Past and Present Mountjoy Prison 1919

A t i c O s I a c Edited by Major General Piaras Beaslai. Vol. 1., No. 2. SUMMER, 1961 6d. PAST AND PRESENT MOUNTJOY PRISON 1919 O patriotic Irishman, and, in particular no old I.R.A. man, can A Poetical Picture N regard without the deepest concern the depletion of the Irish countryside by the emigration in excessive numbers of the most N March 16th, 1919, Robert Barton escaped at night from Mountjoy Prison, having sawed through a bar in the window of his cell healthy and vigorous young men and women. Excessive emigration has O in the Prison Hospital near the canal bank wall. He scaled the been an Irish problem for several generations. Under British rule, or wall with the aid of assistants outside, who threw over a rope ladder, rather misrule, the cause of it was largely economic necessity, the same and caught him in a blanket. cause which produced periodic famines in the West of Ireland. In the early Thirteen days later, on March 29th, twenty prisoners escaped from Sinn Fein days, at the beginning of this century, excessive emigration Mountjoy, in broad daylight, by the same method and with the same assistance from outside. These included Patrick Fleming, “ the prison was listed as one of the national evils to be combated, and an Anti- breaker”, who had demolished a special cell built for him in Maryborough Emigration Society was started, with branches all over the country. Prison, of “unbreakable” material; J. J. Walsh, T.D., and the editor of AN tOGLACH. Prior to this escape the last-named scribbled a parody It is a puzzling and disturbing yearly to sweep the rich harvest of Fitzgerald s Omar Khayyam”, which gives a fair idea of conditions fact that in an independent Re of the Irish seas and make much in the prison at the time. At this time Paddy Fleming was Commandant public of our own, under a wealth at our expense. England of the political prisoners, and had contrived to keep the prison authorities democratically elected Govern and France do not hesitate to use in hot water. ment, in a country where the their navies to protect the in standard of living is now higher terests of their fisheries. Our “Awake, for morning comes with iron Say, would we let them out at half-past than ever before, with expanding fishers and fisheries properly equip clang, four The keys grate in the locks, the cell- And bring them in from exercise at fiv e ? commerce, the evil of excessive ped and protected could prove one doors bang emigration is worse than for many of the most important sources of And see ! a warder brings me in my food Yes love ; but if the Prisons Board years past, and indeed threatens national wealth. I rise and seek my garments where they conspire hang. the continued existence of the * * * The rights we claim to rob us of entire Irish nation. The apparent in Would we not smash our cells to bits The first number of our new and then difference of politicians of all “Dreaming while night was interblent Oglach has met with a favourable with day Create disturbance to our hearts’ desire. parties to this fundamental na reception from old I.R.A. men I thought I heard a surly warder say tional problem is one of the worst ‘Arise, my hardy boys, and ate your For some we know, the bravest and the everywhere. The historic value features of the situation. It is grub ; best, of the various contributions has Smashed up their cells at Fleming’s high the duty of every patriotic Irish Surely there is no hunger-strike to-day !’ been generally acknowledged, and behest, man to use his influence to focus we have received- a number of And as the bells rang those who stood They played the devil with the prison public attention on the problem. rules contributions of a similar nature. before In a matter of this kind the old Their spyholes shouted ‘Open, then, the And looked upon the handcuffs as a We thank our contributors, but jest*. I.R.A. men can be very effective. door we do not wish our pages to be They gave an example of practical You know how short our hour of confined to the chronicling of the exercise O keeper of my soul, for whom I sigh, patriotism in the past, when, The keeper of my body’s passing by, past. If anybody has anything And once locked in they let us out no resisting all temptations to better more !’ How oft hereafter passing shall he look to say on current matters of Through that damned spyhole watching their conditions by leaving Ireland, interest and concern to old I.R.A. where I lie. they preferred to stay at home and A book of verses in a prison cell, men generally, we shall welcome risk the danger of the fight with A mug of tea, a junk of bread as well, But when at length, my dearest, all is a letter or article from him on A neighbour felon singing rebel songs, England. They felt that emigra well, the subject. Suggestions, recom And prison is — a cross ’twixt heaven And I’ve escaped to you, my tale to tell, tion was a cowardly desertion of and hell ! mendations or complaints of griev Like Barton’s warder shall my warder their post of duty. To-day their ances will be freely given a voice. turn, example should urge young men to O love, could you and I with Fate And, shaking head, pass by an empty We should be glad, also, to show their patriotism by living contrive cell. receive some contributions in Irish. To lock our enemies in here alive, *A fact and working in their own country. * * * One lamentable feature of the situation is that the places hardest hit by the excessive emigration are the Irish-speaking districts of the Western and Southern coasts. If the present trend con tinues another generation will see the end of Irish as an everyday spoken language, and any attempt to “revive” it by teaching it in the schools will become futile and foolish. The evil here is largely an economic one. There is no part of Ireland so poor in natural resources—apart from the sea fisheries—as the Gaeltacht—and there has been no part of Ireland more neglected by successive Gov ernments, since we won self- Government, than the same G aeltacht. * * * Incidentally the sea fisheries of Ireland represent a potential source of income which has been wholly neglected by all our Gov ernments. While our fishermen struggle to earn a living wTith small boats and defective equip ment, vessels from France, Holland, Spain and other Con tinental countries fitted out in the most up-to-date way, come Major General Piaras Beaslai, Editor of An tOglach, Andrew Clarkin (Lord Mayor of Dublin), and Robert Barton. 2 An cOgtac Summer, 1961 28th. Got into position at 7 a.m. A BUSY BATTALION COMMANDANT Cars arrived at 12.30 p.m. Open PICTIUIR ed fire on them and stopped 4 Bealtaine, 1916 URING the later stages of the Anglo-Irish War (the Black-and- both cars at trench cut in road. Tan period) copies of all dispatches received by G.H.Q. were Fight lasted exactly fifteen min JpUAIREAMAIR roint mhaith D forwarded to the Editor of AN tOGLACH. The Director of Training utes. No casualties on our side. aisti agus altanna Bearla o J. J. O’Connell (“Ginger”) later Colonel O’Connell also received reports Enemy losses, one killed, two shean-(5glaigh. Bhi cuid aca an- which he used in his Training Notes for AN tOGLACH. A number severely wounded, three others inspeise, agus taimid buioch de of these were in hands at the time of the Truce, and, in consequence wounded. We captured three sna sgriobhnoiri da gcionn. Ach of the Truce, never saw the light. One of these contributions, now rifles, one repeating shot-gun, is oth linn a ra nar rainig oiread published for the first time after 40 years, will be read with interest. four Webleys and one Para- is aon aiste amhain Gaeilge chug- It is the “diary’’ for January 1921, of a Battalion Commandant in a bellum, 165 rounds of .303, 66 ainn. Is truagh linn son, agus is very active area, forwarded to the Director, who perhaps asked for it rounds of .45, 9 rounds for Para- iongna linn e, mar bhi Gaeligeoiri as an example to less energetic officers elsewhere. The Director has bellum, and 5 Mills bombs, one go fluirseach san troid fad o. Da made some deletions, apparently to give no indication of the locality of those severely wounded was chomartha san fein, seo dan do but it is practically certain that the report is from a Battalion of Cork (passage deleted. The name ceapadh i bPriosun Mount joy i No. 3 Brigade, whose area was near the Kerry border. No doubt some appears to be “Colonel Holland”) mi an Mheithimh 1919, ag tagairt of our readers could guess the Commandant’s identity. Some dispatches found on him do bhas an Phluinceadaigh, Liam and a large quantity of bank Mac Piarais agus Eamuinn Ui JANUARY 1921 being in Battalion area on 18th notes, which later were returned Shala. owing to a fair in E Co. area to him. We destroyed one car Triur fe ghlas i gcillin beag 1st. Discussed Intelligence re that day. This caused me to after removing magneto batter I gCill Mhaighneain seal go tlath? ports with O.C.

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