News & Updates
"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow." Albert Einstein
"The palest ink is more reliable than the most powerful memory." Unknown
"The palest ink is more reliable than the most powerful memory." Unknown
Director & writer Ciara Hyland has written, directed and produced many Irish language historical documentaries in the last few years, such as Diarmuid Lynch – Óglach Dearmadta/The Forgotten Volunteer (2016), 'De Valera in America' (2019), 74 Days: The Hunger Strike Of Terence MacSwiney (2020), 'Cogadh ar Mhná - A War on Women (2020) & Widows of the Revolution (2022).
Click on photos below for links to documentary pages
Click on photos below for links to documentary pages
Continuing to challenge perceived historical narratives, Ciara's latest work, Croíthe Radacacha/Radical Hearts explores the hidden stories of eight female couples who were at the heart of the Irish Revolution that freed Ireland from the British Empire.
These women were extraordinary in the lives they lived – they were radical in their politics, in their feminism, their socialism and their devotion to freedom and equality. In the end, many of them picked up a gun and went and fought for that freedom and equality. They suffered huge losses but ultimately lived life on their own terms – where the personal was political and their private lives were as radical as their public. This is a documentary about ‘the love that dares not speak its name’ – found at the very heart of the Irish Revolution.
To view Croíthe Radacacha/Radical Hearts - click on the image above. This will open the TG4 link to the 70 minute programme. Please note: as both the TG4 website & documentary are largely in the Irish language, click the prompt 'Translate page from Irish', start the TG4 player and then select English language subtitles on lower right of screen.
Click below for a preview:
These women were extraordinary in the lives they lived – they were radical in their politics, in their feminism, their socialism and their devotion to freedom and equality. In the end, many of them picked up a gun and went and fought for that freedom and equality. They suffered huge losses but ultimately lived life on their own terms – where the personal was political and their private lives were as radical as their public. This is a documentary about ‘the love that dares not speak its name’ – found at the very heart of the Irish Revolution.
To view Croíthe Radacacha/Radical Hearts - click on the image above. This will open the TG4 link to the 70 minute programme. Please note: as both the TG4 website & documentary are largely in the Irish language, click the prompt 'Translate page from Irish', start the TG4 player and then select English language subtitles on lower right of screen.
Click below for a preview:
The first appearance of Diarmuid Lynch in historical fiction:
'In Monavalla' by Joseph Brady, 1963. The early nineteen sixties in Ireland saw a remarkable resurgence of interest in the revolutionary period leading up to the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising in 1966. Newspapers of the period carried numerous recollections and reminiscences of surviving participants and a surprising number of fictional accounts were published and produced including television dramas, plays and books set against the backdrop of the period and aftermath. One such is 'Monavalla' by Joseph Brady published by M.H.Gill & Son Ltd in 1963 and is also the first novel published which included Diarmuid Lynch in it's narrative. Brady's story was serialised in the Irish Press during April 1964 and traces the story of newly ordained Fr. Martin Fitzgerald of Tipperary, en-route from Dublin to a temporary clerical posting in New York in 1917. Fr. Martin somewhat predictably becomes involved in clandestine revolutionary activities. In this excerpt, acting as a courier between the IRB in Dublin & John Devoy in New York, Fr Martin meets with Lynch and receives details of the coded message to carry across the Atlantic: |
Joseph Brady was the pen-name of Cardinal Michael Browne (1887-1971), who also wrote The Big Sycamore (1958), a fictionalised account of his early life. Its sequel, In Monavalla (1963), Browne charts the trials and tribulations of the young priest Martin Fitzgerald as he travels from Ireland to America and back in 1917. Michael Cardinal Browne was an Irish priest of the Dominican Order and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Master General of the Dominicans from 1955 to 1962, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1962. Well connected in academia & revolutionary circles, Browne's brother was Pádraig Monsignor de Brún, a notable priest, poet and scholar, and both were uncles to Máire Mhac an tSaoi, scholar, poet, wife of Irish diplomat, writer and politician Conor Cruise O'Brien, and daughter of their sister, Margaret Browne and her husband, the Irish revolutionary and statesman Seán MacEntee.
While less well known for his fiction, Browne himself had a fearsome reputation as the Vatican's chief theologian and as a dogmatic conservative & traditionalist Catholic, strongly opposed to the reforms of the Vatican Council (including religious liberty) during the 1960s and closely associated with the at times controversial, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
Diarmuid's next outing in historical fiction was in Roddy Doyle's 'A Star Called Henry' (1999).
Doyle's novel is set in Ireland in the era of political upheaval between the 1916 Easter Rising and & the eventual truce signed with the United Kingdom in 1921, as seen through the eyes of young Henry Smart, from his childhood to early twenties. Henry, as a member of the Irish Citizen Army, becomes personally acquainted with several historical characters, including Patrick Pearse, James Connolly and Michael Collins. In this excerpt, Doyle includes the actual events of Lynch's Dundalk Jail wedding in 1918 and subsequent deportation from Ireland by the British administration:
While less well known for his fiction, Browne himself had a fearsome reputation as the Vatican's chief theologian and as a dogmatic conservative & traditionalist Catholic, strongly opposed to the reforms of the Vatican Council (including religious liberty) during the 1960s and closely associated with the at times controversial, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
Diarmuid's next outing in historical fiction was in Roddy Doyle's 'A Star Called Henry' (1999).
Doyle's novel is set in Ireland in the era of political upheaval between the 1916 Easter Rising and & the eventual truce signed with the United Kingdom in 1921, as seen through the eyes of young Henry Smart, from his childhood to early twenties. Henry, as a member of the Irish Citizen Army, becomes personally acquainted with several historical characters, including Patrick Pearse, James Connolly and Michael Collins. In this excerpt, Doyle includes the actual events of Lynch's Dundalk Jail wedding in 1918 and subsequent deportation from Ireland by the British administration:
This is the story of four generations of one extended family and their enduring connection of almost 175 years to the Ballymartle Chalice. Four priests and their church ministry from persecution during the Penal era through to Catholic Emancipation in 1829, calamity & diaspora of the Famine era, the American Missions in pre-Civil War Kentucky, English Missions in the industrial Midlands of the 1860s & 1870s before returning once more to the United States, Cuba & the Spanish-American war of 1898 before eventual return to the Cork parish it was named after. Still in use today almost 250 years since it's creation, the Ballymartle Chalice story is not just the story of a sacred church vessel but the history of one family and many, many others.
Click the image above to access or click here.
Click the image above to access or click here.
It’s been 25 years since the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement formally brought an end to a period in Northern Ireland known, perhaps too understatedly, as “The Troubles.” The Agreement, reached on 10 April 1998, was a careful balancing act, reflecting the competing demands and aspirations of the different parties to the talks. Yet, despite the widespread euphoria that greeted the deal, this was only a beginning. Implementing the Agreement has been a difficult process, depending on the willingness of the political representatives of Northern Ireland’s two communities to work together, but that willingness has frequently been missing and significant challenges still remain.
RTE has a good explainer of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement here and Wikipedia here
RTE has a good explainer of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement here and Wikipedia here
Finally digitised and uploaded - a six minute film of the 1966, 50th Anniversary Commemoration of Diarmuid Lynch's contribution to the 1916 Rising with some news clippings of the event. Home movie footage filmed by Séan Coveney on 20 June 1966, remains the only footage of the event which includes a military parade, Irish Republican Army Veterans salute and the unveiling of an Irish language plaque at the family home where Diarmuid was born in 1878 ( & reputed to be one of the few plaques made and cast by the Irish sculptor Seamus 'Stone Mad' Murphy). Unveiled by IRB President 1915-16, Denis McCullough, the ceremonies were later completed at Diarmuid's gravesite in Tracton Abbey with a military salute and 'Last Post'.
Jeremiah Christopher Lynch was born 145 years ago on 10 January 1878 at Granig, Tracton, Co. Cork, son of Timothy Lynch, farmer, and Hannah (née Dunlea). Educated at Knocknamana national school, he became a sorting clerk at Cork GPO, and having studied at Skerry's College, Dublin, for the British civil service was appointed a boy clerk in London. He emigrated to the USA in March 1896, working initially as a bookkeeper and shipping clerk, and later as an assistant manager, with the firm A. B. Farquhar, where his uncle, Cornelius Dulea, was a partner. He studied Spanish and mechanical drawing with a view to working in Mexico and Peru, but opted to remain in the US and become a naturalised citizen. An active member of various Irish clubs in New York, he served as secretary and president of the Philo-Celtic Society and president of the Gaelic League in New York state, and was involved in a campaign to disrupt theatre performances of plays seen as anti-Irish. There he began a lifetime collaboration with Judge Cohalan, John Devoy and others in the cause of Irish national freedom. From 1907 he used the Irish version of his first name, ‘Diarmuid’.
Returning to Ireland in 1908, he secured employment with McKenzie & Son, suppliers of foodstuffs, in Dublin, where he was introduced to the ‘Teeling circle’ of the IRB by the future President of Ireland, Seán T. O'Kelly. Moving to Cork in 1910, he served as provincial representative for Munster on the IRB Supreme Council (1911–16). Visiting the USA in 1914 as a Gaelic League representative with Thomas Ashe, he attended the Clan na Gael convention in Atlantic City, returned to Ireland with £2,000 to buy arms for the Irish Volunteers, and was involved in selecting Fenit beach, Co. Kerry, as a landing site for arms for the Easter rising. Because of his American citizenship and involvement with the Irish Volunteers, he was confined to residing within a five-mile radius of Dublin during the first world war, categorised as a 'friendly alien'.
Having served in the GPO garrison during the Easter rising as Staff Captain and Aide de Camp to James Connolly, he was sentenced to death, but this was commuted to ten years penal servitude on the intervention of the US president, Woodrow Wilson, because of his American citizenship. However, he faced a mock execution by firing squad before jailing in Dartmoor and Lewes prisons. Released on amnesty in June 1917, he was appointed Sinn Féin food controller, but was re-arrested in 1918 for re-routing food shipments destined for Britain instead to Irish markets. He was married secretly in Dundalk prison (24 April 1918) to Kathleen Mary Quinn, daughter of Mr and Mrs John Quinn of Celbridge, Co. Kildare. Shortly afterwards, he was deported to the USA, where he became National Secretary of the Friends of Irish Freedom (FOIF). Elected in-absentia to the first dáil for Cork South-East at the 1918 general election, he resigned in August 1920 because of the dispute in the USA between Éamon de Valera and the FOIF. He supported the Anglo–Irish treaty, but remained in the USA, living at 2366 Grand Concourse, New York, and running an insurance business at 53 Chambers St., New York.
He retired to Ireland in 1932 and became involved in preparing the 1916 roll of honour to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the rising & contributing to the Bureau of Military History. In 1941 he became vice-president of the American Irish Historical Society. On returning to Ireland he lived initially in Dublin and Mallow before settling in his home parish of Tracton, where he completed various research works & historical critiques.
Diarmuid died 9 November 1950 and today is at rest in Tracton Abbey, Tracton, Co. Cork.
Returning to Ireland in 1908, he secured employment with McKenzie & Son, suppliers of foodstuffs, in Dublin, where he was introduced to the ‘Teeling circle’ of the IRB by the future President of Ireland, Seán T. O'Kelly. Moving to Cork in 1910, he served as provincial representative for Munster on the IRB Supreme Council (1911–16). Visiting the USA in 1914 as a Gaelic League representative with Thomas Ashe, he attended the Clan na Gael convention in Atlantic City, returned to Ireland with £2,000 to buy arms for the Irish Volunteers, and was involved in selecting Fenit beach, Co. Kerry, as a landing site for arms for the Easter rising. Because of his American citizenship and involvement with the Irish Volunteers, he was confined to residing within a five-mile radius of Dublin during the first world war, categorised as a 'friendly alien'.
Having served in the GPO garrison during the Easter rising as Staff Captain and Aide de Camp to James Connolly, he was sentenced to death, but this was commuted to ten years penal servitude on the intervention of the US president, Woodrow Wilson, because of his American citizenship. However, he faced a mock execution by firing squad before jailing in Dartmoor and Lewes prisons. Released on amnesty in June 1917, he was appointed Sinn Féin food controller, but was re-arrested in 1918 for re-routing food shipments destined for Britain instead to Irish markets. He was married secretly in Dundalk prison (24 April 1918) to Kathleen Mary Quinn, daughter of Mr and Mrs John Quinn of Celbridge, Co. Kildare. Shortly afterwards, he was deported to the USA, where he became National Secretary of the Friends of Irish Freedom (FOIF). Elected in-absentia to the first dáil for Cork South-East at the 1918 general election, he resigned in August 1920 because of the dispute in the USA between Éamon de Valera and the FOIF. He supported the Anglo–Irish treaty, but remained in the USA, living at 2366 Grand Concourse, New York, and running an insurance business at 53 Chambers St., New York.
He retired to Ireland in 1932 and became involved in preparing the 1916 roll of honour to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the rising & contributing to the Bureau of Military History. In 1941 he became vice-president of the American Irish Historical Society. On returning to Ireland he lived initially in Dublin and Mallow before settling in his home parish of Tracton, where he completed various research works & historical critiques.
Diarmuid died 9 November 1950 and today is at rest in Tracton Abbey, Tracton, Co. Cork.
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A century on, the legacy of the Civil War with it's appalling loss of life, loss of potential leadership & talent and the deep psychological wound inflicted on the emergent nation has largely lessened with time. However, the Civil War was the greatest single tragedy in terms of loss and potential in modern Irish history and is as significant as the Great Famine of 1845-49. The Irish Free State was born in fratricidal strife and as Mark Tierney put it; 'that dark cloud of hatred, enmity & disillusionment hung over the country for many long years after the Civil War was over.'
The killings on both sides, either through ambush, assassination, atrocities, reprisals or judicial execution resulted in some 1750 deaths, but it was judicial killings that perpetuated bitterness for generations. The first executions took place on 17 November 1922 when four Anti-Treaty IRA fighters were shot in Dublin. They were followed by three more on 19 November. The next to be executed was Erskine Childers, who had been secretary to the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. Childers was a well-known Republican - it was on his boat, the Asgard, that the guns had been brought in during the Howth gun-running - he was a renowned columnist, novelist, and a member of the Anglo-Irish, Protestant landowning family of Glendalough House, Annamoe, County Wicklow. Childers had been captured on 10 November in possession of a Spanish-made .32-calibre pocket pistol which Collins had given to him - or as Charles Gavan Duffy described the circumstances to the Dáil four days after Childers was shot, "The military authorities apparently ascertained that Erskine Childers was living at the home of his childhood in Wicklow; they surrounded the house in the early morning; they found him there and arrested him, as I understand, getting out of bed with a revolver." Childers and eight others appealed to the civilian judiciary. Judge O'Connor, the Master of the Rolls in Ireland, considered whether a state of war existed. He considered the existence of a Provisional Government in Ireland and its authority to act as proposed and execute the nine. 'The Provisional Government now is, de jure as well as de facto, the ruling authority in Ireland and its duty is to preserve the peace, administer the law, and to repress, by force if necessary, all attempts to overthrow it.'
On 24 November 1922 Childers was executed by firing squad at the Beggars Bush Barracks in Dublin. Before his execution he shook hands with the firing squad and also obtained a promise from his then 16-year-old son, the future President of Ireland, Erskine Hamilton Childers, to seek out and shake the hand of every man who had signed his death sentence. His final words, spoken to the firing squad, were: "Take a step or two forward, lads, it will be easier that way." |
Further reading: The Irish Civil War and Executions during the Irish Civil War. Of interest also is ‘Ireland’s Civil War – Of Consequences, Losses and Failed Peace Initiatives’ speech by President Michael D Higgins at Civil War State Centenary Commemoration - 17 September 2022.
102 years ago, on 25 October 1920, Lord Mayor of Cork Terence MacSwiney died in Brixton Jail after 73 days on hunger strike. The first of three funeral services planned for the Lord Mayor was in London at St George's Cathederal.
A group of Irish representatives, including members of Cork Corporation, the Cork Harbour Board and the outlawed Irish Volunteers/Irish Republican Army went to London to accompany the Lord Mayor home to Cork for burial. The admission card opposite was held by Cork Harbour Commissioner & distant relative, T.J.Murphy who participated in the event and was kindly loaned by Colm O'Sullivan. A guard of honour of Volunteers in prohibited uniform of a nation at war with Britain, accompanied his funeral through London watched by thousands of Irish exiles. What followed however, caused international outrage as the British government, intent on preventing any public demonstrations in Ireland, banned the second funeral service from taking place in Dublin. The Lord Mayor's body was then seized from relatives en-route to Ireland and the casket was spirited to Cork - amid allegations of soldiers sitting on it and playing cards en route. The coffin was subsequently unceremoniously left on a Cork quayside. The funeral service in Dublin went ahead without the body on October 29 and the third funeral & interment in Cork eventually on October 31 after a lying-in-state in Cork City Hall. The following day, Kevin Barry was hanged in Mountjoy. Weeks later, Cork City was burned by British forces. Click here or on either illustration to read of 'The Three Funerals of Terence MacSwiney'. |
142 years ago on Monday, 4 October 1880, Charles Stewart Parnell, then the wildly popular MP for Cork, Leader of the Land League and champion of the struggle for land rights and ownership in Ireland, had just been feted on arrival in Cork.
Between events and celebrations in the city, Parnell wrote a brief note to a tenant farmer near Ovens, Co. Cork. In the note, he asks the farmer to join him and attend a meeting at the Victoria Hotel in Cork City the following Saturday to assist in re-organising the Cork branch of the Land League. The tenant farmer was Denis Murphy of Mullaghroe, Ovens, Co. Cork and his attendance at this meeting may have resulted in his eviction from a land holding held by two or more generations along with a life changing loss of home, income and land. Parnell did not attend the meeting, claiming pressing business in London. But this decision by Parnell to attend to these pressing needs that Saturday would eventually lead to his political demise & disgrace, the end of attempts to gain Home Rule for Ireland and ultimately, his own death on October 6, 1891. This month, read more about the letter, the politics of the era, the struggle for land ownership and the story behind the lives of both Parnell and the Cork tenant farmer (and a distant relative) Denis Murphy. Cick on Parnell to access or click here. |
Thanks to the ever affable retired UCC Associate Professor, Colm O'Sullivan, a previously unknown 1918 Dundalk Jail prison letter by Diarmuid Lynch to Mrs Margaret Murphy of Cork, has been discovered and appears here for the first time.
(For context, Colm's grandparents were Margaret Murphy (nee Geany) & Thomas Joseph Murphy, relatives of Diarmuid through his step-mother, Margaret Murphy (1847-1915). Margaret Geany (1870-1958) had trained as a nurse in New York's Mount Sinai Training School in the 1890s and also knew the young Diarmuid in New York at that time. Lynch had been jailed in Dundalk in March 1918 when, as the Sinn Fein Minister of Food, he had prevented a shipment of pork leaving Ireland for war time Britain.)
In this note written to Margaret Murphy on the familiar prisons 'Form 21' dated Saturday, April 6, 1918, Lynch writes of largely social items. While this letter was evidently smuggled from the prison via his brother Denis, there seem to be no political comments or references. He thanks her for the gift of tobacco 'enough & to spare', writes of recent visitors to the prison and reassures her that 'this place is 'not all bad' compared with Dartmoor etc...'.
This letter explains a reference made by Lynch in another letter of the same day to his sister, Mary. He comments that he "Got a lb of tobacco from Mgt T.J. – quite a supply." (With a number of relatives named Margaret, the convenient family shorthand to distinguish one from another were initials - in this case, Margaret's husband, Thomas Joseph.)
Lynch kept the tone of his note to Margaret, light, optimistic and hopeful that he and his fiancée, Kathleen 'Kit' Quinn: '...before the summer is over we may take a trip South & in this event stay longer than on our last visit'.
This was not to be - served with a deportation order to the United States some days after this letter, Lynch was married to Kathleen Quinn in Dundalk Jail the evening before deportation. You can read of the event here on April 24, 1918.
This letter is transcribed below with references.
(For context, Colm's grandparents were Margaret Murphy (nee Geany) & Thomas Joseph Murphy, relatives of Diarmuid through his step-mother, Margaret Murphy (1847-1915). Margaret Geany (1870-1958) had trained as a nurse in New York's Mount Sinai Training School in the 1890s and also knew the young Diarmuid in New York at that time. Lynch had been jailed in Dundalk in March 1918 when, as the Sinn Fein Minister of Food, he had prevented a shipment of pork leaving Ireland for war time Britain.)
In this note written to Margaret Murphy on the familiar prisons 'Form 21' dated Saturday, April 6, 1918, Lynch writes of largely social items. While this letter was evidently smuggled from the prison via his brother Denis, there seem to be no political comments or references. He thanks her for the gift of tobacco 'enough & to spare', writes of recent visitors to the prison and reassures her that 'this place is 'not all bad' compared with Dartmoor etc...'.
This letter explains a reference made by Lynch in another letter of the same day to his sister, Mary. He comments that he "Got a lb of tobacco from Mgt T.J. – quite a supply." (With a number of relatives named Margaret, the convenient family shorthand to distinguish one from another were initials - in this case, Margaret's husband, Thomas Joseph.)
Lynch kept the tone of his note to Margaret, light, optimistic and hopeful that he and his fiancée, Kathleen 'Kit' Quinn: '...before the summer is over we may take a trip South & in this event stay longer than on our last visit'.
This was not to be - served with a deportation order to the United States some days after this letter, Lynch was married to Kathleen Quinn in Dundalk Jail the evening before deportation. You can read of the event here on April 24, 1918.
This letter is transcribed below with references.
Dundalk Jail.
6.4.18
My dear Margaret[1].
Delighted to get your letter & hope you now feel OK after sojourn at Youghal[2]. I would vote with the girls for Myrtleville[3], but at the moment would be quite satisfied with Youghal.
Still this place is 'not all bad' compared with Dartmoor[4] etc, & as, thanks to our good friends, we have plenty to eat & plenty to smoke[5], we are putting down the time well. A thousand thanks for the supply of tobacco via DWD[6]. You did well to send me 'enough & to spare'. Mrs B.[7] did not forget what my favourite is.
McCurtis[8] (Jim Curtin's[9] father in law) called to see me a few days ago, & was most kind in his offers to get things for me, which I much appreciate.
Yes, thank goodness, I get rid of the backache but occasionally get a reminder to be careful.
Denis[10] is coming to see me tomorrow, so this goes by 'special post' from here - you are not supposed to get any from me - unless it went thro special channels.[11]
Will give your message to Kit[12]. I am hoping that before the summer is over, we may take a trip South & in this event will stay longer than our last visit.
Tom[13] of course enjoys a swim in the morning before leaving for the city (I.D.T)[14]
My love to the girls[15]. [some words torn from end of letter] see you all before many moons have passed.
Is mise[16], Diarmuid
[1]Margaret Murphy (nee Geaney) (1870-1958). Margaret trained as a nurse in Mount Sinai, New York in the late 1890s. It's unknown if she knew Diarmuid at that time. Margaret married Thomas J Murphy (1867-1948) a relative of Diarmuids in 1901. Colm O'Sullivan recalled in August 2022: " My maternal grandparents were known to all and sundry as '"TJ" and "Mrs TJ". TJ called his wife "Maggie" and I presume she and her contemporaries called him "Tom""
[2] Youghal - an Irish resort town in East Co. Cork, popular for holidaymakers from the 1890s - 1960s.
[3] Myrtleville - a small seaside village near Fountainstown & Crosshaven, Co. Cork.
[4] Dartmoor. Diarmuid had been jailed in Dartmoor (May-December 1916) following the Easter Rising. Later spending much of 1917 in Lewes Prison.
[5] 'Plenty to eat & plenty to smoke' - Members of Dundalk's Cumman na mBan are noted as providing some of the Irish Republican prisoners fresh food needs as wartime prison fare was, to say the least, spartan.
[6] DWD - Dublin Whiskey Distillers, Jones Road, Dublin. Diarmuid's brother, Denis, was the Chief Distiller/Manager of the distillery and a frequent visitor to Dundalk Jail. Click here for more information on Denis & his time with DWD.
[7] Mrs B. Perhaps the local shopkeeper?
[8] McCurtis - residents in Dundalk, Co. Louth - their daughter was married to Jim Curtin, then resident in Cork. (see below #9).
[9] Jim Curtin - a neighbour of Thomas & Margaret Murphy in Belgrave Place. Jim was a Public Accountant with family links in Dundalk. Thanks to Colm O'Sullivan for this research information.
[10] Denis: Denis Lynch - Diarmuid's brother & Chief Distiller/Manager of Dublin Whiskey Distillers.
[11] 'Special Post' & 'special channels': i.e. smuggling this letter from Dundalk Jail.
[12] Kit - Kathleen Quinn - Diarmuid's fiancée. They were to secretly marry in Dundalk Jail eighteen days later. See April 24, 1918 on this website here.
[13] Tom - Thomas J.Murphy (1867-1948) Husband of Margaret. Thomas was owner of T.J.Murphy's Provisions store, 39 George's Street (renamed Oliver Plunkett Street in 1922) and 24 Grand Parade, Cork. He and Margaret were regular visitors to the Gambles of Myrtleville.
[14] I.D.T. - this is believed to be 'I Don't Think' - a somewhat sardonic remark from Diarmuid.
[15] 'The girls' - daughters of Margaret & Tom: Natalie (1903-1944), Mary 'May' (1904-1949) & Sheila (1904-1987)
[16] Is Mise - translated from the Irish language as 'yours' - a shortened version of 'is mise le meas' Irish for 'yours sincerely'
Below - some of the Republican prisoners in Dundalk Jail 1918.
6.4.18
My dear Margaret[1].
Delighted to get your letter & hope you now feel OK after sojourn at Youghal[2]. I would vote with the girls for Myrtleville[3], but at the moment would be quite satisfied with Youghal.
Still this place is 'not all bad' compared with Dartmoor[4] etc, & as, thanks to our good friends, we have plenty to eat & plenty to smoke[5], we are putting down the time well. A thousand thanks for the supply of tobacco via DWD[6]. You did well to send me 'enough & to spare'. Mrs B.[7] did not forget what my favourite is.
McCurtis[8] (Jim Curtin's[9] father in law) called to see me a few days ago, & was most kind in his offers to get things for me, which I much appreciate.
Yes, thank goodness, I get rid of the backache but occasionally get a reminder to be careful.
Denis[10] is coming to see me tomorrow, so this goes by 'special post' from here - you are not supposed to get any from me - unless it went thro special channels.[11]
Will give your message to Kit[12]. I am hoping that before the summer is over, we may take a trip South & in this event will stay longer than our last visit.
Tom[13] of course enjoys a swim in the morning before leaving for the city (I.D.T)[14]
My love to the girls[15]. [some words torn from end of letter] see you all before many moons have passed.
Is mise[16], Diarmuid
[1]Margaret Murphy (nee Geaney) (1870-1958). Margaret trained as a nurse in Mount Sinai, New York in the late 1890s. It's unknown if she knew Diarmuid at that time. Margaret married Thomas J Murphy (1867-1948) a relative of Diarmuids in 1901. Colm O'Sullivan recalled in August 2022: " My maternal grandparents were known to all and sundry as '"TJ" and "Mrs TJ". TJ called his wife "Maggie" and I presume she and her contemporaries called him "Tom""
[2] Youghal - an Irish resort town in East Co. Cork, popular for holidaymakers from the 1890s - 1960s.
[3] Myrtleville - a small seaside village near Fountainstown & Crosshaven, Co. Cork.
[4] Dartmoor. Diarmuid had been jailed in Dartmoor (May-December 1916) following the Easter Rising. Later spending much of 1917 in Lewes Prison.
[5] 'Plenty to eat & plenty to smoke' - Members of Dundalk's Cumman na mBan are noted as providing some of the Irish Republican prisoners fresh food needs as wartime prison fare was, to say the least, spartan.
[6] DWD - Dublin Whiskey Distillers, Jones Road, Dublin. Diarmuid's brother, Denis, was the Chief Distiller/Manager of the distillery and a frequent visitor to Dundalk Jail. Click here for more information on Denis & his time with DWD.
[7] Mrs B. Perhaps the local shopkeeper?
[8] McCurtis - residents in Dundalk, Co. Louth - their daughter was married to Jim Curtin, then resident in Cork. (see below #9).
[9] Jim Curtin - a neighbour of Thomas & Margaret Murphy in Belgrave Place. Jim was a Public Accountant with family links in Dundalk. Thanks to Colm O'Sullivan for this research information.
[10] Denis: Denis Lynch - Diarmuid's brother & Chief Distiller/Manager of Dublin Whiskey Distillers.
[11] 'Special Post' & 'special channels': i.e. smuggling this letter from Dundalk Jail.
[12] Kit - Kathleen Quinn - Diarmuid's fiancée. They were to secretly marry in Dundalk Jail eighteen days later. See April 24, 1918 on this website here.
[13] Tom - Thomas J.Murphy (1867-1948) Husband of Margaret. Thomas was owner of T.J.Murphy's Provisions store, 39 George's Street (renamed Oliver Plunkett Street in 1922) and 24 Grand Parade, Cork. He and Margaret were regular visitors to the Gambles of Myrtleville.
[14] I.D.T. - this is believed to be 'I Don't Think' - a somewhat sardonic remark from Diarmuid.
[15] 'The girls' - daughters of Margaret & Tom: Natalie (1903-1944), Mary 'May' (1904-1949) & Sheila (1904-1987)
[16] Is Mise - translated from the Irish language as 'yours' - a shortened version of 'is mise le meas' Irish for 'yours sincerely'
Below - some of the Republican prisoners in Dundalk Jail 1918.
Read Shane McElhatton on Michael Collins - click main photo above. Courtesy of RTE Decade of Centenaries
DIARIES KEPT BY Michael Collins during the last four years of his life will be made available to the public for the first time next month.
The diaries were loaned to the National Archives by members of the Collins family last November, around 100 years after the revolutionary leader used them to organise his dramatic life and cover the period from 1918 to Collins’ death in 1922. The National Archives has digitised the notebooks in totality, to preserve them for posterity, and they will be available to the public in digital form from September. They represent the first fresh primary source material on the politician in many decades. Previously just two of the diaries were on display and only two pages were visible. The diaries cover a huge range of subjects, including information on Collins’ movements, observances about matters in the news and even notes on sporting fixtures that were taking place.
Click images above to access Irish Times video and the Irish National Archives for more information.
The diaries were loaned to the National Archives by members of the Collins family last November, around 100 years after the revolutionary leader used them to organise his dramatic life and cover the period from 1918 to Collins’ death in 1922. The National Archives has digitised the notebooks in totality, to preserve them for posterity, and they will be available to the public in digital form from September. They represent the first fresh primary source material on the politician in many decades. Previously just two of the diaries were on display and only two pages were visible. The diaries cover a huge range of subjects, including information on Collins’ movements, observances about matters in the news and even notes on sporting fixtures that were taking place.
Click images above to access Irish Times video and the Irish National Archives for more information.
"Arthur Griffith made us all" was how Harry Boland described one of the Irish state's founding fathers.
James Joyce on the other hand described him as “the little man with no neck” but as Senan Moloney recently remarked, Griffith... " certainly had enough gumption to stand up to British imperialism and to lay the foundations for an independent Ireland before his untimely death 100 years ago. In truth Joyce long admired him (he is repeatedly mentioned in Ulysses, which shares its centenary with that of the State) and saw him from the earliest as an ardent advocate of “ourselves alone”. |
Founder of Sinn Fein in 1905 with Bulmer Hobson, Griffith was a practical non militant republican, advocating economic independence in a self-governing Ireland. Opposed to Home Rule in 1912 'If this is liberty the lexicographers have deceived us', supported abstentionism from Westminster and on the advice of Sean MacDiarmada, took no part in the 1916 Rising.
In the Dáil, Griffith served as Minister for Home Affairs from 1919 to 1921, and Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1921 to 1922. In September 1921, he was appointed chairman of the Irish delegation to negotiate a treaty with the British government. After months of negotiations, he and the other four delegates signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which created the Irish Free State, but not as a republic. This led to a split in the Dáil. After the Treaty was narrowly approved by the Dáil, de Valera resigned as president and Griffith was elected in his place. Griffith appointed Michael Collins as Chairman of the Provisional Government.
Negotiating the treaty was the most thankless task in Irish history and while it laid the cornerstone of the foundations for the State, it did come at a great national cost which echoed through the generations.
There is little doubt events took their toll. Griffith died on August 12, 1922 and became the first Irish leader to be buried as Head of State. Yet, a century later, no major official state ceremony has been held to mark his extraordinary contribution to the life of the nation.
Griffith’s place in Irish history has long been the subject of reflection, with some historians arguing that he has been sidelined relative to contemporaries like Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera for party political reasons. In an article for The Irish Times at the weekend, writer Colum Kenny – the author of a biography of Griffith – wrote “the failure to honour him notably in the centenary of his death is a sin of omission” by the Government.
In the Dáil, Griffith served as Minister for Home Affairs from 1919 to 1921, and Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1921 to 1922. In September 1921, he was appointed chairman of the Irish delegation to negotiate a treaty with the British government. After months of negotiations, he and the other four delegates signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which created the Irish Free State, but not as a republic. This led to a split in the Dáil. After the Treaty was narrowly approved by the Dáil, de Valera resigned as president and Griffith was elected in his place. Griffith appointed Michael Collins as Chairman of the Provisional Government.
Negotiating the treaty was the most thankless task in Irish history and while it laid the cornerstone of the foundations for the State, it did come at a great national cost which echoed through the generations.
There is little doubt events took their toll. Griffith died on August 12, 1922 and became the first Irish leader to be buried as Head of State. Yet, a century later, no major official state ceremony has been held to mark his extraordinary contribution to the life of the nation.
Griffith’s place in Irish history has long been the subject of reflection, with some historians arguing that he has been sidelined relative to contemporaries like Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera for party political reasons. In an article for The Irish Times at the weekend, writer Colum Kenny – the author of a biography of Griffith – wrote “the failure to honour him notably in the centenary of his death is a sin of omission” by the Government.
In May 1916 following the end of the Rising, mass detention of known or suspected Republican participants and sympathisers throughout Ireland took place.
Most of these Irish detainees found themselves deported to Britain and imprisoned without trial in a number of jails and in particular, one former German prisoner of war camp in North Wales - Frongoch. Explore some of the surviving entries made by many held in Frongoch during 1916 and a brief video history of the internment camp here or click the illustration > |
This is a distant relative, Fr. Patrick Bowen Murphy (1850-1929), looking suitably sombre in his uniform of Chaplain to the 'Fighting' Ninth Massachusetts Infantry Regiment in the Spanish-American War of 1898. Fr. Pat had a colourful life story as a Fenian revolutionary before joining the American clergy in the 1880s and later becoming involved in the brief 1898 Cuban conflict with Spain. Now, thanks to details shared by Colm O'Sullivan, the extended family story has also been updated and revised. Click Fr. Pat's mugshot to access.
A new article on another distant relative is currently under research - Fr. Pat's uncle, George Murphy (1835-1917) emigrated from the Ovens area, Co. Cork in the 1850s, joined the Union Army during the American Civil War, fought for three years as an NCO with The Army of the Potomac and was captured by Confederate Forces at the Battle of Gettysburg, becoming for a time, a prisoner of war. Ironically, a near neighbour of his from Ovens, Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, became the Confederate commander of the Western Theatre during the Civil War and of another distant relative, also an NCO but with the Confederate Louisiana Infantry. Update March 2023: George's story continues under research but hopefully, should be uploaded during 2023. |
click on the image to access or here: https://beyond2022.ie/
The Public Record Office, part of the Four Courts complex in Dublin housing a magnificent archive of over 700 years of Ireland's history, was destroyed on June 30, 1922 in the opening engagement of the Irish Civil war. Hundreds of thousands of precious historical documents relating to all aspects of Irish life were lost — apparently forever.
Now, for the first time in 100 years, the public will be able to ‘step back in time’ to explore a virtual recreation of the Public Record Office of Ireland and its collections, as they were on the eve of their destruction at Dublin’s Four Courts.
Ireland's Virtual Record Treasury re-imagines and reconstructs through digital technologies, contributions from 70 archives worldwide of replacement records and conservation works on surviving documents rescued from the PRO destruction a century ago, a growing archive of Ireland's rich cultural and social history.
“The Record Treasury at the Public Record Office of Ireland was one of the great archives of Europe. The devastating cultural loss of the archive in 1922 has hampered our understanding of Ireland’s past. Thanks to the meticulous record-keeping of generations of archivists, historians, copyists, genealogists and clerks, thousands of duplicates and transcripts of Ireland’s records, scattered across the world, have been preserved. Record by record, shelf by shelf, historians, archivists and computer scientists are bringing Ireland’s destroyed national treasure back to life."
Beyond 2022’ Programme Director Dr Peter Crooks, Associate Professor in Medieval History, Trinity College, Dublin.
This is an open-access resource, freely and permanently available online to all those interested in Ireland’s deep history at home and abroad.
Beyond 2022 is a project by Trinity College Dublin in collaboration with the National Archives, the National Archives (UK), the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and the Irish Manuscripts Commission.
click on the image above to access The Record Treasury or here: https://beyond2022.ie/
The Public Record Office, part of the Four Courts complex in Dublin housing a magnificent archive of over 700 years of Ireland's history, was destroyed on June 30, 1922 in the opening engagement of the Irish Civil war. Hundreds of thousands of precious historical documents relating to all aspects of Irish life were lost — apparently forever.
Now, for the first time in 100 years, the public will be able to ‘step back in time’ to explore a virtual recreation of the Public Record Office of Ireland and its collections, as they were on the eve of their destruction at Dublin’s Four Courts.
Ireland's Virtual Record Treasury re-imagines and reconstructs through digital technologies, contributions from 70 archives worldwide of replacement records and conservation works on surviving documents rescued from the PRO destruction a century ago, a growing archive of Ireland's rich cultural and social history.
“The Record Treasury at the Public Record Office of Ireland was one of the great archives of Europe. The devastating cultural loss of the archive in 1922 has hampered our understanding of Ireland’s past. Thanks to the meticulous record-keeping of generations of archivists, historians, copyists, genealogists and clerks, thousands of duplicates and transcripts of Ireland’s records, scattered across the world, have been preserved. Record by record, shelf by shelf, historians, archivists and computer scientists are bringing Ireland’s destroyed national treasure back to life."
Beyond 2022’ Programme Director Dr Peter Crooks, Associate Professor in Medieval History, Trinity College, Dublin.
This is an open-access resource, freely and permanently available online to all those interested in Ireland’s deep history at home and abroad.
- for the first time in 100 years, ‘step inside’ the 6-storey Victorian Public Record Office, as it was on the eve of its destruction in 1922, via an immersive 3D experience
- search the Treasury’s collection of 50 million words of text, 150,000 records and more than 6,000 maps spanning an arc of Irish history from 1174 right up to 1922
- interested in Ireland’s first census which took place in 1766? … Or in how Ireland was more intensely mapped and surveyed than anywhere in the world during the Cromwellian era? … Or how Ireland was governed by the English crown in the Middle Ages? ... Three ‘Gold Seam’ collections , where up to 80% of the lost material has been retrieved, are a treasure trove of information about life in Ireland across the centuries
- dive deep into Ireland’s past with the Knowledge Graph for Irish History – a powerful new research tool which allows for the discovery of new connections between people and places…2.7 million linked data entities are available to search
Beyond 2022 is a project by Trinity College Dublin in collaboration with the National Archives, the National Archives (UK), the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and the Irish Manuscripts Commission.
click on the image above to access The Record Treasury or here: https://beyond2022.ie/
Florence O'Donoghue posthumously edited Diarmuid's recollections, drafts & notes of the Easter Rising into the 1957 Mercier Press publication 'The IRB and the 1916 Rising'. This had an estimated single run of 800 copies and as a result, is rare to see a copy appear for sale.
One of these rarieties went under the hammer on April 27, 2022 - part of Conor Cruise O'Brien (1917-2008) and
Máire Mhac an tSaoi (1922-2021) personal libraries. Hammer price €200.
More readily available today is 'Diarmuid Lynch - A Forgotten Irish Patriot' by Eileen McGough (published in 2013).
A scanned copy of the 1957 'The IRB and the 1916 Insurrection' is available to read on this site - click here to access.
One of these rarieties went under the hammer on April 27, 2022 - part of Conor Cruise O'Brien (1917-2008) and
Máire Mhac an tSaoi (1922-2021) personal libraries. Hammer price €200.
More readily available today is 'Diarmuid Lynch - A Forgotten Irish Patriot' by Eileen McGough (published in 2013).
A scanned copy of the 1957 'The IRB and the 1916 Insurrection' is available to read on this site - click here to access.
More readily available is 'Diarmuid Lynch - A Forgotten Irish Patriot' by Eileen McGough (2014)
Director Ciara Hyland who directed "Diarmuid Lynch - Óglach Deamadta (The Forgotten Volunteer)' and ‘De Valera i Méiriceá/ De Valera in America’ for RTE/TG4 has completed a new Irish language documentary - 'Cogadh ar Mhná - A War on Women.
This new (& subtitled) documentary to broadcast on TG4 23 September 2020, explodes the historical myth that sexual violence against women didn’t happen during the War of Independence and the Civil War and tells for the first time in their own words some of the stories of women who were victims of it.
"It sheds new light on the Irish Revolution and points up the repeated silencing of women and their stories in Irish society – all through a new and unique production partnership backed jointly by TG4 and RTÉ with the support of the BAI.
Why is it that stories of sexual violence against women have never been part of the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War? Why, when those stories have been such an integral part of every other war - World War One, World War Two and even the later Bosnian War - are these stories missing from the Irish Revolution?
For years, Ireland has been seen as being exceptional in that these acts didn’t occur here. But was Ireland really so special? Was the nature of war here so very different from war everywhere else? And did our men really behave so well?
Based on new research coming to light, this documentary argues that the answer is no. No side of the conflict is exempt – Black and Tans, Republicans and Free Staters – there are stories of violence against women committed by them all.
It’s time to say the unsaid, to blow the lid off theses stories and leave behind the belief that Ireland’s wars were somehow exceptional and different – more honourable - than every other war. Cogadh ar Mhná / A War on Women? tells the truth about what happened to these women and argues that their voices should be heard and the wrongs of the past finally addressed."
This new (& subtitled) documentary to broadcast on TG4 23 September 2020, explodes the historical myth that sexual violence against women didn’t happen during the War of Independence and the Civil War and tells for the first time in their own words some of the stories of women who were victims of it.
"It sheds new light on the Irish Revolution and points up the repeated silencing of women and their stories in Irish society – all through a new and unique production partnership backed jointly by TG4 and RTÉ with the support of the BAI.
Why is it that stories of sexual violence against women have never been part of the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War? Why, when those stories have been such an integral part of every other war - World War One, World War Two and even the later Bosnian War - are these stories missing from the Irish Revolution?
For years, Ireland has been seen as being exceptional in that these acts didn’t occur here. But was Ireland really so special? Was the nature of war here so very different from war everywhere else? And did our men really behave so well?
Based on new research coming to light, this documentary argues that the answer is no. No side of the conflict is exempt – Black and Tans, Republicans and Free Staters – there are stories of violence against women committed by them all.
It’s time to say the unsaid, to blow the lid off theses stories and leave behind the belief that Ireland’s wars were somehow exceptional and different – more honourable - than every other war. Cogadh ar Mhná / A War on Women? tells the truth about what happened to these women and argues that their voices should be heard and the wrongs of the past finally addressed."
Further details on "Cogadh ar Mhná" available here and Ciara's website here.
Ciara's current project for Irish national broadcaster RTÉ - "74 days: Inside Terence MacSwiney’s Hunger Strike" which will screen on RTE later this year, is a unique blend of history and science looking at hunger strikes and what happens to our bodies during them. It also looks at the impact that MacSwiney's hunger strike had worldwide- influencing liberation struggles from Catalonia to Ho Chi Minh, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.
Ciara's current project for Irish national broadcaster RTÉ - "74 days: Inside Terence MacSwiney’s Hunger Strike" which will screen on RTE later this year, is a unique blend of history and science looking at hunger strikes and what happens to our bodies during them. It also looks at the impact that MacSwiney's hunger strike had worldwide- influencing liberation struggles from Catalonia to Ho Chi Minh, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.
'
You may think of 'Influencers' as a 21st century phenomenon, shamelessly offering to 'publicise' your facilities or services in return for samples or whatever your services may be, but freeloading is not a recent phenomenon. 'Sophisticated sponsorship' was also commonplace 250 years ago with a twenty strong group of surveyors led by George Taylor and Andrew Skinner. This team had already surveyed the roads of Scotland and the post-road from London to Bath when in 1776, they sought funding from Ireland’s landed gentry in order to map the roads of Ireland. They succeeded in raising a staggering £2,000 (c£400k today) which paid for their survey costs, two additional surveyors and sixteen assistants, the engraving and the printing costs. They began their survey in February 1777 and completed it by the end of the year.
As part of their mammoth project to map Ireland by road from Dublin, all contributors either of funds or accommodation (with food & beverage mind you) were rewarded with a reference of their little 'pied-a-terre' Irish stately home on maps in their forthcoming self-titled volume 'Taylor & Skinner's Maps of the Roads of Ireland'. Just about every member of the Irish gentry and nobility took them up on their generous 'offer' and no doubt had the pleasure of seeing their bijou Irish property in maps and print on release in September 1778. Taylor and Skinner went a little further and also listed the Dukes, Earls, Viscounts, Lords, Bishops and Gentry with their seats under Subscribers and there may have been a wry smile as they also noted members of the Aristocracy & Gentry that failed to support the survey with an asterix. The book was not affordable for most, selling for the cover price of £1.4.0. (one pound four shillings - the equivalent today of £199/€215/$255)
Taylor and Skinner’s Maps of the Roads of Ireland was published in two editions, 1777 and 1782. The 1782 edition contains one extra plate, revised lists of noblemen and gentlemen and some amendments to place names. There are useful details and alternative routes to most destinations, rates for tolls and for the late 18th century intrepid traveller, conversion rates for Irish miles and currency is provided. The difficulties of Irish place names is offered as an "apology" for any inaccuracies and localities & towns such as 'Skebreen' usually appear on maps spelled phonetically. There's also an odd added extra to the edition featured below - handwritten notations and newspaper clippings are found on various pages dating from c. 1860 relating to the origins and sale of various properties mid 19th century. Of course, there is no mention of the many layers of Irish society beneath the landed gentry.
The 1782 edition can be viewed here with thanks to askaboutireland.ie (the Irish Cultural Heritage Project)
The same version of the 1782 edition is also available here with thanks to The Internet Archive.
You may think of 'Influencers' as a 21st century phenomenon, shamelessly offering to 'publicise' your facilities or services in return for samples or whatever your services may be, but freeloading is not a recent phenomenon. 'Sophisticated sponsorship' was also commonplace 250 years ago with a twenty strong group of surveyors led by George Taylor and Andrew Skinner. This team had already surveyed the roads of Scotland and the post-road from London to Bath when in 1776, they sought funding from Ireland’s landed gentry in order to map the roads of Ireland. They succeeded in raising a staggering £2,000 (c£400k today) which paid for their survey costs, two additional surveyors and sixteen assistants, the engraving and the printing costs. They began their survey in February 1777 and completed it by the end of the year.
As part of their mammoth project to map Ireland by road from Dublin, all contributors either of funds or accommodation (with food & beverage mind you) were rewarded with a reference of their little 'pied-a-terre' Irish stately home on maps in their forthcoming self-titled volume 'Taylor & Skinner's Maps of the Roads of Ireland'. Just about every member of the Irish gentry and nobility took them up on their generous 'offer' and no doubt had the pleasure of seeing their bijou Irish property in maps and print on release in September 1778. Taylor and Skinner went a little further and also listed the Dukes, Earls, Viscounts, Lords, Bishops and Gentry with their seats under Subscribers and there may have been a wry smile as they also noted members of the Aristocracy & Gentry that failed to support the survey with an asterix. The book was not affordable for most, selling for the cover price of £1.4.0. (one pound four shillings - the equivalent today of £199/€215/$255)
Taylor and Skinner’s Maps of the Roads of Ireland was published in two editions, 1777 and 1782. The 1782 edition contains one extra plate, revised lists of noblemen and gentlemen and some amendments to place names. There are useful details and alternative routes to most destinations, rates for tolls and for the late 18th century intrepid traveller, conversion rates for Irish miles and currency is provided. The difficulties of Irish place names is offered as an "apology" for any inaccuracies and localities & towns such as 'Skebreen' usually appear on maps spelled phonetically. There's also an odd added extra to the edition featured below - handwritten notations and newspaper clippings are found on various pages dating from c. 1860 relating to the origins and sale of various properties mid 19th century. Of course, there is no mention of the many layers of Irish society beneath the landed gentry.
The 1782 edition can be viewed here with thanks to askaboutireland.ie (the Irish Cultural Heritage Project)
The same version of the 1782 edition is also available here with thanks to The Internet Archive.
With the World war raging unabated in Europe, 2,085 Irishmen still imprisoned in various prisons throughout Britain following the Rising and the issue of conscription looming in Ireland, this gathering shows the diverse nature of Ireland at the time. This formal wedding photograph features two Irish families that certainly & fairly represented the period of post 1916 Rising Ireland and all were to be dramatically affected by the future events of 1917-24.
This moment in time captured family members with known diverse political affiliations and opinions. Some were the apolitical but culturally aware, others the self-declared Constitutional Nationalists who had supported the Irish Parliamentary Party of Parnell and Redmond in the push for Irish Home Rule and later participation in the World War. Then there are the newly emerging younger generation, on the cusp of becoming prominent participants and leaders of Irish Militant Nationalism, recognising that independence through constitutionalism had failed and that perhaps the only route remaining to freedom was through armed revolution.
Their story is here or click the photo above.
Thanks to reader Tom Humphreys for contributing the wedding photograph above and for additional family information.
This moment in time captured family members with known diverse political affiliations and opinions. Some were the apolitical but culturally aware, others the self-declared Constitutional Nationalists who had supported the Irish Parliamentary Party of Parnell and Redmond in the push for Irish Home Rule and later participation in the World War. Then there are the newly emerging younger generation, on the cusp of becoming prominent participants and leaders of Irish Militant Nationalism, recognising that independence through constitutionalism had failed and that perhaps the only route remaining to freedom was through armed revolution.
Their story is here or click the photo above.
Thanks to reader Tom Humphreys for contributing the wedding photograph above and for additional family information.
One of the most important figures in the political history of Ireland and one of the architects of the Northern Ireland peace process. Today's (4 August 2020) front pages of Irish & British newspapers say all that needs to be said.
Reader Tom Humphreys recently got in touch regarding an article here on the Lynch-Wyatt wedding of 1914, and contributed a further family wedding photograph from September 1916 featuring some Hannon, Moloney, D'Alton & Wyatt family attendees along with details of his great-grand-father P.J. Moloney's Prison Journal from 1916.
P.J.Moloney, a pharmacist from Tipperary Town was involved with Republican activities pre 1916 and recorded some detailed events of the period in a Prison Journal, including his arrest, detention in Richmond Barracks (with a reference to Diarmuid Lynch) and deportation to prison in Scotland. Of his seven children, four were involved directly in the War of Independence, one killed by British forces in 1921 and the surviving three later officers in the Anti-Treaty forces. By contrast, one of the family was commissioned as an officer in the British Army in 1914, later transferring to the Royal Air Force before returning in 1923 to join the Irish Free State air force. Moloney himself was elected three times as TD for Tipperary, his home and pharmacy business burned down in a reprisal by British forces in 1920, he was imprisoned three times and spent 23 days on hunger strike in Wandsworth Prison.
The Prison Journal has an interesting back story - it was originally part of a deposition in 1916 to a commission investigating the detention of participants in the Rising. The journal was never returned to Moloney but fortunately, was deposited in an obscure Home Office file in the British Government Archives where it languished, undiscovered for fifty four years until discovered in 2001.
P.J.Moloney's story is here, with thanks to Tom Humphreys. His story also appears in the site's Articles section.
(Tom's other contribution, the Hannon-D'Alton wedding photograph of 1916 (below) - details uploaded 15 August here)
P.J.Moloney, a pharmacist from Tipperary Town was involved with Republican activities pre 1916 and recorded some detailed events of the period in a Prison Journal, including his arrest, detention in Richmond Barracks (with a reference to Diarmuid Lynch) and deportation to prison in Scotland. Of his seven children, four were involved directly in the War of Independence, one killed by British forces in 1921 and the surviving three later officers in the Anti-Treaty forces. By contrast, one of the family was commissioned as an officer in the British Army in 1914, later transferring to the Royal Air Force before returning in 1923 to join the Irish Free State air force. Moloney himself was elected three times as TD for Tipperary, his home and pharmacy business burned down in a reprisal by British forces in 1920, he was imprisoned three times and spent 23 days on hunger strike in Wandsworth Prison.
The Prison Journal has an interesting back story - it was originally part of a deposition in 1916 to a commission investigating the detention of participants in the Rising. The journal was never returned to Moloney but fortunately, was deposited in an obscure Home Office file in the British Government Archives where it languished, undiscovered for fifty four years until discovered in 2001.
P.J.Moloney's story is here, with thanks to Tom Humphreys. His story also appears in the site's Articles section.
(Tom's other contribution, the Hannon-D'Alton wedding photograph of 1916 (below) - details uploaded 15 August here)
This little handwritten & undated note by Diarmuid Lynch was discovered last year by a friend in the Judge Daniel F. Cohalan papers archived in the American Irish Historical Society, New York.
The note is in Lynch's distinctive handwriting and is an undated Dublin contact listing for an unknown United States based individual. It's only towards the end of page 2 that it becomes clear that this unidentified person was an emissary instructed to make contact with Michael Collins. The initial heading comments "This sheet should be destroyed and photo not be taken away" immediately raises some interest. However, no photograph was included with the file, so just what it was or who it is of, remains unknown.
As the manuscript date is unconfirmed, research into named individuals, locations and events has narrowed the time period to just pre-Truce and with reasonable certainty to June 1921.
Click here to read the article. This is also included in the Articles section.
The note is in Lynch's distinctive handwriting and is an undated Dublin contact listing for an unknown United States based individual. It's only towards the end of page 2 that it becomes clear that this unidentified person was an emissary instructed to make contact with Michael Collins. The initial heading comments "This sheet should be destroyed and photo not be taken away" immediately raises some interest. However, no photograph was included with the file, so just what it was or who it is of, remains unknown.
As the manuscript date is unconfirmed, research into named individuals, locations and events has narrowed the time period to just pre-Truce and with reasonable certainty to June 1921.
Click here to read the article. This is also included in the Articles section.
The 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic continues to spread worldwide. As of 21 March, more than 297,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in over 180 countries and territories, resulting in more than 12,700. This pandemic has led to international socioeconomic disruption, the postponement or cancellation of sporting and cultural events, quarantines & curfews of entire cities & nations and widespread fears of supply shortages which have spurred bulk buying of goods. Misinformation and conspiracy theories about the virus have spread widely online, and there have been increasing incidents of xenophobia and racism against Chinese and other East or Southeast Asian people.
Stay Safe Everyone.
Update: September 2020: Six months after the above figures were made public, there have now been more than 29.5 million Covid-19 cases in 215 countries and territories, resulting in more than 933,639 deaths and 21.3 million recoveries. Ireland has seen over 31,192 cases and 1,784 deaths.
Stay Safe Everyone.
Update: September 2020: Six months after the above figures were made public, there have now been more than 29.5 million Covid-19 cases in 215 countries and territories, resulting in more than 933,639 deaths and 21.3 million recoveries. Ireland has seen over 31,192 cases and 1,784 deaths.
Yet again, the world is experiencing a global viral epidemic with potential to seriously impact all aspects of our lives.
As of March 6, 2020 @ 21:15 GMT, there are 101,883 confirmed cases of coronavirus Covid-19 with 3,464 deaths so far in 97 countries and territories. In the Irish Republic, 18 cases have been confirmed so far and this can only continue to rise. Some nations have enforced quarantine of entire cities, cancelled international flights and made reporting of Coronavirus cases mandatory in an effort to control the spread of the illness, but it continues globally. To an extent, today, we are experiencing history repeating itself. The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic decimated global society as various Governments, desperate to maintain morale, effectively lied to their citizens by underplaying the severity of the disease which in turn led to more, unnecessary deaths. Is the same happening in some states today? Click on the illustration to read the story of the last great pandemic by John Barry & published in the Smithstonian a few years ago. Have we really learned anything from history? It seems not. |
As we wait for the Coronavirus Covid-19 epidemic to abate, social distancing, hand-washing, covering our mouths when we cough, and staying home when we are sick are all important, low-tech measures that we can take to reduce the chances of spreading this viral infection.
In Cork’s Crawford Municipal Art Gallery hangs ‘Men of the South’ by Sean Keating which has become symbolic of the War of Independence era in Ireland. Painted in the summer of 1921 during the truce between Irish & British forces, it shows a Flying Column of IRA volunteers prepared & waiting for action.
Keating's work depicts a group of ordinary men in pursuit of an ideal. "What they lacked in uniforms and armaments was more than compensated for by their formidable courage and determination… [and] evokes the courage and ideals of the subjects rather than the bloody contradictions of a violent war. In this sense, despite its representational style, it remains an essentially a Romantic composition…”
The work was first exhibited by the RHA in 1922 and purchased from the artist in 1924 by The Crawford Art Gallery through the Crawford’s Gibson Bequest Fund. The Crawford has been it’s home since.
Always a popular exhibit, Keating's work will now become better known to a larger audience as it has just been featured on a stamp issued on February 24, 2020 by An Post, the Republic's postal service.
There’s also an interesting background story to the art work and the artist – read about it here.
Keating's work depicts a group of ordinary men in pursuit of an ideal. "What they lacked in uniforms and armaments was more than compensated for by their formidable courage and determination… [and] evokes the courage and ideals of the subjects rather than the bloody contradictions of a violent war. In this sense, despite its representational style, it remains an essentially a Romantic composition…”
The work was first exhibited by the RHA in 1922 and purchased from the artist in 1924 by The Crawford Art Gallery through the Crawford’s Gibson Bequest Fund. The Crawford has been it’s home since.
Always a popular exhibit, Keating's work will now become better known to a larger audience as it has just been featured on a stamp issued on February 24, 2020 by An Post, the Republic's postal service.
There’s also an interesting background story to the art work and the artist – read about it here.
Currently reading a new biography on the Irish-American New York State Supreme Justice Daniel Florence Cohalan, or simply “the Judge” as he was widely & better known. Cohalan played a pivotal role in mobilising Irish-American support for the Irish nationalist cause during the Irish revolutionary decade 1912-1922 but perhaps best remembered today for his tempestuous relationship with Irish nationalist leader Éamon de Valera during the latter’s visit to the United States in 1919–20. Cohalan deserves more attention than this of course and the story of his life as an American politician and Irish-American nationalist encapsulates the complex relationship between Irish America and Ireland during the early decades of the twentieth century.
This new biography by Dr.Michael Doorley examines Cohalan’s background, (both parents had emigrated from West Cork and the future Judge was a young member of Clan na Gael) his motivations and the wider social and political forces which shaped his Irish-American nationalism and American patriotism. As a senior member of the New York based Irish-American Clan na Gael, Cohalan played a significant role in the run-up to the 1916 Rising. Later, as leader of the 275,000-strong Friends of Irish Freedom, he became the spokesman for Irish-American nationalism during Ireland’s War of Independence. Cohalan was also a key figure in American politics. He was chief advisor to New York’s Tammany Hall leader Charles F. Murphy from 1906 to 1913 and was a close ally of Senator William Borah in the campaign against the League of Nations. |
Cohalan also formed strong friendships with leading figures in Irish America (including John Devoy & Diarmuid Lynch) and the Irish Free State such as Executive President William T. Cosgrave who in turn valued Cohalan’s corporate and political connections. Enemies were also just as strongly made from President Woodrow Wilson to the Philadelphia Boss, Joe McGarrity. Cohalan’s biography fills an important gap in Irish and American history and deepens our understanding of the phenomenon of Irish-American nationalism during a critical phase in the Irish revolutionary period.
This biography is currently available from all good booksellers and the publisher, Cork University Press.
Published October 2019. Hardback. 312 pages. ISBN: 9781782053521.€39
Do try and Shop Local and support your local bookshops & community. Don't forget your local library!
This biography is currently available from all good booksellers and the publisher, Cork University Press.
Published October 2019. Hardback. 312 pages. ISBN: 9781782053521.€39
Do try and Shop Local and support your local bookshops & community. Don't forget your local library!
1920 was to be a violent year of guerrilla warfare, assassinations, martial law, reprisals, repression and civilian passive resistance to British rule in Ireland. The year was to herald what was to be a decade of dramatic social and political change shaping the Island of Ireland in ways that remain visible today.
Violence intensified in early 1920 with most of the Sinn Fein political leadership imprisoned or 'on the run'. 'Flying Columns' of Irish Volunteers ranged at will throughout much of rural Ireland, attacking British forces and garrisons. Consistent attacks on rural police barracks resulted in large parts of Ireland 'abandoned' by British forces as the military and police withdrew to fortified bases and adopted a policy of coercion, reprisals, executions & assassination to control the population. By the summer of 1920 with Sinn Fein victory in local government elections across most of the island, various functions of government were forcibly taken over from the British administration including tax collection, law enforcement and the courts. |
To quell this insurgency, the British government under Lloyd George proposed autonomous governments in Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland and also deployed new corps of paramilitary police from Britain, the Royal Irish Constabulary Special Reserve (better known as the 'Black and Tans') and later the Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary, both forces made up largely of unemployed war veterans from the recent War. Lloyd George also passed the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act, giving special powers to the police and military.
The autumn and winter of 1920 saw a new ruthlessness on both sides. On November 21, IRA units in Dublin launched a mass assassination attack on British Intelligence officers, killing 14 men, of whom at least 8 were Intelligence Officers. In revenge, a force of RIC Black and Tans and Auxiliaries subsequently shot dead 15 civilians at a football match in Dublin’s Croke Park and later three IRA suspects held in custody, the day becoming known as "Bloody Sunday". A week later a patrol of 17 Auxiliaries was wiped out in an IRA ambush at Kilmichael in Cork and shortly after that, much of Cork city centre was destroyed in a fire set by Crown forces.
By the end of 1920 some 300 people had been killed. There were attempts to call a truce in December but this was prevented by Hamar Greenwood, then Chief Secretary for Ireland who insisted that the IRA surrender its weapons first. Eamon de Valera, the President of the Republic, who had been in America fundraising and seeking political support for the emerging Republic, returned in preparation for expected political change.
To view - click here or on illustration above.
The autumn and winter of 1920 saw a new ruthlessness on both sides. On November 21, IRA units in Dublin launched a mass assassination attack on British Intelligence officers, killing 14 men, of whom at least 8 were Intelligence Officers. In revenge, a force of RIC Black and Tans and Auxiliaries subsequently shot dead 15 civilians at a football match in Dublin’s Croke Park and later three IRA suspects held in custody, the day becoming known as "Bloody Sunday". A week later a patrol of 17 Auxiliaries was wiped out in an IRA ambush at Kilmichael in Cork and shortly after that, much of Cork city centre was destroyed in a fire set by Crown forces.
By the end of 1920 some 300 people had been killed. There were attempts to call a truce in December but this was prevented by Hamar Greenwood, then Chief Secretary for Ireland who insisted that the IRA surrender its weapons first. Eamon de Valera, the President of the Republic, who had been in America fundraising and seeking political support for the emerging Republic, returned in preparation for expected political change.
To view - click here or on illustration above.
A NEW TRANCHE of Irish civil records has been made available online to members of the public from January, 2020.
Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection Minister, Regina Doherty and Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan have announced an update to the collection of historical registers of births, marriages and deaths. The records, which include all civil marriage records from 1845, birth register records for 1919 and death register records for 1969, are now available online and free for the public to access. The new marriage records are for non-Catholic marriages only, as civil registration of Catholic marriages did not commence until 1864.
The release is part of an initiative by both departments to provide online access to historical records and registers compiled by the Civil Registration Service and it means more records can now be readily accessed for family history and historical research purposes.
The records – which were prepared by the Civil Registration Service and uploaded by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht – can be accessed on the website www.irishgenealogy.ie or click the image above. All records are available free of charge.
The full range of records now available online are:
Birth records from 1864 to 1919
Marriage records from 1845 to 1944
Death records from 1878 to 1969
Doherty said the completion of the project to make all historical civil marriage register records available online was a “great achievement” for the Civil Registration Service which would ensure the preservation of the records for the future. “The marriages project has taken a number of years to complete – given the condition of some of the older records – but all historic marriages are now accessible online for the first time,” she said. Madigan added that the two departments would continue their aim to make all historic records freely available and easily accessible to members of the public.
Work will continue on the digitisation of images for up to 1.5 million death records covering the period from 1864 to 1877, which remain to be released to the public. A separate project between the two departments will also see the publication of a number of other registers held by the Civil Registration Service, including a record of Irish personnel killed during World War 1, army registers relating to births, deaths and marriages and other registers maintained by the consular services.
Of course the 'Jewel in the Crown' which most are waiting for is the release of the 1926 Census - the first Census of the Irish Free State. This is officially six years away but there is an increasing possibility that these files will be made available prior to 2026.
Thanks to the Journal.ie
Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection Minister, Regina Doherty and Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan have announced an update to the collection of historical registers of births, marriages and deaths. The records, which include all civil marriage records from 1845, birth register records for 1919 and death register records for 1969, are now available online and free for the public to access. The new marriage records are for non-Catholic marriages only, as civil registration of Catholic marriages did not commence until 1864.
The release is part of an initiative by both departments to provide online access to historical records and registers compiled by the Civil Registration Service and it means more records can now be readily accessed for family history and historical research purposes.
The records – which were prepared by the Civil Registration Service and uploaded by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht – can be accessed on the website www.irishgenealogy.ie or click the image above. All records are available free of charge.
The full range of records now available online are:
Birth records from 1864 to 1919
Marriage records from 1845 to 1944
Death records from 1878 to 1969
Doherty said the completion of the project to make all historical civil marriage register records available online was a “great achievement” for the Civil Registration Service which would ensure the preservation of the records for the future. “The marriages project has taken a number of years to complete – given the condition of some of the older records – but all historic marriages are now accessible online for the first time,” she said. Madigan added that the two departments would continue their aim to make all historic records freely available and easily accessible to members of the public.
Work will continue on the digitisation of images for up to 1.5 million death records covering the period from 1864 to 1877, which remain to be released to the public. A separate project between the two departments will also see the publication of a number of other registers held by the Civil Registration Service, including a record of Irish personnel killed during World War 1, army registers relating to births, deaths and marriages and other registers maintained by the consular services.
Of course the 'Jewel in the Crown' which most are waiting for is the release of the 1926 Census - the first Census of the Irish Free State. This is officially six years away but there is an increasing possibility that these files will be made available prior to 2026.
Thanks to the Journal.ie
January 1, 2020
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This site also has terms and conditions of use and a privacy statement as required under both United States and European Union law. These have been in place since 2016 & 25 May 2018 and were last reviewed and updated in December 2019. Your use of this site is subject to these conditions. Links to these sections are available at the end of the 'Welcome Page' and by clicking 'More' and then 'Contact' on the main menu at the top of each page within the site.
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Any views expressed are my own personal views and opinions.
Please credit this website if you use any of the information provided.
Enjoy your visit and do get in touch if you wish to share any item of interest or comments.
Dear Readers.
This is just a small but important legal & statutory statement.
This website is a non-profit, nil income generating personal interest historical website. No products, services, associations, benefits-in-kind, affiliations, sponsorship, adverts, reviews, financial donations or payments are solicited, implied or accepted
This site also has terms and conditions of use and a privacy statement as required under both United States and European Union law. These have been in place since 2016 & 25 May 2018 and were last reviewed and updated in December 2019. Your use of this site is subject to these conditions. Links to these sections are available at the end of the 'Welcome Page' and by clicking 'More' and then 'Contact' on the main menu at the top of each page within the site.
These sections are also included below for your information, so do take some time to check these out.
This website is hosted by Weebly.Com and the site is based in San Francisco, California, United States and your use of this website is subject both to the terms and conditions and privacy statement below in addition to the Weebly Corporation terms and conditions available at www.weebly.com
Disclaimer
While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained within this site, the owner/editor of www.diarmuidlynch.weeby.com accepts no liability whatsoever for any issues, inaccuracies or any loss or damage arising from the use or reliance and/or dissemination of information obtained from this website.
Any views expressed are my own personal views and opinions.
Please credit this website if you use any of the information provided.
Enjoy your visit and do get in touch if you wish to share any item of interest or comments.
Ruairi Lynch
Owner/Editor
www.diarmuidlynch.weebly.com
Owner/Editor
www.diarmuidlynch.weebly.com