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SENATOR GEORGE MITCHELL gave a eulogy and large crowds turned out in New York last evening as a month’s mind mass for Martin McGuinness took place at St Patrick’s Cathedral.
Hundreds of members of the city’s Irish community attended the service, along with members of the late Sinn Féin politician’s family and Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald.
Addressing the congregation, Mitchell said he had first met McGuinness in 1995 when he was asked to travel to Northern Ireland as President Clinton’s representative.
Over the past two decades, he said, “much has been written and said about how Northern Ireland moved from war to peace”.
The Prime Ministers and Taoisigh who presided over the peace process deserved credit for the progress, he said.
“But as I have said often the real heroes of the Northern Ireland peace process were the people and the political leaders of Northern Ireland.”
At great risk to themselves and to their families, he said, “at a critical moment in their people’s history they summoned the courage and vision to end a conflict that some historians trace back over 800 years”.
Martin was one of them. He had courage and he had vision.
Barbara Jones / TwitterMoving Month's Mind @StPatsNYC for Martin McGuinness - ovation from full church for #SenatorGeorgeMitchell inspiring eulogy #Reconciliation pic.twitter.com/6NAUxT4xUI
— Barbara Jones (@bjonesbh) April 25, 2017
Before the IRA’s ceasefires, McGuinness had been ”deeply engaged” in conflict, Mitchell said. After the negotiations started, Mitchell said, he was ”deeply engaged in trying to end the conflict”.
There was no doubt his leadership had been a major factor in reaching the Good Friday and other agreements, and in maintaining the peace that followed, the former Maine senator said.
The iconic images of the former Deputy First Minister working alongside his former foe Ian Paisley and the photos of him meeting the Queen ”graphically represent the massive transformations that occurred in Northern Ireland,” he said.
In a lighter moment, he joked that the negotiations took so long to complete because “it took me one year to understand what anybody was saying – and only then did we get down to business”.
Mark Guilfoyle / Twitter@MaryLouMcDonald gives first reading. Ecclesiastes. "A time for war and a time for peace." pic.twitter.com/i7tzPlpP5V
— Mark Guilfoyle (@markguilfoyle1) April 24, 2017
Large photos of McGuinness were displayed on the altar for the ceremony, which was presided over by Monsignor Robert Ritchie, the cathedral’s rector. Consul General of Ireland Barbara Jones was among the congregation.
A month’s mind mass will also be held in Derry tomorrow evening.
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He was some man for one man, and one of a kind. A journey and contribtion unique in the annals of our history and perhaps the only person with the circumstance and ability to do so. A fitting tribute to a true patriot and son of Ireland.
@The Risen: And jammin – he had nothing whatsoever to do with the ‘Disappeared’…?
@Paul Foot: A be fair now he had a selective memory disease
Foot = leg end
McGuinness = legend
What was all the killing for several hundred policeman murdered most just doing their job….Enniskillen La Mond all the sectarian killing along the border on both sides…..In the end a settlement that had being available since 1974……At the time SF said it was about end to British rule and United Ireland….. Now they say they were fighting for civil rights and parity of esteem agenda…..
@The Risen: Why no answer, jammin?
@The Risen: How courageous do you have to be to bomb civilians?
@Scundered: Why don’t you ask your present and former British PM’s?
@Brian Ward: S was asking – those on this site – a legitimate question about McGuinness. The answer is – not very, because they’re the acts of cowards.
@The Risen: a true patriot? This the guy that wouldn’t recognise bunreacht na hEireann or the true Oglaigh na hEireann? Or an Garda siochana? The man is responsible for mayhem, murder and racketeering. A disgusting man.
@Brian Ward: By that dodging the question I take it you think it’s acceptable for one side but not the other. You see I think it’s a heinous act, I don’t care who carries it out, right and wrong aren’t dictated by nationality.
Either you are ok with it or not. It appears you can’t decide.
@Paul Foot: Martin McGuinness had absolutley nothing to do with the disappeared, that was entirely under Gerry’s command. It’s shameful that you would associate him with this when he was only directly responsible for, amongst others, the murder of Joanne Mathers, the Irish Collie Club at the La Mon, Eamon Ryan, Nicholas Knatchbull, Paul Maxwell and of course Enniskillen and numerous other “viable targets” like Mountbatten and tons of 18 year old kids who sign up for their army. But don’t dare accuse him of the disappeared.
@Paul Foot: He didn’t have anything to do with Mary Boyle.
@Paul Foot: Who specifically did Martin McGuinness disappear?
And do you condemn the Old IRA?
great man that martin mcguiness
@Scundered:
-”How courageous do you have to be to bomb civilians?”
-”By that dodging the question I take it you think it’s acceptable for one side but not the other.”
Who did McGuinness bomb, Scundered?
@Guybrush Threepwood: is there a list of who planned and delivered the bombings and shootings? If you could forward it on, that would be great! It would help a lot of people (several thousand) get closure. It would be great if all terrorist groups kept a list like this – we know armies generally do, but keep them hidden in vaults; is there a chance that Gerry had such a notebook.
Couple of facts
there would be no IRA if the brits had stayed at home
There would be no peace without Martin mc Guinness
Atrocities happened on both sides, bridges have been build time to move on it’s 2017
@Totalitarian: Stayed at home? The Norman led English are here for c950 years, when they invaded; how long should they have to be here?
@Paul Foot:
Yes & a large proportion of Irish people are descended from them. Lynches, Burkes, Prendegasts & anyone with a Fitz at the beginning of their surname are all descendants of the Anglo-Normans. I dont wish to be ruled from England but I recognise and celebrate that as two islands we share a lot of history, culture and blood ties.
@AR Devine: Agree totally – we’re closer to no other nation/people.
@Totalitarian: Catholics spent there days complaining that the brit s did nothing to protect them in the late 60s when they where been burnt out of there homes . When soldiers where deploy to nationalists estate to protect Catholics in 69 theCatholics population spent their days complaining they had no right to be their . It’s all propaganda for the IRA and their supporters the Brits are wrong no matter what they did .
@Sean O Brien:
I made a guess earlier that you are/were a member of the British Army. Given the absolutely amazingly poor grammar on display in your post above, I think it’s safe to say I was correct. Having lived through the length of the conflict, I can say with some authority that the average Brit soldier was not known for his brainpower.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: Nor you m8!
@Paul Foot: Ohhh, clever comeback. One straight from the playground! You showed me!
@Tír Eoghain Gael: Bigots are never to clever m8 – they have single track minds, and can never even countenance that another argument has some validity.
@Paul Foot:
Sez the fella who seems to spend an inordinate amount of time on this website, telling others about how wrong they are. You don’t do irony, do you?
@Tír Eoghain Gael: Unlike you, I can be wrong – and have often learned from other posters. Sadly, not you – a based, one sided and predictable one.
@Paul Foot:
You’ve a very lofty opinion of yourself indeed, haven’t you? A paragon of fairness, reason and decency appears to be how you see yourself. A quick look through even just this articles comment section alone though paints a picture of someone much more childish who instead of engaging in discussion, relies on sarcasm and personal abuse only.
For instance, on the topic of this story, and the following discussion re. the IRA, you have not provided a single counter argument to any point I have made, but only made petty attacks and snipes from the sidelines. Either grow up or shut up.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: Fanatics never grow up – and, worse, rarely shut up. You see – there is absolutely nothing (or nobody) – who will alter your entrenched beliefs. Even McGuinness – a man I disliked – altered his views, later in life.
@Paul Foot: He altered his strategy, not his views. He remained fiercely proud of his IRA involvement and made no secret of that.
Any chance you can engage in the discussion I was having above re the British army, or is ignoring the very discussion and shouting “fanatic!!” the nearest we can expect to an actual adult debate from you?
@Tír Eoghain Gael: You should well know the stupidity of attempting to debate with Fanatics! And if you think MM’s views in the 70s were the same as his 2017 ones – you’d be daft too m8.
@Paul Foot: You have some neck calling anyone a bigot when your whole mind is full of bigotry to decent Irish people. You might get yourself a knighthood for your trolling and services to the crown, but you’ll still be a quisling.
@Paul Foot:
Good man, Paul. Thank you for demonstrating my point perfectly. You simply use name calling in pace of engaging in debate. I won’t waste any more time with you.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: MM’S views were the same, in both eras?
@Paul Foot sorry I don’t engage in arguments with multi account trolls
@Paul Foot: Tir has been condition all his life to defend terrorism . His brain is intoxicated with republican rubbish . You defend terrorists that kill more Catholics then half a million soldiers . You can tell who won a argument when one person turns to insults .
@Tír Eoghain Gael: http://www.irishnews.com/news/2017/04/20/news/martin-mcguinness-told-a-whopper-of-a-lie-about-the-ira-1001795/?param=ds12rif76F
In the early 90s the IRA where defeated . The murder of Robert McCartney and the proxy bomb attacks in south Armagh made the IRA unpopular in the nationalist communities . When you see IRA s.um on the walls of nationalist estate then you know the game is up . The IRA was also infiltrated to the core which made many of its members reluctant to carry out ops . It was a broken organisation that was forced towards the negotiating table . Terrorists became politicians only because their terror campaign fail . McGuinness was a terrorist long before he was a politician and he chose terrorism long before peace .
@Sean O Brien: Correct – and Jorry, or course, went a totally different direction. And never was a member of the IRA, and had nothing to do with it!!!
@Sean O Brien: Thanks for the expert analysis there Sean. Meanwhile, the British themselves repeatedly acknowledged, during and after the conflict, that they did not and could not defeat the IRA.
”In no way, can or will the Provisional Irish Republican Army ever be defeated militarily.” (Sir James M. Glover, the former Commander-in-Chief of the UK Land Forces at the time)
“It is difficult to envision a military defeat” of the IRA.” (Peter Brooke, Tory Sec. of State)
“Defeat of the IRA is not on the horizon…They are an absolutely formidable enemy… Some of their operations are brilliant….The government knows it is up against not a bunch of evil, psychopathic criminals, as its propaganda has tried to suggest, but a highly disciplined and political, motivated guerrilla army.” (General Sir John Wilsey, the General Officer Commanding the UK Forces in the Six Counties)
“Army paper says IRA not defeated: Army concedes for first time it did not win the battle against the IRA” (BBC headline on leaked internal British Army document reviewing their time in the six counties)
“It should be recognised that the Army did not ‘win’ in any recognisable way” (Conclusion of above British Army internal campaign review).
“Both the British and the Irish republicans had come to the conclusion that neither side could win militarily” (Tony Blair)
@Tír Eoghain Gael: Im afraid your wrong . Brit forces in NI had their hands tied by the law that they where expected to obey . The terrorist live under the protection of the law . Your attempting to make out that you where fighting some sort of combat war and the IRA could not be defeated . This of course is rubbish . Soldiers and police officers came across terrorists daily . Good morning sir , nice to meet you sir , have a nice day sir . Terrorists walking around living under the protection of law believing they cannot be defeated , while soldiers walk around with weapons they where restricted in using because the state protected the terrorists . The Brits kill more Taliban in a month compare to the numbers of IRA they kill in 26 yrs .
@Sean O Brien:
“I” am wrong? I merely produced quotes to give you the view of the British Army and senior British politicians on the issue.
As for the rest of your post:
“Brit forces in NI had their hands tied by the law that they where expected to obey”
Really? Does a government that colluded in the deaths of up to 1,000 of it’s own citizens sound like one that’s overly concerned by the law? Does it sound like they were concerned by the law when, in a secret meeting in 1972, they decided that their own state forces should be immune from prosecution for crimes committed in Ireland? This meeting, held at Stormont Castle was held, involved the Secretary for State William Whitelaw MP, the North’s most senior British Army officer the General Officer Commanding (GOC) General Ford, the Deputy Chief Constable of the RUC, plus Lord Windlesham the British government’s representative in the House of Lords, British MP’s, and senior civil servants from the NIO. Relatives for Justice uncovered the minutes of this meeting Their exact decision in that meeting was that “The (British) Army should not be inhibited in its campaign by the threat of court proceedings and should therefore be suitably indemnified.” Again, this meeting took place in 1972. That year 79 people were shot by the British Army. The meeting took place in July (just a few months after Bloody Sunday). That month the British Army killed 20 innocent Irish civilians. Not one British soldier faced a conviction for ANY of these killings throughout 1972. Is that a government that’s concerned about playing by the rules?
“The terrorist live under the protection of the law”
Mind boggling naivety. I suggest you read up about the rold of the SAS in the conflict and their involvement in countless shoot-to-kill operations against unarmed “terrorists”/freedom fighters.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: almost half a million soldiers served in NI . Half a million soldiers didn’t kill anyone . They suppressed terrorism and protected life . Bomb disposal units deploy onto the ground over 20000 times to deal with IEDs by republicans and loyalists . 20 bomb disposal where killed protecting life . The IRA detonated over 15600 IEDs which 40 percent of them where civilian .
@Sean O Brien:
Good man Sean, quietly ignore that whole bit about the British Government’s security meeting where they decided that their soldiers should be immune from prosecution. Nothing to say about that?
The British state colluded in up to 1,000 murders (almost a third of all those killed) and you’re spoofing that they were here to protect life? Of those deaths, only 4 soldiers were ever convicted for their involvement in murder. Each of these convicted murderers were released after approx 3 years and reinstated in the British Army.
If I didn’t know any better, you sound a lot like some pathetic excuse for an Irishman who sold his soul and joined the British army. Would I be right?
@Tír Eoghain Gael: Fanatics who cannot appreciate a different perspective – are never right.
@Paul Foot:
So does that mean you accept the perspective of all those senior British political and military figures I quoted above who each outlined that the IRA could not have been defeated?
@Tír Eoghain Gael: Yes I do, because I am not a bigot or fanatic. But the reasons for these views were explained by other posters here – and nothing the IRA should be proud of, or take credit for.
@Paul Foot:
So you accept the perspective of those directly involved who say the IRA were not defeated, but you still disagree with them, preferring to believe some “Sean O’Brien” fella from the journal comments section? Well I suppose why would you believe the analysis of British Army heads/Prime Ministers ahead of ‘Sean O’Brien’ alright.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: You seem to still be stuck in the language of excuses. The biggest issue with it was that the British Army were never at war with Ireland, Northern Ireland or any other entity. They were just fighting an insurrection with unrealistic objectives, and would equally be said to be at war with the UDA or the LVF. We know that the IRA, and all of the offshoots considered themselves “at war” with the British, but the truth is they were not a political body like the Irish SF/IRA that were establishing a nation, and could never be able to wave a white flag or sign an armistice. The only thing that could be done was convince them to put away their guns and come to the table. Like the LVF, UVF and UDA, their “campaign” is over, ergo defeated.
Or do you consider those loyalist organisations undefeated as well?
@Gulliver Foyle:
“The biggest issue with it was that the British Army were never at war with Ireland, Northern Ireland or any other entity.”
They were at war with the nationalist people. They were directly or indirectly involved in up to 1,000 murders in Ireland during the conflict. This doesn’t take into account their day to day harassment of nationalist/Catholic people on the roadsides for decades, something I endured on more occasions that I could count, and something with drove countless into the hands of the IRA.
“The only thing that could be done was convince them to put away their guns and come to the table.”
Are you for real? Republicans weren’t the ones that had to be dragged into making peace. That was the British state. Martin McGuinness was in secret talks trying to achieve this long before any public talks took place. It’s widely accepted that John Major’s refusal to seriously engage in peace talks, and his over concern with placating unionism, is what led to the breakdown of the IRA ceasefire with the Docklands bombing in 1996.
@Sean O Brien: the IRA defeated the britshit army. And only accepted the Brits surrender, when they agreed to withdraw from Ireland and create a united Ireland within a reasonable time frame
In years to come, Enda Kenny will be remembered as a cowardly traitor who sold the people to banks and vulture funds.
Martim McGuinness will be remembered as a patriot, and a peacemaker, A man who put his life on the line to defend people from the rampages of orangism.
@Dave Doyle: and he never bombed innocent people as an admitted IRA member?!
@Paul Foot: Come back when you post your real name under a real profile. I detest the little cowards of the FG fraperoom who hide themselves behind false names and profiles.
@Paul Foot: The laughter of our children will be our justifiction. (Bobby Sands)Just as they will laugh at old fogeys like you who can’t let go of the past and move on. Time and Tide wait for no man, or the train is leaving the station, jump on board to a new society, or stay in your bigoted twisted little world with the rest of the haters, traitors, losers.
@Dave Doyle: My name is real – but why refuse to answer the question?
@Paul Foot: BTW…your profile is gripping…
@Paul Foot: Can you not read?
@Dave Doyle: yes, but you’re just making excuses not to answer any easy question…
@Paul Foot: Childish mentality, Doyle. And remember, smoking also kills…you don’t look so good m8…
@Dave Doyle: ffs, would you ever make your profile private! There are lots of genuinely nasty people on here who will stalk you and your family. I never understand anyone wanting to put their public information on a forum where there are self identified gangsters and thugs and they talk about the IRA and UVF as if they were normal people. It’s not brave, and I’m not talking about this imaginary FG trollroom.
It’s great that his family know where he’s buried.
@John Mulligan:
Do you condemn the Old IRA, John?
For all the haters and traitors, get over yourselves, The world moves on and you’ll be left as bitter old bigots that no one wants to listen too.
@Just Me: youare talking to McGuinness sycophants I take it?
@Alan Brogan: No Dane I’m referring to blueshirts such as yourself. Cowards like your party founder Eoin O’ Duffy the fascist that went to Spain to fight for Franco and was sent home in disgrace for being drunk the entire 6 months. That’s the caliber of the haters and traitors, you’ll end up like O’Duffy a twisted bitter man. a bigot to the end.
Something very annoyong about Irish Americans weeping over one of the protagonists of a 30 year terror campaign that in no ways affected them because they are not from Ireland. Credit to Mcguinness for eventually abandoning terrorism and taking the path of constitutional nationalism, which was an option from the start, but this post death canonisation of a man who was at the head of an organisation that killed & maimed in the most cowardly of ways, across Ireland and Britain and Ireland is nauseating. Give him credit for eventually changing but I think the gushing praise for
giving up terrorism is excessive and insulting to the victims across these islands of ours.
@AR Devine: Martin McGuinness was not a terrorist. And if you believe that force was not required to achieve equality in the six counties, then I’d love to hear your explanation of how that might have happened.
@Tír Eoghain Gael:
The sectarian policies of the NI state were dismantled by direct rule from London. Stop conflating the civil rights campaign with undemocratic cowardly terrorism. It is insulting to the likes of John Hume & Seamus Mallon. Whilst the IRA murdered here & in Britain they were not representative of the wishes of the majority of Irish people.
@AR Devine:
Direct rule from London permitted immunity from prosecution for it’s state forces in Ireland when the committed murders. This much was uncovered in a document uncovered by Relatives for Justice last year. Does that sound like a benign influence from London, you imbecile?
@Tír Eoghain Gael: Here Tyrone, tell us all again why the IRA murdered more catholics than the british army murdered? How come the IRA murdered just over 50% as many catholics as the loyalist terrorists combined murdered?
@Honeybadger197:
And if the % of their victims was more weighted towards Protestants, you’d be here telling me they were just mindless sectarians. Behind all your guff though, remains the fact that over 75% of PIRA victims were willing participants in the conflict according to the book ‘Lost Lives’ which chronicles every death throughout. That’s a rate which is significantly higher than just about any armed organisation in any conflict, anywhere, that you care to mention.
Why the need to translate my username? Bigoted intolerance of the Irish language?
@Tír Eoghain Gael:
Sinn Fein/IRA murdered more civilians, including nationalist ones than UK state forces. This is a fact. They whinge about the state having a shoot to kill policy towards their members yet they had a shoot to kill & a bomb to kill policy for their entire campaign and a cowardly one where they ambushed & murdered people often in front of their families and planted bombs & ran off like the cowards they were. Thankfully, eventually most of them saw the error of their ways but still so many try & glorify their barbarity.
@AR Devine:
“Sinn Fein/IRA murdered more civilians, including nationalist ones than UK state forces. This is a fact.”
That is not a fact because you completely ignore those who were murdered by loyalists who were in collusion with the British state. Such victims of course, do not matter to you, but that doesn’t airbrush them out of existence.
“They whinge about the state having a shoot to kill policy towards their members yet they had a shoot to kill & a bomb to kill policy for their entire campaign”
So what you are saying is that the taxpay funded state “security” forces, should not be expected to be held to a higher standard than paramilitary organisations? An interesting view to hold. Perhaps the British shoot-to-kill policy would be more acceptable if they acknowledged they were involved in a war. The point is, they refused to live up to their own declared stardards of behaviour. To the point that they had a secretly stated policy of immunity from prosecution of their soldiers who carried out murders in Ireland. Republicans on the other hand, enjoyed no such immunity.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: If the Yanks had only given Bin Laden a chance…….
Henry ford was right.history is more or less bunk.We don’t want tradition.We want to live in the present,and the only history that is worth a tinkers damp is the history that we make today.
I first met Senator Mitchell in 1995 when he first arrived in Ireland. I welcomed him to the Kennedy Centre in Beal Fierste.
We embraced warmly in front of the crowds and Senator Mitchell whispered into my ear, “We know all about Bob Geldoff.
I knew then that there was some some hope of peace.
If you murdered people you are a murderer! Simple as!
@Mary Lyons:
Tell that to the Blueshirts.
Mary Lyons. Who murdered people.
@ray.farrelly: that a question Ray? You should use question marks if so.
Alan Brogan. Is that you Dane??
@ray.farrelly: ray – see your vet, today…
Paul Foot and mouth. Get out of the fraperoom you need some fresh air kid.
@ray.farrelly: not learn to write your name properly yet Raymond?
Alan Brogan. Does that bother you Dane??
@ray.farrelly: for consistency, O’Duffy, Belton, McCabe, and probably Flanagan were undoubtedly unelected murderers who went on to be either FG or part of their support network. I don’t think any of the the current members of either FG or FF have organised deaths of citizens, and hopefully labour has shed it’s legacy IRSP/INLA links to their more combatative left history. Martin McGuinness has undoubtedly and unapologetically organised the murder of Irish Citizens, ergo, he is a murderer. Ironically, like O’Duffy, he had the support of the catholic church in both life and death.
@Gulliver Foyle: Sadly GF – ray is incapable of a meaningful response.
@Mary Lyons: The Old IRA was a gang of murderers too then, Mary?
@Tír Eoghain Gael: In the main, post-1916, they were a declared national army with a stated objective to implement independence for the country, and they nearly always followed the directives of the leadership in only carrying our military objectives. There were certainly plenty of instances where they were also involved in cold blooded murder of Irish citizens before and after the civil war, so, yes, they also had gangs of murderers in their ranks. That being said, there are no recorded incidents of Michael Collins ordering the murder of a civil servant doing her job, or of Richard Mulcahy ordering the torture and murder of someone for spilling someones pint. But hey, who am I to pick your heroes?
Gulliver Foyle. Just because there are no recorded incidents does not mean they did not happen.
@Gulliver Foyle:
“In the main, post-1916, they were a declared national army with a stated objective to implement independence for the country, and they nearly always followed the directives of the leadership in only carrying our military objectives.”
According to the book Lost Lives, which chronicles every death of the troubles, approximately 75% of PIRA victims were participants in the conflict. That is a figure significantly higher than for the Old IRA (or for just about any armed group in any conflict you care to mention, anywhere. So if you say that the Old IRA “nearly always” carried out justifiable attacks, then you are in no position to say anything different about the Provos. Many people on here (quite rightly) criticise the provos over the 14 people they disappeared over 40 years. Yet, when challenged, are never quite so quick to condemn the Old IRA for disappearing over 200 (mostly innocent) people in less than two years. Do you condemn the Old IRA, given that record? Or were those over 200 disappearances of innocents just excusable “isolated incidents”? The hypocrisy of free staters when it comes to IRA campaigns at either end of the 20th century is absolutely pathetic.
My Ma would beat your Ma.
I wonder is McGuinness in the same place as Arthur Griffith……..l would buy a ticket to listen to their conversation for suir…,.
If the Yanks had only given Bin Laden and Al Qaeda a chance…..
The fact that I am afraid to say anything that might be construed as derogatory by that crowd says it all doesn’t it.I mean vindictive doesn’t do them justice.
The old IRA has a mandate SF won the 1919 Wesminister election….During the NI troubles IRA never had such mandate….Catholics voted for SDLP and power sharing….SF and DUP refused to accept this untill GFA ….
@John003:
A mandate, John? The 1918 election winners, Sinn Féin, made not one single mention of war in the manifesto. The Tan War began without Dáil approval – the first attack at Soloheadbeg, carried out by Dan Breen and his men, was carried out on the first day of the Dáíl, without the Dáil’s approval. In fact the Volunteers who fought in the war were openly contemptuous of Sinn Féin who won with such a landslide. Just one year before, the Volunteers declared: ““We are not going to take our orders from Sinn Fein and we don’t want republicans meddling with a military organisation.” To quote Tom Barry when asked about mandates: “these things seemed to be of little matter then…..in the main, the young Volunteers were satisfied that they were following in the footsteps of the greatest men in all our history – the men of 1916, and they did not have a mandate, unless mistaken”.
have your say