Untitled 1

January: With the Labour Party in England, finally winning government in the British Elections in their own right for the first time in British history, Ramsay Mac Donald became the new British Labour Prime Minister, and it was arranged for William T. Cosgrave, the leader of the Irish Free State to meet with Sir James Craig, the Official Unionist leader, in London, to set up the Boundary Commission for the other 6 Counties Artificially Partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province. (He again refused to nominate anyone as their representative on the Commission, and said, "He would not give up an inch." William T. Cosgrave, the Irish Free State leader / Taoiseach, agreed with Ramsay Mac Donald to allow the British Labour Government to amend the Anglo - Irish Treaty, and also for them to nominate a representative on behalf of the Ulster Unionists who would not, and he appointed Joseph Fisher, a lawyer from the Ulster Province and editor of a Pro - Unionist newspaper, and the Boundary Commission was set up for a year. Ramsay Mac Donald the British Labour Prime Minister was to only hold office for another 9 months. The Artificial Partition Boundary Commission finally met, under the chairmanship of the British representative, Justice Feetham, who was from South Africa, and they were to sit for a further year, trying to dissect the 9 Counties in the Ulster Province, with Eoin Mac Neill the previous Commander in Chief of the Irish Volunteers representing the Irish Free State.

April: The Anti - Treaty Irregular IRA prisoners, that were being held in the 26 Counties in the Irish Free State, had their rules relaxed and Eamonn de Valera was now allowed contact with Austin Stack, and his mother who lived in America, and as he was associated with the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic they had been working for his release. The Irregular IRA had agreed to support the political Sinn Fein Party, and a General Amnesty Bill was passed, to release all of the Irregular IRA prisoners.

October: Stanley Baldwin, as the new leader of the Tory Conservatives were able to win back the government in England, who were then to remain in power there for the following 4 1/2 years.

Sir James Craig, told the British Government that he would resign as the Prime Minister of the Ulster Unionist Stormont Government in the 6 Artificially Partitioned Counties from the 9 in the Ulster Province, if any of the territory was removed from under their control, and then lead the defence of that territory. The original intention of both Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins, on behalf of the future Irish Free State in agreeing to the Treaty on the Artificial Border in the first place, was in anticipation that Ireland would be made whole again given enough time. Unfortunately this was not to come about in the foreseeable future, as they had hoped, as the British Government always had a 2/3 majority in the decision making process, which was naturally always to rule the day, as they also tried to secure some further fertile land in Co. Donegal from the Irish Free State. Eoin Mac Neill resigned in protest, and their report was never published or acted upon, and later on James Craig was to meet with William Cosgrave in London, where they agreed that the existing border was preferred.

In the 6 Counties Artificially Partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, an Education Act was to be bought in to encourage a mixed system were Catholics and non - Catholics could be educated together, but those non - Catholics there who were against it organized the United Education Committee, as their Grand Orange Order Lodge was also against any mixed education, while in Derry and Dungannon they also became notorious for discrimination against the Irish Catholics there especially in relation to housing.

July 16th: The 15,000 Anti - Treaty Irregular IRA prisoners, that were being held in the 26 Counties in the Irish Free State, were released including Eamonn de Valera, who was at this time now back in Arbour Hill Prison. - John Devoy the long time leader of the Clann na Gael in America, who laboured long for Irish Independence, was now able to personally visit Ireland. - Dr. Dignan the newly elected Catholic Bishop of Clonfert in Co. Galway in the south of the Connacht Province, forecast at Loughrea, that the dead set Irish Republicans would soon be returned to power, but they were still against taking up their seats, with Eamonn de Valera especially declaring, that he would, if he could get around the Oath of Allegiance to the German British King. Eammon de Valera had already previously set up an illegal Emergency Government with himself as President and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Austin Stack as the Minister for Home Affairs & Finance, Art O Connor the Minister for Economic Affairs and Local Government. Frank Aiken was to be their Minister for Defence with P.J. Rutledge and Robert Barton acting as Ministers without a portfolio. Eamonn de Valera was also the member for Co. Down in the 6 Counties Artificially Partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, that were now still under the control of the Ascendancy Official Unionists and British Conservative Government rule.

September 1st: Dawson Bates, the Minister for Home Affairs, in the 6 Counties Artificially Partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province issued an order in Belfast in Co. Antrim, prohibiting Eamonn de Valera from entering Co. Down or anywhere else in the 6 Counties, except for Co. Antrim, as the elections were coming up for the British Westminster Parliament, and he said he would be arrested if he attended there.

October 24th: Eamonn de Valera went up to Newry in Co. Down, in the 6 Counties Artificially Partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, where he was arrested by the Royal Ulster Police / R.U.C., and the next day he was put back across the Artificial Partition Border into the other 26 Counties in the Irish Free State with a Notice of Prohibition.

November 1st: Eamonn de Valera, now went up to Co. Sligo in the north - west of the Connacht Province, then across to Co. Derry in the 6 Counties Artificially Partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, while trying to reach his constituency in Co. Down, where he was arrested again, and taken to Belfast in Co. Antrim were he was charged and given a month's imprisonment in Solitary Confinement, but in reality he was only to be actually held for 3 days until after the election was over, and even though a protest was made to the Prime Minister of Britain, he did nothing about it. November 28th: Eamonn de Valera was once again taken to the Artificial Partition Border in Ireland, were he was released into the other 26 Counties in the Irish Free State by the Royal Ulster Constabulary / R.U.C. Police.

By now there was a trend in 5 of the By - Elections that were carried out in the 26 Counties in the Irish Free State, for an increasing amount of votes to go once again towards the Sinn Fein Party. - The Castlehaven Castle slid into the sea this year at Castle Haven / Gleann Bearchain / Bearchan's Valley in Co. Cork in Southern Munster where the Holy Well of St. Barrahane is nearby up in the Glen.

In the 6 Counties Artificially Partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province now under the control of the Stormont / Great Mountain - Government, led by James Craig the Ascendancy Official Unionist leader, the curfew imposed since 1922 on Belfast in Co. Antrim was finally withdrawn, and the Official Unionist Government then altered the Local Ward boundaries to favour the non - Catholic vote, by introducing property owning qualifications to be able to vote, which favoured the more prosperous non - Catholics, by allowing up to 6 votes each. All of this gerrymandering of the voting rights was to reduce the Irish Nationalist majorities on the Local Councils back to 2, instead of the original 25.

The highest rainfall period ever recorded in Ireland was on Bally na Hinch Loch were there were 309 rainy days this year.

John Mitchell, the previous Young Irelander leader, died this year in America, whose father had previously been a Presbyterian minister who had been frustrated by the control of the Presbyterian Church over the Orange Order in the Ulster Province, and he had become a Unitarian minister instead at Newry in Co. Down, which had, had a great influence on John's life. Along with Thomas Davis ("You must educate to be free.") and other journalists. Due to the apathy of the various British Governments to the Irish people during the Great Famine, they had founded the Young Irelander Association to bring about Irish Independence as an Irish Nation in its own right initially by democratic means. He had been born in 1815 in Co. Derry in the north - east of Ulster, and was educated at Trinity College in Dublin, and in 1841 AD produced The Nation newspaper, with another of their members Charles Gavin Duffy (who became Premier of Victoria), to try and bring about democratic reform in Ireland and in 1845 Ad he had been arrested by the British Government and charged with Sedition for his democratic views. In 1846 AD he was to co - found the Young Irelander Association, but was to withdraw from it due to the frustration of gaining any chance of obtaining rural reform in Ireland from the British Government by democratic means and he was finally convinced, as usual, that armed insurrection would be the only way to achieve it in Ireland. In 1848 AD he was arrested again, and sentenced to 14 years Transportation, and he was to be treated so badly in prison in Co. Cork, that this had upset and caused many of the Young Irelanders to finally arrive at the same conclusion. He was Transported at first to Bermuda and then onto Tasmania (Van Dieman's Land) in Australia, from where he was to escape from, in 1853 AD, and go onto America and found another Irish newspaper there, to try and bring about Irish Independence. In 1875 AD he was elected a member of the Westminster Parliament in England for Co. Tipperary in the north - east of the Munster Province, and although 27 years had since elapsed, a new warrant was issued by the British Government for his arrest if he was to take it up.

+On to 1925

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