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1936 In what was now the Irish Free State (26 Counties of the 32 Counties of Ireland) the population had increased to 2,968,420, and in the other 6 Counties Artificially Partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province by the British Government, it was 1,279,745.

March 7th: Cumann Poblachta n hEireann was now created as a political party, by the IRA under the leadership of Sean Russell, to contest any future elections in Ireland with no intention of taking up any of their seats in the Parliament if they should be successful. Meanwhile the military arm of the IRA were to continue to also receive arms from the Irish - Americans in the USA.

Stanley Baldwin was now in as the British Conservative Prime Minister, once again taking over from the Labour Party's Ramsay Mac Donald, and Eamonn de Valera the leader of the Fianna Fail Government met with his Conservative Party representative, Malcolm Mac Donald, in London on his way through there and they were to continue to meet on many such occasions for further political discussions on the ongoing repercussions of the 6 Counties and matters of mutual interest to both Britain and Ireland.

April 29th: Many raids were now carried out in the Irish Free State by the Fianna Fail Government under Eamonn de Valera and many of the IRA leaders were arrested.

May 1st: further IRA arrests were made under the auspices of the Fianna Fail Government in the Irish Free State by the Garda. (Irish police.)

June 8th: The Irish High Commissioner for the Fianna Fail Government advised the new German British King Edward VIII that the Irish Free State would be introducing a new Constitution in the Autumn, were they would be also abolishing the British Governor General previously imposed on Ireland and introducing their own President.

June 9th: The Fianna Fail Government now also formed a Committee to reintroduce a second chamber of Government review in the Irish Free State.

June 10th: The German British King Edward VIII, abdicated.

June 11th: The Fianna Fail Irish Free State Government under Eamonn de Valera, as the Taoiseach, introduced 2 Bills into the Dail Eireann / Irish Assembly - to delete all direct reference in the Irish Constitution to the British King and the British Governor General by 11 p.m. Despite this mention of the British King was still retained to act on behalf of the Saorstat Eireann under advice received from the Executive Council in the British Commonwealth, which included Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand and South Africa. It was passed by 81 votes, to 5 against, by the Labour deputies as this latter provision of authorization of the British King was a simple Statute and was repealable at any time in the future. Eamonn de Valera was of the opinion that by continuing Ireland's association under the Commonwealth this would be a means of still having discussion with the differing British Governments on the removal of the Artificial Partition Border.

June 18th: After the killing of another 3 civilians the IRA was declared unlawful by the Dail Eireann - Irish Assembly now under the control of Eamonn de Valera in the Irish Free State after they had debated the issue for 2 days and the IRA were now to be forced underground to continue on with their activities.

June 21st: The Dail Eireann - Irish Assembly in the Irish Free State (26 of the 32 Counties) with Eamonn de Valera in as the Taoiseach in charge, banned the IRA meeting set down for Bodenstown in Co. Kildare in Central Southern Leinster, which was to be held at the burial place of Theobold Wolfe - Tone the original founder of the Irish Republicans.

June 30th: General Elections were conducted in the Irish Free State and the recently formed political parties of the Irish Republican Congress and the Cumann Poblachta na hEireann polled very badly and the IRA were to be now weakened further as Eamonn de Valera clamped down on them hard.

August: Sean Russell, who was now the leader of the IRA, publicly notified the newspapers in the Irish Free State that he considered Eamonn de Valera the Fianna Fail Taoiseach was nothing but a tool of the British Government and was still considering bombing England. Tom Barry wanted to physically seize one of the towns in the 6 Counties Artificially Partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province to gain publicity for the cause of Irish re - unification. - Eamonn de Valera as the Taoiseach of the Irish Free State went to Galway City in Co. Galway in Southern Connacht to unveil the statue to Patrick Conroy / Padraic O Conaire, the Irish language poet, which still can be seen in the park there. - Admiral Somerville was murdered. - Sean Mac Bride the son of John Mac Bride and Maude Gonne and the future original founder of Amnesty International now took up the position of the IRA Chief of Staff until 1938.

As the German British King, Edward V111, had abdicated, Eamonn de Valera the Taoiseach in the Irish Free State recognized George V1, the 2nd son of George V, who became the British King, as the head of the Commonwealth but denied his kingship over Ireland who was now to have its own Irish President who would be elected every 7 years by the Irish people themselves, who would be non - political, and the Chief Executive in the Irish Free State would now actually include a Prime Minister / Priom Aire.

November: The socialist Irish Republican Congress and the Communist Party were now in decline in Ireland due to their lack of supporters.

November: Civil War had begun in Spain in July, so Eoin O Duffy recruited 700 Irish volunteers into his 15th Bandera Brigade to go over to assist General Franco against the Communists but they were to return to Ireland after 6 months when the Irish Government decided on a strict policy of non - intervention there.

The Shannon Airport in Co. Clare in the north - west of the Munster Province was begun at Rineanna (The Resting Place of the Birds) on 760 acres, which was under the supervision of Brendan O Regan from Six Mile Bridge, and an Industrial Estate with 100 factories and a Housing Estate were begun on Drumgeely Hill / Shannon Town, which was to have a population of 10,000.

December 11th: Eamonn de Valera the Taoiseach / leader of the Fianna Fail Government in the Irish Free State removed any mention of a British Governor General from the Irish Constitution and in retaliation no British Ambassador was appointed to Dublin.

December 15th: The Fianna Fail Irish Free State Cabinet Committee in a goodwill gesture now decided to release the IRA prisoners sentenced by their Military Tribunal hoping that they would now settle down and contribute politcally. - Patrick Hogan who had been the first Irish Minister for Agriculture was killed in a car crash at Aughrim in Co. Galway in Southern Connacht where a monument to him can be seen that was to be erected to his memory. - The construction of the Catholic Cathedral was begun at Mullingar in Co. Westmeath in the south - west of Northern Leinster, which would be finally finished in 1939.

In the 6 Counties Artificially Partitioned from Ireland from the 9 in the Ulster Province by the British Government and still under the control of the Official Unionist Party Ascendancy, to further entrench their position, they introduced another condition that anyone holding property of 10 pound or more in value should them the right to have up to 6 votes, and although this was completely against any democratic process still the British Government did nothing about it.

There were now 183,461 non - Catholics still living in the Irish Free State and 428,290 Irish Catholics still existing in the 6 Counties Artificially Partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province.

+On to 1937 - 1938

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