THE Sinn Féin building on the Falls Road at the corner of Sevastopol St. is internationally famous for its mural of Bobby Sands. Less well known is the fact that the building is dedicated to the memory of another Irish republican, Joe McKelvey. His framed photograph adorns the wall on the first floor.
Both men were in the 20s. Bobby was 27. Joe was 24. Both died in prison. Bobby died after 66 days on hunger strike in the prison hospital in Long Kesh. He was incarcerated by the British state. Joe was 24. He was one of four IRA volunteers shot to death by a Free State firing squad in the prison yard in Mountjoy prison in 1922. Last week – 8 December – was the centenary of his execution.
Joe McKelvey was born in Stewartstown in county Tyrone but moved to Cyprus Street in the Falls area of west Belfast as a teenager. He was a committed Gael. In 1916 he was a founder member of the O’Donovan Rossa CLG in Beechmount. He also had a keen interest in the Irish language.
Those were heady years. There was a cultural revival; the Irish Volunteers, Na Fianna,The Irish Citizens Army and Cumann na mBan had been established and in 1916 the Easter Rising took place. Two years later in the 1918 election the Irish people overwhelming voted for independence.
Joe McKelvey joined the Irish Republican Army in Belfast and quickly rose through its ranks to become O.C. - Officer Commanding - the 1st Battalion in the City. In 1921 the IRA introduced a new structure involving the creation of divisions and Joe McKelvey, then aged 23, was made O.C. of the Third Northern Division which had responsibility for Belfast, most of County Antrim and part of North Down.
His time as O.C. of the Third Northern Division coincided with the partition of Ireland and the creation of the Northern and Southern states. As Unionism, backed by the Tories in Westminster, moved to consolidate its control of the North sectarian violence was widespread. In July 1920 five thousand Catholics were expelled from the shipyards. According to ‘The Belfast Pogroms 1920-22’ this time was “marked by unprecedented looting and burning of Catholic property.” Over the next two years this pattern was repeated. There were attacks daily.
These were the conditions under which Joe McKelvey organised and lead the IRA in defence of nationalist/republican areas and in pursuit of the Republic proclaimed at Easter 1916. He was a capable, intelligent and courageous leader – strongly anti-sectarian. His leadership qualities were recognised when he was elected at the IRA convention in the Mansion House in March 1922 as assistant chief of staff of the IRA.
In April 1922 the anti-Treat IRA occupied the Four Courts in Dublin. Under pressure from the British government the pro-Treaty forces attacked on 28 June. After three days of shelling by the pro-Treaty side, using artillery pieces provided by the British government, the IRA garrison surrendered. Along with Joe McKelvey other senior IRA figures, including Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows, Richard Barrett and Ernie O’Malley were captured. They were imprisoned in Mountjoy prison. Joe McKelvey was appointed as O.C. by the prisoners.
In the following months the pro-Treaty government introduced the Public Safety Emergency Powers Bill – called the Murder Bill by republicans - that established military courts and allowed the state to execute anyone found guilty of carrying arms. During this time nine IRA volunteers were executed, including Erskine Childers who had used his yacht to transport weapons for the Rising into Howth in 1914. In total 81 republicans were summarily executed in the seven months between November 1922 and May 1923.
On 6 December the Free State officially came into existence. That same day Sean Hales a Free State TD was shot dead in Dublin. The Free State cabinet determined on an act of reprisal. Four IRA prisoners, Joe McKelvey, Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows and Richard Barrett were told they were to be moved. They were not initially told why but eventually were given a typed notice which stated:
“You are hereby notified that, being a person taken in arms against the government, you will be executed as a reprisal for the assassination of Brigadier Sean Hales TD . . . and as a solemn warning to those associated with you who are engaged in a conspiracy of assassination against the representatives of the Irish people.”
On the morning of 8 December the four were taken to the prison yard. There had been no trial. No legal sentence. There were twenty in the firing squad and they were to target specific individuals but it has been reported that most fired at Rory O’Connor. As a result so many bullets struck him that his coat caught fire. Joe McKelvey and Richard Barrett were still alive after the volley. Joe, who was still conscious Joe was still conscious shouted out “for god sake finish me off.” A Free State Officer shot them as they lay wounded.
The Civil War was a part of a counter revolution which ensured the imposition of partition, witnessed the abandonment of nationalists living in the North and the creation of two deeply conservative states on the island of Ireland. Liam Mellows one of the four executed that December morning in 1922 had earlier warned of the danger of accepting The Treaty.
In his speech in the Treaty debates Mellows said:
“The time will inevitably come, if this Free State comes into existence, when you will have a permanent government in the country, and permanent governments in any country have a dislike to being turned out, and they will seek to fight their own corner before anything else. Men will get into positions, men will hold power, and men who get into positions and hold power will desire to remain undisturbed and will not want to be removed, or will not take a step that will mean removal in case of failure.”
His remarks were prophetically accurate.
William Lutton’s Lough Neagh lexicon a veritable treasure trove of forgotten words
HERE is another wee look at words and phrases which are no longer in use. My last column on these local dialect phrases was very favourably received. I had very little work to do this week because my old pal, Tom Hartley gave me a copy of a lovely wee book - MONTIAGHISMS made up of such words and phrases. The Montiaghs is a rural parish on the shores of LoughNeagh, west of Lurgan and north of Portadown. Montiaghs is pronounced Munchies.
My copy of Montiaghisms was reprinted in 1976 by The Linen Hall Library. It was first published in 1923. It is a wee dictionary of Ulster dialect words and phrases collected by William Lutton and edited by Francis Joseph Biggar. Lutton was born in 1807 and died in 1870. He was a land and road surveyor. He was a diligent collector of dialect phrases and words. As in our own time some of these were no longer in use when Lutton first put together his collection of some nine hundred entries.
This collection was edited by Francis Joseph Biggar. He calculates that twenty five percent of Lutton’s collection are of ‘purely Gaelic origin’.
Biggar is worthy of a little bio all of his own. I will return to this in the near future. Suffice for now to say he was a formidable patron of the Arts, including the Irish language and music. He was a founder member of the Belfast branch of Conradh na Gaeilge in 1895. A lawyer by profession, he was very active in Irish literary, theatre and musical circles. His home, Ardrigh, 737 Antrim Road, was a meeting place for others of similar views including Roger Casement. Here is a small sample of some of the words collected by William Lutton.
Amadthan. A thoughtless person.
Axe. Ask.
At himself as in ‘Not at himself’. Unwell.
Baren. Except. All baren one. All except one.
Blatther. A loud noise.
Boast. Hollow.
Bowl. Bold.
Boxty. A dish made of potatoes, flour or meal.
Bran new. Very new.
Buckey briar. Wild rose.
Cawdey. A crafty wee boy.
Cayley. Ceili. A house visit to exchange news, stories and gossip.
Cheep. Chirp.
Cleek. A slender hook made of wire.
More of this anon. But to finish words I picked up myself the other day.
Dunder Head. A stupid person.
Galoot. A big awkward ignorant person.
Shoneen. A derogatory term to describe a pro English Irish person. From Little John as in John Bull. So a wee John Bull.
Scud. Bad luck. Eg ‘He put a scud on me’ or ‘He scudded me’.
Guddies. Training shoes/trainers
