After lots of whataboutery we are still stuck on the Our Brave Boys angle.
I don’t agree with Easter 1916 in terms of mandate, but at least it was a fair fight. The British reaction was not- I would never claim otherwise.
In terms of many acts of the WoI, the same goes. There was ultimately a form of mandate, though I have always been uncomfortable with it for a variety of reasons. At least they were out in the open with what they were going to do.
Here Dan Breen went out to murder and admitted as such. Dan Breen did not believe in democracy and was a fascist. I have an issue with the attack, an issue with wearing maks and shooting guys from behind and then on the road. The attack Was described as murder at the time by the Chief of Staff of the Volunteers and I’d agree.
No thanks Tim. I’m done with the Boris Johnson references for today. I’ve said my piece and I’ve commemorated the start of the War of Independence so I’m moving on to the next bit of history.
is this the same chief of staff, Richard Mulcahy who fought and beat the RIC in Ashbourne in '16 and who also ordered that any anti-treaty soldiers found carrying arms were to be executed, leading to the deaths of 77 Irish men? The same man who openly admired Collins tactics in the War of Independence and gave him political protection?
Deary me, Fine Gael didn’t exist at the time, nor the Black and Tans. Nor did what Dick Mulcahy did during the Civil War. He was in a position of authority and repudiated it. He wasn’t the only one, Cathal Brugha who the same day was elected the President of the Dáil did the same.
You mean the climate where the Movement elected to send people to the Versailles Peace Conference that had started two days previously to try and get recognition.
The climate that has just set up the first Dáil.
The action was not approved by Volunteer HQ. It wasn’t until two weeks later that the Volunteers states that police and soldiers were to be treated as an invading army. It was only later that DeValera said that policemen were to be ostracized.
Soloheadbeg was at best a bungled operation and at worst (in the words of Dan Breen) a deliberate act of murder.
The Michael O’Dwyer referred to in the article was born just over the road from soloheadbeg, the son of a middling farmer. While breen and treacy were shooting peelers he was busy supporting the shooting of unarmed indian civilians in 1919. He was assassinated in 1940 in London by a Sikh seeking revenge.
The Amritsar massacre: a cold, callous display of colonial evil (via @IrishTimes)
