Republican News · Thursday 12 December 2002

The Civil War - 80th anniversary - Part 3

BY MÍCHEÁL MacDONNCHA

Eight Kildare martyrs

The Curragh Camp in County Kildare was for decades the chief British military base in Ireland. It was handed over to the Free State army in May 1922 but it was shortly the scene of imprisonment and execution of some of the same republicans who had fought the British.

On 13 December 1922 a detachment of Free State troops set out from the Curragh Camp to raid for arms. At Mooresbridge, about a mile and a half from the camp, they discovered the woman owner of a farmhouse in possession of a loaded revolver. A thorough search of the house uncovered a large dugout hidden under the floor. There were eight IRA Volunteers in the dugout. They had ten rifles and ammunition, which had been bought from a Free State soldier based in Naas barracks.

The Volunteers surrendered but after they did so a Free State soldier struck one of them, Thomas Behan of Rathangan, with a rifle butt and broke his arm. The republicans were ordered to board a truck. When Behan was unable to do so because of his broken arm, he was beaten savagely around the head and fell dead. The murder was covered up by the authorities with the usual excuse, "shot while trying to escape".

The seven surviving republicans were taken to the Glasshouse, the military prison in the Curragh. Under powers given to them by the Free State government, military tribunals could impose the death sentence for possession of arms. With 12 republicans already executed under this regime since the end of November, the fate of the seven Kildare Volunteers was sealed.

The Officer Commanding and eldest of the Volunteers, was Bryan Moore, of Rathbride, Kildare, aged 37. Volunteers Patrick Bagnall (19), Patrick Mangan (22), Joseph Johnston (18), Patrick Nolan (34) and Stephen White (18) were all Kildare men and James O'Connor (24) was from Bansha in County Tipperary. All were either railway workers or general labourers, reflecting the typical social profile of the Republican Volunteers in the Civil War period.

All the men wrote final notes to their families. Patrick Nolan wrote to his brothers and sisters:

"Now that I'm about to part from this world, I ask you for one favour - be kind and good to Father and Mother, and never dishonour the Cause for which I die - a Free and Independent Ireland. I bear no ill will to any person."

The Kildare Volunteers were executed by firing squad at the Curragh on the morning of 19 December, having been captured, and their comrade Thomas Behan beaten to death, on 13 December 1922, 80 years ago this week.

* Note: The foregoing is based on the account in On the One Road - Political Unrest in Kildare 1913 - 1994 by James Durney, which is recommended reading.

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Oldcastle home to first Sinn Féin newspaper

Arthur Griffith, the founder of the Sinn Féin movement and the newspaper of the same name (formerly The United Irishman), was not the first person to carry the title Sinn Féin in a publication. That honour belonged to four men from the Oldcastle area of County Meath, who in 1902 published the first issue of Sinn Féin, The Oldcastle Monthly Review.

In an issue of The United Irishman dated 14 June 1902, the following appears:

"The first number of Sinn Féin, a monthly review, published in Oldcastle, and printed with Irish ink on Irish paper has reached us. Sinn Féin is another sign of how the intellectual life of the country has been quickened."

These four men, who were all members of the Gaelic League, gathered in the Naper Arms Hotel in Oldcastle on March 17 1902 with a man whose name would be carved deep into the annals of Irish history. This man would go on to sign the proclamation of the Irish Republic, become a leader of the Easter Rising of 1916, an intellectual, poet, writer and barrister by the name of Padraig H Pearse. One of the four men who met with Pearse that day was Liam Sheridan from Drumlerry, who was a farmer, a top athlete and cyclist and is believed to have acted as a co-editor, gathering news items and encouraging articles from various sources. It is also widely believed from different accounts that it was Sheridan who came up with the title Sinn Féin for the publication from an article that appeared in An Claidheamh Soluis in 1901.

Michael Grace, a civil engineer from Oldcastle was also the vice-president of the Total Abstinence Society. Charlie Fox, also from Oldcastle, was a local merchant and a man of great wit and charisma, evidence of which is scattered through the publications. The fourth man was Paddy Bartley from Mountnugent who, like Sheridan, was also a farmer and contributed articles to the Anglo-Celt. Bartley also arranged printing of the new publication with the Anglo-Celt, and later became Commissioner for Laois/Offaly.

The paper's policy was to encourage promote and support all aspects of Irish life, culture and identity, the revival of the Irish language and Gaelic games. This is evident from the editorial that appears in the first issue from May 1902:

"We appear as a supporter of the movement that is at present being carried on by thinking men and women of Ireland to revive our ancient language, music and literature, our national sports and pastimes, our decaying industries and the cause of temperance." It went on to say in the June issue: "While Sinn Féin is in existence it will always champion the cause of the oppressed against the oppressor and will be a stern champion of the labouring class."

The finance for the paper came from advertisements within the local business community and from the four men themselves. It sold for a penny or an annual subscription of 1/6d, "post free to any part of Ireland". The paper ran for over a year, with some 13 issues being printed, publication ending in the autumn of 1903. The efforts of four young men (all amateurs and all the work done on a spare time basis) had given Oldcastle a small niche in history and taught their readers the significance of two Gaelic words which became the title-deeds of a revolution. In 1905, when Griffith was replacing The United Irishman with a new paper, he wrote to Paddy Bartley asking permission to use the title from the Oldcastle publication and in March 1906 the first issue of the new Sinn Féin was published.