On This Day / June 4, 1921
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
19210604
Reference Date
19210604
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 4th June 1921, a leading British statesman defended Sinn Féin’s political cause, and an audacious attempt was made to free prisoners from Belfast’s Crumlin Road Jail. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
‘Sinn Fein not a Murder Gang’ | On This Day – 4th June 1921
LORD Buckmaster (ex-Lord Chancellor of England) was the principal speaker at a crowded meeting at Oxford last night organised by the Peace with Ireland Council.
‘Throughout recorded history’, said Lord Buckmaster, ‘there has never been a time that the Irish people have relinquished their passionate desire for national independence…
‘That sentiment has been made the subject of unprincipled sport by party politicians and used when they wanted to gain their way with Ireland.
‘Sinn Fein, as a political faith, is a thing of which no-one need be ashamed and the cruel deeds by which that cause had been stained did not touch the heart of the faith.
‘Sinn Fein did not mean murder; its political faith was that Ireland had the right to govern herself and the murders by which it had been disgraced were violent, passionate, criminal outbursts of people thwarted, mocked and cajoled for centuries in their effort to attain that end.
‘Murder was just as base and abominable committed by armed forces of the Crown as by some desperate fanatic who thought he was serving the Irish cause.
‘They must not think that they could solve the Irish problem merely by putting on one side those Irishmen as a common gang of murderers, because they were not.
‘They did not find 20,000 people kneeling in mud and rain and begging in all sincerity for the intercession of the Most High God for common murderers!’
IRA Raid Belfast Jail
A DARING but unsuccessful attempt to release political prisoners incarcerated in the Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast was made yesterday evening.
It appears that three men, two of whom were dressed as military officers and one as an RIC sergeant, drove up the Crumlin Road in a taxi cab.
They walked up to the great door and knocked for admission.
A warder opened it and the three men coolly walked into the guardroom.
The ‘officers’ explained that they had come to remove some Sinn Fein prisoners.
Apparently the suspicions of the warder were immediately aroused for he threw the bunch of keys he was carrying into the inner yard of the prison while shouting for help.
Realising the danger of their position, the visitors left.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: The rising tide of indignation in Britain against Lloyd George’s ‘Reprisals’ policy, voiced here by the respected Liberal jurist, Lord Buckmaster, extended even to King George V himself – the present queen’s father.
Distressed by atrocities being committed by his forces, the king consulted the South African PM, General Smuts, and the scene was set for the conciliatory ‘king’s speech’ in Belfast which would finally end the conflict.)
On This Day – 4th June 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19210604
Reference Date
19210604
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 4th June 1921, a leading British statesman defended Sinn Féin’s political cause, and an audacious attempt was made to free prisoners from Belfast’s Crumlin Road Jail. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
‘Sinn Fein not a Murder Gang’ | On This Day – 4th June 1921
LORD Buckmaster (ex-Lord Chancellor of England) was the principal speaker at a crowded meeting at Oxford last night organised by the Peace with Ireland Council.
‘Throughout recorded history’, said Lord Buckmaster, ‘there has never been a time that the Irish people have relinquished their passionate desire for national independence…
‘That sentiment has been made the subject of unprincipled sport by party politicians and used when they wanted to gain their way with Ireland.
‘Sinn Fein, as a political faith, is a thing of which no-one need be ashamed and the cruel deeds by which that cause had been stained did not touch the heart of the faith.
‘Sinn Fein did not mean murder; its political faith was that Ireland had the right to govern herself and the murders by which it had been disgraced were violent, passionate, criminal outbursts of people thwarted, mocked and cajoled for centuries in their effort to attain that end.
‘Murder was just as base and abominable committed by armed forces of the Crown as by some desperate fanatic who thought he was serving the Irish cause.
‘They must not think that they could solve the Irish problem merely by putting on one side those Irishmen as a common gang of murderers, because they were not.
‘They did not find 20,000 people kneeling in mud and rain and begging in all sincerity for the intercession of the Most High God for common murderers!’
IRA Raid Belfast Jail
A DARING but unsuccessful attempt to release political prisoners incarcerated in the Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast was made yesterday evening.
It appears that three men, two of whom were dressed as military officers and one as an RIC sergeant, drove up the Crumlin Road in a taxi cab.
They walked up to the great door and knocked for admission.
A warder opened it and the three men coolly walked into the guardroom.
The ‘officers’ explained that they had come to remove some Sinn Fein prisoners.
Apparently the suspicions of the warder were immediately aroused for he threw the bunch of keys he was carrying into the inner yard of the prison while shouting for help.
Realising the danger of their position, the visitors left.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: The rising tide of indignation in Britain against Lloyd George’s ‘Reprisals’ policy, voiced here by the respected Liberal jurist, Lord Buckmaster, extended even to King George V himself – the present queen’s father.
Distressed by atrocities being committed by his forces, the king consulted the South African PM, General Smuts, and the scene was set for the conciliatory ‘king’s speech’ in Belfast which would finally end the conflict.)
On This Day – 4th June 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19210604
Reference Date
June 4, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 4th June 1921, a leading British statesman defended Sinn Féin’s political cause, and an audacious attempt was made to free prisoners from Belfast’s Crumlin Road Jail. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
‘Sinn Fein not a Murder Gang’ | On This Day – 4th June 1921
LORD Buckmaster (ex-Lord Chancellor of England) was the principal speaker at a crowded meeting at Oxford last night organised by the Peace with Ireland Council.
‘Throughout recorded history’, said Lord Buckmaster, ‘there has never been a time that the Irish people have relinquished their passionate desire for national independence…
‘That sentiment has been made the subject of unprincipled sport by party politicians and used when they wanted to gain their way with Ireland.
‘Sinn Fein, as a political faith, is a thing of which no-one need be ashamed and the cruel deeds by which that cause had been stained did not touch the heart of the faith.
‘Sinn Fein did not mean murder; its political faith was that Ireland had the right to govern herself and the murders by which it had been disgraced were violent, passionate, criminal outbursts of people thwarted, mocked and cajoled for centuries in their effort to attain that end.
‘Murder was just as base and abominable committed by armed forces of the Crown as by some desperate fanatic who thought he was serving the Irish cause.
‘They must not think that they could solve the Irish problem merely by putting on one side those Irishmen as a common gang of murderers, because they were not.
‘They did not find 20,000 people kneeling in mud and rain and begging in all sincerity for the intercession of the Most High God for common murderers!’
IRA Raid Belfast Jail
A DARING but unsuccessful attempt to release political prisoners incarcerated in the Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast was made yesterday evening.
It appears that three men, two of whom were dressed as military officers and one as an RIC sergeant, drove up the Crumlin Road in a taxi cab.
They walked up to the great door and knocked for admission.
A warder opened it and the three men coolly walked into the guardroom.
The ‘officers’ explained that they had come to remove some Sinn Fein prisoners.
Apparently the suspicions of the warder were immediately aroused for he threw the bunch of keys he was carrying into the inner yard of the prison while shouting for help.
Realising the danger of their position, the visitors left.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: The rising tide of indignation in Britain against Lloyd George’s ‘Reprisals’ policy, voiced here by the respected Liberal jurist, Lord Buckmaster, extended even to King George V himself – the present queen’s father.
Distressed by atrocities being committed by his forces, the king consulted the South African PM, General Smuts, and the scene was set for the conciliatory ‘king’s speech’ in Belfast which would finally end the conflict.)
On This Day – 4th June 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
On This Day is a daily column in the Irish News looking back either 50 or 100 years. The column was compiled by Dr Éamon Phoenix from the mid 1980s until autumn, 2022. The Foundation is very grateful to the Irish News for giving permission to reproduce Eamon’s columns. Funding gratefully received from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and the Magill Trust.
* The Foundation has worked hard to recreate Eamon’s distinctive voice through AI. Since this is an emerging technology, occasional imperfections may be audible.