7‭ ‬March‭ ‬1921:‭ ‬George Clancy‭ ‬the Mayor of‭ ‬Limerick,‭ ‬and‭ ‬his immediate predecessor,‭ ‬Michael O'Callaghan were shot dead in their homes on this day.‭ ‬Known as‭ ‘‬the Curfew Murders‭’‬,‭ ‬as their houses were raided during the hours of curfew,‭ ‬their deaths shocked the whole City and Country and became International News.‭ ‬Mrs Clancy was wounded in a vain attempt to shield her husband from assassination and Mrs O'Callaghan also witnessed the murder of her spouse.‭ ‬Both victims were distinguished members of the Community and had been involved in the struggle for Independence.‭ ‬Clancy was an ex University Professor and a friend of James Joyce.‭ ‬He is believed to have provided the background for a character in Joyce’s Classic‭ ‬‘Portrait of an artist as a young man.‭’‬ O'Callaghan’s grandfather,‭ ‬Eugene O‭' ‬Callaghan,‭ ‬was Mayor of Limerick in‭ ‬1843.‭ ‬A third leading Citizen,‭ ‬Joseph O’Donoghue,‭ ‬was taken from his house that night and found shot dead in a field some hours later.

Their‭ ‬assailants were in Mufti,‭ ‬wore goggles and with their coat collars turned up but it quickly became obvious that the gang in question were serving members of the Crown Forces.‭ ‬Mrs O’Callaghan gathered what evidence she could collect and demanded an Inquest but no inquiry other than a military one was ever carried out.‭ ‬Even the ex British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith stated that members of the RIC‭ (‬Auxiliaries‭) ‬were the culprits.‭ ‬However the particular individuals who carried these attacks were never formally identified with the crimes.‭ ‬Many years later in the‭ ‬1950s a deceased British Officer was named as one of the murderers but no conclusive proof was ever established as to his involvement.‭

6 March 1923, 5 Free State soldiers, including Captains Michael Dunne and Joseph Stapleton of Dublin Brigade, were killed in Knocknagoshel, Co Kerry, by a booby trap mine. The target of the trap was a particular local fellow by the name of Paddy "Pats" O'Connor who, according to the IRA, was a notorious torturer of prisoners. O'Connor joined the Free State army because of the treatment of his father by the local IRA.

The Dublin Guards, who had been in Kerry since the previous August, were commanded by Paddy O'Daly. He was furious over the booby trap and it subsequently became clear that he was responsible for what took place following the Knocknagoshel incident.

At around 2am on March 7th 9 IRA prisoners, many of whom had been tortured, were brought to Ballyseedy wood where they were told that they were to remove an "irregular road block". However, it was clear to the men what was in store for them when they had been shown 9 coffins in the barracks. Each were offered a cigarette and told it be "the last you'll have". They were then tied together to the mined road block and blown up. Some of the men were still alive and were finished off by grenade and machine gun.

Unbeknownst to the Free State troops one man was blown clear and managed to escape. His name was Stephen Fuller (to become a FF TD in 1937). Because the bodies were so badly mangled all nine coffins were filled with the remains of the 8 who perished. This was to lead to a near riot in Tralee when the coffins were handed over the the families at the gates of Ballymullen barracks. The families broke open the coffins to try and identify the remains.

Later on the same day a very similar incident took place at Countess Bridge in Killarney where 5 IRA prisoners where asked to remove a mined road block which was also blown up. Three of the men who lay wounded were finished off by grenade. Again, amazingly, a fifth man named Tadhg Coffey, survived and escaped.

5/6‭ ‬March‭ ‬1867:‭ ‬The Fenian Rising happened on this day.‭ ‬Long planned it turned into a complete fiasco.‭ ‬Thousands of volunteers turned up at various locations in Dublin,‭ ‬Cork,‭ ‬Tipperary,‭ ‬Limerick,‭ ‬and to a lesser extent in Clare,‭ ‬Waterford and Louth.‭ ‬However most were armed with pikes if at all.‭ ‬Very few firearms were available.‭ ‬There was no coherent plan of operations.‭ ‬Attempts were made to take a number of police barracks and engage the Constabulary in action but all ended in failure.

‭ ‬An‭ ‬informer,‭ ‬Corydon,‭ ‬betrayed the plans and to add to the woes of the insurgents a great snow storm made absolutely impossible not only all communications but all organised movements of men.‭ ‬The Constabulary knew something was afoot but decided to allow events to take their course and then take action.‭ ‬In the Dublin area it is possible that as many as two thousand men assembled with perhaps twice that number in county Cork and a few hundred elsewhere.‭ ‬One of the greatest Irish movements of the century had - ended apparently in complete failure.

While the British Government was caught off guard the Rising was over before they could react.‭ ‬Hundreds of men were rounded up and imprisoned.‭ (The Fenian flag shown above was taken in the skirmish at Tallaght, then a little village outside Dublin.) ‬Some were sentenced to Death but all these were commuted and no one was actually executed for their part in this affair.‭ ‬However long terms of imprisonment were handed down and many of the prisoners were subjected to very harsh conditions while in captivity.‭ ‬On top of this the Rising showed that Irish Republicanism was still a potent force and had by no means been crushed by the British.‭

This event did have important repercussions however as it led to a reorganisation of much of the underground activities of the IRB and the formation in America of Clan na Gael that was determined to prosecute a campaign against British rule notwithstanding recent setbacks.‭ ‬The failure of the‭ ‬1867‭ ‬Rising did not mark an end but a new beginning for those who were determined to end British rule over Ireland.

4‭ ‬March‭ ‬1778:‭ ‬Robert Emmet was born in Dublin on this day.‭ ‬He was the youngest son of Dr Robert Emmet and Elizabeth‭ (‬Mason‭)‬.‭ ‬His father was a well to do Physician in the City with‭  ‬a house on St Stephens Green and another one down the Country.‭ ‬His elder brother Thomas Addis Emmet was a personal friend of Wolfe Tone who visited the family home on many occasions.‭ ‬He entered Trinity College in‭ ‬1793‭ ‬and joined the College Historical Society,‭ ‬a debating society.‭ ‬He became secretary to the United Irish Society in the college,‭ ‬but had abandon his studies in April‭ ‬1798‭ ‬when he and a number of students were expelled for their Republican sympathies.‭

 ‬In‭ ‬1799‭ ‬he travelled to France to escape arrest and to secure support for another Rising in Ireland.‭ ‬He returned home in late‭ ‬1802‭ ‬after the Peace of Amiens and began to lay plans to seize Dublin from the British.‭ ‬Unfortunately his plans were laid open by a premature explosion of his arsenal in July of the following year.‭ ‬He then banked all his hopes on an immediate eruption on‭ ‬23‭ ‬July but his venture quickly fell apart and he want into hiding.‭ ‬A few weeks later he was captured,‭ ‬tried for‭ ‘‬Treason‭’ ‬and gave the speech of his Life before the Court that quickly became a sensation and secured his reputation as a Patriot.‭

My country was my idol.‭ ‬To it I sacrificed every selfish,‭ ‬every endearing sentiment,‭ ‬and for it I now offer up myself‭ … ‬I acted as an Irishman,‭ ‬determined on delivering my country from the yoke of a foreign and unrelenting tyranny and the more galling yoke of a domestic faction,‭ ‬which is its joint partner and perpetrator in the patricide‭…

He was sentenced to be hung,‭ ‬drawn and quartered.‭ ‬This was duly carried out on‭ ‬20‭ ‬September before a large crowd in Thomas Street Dublin.‭ ‬The whereabouts of his body today remains a mystery.‭

3‭ ‬March‭ ‬1577:‭ ‬The town of Naas,‭ ‬Co Kildare was torched by Rory Og O’More and Cormac MacCormac O’Connor on this day.‭ ‬These two Gaelic Chieftains with a select force of‭ ‬140‭ ‬men and boys ran through Naas like the‭ ‬‘haggs and furies of hell,‭ ‬with flakes of fire fastened on poles‭’‬,‭ ‬and burned between‭ ‬700‭ & ‬800‭ ‬of the thatched houses belonging to the local townsfolk‭ ‬-‭ ‬who were still recovering from celebrating St David’s Day‭ [‬1‭ ‬March‭]‬.‭ ‬The English Lord Deputy Sydney was furious that Irish‭ ‘‬rebels‭’ ‬from the bogs of Laois were able to make such a surprise attack upon one of the chief towns of the Pale,‭ ‬cause such destruction in such a short space of time and then get clean away.‭ ‬He wrote that:

They had not one horseman,‭ ‬nor one shot with theim‭; ‬they ran through the town,‭ ‬beinge open,‭ ‬like haggs and furies of hell,‭ ‬with flakes of fier fastened on pooles ends,‭ ‬and so fiered the low thatched howsies‭; ‬and being a great windie night,‭ ‬one howse took fiere of another in a moment‭; ‬they tarried not half an houre in the town,‭ ‬neither stoode they upon killinge or spoylinge of any.

There was above fyve hundred mennes boddies in the towne manlyke enough in appearance,‭ ‬but neither manfull,‭ ‬nor wakeful as it seamed‭; ‬for they confesse they were all aslepe in their bedde,‭ ‬after they had filled themselves and surfeyted upon their patrone day‭; ‬which day is celebrated,‭ ‬for the most part,‭ ‬of the people of this country birthe,‭ ‬with gluttonye and idollatrye as farre as they dare.

But Sydney was a cold and ruthless man.‭ ‬An insult to his authority like this could not be passed over.‭ ‬He was determined to bring in Rory O’More dead or alive.‭ ‬All that year and well into the next he harried his elusive opponent.‭ ‬He killed any of O’More’s soldiers he could engage in battle and also members of the O’More family‭ ‬-‭ ‬including Rory’s wife Margaret‭ (‬O’Byrne‭)‬.‭ ‬Finally in June‭ ‬1578‭ ‬O’More was killed in a skirmish,‭ ‬his head cut off and brought to the Lord Deputy who had it stuck on a pole on the walls of Dublin Castle.‭ 

Rury Oge,‭ ‬the son of Rury Caech,‭ ‬son of Connell O'More,‭ ‬fell by the hand of Brian Oge,‭ ‬son of Brian Mac Gillapatrick.‭ ‬This Rury was the head of the plunderers and insurgents of the men of Ireland in his time‭; ‬and for a long time after his death no one was desirous to discharge one shot against the soldiers of the Crown.

Annals of the Four Masters

2 March 1914: John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, agreed to temporarily forego the introduction of Home Rule in the Ulster counties on this day. He was forced to adopt this decision in order to placate the growing opposition in the northeast to the imminent introduction of Home Rule for Ireland.

Up until this point he had vehemently opposed such a measure. But he now felt that to press for a full implementation throughout Ireland would risk a Civil War and a complete break with the Unionists that would become permanent. He wrote to the British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith:

We are ready to give our acquiescence to the solution of the standing out for three years by option of the counties of Ulster as the price of peace.   

However Redmond’s decision was to prove a fatal one. For his obvious weakness on this issue further encouraged the Ulster Unionists to hold out for a permanent division. Redmond’s vacillation also disillusioned many on the Nationalist side that compromise was likely to bring about a positive result for Ireland. 

1 March 1965: Roger Casement's body was re-interred in Glasnevin Cemetery on this day. The Taoiseach Sean Lemass only announced this surprise move some days previously when he stated in Leinster House that:

I am very glad to announce to the Dáil that I have been informed by the British Prime Minister that his Government have recently decided to meet our request for the repatriation of the remains of Roger Casement.

As Deputies are aware, it was Casement's express wish that he should have his final resting place in Ireland, and it has long been the desire of the people of Ireland, shared by successive Irish Governments, that this wish be fulfilled.

A State funeral was immediately organised. Thus on a cold and sleety day Casement’s remains were brought out to Glasnevin for burial. President Eamon De Valera, against Doctors orders, took the stand to deliver a televised address to the Nation. He said that:

It required courage to do what Casement did, and his name would be honoured, not merely here, but by oppressed peoples everywhere, even if he had done nothing for the freedom of our own country.

He spoke that those assembled were privileged to be there and we were glad that Casement was back amongst us and that in future his grave would be a place of pilgrimage.

While this was something of a coup to get the British to release Casement’s body his dying wish was that he should be laid to rest in his beloved County Antrim and not in Dublin City. But the British Government had only released his remains on condition that they were re interred in Dublin and not in the North of Ireland. His remains for now anyway, are interred in Glasnevin Cemetary [above]. One day perhaps his favourite place in Ireland will indeed become his final repose.