On This Day / July 22, 1921
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
July 22, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 22nd July 1921, Belfast IRA prisoners narrowly escaped death sentences under the Truce while Fermanagh Volunteers challenged the authority of military courts. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Belfast Death Sentences | On This Day – 22nd July 1921
OUR Dublin correspondent telegraphs:
A report reached Mr E J Duggan, Chief Liaison Officer for Ireland [under the Truce] from Belfast yesterday that certain prisoners concerned in the Cavan affair, who were tried at Belfast last week, had been sentenced to death and were at the moment occupying the condemned cells.
The report has proved inaccurate.
Mr Duggan was in communication with Dublin Castle last evening and was informed that sentences will not be announced pending the Truce.
It is stated that nine out of the eleven prisoners are Belfast men.
Fermanagh Island Raid
AT A field general courtmartial in Derry yesterday, Francis Sheridan and Thomas Houston, Newtownbutler; Frank Conlon of Clonfad and Hugh Timmons and John Timmons of Derrykerrib and J L Fitzpatrick, all of County Fermanagh, are charged with shooting with intent to murder or to maim and also with having firearms and ammunition.
All the accused refused to recognise the Court but Sheridan on their behalf objected to the trial on the grounds that it was a breach of the Truce.
They protested against being brought through the streets from prison to the military barracks by an armed guard.
The President said the military were only carrying out their orders.
This was not the final Court as the proceedings would go elsewhere.
Sheridan – We claim the right to have the same freedom as our comrades outside – we should be treated as prisoners-of-war.
President – That will be a matter for another authority.
The prisoners, who refused to stand up, pleaded not guilty.
The evidence was that a party of police surrounded Derrykerrib Island in search of men ‘on the run’ and that fire was opened on them from a house and Houston came out and fired.
They were pursued and captured. One man, John Timmons was acquitted.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: ‘Cavan affair’ recalls the fact that in May 1921 part of the Belfast IRA active service unit was sent to Lappinduff Mountain, Co Cavan, apparently on the orders of Eoin O’Duffy at GHQ.
Betrayed almost at once by a local farmer, the unit was surrounded and, in the ensuing firefight with RIC and military, one Belfast Volunteer, Sean McCartney, was killed.
Seven Belfast men were captured and courtmartialled at Victoria Barracks in Belfast.
They were sentenced to death only to be ‘saved by the truce’.
The episode was a disaster for the Belfast IRA.)
On This Day – 22nd July 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.