Campaigns // Imperialists out of Ireland!! |
‘The conquest of Ireland had meant the social and political servitude of the Irish masses, and therefore the re-conquest of Ireland must mean the social as well as the political independence from servitude of every man, woman and child in Ireland’ ~ James Connolly A timeline of Irish history 1923 Republican women were a specific target of the Free State army. Free State leader William Cosgrave had suggested that ‘the mainstay of the trouble we have had was the activity of women’. The republican women prisoners suffered under a particularly brutal regime in Kilmainham Gaol, where over 500 women passed through between February and September 1923. As the numbers increased many of the women internees were held in the North Dublin Union. The women embarked on a hunger-strike following the withholding of their letters and parcels from the outside. A total of ninety-seven women joined the strike which ended a week later with access to letters and parcels returned. Trade Union leader Jim Larkin returns from the US and founds the Irish Workers League. Frank Aiken is appointed Chief of Staff, at the end of the month Aiken issued an order to suspend operations and on 24th May a ceasefire notice and order to dump arms is sent to all IRA units, accompanying the order is a message from de Valera: ‘Soldiers of the Republic, Legion of the Rearguard: By the end of the Civil War the Free State had executed 77 republican prisoners and imprisoned or interned 13,000. British Army General Neville Macready, a man well versed in the employment of terror tactics observed that the Free State had crushed the republican resistance ‘by means far more drastic than any which the British government dared to impose during the worst period of the Rebellion’. The interests of the ‘stake in the country people’ had been preserved by murder and terror. A general election is called in the autumn and despite widespread intimidation of republicans, raids on election offices, the seizing of election literature and printing works, Sinn Féin managed to poll 27% of the vote, winning 44 seats. In October over 400 republican prisoners embark on a hunger strike in Mountjoy prison which was supported by 2,000 of those interned in Newbridge Camp. Dennis Barry of Cork died on 20th November after a month on the strike in Newbridge and Andrew O’Sullivan died in Mountjoy two days later after 40 days. 1924 1925 ‘the nationalists of Fermanagh are overwhelmed with amazement that any men representing the country can sign such a document. It is a betrayal of the nationalists of the north…..The Parliament of the six counties has been given additional powers in the cancellation of the Council of Ireland without any guarantee that this power will not be used for the persecution of large nationalist majorities in the border areas. For what have the nationalists been sold?’ In November an IRA General Army Convention withdraws allegiance from the Second Dáil government. Republicans commence protests at the annual ‘Poppy Day’ ceremonies in Dublin and the IRA commences a campaign attacking imperialist symbols in the 26 counties. 1926 The Sinn Féin Ard-Fheis in March discusses a motion that ‘…if the oath were removed the Republican members would sit with the other representatives of the people in the Free State assembly’. The motion is defeated and de Valera resigns as President of Sinn Féin. The Fianna Fáil party is founded two months later and holds its first Ard-Fheis in November. Its founding document is adopted, pledging the party amongst other things to:
Cumann na mBan launches the Easter Lily campaign to honour the memory of Ireland’s republican dead. Despite the harassment of those distributing the lilies it soon becomes the most popular republican emblem. By 1934 sales of the Easter Lily reached half a million. Influenced by the split in Sinn Féin, and the possibility of further schisms within the republican movement, the Workers Party of Ireland is founded in April pledging that ‘the entire economic life of the country shall be organised and controlled by a National Economic Council in the general interests of the workers and toilers.’ The party is led by Roddy Connolly. Charlotte Despard leaves Sinn Féin to join the new party. In May a general strike is called in Britain following the lockout of miners who refused to accept a cut in their wages and an increase in the hours they had to work. Over a million miners strike and are quickly joined by over 1½million workers in other industries. The transport system in Britain was brought to a halt. After nine days of strike action the trade union leadership surrenders. The Workers Union of Ireland and the new Workers Party of Ireland organise solidarity action in support of the British miners. 1927 1928 1929 The Workers Defence Corps later named the Irish Workers Defence League is established by members of the IRA in Dublin. 1930 ‘Irish youth has no escape from hard times at home….they must remain at home and look over the main door at the gloom and threat of a hopeless future: hopeless, useless, and so the movement of today arises’. The increasing emergence of new revolutionary groups is noted in a Free State Department of Justice file: ‘the number of these revolutionary organisations all of which have something common, is bewildering and each week, so to speak, gives birth to new ones.’ Towards the end of the year the Revolutionary Workers Group is established in Dublin, the forerunner to the Communist Party of Ireland. 1931
The Catholic Church commences a ‘red scare’ campaign, reaching a high point the following year when the Eucharistic Congress is held in Dublin. The Army Comrades Association is formed, the forerunner to the fascist Blueshirts. In December Frank Ryan is charged with ‘seditious libel’. 1932 The IRA General Army Convention decides not to continue with the Saor Éire project. The global economic recession hits the six counties hard with the working class suffering the effects of massive unemployment. The Unionist government refuses to increase the starvation level wages on outdoor relief schemes. A strike of outdoor relief workers is organised. Following a series of marches and rallies the RUC are deployed to suppress the growing momentum. Batons coming crashing down on the heads of protestors who refuse to bow. The RUC revert to employing deadly force shooting two protestors dead in the Lower Falls area of west Belfast. Rioting takes place across the city with nationalist and unionist working class communities combining to battle the forces of the state. The Ulster Protestant League denounces any semblance of working class unity as a Sinn Féin and communist plot and ‘deplore that some few of our loyal Protestant unemployed were misled to such an extent that they associated themselves with the enemies of their faith and principles’. 1933 Eoin O’Duffy is dismissed as Garda Commissioner and subsequently leads the fascist Blueshirts. The ‘red scare’ reaches fever pitch. The headquarters of the Revolutionary Workers Group in Dublin, Connolly House, is attacked by a mob denouncing communism. The same night the home of Charlotte Despard which doubled as headquarters of the Workers College is attacked and ransacked by the mob. The Fianna Fáil government deports Leitrim communist Jim Gralton to the United States. Gralton, who emigrated to the United States in 1907 and returned as an American citizen, had been active in Leitrim with the Revolutionary Workers Group and the IRA resulting in his denunciation from the pulpit. The hall from which he organised his activities was burned to the ground late in 1932. Amidst the hysteria whipped up by the Catholic Church and put into force on the streets by the Blueshirts and the Catholic Young Men’s Association, the Communist Party of Ireland is founded. 1934 Following the abandonment of the Saor Éire project, left leaning IRA members continued to canvass support for the establishment of a revolutionary party. The idea of a Republican Congress, uniting all anti-imperialist forces was mooted at the 1933 Convention but heavily defeated, however another attempt is made to force the issue at the Convention in 1934. A motion supporting the establishment of a Republican Congress is proposed by Peadar O’Donnell and supported by Frank Ryan and George Gilmore. The delegates were evenly split however the motion was rejected by a small margin following the vote of the Headquarters Staff who opposed it. Those advocating the Congress idea proceeded regardless and organise a meeting in Athlone in April. A declaration is issued after the meeting:
The IRA dismisses many of those Volunteers organising the Congress. An all Ireland Congress meeting was prepared for Dublin and a weekly bulletin Republican Congress was published. Its first editorial called for active assistance and organisation: ‘If the Republican Congress is to be the organ of the plain people, their day-to-day struggles must be recorded in it. We call now for those chronicles. Write us your views; tell us your suggestions and criticisms. This is your paper. Avail of it.’ Support came from across the country, an important development being the organisation of Connolly Clubs in Belfast comprising members of the nationalist and unionist communities, building on the momentum of the outdoor relief campaign. Trade Unionists from the Shankill Road marched at Bodenstown that year under the banner ‘Break the connection with capitalism’. The contingent was attacked by some members of the Tipperary IRA who believed the banner to be supportive of communism. The plight of those living in the slums of Dublin was taken up by the Congress. The tenants of the York Street tenements took up the call for the daily struggles of the people to be recorded: ‘…we pledge our full support to you in whatever assistance we can give to have the appalling and horrible conditions under which we live remedied without delay….Some of our tenants are practically condemned to death in the basement cellars, front and back kitchens already condemned by the Corporation authorities…..The sewerage traps, some placed on the floor of the kitchens, continually burst open when heavy rains come….Swarms of rats are a constant worry to us….Countless millions of bugs have infested several of the rooms in the area, and we are in constant bodily pain and our little children get no natural sleep from the torment of this vermin….If you could only see the walls of these rooms in damp weather, water pouring down in streams from the leaking roofs.’ This was the conditions in which working class communities across the capital city were being forced to live. The campaign to secure decent living conditions developed into rent strikes leading to evictions by rapacious landlords. The Congress threw its energy behind the campaign leading to the arrest and imprisonment of many of its members. The Irish Citizen Army was revived for a period by those forced out of the IRA and survivors of the 1916 Rising. The momentum being built led to much enthusiasm for the first Republican Congress held in Rathmines Town Hall, Dublin at the end of September. However it quickly became clear that basis upon which unity could be achieved was hampered by the submission of two rival motions, one calling for the formation of a new political party and the other calling for united front action. The United Front resolution won by a tight margin but the damage was done. Leading members such as Nora Connolly O’Brien and Mick Price resigned. The Congress had attempted to steer republicanism out of the political wilderness towards the creation of a movement of activists led by the working class. George Gilmore a leading figure who remained with the Congress commented on its major shortcoming: ‘By its failure to draw the Trade Union movement into the leadership of the republican struggle the Congress lost the power to rally the republican population into one front against the imperial hold. Organisational loyalties continued to dominate, and the great republican spirit that had swept the Cosgrave party from power disintegrated in bickering over non-essentials.’ 1935 ‘Neither to talk with, nor walk with, neither to buy nor sell, borrow nor lend, take not give, or to have any dealings at all with them [Catholics] nor for employers to employ them nor employees to work with them.’ Despite their radical pretensions Fianna Fáil were being increasingly exposed as a conservative force in Ireland. A tram and bus strike takes place in Dublin and the Fianna Fáil government drafts in the Free State army to act as scabs. The Dublin Command of the IRA was deployed to resist the scabs, bringing the movement increasingly into conflict with Fianna Fáil who responded by suppressing An Phoblacht. An amendment to the Conditions of Employment Act is introduced giving the Minister for Industry and Commerce the power to exclude women from working in certain industries, effectively introducing prohibitions on women working outside the home. Furthermore the Criminal Law Amendment Act banned the sale or importation of contraceptives. 1936 ‘The Irish contingent is a demonstration of revolutionary Ireland’s solidarity with the gallant Spanish workers and peasants in their fight for freedom against fascism. It aims to redeem Irish honour besmirched by the intervention of Irish fascism on the side of the Spanish fascist rebels. It is to aid the revolutionary movements in Ireland to defeat the fascist menace at home, and finally, and not the least, to establish the closest fraternal bonds of kinship between the republican democracies of Ireland and Spain’. 1937 The Irish contingent with the International Brigades in Spain suffers heavy losses at the Battle of Jarama, nineteen are killed and many more wounded including Frank Ryan. Amongst those killed is the young Charlie Donnelly former member of the IRA and Republican Congress. An account of the moment he was killed was subsequently published in a pamphlet of the Canadian Battalion: ‘We run for cover. Charlie Donnelly, Commander of the Irish Company, is crouched behind an olive tree. He has picked up a bunch of olives from the ground and is squeezing them. I hear him say quietly between a lull of machine gun fire, “even the olives are bleeding!” A bullet got him square in the temple a few minutes later. He is buried there now beneath the olives.’ The fascists bomb Guernica in the Basque Country, using German aircraft and bombers supplied by the Nazi regime. Over one thousand civilians are massacred. 1938 1939 ‘I have the honour to inform you that the Government of the Irish Republic having as its first duty towards the people the establishment and maintenance of peace and order here, demand the withdrawal of all British armed forces stationed in Ireland……The Government of the Irish Republic believe that a period of four days is sufficient for your Government to signify its intention in the matter of the military evacuation and for the issue of your Declaration of Abdication in respect of our country. Our Government reserves the right of appropriate action without further notice if on the expiration of the period of grace, these conditions remain unfulfilled. On Behalf of the Government and Army Council of Óglaigh na hÉireann.(Signed) Patrick Fleming, Secretary. On 16th January the IRA bomb electricity lines and power stations in various parts of England. Dozens of attacks were mounted across England over the proceeding months. In Coventry five civilians were tragically killed in a premature explosion. Two IRA Volunteers Peter Barnes and James McCormack, neither of whom were involved in the attack at Coventry were hanged. The draconian Offences Against the State Act is passed and directed specifically at the IRA. It provides for the establishment of military tribunals and internment without trial. In September at the outbreak of war in Europe de Valera declares the Free State will remain neutral. In December the IRA carry out an audacious raid on the Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park, escaping with over a million rounds of the Free State army’s ammunition. |
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“If
you strike at, imprison, or kill us, out of our prisons or graves 
we
will still evoke a spirit that will thwart you, and perhaps, raise a
force that will destroy you! We defy you! Do your worst!”Copyright© éirígí 2007, All rights reserved