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Promoting Irish Culture and History from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Author Archives: Jim Doyle


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1973 Northern Ireland Border Poll

The 1973 Northern Ireland border poll is a referendum held in Northern Ireland on March 8, 1973, on whether Northern Ireland should remain part of the United Kingdom or join with the Republic of Ireland to form a united Ireland. It is the first time that a major referendum has been held in any region of the United Kingdom. The referendum is boycotted by nationalists and results in a conclusive victory for remaining in the UK. On a voter turnout of 58.7 percent, 98.9 percent vote to remain in the United Kingdom, meaning the outcome among registered voters is not affected by the boycott.

The Unionist parties support the “UK” option, as do the Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) and the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI). However, the Alliance Party is also critical of the poll. While it supports the holding of periodic plebiscites on the constitutional link with Great Britain, the party feels that to avoid the border poll becoming a “sectarian head count,” it should ask other relevant questions such as whether the people support the UK’s white paper on Northern Ireland. Nevertheless, on February 5, 1973, the party’s chairman, Jim Hendron, states that “Support for the position of Northern Ireland as an integral part of the United Kingdom is a fundamental principle of the Alliance Party, not only for economic reasons but also because we firmly believe that a peaceful solution to our present tragic problems is only possible within a United Kingdom context. Either a Sinn Féin all-Ireland republic or a Vanguard-style Ulster republic would lead to disaster for all our people.”

The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), however, calls for a boycott of the referendum, urging its members on January 23, 1973 “to ignore completely the referendum and reject this extremely irresponsible decision by the British Government.” Gerry Fitt, leader of the SDLP, says he has organised a boycott to stop an escalation in violence.

The civil authorities are prepared for violence on polling day. They put in place mobile polling stations which can be rushed into use if there is bomb damage to scheduled poll buildings. Two days before the referendum a British soldier, Guardsman Anton Brown of the 2nd Battalion, Coldstream Guards, is shot dead in Belfast as the army searches for weapons and explosives which can be used to disrupt the upcoming referendum.

Violence by both Republican and Loyalist paramilitaries still takes place on polling day. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) explode several bombs across Northern Ireland and shoot dead a British soldier guarding a polling station in the area of the Falls Road in Belfast. The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) abducts and kills a Catholic civilian from Ballymurphy. A polling station in East Belfast guarded by the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) is also raided by Loyalist paramilitaries who steal several self-loading rifles.

As a political response to the referendum, the Provisional Irish Republican Army also plants four car bombs in London that day, two of which detonate, causing one death and injuring over two hundred.

The vote results in an overwhelming majority of those who voted stating they wish to remain in the UK. The nationalist boycott contributes to a turnout of only 58.7% of the electorate. In addition to taking a majority of votes cast, the UK option receives the support of 57.5% of the total electorate. According to the BBC, less than 1% of the Catholic population turn out to vote.

The referendum electorate consists of 1,030,084 adults registered to vote out of a total population of approximately 1,529,993.

The Government of the United Kingdom takes no action on receipt of the referendum result, as the result is in favour of the status quo (Northern Ireland remaining part of the UK). It is followed by an Assembly election on June 28, 1973.

Brian Faulkner, who had been the sixth and last Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, claims the result leaves “no doubt in any one’s mind what the wishes of Ulster’s people are. Despite an attempted boycott by some, almost 600,000 electors voted for the maintenance of the union with Great Britain.” He also claims that the poll showed that a “quarter of the [N.I.] Catholic population who voted … voted for the maintenance of the union” and that the result is a “blow … against IRA mythology.”

(Pictured: Map of Northern Ireland (yellow) within the United Kingdom.)


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Death of Playwright T. C. Murray

Thomas Cornelius Murray, Irish dramatist who is closely associated with the Abbey Theatre, dies on March 7, 1959, at his home on Sandymount Strand, Ballsbridge, Dublin, of viral pneumonia.

Murray is born in Macroom, County Cork on January 17, 1873, the seventh of the eleven children of Cornelius Murray and Honora Murray (née Kelleher). He is educated at St. Patrick’s Teacher Training College in Drumcondra, Dublin. He works as a schoolteacher and in 1900 is appointed headmaster of the national school in Rathduff, County Cork. His first play, The Wheel of Fortune, is produced in 1909 by the Little Theatre in Cork, a theatre he co-founded with Daniel Corkery, Con O’Leary and Terence MacSwiney. The play is revised and renamed Sovereign Love in 1913. In 1915, he moves to Dublin as headmaster of the Model Schools at Inchicore, where he remains until his retirement from teaching in 1932.

Murray’s play Birthright is performed in the Abbey Theatre in 1910 and establishes him as a writer of force. In all, he writes fifteen plays, all of which are produced by the Abbey. His two most highly regarded works are Maurice Harte (1912) and Autumn Fire (1924). Both of these and Birthright are performed in New York City on Broadway, with Autumn Fire having a run of 71 performances. He also writes an autobiographical novel Spring Horizon (1937).

It has been stated both by A. DeGiacomo and by R. Allen Cave that, in the Art competitions at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, Murray is awarded a bronze medal for his play Birthright. However, according to the official record for the games, although Murray is a participant in the literature category with this play and also with Maurice Harte, he does not win a medal.

In his later years, Murray holds a number of significant positions: director of the Authors’ Guild of Ireland, vice-president of the Irish Academy of Letters and president of the Irish Playwrights’ Association. He is awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) by the National University of Ireland in 1949. He dies on March 7, 1959, at his home on Sandymount Strand, Ballsbridge, Dublin, of viral pneumonia, his wife having predeceased him by fifteen years. His extensive papers, containing scripts of almost all of his fifteen plays, correspondence, clippings, reviews, and other material, are held in the National Library of Ireland (NLI).


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Operation Flavius

Operation Flavius (also referred to as the Gibraltar killings) is a military operation in which three members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), Seán Savage, Daniel McCann and Mairéad Farrell, are shot dead by the British Special Air Service (SAS) in Gibraltar on March 6, 1988.

The trio is believed to be planning a car bomb attack on British military personnel in Gibraltar. They are shot dead while leaving the territory, having parked a car. All three are found to be unarmed, and no bomb is discovered in the car, leading to accusations that the British government conspired to murder them. An inquest in Gibraltar rules that the authorities had acted lawfully but the European Court of Human Rights holds that, although there had been no conspiracy, the planning and control of the operation is so flawed as to make the use of lethal force almost inevitable. The deaths are the first in a chain of violent events in a fourteen-day period. On March 16, the funeral of the three IRA members is attacked, leaving three mourners dead. At the funeral of one, two British soldiers are murdered after driving into the procession in error.

In late 1987, British authorities become aware of an IRA plan to detonate a bomb outside the governor’s residence in Gibraltar. On the day of the shootings, Savage, a known IRA member, is seen parking a car near the assembly area for the parade. Fellow members McCann and Farrell are seen crossing the border shortly afterward. As SAS personnel move to intercept the three, Savage splits from McCann and Farrell and runs south. Two soldiers pursue him while two others approach McCann and Farrell. The soldiers report seeing the IRA members make threatening movements when challenged, so the soldiers shoot them multiple times. All three are found to be unarmed, and Savage’s car does not contain a bomb.

When the bodies are searched, a set of car keys is found on Farrell. Spanish and British authorities conduct enquiries to trace the vehicle. Two days after the shootings, their enquiries lead them to a red Ford Fiesta in a car park in Marbella, fifty miles from Gibraltar. The car contains a large quantity of Semtex surrounded by 200 rounds of ammunition, along with four detonators and two timers.

The IRA notifies the McCann, Savage, and Farrell families of the deaths on the evening of March 6, and the following day publicly announces that the three were members of the IRA. A senior member of Sinn Féin, Joe Austin, is tasked with recovering the bodies. On March 9, he and Terence Farrell (Mairéad Farrell’s brother) travel to Gibraltar to identify the bodies. A charter aircraft flies the corpses to Dublin on March 14. Two thousand people wait to meet the coffins in Dublin, which are then driven north to Belfast. At the border, the Northern Irish authorities meet the procession with a large number of police and military vehicles, and insist on intervals between the hearses, causing tensions between police and members of the procession.

The joint funeral of McCann, Farrell and Savage takes place on March 16 at Milltown Cemetery in Belfast. The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) agree to maintain a minimal presence at the funeral in exchange for guarantees from the families that there will be no salute by masked gunmen. This agreement is leaked to Michael Stone, who describes himself as a “freelance Loyalist paramilitary.” During the burial, Stone throws grenades into the crowd and begins shooting with an automatic pistol, injuring 60 people. Several mourners chase Stone, throwing rocks and shouting abuse. Stone continues shooting and throwing grenades at his pursuers, killing three of them. He is chased onto a road and his pursuers beat him until the RUC arrive to extract and arrest him.

Two months after the shootings, the documentary “Death on the Rock” is broadcast on British television. Using reconstructions and eyewitness accounts, it presents the possibility that the three IRA members had been unlawfully killed.

The inquest into the deaths begins in September 1988. The authorities state that the IRA team had been tracked to Málaga, where they were lost by the Spanish police, and that the three did not re-emerge until Savage was seen parking his car in Gibraltar. The soldiers testify that they believed the suspected bombers had been reaching for weapons or a remote detonator. Several eyewitnesses recall seeing the three shot without warning, with their hands up, or while they were on the ground. One witness, who told “Death on the Rock” he saw a soldier fire at Savage repeatedly while he was on the ground, retracts his statement at the inquest, prompting an inquiry into the programme which largely vindicated it. The inquest returns a verdict of lawful killing. Dissatisfied, the families take the case to the European Court of Human Rights. Delivering its judgement in 1995, the court finds that the operation had been in violation of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights as the authorities’ failure to arrest the suspects at the border, combined with the information given to the soldiers, rendered the use of lethal force almost inevitable. The decision is cited as a landmark case in the use of force by the state.

(Pictured: The three IRA members shot in Gibraltar: (l to r) Sean Savage, Mairéad Farrell, Daniel McCann, PA Archive / PA Images)


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Death of W. R. E. Murphy, Soldier & Policeman

William Richard English-Murphy, DSO MC, Irish soldier and policeman known as W. R. E. Murphy, dies on March 5, 1975, in Ardee, County Louth. He serves as an officer with the British Army in World War I and later in the National Army. In the Irish Civil War, he is second in overall command of the National Army from January to May 1923. He is first Irish Commissioner of the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) and the last Commissioner of the force before its merger with the Garda Síochána in 1925. Thereafter he is the Deputy Commissioner of the Gardaí until his retirement in 1955.

Murphy is born in Danecastle, Bannow, County Wexford, on January 26, 1890. His parents die when he is four years old. His grandparents also die during his childhood. He and his sister Mae (Mary Sarah) are separately raised by relatives in Belfast and Waterford. He is completing his master’s degree at Queens University Belfast (QUB) when he follows the call of John Redmond to join the war effort and ensure Irish independence. Ulster regiments reject him because he is Catholic. Seeking a regiment that treats Irish volunteers with respect, he joins the British Army in Belfast in 1915 as an officer cadet in the South Staffordshire Regiment.

Murphy serves in the Battle of Loos in 1915 and is wounded but returns to action for the start of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916. He becomes commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, the South Staffordshire Regiment in August 1918, reaching the rank of temporary lieutenant colonel. In 1918, his regiment is posted to the Italian Front, at the Piave River, where they are when the armistice is declared on November 4, 1918. He is granted the rank of substantive lieutenant colonel on the retired list on May 16, 1922.

After he returns to Ireland, Murphy resumes his career as a teacher. At some point, he joins the Irish Republican Army (IRA), an organisation fighting to end British rule in Ireland.

In December 1921, the Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed between British and Irish leaders, resulting in the setting up of the Irish Free State. Conflict over the Treaty among Irish nationalists ultimately leads to the outbreak of the Irish Civil War in June 1922. Murphy enlists as a general in the new National Army of the Irish Free State. After the start of the Irish Civil War, he is put in command of troops charged with taking posts held by the anti-Treaty IRA in Limerick.

At the Battle of Kilmallock in July–August 1922, Murphy is second in command to Eoin O’Duffy. His troops successfully dislodge the anti-Treaty IRA from positions around Kilmallock in County Limerick, but he is criticised for his tendency to “dig in” and resort to trench warfare rather than rapid offensive action.

Afterward, Murphy is put in overall command of Free State forces in County Kerry until January 1923. He lobbies Richard Mulcahy, commander in chief, for 250 extra troops, to bring his command up to 1,500 and help to put down the guerrilla resistance there. In the early stages of the guerrilla war, he organises large-scale “sweeps” to break up the republican concentrations in west Cork and east Kerry. These meet with little success, however. He exercises overall command in the county, but day-to-day operations are largely run by Brigadier Paddy Daly, of the Dublin Guard.

In October, in response to continuing guerrilla attacks on his troops, Murphy orders a nightly curfew to be put into place in Tralee.

In December, Murphy writes to Mulcahy that the “Irregular [Anti-Treaty] organisation here is well-nigh broken up,” and suggests the end of the war in the county is in sight. His optimistic prediction, however, proves premature.

On December 20, Murphy sentences four captured republican fighters to death under the fictitious “Public Safety Act” for possession of arms and ammunition. However, the sentences are to be called off if local guerrilla activity ceases. Humphrey Murphy, the local IRA Brigade commander, threatens to shoot eight named government supporters in reprisal if the men are executed. Eventually, their sentence is commuted to penal servitude.

In January 1923, Murphy is promoted from his command in Kerry to “responsibility for operations and organisation at the national level” in the army. Paddy Daly takes over as commanding officer in Kerry. Murphy later voices the opinion that Daly had been a bad choice, given his implication in the Ballyseedy massacre and other events of March 1923, in which up to 30 anti-Treaty prisoners were killed in the county.

Murphy leaves the National Army after the end of the Irish Civil War in May 1923 and becomes the first Irish commissioner of the Dublin Metropolitan Police. He later becomes deputy commissioner of the Garda Síochána, when DMP is merged with the new national police force in 1925. He holds this post until his retirement in 1955.

Murphy is at the forefront of efforts to close down Dublin’s red-light district, the Monto, in the early 1920s. Between 1923 and 1925, religious missions led by Frank Duff of the Legion of Mary, a Roman Catholic organisation, and Fr. R.S. Devane work to close down the brothels. They receive the cooperation of Murphy in his role as Dublin Police Commissioner, and the campaign ends with 120 arrests and the closure of the brothels following a police raid on March 12, 1925.

Murphy also holds the post for a time of president of the Irish Athletic Boxing Association.

Murphy lives with his daughter, Joan McMahon, in Ardee, County Louth, after his wife, Mary Agnes Fortune, dies on July 31, 1958. He dies on March 5, 1975, and is buried in St. Peter’s Churchyard, Bray, County Wicklow.

(Pictured: Major-General W. R. E. Murphy, as depicted on a Wills’ Irish Sportsmen cigarette card, from their boxing series)


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The Popery Act 1704 Receives Royal Assent

An Act to prevent the further Growth of Popery, commonly known as the Popery Act or the Gavelkind Act, is an act of the Parliament of Ireland that receives royal assent on March 4, 1704. It is designed to suppress Roman Catholicism in Ireland (“Popery“). William Edward Hartpole Lecky calls it the most notorious of the Irish Penal Laws.

Inheritance in traditional Irish law uses gavelkind, whereby an estate is divided equally among a dead man’s sons. In contrast, English common law uses male primogeniture, with the eldest son receiving the entire estate. The 1704 act enforces gavelkind for Catholics and primogeniture for Protestants.

Two separate bills “to prevent the further Growth of Popery” are introduced in the parliamentary session of 1703–04. One originates with the Privy Council of Ireland and is referred on July 4, 1703, to the Attorney-General for Ireland. The other is introduced as heads of a bill in the Irish House of Commons on September 28, 1703, and is sent to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland on November 19. Under Poynings’ Law, both bills are transmitted to the Privy Council of England for approval. Formally, one bill is vetoed, and the other is returned to Dublin with amendments. A lack of surviving documentation makes it impossible to determine which of the two has which fate. The approved bill is engrossed on January 20, 1704, presented in the Commons on February 14, sent to the Irish House of Lords on February 25, and given royal assent on March 4.

Sir Theobald “Toby” Butler, the former Solicitor-General for Ireland, a Roman Catholic, makes a celebrated speech at the bar of the Commons denouncing the act as being “against the laws of God and man… against the rules of reason and justice.” Other eminent Catholic lawyers like Stephen Rice also denounce the measure but to no avail.

Charles Ivar McGrath says that while the Popery Act has “evident … negative effects,” specific research is lacking, and that it is intended more to prevent an increase in Catholic landholding than encourage further decrease. The Catholic share of land had already fallen from 60% before the Irish Rebellion of 1641 to 22% before the Williamite War in Ireland to 14% in 1704. The figure of 5% in 1776 given in Arthur Young‘s Tour in Ireland is probably an underestimate, although in 1778 only 1.5% of rent is paid to Catholics.

Catholic gavelkind cements a tradition of farm subdivision, which persists beyond the act’s repeal and contributes to the Great Famine of the 1840s.

The act is “explained and amended” by a 1709 act, 8 Anne c. 3 (I), which specifies certain time limits left ambiguous by the original act, and closes some loopholes used by Catholics to remain beneficial owners of nominally Protestant property.

A 1719 act, 6 Geo. 1. c. 9 (I), indemnifies officials who have not hitherto subscribed to the oath required by the Popery Act. The time period for Dissenters subscribing to the oath is routinely extended, initially by an Indemnity Act at the start of each biennial parliamentary session. Similar acts are passed by the British parliament, and after the union the UK parliament continues the practice.

From the late 18th century Roman Catholic relief bills ease the Penal Laws, by explicit or implicit repeal and replacement. In 1772, Catholics are allowed to lease up to fifty Irish acres of bog-land for up to 61 years. The 1704 oath of allegiance for Catholics is replaced in 1774. Gardiner’s Act, the Leases for Lives Act 1777, implicitly repeals many other provisions of the 1704 act. Some are replaced with less onerous restrictions. The sacramental test is repealed for Dissenters in 1780. The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1782 repeals section 23 of the 1704 act. Another act of 1782 allows lay Catholics to be guardians of Protestants. Most restrictions on intermarriage are removed by the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1792. Many Penal Laws are repealed in general terms by the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1793. The sacramental test for Catholics is effectively replaced by the 1774 oath.

The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 abolishes the declaration against transubstantiation and specifies a new public oath for Catholics, explicitly permitting Catholics to hold Irish civil or military offices other than Lord Lieutenant and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, with the same oaths as required of non-Catholics (in addition to the new Catholic oath).

The Criminal Law Commission‘s 1845 report on oaths says sections 1, 3, and 6 of the 1704 act have fallen into disuse and should be repealed. The Religious Disabilities Act 1846, passed in consequence of the committee’s report, explicitly repeals provisions of sections 1, 3, and 4 of the 1704 act.

The Popery Act is explicitly repealed as obsolete by the Promissory Oaths Act 1871, with the exception of section 25, which is made redundant by the coming into force in 1871 of the Irish Church Act 1869 and is repealed by the Statute Law Revision (Ireland) Act 1878.


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The 1991 Cappagh Killings

The 1991 Cappagh killings, a gun attack by the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in the village of Cappagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, takes place on March 3, 1991. A unit of the UVF’s Mid-Ulster Brigade drive to the staunchly republican village and shoot dead three Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) members and a Catholic civilian at Boyle’s Bar. There are allegations of collusion between the UVF and the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) in the shootings.

Although nobody is ever charged in connection with the killings, it is widely believed by nationalists and much of the press that the attack had been planned and led by Billy Wright, the leader of the Mid-Ulster Brigade’s Portadown unit. Wright himself takes credit for this and boasts to The Guardian newspaper, “I would look back and say Cappagh was probably our best,” though some sources are sceptical about his claim.

On the evening of Sunday, March 3, 1991, a unit of the UVF’s Mid-Ulster Brigade drive into the heartland of the East Tyrone IRA, intent on wiping out an entire IRA unit that is based in the County Tyrone village of Cappagh. One team of the UVF men wait outside Boyle’s Bar, while a second team waits on the outskirts of the town. At 10:30 p.m. a car pulls into the car park outside the bar and the UVF gunmen open fire with vz. 58 assault rifles, killing Provisional IRA volunteers John Quinn (23), Dwayne O’Donnell (17) and Malcolm Nugent (20). The victims and car are riddled with bullets. According to author Thomas G. Mitchell, Quinn, O’Donnell and Nugent are part of an IRA active service unit (ASU). The gunmen then attempt to enter the pub but are unable to after the civilians inside realise what is happening and barricade the door. Unable to get into the bar, a UVF gunman shoots through a high open toilet window killing local civilian, Thomas Armstrong (50) and badly wounding a 21-year-old man. Their intended target, IRA commander Brian Arthurs, escapes with his life by crouching behind the bar during the shooting. According to the Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN), the three IRA volunteers chose to go to the pub “on the spur of the moment,” thus are unlikely to be the UVF’s original target.

After the attack, the UVF issues a statement: “This was not a sectarian attack on the Catholic community, but was an operation directed at the very roots of the Provisional IRA command structure in the Armagh–Tyrone area.” The statement concludes with the promise that “if the Provisional IRA were to cease its campaign of terror, the Ulster Volunteer Force would no longer deem it necessary to continue with their military operations.” Privately the UVF are hugely pleased with the attack in a republican heartland and Billy Wright, leader of the Portadown unit of the UVF’s Mid-Ulster Brigade, who is alleged to be centrally involved, tells Jim Cusack and Henry McDonald the killings were “one of things we did militarily in thirty years. We proved we could take the war to the Provos in one of their strongest areas.” Cusack and McDonald assert that a wealthy UVF supporter with a business in South Belfast helped the UVF purchase the cars used in the attack at auctions in the city.

The Provisional IRA initially does not acknowledge that three of the victims are within its ranks, apparently with the aim of garnering sympathy from the wider world, particularly in the Republic of Ireland, toward nationalists in Northern Ireland.

The first reprisal takes place on April 9, 1991, when alleged UVF member Derek Ferguson, a cousin of local MP Reverend William McCrea, is shot and killed in Coagh by members of the East Tyrone Brigade. His family denies any paramilitary links. In the months following the 1991 shootings, two former UDR soldiers are killed by the IRA near Cappagh. One of them is shot dead while driving along Altmore Road on August 5, 1991. The other former soldier is blown up by an IRA bomb planted inside his car at Kildress on April 25, 1993. It is claimed that he has loyalist paramilitary connections. The 1993 bombing leads to allegations that the IRA is killing Protestant landowners in Tyrone and Fermanagh in an orchestrated campaign to drive Protestants out of the region. There are at least five botched IRA attempts against the life of Billy Wright before the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) succeeds in killing him in 1997 inside the Maze Prison.

This is not the first time the UVF carries out an attack on Boyle’s Bar in Cappagh. On January 17, 1974, at around 7:40 p.m. two masked UVF gunmen enter the pub and open fire indiscriminately on the customers with a Sterling submachine gun and a Smith & Wesson revolver, firing at least 35 shots. A Catholic civilian and retired farmer Daniel Hughes (73) is shot eleven times and killed in the attack and three other people are injured. A group calling itself the “Donaghmore-Pomeroy Battalion of the UVF” claim responsibility for the shooting. The attack is linked to the notorious Glenanne gang.

(Pictured: The scene of the UVF attack outside Boyle’s Bar in Cappagh in March 1991. Photo: Pacemaker Archive Belfast 153-91-BW)


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Birth of Eamonn Duggan, Lawyer & Politician

Eamonn Seán Duggan, Irish lawyer and politician, is born in Richhill, County Armagh, on March 2, 1878. He serves as Minister for Home Affairs (Jan 1922-Sep 1922), Minister without portfolio (Sep 1922-Dec 1922), Parliamentary Secretary to the Executive Council (1922-26), Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance (1926-27) and Government Chief Whip and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence (1927-32). He serves as a Teachta Dála (TD) (1918-33) and a Senator (1933-36).

Duggan is the son of William Duggan, a Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) officer, and Margaret Dunne. He is a cousin of revolutionaries Thomas Burke and Christopher Burke through his mother. His parents meet when his father, a native of County Wicklow, is stationed in Longwood, County Meath, where they marry on October 19, 1874. His father is transferred to County Armagh the following year as officers cannot serve in their wife’s native county.

In 1911, Duggan is living with his parents on St. Brigid’s Road Upper in Drumcondra, Dublin. After his school education, he begins work as a law clerk. During his early years, he becomes heavily involved in politics after he qualifies as a solicitor and sets up a practice at 66 Dame Street in Dublin. He marries Evelyn Kavanagh, and they have one son.

In 1916, as a keen supporter of Irish independence, Duggan is serving in the North Dublin Union in the days approaching the 1916 Easter Rising. One of his close friends, Thomas Allen, is shot while Duggan is at the Four Courts. His efforts to get medical assistance are unsuccessful at Richmond Hospital as the British officer who responds to the call declines the message and does not allow it to go through. Eventually medical assistance is received but it is too late for Allen. In Duggan’s region, the volunteers suffer very few injuries with the most violent fighting taking place on Friday night and Saturday morning.

Duggan suffers the consequences and is subject to court-martial and then sentenced to three years penal servitude. He is interned in Maidstone, Portland and Lewes prisons. Under the general amnesty of 1917, he is released after fourteen months in prison and returns to Dublin where he goes back to studying law.

Duggan is elected to the First Dáil Éireann as a Sinn Féin TD for South Meath following the 1918 United Kingdom general election in Ireland. The Drogheda Independent reports “Never before was a successful candidate accorded such a princely reception.”

Duggan engages in the Irish War of Independence in the role of IRA Director of Intelligence, which comes to an end in November 1920 when he is imprisoned again and is not released until the Anglo-Irish Truce of July 1921. When the truce concludes, he is authorised as one out of the five envoys to discuss and finalise the treaty with the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George. He signs the Anglo-Irish Treaty at 22 Hans Place, London.

Duggan retains numerous ministerial posts in the Cumann na nGaedheal government. In 1921, he plays a role in the Irish delegation throughout the Anglo-Irish discussions, then playing a dominant role in liaising with British officials.

After the post-treaty government, Duggan is appointed the Minister for Home Affairs and shortly afterward he becomes the Parliamentary Secretary for the Executive Council and the Minister for Defence. He continues in various roles as a TD until 1933. These include Government Chief Whip from 1927 to 1932. Until 1933, he is a Cumann na nGaedheal TD for Meath. In 1933, he declines to go forward for the general election but is elected to Seanad in April 1933. He also is involved in local politics in Dún Laoghaire as the chairman of the borough council until his death in 1936.

Duggan writes papers which reflect on his engagement in the Easter Rising. In his letters, he writes about the tough times of imprisonment. He also writes about his participation in Sinn Féin and his triumph in being a candidate for the South Meath constituency. Most of his papers consist of letters to his fiancée and later wife, May Duggan, which are written while in prison. His time as a TD is also included. In one letter, which he writes on April 25, 1916, he references “the whole damn family” consisting of information as to how his volunteers and he are being “treated as princes” by the nuns in the nearby convent, receiving help from the children in the area and building barricades. In his letter, he also writes about morale among his comrades and hearing of rumours about a German who had landed in County Kerry. In the note, he states that the letter should be sent to May Duggan who is his fiancée at the time. At the end of the letter he refers to himself as “Edmund” by which he is also known.

Duggan dies suddenly at his home in Dún Laoghaire, Dublin, on June 6, 1936, at the age of 58, and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery on the north side of Dublin.


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Birth of Nuala O’Faolain, Journalist, TV Producer, Teacher & Writer

Nuala O’Faolain, Irish journalist, television producer, book reviewer, teacher and writer, is born in Clontarf, Dublin on March 1, 1940. She becomes well known after the publication of her memoirs Are You Somebody? and Almost There. She also writes a biography of Irish criminal Chicago May and two novels.

O’Faolain is the second eldest of nine children. Her father, known as ‘TerryO’ is a well-known Irish journalist, writing the “Dubliners Diary” social column under the pen name Terry O’Sullivan for the Evening Press. She is educated at University College Dublin (UCD), the University of Hull, and the University of Oxford. She teaches for a time at Morley College in London and works as a television producer for the BBC and Raidió Teilifís Éireann.

O’Faolain describes her early life as growing up in a Catholic country which, in her view, fears sexuality and forbids her even information about her body. In her writings she often discusses her frustration at the sexism and rigidity of roles in Catholic Ireland that expect her to marry and have children, neither of which she does.

O’Faolain becomes internationally well known for her two volumes of memoir, Are You Somebody? and Almost There; a novel, My Dream of You; and a history with commentary, The Story of Chicago May. The first three are all featured on The New York Times Best Seller list. Her posthumous novel Best Love, Rosie is published in 2009.

O’Faolain’s formative years coincide with the emergence of the women’s movement, and her ability to expose misogyny in all its forms is formidable, forensic and unremitting. However, her feminism stems from a fundamental belief in social justice. Unlike most commentators, who maintain a detached, lofty tone, she places herself at the centre of things, a high-risk strategy that works because of her broad range of erudition, worn lightly, her courage and a truthfulness that sometimes borders on the self-destructive.

O’Faolain is engaged at least once but never marries. In Are You Somebody? she speaks candidly about her fifteen-year relationship with the journalist Nell McCafferty, who publishes her own memoir, Nell. From 2002 until her death, she lives much of the time with Brooklyn-based attorney John Low-Beer and his daughter Anna. They are registered as domestic partners in 2003.

O’Faolain splits her time between Ireland and New York City. She is diagnosed with metastatic cancer and is interviewed on the Marian Finucane radio show on RTÉ Radio 1 on April 12, 2008, in relation to her terminal illness. She tells Finucane, “I don’t want more time. As soon as I heard I was going to die, the goodness went from life.”

In a last attempt to grasp as much of life as she can, O’Faolain holidays with family members in Sicily and visits Berlin with a group of friends to hear music and see art. She previously tended to avoid Berlin because, through contact with Jewish friends and lovers, she associated it with the Holocaust. She dies at the Blackrock Hospice, Dublin, on May 9, 2008.

O’Faolain wins a Jacob’s Award in 1985 for her work as the producer of the RTÉ One television programme Plain Tales. In 2006, she wins the Prix Femina étranger, a French literary award, for The Story of Chicago May.

O’Faolain is the subject of a film documentary, Nuala: A Life and Death (2011), directed by Patrick Farrelly and Kate O’Callaghan, and produced and narrated by Marian Finucane. Hugo Hamilton‘s novel Every Single Minute (2014) is based on his experiences when accompanying O’Faolain to Berlin shortly before her death.


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Birth of Noel Cantwell, Irish Footballer & Cricketer

Noel Euchuria Cornelius Cantwell, Irish football player and sometime cricketer, is born at 2 Illen Villas, Mardyke Walk, Cork, County Cork, on February 28, 1932.

Cantwell is one of five sons and a daughter of Michael Cantwell, a master tailor, and his wife Hannah (née Daly). He is educated at St. Joseph’s national school and the Presentation Brothers College in Cork. He plays as a full-back for Western Rovers, Cork Athletic, West Ham United and Manchester United.

While at West Ham, Cantwell features in the London XI side that competes in the 1955–58 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup final on May 1, 1958. He captains the Hammers to winning the Division Two championship in the 1957–58 season thereby leading the club into the topflight for the first time since 1932.

In November 1960, Cantwell joins Manchester United for £29,500 which at the time is a record for a full-back. He helps the club win the 1965 and 1967 league titles and captains United when winning the 1963 FA Cup Final – just as his fellow countryman Johnny Carey had done in United’s previous FA Cup win fifteen years earlier.

Cantwell also serves as Chairman of the Professional Footballers’ Association.

During his International career (1953-67), Cantwell wins 36 full International caps for the Republic of Ireland, typically playing at left full-back and on several occasions at centre-forward. He makes his debut against Luxembourg in October 1953, with his final appearance coming away to Turkey in February 1967. He scores fourteen goals including five from penalties and also captains the Republic on several occasions including a match against England at Wembley Stadium.

In his first managerial role at Coventry City, Cantwell has the onerous task of following Jimmy Hill who had taken the club into the First Division for the first time in their history. He narrowly keeps the Sky Blues in the top in his first two seasons before taking them to a sixth-place finish in 1969–70, earning them qualification for the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (a year before it is replaced by the UEFA Cup).

Cantwell departs Highfield Road on March 12, 1972, but within seven months is back in English football as manager of Peterborough United. He helps Peterborough win the Fourth Division title in his first full season as manager, before leaving on May 10, 1977, to manage the New England Tea Men.

Cantwell returns to Peterborough on November 19, 1986, for a second stint as manager, remaining in this role until he becomes general manager on July 12, 1988. He is general manager at London Road for a year until he quits football to become licensee of the New Inn at Peterborough, where he remains for ten years until he retires in 1999. He also is landlord of the Bull and Swan in Stamford, Lincolnshire.

Cantwell also plays cricket for Cork Bohemians Cricket Club and Ireland as a left-handed batsman and a right-arm medium bowler. He plays five times for Ireland, making his debut in what is his sole first-class match versus Scotland at Edinburgh in 1956, scoring 31 and 17. His last match for Ireland is against Lancashire in July 1959.

Cantwell dies from cancer at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, not far from his home in Peterborough, on September 8, 2005. He is survived by his wife Maggie, a native of Belfast, and two daughters, Liz and Kate. A 22-year-old son, John Robert, is killed in a car crash thirteen years earlier.

Cantwell’s former teams each hold a moment of silence for him before their next matches.


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The Funeral of Tom O’Higgins, Former Chief Justice of Ireland

The funeral of Tom O’Higgins, former Chief Justice of Ireland and Minister for Health, takes place at St. Patrick’s Church in Monkstown, County Dublin, on February 27, 2003. He died two days earlier in Dublin.

O’Higgins is described at his removal as a great Christian gentleman whose secular activities were outstanding both to his country and to Europe.

The chief mourners in St. Patrick’s Church are joined by the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, and many representatives of the judiciary and politics. The mourners are led by his widow Terry, his children Tom, Geraldine, Michael, Barry, Kevin, Derval and Shane, his thirty grandchildren, his brother Michael and sister Rosaleen.

The parish priest, Father Maurice O’Moore, tells many hundreds in the congregation that O’Higgins and his wife had been regular worshippers at the church.

“Tom was a man of deep faith and his demeanour at prayer was an inspiration to me personally and to parishioners. I think of him this evening as a man of faith, as a man of prayer and a great Christian gentleman. His secular activities through his legal expertise were outstanding both to his country and to Europe,” he says.

Father O’Moore adds that many tributes had been paid to O’Higgins in the media, and everybody can be proud of the contribution he made as an Irishman through his religious faith, his sincerity and love of his country.

Father Bruce Bradley SJ, a friend of the family, gives a reading from the Gospel.

At the removal, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is represented by his aide-de-camp, Captain Ger O’Grady.

Attending from the judiciary are the Chief Justice Ronan Keane, the former Chief Justice Thomas Finlay, and many former Supreme Court and High Court judges, including Séamus Henchy, Anthony J. Hederman, Séamus Egan, Kevin Lynch and Donal Barrington who, like O’Higgins, was also a judge on the European Court of Justice.

Also attending is Harry Hill SC, retired master of the High Court, Feargus Flood, chairman of the Flood Tribunal, as well many Supreme Court and High Court judges and barristers. The director-general of the Law Society, Ken Murphy, is also present, as are many solicitors.

The world of politics is well represented, particularly by members of the Fine Gael party, for which O’Higgins was a Teachta Dála (TD) and minister in the 1940s and 1950s.

Two former taoisigh, Garret FitzGerald and Liam Cosgrave, attend. Also present is the leader of the Fine Gael party, Enda Kenny, and Tom Hayes, chairman of the Parliamentary Party, as well as many party TDs and former deputies.

Maureen Lynch, widow of former Fianna Fail Taoiseach Jack Lynch, and Dessie O’Malley, the former Progressive Democrats leader, also attend.

Internment in Shanganagh Cemetery in south County Dublin follows the 11:00 a.m. funeral Mass.

(From: “A great Christian gentleman’ whose secular activities served State, Europe,” by Christine Newman, The Irish Times, http://www.irishtimes.com, February 27, 2003)