Saturday, June 18, 2005

TERENCE MACSWINEY (1879-1920) IRISH REBEL & THE HUNGER STRIKE "FAST UNTO DEATH"


BADGE WORN AT FUNERAL CORTEGE OF TERENCE MACSWINEY 1920
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FUNERAL OF TERENCE MACSWINEY(1879-1920)
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“ Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not. ” George Bernard Shaw

" One armed man cannot resist a multitude, nor one army conquer countless legions; but not all the armies of all the empires of earth can crush the spirit of one true man. And that one man will prevail.

The contest on our side is not one of rivalry or vengeance, but of endurance. It is not those who can inflict the most, but those who can suffer the most who will conquer."
Inaugural speech of Cork Mayor Terence MacSwiney who died on hunger strike, October 25, 1920.
-- Terence MacSwiney

It is to his credit that Terence MacSwiney played a major role in getting England to agree to peace talks in 1921 , and he accomplished this without an act of violence. MacSwiney, like Ghandi some twenty years later, helped bring English rule in his country to an end by passive resistance; he refused to submit to English law, and by that simple act he brought the harsh glare of a worldwide spotlight to the injustice of England’s colonial regime.

Terence MacSwiney was born in Cork and educated at the Royal University where he studied accountancy and joined the Gaelic League.
During 1911-1912 he contributed articles to Irish Freedom which became the basis of his book Principles of Freedom published posthumously in 1921.

In 1913 MacSwiney founded the Cork Brigade of the Irish Volunteers and was President of the Cork Branch of Sinn Féin and the 1st Cork Brigade of Volunteers when he was interned under the Defence of the Realm Act in Reading and Wakefield Gaols from April to December, 1916.

In February, 1917 MacSwiney was deported from Ireland and interned in Shrewsbury and Bromyard internment camps until June, 1917. In November, 1917 McSwiney was arrested in Cork for wearing an IRA uniform and was imprisoned in Cork Gaol where he went on a three day hunger-strike before his release. MacSwiney was arrested in Dublin in March, 1918 and imprisoned in Belfast and Dundalk Gaols until September when he was released, re-arrested and imprisoned to Lincoln Gaol. In the same year he published a volume of poetry entitled Battle Cries.
MacSwiney was released in March, 1919 and following the assassination of Thomas McCurtain, Lord Mayor of Cork, MacSwiney was elected to the mayorality. He was arrested in Dublin on August 12th, 1920 and charged with making a 'seditious' speech ...and sentenced to two years in prison. But MacSwiney had no intention of submitting to a legal system he believed had no standing in his country. When he was asked if he wished to address the court, he said, “I have decided that I shall be free alive or dead within the month, as I will take no food or drink for the period of my sentence.”

MacSwiney’s hungerstrike gained world attention. The British government was threatened with a boycott of British goods by North America; and four countries in South America appealed to the Pope to intervene.

As the pressure mounted on the British government to release him, MacSwiney said, “I am confident that my death will do more to smash the British Empire than my release.”

In New York longshoremen were threatening to strike in support of MacSwiney while French and German papers were hailing his courage, and 30,000 Brazilians were demanding Papal intervention.

Meanwhile, in India, Irishmen in England’s 88th Regiment of Foot, the Connaught Rangers, had mutinied, protesting the persecution of their families in Ireland by the very government they were serving; fourteen had been sentenced to death.

British Prime Minister Lloyd George could have ended it by releasing MacSwiney, but he refused; a decision that was fatal to both MacSwiney and England’s hopes of maintaining its stranglehold on all 32 counties in Ireland.

The tactics that had worked so well for them for so many centuries in Ireland and their other colonies -- stripping the native population of all rights, intimidating the people of those lands by demonstrating the absolute power of life and death that they could wield over them with impunity -- were no longer as effective.

After 74 days of his hunger strike or fast unto death on Oct. 25, Terence MacSwiney died. His last words to a priest by his side were, “I want you to bear witness that I die as a soldier of the Irish Republic.”

MacSwiney was hailed by people all over the world, even in the land of his oppressors.

The Daily Telegraph in London wrote, “The Lord Mayor of Cork condemned himself to death for the sake of a cause in which he passionately believed, and it is impossible for men of decent instincts to think of such an act unmoved.”

The young Ho Chi Minh, then a dishwasher in London, said of MacSwiney, “A Nation which has such citizens will never surrender.”

Irish Volunteers, wearing uniforms which were prohibited by English law, escorted his casket through London as thousands of Irish exiles lined the streets. They attempted to land MacSwiney’s body in Dublin and take it overland to Cork for burial, but British General Macready, fearing the certain outpouring of emotion along the route, sent the police and a force of Black and Tans to meet the boat and, after a scuffle on the docks, with MacSwiney’s sister, Annie, clinging to the coffin, the body was snatched away and loaded back onto the boat. MacSwiney was buried in Cork on the 29th

The IRA had no hope of mobilizing an army large or well equipped enough to defeat one of the strongest armies in the world. Ireland’s only hope lay in making the world, especially America, see the justice of their cause and make it impossible for England to continue to tyrannize them. One man, Terence MacSwiney, with extraordinary determination and the moral courage of a man who knew he was right, accomplished more than the thousands carrying guns.

MacSwiney argued for ethical standards to be applied to groups fighting for their freedom from their oppressors.
As he says in this extract from his book Principles of Freedom (1921).©

“ This is the question I would discuss. I find in practice everywhere in Ireland - the doctrine 'The end justifies the means'.
One party will denounce another for the use of discreditable tactics, but it will have no hesitation in using such itself if it can thereby snatch a discreditable victory... a fight that is not clean-handed will make victory more disgraceful than any defeat. I make the point here because we stand for separation from the British Empire, and because I have heard it argued that we ought, if we could, make a foreign alliance to crush English power here, even if our foreign allies were engaged in crushing freedom elsewhere.

If Ireland were to win freedom by helping directly or indirectly to crush another people she would earn the execration she has poured out on tyranny for ages... It is imperative, therefore, that we should declare ourselves and know where we stand. And I stand by this principle: no physical victory can compensate for spiritual surrender. Whatever side denies that is not my side...

A SPIRITUAL necessity makes the true significance of our claim to freedom: the material aspect is only a secondary consideration. A man facing life is gifted with certain powers of soul and body. It is of vital importance to himself and to the community that he be given a full opportunity to develop his powers, and to fill his place worthily. In a free state he is in the natural environment for full self-development. In an enslaved state it is the reverse.

When one country holds another in subjection that other suffers materially and morally. It suffers materially, being a prey for plunder. It suffers morally because of the corrupt influences the bigger nation sets at work to maintain its ascendancy. It is the duty of the rightful power to develop the best in its subjects: it is the practice of the usurping power to develop the basest.
When our rulers visit Ireland they bestow favours and titles on the supporters of their regime - but it is always seen that the greatest favours and the highest titles are not for the honest adherent of their power - but for him who has betrayed the national cause that he entered public life to support. Observe the men who might be respected are passed over for him who ought to be despised. In the corrupt politician there was surely a better nature. A free state would have encouraged and developed it. The usurping state titled him for the use of his baser instincts. Such allurement must mean demoralization. We are none of us angels, and under the best circumstances find it hard to do worthy things; when all the temptation is to do unworthy things we are demoralised. Most of us, happily, will not give ourselves over to the evil influence, but we lose faith in the ideal. We are apathetic. We have powers and let them lie fallow. Our minds should be restless for beautiful and noble things; they are hopeless in a land everywhere confined and wasted. In the destruction of spirit lies the deeper significance of our claim to freedom. ”

Compare the preceding statement of Terence MacSwiney to the following instructions of Lt. Col. Smyth of the RIC (ROYAL IRISH CONSTABULARY)of Munster to his men of the Black & Tans on June 17, 1920:

"....If a police barracks is burned or if the barracks already occupied is not suitable, then the best house in the locality is to be commandeered, the occupants thrown into the gutter. Let them die there - the more the merrier. Police and military will patrol the country at least five nights a week. They are not to confine themselves to the main roads, but make across the country, lie in ambush and, when civilians are seen approaching, shout "Hands up!" Should the order be not immediately obeyed, shoot and shoot with effect. If the persons approaching carry their hands in their pockets, or are in any way suspicious-looking, shoot them down. You may make mistakes occasionally and innocent persons may be shot, but that cannot be helped, and you are bound to get the right parties some time. The more you shoot, the better I will like you, and I assure you no policeman will get into trouble for shooting any man ..."


And here is a poem about Terence MacSwiney written by Padraic Colum:

Terence MacSwiney

See, though the oil be low more purely still and higher
The flame burns in the body’s lamp! The watchers still
Gaze with unseeing eyes while the Promethean Will,
The Uncreated Light, the Everlasting Fire
Sustains itself against the torturer’s desire

Even as the fabled Titan chained upon the hill.
Burn on, shine on, thou immortality, until
We, too, have lit our lamps at the funeral pyre;
Till we, too, can be noble, unshakable, undismayed:
Till we, too, can burn with the holy flame, and know

There is that within us can triumph over pain,
And go to death, alone, slowly, and unafraid.
The candles of God are already burning row on row:
Farewell, lightbringer

Searc's Web Guide to 20th Century Ireland - Terence MacSwiney (1879-1920)
www.searcs-web.com/

WEBSITE THE WILD GEESE
/www.thewildgeese.com

IRELANDS OWN : HISTORY
Terence MacSwiney
(1879-1920)
—by Míchealín Ní Dhochartaigh
www.irelandsown.net/macswiney

And especially check out the website TRISKELLE-IRISH HISTORY
www.vincentpeters.nl/triskelle/ history

MSN GROUPS IRISH HISTORY
groups.msn.com/IrelandOurs/historicallinks
IRISH NATIONAL ANNIVERSARIES

History of Ireland
By Audrey Larson
www.geocities.com



Monday, June 13, 2005

"THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE" SONGS & POETRY " FIELDS OF ATHENRY" & " ALL IN THE FAMILY WAY"


SKETCH OF VICTIMS OF "THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE"
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SKETCH OF VICTIMS OF "THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE" SEARCHING FOR POTATOES IN THE DIRT
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" The Great Irish Famine " (1845-1851) was the result of a blight which caused successive crops of potatoes to fail. Combined with centuries of English racist policies towards the Irish Catholics & the " Clearances" & evictions which continued during the famine and the callous "laissez faire" attitude of the English only made a serous problem into a catastrophe. England at the time was the richest & most powerful country in the world yet had little sympathy for the staring Irish . The English dug in their heels & did as little as possible to alleviate the situation which led to one and a half million deaths and a similar number of desperate Irish forced to Emigrate to America & Canada. While thousands over the years before the famine were arrested for minor crimes to be sent to the prison colony of Australia for years of hard-labour & many were sentenced for life. Was this Genocide possibly it was, at the least, a passive form of "Ethnic Cleansing ".

Note: At a later date I will discuss the " Highland Clearances " of Scotland.

Anyway here a couple of poems & songs about the event.

Fields of Athenry by Pete St. John

By a lonely prison wall, I heard a young girl calling
"Michael, they have taken you away,
For you stole Travalient's(?) corn,
So the young might see the morn.
Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay."

Low lie the fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly
Our love was on the wing
We had dreams and songs to sing
It's so lonely round the fields of Athenry.

By a lonely prison wall, I heard a young man calling
"Nothing matters, Mary, when you're free
Against the famine and the crown,
I rebelled, they cut me down.
Now you must raise our child with dignity."
By a lonely harbor wall, she watched the last star fall
As the prison ship sailed out against the sky
For she lived to hope and pray for her love in Botany Bay
It's so lonely round the fields of Athenry.

All in the Family Way
by Thomas Moore ( 1779-1852) Irish Poet & Lyricist

(Sung in the character of "Britannia")

["The Public Debt is owed from ourselves to ourselves and resolves itself into a Family Account" - Sir Robert Peel's Letter]

(Tune -- My banks are all furnish'd with bees)

My banks are all furnished with rags,
So thick, even Freddy can't thin 'em;
I've torn up my old money-bags,
Having little or nought to put in 'em.
My tradesman are smashing by dozens,
But this is all nothing, they say;
For bankrupts, since Adam, are cousins,
So, it's all in the family way.

My Debt not a penny takes from me,
As sages the matter explain;
Bob owes it to Tom and then Tommy
Just owes it to Bob back again.
Since all have thus taken to owing,
There's nobody left that can pay;
And this is the way to keep going,
All quite in the family way.

My senators vote away millions,
To put in Prosperity's budget;
And though it were billions or trillions,
The generous rogues wouldn't grudge it.
'Tis all but a family hop,
'Twas Pitt began dancing the hay;
Hands round! -- why the deuce should we stop?
'Tis all in the family way.

My labourers used to eat mutton,
As any great man of the State does;
And now the poor devils are put on
Small rations of tea and potatoes.
But cheer up John, Sawney and Paddy,
The King is your father, they say;
So ev'n if you starve for your Daddy,
'Tis all in the family way.

My rich manufacturers tumble,
My poor ones have nothing to chew;
And, even if themselves do not grumble,
Their stomachs undoubtedly do.
But coolly to fast en famille,
Is as good for the soul as to pray;
And famine itself is genteel,
When one starves in a family way.

I have found out a secret for Freddy,
A secret for next Budget day;
Though, perhaps he may know it already,
As he, too, 's a sage in his way.
When next for the Treasury scene he
Announces "the Devil to pay",
Let him write on the bills, "Nota bene,
'Tis all in the family way."

The song " The Wind That Blows The Barley" written by Dr. Robert Dwyer Joyce ( 1830-1883) refers to the rebellion of 1798. He was a professor of English Literature at Catholic University in Dublin. In danger of arrest for rebel activities, Joyce fled to the United States. He later returned to Ireland and died in Dublin in 1883.

The Wind That Blows The Barley

I sat within the valley green
I sat me with my true love
My sad heart strove the two between
The old love and the new love
The old for her, the new that made me
Think on Ireland dearly
While soft the wind blew down the glen
And shook the golden barley

Twas hard the woeful words to frame
To break the ties that bound us
But harder still to bear the shame
Of foreign chains around us
And so I said, "The mountain glen
I'll seek at morning early
And join the bold United Men"
While soft winds shook the barley

Sad I kissed away her tears
Her arms around me flinging
The foeman's shot burst on our ears
From out the wildwood ringing
The bullet pierced my true love's heart
In life's young spring so early
And there upon my breast she died
While soft winds shook the barley

I bore her to a mountain stream
And many's the summer blossom
I placed with branches soft and green
Around her gore-stained bosom
I wept and kissed her clay cold corpse
Then rushed o'er hill and valley
My vengeance on the foe to wreak
While soft winds shook the barley

It's blood for blood without remorse
I took at Oulart Hollow
And laid my true love's clay cold corpse
Where mine full soon may follow
Around her grave I wander drear
Noon, night and morning early
With breaking heart whene'er I hear
The wind that shakes the barley

See website:
CELTIC LYRIC COLLECTION 2003-2004
www.kinglaoghaire.com/site/lyrics/song

& Gaughan’s Song Archive
www.dickalba.demon.co.uk/

The Merry Ploughboys Website
www.merryploughboys.com/

Paul Dunne’s site A History of Ireland in Song
ireland.yi.org

& Vincent Peters’ TRISKELLE
History Of Ireland etc.
www.vincentpeters.nl/

All the best,
GORD.

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

SOLDIERS REBELS & PACIFISTS & THE ALTERNATIVE RESPONSES TO TYRANNY


BLOODY SUNDAY 1972- BRITISH PARATROOPERS SEIZING PEACEFUL PROTESTERS
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SOLDIERS ROUNDING UP PEACEFUL PROTESTERS - BLOODY SUNDAY 1972
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SOLDIERS BLOCKING EXITS WHILE DEMANDING PROTESTERS DISPERSE -TO WHERE ? -BLOODY SUNDAY 1972
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" AN EYE FOR AN EYE MAKES THE WHOLE WORLD BLIND"
MAHATMA GHANDI LEADER OF THE NON-VIOLENT INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT OF INDIA IN THE STRUGGLE TO OUST THE BRITISH TYRANTS

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SHERIFF "BULL CONNOR" SETTING LOOSE DOGS TO ATTACK PEACEFUL CIVIL-RIGHTS PROTESTERS- BIRMINGHAM 1963
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REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. APPLIED GHANDI'S PHILOSOPHY OF NON-VIOLENCE TO THE CIVIL RIGHT'S MOVEMENT
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REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. IN CIVIL RIGHTS MARCH BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
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DALI LAMA PREACHES COMPASSION & UNDERSTANDING & NON-VIOLENCE -LIVING IN EXILE AFTER CHINESE OVER-RAN TIBET
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MICHAEL COLLINS(1890-1922)
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MICHAEL COLLINS IN HOSPITAL AFTER BEING SHOT(1922)
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FUNERAL OF MICHAEL COLLINS (1890-1922) LEADER OF IRA MURDERED BY FELLOW COUNTRYMEN
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For some the only way they believe they can gain their freedom from any form of tyranny is to take up arms in a violent rebellion & revolution. This is the path which Michael Collins & the IRA & others chose . Though they believed they had no other choice as their backs were up against the wall as it were.

Mahatma Ghandi chose a different path to struggle against the ruthless racist British Occupying forces in India. Ghandi believed that only a non-violent form of resistance was the only ethical means which could be justified to fight against tyranny.

In America in the 1950's & 1960's THE Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. led millions in the cause for Civil Rights. Like Ghandi he & his supporters were often greeted with bullwhips, dogs, truncheons & bullets as those in authority were filled with fear & disbelief that anyone let alone someone of black or brown skin would dare question the status quo .

But which is the better way by the gun or passive resistance.
It becomes a difficult question to answer especially when those in power are willing to use all means available to them to crush any movement which threatens their position.

First in such a cause all available peaceable means must be used to their fullest. This would include such actions as writing editorials & taking advantage of the various media , print, radio, television & the Internet . To first voice one's concerns & to seek others of similar views then to organize meetings, public demonstrations, strikes & other forms of non-violent non-co-operation. Ghandi in the end forced the British to leave India for they could no longer maintain control over the populace or guarantee that Industry could still operate on a continuous day to day basis.
Ghandi was able to bring the whole India to a standstill by a simple speech over the radio or through pamphlets & word of mouth.

If after a long non-violent struggle if nothing is attained then we are faced with the issue of whether taking up arms is then justified as the Americans & IRA did against the British or as did the French People did in The French Revolution & the last of these show how tricky & dangerous the taking up of arms can be.

Atlas - Wars and Democide of the Twentieth Century
Overview of Twentieth Century Wars, Massacres and Atrocities:. Grand Total;
Magnitude; Intensity; Propaganda etc.

WARS, MASSACRES & ATROCITIES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
users.erols.com/mwhite28/war-1900

MAHATMA GANDHI ONE SPOT COMPLETE INFORMATION WEBSITE
MKGandhi, mahatma, Philosophy, non-violence, photographs of mahatma gandhi,
Ghandi, Mahatma, Mohandas, peace, conflict resolution.
www.mkgandhi.org/

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project
A collection of primary and secondary documents pertaining to Martin Luther King, Jr., held at Stanford University.
www.stanford.edu/group/King/
"Pilgrimage to Nonviolence."



So anyway here's a poem to Michael Collins:

Michael Collins
BY Derek Warfield

Come listen all me true men to my simple rhyme
For it tells of a young man cut off in his prime
A soldier and a statesman who laid down the law, and,
To die by the roaside in lone Beal na Bla
When barely sixteen to England crossed o'er
For to work as a boy in a government store
But the Volunteers call he could not disobey
So he came back to Dublin to join in the fray

-Chorus-
At Easter nineteen sixteen when Pearse called them out
The men from the Dublin battalion roved out
And in the post office they nobley did show
How a handful of heros could outfight the foe.

To Stafford and jails transported they were
As prisonners of England they soon made a stir
Released before Christmas and home once again
He banded old comrades together to train
Dail Eireann assembled our rights to proclaim
Suppressed by the English you'd think it's a shame
How Ireland's best and bravest were harried and torn
From the Arms of their loved ones and children new born.

For years Mick eluded their soldiers and spies
For he was the master of clever disguise
With the Custom House blazing she found t'was no use
And soon Mother England had asked for a truce
Oh when will the young men a sad lesson spurn
That brother and brother they never should turn
Alas that a split in our ranks 'ere we saw
Mick Collins stretched lifeless in lone Beal na Bla

Oh long will old Ireland be seeking in vain
Ere we find a new leader to match the man slain
A true son of Grainne his name long will shine
O gallant Mick Collins cut off in his prime -

And here's a poem/song by Buffy Sainte Marie which expresses a less romanticized view of war & armed revolutions.

Universal Soldier

He’s 5 foot 2 and he’s 6 feet 4
He fights with missiles and with spears
He’s all of 31 and he’s only 17.
He’s been a soldier for a thousand years

He’s a catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jane
A Bhuddist, and a Baptist and Jew.
And he knows he shouldn’t kill
And he knows he always will kill
You’ll for me my friend and me for you

And He’s fighting for Canada.
He’s fighting for France.
He’s fighting for the USA.
And he’s fighting for the Russians.
And he’s fighting for Japan
And he thinks we’ll put an end to war this way.

And He’s fighting for democracy,
He’s fighting for the reds
He says it’s for the peace of all.
He’s the one, who must decide,
who’s to live and who’s to die.
And he never sees the writing on the wall.

But without him,
how would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau?
Without him Caesar would have stood alone
He’s the one who gives his body
as a weapon of the war.
And without him all this killing can’t go on

He’s the universal soldier
And he really is the blame
His orders comes from
far away no more.

They come from him.
And you and me.
And brothers can’t you see.
This is not the way we put an end to war

Anyway just some food for thought,
BYE FOR NOW,
GORD.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

AMRITSAR MASSACRE APRIL 13, 1919 - THE BRUTALITY OF BRITISH TYRANNY IN INDIA


AMRITSAR MASSACRE APRIL 13,1919 -INDIA- HUNDREDS KILLED BY BRITISH SOLDIERS AT A PEACEFUL PROTEST
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A little over a year before the events of “BLOODY SUNDAY” 1920 in Ireland took place a similar event occurred in India which at the time was part of the British Empire. This was The Amritsar Massacre perpetrated by the British which took place on April 13,1919. As with “BLOODY SUNDAY” the crowd fired upon were unarmed civilians & in both cases the repercussions were damaging to Britain’s reputation & led to an increase of opposition to British rule & would ultimately be their undoing in both Ireland & India respectively.

The Amritsar Massacre - Britain's day of shame.
www.geocities.com/Broadway/Alley/5461/AMRITSAR

“Politically , as well as economically, the years after World War 1 proved depressing to India's high expectations. Indian soldiers returned from battlefronts to find that back home they were no longer treated as invaluable allies but reverted immediately to the status of "natives." Most of the soldiers recruited during the war had come from Punjab, which, with only 7 percent of India's population, had supplied over 50 percent of the combatant troops
shipped abroad. It is thus hardly surprising that the flash-point of the postwar violence that shook India in the spring of 1919 was Punjab province.

April 13,British General R. E. H. Dyer marched 50 armed soldiers into the Jallianwallah Bagh (a small park surrounded by high walls) that afternoon and ordered them to open fire on a protest meeting attended by some 10,000 unarmed men, women, and children. Dyer gave no warning of his intention to open fire. It was a Sunday, and many neighboring peasants had come to Amritsar to celebrate a Hindu festival, gathering in the Bagh, which was a place for holding cattle fairs and other festivities.

Dyer kept his troops firing for about ten minutes, until they had shot 1650 rounds of ammunition into the terror-stricken crowd. The crowd had no way of escaping the Bagh, since the soldiers blocked the only exit. About 400 civilians were killed and some 1200 wounded. They were left without medical attention by Dyer, who hastily removed his troops to the camp. Sir Michael O'Dwyer fully approved of and supported the Jallianwallah Bagh massacre, and on April 15, 1919, issued a martial law decree for the entire
Punjab.


Dyer was relieved of his command, but he returned to England as a hero to many British admirers, who presented him with a collected purse of thousands of pounds and a jeweled sword inscribed "Saviour of the Punjab."

The Jallianwallah Bagh massacre turned millions of patient and moderate Indians from loyal supporters of the British raj into national revolutionaries who would never again trust British "fair play" or cooperate with a government capable of defending such action. The following year, Mahatma Ghandi launched his first Indian satyagraha ("clinging to the truth") campaign, India's response to the massacre in Jallianwallah Bagh. Twenty-seven years later, the British finally went home.”

And further:

“General Dyer said he would have used his machine guns if he could have got them into the enclosure, but these were mounted on armoured cars. He said he did not stop firing when the crowd began to disperse because he thought it was his duty to keep firing until the crowd dispersed, and that a little firing would do no good.

He confessed he did not take any steps to attend to the wounded after the firing. ''Certainly not. It was not my job. Hospitals were open and they could have gone there,'' came his pathetic response.

However, the misery suffered by the people was reflected in the account given by one of the survivors of the massacre Rattan Devi who reported “ She was forced to keep a nightlong vigil, armed with a bamboo stick to protect her husband's body from jackals and vultures. Curfew with shoot-at-sight orders had been imposed from 2000 hours that night. And as she further recalled, ''I saw three men writhing in great pain and a boy of about 12. I could not leave the place. The boy asked me for water but there was no water in that place. At 2 am, a Jat who was lying entangled on the wall asked me to raise his leg. I went up to him and took hold of his clothes drenched in blood and raised him up. Heaps of bodies lay there, a number of them innocent children. I shall never forget the sight. I spent the night crying and watching..."

General Dyer admitted before the commission that he came to know about the meeting at Jallianwala Bagh at 1240 hours that day, but took no steps to prevent it. He also admitted in his deposition that the gathering at the Bagh was not a concentration only of rebels, but people who had covered long distances to participate in the Baisakhi fair. “

The number of deaths at Amritsar has been disputed over the years. Indian commentators & those who are or were more sympathetic to the struggles of the Indian people put the death toll at a thousand or more dead. The official British figure is still 379 dead.

Winston Churchill said about the event:
"The incident in Jallian Wala Bagh was 'an extraordinary event, a monstrous event, an event which stands in singular and sinister isolation"...Winston Churchill

And as he further stated:

“The Indians were 'packed together so that one bullet would drive through three or four bodies'; the people 'ran madly this way and the other. When fire was directed upon the centre, they ran to the sides. The fire was then directed to the sides. Many threw themselves down on the ground, and the fire was then directed on the ground. This was continued for eight or ten minutes, and it stopped only when the ammunition had reached the point of exhaustion".....Winston Churchill

In the British Parliament Churchill argued that General Dyer should have been more roundly condemned for his actions & that the government should express its revulsion over the Massacre but Parliament was more sympathetic to Gen Dyer than to those murdered at Amritsar.

What is odd about Churchill’s response is that within a year it was Churchill who encouraged the British Government to enlist & deploy the Auxiliaries & the notorious Black & Tans to Ireland to terrorize the insurgents & the Catholic populace of Ireland. Did Churchill see the two events as different situations which demanded different reactions & solutions. Or is it that the Irish were to be treated differently because of some inherent native characteristics making them less amenable to non-violent actions such as persuasion accommodation & compromise which the Native population of India would be more amenable to. Or in his defense did Churchill not foresee what a mess the Irish situation would turn into.

What is disturbing about the Amritsar Massacre is that a number of English people saw the Massacre as a justifiable action against the unruly natives of India who needed to be reminded of their place in the British Empire . It is part of the British notion of the time & later revised by those in power for instance Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that people in different classes or of different ethnic origins should know their place in society & that it is up to the ruling classes to decide what is good for the rest of the people of England & by extension in the British Empire & Commonwealth. Thatcher put this into practice in Ireland & when fighting the labour unions especially the coal miners’s unions in her willingness to use police & soldiers to end the strikes in Northern England.
It does sometimes seem as if those in authority have become more & more willing to use force against peaceful demonstrators even in the more democratic countries like the USA & Canada & Britain & other European countries.

See website:
Amritsar Massacre - Jallian Wala Bagh.
Amritsar Portal
Our Community, Our Punjab
Wahe Guru Ji Ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh
www.amritsar.com/

See Website of Winston Churchill’s Speech July 8,1920
Winston Churchill - Amritsar Massacre Speech - July 8th 1920, House of Commons.
lachlan.bluehaze.com.au/churchill/amritsar

For more on Ghandi & The Amritsar Massacre it is treated in some detail in Richard Attenborough‘s Film GHANDI (1982)
IT’S A RATHER INTENSE & DISTURBING & BLOODY SCENE
ON BRITISH IMPERIALISM IN INDIA

Imperialism in India 1498-1740; British vs. French: 1740-1761
... Beginnings of Indian Nationalism: 1885-1919 ...

SEE: WEBSITE by SHANNON DUFFY PROF. LOYOLA UNIVERSITY NEW ORLEANS
ON WORLD HISTORY
includes an extensive bibliography on primary & secondary resources
www.loyno.edu/~seduffy/imperialism

on GHANDI see
THE OFFICIAL MAHATMA GHANDI eARCHIVE &REFERENCE LIBRARY
/www.mahatma.org.in

ANYWAY SEE YOU LATER,
GORD.

Sunday, June 05, 2005

BLOODY SUNDAY I- NOV. 21, 1920 &THE NOTORIOUS " BLACK & TANS " BRITISH "DEATH SQUADS" IN IRELAND


NOTORIOUS BRITISH AUXILLIARIES IN IRELAND 1920
AKA BLACK & TANS WHO TERRORIZED THE IRISH PEOPLE
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PHOTO OF ARMED BLACK & TANS 1920
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Here is some of the background to the creation of the notorious " BLACK & TANS " by the British especially with the insistence & recommendations of Winston Churchill.

In 1918, England decreed the conscription of Ireland's manhood to save her from the great German advance... In December, at the General Election, all Nationalist Ireland declared its allegiance to the Republican ideal, and the Sinn Fein policy of abstention from Westminster was adopted.

In January, the Republican representatives assembled in Dublin and founded Dail Eireann, the Irish Constituent Assembly, Once again proclaiming the Republic . A message was sent to the nations of the world requesting the recognition of the free Irish Sate, and a national government was erected.

No sooner had the new Government begun to flourish, established
its Courts, appointed Consuls, started a stock-taking of the country’s undeveloped natural resources, and put a hundred constructive schemes to work, than Britain stepped in, with her army of Soldiers and Constabulary, to counter the work, harassing and imprisoning the workers. This move of England's called forth a secretly built-up Irish Republican Army which, early in 1920, began a guerilla warfare, and quickly succeeded in clearing vast districts of the Constabulary who were ever England's right arm in Ireland.

In 1920, the British government attempted to solve the Irish question by passing legislation partitioning Ireland and granting it limited self-government. It believed – wrongly - that this would satisfy the majority of Irish nationalists. Meanwhile, it had responded to the Irish Republican Army’s developing physical force campaign with repression.

From the outset, the IRA campaign was mainly directed against the Royal Irish Constabulary – by June 1920, 55 policemen had been killed, 16 barracks destroyed and hundreds abandoned. As a result its conviction rates, recruitment levels and morale, all fell sharply. In response, the British government initiated changes (autumn 1919), which in effect transformed the force into an auxiliary army, by equipping it with motor vehicles, rockets, bombs and shotguns. By January 1920, Westminster felt compelled to take more drastic action. It launched a recruitment drive in England to attract ex-soldiers to join a new force, soon nicknamed the ‘Black and Tans’ owing to the distinctive uniforms its members were initially issued with. It eventually numbered about 10,000 and quickly acquired an unenviable reputation for ill-discipline. Owing to the urgent need for men, selection procedures had been increasingly relaxed. Some of those who enlisted had been brutalised by war: almost all were ignorant of Ireland and ill-trained. Moreover, they were attached to scattered RICA barracks, mainly in the south west, under no effective control from police or army officers.

As the IRA campaign intensified, the government responded in July 1920 by establishing a second force, the Auxiliaries. They were better-paid and recruited from demobilised army officers. Eventually 1,900 men were enlisted and these were divided into 15 heavily armed and mobile companies, and deployed in the ten Irish counties where the IRA was most active. But, like the Black and Tans, its members were also ill-trained for guerrilla warfare, and knew little of Ireland. Though under nominal RICA control, they generally operated independently and they also established a reputation for drunkenness and brutality. Meanwhile, during 1920, troop numbers in Ireland were steadily increased and their powers extended. In August, they were empowered to intern citizens without trial and court-martial those suspected of political offences.

Despite these reinforcements, police frustration and the strain resulting from the persistence and virulence of the IRA campaign, led to them conducting ‘unofficial reprisals’. These ranged from assaults on IRA suspects and supporters, occasionally causing death, to the sacking of towns, such as Limerick and Balbriggan. They were condoned by police officers and ignored by the government as they helped sustain the force’s fragile morale, and facilitated the gathering of intelligence. The price however was the alienation of public opinion, both in Ireland and in Britain.

The worst reprisals occurred during the crescendo of terror and counter-terror in October 1920. On 21st November, ‘Bloody Sunday’, IRA agents gunned down 19 suspected Army intelligence officers in Dublin. Later that day, Auxiliaries who were despatched to a football match at Croke Park to search for wanted men, fired indiscriminately into the crowd, causing 12 deaths and wounding 65. On 9th December, two lorries transporting Auxiliaries were ambushed by an IRA ‘flying column’ in County Cork, killing all but one of the occupants. Two days later their Auxiliary colleagues, along with Black and Tans, entered Cork and sacked and burnt part of the city centre. Reluctantly, the British government was thus compelled to declare martial law over much of south-west Ireland. Later it sanctioned ‘official reprisals’; if an IRA ‘outrage’ occurred, troops were given authority to blow up the property of those suspected of involvement.

By mid-1921 the British government had become more amenable to a political settlement with the IRA. In two and a half years over 1,300 people had died in the conflict (550 of them troops and police), yet military victory still seemed a remote and uncertain prospect. The British public would not accept the further repressive measures thought necessary to achieve it, was increasingly critical of those already taken and desired peace – though not at any price

BBC-HIstory-wars-1916 Easter Rising-Aftermath-the Black & Tans
BBC ONLINE.COM

AND FURTHER:

The assassinations of the British Intelligence officers virtually crippled the intelligence operations of Dublin Castle. Bloody Sunday also marked an emotional turning-point in the War of Independence and has gone down as a central event in nationalist history. Although thousands were in attendance at Croke Park that day, the exact events which led to the killings have never been conclusively proven, with each side contradicting the other. The only public statement issued by the authorities was one hurriedly drafted by Dublin Castle, blaming the IRA for shooting at Crown forces when they arrived to raid Croke Park. No authoritative account from the British side had ever been published. Now, after almost 83 years, the official British record of a military inquiry, known to have been carried out in lieu of an inquest on the fourteen Irish fatalities but held in camera, has recently become available in the British Public Record Office at Kew. It finally enables rival accounts to be compared.

AND HERE IS THE REACTION OF " THE TIMES" (of London) a day after the event:

THE TIMES (OF LONDON)

The Times Reacts To Bloody Sunday
"The dreadful day's work in Londonderry will carry Northern Ireland another stage towards a finally ungovernable condition. The loss of life is heartrending. All humane people, however they may differ about all else to do with Ireland, must lament it. There is the usual flat contradiction between the official account of what happened, what some eyewitnesses are saying, and the accounts coming from within the Bogside. If the Army's account is accepted, then the IRA gunmen have directly brought on their own people so many deaths and so much suffering. If the accounts from the Bogside are anything like correct, It would seem that the IRA has now got what it has long been trying to provoke without success: a breakdown of battle discipline in the Army or a major operational misjudgment.

"This is an occasion on which it is imperative that the truth of the matter be established to the reasonable satisfaction of the British people - and of the Irish people too if such a thing were possible. If what occurs does not appear in firm outline in the course of the next few days from a comparison of the testimony of credible witnesses, it will be necessary to institute a court of inquiry."

But such an open & fair inquiry into the event has never taken place. I guess the Irish Catholics are after all expendable.

AND HERE IS A SONG ABOUT THE BLACK & TANS:

Come Out Ye Black And Tans / Black and Tans
Lyrics by:
Dominic Behan brother of the Irish playwrite Brendan Behan

I was born on a Dublin street where the royal drums did beat,
And those loving English feet they tramped all over us,
And each and every night when me father came home tight
He'd invite the neighbors outside with this chorus:

Come out ye Black and Tans, come out and fight me like a man,
Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders,
Tell them how the IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes of Killashandra.

Come tell us how you slew them poor Arabs two by two,
Like the Zulus they had spears and bows and arrows,
How you bravely faced each one with your 16-pounder gun,
And you frightened them poor natives to their marrow.

Come let us hear you tell how you slandered great Parnell,
When you thought him well and truly persecuted,
Where are the sneers and jeers that you bravely let us hear
When our heroes of '16 were executed?

Well the day is coming fast and the time is here at last,
When each yeoman will be cut aside before us,
And if there be a need, sure me kids would sing, "Godspeed,"
With a verse or two of Stephen Behan's chorus:

TRISKELLE
www.vincentpeters.nl/triskelle/lyrics/comeoutyeblackandtans

see BBC.co.UK
This Sceptred ISLE

BBC NEWS HISTORY
The Road to Partition 1917-1920
news.bbc.co.uk

the Blanket: a journal of protest & dissent
Aspects of British Propaganda during the War of Independence
lark.phoblacht.net

FEATURE from Vol. 11 No. 2 Summer 2003
BLOODY SUNDAY 1920, NEW EVIDENCE
by Tim Carey and Marcus de Búrca

AND: www.irelandinformationguide.com/ Bloody_Sunday_(Ireland_1920)

on Black & Tans seeNationmaster.com
www.nationmaster.com/

also see on Bloody Sunday January 30, 1972
Irish Northern Aid Inc.
www.inac.org/irishhistory/bloodysunday

Also see: TRISKELLE
History of Ireland from ancient era to the present
www.vincentpeters.nl/triskelle/history


ANYWAY ,SEE YOU AROUND
GORD

Saturday, June 04, 2005

MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENT ST. PETERSBURG RUSSIA 1905 UNDER THE BRUTAL REGIME OF THE TZARS


BLOODY SUNDAY ST. PETERSBURG 1905
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Massacre of peaceful demonstrators in Saint Petersburg, marking the beginning of the Russian Revolution of 1905.

The priest Georgy Gapon (1870–1906), hoping to present workers' request for reforms directly to Nicholas II, arranged a peaceful march toward the Winter Palace. Police fired on the demonstrators, killing more than 100 and wounding several hundred more. The massacre was followed by strikes in other cities, peasant uprisings, and mutinies in the armed forces.

BLOODY SUNDAY II 1972-IRELAND & THE RIGHT TO PEACEFUL PROTEST


BLOODY SUNDAY 1972, BRITISH SOLDIERS SHOOT INTO CROWD OF PEACEFUL MARCHERS
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MURAL FOR VICTIMS OF BLOODY SUNDAY 1972-IRELAND
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BLOODY SUNDAY 1972-PRIEST GIVING THE LAST RITES TO A DYING CIVILIAN
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It seems the British continued to treat the people of Northern Ireland especially the Catholics with utter contempt as they had treated other peoples throughout the history of the British Empire whether in India ,China, Africa & the aboriginal peoples of the Americas. (Of course the French, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch & Germans etc. tended historically to be no better in regards to native or aboriginal populations in the countries which they had conquered.)

For the Brits, modern conflict in Ireland has always been a test of their deeply held self-image as the arbiters of fair play. In November 1920, the Times denounced Lloyd George's campaign against the Irish separatists not in terms of its effect on Ireland, but as an affront to Britain's reputation as a champion of civilisation. Just over 50 years later, a member of the committee appointed by Edward Heath's government to investigate the interrogation methods employed in Nortern Ireland condemned them as "... alien to the traditions of what I believe still to be the greatest democracy in the world".

Taylor identifies Bloody Sunday (when the paratroopers killed 13 civilians in Derry in 1972) as the pivotal event of the British war against the Irish Republican Army. It provided the IRA with recruits and boosted their fragile authority to wage war against soldiers. And it eventually convinced the British military that conventional methods could not be used to defeat the IRA while Britain remained committed to the rule of law.

"On Sunday, January 30th, 1972, a civil rights march began in Derry City. The march had been banned... but the Catholic civil right demonstrators considered it worth defying the ban for their cause, and 20,000 men, women and children set out.

The march was prevented from entering the city centre by members of the British Army. The main body of the march then moved to ‘Free Derry Corner' to attend a rally. Some stones are known to have been thrown at soldiers in William Street. A squad of the Parachute Regiment moved into the Bogside apparently to make arrests. Shots were fired, and 13 people lay dead and many others injured. The soldiers later said that they had come under sustained gun and bomb attack by the IRA, but such a view of events has been denied by eye-witnesses for two decades, and particularly the contention that those killed all by single shots to the head and body (the classic indications of deliberately aimed shots, not mere panic firing) - were carrying weapons or bombs."

There are many people who see nothing wrong with the killing of unarmed citizens if they are disobeying the law . But what is not taken into consideration is that it is difficult to impossible for a group of citizens to peacefully protest & demonstrate to have their grievances heard & taken seriously by a particular government when all peaceful means of protest have been made illegal by the passing of draconian laws.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Lyrics by:
John Lennon and Yoko Ono


Well it was Sunday bloody Sunday
When they shot the people there
The cries of thirteen martyrs
Filled the Free Derry air
Is there any one amongst you
Dare to blame it on the kids?
Not a soldier boy was bleeding
When they nailed the coffin lids!

CHORUS:
Sunday bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday's the day!

You claim to be majority
Well you know that it's a lie
You're really a minority
On this sweet emerald isle
When Stormont bans our marches
They've got a lot to learn
Internment is no answer
It's those mothers' turn to burn!

You Anglo pigs and Scotties
Sent to colonize the North
You wave your bloody Union Jack
And you know what it's worth!
How dare you hold to ransom
A people proud and free
Keep Ireland for the Irish
Put the English back to sea!

Well, it's always bloody Sunday
In the concentration camps
Keep Falls Road free forever
From the bloody English hands
Repatriate to Britain
All of you who call it home
Leave Ireland to the Irish
Not for London or for Rome!

And here are some sites on the net to check out:

For more on Bloody Sunday 1972 see:
New Statesman Spies Like Us
August 6,2001
by Maurice Walsh

WIKIPEDIA
BLOODY SUNDAY FROM ANSWERS .COM
& BLOODY SUNDAY 1972

BBC NEWS
Wednesday, 30 January, 2002, 08:18 GMT
Political impact of Bloody Sunday

MSN GROUPS IRISH HISTORY
groups.msn.com/IrelandOurs/historicallinks
IRISH NATIONAL ANNIVERSARIES

ANYWAY MORE ATTROCITES AT A LATER TIME,
BYE FOR NOW,
GORD.