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December 1st: Dr. Clune the Catholic Archbishop of Perth in Western Australia was asked by David Lloyd - George the British Prime Minister to postpone his journey back to Australia as he wanted him to put a proposal to Arthur Griffith the acting - President of the 1st Dail Eireann - 1st Irish Assembly - who was being held as a British prisoner in Mountjoy Jail in Dublin, for a Truce leading on to Peace.

December 4th: Michael Collins who was now the acting - President of the 1st Dail Eireann - 1st Irish Assembly - due to Arthur Griffith being imprisoned by the British Government then met with Dr. Clune instead and agreed to proceed further with the discussions and during this period unknown to Arthur Griffith or Michael Collins other independent moves for Peace had been made in the meantime by other interested parties in Ireland. Although they did this with the very best of intentions this unfortunately led David Lloyd - George the British Prime Minister to believe his brutal methods were finally working and he was now actually winning the Anglo - Irish War. Their independent actions in intervening were to force Michael Collins to have to put out a statement that the people of Ireland should not be stampeded by false promises and foolish ill - timed actions but should, "hold fast." December 9th: Archbishop Clune met again with David Lloyd George the British Prime Minister, who was now more sure of his own Imperial position and he told Archbishop Clune that he had decided the British Government would not proceed any further at this stage giving as his reason, "Bloody Sunday." He advised Archbishop Clune that he would only meet in the future with the members of the 1st Dail Eireann, which did not include Michael Collins and Richard Mulcahy, and he also told Archbishop Clune that he should instruct both of them that they should leave Ireland if they knew what was good for them. The pressure and intensity of the whole situation was now to be really on for one and all, for young and old!

The British Cameron Highlanders who then shot dead a blacksmith were taken on by the I.R.A. Volunteers who defeated them in Cork City who also captured 12 of their rifles and the British Government Military barracks at Mallow in Co. Cork were an R.I.C. Sgt. was killed while the British Essex Regiment also shot a man dead at Kilbrittain in Co. Cork so the I.R.A. Volunteers took them on also and killed 4 of them capturing their arms and ammunition. 10 members of the I.R.A. Volunteers from the Cork Brigade also commandeered a British Government Naval sloop at Bantry Bay and secured all of their arms and ammunition too and at Coolavokig in Co. Cork during a battle 16 of the Black & Tan Auxiliaries were killed by the I.R.A. - Volunteers, including Major Seafield - Grant and another 18 of them were wounded. The I.R.A. Volunteers also attacked a 5 vehicle British Government Army convoy at Clonbanin in Co. Cork under the command of Brigadier General H.B. Cummins who was killed during the conflict while he was using an Irishman as a hostage in his own car. The I.R.A. Volunteers under the leadership of Tom Barry defeated 900 British Military forces at Crossbarry in Co. Cork, and were piped on by Florence Begley who played Irish war music, with 300 of the British Essex Regiment being under the command of Major Percival. 70 members of the I.R.A. Volunteers attacked 4 truck loads of British Government Auxiliaries at Rathcoole were the Irish Volunteers suffered no casualties but half of the British Auxiliaries were killed and wounded. The Black & Tan - Auxiliaries retaliated the next day by just generally carrying out indiscriminate raids throughout the region there and burning the homes and the buildings, while killing innocent Irish people in the process. At Middleton in Co. Cork 12 British Cameron Highlanders and a member of the R.I.C. were attacked by 10 members of the I.R.A. Volunteers who also captured their arms with out any injuries occurring and that night the Cameron Highlanders also raided and shot up the town of Middleton in retaliation. The British Hampshire Regiment backed up by their Black & Tans attacked a farm house at Clonmult in Co. Cork, which they burnt down killing 2 members of the I.R.A. Volunteers with another 16 still trapped in the house and of these 7 surrendered and the British officer stopped them from killing 3 others and one who was wounded, and they also captured the other 3 wounded together with another 6 with 2 of these then being hanged in Cork Jail and the others imprisoned. The British forces under Major General Philip Armstrong - Holmes who replaced Smyth as the British Divisional Commissioner of the R.I.C. Black & Tans was attacked by the I.R.A. Volunteers who defeated them sending all their wounded to the County infirmary. The next day the Black & Tans fired on a football match were they killed the young Kelleher who was only 14 years of age and wounded 2 nine year old boys while bombing and burning the homes and shops at Bally Desmond in Co. Cork. The British Government forces were now desperately scouring the Co. Cork countryside endeavouring to get at any member of the I.R.A. Volunteers and as usual the general Irish population were the ones who were really made to suffer accordingly.

December 11th: The British Government Cabinet now decided they would break up the Irish Republicans in Ireland first and proclaimed British Martial Law in the south of Ireland also and demanded the surrender of all Irish arms and also offered safe conduct to some members of the 1st Dail Eireann - Irish Assembly - to discuss their Peace proposals. The business area, in the City of Cork was placed under British Martial Law and was burned and looted by the Black & Tans - R.I.C. and the Auxiliaries assisted by the British Armed forces, with the City Hall and the Public Library burnt down they also cut the fire hoses and fired on the firemen and the people who tried to assist generally. They also killed the 2 Delaney brothers in their beds in front of their family on Dublin Hill in the City of Cork and caused 3,000,000 pounds worth of damage to the City and their actions on this occasion were to cause great disgust even in England and all over the rest of the World. The Irish Volunteers - I.R.A. stood by on this occasion and did not interfere in the ongoing mayhem as all the British Government was really doing was recruiting more members for the cause of Irish Independence from their caustic Imperial rule.

December 13th: Archbishop Clune met with Arthur Griffith and Eoin Mac Neill in Mountjoy Jail in Dublin where they decided against him going once again to see Michael Collins as they knew he was being followed by British Government agents to try and catch him.

To increase British Imperial Government pressure further on the people in Ireland the British Government forces now attacked any of the buildings officially to try and drive out the followers of the Sinn Fein Party and also many prominent Irish people were now taken around in chains on the back of their Military trucks as hostages. The British "Murder Squad" continued to carry out their assassinations in the Dublin area including one on of the Irish Volunteer, Howlett - Huileid even in the daytime and at the railway station for all to see.

December 18th:Despite the risk Michael Collins nevertheless met with Archbishop Clune where it was decided not to continue any further with the talks with David Lloyd - George the British Prime Minister as the proposed conditions of the Irish Volunteers surrendering up their arms was not acceptable as this was really to capitulate on any terms so the Archbishop reported back to Lloyd - George on the discussions and also informed him that he personally was not happy with the whole approach as Lloyd - George had previously gone back on his word.

December 21st: Even the Loyalist Unionists in the City of Cork wanted a genuine inquiry into the rampage of their City but the British Cabinet now under the Unionist Conservative, Andrew Bonar Law refused and instead the British Government handed it over to their own British commander, General Strickland and they refused to publish even his findings. Sir Hamar Greenwood still in control of Ireland on behalf of the British Imperial Government stated in the British Parliament that the perpetrators were not known to him but he believed the Irish people themselves had set fire to the City as there was no evidence that it was carried out by the British forces even though everyone in the City of Cork had seen them in the act. Sir Henry Wilson the Unionist, who was born in the Ulster Province and who was the British Chief of the Imperial General Staff also wanted to carry out further Official reprisals on the Irish.

December 23rd: Eamonn de Valera the 1st Dail Eireann - Irish Assembly - President returned to Ireland from America on the S.S. Celtic were he was met by Tom Cullen and was boarded at Dr. Farnans were Cathal Brugha - Charles Burgess came to see him.

December 24th: Michael Collins was nearly captured again along with Liam Tobin, Tom Cullen, Gearoid O Sullivan and Rory O Connor at the Gresham Hotel by the Auxiliaries who then let them go after interrogating them and the British Government forces then raided the bicycle shop were the grenades were being manufactured for the Irish Volunteers in Dublin. They waited to trap what they thought was to be the unsuspecting members of the Irish Volunteers, who in the meantime had been warned of their intentions, who then shifted their enterprise to Luke Street, which was then also raided, so many other ammunition sites were then set up throughout Dublin. The Flying Columns of the Irish Volunteers - Irish Republican Army - I.R.A were now also active in Co. Longford in the north - west of the Leinster Province and in the south of Ireland where they were able to garrison in with the Irish population in each area.

December 25th: Eamonn de Valera the President of the 1st Dail Eireann - 1st Irish Assembly - who was now back in Ireland was introduced to Erskine - Childers, an Englishman who was not a member of the Dail Eireann, by Michael Collins, and Eamonn de Valera was to make him the Director of Publicity to replace Desmond Fitz Gerald who had also since been arrested. Arthur Griffith was to be against the appointment as he considered him a disgruntled Englishman and as such could revert to his previous allegiance at any time and Cathal Brugha was against him also on the grounds that he was an Ex - English Army officer. Liam Mellowes also returned from America again and was appointed the Director of Purchases for the Irish Volunteers, due to Joseph Vize still being held prisoner in the Mountjoy Jail in Dublin who under the I.R.B. had previously bought in arms through Glasgow and Liverpool with Neill Kerr, and Piaras Beaslaoi - Peter Beasley was appointed the Director of Publicity for the Irish Volunteers.

The British Imperial Government now increased their British forces to 50,000 regular British Army soldiers and 15,000 R.I.C. Black & Tans - Auxiliaries to continue to hold their authoritarian control over the population in Ireland and they also allowed the Ascendancy who were now in control of the 6 Counties Artificially Partitioned from the 9 Counties in the Ulster Province to raise a Class "B" Police Force known as the "B Specials" who were also to carry weapons.

By this time 11,000,000 acres had been returned into the hands of the Irish people while another 2,000,000 acres were still under negotiation.

The Friends of Irish Freedom in America by now had raised $900,000 of which $150,000 only was to be spent in Ireland while the other $750,000 was listed for convincing the League of Nations set up on January 10th, to recognize Ireland's natural rights to Self - Determination but America was still not a member.

The British Government had brought in the Restoration of Order Act - Government of Ireland Act 1920, which officially in England created the Artificial Partition of Ireland into two parts and also into two Parliaments while still retaining their Imperial Supremacy over them with a Council of Ireland for certain matters with a merging of both if it was desired later on. Because of this Artificial Partition the Unionists in the 6 Counties in the Ulster Province were to abandon all of the other Loyalist Unionists who lived in the other 3 Counties and their link with the rest of Britain was weakened. In these 6 Counties still under the control of the British Government and the Official Unionist Government 455 people were to be killed and 1726 were to be wounded.

+On to 1921 - 1 - January

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.

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