1920. On February 27, 1920, Tom led an attack on the Mount Pleasant RIC barracks while Seán led an attack on the Timoleague Barracks. These were the first attacks in the Brigade area that were officially sanctioned by the GHQ in Dublin. Both failed for various reasons, as many such early attacks on RIC barracks did, but both barracks were soon abandoned. This was also happening in much of rural Ireland, as the RIC was stretched too thin to defend all of them.</p>
<p>The main military opposition to the Volunteers in West Cork would come from units of the Essex Regiment under Major A.E. Percival (right). Nearly every member of the 3<sup>rd</sup> Brigade who wrote anything about Percival after the war would show their disdain for him by mentioning how he was the man who later surrendered Singapore to the Japanese, the largest surrender of British troops in history. Percival’s personal papers were later found to be full of references to the Hales brothers. And men of the regiment composed a song to the tune of “When Irish Eyes are Shining” that included these lines:</p>
<p><em>When Irish eyes are smiling<br/> At the boys, they love the best.<br/> And the Irish Shins are sighing.<br/> For their palls who’ve all gone west<br/> When the ghosts of Hales and Hurley<br/> Are wailing through the night<br/> Then, the lilt of Essex laughter<br/> Will echo with delight</em></p>
<p>On July 27, 1920, the British scored one of their greatest victories over the Hales family. RIC Detective Sgt. William Mulhearn, the chief intelligence officer of the RIC in West Cork, had been assassinated two days earlier. The crown forces were out for revenge and raided numerous locations, including the home of Volunteer Charlie Hurley, the Vice C/O of the Brigade. Tom Hales and Brigade Quartermaster Pat Harte were there when they were surrounded and captured. What followed their capture became one of the most infamous incidents of the war.</p>
<p>In later newspaper reports, Hales described having his hands tied and arms strapped and being hit repeatedly in the face, and having his vision fading from blood loss. At the barracks, they were put up against the wall, and Capt. Campbell Kelly lined up several riflemen as if to execute them. He attempted to get Hales to hold up a small Union Jack flag. He was able to realize what it was and refused. Kelly then pressed it into the hand of Harte, whose nose had been broken by rifle butt to his face and was, according to Hales, “too far gone to recognize it.” Harte held it up as a photographer took the infamous photo you see below.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12371676892?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12371676892?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>The beating continued late into the night. Hales was told Kelly and five other officers were going to “try” him. With his hands still tied and arms strapped, he continued to refuse to answer their questions and was beaten with a cane, then had his fingertips crushed with a pair of pliers. By the time they were done, Hales had most of his teeth knocked out. Hales was then dragged out of the room, and Harte brought in for more of the same. In the morning, they were subjected to another faux execution and then shipped off to prison. Hales spent the rest of the war in Pentonville Prison in England. Madge visited him in January 1921and and said that, “his mouth is destroyed … He cannot speak as his tongue catches in the broken teeth.” Harte had a mental breakdown and never recovered, dying in Richmond Asylum in Dublin in 1924.</p>
<p>The notorious beatings administered to the two men would, in some ways, have the same effect as the execution of the Easter Rising leaders. Both were designed to dishearten the Republican movement but had the opposite effect. Not only did it incense members of the Republican movement, but it was also an embarrassment to the British government when Hales’ account was published. </p>
<p>The Irish came up with many of their own songs during the war as well. The song “The Men of Barry’s Column” included the lines:</p>
<p><em>The Essex Brutes who tortured Hales<br/> They scoured the land to fill their jails<br/> Though their ugly deeds would pale<br/> The cheeks of Irish Mothers</em></p>
<p>The war was over for Tom, but the rest of the family would fight on. In late September, the brigade officers, including Seán, attended a training camp in Clonbouig in anticipation of forming a brigade flying column. It was run by the new brigade training officer, Tom Barry, who would command that column and become one of the most famous Irish soldiers of the war. Seán, Bob, and William, now “on the run, would all spend time serving in the column.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: A burned Crossley Tender at Kilmichael.)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84717209?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84717209?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>One or more of them would be present at most of the major actions in West Cork other than the Kilmichael Ambush. On October 22, Barry and the flying column made their first successful ambush on Crown forces at Toureen, with Seán commanding a section of the column. The British suffered five killed, four wounded, and six soldiers surrendered. Significantly, given later accusations about the Kilmichael ambush, the six were released. The soldiers were told to inform Percival that if the torture and murder of prisoners by the Essex Regiment continued, the men of his regiment might not be treated as humanely in the future.</p>
<p>March 1921 was a very eventful month for the Hales family. Early in the month, Crown Forces, who had already burned down the Hales family barn, burned their farmhouse. The masked men gave the family five minutes to get out and began burning before they were all out. Madge wrote to her brother Donal, “Out of all my father’s and mother’s life long gathering, nothing is saved but what I took with me in my arms. “ With one son in jail, three facing possible death on active duty in the field, and their home and everything they owned destroyed, Robert and Margret Hales anguish must have been nearly impossible to endure.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84717358?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84717358?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>The brothers would get a measure of revenge for the destruction of the farmhouse and the torturing of their brother later that month. All three brothers were together in one of the most famous actions of Barry’s flying column on March 19 at <a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-battle-of-crossbarry-breaking-the-back-of-the-british-occupat">Crossbarry</a>. They were all in Section A, commanded by Seán, on the west flank of Barry’s line. They helped rout the first unit to arrive in Crossbarry, soldiers of the hated Essex Regiment, torturers of their brother.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Left: A map of the Battle of Crossbarry. Click on it for a larger view)</strong></span></p>
<p>At the beginning of 1921, the British government officially sanctioned the destruction of civilian property in retaliation for Irish attacks. The most famous of those was the <a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/dillon-s-cross-and-the-burning-of-cork-city">burning of a large portion of Cork City</a> in December 1920. The ambush that set off the burning of Cork City at Dillon’s Cross was done in part as an attempt to kill Capt. Kelly, who had tortured Tom Hales.</p>
<p>The Irish Volunteers had no real way to stop attacks like the burning of the Hale’s farmhouse. The Crown forces were mechanized and thus could quickly bring in large numbers of soldiers or constables to punish Irish civilians without much resistance. A different way had to be found to convince the British government that burning the homes and businesses of the Irish people was a bad idea. The solution the Volunteers came up with was to begin burning the large mansions and estates of the Anglo-Irish gentry in retaliation.</p>
<p>Another late-war policy was designed to convince the British to stop executing Volunteer prisoners. This also involved the Anglo-Irish gentry, in this case, capturing some of them and holding them hostage with the threat of executing them in retaliation for any further executions of Volunteer prisoners.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12372439665?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12372439665?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>The Hale brothers got another measure of revenge for their home’s destruction while enforcing these policies. On June 21, Seán commanded an operation to capture the Earl of Bandon at his home just outside of Bandon, Castle Bernard (right). Though the original plan was only to capture the Earl, when they could not locate the family, Seán, with the burning of his family home still fresh in his mind, decided to burn the castle. “As the bird has flown, we will burn the nest,” Seán allegedly said.</p>
<p>After they lit the fires, they discovered the family and the Earl was taken hostage. No more executions of Volunteers took place in Cork over the following two weeks before the truce agreement on July 11. Lord Bandon was released unharmed the following day.</p>
<p>The British would deal one last violent blow to the Hales in the war’s final weeks. On June 26, soldiers of the Exxex regiment abducted a young man who worked on the Hales farm, John Murphy of Cloghane. Though he was a member of the Volunteers, that was likely unknown to the soldiers. At 10 PM that night, his body was found near Knocknacurra off the Kilmacsimon road. The soldiers had beaten and perhaps tortured him, then shot him. Perhaps he was tortured in hopes he would assist in capturing one or more of the brothers and killed because he wouldn’t. No one will ever know.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: Headline from "The Day," New London, Connecticut, December 6, 1921)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12372441479?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12372441479?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>The Treaty that divided the Irish people and led to the civil war also divided the Hales family. Seán and Madge, perhaps influenced by their close connections to Michael Collins, supported the Treaty. Tom, who was finally released from prison in England after the Treaty, Robert and William, opposed the Treaty. To this day, people debate the merits of the Treaty and the possible outcome of rejecting it. What is not debatable is how tragic the following years of the Civil War would be for Ireland and for the Hales.</p>
<p>Most of the leaders of the Republican movement in Cork opposed the Treaty. So it shocked many when Seán, who was elected to the Dáil in the 1921 elections, spoke in favor of the Treaty in the famous debates leading up to the vote. He intimated that Ireland could obtain their Republic by doing what the English had done when they failed to honor the Treaty of Limerick. “The day is coming when we will pay that back … Ireland’s destiny is to be a Republic.”</p>
<p>After the Treaty was ratified, Seán and Tom both spoke at rallies for and against it, respectively. The Civil War began in earnest in June 1922. The fighting in Cork was a literal “Brother against Brother” fight, as Seán commanded Free State troops there and Tom commanded Republican troops. They would be closely involved with the most famous event of that war, the killing of Michael Collins.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12372444268?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12372444268?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>On the day Collins was killed, August 22, 1922, Republican leaders, including Tom Hales, were meeting near Béal na Bláth. Getting word that Collins had passed through the area, they voted to set up an ambush for his return. Though Tom opposed it, he commanded it.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Right: The historical marker at Béal na Bláth)</strong></span></p>
<p>Seán met with Collins that day at Lee’s Hotel in Bandon. The two friends enjoyed a warm reunion, and Seán warned Collins that the local roads were dangerous for him. Collins assured Seán he’d be fine and that “Twill soon be over.” Sadly, for both Colins and Seán, that was true.</p>
<p>Tom started disbanding the ambush after 7 PM when Collin’s convoy arrived. Like others there, he had seen someone go down in the road, but none knew who it was at the time. When word reached a meeting of the Republican leaders later, Liam Deasy recalled that for himself and Tom, “our sorrow was deep and lasting.” They grieved for their friend and also because they expected, correctly, that the war was about to get much more brutal.</p>
<p><span>IRB member and TD Piaras Beaslaí had been with Collins when word of the Essex Regiment's brutal treatment had been smuggled out in 1920, “He was beside himself with rage and pity, and, as he told me afterward, could not sleep that night for thinking of it," he recalled later. Such was the heartbreak of the Civil War that men who fought together and still cared so much for each other and who all still believed Ireland's destiny was to be a republic were killing each other over how to achieve it. </span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12372448469?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12372448469?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>On September 27, the Dáil passed emergency legislation known as the Public Safety Bill that allowed the government to execute Republicans if they were armed when arrested. Liam Lynch, the IRA Chief of Staff, then ordered the killing of any TD who had voted for this “Murder Bill.” Seán had not been present when it was passed, but he would pay the price of this escalation.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Left: Seán Hales funeral card)</strong></span></p>
<p>It could be that Ó Máille was the real target of the fatal attack described at the start of this article, as he had voted for the bill. Frank Henderson, head of the IRA Dublin Brigade, was so distraught that Hales was killed that he had his priest son say a mass for him for the next sixteen years.</p>
<p>The retaliation was not long in coming. Later that day the government decided to execute four Republican prisoners being held in Dublin, one from each province. When news of Seán’s killing reached the Dáil at Leinster House, President William Cosgrave said, “I need not say that on my own behalf and on the behalf of the House that this an appalling tragedy and that to the relatives of Deputy Hales we tender our sincere sympathy.” Ironically, that included three of Seán’s brothers in Free State custody in Cork.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12372449058?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12372449058?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>The Cabinet voted that night to execute Republican prisoners. They were, pictured, top to bottom and left to right: Liam Mellows, Rory O’Connor, Joe McKelvey, and Dick Barrett. The executions were carried out the next day. They had been captured long before the Public Safety Bill passed, so there was no legal basis to execute them. Barrett had been a close friend of Seán. The Hales family unanimously condemned the executions in a letter to the “Cork Examiner.”</p>
<p>The sad and heartbreaking Civil War finally ended in May 2023. Tom served in the Dáil Éireann as West Cork TD for Fianna Fáil from 1933-37. He left the party in protest over De Valera’s policy of internment of IRA members. On January 20, 1966, a monument to Seán was dedicated in Bandon, three months before Tom passed away. Bob Hales unveiled the monument at Crossbary in November 1966.</p>
<p>The Hales family of Ballinadee, Bandon, County Cork, as much as any family in Ireland at the time, illustrates the courage and sacrifice of Irish men and women of that era. Go suífidh siad ar láimh Dé (May they sit at the right hand of God).</p>
<p><strong>RELATED LINKS:</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://https://www.amazon.com/Hales-Brothers-Irish-Revolution-ebook/dp/B07QPV4QZB?crid=209ZHABP5IGDT&keywords=THE+HALES+BROTHERS&qid=1706765345&sprefix=the+hales+brothers,aps,221&sr=8-2&linkCode=sl1&tag=thewildgeesestore-20&linkId=b266edff0ac8bfbf7cb42c83cc4dd71c&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"The Hales Brothers and the Irish Revolution"</a> by Liz Gillis</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Road-Crossbarry-Decisive-Battle-Independence/dp/0953609901?crid=36GBS06QXXD6H&keywords=the+road+to+crossbarry&qid=1706767543&sprefix=the+road+to+crossbarry,aps,218&sr=8-1&linkCode=sl1&tag=thewildgeesestore-20&linkId=1ccd83a495eb82c5c690c370a0939a5e&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"The Road to Crossbarry"</a> by Diarmuid Begley</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/tom-barry-we-may-have-great-men-but-we-ll-never-have-better" target="_self">Tom Barry: 'We May Have Great Men, sBut We’ll Never Have Better'</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-battle-of-crossbarry-breaking-the-back-of-the-british-occupat" target="_self">The Battle of Crossbarry: ... 'Who Piped Old Ireland Free'</a></p>
<p><a rel="nofollow noopener" href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/dillon-s-cross-and-the-burning-of-cork-city" target="_blank">Dillon’s Cross Ambush and the Burning of Cork City</a><a href="https://amzn.to/48W4kaU" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12372450457?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="250" class="align-right"/></a></p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Se%C3%A1n_Hales">Sean Hales Wikipedia</a></p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Hales_(Irish_republican)" target="_self">Tom Hales Wikipedia</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=1833">Tom Hales political career</a></p>
<p><strong><a href="https://www.historyireland.com/gabriele-dannunzio-irish-republic-1919-21/">Donal “Gabriele D’Annunzio and the Irish Republic</a>, 1919–21”</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.executedtoday.com/tag/sean-hales/">Post Hales assassination executions</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLXcvSYNALo&t=82s">Video of executions</a> of Liam Mellows, Rory O’Connor, Joe McKelvey, and Dick Barrett</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_bPM6ijqlU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A Family at War: The Story of the Hales Brothers</a> Video</p>
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<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:184709">Easter Rising to Irish Civil War Archive Available Online</a></p>
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<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:74979">Great Irish Romances: Michael Collins and Kitty Kiernan</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:144731">Kitty and Michael: a revolutionary courtship</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:163757">The Tan Who Was Hanged By His Own Side</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:24652">Liam Lynch: Victim of the Irish Civil War</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:87437">1916 and the Rebels' Priests</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:8890">After The Rising … 'Fron-goch and the Birth of the IRA'</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:177498">Ernie O'Malley: Mayo-Born Freedom Fighter and Writer</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:75936">The Wild Geese Virtual Síbín with Cormac O'Malley</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:8961">Evidence Abounds: British Leaders OK'd Mayhem</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:162480">The Price of Freedom</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:8947">The West Cork Trail: Scenes From the Anglo-Irish and Civil Wars, 19...</a></p>
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<p>The Forgotten Ten:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/kevin-barry-just-a-lad-of-18-summers" target="_self">Part 1: 'Just a Lad of 18 Summers'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/kevin-barry-part-2-an-example-has-to-be-made" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Part 2: 'An Example Has To Be Made'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/kevin-barry-part-3-proud-to-die-for-the-republic" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Part 3: 'Proud To Die for the Republic'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/part-4-down-into-the-mire" target="_self">Part 4: 'Down Into the Mire'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/part-5-england-executes-prisoners-of-war" target="_self">Part 5: 'England Executes Prisoners of War'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/part-6-death-with-no-tremblings" target="_self">Part 6: 'Death With No Tremblings'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/part-7-fight-on-struggle-on" target="_self">Part 7: 'Fight On, Struggle On'</a></strong></li>
</ul>Hearty Fare for St. Patrick’s Daytag:thewildgeese.irish,2024-03-09:6442157:BlogPost:3082352024-03-09T13:16:08.000ZMargaret M. Johnsonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MargaretMJohnson
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<p style="font-weight: 400;"><span> </span> Nothing warms the heart on St. Patrick’s Day more than the mashed potato-topped casserole known as Shepherd’s Pie. In a land where sheep were traditionally a primary food supply, it’s not surprising that lamb is the foundation for many Irish farmhouse dishes, especially this…</p>
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<p style="font-weight: 400;"><span> </span> Nothing warms the heart on St. Patrick’s Day more than the mashed potato-topped casserole known as Shepherd’s Pie. In a land where sheep were traditionally a primary food supply, it’s not surprising that lamb is the foundation for many Irish farmhouse dishes, especially this long-time favorite originally created as an economical way to use leftover lamb. If you’re headed out to a parade, this make-ahead meat and vegetable pie, topped with a crust of mashed potatoes flavored with Kerrygold Cheddar or Dubliner cheese, is a perfect way to celebrate. You’ll find this and many more exciting recipes in my new cookbook <em>Delicious Ireland.</em> To order a signed copy, visit irishcook.com.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>SHEPHERD’S PIE WITH CHEDDAR CRUST</strong></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Serves 6</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>3 tablespoons canola oil</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>2 pounds ground lamb</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1 tablespoon butter</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1 large onion, chopped</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1 garlic clove, crushed</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>3 carrots, diced</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>2 small tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>2 tablespoons tomato paste</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1 1/2 tablespoon all-purpose flour</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1 cup homemade beef stock or canned low-sodium beef broth</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat leaf parsley</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Salt</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Ground black pepper</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>3 cups mashed potatoes</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>2 tablespoons butter</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1 cup grated Cheddar cheese</em></p>
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the oil. Working in batches, cook the lamb for 5 to 7 minutes per batch, or until all the meat is browned. With a slotted spoon, transfer the meat to a large bowl; discard the fat.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Melt the butter in the same skillet. Add the onion, garlic, and carrots; cook for 3 to 5 minutes, or until soft but not browned. Stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, and flour; then stir in the broth, thyme, and parsley, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Stir in the lamb.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Reduce the heat. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the mixture thickens. Season with salt and pepper.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Preheat the oven to 350°F. Coat an 8- or 9-inch baking dish with cooking oil spray. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">In a medium bowl, stir together the mashed potatoes and half the cheese. Decoratively spread or pipe over the meat mixture; sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the top is browned and the mixture is bubbling. Serve immediately.</li>
</ol>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"> <a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12398865473?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12398865473?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p>Black with a Tinge of Greentag:thewildgeese.irish,2013-02-27:6442157:BlogPost:101562013-02-27T22:30:00.000ZJames Francis Smithhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JamesFrancisSmith
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<p><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">A</span>s February’s Black History Month fades into memory</strong> and March’s Irish History Month begins its ascendancy, there’s a brief moment where the black takes on a tinge of green.</p>
<p>Few realize that these two ethnic groups, African-Americans and Irish-Americans, who together make up one-quarter of…</p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">A</span>s February’s Black History Month fades into memory</strong> and March’s Irish History Month begins its ascendancy, there’s a brief moment where the black takes on a tinge of green.</p>
<p>Few realize that these two ethnic groups, African-Americans and Irish-Americans, who together make up one-quarter of the U.S. population, have a historical connection that dates back to the Boston Massacre. During which, Cyprus Attucks, a free Black, and Patrick Carr, an Irish immigrant, both lost their lives. These ethnic groups also met historically, during the Civil War. </p>
<p>At this point in our tale, we could venture off in great detail about the heroics of the Irish Brigade under the fervent prayers of Notre Dame’s Father William Corby at Fredericksburg and Gettysburg. Or bring up Patrick O’Rorke and the 140th New York Infantry regiment for saving the Union right on Gettysburg’s Little Round Top; enabling the 20<sup>th</sup><span> </span>Maine to survive on the Union left. Then there’s Dennis O’Kane and his 69th Pennsylvania Volunteers of the renowned Philadelphia Brigade preventing Lewis Armistead from taking Bloody Angle on Cemetery Ridge. For the complete story, order<span> </span><i><font color="green" face="Verdana">The Civil War’s Valiant Irish</font></i><span> </span><font color="black" face="Verdana">from Kindle, Nook, etc.</font></p>
<p>It’s important to note that, for the 150,000 Irish-born who wore the Federal blue, the cause, by and large, was not freedom of the slave, but rather the preservation of the Union. But for the 179,000 Blacks who enlisted to fight in the Union Army and fought side by side with those Irish regiments in 2nd half of the war, freeing the slaves, some of whom were members of their own families, surely was the goal for which they fought. </p>
<p>I’d like to highlight here, heroism of a different kind, exhibited by an Irishman who also distinguished himself with his intrepidness on many Civil War battlefields. I’m speaking of Confederate Major General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, born in Ovens, County Cork.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/181226698?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/181226698?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="250" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Cleburne<span> </span><font color="black" face="Verdana">recognized that the Southern soldier was “sinking into a fatal apathy, growing weary of hardships and slaughters,” and proposed a dramatic solution. In January 1864, he led 13-officers to petition the Confederate Congress to offer emancipation to any slave who would volunteer to serve in the Confederate military. It would emancipate the slave’s wife and children, as well.</font></p>
<p>Cleburne’s proposal would’ve eliminated the one moral issue used to justify slavery and may have gained the Confederacy … their long-sought-after recognition by England and France. Southern whites, however, would’ve had to accept the black man as their equal—one culturally advanced enough to serve in the army.</p>
<p>This request was considered sacrilege by the Confederate leadership. And as a result, Cleburne sacrificed his here-to-fore unlimited prospects for advancement into the highest echelon of the army.</p>
<p>Irish-born Cleburne, an attorney in Helena, Arkansas, never owned a slave but volunteered to preserve the right of a state to determine the laws for its people. A brilliant commander, christened “Stonewall of the West,” Cleburne gave his life at Franklin, Kentucky, on November 30, 1864. His farseeing, controversial proposal remained publicly unacknowledged for decades.</p>
<p><strong>Note: An earlier version was originally published during 2012 in our “Hell’s Kitchen Blog”</strong></p>An American Imbolctag:thewildgeese.irish,2024-01-31:6442157:BlogPost:3082102024-01-31T20:00:00.000ZMike McCormackhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MikeMcCormack
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(An 18th-century drawing of a Delaware River ferry boat)</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">February 1 is the Celtic feast of Imbolc, which signifies change or rebirth. In Luke’s Gospel, it is when Jesus was presented in the temple to begin his…</p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(An 18th-century drawing of a Delaware River ferry boat)</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">February 1 is the Celtic feast of Imbolc, which signifies change or rebirth. In Luke’s Gospel, it is when Jesus was presented in the temple to begin his mission to change the road to redemption. In 1776, America needed an Imbolc to celebrate since her Revolution to change governments was near defeat. Washington’s outnumbered army retreated from New York through New Jersey, headed for the Delaware River with the Brits in hot pursuit. He sent word to Congress in Philadelphia to have boats at Trenton to get him across the River into Pennsylvania. Captain John Barry of Wexford was given the task and contacted Cavan-born Paddy Colvin, who owned one of three Delaware ferries to be used; in fact, today’s town of Morrisville, Pennsylvania, was then called Colvin's Ferry. Colvin knew all the obstacles in the river and how to avoid them. The river had to be crossed quickly, or the patriots would be trapped on its banks. With no bridges, Colvin knew the other ferry owners as well as those who owned Durham cargo boats and where to find them; together with the help of John Glover’s Marblehead mariners, they arranged the crossing. Colvin’s Ferry was the oldest and less than 2 miles from Trenton.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The other ferries were Co Antrim-born Sam McConkey’s ferry 9 miles above Trenton and Howell’s ferry 4 miles above. On 3 December, Washington reached Trenton, and the ferries began carrying the Patriot army and their equipment across to Taylorsville, Pennsylvania. By 8 December, Washington and his rear guard had just crossed as the Brits entered Trenton. The army was safely across, and an angry Cornwallis found all the boats moored on the Pennsylvania side of the river, which was now an impassable ice-choked barrier between him and the disorganized army he had hoped to capture. Leaving a force of Hessian mercenaries to hold Trenton, he set up a headquarters 12 miles north at Princeton; Washington set up his headquarters across the river, half a mile north of Colvin’s Ferry.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Washington met with local butcher Armagh-born John Honeyman, who often traded with the Brits, and learned of the small force guarding Trenton. He decided to re-cross the Delaware at Christmas and surprise the Brits with a present they never expected. Pretending to have escaped from the Patriot camp, Honeyman was sent to the Hessian camp to inform them that the colonials were in no shape to attack as they were demoralized and suffering from cold and hunger. Hoping the Hessians had been lulled into a false sense of security, Washington arranged to cross the icy River on Christmas night and surprise the Hessians at dawn, thinking they’d be hung over from celebrating the holiday the night before. In truth, the Hessians had been alerted by an informer, but a snowstorm that evening was so severe that the Hessians began to relax. There was no way an army could march through that blizzard! It was so bad that the Hessians even canceled patrols for the next morning and went soundly to bed. Meanwhile, Washington chose the most able 2,400 men in his army & Colvin quietly crossed them on all the ferries and Durham boats into the wind, snow, hail, and sleet that assaulted them, but they nevertheless persevered and regrouped at McConkey’s ferry in New Jersey to march the 12 miles south to Trenton.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84722571?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84722571?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="680" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>("Washington Crossing the Delaware" by Emanuel Leutze, 1851)</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The Hessians were surprised, surrounded, and arrested at dawn, and Trenton was taken. Washington knew Cornwallis would try to recapture it but decided to stand and fight. He sent for the rest of his army and fortified Trenton. Cornwallis, hearing of the fall of Trenton, left two regiments to fortify Princeton and marched back to re-take the town. Washington sent out units, under Co. Offaly-born Col. Edward Hand, to harass the Brits and slow them down while he set up defenses around Assunpink Creek with the help of local resident Dublin-born Paddy Lamb. By 1 January, the rest of the Patriot army was in New Jersey.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84723172?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84723172?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="300" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>The British arrived late on 2 January, and the Second Battle of Trenton began at a small bridge over Assunpink Creek. Cornwallis ordered an assault, but the Patriots forced him back by shooting at the legs of the Brits, forcing them to use men to remove their wounded and so reduce the number of Brits on the attack. Cornwallis withdrew for the night, saying, Rest now, we'll bag the fox in the morning. That night, the Patriots noisily built up their campfires to cover the sound of part of their army under <a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-o-sullivan-beare-clan-taking-the-fight-to-america" target="_blank" rel="noopener">General John Sullivan, son of Irish immigrants</a>, (left) leaving with Dubliner Paddy Lamb, who led them on back roads around the British force to Princeton. In the morning, the Patriots launched a surprise attack on Princeton, and in Trenton, Cornwallis awoke to distant cannon fire from the north. Realizing that Princeton was under attack, he divided his forces and sent one to relieve Princeton, but they were too late to prevent another Patriot victory. Meanwhile, darkness put an end to the second battle of Trenton as the Brits were driven back everywhere. The little creek ran red with British blood, and the entire campaign was decided in Washington’s favor. The revolution was saved, and new recruits poured in thanks to a victory in which several Irishmen played a major part. Today, Washington’s night march to Princeton is cited as one of the greatest flanking maneuvers in American military history.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The retreating Brits fled towards British-controlled New Brunswick, and in their haste, some supply wagons were disabled on the way. Two hundred men were left to guard and repair them and bring them on to the British camp. In the dark of night, a group of 20 local patriots quietly encircled those wagons, and the guards were suddenly surprised by a volley of musket-shots and shouting from the surrounding trees. Thinking they were being attacked by a larger force, they fled, leaving the supply wagons to be brought to Washington, where the joy of the troops was unbounded for the wagons were full of woolen clothing, of which the men were in dire need. By February 1, Washington could celebrate Imbolc as he went into winter quarters at Morristown, while the Brits, after their 3rd defeat in 10 days, evacuated Central New Jersey. In the spirit of Imbolc, the revolution was reborn largely with the aid of Irishmen Paddy Colvin, Sam McConkey, John Honeyman, and Paddy Lamb, as well as Irish military men like Captain John Barry, Colonel Edward Hand and General John Sullivan. It was an Imbolc to remember!</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><strong>(Mike McCormack is the AOH NY State Historian Emeritus)</strong></p>Hungry Trailstag:thewildgeese.irish,2024-01-11:6442157:BlogPost:3080382024-01-11T16:30:00.000ZMáire Malonehttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MaireMalone
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QkfCjIseSl0?si=DWpmpeKWzhw3HtuL&wmode=opaque" width="560"></iframe>
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<p><span><a href="https://amzn.to/3vUFqKc" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_849526-T2/images/I/71+Xt7ROJ3L._SY425_.jpg?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="300"></img></a> Julie Foley is sixteen when she and her family are evicted from their humble mountain dwelling in the Mayo town of Attymass. Their crime is rental arrears. It's 1847 and the potato famine has impoverished Ireland. Corpses of men, women and…</span></p>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QkfCjIseSl0?si=DWpmpeKWzhw3HtuL&wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p><span><a href="https://amzn.to/3vUFqKc" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_849526-T2/images/I/71+Xt7ROJ3L._SY425_.jpg?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="300" class="align-right"/></a>Julie Foley is sixteen when she and her family are evicted from their humble mountain dwelling in the Mayo town of Attymass. Their crime is rental arrears. It's 1847 and the potato famine has impoverished Ireland. Corpses of men, women and children lie strewn across the ditches and fields, having dropped like flies from fever, exhaustion and starvation. Thanks to the generosity of the hedge schoolmaster and his wife, Julie and her family are given a lifesaving opportunity to emigrate to North America. But first they must survive the journey aboard one of the 'coffin ships' where thousands of their countrymen and women have perished before them.</span></p>
<p><span>Since childhood, Julie has yearned to become a teacher. Can Fionn McDonagh, the young Irish rebel and poet, persuade Julie to hold on to her dream despite the squalid conditions on board the 'Elizabeth and Sarah'? Will Julie's faith keep her dream alive when her family settle in the working-class district of Griffintown in Montreal, and the only chance of earning a shilling is working in domestic service? Can Julie's dream of a teaching career survive as she toils under the cruel eyes of her employer, a wealthy Northern Irish widow who owns a mansion on Mount Royal?</span></p>
<p><a href="https://amzn.to/3vUFqKc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BUY IT ON AMAZON</a></p>The Irish War of Independence and Civil War in Co. Roscommontag:thewildgeese.irish,2024-01-19:6442157:BlogPost:3088052024-01-19T04:00:00.000ZThe Wild Geesehttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/TheWildGeese
<p><strong><a href="https://generationpublishing.com/books/they-put-the-flag-a-flyin/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8663966478?profile=RESIZE_710x" style="padding: 10px;" width="350"></img></a> <span style="font-size: 12pt;">By <a href="mailto:%20kthorne@teleport.com"><span class="font-size-3">Kathleen Hegarty Thorne</span></a></span></strong></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">I</span>reland is a very small country in land mass.</strong> Compared to industrialized England, it is a poor cousin in the family of imperialists. Challenging the most…</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://generationpublishing.com/books/they-put-the-flag-a-flyin/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8663966478?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="350" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;">By <a href="mailto:%20kthorne@teleport.com"><span class="font-size-3">Kathleen Hegarty Thorne</span></a></span></strong></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">I</span>reland is a very small country in land mass.</strong> Compared to industrialized England, it is a poor cousin in the family of imperialists. Challenging the most powerful empire on which the sun never set was a daunting task in 1916, especially when that power was located twenty miles offshore and financed the policing and the intelligence gathering in the occupied land. Mass assaults (exemplified by the World War I trench warfare charges) were suicidal missions for a rural country like Ireland. Another type of challenge was needed.</p>
<p>Guerilla warfare, although aided by the association of many Irish rebels in Frongoch (the “Irish University” in Wales), was an evolving phenomenon. Men who were threatened by the police and dared not live at home banded together, formed a fighting unit, and lived on in Irish lore as Flying Columns. Those fighting units in Roscommon blossomed in different parts of the county at different times, mostly due to the ability and verve of the men destined to lead them.</p>
<p>The War of Independence was no small scuffle by a few hotheads. England was in no way going to relinquish her nearest colony without a fierce fight, and the people of Roscommon were up for it.</p>
<p>Unlike a National Army, the IRA chose its own leaders. Locals elected those men whom they thought could best organize and direct them. It helped enormously if that person had some military expertise or at least welcomed those around him who did. The Flying Column of the 3rd Battalion South Roscommon, which was responsible for the Scramogue Ambush, had, within its ranks, men who had fought in the British Army in World War I (e.g. Cushy Hughes of Kilnalosset, Kilgefin, and John Gibbons of Aghamuck, Ballagh), who exhibited steady nerves, and possessed a dead-eye aim with a rifle. Michael Quinn of Fairymount, Kilgefin, was the Intelligence Officer for Pat Madden’s Flying Column. He performed his duties so deftly that few in the town of Roscommon even knew he was associated with the Volunteers. Joe Satchwell of Termon Beg, Castlerea, was actually saved because of his membership in the British Army. The Tans who shot Sean Bergin and Stephen McDermott in the Woodlands of Loughglynn recognized Satchwell as a former fellow soldier and left him alive.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Pat Madden, commander of the Flying Column)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8663487852?profile=RESIZE_710x" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8663487852?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="250" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>A number of former members of the British Army served as drill instructors for local Companies:</p>
<p>James Carroll (Ballymacurley) served as the Director of Training for No. 2 Brigade in the 2nd Western Division</p>
<p>Jack Conboy (Kilmore, Athleague) served with the British Army in France in a horse regiment. Jack was the Head Centre for the IRB in the Athleague area. He also was part of Pat Madden’s Flying Column.</p>
<p>Patrick Henry served as drill master for Drum Company in O’Connell’s field and on the lands of Mount Hussey.</p>
<p>Tom Rogers was the first drill instructor of the Loughglynn Company in 1917.</p>
<p>Patrick Wynne, a native of Ballinaheglish, had joined the British Army and served as a drummer boy in the Boer War. Upon his return to Ireland, he trained members of the Rahara Company in south Roscommon. A small man in stature, his expectations were large. His walk was erect, his mind sharp, his commands exacting!</p>
<p>Even the fathers of Volunteers became involved in readying the fresh recruits of Roscommon’s fields. The father of Luke Duffy of Clooncagh acted as drill instructor for the Kilgefin Company.</p>
<p>Membership and activity levels in various parts of the county varied widely. The North Roscommon Brigade claimed 1,191 members as of 1 July 1921, while the smaller Battalion area around Castlerea counted 309. That Battalion had put forth as Brigade O/C a wonderful speaker and exceptional organizer but not one who had the stomach for steel-tempered ambushes. He was deemed rather “harmless by the local RIC.” But he was also hampered by the presence of a spy within the Brigade ranks. Roscommon town was inundated with Crown troops stationed at the barracks and were very close to reinforcements from Athlone. Ambushes in the town were non-existent. Some local Volunteers focused on intelligence gathering as a way of thwarting Crown ambitions. Willie Kilmartin, a solicitor’s clerk in Roscommon town, along with Father Michael O’Flanagan, served as go-betweens for messages from the IRA to Michael Collins in Dublin and vice-versa.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8663742659?profile=RESIZE_710x" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8663742659?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>The Boyle Battalion, although not particularly effective against the British during the War of Independence, fought like tigers during the Civil War, mostly in adjoining counties Mayo, Sligo, and sometimes Leitrim. (The Divisional structural of the IRA by that time had incorporated areas that crossed over county borders.) After the fall of Boyle in early July 1922, men blew up bridges, attacked Manorhamiliton Barracks, joined Frank Carty’s men in the Sligo mountains, marched into County Mayo and burned the gaol and courthouse in Castlebar, and made several attempts to capture Swinford Barracks. In early November 1922, the Arigna Flying Column had a go at Dromahair Barracks in Co. Leitrim.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Right: War of Independence Commemorative Military Memorial at Shankill Cross near Elphon, County Roscommon.)</strong></span></p>
<p>South Roscommon, because of its narrowing geography sandwiched between Galway and the Shannon River and also because of the huge presence of British troops in Athlone, did not succeed in many ambushes during the Tan War. It was only during the Civil War that men from the area, led by Matt Davis from Kilteevan, as well as William Murray of Curry, James Whelan of Ardmullan, Curraghboy, and Hubert Watson of Kiltoom, and Galway Volunteer William Mulrooney of Ballygar staged activities in that area ─ sabotage of trains, blocking roads, destruction of bridges, etc. Most of the activists were removed from the scene by arrests or the capture in November 1922 of Davis and eight others on Quaker Island.</p>
<p>Roscommon is a rural land, sparsely populated as compared to counties Cork and Dublin. But the grit and devotion of the men and women within its borders equaled the determination of Ireland’s southern and eastern counties. Roscommon Volunteers were tortured, shot in their beds, lay in the soggy ground for ambushes that never materialized, stopped trains and unloaded petrol, which would later be used to burn barracks, and patrolled the train stations to enforce the Belfast Boycott.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12360972289?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12360972289?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>The Republican Police kept the lid on local crime. In a 2003 interview with John Kilcline, son of Johnny, the son remarked that his father had received a note from Ned Hegarty, Chief of the Republican Police in south Roscommon, instructing him to kill a local man for suspected treachery. At the top of the note were the words, “Burn this BEFORE you read it.” Johnny Kilcline had declined to eliminate his neighbor but did keep the communication for decades before a cave-in of a rain-soaked straw roof in an outbuilding claimed it for the ages. Those who served with the Republican Police had to guard, scout, and depend on the warmth and bravery of the women who fed and watched over them. These members of Cumann na mBan did the same for their fighting men. A famous “punishment” meted out to civil offenders was to tie up the perpetrator at the church gate with a note pinned to his/her chest. According to John Snee of the East Mayo Brigade, “They (the Republican Police) cured crime more than the RIC ever did.”</p>
<p>Unforeseen obstacles cropped up. There was a spy within the 1st Battalion South area around Castlerea. A disproportionate number of men killed by British agents and the RIC in the Tan War in Roscommon came from this area due to the information supplied by this “mole.” Some Volunteers were instructed to burn the symbols of English authority and were sometimes caught up in flames, many of the men not being familiar with the highly flammable quality of petrol. Some Strokestown Volunteers (Stephen Scally, John Hunt, Martin O’Connor, and Peter Flanagan) endured long and horrible recoveries from their wounds after attempting to torch the courthouse. Others were incapacitated for years due to the injuries incurred from British rifle butts smashed against their spine (Brian Dorr of Ballagh, Hillstreet).</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: a group of RIC constables)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12360989053?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12360989053?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Contributions varied. Sergeant John Duffy, a RIC man stationed in Athlone, saved the local IRA armament stash by giving a message to a friend to relay to Sean Hurley (IRA leader in Athlone), telling him of an upcoming raid. When Duffy was transferred to Roscommon town, he secretly made a key to the District Inspector’s office and accessed the Wanted List of 3,912 rebels sought by the authorities countrywide. He gave a copy of the list to Frank Simons, who in turn forwarded it on to Michael Collins. Duffy also successfully stole the police cipher code, and through the efforts of a post office clerk named McNamara, news of upcoming raids on Roscommon men was decoded by the local IRA, thus saving a number of Volunteers from a bullet. Thomas Farrell served as a liaison between Sgt. Duffy and the local Volunteers, often relaying messages concerning life and death.</p>
<p><a href="https://generationpublishing.com/books/echoes-of-their-footsteps-volume-i/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12360995467?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="350" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Some daring souls ventured to create a bomb factory on the land of John Kelly in Muckinagh, Strokestown. The Roche brothers of Ballinameen lent their expertise to bomb-making. Their quick-thinking mother threw a blanket over the top of one that was lying on the bed when policemen unexpectedly barged into their cottage. The McCormack brothers of Tang in Co. Westmeath joined forces with Athlone men and marched to Shannonbridge for guns for the Rising that never came to the area because the rifles that were supposed to arrive had been dumped in the Atlantic along the Kerry coast. Henry O’Brien of Strand Street, Athlone, suffered a lifetime of stomach pains because he had not wanted to impose on the small farmers when he was on the run and had instead eaten the pig swill to quell his hunger. Jim Brady, who worked in the Arigna mines, spent hours facing a wall of dirt in a cramped tunnel under the Curragh and, spoon by spoon, extracted enough soil to allow for an escape of seventy men in September 1921. Pat Conboy of Fuerty and Jim Breheny of Portrunny maintained their devotion to the Republican cause even into the 1940s when they were incarcerated in the Curragh during the Second World War.</p>
<p>Both female and male activists had to do their part in the overall transformation of Ireland from a dependent agrarian colony to a self-functioning nation. Without the women of Roscommon supporting their men, the county’s rebellion would have been squashed in a fortnight. Rita Leneghan (Lenehan) of Ashforth scoffed at danger and carried messages, relayed instructions, scouted ahead of ambushes, and guarded arms. Maggie Hegarty of Ballinaheglish used to carry dispatches in the steel tube of her bicycle. Once when the Tans stopped her, they gave her a thorough search, then heaved her bicycle into the ditch. When they had departed, she calmly retrieved her cycle and pedaled off to deliver the message. The Sharkey sisters of Strokestown held rifles in their home for Bernard Sweeney and Tom Gilroy of County Leitrim. They both suffered the discomfort of Mountjoy for their efforts. Brigid Dowling of Carricknaughton helped wounded men to safety, collected funds for clothing for the Active Service Unit, and became a member of the firing party over the graves of Kit McKeon and Toby Mannion during the Civil War. The women were the unseen backbone of the rebellion, and because they did not participate in ambushes, they are often forgotten or omitted from the historical renditions. But without a solid spine, the bones and flesh of the struggle would have melted into the ground.</p>
<p><a href="https://generationpublishing.com/books/echoes-of-their-footsteps-volume-ii/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12360995667?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="350" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>The list of sacrifices made by various patriots in Roscommon could fill a book and still be deficient in itemizing all the harrowing and wretched circumstances and details of the period. The people of 1916 through 1923 suffered greatly and put forth Herculean efforts in their fight for an independent Ireland.</p>
<p>Who were the great leaders in the county? Pat Brennan and his brother James Stephen championed the Anti-Treaty faction in the Boyle area. Many in the 3rd Battalion South area threw in their lot with the Free State. In an interview in 1995 with Patrick Vaughan, brother of John Vaughan of Cloonsuck, Castlerea, Patrick mentioned that Gerald O’Connor gathered a large group of the 1st Battalion South and East Mayo men on the grounds of the Clonalis House in July 1922 and urged them to go home and not engage in killing fellow Irishmen. The messages received by Volunteers from their leaders throughout the county were divergent ─ from stout defense of the Republic to enlisting in the new National Army to staying above the fray. Many men simply followed the advice of their commanding officers, while others wrestled with the issues and decided their own paths. Some gravitated toward like-minded groups in adjoining counties. Others sat out the Civil War with regret and remorse in their heart.</p>
<p>In the mid-1990s, when this author interviewed local people in the Ballinaheglish area, some referred to Ned Hegarty as a man alone with his thoughts. He walked his fields, thumbs tucked under his suspenders, mourning the current state of Ireland, sorrowing in the sacrifices made during the wars, and supremely disappointed in the results.</p>
<p>Again, the question arises? Who were the great leaders of the fight? More importantly, who were the great men and women who followed them, who participated in the ambushes, burnings, smuggling of guns, sabotaging of trains, and drawing up plans of buildings for possible raids for arms? The strength of any struggle is only as effective as the grit of the common soldier willing to die for his convictions. Scores of Roscommon people proved their worth, and their souls rest easy knowing they gave their all, even though the realization of a united Ireland was an unfulfilled dream.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Known members of Roscommon Cumann na mBan</strong></span></p>
<p>Norah Boland (Fourmilehouse)<br/> Mary Breheny (Sandfield, Knockcroghery)<br/> Winnie Brennan (Ballytrasna, Boyle)<br/> Annie Collins (Lisonuffy) 3rd Battalion South area<br/> Ellen "Ellie" Collins (Lisonuffy)<br/> Kathleen Comber (Athlone)<br/> Annie Connolly (Flaherty) (Fairymount, Kilrooskey)<br/> “Lizzie” Cooney (Aghamuck, Kilgefin) 3rd Battalion South area<br/> --- Cooney (Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim)<br/> Ciss Cox (Kilbarry) Tarmonbarry Company area<br/> Rosie Cox (Green St., Boyle)<br/> Annie Cull (Arigna)<br/> Katy Daly (Culleenaghmore, Slatta, Kilglass)<br/> Katy Daly (Cornamagh)<br/> Mrs. Patrick J. Delahunty (Boyle)<br/> Margaret Dempsey (Boyle)<br/> Maisie Donnelly (Coolderry, Four Roads)<br/> Brigid Dowling (Carricknaughton, Athlone)<br/> May Downes (Ballaghaderreen)<br/> Agnes "Aggie" Doyle (Derreenaseer, Knockvicar, Boyle)<br/> May Doyle (Derreenaseer, Knockvicar, Boyle)<br/> The Duignans (Arigna)<br/> Ann Dunning (Summerhill, Drum) south Roscommon<br/> Kathy Dunning (Summerhill, Drum) south Roscommon<br/> May Farrell (Moher) Kilgefin parish<br/> Eva Fitzpatrick (Connaught St., Athlone)<br/> May Flanagan (Ballaghaderreen)<br/> Lily Frayne (Frain) (Drumman More, Ruskey)<br/> Ann Gaffey (Garrynagowna) Summerhill area, south Roscommon<br/> Mary Gaffey (Garrynagowna) Summerhill area, south Roscommon<br/> Nellie Galvin (Summerhill area)<br/> Annie Joe Gavigan (Ballylugnagon, Boyle)<br/> May Gavigan (Ballylugnagon, Boyle)<br/> Mrs. Geoghan (3rd Battalion North area)<br/> Helen Gibbons (Ballincurry, Kilgefin)<br/> Lizzie Gillhooly (Drumagissaun, Kilglass)<br/> Nellie Gillhooly (Drumagissaun, Kilglass)<br/> Ann Halligan (Carricknaughton, Drum, Athlone)<br/> Nan Halligan (Carricknaughton, Drum, Athlone)<br/> Margaret “Maggie” "Greta" Hegarty (Ballinaheglish)<br/> Mary Ann Hegarty (Ballinaheglish)<br/> Ann Hoban (Slatta, Kilglass)<br/> Nelly Hogan (Garrynagowna, Drum)<br/> Mary Hunt (Cloonloo, Boyle)<br/> Margaret Judge (Geevagh, Boyle)<br/> Cissie Kelly (Ballaghaderreen)<br/> Josie Kelly (Ballaghaderreen)<br/> Rose Kenny (The Glebe in Kilrooskey)<br/> Maudie Kilmartin (Summerhill, Drum)<br/> Bridget Lane (Four Roads)<br/> Rita Leneghan (Lenehan) (Ashforth)<br/> Mrs. James Lynch (Summerhill, Drum)<br/> Katie McDermott (Ballybeg, Strokestown)<br/> Mary McDermott (Cartron, Kilrooskey, Kilgefin)<br/> Bridie McDonagh (Ballinagare)<br/> Margaret McGann (Trilacroghan, Kilgefin)<br/> Beasie McGarry (Garrow, Boyle)<br/> Maisie McGarry (Ballymagrine, Tarmonbarry)<br/> Mary Kate McGarry (Garrow, Boyle)<br/> Liza McGuinness (Cloonmore, Tarmonbarry)<br/> Margaret McNally (Elphin)<br/> Lena Madden (Ballagh)<br/> May Martin (Boyle)<br/> Mrs. Martin (Ballinagare)<br/> Mary Morley (Main St., Ballaghaderreen)<br/> Mrs. Mullaney (Runnamoat, Ballinaheglish)<br/> Becky Murray (Quarry Lane, Boyle)<br/> Bridie Murray (Quarry Lane, Boyle)<br/> Margaret Murray (Taylorstown, Drum, Athlone)<br/> Marian Murray (Quarry Lane, Boyle)<br/> Mary Murray (Clooncraff, Kilteevan)<br/> Annie O’Connor (Church Street, Athlone)<br/> Evangela O'Dowd (Graffoge, Scramogue, Strokestown)<br/> Mollie Parker (Aghamuck, Kilgefin)<br/> Bridget Seery (Cloonillan, Drum, Athlone)<br/> Lena Sharkey (Drinaun, Strokestown)<br/> Una Sharkey (Drinaun, Strokestown)<br/> Tessie Shiel (Cagglestack, Strokestown)<br/> Annie Simons (Carrowmoneen, Kilgefin)<br/> Mary Kate Spellman (Ballaghaderreen)<br/> Brighid Lyons Thornton (born at Moneenacully, Scramogue, Strokestown)<br/> Mary Towey (Ballaghaderreen)<br/> Nora Treacy (Ballinturly, Fuerty)<br/> Cissie Tully (Newtownflood, Drum)<br/> Maggie Tully (Newtownflood, Drum)<br/> Kathleen Turbitt (Ross Lane, Boyle)</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Sources:</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://generationpublishing.com/books/they-put-the-flag-a-flyin/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"They Put the Flag a-Flyin’ The Roscommon Volunteers 1916−1923"</a> by Kathleen Hegarty Thorne</p>
<p><a href="https://generationpublishing.com/books/echoes-of-their-footsteps-volume-i/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"Echoes of Their Footsteps, Volume I,"</a> by Kathleen Hegarty Thorne</p>
<p><a href="https://generationpublishing.com/books/echoes-of-their-footsteps-volume-ii/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"Echoes of Their Footsteps, Volume II,"</a> by Kathleen Hegarty Thorne and Patrick Flanagan</p>
<p><a href="https://generationpublishing.com/books/echoes-of-their-footsteps-volume-iii/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"Echoes of Their Footsteps, Volume lII,"</a> by Kathleen Hegarty Thorne and Patrick Flanagan</p>
<p>Witness Statement Brigid Dowling, Carricknaughton</p>
<p>Witness Statement Sgt. John Duffy. RIC Roscommon town</p>
<p>Witness Statement George Fitzgerald, Ardmullan</p>
<p>Witness Statement of Rita Leneghan, Pat Brennan Papers</p>
<p>Witness Statement Michael McCormack, Drumraney, Athlone</p>
<p>Interview Paddy Concannon, Knockmurray, Castlerea, 14 August 2004</p>
<p>Interview Johnny Kilcline, Lecarrow, 26 October 2003</p>
<p>Interview Annie McManus, Arigna, 17 June 2002</p>
<p>Interview Pat Vaughan, Milton, Massachusetts, 10 April 1995</p>
<p>Interview John Snee (East Mayo Brigade), 16 September 1997</p>
<p>Correspondence Henry Owens, 9 June 2016</p>
<p>Mulcahy Papers P7 A 13-23</p>
<p><strong>More on the Irish War of Independence</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/irish-rebel-maurice-meade-may-you-live-in-interesting-times" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Irish Rebel Maurice Meade</a>: May You LIve in Interesting Times</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-blacksmith-hammers-the-auxies-at-clonfin-longford">"The Blacksmith" Hammers the Auxies at Clonfin, Longford</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/dillon-s-cross-and-the-burning-of-cork-city" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dillon’s Cross Ambush and the Burning of Cork City</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/corkman-capture-mallow-barracks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Corkmen Capture Mallow Barracks</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-ballymahon-barracks-attack-arming-the-boys-of-longford" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ballymahon Barracks Attack: Arming the Boys of Longford</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-listowel-mutiny-shoot-on-sight" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Listowel Mutiny: “Shoot on Sight”</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-ballymacandy-ambush-i-would-not-turn-off-my-road-for-any-shin">The Ballymacandy Ambush: "I would not turn off my road for any Shin...</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/sean-treacy-at-war-tipperary-far-away">Seán Treacy at War: Tipperary 'Far Away'</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/paddy-o-brien-and-the-rathcoole-ambush-vengeance-is-mine-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Paddy” O’Brien and the Rathcoole ambush: Vengeance Is “Mine”</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-scramogue-ambush-roscommon-steps-up" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Scramogue Ambush: Roscommon Steps Up</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-1st-brigade-cork-volunteers-and-the-coolnacahera-ambush-1">The 1st Brigade Cork Volunteers and the Coolnacahera Ambush</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/michael-brennan-and-the-east-clare-brigade-at-the-glenwood-ambush">Michael Brennan and the East Clare Brigade at the Glenwood Ambush</a><span> </span></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/piltown-ambush-1-november-1920">100 Years Ago: The Piltown Ambush (1 November 1920)</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/liam-lynch-civil-war-martyr-it-never-should-have-happened">Liam Lynch, Civil War Martyr: “It never should have happened”</a></p>
<p>“<a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/tipperary-s-dan-breen-the-hardest-hard-man">Tipperary’s Dan Breen: The Hardest Hard Man</a>.”</p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/greyhound-on-train-the-rescue-of-hogan-at-knocklong" target="_blank" rel="noopener">'Greyhound on Train': Rescuing Seán Hogan at Knocklong</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/IRA-Fight-Freedom-1919-Truce/dp/1856356876/ref=as_li_ss_tl?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1521048677&sr=1-1&keywords=with+the+ira+in+the+fight+for+freedom&linkCode=sl1&tag=thewildgeesestore-20&linkId=a5d3c25f0b649a20f2fc210f1385756b" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img width="200" class="align-right" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84723435?profile=RESIZE_320x320"/></a><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-clonbanin-ambush-to-hell-with-surrender" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Clonbanin Ambush: “To Hell With Surrender!”</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/george-lennon-waterford-rebel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">George Lennon: Waterford Rebel</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/george-lennon-the-piltown-cross-ambush" target="_blank" rel="noopener">George Lennon & the Piltown Ambush</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-kilmallock-barracks-attack-burning-down-the-house-in-limerick" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Kilmallock Barracks Attack: Burning Down the House in Limerick</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-tureengarriffe-ambush-cork-kerry-strike-a-blow" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Tureengarriffe Ambush: Cork & Kerry Strike a Blow</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-tourmakeady-ambush-shrouded-by-the-fog-of-war-in-mayo" target="_self">The Tourmakeady Ambush: Shrouded By the “Fog of War” in Mayo</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-headford-ambush-time-runs-out-in-kerry" target="_self">The Headford Ambush: Time Runs Out in Kerry</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/cataclysm-in-cork-the-battle-of-clonmult" target="_self">Cataclysm in Cork: The Battle of Clonmult</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-scourge-of-tralee-stalking-the-the-major" target="_self">“The Scourge of Tralee”: Stalking the “The Major”</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-dromkeen-ambush-down-into-the-mire-in-county-limerick" target="_self">The Dromkeen Ambush: Down Into the Mire in County Limerick</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/rineen-ambush-hell-comes-to-county-clare" target="_self">The Rineen Ambush: Hell Comes to County Clare</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-carrowkennedy-ambush-june-2-1921-revenge-is-a-dish-best-serve" target="_self">The Carrowkennedy Ambush, June 2, 1921: Revenge is a Dish Best Serv...</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/tom-barry-we-may-have-great-men-but-we-ll-never-have-better" target="_self">Tom Barry: 'We May Have Great Men, But We’ll Never Have Better'<br/></a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-battle-of-crossbarry-breaking-the-back-of-the-british-occupat" target="_self">The Battle of Crossbarry: ... 'Who Piped Old Ireland Free'</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-kilmeena-ambush-seeds-of-victory-in-a-defeat" target="_self">The Kilmeena Ambush, May 19, 1921: Seeds of Victory in a Defeat</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/co-waterford-burgery-ambush-march-19-1921" target="_self">'Nigh Comeragh's Rugged Hills': Ambush at The Burgery</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/trauma-at-the-burgery-part-1" target="_self">The R.I.C. In An Untenable Position, Part 1: Trauma at The Burgery</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-irish-war-of-independence-the-lispole-ambush-avoiding-disaste" target="_self">The Lispole Ambush -- Averting Disaster on the Dingle Peninsula</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/patrick-white-a-tragic-death-on-spike-island" target="_self">Patrick White: A Clareman's Tragic Death on Spike Island</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/and-to-watch-the-sunbeams-dancing-o-er-the-wicklow-mountains-high" target="_self">'And To Watch the Sunbeams Dancing O’er the Wicklow Mountains High'</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/always-remember-cumann-na-mban" target="_self">Always Remember ~ Cumann na mBan</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/my-fathers-story-how-the-nuns-of-kylemore-abbey-saved-his-life" target="_self">War of Independence -- How the Nuns of Kylemore Saved My Father's Life</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/terence-macswiney-irish-martyr" target="_self">Terence MacSwiney: Irish Martyr</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/walking-to-work-through-a-battle-zone" target="_self">Walking to Work Through a Battle Zone</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/review-of-emmet-dalton-somme-soldier-irish-general-film-pioneer" target="_self">Review of 'Emmet Dalton - Somme Soldier, Irish General, Film Pionee...</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-village-of-generals" target="_self">Ballinalee, County Longford: The Village of Generals</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-anglo-irish-treaty-seed-of-the-troubles" target="_self">The Anglo-Irish Treaty: Seed of 'The Troubles'</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/shot-while-attempting-to-escape">Shot While Attempting To Escape</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:184709">Easter Rising to Irish Civil War Archive Available Online</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:111606">Michael Collins: Saga of Heroism Against Daunting Odds</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:180517">A Short History of Michael Collins, Ireland's 'Big Fellow'</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:74979">Great Irish Romances: Michael Collins and Kitty Kiernan</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:144731">Kitty and Michael: a revolutionary courtship</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:163757">The Tan Who Was Hanged By His Own Side</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:24652">Liam Lynch: Victim of the Irish Civil War</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:87437">1916 and the Rebels' Priests</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:8890">After The Rising … 'Fron-goch and the Birth of the IRA'</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:177498">Ernie O'Malley: Mayo-Born Freedom Fighter and Writer</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:75936">The Wild Geese Virtual Síbín with Cormac O'Malley</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:8961">Evidence Abounds: British Leaders OK'd Mayhem</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:162480">The Price of Freedom</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:8947">The West Cork Trail: Scenes From the Anglo-Irish and Civil Wars, 19...</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:189731">How I Learned That Grandad Executed Erskine Childers</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:151451">Leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising: Éamon de Valera</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:184590">Erskine Childers: Author, Irish Gunrunner, Churchill's Bête Noire</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:63600">The Scum of England, or Ordinary Men? A Review of DJ Kelly's 'Runni...</a></p>
<p>The Forgotten Ten:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/kevin-barry-just-a-lad-of-18-summers" target="_self">Part 1: 'Just a Lad of 18 Summers'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/kevin-barry-part-2-an-example-has-to-be-made" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Part 2: 'An Example Has To Be Made'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/kevin-barry-part-3-proud-to-die-for-the-republic" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Part 3: 'Proud To Die for the Republic'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/part-4-down-into-the-mire" target="_self">Part 4: 'Down Into the Mire'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/part-5-england-executes-prisoners-of-war" target="_self">Part 5: 'England Executes Prisoners of War'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/part-6-death-with-no-tremblings" target="_self">Part 6: 'Death With No Tremblings'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/part-7-fight-on-struggle-on" target="_self">Part 7: 'Fight On, Struggle On'</a></strong></li>
</ul>Irish Rebels and the Baltimore Riotstag:thewildgeese.irish,2015-05-04:6442157:BlogPost:1553912015-05-04T03:00:00.000ZJoe Gannonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JoeGannon
<p align="center"><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84711908?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84711908?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" style="padding: 10px;" width="750"></img></a> <em><strong>Avenge the patriotic gore</strong></em></span><br></br> <em><strong><span class="font-size-3">That flecked the streets of Baltimore,</span></strong></em><br></br> <em><strong><span class="font-size-3">And be the battle queen of yore,</span></strong></em><br></br> <em><strong><span class="font-size-3">Maryland! My…</span></strong></em></p>
<p align="center"><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84711908?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84711908?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-full" style="padding: 10px;"/></a><em><strong>Avenge the patriotic gore</strong></em></span><br/> <em><strong><span class="font-size-3">That flecked the streets of Baltimore,</span></strong></em><br/> <em><strong><span class="font-size-3">And be the battle queen of yore,</span></strong></em><br/> <em><strong><span class="font-size-3">Maryland! My Maryland!</span></strong></em></p>
<p align="right"><span class="font-size-3">---- From “Maryland, My Maryland”</span> <br/> <span class="font-size-3">by James Ryder Randall</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong><span class="font-size-5">A</span>s Baltimore erupted into riots,</strong> two of the key figures involved were Irish-Americans, and not long after it was over both of them would be in jail. These riots were not during the present unrest in Baltimore; they occurred in April 1861 at the beginning of the Civil War. And both were men of great authority in the metropolis. One, George William Brown, a 2<sup>nd</sup> generation Irish-American, was the mayor, and the other George Proctor Kane, a 1<sup>st</sup> generation Irish-American, was the <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84711838?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="200" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84711838?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="200" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Marshal (Chief) of Police.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Brown (<span class="font-size-2"><strong>right</strong></span>), who was born in Baltimore in 1812, had only taken office in November 1860. His paternal grandfather, who was a doctor, was born in Ireland and immigrated to Baltimore in 1783. George began practicing law in Baltimore in 1839. He rose in city politics by opposing the anti-immigrant Know Nothing Party.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84711983?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="200" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84711983?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="200" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Kane (<span class="font-size-2"><strong>left</strong></span>) was born in Baltimore in 1817. Both of his parents were born in Ireland. As a young man he became involved in Whig Party politics. During the years of The Great Hunger in Ireland, he was the president of the Hibernian Society and was active in sending relief. He would also rise to be a colonel in the local militia unit. He dabbled in acting and became part owner of Arnold’s Olympic Theater. An actor who made his debut there was John Wilkes Booth, and it would not be the last time Kane and Booth would be in contact. In February 1860, Kane was appointed Marshal of Police for Baltimore.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Neither man held his office long before a crisis of unimagined proportions was upon them. In April 1861, as many Southern states were seceding from the Union, the state of Maryland was in turmoil. Maryland was a slave-holding state, and many of its residents were very sympathetic to the South. Lincoln had gotten a mere 2,294 votes in Maryland. Among those sympathizers, as later events would prove, was Marshal Kane. Mayor Brown, while certainly not a supporter of newly elected President Lincoln, does not appear to have been in favor of secession, though he was surely an opponent of what Lincoln was doing to suppress secession. Baltimore itself was undoubtedly a hot bed of secession sympathizers. And even before the agitation over slavery, Baltimore had such a history of civil disturbances that it was known by some as “Mobtown.”</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">There is no way to get to Washington, D.C., from the north without passing through Maryland, other than a line that passed through Virginia, which was even more problematic. To make matters worse, it was impossible to simply pass through Baltimore by rail without stopping and changing from one rail line to another. In February, Lincoln had secretly passed through Baltimore at 3:30 a.m. to avoid possible problems. Sneaking through entire regiments of militia units would not be quite as simple.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84712131?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="700" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84712131?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="700" class="align-center"/></a></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">On April 12<sup>th</sup>, Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter and on the 15<sup>th</sup> Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers. Maryland had not seceded, but many in the state and especially in Baltimore surely supported those who had. Mayor Brown and Marshal Kane were facing a crisis of conscience. Neither supported Lincoln’s apparent intent to go to war with the Confederate states, but both had a responsibility to uphold the law and to oppose violence. One would hold to that responsibility throughout the crisis and one would not.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">On April 18<sup>th</sup> five companies of Pennsylvania militia and a detachment from the 4th U.S. Artillery arrived in Baltimore. They ran into a rock-throwing mob as they made their way through the city to Camden Station. It appears that Kane and his men did their best to protect them. No one was killed on either side, but the mobs blood was up now. Brown sent a message to Lincoln: "The people are exasperated to the highest degree by the passage of troops, and the citizens are universally decided in the opinion that no more should be ordered to come.” But it was too late. The 6<sup>th</sup> Massachusetts was headed to the city and would arrive midday on the 19<sup>th</sup> (ironically the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington). The secessionist mob was <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84712622?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="400" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84712622?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="400" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>waiting for them.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2"><strong>(Right: President's Station)</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">When Kane got word the soldiers had arrived at President’s Station, around 11 a.m., he alerted Brown, but he didn’t move any officers in that direction. There was a horse-drawn trolley system to take people from President St. Station to Camden, running most of the way down Pratt Street. So by then, it may have seemed more prudent to guard Camden St. Station, where a considerable mob had assembled, and hope the troops would make the trolley ride safely.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">As the train carrying the 6<sup>th</sup> Massachusetts approached Baltimore, its commanding officer, Colonel Edward F. Jones, had 20 rounds issued to his men. Kane didn’t have any officers waiting at the President Street Station, where the troops would arrive. His officers were all with him, waiting at Camden Street Station, a little over a mile away, where the troops had to go afterwards to get the train south. The troops arrived at Bolton Street Station the day before, and Kane later claimed to not know their destination on this day, so he waited where he knew they had to go afterward. And it may well be that the Federal government was afraid that if he was given the information he would pass it on to the people planning to oppose the passage of the soldiers, and his later actions would tend to back up that fear.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84712580?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="400" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84712580?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="400" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>The disaster was very nearly avoided. Most of the regiment made the trip safely, suffering no more than some jeering and a few rocks thrown. But then the mob blocked the rails with a wagon load of sand at Pratt and Gay Streets. The drivers of four of the remaining cars quickly reversed their horses and turned back, but Company K had to leave their cars and move forward on foot.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The riot began in earnest. A pistol was fired from the crowd, and the soldiers, either with or without orders, returned fire. Meanwhile, Brown left Camden St. Station and arrived at the logjam with some police officers. The mayor joined Captain Follansbee at the head of the company and surely risked his life attempting to stop the violence.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The mayor reported that his presence seemed to mollify the mob, but the violence soon commenced again. Follansbee reported that at one point Brown took a musket from a trooper and shot a rioter, but Brown later denied it. Around the time they reached Charles Street, Kane arrived with a large number of police officers, and they formed a cordon around the soldiers and got them to Camden Street Station without further shooting.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">When it was over, four soldiers and 12 civilians were dead, with 36 soldiers and an untold number <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84712542?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84712542?profile=original" width="291" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>of civilians, perhaps over a 100, injured. The dead soldiers were Luther Ladd <strong><span class="font-size-2">(Right: 17 years old and said to be the first soldier killed)</span></strong>, Addison Whitney, Sumner Needham, and Charles Taylor, among the North's first martyrs. Among the dead civilians were several with very Irish sounding names -- John McCann, John McMahon, Francis Maloney, William Maloney, Philip S. Miles, and Michael Murphy.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Though Kane had apparently strove to do his duty on the 19<sup>th</sup>, after the riot he revealed his true feelings when he telegraphed Bradley Johnson of the Maryland militia, later a general in the Confederate army, saying, "Streets red with Maryland blood; send expresses over the mountains of Maryland and Virginia for the riflemen to come without delay. Fresh hordes will be down on us tomorrow. We will fight them and whip them, or die."</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The rest of Kane’s life would be quite fascinating. He was arrested in July, after martial law was declared in Baltimore and habeas corpus was suspended, no doubt due to his telegraph message. He was held first at Fort McHenry and then transferred to Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. He was released in the autumn of 1862 and went to Montreal.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">While in Canada, Kane wrote to Confederate President Davis several times proposing different schemes to help the Confederacy, including attacks on U.S. cities along the Great Lakes and the freeing of Confederate prisoners from Federal prisoner-of-war camps, none of which came to fruition. And in 1864, Kane was among a group of Confederate leaders in Canada who heard his old acting compatriot, John Wilkes Booth, present a plan for kidnapping Lincoln. It was rejected, but Booth clearly continued to plot against Lincoln.</span></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-2">(Below: Arrest of Marshal Kane, at his home in Baltimore at 3 a.m., by order of General Banks on a charge of treason -- from a sketch by our special artist accompanying General Banks' command. From <i>Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, </i>July 6, 1861, p. 113.)</span></strong></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84712629?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="400" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84712629?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="400" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Kane ran the blockade into Richmond later in 1864 and helped the Confederates in recruiting Marylanders to the cause, as well as helping to provide uniforms for Maryland troops in the Confederate army. After the war he returned to Baltimore where he was elected sheriff in 1873, demonstrating that being an ex-rebel was not detrimental to one’s political career in Baltimore. And in 1877 that was affirmed again as he was elected mayor. He would not complete his term, as he died June 23, 1878, of Bright's disease, a kidney disorder.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Brown managed to hold onto his office in Baltimore a bit longer than Kane, but in September 1861, in spite of the fact that he did his best to prevent the violence in Baltimore, he too fell victim to the suspension of habeas corpus and was locked up in Fort McHenry. While Kane had blatantly flaunted his loyalty to the Confederacy, Brown had not. Shortly after being arrested, Brown was offered his freedom if he would take the oath of allegiance and resign as mayor, but he refused. He was later transferred to Fort Warren in Boston Harbor, being held in both places with Kane, a friend.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The government continued to offer Brown his freedom with the same conditions, ignoring even the pleading of some members of the 6<sup>th</sup> Massachusetts on his behalf. But he refused, saying: “I have committed no offense. I want no pardon. When I go out, I want to go out honorably.” He was finally released unconditionally in December 1862, after his term as mayor had expired.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Like Kane, however, Brown's troubles during the war were no impediment to his political career in Baltimore later. Although he again ran for mayor and lost in 1885, he was a member of the first Board of Trustees of the Peabody Institute; one of the founders of the Maryland Historical Society; a regent of the University of Maryland; a visitor of St. John's College, Annapolis; a trustee of Johns Hopkins University of Maryland; a visitor of St. John's College, Annapolis; and a member of the State Constitutional Convention of 1867. And finally, in October 1872, he was elected chief judge of the Supreme Court of Baltimore City. He died while on vacation with his wife in New York in 1890.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">We can agree or disagree with some of their political positions, but both men were true to what they believed to the end of their lives.</span></p>In Honor of Teatag:thewildgeese.irish,2024-01-10:6442157:BlogPost:3074622024-01-10T18:00:00.000ZMargaret M. Johnsonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MargaretMJohnson
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<p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">S</span>erious tea drinkers and wellness enthusiasts celebrate “National Hot Tea Month”</strong> in January. During the month, many extol the virtues of tea drinking for health reasons, while others simply celebrate the culture and history of tea, its diverse…</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12356634288?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12356634288?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">S</span>erious tea drinkers and wellness enthusiasts celebrate “National Hot Tea Month”</strong> in January. During the month, many extol the virtues of tea drinking for health reasons, while others simply celebrate the culture and history of tea, its diverse blends and soothing qualities. Most agree that drinking tea is the perfect way to start the New Year. But none of this comes as a surprise to Irish tea lovers, whom some say have a relationship with tea that “transcends the ordinary” — hyperbole, perhaps, but given that the average person in Ireland drinks four to <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.carrollsirishgifts.com/home/drinkware/mugs-cups.html">six cups </a>a</span> day, perhaps not!” Here’s the <span> </span>perfect accompaniment to your next <em>cuppa</em> this month and beyond! You’ll find this and many others great options in my cookbook <em>Teatime in Ireland</em>. <span>To order a signed copy</span>, visit <a href="http://irishcook.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">irishcook.com</a></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>TEA BRACK</strong></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Makes 2 Loaves</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">This easy fruit loaf is one of the easiest to make and most delightful to eat. Especially appropriate to serve with a hot cup of tea, the bread will keep well for several days and is delicious toasted for breakfast.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>16 ounces mixed dried fruit (raisins, golden raisins, chopped dates, chopped apricots)</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>2 teaspoons candied mixed peel</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1/4cup chopped walnuts</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1/4 cup chopped pecans</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1 teaspoon. ground ginger or 1 tablespoon chopped candied ginger</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1 teaspoon Mixed Spice (see Note)<span> </span> or pumpkin pie spice</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1 1/4 cup cold black tea</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1 large egg, beaten</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1 cup (packed) light brown sugar</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>2 cups self-rising flour</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Softened butter, for spreading</em></p>
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">In a large bowl, combine the fruit, nuts, spices, and tea. Soak for 3 hours, or until the fruit absorbs most of the tea.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Preheat the oven to 350°F. Coat two 7-inch loaf pans with no-stick baking spray with flour.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Stir the egg, sugar, and flour into the fruit mixture; mix until well combined. Transfer to the prepared pan; smooth the top.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Bake for 65 to 70 minutes, or until the top is golden and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Remove from the oven; let cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. Invert the cake onto the rack; return to upright and let cool completely before cutting into slices. Serve slices spread with butter.</li>
</ol>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/11877590891?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/11877590891?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p>Fruitcake Time!tag:thewildgeese.irish,2023-12-15:6442157:BlogPost:3078482023-12-15T17:30:00.000ZMargaret M. Johnsonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MargaretMJohnson
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<p style="font-weight: 400;"><span><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">L</span>ove it or hate it, fruitcake is one of Christmastime’s most iconic foods.</strong> I make no apologies for being one who loves it, and over the years I’ve amassed quite a collection of recipes from sources near and far.</span> <span>While we might…</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12326490301?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12326490301?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><span><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">L</span>ove it or hate it, fruitcake is one of Christmastime’s most iconic foods.</strong> I make no apologies for being one who loves it, and over the years I’ve amassed quite a collection of recipes from sources near and far.</span> <span>While we might credit our Irish mother or grandmother with carrying on the holiday fruitcake-making tradition, we can look even further into history to uncover its possible origin.</span> Ancient Egyptians left fruit-and-nut cakes in graves, the theory being that they would provide sustenance in the afterlife; Romans mixed raisins, pine nuts, pomegranate seeds, and honeyed wine into barley cakes to feed soldiers; in the 1400s, prized dried and preserved fruits and nuts were traded westward from the Middle East to Europe where they were baked into cakes; and they became very popular in England where Victorians loved to have fruitcakes with their tea (don’t we all?) In eighteenth-century Europe, fruitcake was eaten around the winter solstice to mark the annual nut harvest, making the cakes popular at Christmastime. For lovers of both dark and light fruitcakes, have a look at my <em>Festive Flavors of Ireland</em> cookbook that contains both. Signed copies are available at irishcook.com.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Nollaig shona duit</em>. . .Happy Christmas to you!</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Bushmills Boiled Fruitcake</strong></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Makes 1 large or 4 to 5 small loaves</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">This fruitcake, which has been in my collection of recipes for two decades, is an interesting one. The dried and candied fruits are cooked with butter, brown sugar, and crushed pineapple <em>before</em> being mixed with the dry ingredients, a technique that produces a very moist cake.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">4 ounces butter</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">2 cups golden raisins</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">1/2 cup candied cherries, chopped</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">1/2 cup fruit and peel mix</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">2 cups all-purpose flour</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">1 teaspoon baking soda</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">1/2 teaspoon salt</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or Mixed Spice (see Note)</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">2 large eggs, beaten</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">2 to 3 tablespoons Bushmills Irish whiskey, for drizzling</p>
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">In a large saucepan, bring the pineapple, butter, sugar, raisins, cherries, and mixed peel to a boil. Cook, stirring continuously, for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat; let cool completely.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Preheat the oven to <span>325°F. Coat a 9-inch loaf pan, or 4 to 5 (3-inch) mini loaf pans, with no-stick baking spray with flour.</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span>In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice or Mixed Spice. With a wooden spoon, stir into the fruit mixture; stir in the eggs. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan(s).</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span>Bake the large cake for 60 to 75 minutes (test with a skewer</span> at 55 minutes), or mini loaves for 50 minutes.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Let cakes cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Prick top of cake(s) in several places; drizzle with whiskey while <span>still</span> warm. Remove cake(s) from pan; let cool completely. Wrap in plastic wrap; store in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks or freeze.</li>
</ol>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Note: To make Mixed Spice, combine 1 tablespoon coriander seeds, 1 crushed cinnamon stick, 1 teaspoon whole cloves, and 1 teaspoon allspice berries in a spice or coffee grinder. Process until finely ground. Stir in 1 tablespoon nutmeg and 2 teaspoons ginger. Store in an airtight container.<strong><br/><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12326491079?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12326491079?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></strong></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"> <a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12326491265?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12326491265?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p>Detective Steven McDonald: Earth Angel to the Americastag:thewildgeese.irish,2023-12-11:6442157:BlogPost:3081012023-12-11T04:30:00.000ZDaniel P. McLaughlinhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/DanielPMcLaughlin
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313626085?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313626085?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400"></img></a> T</span>he tragic and triumphant life of a New York City police officer’</strong><span><strong>s spiritual journey</strong> continues to impact citizens of a city, state, nation, continent and yes, the world. This extraordinary life makes a compelling case for, if not (just yet) sainthood, then of a prophetic…</span></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313626085?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313626085?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-right"/></a>T</span>he tragic and triumphant life of a New York City police officer’</strong><span><strong>s spiritual journey</strong> continues to impact citizens of a city, state, nation, continent and yes, the world. This extraordinary life makes a compelling case for, if not (just yet) sainthood, then of a prophetic</span> <span>“angel</span><span>-hood</span><span>”</span> <span>of the man we know as Detective Steven McDonald,</span> <span>“</span><span>the forgiveness guy.</span><span>” McDonald’s life story embodies that of</span> <i><span>everyman</span></i> <span>-- a</span> <span>native of suburban Malverne, Long Island, a former U.S. Navy hospital corpsman and third-generation officer in the New York City Police Department. So then, let us together explore the uncanny, yet unavoidable, intersecting circumstances leading us to recognize our, impeccably timed, modern-day Earth Angel to the</span> <span>Americas<em>.</em></span><em> </em></p>
<p><em>In photo above, President George W. Bush speaks with NYPD Officer Steve McDonald in the Blue Room on April 10, 2002. White House photo by Tina Hager</em></p>
<p><span>A Rockville Centre (N.Y.) prayer group bears his name, led by local resident Kevin Conlon and Patty McDonald,</span><span> </span><span>Steven</span><span>’</span><span>s widow. The humble group of 90+ individuals, including myself, meets monthly, having an offi</span><span>cial</span><span> </span><span>meeting agenda of one rosary and one speaker and an unofficial after-meeting agenda of drinks, etc., at a local tavern. Meetings are typically held the last Thursday of the month at 7:30 p.m.,</span><span> </span><span>lasting from 1 to 1.5 hours. Special events, praying the rosary at Steven</span><span>’</span><span>s grave, marching as a group in New York’s famed St. Patrick</span><span>’</span><span>s Day Parade, and participating in the 9-11 Memorial Walk bring us together beyond meetings.</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>New York Rangers ice hockey fans may also be familiar with the annual award ceremony:</span> <span>“</span><span>Steven</span><span> </span><span>McDonald Extra Effort Award.</span><span>”</span> <span>Ryan Lindgren received this in April for the</span> <span>’22-’</span><span>23 season. In addition, the</span><span> </span><span>prayer group has recently expanded to the Maria Regina parish in Seaford, also on Long Island. The</span><span> </span><span>group</span><span>’</span><span>s purpose is twofold: Perpetuate the life-lesson of forgiveness and memory of McDonald</span><span> </span><span>and, second, become a prayerful resource of miraculous healing that will, one day, compel the Church to</span><span> </span><span>advocate, beatify and eventually proclaim McDonald a saint. We have realized the</span><span> </span><span>former, and we are supremely confident the latter will come in the Good Lord</span><span>’</span><span>s time.</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>In a March 2022 meeting, one of the speakers suggested McDonald</span><span>’</span><span>s life exemplified the perfect</span><span> </span><span>adoption of the line in the Lord</span><span>’s Prayer: “</span><span>Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass</span><span> </span><span>against us.</span><span>”</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>Many of us, the author included, have said,</span> <span>“</span><span>It would be impossible, I could never forgive such a grave</span><span> </span><span>offense . . .</span> <span>”</span> <span>And, of course, this is accurate for Steven, as well, until, with the help of God, this did, in</span><span> </span><span>fact, happen. Matthew 19:26:</span> <span>“</span><span>Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God</span><span> </span><span>all things are possible.’ “</span> <span>Evidence, no doubt, of the heaven-sent grace that made possible Steven McDonald</span><span>’s</span> <span>forgiveness mission on earth.</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>In fact, Steven’s life lesson of forgiveness is without question a magnified moment of a specific part of the Lord’s Prayer. So let us review this prayer in detail and in context. In doing so, we can see clearly how Jesus’ teaching forms a template for Steven’s submission to His will, as found in the Lord’s Prayer.</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>Here’s the Lord</span><span>’</span><span>s Prayer taken from Matthew 6:9-13 (The Catholic Press, Inc. 1961 Bible):</span> <span>“In</span><span> </span><span>this manner therefore shall you pray:</span><span>”</span><span> </span></p>
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<p><b><span>“</span></b><b><span>Our Father</span></b><b><span>”</span></b> <span>-- Perhaps the most powerful two words in all Christianity because they set forth the</span><span> </span><span>irrevocable relationship between God Almighty and mankind as paternal, making ALL mankind siblings,</span><span> </span><span>brothers and sisters ALL to one another before Him,</span> <span>“</span><span>Our Father,</span><span>”</span> <span>meaning, when we open our eyes in</span><span> </span><span>the morning and shut them before sleep, we know because of these two words each and every person</span><span> </span><span>we encounter are to be viewed, looked at and treated as our sibling, before the Lord God, our common</span><span> </span><span>Creator, our Father. How neatly does this language fit in America</span><span>’</span><span>s Constitution? Should we surmise as</span><span> </span><span>Americans, our forefathers meant to reference</span> <span>“</span><span>our Creator</span><span>”</span> <span>for this very purpose? It sure seems so.</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>When you hear</span> <span>“</span><span>Our Father</span><span>”</span> <span>imagine the</span> <span>“O”</span> <span>is the earth as viewed from space and every human life form on it, our sisters and brothers.</span></p>
<p><em>Photo above: Lord's Prayer from the 1845 illuminated book of The Sermon on the Mount, designed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Jones_(architect)" title="Owen Jones (architect)">Owen Jones</a>. Wikimedia Commons</em></p>
<p><b><span>“</span></b><b><span>Who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.</span></b><b><span>”</span></b> <span>-- God is so great, earth cannot hold Him, for he is beyond all the earth. God is cosmic -- as is His Son for both existed before time, an invention of man</span><span>’</span><span>s. And God</span><span>’s</span> <span>name is holy, requiring the ultimate reverence from mankind because as mankind looks around and surveys his / her surrounding he / she realizes one thing; we made none of the universe we inhabit, it has all been created well before us and totally without us, therefore make holy the name of our Creator for we are dust, we are nothing without Him.</span></p>
<p><b><span>“</span></b><b><span>Thy kingdom come</span></b><b><span>”</span></b> <span>-- God wants heaven, His kingdom, to come to mankind. God wants to share</span><span> </span><span>paradise with mankind -- an incredible invitation! We learn more with the next sentence.</span><span> </span></p>
<p><b><span>“</span></b><b><span>Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.</span></b><b><span>”</span></b> <span>-- With reflective prayer, a</span> <span>“</span><span>faith imagination</span><span>”</span> <span>and help</span><span> </span><span>from the Holy Spirit in reading the Gospel, we recognize it is precisely God</span><span>’</span><span>s will that lovingly takes place</span><span> </span><span>…</span> <span>between our ears. That is, our very thoughts are centered on doing His heavenly will as we are here on earth. Think not as this line being something outside us like a temple, church, cathedral, city or nation for</span><span> </span><span>none of these, by themselves, are places that commit sin without first occupying mankind within them.</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>Will God ask you before the pearly gates,</span> <span>“</span><span>What did you do to help America, Israel or Paris?</span><span>” or</span><span> </span><span>rather,</span> <span>“</span><span>Did you love? Show me how.</span><span>”</span> <span>So, when reciting these words of the Lord</span><span>’</span><span>s Prayer, think,</span> <span>“</span><span>Is His will being carried out by me, in my thoughts, in my deeds, here on earth?</span><span>”</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>All the above lines from our Lord</span><span>’</span><span>s Prayer explicitly (overtly) reference the Father, our Creator, the great</span> <span>“I AM,”</span> <span>Yahweh. We see the time of creation, the Almighty’s participation in human history and the prophets as the first order of time, the Lord God</span><span>’s</span> <span>time.</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>The next line of the Lord</span><span>’</span><span>s Prayer is explicitly Jesus Christ</span><span>’</span><span>s, the second person of the blessed Trinity:</span><span> </span></p>
<p><b><span>“</span></b><b><span>Give us this day our daily bread.</span></b><b><span>”</span></b> <span>-- An astounding, sublime reference to the Father</span><span>’</span><span>s only begotten</span><span> </span><span>Son, Jesus who subtly references the</span> <span>“</span><span>new and eternal covenant</span><span>”</span> <span>and his words in John 6:35 (</span><span>“</span><span>I am the</span><span> </span><span>bread of life.</span><span>”</span><span>) perfectly confirm this meaning:</span> <span>“</span><span>I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go</span><span> </span><span>hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.</span><span>”</span> <span>Jesus, Himself, is our daily bread. Do not</span><span> </span><span>confuse Jesus</span><span>’</span><span>s bread with the bread of the world or earning a living. While these are surely good things, they are not and can never be</span> <span>“</span><span>the thing</span><span>”</span> <span>Jesus came here for, namely, to forgive sins, heal the sick, have mankind do His Father</span><span>’</span><span>s will on earth and conquer death. Jesus did not come to get us a job -- and He</span><span> </span><span>puts this in perspective for us, not ignoring the (secondary) importance of earning a living. See passage</span><span> </span><span>Matthew 6:31-33:</span> <span>“</span><span>So do not worry saying,</span> <span>‘</span><span>What shall we eat?</span><span>’ or ‘</span><span>What shall we drink?</span><span>’ or ‘</span><span>What shall</span><span> </span><span>we wear?</span><span>’</span> <span>For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added you as well.</span><span>”</span><span> </span></p>
<p><em>Photo right is of an early third century depiction of Eucharistic bread and fish, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Callisto" title="San Callisto">Catacomb of San Callisto</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome" title="Rome">Rome</a>. Wikimedia Commons.</em></p>
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<p><span>Let Jesus, the bread of life, be our first thought, our first priority, and the God of creation will make sure all the other things we need shall come to you as well, afterward. How perfectly humble, meek and prophetically</span> <span>“silent”</span> <span>is this line of the Lord</span><span>’</span><span>s Prayer referring to Jesus.</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>Referencing the above, we see the time of the Word made flesh that dwelt among us on earth as the second order of time, the, very brief, Lord Jesus Christ</span><span>’</span><span>s time.</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>“</span><b><span>And forgive us our debts; as we also forgive our debtors.</span></b> <span>”</span> <span>(Matthew 6:12) So how do we reconcile</span><span> </span><span>this line in the Lord</span><span>’</span><span>s Prayer with:</span> <span>“</span><span>God alone forgives sins</span><span>”</span><span>? (The answer is simpler than you might</span><span> </span><span>suspect for it comes from our being created in God</span><span>’</span><span>s image and likeness.) In this manner, man and</span><span> </span><span>woman alike are able to forgive those sins committed against them respectively, that is, those sins</span><span> </span><span>specific to us, the created, are forgivable because we share God</span><span>’</span><span>s image and likeness. Jesus conveyed</span><span> </span><span>the forgiveness of sins to His apostolic church, creating and instituting the sacrament of penance. And</span><span> </span><span>further, per the Lord</span><span>’</span><span>s Prayer, Jesus compels us to individually forgive others that He would forgive us our own trespasses. Here is the very line and thought in the Lord</span><span>’</span><span>s Prayer that Steve McDonald, with the good Lord</span><span>’</span><span>s grace, lived, prayed, acted, personified and professed to multitudes until his passing. The same grace comes to all saved souls, the grace our Blessed Mother received at conception (</span><span>“</span><span>I am the Immaculate Conception.</span><span>”</span><span>) * Amazingly recognized by the Archangel Gabriel, this grace was Elijah</span><span>’s</span><span> </span><span>“</span><span>whispering wind</span><span>” or “</span><span>small voice</span><span>”</span> <span>(1 Kings 19:12) that filled the sails of this former</span> <span>Navy man’</span><span>s boat.</span><span> </span></p>
<p><b><span>“</span></b><b><span>And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.</span></b><b><span>”</span></b> <span>The Holy Spirit</span><span>’</span><span>s protection.</span> <span>“</span><span>It is better</span><span> </span><span>for you that I go.</span><span>”</span> <span>Jesus at the Ascension. Let us not second guess the Son of Man</span><span>’</span><span>s words here. Who,</span><span> </span><span>but the Holy Spirit, breathing the will of the Father and the Son into our lungs, shall lead us not into</span><span> </span><span>temptation and deliver us from evil!</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313632870?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313632870?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-left"/></a>These last two lines of the Lord</span><span>’</span><span>s Prayer, the time of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate</span><span>’</span><span>s time, are the third order of time, the time following Christ</span><span>’</span><span>s Ascension, the descent of the Holy Spirit and</span> <span>our time now</span> <span>**.</span><span> </span></p>
<p><b><span>Matthew 6: 9-13 –</span></b> <span>Above,</span> <span>The Lord’s Prayer.</span><span> </span></p>
<p><b><span>Matthew 6: 14-15</span></b> <span>-- At the conclusion of the Lord</span><span>’</span><span>s Prayer, Jesus revisits the penultimate line, Matthew</span><span> </span><span>6:12, (“</span><span>And forgive us our debts; as we also forgive our debtors.</span><span>”) of</span><span>fering additional guidance on the</span><span> </span><span>meaning this particular part of the prayer has for our own forgiveness:</span> <b><span>“</span></b><b><span>For if you forgive men their</span></b><span> </span><b><span>offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you your offenses. But if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offenses.</span></b><b><span>”</span></b> <span>Our time now, the time of the Advocate, requires forgiveness for our salvation. This extra explanation and emphasis to the Lord</span><span>’</span><span>s Prayer by Jesus is why Steve</span> <span>McDonald’</span><span>s life</span><span>’</span><span>s messages are so profound today. Is it, in fact, possible the McDonald-Jones angel has been embedded in Our Lady of Guadalupe to be deciphered and hence open the door for a rebirth of America -- and the world?</span><span> </span></p>
<p><em>Above: Jesus' ascension to Heaven depicted by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Singleton_Copley" title="John Singleton Copley">John Singleton Copley</a> in Ascension (1775). Wikimedia Commons.</em></p>
<p><span>*St. Maximilian Kolbe - “</span><span>Mary is the created Immaculate Conception and the Holy Spirit is the uncreated</span><span> </span><span>Immaculate Conception.</span><span>”</span> <span>See Lourdes, St. Bernadette, Blessed Mary,</span> <span>“</span><span>I am the Immaculate Conception.</span><span>”</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>** “</span><span>But I speak the truth to you; it is expedient for you that I depart. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not</span><span> </span><span>come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.</span><span>” (John 16:7)</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313636070?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313636070?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-left"/></a></span></p>
<p><span>We briefly turn our focus to the miraculous appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe, on December 12th, 1531, to an Aztec peasant, Juan Diego. The Blessed Mother came to a foothill just outside Mexico City</span> <span>as a</span> <span>divine and cosmic evangelical, leaving a painting or divinely made</span> <span>“</span><span>calling card</span><span>”</span> <span>imprinted on Juan Diego’s shirt, known as a “tilma") to compel the local bishop (</span><span>Juan de Zumárraga</span><span>, from Spain) to build a chapel at a designated</span> <span>site in her son Jesus</span><span>’</span> <span>name in an effort to help with revealing Himself and converting pagan Aztecs to His Church</span><span>.</span><span> </span></p>
<p><em>Right, a painting depicting Juan Diego by 18th century artist Miguel Cabrera. Wikimedia Commons</em></p>
<p><span>While there are many miracles and scientifically unexplained facts associated with Juan Diego</span><span>’</span><span>s tilma (</span><span>shirt made of</span> <span>coarse</span> <span>cactus fiber)</span> <span>let us recognize several highlighted miracles and how Steven McDonald may very well be part of an ongoing revelation and timely message to us now</span><span>: </span></p>
<p>* Fabric’s condition -- scientifically unexplained. The fabric, now 492 years old, should have naturally disintegrated 450 years ago though it, supernaturally, remains in pristine condition today. </p>
<p>* Painting lacks under-sketching -- artistically unexplained. Unheard of for any man-made painting before, during or after this era. </p>
<p>* Mass conversion -- Sociologically unexplained. 9 million Aztecs converted to Catholicism over eight years because of the impact of the tilma’s resonating hieroglyphics. (This followed 10 prior years of anemic, stubborn, lackluster conversion of the Aztecs by the conquering Spaniard missionaries.) </p>
<p>* Reflections in the eyes of Our Lady of Guadalupe -- Scientifically and artistically unexplained. Discovered in the 20th century, the image presents what ophthalmologists refer to as the “Purkyne-Sanson effect.” This “recent” revelation opened the door to contemplate additional messages today. </p>
<p>* The angel beneath the Blessed Mother, bearing certain earthly attributes, is holding the bottom of Mary’s star-imprinted cloak in the angel's right hand, while the angel’s left hand holds the bottom of the flower-imprinted dress.</p>
<p><em>Below, image of Our Lady of Guadalupe as shown on the mantle (tilma) of Juan Diego. </em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313639680?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313639680?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="350" class="align-right"/></a>It is this angel, largely ignored, that has now compelled the author to make the case for Steven</em><span> </span><span>McDonald’</span><span>s angelic representation here. The tilma, it seems, still speaks to its faithful, and now,</span><span> </span><span>symbolically, speaks to America -- and the world. The time has come today to discern the symbolism of</span><span> </span><span>the</span> <span>“</span><span>Perfect Virgin: Our Lady of Guadalupe</span><span>”</span> <span>and the tilma</span><span>’</span><span>s message to America given by an Irish-</span><span>American New York City cop in service to the Lord. To that end, follow along:</span><span> </span></p>
<p>A List of “Angel Assertions” Discernible in the Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe: </p>
<p>1. Red, white and blue angel’s wings are overtly American.</p>
<p>2. Angel shows no legs, nothing below the waist symbolizes, partially, Steve McDonald’s paralysis.</p>
<p>3. Tilma’s seam avoids Our Lady of Guadalupe’s face and hands, but passes through the angel’s head, symbolizing DMS’s head injury from the Central Park shooting, on July 12, 1986. </p>
<p>4. Receding hairline of the angel, that of a middle-aged man.</p>
<p>5. Face of angel and cleft chin -- similar in shape to Steven McDonald’s.</p>
<p>6. Hair of angel -- black and curly -- represents the forgiven shooter, Shavod Jones.</p>
<p>7. Combined -- The angel represents the forgiver and the forgiven and is an amalgam of Steven McDonald and Shavod Jones, together, who Steven has stated in his own words, “We have helped many people, the two of us.” </p>
<p>8. Angel’s right hand (left side of tilma) is on the Blue (Sea) and Gold (Navy) portion of the tilma, that is, the Our Lady of Guadalupe cloak -- the colors represent the ocean (sea) (for U.S. Navy) and the Blue has stars, which ships use for navigation at night.</p>
<p>9. Angel’s left hand (right side of tilma), on the Red-Brown (Land) and Gold (NYPD) portion of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s dress, depicts Steven McDonald’s work on land -- a beat cop working in New York City’s Central Park.</p>
<p>10. Note the tilma’s seam and the angel’s head are on the Land / NYPD side of the cloak - as Steven’s injury occurred while serving as a police officer. As Americans read from left to right, we read “Navy” then “NYPD” on the angel’s hands in keeping with the chronology of Steven’s professional life. </p>
<p>11. The angel has a badge or large button on the collar. What angel would need such an item? Is it for predetermined earthly origins, speaking to us today? Buttoned uniforms are used in both the Navy and NYPD. </p>
<p>12. A black crescent moon beneath Our Lady of Guadalupe’s feet is just above the angel’s head. The evening of DSM’s shooting, July 12th, 1986, the moon’s phase was a perfect waxing crescent.</p>
<p>13. Our Lady of Guadalupe asked to “build a chapel” -- Steven McDonald preferred chapels for prayer.</p>
<p>14. Steven McDonald dies at 59 years old. The rosary has 59 beads. The confounding number and nature of rosary beads now makes perfect sense for this generation and generations to come.</p>
<p><span>If taken in the context of the grace that was Steven</span><span>’</span><span>s life and his use of the rosary, our Blessed Mother</span><span>’s</span><span> </span><span>obedience to the Lord God, Lord Jesus and Lord Holy Spirit work in our lives for the</span><span> </span><span>forgiveness of sins, healing the sick and conquering death -- Jesus</span><span>’</span><span>s raison d</span><span>’</span><span>etre (divine purpose).</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>An article dated July 23, 2021, written by David Gordon, is titled</span> <span>“</span><span>The Redemption of Chess Legend Bobby</span><span> </span><span>Fischer.” Gordon</span><span> acknowledges Fischer</span><span>’</span><span>s age of 64 years as a</span> <span>“god</span><span>-</span><span>wink</span><span>”</span> <span>when he died --</span> <span>“a</span><span> </span><span>year for every square on the chessboard.”</span> <span>Has Steven’</span><span>s time of 59 years on earth been a heaven-</span><span>sent</span> <span>“god</span><span>-</span><span>wink</span><span>” for us to recognize and consider living a prayerful life of forgiveness that includes</span><span> </span><span>the rosary? See also Squire Rushnell</span><span>’s, “</span><span>When God Winks at You.</span><span>” 59</span> <span>years, 59 beads.</span><span> </span></p>
<p>15. Angel’s gold wrist bands -- The uniforms of the Navy have gold wrist-piping and NYPD formal uniforms include gold buttons and gold-bordered patches. The angel’s hands touch the gold piping to both Our Lady of Guadalupe’s cloak and dress. </p>
<p>16. The angel’s red shirt -- The color represents that of the sacred heart of Jesus of His body and His blood in the Eucharist. Seeing how the color runs dark red at the shirt’s bottom and lightens to approach white at the tops of the arms and shoulders, might this be an apocalyptic reference to Revelation 7:13-14, those who wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb?</p>
<p>17. The child-papoose -- The form at the bottom of Our Lady of Guadalupe is that of an infant face down in the crescent moon. Might this be a symbol of modern-day child sacrifice of abortion up to the moment of birth in the Americas? Steven McDonald was a pro-life advocate.</p>
<p>18. Symbols yet unseen. Likely, there are more symbols yet to be discovered as history has proven, study discerns, and more information becomes available. </p>
<p><b><span>T</span></b><b><span>hree</span></b> <b><span>Angelic Takeaways:</span></b> <span> </span><span> </span></p>
<p>1. In Jesus’s name, forgive others who have trespassed against you,</p>
<p>2. Stay close to the Gospel and the sacraments and</p>
<p>3. Pray the rosary. These are the legacies of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Angel as revealed by Detective Steven McDonald and Shavod Jones, the forgiver and the forgiven, respectively.</p>
<p><b><span>Reflections and the Road to Sainthood:</span></b><span> </span></p>
<p><span>I have a personal experience with Our Lady of Guadalupe’s influence, leading to my membership in the Detective Steven McDonald Prayer Group. These have helped me to see, with destined</span><span> </span><span>eyes, the timely message our Blessed Mother has sent us all -- at none too soon a time in our nation</span><span>’s</span><span> </span><span>history. </span></p>
<p><span>We reflect on the relevant Gospel words,</span> <span>“</span><span>Now is the time.</span><span>”</span> <span>(2 Corinthians 6:2) for now is the time</span><span> </span><span>to forgive and now is the time to live, to live life to the full (John 10:10).</span><span> </span></p>
<p><b><span>Author’s Note:</span></b> <span> </span></p>
<p><span>Pareidolia is defined as t</span><span>he tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimuli, usually visual, so that one sees objects, patterns or meaning where there is none. Common examples are perceived images of animals, faces or objects in cloud formations, seeing faces in inanimate objects, or</span> <span>lunar pareidolia like</span> <span>“the Man in the Moon”. While seeing the potential of single observances to lend themselves to subjective inference, taken together a compelling case crystalizes when interpreting the Our Lady of Guadalupe</span><span>’</span><span>s angel with the lives of Steven McDonald and Shavod Jones. Further, the tilma itself falls outside the definition of</span> <span>“pareidolia”</span> <span>as the specific symbols are anything but</span> <span>“</span><span>nebulous stimuli.</span><span>”</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>The Catholic Church rightly imposes stringent standards and strict reviews when confirming at least two</span><span> </span><span>miracles attributed to the intercession of any Servant of God before canonization. Given Detective Steven McDonald</span> <span>and Shaved Jones’s</span> <span>prophetic</span> <span>symbolism in the Our Lady of Guadalupe</span><span>’</span><span>s tilma and the Holy Spirit</span><span>’</span><span>s abundant blessings, my guess is the Church will soon be reviewing anywhere between 2 and 200,000 such miracles.</span> <b><span>DMcL</span></b><span> </span></p>
<p><b><span>Related Resources:</span></b><span> </span></p>
<p><span>* Freed Shooter of Policeman Dies in Crash (</span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/11/nyregion/freed-shooter-of-policeman-dies-in-crash.html"><span>New York Times, Sep. 11, 1995</span></a><span>)</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>* Juan de Zumárraga (</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_de_Zum%C3%A1rraga"><span>Wikipedia</span></a><span>)</span><span> </span></p>The Daughters of Count General Arthur Dillontag:thewildgeese.irish,2023-10-07:6442157:BlogPost:3072392023-10-07T01:30:00.000ZJoe Gannonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JoeGannon
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12243634461?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-left" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12243634461?profile=RESIZE_710x" style="padding: 10px;" width="200"></img></a> <strong><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/semper-et-ubique-fidelis-the-dillons-and-the-irish-brigade-of-fra" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">A</span>rthur Dillon had quite an incredible</a>, if short, life</strong> as an officer in the Irish Brigade of France and later victim of the "Reign of Terror.". He also…</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12243634461?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12243634461?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="200" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a><strong><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/semper-et-ubique-fidelis-the-dillons-and-the-irish-brigade-of-fra" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">A</span>rthur Dillon had quite an incredible</a>, if short, life</strong> as an officer in the Irish Brigade of France and later victim of the "Reign of Terror.". He also had two daughters that lived rather extraordinary lives as well. His daughter, Henriette-Lucy (left), from his first marriage, married French soldier and diplomat Frederic-Séraphin, comte de Gouvernet, later Marquise de La Tour du Pin. He commanded the 43rd infantry regiment of the line and then was aide du camp to the Marquis de Lafayette. Her mother had been a lady-in-waiting and good friend of Queen Marie Antionette. Her mother suffered an untimely death of tuberculosis at just 31 in 1782. Henriette also became a lady-in-waiting to the queen.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: Frederic-Séraphin, comte de Gouvernet)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12243706895?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12243706895?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="200" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Being closely aligned with the King or Queen was dangerous for any French citizen after the start of the “Reign of Terror.” Frederic and Henriette barely escaped France with their heads during the “Reign of Terror.” Séraphin’s father, like Henriette’s, was guillotined. After exile in America, they returned to France in 1796.</p>
<p>Frederic was able to return to his diplomatic career after Napoleon came to power in 1799. Henriette wrote a famous memoir of the monumental events she witnessed called “Journal d’une femme de 50 ans.” It wasn’t published until 1906. Her husband died in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1837. Henriette, she moved to Italy, where she died in Pisa in 1853.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: Countess Françoise-Elisabeth Bertrand, Fanny Dillon)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12243708094?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12243708094?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="200" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Arthur had a daughter from his 2<sup>nd</sup> marriage, Élisabeth Françoise, known as Fanny, who also had a fascinating history. Her mother’s cousin was Rose Tascher de La Pagerie, later to be Empress Josephine. After the death of her father, Fanny and her mother were living in England in 1802 when Josephine, two years away from being the Empress, invited them to France.</p>
<p>In 1805, Fanny met General Henri Tatien Bertrand, Emperor Napoleon’s aide-de-camp, who became Fanny’s chief suitor. She showed that she had inherited some of her father’s courage when Napoleon related to Bertrand’s marriage proposal, and she refused it. She told the Emperor that she intended to marry Prince Alfonso Pignatelli d’Aragona. Sadly, however, the prince soon died of tuberculosis.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: General Henri Tatien Bertrand)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12243708667?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12243708667?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="200" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>The prince asked her to marry her on his deathbed so that she might inherit his fortune, but the young woman showed tremendous integrity by refusing. She thought it unfair to his family. With the prince gone, Napoleon would no longer countenance any refusal of Bertrand’s proposal. A young woman could only refuse an Emperor for so long, so they were married. In the end, the marriage was a successful one. Bertrand later called Fanny ‘My Fiery Creole’.</p>
<p>Bertrand and Fanny followed Napoleon into exile at Elba in 1814 with their three children. It was Fanny who informed Napoleon of the death of Josephine in May 1814 at Elba. After enduring that first exile, the "Fiery Creole" was not happy about them going into exile with him again at St. Helena in 1815. It was said that she threatened to throw herself overboard during the boat trip there. Fanny had a son named Arthur, after her father, while living on St. Helena. This son was said to be a great favorite of the aging Emperor in his last years. Fanny was in the room when Napoleon passed away on May 5, 1821. Fanny died at just fifty in her château de Laleuf, in St-Maur, outside Cháteauroux, in 1836.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>RELATED LINKS:</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/semper-et-ubique-fidelis-the-dillons-and-the-irish-brigade-of-fra" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Semper Et Ubique Fidelis: The Dillons and the Irish Brigade of France</a></p>Corkman Stephen Moylan: The Man Who First Wrote 'United States of America'tag:thewildgeese.irish,2023-12-11:6442157:BlogPost:3074402023-12-11T00:30:00.000ZJoe Gannonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JoeGannon
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312370053?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312370053?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="670"></img></a></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">I</span>n the late 18th century, the Irish in America were some of the most ardent</strong> and loyal supporters of the cause of American independence from British rule. Recent scholarship has put the participation of the Irish and Scots-Irish in Washington’s Army at 40% and possibly more. A few of those…</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312370053?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312370053?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="670" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">I</span>n the late 18th century, the Irish in America were some of the most ardent</strong> and loyal supporters of the cause of American independence from British rule. Recent scholarship has put the participation of the Irish and Scots-Irish in Washington’s Army at 40% and possibly more. A few of those Irishmen are fairly well known, such as Dublin-born <a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/an-irish-american-of-renown-general-richard-montgomery">General Richard Montgomery</a>, who was killed during the assault on Quebec; County Wexford native <a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/commodore-john-barry-day-13th-september">Commodore John Barry</a>, considered to be the “Father of the U.S. Navy” by some; Corkman <a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-o-sullivan-beare-clan-taking-the-fight-to-america">General John Sullivan</a>, a delegate to the 1<sup>st</sup> Continental Congress from New Hampshire and one Washington’s better generals; and more recently, thanks to the Broadway show, “Hamilton,” the spy <a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/hercules-mulligan-washington-s-man-in-new-york">Hercules Mulligan</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312407069?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312407069?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="300" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Geroge Washington’s adopted son, George Washington Park Custis, placed the significant Irish contribution to the <a href="https://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/niallodowd/american-revolution-irelands-first-victory">American Revolution </a>in a proper historical perspective:</p>
<p>“When our friendless standard was first unfurled for resistance, who were strangers [foreigners] that first mustered ’round its staff when it reeled in the fight, who more bravely sustained it than Erin’s generous sons? Who led the assault on Quebec [General Montgomery] and shed early luster on our arms, in the dawn of our revolution? Who led the right wing of Liberty’s forlorn hope [General Sullivan] at the passage of the Delaware [just before the attack on Trenton]? Who felt the privations of the camp, the fate of battle, or the horrors of the prison ship more keenly than the Irish? Washington loved them, for they were the companions of his toil, his perils, his glories, in the deliverance of his country.”</p>
<p>An Irish-born officer who was very prominent at the time but whose contributions to the cause have been obscured over time was another Corkman, Stephen Moylan. Moyland was born in 1737, probably in the Shandon section of northern Cork City. His family was one of the wealthiest Irish Catholic families in Cork. His father, John, known locally as “Seán na Long” (“John of the ships”), was a successful merchant, and his mother’s family, Mary Doran, was as well. As many such Catholic families in Ireland did during the Penal Law days of the 18<sup>th</sup> century, they sent Stephen and his brothers to France to be educated in Jesuit schools.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312438468?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312438468?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="250" class="align-right"/></a>Stephen’s older brother, Francis (right), would be ordained in France and serve as a priest there for several years. He eventually returned to Cork and rose to be bishop. He became one of the most prominent members of the Irish clergy. Stephen also had two half-sisters who became Ursuline nuns.</p>
<p>Stephen Moylan had two younger brothers and a younger half-brother who would also assist the United States in winning its independence. James Moylan significantly contributed to the storied career of the famous John Paul Jones. James was born in 1741; by 1771, he had joined Stephen in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania, founded on the principle of religious freedom by William Penn, offered Catholics a fair chance to succeed in commerce. St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in the city, founded in 1733, was one of the first Catholic churches in the colonies.</p>
<p>Near the beginning of the war, James went to France, where he partnered with a French merchant named Gourlade. James was made the U.S. commercial agent in L’Orient and got involved in acquiring ships for the fledgling U.S. Navy.</p>
<p>In late 1778, James helped obtain a ship called “Duras” for <a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/john-paul-jones-and-the-irish-marines-1">Captain John Paul Jones</a>. He realized the ship’s condition was not optimal, telling Jones, “I cannot recommend her to you for a lasting ship.” Jones was ready to do his best with whatever he could get. “She must be ours,” was his reply. The American representatives in France had little money, so France’s King Louis XVI paid to turn Duras into a 42-gun warship.</p>
<p>Duras would be renamed “Bonne Homme Richard” in honor of Benjamin Franklin. Moylan’s estimate of the ship proved correct, as the ship would not survive its first engagement. Despite that, it was aboard that ship that Jones would win lasting fame in his “I have not yet begun to fight” victory over HMS Serapis at the Battle of Flamborough Head on Aug 14, 1779. Jones’ ship sank after the British surrendered, and he sailed back to France in the Serapis. One of the keys to his victory also had an Irish connection. The <a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/john-paul-jones-and-the-irish-marines-1">Marines on Jones’ ship</a> were members of Walsh’s regiment of the <a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/for-faith-and-fame-and-honour-the-irish-brigade-in-the-service-3">Irish Brigade of France</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: John Adams reviews Jones' Irish Marines, 13 May 1779 by Charles H. Waterhouse.)</strong></span><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312449500?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312449500?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="650" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p>James also negotiated a treaty allowing the new nation to sell tobacco to the French. This helped provide much-needed cash to finance the war. He never returned to the U.S., dying young in L’Orient in 1784.</p>
<p>Irish merchant families in the 18<sup>th</sup> century often sent their sons to establish business branches in other European cities. Around 1765, Stephen set up a branch of the family business in Lisbon, Portugal, along with cousin David Moylan. Another of Stephen’s younger brothers, John, was sent to Cadiz, Spain. In 1768, Stephen moved on to Philadelphia to set up another merchant venture there. In 1781, John also came to Philadelphia, perhaps to manage their business there while Stephen served in the war.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: Major John André)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312552479?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312552479?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="180" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>John would also contribute to winning the revolution when appointed the "clothier general" of Washington’s Army. Given the horrendous financial situation of the country at the time, one might call that a punishment rather than an honor, but John toiled mightily to help keep the troops clothed and shod. The neglect of his business interests left his finances depleted. Sometime after the war, he returned to Ireland and then to England, where he had to keep his U.S. government services a secret.</p>
<p>He died in Bath, England, in 1799. Interestingly, he felt so bad about the hanging of Major Andre, the British officer who assisted Benedict Arnold, that he left £500 to the Major’s brother in London as a “small measure of compensation for the wrong done him.”</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: Jaspar Moylan)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312555693?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312555693?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="180" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>The fourth brother to come to Philadelphia was Stephen’s half-brother, Jaspar, whose mother was elder John’s 2<sup>nd</sup> wife, Alicia Joyce. At the war’s end, he served as an ensign in a Pennsylvania militia unit. After the war, Jaspar had a long career as a lawyer in Philadelphia. He was one of the founders of the Insurance Company of North America, the first marine insurance company in the U.S. The company still exists now as the CIGNA insurance company.</p>
<p>Stephen, John, until he left, and Jasper were known around Philadelphia as the “three polite Irishmen.” It was a back-handed compliment that managed to insult the Irish as a race while simultaneously being a sign of the Moylan’s respect in the community.</p>
<p>Stephen was well-educated, well-spoken, a dynamic leader, and said to have a great sense of humor. French General Francois Jean De <a href="https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/author/chastellux-francois-jean">Chastellux,</a> author of “Travels in North America in the Years 1780, 1781 & 1782,” became well acquainted with Moylan in the later part of the war. He gave this impression of Moylan: “ … a very gallant and intelligent man, who had lived long in Europe, and who has traveled through the greatest part of America. I found him perfectly polite; for his politeness was not troublesome, and I soon conceived a great friendship for him.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: The emblem of Friendly Sons of St. Patrick)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312567062?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312567062?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="250" class="align-left"/></a>These qualities served him well in both business and society. The business Stephen set up in 1768 was quite successful. He was soon the owner or part owner of numerous ships. Stephen was well-received by Philadelphia society, despite being Irish and a papist. In 1770, he was invited to join the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club. He was also elected the first president of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, which he helped to found on St. Patrick’s Day in 1771. This was another indication of the esteem in which he was held, as most of the original members were Protestants. Later members included Commodore John Barry, Generals “Mad” Anthony Wayne, John Cadwalader, William Irvine, Richard Butler, and William Thompson. Members of the Friendly Sons contributed 35% of the funds Robert Morris used to establish the Bank of the U.S., helping to supply the Continental Army.</p>
<p>George Washington would be made an honorary member after the war. Of this honor, he said: “I accept with singular pleasure the Ensign of . . . a Society distinguished for the firm adherence of its members to the glorious cause in which we are embarked. Give me leave to assure you, Sir, that I shall never cast my eyes on the badge with which I am honored, but with a grateful remembrance of the polite and affectionate manner in which it was presented.”</p>
<p>By the time the 1<sup>st</sup> Continental Congress met, Moylan had become acquainted with many of the leading political figures during the lead-up to the rebellion. On Sept 24, 1774, John Adams recorded he “dined with Richard Penn ; a magnificent house and most splendid feast and a very large company; Mr. (john) Dickinson and General (Charles) Lee were there and Mr. Moylan, besides a great number of the Delegates.” The fact that he names Moylan and none of the other delegates is significant.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Col. Joseph Reed)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312573269?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312573269?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="250" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Moylan became a staunch supporter of independence. After the 2nd Continental Congress had their “Olive Branch” proposal rejected by King George III in August 1775, Moylan was all in for the permanent split with Great Britain. In January 1775, he wrote to his friend Lt. Colonel Joseph Reed of General Washington’s staff: “Shall we never leave off debating and boldly declare independence?”</p>
<p>At that point, Moylan was already serving in the Continental Army. Washington had appointed him Muster-Master General on August 11, 1775, on the recommendation of John Dickinson. It was a job involved with keeping track of the army’s strength, training, and equipment.</p>
<p>Furthermore, in October, he was authorized to hire ships and buy or borrow cannon to raid British supply vessels. Given the new nation’s lack of resources, this was a Herculean effort. Congress would not officially authorize the U.S. Navy until the 1790s, but the ships Moylan helped acquire could be considered the beginning of that navy.</p>
<p>On March 24, 1776, Moylan was appointed an aide-de-camp to Washington. With that came a promotion to Lieutenant Colonel. In June, Congress voted to appoint Moylan the 2<sup>nd</sup> Quartermaster General of the Army. He replaced his fellow Philadelphian, Thomas Mifflin, who resigned to take a combat command. The timing could not have been worse. The Army, still around Boston, was about to make its first significant change of position to defend New York City. To make it worse, Washington then decided to move a large part of the army to defend Brooklyn Heights on Long Island. With the British Navy having total control of the water, moving your army onto an island is a suspect strategy.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: A company of the Maryland Regiment crossing Gowanus Creek<br/></strong></span> <span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>during the retreat on Long Island, as painted by Don Troinai.)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312596693?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312596693?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>The disastrous American defeats at the Battle of Brooklyn Heights (Long Island) and Harlem Heights made Moylan’s supply effort nearly impossible. Washington barely extricated his army from Long Island by small boats with the seemingly divine intervention of heavy fog. There was no way to rescue most of the supplies and wagons they had moved to the island to support them. This greatly inhibited Moylan’s ability to supply the army in the following weeks. As is often the case after military disasters, the politicians looked for people to blame. One could easily make the case that Washington was mainly to blame for the supply disaster, not Moylan. In September, Moylan resigned as Quartermaster when it became clear that Congress would place most of the blame on him. Thomas Mifflin was once again given the unenviable position.</p>
<p>Though he thought his treatment by Congress was unfair, Moylan did not give up on his commitment to fight for America’s independence. As he wrote to Washington after the war, “I entered the service in the first year of the war, with a firm determination of prosecuting it to the end. I made up my mind, and my affairs for that purpose. I have shared its fatigues, its dangers and its pleasures with Your Excellency ever since — a man who has sacrificed everything for the service of his country.”</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: George Washington in 1776, as painted<br/> by Charles Willson Peale 1741-1827).</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312601494?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12312601494?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="250" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Washington had not lost his confidence in Moylan. Or perhaps he realized his own faulty strategy had made Moylan’s Quartermaster duties impossible. He took Moylan back on his staff. Moylan later wrote to Robert Morris of his exhilaration riding with Washington as the army pursued the defeated British following the Battle of Princeton on January 3, 1777. “The feeling when pursuing the flying enemy is unutterable .. inexpressible. I know I never felt so much like one of Homer’s Deities before. We trod on air. It was a glorious day.”</p>
<p>Now that the army was mobile and not just laying siege to the enemy in Boston, Washington had a desperate need for cavalry. A few days after Princeton, Moylan was commissioned Colonel of the newly formed 1<sup>st</sup> Pennsylvania Regiment of Cavalry, later renamed the 4<sup>th</sup> Continental Light Dragoons, but usually referred to as Moylan’s Dragoons. The term “regiment” is, in some ways, a misnomer here. In most instances, the U.S. Army has considered a regiment to consist of 1000 men. The dragoon “regiments” were actually closer to company size, i.e. 100 men. Moylan would spend the rest of the war in cavalry commands. Supply problems were not magically corrected under Thomas Mifflin or the others who followed him as Quartermaster during the war. Moylan’s unit was forced to wear red uniform coats captured from the British.</p>
<p>On May 12, 1777, Washington wrote to Moylan about the dangers of these uniforms. “I therefore desire that you will immediately fall upon means for having the colour of the Coats changed, which may be done by dipping into that kind of dye that is most proper to put upon Red. I care not what it is, so that the present Colour be changed.” Moylan had just the color in mind for his regiment’s coats. He had them dyed green. No one would doubt what regiment they were seeing after that.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313554871?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313554871?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Among the men serving in Moylan’s Dragoons were General Washington’s nephew, William Washington, and Zebulon Pike. Pike’s Peak in Colorado was named for his son, also Zebulon, who was killed in the War of 1812. The number of men involved in the dragoon regiments was never large enough to make them a force in any significant battles. Their main use was in scouting, gathering intelligence, and guarding the army’s flanks. These were vital contributions to the final victory but lacked the glory of large cavalry formations fighting in great battles.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Left: William Washington at the Battle of Cowpens.)</strong></span></p>
<p>In the 2<sup>nd</sup> half of 1777, Washington brought in Casimir Pulaski, a Polish nobleman with military experience in Europe, to help train his nascent mounted units. Pulaski was commissioned a general and given command of all the cavalry units. He had a rather imperious attitude and limited English skills. This led to much friction with his American subordinates, including Moylan. Pulaski had Moylan court-martialed after one dispute with him, but the court acquitted him. Pulaski resigned his cavalry command in March 1778 and organized his own unit, the Pulaski Cavalry Legion. He was mortally wounded while leading a cavalry charge in October 1779 during <a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/semper-et-ubique-fidelis-the-dillons-and-the-irish-brigade-of-fra">the siege of Savannah</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: Casimir Pulaski)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313554899?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313554899?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="250" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Moylan’s Dragoons shared the deprivations of the army in Valley Forge in the winter of 1777–78. Many were from Pennsylvania and used their area knowledge to guard the camp. When Pulaski resigned, Moylan was named overall commander of the cavalry corp, tiny as it was. Moylan’s men helped harass the retreating British returning to New York after the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778. They spent the rest of the year patrolling northern New Jersey and keeping an eye on British forces around New York.</p>
<p>Throughout the war, Moylan would struggle to keep his corps armed, clothed, and, crucially for cavalry, mounted. Horses were used up quickly by the strenuous work demanded of them. Cavalry units were much harder to keep supplied than infantry units. In addition to needing the normal arms and ammunition, there had to be a constant supply of new horses, saddles and other tack, and food for the horses in addition to food for the troopers.</p>
<p>The lack of timely pay was also a problem for Moylan’s command. In July 1777, nineteen of Captain Craig’s dragoons took the nearly fatal step of attempting to march on Congress in Philadelphia to get their pay. In August, they were court-martialed, convicted, and sentenced to hang. General Washington commuted the sentences and had them transferred to infantry regiments.’</p>
<p>Moylan commanded his regiment along with Sheldon’s 2nd Dragoons and French Colonel Armand’s Legion for most of the next three years. Operating mainly in New York and Connecticut, he set up a base in Pound Ridge, NY. The British actively raided along the Connecticut coast in the summer of 1779. On July 11, Moylan led the 4<sup>th</sup> Dragoons as they took part in the effort to oppose a large British raid on Norwalk, CT. They captured four British soldiers in that action.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313556069?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313556069?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-left"/></a>Moylan apparently had time for some personal pursuits during this time as well. The Middlebrook, New Jersey, home of former militia Colonel Col. Phillip Van Horne, became a frequent stop for American officers, including Moylan. With the various movements of the two armies around New Jersey, Van Horne would also sometimes host British officers. It was said that one day, he served breakfast to General Lincoln of the American army and lunch to British General Lord Cornwallis.</p>
<p>Van Horne had five daughters. In 1778 Moylan began to court one of them, Mary, who was known as the “Belle of Middlebrook.” They were engaged in July and married in October.</p>
<p>In 1780, there were only small engagements and raids going on as the Americans kept the British penned up in New York City. Moylans was involved in General Wayne’s failed attempt to capture a blockhouse at Bull’s Ferry, New Jersey, on July 20-21. Two days later, they participated in General Nathaniel Greene’s successful repulse of a 5,000-strong British force commanded by Hessian general Baron Wilhelm von Knyphausen at Springfield, New Jersey. This battle was the last significant engagement of the war in the northern theater.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: A trooper of Moylan's Dragoons, painted by Don Troiani.)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313557287?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313557287?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="350" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>In the summer of 1781, Moylan and his dragoons joined in the Yorktown campaign. They were sent to serve with the troops of Generals Lafayette and Wayne, who were desperate for cavalry help. Moylan was at Yorktown for the surrender of Cornwallis but then left for Philadelphia due to health problems. He was brevetted to the rank of Brigadier General as the war ended.</p>
<p>Moylan continued to be a good friend of General and then President Washington. In 1785, he and his wife visited the Washingtons at Mount Vernon. He wrote to him saying, “… sincere thanks for the polite attentions which Mrs. Moylan and myself received from you & your good Lady during our agreeable sojourn at Mount Vernon. You may be assured it will be long remembered with pleasure.”</p>
<p>Moylan resumed his merchant business in Philadelphia and bought a farm near West Chester, where the family resided. He and Mary had two children that lived to adulthood, Elizabeth and Maria, and two more that did not. Mary passed away in 1795.</p>
<p>In 1792-93, Moylan served as Chester County Recorder of Deeds. Governor Mifflin, his army comrade, appointed him Major General in the Pennsylvania militia in May 1793. He was also appointed Commissioner of Loans for the State of Pennsylvania by President Washington in December of that year. In 1796, he was reelected president of the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313563461?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313563461?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="300" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Stephen Moylan died at age 74 on April 11, 1811, after what was called a “lingering illness.” He was once again living in Philadelphia then and is buried there in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Mary%27s_Roman_Catholic_Church_(Philadelphia)">St. Mary’s Churchyard</a> on 4<sup>th</sup> Street. Unfortunately, the location of his gravesite within the cemetery has been lost, though a memorial has been placed in the cemetery. Another thing about Moylan that had been lost for years was recently discovered through historical research.</p>
<p>Historians have always been on the lookout for the first mention of the term “United States of America” in the colonial period. For many years, people thought the first public mention was June 1776, weeks before Jefferson enshrined it in the Declaration of Independence. At least two members of the 2<sup>nd</sup> Continental Congress used the term United States of America that June. One was Moylan’s friend, Pennsylvania delegate John Dickenson, and the other was Massachusetts delegate Elbridge Gerry. The anonymous writer Republicus, who may have been another member of Congress or possibly Thomas Paine, also used the term in a Philadelphia newspaper.</p>
<p>Then, researcher Byron DeLear found an earlier mention of the term in an anonymous, pro-independence essay by “A Planter.” It was published in the Williamsburg newspaper, the Virginia Gazette on April 6, 1776, but he continued to search.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313563498?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313563498?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="650" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p>In his latest research, Delear has found that the first known instance of the use of the United States of America was months earlier than that. It was in a letter discovered in the papers of Moylan’s friend, Joseph Reed. In a letter to Reed from Stephen Moylan dated January 2, 1776, when Moylan was hoping to be named ambassador to Spain, we see this: “I should like vastly to go with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain.”</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313563679?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313563679?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="250" class="align-right"/></a>Does this mean the name “United States of America” originated with Moylan and that it was then passed on by Reed and spread to others? There is no way to know. As far as is known, Moylan never made any claim to have invented the name. This letter was written while Moylan and Reed were both on Washington’s staff, and it could well be that the term was then commonly used among his staff and originated by someone else.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Right: Stephen Moylan in his later years.)</strong></span></p>
<p>Although born in Ireland, Stephen Moylan was as dedicated and patriotic an American as any then or since. He could have easily sat out the war in Philadelphia and probably made massive amounts of money transporting war-related supplies. A lesser man might have left the army after Congress blamed him for the supply disaster resulting from Washington’s imprudent decision to defend Long Island with the British controlling the sea around the island. But Moylan swallowed his pride, resigned as Quartermaster General, and continued to serve the nation. He then undertook another strenuous and often thankless task, helping provide Washington with a cavalry corp. His contributions to the birth of the United States deserve to be recognized more widely than they are. And it can be a source of pride for all who have Irish ancestry that an Irishman may have been the first person to put down on paper the words: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.</p>
<p><strong>BIBLIOGRAPHY:</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313651072?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12313651072?profile=original" width="250" class="align-right" id="img167691" name="img167691"/></a>Danaher, Kevin (Ó Danachair, Caoimhín) "General Stephen Moylan" The Irish Sword, Vol. 3 (1957-1958), p. 159</p>
<p>Griffin, Martin (1909) ”Stephen Moylan, Muster-Master General, Secretary and Aide-de-Camp to Washington, Quartermaster-General, Colonel of Fourth Pennsylvania Light Dragoons and Brigadier-General of the War for American Independence, the First and the Last President of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick of Philadelphia.” </p>
<p><span>Kuntz, Daniel J. (1999). </span><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofir0000unse/page/632">"Moylan, Stephen (1737–1811)"</a><span>. In Glazier, Michael (ed.). </span><i>The Encyclopedia of the Irish in America</i><span>. </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre_Dame,_Indiana" title="Notre Dame, Indiana">Notre Dame, IN</a><span>: </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Notre_Dame_Press" title="University of Notre Dame Press">University of Notre Dame Press</a><span>. p. </span><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofir0000unse/page/632">632</a></p>
<p><span class="a-size-base">Tucker, Phillip Thomas "</span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/How-Irish-Won-American-Revolution/dp/1510755675/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1D0YQA2UHJHI&keywords=how+the+irish+won+the+american+revolution&qid=1702241963&s=books&sprefix=how+the+irish+won+%2Cstripbooks%2C90&sr=1-1">How the Irish Won the American Revolution: The Forgotten Heroes of America's War of Independence</a>"</p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><b><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84698076?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84698076?profile=original" style="padding: 10px;" width="216"></img></a> (First published in December 2011)</b></p>
<p><b>Maura Mulligan</b> was first-born in a family of six siblings, children of farmers who ran the family farm in the rural village of Aghamore, County Mayo. After immigrating to the United States and working for telephone companies and even trying life in the convent, Maura took up memoir and fiction…</p>
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<p><b>Maura Mulligan</b> was first-born in a family of six siblings, children of farmers who ran the family farm in the rural village of Aghamore, County Mayo. After immigrating to the United States and working for telephone companies and even trying life in the convent, Maura took up memoir and fiction writing 10 years ago. <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span id="yui_3_2_0_1_13244799742191493" style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><span class="yiv485158809Apple-style-span" id="yui_3_2_0_1_13244799742191491" style="font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif;"><span class="yiv485158809Apple-style-span" id="yui_3_2_0_1_13244799742191490" style="line-height: 20px;">Her memoir "<i>Call of the Lark"</i> about her childhood in Ireland, immigration to America and her time spent in a convent is due</span></span></span> from Greenpoint Press in 2012. For this Christmas week, Maura took some time to talk with <b>TheWildGeese.com’s</b> <b>Dan Marrin</b> about memories of Christmas on the family farm.<br/> <br/> <b>TheWildGeese.com:</b> Tell me a bit about the farm on Aghamore.<br/> <br/> <b>Maura Mulligan:</b> There were several fields between [our farm] and the next house, two acres between one house and another. It could be very lonely if people were on their own, but when I was a child, people would visit each other in the long winter nights. We did not have television then, of course, or running water or electricity. Some people had a radio, but we did not. We did have a gramophone, though, so some people would come to our house to listen to songs. It was a whole different world.<br/> <br/> <b>WG:</b> I read a piece from <a href="http://garmedia.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c2de7d833977ba0b4852d9b81&id=7825d0e766&e=99d616c95b" rel="nofollow" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">IrishCentral.com</a> from 2009 where you talked about your childhood memories of Christmas in Ireland. What was Christmas like in your house?<br/> <br/> <b>Mulligan:</b> In that time — the 1940s when I was a child — we didn’t have much money, of course ... So … I don’t really remember getting any exciting gifts. You’d always get something small -- just something that was necessary, gloves, socks.<br/> You got in your stockings, maybe, an orange and a few sweets, a small toy or a pencil or something like that. Oranges were very unusual, because they only came around at Christmastime. If you got an orange in your stocking, it was a big deal.<br/> <br/> <b>WG:</b> You said in that Christmas piece that December 26, St. Stephen’s Day, was even more of a joy than December 25.<a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84698177?profile=original"><img class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84698177?profile=original" height="262" width="235"/></a><br/> <br/> <b>Mulligan:</b> Yes, absolutely because of the <a href="http://garmedia.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=c2de7d833977ba0b4852d9b81&id=34af7ed8ce&e=99d616c95b" rel="nofollow" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Wren Boys.</a> I remember most of all [when they came] the year of “the big snow,” the blizzard of 1947 — all you could see was this white wall on all sides of us. When the Wren Boys came, they’d come calling to every house in these bright colors. They were all dressed up with ribbons, and they disguised their faces and looked unrecognizable until they started singing and dancing. Then we’d start to guess who they were. They weren’t just boys either that did it -- they were called “boys” but there were plenty of girls who did it. Eventually, my sister and I joined them, as well.<br/> <br/> In my grandfather’s time, the wren was a bird that would be killed and carried on a holly branch around from house to house. He couldn’t tell me why they did it — it seemed pretty brutal, and that stopped eventually, thank goodness. But the practice of going around singing and dancing from house to house continued.<br/> <br/> Wren boys would come from different villages; sometimes they’d come from as far away as five miles. They’d start very early in the morning; you could hear their tin whistles in the distance. Then as they came closer, it got more and more exciting.<br/> <br/> <a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84698392?profile=original"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84698392?profile=original" width="262"/></a>When my mother would open the door to them, it was just the most exciting time. They came every year, but I remember that blizzard year most of<br/> all.<br/> <br/> <b>(Editor's Note: This illustration, titled "The Wren Boys," depicts the Christmas tradition of people processing with the bodies of<br/> wren birds attached to a bush. It is from the book "Ireland: Its Scenery and Character" by S.C. Hall; illustrations by Daniel Maclise, London: Jeremiah How, 1841)</b><br/> <br/> As a Wren “boy,” you’d spend days preparing what you’d wear, and then you got money or treats, depending on how good you were at singing and dancing, sort of like Halloween. Some musicians were quite accomplished and would get more: if you didn’t know how to play music, you’d take a comb and put a piece of newspaper against it and make a sound.<br/> <br/> <b>WG:</b> Almost like taking blades of grass between your fingers to make a whistle?<br/> <br/> <b>Mulligan:</b> The same idea.<br/> <br/> <b>WG:</b> What kind of songs would they have been? Traditional carols?<br/> <br/> <b>Mulligan:</b> The Wren people would sing whatever they’d like, not necessarily Christmas carols, but whatever they thought they were good at.<br/> <br/> <b>WG:</b> Church hymns?<br/> <br/> <b>Mulligan:</b> No, no, no one sang church hymns except in church. [laughs]<br/> <br/> Maura Mulligan’s memoir, <b><i>“Call of the Lark,”</i></b> will be published by <a href="http://garmedia.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c2de7d833977ba0b4852d9b81&id=f4b01d8e9c&e=99d616c95b" rel="nofollow" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Greenpoint Press</a> in the spring of 2012. More of Maura’s memories and writing is available on <a href="http://garmedia.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=c2de7d833977ba0b4852d9b81&id=f70ec83654&e=99d616c95b" rel="nofollow" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">her website.</a> <span style="color: green;"><b>WGT</b></span><br/> <br/> <b>Irish Minute,</b> from <b>TheWildGeese.com</b>, gives voice to individuals supporting any facet of the heritage of the Irish, worldwide. Contact us, via <a href="mailto:newsletter@thewildgeese.com" rel="nofollow" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">newsletter@TheWildGeese.com</a>, to suggest individuals to interview.<br/> <br/> <b>DAN MARRIN Is a New York-based correspondent and producer for TheWildGeese.com.</b></p>Cranberry Bread: A Seasonal Favorite!tag:thewildgeese.irish,2023-11-17:6442157:BlogPost:3075122023-11-17T19:30:00.000ZMargaret M. Johnsonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MargaretMJohnson
<p style="font-weight: 400;"></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12293640670?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-full" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12293640670?profile=RESIZE_710x"></img></a> <strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">C</span>ranberries take center stage this month in both sweet and savory dishes.</strong> One of my favorites is this quick bread, sweet enough for dessert but not-too-sweet for breakfast or afternoon tea. The versatile little berry is widely available in…</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12293640670?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12293640670?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">C</span>ranberries take center stage this month in both sweet and savory dishes.</strong> One of my favorites is this quick bread, sweet enough for dessert but not-too-sweet for breakfast or afternoon tea. The versatile little berry is widely available in markets now, so buy a few bags to use for Thanksgiving and a few to freeze for later. You’ll find other cranberry recipes in my latest cookbook <em>Festive Flavors of Ireland.</em> Order signed copies at irishcook.com</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>CRANBERRY-ORANGE NUT BREAD</strong></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Makes 1 loaf</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><span> </span> This November “standard” is delicious spread with softened butter or cream cheese. To coarsely chop the berries, pulse them in a food processor.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">2 cups flour</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">1 cup sugar</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">1 teaspoon salt</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">1/2 teaspoon baking soda</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">3/4 cup orange juice</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">1 tablespoon grated orange zest</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">2 tablespoons melted butter</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">1 large egg, beaten</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, roughly chopped</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">1/2 cup chopped pecans, roughly chopped</p>
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Coat a 9-inch loaf pan with no-stick baking spray.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Stir in the orange juice, zest, butter, and egg; mix until blended. Stir in cranberries and nuts. Transfer to prepared pan; smooth top. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Bake the bread for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove from pan; let cool completely. Wrap in plastic or foil. Store overnight for easier slicing.</li>
</ol>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12293640685?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12293640685?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a> </p>'The Florence Nightingale of The Army of Northern Virginia'tag:thewildgeese.irish,2020-08-18:6442157:BlogPost:2482022020-08-18T18:00:00.000ZLiam McAlisterhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/LiamMcAlister
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/7516814082?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-left" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/7516814082?profile=RESIZE_710x"></img></a></span></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">B</span>orn on November 12, 1819, in Dublin, Mary Sophia Hill was the daughter</strong> of a physician, who, along with her twin brother, Samuel, spent part of their early lives living in England.</p>
<p>By late 1850, both Mary and her brother were living in New Orleans where…</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/7516814082?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/7516814082?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-left"/></a></span></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">B</span>orn on November 12, 1819, in Dublin, Mary Sophia Hill was the daughter</strong> of a physician, who, along with her twin brother, Samuel, spent part of their early lives living in England.</p>
<p>By late 1850, both Mary and her brother were living in New Orleans where she earned a living (and had an excellent reputation) as a teacher of English, French, and music up <span class="text_exposed_show">until the outbreak of war in 1861. It was around this time that the siblings quarreled and Samuel, in a fit of pique, enlisted in Co. F, 6th Louisiana Infantry. Mary did all she could to have her brother discharged, as she felt that he was not cut out to be a soldier, but even a letter to the British Consul was to no avail and, so, Mary Hill went off to war to “keep an eye on her brother,” following the 6th to Virginia.</span></p>
<p>Here she found work in the field hospitals after the battle of 1st Manassas and the many other battles and skirmishes involving the 6th, throughout the Dominion State. Soon Mary was not only caring for her brother but all the members of the regiment that were wounded or became ill. Such was her dedication that her efforts were widely recognized by officers and privates alike in their reports and letters. During the Seven Days battles around Richmond, Mary was matron of the Louisiana hospital seen, by many, as an angel of mercy and subsequently became known as: “The Florence Nightingale of The Army of Northern Virginia.”</p>
<p>1863 saw Mary return to Ireland on family business, being allowed to leave through Union-occupied New Orleans by permission of the city’s provost marshal. However, while she was in Ireland, charges were brought against her that she was a Confederate spy, and Mary Hill was duly arrested and imprisoned in the Julia Street prison upon her return to New Orleans. The charges were carrying a forged letter to an unknown Confederate general and other letters for the enemy between the lines along with clothes and food. The last two charges, Mary acknowledged, as the letters, clothes, and food were all for her brother!! The other charge she fought, and during her trial, she questioned why she was arrested while there were, at least, three other ladies by the name of “Mary Hill” in New Orleans at the same time.</p>
<p>Mary was convicted and imprisoned for a number of months, suffering harsh treatment and cruelty before eventually being released when the British Consul pointed out that she was a British subject. Indeed after the War, Mary's health suffered badly due to her imprisonment and she was considered an invalid, so she brought an unsuccessful claim against the United States government for compensation.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/7516817896?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/7516817896?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-left"/></a>However she did spend time in the newly instituted hospital, a soldiers home for those veterans of the armies of Northern Virginia and Tennessee, rising to the post of matron, a position she took no pay for as it was yet to be on a firm financial footing.</p>
<p>She moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., where she lived with her nephew until her death from cancer Jan. 7, 1902.</p>
<p>Mary Sophia Hill stipulated that, upon death, she be buried in New Orleans, and when the train bearing her body arrived in that city, it was met by aging men in gray uniforms (her devoted brother, Samuel, was too ill to attend) who accompanied her to the city's Greenwood Cemetery, her final resting place.</p>
<p>In 2005, the President of the Louisiana Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy unveiled a granite grave marker to the Confederate nurse from across the ocean.</p>The Irish Survivor of Hiroshimatag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-07-27:6442157:BlogPost:1077212014-07-27T00:00:00.000ZJohn Edward Murphyhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JohnEdwardMurphy
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<p><span class="font-size-2">We’re marking the 75th anniversary of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima. And yes, an Irish national --- Julia Canny a.k.a. Sister Mary of Saint Isaac Jogues --- was present and survived. My story together with the accompanying photographs (reproduced below) appeared in the 11 August 1999 editions of two Irish newspapers:…</span></p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706611?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706611?profile=original" width="750" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2">We’re marking the 75th anniversary of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima. And yes, an Irish national --- Julia Canny a.k.a. Sister Mary of Saint Isaac Jogues --- was present and survived. My story together with the accompanying photographs (reproduced below) appeared in the 11 August 1999 editions of two Irish newspapers:</span> <span class="font-size-2">Western People<em>, a weekly newspaper, published in Ballina, County Mayo; and</em> The Connaught Telegraph<em>, published in Castlebar, County Mayo.</em></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2"><em>My reasons for writing the story will become evident when you read it.</em></span></p>
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<p><strong>“Sister Theresia was not feeling well on the morning of 6 August, 1945. She wanted to stay in bed and recuperate, but was encouraged to get up and to say her daily prayers. She was praying, reflecting, and meditating under a pine tree on the convent grounds when ...”</strong></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706655?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706655?profile=original" class="align-right" width="250"/></a>J</span>ulia Canny was born</strong> on 10 November, 1893 in the Townland of Upper Kilbeg near Clonbur, County Galway, Ireland. Julia emigrated to America in 1921. Ten years later, at the age of 38, Julia entered a convent of the Society of the Helpers of the Holy Souls in New York. In 1939 at the age of 46, Sister Mary of Saint Isaac Jogues, renamed after a French-Canadian Jesuit martyr, was posted to a convent in Hiroshima, Japan. Shortly after the outbreak of World War II in the Asia -- Pacific theater, she was briefly interned by the Japanese until they discovered she was a neutral (Irish citizen) alien. Julia returned to the convent in Hiroshima and survived the nuclear attack of 6 August 1945. She died in Tokyo on 1 November, 1987, nine days short of her 94th birthday.</p>
<p>I learned bits and pieces of the Julia Canny story, mostly from family conversations. I learned more on trips to Ireland, where I met Julia’s brother (Jack Canny), sister (Kate Canny Conway), and her nephew Stephen Canny (currently living in the family home in Upper Kilbeg).</p>
<p>Julia's story was best chronicled by Adrian Millar. Millar interviewed Julia in August 1985 in Tokyo. Millar’s account of the interview appeared in a Belfast newspaper, the <em>Andersontown News</em> in the late summer or fall of 1985. My late Aunt Kate (Catherine Canny Kemmy) gave me a photocopy of the <em>Andersontown News</em> article.</p>
<p>I always thought “What an unusual family story!”</p>
<p>My photocopy of the <em>Andersontown News</em> was very “fuzzy.” In October of 1998, I attempted to get a better copy by sending an E mail message to the webmaster of the <em>Andersontown News</em>. On 14 October, 1998, I received the following reply from Mairtin O Muilleoir (Martin Millar): “I am managing editor of the <em>Andersontown News</em> and a brother of Adrian. I will get you a better copy ...Good luck. Oiche mhaith.”</p>
<p>An interesting coincidence. I had made contact in cyberspace with Adrian Millar’s brother! Mairtin O Muilleoir did not get back to me immediately. Undoubtedly, because the events from the 1998 Good Friday accord took his time on the Belfast news beat. And, I was not able initially to give him a reasonably precise date of the article. (I am now reasonably certain that the article was published in August or September 1985.) Mairtin recently promised to renew his search. I’m still hopeful.</p>
<p>In the meantime, I simply retyped Adrian Millar’s account. While retyping I noticed the name of Julia’s religious community, the “Helpers of the Holy Souls.” I did a quick Internet search and got several “hits.” On 13 April, 1999, I sent a quick E Mail addressed to the Web Site for the Society of Helpers (of the Holy Souls), with an attached copy of the retyped article from the <em>Andersonstown News</em>. That evening, I got a nice reply from Sister Catherine Tighe, Superior of the Society’s house in Chicago, telling me that she would try to get more information from the Society’s archives and from the Society’s Mother House in Paris. Indeed she was more than effective.</p>
<p>But, the most interesting surprise or coincidence was the FAX message that I received on 19 April 1999 from Sister Theresia Yamada. Sister Theresia, a native of Tokyo, is the Treasurer of the Society of Helpers in Chicago. She was a 22‑year old novice in Hiroshima when Julia arrived in 1939. She knew Julia well, and was with Julia on 6 August, 1945.</p>
<p>My genealogical research together with Internet searches, resulted in an unusual ‑‑‑ to say the least ‑‑‑ series of coincidences on the Julia Canny story. (In another part of my life, I've been told that "a coincidence is God working anonymously." But ...)</p>
<p>So, these coincidences took me to Chicago during the weekend 14 ‑ 17 May, 1999 to visit Sister Theresia Yamada and other members of the Society of Helpers.</p>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>Chicago</strong></span></p>
<p>Upon arrival at Chicago’s Midway Airport, I rented an automobile and proceeded to the Society’s house in the Lincoln Park section. I met Sister Theresia almost immediately after arrival. I was very surprised to find that the Society provided me accommodations for the weekend, and I didn’t have to find my own lodging. Thanks Sisters, you sure took good care of me!</p>
<p>I next met Sister Mary Paul, a former newspaper reporter from Rhode Island. She speaks both Spanish (learned during her past assignment in Columbia), and French (native tongue of her Father). Sister Mary Paul was the Acting Superior of the House, because Sister Catherine Tighe was out of town. But, before her departure, Sister Catherine obtained some more information about Sister Isaac Jogues from the Society’s Mother House in Paris. Sister Mary Paul used her knowledge of French to provide an English translation of the documents. And, the Sisters also gave me a memorial card issued at the time of Sister Isaac Jogues' death, complete with her photo.</p>
<p>The Society also gave me a copy of the <em>Andersonstown News</em> article. An improved product over my 10th generation photocopy. A better copy would be most appreciated, so be a good fellow, Mairtin, and see what you can do!</p>
<p>Later in my visit, I met Sister Kieran McGee (originally from Scotland ‑‑‑ Irish parents), now 92 years, who remembers Sister Isaac Jogues when both were in the Society of Helpers house in New York.</p>
<p>Thanks Sisters !!! You really were great to me.</p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>Sister Theresia Yamada</strong></span></p>
<p>Sister Theresia is a delightful person. Eighty-one years old, and still working as the Convent’s Treasurer. And when she walks ‑‑‑ she sets a pace that tires me. She and I went sailing on a four masted ship on Lake Michigan. After we embarked from Chicago's Navy pier and cleared the breakwater, the Captain and crew, and some of us passengers hoisted all sails so that we were under full sail power. No mechanical or electrical engines ‑‑‑ just sail power. Really great! On Saturday and Sunday, I also did some bike riding on Chicago’s lovely trails ‑‑‑ 15 miles plus on two separate days.</p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>Interview With Sister Theresia Yamada</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706684?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="300" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706684?profile=RESIZE_320x320" class="align-right"/></a>Sisters Theresia (pictured at right) and Mary Paul and I had a delightful dinner on Saturday evening at a nearby Japanese restaurant. During the dinnertime conversation, I learned more about the Society of Helpers, their reliance on Ignatian Spirituality, etc.</p>
<p>At the suggestion of my niece, Coleen McCormick Dixon, I brought along a borrowed camcorder --- borrowed from my friend and neighbor, Jerry Zacharias. Thanks, Jerry! Sister Theresia consented to a videotaped interview. Following is Sister Theresia’s recollection of Sister Isaac Jogues’ stay in Hiroshima from December 1939 to August 1945.</p>
<p>Sister Theresia was a 22‑year old novice when Julia arrived in Hiroshima in December 1939.</p>
<p>Sister Theresia remembers Julia as kindly, hard working, and liked by the community. She was big and strong, and had very bright blue eyes. She was very conscientious in pursuing her housekeeping duties.</p>
<p>Sister Theresia remembers Julia’s pleasing smile and is grateful for the kindness she received from Sister Isaac Jogues.</p>
<p>Sister Isaac Jogues made her perpetual vows as a member of the Society of Helpers in 1940. Sisters Theresia and other member of the Society were in attendance. The ceremony was part of a pontifical mass celebrated by the Bishop of Hiroshima in the city’s cathedral.</p>
<p>Shortly after the commencement of hostilities, Sister Isaac Jogues was interned. After about seven months she was released when the Japanese authorities found she was a neutral (Irish citizen) alien. The other Sisters were delighted to see her upon her return.</p>
<p>Eight Sisters were assigned to the Society of Helpers convent on 6 August, 1945. The Superior, Sister Saint Ernestine, a French national, was convalescing in a nearby hospital. Sister Saint Isaac Jogues (Irish) and Sister Theresia Yamada (Japanese) were at the convent the morning of 6 August 1945, together with five other Sisters: Sisters Saint Pierre Clavier (French); Marie Antoine (French); Marie Xavier (Italian); Saint Candida (Italian), and Christina Ito (Japanese). All eight survived the atomic bomb attack. Three (including Sister Theresia) are still alive. Sister Theresia thinks that Sisters Marie Xavier and Saint Candida are still alive in Italy. Both are very aged, and Sister Theresia thinks they are bedridden.</p>
<p>Sister Theresia was not feeling well on the morning of 6 August, 1945. She wanted to stay in bed and recuperate, but was encouraged to get up and to say her daily prayers. She was praying, reflecting, and meditating under a pine tree on the convent grounds when the nuclear blast occurred at approximately 8:15 am. She described a loud explosion followed by an incredibly bright light. She knew that something was terribly wrong. She assumed a face-down prone position on the ground, based on earlier advice from her sister (who had previously experienced the incendiary bombing of Tokyo). She immediately said prayers seeking God’s forgiveness for any of her shortcomings. Surprisingly, she did not mention seeking God’s protection. (She probably did, but she didn’t mention that in the interview.) Moments later she recovered to see the massive devastation and havoc. But she also saw in the convent ruins, a ceiling beam across her bed, and realized that had she remained in bed, she would most likely have been among the 150,000 fatalities.</p>
<p>Shortly after the blast, a Jesuit Father Coops (?) (perhaps “Coopes,” “Koops,” or “Koopes”) directed the Sisters to move away from the now destroyed convent. Fires were fast approaching the site. He forcefully urged them to seek refuge in a nearby Jesuit residence. The Sisters’ journey to the Jesuit residence was frequently interrupted, as the Sisters felt the need to provide aid, comfort, and assistance to other refugees --- all homeless and hungry, stunned and disoriented, many sick or injured, and many seriously burned.</p>
<p>After an arduous journey, the Sisters arrived at the Jesuit residence, where they found refuge with some 90 injured and burned refugees. I’m uncertain of the circumstances, but I believe that their Superior, Sister Saint Ernestine, joined them shortly after their arrival. The Director of the Jesuit residence was Father Pedro Arrupe, later to become Director General of the Jesuits.</p>
<p>The Sisters worked with the Jesuits; providing shelter, food, emergency medical assistance, and spiritual support --- both to the refugees already in the residence and in the nearby areas. Sister Theresia reports that only three out of the 90 refugees died, during this time. (I was surprised at the relatively small attrition rate --- a great testimony to the care givers.) Some of the refugees are still alive today.</p>
<p>Sister Isaac Jogues’ principal duties were to work with a Jesuit Brother Masui, feeding and distributing food to the refugees.</p>
<p>During the post-war era, Sister Isaac Jogues provided liaison with American and Australian Army personnel. Sister Theresia remembers the assistance provided by an Australian Army chaplain, Father Ryan, during this difficult recovery period.</p>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>Additional Material</strong></span></p>
<p>The Society of Helpers gave me some additional material on Sister Isaac Jogues including photos. Talking with the Sisters was a delight. And, what more can I say about Sister Theresia’s first-person poignant account of the events of August 1945? Except for my profound respect for the resiliency of the human spirit over adversity.</p>
<p>Now as for my relationship to Julia Canny. Julia was a cousin on my mother’s side. The 1901 Irish Census shows Julia Canny as a seven‑year old (as of March 31, 1901), living in a household in Upper Kilbeg with her widowed grandmother; her parents; five other brothers and sisters; and John Canny, her (then bachelor) uncle and my grandfather.</p>
<p>As an aside, I'm also amused (perhaps mildly shocked) by one information column on the census form ‑‑‑ "If Deaf and Dumb; Dumb only; Blind; Imbecile or idiot; or Lunatic." Wow! What sensitivity! Happy to report there were no entries in that column for the Cannys from Clonbur.</p>
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<p><strong>RELATED LINKS:</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/from-dunkirk-to-nagasaki-the-long-war-of-dr-aidan-maccarthy?fbclid=IwAR32_uq707RZhIqOS3rSt9KdgpyyyYjvLce4XLT0Fr67g4VilRog-gbYKKg">From Dunkirk to Nagasaki: The Long War of Dr. Aidan MacCarthy</a></p>
<p></p>Ferguson: The 'Mad Mechanic' From the Mourne Mountainstag:thewildgeese.irish,2013-11-03:6442157:BlogPost:1711542013-11-03T23:00:00.000ZJohn Anthony Brennanhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/johnABrennan
<p><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84714214?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" height="362" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84714214?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="673"></img></a></strong></p>
<p><em><span class="font-size-2"><strong><b>Pictured Harry Ferguson and Henry Ford.</b></strong></span></em></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2"><strong><b>Repost in honor of his Birthday.</b></strong></span></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-5"><span class="font-size-2"><b>Henry George "Harry" Ferguson,</b> 4 November 1884 – 25 October…</span></span></strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84714214?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="673" height="362" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84714214?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024"/></a></strong></p>
<p><em><span class="font-size-2"><strong><b>Pictured Harry Ferguson and Henry Ford.</b></strong></span></em></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2"><strong><b>Repost in honor of his Birthday.</b></strong></span></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-5"><span class="font-size-2"><b>Henry George "Harry" Ferguson,</b> 4 November 1884 – 25 October 1960.</span></span></strong></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-5">I</span>ntoxicated with unbridled madness, a dreamer returned</strong> from a pilgrimage, a sojurn, high in the Mourne Mountains of County Down. Back to reality, back to his brother and their bicycle shop. Back to his small, unremarkable village in the valley. This dreamer had made the pilgrimage many times before. Had basked in the ever-present silence, gave his thoughts free rein, let them soar.<a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84714272?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="288" height="154" class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84714272?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024"/></a>The crisp bracken snapping underfoot, the fresh wind buffeting his face, invigorated and filled him with optimistic fervor. He felt as one with the mountains, the sky and the cosmos. But this time something was <i>different</i>. <i>He</i> was <i>different</i>. He had changed. Giddy and lightheaded he wondered, just for an instant, a<i>m I going mad?</i></p>
<p>Strolling through the ‘silent valley,’ he rested near a patch of gorse, their yellow blooms vibrant in the afternoon sun. He turned his eyes upward and scanned the cloudless sky. Marveled as two hawks wheeled and circled high above him, wide-spread wings in silhouette against the sharp blueness. <i>If only I could do that</i>, he mused.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84714334?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="203" height="283" class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84714334?profile=original"/></a>On down, down through a thick carpet of heather, in the distance, the small lime-washed cottage. A row of new bicycles lined up outside the shop. Watched the sunlight glinting off the frames. Watched his brother, leaning over the stone bridge, gazing at the flowing stream beneath.</p>
<p><i>I wonder what he’s thinking?</i></p>
<p>The dreamer’s mind took him on a fantastical flight of fancy. Transported him to a far-off land, a land across the wild, grey Atlantic Ocean. Thought of two other brothers and a place called Kitty Hawk. And in that moment, right then, right there, the dreamer knew he had to fly.</p>
<p>Henry George "Harry" Ferguson was born at Growell, near Dromore, in County Down, Ireland the son of a farmer of Scottish descent on 4 November 1884. In the early 1900s the young Harry Ferguson became fascinated with the newly emerging technology of powered human flight and particularly with the exploits of the Wright brothers, the American aviation pioneers who made the first plane flight in 1903 in North Carolina, USA. He also admired the first person to accomplish powered flight in the UK, Alliot Verdon Roe who in June 1908 also flew an aeroplane of his own design. As powered flight had not yet been achieved in Ireland, Ferguson began to develop a keen interest in the mechanics of flying and traveled to several air shows, including exhibitions in 1909 at Blackpool and Rheims where he took notes of the design of early aircraft. Harry convinced his brother that they should attempt to build an aircraft at their Belfast workshop and working from Harry's notes, they worked on the design of a plane, the Ferguson monoplane. After making many changes and improvements, they transported their new aircraft by towing it behind a car through the streets of Belfast up to Hillsborough Park to make their first attempt at flight. They were at first thwarted by propeller trouble but continued to make technical alterations to the plane. After a delay of nearly a week caused by bad weather, the Ferguson monoplane finally took off from Hillsborough on 31 December 1909. Harry Ferguson became the first Irishman to fly and the first Irishman to build and fly his own aeroplane.</p>
<p>After falling out with his brother over the safety and future of aviation Ferguson decided to go it alone, and in 1911 founded a company selling Maxwell, Star and Vauxhall cars and Overtime Tractors. He saw at first hand the weakness of having tractor and plough as separate articulated units, and in 1917 he devised a plough that could be rigidly attached to a Model T Ford car—the Eros, which became a limited success, competing with the Model F Fordson. In 1917 Ferguson met Charles E. Sorensen while Sorensen was in England scouting production sites for the Fordson tractor. They discussed methods of hitching the implement to the tractor to make them a unit (as opposed to towing the implement like a trailer). In 1920 and 1921 Ferguson demonstrated early versions of his three-point linkage on Fordsons at Cork and at Dearborn. Ferguson and Henry Ford discussed putting the Ferguson system of hitch and implements onto Fordson tractors at the factory, but no deal was struck. At the time the hitch was mechanical. Ferguson and his team of longtime colleagues, including Willie Sands and Archie Greer, soon developed a hydraulic version, which was patented in 1926. After one or two false starts, Ferguson eventually founded the Ferguson-Sherman Inc., with Eber and George Sherman.</p>
<p>The new enterprise manufactured the Ferguson plough incorporating the patented "Duplex" hitch system mainly intended for the Fordson "F" tractor. Following several more years of development, Ferguson's new hydraulic version of the three-point linkage was first seen on his prototype Ferguson "Black", now in the Science Museum, Kensington, London. A production version of the "Black" was introduced in May 1936, made at one of the David Brown factories in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, and designated Ferguson Model A tractor. In 1938, Ferguson's interests were merged with those of David Brown junior to create the Ferguson-Brown Company.In October 1938, Ferguson demonstrated his latest tractor to Henry Ford at Dearborn, and they made the famous "handshake agreement". Ferguson took with him his latest patents covering future improvements to the Ferguson tractor and it is these that led to the Ford-Ferguson 9N introduced to the world on 29 June 1939. The 1938 agreement intended that the Ferguson tractor should also be made in the UK at the Ford Ltd factory at Dagenham, Essex but Ford did not have full control at Dagenham and, while Ford Ltd did import US-made 9N/2Ns, Dagenham did not make any.</p>
<p>Henry Ford II, Ford's grandson, ended the handshake deal on 30 June 1947, following unsuccessful negotiations with Ferguson, but continued to produce a tractor, the 8N, incorporating Ferguson's inventions, the patents on almost all of which had not yet expired, and Ferguson was left without a tractor to sell in North America. Ferguson's reaction was a lawsuit demanding compensation for damage to his business and for Ford's illegal use of his designs. The case was settled out of court in April 1952 for just over $9 million. The court case cost him about half of that and a great deal of stress and ill health. By 1952, most of the important Ferguson patents had expired, and this allowed Henry Ford II to claim that the case had not restricted Ford's activities too much. It follows that all the world's other tractor manufacturers could also use Ferguson's inventions, which they duly did. A year later Ferguson merged with Massey Harris to become Massey-Harris-Ferguson Co, later Massey Ferguson.</p>
<p>Ferguson died at his home at Stow-on-the-Wold in 1960, the result of a barbiturate overdose; the inquest was unable to conclude whether this had been accidental or not.</p>
<p>Read more here:</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harry_Ferguson&oldid=681193557">https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harry_Ferguson&oldid=681193557</a></p>
<p>Books for Sale:</p>
<p><font face="Calibri" size="3">Don’t Die with Regrets: Ireland and the Lessons my Father Taught Me.</font></p>
<p><span><a title="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0615975860" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0615975860"><span>http://www.amazon.com/dp/0615975860</span></a></span></p>
<p><font face="Calibri" size="3">The Journey: A Nomad Reflects.</font></p>
<p><span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0692500944/ref=rdr_ext_tmb"><font color="#0563C1">https://www.amazon.com/dp/0692500944/ref=rdr_ext_tmb</font></a></span></p>Grab Some Apples for Crisps & Crumblestag:thewildgeese.irish,2023-10-19:6442157:BlogPost:3070652023-10-19T20:22:51.000ZMargaret M. Johnsonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MargaretMJohnson
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<p style="font-weight: 400;">From a culinary standpoint, there’s little difference between an apple crisp and an apple crumble, except for the topping: the former is generally made with a flour and brown sugar mix, the latter with an oat-based streusel (nuts are always welcome). The bonus feature of either dessert is that, in…</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12260197086?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12260197086?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">From a culinary standpoint, there’s little difference between an apple crisp and an apple crumble, except for the topping: the former is generally made with a flour and brown sugar mix, the latter with an oat-based streusel (nuts are always welcome). The bonus feature of either dessert is that, in addition to being the quintessential autumn dessert, is that you can also add a few berries or dried fruits, as in this one that uses dates and raisins. Topping the crumble with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, or custard is deliciously obligatory. What’s not to love? You’ll find other crisp and crumble recipes in my <em>Teatime in Ireland</em> and <em>Festive Flavors of</em> <em>Ireland</em> cookbooks. To order a signed copy, visit <a href="http://www.irishcook.com">www.irishcook.com</a></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>APPLE-DATE CRUMBLE</strong></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Serves 6</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>For the filling</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1 cup raisins</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1 cup chopped dates</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>3 tablespoons dark rum</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1 teaspoon mixed spice or</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1/2 teaspoon each cinnamon and nutmeg</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Juice and zest of 1 lemon</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>For the crumble</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1 cup flour</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>8 ounces unsalted butter, cut into pieces</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1/4 cup oatmeal</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>1/2 cup chopped pecans</em></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><em>Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, for serving</em></p>
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Make the filling. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Butter a 9-inch baking dish.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">In a large microwave-safe bowl, combine the raisins, dates, brown sugar, rum, butter, and spices; microwave on high for 1 1/2 minutes, or until the butter is melted and the mixture is syrupy. Add the juice and zest of the lemon and the apples; toss to coat. Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan; spread evenly.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Make the crumble. In a large bowl, combine the flour and butter. With your fingers, rub the butter into the flour until large clumps form. Stir in the sugar, oats, and pecans; scatter over the apple mixture. Cover with foil.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil; bake for 30 minutes longer, or until the crumble is golden and the filling is bubbling. Let cool for 10 minutes. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.<a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12260197689?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12260197689?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></li>
</ol>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"> </p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"> </p>It's a Celtic Feasttag:thewildgeese.irish,2016-10-30:6442157:BlogPost:2028012016-10-30T16:30:00.000ZMike McCormackhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MikeMcCormack
<span style="text-align: left;"><strong><span class="font-size-5"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Snap-Apple_Night_globalphilosophy.PNG" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Snap-Apple_Night_globalphilosophy.PNG?width=680" width="680"></img></a></span></strong></span><p></p>
<p><strong><strong><span class="font-size-5">L</span>ike their economy, which was based on planting</strong>, growing and harvesting,</strong> the Celtic calendar was centered around the Sun and agriculture and determined by a lunar calendar. The four major feasts were…</p>
<span style="text-align: left;"><strong><span class="font-size-5"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Snap-Apple_Night_globalphilosophy.PNG" target="_blank"><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Snap-Apple_Night_globalphilosophy.PNG?width=680" width="680" class="align-center"/></a></span></strong></span><p></p>
<p><strong><strong><span class="font-size-5">L</span>ike their economy, which was based on planting</strong>, growing and harvesting,</strong> the Celtic calendar was centered around the Sun and agriculture and determined by a lunar calendar. The four major feasts were <b style="text-align: left;">Imbolc</b> <span style="text-align: left;">on February 1, which introduced the season of planting;</span> <b style="text-align: left;">Bealtine</b> <span style="text-align: left;">(</span><i style="text-align: left;">BAL-tinna</i><span style="text-align: left;">), on May 1, which honored the god of cattle and crops and was associated with growth;</span> <b style="text-align: left;">Lughnasad</b> <span style="text-align: left;">(</span><i style="text-align: left;">LOO-na-sid</i><span style="text-align: left;">), on August 1, which signaled the harvest; and the most important feast of the year, </span><b style="text-align: left;">Samhain</b> <span style="text-align: left;">(</span><i style="text-align: left;">SAH-win</i><span style="text-align: left;">), celebrated November 1, when the full moon rose midway between the Autumnal Equinox and Winter Solstice. It was the Celtic New Year, but it was celebrated for an entirely different reason than we celebrate our New Year today.</span></p>
<p><em>Above, Snap-Apple Night (1833), painted by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Maclise" title="Daniel Maclise">Daniel Maclise</a>, shows people playing divination games on October 31 in Ireland.</em> Wikimedia Commons</p>
<p>Samhain observed the death of one pastoral year and the beginning of another. To the Celts, winter was approaching, crops were dying, days were growing shorter, and the specter of death hung heavy in the air. It was a time when some of the elderly members of the clan, unable to survive the winter, would be taken from them by Cailleach, the goddess of death. The Celts marked the 3-day full moon period with activity and ritual before facing the unknown as the strength of the sun began to wane and fall under the growing power of the gods of darkness, winter, and the underworld. Cattle were slaughtered and salted to feed the people through the coming winter. Crops were gathered in and stored lest the shape-shifting Pooka, a nocturnal hobgoblin that delights in tormenting mortals, destroy the fruits of the field and bring on a season of famine.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84718846?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="400" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84718846?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="400" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Consumed with fear that they might be carted away to the land of the dead, the Irish lit huge bonfires to ward off evil forces and to encourage the return of the sun. The real reason for the celebration however, was the fact that <b>Oiche Samhain</b> (<i>EE-ha SOW-na</i>), or the eve of Samhain had passed for another 12 months, for Oiche Samhain was a dangerous night indeed. It was on that night that the veil between the natural and supernatural worlds was lowered, and residents of the underworld, both good and evil, were free to roam the earth. It was the holiday of the dead and the <b>sidh</b> (<i>shee</i>) – the supernatural residents of the fairy kingdom, both fun-loving and fearful. It was a time sacred to the moon, and called for sacrifices to Crom Cruagh, Lord of the Mound, a golden idol surrounded by 12 stones on the plain of Moy Slecht in Cavan.</p>
<p>Any who wandered out that night were in danger of being accosted by spirits, so most remained indoors. However, if one had to go out, he or she was advised to wear the skin of a sacrificed animal to disguise themself from the spirits. If an animal skin was not available, then the traveler would be wise to carry a candle in a hollowed-out turnip so that they would be mistaken for a <b>sheerie</b> or Will-o-the-Wisp and be left alone. In reality, the normal decomposition of buried organic matter causes methane gas to rise from the bog and burst into spontaneous flame in the presence of air, inspiring many stories of male spirits (Jack) seeking to lure one into a swampy area and harm.</p>
<p>Those who remained indoors listened to seanachies (<i>SHAN-a-kees)</i> or storytellers relate how the Gaels had defeated Ireland’s early settlers, the magical Tuatha De Danann, and won control of the land. However, the undaunted De Danann plagued their conquerors with trickery, depriving them of milk and grain, until a compromise was finally reached and the land was divided between them. The Gaels won the right to live above ground and the magical De Danann agreed to live underground, beneath the hills and mountains, becoming the Fairy Folk of Irish legend.</p>
<p>On Samhain, the veil between the two worlds is lowered and the fairies and spirits are free to roam at will. The mounds marking the entries to dwelling places of the Sidh glowed with eerie light. Many a mortal was lured away to investigate, but in spite of the temptation the curious are cautioned, if you must venture out, be wary. You might hear music; the most beautiful music ever to come from fiddle or flute, but do not investigate, for the spirits will entice you away to the dance and keep you entertained until the dawn breaks; then you will be trapped behind the veil! Tales are told of those lost to the Fairy kingdom who were not seen again until the following year when the veil was lowered once more and they were seen on the other side. Some have been enticed back to tell their stories, but they were very few and usually came to a violent end shortly after their return. This was <b>Feile Na Marbh</b> (<i>FAY-luh na MAR-ve</i>) – the Feast of the Dead. Children born that night are blessed with ‘double sight’ and are able to see and play with the fairies. Long-dead ancestors also roam the land seeking the warmth of a hearth fire and communion with the living. Those who wish to welcome them place candles in their window to light the way for their lost souls.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84718882?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84718882?profile=original" width="225" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>With so many things to fear, the obvious question is why would anyone venture out at all and the answer lies in the very same lowering of the veil. It’s a night when supernatural things are possible; when hidden things are visible; and if one knows how to read the signs, a night when the future can be read for omens are clearest on Oiche Samhain. If, for example, a maiden were to wash her dress in a stream on that night and hang it on a bush to dry, the image of her future husband will gradually appear beside it. It’s also a time when you can catch a glimpse of recently-departed loved ones and perhaps secure some information from them – like where did they hide the money!</p>
<p>Another custom associated with Oiche Samhain was the leaving of food and drink on a doorstep to appease the wandering spirits so that they would trespass no further into a dwelling. If the offering was gone in the morning, it was a good sign that the spirits had accepted it, for no mortal man would dare steal a gift left for the dead. It was also a fortunate time for the hungry and homeless who wandered the roads and were willing to take that chance. Needless to say, there was great rejoicing when dawn broke and the threat of Oiche Samhain had passed for another 12 months. The fear and the celebration associated with Samhain made it one of the hardest of the old Druidic feasts for the young Irish Church to dispel in the early centuries of Christianity, so it was decided to sanctify its meaning.</p>
<p>In 432 AD, Saint Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland, but the old ways persisted. Rome attempted to take the easy way out and absorbed the tradition into its own calendar. For centuries, the Church had honored its martyrs and saints on May 13, so in 844 AD Pope Gregory IV transferred the saints’ feast to November 1, renaming it All Hallows Day. Yet, 500 years later, Celtic descendants were still commemorating their 3-day New Year Feast of the Dead. In the 14th century, Rome decreed November 2 would be known as All Souls Day and masses would be said for the departed who had not yet been admitted to heaven. In an effort to finally eradicate the ancient festival, October 31 was titled All Hallows Eve and installed on the Church calendar as a vigil of preparation for the 2-day religious observance.</p>
<p>Henceforth, November 1 would be All Hallows Day – a day to honor the souls that had achieved heaven, followed by All Souls Day, a time to pray for the deceased who were still awaiting redemption. To the Irish however, All Hallows evening retained the connotation of a time dedicated to the spirits and many of the ancient customs lived on. In time, the Christian meaning became accepted, at least on the surface. In many areas, the parish priest was given a polite nod of the head in acquiescence to the Church's definition, while a wink of the eye signified that the ancient traditions were still being observed – just in case.</p>
<p>Stories of witches, goblins, and little people persisted, and the cautions proscribed as protection against the spirits of the netherworld remained as All Hallows Evening became Hallows e’en or Halloween – the only Celtic feast still observed on the modern calendar. Costumes are still much in evidence only they are the dime store variety instead of animal skins; pumpkins have replaced turnips as the Jack o Lantern; and the token food or candy given to visiting ghosts and goblins, who shout <i>Trick or Treat</i>, is a reminder of the food and drink freely given as a ransom against harm. I'd say the spirit of the occasion (no pun intended) is still intact. In recent years, a heightened awareness of the origins of Halloween has led to Celtic New Year celebrations in some areas, but there are still many who are not aware of the rich cultural heritage of our ancestors, who based their pastoral activities on a sophisticated celestial calendar fostered by a knowledge of astronomy unsurpassed in their time.</p>
<p>As for the traditions associated with Halloween, well, think about it. What happens after the demons in the dime-store costumes are tucked safely in bed with their treasure of candy bars and pennies secure in plastic pumpkins? What happens late at night when the streets are silent; what are those strange sounds carried on the wind each year; and what of the eerie occurrences reported each Halloween. Of all the Celtic feasts, why is it that only Oiche Samhain has survived. Is it because there is some substance to it after all. I can't say for certain, but I know I'm staying at home. And if you must go out, please, whatever you do, be careful . . . and, by the way, <em>Happy New Year</em>!</p>Semper Et Ubique Fidelis: The Dillons and the Irish Brigade of Francetag:thewildgeese.irish,2023-10-07:6442157:BlogPost:3068592023-10-07T00:00:00.000ZJoe Gannonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JoeGannon
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span><strong><em>Oh wild was their rush and exultant their shout,</em></strong></span><strong><em><br></br> <span>When the signal to charge from the bugle rang out,—</span><br></br> <span>The fire of their hearts seemed to temper each blade.</span><br></br> <span>They…</span></em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span><strong><em><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239710280?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239710280?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a></em></strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span><strong><em>Oh wild was their rush and exultant their shout,</em></strong></span><strong><em><br/> <span>When the signal to charge from the bugle rang out,—</span><br/> <span>The fire of their hearts seemed to temper each blade.</span><br/> <span>They thought of the land they had left o’er the sea,</span><br/> <span>And the brave who had perished, dear Erin, for thee,</span><br/> <span>Then one cheer for Old Ireland, a curse on her foes,</span><br/> <span>Like the peal of the thunder to heaven arose</span><br/> <span>From the lips and the souls of the Irish Brigade!</span></em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: right;">“The Irish Brigade” by Anonymous</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239710661?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239710661?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">A</span>s Colonel Count Arthur Dillon and his Regiment of the Irish Brigade</strong> of the French army emerged from the swamp near the British earthworks in front of Savannah, Georgia, on the morning of October 9, 1779, he knew they were in a precarious situation. The plan had called for a surprise attack by the combined American and French troops under cover of darkness, starting around 4 am.</p>
<p>The swampy ground the attacking forces had to traverse on the march to the British works had presented enough of a problem, but early morning fog had exacerbated that challenge. Dillon’s guide had difficulty directing them to their target on the right of the British works, along the Savannah River. The entire Franco-American force was disheartened to hear the sounds of the pipes of Lieutenant Colonel John Maitland’s Scottish troops as the sun rose. It signaled to all that the element of surprise, which was always a key to such an assault on earthworks, was already lost.</p>
<p>The original hope was that Dillon’s column might be able to slip between the northernmost British earthwork and the Savannah River, flanking the British line. In the light of morning, that would be impossible, but hearing the sounds of battle from the south, Dillon would press forward in what would be known as the 2<sup>nd</sup> Battle of Savannah.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: The Regimental flag of the Dillon's Regiment of the Irish Brigade. <br/> The motto reads: "In this sign thou shalt conquer.")</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239710869?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239710869?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="300" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Count Arthur Dillon and other members of the Dillon family, along with his famous Regiment, were once again confronting the ancient foe of their nation, as they had for decades in the ranks of the Irish Brigade in the service of France. Ironically, the revolutionary forces that they were aiding in the attack on Savannah would soon spread to France and lead to the demise of both the Regiment and Count Dillon himself.</p>
<p>The history of the Dillon family’s service to France began earlier than the formation of the famous Irish Brigade in the 1690s. Thomas Dillon, 4<sup>th</sup> Viscount of Costello-Gallen in the Mayo–Roscommon area, lost his estates by supporting the royalist cause against Cromwell. He was forced into exile in Europe with his four sons. One of them, James Dillon, formed a regiment in France in French service in 1653. That regiment was disbanded in 1664 when James died.</p>
<p>Theobald, 7th Viscount Dillon of Costello-Gullen, founded the most famous Dillon’s Regiment in Ireland during the Williamite War. His son, Arthur, commanded the Regiment when it accompanied Lord Mountcashel to France in 1690. This was part of an exchange in which the French sent 6,000 well-trained and equipped French troops to fight in Ireland while the Irish sent 5,000 far less well-trained troops to serve in the French Army. This was the genesis of the famous Irish Brigade in the service of France.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239711859?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239711859?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="150" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12240170091?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12240170091?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="250" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>One of the distinctive elements of the Irish Brigade during their entire service in the French army was their red uniform tunics. This was to signify their support of the Stewart claim to the English throne. Until 1776, Dillon’s Regiment red tunics had black cuffs and lapels, matching the black cantons on their regimental flag, as shown to the left. From then until it was disbanded, their cuffs and lapels were yellow, as seen to the right, painted by artist Don Troiani. Clare's Regiment had worn those colors until 1775, when they were absorbed into Berwick's Regiment. The primary tunic color for regular French infantry regiments of the period was white.</p>
<p>Only members of the Dillon family officially commanded the Regiment during their century in French service. They were the only Regiment of the Irish Brigade that would be in continuous service to the French King under the same family. Dillon’s Regiment would serve first in the Nine Years War, then the War of Spanish Succession, the War of Polish Succession, the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War, and finally, the American Revolution.</p>
<p>Dillon’s would fight in the two most renowned victories of the Brigade at <a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/france-s-irish-brigade-saves-the-king-s-army">Cremona in 1702</a>, during the War of Spanish Succession, and their most notable victory at Fontenoy in 1745 during the War of Austrian Succession. There were even a few members of Dillon’s fighting on the losing side in the most famous defeat in Scottish history, at Culloden.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239724900?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239724900?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="300" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>At Cremona, a near-perfect plan by Austria’s famous military leader, Prince Eugene, was thwarted by a small portion of the Brigade, including members of Dillon’s. They tenaciously held a bridge and gate into the town against overwhelming odds until the rest of the French army could rally and drive the enemy back. Their contribution to the French victory was so significant that a member of the British parliament later commented, “Those two regiments [Dillon and Burke] did more mischief to the High Allies than all the Irish abroad could have done had they been kept at home and left the entire possession of their estates.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Right: Prince Eugene)</strong></span></p>
<p>The victory at Fontenoy was the most famous in the history of the Brigade. It was won by a desperate charge of the full Brigade on the right flank of the Duke of Cumberland’s attacking column. Dillon’s was first involved in an unsuccessful smaller counterattack but soon afterward joined the full Brigade attack to break the Duke’s assault on the center of the French line. The Brigade crashed into the British troops with the war cry, “Cuimhnigidh ar Luimneach agus ar feall na Sassanach!!” (Remember Limerick and Saxon treachery!) It was said that following Fontenoy, King George II complained, “Cursed be the laws that deprive me of such subjects.” The Penal Laws at the time forbade Irish Catholics from bearing arms and serving in the military.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239725271?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239725271?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="250" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Fontenoy would become the most famous moment in the history of the Brigade. One historian called it the most significant win over an English army (albeit under French colors) since the 1598 Battle of the Yellow Ford in County Armagh.” The Irish Brigade in the U.S. Army would even invoke the victory during the American Civil War with the battle cry, “Remember Fontenoy.” Thomas Davis, one of the founders of the “Young Ireland” nationalist party in the 19<sup>th</sup> century, wrote two poems about the battle: “The Battle Eve of the Brigade” and “Fontenoy.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Leftt: A postage stamp the Irish and Belgian governments issued commemorating the Irish Brigade's part in the Battle of Fontenoy, showing the monument.)</strong></span></p>
<p>In August 1907, Irish nationalists erected a Celtic Cross monument to the battle in Fontenoy. The base showed the Limerick Treaty Stone with this inscription in Irish: ‘On this stone was signed the treaty by which England should have granted religious freedom to the Irish people. It broke that treaty, and the Irish, driven from their homelands, enrolled in the French armies and won fame on the battlefields of Europe.’ The Irish government’s Office of Public Works now maintains the monument.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: The coat of arms of the Viscount Dillon.)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239955486?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239955486?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="250" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>As the years rolled on, the rank-and-file members of the regiments of the Irish Brigade became less and less Irish as the British weakened the anti-Catholic Penal Laws, reducing emigration. The leadership of the regiments, however, would remain primarily Irish. That was undoubtedly true of Dillon’s Regiment. One of the last Dillons to command the Regiment would be Arthur Dillon, born in August 1750. His Jacobite pedigree was impeccable. His Great-Grandfather, Lord Theobald, was killed fighting for the Jacobite side at Aughrim in 1691. His Grandfather, also Arthur, for whom he was named, commanded the Dillon’s Regiment of the Brigade when it left for France with Lord Mountcashel. His Uncle, James, died in command of the Regiment at the famous victory at Fontenoy. Command of it then went to another Uncle, Edouard, who was later killed at the Battle of Lauffelt in 1747.</p>
<p>Arthur’s father, Henry, became Colonel of the Regiment on the death of Edouard, but he was then living in England to protect his hereditary rights to land in Ireland, and commanded in name only. Though King Louis XV was urged to appoint someone from outside the Dillon family to official command of the Regiment, he refused. “I cannot consent to see that a proprietorship, cemented by so many good services and so much blood, should go out of a family, as long as I might entertain a hope of witnessing its renewal,” the King said.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: Thérèse-Lucy de Rothe)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239730654?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239730654?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="250" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>That hope was Henry’s son, Arthur. In 1767, when Arthur was just 17, he was appointed Colonel of the Regiment by King Louis XV to continue that family proprietorship. He would serve as a captain in the Regiment until taking actual command at age twenty-three. Authur married Thérèse-Lucy de Rothe in 1768. She also had connections to the Brigade, with her father commanding Rothe’s Regiment in the Brigade. She was said to be very beautiful and was a lady-in-waiting and an intimate friend of Queen Marie Antionette. They would have two children: a son, George, who died at age 2, and a daughter, <a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-daughters-of-count-general-arthur-dillon" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Henriette-Lucy</a>.</p>
<p>The early part of Arthur’s service in the Regiment was during relatively peaceful times. In 1775, two years after he assumed command of the Regiment, members of Bulkeley’s were incorporated into it to bring it up to full strength. When the French allied themselves to the new United States government in their attempt to break away from the British Empire in 1778, Dillon petitioned the King to allow his Regiment to be one of the first sent to aid the Americans, saying the Irish “…. always demanded the privilege of going first into battle against the English, everywhere the French were at war with them.” His request was granted. On April 5, 1779, Arthur Dillon sailed to the new world with 1400 Regiment members in a force that Count d’Estaing would command.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">(Below: The British surrender at Grenada to Count d’Estaing as painted by Jean-Louis de Marne 1752-1829)</span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239732261?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239732261?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Their first target was the British-occupied island of Grenada. There were about 700 troops in the British garrison there. It was commanded by Lord George Macartney, who was Scottish but traced his roots back to an ancient Irish family. King Louis XVI once complained to General Count Arthur Dillon that the Irish Brigade regiments gave him more trouble than all others. Dillion replied, “The enemy makes the same complaint, your Majesty.” Dillon would now make that a reality in his first combat command.</p>
<p>Macartney refused D’Estaing’s surrender request and retreated to a fortified hilltop known as Morne de l’Hopital. D’Estaing, knowing there was a British fleet nearby, decided to attack immediately under cover of darkness that night, July 3. Macartney’s defenders seemed to be caught off guard by that rapid action. With Dillon commanding one column of the attack and his relative, Count Edward Dillon, another, the formidable position was captured by the attackers. Arthur was slightly wounded in the attack, and D’Estaing praised the Regiment’s performance.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239956473?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239956473?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="300" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>The British fleet did arrive on July 6 but was beaten off by the French fleet. At this point, D’Estaing decided to sail to Georgia to aid the American rebel’s attempts to retake Savannah, which had been captured by the British in 1778.</p>
<p>D’Estaing was worried about losing his fleet to a hurricane; thus, they were again operating under a time constraint. They arrived on September 8, but landing his force of 2,400 men using small boats was slow. The French joined a force of 2,000 Americans commanded by General Benjamin Lincoln.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Left: Savannah battle map.)</strong></span></p>
<p>The original British force in the city was only about 1,000, commanded by General Augustin Prevost, nicknamed “Old Bullethead.” On September 16, D’Estaing sent Prevost a surrender demand. But as he seriously considered it, 900 Scots Highlanders of the 71<sup>st</sup> Regiment of Foot, commanded by Leiutenant-Colonel Maitland, managed to slip into the city, nearly doubling the defenders. With the addition of many members of the local loyalist militias, the garrison ended up over 3,000 strong. Maitland also stiffened the spines of Prevost and his command with an inspirational speech. The demand was rejected.</p>
<p>D’Estaing attempted a siege, but when the initial bombardments of the city seemed to have little effect, he changed plans. He now planned a surprise attack before dawn on the 9<sup>th</sup>. It was a risky move, as the Franco-American force did not outnumber the British by the margin an attacker would hope for against an entrenched defender.</p>
<p>The British had used the long delay since the French had landed to their advantage. There were now 14 redoubts encircling Savannah, with an extensive network of trenches between them. This made a daylight attack untenable, thus the plan for the pre-dawn assault. D’Estaing believed the right of the British line, which ended along the Savannah River, was the weakest part of their line. The central part of the attack would be on the Spring Hill Redoubt, in the right-center of the British line, while Dillon would command a column that would try to flank the British along the river. Several officers, including Dillon and Polish-born American General Casimir Pulaski, opposed the planned attack. Major Thomas Browne, who was to lead Dillon's assault, predicted to D’Estaing that he would die leading it.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: The American attack on the Spring Hill Redoubt.)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239961877?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239961877?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Moving troops through swampy terrain in the dark, especially after fog set in during the early morning hours, hindered the plan, but the surprise was gone before the troops embarked. The details of the attack had already been betrayed to the British by Sergeant Major James Curry, a deserter from the Charleston Grenadiers. Curry had overheard senior American officers discussing the attack and gave the British the exact location and timing of the assault. Lieutenant Colonel Maitland was given command of reinforcements from the 60<sup>th</sup> Regiment, a company of marines, and a battalion of his 71<sup>st</sup> Highlanders to reinforce the planned attack area. The area of the attack was now the most substantial part of the defenses. The attack had little chance of success, but neither the French nor the Americans gave it up without a fight.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: The death of <span>General Casimir Pulaski.</span> near Savannah, by Stanislaw Kaczor-Batowski 1933)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239963261?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12239963261?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>The attackers had 244 killed, 584 wounded and 120 captured. Dillon’s had 42 killed, including Major Thomas Browne, Dillon’s 2<sup>nd</sup> in command, as he had predicted, and over 100 wounded. Also killed was Captain Bernard O’Neill, who was the 5<sup>th</sup> generation of his family to serve in Dillon’s. Theobald Dillon, who would later command the Regiment, was wounded. Among the dead on the American side was General Casimir Pulaski. Though casualty figures in battles of the time are often hard to authenticate, the Franco-American casualties were arguably the 2<sup>nd</sup> highest of any battle of the war.</p>
<p>D’Estaing did not lead from the rear in this attack. He was wounded during the battle, leaving Dillon in command. Seeing the futility of further attacks, D’Estaing decided to depart. Diillon commanded the loading of the troops back onto the ships. While <span>D’Estaing</span> returned to France with half his force, Dillion and his Regiment remained with the other half, now under the command of French Admiral Comte de Grasse.</p>
<p>The Regiment participated in the capture of Tobago and St. Eustache in 1781 and St. Christopher and St. Kitts in 1782. The capture of St. Eustache in November 1781 was notable. The French infantry under the command of the Marquis de Bouillé sailed for the island with about 1500 men, hoping to surprise the 850-man British garrison in a fort on the island.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: St. Eustache harbor, showing the fort on the left)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12240014285?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12240014285?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>The weather nearly destroyed their plan. After de Bouillé, Dillon, and about 400 soldiers made a difficult landing on the island, high winds made further landings impossible. With the winds remaining high, the small force on the island was in danger of being overwhelmed if the British discovered their presence. De Bouillé and Dillon chose to take the initiative and hoped the element of surprise would allow them to carry the day.</p>
<p>In this, they had a factor that would work in their favor. The Irish Brigade soldiers wore red uniforms. With luck, that might buy them the time to take the fort. That luck was with them. At 4 am, they were 6 miles from the British fort. Moving quickly, they reached it by 6 am. The British commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Cockburne, was unaware of the threat as he was off on his regular horse ride. Dillon and his red-clad men marched right up to the British barracks and captured most of the garrison along with Cockburne as he returned from his pleasant morning ride. Other French troops entered the fort before they raised the drawbridge, and the victory was complete.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12240015077?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12240015077?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="250" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>The French captured the entire British force for the loss of about ten men, most of whom had drowned during the landings. In his report on the victory to King Louis XVI, the Marquis de Bouillé (left) said, “Count Dillon has given new proof of his extreme zeal and activity.” Among the British prisoners were about 350 Irish Catholics who were said to have switched sides and enlisted in the regiments of Dillon or Walsh.</p>
<p>The Regiment participated in the capture of St. Christopher and St. Kitts in 1782. These were the last contributions of the Irish Brigade to America’s successful Revolution. Though some have claimed that a portion of Dillion’s Regiment was at Yorktown, no French records back that up.</p>
<p>Arthur Dillion remained in the West Indies after the war ended. He was appointed governor of St. Christopher. Even the British, who later retook control of the island he administered, said he performed his duty there fairly and effectively. All the decrees Dillon enacted while in charge were kept in place by the British. Arthur’s cousin, Theobald, was promoted to command of the Regiment and was destined to be the last.</p>
<p>Arthur’s wife had died while he was serving in North America. On Martinique, he met Laure de Girardin de Montgérald, Countess de la Touche, a Creole woman and cousin of the future Empress Josephine, and later married her back in France. <a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-daughters-of-count-general-arthur-dillon" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Their daughter, Fanny</a>, and her husband would one day be in the room at St. Helena the day Napoleon died. </p>
<p>Ironically, the forces that the Briigade helped put in motion in North America would lead indirectly to the Brigade’s dissolution. The revolutionary spirit they furthered in the New World would spread across the sea to France. In addition to ending the Brigade, it would lead to personal disaster for many members of Dillon's family. Arthur Dillon returned to France shortly after the events of the Revolution began. Given its long history of loyalty to the crown, it was a dangerous time for the Brigade and the Irishmen associated with it.</p>
<p>On July 21, 1791, the National Assembly dissolved the Irish Brigade despite an impassioned plea from Arthur Dillon to save them. Though the Brigade was disbanded, the regiments continued in the French army as the 87th Régiment d’Infanterie (Dillon’s), 92nd (Walsh’s), and the 88th (Berwick’s).</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12240015259?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12240015259?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-right"/></a>In 1792, as they were disbanding, Louis XVI personally expressed to the Brigade the thanks of the French nation. Presenting them with a white banner adorned with a harp and embroidered shamrocks, he told them:</p>
<p>“Gentlemen, we acknowledge the inappreciable services that France has received from the Irish Brigade in the course of the last 100 years, services that we shall never forget, though under an impossibility of requiting them. Receive this standard, as a pledge of our remembrance, a monument of our admiration, and of our respect; and in future, generous Irishmen, this shall be the motto of your spotless flag: 1692 1792 Semper et Ubique Fidelis.” (Always and everywhere faithful)</p>
<p>Still loyal to France, Arthur Dillon rejoined the French army in 1792. When the monarchies of Europe attacked France, he led the rightwing of the Army of the North. Arthur’s cousin and last commander of Dillon’s, Theobald, also joined the army of the Republic.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12240014877?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12240014877?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-left"/></a>Theobald came to an ignominious end in April 1792 while in command of a force that attacked the Allies in Tournai, Belgium. When his troops panicked and retreated, baseless rumors circulated that he had betrayed them. He was shot by Dragoon at close range. Then, civilians dragged him from the carriage carrying the wounded general in the town of Lille. He was shot again and repeatedly stabbed with bayonets. The mob then burned his lifeless body.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Left: A contemporary political cartoon of the murder of Theobald Dillon.)</strong></span></p>
<p>Arthur Dillon would be no more lucky in the new French Republic than Theobald. Though he served them well, helping win the Battle of Valmy in September 1792, Arthur had many enemies in the French government, and it was a time when that could be fatal. Though he battled his enemies to a standstill for some time, in July 1793, he was arrested. Though he managed to avoid his ultimate fate for some time, on April 13, 1794, the guillotine blade fell on his neck. The French government later recognized Dillon’s contributions to and sacrifices for France; his name was inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: The guillotine, where the careers of many<br/> members of the Irish Brigade in service to France ended.)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12240019084?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12240019084?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="275" class="align-right"/></a>There would be two more Dillon’s Regiment in Europe. The British took advantage of the French disbanding of the Irish Brigade and the poor treatment of many of its former officers to form an Irish Catholic Brigade of their own in 1794. It was sometimes called “Pitts Irish Brigade” for Prime Minister William Pitt, who pushed the concept.</p>
<p>Henry Augustus Dillon-Lee, 13th Viscount Dillon, commanded one of the regiments. This was despite his branch of the family no longer being Catholic, as Henry’s father, Charles, had conformed to the established religion (Church of England) in 1667. All of the regiments had problems recruiting in Ireland, which was just four years away from the ’98 Rising.</p>
<p>The Anglo-Irish population was vehemently opposed to the idea of Irish Catholics under arms in Ireland, so all the four regiments that managed to fill their ranks, out of six proposed, were sent overseas. Dillon’s served in Jamaica and San Domingo. In 1797-98, all four regiments were disbanded.</p>
<p>One other Dillon’s regiment served in Europe. Eduard Dillon, who had served in France’s Irish Brigade, organized a regiment in northern Italy. Only Dillon and one other officer, Francis Dillon, were Irishmen, the rest of the regiment being Italians and Frenchmen. It was taken into British service in 1806 and served around the Mediterranean. It was disbanded in 1814.</p>
<p><span><strong><em><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12240023468?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12240023468?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="250" class="align-left"/></a></em></strong></span>Throughout the 18<sup>th</sup> century, many Irishmen and Irish families were forced to leave their native land to practice their religion and live as free men. No Irish exile family distinguished itself more than the Dillons. They remained, Semper et Ubique Fidelis, to France for over a century, even when the country for whom they had sacrificed so much turned its back on them.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span><strong><em>Then, hurrah! for the fame of our faithful and brave,</em></strong></span><strong><em><br/> <span>Unforgotten they rest, though across the deep wave,</span><br/> <span>In far distant lands, are their weary bones laid.</span><br/> <span>Long, long be remembered the lesson they taught,</span><br/> <span>They loved the green island, and died where they fought;</span><br/> <span>With face to the foeman unconquered they fell.</span><br/> <span>May we fight the battle of freedom as well</span><br/> <span>For the flag and the cause of the Irish Brigade!</span></em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: right;">“The Irish Brigade” by Anonymous</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>BIBLIOGRAPHY: </strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1116827697?tag=thewildgeeset-20&camp=211189&creative=373489&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=1116827697&adid=0AMRAA10DDEEKVQKMX6D&&link_code=as3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“History of the Irish Brigades in the Service of France”</a> by John Cornelius O’Callaghan</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12240064873?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12240064873?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="200" class="align-right"/></a>"The Irish Brigade 1670-1745: The Wild Geese in French Service by D. P. Graham </p>
<p>"Irish Swordsmen of France" by Richard Hayes</p>
<p>"The Ranks of Death," Unpublished manuscript, by Thomas J. Mullen, </p>
<p>"Biographical Dictionary of Irishmen in France" by Richard Hayes</p>
<p>"The Irish Brigades 1685-2006" By David Murphy</p>
<p>"The Irish Brigades Abroad: From the Wild Geese to the Napoleonic Wars" by Stephen McGarry</p>
<p>"More Furies Than Men: The Irish Brigade in the Service of France 1690-1792" Piierre-Louis Coudray</p>
<p>"The Irish Brigade of France at the Seige of Savannah, 1779" by W.S. Murphy - The Georgia Historical Quarterly, XXXVIII, pp. 307 (December 1964)</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0850453585?tag=thewildgeeset-20&camp=211189&creative=373489&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0850453585&adid=10ZM3PM5WSBXPNK5HJ4C&&link_code=as3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Wild Geese: The Irish Brigades of France and Spain</a> (Men at Arms Series, 102)” by Mark Mclaughlin</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0283979534?tag=thewildgeeset-20&camp=211189&creative=373493&linkCode=am1&creativeASIN=0283979534&adid=0YSE0NVFGV7V78NFVBEE&&link_code=am3">The Wild Geese: The Irish Soldier in Exile,"</a> by Maurice Hennessy</p>
<p>"The Irish Brigade at Fontenoy," by Sir Charles Petrie, The Irish Sword: Journal of the Military History Society of Ireland, Volume I, No. 3, 1951-52, pp. 166-172</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0521629896?tag=thewildgeeset-20%20target=new&link_code=as3&creativeASIN=0521629896&creative=373489&camp=211189">A Military History of Ireland </a> by Thomas Bartlett and Keith Jeffery Eds.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0903152185?ie=UTF8&tag=thewildgeeset-20&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=0903152185">A History of the Irish Soldier</a> by A.E.C Bredin</p>
<p><span><strong><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12242992896?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12242992896?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="200" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>RELATED LINKS:</strong></span></p>
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<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/video/the-irish-and-france-three-centuries-of-military-history-the-wild" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Irish and France: Three centuries of military history</a> - The Wild Geese Soldiers & Heroes (video)</p>
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<p>It was around mid-afternoon on February 3, 1921, as the Irish Volunteers of the Mid and East Limerick Brigades emerged onto the road near Dromkeen House in Co. Limerick. The firing at the Dromkeen Ambush had just ended, having only gone on for a few minutes, but the effect on the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) men in the ambushed convoy had been…</p>
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<p>It was around mid-afternoon on February 3, 1921, as the Irish Volunteers of the Mid and East Limerick Brigades emerged onto the road near Dromkeen House in Co. Limerick. The firing at the Dromkeen Ambush had just ended, having only gone on for a few minutes, but the effect on the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) men in the ambushed convoy had been devastating.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12190066268?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12190066268?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Though two constables in the first lorry managed to escape, seven lay dead or dying on the road. Two more were wounded but still alive and were taken into the nearby farmhouse of Mr. English. Two constables were captured unharmed or possibly slightly injured.</p>
<p>These two men, Samuel Adams and either William Doyle or Patrick Foody presented an uncomfortable conundrum for the Volunteers. The British had instituted a policy authorizing the execution of any Irishmen captured with firearms. It was not an empty threat, as they had already executed at least one prisoner under that regulation. Many Irish believed they should now do the same with Crown Forces prisoners.</p>
<p>On January 6, representatives of Volunteer units from Cork, Tipperary, and East Limerick met. They sent a list of suggestions for prosecuting the war in the future to General Headquarters in Dublin. Among them was this one: “That G.H.Q. issue a proclamation to effect: In view of the enemy proclamation that our troops will be shot if found armed, the enemy will be similarly dealt with by our troops.” They had gotten no response from Dublin yet, but in the minds of many Volunteers, the execution of Volunteer prisoners by the Crown called for the same in return. As Tom Barry wrote later, “They had gone in the mire to destroy us and our nation and down after them we had to go,” but not everyone agreed.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12190066894?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12190066894?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="250" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Now Donncadh O’Hannigan, (right) the commanding officer of the East Limerick flying column, and the men of the Mid and East Limerick Volunteer Brigades were faced with a moral dilemma that others would be facing around the island over the next five months. They had to make a life-and-death decision. Not wanting to make such a decision himself, O’Hannigan held a drum head Court-Martial with four other officers. The vote was 3-2 for execution.</p>
<p>O’Hannigan then had to find two men in the group willing to carry out this sentence. He picked two, but in the end one of the men, Sean Stapleton, could not bring himself to do it. And so, it would fall on the other, Maurice Meade, to execute both. “May you live in interesting times” is a curse that is sometimes attributed to the Chinese. The idea is that certain times are deemed “interesting” because events like wars and revolutions make for “interesting” history. The life of Maurice Meade would certainly illustrate that curse well. Meade was not a great leader of men. He was an ordinary man with a unique experience of many parts of the “interesting times” of WWI and the Irish War of Independence.</p>
<p>Meade, was born in Ballinavanna, Elton, Co. Limerick on May 11, 1891. In his witness statement to the <a href="https://www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921">Bureau of Military History</a> over 25 years after the war, he gave the date of his birth as 1893, but local records indicate it was 1891. According to Maurice’s statement, his parents, John and Margaret, had a big family, but he didn’t tell how many siblings he had. That big family caused his school years to be abbreviated, and he went to work with a local farmer at the age of twelve.</p>
<p>Unlike many participants in the War of Independence, Meade’s family was not involved with the growing nationalist movement. He was looking for independence, but it was for himself at that time, not his country. Meade found his work on the O’Sullivan family farm in Coolalough boring, and all of his pay went directly to his father. Meade’s days were filled with working very hard for very little money. So it’s not surprising that he was looking for something more, and like many young Irishmen before him, he saw enlistment in the British army as a way out.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12190068474?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12190068474?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="250" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>A trip to visit an older sister in Cork City in the last summer of 1911 gave him the opportunity he sought to enlist. His sister got wind of his plan and thwarted it temporarily. But the next day he evaded her and got the enlistment papers signed. He was soon in Clonmel to begin training with the Royal Irish Regiment, but his sister arrived again, contending he was underage and bringing him home. A few days later he ran away from home to Clonmel and enlisted once again in the Royal Irish Regiment, this time for good.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Left: Cap badge of the Royal Irish Regiment)</strong></span></p>
<p>After his initial training, the Regiment posted him to Guernsey in the Channel Islands. During his time there, he won awards for his cross-country running. When WWI started, his 2<sup>nd</sup> Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment was among the first troops sent to France, landing on August 13, 1914. They were involved in the early war “Race to the Sea” in which the British and French armies raced toward the North Sea along with the German army, both trying to get around d the other’s northern flank.</p>
<p>Meade and his 2nd Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment would meet with disaster in their first major battle at Le Bassée in northern France. They were the victims of their own success in this case. They advanced on October 19, and took their objective at Le Pilly. However, the Germans stalled the advance to the north and south, leaving them exposed. When the Germans counterattacked all along the line the next day, it spelled disaster for the 2<sup>nd</sup> Battalion.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: A group of WWI Royal Irish Regiment soldiers.)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12190068858?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12190068858?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>The Battalion was cut and surrounded for three days. Their commanding officer was killed, and they were slowly running out of food and ammunition. They were finally forced to surrender. Of 900 soldiers who went into the battle, only 300 survived to become prisoners. Of those, an officer of the German 56th Regiment recalled that hardly one hundred of them could walk. Meade was lucky enough to be one of the survivors and began his period as a German POW. The casualty figures certainly showed how staunchly the Royal Irish had held out. They had 177 killed or died of wounds, 200 of the302 captured were seriously wounded, and another another 163 wounded had been evacuated before the village was surrounded.</p>
<p>Meade said it took them a week to get to their final destination in Germany and that they got little food during the trip. That destination was Hamelin-on-Weser, southwest of Hanover. The Germans held them in a barbwire enclosure with no buildings at all. With winter setting in, they had no shelter and were given little food. They got one loaf of bread each to last a week, and soup in the middle of the day. The soup was said to be made up of anything handy and sometimes contained horse hide. Meade said the POWs would sometimes steal potato peels from the cook tent garbage to supplement their diet.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12190069688?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12190069688?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>In December, the Irish prisoners were separated from the other POWs and sent to a camp in Limburg. There their treatment and their living conditions got much better. Prisoner Michael Keogh recalled that there they had, “Fine wooden huts, each with two rooms to house 50 men: well ventilated, comfortable: beds on wooden trestles, and ample blankets.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Left: Limberg POW camp)</strong></span></p>
<p>The Germans had an ulterior motive in moving these Irish prisoners. The prisoners soon discovered that Roger Casement was attempting to recruit an Irish Brigade to assist in a possible invasion of Ireland. A priest named Father Crotty came to discuss the idea with them shortly after they arrived.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: A drawing of Casement attempting to recruit Irish POWs)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12190071088?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12190071088?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Casement also visited the camp in December to appeal for recruits. He was not impressed by the POWs he met there. He described them as “dirty and shivering in their thin khakis” and looking terribly demoralized. In truth, many of them, like Meade, were not from families with long Republican traditions, and some were not even Irish. The Germans had not used any records to know which were Irish. They had merely assembled the POWs in their camps and asked the Irish to step out. Thinking it was possible the Irish would be sent home or at least sent to better facilities, it is believed many non-Irishmen also stepped forward. Joseph Zerhusen, the German-appointed interpreter to the brigade, later said those POWs put peer pressure on the actual Irismen to reject the idea of enlisting in this brigade.</p>
<p>The recruiting began slowly, and that never changed. Of the thousands of Irish prisoners held by the Germans, only about 56 ever volunteered for what was over-optimistically named the Irish “Brigade.” One of those recruits was Meade. In his Irish military archives witness statement, he doesn’t give his reasons for joining. He said earlier in his statement, “I had no interest in, nor did I know anything of the national movement at the time.” Promises of better treatment and food attracted some; for others, it may have simply been the typical youthful desire for adventure. At one point, Meade says they even got to meet the Kaiser, which was undoubtedly more exciting than the stifling boredom of their POW camp.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: A group of NCOs from Casement's Irish Brigade)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12190071877?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12190071877?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>The Germans moved the recruits to Zossen in July 1915, where they trained them on captured British Lewis machine guns. The Irish were very familiar with the British weapon. Meade said the German officers sometimes berated their training NCOs for being slower in stripping and assembling the weapons than their “students,” causing tension. On New Year’s Eve, that boiled over into a massive brawl in the mess hall that moved out into the streets and had to be quelled by other troops. Meade was apparently one of the instigators on the Irish side, as he was one of three the Germans disciplined over the brawl.</p>
<p>It quickly became evident that the “Brigade” would never recruit enough to be a useful force in any possible invasion during the coming Irish rising. Once Casement departed on his ill-fated pre-Rising trip back to Ireland, the Germans weren’t sure what to do with their few Irish recruits. Meade joined the German army and served with them in the middle east. He recalled how he “spoke to some of the British prisoners captured during the fighting in Egypt and they were amazed at me, being as they thought a German, being able to speak English so well.”</p>
<p>Meade returned to Germany in early 1918 and was discharged. He got a job with a firm called Polete, a liquor distributor in Dirschau. He started wearing his Irish Brigade uniform when he went out because the Germans respected uniforms. Unfortunately for him, it led to his arrest by the British. Meade was sent back to London along with another Brigade member, Patrick O’Neill, a veteran of the Connaught Rangers.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: The Tower of London)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12190074258?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12190074258?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>The British made Meade and O’Neill wear British Marine uniforms with all badges and brass buttons stipped off. When they landed, they were guarded by 300 soldiers and taken to the famous Tower of London. Many famous people had spent their last days there, and it seemed inevitable Meade and O’Neill would as well. They were tried and convicted of high treason and sentenced to die. But a day before their execution, they got word of King’s Pardon.</p>
<p>Meade returned to Co. Limerick, but his “treason” difficulties were not over. The RIC and the commanders of the Royal Irish Regiment took issue with the King’s Pardon. A constable he knew previously enticed him into the RIC station in Elton where he was arrested and shipped off to the headquarters of the Royal Irish Regiment in Clonmel. The incarceration was rather loose and he just walked away one night.</p>
<p>When Meade returned to his hometown of Ballylanders, David Tobin and Donnacha O’Hannigan took him into the local East Limerick Brigade of the Irish Volunteers. He claimed in his witness statement that he joined the brigade flying column at that time, but this was April 1919, and there were no flying columns yet. Meade was already on the run, as would be most of the men who were later in flying columns. Meade was not yet 30 and was joining his fourth military organization.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: Meade in his Free State uniform.)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12198536100?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12198536100?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="200" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>O’Hannigan was happy to have a WWI veteran in his brigade. Given Meade’s military experience, he appointed him to the post of training officer. The East Limerick Brigade would be very active during the war, and Meade was right in the middle of that action. His Volunteer comrades describe Meade as a “crack shot and hugely competent in combat.”</p>
<p>Meade took part in the successful attack on the Ballylanders RIC barracks in April 1920. He also took part in the more famous attack on the Killmallock barracks in May. That one, unlike Ballylanders, did not succeed in capturing any weapons, but the barracks was destroyed and abandoned.</p>
<p>As the Volunteers shifted from barracks attacks to ambushing crown forces in the summer of 1920 through to the end of the war, Meade was involved in all the significant actions of the brigade. When Donncadh O’Hannigan organized what is considered the first flying column of “on the run” men that summer, Meade was a part of it.</p>
<p>Meade participated in the Kildorrery Ambush on August 7, where they successfully captured arms and ammunition. The eight ambushed RIC members were on foot, and all were wounded. The Volunteers stayed with the wounded man and tended to them for some time. It would not be long before this humane treatment of RIC and army prisoners by the Volunteers would become a thing of the past in most counties. This was probably inevitable, with the British treating the Volunteers as criminals rather than combatants in a war.</p>
<p>Sometime that late summer, Meade had an interesting connection to the famous kidnapping of British General Lucas. Lucas spent the last part of this captivity with the East Limerick Brigade guarding him, and by his own admission, they treated him exceedingly well. That included an abundant supply of whiskey, but not all of it got there, thanks to Meade. One bottle had to pass through Meade’s hands to get to Lucas, and when he found out its planned destination, he intercepted it. One comrade reported that Meade said, “What! For that - - - - - and me having my tongue out for a drink for two weeks.” The bottle went no further.</p>
<p>On November 7, Meade was at the ambush at Grange. This ambush was unsuccessful, as the Irish were expecting just two vehicles and eight arrived. The outnumbered Irish flying column was forced to retreat.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12198551460?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12198551460?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="350" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Meade was assigned to operate a Maxim machine gun (right) during the Glenacurrane Ambush on December 17. They blocked the road with a fallen tree, and O’Hannigan placed Meade behind where the convoy would stop, with orders to help prevent them from retreating from the ambush area. He admitted to disobeying O’Hannigan’s orders and firing at the touring car at the end of the convoy. According to his account, his firing precipitated the surrender of the soldiers of the Lincolnshire Regiment who were guarding the convoy. Meade’s witness statement mentioned no disciplinary action following the ambush, and O’Hannigan didn’t mention the incident.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: Members of the East Limerick flying column.)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://st11.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84722085?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://st11.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84722085?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>When the action was over, O’Hannigan once again treated his prisoners humanely. The wounded were given first aid and then were transported to a cottage in Athmaslings Cross. Things were about to get much more brutal, however.</p>
<p>Meade’s most famous, or infamous, actions of the war occurred on February 7, 1921, at the Dromkeen Ambush. One must understand the condition in Ireland at the time to fully understand the actions of Meade and his comrades that day. On December 10, 1920, the British had declared martial law in the counties of Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Tipperary. They declared the right to execute any Irishman arrested while possessing firearms and officially sanctioned reprisals against Irish property following ambushes. Unofficial reprisals had been going on for months.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: The site of the Dromkeen Ambush.)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://st11.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84722079?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://st11.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84722079?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>On February 7, 1921, less than a week before the Dromkeen Ambush, Captain Cornelius Murphy of Liam Lynch’s Cork No. 2 Brigade was the first Volunteer executed under this provision. The British had also destroyed dozens of homes and would eventually demolish over 150 before the truce. Many, though not all, Irish Volunteers believed they should also begin executing prisoners. That was the mindset of many of the men of the East Limerick Brigade as they marched out to set up their ambush in Dromkeen.</p>
<p>The Volunteer’s ambushes, even the successful ones, seldom went as planned during the war, but Dromkeen came close. Two RIC men in the first of the two lorries got away, but the rest were all killed, wounded, or captured. With the new circumstances in the war, the unwounded constable’s lives hung in the balance. Hannigan assembled a drumhead court-martial with himself and officers Seán Stapleton, David Guerin, and Richard O’Connell, which sealed the fate of the two uninjured constables.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Below: The Dromkeen Ambush Monument.)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12198557855?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12198557855?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Meade recalled that O’Hannigan called him and said, “Here, Maurice, will you shoot one of them?” I agreed to do so. He gave Stapleton the job of executing the other. And when Stapleton could bring himself to shoot the other constable, Meade shot him as well. Meade was very matter-of-fact in relating this in his witness statement. He simply stated that they believed the British decision to execute captured Volunteer soldiers justified their actions. Was he harboring some grievance toward the RIC because of his treatment after his pardon that made it easier for him to shoot them? He left no comments behind on that subject.</p>
<p>The 11 policemen killed at Dromkeen were Constables Samuel Adams, George Bell, John Bourke, Michael Doyle, Patrick Foody, William Hayton, William Kingston, Sidney Millin, Bernard Mollaghan, Arthur Pearce and Henry Smith. The two executed by Meade were Adams, and either Doyle or Foody. It was one of the war’s highest single ambush death tolls for the RIC.</p>
<p>On May 1, Meade was present at the flying column’s near disaster at Shraherla. They were surprised by two lorries full of RIC constables with Lewis guns. Meade was the first to see them approaching and burst into a home where several Volunteers were staying, crying out, “Come out quick, or you’ll be riddled! The Tans are us.” Meade barely escaped, with his coat riddled with holes by one of the Lewis guns. Capt Paddy Stair, James Horan, and Tim Hennessy were killed during the fight, and Patrick Casey was captured and then executed.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12198559263?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12198559263?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="200" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Meade’s War of Independence was not quite over when the truce went into effect in July, 1921. He was involved in one more act of violence connected to the war, brought on by the fact that some RIC constables could also not let go of the war.</p>
<p>On December 9, 1921, a train bringing home Irish prisoners from Ballykinlar Internment Camp was bombed in Thurles, Co. Tipperary, mortally wounding one of the former prisoners, Declan Hurton. The Volunteers believed the bomber was RIC Sgt. Thomas Enright. He was a WWI veteran who was born in Listowel, Co. Kerry. They also believed Enright had murdered publican Larry Hickey, in Thurles in March 1921. The Volunteers had attempted to kill Enright for the murder of Hickey before the truce and failed. The truce probably would have saved him, but his attack on the prisoner train was the last straw for the Volunteers.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Right: Sgt. Thomas Enright)</strong></span></p>
<p>Meade and several of his East Limerick comrades were in Kilmallock in December 1921 and discovered that Sgt. Enright was there with some dogs he had entered in local races. In his witness statement, Meade says matter-of-factly, “we agreed to shoot him and we did so that night.” Enright and Constable Timoney were shot as they left a hotel at 10:30 PM. Enright died, while Timoney was hit several times but survived.</p>
<p>Unlike many members of the western brigades, Meade fought on the Free State side in the Irish Civil War. He remained in the army for a time after the Civil War, becoming a 2<sup>nd</sup> Lieutenant. He had another close brush with death in March 1923, when the Republicans captured him near Castleconnell. With the Free State executing many Republican prisoners at the time, any prisoner’s life was certainly in jeopardy.</p>
<p>An IRA member named John Baggott had been killed in action earlier in the day. Sean Carroll, the leader of the area’s anti-Treaty forces, knew that Baggott’s brothers might want revenge. At this point, many Republicans were accepting that their cause was lost. Perhaps that also figured into Carroll’s decision to release Meade. He had once again lived to tell the tale.</p>
<p>Meade married Hanora (Nora) Hayes of Emly in 1923. The couple had no children, and Meade left the army in September 1924.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12198560076?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12198560076?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="250" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Meade spent the rest of his post-war life in the mundane work routine that most Irishmen would live for years to come. He drove a horse and cart, taking milk to the creamery for the rest of his working life. It was the way he probably would have lived his whole life had he been born in a different era. Instead, he spent time in five different military organizations: the British Army, Casement’s Irish Brigade, the German Army, the Irish Republican Army, and the Irish Free State Army. Against all odds, Meade lived to old age, dying on April 19, 1972, at age 81, in Emly, where he was buried.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>(Left: The elderly Maurice Meade)</strong></span></p>
<p>In WWI, Meade fought in Europe and the Middle East and later in some of the most famous and controversial actions of the Irish War of Independence. After WWI, he sat in a cell in the Tower of London, believing he had one day to live. Then he helped free his country from centuries of bondage. Undoubtedly, many criticize him for some of his actions. Like most soldiers, however, he was just the point of the spear.</p>
<p>Revolutions are often the most brutal type of war, as the government usually considers the rebel forces criminals. Many leaders on both sides were responsible for orders and policy decisions that often put front-line soldiers like Meade in terrible positions. Maurice Meade was an ordinary man whose early adulthood was made remarkable by living in some of Irish history’s most “interesting times.”</p>
<p><strong>RELATED LINKS:</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dromkeen_ambush" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wikipedia: Dromkeen ambush</a></p>
<p>"<a href="http://amzn.to/2tcF6Wt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Limerick's Fighting Story 1916-21</a>: Told by the Men Who Made It" by Ruan O'Donnell<a href="http://amzn.to/2tcF6Wt" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12198666487?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="300" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a></p>
<p><a href="http://amzn.to/2pdHVkJ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“With the IRA in the Fight for Freedom: 1919 to the Truce”</a><span> by Gabriel Doherty</span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://amzn.to/36SyC0k" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Our Struggle for Independence:</a> Eye-witness accounts from the pages of An Cosantoir” by Terence O'Reilly</span></p>
<p><a href="https://archive.is/20130412224002/http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/leader-local/blood-of-all-sides-remembered-at-dromkeen-ceremony-1-2187170#selection-1293.1-1293.51" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Blood of all sides remembered at Dromkeen ceremony</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN33MPq-Slw&t=14s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Drumkeen Ambush Video</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-kilmallock-barracks-attack-burning-down-the-house-in-limerick" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Kilmallock Barracks Attack: Burning Down the House in Limerick</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-dromkeen-ambush-down-into-the-mire-in-county-limerick" target="_self">The Dromkeen Ambush: Down Into the Mire in County Limerick</a></p>
<p><a href="http://http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_la_bassee.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Battle of Le Basse</a></p>
<p><a href="http://Casement%20recruiting%20of%20the%20Irish%20Brigade%20from%20Irish%20POWs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Casement and the Irish Brigade Recruited from Irish POWs</a></p>
<p><a href="https://breac.nd.edu/articles/the-afterlife-of-roger-casements-irish-brigade-1916-1922/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Afterlife of Roger Casement’s Irish Brigade</a>, 1916-1922</p>
<p><strong>More on the Irish War of Independence</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/irish-rebel-maurice-meade-may-you-live-in-interesting-times" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Irish Rebel Maurice Meade</a>: May You LIve in Interesting Times</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-blacksmith-hammers-the-auxies-at-clonfin-longford">"The Blacksmith" Hammers the Auxies at Clonfin, Longford</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/dillon-s-cross-and-the-burning-of-cork-city" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dillon’s Cross Ambush and the Burning of Cork City</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/corkman-capture-mallow-barracks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Corkmen Capture Mallow Barracks</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-ballymahon-barracks-attack-arming-the-boys-of-longford" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ballymahon Barracks Attack: Arming the Boys of Longford</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-listowel-mutiny-shoot-on-sight" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Listowel Mutiny: “Shoot on Sight”</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-ballymacandy-ambush-i-would-not-turn-off-my-road-for-any-shin">The Ballymacandy Ambush: "I would not turn off my road for any Shin...</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/sean-treacy-at-war-tipperary-far-away">Seán Treacy at War: Tipperary 'Far Away'</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/paddy-o-brien-and-the-rathcoole-ambush-vengeance-is-mine-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Paddy” O’Brien and the Rathcoole ambush: Vengeance Is “Mine”</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-scramogue-ambush-roscommon-steps-up" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Scramogue Ambush: Roscommon Steps Up</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-1st-brigade-cork-volunteers-and-the-coolnacahera-ambush-1">The 1st Brigade Cork Volunteers and the Coolnacahera Ambush</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/michael-brennan-and-the-east-clare-brigade-at-the-glenwood-ambush">Michael Brennan and the East Clare Brigade at the Glenwood Ambush</a><span> </span></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/piltown-ambush-1-november-1920">100 Years Ago: The Piltown Ambush (1 November 1920)</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/liam-lynch-civil-war-martyr-it-never-should-have-happened">Liam Lynch, Civil War Martyr: “It never should have happened”</a></p>
<p>“<a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/tipperary-s-dan-breen-the-hardest-hard-man">Tipperary’s Dan Breen: The Hardest Hard Man</a>.”</p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/greyhound-on-train-the-rescue-of-hogan-at-knocklong" target="_blank" rel="noopener">'Greyhound on Train': Rescuing Seán Hogan at Knocklong</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/IRA-Fight-Freedom-1919-Truce/dp/1856356876/ref=as_li_ss_tl?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1521048677&sr=1-1&keywords=with+the+ira+in+the+fight+for+freedom&linkCode=sl1&tag=thewildgeesestore-20&linkId=a5d3c25f0b649a20f2fc210f1385756b" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img width="200" class="align-right" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84723435?profile=RESIZE_320x320"/></a><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-clonbanin-ambush-to-hell-with-surrender" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Clonbanin Ambush: “To Hell With Surrender!”</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/george-lennon-waterford-rebel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">George Lennon: Waterford Rebel</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/george-lennon-the-piltown-cross-ambush" target="_blank" rel="noopener">George Lennon & the Piltown Ambush</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-kilmallock-barracks-attack-burning-down-the-house-in-limerick" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Kilmallock Barracks Attack: Burning Down the House in Limerick</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-tureengarriffe-ambush-cork-kerry-strike-a-blow" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Tureengarriffe Ambush: Cork & Kerry Strike a Blow</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-tourmakeady-ambush-shrouded-by-the-fog-of-war-in-mayo" target="_self">The Tourmakeady Ambush: Shrouded By the “Fog of War” in Mayo</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-headford-ambush-time-runs-out-in-kerry" target="_self">The Headford Ambush: Time Runs Out in Kerry</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/cataclysm-in-cork-the-battle-of-clonmult" target="_self">Cataclysm in Cork: The Battle of Clonmult</a></p>
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<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-dromkeen-ambush-down-into-the-mire-in-county-limerick" target="_self">The Dromkeen Ambush: Down Into the Mire in County Limerick</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/rineen-ambush-hell-comes-to-county-clare" target="_self">The Rineen Ambush: Hell Comes to County Clare</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-carrowkennedy-ambush-june-2-1921-revenge-is-a-dish-best-serve" target="_self">The Carrowkennedy Ambush, June 2, 1921: Revenge is a Dish Best Serv...</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/tom-barry-we-may-have-great-men-but-we-ll-never-have-better" target="_self">Tom Barry: 'We May Have Great Men, But We’ll Never Have Better'<br/></a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-battle-of-crossbarry-breaking-the-back-of-the-british-occupat" target="_self">The Battle of Crossbarry: ... 'Who Piped Old Ireland Free'</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-kilmeena-ambush-seeds-of-victory-in-a-defeat" target="_self">The Kilmeena Ambush, May 19, 1921: Seeds of Victory in a Defeat</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/co-waterford-burgery-ambush-march-19-1921" target="_self">'Nigh Comeragh's Rugged Hills': Ambush at The Burgery</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/trauma-at-the-burgery-part-1" target="_self">The R.I.C. In An Untenable Position, Part 1: Trauma at The Burgery</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-irish-war-of-independence-the-lispole-ambush-avoiding-disaste" target="_self">The Lispole Ambush -- Averting Disaster on the Dingle Peninsula</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/patrick-white-a-tragic-death-on-spike-island" target="_self">Patrick White: A Clareman's Tragic Death on Spike Island</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/and-to-watch-the-sunbeams-dancing-o-er-the-wicklow-mountains-high" target="_self">'And To Watch the Sunbeams Dancing O’er the Wicklow Mountains High'</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/always-remember-cumann-na-mban" target="_self">Always Remember ~ Cumann na mBan</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/my-fathers-story-how-the-nuns-of-kylemore-abbey-saved-his-life" target="_self">War of Independence -- How the Nuns of Kylemore Saved My Father's Life</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/terence-macswiney-irish-martyr" target="_self">Terence MacSwiney: Irish Martyr</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/walking-to-work-through-a-battle-zone" target="_self">Walking to Work Through a Battle Zone</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/review-of-emmet-dalton-somme-soldier-irish-general-film-pioneer" target="_self">Review of 'Emmet Dalton - Somme Soldier, Irish General, Film Pionee...</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-village-of-generals" target="_self">Ballinalee, County Longford: The Village of Generals</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-anglo-irish-treaty-seed-of-the-troubles" target="_self">The Anglo-Irish Treaty: Seed of 'The Troubles'</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/shot-while-attempting-to-escape">Shot While Attempting To Escape</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:184709">Easter Rising to Irish Civil War Archive Available Online</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:111606">Michael Collins: Saga of Heroism Against Daunting Odds</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:180517">A Short History of Michael Collins, Ireland's 'Big Fellow'</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:74979">Great Irish Romances: Michael Collins and Kitty Kiernan</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:144731">Kitty and Michael: a revolutionary courtship</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:163757">The Tan Who Was Hanged By His Own Side</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:24652">Liam Lynch: Victim of the Irish Civil War</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:87437">1916 and the Rebels' Priests</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:8890">After The Rising … 'Fron-goch and the Birth of the IRA'</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:177498">Ernie O'Malley: Mayo-Born Freedom Fighter and Writer</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:75936">The Wild Geese Virtual Síbín with Cormac O'Malley</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:8961">Evidence Abounds: British Leaders OK'd Mayhem</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:162480">The Price of Freedom</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:8947">The West Cork Trail: Scenes From the Anglo-Irish and Civil Wars, 19...</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:189731">How I Learned That Grandad Executed Erskine Childers</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:151451">Leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising: Éamon de Valera</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:184590">Erskine Childers: Author, Irish Gunrunner, Churchill's Bête Noire</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:63600">The Scum of England, or Ordinary Men? A Review of DJ Kelly's 'Runni...</a></p>
<p>The Forgotten Ten:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/kevin-barry-just-a-lad-of-18-summers" target="_self">Part 1: 'Just a Lad of 18 Summers'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/kevin-barry-part-2-an-example-has-to-be-made" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Part 2: 'An Example Has To Be Made'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/kevin-barry-part-3-proud-to-die-for-the-republic" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Part 3: 'Proud To Die for the Republic'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/part-4-down-into-the-mire" target="_self">Part 4: 'Down Into the Mire'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/part-5-england-executes-prisoners-of-war" target="_self">Part 5: 'England Executes Prisoners of War'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/part-6-death-with-no-tremblings" target="_self">Part 6: 'Death With No Tremblings'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/part-7-fight-on-struggle-on" target="_self">Part 7: 'Fight On, Struggle On'</a></strong></li>
</ul>Anne Devlin - Ireland's Hero and First Female Political Prisonertag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-10-03:6442157:BlogPost:1212982014-10-03T21:30:00.000ZMicheal O Doibhilinhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MichealODoibhilin
<p style="text-align: left;"><em><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708364?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708364?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="375"></img></a> <span class="font-size-1">As requested, here an account of the life of <strong>Anne Devlin, assistant to Robert Emmet.</strong></span></em></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;">I</span>n the church of St. Nicholas of…</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><em><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708364?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="375" class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708364?profile=RESIZE_480x480"/></a><span class="font-size-1">As requested, here an account of the life of <strong>Anne Devlin, assistant to Robert Emmet.</strong></span></em></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;">I</span>n the church of St. Nicholas of Myra</strong> in Dublin’s Liberties, on 21/5/1838, 24-year-old</span> <strong style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Catherine Campbell</strong> <span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">married</span> <strong style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">William Maginnis</strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">. Present at the wedding were Catherine’s proud mother Anne and father William.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">But the marriage was not to last – by 1846 <strong>William Maginnis</strong> was dead as the <strong>Great Famine</strong> took hold of the country, leaving a widow and a year-old baby, William.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Once again Catherine’s mother Anne must have felt that the fates were conspiring against her, for she had buried her own husband – Catherine’s father – on January 12<sup>th</sup> that year, and her life was taking its final, tragic turn.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Anne had married <strong>William Campbell</strong> in <strong>St. Catherine’s Church</strong> in <strong>Meath Street</strong> on April 14<sup>th</sup>, 1811 and was to spend almost 35 years with this ‘good man’ as she later described him. It <i>was</i> a good marriage, as marriages went in <strong>19<sup>th</sup> Century Dublin Liberties</strong>. The newlyweds moved into a mews at the back of 2 Mullinahack – <strong>John’s Lane</strong> - where they lived in relative comfort. There was stabling for William’s horse there, and the dwelling could be entered from either the main house or directly from John’s Lane.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Anne took in washing (William could collect and deliver it for her with his horse and dray) and they had, according to Anne <em>‘a competence sufficient unto our needs’</em>.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The Campbells had four children – <strong>Catherine</strong> (1812), <strong>John</strong> (1813), <strong>William</strong> (1816) and <strong>MaryAnne</strong> (1822). But all was not well. <strong>John</strong> may have died in late childhood, while William was so weak and ill all his life that, even though he eventually moved out of the family home to try to make his own way in the world, he frequently had to return to his mother to be nursed through one of his many illnesses. Daughter <strong>MaryAnne</strong> became a drug addict, addicted to the medicines of the day (possibly painkillers prescribed to Anne herself) and eventually died before her thirtieth birthday in a lunatic asylum in <strong>New York</strong> from a fatal overdose of someone else’s medication.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">When Anne’s husband died in 1846, she lost much of her income – not just William’s earnings, but much of her own for now she could not carry laundry any distance – either to collect or deliver, and her fortunes declined. By late 1850, as the Great Famine was finally receding, Anne had to move from her mews to a garret in <strong>2 Little Elbow Lane</strong> (where <em>Reginald Street</em> now is) – soon to be acknowledged as the worst slum in Europe.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">But even at this stage Anne was not alone – she was, in fact, <i>never</i> alone now and had not been since she was released from prison in <strong>Dublin Castle</strong> in 1806. Always in the background, everywhere she went, was a policeman noting what she did, who she spoke to, who greeted her. Anyone who appeared to know her was marked as a potential enemy of the State and could be arrested or questioned without warning.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">For <strong>Anne Campbell</strong> was a dangerous woman. Better known as <span style="color: #993300;"><strong>Anne Devlin</strong></span>, she had been born into a comfortable Catholic tenant farming family near <strong>Rathdrum </strong>in <strong>County Wicklow</strong> in 1881. Following the failed United Irish Rebellion of 1798 Anne's family moved to <strong>Rathfarnham</strong> in <strong>Co. Dublin</strong> to escape persecution by Crown Forces.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">In 1802 Anne volunteered to help <strong>Robert Emmet</strong> organise his abortive rebellion of 23 July 1803. Anne was Emmet’s unpaid assistant and confidant, privy to all his plans. She knew at least fifty of the leading businessmen in Dublin who had subscribed about £75,000 (€15,000,000 or $93,840,000 today) to fund this rebellion, and had been in charge of Emmet’s headquarters on the day of the rebellion itself. She had berated Emmet when he returned after his failure for abandoning her cousins and brothers who had joined him in his venture but was, over the next 2½ years, to see her family decimated as she remained loyal to Emmet’s democratic ideals.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708411?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="400" class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708411?profile=RESIZE_480x480"/></a></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">In the aftermath of the rebellion Anne and her family were arrested at their home in</span> <strong style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Rathfarnham</strong> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">and marched to</span> <strong style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Dublin Castle</strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">. Here they were interrogated and then sent to</span> <strong style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Kilmainham Gaol</strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">. Anne, her sisters, father, mother and brothers were now in the hands of the evil</span> <strong style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Dr. Edward Trevor</strong> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">– medical inspector of the Gaol …</span> <strong style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>and paid British spy</em></strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">While Anne’s family were released over the coming months (though her father Bryan was not released until 1806) Anne was coming in for very special attention from <strong>Dr. Trevor</strong>. While in <strong>Dublin Castle</strong> she had been offered £500 (c. €1,000,000 or $1,251,185 today) for the names of the men who had financed Emmet’s rebellion, but had refused it out of hand. There could have been a reward of up to £500 for each of these men if their names had been known (£25,000 then or a total of €50,000,000 now!) and Trevor wanted it. For 2½ years he tortured Anne, keeping her in the worst imaginable conditions in prison – solitary confinement, total darkness, etc. So awful were the conditions that she developed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erysipelas" target="_blank">erysipelas</a> – a usually fatal disease contracted from filthy living conditions and which killed one out of every three who contracted it, usually painfully and swiftly – within a matter of days. Even today there is no sure cure for this.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">In prison Anne met <strong>Robert Emmet</strong> who advised her to tell what she knew of his rebellion and save herself, but she refused to become an informer, continuing to endure the worst that Trevor and the <strong>British Crown</strong> could do to her.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><font size="2">(When Robert was first captured he was brought to Kilmainham Gaol on August 26th to await trial. Anne came to the Gaol on September 3.</font></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><font size="2">Robert was allowed exercise in the yards alone, Dr. Edward Trevor and Chief of Police Town-Major Sirr arranged for Anne to be "accidentally" allowed into the same yard while they surreptitiously watched from a prison window to see if Anne and Robert would acknowledge each other but Anne saw them and realised their plan so she refused to appear to know Emmet.</font></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><font size="2">Surreptitiously the two exchanged words while Robert continued to hit a ball against a wall with a paddle or racquet. He told Anne to save herself, to tell what she knew of him but she refused.<br/> <br/> Frustrated, Trevor ordered Anne brought back to her dungeon cell and she never saw Robert again after that).<br/> <br/> We do not know the date of this meeting, but it appears to have been some time after Anne entered the Gaol. If it was, say, 2 weeks after, then it would be about September 17, which would make sense as, with Emmet's trial approaching on the 19th, the Crown would be looking desperately for evidence that would convict him.</font></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><font size="2"><font size="2">After his trial Robert Emmet had been brought to Kilmainham Gaol in the middle of the night, under heavy guard and manacled. The Head Gaoler, (there was no Governor of the Gaol until 1820) ordered the chains to be removed and put Robert into the condemned cell, where he spent the time writing until about midday on the 20 September when he was taken to Thomas Street to be executed. Anne was not given the opportunity to meet Robert at this time.</font></font></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">She even saw her youngest brother Jimmy die in her arms in jail at the age of just 11 from gaol fever, but would not yield.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Released eventually in 1806 following the intervention of <strong>Mrs. Hanlon</strong>, wife of the brutal head gaoler of <strong>Dublin Castle</strong> where she had been transferred by Trevor in an attempt to hide her from the authorities who were by this time beginning to release untried prisoners from Kilmainham, Anne found her father on his deathbed and her family ruined.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Over the next few years she suffered the loss of much of her immediate family. Not one of those she had protected came to her assistance save only the <strong>Hammonds</strong> – former friends of the Emmets - who gave her a position as Lady’s Companion to the aged <strong>Mrs. Hammond</strong>.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Shortly after Mrs. Hammond’s death in 1810 Anne married <strong>William Campbell</strong> from the Dublin Liberties.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Apart from being followed everywhere now by police, Anne was also suffering badly from the ongoing effects of erysipelas which frequently left her bloated (looking <i>“more like a cow than a woman”</i> she once recorded). At times her eyes were squeezed so tightly shut she could not see across the road and had to be helped. And still she worked, and had children, and kept house, and never informed on anyone.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Imagine, then, her final years. Alone, in a virtual open prison, deserted by those she had protected, penniless, gradually sinking further into oblivion until she was found dead of starvation in her slum garret on September 18<sup>th</sup>, 1851 at the age of 71, dressed in rags, her furniture and everything of value pawned for food.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">But she had not betrayed those who had helped Emmet, ever, despite the awful cost to her and her family. Had she done so, a wealthy and powerful layer of nationalist leadership would have been wiped out, the spinal chord of Nationalism severed, and the country we have today would not exist.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">It is no idle claim to say that we owe our freedoms and liberties today directly to Ireland’s first female political prisoner, Anne Devlin – a true lady of the Dublin Liberties.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Ar dheis Dé go rabh a anam. May she rest in peace, in the arms of God.</strong></span></p>
<p></p>
<p align="right" style="text-align: left;"><span class="font-size-1" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>P.S. For a fuller account of Anne's live read <strong>"Anne Devlin - bravest of the brave"</strong> available by post from my publishing house, <a href="http://www.kilmainhamtales.ie/01-anne-devlin.php" target="_blank">Kilmainham Tales Teo.</a></em></span></p>
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<p align="right" style="text-align: left;"></p>Ireland – The Birthplace of Halloweentag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-10-01:6442157:BlogPost:1203462014-10-01T10:30:00.000ZDee Notarohttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/DeeNotaro
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707556?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707556?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"></img></a> I</span>t seems to me</strong> people start Halloween the first of October. They claim it has overtaken Christmas as the best holiday of the year. <span style="font-size: 13px;">Approximately 100 countries celebrate Halloween but just what are we actually celebrating?…</span></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707556?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707556?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-full"/></a>I</span>t seems to me</strong> people start Halloween the first of October. They claim it has overtaken Christmas as the best holiday of the year. <span style="font-size: 13px;">Approximately 100 countries celebrate Halloween but just what are we actually celebrating?</span><span style="font-size: 13px;"> </span></p>
<p>Halloween's origins date – 4000 B.C. - when according to the Celtic lunar calendar “summer’s end” was celebrated. This festival was called Samhain (Scots Gaelic: Samhuinn). Festivals were celebrated on the "eve" rather than the day, thus making October 31st the beginning of the most sacred of all holidays. The word was also used for the first month of the ancient Celtic calendar, and in particular the first three nights of that month; the festival marks the beginning of the winter season. "All Hallows’ Day", also called "All Saints’ Day", which is a Catholic day of religious observance in honor of saints, and comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows’ Eve. The Romans adopted these practices as their own in the first century and incorporated Samhain with their own. Pomona, the goddess of fruits and tress was celebrated in October and she was symbolized by the apple. This <em>might</em> explain the tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.<span style="font-size: 13px;"> </span></p>
<p>One story says that all on the eve of October 31, the disembodied spirits of all those who died during the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed that all laws of space and time were suspended during this time allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living. Naturally the still-living did not want to be possessed, so on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes to make them cold and uncomfortable. They would dress up in all manners of ghoulish costumes and noisily parade around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible to frighten away the spirits. Probably a better explanation as to why all extinguished their fires as so that all Celtic fires could relight their fires from a common source. The Druidic fire that was kept burning in the middle of Ireland was at <b>Hill of Uisneach</b> . This festival was called Samhain (Scots Gaelic: Samhuinn). Often Druid priests would throw the bones of cattle into the flames and, hence, “bone fire” became “bonfire.<span style="font-size: 13px;"> </span></p>
<p>The Jack O’Lantern probably comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack who was notorious as a drunkard and a trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved a cross into the trunk trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that if he would never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down from the tree.<span style="font-size: 13px;"> </span></p>
<p>According to legend, when Jack died he was denied entrance to heaven because of his evil ways but he was also denied entrance to hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead the devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was place in a hollowed out turnip to keep it glowing longer. The Irish originally used turnips as their “ jack’s lanterns” . But when they came to America they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful. The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840s by Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine. The custom of trick-or-treating is thought not to have originated with the Celts, but from a 9<sup>th</sup> century European custom called “souling”. On November 2, All Souls’ Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for “soul cakes” made out of square pieces bread with currants. The more cakes they would receive – the more prayers they would promise to say for the dead relatives of the donors. At that time, it was believed that the dead stayed in limbo for a time and that prayers, even those offered by strangers, could expedite their souls into heaven.<span style="font-size: 13px;"> </span></p>
<p>Black and orange are typically associated with Halloween. Orange is a symbol of strength and endurance and, along with brown and gold, stands for the harvest and autumn. Black is typically a symbol of death and darkness and acts as a reminder that Halloween once was a festival that marked the boundaries between life and death.<span style="font-size: 13px;"> </span></p>
<p>One final tidbit: "Samhainophobia" is the fear of Halloween.</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>Related Reading</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://thenewwildgeese.com/profiles/blogs/halloween-a-boo-joe-mcgowan-chats-about-halloween-traditions-in-i" target="_self">Historian Joe McGowan Chats About Halloween Traditions in Ireland</a></p>
<p></p>Great Irish Pubs of Indian Summer (And Year Round)tag:thewildgeese.irish,2015-09-22:6442157:BlogPost:1705722015-09-22T03:30:00.000ZMichael Quanehttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MichelQuane
<p><a href="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/mfcollectnew/ChIJPw_xYlljwokRVyYX-lJ60I4/C4M3fPOk1g.png" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/mfcollectnew/ChIJPw_xYlljwokRVyYX-lJ60I4/C4M3fPOk1g.png?profile=RESIZE_710x" style="padding: 10px;" width="400"></img></a> <strong><span class="font-size-5">W</span>ith its sunny weather, vacation time, and, for the lucky, a shorter work-week,</strong> summer is a great time to catch up on hobbies, whether parasailing, mountain biking, or in my case, visiting new or favorite Irish pubs.<br></br> <br></br> After much exhaustive research, with summer now nearly behind, I share…</p>
<p><a href="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/mfcollectnew/ChIJPw_xYlljwokRVyYX-lJ60I4/C4M3fPOk1g.png" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/mfcollectnew/ChIJPw_xYlljwokRVyYX-lJ60I4/C4M3fPOk1g.png?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="400" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a><strong><span class="font-size-5">W</span>ith its sunny weather, vacation time, and, for the lucky, a shorter work-week,</strong> summer is a great time to catch up on hobbies, whether parasailing, mountain biking, or in my case, visiting new or favorite Irish pubs.<br/> <br/> After much exhaustive research, with summer now nearly behind, I share herein a list of some pubs near (for me) and far that are worth a visit anytime of the year. So, here, in no particular order, are a few worth a stop for a sip of the good stuff. If not specified, these pubs, like me, all reside on Long Island.<br/> <br/> <a href="http://connollystationli.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Connolly Station</a> - This popular pub in Malverne is a great place for a meal with family and friends. Besides tts Irish menu, they have Italian and TexMex dishes as well and all are expertly done. I had a shell steak here that was worthy of acclaimed New York City steakhouse. An added attraction is traditional Irish music on weekends.<br/> <a href="http://cobblestonespub.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Screen-Shot-2015-07-11-at-Jul-11-2015-4.45.08-PM.png" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="http://cobblestonespub.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Screen-Shot-2015-07-11-at-Jul-11-2015-4.45.08-PM.png?width=200" width="200" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a><br/> <a href="http://cobblestonespub.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cobblestone's Pub</a> - Despite the name, this Queens, NY establishment is more like a New York neighborhood bar than an Irish pub, but it's worth a trip for its superb kitchen. The dining area is large, possibly because of its nearness to the Queens County Court House across the boulevard. I had the best charbroiled burger of the summer here, better than the gourmet burger chains. Plenty of screens for watching the games, be it soccer, football or baseball.<br/> <br/> <a href="https://www.rira.com/portland/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ri Ra</a> - A favorite of locals and visitors alike in Portland, Maine. It has the decor and feel of the real thing, so much so that I was surprised to learn it's part of a multi-state chain. Great bartenders and authentic Irish menu, even a typical Irish breakfast.<br/> <a href="http://www.kittyoharas.com/files/8914/0910/9380/5.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="http://www.kittyoharas.com/files/8914/0910/9380/5.jpg?width=200" width="200" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a><br/> <a href="http://www.kittyoharas.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kitty O'Hara's</a> (right) - This new Baldwin pub has a mod feel and a menu that goes beyond the Irish specialties. What's different here is the attractive patio dining. Entertainment on summer nights is mostly country rock, but traditional Irish music takes over in fall and winter.<br/> <br/> <a href="http://www.flanaganspub.net/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Flanagan's</a> - This large Lake Ronkonkoma pub is run by Limerick man Dave Crowe, who named it after his ma. She would be proud of her son, who has been a giant in the pub scene on Long Island. Very popular and often SRO, it's a great place to stop for a meal or some Irish coffees.<br/> <br/> <a href="http://radiganspub.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a><br/> <a href="http://www.lillysoflongbeach.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a><a href="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSMp7-5E7j_yuGxR51gppcjqG9sAdYRu-dmx7OOrd_MMWqlXu2ksFqzsix9Cph1hg-7Z2g&usqp=CAU" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSMp7-5E7j_yuGxR51gppcjqG9sAdYRu-dmx7OOrd_MMWqlXu2ksFqzsix9Cph1hg-7Z2g&usqp=CAU&profile=RESIZE_710x" width="300" class="align-left"/></a><a href="http://www.lillysoflongbeach.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lilly's of Long Beach</a> (left) - This cool-looking new pub in Long Beach is more like a modern Dublin emporium than a country pub. Welcoming staff and sidewalk tables make it a pleasant summer dining scene. Extra credit: It's owned by a Tipp man.<br/> <br/> <a href="http://mohegansun.com/poi/dining/the-lansdowne-irish-pub-and-music-house.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Landsdowne Pub</a> - This cavernous bar/restaurant in Connecticut's Mohegan Sun Casino unfortunately doesn't have a true Irish feel to it, despite the old Dublin prints on the wall and the many Jameson Reserve bottles on display. Perhaps a few authentic Irish bartenders would help?<br/> <br/> So, how did you spend your summer?</p>Soldier Jennie Hodgers: Irish Woman Fought in America's Civil Wartag:thewildgeese.irish,2015-09-24:6442157:BlogPost:1709342015-09-24T07:30:00.000ZDavid Lawlorhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/DavidLawlor
<p><a href="https://historywithatwist.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/jennie.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="align-left" src="https://historywithatwist.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/jennie.jpg?w=640"></img></a></p>
<p class="wp-caption-text"><strong><span class="font-size-5">T</span>he life and times of Private Albert D.J. Cashier</strong> are one of those historic anomalies that make you scratch your head and wonder, ‘How the hell could that happen?’</p>
<p>Private Cashier served in the ranks of the 95th Illinois for three years – from their muster-in on September 4, 1862, until the regiment…</p>
<p><a href="https://historywithatwist.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/jennie.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://historywithatwist.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/jennie.jpg?w=640" class="align-left"/></a></p>
<p class="wp-caption-text"><strong><span class="font-size-5">T</span>he life and times of Private Albert D.J. Cashier</strong> are one of those historic anomalies that make you scratch your head and wonder, ‘How the hell could that happen?’</p>
<p>Private Cashier served in the ranks of the 95th Illinois for three years – from their muster-in on September 4, 1862, until the regiment was discharged in August 1865.</p>
<p>Cashier was a member of the regiment’s Company G, and was present at hard-fought battles like Vicksburg and Nashville. A comrade later remembered Cashier as being the type of person who preferred their own company and who never took part in any of the sports or games that were organised by the unit.</p>
<p><em>Pictured, Private Cashier aka Jennie Hodgers</em></p>
<p>So far so unremarkable, but the other distinguishing thing about Private Cashier was that the soldier was, in fact, a woman by the name of Jennie Hodgers.</p>
<p>In his book, <a title="The Irish in the American Civil War" href="http://www.amazon.com/Irish-American-Civil-Damian-Shiels/dp/1845887689/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369056034&sr=8-1&keywords=the+irish+in+the+american+civil+war"><em>The Irish in the American Civil War</em></a>, Damian Shiels documents the fascinating story of Hodgers, who was born in Clogherhead, County Louth, in 1843.</p>
<p>Jennie emigrated to the United States shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War. It is thought her uncle may have got her a job in an all-male shoe factory on her arrival – a position that may have opened her eyes to the possibilities of masquerading as a man.</p>
<p>If that is the case then it certainly prompted her to take on an extraordinary challenge when she presented herself for enlistment in Belvidere, Illinois on August 3, 1862 as one Albert Cashier.</p>
<p>There was no medical examination conducted and so she was duly signed up, spending the next three years with her regiment marching across the South without her secret ever being discovered.</p>
<p>Jennie remained in the guise of ‘Albert Cashier’ after the war, even spending time working as a labourer before moving to Saunemin, Illinois, in 1869, where she continued to live her life as a man for the next 40 years.</p>
<p><a href="https://historywithatwist.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/irishacw.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://historywithatwist.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/irishacw.jpg?w=200&h=300&width=200" width="200" class="align-right"/></a></p>
<p>At one stage, through illness and an injury to her leg, Cashier’s true sex was revealed to her friends, but they kept her secret. It wasn’t until her old age, when Jennie moved to the Soldiers and Sailors Home in Quincy, Illinois, in 1913, that the truth about Jennie / Albert finally came out.</p>
<p class="wp-caption-text"><a href="http://goo.gl/ild2Vz">http://goo.gl/ild2Vz</a></p>
<p>The news caused a sensation. A reporter writing in the <i>The Hartford Republican</i> went to visit Cashier and described the scene: <i>I had expected to meet an amazon. A woman who had fought in the death grapple of a nation and had lived and toiled as a man through half a century should be big, strong and masculine. And when I entered her hospital ward there rose and came to meet me, in her faded soldier’s uniform, just a little frail, sweet-faced, old-lady, who might be anybody’s grandmother.</i></p>
<p>Poor Jennie / Albert was eventually moved to an insane asylum, where she died October 11, 1914. The headstone in the local cemetery now bears both her names – Albert Cashier, the former Union soldier, and Jennie Hodgers, the woman who gave as good as she got in a man’s world.</p>
<p><strong>from: <a href="http://historywithatwist.wordpress.com" target="_blank">historywithatwist.wordpress.com</a></strong></p>Remembering Robert Emmettag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-09-25:6442157:BlogPost:1199582014-09-25T03:40:24.000ZMicheal O Doibhilinhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MichealODoibhilin
<p><strong><span class="font-size-3" style="color: #993300;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707668?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707668?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"></img></a> On Friday September 20th, 1803, Robert Emmet was hanged and beheaded by Executioner Thomas Galvin in Thomas Street, in front of St. Catherine’s Church, before a crowd of up to 45,000 people.</span></strong></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-3" style="color: #993300;">Each year the Emmet and Devlin Memorial…</span></strong></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-3" style="color: #993300;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707668?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707668?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024"/></a>On Friday September 20th, 1803, Robert Emmet was hanged and beheaded by Executioner Thomas Galvin in Thomas Street, in front of St. Catherine’s Church, before a crowd of up to 45,000 people.</span></strong></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-3" style="color: #993300;">Each year the Emmet and Devlin Memorial Association (of which I am a founding member) remembers this tragic event and places a wreath in commemoration at the foot of the commemorative plinth which stands there today.</span></strong></p>
<p><strong>Philip Emmet</strong> (descendant of Robert Emmet’s brother Thomas who was exiled to the United States) placed the wreath, as he has done on many previous occasions. Master of Ceremonies was <strong>Aidan O’Hara</strong>, and the day was organised by Frank Connolly – both founder members of the Association.</p>
<p>A large crowd turned up to remember Robert, and Aidan briefly outlined the events of that day 211 years ago before Philip Emmet laid the wreath and a minute's silence was observed in memory of a brave young man.</p>
<p>After the wreath-laying we all repaired to St. Catherine’s Church for a talk by <b><font color="#FF0000">Cllr. Mary Hanafin</font>,</b> who delivered the keynote address at this commemoration.</p>
<p><b>In her talk, <font color="#FF0000">Cllr. Hanafin</font> urged <font color="#0088CC">Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan T.D.</font> <i>‘not to consign History to history’</i>, and to protect history as a core subject in the new Junior Cycle syllabus.</b></p>
<p><i>"The memory of our forefathers – including James Connolly, James Larkin and others important to the Labour Party – can be kept alive in the minds of the next generation by protecting History as a subject. The choice rests with the Minister for Education"</i> Cllr Hanafin said.</p>
<p>Speaking on the topic <font color="#00CC00">‘<b>History – a thing of the Past?’</b></font> she urged Minister O’Sullivan not to be bound by the mistake of her predecessor, <font color="#0088CC">Ruairí Quinn</font>, who proposed removing History as a core subject at Junior Cycle level.</p>
<p><i>"History gives students a sense of identity, develops citizenship, shows the relationship between current and past events, and fosters an appreciation of diverse traditions and cultures"</i> Cllr Hanafin said.</p>
<p>The new proposals for Junior Cycle envisage only three compulsory subjects - Irish, English and Maths. Cllr Hanafin said the inclusion of History in this list <i>“would give students the skills of critical thinking, analysis, and the ability to distinguish fact from fiction, and truth from prejudice.</i></p>
<p><i>In the future, are Robert Emmet and Anne Devlin to be simply street names? Will Michael Collins be solely a film character, or did Game of Thrones really happen?"</i> she asked.</p>
<p><i>"If 12-year-old students are faced with a choice of subjects, the pressure will be to select a language for university entry, science for employment opportunities, technology for the digital economy, and</i> <i>business for</i></p>
<p>entrepreneurship. History will suffer, and so will our understanding of ourselves and the world we live in" Cllr Hanafin added.</p>
<p>She claimed that the option of taking history as a short course would lead to a lack of context or international setting, asking <em>“How, for example, can the 1916 Rising be understood without referring to World War l or the Home Rule Bill?</em></p>
<p><em>Without a knowledge of history, we cannot fully appreciate literature from Yeats to McCann. In an increasingly globalised world, our history is part of what distinguishes us from others. Many of the problems in Israel, Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere are rooted in the past, but without a sufficient knowledge of history, our understanding for today and tomorrow is limited.</em></p>
<p><em>Every education system in Europe, with the exception of England and Albania, requires students to take history until the age of 15. The removal of compulsory history in England led to a class and gender divide in those who chose it, and they are currently trying to reverse the decision. Minister O’Sullivan could learn from their mistake. We constantly bemoan the lack of study of women in history. Minister O’Sullivan can make her own mark on history by making it a core subject and giving it the status it deserves"</em> Cllr Hanafin concluded.</p>
<p>Cllr. Hanafin’s remarks were applauded by all present, and the support for them was obvious in the questions and discussion that followed.</p>
<p>All then repaired to nearby Arthur’s Pub on the invitation of landlord Declan McKiernan for light refreshments, where the discussion continued in an informal and very welcoming setting for some time.</p>
<p>More photos and further information on the Kilmainham Tales website at <span style="color: #800000;"><a href="http://www.kilmainhamtales.ie/"><span style="color: #800000;"><strong><em>www.kilmainhamtales.ie</em></strong></span></a></span></p>Eulogy for Anne Devlintag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-09-25:6442157:BlogPost:1201352014-09-25T21:21:44.000ZMicheal O Doibhilinhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/MichealODoibhilin
<p><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707506?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707506?profile=original" width="400"></img></a> At the Commemorative mass for Anne Devlin in St. Catherine's Church, Meath Street, Dublin on Sunday 14 September, 2014 I gave the following Eulogy:</strong></p>
<p><em>"As we celebrate this decade of centenaries, it is easy to forget those who went before, and without whom many of these events would not have happened.</em></p>
<p><em>One such person was Anne Devlin, in…</em></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707506?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="400" class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707506?profile=original"/></a>At the Commemorative mass for Anne Devlin in St. Catherine's Church, Meath Street, Dublin on Sunday 14 September, 2014 I gave the following Eulogy:</strong></p>
<p><em>"As we celebrate this decade of centenaries, it is easy to forget those who went before, and without whom many of these events would not have happened.</em></p>
<p><em>One such person was Anne Devlin, in whose memory today’s mass is being offered.</em><br/> <em>Anne married William Campbell in this church in 1811, and so began her life in the Liberties of Dublin. Originally from Rathdrum in Co. Wicklow, she was to live in the Liberties for 40 years, most of her time in John’s Lane, just behind the church at the end of this road. For the last few months of her life she lived in Little Elbow Lane just up the road from us. At that time – 1851 – this was probably the worst slum in Dublin, but has long since vanished, to be replaced by Reginald Street today.</em></p>
<p><em>Anne’s children were baptised in this church too, and her eldest daughter got married in another nearby church – St. Nicholas of Myra.</em></p>
<p><em>Anne’s husband died in 1846 – in the middle of the great Famine – and Ann suffered much as a result. Hardly able to continue working taking in laundry, so ill that she was often blind and had to be helped across the road, she gradually lost all she possessed – even her home – and had to move to a miserable garret in Little Elbow Lane, where she died, mainly of starvation, at the age of 71.</em></p>
<p><em>A simple and not untypical life for the times – but we remember Anne for much more than this. She could have been wealthy, very wealthy, but chose a life that eventually killed her rather than become an informer.</em></p>
<p><em>For Anne had worked with Robert Emmet on his ill-fated rebellion of 1803, which took place mostly in Thomas Street near us, in front of the other St. Catherine’s Church there. When that rebellion failed, and Robert was in jail, Anne and her family were arrested. For 2½ years Anne was to suffer horribly at the hands of Dr. Edward Trevor, medical inspector of Kilmainham Gaol …. and paid British spy. Sensory deprivation, total darkness, solitary confinement, starvation – everything Dr. Trevor could do to try to break her, to find out the names of those who had helped Emmet fund and organise his rebellion.</em></p>
<p><em>But she would not tell – no matter what the cost. Her family lost everything, her youngest brother Jimmy died in prison, only nine years old … yet she stood firm and refused to become a hated informer. Even huge bribes - £500 - more money than she could ever earn, did not turn her head.</em></p>
<p><em>Even when eventually released from prison Anne was not free for the police followed her every where, every day, noting who she spoke to, who she knew, making her virtually unemployable, right to the day of her death.</em></p>
<p><em>Yet she stood true to Emmet and his supporters. She kept those supporters alive to pass on their ideas, their hopes that Ireland would one day be free, and their children could pass these ideas on too, until we eventually began the Easter Rising of 1916 and the War of Independence that followed, which led to the freedoms we have today.</em><br/> <em>Without Anne, those supporters would have been lost. Without them, we would have lost the spinal chord of our republicanism and all we have today would not exist.</em></p>
<p><em>And it is for that that we remember Anne today, who gave up everything so that we, eventually, would be free to celebrate this Decade of Centenaries.</em></p>
<p><em>Ar dheis Dé go mairí sí i gcónaí."</em></p>
<p>This was the ninth year we remembered Anne in this way. The church is midway between her two homes and near the church of St. Nicholas of Myra where her eldest daughter got married. all of Anne's children were baptised in St. Catherine's Church.</p>
<p>I began these commemorations in 2005, and this was (to the best of my knowledge) the first time since 1951 that she had been remembered. Even in 2003, when we celebrated the bi-centenary of Robert Emmet's rebellion, Anne barely got a look in other than as his "valued servant", a term that would have had her turning in her grave.</p>
<p>In 1951 Mrs. Sean T. O'Kelly unveiled a memorial to Anne on the bridge at Aughrim, Co. Wicklow (see above)</p>
<p>In 2004 I was involved with the Committee that commissioned the statue of Anne that now stands in Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin, near where Robert Emmet had his headquarters as he planned the rebellion. it's a lovely statue, but not many see it in this village. I am agitating to have something similar erected in the heart of the Liberties where she spent most of her life, and to have plaques erected at the significant locations there.</p>The Races of Castlebar a Highlight of 'The Year of the French'tag:thewildgeese.irish,2015-11-28:6442157:BlogPost:1762882015-11-28T18:30:00.000ZBrían Hobanhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/BrianHoban
<a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84714862?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84714862?profile=RESIZE_480x480" style="padding: 10px;" width="400"></img></a><p></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-5">O</span>n July 3, 1998, An Taoiseach Bertie Aherne, T.D., unveiled a plaque</strong> on The Kingsbridge Inn to commemorate the bicentenary of "The Races of Castlebar." This event, as well as the publication of Thomas Flanagan's “The Year of the French" in 1979 and the subsequent filming of this novel some years ago, have increased an…</p>
<a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84714862?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="400" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84714862?profile=RESIZE_480x480" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a><p></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-5">O</span>n July 3, 1998, An Taoiseach Bertie Aherne, T.D., unveiled a plaque</strong> on The Kingsbridge Inn to commemorate the bicentenary of "The Races of Castlebar." This event, as well as the publication of Thomas Flanagan's “The Year of the French" in 1979 and the subsequent filming of this novel some years ago, have increased an awareness of the events that took place in Mayo after the arrival of General Humbert at Kilcummin on August 22, 1798, and their importance in the course of Irish history.</p>
<p><span class="font-size-1"><strong>(Pictured: The Races of Castlebar 1798</strong></span><br/> <span class="font-size-1"><strong>Castlebar, County Mayo)</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2"><strong>Background</strong></span></p>
<p>The French Revolution (1789-95) had a huge influence on most of Europe, including Ireland. In 1793, the National Assembly in Paris promised the assistance of France to all nations seeking freedom. Theobald Wolf Tone had gone to France to seek help for the Irish cause in 1796. This help was promised but, unfortunately, an expedition under General Hoche and 15,000 troops failed to reach Bantry Bay as the fleet was scattered by storm. After the rebellion of May 1798, Tone again sought help from France and, on July 19th, the French Directory agreed to send three expeditions to Ireland. The first of these expeditions, with an army of some 1,100 troops, sailed from La Rochelle on August 6th under the command of General Humbert (below). There were a number of Irish within Humbert's command. These included Matthew Tone, a brother of Wolf Tone; Bartholomew Teeling, and Father Henry O Kane. The fleet had originally planned to land in County Donegal, but due to storms and no doubt influenced by the presence of O Kane who was a native of Killala, the fleet sailed into Killala Bay.</p>
<p><span class="font-size-2"><strong>Killala</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84714870?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="200" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84714870?profile=RESIZE_320x320" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>On 22nd August, three frigates -- The Franchise, The Medee and The Concorde -- landed at Kilcummin flying the English colours. Edwin and Arthur Stock, sons of the Protestant Bishop of Killala, who had sailed out to meet them, greeted them. The two were captured, the English flag taken down, and the French flag hoisted. One of the first to disembark was Father O Kane, who spoke to the locals in Irish, which was the native tongue of most of the Irish then. Word soon filtered to native Irish throughout Mayo and Sligo. Bishop Stock also heard of the arrival, and he sent messages to the local gentry, among them the Jacksons, the Knoxs, Binghams, Palmers and Kirkwoods.</p>
<p>By about 7 p.m., the landing was complete. General Sarrazin and Father O Kane set out for Killala to survey the town. O Kane, commissioned a captain in the French force, was challenged by a yeoman from a side street, but was not hit. He went on to shoot the yeoman dead. Sarrazin and his men arrived in Killala, where they were met by a volley from the loyalists. Instead of replying, they attacked with bayonet charge and as they outnumbered the yeomen, they soon captured the town. Bishop Stock's palace was seized and became Humbert's headquarters. Several of the yeomen were taken prisoner, while others fled towards Ballina. A French soldier climbed to the top of the palace and removed the British flag, which was replaced by a green and gold flag bearing the inscription <em>Erin Go Brach</em>.</p>
<p>The arrival of the French at Killala and the rumour of other French landings caused panic among the English. The British military commander in Mayo sent a despatch to Lord Castlereagh in Dublin Castle seeking help. The local Irish leaders broadcast a call for help throughout Mayo and Sligo. Many Irish volunteers arrived to help them, including Hugh Maguire, Richard O Dowd, and Colonel Matthew Bellew, a retired Austrian officer and brother of the Catholic Bishop of Killala. Bellew was appointed leader of the insurgents. Many priests arrived with recruits, including Fathers Munnelly; Owen Cowley; David Kelly, of Ballycroy; and James Conroy, of Addergoole.</p>
<p>Having captured Killala, Humbert sent two groups, under Generals Sarrazin and Fontaine, to capture Ballina. That night, a fight took place between Sarrazin's troops and the British at Rosserk. The English eventually retreated in confusion. The next morning, the French / Irish troops captured Ballina under cover of darkness. The Irish peasants lit bundles of straw to show them their way. This approach road to Ballina has since been known as <em>Bothair na Sop</em>. They took Ballina with little resistance. They were shocked to see the body of Patrick Walshe of Crossmolina, who had been hanged publicly. He had been sent in advance to reconnoitre. The English for the most part fled towards Foxford, where they would have their forces waiting for the French advance on Castlebar.<a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84700177?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="350" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84700177?profile=RESIZE_480x480" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a></p>
<p>On the 22nd, Sarrazin who had been joined by Humbert, left Ballina for Castlebar. They marched for a few miles towards Castlebar and on the advice of Father Conroy decided to turn west towards Crossmolina and approach Castlebar via Laherdane and Barnageehy. At Laherdane, the French rested and were fed by the locals before proceeding on the last leg of their journey through Barnageehy. The night was so treacherous with rain and wind that the heavy artillery had to be abandoned.</p>
<p>A yeoman farmer who had been tending to his cattle had spotted the French / Irish advance party. He immediately fled to Castlebar to warn the British commander of the imminent arrival of the French / Irish forces.</p>
<p>The English forces took up position at Sion Hill just outside the town. Humbert approached and took account of the English position. After a number of attacks in which they were hit by British cannon, Humbert decided to regroup and divided his troops, splitting them to the left and right so as to attack the English flanks. The Irish drove a herd of cattle ahead of them causing confusion in the English ranks. The French / Irish made an effective bayonet charge through the centre. The English retreated down Staball Hill. Another attack occurred at Main Steet Bridge. The English defended the bridge for some time, using forces from the Longford and Kilkenny militias and Fraziers Fencibles (a Scottish regiment). They were eventually routed, and most of the English fled toward Tuam and Athlone. The event has since become known as The Races of Castlebar. In all, the attack only lasted from 6 a.m. to noon and has been described by Thomas Pakenham in "The Year of Liberty" as one of the most ignominious defeats in British military history.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84714838?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="250" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84714838?profile=RESIZE_320x320" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>After the battle, Humbert set his headquarters at Geevy's Hotel (now known as The Humbert Inn). A Provisional Government of Connaught was declared, with John Moore of Moore Hall, selected as its president. A victory ball was held in the Linen Hall (now Town Hall), which was well attended. A small party under Teeling (pictured) pursued the British rearguard under Lord Roden. Their flag of truce was ignored and five French troopers were brutally murdered. The place where they fell is still known as French Hill.</p>
<p>Two locals, James Daly and Patrick Nally, from Balla, erected a monument to their memory in 1876. The monument bears the inscription In grateful remembrance of the gallant French soldiers who died fighting for the freedom of Ireland on 27th August, 1798. They shall be remembered forever. The links with that era still remain -- a 1798 memorial on The Mall, The Linenhall, The Humbert Inn, John Moore's grave, French Hill monument, the gravestone of Fraziers Fencibles inside the gate of the local Church of Ireland. There also exists a wealth of place names associated with the period, for example, French Hill, French Field, and Humbert Inn. As well, there are several sites reputed to be Frenchmen's graves and, indeed, a vast amount of folklore pertaining to the era. There is no doubt that the memories of this period will go on for a long time.</p>
<p>On the 3rd of September, Humbert and his forces marched out of Castlebar under cover of darkness toward Sligo on hearing that Lord Cornwallis and his troops were within a day's march of Castlebar. They covered 58 miles in 36 hours, passing through Swinford, Belaghy, Tubbercurry and on to Collooney. The next morning while Humbert's troops were having breakfast, they were attacked by Colonel Vereker and his men. Humbert managed to outmanoeuvre the English, and they retreated to Sligo and Ballyshannon. Humbert changed direction and headed toward Dromahair. On the evening of the 6th, the Franco-Irish forces reached Drumkeeran, where an envoy from Cornwallis offered terms of surrender but Sarrazin rejected them.<a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84714928?profile=original" target="_self"><br/></a></p>
<p>On the 7th of September, they crossed the Shannon at Ballintra, much to the annoyance of Cornwallis. Col. Crawford’s <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84714928?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="280" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84714928?profile=RESIZE_320x320" class="align-right"/></a>cavalry soon overtook Humbert, and a fierce engagement took place. Crawford retreated after losing several casualties. Humbert proceeded to Ballinamuck, County Longford. Cornwallis had managed to get ahead and had the road ahead blocked. Meanwhile, General Lake's army attacked from the rear. After a battle of about 30 minutes, the French surrendered, realising they were surrounded on all sides. The French were treated as prisoners of war. Over 500 Irish were killed and several others were hanged at Longford. Among those hanged were Captain O Malley, from Burrishoole; Colonel O Dowd from Bonniconlon; General Blake and gunman James Magee. Matthew Tone and Bartholomew Teeling were tried and hanged within a week at Arbor Hill in Dublin.</p>
<p><span class="font-size-1"><strong>(Pictured: Monument commemorating Father Conroy in Addergoole)</strong></span></p>
<p>There were reprisals also in County Mayo. General Portarlington and his men who had come to Ballina from Sligo slaughtered and plundered before them, burning several farmhouses on their way. General Trench took Killala on Sept. 23rd, and several individuals he encountered were killed on sight, while several more were drowned in the Owenmore River. As they fled towards Palmerstown, they plunged into the river, which was swollen by a high tide, and perished. There were several public hangings, especially in Castlebar. The most notable of these was of Father Conroy, who was hung on the Mall in Castlebar and that of Father Manus Sweeney, who was executed in Newport.</p>
<p><strong>Article by Brían Hoban, Tour Guide</strong></p>