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Team Compiles
Record Of
Freedom War
Send Along Your Story
BURO SCAIRE MILEACA
1913-1921
BUREAU OF MILITARY HISTORY
(IRISH PRESS Reporter)
SEVERAL unusual letters arrived on the desk of Mr. Michael McDunphy, Barrister-at-Law, this week, and immediately cast his mind back to New Year's Day of 1947, the day he was asked to carry out a new task.
Mr. McDunphy is Secretary to the President. It was because of the same high qualifications for which he got that position that it was he who was given the direction of the new project. The man who would begin the Bureau of Military History five years ago would have to be completely unbiased, yet fully aware of all the facets of the Irish fight for freedom.
The letters on his desk were from the recorders of the resistance movements (World War II) in European Countries. The quietly proceeding silent service being carried out in the Bureau's house in Westland Row has nevertheless become known to the war historians of Europe and Michael McDunphy was being asked: "How is it done?"
Coincidentally, I also arrived to ask him the same question. From the moment in January, 1947, when he stood in an empty room, furnished with two chairs, a table and one assistant, the director of the service (which is, as far as is known, without precedent), told me of how the project was planned and how it has fared.
His terms of reference were: To assemble and co-ordinate material to form the basis for the compilation of the history of the movement for Independence from the formation of the Irish Volunteers on 25th November, 1913, to the 11th July, 1921.
Remembering the bitter differences of political thought of thirty years ago, it is easy to visualise what barriers of suspicion, even prejudice, the Bureau had to surmount.
Thousands Of Documents
Yet to-day thousands of documents, carefully recorded, filed and triplicated and safely locked away, testify to the continuing success of the task. Photostat and microfilm have been brought to bear on precious scripts and photos vibrant with the stuff of revolution.
Despite the fact that thousands
the movement. Their task is very big and the investigators cannot hope to contact everybody, therefore they appeal for data to be sent into the Bureau where it would be very welcome.
Most of the staff of the Bureau (including the director) were active participants in the movement for independence or were closely associated with it.
"Our enemy," Mr. McDunphy said, "is time—that takes its steady toll of the living and that dulls the edge of memory of those who remain, Cajoling, entreating, urging, the Bureau men go after the witnesses, getting fact after fact after fact. . . ."
For they work against time for posterity. Witnesses who were in their teens when the Republican Brotherhood staged a demonstration—prelude to 1913 and the Volunteers—at the 1898 commemoration, are in their seventies now.
Confidential
Confidence has developed in the Bureau, which sets the strict seal of confidence over all information received. The informant may publish his story if he will. But the Bureau will not.
The purpose of the Bureau, it is emphasised, is not to write the military history of the period; that is a task for future historians. Its function is merely to assemble and collate in an objective manner the material from which that history can be written; and to ensure that that material is as accurate and as comprehensive as possible.
Co-operating with the Bureau are the National Museum, the National Library, the Folklore Commission, all with their equipment and experience.
In the course of this important work questions involving historical values, which can be answered only by
of people in all walks of life, many of whom had never at any stage come into the limelight, many of whom would never have been suspected of being concerned in, for instance, the I.R.A.'s efficient intelligence organisation, have co-operated in this business of recording all details of eight vital years of Irish history, McDunphy decided that the principal source in this fact-finding search would have to be the personal witness.
To-day, following the steady build-up of the Bureau, eight Army officers and two civilians cover Ireland, interviewing those who took part in the movement, carefully noting down, sometimes with the aid of stenographers and wire-recorders, all the stirring details of the freedom-fight.
The parent organisations, the planning, the secret intelligence the major military operations, the ambushes, the woundings, executions, despatch - riding, nursing, espionage, the phases in the operation of the Republican government, the courts, finances, political and civil aspects of the whole struggle.
Appeal For Data
The director told me that he would like to emphasise that they require evidence with regard to the non-military as well as the military aspect, that they like to get details from anybody who took part in any even remote way in
experts, arise from time to time, and on these Mr. McDunphy can turn for advice to a group of historians and writers of history who have generously agreed to act as an advisory committee.
With a specially designed chronology, giving the dates of the milestones in the march to independence, and the earlier developments which paved the way, from right back to the beginning of the century, the "field-men" may assist their clients with dates.
But the participant in the movement is urged to write the story as he wishes. If there seem to be inconsistencies in it, the field-man gently points them out to the witness but will not himself seek to correct them or smooth them out.
'Inconsistencies'
If the informant is unable to resolve them himself they are chronicled as they stand and only when the whole story is recorded as the witness knew it and signed
by him as his own evidence, does it take its place in the strong-boxes of the Bureau. Perhaps, in time, when the historian has sifted all the evidence, the apparent "inconsistencies" may be equated.
Thus, from all Ireland, from Britain, America, the countries of Europe and many places all over the world, this great survey goes on, recording for future generations all the details possible of the organised struggle of a little nation for its inalienable rights.
Only in financing of the work of the Bureau does the State participate, though many men in high places to-day have added to the store of material.
The people interviewed, the methods adopted for the collection of the data, the whole machinery of operation, are matters left entirely to the Director.
Those who supply the material inspire others to contribute and during the last five years the willingness to co-operate has steadily grown.

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HISTORIC MOTION IN HIGH COURT.
Ark Ex. Nov. 22, 1945
£30,000 OF SINN FEIN FUNDS
MOTIONS were before the Master of the High Court, Mr. Gerald Horan, K.C., in Dublin, yesterday, asking that an action brought by Mrs. Margaret Buckley, 24, Marguerite Road, Glasnevin, Dublin, described as President, and several others on behalf of themselves and all other members of the Sinn Fein organisation established in 1904 and reconstituted in 1917, be dismissed for want of prosecution.
The action concerns monies lodged in court in February, 1924, and now said to amount to almost £30,000, by the late Mr. Eamonn Duggan and the late Senator Mrs. Jennie Wyse Power, described as the Honorary Treasurers of the Sinn Fein organisation.
The motions were brought by the Attorney-General, who is sued as representing the people and Government of Ireland, and by Circuit Judge Charles Power, 81, Wellington Road, Dublin, who is sued as personal representative of Senator Mrs. Jennie Wyse Power.
A declaration is sought in the action, which was initiated in January, 1942, that the funds in court constitute part of the funds and property of the Sinn Fein organisation, and that the plaintiffs, on behalf of the organisation, are entitled to the funds for the purpose of the organisation. In their statement of claim the plaintiffs stated that the Sinn Fein organisation had never ceased to function, and had functioned continuously since its reconstruction in 1917 up to the present as an organisation, the main object of which is to secure the recognition of the Republic of Ireland proclaimed in 1916.
The Attorney-General, in his defence pleaded that prior to the lodgment of the funds in court, the former Sinn Fein organisation had ceased to exist and to function, and had not since existed or functioned, and that if there was in existence an organisation purporting to call itself the Sinn Fein Organisation, which was denied, it was not the same body as the former organisation.
There was a denial that the plain-
tiffs, or any of them, were entitled to the funds in court.
Circuit Judge Power, in his defence, denied that the funds in court constituted part of the funds or property of the organisation of which the plaintiffs claimed to be members, or that they were entitled to the funds.
Capt. Peadar Cowan, solr., said that he was now the solicitor on record for the plaintiffs, and it would take him some little time to go through the documents, but given a month, he would be prepared to service notices of trial and set the action down for hearing.
The action would take at least thirty days when it came to hearing.
Mr. Ml. Binchy, S.C., who with Mr. C. Lavery, S.C., and Mr. T. F. Bacon (by Messrs. Corrigan and Corrigan), for Circuit Judge Power, said that the plaintiffs should pay the costs of the motion, as Judge Power had been compelled to incur a great deal of expense. When the money was originally lodged it amounted to £8,000 odd, in 1942 it was £18,000, and the fund now stood at nearly £30,000.
It had been alleged in the statement of claim that Mr. Duggan and Senator Mrs. Wyse Power had no right to lodge the money in court.
As personal representative, Judge Power had to protect himself and to defend the action by maintaining that the Trustees had been right. He had found himself "on the brink of trial" for three years.
Mr. C. O'Dalaigh, S.C., who with Mr. T. J. Connolly (by the Chief State Solicitor) for the Attorney-General, said the motion was brought because the plaintiffs had been almost three years in default in taking any other step in the action. Having regard to the delay, the Attorney-General should have his costs of the motion.
The Master ordered that the action should stand dismissed, unless the plaintiffs served notice of trial on or before December 20 next, and paid 30 gns. to Judge Power and 20 gns. to the Attorney-General in respect of the costs of the motion.

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ENNIS: SATURDAY, MAY 5, 1951.
Clare Chamberson
MEMORABLE DAYS
RECALLED
When the Sean Oglaig na h-Eireann Club of New York, Old I.R.A., held their 1951 installation of officers recently at McKinley's Hall, on Willis Ave., two ex-R.I.C. men were guests of honour. They were, left, John McNamara, a native of Crusheen, Co. Clare, and Michael Kelly, from Ballina, Co. Mayo. Both men were prominent figures in the Listowel, Co. Kerry, mutiny on June 19, 1920. They remained in uniform four months following the Listowel incident, on orders from the late General Michael Collins. They were assigned the dangerous task of Fifth Columnists within the police department. Their courtmartial came up in October, 1920, and for taking part in the Listowel incident they were discharged from the Royal Irish Constabulary. They left Ireland for America in January, 1921, to make a first-hand report in Washington about the conditions in Ireland. The passage to the U.S. was paid by the newly-formed Provisional Government of Ireland. They remained in America. The Clareman became a New York policeman in 1928, and the man from the West went into the grocery business. He is manager of a super-market in Brooklyn to-day.

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Init Orm
Nov 1957.
I PRESS.
Priest Was 'There
In Spirit'
In a letter to Mr. M. Harney, solicitor, hon. secretary of the organising committee, Rev. Father Augustine, O.F.M.Cap., Rochestown, Co. Cork, thanked the committee for their invitation to the Fianna Fail Silver Jubilee luncheon in Cork on Sunday and expressed regret that he was unable to attend.
"Be assured that I shall be with you in spirit," Father Augustine wrote, "and Dev will understand. To me, the halo of 1916 is still, thank God around Dev, and anything that he has said or done since has not dimmed it in the least."
"He, therefore, deserves the highest esteem and the most loyal affection of all right-thinking men, and he may be certain that he has them in the fullest measure."
The name of Mr. Sean Buckley, T.D., was omitted from the list of those present at Sunday's celerations.

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Obituary 1, 1. 19/31/51
MISS HARRIET
GAVAN DUFFY
The death has occurred at 95 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin, of Miss Harriet Gavan Duffy. Aged 92, she was a daughter of the late Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, K.C.M.G.—one of the founders of "The Nation" newspaper, and later Prime Minister of Victoria, Australia—and was a sister of the late Mr. Justice George Gavan Duffy, President of the High Court, who died last June.
Miss Gavan Duffy was born in Australia, to which her father emigrated in 1855, but spent 50 years in Nice. She came to live in Dublin with her sister, Miss Louise Gavan Duffy, M.A., D.Litt., in 1939.
She is also survived by another sister, Geraldine, and a brother, Rev. Bryan Gavan Duffy, S.J., Cape Town. Mr. Justice Charles Gavan Duffy, of the Supreme Court of Victoria, is a nephew.

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Funeral Of Professor Agnes O'Farrelly
The President and Mrs. O'Kelly were present at the funeral yesterday of Professor Agnes O'Farrelly, late Professor of Modern Irish Poetry and Irish Literature at U.C.D., which was very largely attended by representatives of the learned bodies, the Gaelic and national movements, and personal friends.
The Taoiseach, Mr. de Valera, was present.
Requiem Mass took place after Church, Terenure, to Dean's Grange Cemetery, to Cerball of the Mass was Rev. M. Frewen, C.C., St. Joseph's. The prayers at the graveside were recited by Rev. G. A. Taylor, C.C., St. Joseph's.
Chief mourners were — Professor Alphonsus O'Farrelly, (brother) and Mrs. O'Farrelly; Miss Lil O'Farrelly (sister); Dr. Miss Lil O'Farrelly, Dr. Peter McDonnell, Dr. P. W. McDonnell, Dr. R. McDonnell, James and Eamonne O'Farrelly, Misses Maeve and Doorley, (nephews); Misses Maeve and Mairin McDonnell, Misses Antonia and Anita Marsh, Mrs. M. Sheridan, Mrs. T. M. Doorley, Mrs. M. Sheridan, Mrs. T. M. Doorley, Mrs. M. Sheridan, Mrs. T. Marsh.
Others present were — Mr. Sean MacEntee, Mr. Finance, and Mrs. MacEntee; Cearball O'Dalaigh, Attorney-General, Senator Miss Margaret Pearse, Senator Michael Hayes, An Seanadoir an Seanbach agus Bean Ui Siochfhradha, Senator Micheal Og MacFadden, the Chief Justice and Mrs. Conor Maguire, Professor Tierney, President, and many representatives of U.C.D.; D. MacGrianna, representing Right Rev. Mgr. P. de Brun, President, U.C.G.
Gaelic League: Maire Ni Chinneide, Aindrias O'Muimhneachain, Leon O'Dubhghaill, Camogie Association: Misses S. McAnulty, President; Ina
O'Kelly, Mr. M. J. Coady, Sean O'Duffy, Miss E. Keegan, Misses M. Fitzgerald, M. Nic Gabhna, Mrs. K. C. O'Duffy, M. Jean McHugh, Patricia McGough, Aine Ni Corragain, Misses E. Keegan, M. Fitzgerald, N. McCarthy.
Fadraig C. Caoimh, Secretary, G.A.A.; Mr. Liam Gogan, National Museum; Sighle Ni Dhubhgain agus Bean P. S. Ui hEigeartaigh, ar son Colisin Bealoideasa Eireann; Mrs. M. Beaumont, Women Graduates' Association; Miss F. Quirke, Association of Secondary Teachers; Seaghan O Seaghdha, N.A.I.D.A.
Irish Press.
Nov. 7, 1951.
President
At Funeral
The President and Mrs. O'Kelly attended the funeral, which took place to Dean's Grange cemetery, of Professor Agnes O'Farrelly. They are shown leaving St. Joseph's Church, Terenure, with Rev. G. A. Taylor.

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Irish Poem
27. Sept 1952
RATRA HOUSE
THE news that nothing remains of Ratra House but four bare walls is a further sad reminder of the difficulty of preserving the buildings associated with the lives of our great people. For in Ratra House for thirty years of his life, Dr. Douglas Hyde worked at the songs and poems and stories that, because of his labours, were to become an important part of the material that constituted the new Ireland. In that house he first became conscious of the fact that on the tongues of the people who lived around him, there was a cultural tradition as old as Homer, something that should be valued and preserved. The fact that he lived there for thirty years, that he was one of our country's great nationalising and cultural influences, that when political liberty came, he was the country's first President, should have made the place a national monument.
Ratra House has gone as Lady Gregory's home went; and in these and other cases it is, of course, difficult to draw an exact line between the feeling that would wish to see such places preserved and the hard practical facts that abolish them. The buildings often may be of little architectural interest and they may be in such a state of decay that the financial burden of preserving them would be too much for anybody to bear. In this matter we have, perhaps, something to learn from our neighbours across the Irish Sea. To take one instance, Shakespeare's house in Stratford-on-Avon is open to the public in a way that may offend the purists, but the fact remains that people go there, pay their money and certainly, in some instances, become interested in the poet because they have walked through his house.
Money is needed to keep an old house standing. If that money does not come from the pockets of tourists, then who is to find it? In this country the State already does a creditable work towards the preserving of our ancient monuments. But resources are limited and the vast amount of work that should be done cannot be passed on to the taxpayer. In the preservation of Darrynane House we have an encouraging example of what enterprising patriotic spirit can do. The work done by the British National Trust—a voluntary body—in preserving houses and places of special interest has had its echo in this country in An Taisce. But the sombre fact remains that Ratra House has gone and the walls that were once home to one of our most notable men have fallen to ruin.
The preservation of Coole, or Ratra House or Moore Hall—all now gone—calls for voluntary enterprise on the part of those who best appreciate the fact that such buildings can be monuments of a nation's greatness. If it is found impossible to preserve the actual building then some monument should be raised there to mark the place where it stood. And on such monuments the lines that Yeats wrote about Lady Gregory's home at Coole could be written:
Here traveller, scholar, poet, take your stand
When all those ruins and passages are gone,
When nettles wave upon a shapeless mound
And saplings root among the broken stones,
And dedicate—eyes bent upon the ground...
A moment's memory to that laurelled head.

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HELENA CONCANNON
By ALICE CURTAYNE
It is a curious and altogether delightful experience to know a great additional knowledge means deeper appreciation. I first met Helena Concannon in her books, of course. We were both delvers in the same field, Irish hagiography and history. I had to make myself absolutely familiar with her findings. Automatically, as each new book of hers appeared, a growing interest in the author induced me to public life. In my own early days as a writer, I used to think sadly that she possessed every advantage that I had not: seniority in years to begin with; then she was a professional, whereas I am an amateur, historian; she had advantageous university connections; she had had an excellent preliminary preparation in Irish.
I knew date when I met she had day quite by accident in the crowded lounge of a Galway hotel. It was exciting to me to hear her name, and impulsively I engaged her at once on an extremely personal topic. There were other people in our company who could not possibly be interested in what I had to say, but I did not pause to consider them. I had just recently been mauled by a reviewer who, amongst other things, had accused me of plagiarising from Mrs. Concannon. At once she put my mind at rest in an unforgettable way. She disposed of it in a half sentence. One look into her quiet, humorous she was too big to condescend to petty and futile controversy.
Some time later, my husband and
myself spent a summer holiday in Galway with our four children. It became a nice debatable point between us whether Galway was prouder of the Concannons than the Concannons were proud of Galway. We called on them one evening and we were given a charming welcome in that house by the sea. We found that their many visitors to Galway resorted. It was in the course of that evening's conversation I got an opportunity to study Helena Concannon's personality. How much better she was than her books! I found that this great writer vanity, scholar was completely gossip, and was ignorant of literary gossip, and simply did not know how to consider to the half-malicious innuendo, the scornful jealousies that are the staple of literary conversation in most centres where writers foregather.
There was a political meeting in Eyre Square one evening and Mrs. Concannon sat on the platform beside Mr. de Valera. It was nine years ago and politics were then in the doldrums. The meetings were poorly attended by a typical Galway downworsen: one of those vicious showers that come down like a thunderbolt and is capable of scattering a trained
army, much less a group of idle civilians. The meeting turned into something, but through it all Helena never lost her serene and queenly air. She was elegant, too; it was not exactly Punchestown elegance, but it was certainly public platform elegance.
I tried to tell her my impressions afterwards and she confided to me that she had worn her very best for such an occasion and that, of course, every stitch of it was "Made in Ireland". She was particularly pleased with the way her white bainin coat stood up to the tests.
Shortly afterwards she called on us and this was the beginning of much "cast a sort of a spell on our children and I was surprised at the motherliness of this childless woman. She invited them to a little party at Lios na Mara and I was touched at the minute care and the kind thoughtfulness of all her hospitable preparations. She had a sense happiness in the atmosphere and they eagerly respond to it. It need hardly be said that there was no "servant problem" in that house. There was a smiling Aran girl in attendance who was treated like an
adopted daughter of the family. One can hardly hope to meet twice in a lifetime a hostess like Helena Concannon. Her little parting gifts were long treasured in our family: they included a statuette of Saint Martha in out efficient domestic help, because the lack of it might interfere with book production!
She and her husband made that Galway period something unique in the memory of Tomás acquired the genial habit of coming to the door, where he would bang at the threshold with his great walking-stick, shouting: "I want Dabheoc." At that welcome summons, Dabheoc, aged four, would drop whatever was on hand, even his breakfast, or his dinner, and fly to meet his friend. Off they would go together, hand in hand, to the seashore. Dabheoc adored his companion's great height, his large sombrero hat and his walking-stick. We got the boy a big linen that was a faint reflection of the man's. Then Tomás presented him with a complete.
Another afternoon, Helena took us to meet her friends in the Poor Clare convent. She evidently loved the place and so we had another memorable summer evening. It was then I noticed what a girl. Infectious laugh she had, even in middle age. I remember how she enjoyed Dabheoc's answer when one of the Sisters asked him, just as we were leaving: "Well, how would you like to come here to us and be a nun?" Caution was this lad's characteristic. He thought for a second and then said: "I might—when I'm bigger!"
I met her on a few occasions afterwards in Dublin, but all my real knowledge of her personality was gained in that Galway holiday. After that her shelf of books acquired a new meaning in my eyes. Whenever I glanced at their titles, her image rose before me: St. Columban, for which she won the Bishop Shahan thousand dollar prize in international competition; The Poor Clares in Ireland, for
which she gained the National University special prize; Daughters of Banba, that gained the Tailteann award; The Blessed Eucharist in Irish History; St. Patrick, His Life and Mission, which again won the Tailteann award; The Blessed Virgin in Irish History; Blessed Oliver Plunkett. She never swerved in her devotion to the Catholic, Irish, historical field. I could never again open a book of hers to refresh my memory on some point or other, or to consult it for a reference, without recalling her extraordinary simplicity, or marvelling that anyone could achieve so much and yet remain without a trace of vanity, or even I manded self-consciousness. First I had admired her through her books, but how much better the books were when one knew her! Her remembered serenity and unfailing good humour now gave additional force to her words; her pages, too, were lit up with the glow of her, personality.
Lastly, she is the only woman I ever met in Irish life who had no reserve of bitterness and no sting of aggressiveness anywhere in her spirit. Of course, she herself had no notion of how refreshing she was in this respect. Just as she followed up a literary career without descending to petty vanity, or jealousy, so she lived her public life of four years in the Dáil and fourteen years in the Seanad without compromise to her integrity. Yet she was the antithesis of a feminist in word; you cannot mean that the word Suffragette immediately becomes ridiculous when coupled with her name!
To follow a political career after the "Trouble" and never sink into its aftermath of egotism; to be a scholar, yet neither pedantic nor highbrow; to be a leading figure in public life without looking at anyone from a superior plane; to win universal praise and yet remain absolutely humble and self-effacing; any man would call it the most womanly of women.

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Evening Servald 3/12/52.
FUNERAL OF MRS. SARA MELLOWS
A cortege of several hundred people, including many members of the Government, the Dail and Senate, attended the funeral to Glasnevin Cemetery to-day of Mrs. Sara Mellows, mother of the late Liam and Barney Mellows. The attendance included the Tanaiste and the following other Ministers: Mr. MacEntee, Dr.
Ryan, Mr. Aiken, Mr. Boland, Mr. Traynor, Mr. Moylan, Mr. Smith, Mr. Childers, Mr. Walsh; Colonel O'Sullivan, A.D.C., represented the President; Commdt. S. Brennan, A.D.C., represented the Taoiseach; and the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Sen. A. Clarkin.
Rev. W. Lennon, C.C., St. James's, who celebrated Requiem Mass, officiated at the graveside.
GRAVESIDE ORATION
An oration was delivered at the graveside by Mr. J. O'Connor (National Association of Old
Fianna), and a guard of honour and pall bearers were provided by members of the Old Fianna and Four Courts Garrison.
Chief mourners were: Miss K. Corcoran, Dunleer (sister); Messrs. J. L. McKinley, Dundalk, and H. McKinley, Dublin (nephews); Mrs. R. O'Neill, Mrs. R. Brady, Miss M. O'Loughlin, Mrs. M. Morris, Miss Q. Jordan, Miss N. Corcoran, Stafford, England (nieces); William O'Neill, Patk. Lacy, John Brady, Mr. and Mrs. T. Brady (relatives).
The photograph shows the funeral leaving the Hospice for the Dying.

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Films of the Week
1 C 201x115
By T. J. M. Sheehy
IRISH HISTORY ON THE SCREEN
"ONE night last week I sat enthralled as fragments of Irish history were re-enacted on the screen of the Rialto Cinema, Dublin.
The occasion was a special showing given by proprietor Maurice Baum of his collection of news-reels of Irish events—events which took place in the period from 1912—1923.
Around me in the small audience were men who had taken part in some of the scenes recorded by the camera, and on the screen were presented many historic figures, some now dead, others still with us.
Maurice Baum is to be congratulated on preserving for us fragments of a historical record.
The Rialto is a large modern cinema and we assembled there after the crowds from the final showing of the ordinary programme had left.
OLD COMRADES
Our audience only filled a few rows in the dress circle. The rest of the cinema was empty. And as the pictures, in very good condition, appeared on the screen, the only sound was a faint whir from the projection box and the occasional comments from people around me, quietly identifying old comrades as they appeared before us.
Whether the veterans who had taken part in the scenes they were watching, or the younger people like myself who only remembered them, were more enthralled would be hard to judge.
The moving pictures gave a far more vivid conception of the times than any written account could achieve.
THE BLACK AND TANS
We watched the funeral processions of Thomas Ashe, Thos. MacCurtain and Terence MacSwiney. We saw the crowds gathering to pray for their dead, and on other occasions for the hunger strikers. We watched the hunger strikers borne in triumph into the Mater Hospital.
The ruined Black-and-Tan reprisals
in Middleton, Fermoy and numerous other towns told its own story.
Searching troops and Tans searching civilians, rounding up suspects, raiding Liberty Hall and driving into crowds roused natural reactions.
DEATH OF SEAN TRACEY
But the most moving incident of all was the death of Sean Tracey.
That courageous and most competent cameraman, Gordon Lewis, took most of the films.
During the Troubles, Gordon Lewis had a reputation for taking his camera into the hottest spots. By some fortunate accident he happened to be in Talbot Street when the Tan lorries raided it to capture Sean Tracey.
The first shots show panic-stricken crowds of pedestrians running for shelter. The next show soldiers and some civilians gearing round the "spotter" on the pavement near Varian's shop window.
The troops and some civilians carry the bodies towards the lorry on to which the troops lift one and heave in Sean's as if it were a butchered carcass.
That scene will remain etched in my memory.
THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND
But whilst such scenes as this
are the most dramatic, every foot of the films conveys a vivid impression, and the over-all picture is one of the ordinary people of the time.
Whether it be the aftermath of "Bloody Sunday" or scenes outside Mountjoy where tricolours are stuck almost on the tanks of the military, or scenes of people attending churches to pray, or following national heroes to their last rest, or groups demonstrating their attitude by sudden work stoppages—in all the scenes the predominant note that hits one is the fact that this movement was one in which the ordinary citizens—and especially the poor—presented a united front with the men who were waging active warfare against a foreign regime.
The scenes were presented to us in non-chronological sequence.
I hope Maurice Baum, who is buying up every film record of those times, will later see that they are edited and placed in chronological order. I hope, too, he will put a dignified commentary on the final film.
FOR YOUNG IRELAND
The screen record will tell its own story. But for the younger generation a commentator could draw particular attention to the many famous men who appear in the different crowded scenes.
The younger generation will appreciate the close-ups of De Valera, Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith, Gen. Mulcahy, and numerous other historical figures who are seen only as part of a group or part of a procession.
I congratulate Maurice Baum on having the initiative to do something which should have been attempted long ago, and I hope that, as time goes on and more people get to know what he is doing, further film records will be offered to him to make his screen "history" more complete.

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Frish From Dec 6 1931
Death Of Noted
Industrialist
The death occurred unexpectedly at his residence Gracefield, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, last evening, of Mr. Patrick J. Fleming, Chairman and Managing Director of Fleming's Fireclays, Ltd., The Swan, Laois, and former Director of the Foreign Department of Hospitals' Trust, Ltd. He was aged 58.
Mr. Fleming who had been prominently identified with Ireland's industrial revival, also took a very active part in the Independence movement. On Easter Sunday night, before the 1916 Rising, he was one of a group of local Volunteers from "The Swan," Laois, detailed to wreck the local railway line and prevent British reinforcements from Waterford reaching Dublin.
Lying in pouring rain alongside the line, they opened fire when lights were seen approaching, carried by persons
inspecting the line, and thus probably fired the first shots of Easter Week.
Two years later, when holding the rank of Captain in the I.R.A., he was arrested at Kinsale and sent to Portlaoighise Gaol where he maintained a persistent resistance to all attempts to treat him as a criminal.
He was confined at different times with handcuffs, "muffs" and strait jackets which would be removed only when he collapsed and replaced as soon as he returned from the prison hospital.
FOR 86 DAYS.
Deprived of bed clothing, and later his own clothing, he still refused to submit to his gaolers, breaking furniture and handcuffs, and even bursting the strait jackets used to bind him. They wanted him to wear prison clothing, but he steadfastly refused, and daily, for eighty-six days, fought with six warders detailed to dress him.
Later he was moved to Mountjoy and towards the end of 1918 was one of a number of prisoners who escaped from the prison.
Mr. Fleming was also a director of Hearne and Cahill, Ltd., Waterford and the National Spa and Hydro (Lucan), Ltd.
He is survived by his widow, three sons and two daughters.
The remains will be removed this evening to St. John's Church, Blackrock at 6.30 o'c. from which the funeral will take place to Clogh Graveyard, Co. Kilkenny, after 10 o'clock Mass on Monday.

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Sunday Print 11/17/82
He fired first shots
in 1916
THOSE who followed the flag-draped coffin of Patrick Fleming through the rainy streets of Blackrock to St. John's Church last night recalled another rainy night when Patrick Fleming, at the age of 22, fired the first shots in the 1916 Rising.
His job then was to hold off the British should they rush to Dublin by train from Waterford. His small group of men broke up the line on Easter Sunday night, fired on a party coming to surprise them.
After the Rising and in the thick of the Black-and-Tan war, he was arrested at Kinsale, imprisoned in many jails. Impetuously he resisted his jailers, claiming political treatment, and suffered beatings, strait-jacketing, chains and bonds, which he often broke, only to be put in irons and in solitary.
Out in the cells again he fought the warders, was placed in hospital with wounds, came out again to keep on a fight for eighty days against warders who wanted him wear prison garb.
And then he broke goal, escaped with others from Mountjoy, and joined the fighting volunteers again.
Patrick Fleming lived to carry on another Irish struggle; built the fireclay industry at the Swan in Laois, where he had opened up the Rising hostilities, and helped to direct such concerns as Hearne and Cahill, Ltd., Waterford, and Lucan's Spa and Hydro. His Laois
The late Patrick Fleming
business gave work to 600 Irishmen.
Comrades remembered
The President was represented by Col. O'Sullivan, his A.D.C., and the Taoiseach by Commdt. Sean Brennan, A.D.C., at the removal of the remains from Gracefield House, Blackrock, to the church.
Members of the Government present included the Tanaiste, Mr. Lemass; Mr. MacEntee, Minister for Finance; Mr. Boland, Minister for Justice, and Senator M. Hearne.

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DEATH OF BISHOP OF CLONFERT
Champion of Independence
THE death occurred at his residence, St. Brendan's, Coorheen, Loughrea, yesterday, after a long illness, of Most Rev. Dr. J. Dignan, Bishop of Clonfert since 1924. He was aged 73 years and had been all his life a staunch supporter of the independence movement.
Born on June 13, 1880, at Ballygar, Co. Galway—where his people were farmers—he received his early education at Esker College, Loughrea, and matriculated into St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, at the early age of 16 years.
As a student there he won many prizes and distinctions, and ranked as a first prize winner in an especially talented class.
After his ordination, on September 7, 1903, he was appointed professor at St. Joseph's College, Ballinasloe, and a year later he became President.
When Dr. Dignan was appointed professor at the Diocesan College in 1903, its address was The Pines, Ballinasloe. In 1924 the College was transferred to Galbally Park.
During his twelve years in the college, St. Joseph's won many honours, in examinations, and he showed his talent for administration by the sound basis on which he placed the finances of the institution. He was obliged, however, to leave St. Joseph's when his health broke down under the onious work, and he subsequently spent a period as curate in Ballinasloe.
An ardent lover of the native language, he was all known to
students at Spiddal College where he attended the Irish courses.
Sinn Fein Supporter
As a young priest, Dr. Dignan threw himself wholeheartedly into the Sinn Fein movement, and in 1916 he was one of its staunchest supporters in Co. Galway. In 1917 he became president of the East Galway Board of the Sinn Fein Executive, and later he was a central figure in the organisation of the Sinn Fein Courts in the county.
In 1918 Dr. Dignan was appointed parish priest of Abbey and Duniry.
During the War of Independence Dr. Dignan's house was raided and bombed by Black and Tans and property stolen. Dr. Dignan was away from home at the time of the raid. Afterwards some of his friends, clerical and lay, tried to persuade him to leave the district for his own safety, but this he refused to do.
His work in settling land dispates in Abbey and Duniry while puts there merited the gratitude of his people. Through his intervention many of the agrarian disputes were amicably settled.
His interest in education was manifest by the erection in the parish of a school at a cost of £2,000.
Dr. Dignan was appointed Vicar Forane in 1922. In May, 1923, he was transferred to the pastoral charge of Killimor and Tiernascragh.
Bishop In 1924
Less than twelve months later, on March 24, 1924, Dr. Dignan was appointed to succeed Most Rev. Dr. O'Doherty, who had been translated to Galway, as Bishop of Clonfert.
His consecration took place in St. Brendan's Cathedral, Loughrea, on June 1, 1924.
Among many messages of felicitation presented to the new bishop was one from the Sinn Fein organisation in the diocese. In his reply Dr. Dignan said: "I predict that the Republican Party is certain to be returned to power in a short time."
"I stand," he declared, "where I did in 1918. I believe as strongly as I did then in the right of Ireland to secure that right. I have not deviated one half inch from the stand I took then, but as a democrat I feel bound to obey—and obey I do—the rule of the majority."
"Much as I regret that the majority did not vote in 1923 as it did in 1918, this does not prevent you from using moral and peaceful means to persuade the people to go back to the position
they occupied before the Treaty was signed."
Social Services
Most Rev. Dr. Dignan always displayed a keen interest in social services and in 1936 he accepted an invitation from the then Minister for Local Government and Public Health, Mr. Sean MacEntee, to become honorary chairman of the Committee of Management of the National Health Insurance Society.
He outlined a scheme of national health insurance, which became known as "The Dignan Plan" in a paper read to the committee of management on October 11, 1944. In 1945 he was succeeded as chairman by Mr. D. J. O'Donovan, who was County Chairman for Dublin at the time.
In his pastoral letter of February, 1938, Dr. Dignan, referring to the new Constitution, said: "Ireland is in her second spring, and what a glorious task, what a privilege, to fashion and mould our new nation in the form and mould of a truly Christian people."
"Our new Constitution is in very truth the Christian charter of a Christian people—and we have every reason to be proud of it. (I am not but of its social and cultural character)."
"Many think it makes no difference what kind of a Constitution a people have. That is a very false and a very narrow view. The new Constitution of Ireland is Christian through and through... Moreover, its principles regarding education, private property and social policy are, to a large extent, the teachings of the Popes in their Encyclicals on these subjects. What a splendid foundation on which to build a new Ireland!"
Page 7, cols. 3-4

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Death Of The Bishop Of Clonfert
WE regret to announce the death of the Bishop of Clonfert, Most Rev. Dr. Dignan, which occurred yesterday morning at his residence, St. Brendan's, Coorheen, Loughrea. He had been in failing health for some time.
Most Rev. Dr. John Dignan was born in Ballygar in 1830 of parents who belonged to the gentleman farming class. When aged eleven he entered Esker College, and his ability and vocation were so pronounced as to attract the interest of Archbishop Healy, then Co-adjutor Bishop of Clonfert. At the age of 16 he matriculated into Maynooth, where his youth caused scarcely more astonishment than his manliness and independence—qualities which characterised him ever since.
During his course in Maynooth he won the highest distinctions in the various branches of study, and ranked as first prize winner in a specially talented class.
After his ordination in 1903, at the age of 23, he was appointed Professor in St. Joseph's College, Ballinasloe, and a year later became President of the College. His appointment marked the rise of the College to a high place among the best in Ireland, as proved by the distinctions gained in University and Intermediate examinations.
In 1905, in recognition of his work and his course in Maynooth, he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
HIS WORK INTERRUPTED
The work of the College, however, was so severe that Dr. Dignan's health broke down, and he was obliged to leave. During his period at the College he had also displayed great ability in financial administration as was shown by the sound basis on which he established the finances of the institution.
Retiring for a time from educational activities, he went as curate to Very Rev. Joseph Corcoran, P.P., in Portumna, where he first acquired his experience of town and country parochial work and developed the wisdom and prudence in human affairs which characterised him later.
After some time his services were again required for education, and at the request of the late Most Rev. Dr. Gilmartin, Archbishop of Tuam, he entered on a second term as President of St. Joseph's College.
Subsequently he was appointed Administrator of Abbey and Duniry, and in 1918 became Parish Priest there.
HIS NATIONAL RECORD.
Meanwhile the struggle for national independence had begun and he entered into it with energy. In 1917 he was President of the East Galway Board of the Sinn Fein Executive and was a central figure in the organisation of the Sinn Fein Courts. During the Black and Tan Courts. His house was bombed and terror his house was bombed and he escaped with his life only because he happened to be absent on cause he had outrage his friends duty. After the outrage his friends tried to persuade him to leave the district but he refused.
Late Most Rev. Dr. Dignan.
As a member of the governing body of the Diocesan College his interest in educational matters was maintained, and he continued to exercise great influence upon the success of the College. He played a prominent part also in acquiring the Clancarty residence at Garbally Park for secondary education in the county.
APPOINTED BISHOP
Shortly before the Most Rev. Dr. O'Doherty, then Bishop of Clonfert, was translated to Galway he promoted Dr. Dignan to the united parishes of Killimor and Tiranascragh, and made him Vicar Forane of the Deanery of Loughrea.
When Most Rev. Dr. O'Doherty went to Galway, Dr. Dignan succeeded him as Bishop of Clonfert. He was consecrated on June 1, 1924. That he had followed in the line of such great Churchmen as Dr. Duggan, Dr. Healy, Dr. O'Dea, Dr. Gilmartin, and Dr. O'Doherty was a source of great joy to his parishioners and many friends.
HIS HEALTH PROPOSALS
Dr. Dignan was distinguished for his able theological sermons, his zeal in the interests of educa-
tion, his organisation, and his devotion to temperance and general church improvement. He was always known throughout Ireland as a great patriot. He took a deep interest in all that pertained to the welfare of the community generally and was, from 1936 till 1945, chairman of the National Health Insurance Society. In October, 1944, he published what became known as the Beveridge Plan for Ireland. In this he envisaged a new and greatly improved National Health Insurance Society with charge of
all the health services in the country, and, if possible, of all the kindred services. The new society would consist of all employes, irrespective of wages or salaries.
In the matter of medical attention, all classes of the community would have had equal benefits. The society would not be a State service.
Summary: After Dr. Dignan was appointed as President of the Sinn Fein Executive and was a central figure in the organisation of the Sinn Fein Courts. During the Black and Tan Courts. His house was bombed and terror his house was bombed and he escaped with his life only because he had outrage his friends duty. After the outrage his friends tried to persuade him to leave the district but he refused.

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Funeral Tribute To
Dr. Dignan
PRESIDENT, TAOISEACH ATTEND
THE President, the Taoiseach, and members of the Government, attended the funeral of the Bishop of Clonfert, Most Rev. Dr. Dignan, which took place to Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Loughrea, yesterday, after Solemn Requiem Mass in St. Brendan's Cathedral.
Right Rev. Mgr. Benelli, Secretary of the Apostolic Nunclature, represented the Nuncio. The Mass was celebrated by the Archbishop of Tuam, Most Rev. Dr. Walsh, who also imparted the Final Absolution.
The President; Mr. de Valera and members of the Government were received at the Cathedral by Very Rev. M. H. O'Callaghan, Adm. Mr. O'Kelly and Mr. de Valera, occupied special prie dieux.
Mr. Sean MacEntee, Minister for Finance; Cearbhall O'Dalaigh, Attorney General; Mr. P. Beegan, Minister for Finance; Mr. J. Kennedy, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Welfare; Mr. G. Bartley, Parliamentary Agriculture; Mr. M. J. Kennedy, T.D., representing the Minister for Health and Social Welfare; and Mr. J. Hession, T.D., representing Gen. Mulcahy, were also present.
Following members of the Hierarchy were present—the Archbishop of Cashel, Most Rev. Dr. Kinane; the Bishop of Ardagh and McNamee; the Bishop of Galway, Most Rev. Dr. Browne; the Bishop of Limerick, Most Rev. Dr. O'Neill; the Bishop of Achony, Most Rev. Dr. Fergus; the Bishop of Elphin, Most Rev. Dr. Hanly; the Bishop of Killala, Most Rev. Dr. O'Boyle; the Coadjutor Bishop of Killaloe, Most Rev. Dr. Rodgers; the Bishop of Shrewsbury, Rt. Rev. Dr. Murphy.
Relatives present included—Mr. Thomas Dignan, Menlough (brother); Sister Mary of the Angels, Convent; Miss Sadie Dignan and Miss Terry Dignan (nieces); Miss Katie Keogh, Mr. William Keogh, Mr. Val Keogh, Mr. Daniel Annonlolly, Miss Madeline and Connolly, Mrs. and Mrs. Fitzgerald (cousins).
Town In Mourning
All business ceased in the town during the funeral and many hundreds of people who could not gain admission to the Cathedral waited outside during the Mass.
A Guard of Honour of F.C.A. and members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society accompanied the hearse on the one-mile journey to the cemetery.
The members of the Hierarchy and the general clergy, numbering 150, preceded the hearse.
Members of Galway Co. Council, Loughrea Town Commissioners and other public bodies in the diocese, Children of Mary, members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, I.R.A. veterans and school children were among those forming the huge cortege. I.R.A. veterans, under Mr. Martin Regan, were drawn up outside the cemetery gates. Capt. T. Finn, Loughrea, and Capt. A. Gannon, Ballinarea, were in charge of the F.C.A. contingents.
Funeral Of
Bishop
The funeral of the Bishop of Clonfert, Most Rev. Dr. Dignan, took place at Loughrea, yesterday. Our picture shows the cortege passing through Loughrea, with the Taoiseach, Mr. de Valera, walking behind the hearse. (Report on Page 4)

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Priest, Prelate, Patriot
38. 11. 53
BY the death of Most Rev. John Dignan, Bishop of Clonfert, Ireland, has lost a devoted and courageous son, and the Church a pastor of souls, who, through a long life, served Her with unusual ability and zeal. His talents flowered early—he entered Maynooth at sixteen—and was ordained after a distinguished scholastic course at twenty-three—and lasted long in spite of many prolonged illnesses. When only twenty-four, he was President of the Diocesan College of St. Joseph, at Ballinasloe, and laid the foundations of the later eminence of the school.
* * *
HE WAS an early, and always a staunch, supporter of the national independent movement, being President of East Galway Sinn Fein Executive, and later an organiser of the national courts in his area. Even though his house was raided and bombed by the Black and Tans, he insisted on standing by his people, working for their welfare, economic and cultural, as well as spiritual. It was typical of him that, when in replying to a message of congratulation on his consecration as Bishop in June, 1924, from the Sinn Fein Organisation in his diocese, he reasserted his regret that the majority of the nation's representatives accepted the Anglo-Irish Treaty. He urged those who had opposed it to continue to use moral and peaceful means to persuade the people to take up again the struggle for complete independence, and he gave
them his own example as a democrat in obeying the rule of the majority.
* * *
THROUGHOUT his life he applied his high principles in an unending effort to establish the independence and well-being of the people, not alone in the national field, but in their vocations, their parishes and their home. It was his pride to show his visitors the beautifully kept cemeteries and churches of his diocese. He was proud, too, of every effort—and he inspired many—that was made to beautify the towns and villages, to improve the land and the homesteads of the people. He was an enthusiast, not alone for the Irish language, but for Irish tradition. He so organised his diocesan and parish archives that the historians of the future would have ready access, not alone to records and statistics, but also to descriptions of the life and work of the people, of their homes and crops and implements, the whole illustrated by photographs.
* * *
WHEN HE was offered the post of honorary chairman of the National Health Insurance Society in 1936, he accepted it as an opportunity to improve the lot of the people and, after years of work and study, in October, 1944, he put forward a Plan of Social Security in which he envisaged a new and improved National Health Insurance Society which could have been in charge of all health, unemployment and kindred services. All classes of the community would have benefited equally in the matter of medical attention and the Poor Law Services would have been abolished.
As always with him, he envisaged the scheme as one in which the people would do everything possible for themselves. It was in line with his view that the war, in regard to which he strongly supported the policy of neutrality, was, in itself, an opportunity for Ireland to develop an economic and financial policy suitable to a Catholic people under which there would be an end of flooded farmland and barren mountainside, of run-down farms and villages, of dying crafts and migrant people.
* * *
FOR HIM the reduction of unemployment to the minimum and the maintenance of a family wage were prerequisites to good social services. He loathed the dole. His
proposals were based on full family care. Single men would pay a contribution which would guarantee future benefits on marriage and parenthood, or in view of responsibility for aged parents. Social security would have been placed within the reach of the farmer and shopkeeper, craftsman and artist with cash payments related to their earnings. The scheme would have been governed by representatives of the State and local authorities, employers and employees, and the medical profession.
The Governing Body would have been responsible directly to the Minister for Social Services, who would be responsible to the Dail.
Controversy on the proposals, which were well received in labour and other circles, culminated in the then Minister for Local Government and Public Health appointing a new Public Health appointing a new chairman of the Society when the Bishop's term of office ended in 1945.
* * *
AS PARISH CLERGY from all over Ireland assembled in Belfast at Easter, 1950, for the annual Congress of the Christus Rex Society to discuss "the Family" the quarterly journal of the Society published an analysis of the Irish Government's White Paper on Social Security, in which Dr. Dignan criticised the proposals under financial, social administrative and even geographical heads.
"The scheme," he said, "ignores Vocationalism and denies Democracy." He re-stated his view that Social Security schemes need not necessarily lead to bureaucracy if they are administered not directly by the State but by autonomous bodies, representative of all the parties concerned, if in other words Vocational Organisation were adopted in this and other departments of our social life, and he warned that the shelving of the recommendations of the Commission on Vocational Organisation "bespeaks danger for the future welfare of the State."
* * *
HE HAD once more re-asserted his fidelity to his principles, a fidelity which neither political fashion nor the passing years could weaken. May he rest in peace.
IRELAND AT MALTA
At the annual congress of the International Catholic Cinema Office at Malta, which commences to-day, Ireland is represented by Mr. James C. Fagan, Chairman, The National Film Institute of Ireland.
The picture is no Consultative Council will follow.