On This Day / October 6, 1921

Summary: On This Day – 6th October 1921, Unionists voiced fears of betrayal on the eve of the Anglo-Irish Conference, while a request to establish an Irish class in Bessbrook was rejected. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.

Internee’s Northern Experience | On This Day – 6th October 1921

SPEAKING in Wexford, Mr Seamus Doyle, TD related some of his experiences going to and when interned at Ballykinlar.

When they arrived in Belfast [by destroyer] they were kept waiting for three quarters of an hour.

The prisoners were satisfied that the reason for doing so was to make them a target for the roughs of Belfast.

While there they were bombarded with lumps of coal, bolts and every missile available. He knew of one prisoner, a Gaelic language organiser for County Clare, who was paralysed in one arm.

‘Ulster’ Fears Betrayal by ‘Castle’

THE [Conservative] Morning Post says: ‘Among friends of Ulster [in Britain] there is a growing belief that the Cabinet, acting on biased, onesided information from the Castle, is prepared to let Ulster down.

Sir H Greenwood, when he went to Ireland, surrounded himself with people whose sympathies were all against the North and therefore with the separatists.

Then officialdom at the Castle and powerful influences at the Four Courts never liked the setting up of a separate Government in the North; so that this pro-separatist element has had powerful backing.’

Request for Irish Refused in Armagh

AT A meeting of County Armagh Technical Instruction Committee a request was received from 40 students of the Bessbrook Technical School to establish a class in Irish.

Mr T H Hardy, JP said the idea of technical instruction so far as County Armagh was concerned was to fit young men and women for the battle of life and not to teach languages. They did not want any such fantastic stuff as Irish in their technical schools.

Mr Michael Garvey said it was important to note that the application was from 40 students and he considered it should be complied with. The request was refused by 4 votes to 3.

Unionist Wants Another UVF

ADDRESSING a meeting of Woodvale and Falls Women’s Unionist Association, Mr R J Lynn, MP said that if Dublin Castle refused to maintain law and order they would have to do it themselves.

When they were seriously threatened before, Lord Carson brought the UVF into operation…. A good many of those volunteers were asleep in France and Flanders but others had come forward since.

(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: ON THE eve of the Anglo-Irish Conference, Unionists and their Tory allies feared that officials at Dublin Castle were scheming against the North to unpick partition.

With control of law and order still withheld from Craig’s government, Robert Lynn, a Unionist MP and chairman of the ‘Lynn Committee’ into educational reform In the North, threatened to re-form ‘Carson’s Army’ of 1913. In fact, the Specials were the UVF.)

On This Day – 6th October 1921

Further Reading on Irish History:

List of other On This Day columns

Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive

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