#OnThisDay 1920 Four IRA officers (Maurice Donnegan, Ralph Keyes, Sean Cotter & Con O’Sullivan)were captured by RIC & Auxies.They were saved from certain death by Col. Percy Hudon of the King’s Liverpool Regiment.This received praise from Tom Barry & Liam Deasy.
#OnThisDay 1863 President Abraham Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address speech. 100s of Irish died at Gettysburg, one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War. The already decimated Irish Brigade fought there & the Pennsylvania 69th held the Union line against Pickett’s Charge when other units fled.
#OnThisDay 1798 Theobald Wolfe Tone, a founder of the United Irishmen, leader of the 1798 Rebellion & father of Irish Republicanism died in Dublin. Denied a soldier’s death, Tone attempted to take his own life and deny the British authorities the honour of hanging him like a criminal. The wound was not clean and his death took days. He is noted as saying “I am sorry I have been so bad an anatomist”. Tone wanted to unite all Irish people regardless of class & religion in an independent, sovereign Irish republic. #Ireland #History
#OnThisDay 1920 The Black and Tans or RIC shot dead three men including a 19 year old in Cork after the killing of Sgt. O’Donoghue. Patrick Hanley, 19 James Coleman Eugene O’Connell Connell had served in the Munster Fusiliers & was wounded in the arm during WW1. #Ireland #History #WW1
#OnThisDay 1916 The Battle of the Somme ended. It had raged for five months with the loss of over 1 million men. 3,500 Men from the island of Ireland died in this battle & countless more wounded. The Allied trenches only moved 6 miles.
#OnThisDay 1922 The first four (of 77) members of the Anti-Treaty IRA were executed in Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin after being found in possession of a revolver in Wicklow. The four were:
James Fisher, 18
Richard Twohig, 19
John Gaffney, 19
Peter Cassidy, 21
Their letters were all to their mothers. James Fisher’s, the youngest of the group, letter to his mother is particularly heartbreaking. It reads:
Dear Mother,
I am now awaiting the supreme penalty at 7 o’clock in the morning but I am perfectly happy, because I’ve seen the Priest and I am going to die a good Catholic and a soldier of the Irish Republic. Don’t worry or cry for me, but pray for the repose of my soul and my three comrades. I asked to see you, but they say that they would see what they could do.
Ask all my friends and comrades to pray for me and Dick and my two comrades. Mother I would just love one look at all the faces at home, your’s above all, but seemly that is denied me. I get everything I want now, which as you know is the usual stunt. Mother, my heart grieves for one look at your dear face; but please God I will meet you and them all in heaven. I picture how this will effect you, but Mother don’t fret, for remember I am happy. The Priest here is going to get me to hear my confession, and I will receive at the altar in the morning.
Lord Jesus give me courage in my last moments. If I had only got told of my sentence I would have been well prepared before now. Oh Mother if I could only see you, just again. Don’t fret Mother because I am happy.
To my Mother I dearly love, Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye. We will meet again in Heaven please God, Mother. God strengthen you in this ordeal Mother. I am to die for Ireland.
(Signed) J. B. Fisher.
#OnThisDay 1916 Captain Sidney Cowan MC & 2 Bars from Castleknock, Dublin was killed in action. Cowan was a D.H2. pilot & one of the Royal Flying Corps first aces having seven kills by August 1916. He died in a mid-air collision with a friendly plane.
