#four courts

[carbone14]

Les soldats pro-traité de l'État libre d’Irlande assiègent l'armée républicaine irlandaise (IRA) anti-traité qui a établi son quartier général dans les Four Courts à Dublin – Guerre civile irlandaise –Bataille de Dublin – Irlande – 28 juin 1922

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1891 – Edward ‘Ned’ Daly is born in Limerick.

Daly was commandant of Dublin’s 1st battalion during the Easter Rising of 1916, the youngest man to hold that rank and the youngest executed in the aftermath. Born as John Edward Daly at 26 Frederick Street (now O’Curry street), Limerick, Daly was the only son among the ten children born to Edward and Catherine Daly (née O’Mara). He was the younger brother of Kathleen Clarke, wife of Tom Clarke,…

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[thisish20]

The Four Courts (Irish: Na Ceithre Cúirteanna[), 1796, Thomas Cooley and James Gandon architects, Dublin. An explosion and subsequent fire during the Irish Civil War resulted in the destruction of the Public Records Office and its archive of nearly a 1000 years. Loss of this archive resulted in the destruction of nearly all pre-1800 the family histories of Irish families world-wide, with only 14% of baptisms, marriage and burials burial records surviving. Losses also included probate records, wills and administrations prior to the 1850s and the majority from 1850s to 1922. When coupled with mass death and subsequent emigration during serial potato blights the destruction of meaningful family history for the estimated 70 million people in the Irish diaspora is essentially complete. 

This is why St Patrick’s Day celebrations are simultaneously ubiquitous and hollow: few traditions remain that descendants can observe. 

In the next few weeks I am going to post a few thoughts on what St Patrick’s Day has evolved into and why there is actually some deep history in what Americans do on March 17th (and why they probably don’t really understand/recognize them).  

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1922 – Anti-Treaty forces abandon The Four Courts in Dublin which was bombarded for two days under the orders of Michael Collins.

Anti-Treaty commander in the Four Courts, Paddy O’Brien is wounded by shrapnel. Ernie O’Malley assumes command. In the morning there is a truce to remove the wounded. Shortly afterward, a massive explosion destroys the western wing of the Four Courts and the Irish Public Records Office along with it. Forty advancing Free State troops were seriously injured. It was alleged by the National Army…

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[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1927 – Kevin O’Higgins, the Free State Minister for Justice, is assassinated while on his way to Mass at the Church of the Assumption by three anti-Treaty members.

Kevin O’Higgins the Irish Minister for Justice is gunned down by Anti-Treaty activists on his way to Sunday Mass. O’Higgin’s own father had been gunned down by the IRA in 1923. Kevin O’Higgins had attracted the hatred of the anti-Treaty IRA for his actions in the name of the Free State, Ireland’s newly-formed nationalist government under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Though he had once…

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[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1922 – The Four Courts garrison kidnaps Free State General JJ O’Connell in retaliation for the arrest of Leo Henderson I/C Belfast Boycott.

On 26 June 1922, a raiding party of anti-Treaty IRA men arrived at Ferguson’s garage on Dublin’s Baggot Street, accusing them of doing business with Belfast. They said, it was in violation of the boycott the IRA had placed on the city due to violence against nationalists there. Leo Henderson, their leader, seized a number of cars at gunpoint, and was on the point of driving back to the…

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[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1893 – Birth of General Liam Lynch, Chief of Staff, IRA, in Limerick.

#OTD in 1893 – Birth of General Liam Lynch, Chief of Staff, IRA, in Limerick.

Liam Lynch was born in Barnagurraha, Co Limerick to Jeremiah and Mary Kelly Lynch. At 17 he was apprenticed to O’Neill’s hardware in Mitchelstown. Shortly after his apprenticeship began he joined the Gaelic League and the Ancient Order of Hibernians. He joined the Irish Volunteers after witnessing the arrests of the Kent family by British forces after the failed Easter Rising of 1916. Two of the…

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[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1922 – Led by Rory O’Connor, forces against the Anglo-Irish Treaty seized the Four Courts in Dublin.

#OTD in 1922 – Led by Rory O’Connor, forces against the Anglo-Irish Treaty seized the Four Courts in Dublin.

Anti-Treaty forces led by Rory O’Connor seized the Four Courts. O’Connor, with approximately 200 men under his command. Their hope was that the British army, who were still based in Dublin, would attack them, thereby reigniting the war of independence and perhaps healing the split. Arthur Griffith, who was the President of Dáil Éireann, wanted to take action immediately to dislodge the rebels…

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