On This Day / January 9, 1921
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
19210109
Reference Date
19210109
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 9th January 1921, an editorial questioned the “guilty but insane” verdict in a priest’s killing, a Derry TD was arrested, and reprisals followed an ambush near Camlough. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
The Question of Insanity | On This Day – 9th January 1921
Editorial
Now that Cadet Harte, the member of the Auxiliary RIC force who shot the venerable parish priest of Dunmanway (Canon Magner) and the equally innocent young man, Crowley, a few hundred yards from the Southern town, has been declared ‘guilty but insane’ by a courtmartial, a few simple queries naturally present themselves:
As the cadet was mad that fatal morning, why was he placed in charge of a body of armed men?
If his mental condition was not realised, who was responsible for the neglect?
The Cork Examiner puts another question: ‘Is it in accordance with the military regulations that a portion of the Crown forces should sit idly by while a madman is committing murder?’
The whole question of the personal responsibility that should be attached to the act of a person who kills a fellow human being under any circumstances might be discussed at length in connection with this case; but we trust the temptation to argue the point will be resisted as actual occurrences gruesome enough to disturb the public mind are numerous, and any topic calculated to induce morbid disquisitions should be, as far as possible, avoided – until Parliament reassembles.
Derry TD Arrested
Mr Joseph O’Doherty [Sinn Fein MP for North Donegal] was arrested at his residence, Clarendon Street, Derry yesterday morning.
He had just returned from Mass when the house was surrounded by military and an officer entered and placed Mr O’Doherty under arrest. He was subsequently brought to prison in an armoured car.
It will be remembered that when the police went to arrest him about a year ago he escaped by the back of the house, and whilst ‘on the run’ until arrested on board a Derry-bound train at Enniskillen.
The offence against him was the delivery of a speech soliciting funds for Dail Eireann.
It was alleged to have been delivered in County Donegal and, therefore, the charge should have been investigated in that county, but the various Courthouses in which it was arranged to hold the magisterial investigation were burned down one after another and, after numerous remands, the prisoner was in the end released.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Joseph O’Doherty, a Derry-born barrister, was a member of the First Dail. The ‘Maiden City’ was represented in the Dail by Eoin MacNeill (1867- 1945) Gaelic revivalist and a native of Glenarm, Co Antrim.)
On This Day – 9th January 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19210109
Reference Date
19210109
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 9th January 1921, an editorial questioned the “guilty but insane” verdict in a priest’s killing, a Derry TD was arrested, and reprisals followed an ambush near Camlough. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
The Question of Insanity | On This Day – 9th January 1921
Editorial
Now that Cadet Harte, the member of the Auxiliary RIC force who shot the venerable parish priest of Dunmanway (Canon Magner) and the equally innocent young man, Crowley, a few hundred yards from the Southern town, has been declared ‘guilty but insane’ by a courtmartial, a few simple queries naturally present themselves:
As the cadet was mad that fatal morning, why was he placed in charge of a body of armed men?
If his mental condition was not realised, who was responsible for the neglect?
The Cork Examiner puts another question: ‘Is it in accordance with the military regulations that a portion of the Crown forces should sit idly by while a madman is committing murder?’
The whole question of the personal responsibility that should be attached to the act of a person who kills a fellow human being under any circumstances might be discussed at length in connection with this case; but we trust the temptation to argue the point will be resisted as actual occurrences gruesome enough to disturb the public mind are numerous, and any topic calculated to induce morbid disquisitions should be, as far as possible, avoided – until Parliament reassembles.
Derry TD Arrested
Mr Joseph O’Doherty [Sinn Fein MP for North Donegal] was arrested at his residence, Clarendon Street, Derry yesterday morning.
He had just returned from Mass when the house was surrounded by military and an officer entered and placed Mr O’Doherty under arrest. He was subsequently brought to prison in an armoured car.
It will be remembered that when the police went to arrest him about a year ago he escaped by the back of the house, and whilst ‘on the run’ until arrested on board a Derry-bound train at Enniskillen.
The offence against him was the delivery of a speech soliciting funds for Dail Eireann.
It was alleged to have been delivered in County Donegal and, therefore, the charge should have been investigated in that county, but the various Courthouses in which it was arranged to hold the magisterial investigation were burned down one after another and, after numerous remands, the prisoner was in the end released.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Joseph O’Doherty, a Derry-born barrister, was a member of the First Dail. The ‘Maiden City’ was represented in the Dail by Eoin MacNeill (1867- 1945) Gaelic revivalist and a native of Glenarm, Co Antrim.)
On This Day – 9th January 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19210109
Reference Date
January 9, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 9th January 1921, an editorial questioned the “guilty but insane” verdict in a priest’s killing, a Derry TD was arrested, and reprisals followed an ambush near Camlough. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
The Question of Insanity | On This Day – 9th January 1921
Editorial
Now that Cadet Harte, the member of the Auxiliary RIC force who shot the venerable parish priest of Dunmanway (Canon Magner) and the equally innocent young man, Crowley, a few hundred yards from the Southern town, has been declared ‘guilty but insane’ by a courtmartial, a few simple queries naturally present themselves:
As the cadet was mad that fatal morning, why was he placed in charge of a body of armed men?
If his mental condition was not realised, who was responsible for the neglect?
The Cork Examiner puts another question: ‘Is it in accordance with the military regulations that a portion of the Crown forces should sit idly by while a madman is committing murder?’
The whole question of the personal responsibility that should be attached to the act of a person who kills a fellow human being under any circumstances might be discussed at length in connection with this case; but we trust the temptation to argue the point will be resisted as actual occurrences gruesome enough to disturb the public mind are numerous, and any topic calculated to induce morbid disquisitions should be, as far as possible, avoided – until Parliament reassembles.
Derry TD Arrested
Mr Joseph O’Doherty [Sinn Fein MP for North Donegal] was arrested at his residence, Clarendon Street, Derry yesterday morning.
He had just returned from Mass when the house was surrounded by military and an officer entered and placed Mr O’Doherty under arrest. He was subsequently brought to prison in an armoured car.
It will be remembered that when the police went to arrest him about a year ago he escaped by the back of the house, and whilst ‘on the run’ until arrested on board a Derry-bound train at Enniskillen.
The offence against him was the delivery of a speech soliciting funds for Dail Eireann.
It was alleged to have been delivered in County Donegal and, therefore, the charge should have been investigated in that county, but the various Courthouses in which it was arranged to hold the magisterial investigation were burned down one after another and, after numerous remands, the prisoner was in the end released.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Joseph O’Doherty, a Derry-born barrister, was a member of the First Dail. The ‘Maiden City’ was represented in the Dail by Eoin MacNeill (1867- 1945) Gaelic revivalist and a native of Glenarm, Co Antrim.)
On This Day – 9th January 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.