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#OnThisDay 1941 German spy Hermann Görtz was arrested in Clontarf, Dublin. He parachuted into Ireland 19 months previous & was liaising with the IRA on drawing up ‘Plan Kathleen”, the IRA invasion of Northern Ireland with Nazi support. He managed to get around quite easily and even called into a Garda (Police) Station in full Luftwaffe uniform once he landed asking for directions to Dublin. He spent time in Kerry, Leitrim, Dublin and Wicklow. He was eventually captured with a German/Irish man and imprisoned until 1946.

Upon his release and hearing that he was to be deported back to Germany after WW2, Görtz took his own life with a cyanide pill. He is buried in Wicklow.

#Ireland #History

#OnThisDay 1920 Harry & Patrick Loughnane of Galway were killed by Auxiliaries. Before their death, they were beaten, dragged behind a lorry, had I.V. carved into their skin, shot but not killed. Their bodies set on fire & dumped in an oil filled pond. The doctor said that both the Loughnane brothers’ heads had been blow away as if a grenade was put in their mouth and the pin pulled. *Graphic*
#Ireland #History

Below are the Auxiliaries from D Company stationed at Lenaboy who were responsible for this atrocity.

Read more here:

https://beaghrootsgalway.weebly.com/blog/26-november-1920-murder-of-the-loughnane-brothers-of-shanaglish

#OnThisDay 1915 Pvt James Montgomery Royal Scots from Ballymena, Antrim was killed in action at the Battle of Loos. Montgomery had tried several times to join the Armed Forces but was only accepted after a procedure on his varicose veins. He was 21. #Ireland #History #WW1

#OnThisDay 1913 The Irish Volunteers were formed with Eoin MacNeill as the head. This was a direct response to the formation of the UVF in Ulster. Patrick Pearse said, ““the only thing more ridiculous than an Ulsterman with a rifle is a Nationalist without one”. Ireland was headed for civil war over Home Rule. Many Volunteers fought in WW1 or for Irish independence or like Tom Barry & Emmet Dalton (to name but two) both.
#Ireland #History

#OnThisDay Peadar Kearney, the author of the Irish national anthem, Amhrán na bhFiann (The Soldier’s Song) passed away. Kearney was an Irish volunteer who took part in the Howth gun running & served under Thomas MacDonagh at Jacobs in 1916. #Ireland #History