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Death of George Colley, Fianna Fáil Politician

George Colley, an Irish Fianna Fáil politician, dies suddenly in London on September 17, 1983.

Colley is born in the Dublin suburb of Fairview on October 18, 1925, the son of Harry and Christina Colley. His father is a veteran of the 1916 Easter Rising and a former adjutant in the Irish Republican Army (IRA), who is elected to Dáil Éireann in 1944, as a Fianna Fáil candidate. He is educated at St. Joseph’s Secondary C.B.S. in Fairview, where one of his classmates and closest friends is Charles Haughey, who later becomes his political archrival. He studies law at University College Dublin (UCD) and qualifies as a solicitor in the mid-1940s. He remains friends with Haughey after leaving school and, ironically, encourages him to become a member of Fianna Fáil in 1951. Haughey is elected to Dáil Éireann in the 1957 Irish general election, ousting Colley’s father in the process. This puts some strain on the relationship between the two young men.

Colley is elected to the Dáil at the 1961 Irish general election, reclaiming his father’s old seat in the Dublin North-East constituency. Furthermore, he is elected in the same constituency as Haughey, thereby accentuating the rivalry. Thereafter, he progresses rapidly through the ranks of Fianna Fáil. He becomes a member of the Dáil at a time when a change from the older to the younger generation is taking place, a change facilitated by Taoiseach Seán Lemass.

Colley is active in the Oireachtas as chairman of some of the Joint Labour Committees, which are set up under the Labour Court, to fix legally enforceable wages for groups of workers who have not been effectively organised in trade unions. He is also leader of the Irish parliamentary delegation to the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe. His work as a backbencher is rewarded by his appointment as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Lands in October 1964.

Following the return of Lemass’s government at the 1965 Irish general election, Colley joins the cabinet as Minister for Education. He introduces a plan to establish comprehensive schools, set up an advisory council on post-primary school accommodation in Dublin, and introduces a school psychological service.

Colley is promoted as Minister for Industry and Commerce in a cabinet reshuffle in July 1966, and he continues the government policy of economic expansion that had prevailed since the late 1950s.

In November 1966, Seán Lemass resigns suddenly as party leader. Colley contests the subsequent leadership election. He is the favoured candidate of party elders such as Seán MacEntee and Frank Aiken, the latter managing Colley’s campaign. Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney also declare their interest in the leadership; however, both withdraw when the Minister for Finance, Jack Lynch, announces his candidacy. Colley does not back down, and the leadership issue goes to a vote for the first time in the history of the Fianna Fáil party. The leadership election takes place on November 9, 1966, and Lynch beats Colley by 59 votes to 19. When the new Taoiseach announces his cabinet, Colley retains the Industry and Commerce portfolio.

In the wake of the Arms Crisis in 1970, a major reshuffle of the cabinet takes place, with four Ministers either removed, or resigned, or simply retired from the government due to the scandal. Colley remains loyal to the party leader and is rewarded by his appointment as Minister for Finance, the second most important position in government.

In 1973, Fianna Fáil are ousted after sixteen years in government when the national coalition of Fine Gael and the Labour Party come to power. Colley is appointed opposition Spokesman on Finance, in the new Fianna Fáil front bench. As the 1977 Irish general election approaches, Colley and Martin O’Donoghue are the main architects of Fianna Fáil’s election manifesto.

Fianna Fáil sweeps to power at the 1977 Irish general election, with a 20-seat Dáil majority, contrary to opinion polls and political commentators. Colley is re-appointed as Minister for Finance and Minister for the Public Service, and is also appointed as Tánaiste, establishing him firmly as the heir apparent to Taoiseach Jack Lynch.

In December 1979, Jack Lynch resigns unexpectedly as Taoiseach and as Fianna Fáil leader. Colley and Charles Haughey seek the leadership position and are evenly matched. A secret ballot is taken on December 7, 1979. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Michael O’Kennedy, announces his support for Haughey on the eve of the election. This apparently swings the vote, and Haughey beats Colley by 44 votes to 38. Colley remains as Tánaiste but demands and receives a veto on Haughey’s ministerial appointments to the departments of Justice and Defence.

Fianna Fáil loses power at the 1981 Irish general election. Haughey delays naming a new opposition front bench, but Colley remains a key member of the Fianna Fáil hierarchy. The party regains office at the February 1982 Irish general election. He demands the same veto as before on Haughey’s Defence and Justice appointments but is refused. When it is revealed that Ray MacSharry is to be appointed Tánaiste in his stead, he declines another ministerial position. This effectively brings his front bench political career to an end, but he remains a vocal critic of the party leadership from the backbenches.

When the Fianna Fáil government collapses and are replaced by another coalition government after the November 1982 Irish general election, a number of TDs and Senators express lack of confidence in Haughey’s leadership once again. Several unsuccessful leadership challenges take place in late 1982 and early 1983, with Colley now supporting Desmond O’Malley and the Gang of 22 who oppose Haughey.

Colley dies suddenly on September 17, 1983, aged 57, while receiving treatment for a heart condition at Guy’s Hospital, Southwark, London. He is survived by his wife, three sons, and four daughters, one of whom, Anne Colley, becomes a TD as a member of the Progressive Democrats party.


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The Philadelphia Nativist Riots

The Philadelphia nativist riots (also known as the Philadelphia Prayer Riots, the Bible Riots and the Native American Riots) are a series of riots that take place on May 6—8 and July 6—7, 1844, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the adjacent districts of Kensington and Southwark. The riots are a result of rising anti-Catholic sentiment at the growing population of Irish Catholic immigrants.

On July 3, Father John Patrick Dunn of the Church of St. Philip Neri in the Southwark District is warned that the church might be attacked during an upcoming parade held by the Native American Party. The Native American Party, a nativist political party, plans to hold a large parade the next day on Independence Day.

To prepare for violence, the church applies for an arsenal that a volunteer company could use in case the church is attacked. Pennsylvania Governor David R. Porter authorizes the formation of a company and the procurement of twenty-five muskets from the Frankford Arsenal. Major General Robert Patterson, commander of the Pennsylvania militia, puts the troops on alert in case of violence.

Five of the muskets placed in St. Philip Neri’s Church are discovered to be defective and are sent back to the Frankford Arsenal to be repaired. No violence occurs before or during the parade, but on July 5, a nativist mob numbering in the thousands gathers at the church after some observe five defective muskets being returned to the church. They then demand that the sheriff remove the weapons, while Father Dunn and volunteers rally to protect the church. Sheriff Morton McMichael and two aldermen search the church and remove twelve muskets. After leaving the church, the sheriff urges the crowd to disperse and leaves a volunteer posse to guard the church. The mob remains, and a man injured in the May riots makes a speech to the crowd, calling for a second search of the church. The sheriff, an alderman, and seventeen nativists enter the church and find three armed men, fifty-three muskets, ten pistols, a keg of gunpowder and ammunition. To avoid inciting the mob, the sheriff decides not to remove the armaments, and the search party stays in the church. Just after midnight, July 6, Major General Patterson orders a company of city guards to clear the streets. After the crowd disperses, the arms found within the church are removed.

By midday, the crowds return around St. Philip Neri’s Church. General George Cadwalader orders the crowds to disperse, but they do not. By the evening, the sheriff arrives with a 150-strong posse. Throughout the evening, the military presence grows, and three cannons are stationed on the streets. The soldiers clear the streets near the church, despite being pelted with rocks by the mob. Responding to the rock throwers, General Cadwalader orders a cannon to be fired at the crowd on Third Street. Former U.S. Congressman Charles Naylor begs the general not to fire. He and several others are arrested and held within the church. By the morning of July 7, most of the soldiers have left, but the crowds, led by an alderman and the sheriff, return and demand that the remaining guard release Naylor. Everyone except Naylor is released. The crowds grow, and a cannon is brought from a nearby wharf and used to threaten the church. After further negotiations, Naylor is released and carried home to cheers on people’s shoulders.

After Naylor is brought home, the mob attacks the church, damaging a wall with the cannon. A second cannon is brought from the wharfs and fired at the church, after which the mob pelts the building with rocks and break in through a side door. The soldiers fire on the men breaking into the church, who promptly retreat. After retreating, the nativists negotiate with the guard, who agrees to withdraw, allowing the nativists to guard the church. The crowd pelts the soldiers with rocks and some soldiers fire back, which only incites the mob further. The mob forces its way into the church, causing extensive damage to the interior. After about an hour, a group of twenty men organizes themselves to guard St. Philip Neri’s, and the mob leaves the church.

By the evening, a large number of soldiers arrive with orders to clear the streets, only to be stoned in the process. After a captain is attacked, the order is given to fire on the mob, which results in seven fatalities and nine injuries. Not long after, people with muskets and cannons arrive and fierce fighting breaks out between the soldiers and the mob. The fighting lasts for several hours, with the soldiers being fired upon from alleyways and the windows of nearby buildings. The soldiers bring in two cannons of their own and fire on the mob. The mob returns fire using their own cannons, armed with items such as nails, chains, knives and broken bottles. In an attempt to capture the mob’s cannons, soldiers charge one cannon’s position, only to be knocked off their horses by a rope tied across the street. The cannons are all eventually captured, and by early morning on July 8, the fighting has ended.

At least fifteen people, including rioters and soldiers, are killed in the riot, and at least fifty people are injured. Under Governor Porter’s orders, state troops continue to arrive in the city in the days afterward, but no further violence takes place. An estimated 5,000 militia are used to stop violence. Troops begin to withdraw from the city on July 10, and the church takes over responsibility from the district of Southwark of protecting the church on July 11. As with the May riots, a grand jury blames the Irish Catholics for the riots but supports the military’s response to the violence.

The riots gain national attention and condemnation. The riots are used as an issue in the 1844 U.S. Presidential election, the Democratic Party condemning the growing Native American Party and the Whig Party, which the Democrats accuse of involvement in the nativist movement. In Philadelphia, the Native American Party ends up making a strong showing in the city’s October election.

On July 11, 1844, Philadelphia passes an ordinance that gives the city a battalion of artillery, a regiment of infantry, and at least one full troop of cavalry to preserve peace within the city when necessary. The difficulty of quelling the riots and other crime leads the Pennsylvania General Assembly to pass an 1845 act that requires Philadelphia, the township of Moyamensing and the unincorporated districts of Spring Garden, Northern Liberties, and Penn to maintain a police force of one man per 150 taxable inhabitants. In 1850, another act is passed that establishes that the Philadelphia police force will police the city and seven surrounding districts. The inability to maintain order effectively in Philadelphia’s suburbs is an important argument for the consolidation of the city in 1854.

After the riots, Bishop Kenrick ends his efforts to influence the public education system and begins encouraging the creation of Catholic schools, with 17 being founded by 1860. The friars of the Church of St. Augustine sue the city of Philadelphia for not providing the church with adequate protection, claiming $80,000 in damages. The city argues that the friars cannot claim their civil rights were violated, as the Order of Saint Augustine is a foreign organization under the Pope. Furthermore, the city argues that the friars took a vow of poverty and cannot be property owners. The Augustinians end up proving the Order is incorporated in 1804 and is awarded $45,000. The church is rebuilt in 1848.

(Pictured: “Riot in Philadelphia,” lithograph by H. Bucholzer, 1844, Library of Congress)


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John Asgill Expelled from the Irish House of Commons

John Asgill, eccentric English writer and newly elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Enniscorthy, is expelled from the Irish parliament on October 11, 1703, on account of a pamphlet he published in Dublin in 1698, arguing that man may pass into eternal life without dying. The pamphlet is burned by the common hangman and he spends much of the rest of his life in prison in England for blasphemy or for matters arising from land speculation in Ireland.

John Asgill is born at Hanley Castle, Worcestershire, England, on March 25, 1659, the son of Edward and Hester Asgill. Little is known of his early life but in 1686 he becomes a student at the Middle Temple and is called to the bar in 1692. He founds the first land bank in 1695 with Nicholas Barbon, which, after proving to be a profitable venture, merges with the land bank of John Briscoe in 1696. However, after profits drop, the bank closes in 1699. He is then elected that year as Member of Parliament for Bramber.

In 1700 Asgill publishes An Argument Proving, that … Man may be Translated, a pamphlet aiming to prove that death is not obligatory upon Christians. Within days of its publication, he leaves England to travel to Ireland, where he hopes to profit from the Williamite confiscation, acting on behalf of individuals affected by the 1699 resumption act. He is reasonably successful but is unable to gain the profits that he had anticipated. He becomes involved in lengthy litigation with the estate of the Jacobite Nicholas Browne, which continues until the early 1730s.

In an attempt to further his interests Asgill enters the Irish House of Commons in 1703, representing Enniscorthy. His Irish parliamentary career is to be short. On September 25, the first day of the session, his pamphlet on death is discussed and voted “wicked and blasphemous” and ordered to be burned by the common hangman. He is allowed to make a personal defence of his work on October 11, but this proves insufficient. He is expelled and the Commons order that “he be forever hereafter incapable of being chosen, returned or sitting a member of any succeeding parliament in this kingdom.”

While in Ireland Asgill is re-elected to the English House of Commons for Bramber in 1702 and so returns to England. On June 12, 1707 he is arrested and imprisoned at Fleet Prison for debt. He claims parliamentary immunity as a member of a current parliament despite the confusion whether the last English parliament and the first Parliament of Great Britain are the same body, and in December the House of Commons agrees. Nevertheless, two days after ordering his release from prison, he is expelled from the Commons both for his religious views and because he is a declared bankrupt.

Asgill falls on hard times and spends the rest of his life imprisoned in the Fleet or within the bounds of the King’s Bench but his zeal as a pamphleteer continues unabated.

Asgill dies on November 10, 1738, in the parish of Southwark, and is survived by his sister Martha.


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Edward Poynings Appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland

Edward Poynings, best known for his introduction of “Poynings‘ Law,” which prevents the Irish Parliament from meeting without royal permission and approval of its agenda, is appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland under King Henry VII of England on September 13, 1494.

Poynings is the only son of Sir Robert Poynings, second son of the 5th Baron Poynings, and Elizabeth Paston, the only daughter of William Paston. He is likely born at his father’s house in Southwark in 1459. His father is a carver and sword-bearer to Jack Cade and is killed at the Second Battle of St. Albans on February 17, 1461. He is raised by his mother.

Robert Poynings is implicated in Jack Cade’s rebellion, and Edward is himself concerned in a Kentish rising against Richard III, which compels him to escape to Continental Europe. He attaches himself to Henry, Earl of Richmond, afterwards King Henry VII, with whom he returns to England in 1485.

Poynings is employed in the wars on the continent, and in 1493 he is made governor of Calais. In the following year he goes to Ireland as Lord Deputy under the viceroyalty of Prince Henry, afterwards King Henry VIII. He immediately sets about anglicizing the government of Ireland, which he thoroughly accomplishes, after inflicting punishment on the powerful Irish clans who support the imposture of Perkin Warbeck.

Poynings then summons the celebrated parliament of Drogheda, which meets in December 1494 and enacts the “Statutes of Drogheda,” famous in Irish history as “Poynings’s law,” which make the Irish legislature subordinate to, and completely dependent on, that of England, until its repeal in 1782.

After defeating Perkin Warbeck at Waterford and driving him out of Ireland, he returns to England in 1496, and is appointed warden of the Cinque Ports. He is employed both in military commands and in diplomatic missions abroad by Henry VII, and later by Henry VIII, his most important achievement being the successful negotiation of the “holy league” between England, Spain, the emperor, and the pope, in 1513. In 1520 Poynings is present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, in the arrangement of which he has taken an active part. He is also present at Henry’s meeting with Emperor Charles V at Gravelines on July 10.

Poynings dies at Westenhanger in October 1521. By his wife, Elizabeth Scot, he leaves no surviving issue, and his estates pass through a collateral female line to the Earl of Northumberland. He has several illegitimate children, one of whom, Thomas Poynings, is created Baron Poynings in 1545, but dies in the same year without heirs.


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Birth of William Lewery Blackley, Divine & Social Reformer

william-lewery-blackley

William Lewery Blackley, divine and social reformer, is born at Dundalk, County Louth on December 30, 1830.

Blackley is the second son of Travers Robert Blackley of Ashtown Lodge, County Dublin and Eliza, daughter of Colonel Lewery, who is taken prisoner by the French at Verdun. His maternal grandfather is Travers Hartley, MP for Dublin (1776-1790) and governor of the Bank of Ireland.

In boyhood Blackley is sent with his brother John to a school at Brussels kept by Dr. Carl Martin Friedlander, a Polish political refugee, whose daughter, Amelia Jeanne Josephine, he subsequently marries on July 24, 1855. There he acquires proficiency in French, German, and other foreign languages. In 1847 he returns to Ireland, entered Trinity College, Dublin, graduating B.A. in 1850, M.A. in 1854, and takes holy orders. In 1854 he becomes curate of St. Peter’s, Southwark, but an attack of cholera compels his retirement from London. From 1855 to 1867 he has charge of two churches at Frensham, near Farnham, Surrey. He is rector of North Waltham, Hampshire (1867-1883), and King’s Somborne (1883-1889). In 1883 he is made honorary canon of Winchester.

Blackley, who is an energetic parish priest and is keenly interested in social questions, carefully elaborates a scheme for the cure of pauperism by a statutory enforcement of thrift which has far-reaching results at home and abroad. In November 1878 he contributes to the Nineteenth Century an essay entitled National Insurance a Cheap, Practical, and Popular Way of Preventing Pauperism, and thenceforth strenuously advocates a scheme of compulsory insurance, which the National Providence League, with the Earl of Shaftesbury as president, is formed in 1880 to carry into effect. At the same time he recommends temperance as a means of social regeneration. His views reach a wide public through his writings, which include How to teach Domestic Economy (1879), Collected Essays on the Prevention of Pauperism (1880), Social Economy Reading Book, adapted to the New Code (1881), Thrift and Independence; a Word for Working-men (1884).

Blackley’s scheme provides that all persons between eighteen and twenty should subscribe to a national fund, and should receive in return a week in time of sickness, and a week after the age of seventy. The plan is urged on the House of Lords by the Earl of Carnarvon in 1880, and is the subject of inquiry by a select committee of the House of Commons from 1885 to 1887. The majority of the boards of guardians in England and Wales support the proposals, but the commons’ committee, while acknowledging Blackley’s ingenuity and knowledge, reports adversely on administrative and actuarial grounds. At the same time the friendly societies, which Blackley has censured in his Thrift and Independence, regards the principle of compulsion as a menace to their own growth, and their historian and champion, the Rev. John Frome Wilkinson, sharply criticises Blackley’s plan in The Blackley National Providence Insurance Scheme; a Protest and Appeal (1887). Blackley’s plan, although rejected for the time, stimulates kindred movements in the colonies and in foreign countries, and leads directly to the adoption of old age pensions in England by legislation in 1908, while the national insurance scheme which receives parliamentary sanction in 1911 bears some trace of Blackley’s persistent agitation.

In 1887 Blackley, who is director of the Clergy Mutual Insurance Company, makes proposals to the church congress which lead to the formation of the “Clergy Pension Scheme” and of a society for ecclesiastical fire insurance. In the autumn of 1889 Blackley, whose active propagandism brings him constantly to London, becomes vicar of St. James the Less, Vauxhall Bridge Road. There he enlarges the schools and builds a parish hall and a vicarage.

William Lewery Blackley dies after a brief illness at 79 St. George’s Square, on July 25, 1902. Brasses are put up in Blackley’s memory in the churches of St. James the Less, North Waltham, and Frensham.


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Death of Poet Laureate Nahum Tate

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Nahum Tate, Irish poet, hymnist, and lyricist, who becomes Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom in 1692,  dies on July 30, 1715. Tate is best known for The History of King Lear, his 1681 adaptation of William Shakespeare‘s King Lear.

Tate is born in Dublin in 1652 and comes from a family of Puritan clergymen. He is the son of Faithful Teate, an Irish clergyman who was rector of Castleterra, Ballyhaise, until his house is burned and his family attacked after he passes on information to the government about plans for the Irish Rebellion of 1641. After living at the provost’s lodgings in Trinity College, Dublin, Faithful Teate moves to England. He becomes the incumbent at East Greenwich around 1650, and “preacher of the gospel” at Sudbury from 1654 to 1658 before returning to Dublin by 1660. He publishes a poem on the Trinity entitled Ter Tria, as well as some sermons, two of which he dedicates to Oliver and Henry Cromwell.

Nahum Teate follows his father to Trinity College, Dublin in 1668, and graduates BA in 1672. By 1676 he moves to London and is writing for a living. He publishes a volume of poems in London in 1677 and becomes a regular writer for the stage. He also adopts the spelling Tate, which remains until his death.

Tate then turns to make a series of adaptations from Elizabethan dramas. His version of William Shakespeare’s Richard II alters the names of the characters and changes the text so that every scene, to use his own words, is “full of respect to Majesty and the dignity of courts.” In spite of these precautions The Sicilian Usurper (1681), as his rewrite is called, is suppressed on the third performance on account of a possible political interpretation.

In 1682, Tate collaborates with John Dryden to complete the second half of his epic poem Absalom and Achitophel. Tate also writes the libretto for Henry Purcell‘s opera Dido and Aeneas, which is given its first known performance in 1689. Tate’s name is also connected with the famous New Version of the Psalms of David (1696), for which he collaborates with Nicholas Brady.

Nahum Tate dies in Southwark, London, England, on July 30, 1715, and is buried at St. George Southwark on August 1, 1715.