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                                                                                            1913,

January: The 3rd Irish Home Rule Bill with it's limited powers was again opposed by Edward Carson the Unionist leader during the third reading and he also put forward an Amendment to exclude all of the Ulster Province as he knew that John Redmond and the Irish Parliamentary Party would not wear that and by doing so he was hoping to bring the Bill down altogether. Despite this his cohort, James Craig, the Ulster Unionist whiskey millionaire, thinking he was serious was worried, as there were too many Irish Catholics in the whole 9 Counties of the Ulster Province to ensure that they would have total Ascendancy control there. Although the 3rd Irish Home Bill was then passed in the Westminster Parliament by the British House of Commons, it was then twice rejected by the Ascendancy controlled Conservative British House of Lords, by a margin of 10 to 1.  Even with the final removal of the eternal veto previously held by them over the House of Commons in England it could still not become legal under British Law until the Summer of 1914.

 Summer: The Ulster Unionist Volunteer Force / U.V.F appointed a retired British Army General, Sir George Richardson, an Englishman, who had settled in Ireland, and who was previously selected for them by Field - Marshall Roberts, to take over command of their military recruits who they had organized to take on the British Government against any chance of Irish Home Rule being brought in, in Ireland.

September 23rd: Edward Carson now accepted the Chairmanship of a Provisional Ulster Unionist Government of 77 members with a Commission of 5 to be set up in the Ulster Province if Irish Home Rule should come into being. September 28th: 471,414 Unionist Covenanters in Ulster declared loyalty to the English King, George V and total resistance to the British Liberal Government. The Irish Nationalists were now very close to having a Civil War with the violently anti - Irish Home Rulers / The Ulster Unionist Council who was under the leadership of Edward Carson who let it be known that, "He refused to be governed by the majority Irish Catholics in Ireland under Irish Home Rule," and all up the Ulster Unionist Council was to enlist 100,000 into the Ulster Volunteer Force. The Ulster Unionist Council had now become an illegal Provisional Government in the Ulster Province in opposition to the British Government, With Edward Carson as their Chairman they were ready to forcibly take over administration in Ulster as soon as the Irish Home Rule Bill became legal under the British Law, and they also set up a Unionist Military Committee to this end.  A 1,000,000 pound fund was established by them with preparations made to evacuate the women and children to England, as Edward Carson challenged the British Liberal Government to arrest him but Herbert Asquith the Liberal Prime Minister, decided to leave him alone instead, and was encouraged to do so by John Redmond the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party.  By the end of September: 56,651 Unionist Covenanters were carrying out military style drilling under license from their JP’s in readiness to oppose Irish Home Rule.

October: By now the Irish strikers, in the Dublin area in the north - east of Southern Leinster, who were campaigning for better working conditions, were also being aggressively and brutally treated by the R.I.C. police there who were acting under the control of the British Government's Dublin Castle Corporation in the Devil's 1/2 acre. Because of the incessant brutality used against them there they were now forced to set up their own defenders, who became known as the Irish Citizen's Army, under the direction of Captain Jack. R. White an Ulster non - Catholic and James Connolly the Socialist leader who were both Irish Nationalists. The Irish Citizens Army was based on revolutionary socialism believing the ownership of Ireland, moral and material, was vested by normal common rights in the people of Ireland themselves and they wanted political Irish independence as the first step towards a worker's Irish Republic and they also did much to stimulate militarist activity throughout the Irish National movement by their example. The Orangemen in the Ulster Volunteer Force / U.V.F were now armed while the Irish Republicans were not, so they also decided to set up a similar movement, to counteract any aggression that might be carried out against them in the future.

November: Eoin Mac Neill from the Gaelic League who was a Professor of early Irish History, at the University College in Dublin, wrote an article in An Claidheamh Solais the Gaelic League paper, where he mentioned the possibility of an Irish armed force to protect Ireland, that would be known as the Irish National Volunteers, to be formed on similar lines to the Ulster Volunteers of Dungannon, which was the organization previously formed by the Ulster Unionists. (He little realised at this time that this movement would be used for revolutionary purposes.) November 11th: A meeting was held to discuss the possibility of setting up the Irish National Volunteers, following on from the lead already given by Edward Carson, and also defy the authority of the British Government in Ireland just as he had already done.  November 25th: At the Rotunda Hall in Dublin the Irish National Volunteers were founded with Bulmer Hobson, a non - Catholic Irish Nationalist from the Ulster Province, as their Secretary. Sir Roger Casement a non - Catholic also, who had been born in the Glens of Co. Antrim in the north - east of Ulster also, became their Treasurer, while Joseph Devlin and John Mac Dermott / Sean Mac Diarmada joined their Provisional Committee. Joseph Plunkett who was a poet, and the editor of the Irish Review newspaper in Dublin, became their Director of Operations and he also joined up with the I.R.B. / Irish Republican Brotherhood. Michael O Rahilly and Thomas Mac Donagh were other co - founders, together with Liam Mellowes, who would eventually be deported to England by the British Government. Eammon Ceannt / Kent and Arthur Griffith were also founding members who joined the I.R.B,, also, together with Terence Mac Swiney who was to become the Mayor of Cork who would co - found the Co. Cork Irish Volunteers and was to unfortunately die a tragic death in the future during incarceration at the hands of the British Government.

     Eamonn de Valera a  mathematics teacher, born of an Irish mother and a Spanish father in America, had been bought to Ireland when he was 5 year old after his father had died in America and he too joined the Irish Volunteers and was to become a major player in future Irish History, as well as the future Taoiseach / leader / Prime Minister and President of Ireland. Cathal Brugha / Charles Burgess who was a branch President of the Gaelic League together with William Thomas Cosgrove, Frank Aiken from Co. Armagh, Richard Mulcahy / Risdeag Ua Maol Chathaigh from Co. Waterford and Ned Daly also joined, while Austin Stack was to become a founder member of the Co. Kerry Irish Volunteers. The Irish Volunteers was to be set up without any specific role under the leadership of Eoin Mac Neill, which suited the I.R.B. / Irish Republican Brotherhood who knew the British Government would see no harm in him as the President also of the Gaelic League as it certainly was not set up initially to take on the Ulster Volunteers or to support Irish Home Rule. Despite this the members of the I.R.B. ensured that they held many of the key positions in it, and many Irish recruits rushed to join up, including many members of the Gaelic Athletic Association. Patrick / Patraic Henry Pearse a poet and a schoolmaster, who would play a very important role in the scheme of things, was another who joined, who was also a member of the Gaelic League, which he believed could be used to rekindle the Irish Spirit in Ireland. His father James Pearse / Pierce was originally from Devonshire in England, while his mother was Irish and he too had been reared in Ireland and although originally a barrister he was to make a great success of his School of St. Enda, were he put all his efforts into promoting the Irish language. He was to pay the ultimate price, when he was to eventually become the actual leader of the fight for Irish Independence in the coming 1916 Easter Rising, when he too was to be executed by the British Government, along with his brother, Willie who was to be also executed by the British Government in cold blood, for no other reason then he was his brother. Patrick Pearse also joined the I.R.B and spoke at the Theobold Wolfe - Tone Annual Commemoration were he stated that the connection with England must be broken, as it seemed that England had always sent the same message, that for the Irish to obtain any chance of justice that "Blood must flow."

      John Redmond the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party was now embarrassed by the formation of the Irish National Volunteer movement and their independence was a menace to his own authority and so he just tried to ignore them, and as by now the Ulster Volunteers had already been armed, the British Government prohibited any further arms from being imported into Ireland thereby denying any arms to the Irish National Volunteers. - James Larkin the leader of the Irish Transport & General Workers Union had organized a strike in the Dublin area for all the poorly paid workers within it's confines and the surrounding areas, and this particular strike was then followed by a lockout, which dragged on for 5 months, and was to create many clashes between the Irish workers and the R.I.C. / Royal Irish Constabulary police until it was to be eventually broken. - James Connolly the committed Socialist leader had co - founded the left - wing, Irish Citizen Army with Captain Jack White an ex - British Army Officer, as had been suggested by James Larkin to defend the workers during the lockout, and it was to be eventually comprised of over 200 members, who dealt with any of the street fighting during the conflicts. Sean O Casey became their Secretary, and he was to guide them in the future. Countess Constance Markievicz nee Gore - Booth led the women's support group who had also previously founded the Fianna Boys, who were to be used as message carriers, during the coming 1916 Easter Rising. - Ireland at this time was still kept well and truly under control by the British Military Forces and the 10,000 members of the Dublin Castle Government's R.I.C. police force. - The British Liberal Government's intended Military Service Bill / Conscription was also to bring on a further strike in Dublin and a general lockout, which was to lead to their leader James Larkin also being imprisoned by the British Government and when he was to be released later on he was to go to America. James Connolly the committed Socialist and leader of the workers' defenders, the Irish Citizen's Army, was to take over his role also as the leader of the Irish Workers.  - Francis Sheehy - Skeffington who was a well known pacifist now joined the Peace Committee as he firmly believed in non - violence, but despite this he would be violently murdered in 1916 by a British Army officer, in cold blood for no reason at all, while he was assisting others among the Irish population during the conflict. At this time 16 of the members on the British Government's Dublin Corporation (The Devil's 1/2 acre) owned 89 tenements and second class houses in Dublin, which by now had the record for the worst slums in Europe.

     Canon Patrick Sheehan (1852 - 1913) who was to be the parish priest at Doneraile in Co. Cork in Southern Munster from 1895 up until this year, was a well known Irish author who died this year and a bronze statue of him was to be erected outside of the Catholic Church in Doneraile. His last novel "The Graves of Kilmorna" to be released in 1915 was to describe the Fenian National Movement of 1867 AD with the 1916 Easter Rising following soon after. 

                                                             +On to January - June; 1914 / 1

 

                                                                          

 Situated on the western bank of the Hunter River, midway between Muswellbrook and Denman the doorway to the Heart of Australia's "Horse Capital" in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales., Australia.  

                                                                                   John & Sue Markham  

                                              RAINBOW FARMS  603 Roxburgh Road., Muswellbrook., 2333.

                                                                 02 65 479 100 - Fax: 02 65 479 102         E - Mail: www.rainbowfarms@bigpond.com