LUAIN -- On July 1, 1897, Gen. Tom Barry, one of the finest guerrilla leaders of Ireland's War of Independence, was born in Killorglin, Co. Kerry. Barry joined the British army in 1915 and served in Mesopotamia during World War I. When he returned home in 1919, Barry joined the IRA and put his experience to work organizing and training the IRA's West Cork Flying Column. He turned it into one of the most effective Irish fighting units during the War of Independence.

(Right: Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork - 'Men of the South' by Sean Keating, depicting the men of an IRA Flying Column during the War of Independence.)

Barry also proved an excellent tactician during the war. His column's most famous actions were at Kilmichael and Crossbarry. Barry took the anti-treaty side during the Civil War and remained on the IRA's Army Council afterward but resigned from the IRA in 1938 in disagreement with its bombing campaign in England. His story of the War of Independence, Guerrilla Days in Ireland, published in 1949, is one of the best.

MÁIRT -- On July 2, 1779, on the West Indies isle of Grenada, whose name would be famous again in the 1980s, Colonel Arthur Dillon and his regiment of the Irish Brigade of France were among 2,300 troops landed from ships commanded by Count d'Estaing.

(Left: Photo by Joe Gannon - A re-enactor in the uniform of a grenadier of Dillon's Regiment of the Irish Brigade of France.)

Another Irishman, Lord Macartney, was in charge of the British troops on the island. As the French came ashore, he retreated to the heights of Morne de l'Hopital. Macartney had only 700 troops, but his defensive position on the fortified heights was powerful. Besides the steep incline, there were several walls on the hillside placed to impede the progress of any attackers. D'Estaing sent Colonel Dillon and some other officers to reconnoiter the possible assault routes just before dark on the 3rd and then ordered a rare night assault on the position. The French attacked with a three-pronged assault; Dillon's regiment made up much of the center and left columns of the assault. Count d'Estaing showed his respect for the Irish by personally leading the grenadiers of Dillon's regiment. Despite the obstacles in their way, the French and Irish troops fought their way up the slope and had taken the position by morning, forcing Macartney's surrender. Several officers of Dillon's regiment were among the 106 French casualties.

CÉADAOIN -- On July 3, 1863, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, as the sun rose behind the men of Colonel Dennis O'Kane's Irish 69th Pennsylvania Vol. Infantry on Cemetery Ridge, the most famous assault of the American Civil War was being prepared across the mile of open field in front of them. The 69th PA would be at the very vortex of that assault, now known to posterity as "Pickett's Charge".

(Right: Photo by Kevin O'Beirne: Re-enactors portraying the men of the 69th Pennsylvania await the assault of others portraying Confederate infantrymen, near the "Copse of Trees" during the 135th-anniversary re-enactment of "Pickett's Charge," July 1998.)

At 1 p.m., a tremendous cannonade by the Confederate guns would sail mostly over the heads of the 69th. At about 3 p.m., the barrage slacked, and the rebel infantrymen began their assault. "And let your work this day be for victory or to the death," Col. Dennis O'Kane told his men as the furious rebel onslaught approached. Soon they were forced to refuse both flanks as the Confederate tide rolled up to them and lapped around both sides. While many around them ran, the 69th stood fast. The regiment's tenacious stand in front of the famous copse of trees was a pivotal part of the crucial Union victory achieved at Gettysburg. Good to his word, Col. O'Kane was killed and lying dead near the 69th's position, wearing gray lay Pvt. Willie Mitchel of the 1st Virginia Infantry, son of Irish patriot John Mitchel. At the most crucial battle of America's Civil War, Irish were killing Irish on a foreign field once again.

AOINE -- On July 5, 1812, Frederick Maning (left), who would become beloved in New Zealand by its native Māori people, was born in Johnville, County Dublin. Maning immigrated to Australia with his father in 1824. In 1833 he moved on to New Zealand on his own when few Europeans were living there. His great size, 6 foot 3 inches, strength, and his personality, greatly impressed the native Maori people there. He acquired some land near Onaki and settled there, and married a Māori woman, Moengoroa. They had four children, Susan, Maria Amina, Hauraki Hereward, and Mary. Soon the Māori began to call him 'Pakeha Maori,' naturalized citizen. In 1840 he advised the Māori against signing the Treaty of Waitangi, by which Great Britain "legally" gained sovereignty over the island, but they ratified it. Maning published a book on Maori life titled "Old New Zealand: A Tale of the Good Old Times" in 1863. In 1865, he became a judge when the British court system was established. When Maning became ill in 1881 and developed cancer, he traveled to England seeking a cure. He did not find one and died in London on July 25, 1883. His body was returned to New Zealand for burial.

VOICES

'It must be evident to any student of the period that Barry was unique in the measure of success he achieved, in careful planning of every action, and in his domination of such afterwards famous people as (Sir Bernard) Montgomery and (Arthur E.) Percival.'
         -- Michael Costello, Lt. Gen. Irish Defense Force and veteran of the War of Independence, on Tom Barry.

'I do not believe that there was a soldier in the regiment that did not feel that he had more courage to meet the enemy at Gettysburg than upon any field of battle in which we had yet been engaged, stimulus being, that we were upon the soil of our own state.'
         -- Private McDermott, 69th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, July 3, 1863

BIRTHS

July -- Iúil

1, 1888 - Linda Kerns (Republican and nurse - Cromard, Co. Sligo.)
1, 1897 - Tom Barry (IRA general during War of Independence - Killorglin, Co. Kerry.)
4, 1746 - Henry Grattan (Politician, patriot - Dublin)
5, 1812 - Frederick Edward Maning (the "Pakeha Maori" - New Zealand judge - Dublin.)

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS

June -- Meitheamh

29, 1315 - Edward the Bruce of Scotland and his Irish allies take the town of Dundalk.
29, 1733 - Irish Brigade of France fights at the battle of Parma.
29, 1775 - At the Battle of Bemis Heights (Second Saratoga) Timothy Murphy’s shooting of Sir Francis Clerke and General Simon Fraser is one of the keys to the American victory.
29, 1798 - Engagement of Ballyellis.
30, 1691 - Colonel Richard Grace is killed in Williamite attack on Athlone.

July -- Iúil

431 A.D - A feis is held in Tara to reaffirm national unity and security.
1, 1681 - St. Oliver Plunkett hung, drawn, and quartered in England.
1, 1690 - Battle of the Boyne.
1, 1694 - Justin McCarthy, Lord Mountcashel, first commander of the Irish Brigade of France, dies of complications from previous battle wounds in France.
1, 1862 - Battle of Malvern Hill, VA. (Federal Irish Brigade, Confederate 6th LA, engaged.)
1, 1867 - Thomas Francis Meagher drowns in the Missouri River.
1, 1916 - Beginning of the Battle of the Somme.
2, 1779 - Dillon's Regiment of France's Irish Brigade land on the island of Grenada, which they help to take on the 4th.
2, 1798 - Execution of Father John Murphy and his bodyguard, James Gallagher, at Tullow, County Carlow.
2, 1798 - Engagement at Ballygullen, Cranford, west of Gorey.
2, 1874 - Isaac Butt's Home Rule motion defeated in House of Commons 458-61.
2, 1863 - Battle of Gettysburg (PA) - Second day - Irish Brigade fights in the "Wheatfield."
3, 1863 - Battle of Gettysburg - Third day - 69th Pennsylvania helps repulse Pickett's Charge.
3, 1918 - Sinn Fein party banned by British government.
3, 1970 - Riots in Belfast, six killed.
4, 1581 - Con O'Donnell defeats his uncle, Hugh MacManus O'Donnell in battle at Kiltole.
4, 1605 – Proclamation forcing all Irish to attend services of the established church; Catholic priests ordered out of Ireland by December 10th. 
4, 1690 - James II flees Ireland for France.
4, 1776 - A cannon at Elizabethtown, N.J., under the command of Irish-born Capt. Daniel Neil, fires first shot at the British after the Declaration of Independence.
4, 1784 - Protestant “Peep o’Day Boys” formed in Market Hill, Co. Armagh
5, 1828 - Daniel O'Connell elected MP from Clare.
5, 1845 - Anti-Catholic American Republican party holds a national convention in Philadelphia (genesis of Know-Nothing Party).
5, 1862 - Richard Dalton Williams, Irish born poet ("Shamrock" of the Nation) and patriot, dies in Thibodaux, Louisiana.
6, 1918 - John Purroy Mitchel, grandson of Young Irelander John Mitchel and former mayor of New York, is killed in a flight-training accident while serving in the U.S. Army.
6, 1920 - Jeremiah Mee and several others resign from the Royal Irish Constabulary protesting British policies.