Brave Irish citizens who died in pursuit of a fairer society

Is there really such a thing as a just war? Can violence be sometimes or never justified? Was it the bould Daniel O’Connell that said, ‘No political change is worth spilling a drop of blood for’?

In a Utopian society there would be no need for anything except peace, love and harmony - but where do we find it?

Ah yes, so many ifs and buts, but in reality we live in an imperfect world. Truly lofty aspirations are worth grasping at, but are oft times unattainable so we have to settle for second best.

War has been ever present right down through world history. Occasionally, we seem to have a few peaceful years, or maybe even a decade, and then conflict breaks out again. At the present time, there are up to a dozen of what could be termed ‘war zones’ and world peace seems further away than ever.

Bewitched, bothered and bewildered I was the other night as I pondered all these issues and got no nearer the answers to my multitude of questions.

Tuesday night it was, August the 13th, and I was on a journey of remembrance. 

As I left home I ed close to where 12 men were shot dead back in December, 1834. Were they law-breakers, these men who offered ive resistance to a military force armed with swords and guns?

They were just part of a huge crowd who gathered at the farmyard of the widow Johannah Ryan, who was in arrears with her Tithe Payments to the local Parson, the Rev William Ryder.

Since the Act of Union in 1800, the Church of Ireland was the Established Church in this country. We had no longer an Irish Parliament, so as a people the Irish were bound by the legal strictures imposed in Westminster.

Imagine the injustice of a law which demanded a religious tithe be paid to the clergy of another religion. So it was in Ireland in the 1830s, and thus the so-called Tithe War broke out.

When payment of tithes was refused, the local parson had the power to seize cattle or harvested crops like stacks of hay or straw in lieu of the sum of money owed. Cattle thus impounded were sold unless the ‘guilty party’ paid up the arrears.

In all fairness, could such a system be justified? Yes, I know the laws of the land demanded such payments but not every law or act can be deemed as being fair or just. Who decides what is fair and what is unfair?

A hundred and ninety years ago, an impoverished people, in my opinion, were entitled to resist in whatever manner they could.

Back on that December day in 1834, the populace used sticks and stones and hurleys to stand up against military might, and as a result blood flowed freely. 

The 12 slain were law-breakers as such, but morally they had right on their side.

After a few months, those who fired the fatal shots and those who gave the order to ‘Fire’ were found guilty of wilful murder, but in another example of a twisted ‘might is right’ situation, the guilty all appealed and not one person ever served a single day in jail for the killing of 12 men.

My journey two nights ago took me to well-kept Dunbullogue cemetery in the parish of Carrignavar. One hundred years after the twelve fell dead just a few miles from my home, another similar incident happened that ended in a fatality.

On August 13, 1934, 90 years ago last Tuesday, Michael Patrick Lynch, from Lyre in Carrignavar, lost his life after an altercation at Marsh’s Yard in Copley Street Cork. Lynch was just 22 years old.

Born in 1912, young Lynch grew from boy to man as the Free State Government sought to establish a Government in Ireland after 700 years of British Rule.

After the Civil War, huge amounts of vital infrastructure, including bridges, railway lines and roads, lay in ruins and the task ahead was immense. Under WT Cosgrave, the painstaking work of State-building proceeded and included the major Shannon Hydro Electric Scheme which cost £5 million.

In the 1932 General Election, Éamon de Valera’s Fianna Fáil gained a majority. Many thought the hand-over of power would be problematic, but Cosgrave was a statesman and a true believer in democracy.

de Valera had promised, if he won, to cease the annual payment of around £3million in Land Annuities to the British Government - as agreed in the Treaty. The Annuity payments were a repayment to the British Government as agreed under the various Land Acts whereby Irish farmers had ‘bought out’ their farms from landlords.

True to his word, when in Government de Valera put up the two fingers to the London Government and refused to pay them the annuities.

Irish farmers thought that was the end of the annuities, but no, de Valera forgot to tell farmers that his Government would still demand and collect the annuities from individual farmers.

England slapped massive tariffs on Irish exports and so the Economic War began. Farm prices in Ireland went to rock bottom - calves, cattle, sheep and pigs were virtually worthless. Despite this agricultural collapse, the annuities were still demanded.

Cumann na nGaedheal meetings were frequently attacked and broken up. In 1932, the Army Comrades Association - later called the Blueshirts - was formed to offer protection and the right of free speech to ex-service men and Cumann na nGaedheal .

During 1933 and 1934, the seizure of cattle from farmers who refused to pay the annuities increased.

On August 9, 1934, an ad appeared on the Cork Examiner: “For sale by auction on the 13th, at noon at Copley Street, Cork, one bull and ten dairy cows and 3 young cattle. By order - CT Kennedy, Courthouse, Cork.”

These cattle had been seized from two Cork farmers, and the stock were to be auctioned at Marsh’s yard in Copley Street.

On the morning of the sale, huge numbers of farmers, many wearing their Blueshirt uniform, gathered in the city. A lorry was driven through the door of the yard. A group of farmers got access to the premises but were met by a branch of the Broy Harriers - a division of the Civic Guards.  They opened fire and about 12 men were hit and young Michael Lynch was one of these. He died in hospital a few hours later.

Michael grew up in turbulent times during the era of the War of Independence and the Civil War, but was too young to have taken part in any of these engagements. He was there on that fateful August morning 90 years ago in opposition to what he and his comrades saw as a gross injustice.

They were right, of course, as it took Irish agriculture nearly 40 years to recover from that disastrous Economic War.

Years later, I spoke to Jim Hegarty of Clonmult - he was wounded in the leg that day and had a narrow escape.

Charges of fascism have been levelled against the Blueshirts - my own Auntie Jo was in the Blue Blouses. Michael Lynch and Jim Hegarty, Auntie Jo and the thousands of others were not fascists - they believed in free speech and were prepared to fight for it.

We laid a wreath at the grave of Michael Lynch on Tuesday evening -it was the least we could do. The following inscription is on his headstone: ‘The humblest citizen of all the land when clad in the armour of a righteous cause is stronger than all the hosts of error.’ (William Jennings Bryan)