Memory Lane – Irish War Hero Under Death Sentence Writes From Prison
by Another set of articles from my collection of Take a Trip Down Memory Lane and there are many more to come. In this one we have Sean MacEoin the hero of the Irish War of Independence writing from prison to tell his comrades to fight on without him. The British government had sentenced him to death and said they would only stop the execution if the Irish stopped fighting. Well the Irish kept fighting and a certain Mr MacEoin survived to tell the tale!
80 years ago
Fianna Fail and the Treaty. The Fianna Fail party refused to acknowledge the will of the people. The people were thrown into Civil War by them and that cost an enormous sum of money which the people of this country have to pay for years. The question was had the Fianna Fail Party accepted the Treaty ? No one could say they had not. They accepted it by coming into the Dail. Fianna Fail want to have the Treaty and they want not to have it. There is danger that if Fianna Fail get into power in the Dail that they will tinker with the Treaty and the people were not prepared for more strife. An attempt was made to destroy the Treaty. We were told that any decent Irishman would abhor and detest it. De Valera and his party refused to touch it. They tried all efforts to break the Treaty.
Modern dances harmful to native Africans. Kavirondo (Kenya Colony, East Africa) – the Catholic Union of Kavirondo at a meeting requested government officials to forbid the introduction of modern dances among the native Africans. The members of the union, who belong to the Bantu and Nilotic tribes, deplored the moral and physical effects on the young Africans of those modes of dancing and the resultant late hours. Instead of helping their parents or attending classes for instruction in preparation for baptism, declared the old fathers, their growing children, with a foolish air of “independence” are being caught in the mad desire for pleasure. Government officials advised the chiefs of the tribes to use their power to stop the dances and promised to punish those ignoring the chief’s orders.
65 years ago
General MacEoin. The following is an excerpt of a letter by Sean MacEoin, dated June 20th, 1921 from Mountjoy Prison and addressed to the officers and men of the Longford Brigade: “Dear comrades – I take this (perhaps my last) opportunity to address a few words to you. I heartily congratulate you on your success in rendering the last great move of the enemy, who has been with you, futile. I need not tell you how delighted I was when I heard that their efforts were in vain and that not even a single rifle fell into their hands. More power – that is the way to give them the dose, now the thing is to give it to them in a way that will make them sit up – yes give it to them good and hard”. He had been tried by court martial six days previously and sentenced to death. The statement in the letter “last opportunity” refers to difficulties in writing and safely sending out a letter of this nature while a prisoner in enemy hands under sentence of death. The order “to give them the dose” is to cancel an alleged order that “the way to save the life of MacEoin is to stop all action by the Longford Brigade”. The order given by Commandant MacEoin, as he then was, made it clear that his wish was that the struggle must be continued irrespective of any consequence to the Commander.
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