June
1919
|
Jun-01-19/1 |
De Valera departs for the U.S. He was to stay
in the U.S. until December 1920. Harry Boland had gone before him to make
preparations in mid-May. When Boland arrived he had to intervene in a dispute
between a Clan na Gael faction based in New York
(led by Devoy, Cohalan
and Lynch – see Feb-22 to 23-19/1) and a Philadelphia based faction led by
Pat McCartan, Joseph McGarrity and William Maloney. (McCartan had been in the US since May 1917
as “Envoy of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic”.) Boland sides
with the Philadelphia faction and renews McCartan’s credentials. Boland,
after overcoming opposition from Coholan, manages
to persuade the Friends of Irish Freedom to send $250,000 to Ireland. (They were to raise over $1m for an Irish
Victory fund by September 1919 but most of this money was used in a
propaganda campaign in the US.
$100,000 – about £25,000 – was sent to Ireland.) |
Coogan (1990), pg 114; Mitchell (1995), pgs 110-113; O’Sullivan Greene (2020), pgs 16-17 |
|
Jun-04-19/1 |
The Irish-American delegation submit their
report on conditions in Ireland to the Peace Conference in Paris. |
Macardle (1999), pg 295 |
|
Jun-05-19/1 |
Four DMP officers and one civilian wounded by members of the Irish Citizen Army in Dublin when the DMP try to stop a Connolly Commemoration concert in the Mansion House. (It would have been Connolly’s 49th birthday.) |
O’Farrell (1997), pg 50; Molyneux and Kelly (2020), pgs 100-101; Sheehan (2007), pg 7 |
|
Jun-06-19/1 |
The U.S. Senate passes a resolution (with only
one vote against) asking for the delegation appointed by the Dáil to be given
a hearing in Paris and expressing sympathy with the “aspirations of the Irish
people for a government of their own choice”. |
Macardle (1999), pg 297 |
|
Jun-06-19/2 |
RAF man, Fred Clarke, dies in a flying
accident in Castlebar, Co. Mayo. |
O’Halpin
and Ó Corráin (2020), pg
550 |
|
Jun-07-19/1 |
A man called Matthew Murphy is a passenger in
a car which is shot at by the British Army who were manning a road block at
New Inn near Dundalk, Co. Louth. The Army claims that the car did not
stop when challenged but this is disputed by the driver. Murphy dies of
his wounds a few days later. (Gavin & O’Donnell and O’Halpin and Ó Corráin say June 7th but Hall says June 4th.) |
Gavin and O’Donnell (1999), pg 26; Hall (2019), pg 65; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pgs 111-112 |
|
Jun-07-19/2 |
BA Private Patrick McNiff, who was a member of
the Labour Corps stationed Wellington Barracks in Dublin, is shot by a sentry
as he returns to barracks because he did not report to the guard room. He dies a few hours later. |
O’Halpin
and Ó Corráin (2020), pg
111 |
|
Jun-11-19/1 |
Second meeting between Irish-American delegation and President Wilson in Paris. President Wilson tells Walsh and his colleagues that the Committee of Four [US, Britain, France and Italy] had agreed that no small nation should be allowed to appear before the Conference without the unanimous consent of the whole committee. |
Hopkinson (2002), pg xiv &167-169; Figgis (1927), pg 251; Macardle (1999), pgs 297-298; Townshend (2014), pg 68 & 71; Mitchell (1995), pg 41 & 113; Kissane (2005), pg 45; McMahon (2008), pg 113; Curran J M (1980), pg 25 & Mitchell (1995), pg 113 |
|
Jun-14-19/1 |
John Alcock and Arthur Brown land near
Clifden, Co Galway after the first transatlantic flight from St John,
Newfoundland. |
|
|
Jun-14-19/2 |
BA soldier, Nehemiah Masey, drowns in Dolphin’s Barn in Dublin. |
O’Halpin
and Ó Corráin (2020), pg
550 |
|
Jun-16-19/1 |
Ambush by men from the Kilbrittain company Irish Volunteers (Bandon Battalion, Cork No.3 Brigade) on a joint RIC-British Army patrol at Rathclarin, Co. Cork. One Volunteer man and one British Army soldier wounded and the Volunteers get away with five rifles, one revolver and 200 rounds of ammunition. |
Deasy (1973), pgs 62-67 & 209; Hart (2003), pg 44 |
|
Jun-17 to 19-19/1 |
Fifth Session of First Dáil The meetings take place over three days
privately in Flemings’s Hotel. A large number of issues discussed and decisions made including on consular affairs, National Arbitration Courts and the Dáil Loan. A Commission of Inquiry into the Resources and Industries of Ireland is set up and a committee is established to look into the issue of land redistribution. The proceedings of Dáil for
these three days can be found online: June 17th: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1919-06-17/ June 18th: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1919-06-18/ June 19th: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1919-06-19/ See Aug-19 to 20-19/1 for Sixth
Session of the First Dáil. |
Macardle
(1999), pgs 302-303; Gallagher (1953), pg 249; Mitchell (1995), pgs 47
& 50 & 60-62 &80-81 & 85-86 & 106 & 138; Augusteijn (2002), pg 233;
Figgis (1927), pg 266; Daly (2017), pgs
340-343; Townshend (2014), pg 101; |
|
Jul-19-19/1 |
The Irish Statesman (a weekly edited by George Russell) says that “if the minister [in the Dáil cabinet] responsible for checking outrages cannot discharge his duty, he ought to either resign or to speak plainly both as to his views on assassination and to the reason why he is unable to put an end to it”. |
McBride (1991), pg
264 |
|
Jun-19-19/2 |
Prominent Protestant Sinn Féin member in Belfast, Sam Heron, is arrested for making a seditious speech in Castlewellan. At his trial on August 13th, he refuses to recognise the court and goes on hunger strike. He is soon released. |
McDermott (2001), pg |
|
Jun-22-19/1 |
Churchill offers CIGS Henry Wilson a peerage and a grant or a promotion to field marshal. Wilson accepts the latter. It is publicly announced on July 24th and officially gazetted on July 31st. |
Jeffrey (2006), pgs
241-242 |
|
Jun-23-19/1 |
RIC District Inspector Michael Hunt is shot
dead in the Market Square in Thurles, Co. Tipperary by Irish Volunteers Jim
& Tommy Stapleton and Jim Murphy. A 12-year old boy is also
wounded. (The Volunteers wore no masks.)
See Jun-26-19/1. |
Townshend (1975), pg 20 & 26; Abbott (2000), pgs 39-40; Hopkinson (2002), pg 117; Macardle (1999), pg 306; Dooley (2015), pg 49; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 112 |
|
Jun-24-19/1 |
Irish bishops meeting in Maynooth describe
British rule as the “rule of the sword, utterly unsuited to a civilized
nation and extremely provocative of disorder and chronic rebellion”. On June 26th, the [London] Times says that as a result of the popularity of Dáil Éireann moderate bishops “find themselves forced, now, to shout with the largest crowd, and actually to provide material advancement of the very movement which they fear and mistrust”. |
Macardle (1999), pg 300; Durney (2013), pg 85; Molyneux and Kelly (2020), pg 104; Mitchell (1995), pg 173 |
|
Jun-24-19/2 |
Corporal R. J. Phillips of the BA’s Royal
Welsh Fusiliers is accidently shot dead by Lieutenant Harman Douglas in New
Barracks in Limerick City. |
O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 112 |
|
Jun-26-19/1 |
In the wake of the killing of DI Hunt on June 23rd (see Jun-23-19/1), French again asks the British Cabinet to proclaim Sinn Féin. Liberal ministers Fisher and Shortt point out the problem of declaring illegal a political party which was “a very composite movement” and included many “holding ordinary Nationalist views”. They also pointed out that French made no mention of proclaiming the Irish Volunteers and Shortt suggested that to ban the ‘extremist’ Irish Volunteers would be almost a favour to the ‘moderate’ Sinn Féin politicians. They decide to refer the issue to Llyod George and Bonar Law (who are in Paris for the peace talks). For what happened next - see Jul-04-19/1. O’Halpin
suggests that a major issue was that French and Macpherson (as well as other
members of the Dublin Castle administration) “made no distinction between
different elements of the separatist movement”.
|
O’Halpin (1987), pgs 189-190 & 187 |
|
Jun-28-19/1 |
The
Treaty of Versailles is signed. There are celebrations in Dublin –
particularly by the more unionist leaning in the population which leads to
some rioting. Many in Sinn Féin,
particularly the more moderate members, are dismayed that Ireland’s case had
not been heard. |
Jeffrey (2006), pg 238; Roskill (1972), pg 93; Molyneux and Kelly (2020), pg 104; Kissane (2005), pg 45 |
|
Jun-28-19/2 |
Collins elected President of Supreme Council
of the IRB (replacing Harry Boland). (Mitchell says May 1919.) |
Molyneux and Kelly (2020), pg
104; Coogan (1990); pg 115; Mitchell (1995), pg 68 |
|
Jun-28-19/3 |
Commenting in the Freeman’s Journal on how little work had been carried out by the Dáil since its inception in January, Major William Hamilton Davey (a nationalist and Protestant) says “Dáil Éireann had been tried for six months and a very dull Éireann it had been”. (O’Sullivan Greene disagrees with this conclusion and details the work going on in the background.) |
O’Sullivan Greene (2020), pg
2 |
|
Jun-1919/1 |
Frank Gallagher arrested in Dublin by DMP Sgt
Bruton and given four months imprisonment for a seditious speech that he had
made in Myshall, Co. Carlow. |
Gallagher (1953), pgs 120-123 |
|
Jun-1919/2 |
A party of four RIC men on their way to Mass
are disarmed (and two wounded) by seven Irish Volunteers men under Frank
Busteed (Cork No.1 Brigade) in Dripsey, Co Cork. |
O'Callaghan (1974), pg 44 |