On This Day / December 12, 1920
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
19201212
Reference Date
19201212
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 12th December 1920, Bishop MacRory condemned Belfast’s sectarian expulsions as “un-Christian”, while Cork reeled after Auxiliaries burned its city centre in reprisal for an IRA ambush. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
‘Senseless Hatred’: Bishop | On This Day – 12th December 1920
THE annual meeting of the Ladies’ Association of Charity was held in St Mary’s Church, Belfast yesterday afternoon. The Bishop of Down and Connor, Dr MacRory referred to the hardship in the city.
‘There is stagnation in the linen trade… Most of all, a number of the mills have closed down with the result that many of our women and girls are thrown out of employment.
‘This might perhaps be borne somehow if our men were earning, but many thousands are expelled from their work…
‘For nearly five months we have had to support between 20,000 and 30,000 people, and owing to the wonderful generosity of the public, we have been able to provide the bare necessities of life.
‘I have said before and I repeat now that this exclusion of workers from their work on account of religion, including Catholic ex-soldiers, is not only unjust but absolutely un-Christian …
‘I have never for a moment believed that the decent non-Catholics of this city approve or sympathise with the injustice that has been done.
‘Indeed, I am credibly informed that very considerable numbers of Protestant workers on the Queen’s Island strongly disapprove of it and that the Pogrom has largely been the work of young men of 21 years of age or under. …
‘The intolerance has seriously recoiled on Belfast which has been boycotted by the South and West of Ireland to the grave and deplorable injury of many innocent and liberal-minded Protestants and indeed Catholics too. Surely it is time that this sad, fratricidal strife should be brought to an end …’
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Under pressure from Bishop MacRory and the Belfast-born TD, Sean MacEntee, the Dail approved a boycott of Belfast businesses and banks in retaliation for the sectarian expulsions.
While MacRory hoped that it ‘depends on Ireland’, the boycott was totally counter-productive and established real partition before it had been imposed by Westminster.)
Cork City Burned by ‘Auxies’
IT WAS officially announced by Dublin Castle on Saturday at midnight that twelve Auxiliary Cadets were wounded, some seriously, in an ambush in Cork city at eight o’clock on Saturday night half a mile from the barracks.
Another messages states that the City Hall, the Library and eighteen of the leading business houses in Patrick Street, Cork including Roche’s Stores, were maliciously burned on Saturday night.
The scenes during the night were of a terrifying nature and the people generally are panic-stricken.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: The burning of Cork city centre by the Auxiliaries was ‘sweet revenge’ for the IRA ambush in the words of one Auxiliary in a letter to his girlfriend afterwards.)
On This Day – 12th December 1920
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19201212
Reference Date
19201212
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 12th December 1920, Bishop MacRory condemned Belfast’s sectarian expulsions as “un-Christian”, while Cork reeled after Auxiliaries burned its city centre in reprisal for an IRA ambush. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
‘Senseless Hatred’: Bishop | On This Day – 12th December 1920
THE annual meeting of the Ladies’ Association of Charity was held in St Mary’s Church, Belfast yesterday afternoon. The Bishop of Down and Connor, Dr MacRory referred to the hardship in the city.
‘There is stagnation in the linen trade… Most of all, a number of the mills have closed down with the result that many of our women and girls are thrown out of employment.
‘This might perhaps be borne somehow if our men were earning, but many thousands are expelled from their work…
‘For nearly five months we have had to support between 20,000 and 30,000 people, and owing to the wonderful generosity of the public, we have been able to provide the bare necessities of life.
‘I have said before and I repeat now that this exclusion of workers from their work on account of religion, including Catholic ex-soldiers, is not only unjust but absolutely un-Christian …
‘I have never for a moment believed that the decent non-Catholics of this city approve or sympathise with the injustice that has been done.
‘Indeed, I am credibly informed that very considerable numbers of Protestant workers on the Queen’s Island strongly disapprove of it and that the Pogrom has largely been the work of young men of 21 years of age or under. …
‘The intolerance has seriously recoiled on Belfast which has been boycotted by the South and West of Ireland to the grave and deplorable injury of many innocent and liberal-minded Protestants and indeed Catholics too. Surely it is time that this sad, fratricidal strife should be brought to an end …’
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Under pressure from Bishop MacRory and the Belfast-born TD, Sean MacEntee, the Dail approved a boycott of Belfast businesses and banks in retaliation for the sectarian expulsions.
While MacRory hoped that it ‘depends on Ireland’, the boycott was totally counter-productive and established real partition before it had been imposed by Westminster.)
Cork City Burned by ‘Auxies’
IT WAS officially announced by Dublin Castle on Saturday at midnight that twelve Auxiliary Cadets were wounded, some seriously, in an ambush in Cork city at eight o’clock on Saturday night half a mile from the barracks.
Another messages states that the City Hall, the Library and eighteen of the leading business houses in Patrick Street, Cork including Roche’s Stores, were maliciously burned on Saturday night.
The scenes during the night were of a terrifying nature and the people generally are panic-stricken.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: The burning of Cork city centre by the Auxiliaries was ‘sweet revenge’ for the IRA ambush in the words of one Auxiliary in a letter to his girlfriend afterwards.)
On This Day – 12th December 1920
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19201212
Reference Date
December 12, 2020
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 12th December 1920, Bishop MacRory condemned Belfast’s sectarian expulsions as “un-Christian”, while Cork reeled after Auxiliaries burned its city centre in reprisal for an IRA ambush. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
‘Senseless Hatred’: Bishop | On This Day – 12th December 1920
THE annual meeting of the Ladies’ Association of Charity was held in St Mary’s Church, Belfast yesterday afternoon. The Bishop of Down and Connor, Dr MacRory referred to the hardship in the city.
‘There is stagnation in the linen trade… Most of all, a number of the mills have closed down with the result that many of our women and girls are thrown out of employment.
‘This might perhaps be borne somehow if our men were earning, but many thousands are expelled from their work…
‘For nearly five months we have had to support between 20,000 and 30,000 people, and owing to the wonderful generosity of the public, we have been able to provide the bare necessities of life.
‘I have said before and I repeat now that this exclusion of workers from their work on account of religion, including Catholic ex-soldiers, is not only unjust but absolutely un-Christian …
‘I have never for a moment believed that the decent non-Catholics of this city approve or sympathise with the injustice that has been done.
‘Indeed, I am credibly informed that very considerable numbers of Protestant workers on the Queen’s Island strongly disapprove of it and that the Pogrom has largely been the work of young men of 21 years of age or under. …
‘The intolerance has seriously recoiled on Belfast which has been boycotted by the South and West of Ireland to the grave and deplorable injury of many innocent and liberal-minded Protestants and indeed Catholics too. Surely it is time that this sad, fratricidal strife should be brought to an end …’
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Under pressure from Bishop MacRory and the Belfast-born TD, Sean MacEntee, the Dail approved a boycott of Belfast businesses and banks in retaliation for the sectarian expulsions.
While MacRory hoped that it ‘depends on Ireland’, the boycott was totally counter-productive and established real partition before it had been imposed by Westminster.)
Cork City Burned by ‘Auxies’
IT WAS officially announced by Dublin Castle on Saturday at midnight that twelve Auxiliary Cadets were wounded, some seriously, in an ambush in Cork city at eight o’clock on Saturday night half a mile from the barracks.
Another messages states that the City Hall, the Library and eighteen of the leading business houses in Patrick Street, Cork including Roche’s Stores, were maliciously burned on Saturday night.
The scenes during the night were of a terrifying nature and the people generally are panic-stricken.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: The burning of Cork city centre by the Auxiliaries was ‘sweet revenge’ for the IRA ambush in the words of one Auxiliary in a letter to his girlfriend afterwards.)
On This Day – 12th December 1920
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.