It is thought that on this day in 1602, at a dinner in Spain far away from his beloved Ireland, Red Hugh O’Donnell took a sip of his wine. That last indulgence ended the life of one of the most famous and admired chieftains in Irish history.
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Tag Archives: Irish Rebels
The Ghosts of Kilmainham
It has been said that tourists – and mostly American tourists – are the only reason that Kilmainham Gaol is still open because most Irish couldn’t be bothered with it these days. My new friend who is now happily married here in the U.S. agrees with the travel books that say things like that because he and his generation seem to be sick to death of the glorious dead mentality and couldn’t care less about the history and the Troubles that have haunted the country since even before the Rising of 1916. In fact, he was shocked that we were still asked questions about our religion and last names on our travels to Ireland at the end of last year, both in the Republic and the North because he thought those kinds of things were finished.
However, when I did tour Kilmainham Gaol, I was in a group mostly made up of Irish people and all seemed just as profoundly affected by it as I was. Perhaps it was because of the off season which meant my group was thankfully smaller when we went through the infamous prison, or perhaps it was an anomaly altogether but I was glad for it. It made for a decidedly more intimate and more personal experience.
1916-2016
As someone who has been a long term student of Irish history, I have been looking forward to the centennial celebration for years and years. At first, I thought I’d have to watch it from afar – and I still may yet have to do that, but the goal is to spend about a month wandering through the whole of the Emerald Isle before culminating in Dublin for the 100 year commemoration of the Easter Rising. I have been devouring any information I can find on the planned celebrations for years and have found it all woefully lacking. I still can’t even get an answer about whether it is going to be planned for Easter, which is incredibly early in 2016, or if it will wait until April 24th.
I started paying attention to what the people in charge were and were not saying. Modern politicians seem to be more concerned with whether or not the British royalty will show up than they are about planning something awesome for their own people. Given that they owe their positions to the rebellious men and women of 1916 (also before and since) you would think that they’d be getting ready to honor them.
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Remembering Margaret Buckley, Irishwoman Extraordinaire
52 years ago today, Ireland lost an incredible feminist voice. Few women have ever managed to juggle being an activist, a rebel, a suffragist, a wife, a prisoner, a judge, a volunteer, a commanding officer, a hunger striker, an author, and the President of a political party, especially during a time when most women were dismissed and ignored. In fact, only one comes to mind.
Margaret Buckley (née Goulding) was an unrepentant suffragist and Republican woman who began her long and lustrous career of activism and politics as the president of the Cork chapter of Inghinidhe na hEireann, before the organization merged with Cumann Na mBan. Later as a married woman, she became a prominent organizer of the Irish Women’s Workers Union and eventually returned to her role as President, but the next time she did it as the head of a newly revamped Sinn Fein. Continue reading
The Death of the Countess
“I do wish you lot had the decency to shoot me.” -Constance Markievicz, 1916.
Constance Markievicz may have wanted to die like her compatriots for her role in the Easter Rising but the English wouldn’t execute a woman. In the end, they may have wished they had, for the Countess had another 11 years to continue being a thorn in their side. She went straight into an even more political role, creating a world where women were more equal to the men, remaining staunchly Republican and inspiring thousands of people, including myself, throughout the years since. She is one of my favorite heroes.
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Walking tour – Revolutionary Women
The good folk at the Sinn Fein shop in Dublin have an amazing walking tour that they offer, that they call the Rebel Tour. I highly recommend it for people who are interested in Irish history – and even people who know a lot about it already are guaranteed to learn something new on the walk. ( The Rebel Tour )
That being said, I would do almost anything to be able to fly over the puddle and meet Dr. Mary McAuliffe this weekend for her own walking tour. Her tour is based on the revolutionary women who helped shape Ireland’s history – but who are often times reduced to a footnote in it. This is an insult that must be addressed in all the history books of all nations, but this year Ireland is doing a lot to remedy it. Perhaps it is due to the hundred year anniversary of Cumann Na mBan and the renewed interested in the female rebels, or maybe it is just because it’s time to acknowledge the women warriors. Either way, things like this walking tour make me very happy and I hope both men and women get involved in it. I am very sad that I am too far away to experience it.
If you aren’t, please join this tour on Sunday – and report back to the rest of us who cannot.
Tom Barry’s Birthday
On this day in 1897 Thomas Bernadine Barry was born in Killorglin, Co. Kerry, one of a whopping 14 children. Eighteen years later or so he joined the British Army – an unlikely move that would aid in his future as one of the most respected and strategic IRA commanders in history. While serving in the British army he received news of the 1916 Rising but was unable to return to Ireland until the war he was fighting for Britain had come to an end in 1919.
Upon his return, he got involved in the Volunteer movement. One year later became the commander of the Flying Column 3rd West Cork brigade. He had asked for total autonomy in decision-making and it was given, with a warning that any success or failure would be his responsibility alone. (No pressure!) He then began planning the Kilmichael ambush, a significant political and strategic move that became a touchstone in the War of Independence.
The ambush occurred one week after the first Bloody Sunday. (Yes, I said the first – there have been multiple, unfortunately) It boosted IRA morale and garnered even more respect for Tom Barry and his tactics. It also brought him to the attention of Michael Collins, who was suddenly aware that he had both a strong ally and some fierce competition.
Michael Collins called for Barry to come to both Dublin and London during the Treaty negotiations. It is said that one of the first things the British wanted was Tom Barry himself. Michael Collins refused, though he later claimed that he had been tempted to give Barry to them. When the treaty was ratified – over Barry’s objections due to the partitioning of the Island – he continued to fight on the behalf of the Anti-Treaty IRA until he was imprisoned by Collins’ Irish Free State Army. He escaped and continued to command in various locations until the Anti-Treaty IRA was defeated and he was captured once again.
Upon his release, he spent a term as the IRA Chief-of-Staff and served as general superintendent of the Cork Harbor Commission for nearly 40 years. Still an unrepentant Republican, at the age 62 he traveled to the United States in the hopes of gaining funds and support for a united Ireland. His one wish and lifetime goal was to end the partition of Ireland. He died in 1980 and was buried at St. Finbarr’s Cemetery in Cork. Though St. Finbarr’s cemetery has one of the largest Republican plots in the area, Tom Barry is not interned in it but instead is buried nearby.
Roger Casement
On this day in 1916, Roger Casement (once Sir Roger Casement) was convicted by the British crown for high treason. Roger Casement was an anomaly. He was a foreign office diplomat who could never quite get what he was after. He was knighted for his humanitarianism but was trying to broker arms deals. He believed in Irish Republicanism but some of his comrades believed he was too moderate while others believed he was too extreme. He was a rumored sex tourist who traveled to hide and indulge in his homosexuality. And despite having no foreknowledge of the upcoming Easter Rising – being that he was NOT a member of the IRB and they did not fully trust him – he was still convicted of high treason and some of the charges that led to his death were that he helped to plan the rebellion.
It was surprising that he heard of it at all. Casement had been out of the country and then was in the north and kept in the dark by the Republican Brotherhood. He was arrested 3 days before the Rising began – after failing to get Germany to agree to send reinforcements into Ireland to fight the British – and after a whole shipment of German arms heading into Ireland was intercepted. His case was difficult because he was in Germany when such ‘crimes’ happened, but they were relentless in his prosecution.
His supporters at trial were the likes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, W.B.Yeats and George Bernard Shaw. Perhaps the revolutionaries weren’t sure about him, but the popular writers of the day sure seemed to be. On June 29th, 1916, he was stripped of knighthood upon his conviction and sentenced to a death by hanging.
His appeals failed. By the time he was hanged, he had converted from Protestant to Catholic and his priest thought he should be considered a saint. He was buried in quicklime at the prison after his death. In 1965, he was repatriated to Ireland and laid to rest with full honors and a state funeral in the Republican Plot at Glasnevin Cemetery. However, Casement’s last wish was to be buried at Murlough Bay on the North Antrim coast and it has yet to be fulfilled. The government released his remains only on condition that they not be brought into Northern Ireland. Oddly enough, the 1965 British Cabinet record of the decision still refers to him as Sir Roger Casement.
Perhaps someday he will get his wish.
Michael Gaughan
Michael Gaughan, an IRA man died 40 years ago today while on hunger strike in Parkhurst Prison. When people think of hunger strikers, the name that almost always comes to mind is Bobby Sands, but there have been countless male and female prisoners who have used that form of protest throughout the years. When Michael asked for political status and was denied, he like many others before and after him, went on a hunger strike.
The demands were political status, the chance to wear his own clothes, a guarantee of education and release from solitary confinement and a transfer to an Irish prison. He joined a strike already in effect in support of Delours and Marian Price who wanted the same. As usual, these demands were ignored by the British Government.
At that time, it was Britain’s policy to force feed inmates. This was often done by forcing a block between the teeth to hold the mouth open while a tube was passed through a hole in the block into the throat. This brutal method often resorted in broken or loose teeth and lacerations in the throat, both of which Michael’s brother John attested to. Michael was force fed 17 times during the course of his strike, but his weight still dropped and his health declined.
There is a controversy surrounding his death. The last time he was force fed was June 2nd, 1974 and he was dead at age 24 by the next day. Prison officials stated that he died of pneumonia due to his declining health, but the Gaughan family stated that he died after prison doctors injured him fatally when food lodged in a lung punctured by a force-feeding tube.
Following his death the policy of force feeding prisoners came to an end and the government said they would meet the demands that he had been fighting for, since only a week before they had met the demands of Loyalist prisoners who were on a hunger strike. In an all too familiar move, the British reneged on their promises to the Irish prisoners, though not the Loyalist ones, soon after making them.
Michael Gaughan is remembered in song and history. “Take me Home to Mayo,” is also known as “The Ballad of Michael Gaughan,” and has been recorded by many Irish musicians, including the Wolfe Tones and Christy Moore.
“I die proudly for my country and in the hope that my death will be sufficient to obtain the demands of my comrades. Let there be no bitterness on my behalf, but a determination to achieve the new Ireland for which I gladly die. My loyalty and confidence is to the IRA and let those of you who are left carry on the work and finish the fight.” – Michael Gaughan
Rest in Peace Sir.
B October 5th, 1949 D June 3rd, 1974
Stand up For James Connolly
I’m sure that they’ll argue that he was Scottish born. I’m sure they’ll denigrate his socialist beliefs. Neither dispute the fact that he stood for Ireland when others didn’t – and included rich, poor, male and female equally in all of his philosophies. Write. Call. Stop this ridiculousness.
At 6pm on Sunday, 18th of May 2014, RTÉ1 Radio’s History Programme is asking the question: “Is James Connolly a false 1916 Icon?” Don’t let them degrade the winner of the Public Poll to choose the Greatest Irishman Ever. We need to flood RTÉ’s Inbox with support for James Connolly. Please take time to E-Mail: history@rte.ie saying that you support James Connolly as a National Irish Icon.
Choosing the Green 
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