The Irish Revolution and How It Came About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 6, 11 February 1925, Page 7

The Irish Revolution and How It Came About

(By William O’Brien)

In May, 1918, Lord Wimborne was succeeded by Lord French as Viceroy and Sir Edward Duke by Air. Shortt as Chief Secretary. It was not until January in the following year that the first shot was fired in what came to be known as the “murder campaign ” against the R.I.C. when two constables escorting a waggon of gelignite were killed near Tipperary. The only pretext for first launching the new policy of blood and iron was one which is now known to be, at the best, a mare’s nest, and at the worst a wicked invention — the fresh “German Plot” of 1918 which Field Marshal French proclaimed to England he had discovered, and on the strength of which the terrors of Martial Law were intensified and Air. de Valera and Air. Griffith deported to England from their scats at the Mansion House Conference against Conscription. The late Lord Lieutenant (Lord Wimborne) had never heard of “the Plot” ; Sir Bryan Afahon, the Commander-in-Chief, we know on the authority of Colonel Pepington’s book told the new Viceroy (Lord French) he flatly disbelieved the story; when, after two years’ refusal to produce the evidence on which it was based, the documents at last saw the light, they turned out to be a “crambo

CHAPTER. XXVI—(Con tin tied.)

repetita” of negotiations which had taken place before the Rising of 1916 with some sham “German Irish Society” in Berlin. Under cover of this bogus alarm, without a shadow of evidence to connect Messrs, do Valera and Griffith with these antiquated treasons, they were deported to England without any form of trial, with many hundreds of the more responsible Sinn Fein leaders as well; newspapers were suppressed, public meetings broken up. and an endless series of prosecutions, followed by savage sentences, were instituted upon charges none of which involved bloodshed or armed hostilities of any kindcharges of wear green uniforms, drilling, singing “The Soldier’s Song,” being found in possession of photographs of the Hebei leaders, taking part in the Arbitration Courts, either as Arbitrators, solicitors, or clients and the like. The campaign was originally undertaken while FieldMarshal French's military operations for the enforcement of Conscription were complete, and in the .fatuous hone that the removal of Messrs, de Valera and Griffith would break the back of the opposition. It was directed not against crime in any ordinary acceptation of the term, but against an intangible and omnipresent expression of the National

. will, which, however awkward for English military calculations, was directly authorised by President Wilson’s charter of demo- *_ cratic liberty which enabled England to win the war. Gruel deeds of violence will never entirely missing from ebullitions of the ■most fervid passions of men in resistance to unscrupulous oppression; but in general it was the very peacefulness of the revolution which was silently superseding English Government in all its functions, dissolving its police, transforming its Courts of Justice, baffling its Conscription Act and rallying the allegiance of the people with one consent to a new National Governmentthis was the phenomenon which roused the iro of the Gourtsmartial, and prompted the blunderheaded soldier at the Viceregal Lodge to strike harder and harder as he found his wild sabre-strokes against the will of a nation were in vain. The point to be retained is that it was many months after Sinn Fein bad been deprived of its leaders and harried by a thousand persecutions of mere opinion and sentiment now confessed by England to bo irrepressible, before the civic side of Sinn Fein was overborne, and the Irish Republican Army gradually allowed themselves to be goaded into a war of guerillas. A tremendous bribe of doubled and in some categories trebled pay staunched the flow of resignations in the Royal Irish Constabulary and stimulated the zeal of those who remained to earn promotion by the least reputable services against their countrymen. Nevertheless, although the Sinn Fein leaders were now driven more fixedly than, ever to the conclusion that in striking at the R. 1.0. they were striking at the brain and life-centre of English rule, the first f months of the guerilla war were still freefrom the stain of individual assassinations,, arsons, and barbarities in which both sides were before long vicing. Considerable bodies of policemen and military who were captured in ambushes and in attacks upon police barracks were treated with soldierly courtesy,, and their wives and children rescued from positions of danger. The memebrs of the Dublin Metropolitan Police bad no sooner refused to go about armed than they were left free from molestation throughout all thesubsequent wars. It was not until an officer in high command made a round of thecountry Constabulary stations, and harangued the younger men in terms which had ■- their first practical repercussion in theThurles district of Tipperary, where constables maddened with drink dragged local Sinn Feiners from their beds and murdered them and set fire to their homes, that the Thurles police “reprisals” following the twomurders near Tipperary began to be avenged by “counter-reprisals” no less savage on the other side. The mass of the rank and file, however, continued to be Irishmen of too humane and Godfearing a character to betrusted as the executioners of atrocities like these upon men of their own blood and creed. The ferocity on both sides only | reached a pitch never witnessed in Ireland '* before when Sir Hamar Greenwood hit upon tlie expedient of importing the “Black and Tans” to take the places of the resigning R.I.C. and to infect with their own villainy

the most evil elements left behind in the Irish Force.

These unemployables of the demobilised army were in general desperadoes of the vilest type, ready for any deed of blood which their free license from Dublin Castle might present to them, and so true to their depraved origin that, not content with their wages of a guinea a day, they were not above snatching the purse of the wife of General Strickland, the Military Governor of Cork, in the principal street of that city. Whenever the detailed record of their operations comes to be drawn up, it will constitute a more ignoble chapter of murder, devastation, robbery, and cruelty —mostly against defenceless elders, women and children—than all the black generations of Onrews, Oromwells and Carhamptons had been able to contribute in the course of seven centuries to England's annals in Ireland.

To pile up evidence of the atrocities brought home to the military forces of the Crown would be to harrow the feelings of the humane to an insufferable degree and perhaps to do the English, nation in general the injustice of imputing to them complicity in horrors which shall however long live to the shame of their responsible Ministers. It must suffice to give one sample oat of thousands upon an authority that cannot be impeached. It is taken from the considered judgment of Judge Bodkin, who had been for fourteen years the respected Co. Court Judge of Clare, and whose fearless judicial calm, in face of armed force and baser official threats, forms one of the brightest records of that dire time :

"It was proved before me, on sworn evidence in open court, that on the night of September 22, the town of Lahinch was attacked by a large body of armed forces of the Government. Rifle shots were fired apparently at random in the streets and a very large number of houses and shops were broken into, set on fire, and their contents looted or destroyed. The inhabitants, most of them in their night clothes, men, women and children, invalids, old people over 80, and children in arms, were compelled, at a moment's notice and a,t peril of their lives, to fly through back doors and windows to the sandhills in the neighborhood of the town where they remained during the night, returning in the morning to find their homes completely destroyed. .In the course of this attack a man, named Joseph Sammon, was shot dead. There were in all before me 38 claims for the criminal injuries committed on that occasion, and after full consideration of the claims I awarded «i total sum of over £65,000.

"On the same night, the town of Eiunistymon was similarly invaded by the armed forces of the Government, shots were fired in the streets, the town hall and a large number of houses and shops were broken into, set on fire, and, with their contents, destroyed. As in Lahinch, the inhabitants were compelled to fly for their lives, A young married man, named Connole, was seized in the street, by a party of men under command of an officer. His wife, who was with him, pleaded on her knees with

the officer for the life of her husband, but ho was taken away a short distance, shot, and his charred remains were found next morning in his own house, which had been burnt. Another young man, named Linnane, was shot dead in the streets while attempting to extinguish the flames. For the criminal injuries committed in the progress of this attack there were 13 claims, and I awarded upwards of £'39,000 compensation.

"On the same night the town of Mil town Malbay was similarly invaded by the armed forces of the Government. A large number of houses and shops were broken into, set on fire and destroyed, the inhabitants escaping with difficulty and danger. An old woman named Lynch proved that during the course of this raid, just before the burning of her house, her husband (an old mail of 75), while standing beside her at her own doorway, was shot dead by a soldier in uniform, distant about ten yards. She made no claim for the murder of her husband. I awarded £414 for the destruction of her home and property. It is right to add that in this town some of the military and police endeavored to extinguish the flames. There were before me in respect of the raid of Mi!town Malbay 28 claims, and I awarded upwards of £45,000.

“A farmer named Daniel Egan applied to me for compensation for the alleged murder of Ids son. It was proved that a number of men arrested Ins son, and three other men, at his residence on the shores of Lough Derg, bound them with ropes and carried them away in a boat. The next the father heard of his son was a telegram from the police informing him that he had been shot on the bridge at Killaloe, and directing him to come to Killaloe for the corpse. On going to the police station he found his .son’s dead body in a coffin. There was a number of military and police present, but the only one he knbw was District Inspector Wynne. I allowed the case to stand for a week for the production of the District Inspector. The District Inspector did not appear, and 1 adjourned the case to next Sessions.” The reply of the Chief Secretary to Judge Bodkin’s Report was to have him served in Court by the Co. Inspector of the Royal Irish Constabulary with the following notice: “To His Honor Judge Bodkin. “Sir, I have been directed by the Commander of the Forces to prohibit Courts of Justice dealing with claims for compensation involving allegations against the Crown forces or police in this area.” And the Judge’s observation is; “On taking my place on the Bench I observed a large armed force in the Court, apparently for the purpose of enforcing the prohibit ion. I adjourned to next Sessions all cases in which it was alleged that the criminal injuries were committed by the armed forces of the Government.” But the guilt of the scurvy rogues now let loose upon Ireland was a small matter when measured with that of their Ministerial paymasters. What the Government sanctimoniously called “reprisals” were, as we have seen, their way of avenging themselves for the collapse of Conscription and the realisation of Self-Determination without their

leave. They deliberately resolved to treat this phenomenon of National self-liberation - , by the mere force of natural justice as the crime of a murder-gang and to stamp, it out by unloosing the worst ruffians they could hire upon the country at free quarters and to turn a blind eye to their enormities or deny them altogether until their hellish work was done. It is not necessary to assume that Mr. Lloyd George and Sir Hamar Greenwood acquainted themselves fully with the character of the agents they were employing; their culpability was that they did not inquire for themselves until the experiment failed and their boasts that they “had Sinn Fein on the run” and “had the murder-gang by the throat” were turned to their ridicule as prophets as well as to their confusion in the eyes of a conscience-stricken England. One small piece of evidence would be m itself sufficient to stain Mr. Lloyd George with responsibility for the deeds of the Black-and-Tans. It was a newspaper protograph representing an inspection by the Prime Minister of a contingent of these worthies at a time when their ill-fame was at its worst and when Ireland was supposed to be cowering in terror under their bloody lash. The smirk of admiration on Mr. Lloyd George’s face as he surveyed their ruffian ranks gives as damning testimony of his feelings as if he had shouted to ‘them through a megaphone; “You are the boys for my money. Go in and win!” Sir Hamar Greenwood’s ignorance of a country where he had never trod until he came to crucify her might in some degree excuse his original employment of the Black-and-Tans: the most indulgent historian will look in vain for any palliation of the mendacity which he made his principal instrument of government, so long as it was possible to cover up their, crimes. Tho Lord Mayor of Cork, Thomas MacCurtin, was visited at midnight by one of those black bands, summoned out of bed and foully murdered in the sight of his wife and children. Sir Hamar Greenwood blandly assured the House of Commons on the authority of the assassins that the Lord Mayor was murdered by his own Sinn Fein associates, and the fact that ho was as consistent a hater of foul play in any shape as he was ever the first - to risk his life for his principles was actually quoted in support of the atrocious suggestion that it was for his moderation the Lord Mayor was slaughtered by his own comrades. The citizens who had muredered their own beloved Lord Mayor gave him a public funeral which was a spectacle of universal mourning the most impressive that was ever beheld there, and raised a subscription of £23,000 for his widow and children. Still Sir Hamar Greenwood never blenched. Later on when the Curfew was sternly enforced, and nobody in the streets except the Array of Occupation, the most valuable warehouses in the main thoroughfare of Cork, y Patrick Street, wore set on fire with petrot * leum by five separate gangs of incendiaries, the houses burned to the ground with carefully organised efficiency, and hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of property destroyed or looted. At the same time, in another part of the city, the Town Hall was

invaded by the' petroleurs and given to the flames, and the Carnegie Free Library adojining was added to the holocaust. Once more Sir Hamar Greenwood, with forehead of brass, arose in the House of Commons to declare that it was the Sinn Feiners themselves who had burned the fairest part of their city and razed to the ground the headquarters of their local government. In order to give some air of verisimilitude to his theory that the latter incident was an accidental one, he explained that the flames from the Sinn Feiners’ operations in Patrick Street had extended to the Municipal Buildings before the area of conflagration could be limited; The truth was that the Town Hall and the Free Library were situate nearly a mile away from Patrick Street, with a river and a dense network of untouched streets between them and the burnt area of Patrick Street from which the Chief Secretary represented they had caught fire. The lie, gross as a mountain, was good enough for the House of Commons and was never cleared up nor apologised for. The origin of the attempt to burn down Cork was indeed ordered to be investigated at a secret military inquiry by General Strickland, the Governor of the City. All demands for the publication of the text of the Strickland report, or even of its conclusions, were resisted by Sir Hamar Greenwood. To this hour an ignorant England accepts the legend that it was the miscreant Sinn Feiners themselves who murdered their Lord Mayor, burnt down their Town Hall, plundered and gave to the flames the wealthiest region of their city, and all because the Report of the Military Governor on these infamies was successfully suppressed, if it was not itself committed to the flames as well by England’s highest ministers. What inference the Black-and-Tans themselves drew from their Chief Secretary’s intrepidity in covering up their wildest falsi-

fications as his own may be judged from the fact that the men well known to have been the incendiaries were no sooner removed from Cork, as the one concession made to General Strickland’s expostulations than they in cold blood murdered Canon Magner, the parish priest of Dimmamvay— perhaps the least politically-minded man of his race —and went within an ace of murdering a Resident Magistrate, Mr. Brady, 11. M., who happened to be an inconvenient witness of the butchery. Two successive Mayors of Limerick —Mr. O’Callaghan and Mr. Clancy were, like their colleague in Cork, shot dead in their homes in presence of their horrified wives once again, the cynic in the Irish Office adopted from the assassins their loathsome plea that the slaughter of the Mayors of Limerick was the work of their brother Sinn Feiners, and that it was because of their very nobleness of character their fellow-citizens had slain them. It was not even lying reduced to a fine art: it was lying naked, boisterous, and unashamed. These are not isolated instances of the Greenwood method of government; they are samples of a system widely practised an,d unblushingly persisted in. If he had been impeached for crimes against public liberty no less heinous than Warren Hastings - was summoned to answer for, the verdict could scarcely have been otherwise than that his audacity in concealing and perverting the truth carried with it a deeper shame than the worst enormities of the poor hirelings, whom it must be bluntly stated, he stimulated by his incitements and sheltered by his unlimited lying. The first and the worst offence of the Black-and-Tans in the eyes of Mr. Lloyd George or of Sir Hamar Greenwood was that they failed. No pit of official ignoianco in which these personages may take refuge is deep enough to bury the ugly fact out of sight. (To be continued.)