Varadkar says in appointing Coveney as Tánaiste he is “very conscious of the important role he plays as Minister of Foreign Affairs, as minister responsible for Brexit.” He adds, “I believe his appointment as Tánaiste and deputy prime minister will enhance his position in representing the government overseas in the negotiations currently under way.”
Frances Fitzgerald steps down from the role of Tánaiste on November 28, after new revelations about what she knew of the garda strategy and aggressive stance towards Maurice McCabe at the O’Higgins inquiry in 2015.
In a statement, Fitzgerald says, “Today I made the decision to tender my resignation to the Taoiseach, stepping down with immediate effect as Tánaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation. It has been the greatest honour of my life to serve in Government, but I believe it is necessary to take this decision to avoid an unwelcome and potentially destabilising general election at this historically critical time.
Fitzgerald adds, “Throughout my career I have always sought to act with integrity and responsibility, and that is why I have decided on this occasion to put the national interest ahead of my own personal reputation. I have always believed in fairness and equality and these principles have guided my work as Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, as Minister for Justice and Equality, and now as Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation.’
Fitzgerald concludes, “I would like to thank the Taoiseach for showing the same courage and determination to protect my good name that he displayed three years ago when he stood up and defended the reputation of Maurice McCabe. What I admire most about the Taoiseach is that he has always believed in doing what was right – not what was popular or politically expedient. I will always be grateful for his confidence and support and for giving me the opportunity to serve in a Government that is making a real difference in people’s lives at a critical time in our history.”
(From: “Simon Coveney appointed new Tánaiste after Frances Fitzgerald steps down over Maurice McCabe controversy” by Lauren Kelly and Deborah McAleese, The Irish Sun, November 30, 2017 | Photo Credit: RollingNews.ie)
Luby is born in Dublin on January 16, 1822, the son of a Church of Ireland clergyman from Templemore, County Tipperary, his mother being a Catholic. He is educated at Trinity College Dublin where he studies law and puts in the necessary number of terms in London and Dublin where he acquires a reputation as a scholar and takes his degree. He goes on to teach at the college for a time.
In 1851 Luby travels to France, where he hopes to join the French Foreign Legion to learn infantry tactics but finds the recruiting temporarily suspended. From France he goes to Australia for a year before returning to Ireland. From the end of 1855 he edits the Tribune newspaper founded by John E. Pigot who had been a member of The Nation group. During this time, he remains in touch with the small group of ’49 men including Philip Gray and attempts to start a new revolutionary movement. Luby’s views on social issues grow more conservative after 1848 which he makes clear to James Stephens whom he meets in 1856.
In the autumn of 1857 Owen Considine arrives with a message signed by four Irish exiles in the United States, two of whom are John O’Mahony and Michael Doheny. The message conveys the confidence they have in Stephens and asks him to establish an organisation in Ireland to win national independence. Considine also carries a private letter from O’Mahony to Stephens which is a warning, and which is overlooked by Luby and Stephens at the time. Both believe that there is a strong organisation behind the letter, only later to find it is rather a number of loosely linked groups. On December 23, Stephens dispatches Joseph Denieffe to America with his reply which is disguised as a business letter dated and addressed from Paris. In his reply, Stephen’s outlines his conditions and his requirements from the organisation in America.
On March 17, 1858, Denieffe arrives in Dublin with the acceptance of Stephens’s terms by the New York Committee and the eighty pounds. On that very evening the Irish Republican Brotherhood is established in Peter Langan’s timberyard in Lombard Street.
In mid-1863 Stephens informs his colleagues he wishes to start a newspaper, with financial aid from O’Mahony and the Fenian Brotherhood in America. The offices are established at 12 Parliament Street, almost at the gates of Dublin Castle. The first issue of the Irish People appears on November 28, 1863. The staff of the paper along with Luby are Charles J. Kickham and Denis Dowling Mulcahy as the editorial staff. Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa and James O’Connor have charge of the business office, with John Haltigan being the printer. John O’Leary is brought from London to take charge in the role of Editor.
On July 15, 1865, American-made plans for a rising in Ireland are discovered. Superintendent Daniel Ryan, head of the G Division of the Dublin Metropolitan Police at Dublin Castle, has an informer within the offices of the Irish People who supplies him with an “action this year” message on its way to the IRB unit in Tipperary. With this information, Ryan raids the offices of the Irish People on Thursday, September 15, followed by the arrests of Luby, O’Leary and O’Donovan Rossa. Kickham is caught after a month on the run. Stephens is also caught with the support of Fenian prison warders. The last number of the paper is dated September 16, 1865.
After his arrest and the suppression of the Irish People, Luby is sentenced to twenty years of penal servitude. He is released in January 1871, but is compelled to remain away from Ireland until the expiration of his sentence.
Upon his release Luby goes first to the Continent and later settles in New York City. He lectures all over the country for years and writes for a number of Irish newspapers on political topics. At the memorial meeting on the death of John Mitchel, he delivers the principal address in Madison Square Garden.
Thomas Clarke Luby dies at 109½ Oak Street, Jersey City, New Jersey of paralysis, on November 29, 1901, and is buried in a grave shared with his wife in Bayview Cemetery in Jersey City. His epitaph reads: “Thomas Clarke Luby 1822–1901 He devoted his life to love of Ireland and quest of truth.”
After experiencing the political and social turmoil in Ireland after the 1913 Dublin lock-out and the 1916 Easter Rising, Byrne becomes an active member of the Postal Trade Union. In 1918 he loses his position as a telegraph operator in Limerick’s general post office because of his political activities, his attendance at the funeral of John Daly and an anti-conscription meeting at Limerick Town Hall in 1918. In 1919, he holds the rank of battalion adjutant of 2 Battalion, Mid Limerick Brigade of the IRA.
After a raid on Byrne’s home by the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), Byrne is arrested and charged for the possession of a revolver with corresponding ammunition and binoculars in front of a court-martial. Because he does not recognize the legitimacy of British Officers holding court over an Irish citizen, he denies entering a plea or even participating in the trial itself. Ignoring his protests, the court finds him guilty and sentences him to twelve months in prison and hard labour. Directly after the verdict is spoken, he is transferred to Limerick Prison to start his sentence.
As a prisoner, Byrne and sixteen other republican prisoners started a campaign, demanding status as political prisoners. As this is denied, they began barricading themselves in their cells, singing republican songs and damaging the interior and furniture of the cells. These protests are so loud that after a short while, onlookers and supporters start gathering outside the prison in support of the prisoners. The RIC reacts to these developments with physical violence and solitary confinement. As a last resort, in February 1919, the prisoners go on hunger strike to continue their protest. After his health deteriorates because of the hunger strike, in mid-March 1919, he is transferred to the Limerick Union Hospital, where he is placed in an ordinary ward under armed guard.
On April 6, 1919, two IRA companies under the lead of John Gallagher (D Company) and Michael Stack (E Company), the only two who bring arms to the rescue attempt, go into the hospital disguised as ordinary visitors and attempt a rescue operation. Around twenty volunteers go to the station on which Byrne is lying and after a signal whistle is blown, attack and attempt to overwhelm the two RIC officers that are posted as guards. The RIC officers quickly realize the attempt and RIC constable James Spillane shoots at Byrne, who wants to stand up from his bed, from close range, hitting him in the lung. Michael Stack, in response, shoots at constable James Spillane, injuring him, and his colleague constable Martin O`Brien, killing him.
The volunteers leave the hospital with the gravely injured Byrne, but the escape car and driver have in the meantime been ordered to another IRA operation. Instead, they stop a horse carriage at Hasset’s Cross. The occupants of the carriage, John Ryan and his wife of Knockalisheen, Meelick, County Clare, bring the bleeding and injured Byrne to their house, put him to bed and call for medical and clerical assistance. Dr. John Holmes arrives and examines Byrne, finding a large bullet wound on the left side of his body, which has perforated his lung and his abdomen. Byrne dies from his wounds in the evening of April 7, 1919.
After Byrne’s body is discovered by the authorities, the RIC place Limerick under martial law and declare it a “Special Military Area.” In response, the trade unions in Limerick start a “general strike against British militarism.” This strike is called the “Limerick Soviet” by foreign journalists who report from Limerick.
On the evening of April 8, 1919, Byrne’s funeral is held. He is not able to be buried in his IRA uniform, because the RIC had removed it from him. Nevertheless, the funeral procession is accompanied by huge crowds and his remains, which lay in state in front of the high altar in St. John’s Cathedral, are visited by thousands from Limerick and surrounding areas.
MacManus begins writing while still teaching, first publishing a trilogy set in Penal times and concerning the life of the Gaelic poet Donncha Rua Mac Conmara comprising the novels Stand and Give Challenge (1934), Candle for the Proud (1936) and Men Withering (1939). A second trilogy follows which turns its attention to contemporary Ireland: This House Was Mine (1937), Flow On, Lovely River (1941), and Watergate (1942). The location is the fictional “Dombridge,” based on Kilkenny, and deals with established themes of Irish rural life including obsessions with land, sexual frustration, and the trials of emigration and return. Other major works include the novel The Greatest of These (1943), concerning religious conflict in nineteenth-century Kilkenny, and the biographies Boccaccio (1947) and Saint Columban (1963). In his last two novels, he descends into the depths of theological debate: The Fire in the Dust (1950) is followed by American Son (1959), a remarkable dialogue between conflicting modes of belief which reveals the strong influence of Roman Catholicism on the author.
Francis MacManus dies of a heart attack at the age of 56 in Dublin on November 27, 1965.
The RTÉ Francis MacManus Short Story Award is established in his memory in 1985. The competition is run by RTÉ, Ireland’s national broadcaster, and is open to entries written in Irish or English from authors born or resident in Ireland. The total prize fund is €6000, out of which the winning author receives €3,000. Sums of €2,000 and €1,000 are awarded to the second and third prize winners.
The first of four paramilitary bombings in the centre of Dublin between November 26, 1972, and January 20, 1973, takes place in the Burgh Quay area of the city on Sunday, November 26, 1972. A total of three civilians are killed and 185 people are injured in the four bombings.
The bombings occur at the end of what is the bloodiest year in the entire 30-year-old religious-political conflict known as the Troubles, which had erupted at the end of the 1960s. Many of the bombs that detonate in Northern Ireland and the ingredients used to make them (mostly stolen from Irish construction sites provided to the Irish Republican Army (IRA) by local sympathisers) originate from the Republic of Ireland, where the IRA Southern Command, headquartered in Dublin, is located and tasked in recruiting and training volunteers and manufacturing weapons for operations in the North and to provide shelter for fleeing IRA members from British security forces who are not permitted to enter the country.
No group ever claims responsibility for the attacks and nobody is ever charged in connection with the bombings. The November 26 bombing in Burgh Quay is possibly carried out by former associates of the Littlejohn brothers who are Secret Intelligence Service provocateurs, in a successful attempt to provoke an Irish government clampdown against the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), while the other three bombings are possibly perpetrated by loyalist paramilitaries, specifically the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), with British military or intelligence assistance.
The first of the four bombs explodes at 1:25 a.m. on November 26, 1972, outside the rear exit door of the Film Centre Cinema, O’Connell Bridge House, during a late night showing of a film. The bomb goes off in the laneway connecting Burgh Quay with Leinster Market injuring 40 people, some very badly, including facial, leg and serious bowel wounds. There are 156 patrons and three employees inside the cinema at the time of the blast, although there are no fatalities. The force of the explosion hurls customers out of their seats and onto the floor. There is much panic as people, fearing a second bomb might explode in their midst, rush to escape from the crowded cinema. Shops and buildings in the immediate vicinity receive extensive damage.
The area is sealed off by the Garda Síochána and they launch an investigation. A ballistic officer determines that the explosion’s epicentre had been on a doorstep outside an emergency door leading to the laneway. However, no trace of the bomb or explosives used are ever found at the scene. The Gardaí interviews a number of witnesses who came forward alleging to have seen the bombers in the laneway prior to the explosion and although photofits of the suspects are drawn up, the bombers are never apprehended. The Garda believes the bombing was carried out by republican subversives, including former associates of the Littlejohn brothers.
The night following the bombing an eight-man IRA unit unsuccessfully attempts to free Provisional IRA Chief of StaffSeán Mac Stíofáin, who had been taken to Dublin’s Mater Hospital for treatment due to adverse effects of his hunger and thirst strike on his health. The ward in which he is kept is under heavy police guard. The armed IRA unit exchanges shots with two members of the Garda Special Branch. One detective, two civilians and one IRA volunteer suffer minor injuries from gunfire.
(Pictured: The O’Connell Bridge House, 2 D’Olier Street, Dublin, where a bomb was detonated outside the rear exit door of the Film Centre Cinema)
The meeting is an important opportunity to discuss developments and reflect on the perspectives and priorities of all participants since the last British-Irish Council summit in July 2016. There is specific focus during the EU exit roundtable session on agriculture, agri-food and fisheries, trade, and implications of the UK’s exit from the EU.
UK government ministers also emphasize their continued commitment to work closely with all seven member administrations on the UK’s exit from the EU, using existing structures of bilateral and multilateral engagement.
Secretary of State for Wales, Alun Cairns, says, “The British-Irish Council summit is an important forum as we prepare to leave the European Union. The meeting allows us to maintain and strengthen relations between our governments and ensure we are all in the best position to face challenges and find new opportunities. It’s important to remember the UK is leaving the EU, but we are not leaving Europe. We want the best possible relationship with the EU as a whole. The eight council members will discuss issues including Brexit and provide the best opportunities for our young people as part of Early Years strategy. I look forward to some positive and constructive talks on both topics.”
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, James Brokenshire, says, “At July’s BIC meeting we established an important commitment to maintain intensive and open dialogue and today’s sessions reflected the kind of mature cooperation that close friends and partners enjoy. There was a strong collective will to continue to work together in order to achieve the best outcomes for the people we represent. The UK wants the strongest possible economic links with our European neighbours, especially with Ireland – our nearest neighbour and the only EU member with which we share a land border. So as we forge a new relationship between the UK and Europe we must also maintain and strengthen the bonds within these islands. The BIC will continue to make a vital contribution to that effort and underlines our commitment to the structures set out in the Belfast Agreement and its successors.”
Minister at the Department for Exiting the European Union, Robin Walker, says, “As we begin the work of leaving the European Union, forums such as the British-Irish Council are an important way of maintaining close cooperation and open dialogue between our governments. This includes maintaining our special and friendly relationship with Ireland which has gone from strength to strength over many years. And we will continue to build on this strong relationship as we make a success of Brexit and maximise the opportunities for both our countries.”
A second session at the council addresses the Early Years policies of the eight administrations and welcomes the latest sector report highlighting progress since the 2012 summit. All in attendance acknowledge the critical importance of investment in early years provision in creating strong foundations for children, families and societies to thrive.
The British-Irish Council is a forum for discussion. It was established by the Belfast Agreement to promote positive, practical relationships among the people of the islands and to provide a forum for consultation and co-operation.
(From: “British-Irish Council Summit: Focus on EU exit and ‘Early Years’ policy” press release by the Government of the United Kingdom, http://www.gov.uk, November 25, 2016)
Craig is born at Sydenham, Belfast, on January 8, 1871, the seventh of nine children of James Craig (1828–1900), a wealthy whiskey distiller who had entered the firm of Dunville & Co. as a clerk and by age 40 is a millionaire and a partner in the firm. Craig Snr. owns a large house called Craigavon, overlooking Belfast Lough. His mother, Eleanor Gilmore Browne, is the daughter of Robert Browne, a prosperous man who owned property in Belfast and a farm outside Lisburn. Craig is educated at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh, Scotland. After school he begins work as a stockbroker, eventually opening his own firm in Belfast.
Craig enlists in the 3rd (Militia) battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles on January 17, 1900, to serve in the Second Boer War. He is seconded to the Imperial Yeomanry, a cavalry force created for service during the war, as a lieutenant in the 13th battalion on February 24, 1900, and leaves Liverpool for South Africa on the SS Cymric in March 1900. After arrival he is soon sent to the front and is taken prisoner in May 1900, but released by the Boers because of a perforated colon. On his recovery he becomes deputy assistant director of the Imperial Military Railways, showing the qualities of organisation that are to mark his involvement in both British and Ulster politics. In June 1901 he is sent home suffering from dysentery, and by the time he is fit for service again the war is over. He is promoted to captain in the 3rd Royal Irish Rifles on September 20, 1902, while still seconded to South Africa.
On June 7, 1921, Craig is appointed the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The House of Commons of Northern Ireland assembles for the first time later that day.
Craig had made his career in British as well as Northern Irish politics, but his premiership shows little sign of his earlier close acquaintance with the British political world. He becomes intensely parochial and suffers from his loss of intimacy with British politicians in 1938, when the British government concludes agreements with Dublin to end the Anglo-Irish trade war between the two countries. He never tries to persuade Westminster to protect Northern Ireland‘s industries, especially the linen industry, which is central to its economy. He is anxious not to provoke Westminster, given the precarious state of Northern Ireland’s position. In April 1939, and again in May 1940 during World War II, he calls for conscription to be introduced in Northern Ireland (which the British government, fearing a backlash from nationalists, refuses). He also calls for Winston Churchill to invade Ireland using Scottish and Welsh troops in order to seize the valuable ports and install a Governor-General at Dublin.
While still prime minister, Craig dies peacefully at his home at Glencraig, County Down at the age of 69 on November 24, 1940. He is buried on the Stormont Estate on December 5, 1940, and is succeeded as the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland by the Minister of Finance, J. M. Andrews.
(Pictured: James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon, bromide print by Olive Edis, National Portrait Gallery, London)
Cole starts his career in print journalism in 1945, joining the Belfast Telegraph as a reporter and industrial correspondent. He subsequently works as a political reporter for the paper. He gains a scoop when he interviews the then Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, who is holidaying in Ireland.
Cole joins The Guardian, then The Manchester Guardian, in 1956, reporting on industrial issues. He transfers to the London office in 1957 as the paper’s labour correspondent. Appointed news editor in 1963, succeeding Nesta Roberts, he takes on the task of reorganising the paper’s “amateurish” system for gathering news. He heads opposition to a proposed merger with The Times in the mid-1960s, and later serves as deputy editor under Alastair Hetherington. When Hetherington leaves in 1975, Cole is in the running for the editorship, but fails to secure the post, for reasons which may include his commitment to the cause of unionism in Northern Ireland, as well as what is seen by some as inflexibility and a lack of flair. Unwilling to continue at The Guardian, he then joins The Observer as deputy editor under Donald Trelford, remaining there for six years.
After Tiny Rowland takes over as proprietor of The Observer in 1981, Cole gives evidence against him at the Monopolies Commission. The following day he receives a call from the BBC offering him the job of political editor, succeeding John Simpson. He has little previous television experience but proves a “natural broadcaster.” Reporting through most of the premiership of Margaret Thatcher, he becomes a familiar figure on television and radio.
Cole’s health is put under strain by the workload, and he suffers a heart attack in February 1984. Returning to report on that year’s conference season, he covers the Brighton hotel bombing, getting a “memorable” interview with Thatcher on the pavement in its immediate aftermath, in which she declares that the Tory conference will take place as normal. An astute observer of the political scene, he is one of the earliest to forecast Thatcher’s resignation as Prime Minister in 1990, in what colleague David McKie refers to as “perhaps his greatest exclusive.”
Cole establishes a strong reputation for his “gentle but probing” interviewing style, for his political assessments, and for presenting analysis rather than “bland reporting.” Held in enormous affection by viewers, he is trusted by both politicians and the public. He is known for speaking in the language used by ordinary people rather than so-called Westminster experts. His distinctive Northern Irish accent leads the way for BBC broadcasters with regional accents.
Cole retires as political editor in 1992 at the age of 65, compulsory at the time, but continues to appear on television, including making programmes on golf and travel. He also continues to appear on the BBC programme Westminster Live for several years after he retired as political editor.
In addition to his journalistic writing, Cole authors several books. The earliest are The Poor of the Earth, on developing countries, and The Thatcher Years (1987). After his retirement as BBC political editor, he spends more time writing. His political memoir, As It Seemed to Me, appears in 1995 and becomes a best-seller. He also publishes a novel, A Clouded Peace (2001), set in his birthplace of Belfast in 1977.
In 2007, Cole writes an article for the British Journalism Review, blaming both politicians and the media for the fact that parliamentarians are held in such low esteem, being particularly scathing of Alastair Campbell‘s influence during Tony Blair‘s premiership.
In 1966, the Eisenhower Fellowships selects Cole to represent Great Britain. He receives the Royal Television Society‘s Journalist of the Year award in 1991. After his retirement in 1992, he is awarded an honorary degree from the Open University as Doctor of the University and receives the Richard Dimbleby Award from BAFTA in 1993. He turns down a CBE in 1993, citing the former The Guardian newspaper rule that journalists can only accept gifts which can be consumed within 24 hours.
In his private life Cole is a supporter of the Labour Party and is a believer in the trades union movement. He considers that the combating of unemployment is one of the most important political issues. He is a British Republican and a committed Christian, associating in the latter part of his life with the United Reformed Church at Kingston upon Thames.
Cole suffers health problems in retirement including heart problems and two minor strokes. In 2009, he is diagnosed with cancer. He subsequently develops aphasia. He dies at his home at Claygate in the county of Surrey on November 7, 2013.
Tributes are paid by journalists, broadcasters and politicians across the political spectrum. Prime Minister David Cameron calls Cole a “titan at the BBC” and an “extraordinary broadcaster.” Labour Party leader Ed Miliband says that “my generation grew up watching John Cole. He conveyed the drama and importance of politics.” The Scottish First MinisterAlex Salmond says that Cole is “an extremely able journalist but also extraordinarily helpful and generous to a young politician.” The BBC’s political editor at the time, Nick Robinson, writes that Cole “shaped the way all in my trade do our jobs.”
O’Sullivan is a member of the Irish Republican Army and is one of three IRA men to die on hunger strike in 1923. IRA VolunteersJoseph Whitty from Wexford dies on September 2, 1923, and Denny Barry from Riverstick, County Cork, dies on November 20, 1923, in the Curragh Camp hospital. Whitty, Barry and O’Sullivan are three of the twenty-two Irish Republicans in the 20th century who die on hunger strike.
O’Sullivan is born in Denbawn, County Cavan, in 1882, the eldest of eight children. His father, Michael Sorohan, emigrates to the United States but returns to take over the family farm. O’Sullivan works on the family farm but wins a scholarship provided by the local newspaper, The Anglo-Celt, to Monaghan Agricultural College. From there he wins another scholarship to the Royal Albert College in Dublin and attends the college as a full-time student from 1907 to 1909. He graduates as one of the top students in his year and is also elected head of the student union, the highest elected position in the college. In addition, he is secretary of the college hurling team which is undefeated after fourteen games in 1909.
In 1909, O’Sullivan gets a job as an agricultural instructor in the Mallow area of County Cork. In addition to educating and advising local farmers on crops and new techniques, he also judges local agricultural shows.
O’Sullivan is a captain in the IRA in the intelligence unit during the Irish War of Independence. He begins his intelligence activities in 1917 using the code name W.N. – the last 2 letters of his first and last name.
During the Irish Civil War O’Sullivan is officer commanding (OC) Administration in the North Cork area and later in the IRA’s 1st Southern Cork Division, where he had been appointed by Liam Lynch. He dedicates his life to the establishment of an Irish Republic: “His ideal and his goal was a Republic, and he went straight ahead working to achieve it. Nothing else bothered him.” After the signing of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, he joins the anti-treaty side during the Irish Civil War.
During the Irish Civil War, O’Sullivan is arrested by Free State forces and interned in Mountjoy Prison. In 1923, after the end of the war, thousands of interned Irish republicans protest being held without trial, poor prison conditions and being treated as convicts rather than political prisoners. On October 13, 1923, Michael Kilroy, the OC of the IRA prisoners in Mountjoy Prison, announces that 300 men will go on hunger strike. This action starts the 1923 Irish hunger strikes. Within days, thousands of Irish republican prisoners are on hunger strike in multiple prisons and internment camps across Ireland. The mass hunger strike of 1923 starts at midnight on October 14, 1923. Previously, the Free State government had passed a motion outlawing the release of prisoners on hunger strike. However, because of the large numbers of Republicans on strike, at the end of October, the Government sends a delegation to speak with the IRA leadership. On November 23, 1923, the day after o’Sullivan’s death, the 41-day hunger strike is called off, setting in motion a release program for many of the prisoners. However, some are not released until as late as 1932.
O’Sullivan dies at the age of 41 on November 22, 1923, in St. Bricin’s Military Hospital, Dublin, after 40 days on hunger strike. He is buried in the republican plot in Saint Gobnait’s Cemetery, Goulds Hill, Mallow, County Cork, on November 27, 1923. His funeral cortège is reported to be a mile in length.
O’Sullivan’s name is commemorated on a statue that stands outside Cavan Courthouse in Farnham Street, Cavan, County Cavan.
In 1973, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) extends its campaign to mainland Britain, attacking military and symbolically important targets to both increase pressure on the British government, via popular British opinion, to withdraw from Northern Ireland and to maintain morale amongst their supporters. By 1974, mainland Britain sees an average of one attack — successful or otherwise — every three days.
In the early evening hours of November 21, at least three bombs connected to timing devices are planted inside two separate public houses and outside a bank located in and around central Birmingham. It is unknown precisely when these bombs were planted. If official IRA protocol of preceding attacks upon non-military installations with a 30-minute advance warning to security services is followed, and subsequent eyewitness accounts are accurate, the bombs would have been planted at these locations after 7:30 p.m. and before 7:47 p.m.
According to testimony delivered at the 1975 trial of the six men wrongly convicted of the bombings, the bomb planted inside the Mulberry Bush pub is concealed inside either a duffel bag or briefcase, whereas the bomb planted inside the Tavern in the Town is concealed inside a briefcase or duffel bag (possibly concealed within a large, sealed plastic bag) and Christmas cracker boxes. The remnants of two alarm clocks recovered from the site of each explosion leaves the possibility that two bombs had been planted at each public house. The explosion crater at each location indicates that if two bombs had been planted at each public house, they would each have been placed in the same location and likely the same container.
Reportedly, those who plant the bombs then walk to a preselected phone box to telephone the advance warning to security services. However, the phone box has been vandalised, forcing the caller to find an alternative phone box and thus shortening the amount of time police have to clear the locations.
At 8:11 p.m., an unknown man with a distinct Irish accent telephones the Birmingham Post newspaper. The call is answered by operator Ian Cropper. The caller says, “There is a bomb planted in the Rotunda and there is a bomb in New Street at the tax office. This is Double X,” before terminating the call. (“Double X” is an IRA code word given to authenticate any warning call.) A similar warning is also sent to the Birmingham Evening Mail newspaper, with the anonymous caller again giving the code word, but again failing to name the public houses in which the bombs had been planted.
The Rotunda is a 25-story office block, built in the 1960s, that houses the Mulberry Bush pub on its lower two floors. Within minutes of the warning, police arrive and begin checking the upper floors of the Rotunda, but they do not have sufficient time to clear the crowded pub at street level. At 8:17 p.m., six minutes after the first telephone warning had been delivered to the Birmingham Post, the bomb, which had been concealed inside either a duffel bag or briefcase located ner the rear entrance to the premises, explodes, devastating the pub. The explosion blows a 40-inch crater in the concrete floor, collapsing part of the roof and trapping many casualties beneath girders and concrete blocks. Many buildings near the Rotunda are also damaged, and pedestrians in the street are struck by flying glass from shattered windows. Several of the victims die at the scene, including two youths who had been walking past the premises at the moment of the explosion.
Ten people are killed in this explosion and dozens are injured, including many who lose limbs. Several casualties are impaled by sections of wooden furniture while others have their clothes burned from their bodies. A paramedic called to the scene of this explosion later describes the carnage as being reminiscent of a slaughterhouse. One fireman says that, upon seeing a writhing, “screaming torso,” he begs police to allow a television crew inside the premises to film the dead and dying at the scene, in the hope the IRA would see the consequences of their actions. However, the police refuse this request, fearing the reprisals would be extreme.
The Tavern in the Town is a basement pub on New Street located a short distance from the Rotunda and directly beneath the New Street Tax Office. Patrons there hear the explosion at the Mulberry Bush, but do not believe that the sound, described by one survivor as a “muffled thump,” is an explosion.
Police have begun attempting to clear the Tavern in the Town when, at 8:27 p.m., a second bomb explodes there. The blast is so powerful that several victims are blown through a brick wall. Their remains are wedged between the rubble and live underground electric cables that supply the city centre. One of the first police officers on the scene, Brian Yates, later testifies that the scene which greeted his eyes was “absolutely dreadful,” with several of the dead stacked upon one another, others strewn about the ruined pub, and several screaming survivors staggering aimlessly amongst the debris, rubble, and severed limbs. A survivor says the sound of the explosion is replaced by a “deafening silence” and the smell of burned flesh.
Rescue efforts at the Tavern in the Town are initially hampered as the bomb had been placed at the base of a set of stairs descending from the street, the sole entrance to the premises, had been destroyed in the explosion. The victims whose bodies are blown through a brick wall and wedged between the rubble and underground electric cables take up to three hours to recover, as recovery operations are delayed until the power can be isolated. A passing West Midlands bus is also destroyed in the blast.
This bomb kills nine people outright, and injures everyone in the pub, many severely. Two later die of their injuries. After the second explosion, police evacuate all pubs and businesses in Birmingham city centre and commandeer all available rooms in the nearby City Centre Hotel as an impromptu first-aid post. All bus services into the city centre are halted, and taxi drivers are encouraged to transport those lightly injured in the explosions to hospital. Prior to the arrival of ambulances, rescue workers remove critically injured casualties from each scene upon makeshift stretchers constructed from devices such as tabletops and wooden planks. These severely injured casualties are placed on the pavement and given first aid prior to the arrival of ambulance services.
At 9:15 p.m., a third bomb, concealed inside two plastic bags, is found in the doorway of a Barclays Bank on Hagley Road, approximately two miles from the site of the first two explosions. This device consists of 13.5 pounds of Frangex connected to a timer and is set to detonate at 11:00 p.m. The detonator to the device activates when a policeman prods the bags with his truncheon, but the bomb does not explode. The device is destroyed in a controlled explosion early the following morning.
The bombings stoke considerable anti-Irish sentiment in Birmingham, which then has an Irish community of 100,000. Irish people are ostracised from public places and subjected to physical assaults, verbal abuse and death threats. Both in Birmingham and across England, Irish homes, pubs, businesses and community centres are attacked, in some cases with firebombs. Staff at thirty factories across the Midlands go on strike in protest of the bombings, while workers at airports across England refuse to handle flights bound for Ireland. Bridget Reilly, the mother of the two Irish brothers killed in the Tavern in the Town explosion, is herself refused service in local shops.
The bombings are immediately blamed on the IRA, despite the organisation not having claimed responsibility. Due to anger against Irish people in Birmingham after the bombings, the IRA Army Council places the city “strictly off-limits” to IRA active service units. In Northern Ireland, loyalist paramilitaries launch a wave of revenge attacks on Irish Catholics and within two days of the bombings, five Catholic civilians have been shot dead by loyalists. The Provisional IRA never officially admits responsibility for the Birmingham pub bombings.
Six Irishmen are arrested within hours of the blasts and in 1975 are sentenced to life imprisonment for the bombings. The men, who become known as the Birmingham Six, maintain their innocence and insist police had coerced them into signing false confessions through severe physical and psychological abuse. After 16 years in prison, and a lengthy campaign, their convictions are declared unsafe and unsatisfactory, and quashed by the Court of Appeal in 1991. The episode is seen as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British legal history.
In 2001, each of the Birmingham Six is subsequently paid between £840,000 and £1.2 million in compensation.
(Pictured: The Mulberry Bush pub after the November 21, 1974, bombing)
seamus dubhghaill 