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MIXED MESSAGES.

Using signs, advertisements and messages as the inspiration for observation and comment - enlightened and otherwise

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Josephine McCoy

27/11/2022

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Yesterday, driving on the Back Douglas Road, I spotted the name of an as yet unfinished development. A U-turn was executed and I returned to what will be Josephine McCoy Mews. This had me intrigued.
 
Buildings, roads or structures named after females are not that common. If the sub-grouping of female saints is excluded, the number would be very very small.

​I remember mentally screaming at the car radio about ten years ago when there was a, what proved to be successful, campaign to name the suspension bridge over the Dublin to Belfast M1 after former President Mary McAleese. Someone on the radio was saying that it would be the first structure named after a women, ignorant of the Cork footbridge erected in 1985 and named after Nano Nagle.
 
Mary Elmes Bridge, Rosie Hackett Bridge and others have followed since then – but the numbers are still so small that I did return and photograph what will be Josephine McCoy Mews. Heading onwards towards the Nursing Home, I did think as to who Josephine McCoy was and whether I had read of her previously.
 
As it transpired, I had actually stopped at the grave she shares with her (second) husband. John Borgonovo’s piece on RTE Brainstorm gave the answers – well worth a read.
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​“ – Aren’t Cork people funny all the same, I said. I mean like see that footbridge there, there are two footbridges along this stretch of the river. This one here was opened by Gerald Goldberg, Cork’s Jewish Lord Mayor, it leads from Goldberg’s office in the heart of the city to the Synagogue on South Terrace and on into the Jew Town of Albert Road; but the funny thing is that bridge is known locally as the Pass-Over. Then we have the other footbridge up by the Quay Co-op. It’s called the By-Pass, ya see Joe McHugh was the City Manager at de time dey were building it, and sur poor aul Joe had to go under the knife with his heart… de By-Pass, gas or wat?”
 
Passion Play – Cónal Creedon (1999) 
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Julia M. Crowley – 1932

9/10/2022

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R532 - Buttevant to Kildorrery, Co. Cork

This morning, I started filing away some of my photographs, a long overdue task. I got as far back as late July and this roadside Calvary cross on the Buttevant to Kildorrery road (R532). The filing of the photographs stopped as the vague recollections stirred.
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Calvary Cross locations marked in blue
I was correct in thinking that I had another in the Grotto folder named Wallstown. Only when comparing the two did other coincidences come forth:
 
The majority of roadside grottos or religious statues are to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Calvary crosses are not nearly as common. When I eventually get around to populating the full database, I will be able to give the percentage but suspect it will be in low single digits.
 
1954 was a Marian Year as is regularly noted on the roadside shrines. 1932 is not as common – another for the database recording.
 
When plotting the crosses on the map, they are not very far apart.
 
They both mention Julia M. Crowley and 1932. She erected, or caused erected, the Calvary Cross on the N73. She died on 27th September and the Calvary Cross on the R532 was erected in her memory – interestingly, this one has statues of three others praying and remembering, whereas the earlier one does not.
 
Julia M. Crowley of Wallstown Castle has gone onto the To Find Out More list……

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Is Tinsmith just a memory?

9/9/2022

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Coolcower, Macroom, Co. Cork - March 2015
​Trawling through Twitter this morning, I spotted a tweet from Survivors Unite at Last in which she included a copy of her mothers’s birth certificate. This cert records the profession of her maternal grandfather as a Tinsmith.
 
Very many trades are dwindling in numbers or disappearing completely. Tinsmith is definitely in that category. Automation and machinery has had its impact, so too has plastic.
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Tweet from @UniteAt
We busked around the market towns
And picked fruit down in Kent
And we could tinker lamps and pots
And knives wherever we went
And I said that we might settle down
Get a few acres dug
Fire burning in the hearth
And babies on the rug
She said "Oh man, you foolish man
It surely sounds like hell
You might be lord of half the world
You'll not own me as well"

Beeswing - Richard Thompson
The tweet reminded me of my journey west in early July. Just over Two-Mile Bridge on the Macroom side at Coolcower, the civil engineering works were well advanced for the construction of the Macroom- bypass.
 
But just as one cannot make an omelette without cracking eggs, serious muck-shifting cannot be done without some disturbance.
 
I stopped early that morning to record that another reference to Tinsmith had been cast aside to the memory banks.
 
Many, but not all, memorials (and grottos) have been relocated and repositioned after roadworks. Only time will tell if the memorial to Tinsmith Danny Hourigan is to be reinstated.

UPDATE 2022.03.08

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Last Saturday, March 4th, saw me on the road to Baile Mhuirne. It was my first time travelling on the Macroom by-pass, the bit that is open at least.

​Was good to see that the memorial to Danny Hourigan has been reinstated
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Patrick Morrissey – Died Playing Marbles

2/8/2022

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Memorials to Innocent Victims of the War of Independence and Civil War are proportionally significantly lower than I.R.A. dead.
 
A few weeks back, parking my car off The Market in Ennis, I spotted this plaque to a young boy playing in the wrong place at the wrong time. The screws definitely suggest that the plaque is recent.
 
I wonder if there is more resonance  and sympathy with an innocent victim going about their normal activities rather than a soldier combatant – and even more sore with a child. Quite likely if the success of Joe Duffy’s book on 1916 children is anything to go by.


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Cork – Remembering the R.I.C. and the British Army

22/5/2021

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​There is an exhibition running at the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork in which the artist, Dara McGrath, has returned to the locations where people died in the Republican War, or Revolutionary Period, one hundred years ago. The exhibition concerns itself with the period 1919 to 1921 – the War of Independence.
 
The artist returns to the scene of death a century later and records the current aspect – regularly with people in the photograph who are quite likely oblivious to the past events, such events not being commemorated by a plaque or other memorial.
 
To promote the exhibition, billboards around Cork city were used with details of the person deceased, how they died, as well as photograph of the location. 



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Her Name Was Mary

3/1/2021

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I have been recording roadside memorials for many years – hopefully I will get the map up-to-date at some point.
 
Some memorials do impact greater than others.
 
Maybe two days before Christmas Day had an effect on this agnostic.
 
Maybe it was the clear photograph and simple message.
 
Maybe it brought to mind the memorial to Jonathan Corrie.
 
Maybe it was because I recognised Mary from the streets of the city centre for more than a few years and never knew her name.

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​Powerful Memorial.

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4, Hopefully 5, Brave (and Lucky) Pigeons

23/5/2020

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Dowcha Boy,                           White Vision,


Paddy,                                         The King of Rome       
​

        &                         IHU 15 67080





“Few people can claim that they owe their very existence to a pigeon”
This is the opening line of story that I heard last November on Sunday Miscellany. Gail Seekamp tells the story of White Vision after her heroic experiences during World War II, 60 miles in 9 hours. She was renamed White Saviour.
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The Dickin Medal is the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross. White Vision was one of the first three recipients in December 1943.   Nine months later, Paddy was similarly honoured. I read of Paddy in Ireland’s Own. A plaque was erected in his honour at Carnlough, near Larne, and is on my To Visit list. It looks like there may be two plaques and a song -  and another song, of sorts. In 2010, there was a flypast in commemoration.
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A Bishop Lucey Park pigeon

​This week I read of Cónal Creedon’s excellent book, Begotten Not Made, being selected for an Eric Hoffer Book Award in the U.S., and was reminded of Dowcha Boy whose exploits in World War I pre-dated the Dickin Medal. Feted on returning to Cork, the Legend of the Northside, a small but critical figure of the book, has not been forgotten by this reader.
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Sunvalley Drive
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The Northside
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Fly, Dowcha-boy1 Fly like the wind

Paddy lived until he was 11. White Saviour lived for 10 years after her rescue night. Based in Rialto in Dublin, IHU 15 67080 was ringed in 2015, which I think may also be year of birth. I hope that she is now competing in races for pigeons with disabilities. On Thursday, a ringed leg was spotted in the grounds of St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral.
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Dowcha Boy survived being shot. White Vision survived the stormy night flight that her fellow pigeon did not. Maybe IHU 15 67080 is flying, and hopping, about quite contentedly having evaded the peregrine around the golden trumpets mentioned in a tweet this morning.
 

​“In the West End of Derby lives a working man
He says "I can't fly but me pigeons can
And when I set them free
It's just like part of me
Gets lifted up on shining wings"
 
"Come on down, Your Majesty
I knew you'd make it back to me
Come on down, my lovely one
You made me dream come true"
 
June Tabor

Orla Peach’s tweet and listening to The Unthanks earlier, was enough of a co-incidence about pigeons in one week to warrant this rambling blog.
​


For further distraction from Cónal Creedon, take a few minutes HERE


​If it is good enough for Dowtcha Boy
Paddy Comerford on the Northside Pigeon
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An Appropriate Memorial to Edward Duggan

26/8/2019

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My recording of Roadside Memorials came in handy a few months back when I had to submit an essay for the Local & Regional Studies Course I am attending. The essay was about the uses of Roadsides and Waysides for burial and commemoration.
 
During a tea break during a lecture one evening, LH commented that she had spotted an unusual memorial on the road from Farranfore to Killarney. This was as good an excuse as any to travel a road different to normal on my trip to the Dingle Peninsula earlier this month.
 
LH was not wrong. I have not seen a memorial like it before. Beautiful. And appropriate.
 
Nearly four years after the death of Edward Duggan while cycling, the memorial is clean and very well maintained. It has fresh flowers and solar powered lights.
For many years now, I have been photographing and recording the many Roadside Memorials that I have seen around the country. They are substantially for victims of Road Traffic Collisions, but there are memorials for drownings, train crashes, and others.


The uploading of each of the memorials to the blog is a work in progress, as is the plotting of the memorials on Google Maps. 
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A Brave Father & Two Worthy Sons

10/7/2019

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There have been quite a number of tweets today remembering Kevin O’Higgins who was killed on his way to Mass in Booterstown Avenue, Co. Dublin on this day in 1927 – Barry Sheppard including a cartoon of Gordon Brewster from the Evening Herald;  This Day in Irish History;  RTE Archives; Minister Charlie Flanagan; and, The Irish At War.
 
Come Here to Me, and Stair na hEireann give information on the man and the assassination.
 
All of this reminded me of the memorial which I spotted in Stradbally, Co. Laois last year. I was particularly taken with the inscription, ‘A Brave Father and Two Worthy Sons’. This was more significant when I read an Irish Times article today that Kevin O’Higgins father was murdered in 1923 by the I.R.A.  in revenge for I.R.A. men executed by the Free State on direction of Kevin O’Higgins.
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Michael O’Riordan - ¡No Pasarán!

7/6/2019

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On 9th May, the head on Widerlings Lane was the Street Art that I tweeted in my on-going efforts to tweet one PostBox, Roadside Memorial, StreetArt work, and, Ghostsign every day for 2019 – a means to an end of sorting out and cataloguing all of the photographs that I have.

I had assumed that the art was completed, but I was wrong.

Yesterday, cycling on Popes Quay on my way to final evening of classes at U.C.C. for the term, I spotted that the art had been developed.
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There was Michael O’Riordan keeping an eye on passers-by.
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The head appears to be from the photograph that accompanied the temporary memorial around the corner on Popes Quay a short while back, placed by Michael’s nephew Pat Cadogan.

Eighty-three years ago, Michael O’Riordan left the North Mall and headed to Spain.

Well done to MYO Café.
 
Today’s StreetArt offering has been the updated version on Widerlings Lane.

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James Daly – d. 2 Nov, 1920

2/11/2018

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“My dearest Mother, I take this opportunity of writing to you to let you know the dreadful news, that I am to be shot on Tuesday morning, the 1st of November. What harm, it is all for Ireland. I am not afraid to die, but it thinking of you I am. That is all: if you will be happy on earth I will be happy in Heaven. I am ready to meet my doom. The priest is with me when needed so you need not worry over me… I am the only one of 62 of us to be put out of this World, but I am ready to die”
Private Jim Daly, leader of the Mutiny
Mutiny For The Cause – Sam Pollock (1969)
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The day after Kevin Barry was executed, James Daly met a similar fate.
 
Growing up I would have learned of Kevin Barry, the former Belvedere student who was due to sit an exam as part of his U.C.D. Medical Studies but participated in an I.R.A. attack, was captured, court-martialled and hanged. Years ago, I would have heard the song sung by Paul Robeson, Leonard Cohen and others.
 
It was much more recently that I learned of James Daly.
 
He was a member of the Connaught  Rangers who refused to soldier when they heard of the treatment of Irish men and women at the hands of the Black & Tans. Patrick McGrath, a colleague of his from India, lies in Castlehyde Cemetery. His headstone prompted my reading of the Indian Mutiny.
 
James Daly led a group of the Connaught  Rangers in an attempt to regain their guns which they had handed over. Two soldiers died. As leader, James Daly was court-martialled and executed.
 
Last month, I had to travel from Dublin to Roscommon so I availed of the opportunity to travel the old main road west and make a visit to Tyrellspass and leave one of my stones on the grave of James Daly.

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Victims of the War – But Which War?

15/8/2018

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Quite a few blog posts hereabouts have been accompanied by the expression that ‘it is a bad day when one does not learn something new’.
 
Last week, I learned something completely new. Upto then, I would have thought that it could not have been true.  It was so ‘not a bad day’.
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Private A. George died 21st March, 1921
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Serjeant F. Boxold died 11th February, 1921
Those of you who regularly pass by these pages are probably aware of my interest in Commonwealth War Graves – the inscriptions; the dates; the distances travelled; the alias; the location; and, the neighbours in the graveyard.
​
I had understood that such headstones were erected to those who had died in the World Wars or slightly after as a consequence of action in a World War.


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When the Tricolour Flew in the Punjab

30/6/2018

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A tweet from Irish History Links on Thursday reminded that it was 98 years since the mutiny by the Connaught Rangers in India
 
My education of these events was prompted by a headstone in Castlehyde Cemetery near the banks of the River Blackwater, commemorating Patrick McGrath. I had first learned of this event at the annual window sale of history/local books in the Cancer Society shop on Castle Street, where I purchased Mutiny For The Cause, by Sam Pollock.
 
The book had rested on my bookshelf for a year or more. My encounter with Patrick McGrath led to the book being taken from the shelf. My education as to what happened in India in 1920 started and led to bit of a trail about treatment of soldiers disobeying orders.
 
The Connaught Rangers in Jullundur and Solon refused to soldier for the British King because of the actions of the Black & Tans against Irish people. It was a peaceful action – a refusal to work, until after mess closing one night and discussions as to rumour that fellow protestors in Jullundur had been killed, those at Solon sought to break into the munitions store to retrieve their guns – resulting in death of one protestor (Smith in book; Smythe on Wikipedia; Smythe on memorial at Glasnevin, and Pte Peter Sears who depending on the sources was a protestor or was caught by a stray bullet.
 
One soldier died while being held for trial, Private Miranda. James Daly, born in Ballymote, Co. Galway but from Tyrrellspass, Co. Westmeath, the leader of the attack on munitions store, was sentenced to death at court martial hearing.

​He died by firing squad on 2nd  November, 1920.
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A crowd of more than 6,000 attended the return of Daly’s body to Tyrrellspass in October 1970. The ceremonies, held shortly before the 50th anniversary of his execution, elevated Daly to an equal of the greatest heroes of the republican movement. The Irish flag that draped Daly’s coffin had previously lain on the coffin of Terence MacSwiney, the lord mayor of Cork who died on hunger strike in October 1920. In a speech at Daly’s graveside, Old IRA representative Thomas Malone identified Daly’s sacrifice with the republican goal of a 32-county republic:
‘It was in the words of Pearse who said the seeds sown by our martyrs of all generations fructify in the hearts of future generations . . . The purpose for which James Daly died had not yet been achieved and much still remained to be done before the republic of Pearse, Tone, Connolly and James Daly was achieved.’
 
HistoryIreland
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In 1999, Fergal Keane wrote recommending the granting of a pardon for James Daly.
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​Mutiny For The Cause led to a period of books on soldier executions. First was a reread-
‘For much of the last century the detail of how hundreds of British soldiers were executed has been a state secret. It is only in recent years that the details of the courts martial and the executions have become public. The story marks one of the most controversial chapters in British military history, and the emotion and pain that surround the men’s deaths. The long-running campaign to obtain pardons for them has clearly pricked the national consciousness in Britain and in Ireland.
The twenty-six Irish born soldiers who were executed during the Great War were men of all faiths and backgrounds and from all parts of Ireland. This book examines their stories: who they were, where they enlisted, and how they died. Using previously confidential court martial records, battalion war diaries, personal diaries and interviews, I have been able to compile the most complete narrative of the Irish soldiers who were executed during the First World War.’
Forgotten Soldiers – The Irishmen Shot at Dawn – Stephen Walker – Gill & Macmillan, 2007
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Twenty five were pardoned in 2006 by the UK Government.
​
In 2001, the Canadian Government spoke of the 23 Canadian soldiers executed in World War I, including James Wilson:

‘To give these 23 soldiers a dignity that is their due, and to provide closure to the families, as Minister of Veterans’ Affairs, and on behalf of the Government of Canada, I wish to express my deep sorrow at their loss of life, not because of what they did or didn’t do, but because they too lie in foreign fields where “poppies blow amid the crosses, row and row.” While they came from different regions of Canada, they volunteered to serve their country in its citizen army, and the hardships they endured prior to their offences will be unrecorded and unremembered no more.’
Forgotten Soldiers – The Irishmen Shot at Dawn – Stephen Walker – Gill & Macmillan, 2007
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​Michael Marpugo was a favourite of our then ten year old. Many books have been read and audio books heard. When I heard of the play Private Peaceful then coming to the Everyman Palace, the book was purchased and read in a day – one possible example of why a soldier might be executed by his own side.
​
Life intervened and I was unable to get to the Everyman so that remains on the list to be seen.
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​Next up, compliments of the library, was Robert Widders’ Spitting on a Soldier’s Grave which told of those in the Irish Army who deserted to join the British Army to fight in World War II and how they were ostracised by the government here.
‘After the war, the Irish government court-martialled these men en masse and in abstentia. Under Fianna Fáil Taoiseach (or prime minister) Eamon de Valera, the men were formally dismissed from the Irish Army and stripped of all pay and pension rights. The government also circulated a list of 4,983 names and addresses, entitled, the “List of personnel of the Defence Forces dismissed for desertion in time of National Emergency.” The aim was to prevent those men from finding work by banning them for seven years from any paid employment paid by State or public funds.’

Spitting on a Soldier’s Grave – Robert Widders (Matador, 2010)

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​Paul O’Brien’s book on The Curragh Incident, or The Curragh Mutiny, A Question of Duty, soon followed on the reading list.

Dealing with 1914 when officers in the Army refused to follow orders to prepare for possible action in Ulster against Protestants who were arming themselves in anticipation of defence of the Union of Ireland with Great Britain.

You might not find it odd that none of the Officers met the same fate as James Daly – or even Patrick McGrath’s period of hard labour on the Isle of Wight.
Mutiny For The Cause – Sam Pollock (1969)
​

​Intro
“My dearest Mother, I take this opportunity of writing to you to let you know the dreadful news, that I am to be shot on Tuesday morning, the 1st of November. What harm, it is all for Ireland. I am not afraid to die, but it thinking of you I am. That is all: if you will be happy on earth I will be happy in Heaven. I am ready to meet my doom. The priest is with me when needed so you need not worry over me… I am the only one of 62 of us to be put out of this World, but I am ready to die”
Private Jim Daly, leader of the Mutiny
 
P34 onwards – Wellington Barracks, Jullundur
“But that summer”[1920]”the men of The Connaught Rangers had to endure worse than the Turkish bath conditions prevailing in the bungalows. In the sweltering heat of the plains of India the British Army normally completed all its parades and exercises in the early hours – between the hours of 6 and 8 a.m., before the sun had climbed to a height which made outside activity a torture and a danger to health. But in June, 1920, the men of The Connaughts had been required to undergo a series of vigorous exercises in daylight hours during which even a brisk walk reduced a soldier’s drill jacket to a sweat-soaked rag. ……….

It was suspected by some of the men that this spell of Active Service conditions was deliberately designed to keep them out of mischief – maybe even to weary them beyond the stage at which they might react violently to the news from Ireland; the news of the doings of the Black and Tans. In the event the sufferings imposed on the Rangers – unnecessary sufferings even in the strictest military terms one of the officers was later to agree – aggravated their rage when word came to them of what was being done to their fellow-countrymen at home…….

….It was at the nightly sessions in the battalion Wet Canteen that stories of such happenings,”[Balck and Tan actions]”with the much-thumbed letters from home that backed them, were passed from man to man. The stories and the letters circulated with the beer, each inflaming the effects of the other….

…Sunday, June 27, 1920……That Sunday evening Private Joe Hawes from County Clare sat at a table in a corner apart from the regular schools with four friends: Paddy Sweeney, Stephen Lally, Paddy Gogarty and William Daly. None of the five friends was a member of a Boozing School, being only occasional and moderate drinkers. All around them the air was filled with violent language….as to indignation of the deeds of the Tans about which they’d heard from home or read about in the letters of others. Vengeance was denounced against the perpetrators of the outrages……

None of the shouting that evening that evening was done byHawes and his friends, Quietly they sat in the corner over beer, and quietly they listened to Joe Hawes, the leading spirit of the group, as he urged them that something could be done about what was happening in Ireland.

At that time India too, though mainly by passive resistance had begun her struggle for  freedom and independence. The year before – in 1919 – a British general, Dyer, had ordered his troops to open fire on a crowd of men, women and children peacefully demonstrating at Amritsar, and over three hundred had died, immediately, that is.; hundreds more probably died later, of those left lying wounded and uncared for on the ground. The Connaught Rangers had had no part in that affair – the troops who obeyed General Dyer’s order were, in fact, Indians. But the Irish battalion was a unit of the British forces in India, and this was a point made by Joe Hawes as he talked with his four comrades. The Connaught Rangers were doing in India, said Joe, the same job that English regiments were doing in Ireland – holding down the people. Did they want to go on doing it? He personally had made up his mind no longer to serve England’s king in that capacity, or any other, until British forces were withdrawn from Ireland. The next day, Monday morning, he intended to go to the guardroom and tell the guard commander that he refused to solider, and ask to be put inside.’Volunteering for the guardroom’ was once a common enough gesture of defiance or protest by British soldiers, usually when under the influence of drink. But, as has been said, Hawes and his four companions were all moderate drinkers, so it was not the case of beer talking. Fired by his eloquence and example, and feeling aggrieved by the news from Ireland which they’d talked about many times, his friends agreed to support and emulate his gesture….

…Early on Monday morning….One man, William Daly, allowed himself to be persuaded, for the time being, that their proposed action would be useless, but the other four – Hawes, Sweeney, Gogarty and Lally – were undeterred.

The quartet presented themselves at the guardroom at eight o’clock that morning, and Joe Hawes addressed the corporal of the guard….’In protest’, he said,’against British atrocities in Ireland, we refuse to soldier any longer in the service of the king’
 
 P49 – after Commanding Officer, Colonel Deacon had spoken to the 35 soldiers who now formed the mutiny
“It was evident from the expression on some of the men’s faces that the colonel’s plea had impressed them. Joe Hawes stepped forward. ‘Colonel’, he said – and to address his C.O. in that way, and not as ‘Sir’, was presumptuous for a British private soldier in those days – ‘all those honours,’ said Hawes, ‘on The Connaughts’ flag were for England. Not a one of them was for poor old Ireland, and it’ll be the greatest honour of them all.’” Whether this speech of Hawes’ would have by itself have nullified the effect of the colonel’s address, we do not know. Other words, not so loudly spoken by the battalion’s adjunct, who was one of the officers present, may have been more decisive. The adjutant was apparently convinced that the colonel had won – that the men would accept his offer. ‘When the men return to their bungalows’, he muttered to the R.S.M., ‘see that Hawes is put under arrest.’ Softly as he spoke, he was overheard by Private Coman, a man from Tipperary who was one of the thirty-five. Immediately Coman shouted :’Never mind putting Hawes in the guardroom! We’re all going there.’ And turning to his comrades, he commanded: ‘Left turn, lads! Back to the guardroom – quick march!’ And regimental to the last, smartly and in perfect order and step, the volunteers wheeled into the guardroom, and back behind the grill.

P65
“In their measures for the security of arms, and in nearly every other activity – guard-mounting, opening and closing of the canteen, and in the daily parade which was still held – the mutineers punctiliously clung to the regiment’s traditional discipline, and to the traditional ceremonial routine. There was, however, one departure from the latter. At sundown every evening, it had been the custom to lower the Union Jack on the flagstaff before the guardroom, re-hoisting it at Reveille. The committee decided that the lowering even temporarily, of the tricolour might be misimterpreted as a sign of surrender. All the night – which ended the first day of the mutiny – the green-white-and-gold flag flew high above the barracks at Jullundur.”
 
 
P96
“it will be recalled that on the day following the impressive protest led by Jim Daly at Solon, he, with the the other occupants of the hut above which flew the tricolour, had consented to hand over their rifles and ammunition, which were then stored in the magazine under guard…….

The mutineers’ rifles and ammunition having been handed in, the rest of the day passed without incident. Outside their bungalow, the men who had refused to soldier mixed freely with those who had remained loyal, when the latter were not on parade…….the policy adopted by the officers of the Rangers there seems to have been like Brer Rabbit to ‘lie low and say nuthin’’…..
​
At dinner in the officers’ mess in Solon that night, a rumour reached the company commander, perhaps through a mess waiter or someone else in touch with the men – that an attempt was to be made by the mutineers to break open the magazine and recover their arms. The magazine, it will be remembered, was guarded by a detachment of bandsmen under their sergeant, all Englishmen, but on hearing this rumour, the company commander ordered the guard to be strengthened and command of it to be taken over by two junior officers armed with revolvers, which they were not to hesitate to use, if attacked. 

Curiously, at the time, when the rumour reached the officers’ mess, it was unfounded. Daly was fixed in his determination to abide by a policy of non-violence, especially thanks to his outstanding qualities of leadership, he was firmly in control of his followers. Then rumour once more intervened. Just before the canteen closed that night, around 10 p.m., it began to be whispered among the men drinking there, that terrible things had happened at Jullundur. There had been, it was said, another Amritsar massacre, with the victims this time the mutineers of The Connaught Rangers. English troops had marched in, the story ran, and had ruthlessly mowed down Joe Hawes and hundreds of other men who had protested, with machine guns. Were they going to sit there helpless, some of Daly’s men asked, until the same happened to them? Why should they not break into the magazine and, recovering their arms, die like soldiers selling their lives dearly, not like dumb cattle led to the slaughter? Some who urged this course had, no doubt, drunk quite a few pints of beer that evening, but Jim Daly….was a total abstainer. He told the men he was going to keep his promise to Father Baker, and that in any case, the rumours were probably wild exaggerations.

One of his followers sneered. Was their leader afraid? For all his strength of mind, Jim Daly was too young, and too high-spirited, to remain unmoved by such a remark. He’d show them. He’d lead them to the magazine, if they’d follow. Twenty-seven men volunteered to take part in the operation, which Jim Daly remained level-headed enough to insist should be soberly planned, and carried out after a reconnaissance…. By the light of the moon they could see that the guard had been heavily strengthened. In place of the lone sentry, several men, with rifles to the ready, were patrolling around the magazine, and others could be observed lying on the flat roof, also armed and ready to repel an attack. But Daly had now committed himself and was not the man to draw back…Determined that his followers should know what they were up against, he stressed the strength of the guard and its obvious preparedness to fire on any aggressor. No matter, said the volunteers – it was only bluff and they’d call it. Daly instructed them to be ready to rush the magazine at midnight. Bayonets, the only arms they had, would be carried.

At midnight, with naked bayonets in their hands, the party deployed at the foot of the slope, and, led by Daly, advanced in line uphill…….A challenge from one of the magazine patrol rang out: ‘Halt! Who goes there?’ Again, some guile might have been more effective, but it was not Jim Daly’s way. ‘I am’, he oddly replied, ‘Jim Daly of Tyrrellspass, Westmeath. Hand over our rifles, and there’ll be no trouble.’ ‘If you advance another step,’ called an officer from the roof of the magazine, ‘we’ll fire.’ While he spoke the cassocked figure of a priest came running from the direction of the men’s quarters. It was Father Baker, to whom Daly had given his promise. But before Father Baker could reach the attackers, Jim Daly had spoken. ‘Come on, boys!’ he shouted; ‘charge for Ireland!’ And, clearly marked by the white shirt he wore, contrasting with the army ‘grey-backs’ of the others, he ran up the slope towards the magazine, waving on the men behind with his drawn bayonet. A volley of shots rang out from the roof, and two of the attackers fell to the ground. At that moment Father Baker reached them, and with outspread arms restrained Daly and his followers from advancing further. ‘Cease fire!’ the priest shouted towards the magazine, and then turning to Daly told him that any more bloodshed would be on his head……. Then Father Baker pointing to the two figures lying prone on the ground, urged that they be taken immediately to the medical hut. One of them was already dead. The second, John Egan, had been shot through the lung but lived to nurse that scar, with others received at Mons and Ypres, at his home in County Mayo. The man killed outright was Private Smith.”

P101
“In an interview with an Irish newspaper in 1952 Joe Hawes stated that the shots were fired by two officers, Walsh and McSweeny. He also stated that a second man killed, Sears, was not one of the Mutineers but was hit by a stray bullet whilst walking towards his quarters some way away.”
 
P103 – when Mutineers held in cells awaited trial
“But an occasional cigarette was not enough to stave off the disease induced by bad and inadequate food. Several of The Rangers were struck down by dysentery, and were reduced to almost skeletons by the time they were brought to trial. ‘I wonder,’ said one of them later, ‘that the witnesses for the prosecution were able to identify some of us. I didn’t recognize myself, when I looked in the glass.’ One man, an Englishman called Miranda, died of dysentery in Dagshai. ‘He wasn’t an Irishman,’ the same informant remarked; ‘But he was a true comrade. God rest his soul!’”

P118
“Daly lies buried in the Simla hills in Dagshai military cemetery – grave number 340.”

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Brits Out – Still Happening

19/5/2018

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While the women of the house sit in front of a television, waiting for the appearance of a wedding dress, I am contemplating the removal, deliberate or otherwise, of part of the history that remains from when Ireland was part of the United Kingdom.

I have often blogged on matters relating to postboxes – colour & font; split-personalities; repurposing; quirks of manufacture; and, even, the riddle of Shanagarry. Another blog on a post-box should not surprise too many who pass by here often.
​
This is another reminder to self to continue the populating of the map that I started – hundreds and hundreds still to do.

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This blog has been prompted by a tweet from Eoin Lettice about the upcoming Sheppard’s Auction where Lot 2 is a Victorian cast iron pillar postbox, guiding €2,000 - €3,000, previously resident at Patrick’s Street in Cork.

My recording of postboxes only goes back as far as this website and the VR box from Patrick’s St. was before that. If I were to guess, it may have been replaced by the modern rust-bucket style unit, now at the junction with Academy Street, but I may need to flick through books with old photographs to hunt for more clues.

Maybe An Post needed the money and decided to sell off some postboxes from stores. Maybe some ‘enterprising’ person thought that they were being wasted in An Post stores.
​
The old boxes definitely are better wearing and hardier than that the modern versions. I would have thought that it would be an idea for An Post to keep the old style to replace the postbox causalities – and there have been a few.

​
There was an old pillar box in Ballyphehane in Cork that is no longer – or substantially no longer. The base is still there and used as a concrete foundation for the new style box. I suspect this was a victim of a road traffic accident.
​
The Carron Scotland pillar box at the Holy Ground in Dingle lost its battle with a truck that came down Green Street and ended up in the Woolen Store shop. It was replaced by an old-style Handyside pillar box 

The Carron, Scotland pillar-box that stood outside Bandon Road Post Office in Cork city is yet another that is no longer.
​
But whether this was another victim of road traffic or revenge for the ambush at Ballynamona, Mourneabbey is still open to debate and supposition

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Three Cathedrals, A Funeral and A Painting

17/3/2018

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Sketch for the Funeral of Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork 1920 by Sir John Lavery
​Above is a painting by Sir John Lavery held in Crawford Art Gallery.

Below are photographs of the interiors of three Cathedrals.
​
Take your pick.
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Cathedral of St. Mary & St Anne, Cork
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Southwark Cathedral
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Cathedral of St George, Southwark
​This blog post has been rambling around my brain for over two years – hopefully it will not be as long when you get to the end.

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