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                                                                                 1920 - 3 - July - September

July 1st: David Lloyd - George the British Prime Minister was now sure that his British Government's "Murder Gang" were killing two Sinn Fein Party supporters to every one of the British forces killed so he abolished the Coroners Inquests in Ireland and put in British Military Inquiries instead.

    Ann O Neill an 8 year old girl was shot dead from a passing British Government Military vehicle and her death went before the British Government Military Inquiry he had set up and the only result from it was that an order was issued stating that there was to be no marching of any kind at her funeral while in Ballina 4 young Irishmen were also shot dead by their R.I.C - Black & Tans police without any recourse.      

July: Eamonn de Valera through the auspices of Frank P. Walshe made further contacts in America to put pressure on the American Democratic Party delegates attending the Democratic Convention in San Francisco, as he also wanted them to support a plank in their platform for the Recognition of the Irish Republic but it too was knocked back by their resolutions committee. Edward L. Doherty who was based in California was one of those who spoke up strongly in it's favour at the Convention and was certainly backed up by many other speakers but they too were only able to achieve "Sympathy with Ireland." 

     The British Government's 1,500 Auxiliaries who were ex - British Army officers, who had been recruited by General Tudor for double pay, and known as the R.I.C. Divisions were given a Police Sgt. ranking under the British General Crozier and as desperate unemployed men they were to be known as Tudor's Toughs who had really only been trained to shoot and throw bombs. They were at first placed in the Curragh barracks then posted throughout Ireland and were to be set up in any of the Irish houses they could take over and commandeer and would fight till the death and drove around in British R.A.F. Crossley Tenders, that carried 12 men. They were neither Police nor Army but existed somewhere in between the two British Government forces and were a law unto themselves answering to no one. One of the places they secured was the Guinness Castle at Macroom in Co. Cork in Southern Munster were they just evicted those who were in charge there.   

     Michael Collins was now under extreme pressure from this new British Government terror campaign as he did not have the resources to stand up against the British Imperial Government's total onslaught but knew he could rely on their usual British brutality and stupidity and the friction that would eventually occur amongst the different British forces that they were made up of, to bring about a more sympathetic World opinion, if there was ever to be any rights at all for the Irish people.     

July: During this month 9 more Irish civilians were killed including a youth who was just holding a meeting with his friends and all up 70 of the Irish population were to be wounded within only a month as the British Imperial Government forces also carried out their attacks on individual towns in the various Counties in Ireland, including Ballinine, Ballyanders, Bantry, Carrick on the Shannon, Clondulane, Emly, Enniscorthy, Fermoy, Kilcommon, Limerick, Lismore, Newcastle West, Newtown Mount Kennedy, Pennywell, Rearcross, Swords, Templemore, Thurles, Tuam and Union Hall.  

      379,000 pounds had by now been raised in Ireland alone towards the Irish Loan for the establishment of the Irish Republic, which was well above their original target set and this was despite all the purging by the British Government to try and stop it from happening, and their various attempts to try and seize the funds, with each subscriber to the Irish Loan risking arrest and imprisonment . Other monies were also being received from all over the World while the Irish people themselves were being arrested also by the British Government forces for either commending the Irish Loan to any one else or assisting in promoting it's success.

July 12th: Meanwhile, up in Belfast in Co. Antrim in the north - east of the Ulster Province the Official Unionists made an address to the non - Catholic workers in the shipyards there calling for the use of revolvers," To drive the Fenians out" and immediately Sectarian attacks were then once again carried out on the Catholic Irish workers in that area and also in other northern Ulster townships where they burnt and looted their homes. Although these may be loosely termed Sectarian riots, they were bought about basically by unemployment, mismanagement and the policies then being carried out by the Official Unionist Stormont Government. These particular riots were to last for 3 days during which time 18 people were killed and 200 were injured there by the anti - Catholic rioters who were being stirred on by the ingrained siege mentality, bigotry and connivance and no protection was given to the people by the British Government Military forces there. Edward Carson the leader of the Ulster Unionists then made another fiery speech in Derry there in the same vein and similar Sectarian riots were then to occur, in other areas of the 6 Counties Artificially Partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province," over the following 12 months.

     Eamonn de Valera the President of the 1st Dail Eireann who was still in America addressed a Labour Party group there who were willing to pledge their support towards the Recognition of the Irish Republic but who had no hope of winning the American Presidential election, and in the meantime, John Devoy from the Clann na Gael there in America was continuing to keep up his personal attacks on Eamonn de Valera.

July 19th: Riots occurred again in the 6 Counties Artificially Partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, which were to last for another 5 days, under the control of the British Government installed Official Unionist Government involving further bloodshed and destruction, which were once again not halted by the British Government Military forces there. The rioters carried the Union Jack before them and continued to attack the Catholic Irish population and thousands of the Irish Catholics there were forced to flee from their particular living area in fear of losing their lives, which was part of the agenda and strategy involved to bring about further ethnic cleansing, with violence occurring in both Lisburn and Bangor.

July 23rd: On this day 2,000 Irish railway men were suspended by the British Government authorities in the Dublin Castle (The Devil's 1/2 Acre) during the Railway Strike when they refused to transport the British Government Military forces and their ammunition throughout Ireland.

     The 1st Dail Eireann - 1st Irish Assembly - declared that all Religious Tests on anyone in the Irish population were illegal and the Sinn Fein Party declared a boycott on all the goods in Belfast in Co. Antrim in the north - east of the Ulster Province to try and stop the continuing Sectarian attacks being carried out on the Catholic Irish population there and Joseph Mac Donagh was appointed by the 1st Dail Eireann to carry it out with the Irish Volunteers - I.R.A. and the boycott became widespread.  

August 4th: The Irish National Loan to bring about Irish Independence that was being collected in Ireland for the recognition of the Irish Republic was still growing and as a measure of its real importance to the people of Ireland it was by now up to 357,000 pounds.        

August 8th: Terence Mac Swiney the new Lord Mayor of Cork in Southern Munster had replaced Thomas Mac Curtin who had been murdered by the British Government's "Murder Squad" and he too was now arrested by the R.I.C. - Black & Tans together with 10 other Irishmen and he was personally charged with carrying an I.R.A. code on his person. During the "Troubles" in the area embracing the vicinity of the City of Cork there was a fair proportion of active I.R.A. Volunteer forces and the population in that area were to suffer greatly under the continuing terrorising acts that were carried out there by the British Government forces, who were also to be defeated there on many occasions, much to their disgust.               

August 12th: Terence Mac Swiney the Lord Mayor of Cork and the 10 other Irish men were charged by a British Court Martial and he received 2 years imprisonment and was also deported out of Ireland to Brixton Prison in England and in protest he went on a hunger strike as did 20 of the Irish Volunteers who were also being held in the Cork Jail in Southern Munster.   

August 14th: On this date Patrick Lynch who lived in Co. Limerick in the mid - north - west of the Munster Province was forcibly taken from out of his bed by the British Government Military forces and his bullet - riddled body was later found in the region. This same night there was also an attack carried out on the R.I.C. Barracks at Ballinlough in Co. Roscommon in the east of the Connacht Province were there is a memorial to the Irish who were also killed there. 

    At Lisburn in Co. Antrim in the north - east of the Ulster Province an R.I.C. police inspector was killed and many riots broke out and the British Conservatives were now finally backing off with their unlimited support for the Official Unionists in control of the 6 Counties Artificially Partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province and the British Coalition Government under David Lloyd - George  were now looking for the best terms that they could get to settle the "Troubles" in Ireland that they had continued to create. Sir Neville Mac Ready the British Government Military commander in Ireland in an attempt to stop the actual British Military Forces from getting the direct blame for the terrible horrifying deeds being carried out by the British Auxiliaries applied to the British stronghold in Dublin Castle (The Devil's 1/2 acre) to give them some sought of identifying uniform. In response they only gave them Tam O Shanters to wear on their heads.

September: A member of the Black & Tan R.I.C police, Inspector Burke was shot dead in Balbriggan near Dublin after he and his brother Sgt. Burke together with 3 of the Auxiliaries were refused drinks at a local hotel and asked to leave the premises, and after they refused to go the I.R.A Volunteer police were called to shift them and the Black & Tan Auxiliaries then pulled out their guns. A shoot out then occurred in which Sgt. Burke was killed and his brother was wounded and the I.R.A. Volunteer police members then left the scene. The Black & Tan R.I.C. in Gormanston acting under orders from their officers then attacked the actual township of Balbriggan itself that night and killed James Lawley the father of  9 children, and John Gibbons in his own home, and wrecked the town and set fire to 40 of the homes there. Some of the R.I.C. who were shocked by the orders that were given to them to carry out these attacks deserted the R.I.C and came out and made personal public statements about the details of the raid. The Black & Tan R.I.C. forces also carried out a raid and set fire to the town of Lahinch in Co. Clare in the north - west of the Munster Province where they shoved Connolly - Ua Conghaile one of the town's residents into a burning building were he was burnt alive and they also attacked the area to the west of Co. Clare as a further reprisal but there they were to be driven off by the I.R.A. Volunteers. Nearby in Co. Galway in Southern Connacht they took the 2 Loughnane - Ua Lachtnain brothers and tied their legs together onto the back of a truck and dragged them around the district until they their lifeless bodies were bruised and battered and then threw them in the loch - lake.

     The British Government's Black & Tan R.I.C Auxiliaries also crushed the head of Nicholas Prendergast - de Priondragas in Fermoy, who was a Co. Cork language teacher, with their rifle butts, then threw his body into the river and then broke into and burnt a shop belonging to James Dooley - Seamus Ua Dubhlaoich and threw him into the river also, then fired shots at him and when the fire brigade arrived to put out the fire they pulled their guns on them also and cut their fire hoses. Also in Co. Cork, for no reason at all, they shot dead Timothy Crowley - Tadhg Ua Cruadhlaoich after his car had broken down, and also the 73 year Canon Magner - Maingneir who was in the car with him. Their other friend who was also in the  car was a magistrate who was able to escape and make out a complaint against them and because of his position the British Government had to charge one of the Auxiliaries who as usual they declared was not not actually responsible due to insanity. They then placed a 10 p.m. curfew on the City of Dublin were the people there were then, either arrested or shot on site depending on the personal disposition of the British Government forces involved once again with no recourse.    

      Cathal Brugha - Charles Burgess the 1st Dail Eireann Minister for Defence put it to the Dail Eireann Cabinet to also carry out similar reprisals against the British Military forces but this was not accepted by the Dail Eireann - Irish Assembly Cabinet as they considered only those responsible should be made to pay for their own appalling actions in Ireland. James O Beirne - Seamus Ua Birn from the Co. Cork Volunteers was supposed to take care of two of the Auxiliaries he was holding captive but he decided to let them go and this was to save his life later on in Dublin when he was to be caught there carrying a gun and one of them repaid his humanity at this time by letting him go also.  

     Cathal Brugha - Charles Burgess, the 1st Dail Eireann Minister for Defence and Chief of Staff of the Irish Volunteers, and Austin Stack - Stac by now were both resolved to have the same attitude towards Michael Collins to whom they were now showing outright personal animosity, which was especially noticeable after Liam Mellowes their other associate returned from America. Cathal Brugha now also took over as the Director of Purchases and the 3 of them joined forces personally against Michael Collins while Richard Mulcahy the Deputy Chief of Staff tried to maintain peace between them.

     The British Government's new "4th Irish Home Rule Bill" - Government of Ireland Act 1920 was passed, which Artificially Partitioned Ireland under British Law into 2 parts to suite the Ascendancy in Belfast in the north - east of the Ulster Province under the control of the Official Unionist leader, Edward Carson, and despite their best efforts to have complete control due to their loaded bases, their Proportional Representation measure was to backfire when the Irish Nationalists where still able to gain the majority in 25 of the 76 Councils. James Craig another Official Unionist leader who would be their Prime Minister in 1921 was so worried then that he had to pass a Bill in the Belfast Assembly so that local office holders had to pledge their obedience to the Northern Ireland Constitution as laid out in the 1920 British Government Act.

September 20th: Kevin Barry, an 18 year old student, who was an Irish Volunteer was captured while he and some other members were trying to disarm British Military personnel in the streets of Dublin and he was taken to a nearby British Army barracks were he was beaten up then sentenced to death by a British Court Martial for his actions. 

September 22nd: John Lynch from Killmallock in Co. Limerick in the mid - north - west of the Munster Province arrived into Dublin City just to give Michael Collins the 23,000 pounds that he had collected for the Irish National Loan but during the night he too was shot dead in his bed by the British "Murder Gang" who were also to kill amongst many others the aged father of O Carroll, who was a Dublin Irish Volunteer, who they could not find at home personally. They were wantonly allowed to kill anyone anywhere in cold blood who they even suspected as being a member of the Irish Volunteers together with many others also in the Irish population, just for no reason, who were not even Irish Volunteer members, as they had carte blanch from David Lloyd - George the British Prime Minister and Sir Hamar Greenwood. 

      A personal friend of Michael Collin's was Brigadier General Tom Hales the commander of the Cork Irish Volunteers - I.R.A. 3rd Brigade and he and his comrade, Harte were taken prisoner by the British Essex Regiment who then beat them up pretty badly and wrapped them up in explosives but then suddenly decided to take them into Bandon barracks. On arriving there they once again beat them up and put them in front of a firing squad, then decided to take to Harte with a pair of pincers, crushing his fingernails one by one until he finally went insane and the result of this horrific treatment was that he finally had to be committed to a Lunatic Asylum. Tom Hales was then imprisoned and because of the horrific torture involved the British Essex Regiment was put on notice by the Irish Volunteers to receive special attention in the future. The British Government forces also carried out raids on the towns of Cobh in Co. Cork, Ennistymon in Co. Clare and their British 17th Lancer Regiment also attacked Mallow in Co. Cork where they then became known as the "Mallow Murderers" and they also attacked a crowd in Arklow in Co. Wicklow in the south - east of the Leinster Province killing one person and wounding another.

     The Irish Transport & General Workers Union organized a General Shut Down in support of the Irish Republican prisoners who were now on a hunger strike in anticipation of being being declared what they really were, "political prisoners."        

September 28th: Liam Lynch and the Cork Irish Volunteers No 2 Brigade now attacked the British Government forces at the Mallow Military Barracks, which was the first British Military barracks to be captured and most of the R.I.C. huts in Co. Clare in the north - west of the Munster Province were now also burnt together with the church at Clarecastle so the British Government sent their Navy destroyers up the Shannon River. It was now on for young and old and 16 members of the R.I.C. - Royal Irish Constabulary police, who were still operational and known to be pro - British Government and against Irish - Self Determination were killed and another 20 were wounded.  Eventually things got so bad that the British General, F. P. Crozier was forced to dismiss a number of the Auxiliaries for their various horrific crimes and his dismissal power was then taken away from him so he resigned, stating that he could no longer maintain the discipline among his men especially after he had discovered one of their plots, which was to drown Michael Fogarty, the Catholic Bishop of Killaloe in Co. Clare, in the River Shannon.  

     The  Dail Eireann Irish Republican Courts were now operating in 27 of the 32 Counties in Ireland in opposition to the English Law.   

     The Sinn Fein - Irish Republican Party came out in the General Elections and again won 172 seats out of the 206 available in the Boroughs and the Urban local elections and they still refused to take up the Oath of Allegiance to the British monarch and also their seats in the Westminster Parliament in England.  

September: Eamonn de Valera drew up a proposal in the form of a letter outlining 7 reasons why Ireland should receive it's Independence from British Imperialism, which was to be forwarded as an official representation to the President of the United States.

September - End: Another 80 people were killed in further rioting in the 6 Counties Artificially Partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province and a boycott was declared in Tuam in Co. Galway in Southern Connacht  

                                                            +On to 1920 - 4 - October

 

                                                                          

 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