MÁIRT -- On March 4, 1804, in Australia, former United Irishmen stage a small insurrection that ended with a short fight at Castle Hill. Starting in 1799 the British had been shipping many of the leaders and participants of the Rising 1798 Rising to “Van Diemen’s Land” (Australia). Once there they did not change their anti-government mindsets. Some saw their fight against the same foe as merely transferred from Ireland to Australia.

(Left: Convict uprising at Castle Hill 1804, unknown artist. National Library of Australia.)

As evening fell in the 4^th, Phillip Cunningham, a veteran of the 1798 rebellion, led about 300 Irish convicts in a rising at Castle Hill. They lit a fire as a signal to a much larger group of convicts, over 1,000, in the Green’s Hill area to join them in the revolt. It was not seen, however, leaving the Castle Hill rebels on their own. They overpowered the constables guarding them, seizing a small number of firearms. The plan was to meet up with the Green’s Hill group at Constitution Hill and then march on Parramatta, where they hoped to raid an arsenal. They would then march on Sydney with enough numbers to overwhelm government forces there, hoping to seize a ship to sail home. They split into small groups hoping to raid local farms for arms before reforming on Constitution Hill, but many got lost and never got there.

As it was the militia were alerted before the rebels could reach Parramatta and stopped them there. Major George Johnston of the New South Wales Corps arrived on the scene, and along with a number of armed civilians, confronted the rebel force. When asked to surrender the rebels replied “death or liberty, and a ship to take us home.” The far better-armed government forces routed the rebels. Fifteen were killed there and fifteen more as the scattered remnants were pursued. Seven of the returned prisoners were given 200 to 500 lashes as punishment. Nine were executed, including Cunningham. Two, William Johnston and Samuel Humes, had their bodies cold-bloodedly left hanging over the road at Parramatta. The whip and gallows “justice” system of Ireland had been directly transferred to Australia.

CÉADAOIN -- On March 5, 1921, during the Irish War of Independence, an ambush by the Irish Volunteers at Clonbanin, Co. Cork killed British General Hanway Cumming and twelve other British soldiers. Seán Moylan, commander of the North Cork Flying Column, had information that General Peter Strickland, the British commander in Munster province, was on an inspection tour in Kerry.

(Right: Three members of a Cork Flying column.)

Knowing Strickland would have a large number of soldiers guarding his column, Moylan called in the Volunteers from the Millstreet, Charleville, and Newmarket battalions and also from the Kerry No. 2 Brigade.

Moylan selected the spot where he expected Strickland’s column to pass through at Clonbanin, Co. Cork, five miles east of Rathmore on the road from Killarney to Buttevant in Co. Cork and set up the ambush on the morning of the 5th. They were well-armed in comparison to most Flying Column ambushes during the war, with a Hotchkiss gun that had been captured from the British at Mallow, along with mines and perhaps as many as 100 armed troops. They set up two mines, planning to blow up one at the front and back of the British convoy. The plan was for Moylan to blow up a mine as a signal to open fire. At 10 am they saw three British trucks approaching from the east, rather than the west. Clearly, this wasn’t Strickland’s convoy. Fortunately for the men in those trucks, but not for General Cumming and the other victims of the later attack, Moylan decided to let them pass hoping for the bigger prize. The Volunteers were so close they heard an accordion being played in one of the trucks.

A little after 2 pm a larger convoy approached from the west. There were two trucks, then a staff car, an armored car, and another truck. This appeared to be the Strickland convoy they were waiting for, but in fact was the convoy of General Cumming, who was in the staff car. Moylan triggered the mine as the first truck reached it, but failed to explode. But the Hotchkiss gun opened fire to signal the attack and the first truck the convoy went off the road into the roadside ditch. The armored car went off the road as well. As Cumming excited his car he was hit in the head and killed. The fighting went on for about two hours, but the Vickers gun in the armored car remained in action and kept the IRA at bay. With their ammo running low, and always aware that British reinforcements could arrive at any moment, the Volunteers withdrew. British casualties were said to be 13 dead and 15 wounded. Some estimates were lower, but the British had definitely lost a general and the Volunteers had suffered no casualties at all. It was one of the IRA's more lopsided victories of the war.

Read more about the ambush HERE.

DEARDAOIN -- On March 6, 1831, Philip Sheridan, one of the greatest Union generals in the American Civil War, was born. We know he was the son of Irish immigrants, but his place of birth is uncertain, with Albany, New York; somewhere in Ohio; at sea; and County Cavan, Ireland, all rumored as his birthplace. Less uncertain is his place among Union generals; he was one of the finest of the war. Sheridan had an undistinguished pre-war Army career, which came on the heels of a stormy career at West Point, from which he was nearly expelled for fighting with a fellow cadet.

(Left: Library of Congress: Phil Sheridan and his staff in the field.)

After eight years in the Army, the diminutive Sheridan -- 5'5" -- was only a 2nd lieutenant when the Civil War began. He languished as a supply officer for the first year of the war. It seemed Phil Sheridan was destined for obscurity, but suddenly that destiny took a turn. On May 25, 1862, he was appointed colonel of the 2nd Michigan Cavalry. By September Sheridan was a brigadier general; in March '63 he made a major general. The brilliant assault of his command on Missionary Ridge brought him to the attention of U.S. Grant. In spring 1864, Grant brought Sheridan to Washington and put him in charge of all the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac. In the East he showed the same aggressiveness he had in the West, seeking confrontations with Stuart's cavalry. His troopers killed Confederate cavalry commander J.E.B. Stuart at Yellow Ford in May. Later that year Grant gave the 33-year-old Sheridan an independent command in the Shenandoah Valley. There Sheridan made his famous ride to the battlefield of Cedar Creek, saving his imperiled army. Returning to Grant's army, Sheridan was instrumental in the victory at Five Forks, which sealed the fate of Richmond, and later he cut off Lee's retreat at Appomattox. After the war, he rose to full general and commanded the entire army. Philip Sheridan died on August 5, 1888, in Nonquitt, Massachusetts, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Read more about the life of Sheridan: Scrappy Phil Sheridan - The U.S. Army's Little Big Man

AOINE -- On March 7, 1921, Limerick Mayor George Clancy was shot and killed in his home. Clancy came from a family with a strong republican tradition. In college, he joined the Gaelic League, forming a branch at University College Dublin and recruiting other students to join. Among those others were Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, Tomás MacCurtain, Terence MacSwiney, and James Joyce. It is said that Clancy was the model for the character of Davin in Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. After college, Clancy taught Irish at Clongowes Wood, a college administered by the Jesuits, and was active in the Gaelic Athletic Association. Clancy helped in Eamon de Valera's election campaign in East Clare. He nearly died of swine flu during the 1918 epidemic but recovered and in January 1921 he was elected Mayor of Limerick. Though Clancy took no active part in the violence of the War of Independence, on the morning of March 7, 1921, masked men burst into his home and shot him dead. Suspicion immediately fell upon members of the Black and Tans, but a British inquiry into the murder, like most such inquiries through the years, absolved Crown forces of any blame.

Anne Bonny

AOINE -- On March 8, 1700, or perhaps a year or two earlier, Anne Bonny (née Cormac), destined to become arguably the most famous woman pirate in history, was born in County Cork, Ireland. Anne was rumored to be the product of a liaison between her mother, Mary Brennan, and lawyer William Cormac, by whom Mary was employed as a housemaid. It was also rumored (nearly everything known about Anne's life is a rumor) that Cormac's wife learned of the affair and drove Mary from the house. Mary and Anne then traveled to the new world, settling in Charleston, South Carolina. The teenage Anne ran off with a soon-to-be pirate by the name of James Bonny. She and James traveled to the pirate haven of New Providence Island in the Bahamas. There Anne had soon dumped her husband, perhaps because he became an informer, and took up with pirate captain "Calico" Jack Rackam. She may have become his lover and had a child with Jack and left it to be raised by others in Cuba. Anne later became very "friendly" with another member of the crew, whom she may have mistaken for a man, but whom she soon discovered was actually Mary Read. It seems quite likely that the two of them became lovers. Though there are few things in Anne's life that are certain, one that seems to be, is that she was a fierce fighter. Perhaps this was a result of her feeling the need to prove herself to the male crew. She and Mary were known to be "fierce hell cats" in battle. Their battling days came to an end on November 16, 1720, when their ship was captured by Captain Jonathan Barnett of the Royal Navy, a former pirate himself. The entire crew was hanged, save Mary and Anne. They were saved when they "pled their bellies," i.e. claimed to be pregnant, which was confirmed by the court's doctor. That both were pregnant seems unlikely, and thus another rumor inserts a friendly doctor here. Anne disappears from history at that point. The various tales have her being hanged a year later, returning home to South Carolina, returning to her husband, settling down on some Caribbean island, owning a pub in the south of England, or living out her days with Mary somewhere in Louisiana. Whichever of the rumors of her life are true, there is no question that she lived a more adventurous life than most women of her time.

SATHAIRN -- On March 8, 1903, Charles Gavan Duffy, Young Irelander leader, was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin. Along with Thomas Davis and John Blake Dillon, he founded The Nation in 1842, the journal that was the soul of the Young Ireland movement. In 1855, despairing of Irish politics, he voluntarily emigrated to Australia. There he entered politics and rose to be Prime Minister of the colony of Victoria and was knighted by the Queen. He retired to France in 1880, spending his time writing until his death in Nice on February 9, 1903. His body was returned to Ireland and interred at Glasnevin.

VOICES

"You will find him big enough for the purpose before we get through with him."
-- Ulysses Grant to a staff officer who thought Phil Sheridan was too small to lead the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac.

"Did Sheridan say that? He usually knows what he is talking about. Let him go ahead and do it."
-- Ulysses Grant to Gen. George Meade, after Meade said Sheridan had insisted his troopers could beat Jeb Stuart if given a chance.

"I am sorry to see you here Jack, but if you had fought like a man, you need not be hanged like a dog."         -- Anne Bonny to the imprisoned captain of her ship, and father of her child, "Calico Jack" Rackham.

March - Márta

BIRTHS

4, 1778 - Robert Emmet (Revolutionary - Dublin)
4, 1898 - General Emmet Dalton (Revolutionary, aide to Michael Collins.)
6, 1751 - Edward Marcus Despard (Colonel in the British army and revolutionary, Mountrath, Co. Laois)
6, 1791 - John MacHale (Archbishop of Tuam - Tirawley, Co. Mayo.)
6, 1831 - Philip Sheridan (Union General - son of Irish immigrants rumored to have been born in Ireland.)
8, 1700 (?) - Anne Bonny (née Cormac) (Female pirate - County Cork) 

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS

3, 1831 – The first clash of the Tithe War, Irish Constabulary members entered Graiguenamanagh, Co Kilkenny, to seize cattle in lieu of payment of the tithe.
3, 1921 - During the Irish War of Independence, the West Waterford column of the Irish Volunteers under George Lennon ambush a train at Durrow Station, Co. Waterford
4, 1704 - Penal Laws passed in 1695 restricting Catholic civil rights strengthened
4, 1804 - In Australia former United Irishmen stage a small insurrection that ends with a short fight at Castle Hill.
4, 1902 - Ancient Order of Hibernians in Ireland revived at unity council.
4, 1919 – The US House of Representatives passes a resolution asking the Paris Peace Conference to “favorably consider the claims of Ireland to self-determination.”
5, 1779 - Boston Massacre, 5 killed, including Irish immigrant Patrick Carr.
5, 1867 - Fenian Rising in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Clare and Tipperary Counties.
5, 1921 - During the Irish War of Independence an IRA ambush at Clonbanin, Co. Cork killed British general Hanway Cumming and three other soldiers.
6, 1794 - James O’Moran, general in the French army is guillotined in Place du Trône renversé, France.
6, 1836 - Derryman Major Robert Evans dies at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.
6-19, 1924 - Reduction of the Irish Army by 20,000 at the end of the Civil War nearly causes a mutiny.
7, 1921 - Tom Maguire’s South Mayo IRA flying column under Tom Maguire surrounds a British army patrol at Kilfall, between Ballinrobe and Castlebar, forcing it to surrender and give up its arms.
7, 1921 - Limerick Mayor George Clancy shot and killed in his home by disguised members of the Black and Tans.
8, 1574 - Captain William Martin lays siege to Granuaile (Grace O'Malley) in Rockfleet castle.
8, 1779 - Don Hugo O'Conor, governor of the Yucatán dies at Quinta de Miraflores, just east of Mérida.
8, 1903 - Charles Gavan Duffy, Young Irelander, buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.
8, 1921 – The Kanturk Battion of the Cork No. 2 Brigade abushes an RIC patrol in Shronebeha, killing one constable
8 1966 - Nelson's Pillar in Dublin, Ireland, destroyed by a bomb.