sluggerotoole--2020-07-18--The Belfast Shipyard Expulsions and Their Aftermath, 21st July 1920…

The general election held in 1918 had completely transformed the post-war politics of Ireland , with the Sinn Féin candidates winning a majority of FPTP seats by a landslide vote .
These newly elected members boycotted Westminster and established an alternative assembly in Dublin on 21st January 1919 .
Despite the mounting campaign of political violence that had also developed during 1919 and in early 1920 , by July Robert Lynd could still accurately write , The situation in the northern counties developed differently .
Catholic Belfast had virtually ignored Sinn Féin and nationalists , many of them ex-servicemen , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Party .
While a violent Unionist response to the challenge posed by a Nationalist majority on the local council had led to open conflict in Derry in June , in Belfast , where Catholics made up one in four of the population , any Republican presence was still both minimal and ineffectual .
Into this politically contained situation , Sir Edward Carson threw a challenge on the Unionists of the north “ to act ” against this virtually non-existent Sinn Féin influence in his July address to the Belfast Orangemen .
Tensions already @ @ @ @ @ @ @ As Carson had travelled to Belfast two days previously rumours circulated of an attempt to kidnap him and other northern Unionists .
The “ Twelfth ” took place with the roads into Belfast blocked by barbed wire barricades manned by troops who vetted those entering the town .
The LOI Procession had marched to Finaghy , where Carson spoke .
As The Times stated the following day , relating this call to violence to his entire northern career , “ Upon Sir Edward Carson lies , largely , the blame for having sown @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Action such as he had requested was quick to follow .
The nominal cause was indignation at the IRA assassination of the District RIC Commissioner for Munster by the IRA , Gerald Smyth , following his encouragement of a policy of arbitrary reprisal ( “ The more you shoot , the better I will like you ” ) that had led to a significant number of resignations from the RIC .
Despite being born in India , Smyth was from a Banbridge Family and was considered an Ulsterman .
The morning after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was the first day back at work following the Twelfth Holiday fortnight .
Members of the militant Belfast Protestant Association had put up posters on the gates of Queen ’ s Island calling for meeting of “ all Unionist and Protestant workers ” at lunchtime .
A sizable group of workers from the Workman Clarke Shipyard came over to the Harland & Wolff Yard at lunchtime and held an informal meeting , attended by around five thousand Harland & Wolff workers .
Resolutions were passed calling on the workforce to refuse to work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ group of around a thousand strong , mostly drawn from unskilled and non-unionised workers , craftsman ’ s assistants such as heater boys and plater ’ s helpers , now armed with hammers , iron bars , heavy sticks and piles of steel rivets and bolts , then entered the east yard of Harland & Wolff .
They broke up into smaller groups led by workers carrying Union Flags and worked through the yard and the joiners shop picking out known Socialist and Catholic workers , and any of those other workers attempting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were severely beaten , and a significant number were hospitalised .
With the yard gates closed to contain the violence , the purge continued through the afternoon .
As late as five o ’ clock the trams passing near Abercorn Road were still being searched for fleeing Catholic workers .
Passengers were rough handled with collars torn open to search for crosses or holy medals , and those identified were removed and badly beaten .
Police and soldiers from Holywood “ with fixed bayonets ” were called to the scene and the mob @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hundred workers in all would finally be expelled , roughly a quarter of the workforce ; one thousand eight hundred of them “ Rotten Prods ” ( Protestants insufficiently committed to Unionism ) including many of those socialists who had successfully organised strikes the previous year .
Ironically , many of those from both confessional groups who were expelled were the very ex-service men in whose name the expulsions were being carried out .
The role the Workman Clarke workforce played is significant .
Pre-war employment at Workman Clarke had usually required LOI @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a leading role in the UUC and his partner George Clarke was on the military committee of the Ulster Unionist Council .
Workman Clarke was regarded as a “ Unionist yard ” where seven hundred of its Catholic workers , a significant part of its nine thousand strong workforce , had been expelled along with a number of Protestant Trade Union Activists during the June disturbances in 1912 .
Both shipyards between them had raised six battalions for the UVF between them in 1913 , but the Workman Clarke yard was noted for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ This was recognised with the formation in the yard of an elite unit , the Special Service Force , subject to an immediate mobilisation as required .
Edward Carson had regarded the Special Service Force as the unit on call that could be expected to re-take the headquarters of the Provisional Government from the occupying RIC in March 1914 if Churchill ’ s arrest plan for the Provisional Government had been carried out as planned .
This Force continued a shadow existence during the war and would later provide the nucleus of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Its leaders were behind the Vigilance Committees formed in the yards in July 1920 .
News of the brutality of the expulsions spread through the city .
Those wounded during the expulsions were moved to the Royal Victoria and the Mater Hospitals .
With stories of possible dead circulating , angry crowds gathered in different parts of the city .
With rush hour , a tram carrying workers through Cromac Square was disabled by pulling its trolley of the electrical wires and those occupants wearing dungarees were forced off and beaten by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the markets area .
Trams were similarly attacked at Short Strand .
Catholic workers walking to homes in east Belfast were attacked .
A full scale Loyalist led riot developed in Ballymacarrett around the top end of Seaforde Street where the vulnerably placed St Matthews Catholic Church was attacked by a mob throwing cobbles against the building .
Defenders gathered .
As the RIC attempted to break up the fighting between both groups with baton charges they were answered with fusillades of cobbles and were unable to separate the two groups ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ machine guns were called in .
Around seven o ’ clock confrontations also developed on the Kashmir Road area between the Falls and the Shankill in West Belfast , as Catholic spirit grocers along Conway Street were raided by Shankill mobs and as the tensions grew , in nearby Canmore and Crossland streets .
Beer barrels were taped on the streets and cases of spirits carried away to “ encourage ” the rioters .
Opposing groups of rioters from the Falls and the Shankill directly confronted each other in Cupar Street .
Early @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bursts of revolver fire from both sides , and the first instances in Belfast of the deadly sniper activity that would become unbquitious over the next two years .
The military were called in and by 9 pm the first of several men to be killed that night had been shot .
Later in the evening a friar was picked off by a Loyalist sniper as he looked from a window of Clonard Monastery .
Troops were rapidly called in from Holywood and Newtownards and armoured cars were sent to clear crowds in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ snipers with bursts of Lewis gun fire .
By 3.10 am the Falls/Shankill riots had completely ended Most of the rest of the city had calmed down by midnight but in the early hours of the morning there were renewed flare-ups at Ballymacarrett where mobs gathered .
These Ballymacarrett riots rapidly developed into an extensive orgy of property destruction against a large number of businesses along the Newtownards Road and the Albert Bridge road .
As the riots intensified properties owned by Catholics and “ rotten Prods ” were targeted .
They had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while some were burnt out .
Pubs and spirit grocers were particularly targeted , and the violence soon spread into residential side roads .
In succeeding days around a full quarter of those living and trading along both roads and in the adjacent streets were intimidated or burnt out of their homes .
The Rev .
John Redmond , the Church of Ireland vicar of Ballymacarrett , went amongst the rioters attempting to restore order .
He later told the press “ of all the men taking part in the destruction of property @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years …while quite an appreciable proportion were boys under eighteen years.
” On the second night of the riots Councillor David Thompson , ( Ulster Unionist Labour Association ) assisted by Rev .
Redmond , began to organise patrols of ex-service men in an attempt to control the looting .
Despite their efforts spirit grocers and other small traders that had survived the violence of the previous night were still looted and some of them set ablaze on Templemore Avenue , Willowfield Street , Beersbridge Road and Rosebury Road .
Firemen trying to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cut through .
In all sixty spirit groceries and twelve pubs were wrecked over the first two nights of rioting .
This ad-hoc “ political cleansing ” created a climate of fear that was something new even in a town long plagued by sectarian riots .
The assault on the mixed composition of the Ballymacarrett area was very different in scale to the limited work expulsions and house evictions that had occurred during the June/July rioting of 1912 and during the earlier sectarian rioting in Belfast .
The attacks carried out on businesses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into an organised campaign of threats against individuals and families and by the opportunistic seizures of businesses , so that in a short period such intimidation entirely altered the character of East Belfast .
From having been a very mixed area where around a quarter of the businesses had been owned by Catholic families , east Belfast was transformed into a monocultured Protestant preserve .
Those Catholic ( or “ Rotten Prod ” ) owned businesses that had not been attacked in the early riots now experienced targeted intimidation .
Shop owners were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ old bills and to not charge for produce that was now simply taken .
The message was made very clear .
This process was completed over August and September of 1920 , with the organised consolidation of homogeneous ghettos and the seizure across the city of businesses whose owners had been warned what they could expect if they failed to depart by the initial destruction of over one hundred and fifty Catholic owned businesses in Ballymacarrett , something repeated on a smaller scale in succeeding riots elsewhere .
In early September the Daily @ @ @ @ @ @ @ per cent of the property destroyed by fire was caused by Unionists.
” Over the last week of July those Catholics or “ unreliable Protestants ” employed at the Sirocco Works , Musgrave & Co , Combe Barbour , Fairbain & Lawson , James Mackie & Co and a number of the cities linen mills were in turn ordered to leave and make way for unemployed Protestants prepared to take their places .
By late September attention shifted to service industries .
Private clubs , hotels and restaurants were served warning about employment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” was carried out of Catholic employees .
Many middle class protestant families who employed Catholic servants now laid them off to avoid targeting .
By the end of August around ten thousand workers had been expelled from employment In the shipyards , and at the Sirocco works , the effect of the expulsions was felt with work still seriously understaffed in certain skills ; there were considerable problems at the Sirocco as a number of those expelled had specialist skills and could not be replaced .
Key figures in the senior drawing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been driven out during the purge and production was effected .
Harland and Wolff were still four hundred joiners down on their needs in late September and were negotiating with the controlling works vigilance committee for the return of the expelled workers with no effect .
Registration offices sited at St Mary ’ s Hall opened in early August to provide basic sustenance for the Expelled Workers in Belfast with an estimated two thousand immediately enrolling .
During the autumn , an appeal was made for funds all over Ireland and abroad , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Approximately eight thousand one hundred and forty male and female wage earners registered on the Roll of the Expelled Worker ’ s Committee by early October , with on average twenty-three thousand one hundred and forty persons in all regularly receiving daily relief from the fund .
In addition the St Vincent de Paul society organised parallel relief schemes , where food and clothing were also distributed to refugees .
By Christmas of 1920 six hundred and fifty homes had been burnt in all , and eight thousand households were compelled to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ twenty months this pattern of sectarian violence would continue , reaching an intensity in the six months following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty .
In 1922 the greater number of the refugees of 1920 were still accommodated in school halls and in crowded terrace houses , often shared since the first months of the pogroms by more than one family .
The political agreements required the full return of the expelled workers to their employment .
The on-going conflict of these months , alongside a lack of any will within the Unionist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a return to employment would simply not occur and many of those driven from skilled work in 1920 would not return to employment until the skill shortages of WWII created openings two decades later .
The deep slump that accompanied the birth of Northern Ireland lasted across the 1920s and inhibited the employment of any but the personally vouched supporters of the status quo .
This merged with the worldwide effects of the economic collapse of 1929 , and created an employment imbalance which would be a feature of how Northern Ireland would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ century .
My thanks to “ Korhomme ” , Stiofán Ó Direáin , Patrick Concannon and Claire Mitchell for their input on an earlier draft .

The general election held in 1918 had completely transformed the post-war politics of Ireland, with the Sinn Féin candidates winning a majority of FPTP seats by a landslide vote. These newly elected members boycotted Westminster and established an alternative assembly in Dublin on 21st January 1919. Despite the mounting campaign of political violence that had also developed during 1919 and in early 1920, by July Robert Lynd could still accurately write,
“So far as the mass of people are concerned, the policy of the day is not active but a passive policy. Their policy is not so much to attack the Government as to ignore it and to build up a new government by its side,”
The situation in the northern counties developed differently. Catholic Belfast had virtually ignored Sinn Féin and nationalists, many of them ex-servicemen, had continued voting for the Irish Parliamentary Party. While a violent Unionist response to the challenge posed by a Nationalist majority on the local council had led to open conflict in Derry in June, in Belfast, where Catholics made up one in four of the population, any Republican presence was still both minimal and ineffectual. Into this politically contained situation, Sir Edward Carson threw a challenge on the Unionists of the north “to act” against this virtually non-existent Sinn Féin influence in his July address to the Belfast Orangemen.
Tensions already very high when 12thJuly 1920 began. As Carson had travelled to Belfast two days previously rumours circulated of an attempt to kidnap him and other northern Unionists. The “Twelfth” took place with the roads into Belfast blocked by barbed wire barricades manned by troops who vetted those entering the town. The LOI Procession had marched to Finaghy, where Carson spoke.
“We in Ulster will tolerate no Sinn Féin…….I hope you have got that pretty clear. I hate words without action……We will take matters into our own hands.”
As The Times stated the following day, relating this call to violence to his entire northern career, “Upon Sir Edward Carson lies, largely, the blame for having sown the Dragon’s teeth in Ireland.”
Action such as he had requested was quick to follow. The nominal cause was indignation at the IRA assassination of the District RIC Commissioner for Munster by the IRA, Gerald Smyth, following his encouragement of a policy of arbitrary reprisal (“The more you shoot, the better I will like you”) that had led to a significant number of resignations from the RIC. Despite being born in India, Smyth was from a Banbridge Family and was considered an Ulsterman.
The morning after his funeral, the 21st July, was the first day back at work following the Twelfth Holiday fortnight. Members of the militant Belfast Protestant Association had put up posters on the gates of Queen’s Island calling for meeting of “all Unionist and Protestant workers” at lunchtime. A sizable group of workers from the Workman Clarke Shipyard came over to the Harland & Wolff Yard at lunchtime and held an informal meeting, attended by around five thousand Harland & Wolff workers. Resolutions were passed calling on the workforce to refuse to work alongside “Sinn Feiners”. A group of around a thousand strong, mostly drawn from unskilled and non-unionised workers, craftsman’s assistants such as heater boys and plater’s helpers, now armed with hammers, iron bars, heavy sticks and piles of steel rivets and bolts, then entered the east yard of Harland & Wolff. They broke up into smaller groups led by workers carrying Union Flags and worked through the yard and the joiners shop picking out known Socialist and Catholic workers, and any of those other workers attempting to defend them. Many of these were severely beaten, and a significant number were hospitalised. With the yard gates closed to contain the violence, the purge continued through the afternoon.
As late as five o’clock the trams passing near Abercorn Road were still being searched for fleeing Catholic workers. Passengers were rough handled with collars torn open to search for crosses or holy medals, and those identified were removed and badly beaten. Police and soldiers from Holywood “with fixed bayonets” were called to the scene and the mob was dispersed. Around seven thousand five hundred workers in all would finally be expelled, roughly a quarter of the workforce; one thousand eight hundred of them “Rotten Prods” (Protestants insufficiently committed to Unionism) including many of those socialists who had successfully organised strikes the previous year. Ironically, many of those from both confessional groups who were expelled were the very ex-service men in whose name the expulsions were being carried out.
The role the Workman Clarke workforce played is significant. Pre-war employment at Workman Clarke had usually required LOI “vouching”. Frank Workman played a leading role in the UUC and his partner George Clarke was on the military committee of the Ulster Unionist Council. Workman Clarke was regarded as a “Unionist yard” where seven hundred of its Catholic workers, a significant part of its nine thousand strong workforce, had been expelled along with a number of Protestant Trade Union Activists during the June disturbances in 1912. Both shipyards between them had raised six battalions for the UVF between them in 1913, but the Workman Clarke yard was noted for its particularly high degree of militancy. This was recognised with the formation in the yard of an elite unit, the Special Service Force, subject to an immediate mobilisation as required. Edward Carson had regarded the Special Service Force as the unit on call that could be expected to re-take the headquarters of the Provisional Government from the occupying RIC in March 1914 if Churchill’s arrest plan for the Provisional Government had been carried out as planned. This Force continued a shadow existence during the war and would later provide the nucleus of the paramilitary Imperial Guard, formed in 1921. Its leaders were behind the Vigilance Committees formed in the yards in July 1920.
News of the brutality of the expulsions spread through the city. Those wounded during the expulsions were moved to the Royal Victoria and the Mater Hospitals. With stories of possible dead circulating, angry crowds gathered in different parts of the city. With rush hour, a tram carrying workers through Cromac Square was disabled by pulling its trolley of the electrical wires and those occupants wearing dungarees were forced off and beaten by a group of the expelled workers living in the markets area. Trams were similarly attacked at Short Strand.
Catholic workers walking to homes in east Belfast were attacked. A full scale Loyalist led riot developed in Ballymacarrett around the top end of Seaforde Street where the vulnerably placed St Matthews Catholic Church was attacked by a mob throwing cobbles against the building. Defenders gathered. As the RIC attempted to break up the fighting between both groups with baton charges they were answered with fusillades of cobbles and were unable to separate the two groups; detachments of the Norfolk Regiment with light machine guns were called in.
Around seven o’clock confrontations also developed on the Kashmir Road area between the Falls and the Shankill in West Belfast, as Catholic spirit grocers along Conway Street were raided by Shankill mobs and as the tensions grew, in nearby Canmore and Crossland streets. Beer barrels were taped on the streets and cases of spirits carried away to “encourage” the rioters. Opposing groups of rioters from the Falls and the Shankill directly confronted each other in Cupar Street. Early volleys of cobbles exchanged were succeeded by bursts of revolver fire from both sides, and the first instances in Belfast of the deadly sniper activity that would become unbquitious over the next two years. The military were called in and by 9 pm the first of several men to be killed that night had been shot. Later in the evening a friar was picked off by a Loyalist sniper as he looked from a window of Clonard Monastery. Troops were rapidly called in from Holywood and Newtownards and armoured cars were sent to clear crowds in the Falls Road and dislodge the Loyalist snipers with bursts of Lewis gun fire. By 3.10 am the Falls/Shankill riots had completely ended
Most of the rest of the city had calmed down by midnight but in the early hours of the morning there were renewed flare-ups at Ballymacarrett where mobs gathered. These Ballymacarrett riots rapidly developed into an extensive orgy of property destruction against a large number of businesses along the Newtownards Road and the Albert Bridge road. As the riots intensified properties owned by Catholics and “rotten Prods” were targeted. They had windows broken and were extensively looted, while some were burnt out. Pubs and spirit grocers were particularly targeted, and the violence soon spread into residential side roads. In succeeding days around a full quarter of those living and trading along both roads and in the adjacent streets were intimidated or burnt out of their homes.
The Rev. John Redmond, the Church of Ireland vicar of Ballymacarrett, went amongst the rioters attempting to restore order. He later told the press “of all the men taking part in the destruction of property only one appeared to be over twenty-three years …while quite an appreciable proportion were boys under eighteen years.” On the second night of the riots Councillor David Thompson, (Ulster Unionist Labour Association) assisted by Rev. Redmond, began to organise patrols of ex-service men in an attempt to control the looting. Despite their efforts spirit grocers and other small traders that had survived the violence of the previous night were still looted and some of them set ablaze on Templemore Avenue, Willowfield Street, Beersbridge Road and Rosebury Road. Firemen trying to put out the blazes had their hosepipes cut through. In all sixty spirit groceries and twelve pubs were wrecked over the first two nights of rioting.
This ad-hoc “political cleansing” created a climate of fear that was something new even in a town long plagued by sectarian riots. The assault on the mixed composition of the Ballymacarrett area was very different in scale to the limited work expulsions and house evictions that had occurred during the June/July rioting of 1912 and during the earlier sectarian rioting in Belfast. The attacks carried out on businesses during the first nights was now developed into an organised campaign of threats against individuals and families and by the opportunistic seizures of businesses, so that in a short period such intimidation entirely altered the character of East Belfast. From having been a very mixed area where around a quarter of the businesses had been owned by Catholic families, east Belfast was transformed into a monocultured Protestant preserve.
Those Catholic (or “Rotten Prod”) owned businesses that had not been attacked in the early riots now experienced targeted intimidation. Shop owners were expected to wipe the slate clear on old bills and to not charge for produce that was now simply taken. The message was made very clear. This process was completed over August and September of 1920, with the organised consolidation of homogeneous ghettos and the seizure across the city of businesses whose owners had been warned what they could expect if they failed to depart by the initial destruction of over one hundred and fifty Catholic owned businesses in Ballymacarrett, something repeated on a smaller scale in succeeding riots elsewhere. In early September the Daily Herald reported that to date “Ninety-five per cent of the property destroyed by fire was caused by Unionists.”
Over the last week of July those Catholics or “unreliable Protestants” employed at the Sirocco Works, Musgrave & Co, Combe Barbour, Fairbain & Lawson, James Mackie & Co and a number of the cities linen mills were in turn ordered to leave and make way for unemployed Protestants prepared to take their places. By late September attention shifted to service industries. Private clubs, hotels and restaurants were served warning about employment policy, and a “clean sweep” was carried out of Catholic employees. Many middle class protestant families who employed Catholic servants now laid them off to avoid targeting. By the end of August around ten thousand workers had been expelled from employment
In the shipyards, and at the Sirocco works, the effect of the expulsions was felt with work still seriously understaffed in certain skills; there were considerable problems at the Sirocco as a number of those expelled had specialist skills and could not be replaced. Key figures in the senior drawing office design staff and laboratory staff had been driven out during the purge and production was effected. Harland and Wolff were still four hundred joiners down on their needs in late September and were negotiating with the controlling works vigilance committee for the return of the expelled workers with no effect.
Registration offices sited at St Mary’s Hall opened in early August to provide basic sustenance for the Expelled Workers in Belfast with an estimated two thousand immediately enrolling. During the autumn, an appeal was made for funds all over Ireland and abroad, and first payments were made on 19thAugust. Approximately eight thousand one hundred and forty male and female wage earners registered on the Roll of the Expelled Worker’s Committee by early October, with on average twenty-three thousand one hundred and forty persons in all regularly receiving daily relief from the fund. In addition the St Vincent de Paul society organised parallel relief schemes, where food and clothing were also distributed to refugees. By Christmas of 1920 six hundred and fifty homes had been burnt in all, and eight thousand households were compelled to move by intimidation.
Over the next twenty months this pattern of sectarian violence would continue, reaching an intensity in the six months following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. In 1922 the greater number of the refugees of 1920 were still accommodated in school halls and in crowded terrace houses, often shared since the first months of the pogroms by more than one family. The political agreements required the full return of the expelled workers to their employment. The on-going conflict of these months, alongside a lack of any will within the Unionist administration, conspired to ensure that such a return to employment would simply not occur and many of those driven from skilled work in 1920 would not return to employment until the skill shortages of WWII created openings two decades later. The deep slump that accompanied the birth of Northern Ireland lasted across the 1920s and inhibited the employment of any but the personally vouched supporters of the status quo. This merged with the worldwide effects of the economic collapse of 1929, and created an employment imbalance which would be a feature of how Northern Ireland would continue to function over its first half century.
My thanks to “Korhomme”, Stiofán Ó Direáin, Patrick Concannon and Claire Mitchell for their input on an earlier draft.


sluggerotoole--2020-07-18--Searching for a mythical patriarch I found an impressive feminist…

My mother ’ s grandmother , Mary Agnes , was born on the outskirts of Derry in 1872 .
Her family , the McKeevers became the McIvors and moved to Quigley ’ s Point when she was about ten .
She married Hugh Harley , ten years her senior , in 1897 and their fourth child , my grandfather Joseph Harley , was born in 1901 .
I found the young family in the 1901 census living at Tromarty , Co Donegal with three servants , one an Irish speaker , with Hugh head of the family .
In the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
My great-grandmother , owner of an egg store business , was now head of the family , there was no sign of Hugh and there were eight children , the youngest was born in 1907 .
I asked my mother about her grandfather but she knew very little .
As a child , she frequently stayed with her grandmother at Tromerty in the 1930s and 1940s up to Mary Agnes ’ s death in the early 1950s .
Hugh , her grandfather she was told was according to the family “ a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and coming home soon .
In 1932 Mary Agnes sailed to America to find him but came home disappointed and after became very depressed and withdrawn .
Six months ago , a patient handed me an extensive list of medical conditions and asked me to explain .
Scrofula , Wasting Disease and Decline were among many that are not current medical diagnoses but were the conditions recorded on his ancestors ’ death certificates back in the 1700s .
He had developed some considerable skill in tracking down his antecedents and had succeeded in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He offered to pay me for my time but instead , I asked him to find Hugh Harley and gave him what little details I had .
He has now given me detailed documentation on Hugh Harley so I can finally clarify for my mother at least some of the mystery about her grandfather .
Hugh , we knew was in the 1901 census in Donegal , and then we find him in court records for Moville in 1906 charged with a violent attack on Bridget Harley who was not only a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attack and attempting to burn down Bridget ’ s house , he was committed to the lunatic asylum in Letterkenny .
Leaving that institution , he boarded a ship outside Moville in 1908 and travelled , according to the ship ’ s manifest , to Ellis Island .
We find him in Ellis Island records entering the US in November of that year .
We then find him in the US census of 1920 living in Philadelphia and then his death certificate tells us that he died of Tuberculosis complicated by myocarditis in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know where he is buried .
He was also a bigamist .
His son , also Hugh , travelled as a teenager to the US in the 1920s but did not have any contact with his father .
He complicated the ancestry search as he kept appearing .
He lived in New York , married an American and was killed , according to his death certificate , in a road traffic accident one year after becoming a US citizen in 1940 .
The family knew he had a serious alcohol problem and Mary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ keep in touch .
Finding this information is strangely addictive and I feel I need more and more .
I have become obsessed with men I never knew and who were certainly of questionable character .
What is it in our DNA that makes us so obsessive about DNA ?
We are haunted by not knowing about kin .
My mother has now filled in the blanks on her mythical grandfather .
She now knows he was likely alcoholic .
He was certainly violent , very probably towards a young wife who had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Harley only enhanced my mother ’ s respect for her stoical grandmother , Mary Agnes .
It was clear he did not go for work to the US .
She got rid of an abusive husband , then built a successful business exporting Donegal eggs to Glasgow and she raised a large family all on her own .
Yet she must have still loved him travelling to America in 1932 to find him unaware that he had been dead for over 10 years .
“ Magheroarty View ” by Philip McErlean is licensed @ @ @

My mother’s grandmother, Mary Agnes, was born on the outskirts of Derry in 1872. Her family, the McKeevers became the McIvors and moved to Quigley’s Point when she was about ten. She married Hugh Harley, ten years her senior, in 1897 and their fourth child, my grandfather Joseph Harley, was born in 1901. I found the young family in the 1901 census living at Tromarty, Co Donegal with three servants, one an Irish speaker, with Hugh head of the family. In the 1911 census, things were very different. My great-grandmother, owner of an egg store business, was now head of the family, there was no sign of Hugh and there were eight children, the youngest was born in 1907.
I asked my mother about her grandfather but she knew very little. As a child, she frequently stayed with her grandmother at Tromerty in the 1930s and 1940s up to Mary Agnes’s death in the early 1950s. Hugh, her grandfather she was told was according to the family “a great fella”, working in America and coming home soon. In 1932 Mary Agnes sailed to America to find him but came home disappointed and after became very depressed and withdrawn.
Six months ago, a patient handed me an extensive list of medical conditions and asked me to explain. Scrofula, Wasting Disease and Decline were among many that are not current medical diagnoses but were the conditions recorded on his ancestors’ death certificates back in the 1700s. He had developed some considerable skill in tracking down his antecedents and had succeeded in tracing them back to England and Scotland. He offered to pay me for my time but instead, I asked him to find Hugh Harley and gave him what little details I had.
He has now given me detailed documentation on Hugh Harley so I can finally clarify for my mother at least some of the mystery about her grandfather. Hugh, we knew was in the 1901 census in Donegal, and then we find him in court records for Moville in 1906 charged with a violent attack on Bridget Harley who was not only a neighbour but his sister. For this attack and attempting to burn down Bridget’s house, he was committed to the lunatic asylum in Letterkenny. Leaving that institution, he boarded a ship outside Moville in 1908 and travelled, according to the ship’s manifest, to Ellis Island. We find him in Ellis Island records entering the US in November of that year.
We then find him in the US census of 1920 living in Philadelphia and then his death certificate tells us that he died of Tuberculosis complicated by myocarditis in 1921 aged 55 years. We even know where he is buried. He was also a bigamist.
His son, also Hugh, travelled as a teenager to the US in the 1920s but did not have any contact with his father. He complicated the ancestry search as he kept appearing. He lived in New York, married an American and was killed, according to his death certificate, in a road traffic accident one year after becoming a US citizen in 1940. The family knew he had a serious alcohol problem and Mary Agnes was always disappointed he did not keep in touch.
Finding this information is strangely addictive and I feel I need more and more. I have become obsessed with men I never knew and who were certainly of questionable character. What is it in our DNA that makes us so obsessive about DNA? We are haunted by not knowing about kin.
My mother has now filled in the blanks on her mythical grandfather. She now knows he was likely alcoholic. He was certainly violent, very probably towards a young wife who had a child every year. Finding Hugh Harley only enhanced my mother’s respect for her stoical grandmother, Mary Agnes. It was clear he did not go for work to the US. She got rid of an abusive husband, then built a successful business exporting Donegal eggs to Glasgow and she raised a large family all on her own. Yet she must have still loved him travelling to America in 1932 to find him unaware that he had been dead for over 10 years.
“Magheroarty View” by Philip McErlean is licensed under CC BY-ND


sluggerotoole--2020-07-18--“We were sold a pup with the GFA” – Sinn Féin MP

Writing on Twitter on Thursday , Sinn Féin MP Francie Molloy made the following comment in response to commentary on the attitude of Taoiseach Micheál Martin on reunfication : The Twitter account does not have verified status , but it is linked from Francie ’ s page on the official Sinn Féin website so it seems to be legitimate .
While I am sure this view does not reflect that of the SF leadership , Francie Malloy is not exactly wet behind the ears – he has , according to his Sinn Féin biography , been a republican activist for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ previously held by the late Martin McGuinness , who held the title of Chief Negotiator at the time of Sinn Féin ’ s involvement in the negotiation of the Good Friday Agreement .
For someone of Molloy ’ s stature to make a comment of this kind is an interesting development , particularly as it appears to have gone unnoticed by much of the Northern Ireland media .
How many republicans does Francie speak for when he suggests that republicans were bluffed into backing the GFA ?
More importantly , who exactly sold @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Molloy MP addressing the 2017 Ard Fheis.
” by Sinn Féin is licensed under CC BY

Writing on Twitter on Thursday, Sinn Féin MP Francie Molloy made the following comment in response to commentary on the attitude of Taoiseach Micheál Martin on reunfication :
We were sold a pup with the GFA no commitment from either Dublin or London to deliver for Nationalists or Republicans it was just a bluff.
The Twitter account does not have verified status, but it is linked from Francie’s page on the official Sinn Féin website so it seems to be legitimate.
While I am sure this view does not reflect that of the SF leadership, Francie Malloy is not exactly wet behind the ears – he has, according to his Sinn Féin biography, been a republican activist for 50 years, and occupies the seat previously held by the late Martin McGuinness, who held the title of Chief Negotiator at the time of Sinn Féin’s involvement in the negotiation of the Good Friday Agreement. For someone of Molloy’s stature to make a comment of this kind is an interesting development, particularly as it appears to have gone unnoticed by much of the Northern Ireland media.
How many republicans does Francie speak for when he suggests that republicans were bluffed into backing the GFA ?
More importantly, who exactly sold the pup to whom ?
“Francie Molloy MP addressing the 2017 Ard Fheis.” by Sinn Féin is licensed under CC BY


sluggerotoole--2020-07-20--Our comfortable hypocrisy with addiction…

Q .
What is the similarity between the DUP ’ s Christopher Stalford , the SDLPs Paul McCusker and the N. Ireland Office .
A .
An interest in drug addiction services .
But there the similarity more or less ends .
I feel genuinely sorry for Christopher Stalford for falling into such a simple trap .
He was only doing what politicians do , supporting and articulating the concerns of his constituents , in this case , those living in the Donegall Pass and Botanic area .
Christopher is concerned that the availability of some addiction services is negatively @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Botanic .
Enough is the rallying cry and Christopher , on a roll and leading the charge , was sadly unseated from his stallion over some unsavoury descriptions of service users .
He called them “ junkies ” and “ smackheads ” .
Oh Christopher .
Paul McCusker , who we can safely say has a very different view of addicts found these comments “ hurtful ” .
Paul only sees them as hapless victims and was often seen at the end of last year working in an outreach centre where , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to break off from a TV interview to assess someone just arrived and who might be suffering from an overdose .
He was forced again to break off his interview to help the young woman into a recently arrived ambulance .
Paul is a compassionate and committed man .
Christopher and Paul define the opposite ends of the spectrum with which we as a society view drug addiction .
We have developed comfortable hypocrisy with the problem quite happy to by sympathetic so long as the problem is elsewhere .
We expect people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sleeves and do our dirty work and then we expect people like Christopher Stalford to move the addicts on if they get too close .
Belfast ’ s growing drugs problem was largely focused in recent years around the city centre and indeed a year ago Boots the Chemists in Donegall Place decided to remove one of its services due to concerns about user behaviour .
A service was planned for the lower end of the Donegall Road but threats and intimidation of the pharmacy meant that the service could not be opened @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In March with the Covid-19 lockdown , the city centre problem moved up to Botanic .
And it ’ s a growing problem .
In 2007 fifty people in N. Ireland tragically died of a drug overdose .
In 2017 the number was 156 .
£8 million is spent annually on services to “ reduce drug harms ” yet the N. Ireland Audit Office in a recent report is unconvinced that it can honestly say that this investment represents value for money .
From the report : Alcohol misuse alone costs Northern @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year , with up to £250 million of this falling on the already stretched Health and Social Care sector .
Despite these significant costs , the Department of Health allocates a relatively small budget to tackling the problem – £8 million for implementation of its Drugs and Alcohol strategy , and a further £8 million for statutory addiction services from the mental health budget ( around 5 per cent of the budget ) .
Whilst alcohol misuse remains the most prevalent substance issue in Northern Ireland , the number seeking treatment for drug @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2,107 people in 2007 to 4,183 people in 2019 .
The number of deaths relating to substance misuse is also rising , with drug misuse deaths more than trebling in the last decade .
The level of harm is most acute in areas of high deprivation , where deaths related to drug and alcohol misuse are around four and a half times that seen in the least deprived areas .
The reports also reveals that prescription drug misuse is a growing problem in Northern Ireland , with the majority of drug related deaths @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and diazepam .
Northern Ireland prescribes more pregabalin and diazepam per capita than anywhere else in the United Kingdom .
While the potential for the misuse of pregabalin is widely known and guidance was provided to all GPs and community pharmacists in Northern Ireland in 2012 and 2016 , prescriptions of the drug have continued to rise .
Recreational drug use is not without its consequences .
The “ harms ” done are myriad ; the individual suffers physically , mentally and socially , families are torn apart and children damaged and wider @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Off course alcohol remains our biggest addiction problem but , as the Audit Office report notes , the problem is changing and becoming more complex .
Poly-drug use is more commonly seen in A & E departments where 25 % of patients are there because drugs or alcohol are a cause .
Of the estimated £900 million annual cost of this problem , £250 million is borne by the Health and The Social Care sector .
Every day in Northern Ireland , an average of 200 hospital beds are occupied where substance misuse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 35 per cent in the last five years .
In England , these bed days have decreased by almost one quarter over the same period .
The numbers locally seeking treatment for drug misuse have increased significantly from 2,107 in 2007 to over 4,100 in 2019 .
We as a society have a naïve assumption that the availability of “ services ” will address the problems of addiction .
Alex Bunting of Addiction NI rightly points out that with the scale of the problem an £8 million investment in services is derisory .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , important as they are , are merely a sticking plaster unable to cover this gaping and spreading sore .
Services are focused on harm reduction ; clean needles to make injection safer , naloxone to stop overdose deaths and methadone to stop addicts breaking into our homes and stealing our valuables so they can pay for the drugs that they continue to use .
Yes , some addicts get off drugs but this is a slow and disappointing journey the real investment needed to rehabilitate these broken desperate people is simply , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ N. I Audit Office cites its disappointment that our GPs have more or less washed their hands of the problem .
I would respectfully ask that politicians by their words do not support the threatening of community pharmacists .
We are doing a difficult job in difficult circumstances .
We provide these services to keep the wider society safe .
Without these services there will be ; more used needles on the streets , more HIV and hepatitis C infection , more overdoses and more deaths .
Tackling drug abuse and addiction within @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , thankless , disappointing and sometimes hopeless task .
But this will continue until the next moral crisis explodes as happened last year in Scotland when finally the number of deaths became just morally unacceptable .
“ couleurs et sel ” by Jeanne Menjoulet is licensed under CC BY-ND

Q. What is the similarity between the DUP’s Christopher Stalford, the SDLPs Paul McCusker and the N. Ireland Office. A. An interest in drug addiction services. But there the similarity more or less ends. I feel genuinely sorry for Christopher Stalford for falling into such a simple trap. He was only doing what politicians do, supporting and articulating the concerns of his constituents, in this case, those living in the Donegall Pass and Botanic area. Christopher is concerned that the availability of some addiction services is negatively impacting the local communities around Donegall Pass and Botanic. Enough is the rallying cry and Christopher, on a roll and leading the charge, was sadly unseated from his stallion over some unsavoury descriptions of service users. He called them “junkies” and “smackheads”. Oh Christopher.
The DUP MLA Christopher Stalford says he won't apologise for referring to drug users as 'junkies' and 'smackheads'. The SDLP has called on him to withdraw the remarks, saying they lacked compassion and understanding. BBC Newsline's Mark Simpson reports. pic.twitter.com/dPIzls1Pls — BBC Newsline (@bbcnewsline) July 16, 2020
Paul McCusker, who we can safely say has a very different view of addicts found these comments “hurtful”. Paul only sees them as hapless victims and was often seen at the end of last year working in an outreach centre where, on one occasion, he was forced to break off from a TV interview to assess someone just arrived and who might be suffering from an overdose. He was forced again to break off his interview to help the young woman into a recently arrived ambulance. Paul is a compassionate and committed man.
The Public Health Agency has confirmed that a needle and syringe exchange service in Belfast is to be withdrawn. The service, which is based at a pharmacy in the Botanic area, has been subject to complaints from local residents. @KellyBonner will have more on @BBCNewsline at 6.30 pic.twitter.com/4YnmdxPOS7 — BBC Newsline (@bbcnewsline) July 13, 2020
Christopher and Paul define the opposite ends of the spectrum with which we as a society view drug addiction. We have developed comfortable hypocrisy with the problem quite happy to by sympathetic so long as the problem is elsewhere. We expect people like Paul McCusker to roll up their sleeves and do our dirty work and then we expect people like Christopher Stalford to move the addicts on if they get too close.
Belfast’s growing drugs problem was largely focused in recent years around the city centre and indeed a year ago Boots the Chemists in Donegall Place decided to remove one of its services due to concerns about user behaviour. A service was planned for the lower end of the Donegall Road but threats and intimidation of the pharmacy meant that the service could not be opened leaving the problem in the city centre.
In March with the Covid-19 lockdown, the city centre problem moved up to Botanic. And it’s a growing problem. In 2007 fifty people in N. Ireland tragically died of a drug overdose. In 2017 the number was 156. £8 million is spent annually on services to “reduce drug harms” yet the N. Ireland Audit Office in a recent report is unconvinced that it can honestly say that this investment represents value for money. From the report:
Alcohol misuse alone costs Northern Ireland as much as £900 million a year, with up to £250 million of this falling on the already stretched Health and Social Care sector. Despite these significant costs, the Department of Health allocates a relatively small budget to tackling the problem – £8 million for implementation of its Drugs and Alcohol strategy, and a further £8 million for statutory addiction services from the mental health budget (around 5 per cent of the budget). Whilst alcohol misuse remains the most prevalent substance issue in Northern Ireland, the number seeking treatment for drug misuse has grown significantly, doubling from 2,107 people in 2007 to 4,183 people in 2019. The number of deaths relating to substance misuse is also rising, with drug misuse deaths more than trebling in the last decade. The level of harm is most acute in areas of high deprivation, where deaths related to drug and alcohol misuse are around four and a half times that seen in the least deprived areas. The reports also reveals that prescription drug misuse is a growing problem in Northern Ireland, with the majority of drug related deaths now involving prescription drugs such as pregabalin and diazepam. Northern Ireland prescribes more pregabalin and diazepam per capita than anywhere else in the United Kingdom. While the potential for the misuse of pregabalin is widely known and guidance was provided to all GPs and community pharmacists in Northern Ireland in 2012 and 2016, prescriptions of the drug have continued to rise.
Recreational drug use is not without its consequences. The “harms” done are myriad; the individual suffers physically, mentally and socially, families are torn apart and children damaged and wider society suffers as addiction fractures communities.
Off course alcohol remains our biggest addiction problem but, as the Audit Office report notes, the problem is changing and becoming more complex. Poly-drug use is more commonly seen in A&E departments where 25% of patients are there because drugs or alcohol are a cause.
Of the estimated £900 million annual cost of this problem, £250 million is borne by the Health and The Social Care sector. Every day in Northern Ireland, an average of 200 hospital beds are occupied where substance misuse is a contributing factor an increase of 35 per cent in the last five years. In England, these bed days have decreased by almost one quarter over the same period. The numbers locally seeking treatment for drug misuse have increased significantly from 2,107 in 2007 to over 4,100 in 2019.
We as a society have a naïve assumption that the availability of “services” will address the problems of addiction. Alex Bunting of Addiction NI rightly points out that with the scale of the problem an £8 million investment in services is derisory. But the “services” currently funded, important as they are, are merely a sticking plaster unable to cover this gaping and spreading sore. Services are focused on harm reduction; clean needles to make injection safer, naloxone to stop overdose deaths and methadone to stop addicts breaking into our homes and stealing our valuables so they can pay for the drugs that they continue to use. Yes, some addicts get off drugs but this is a slow and disappointing journey the real investment needed to rehabilitate these broken desperate people is simply, it seems, too much. The N. I Audit Office cites its disappointment that our GPs have more or less washed their hands of the problem.
I would respectfully ask that politicians by their words do not support the threatening of community pharmacists. We are doing a difficult job in difficult circumstances. We provide these services to keep the wider society safe. Without these services there will be; more used needles on the streets, more HIV and hepatitis C infection, more overdoses and more deaths.
Tackling drug abuse and addiction within the current policy framework is a mucky, thankless, disappointing and sometimes hopeless task. But this will continue until the next moral crisis explodes as happened last year in Scotland when finally the number of deaths became just morally unacceptable.
“couleurs et sel” by Jeanne Menjoulet is licensed under CC BY-ND


sluggerotoole--2020-07-20--“You can’t rely on a political culture of respect when one doesn’t actually exist”

Unionists should engage in the conversation around the proposal for a Bill of Rights , recognising that it can help protect their interests and human rights , says former Progressive Unionist Party councillor Julie-Anne Corr-Johnston .
She was talking in the latest Forward Together podcast from the Holywell Trust .
“ I think human rights themselves are important because they help protect against abuse by those who are more powerful ” , says Julie-Anne .
A Bill of Rights can also be used as a means of fighting corruption , she suggests .
“ No society is perfect , not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rights for Northern Ireland in my opinion is important for a number of reasons .
First , the primary reason , is that it was mandated for by the people of Northern Ireland via the Belfast Agreement referendum and all the subsequent agreements that came on the back of that .
The objective was to entrench those human rights that we all enjoy .
It built on a rights-based society that was emerging from conflict and which was one with a history of political bias and discrimination.
” She stresses that the Progressive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ member – has for a long period “ been very strongly supportive of a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights – and we have engaged on that subject .
We had various engagements with the Human Rights Commission , with the Equality Commission , and we support the work that they do within Northern Ireland.
” Yet there is a strong perception in parts of unionism that a Bill of Rights is a demand of republicans and nationalists and therefore not in the interests of loyalists and unionists .
This is a mistake , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t always been seen through the lens of sectarian divisions , ” she insists .
“ The very concept of a Bill of Rights pre-dates the Good Friday Agreement / the Belfast Agreement and was lobbied for at one point by unionist parties , going back to the 1970s I think .
It has had over the years had intermittent support .
But [ unionism ] has moved towards a position of being in favour of a UK-wide Bill of Rights , rather than Northern Ireland-specific .
I think that is largely the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that have emerged post-Good Friday Agreement.
” For many unionists it was comments by Gerry Adams about using demands for equality to “ break ” unionism that made the call for a Bill of Rights so contentious .
Yet the reality is that many working class loyalist communities are seriously deprived and might be among the very people most likely to benefit from a recognition of socio-economic rights , access of high quality healthcare and housing and equality in education provision .
Describing herself as a “ pragmatic unionist ” , Julie-Anne rejects @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could advance the cause of Irish unity , suggesting instead that the absence of one weakens the Union .
The words of Adams created the psychological barrier to engagement by many unionists in discussions around a Bill of Rights , while “ institutionalised sectarianism ” in Northern Ireland society provides the physical barrier to engagement .
“ Every election in Northern Ireland is a constitutional show of strength , rather than a mandate for social-economic change .
I think that for unionists like myself who measure the strength of the Union not by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but by the social-economic wealth and the quality of life that citizens here enjoy , it is paramount to securing the future of the Union that we move to bring into play a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights.
” Julie-Anne continues : “ Socio-economic inequalities and disadvantages don ’ t have a nationality or religious background or sexual orientation .
They present themselves and their effects across society and that ’ s a problem for us all .
I think that rights-based approaches should be apolitical….That ’ s the right approach in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us all.
” She continues : “ A Bill of Rights transcends that civil liberties , social freedoms , political liberties and security [ approach ] .
It encompasses a rights-based approach to deprivation and social and economic inequality that in my view would strengthen the Union.
” Julie-Anne stresses : “ It is well documented that Protestant boys are those most disadvantaged in the education system .
And I think that a Bill of Rights would help further advance their cause and place a moral obligation on those who are charged with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Executive , providing mechanisms for accountability when those standards have been contravened.
” She argues that the Belfast Agreement / Good Friday Agreement was clear that it intended a Bill of Rights to supplement the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – yet it has still failed to do so .
“ I believe that what was proposed was ideal .
They have the draft for it.
” However , “ the Bill of Rights is not going to be a magic wand.
” She adds : “ There are other international legal obligations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rights.
” Julie-Anne asserts : “ You can ’ t rely on a political culture of respect when one doesn ’ t actually exist .
If we had this Bill of Rights it would allow our political parties to deal with issues , rather than negotiate them.
” That , along with the proper application of the ministerial code of conduct , might avoid the periodic breakdowns of government here that have characterised our system since the restoration of devolution .
But it would be naïve to ignore the reality that the concept @ @ @ @ @ @ @ objective .
The discussions around single sex marriage and what might either be termed abortion or women ’ s reproductive rights illustrate that – and place Julie-Anne on a different side of the debate to much of unionism ’ s mainstream leadership .
This latest podcast in the second Forward Together series is available here on the website of peace and reconciliation charity Holywell Trust .
It is funded by the Community Relations Council ’ s Media Grant Scheme .
Disclaimer : This project has received support from the Northern Ireland Community Relations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ society characterised by equity , respect for diversity , and recognition of interdependence .
The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Community Relations Council .

Unionists should engage in the conversation around the proposal for a Bill of Rights, recognising that it can help protect their interests and human rights, says former Progressive Unionist Party councillor Julie-Anne Corr-Johnston. She was talking in the latest Forward Together podcast from the Holywell Trust.
“I think human rights themselves are important because they help protect against abuse by those who are more powerful”, says Julie-Anne. A Bill of Rights can also be used as a means of fighting corruption, she suggests.
“No society is perfect, not least Northern Ireland. A Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland in my opinion is important for a number of reasons. First, the primary reason, is that it was mandated for by the people of Northern Ireland via the Belfast Agreement referendum and all the subsequent agreements that came on the back of that. The objective was to entrench those human rights that we all enjoy. It built on a rights-based society that was emerging from conflict and which was one with a history of political bias and discrimination.”
She stresses that the Progressive Unionist Party – she is a former member – has for a long period “been very strongly supportive of a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights – and we have engaged on that subject. We had various engagements with the Human Rights Commission, with the Equality Commission, and we support the work that they do within Northern Ireland.”
Yet there is a strong perception in parts of unionism that a Bill of Rights is a demand of republicans and nationalists and therefore not in the interests of loyalists and unionists. This is a mistake, Julie-Anne believes.
“It hasn’t always been seen through the lens of sectarian divisions,” she insists. “The very concept of a Bill of Rights pre-dates the Good Friday Agreement / the Belfast Agreement and was lobbied for at one point by unionist parties, going back to the 1970s I think. It has had over the years had intermittent support. But [unionism] has moved towards a position of being in favour of a UK-wide Bill of Rights, rather than Northern Ireland-specific. I think that is largely the result of the psychological and physical barriers that have emerged post-Good Friday Agreement.”
For many unionists it was comments by Gerry Adams about using demands for equality to “break” unionism that made the call for a Bill of Rights so contentious. Yet the reality is that many working class loyalist communities are seriously deprived and might be among the very people most likely to benefit from a recognition of socio-economic rights, access of high quality healthcare and housing and equality in education provision.
Describing herself as a “pragmatic unionist”, Julie-Anne rejects the idea that a Bill of Rights could advance the cause of Irish unity, suggesting instead that the absence of one weakens the Union. The words of Adams created the psychological barrier to engagement by many unionists in discussions around a Bill of Rights, while “institutionalised sectarianism” in Northern Ireland society provides the physical barrier to engagement.
“Every election in Northern Ireland is a constitutional show of strength, rather than a mandate for social-economic change. I think that for unionists like myself who measure the strength of the Union not by any political party’s electoral strength, but by the social-economic wealth and the quality of life that citizens here enjoy, it is paramount to securing the future of the Union that we move to bring into play a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights.”
Julie-Anne continues: “Socio-economic inequalities and disadvantages don’t have a nationality or religious background or sexual orientation. They present themselves and their effects across society and that’s a problem for us all. I think that rights-based approaches should be apolitical….That’s the right approach in terms of finding the right balance for us all.”
She continues: “A Bill of Rights transcends that civil liberties, social freedoms, political liberties and security [approach]. It encompasses a rights-based approach to deprivation and social and economic inequality that in my view would strengthen the Union.”
Julie-Anne stresses: “It is well documented that Protestant boys are those most disadvantaged in the education system. And I think that a Bill of Rights would help further advance their cause and place a moral obligation on those who are charged with leading that department and those in the Executive, providing mechanisms for accountability when those standards have been contravened.”
She argues that the Belfast Agreement / Good Friday Agreement was clear that it intended a Bill of Rights to supplement the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – yet it has still failed to do so. “I believe that what was proposed was ideal. They have the draft for it.” However, “the Bill of Rights is not going to be a magic wand.” She adds: “There are other international legal obligations that governments have in terms of human rights.”
Julie-Anne asserts: “You can’t rely on a political culture of respect when one doesn’t actually exist. If we had this Bill of Rights it would allow our political parties to deal with issues, rather than negotiate them.” That, along with the proper application of the ministerial code of conduct, might avoid the periodic breakdowns of government here that have characterised our system since the restoration of devolution.
But it would be naïve to ignore the reality that the concept of rights are not always simple and objective. The discussions around single sex marriage and what might either be termed abortion or women’s reproductive rights illustrate that – and place Julie-Anne on a different side of the debate to much of unionism’s mainstream leadership.
This latest podcast in the second Forward Together series is available here on the website of peace and reconciliation charity Holywell Trust. It is funded by the Community Relations Council’s Media Grant Scheme.
Disclaimer: This project has received support from the Northern Ireland Community Relations Council which aims to promote a pluralist society characterised by equity, respect for diversity, and recognition of interdependence. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Community Relations Council.


sluggerotoole--2020-07-20--SDLP establish New Ireland Commission

SDLP establish New Ireland Commission

The SDLP Leader announced today that the party will create a New Ireland Commission .
Speaking about it the Foyle MP said ; The only path to uniting the people of this island is through the spirit of partnership , cooperation and reconciliation that the Good Friday Agreement is built on .
Delivering a new Ireland demands that we all spill our sweat to forge new enduring relationships between the people of this island and that we demonstrate to everyone that there is an equal place for them .
“ The SDLP ’ s New Ireland Commission will seek to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ generation on this island to build new proposals that can generate a consensus on our future constitutional arrangements .
This work will be challenging , it will demand we stretch ourselves again to accommodate our communities in all their difference and diversity but it is , ultimately , necessary that we plot a course through the immense period of change we ’ re living through .
“ Leaders in the SDLP worked hard to forge a consensus for peace that would allow everyone to pursue their own constitutional ambitions free from the threat @ @ @ @ @ @ @ SDLP leaders is prepared to spill our sweat again to create a path toward a united , just and reconciled new Ireland .
“ We are in dialogue with significant individuals and quiet conversation with a number of communities to secure further confidence in our plans .
I intend to make further announcements about the Commission panels over the course of the summer .
”

The SDLP Leader announced today that the party will create a New Ireland Commission.
Speaking about it the Foyle MP said;
The only path to uniting the people of this island is through the spirit of partnership, cooperation and reconciliation that the Good Friday Agreement is built on. Delivering a new Ireland demands that we all spill our sweat to forge new enduring relationships between the people of this island and that we demonstrate to everyone that there is an equal place for them.
“The SDLP’s New Ireland Commission will seek to engage with every community, sector and generation on this island to build new proposals that can generate a consensus on our future constitutional arrangements. This work will be challenging, it will demand we stretch ourselves again to accommodate our communities in all their difference and diversity but it is, ultimately, necessary that we plot a course through the immense period of change we’re living through.
“Leaders in the SDLP worked hard to forge a consensus for peace that would allow everyone to pursue their own constitutional ambitions free from the threat of violence. This new generation of SDLP leaders is prepared to spill our sweat again to create a path toward a united, just and reconciled new Ireland.
“We are in dialogue with significant individuals and quiet conversation with a number of communities to secure further confidence in our plans. I intend to make further announcements about the Commission panels over the course of the summer.”


sluggerotoole--2020-07-21--EU agree a €1.8 trillion package to fund the next seven years of spending an

Naomi O ’ Leary writes in the Irish Times this morning… The recovery package involves a €750 billion in grants @ @ @ @ @ funded by jointly-guaranteed borrowing by the European Commission , the first time this has been @ @ @ @ @ faced significant resistance from a group of so-called frugal northern member states led by the @ @ @ @ @ of the money due to be distributed as grants that do not need to be @ @ @ @ @ governments was reduced to €390 billion from €500 billion as a compromise , with €360 @ @ @ @ @ loans to member states .
This is also the first budget in which the UK @ @ @ @ @ , which means that as well as drawing down on funds the Republic ’ s @ @ @ @ @ .
But as Naomi also notes : The deal secures a €5 billion ‘ Brexit @ @ @ @ @ for the sectors and countries worst-hit by the effects of Britain leaving the EU , @ @ @ @ @ to receive a substantial share .
Photo by Capri23auto is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA

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sluggerotoole--2020-07-21--The Forgotten Troubles 1920-1922: The McMahon Murders…..

When one thinks about the Troubles in Northern Ireland one invariably recalls the horrors of 1969-1998 and the violence , often savage that embroiled our society .
However , this was not the first vicious conflict that Northern Ireland had seen .
For my new series of articles , I thought I would look at a time period which has been mostly forgotten in Northern Ireland and largely written out of the War of Independence and Civil War period of 1919-1922 .
Northern Ireland was borne out of the Government of Ireland Act which was steadily making its way through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( 1 ) It was also however borne out of ferocious violence which centred particularly in Belfast but also embroiled the border regions right up until the outbreak of the Civil War in southern Ireland .
For my first article , I will discuss one of the most notorious events of the whole period , the murder of the McMahon family at their home in Kincaid Terrace , North Belfast .
It was a murder that would shock even the most hardened of observers .
The Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed in London , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plenipotentiaries negotiating on behalf of the Republican movement .
They were Arthur Griffith who headed the negotiating team , Michael Collins , Eamon Duggan , Robert Barton and George Gavan Duffy .
( 2 ) For Northern Nationalists it effectively cemented the partition which had been enacted by the Government of Ireland Act .
Despite this peace agreement , the violence witnessed in the first six months of 1922 in Northern Ireland was some of the most vicious seen throughout the whole period .
Security powers had been transferred to the Stormont regime @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ulster Special Constabulary was promptly recalled to act as the front line against any possible Free State incursion or Republican violence within Northern Ireland itself .
The next few months saw a huge rise in both death toll and injury with in-discriminate bombings and shootings .
One set of incidents however soured North/South relationships considerably .
On 11th February 1922 a group of Ulster Special Constables ( Northern Ireland ’ s armed auxiliary police force ) were making the journey from Belfast to Enniskillen as part of a group which was to reinforce @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bridges had been blown up , and minor roads trenched or mined after the IRA had conducted a cross border raid kidnapping forty Loyalists .
This was itself in retaliation for the Northern authorities ’ arrest of five IRA men in Derry , ostensibly travelling as part of a GAA team taking part in the Ulster final , but in reality , involved in a reconnaissance mission on Derry Gaol where three other IRA men faced the death penalty .
The route chosen by the A-Special ’ s was one which in hindsight @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at Clones , in southern territory , and had to wait on another train to get them to their destination .
Six of the Specials disembarked and remained on the platform whilst the others headed for the buffet .
In the meantime , the local IRA had been alerted and Matt Fitzpatrick , their commandant , made his way with others to the train station .
There , they called on the Specials who to surrender but the latter opened fire in response and Fitzpatrick was shot dead .
The other IRA men @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Specials crowded on the platform and in the carriages .
In the brief firefight which ensued , twelve Specials were shot , four killed and eight others injured along with several civilians .
The incident almost set off a huge confrontation between North and South , which was eventually calmed only when the British Government sent three British Army battalions to the border to assuage the concerns of Northern Ireland premier Sir James Craig and the IRA prisoners were set free , followed by the 26 captured Loyalists .
( 3 ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and escalating violence that the attack on the McMahons occurred .
Some people may be aware of the McMahon murders .
For others , this may be their first encounter with the massacre .
Others still may know the names but not the circumstances and aftermath of their death .
The murder of the family and their lodger was committed on 24th March 1922 .
The dead consisted of Owen McMahon and his sons Thomas , Frank , Bernard and Patrick .
Their lodger Edward McKinney was also murdered .
Owen McMahon came @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had moved to Belfast where he had done very well out of engaging in business interests such as licensed premises which usually entailed running pubs .
He was a Director of Glentoran football club , had been President of the Ivy Cycling Club and was quite well known in sporting circles in Belfast in particular .
Owen McMahon was one of Belfast ’ s most prosperous businessmen .
He and his family were largely seen as inoffensive and Nationalistic rather than Republican with Owen himself a personal friend of the less well known @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Joe Devlin .
( 4 ) On 23rd March 1922 , USC officers Thomas Cunningham aged 22 and William Cairnside aged 21 were patrolling along Great Victoria Street when they were approached by IRA gunmen on foot who shot them both dead at close range .
( 5 ) This event would provoke a ferocious response which would be carried out in a cool , calm and exceptionally cold manner .
Initially , two innocent Catholics were shot dead in the Short Strand .
( 6 ) However , much worse was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ At 1am on the morning of 24th March a worksite at Carlisle Circus was approached by two men in Police uniform .
A City council volunteer was guarding it , and he was persuaded by these Policemen to hand over his sledgehammer .
These two men met up with three others at the grounds of a large local residence known as Bruce ’ s Demesne and proceeded towards the large Victorian home where the McMahon family were resident .
( 7 ) The assailants hammered at the front door , then smashed the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ locks and break through a secondary door which led to the hallway .
Owen and his wife Eliza were awakened by this commotion and attempted to run downstairs when both were confronted by a man in Police uniform .
The male members of the McMahon family and their lodger were taken into the downstairs living room whilst the females who included Owens wife Eliza , daughter Lily and niece Mary were ushered into the first-floor drawing-room .
The male members of the family were told abruptly by the gang to say their prayers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aged 24 ; Patrick McMahon aged 25 and Thomas McMahon aged just 15 were killed almost instantaneously .
Edward McKinney their Lodger aged 25 was also killed .
Owen McMahon would die in hospital a few hours later .
His son Bernard would die on 2nd April meaning only John aged 30 and Michael aged 12 survived .
Michael in fact had a lucky escape hiding under the dining table and then the sofa before being found by neighbours in a ‘ most frightful state ” .
( 8 ) The female members @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alarm by screaming murder but by the time help arrived the massacre was over .
Indeed an RIC patrol was close by and quickly on the scene .
The scene they encountered was indescribable .
The gang responsible had made a quick getaway into the darkness from whence they came .
The next day the bodies of the McMahon ’ s murdered were brought to St. Patrick ’ s Church where hundreds would pay their respects to a family murdered in a wholly brutal and sectarian fashion .
Thousands attended the funerals ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
( 9 ) Edward McKinney was buried in Donegal .
Michael Collins and the Provisional Government in the Free State demanded an enquiry which Sir James Craig would refuse .
It was clear to the Nationalist community however that members of the security forces had been involved in the attack .
Indeed John McMahon would state : “ four of the five men were dressed in the uniform of the RIC , but from their appearance I know they are Specials , not regular RIC , one was in plain clothes ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ indeed part of a mixed force of RIC and B-Specials operating out of Brown Square Barracks in the Shankill Road .
The alleged leaders of this gang , one of the so-called Cromwell Clubs were District Inspector John Nixon from County Cavan and his superior County Inspector Richard Harrison from Kilkenny .
This was established during a Free State investigation into the McMahon killings and many other sectarian murders in Belfast .
The Free State had received affidavits from 12 RIC members who informed them of the murder gang , its leaders and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that there were allegedly three Cromwell Clubs set up in Belfast by the Unionist Party with the purpose of carrying out reprisals after IRA murders of Policemen and Specials .
In all there were twelve members of the Harrison/Nixon so-called murder gang and many other innocent Catholics would fall foul to the Cromwell Clubs .
( 11 ) The McMahon murders would see the British attempt to bring Nationalist leaders of the South and Unionist leaders of the North together to reach some kind of agreement to prevent the rampant sectarian violence engulfing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ This would end six days after the McMahon murders in the Collins/Craig Pact .
( 12 ) It was a genuine attempt to find a solution , although in the end , ineffective .
Violence continued right up until the summer .
Over 200 people would lose their lives in Belfast alone during the first six months of 1922 , and over 1000 were injured .
The IRA would attempt a province-wide offensive in May 1922 , and the Belfast Brigade was at the heart of this violence .
This offensive fell apart @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the subject of a future article in the series .
By June 1922 and the breakout of civil war in the Free State , the Northern IRA was dejected , and many of its members moved south .
DI Nixon would go on to receive an MBE in 1923 for ‘ valuable service rendered by him during the troubled period ’ , despite being overlooked for promotion towards the end of 1922 .
There was also an attempt to ask Nixon to resign his post in the RUC after the Troubles had quietened @ @ @ @ @ @ @ refused and instead he was offered a position in the Canadian Police .
This also failed .
Nixon remained in the RUC and received his MBE in the New Year honours list .
He was however dismissed in 1924 after making a Political speech at a local Orange AGM in Clifton Street Orange Hall .
Numerous threats were made against Unionist Politicians for this act and the Orange Order and numerous Loyalist community groups voiced their opposition as did a number of Unionist MP ’ s .
( 13 ) Nixon was elected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Belfast before going on to have a successful career as an Independent Unionist Politician MP and was elected for Belfast Woodvale in 1929 .
He would hold that seat until his death aged 71 in 1949 still denying the allegations about his activities during the Troubles .
County Inspector Richard Harrison was promoted to Belfast City Commissioner after the formation of the RUC and lived until the age of 99 dying in 1982 .
He lived to witness another generation engulfed in violence .
The latter-day murders of members of the Reavey and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Northern Ireland ( 14 ) but the murder of a prosperous Catholic family 54 years before has mostly been forgotten by the public at large .
The McMahon Murders were every bit as chilling , every bit as brutal and every bit as extreme as anything that happened in the more recent troubles .
As Owen McMahon and his sons and lodger retired to bed that spring evening in March 1922 , not one could have envisaged the appalling fate that would await them a few hours later in what became one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whole period .
They would be chosen their executioners told Owen McMahon for one simple reason , “ they were papists , and he was a respected papist , a papist prominent as such and looked upon as a leader of papists in the city ” .
( 15 ) That was enough to condemn the McMahon family , murdered in one of the coldest and most brutal attacks of the time .
• To see the content of the Government of Ireland Act click here : https : //cain.ulster.ac.uk/issues/politics/docs/goi231220.htm • For more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : //www.theirishstory.com/2011/12/06/today-in-irish-history-6-december-1921-the-anglo-irish-treaty-is-signed/ # .XxMOzyhKjIU • Lynch : The Northern IRA and the Early Years of Partition • See Belfast History Project on the McMahon Murders http : //www.belfasthistoryproject.com/mcmahon-family-murders/ • See Belfast History Project on the McMahon Murders 12 ) For the Craig/Collins pact see here .
http : //sarasmichaelcollinssite.com/mcccagreement.htm 14 ) The Reavy and O ’ Dowd murders were committed on 4th January 1976 by the so called ‘ Glennane Gang ’ which consisted of Loyalist Paramilitaries , RUC Officers and UDR soldiers .
For more information on their deaths see Lost Lives @

When one thinks about the Troubles in Northern Ireland one invariably recalls the horrors of 1969-1998 and the violence, often savage that embroiled our society. However, this was not the first vicious conflict that Northern Ireland had seen.
For my new series of articles, I thought I would look at a time period which has been mostly forgotten in Northern Ireland and largely written out of the War of Independence and Civil War period of 1919-1922. Northern Ireland was borne out of the Government of Ireland Act which was steadily making its way through the House of Commons in 1920. (1)
It was also however borne out of ferocious violence which centred particularly in Belfast but also embroiled the border regions right up until the outbreak of the Civil War in southern Ireland.
For my first article, I will discuss one of the most notorious events of the whole period, the murder of the McMahon family at their home in Kincaid Terrace, North Belfast. It was a murder that would shock even the most hardened of observers.
Background
The Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed in London, on 6th December 1921 by the five plenipotentiaries negotiating on behalf of the Republican movement. They were Arthur Griffith who headed the negotiating team, Michael Collins, Eamon Duggan, Robert Barton and George Gavan Duffy. (2)
For Northern Nationalists it effectively cemented the partition which had been enacted by the Government of Ireland Act.
Despite this peace agreement, the violence witnessed in the first six months of 1922 in Northern Ireland was some of the most vicious seen throughout the whole period. Security powers had been transferred to the Stormont regime at the end of 1921.
The Ulster Special Constabulary was promptly recalled to act as the front line against any possible Free State incursion or Republican violence within Northern Ireland itself.
The next few months saw a huge rise in both death toll and injury with in-discriminate bombings and shootings. One set of incidents however soured North/South relationships considerably.
The Clones Affray
On 11th February 1922 a group of Ulster Special Constables (Northern Ireland’s armed auxiliary police force) were making the journey from Belfast to Enniskillen as part of a group which was to reinforce the border patrols in the area.
Bridges had been blown up, and minor roads trenched or mined after the IRA had conducted a cross border raid kidnapping forty Loyalists. This was itself in retaliation for the Northern authorities’ arrest of five IRA men in Derry, ostensibly travelling as part of a GAA team taking part in the Ulster final, but in reality, involved in a reconnaissance mission on Derry Gaol where three other IRA men faced the death penalty.
The route chosen by the A-Special’s was one which in hindsight was clumsy at best. They arrived at Clones, in southern territory, and had to wait on another train to get them to their destination. Six of the Specials disembarked and remained on the platform whilst the others headed for the buffet.
In the meantime, the local IRA had been alerted and Matt Fitzpatrick, their commandant, made his way with others to the train station. There, they called on the Specials who to surrender but the latter opened fire in response and Fitzpatrick was shot dead. The other IRA men opened fire with Thompson submachine guns on the Specials crowded on the platform and in the carriages.
In the brief firefight which ensued, twelve Specials were shot, four killed and eight others injured along with several civilians.
The incident almost set off a huge confrontation between North and South, which was eventually calmed only when the British Government sent three British Army battalions to the border to assuage the concerns of Northern Ireland premier Sir James Craig and the IRA prisoners were set free, followed by the 26 captured Loyalists. (3)
The McMahons
It was against this backdrop of continuing and escalating violence that the attack on the McMahons occurred.
Some people may be aware of the McMahon murders. For others, this may be their first encounter with the massacre. Others still may know the names but not the circumstances and aftermath of their death.
The murder of the family and their lodger was committed on 24th March 1922. The dead consisted of Owen McMahon and his sons Thomas, Frank, Bernard and Patrick. Their lodger Edward McKinney was also murdered.
Owen McMahon came from a Co. Down farming background and had moved to Belfast where he had done very well out of engaging in business interests such as licensed premises which usually entailed running pubs. He was a Director of Glentoran football club, had been President of the Ivy Cycling Club and was quite well known in sporting circles in Belfast in particular.
Owen McMahon was one of Belfast’s most prosperous businessmen. He and his family were largely seen as inoffensive and Nationalistic rather than Republican with Owen himself a personal friend of the less well known now but Nationalist titan of the time, Joe Devlin. (4)
Violent Attacks
On 23rd March 1922, USC officers Thomas Cunningham aged 22 and William Cairnside aged 21 were patrolling along Great Victoria Street when they were approached by IRA gunmen on foot who shot them both dead at close range. (5)
This event would provoke a ferocious response which would be carried out in a cool, calm and exceptionally cold manner. Initially, two innocent Catholics were shot dead in the Short Strand. (6) However, much worse was to come for the Nationalist community.
At 1am on the morning of 24th March a worksite at Carlisle Circus was approached by two men in Police uniform. A City council volunteer was guarding it, and he was persuaded by these Policemen to hand over his sledgehammer.
These two men met up with three others at the grounds of a large local residence known as Bruce’s Demesne and proceeded towards the large Victorian home where the McMahon family were resident. (7)
The Murder Gang Strikes
The assailants hammered at the front door, then smashed the glass panel enabling them to open the locks and break through a secondary door which led to the hallway. Owen and his wife Eliza were awakened by this commotion and attempted to run downstairs when both were confronted by a man in Police uniform.
The male members of the McMahon family and their lodger were taken into the downstairs living room whilst the females who included Owens wife Eliza, daughter Lily and niece Mary were ushered into the first-floor drawing-room.
The male members of the family were told abruptly by the gang to say their prayers before firing was commenced. Frank McMahon aged 24; Patrick McMahon aged 25 and Thomas McMahon aged just 15 were killed almost instantaneously. Edward McKinney their Lodger aged 25 was also killed.
Owen McMahon would die in hospital a few hours later. His son Bernard would die on 2nd April meaning only John aged 30 and Michael aged 12 survived. Michael in fact had a lucky escape hiding under the dining table and then the sofa before being found by neighbours in a ‘most frightful state”. (8)
The female members of the family tried to raise the alarm by screaming murder but by the time help arrived the massacre was over. Indeed an RIC patrol was close by and quickly on the scene. The scene they encountered was indescribable. The gang responsible had made a quick getaway into the darkness from whence they came.
Funeral and Controversy
The next day the bodies of the McMahon’s murdered were brought to St. Patrick’s Church where hundreds would pay their respects to a family murdered in a wholly brutal and sectarian fashion. Thousands attended the funerals; estimates would be as high as 10,000. (9)
Edward McKinney was buried in Donegal. Michael Collins and the Provisional Government in the Free State demanded an enquiry which Sir James Craig would refuse.
It was clear to the Nationalist community however that members of the security forces had been involved in the attack. Indeed John McMahon would state: “four of the five men were dressed in the uniform of the RIC, but from their appearance I know they are Specials, not regular RIC, one was in plain clothes”. (10)
This gang was indeed part of a mixed force of RIC and B-Specials operating out of Brown Square Barracks in the Shankill Road. The alleged leaders of this gang, one of the so-called Cromwell Clubs were District Inspector John Nixon from County Cavan and his superior County Inspector Richard Harrison from Kilkenny. This was established during a Free State investigation into the McMahon killings and many other sectarian murders in Belfast.
The Free State had received affidavits from 12 RIC members who informed them of the murder gang, its leaders and members. Indeed it was also established that there were allegedly three Cromwell Clubs set up in Belfast by the Unionist Party with the purpose of carrying out reprisals after IRA murders of Policemen and Specials.
In all there were twelve members of the Harrison/Nixon so-called murder gang and many other innocent Catholics would fall foul to the Cromwell Clubs. (11)
The Aftermath
The McMahon murders would see the British attempt to bring Nationalist leaders of the South and Unionist leaders of the North together to reach some kind of agreement to prevent the rampant sectarian violence engulfing Belfast in particular although not exclusively. This would end six days after the McMahon murders in the Collins/Craig Pact. (12)
It was a genuine attempt to find a solution, although in the end, ineffective. Violence continued right up until the summer. Over 200 people would lose their lives in Belfast alone during the first six months of 1922, and over 1000 were injured. The IRA would attempt a province-wide offensive in May 1922, and the Belfast Brigade was at the heart of this violence.
This offensive fell apart amongst confusion and recrimination and will be the subject of a future article in the series. By June 1922 and the breakout of civil war in the Free State, the Northern IRA was dejected, and many of its members moved south.
DI Nixon and Later Years
DI Nixon would go on to receive an MBE in 1923 for ‘valuable service rendered by him during the troubled period’, despite being overlooked for promotion towards the end of 1922.
There was also an attempt to ask Nixon to resign his post in the RUC after the Troubles had quietened. This failed after Nixon and others refused and instead he was offered a position in the Canadian Police. This also failed.
Nixon remained in the RUC and received his MBE in the New Year honours list. He was however dismissed in 1924 after making a Political speech at a local Orange AGM in Clifton Street Orange Hall.
Numerous threats were made against Unionist Politicians for this act and the Orange Order and numerous Loyalist community groups voiced their opposition as did a number of Unionist MP’s. (13)
Nixon was elected as Councillor for the Court Ward in Belfast before going on to have a successful career as an Independent Unionist Politician MP and was elected for Belfast Woodvale in 1929.
He would hold that seat until his death aged 71 in 1949 still denying the allegations about his activities during the Troubles. County Inspector Richard Harrison was promoted to Belfast City Commissioner after the formation of the RUC and lived until the age of 99 dying in 1982. He lived to witness another generation engulfed in violence.
Conclusion
The latter-day murders of members of the Reavey and O’Dowd families are well known in Northern Ireland (14) but the murder of a prosperous Catholic family 54 years before has mostly been forgotten by the public at large.
The McMahon Murders were every bit as chilling, every bit as brutal and every bit as extreme as anything that happened in the more recent troubles.
As Owen McMahon and his sons and lodger retired to bed that spring evening in March 1922, not one could have envisaged the appalling fate that would await them a few hours later in what became one of the most notorious events of the whole period.
They would be chosen their executioners told Owen McMahon for one simple reason, “they were papists, and he was a respected papist, a papist prominent as such and looked upon as a leader of papists in the city”. (15)
That was enough to condemn the McMahon family, murdered in one of the coldest and most brutal attacks of the time.
References:
To see the content of the Government of Ireland Act click here: https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/issues/politics/docs/goi231220.htm For more on the Treaty see here, https://www.theirishstory.com/2011/12/06/today-in-irish-history-6-december-1921-the-anglo-irish-treaty-is-signed/#.XxMOzyhKjIU Lynch: The Northern IRA and the Early Years of Partition Belfast Telegraph 26th March 1922 http://policerollofhonour.org.uk/forces/n_ireland/usc/usc_roll.htm Parkinson, Belfast’s Unholy War p229 Parkinson, Belfast’s Unholy War p230 Irish News March 25th 1922 See Belfast History Project on the McMahon Murders http://www.belfasthistoryproject.com/mcmahon-family-murders/ Belfast Telegraph 25th March 1922 See Belfast History Project on the McMahon Murders
12)For the Craig/Collins pact see here. http://sarasmichaelcollinssite.com/mcccagreement.htm
13) Parkinson, Belfast’s Unholy War p238
14) The Reavy and O’Dowd murders were committed on 4th January 1976 by the so called ‘Glennane Gang’ which consisted of Loyalist Paramilitaries, RUC Officers and UDR soldiers. For more information on their deaths see Lost Lives p609-611
15) Wilson, Irish Historical Studies, Vol 37, No.145 May 2010, p96