On This Day / June 16, 1921
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
June 16, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 16th June 1921, Belfast funeral processions for reprisal victims were met with sectarian hostility while an elderly clergyman was murdered in County Cavan. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Funeral Ghouls in Belfast | On This Day – 16th June 1921
FOUR of the victims of the tragic happenings of Saturday and Sunday nights were laid to rest in Milltown Cemetery yesterday, namely Malachy Halfpenny (Ardoyne), Willie Kerr (Old Lodge Road), Patrick Milligan and Joseph Millar (Dock Lane).
Scenes of the most shocking character were enacted as the funeral of Malachy Halfpenny passed down the Crumlin Road.
Thousands of Unionist roughs, consisting of men, women and children, lined the Crumlin Road from the vicinity of Leopold Street right down to Carlisle Circus and their conduct as the cortege passed could only be described as worthy of heathens and savages.
They yelled, shouted, cursed the Pope, shouted ‘Down with the rebels’ and indulged in the vilest epithets towards the mourners while at some point stones and other missiles were hurled at the funeral procession.
An armoured car accompanied the funeral and at several points its occupants had to come out with revolvers drawn in order to hold the mob at bay.
Armed police also lined the route at regular intervals and, had it not been for the protection afforded by them and the military, there can be no doubt but the mourners would have been attacked and brutally beaten.
Apart from this, the funeral was of a most impressive character and as it passed up Mill Street, Divis Street and the Falls Road, the route was lined by sympathisers who uncovered their heads as the remains passed.
The comrades of the deceased in the Post Office, ex-servicemen and others marched in the procession which was accompanied by Fathers Raphael, Henry of the Passionist Order from Holy Cross, Ardoyne.
The news of the tragic death of Alex McBride [a publican] in Belfast was received with feelings of intense sorrow in Ballycastle. A native of Carey, Alex was renowned as a hurler.
Aged Clergyman Murdered
A REPORT has been received of a mysterious and inexplicable occurrence at Bawnboy, County Cavan where the Rev James Finlay, MA, a retired clergyman of nearly eighty years of age, was taken from his house on Saturday night and shot.
His house was subsequently set fire to and burned. There are no clues so far as to the identity of the assailants.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: THE murder of Dean Finlay on the Fermanagh border, apparently by the IRA, was matched by an eruption of sectarian bitterness at the funerals of the reprisal victims in north Belfast.
As sectarian intimidation gripped the city, frenzied preparations were underway for the Royal visit of King George V to open the new Northern Parliament on June 22.
Partition was now a fact.)
On This Day – 16th 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.