The Battle of Clontarf

Source: Irish Heritage Group


The Battle of Clontarf took place outside the town of Dublin on Good Friday (probably April 23rd by following the calender), 1014.

The combatants were led on one side by Brian Boru, then high-king of Ireland, and on the other by the Vikings of Dublin, supported by some of the Leinster Irish and also by Vikings of England, Scotland, the Isle of man, France and the Orkney Islands.

Brian Boru

Boru was a native of Co Clare, and belonged to the Royal house of Thomond. From his early youth he led his followers against the Vikings, who at that time controlled large coastal areas around Ireland. He defeated them in several battles and eventually succeeded in clearing the Vikings from Munster. When his older brother, Mahon, was murdered in 976, Brian Boru became King of Munster. In 1002 he became King of Ireland and his main goal from then on was to clear the Vikings from the whole country. He eventually forced them to a massed battle on Good Friday, 1014. Some accounts say that this battle took place as a result of a dispute over a game of chess with the King of Leinster.

The Battle

Brian brought his army across North Dublin, into the vicinity of Glasnevin, Drumcondra, and Santry. He was joined by the Ulster Irish and several other Irish chiefs from the West as well as a contingent of Scottish Gaels. He was also joined at the battlefield by the King of Meath, which was a separate province at the time. However, the Meath men took no part in the battle. The Vikings and their reinforcements prepared themselves along the coast between Dublin and Clontarf. Much of the land that is today around Clontarf and Fairview was reclaimed from the sea in more recent times, and it is likely that the main fighting took place nearer to what is now Glasnevin and Drumcondra, about 2-3 kilometres from the current coastline.

Brian was an old man by this time, probably well into his seventies, and his chiefs persuaded him to take no active part in the battle. He remained in his tent behind the Irish lines. His 30,000 strong army was commanded by his eldest son. The number on the opposing side is not known but it is likely to have been of about the same magnitude.

The fighting began in the morning and raged for most of the day. There were heavy losses on both sides, but towards evening the Irish forces gained the upper hand and eventually completely routed the Vikings. Many of the Vikings fled into the sea at Clontarf. However, other groups were cut off by the advancing Irish and they scattered in all directions. One of these groups headed West and ended up fleeing past the Irish encampment, where they came across King Brian. A short struggle ended in the death of both Brian and two of his attackers. The victorious Irish troops returned to find their King lying dead in his tent. They bore him from the field along the North road, towards Armagh, where at his own request the great King was laid to rest.

Outcome

Although the Irish won this great battle, there was a high price to pay. The High-King and his eldest son were dead and so were many of the chieftains who had supported them. The power vacuum led to a series of wars between the various kingships, which eventually led, 150 years later, to the invasion of the Normans and the beginning of English involvement in Ireland.

The Battle of Clontarf was one of the biggest battles of its time and resulted in the defeat of the Viking armies. As a result the iron grip of the Vikings, which had controlled North Western Europe for centuries, began to wane. Over the next fifty years, they were pushed further back towards their homelands in Norway and Denmark by other tribes (including the Normans who were themselves in part descended from the Vikings). It is clear, therefore, that the Battle of Clontarf played a major part in ending the power of the Vikings forever.  ¶ 2:01 AM

 


A Long Kesh prison doctor has informed the family of IRA hunger-striker and Westminster MP, Bobby Sands that his life span should now be measured in days rather than weeks.

The nationwide euphoria, naturally felt at Sands' truly historic electoral victory in Fermanagh and South Tyrone, must be urgently transformed into decisively effective, political pressure on the British Government. The Brits must be forced to cease their intransigence and to grant political status to republican prisoners in the H-Blocks and Armagh Jail, and thus save the life of Sands, and the lives of his three comrades on hungerstrike; Frankie Hughes, Patsy O'Hara, and Raymond McCreesh.


Today, H-Block hunger-striker Bobby Sands, IRA Volunteer, and Westminster MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, is slowly dying inside Long Kesh prison camp. Time is running out for Sands, whose markedly deteriorating physical condition is now increasingly giving grave cause for concern.

On Wednesday, a prison doctor informed his family that his life spand should now be measured in days, rather than weeks.

Just as in 1916 there were men and women in Ireland prepared to lay down their lives in repudiation of British rule and in assertion of Irish sovereignty, so too this Easter weekend four young Irishmen, including Sands, lie in the prison hospital in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh on hungerstrike, preparing to lay down their live in the service of that same cause.

The battleground for this, the last necessary rising against the injustice of British Rule in Ireland, has, because of partition, been in the occupied six counties. But the real battleground for the political status campaign has been within the confines of jail, fought by imprisoned republicans.

They, like the signatories who put their names to the 1916 proclamation, have fallen into the clutches of a brutal enemy, and even under these harsh conditions make no apology for having upheld in arms, and now through the force of personal courage, their Irish republicanism.

To the fore in this battle is Bobby Sands, whose principled stand was overwhelmingly endorsed by the nationalist people in the historic by-election victory in Fermanagh and South Tyrone last week. By this Easter Sunday, Bobby Sands will be on his fiftieth day of hunger-strike, Frankie Hughes will be on his thirty-sixth day, and Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O'Hara will be on their twenty-ninth day.


But Bobby Sands' life and the lives of his three comrades can still be saved, and the H-Block/Armagh prisoners' just demands can be won. The euphoria naturally felt nationwide at Sands' truly historic electoral victory, must be urgently transformed into decisively effective political pressure. The rising anger and tremendous solidarity of the nationalist people - as unquestionably demonstrated by the election victory - must increasingly be impressively demonstrated on the streets, and forcefully transmitted to London via what levers of power are available in Dublin and Belfast, especially through pressurising the Fianna Fail and SDLP leaderships, who pose themselves as representatives of the nationalist people.

The formula for a prisoners' victory remains precisely the same as ever, despite the continued intransigence and arrogant contempt for Irish opinion demonstrated this week by British premier Margaret Thatcher and Northern direct-ruler Humphrey Atkins.


The British must be forced to realise that the cost to them - measured in terms of growing political instability in Ireland and an increasingly tarnished international image - of denying the prisoners their rightful political status, will inevitably exceed the cost of dropping their criminalisation policy. A doomed policy, discredited internationally by the nationalist electorate of Fermanagh and South Tyrone symbolically rejecting it at the polls on behalf of the nationalist people as a whole.

And no wonder. For the British government's five-year old attempt - after eight centuries of attempts - to criminalize the cause of Irish independence and those who seriously attempt to achieve it, is an attack not just on republicans but chips something off all those with a national consciousness, no matter to which particular political or cultural organisation they may belong. This attack is all-embracing and intolerable, because it fundamentally presupposes a right on Britain's behalf to interfere in Irish affairs and set political values, and to accept that it is to be immediately compromised.

Also, the methods Britain has employed to enforce this criminalisation policy have been cruel and inhumane and need no further recitation.

This Saturday (April 25, 1981) a national march and rally is being held in Dublin. A week on Sunday a similar demonstration is planned for Belfast. Be there!

These protests will provide the last opportunity to peacefully demonstrate on the streets that the Irish people are not prepared to allow Bobby Sands to be a sacrificial lamb on the altar of British inhumanity and short-sighted political expediency.
  ¶ 11:04 PM

  Hungerstriker: Raymond McCreesh


In 1957, Raymond McCreesh was born in Camlough, South Armagh as the seventh of eight children to a adamantly nationalist family. He involved himself in the Republican movement in his adolescence, joining Na Fianna Eireann at 16. Not long after that, he joined the 1st Battalion of the IRA.

McCreesh was employed as a milkman and learned the streets and countryside of his area while performing his routes. This intelligence would greatly aid his comrades activity in that region.

Almost no one save the men he ran operations with knew that Raymond was a Republican. He was always discreet about his involvement. This is amazing when one considers the number of operations Raymond was involved in.

As a part of a four person ASU (active service unit), McCreesh carried out operations against occupying British forces. He was captured after an operation in 1976 and sentenced to 14 years in a star-chamber trial. As many volunteers who were arrested, he refused to accept the validity of the court he appeared in.

In a strange bit of coincidence, the SAS man who first opened fire on McCreesh would later be killed during the wounding and capture of Francis Hughes in South Derry. And also in late 1979, Hughes and McCreesh shared a cell together while on the blanket.

Raymond was not chosen as one of the seven who commenced hungerstrike in 1980, but he was one of the thirty to participate for the last for days of that protest. Hi reputation as a determined Republican soldier put him in the forefront of the Volunteers to be chosen for the 1981 strike. He was the fourth man to join the strike, the same day as his INLA comrade Patsy O'Hara.

He sought strength from his brother, Father Brian McCreesh during his hungerstrike and his brother did not fail him. His brother, to the dismay of the Catholic Church, supported his hungerstrike from day one. In Raymonds final days, Fr. Brian sent an urgent telegram to 10 Downing St. reading:

"My Brother has gone two months without food, and four and a half years without clothes or washing. All he has left now is his pride as a young Irishman, and his loyalty to his fellow prisoners both living and dead" He asked her to respect his dignity and to move to save his life."

Prime Minister Thatcher sent no reply to Brian McCreesh and Raymond died shortly after. After 61 days, Raymond gave his life for his cause; Irish Freedom. He was unbroken and resolute in his strike.

The IRA planted a tribute in Raymond's hometown, Camlough, shortly after his death. This tribute was a 1,000lb bomb that disintegrated a British Army Saracen.

McCreesh fought and died for what he believed was just. This fight is still continuing both in the prison cells and on the streets of the occupied counties. Don't forget about what these men died for, their ideals are not being achieved thru the so-called "mainstream" channels.  ¶ 7:55 AM

  INLA Volunteer Patsy O'Hara


Patsy O'Hara was born on July 11, 1957 in Derry city. He was to follow in his brothers' footsteps by joining the Republican movement. His brother, Tony, was also a prisoner in the H-blocks during his Patsy's hungerstrike. Also, the eldest son in the family, Sean Seamus was imprisoned in Long Kesh for a period of four and a half years for Republican activities.

Mrs. O'Hara believes that it was the riots of early 1969 in Derry that first sparked Patsy's fierce nationalism and the Battle of the Bogside in August of that year helped to firmly seal his feelings. He joined na Fianna Eireann in 1970.

At the beginning of internment, the eldest O'Hara brother Sean Seamus was arrested. Shortly after this, Patsy was on his way past a barricade when, without warning, the Brit soldiers at the checkpoint opened fire. Hit in the leg, he spent a month and a half in the hospital recovering. These events greatly affected the O'Hara family and helped even more to fuel Patsy's fervor.

January 30, 1972 would be a day that would stew in Patsy's mind until the day he died. His father took him to watch the civil rights march in the city center. They watched the massive march from a distance for a while, as it wound down into the Brandywell portion of Derry. Once it was in the distance, Patsy went back to his house and listened to the hell unfold on the radio broadcast. The horror of the murder of civilians struck him as it did many young men around his age.

His parents knew that date was the culmination of Patsy's bitterness regarding the occupying forces. They knew and supported his obvious decision. Mrs. O'Hara said of her sons: "I thought that that was the right thing to do. I am proud of him, proud of them all."

He became active in the "Republican clubs" in Derry city and was interned in late 1973.

In 1975, at the age of 17, Patsy joined the newly formed Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) and also the ranks of the INLA. At the young age of 21, he was elected to the ard chomhairle of the IRSP and began to campaign against the star-chamber, juryless courts that Republican prisoners faced.

Patsy was arrested for the fifth and final time in May of 1979 for possession of a grenade. He was tried and sentenced to 8 years by the British judge.

As the leader of the INLA prisoners in the H-blocks, he was the first INLA member to put himself forth for the hungerstrike. He joined his PIRA comrade Raymond McCreesh on the 22 March 1981. 61 days later, both men succumbed to death by starvation; asking only for five simple things:

1. not to have to wear a prison uniform;
2. not to have to do prison work;
3. to freely associate with other prisoners
4. to organize their own educational and recreational facilities;
5. one visit, one letter and one parcel per week. *


During the Blanket protests Patsy was quoted as saying: "We stand for the freedom of the Irish nation so that future generations will enjoy the prosperity they rightly deserve, free from foreign interference, oppression and exploitation."

May this dream be realised on the ideals of these brave men. In the words of Patsy O'Hara; "Let the fight go on!" Do not let the Provisional Sinn Fein leadership walk across the graves of some of Ireland's bravest men and straight into Stormont. This treaty of surrender is not what the Volunteers died for.

IRSCNA Piece on Patsy
IRSM Commemoration Statement 2000


*These demands are still being sought by the Republican POWs. Support them in their struggle.   ¶ 7:55 AM

  Today in Irish History:
Francis Hughes dies in the H-Blocks




Born on the 28th of February, 1956, to a large Catholic family, Francis Hughes grew up in the town of Tamlaghtduff, Bellaghy in South Derry along with his cousins and fellow Volunteers, Benedict and Thomas McElwee. All three of these men were to serve long stints in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh; two of them were to never come out alive.

When Francis left school at the age of sixteen, he took up an apprenticeship as a decorator and painter. Upon completing this apprenticeship, he went on the run.

As a Volunteer he was brazen and fearless in the face of danger. His first stint of active service was with the Stickies, but after their unilateral ceasefire, Francis became disillusioned and began running his own unit of men in independent operations. Rightly impressed, the Provos recruited the group as a whole in early 1973.

In the years to come, Francis' reputation as a courageous and bold Volunteer began to build amongst both the Nationalist community and the security forces in the Six Counties. The pressure to catch him came to a full head of steam in the spring of 1978, when he and another Volunteer had a gun battle with two SAS members, killing one and wounding another. The wounded soldier got off a burst of automatic sub-machine gun fire, wounding both Volunteers. Francis was hit in the thigh, preventing him from escape. He bade his comrade to flee and told him he'd fare for himself.

Francis was captured the next morning, having crawled nearly a half mile with a shattered leg. He was weak from exposure and blood loss, but was as defiant as ever. While they carried him away on a stretcher, he screamed "Up the PROVIES!" at the top of his lungs. At the time of his capture, Francis was being called "the most wanted man in the North[sic]"

Put on trial after a period of recovery from his injuries, Francis was put on trial and found guilty of murder as well as nearly a dozen other charges. He was sentenced to life for the killing of the SAS soldier; the other charges totaled 69 years in prison.

Arriving in Long Kesh, he immediately involved himself in the campaign for political status. On the blanket, he continued to build his reputation, defying the screws. They would do little to stop him; they were in as much awe of Francis as the POWs. He hobbled around on his crutches, yelling slogans and pick-me-ups to his comrades. Very few other prisoners in the history of the struggle could have gotten away with this without regular torture from the screws.

Francis was one of the 30 POWs who took part in the last stages of the 1980 Hungerstrike. This strike was called off when an apparent deal for political status was struck with the Brits. The British reneged on their original deal and the no-wash protest went on.

A second hungerstrike began on March 1st, 1981 when Volunteer Bobby Sands refused his meals. Two weeks later, Hughes joined his comrade on the strike. On May 12th, after 59 days refusing food, Francis Hughes died, unbroken. He died for Ireland.

Francis Hughes: Ireland's Own
Francis Hughes: Scourge of the UDR: Ireland's Own
Hungerstrike Commemorative: Francis Hughes
Irish Hungerstrike Page
Noraid Hungerstrike Page


The Boy from Tamlaghtduff

As I walked through the Glenshane Pass I heard a young girl mourn
'The boy form Tamlaghtduff 'she cried 'is two years dead and gone'
How my heart is torn apart this young man to lose
Oh I'll never see the likes again of my young Francis Hughes
For many years his exploits were a thorn in Englands side
The hills and glens became his home there he used to hide
Once when they surrounded him he quietly slipped away
Like a fox he went to ground and kept the dogs at bay
Moving round the countryside he often made the news
But they could never lay their hands on my brave Francis Hughes
Finally they wounded him and captured him at last
From the countryside he loved they took him to Belfast
Oh from Musgrave Park to the Crumlin Road and then to an H-Block cell
He went straight on the blanket then on hungerstrike as well
His will to win they could never break no matter what they tried
He fought them every day he lived and he fought them as he died
As I walked through the Glenshane Pass I heard a young girl mourn
'The boy form Tamlaghtduff 'she cried 'is two years dead and gone'
How my heart is torn apart this young man to lose
Oh I'll never see the likes again of my young Francis Hughes  ¶ 2:57 PM

  I have a virus that seems to have locked up most of my RAM and prevents me from sending information over the internet. I haven't been able to post from my own computer, excuse the pause.  ¶ 5:59 AM

  MISCHIEF

Bobby was seven then, As he grew older he was always up to some mischief.

Bernie recalls: "We were on holiday in Waterford, and he was mad on fishing. He must have been only about nine or ten at the time. We were down at the quay where all these fishermen were with their tackle, and he was standing with only a wee hand-reel and a bit of Dairylea cheese at the bottom of it. But he kept pulling in the fish, and all these men were looking at him.

"So, when he came home that evening, my mother put him to bed. But he got up with Marcella and the two of them sneaked out and down to the quay. My mother found them there, the two of them, in the darkness, standing there with the Dairylea cheese, still trying to catch the fish, and she nearly killed the two of them.

"Bobby hid all the fish he caught under our caravan and never told my mother. We got this awful smell, and the next morning there were al these fish lying rotten underneath the caravan and he had to go and throw them away.... He was always mischievous.

"When we were kids we used to be in a kind of wee gang, and we used to go way up the hill near us, the Carnmoney Hill, and build a hut. And Bobby would light a fire, making chips and things like that. He took my mother's pots and her food and we'd all be sitting around toasting bread, imagining we were camping out. Then my mother would catch us and she would half-kill us.

"One day we were up the hill and a dog bit me. Before Bobby would let my mother know, he took me down to the hospital. He would always avoid my mother knowing things that would worry her - if we, or he, fell and hurt ourselves, for example - she never even knew half the things that happened."

Similarly, in later years, when Bobby was imprisoned, he would never tell the family about any beatings by warders, any spells in the punishment block, or any sickness. He always made light of everything and never complained to his visitors, even when he was suffering agonising pains on Hungerstrike.

PROTECTIVE

Bernie remembers how protective he was towards his sisters: "When we were kids he was always protecting us, myself and Marcella. If anyone went to hit us he would jump in. He was always small for his age and he used to get murdered by different fellows in the street, bigger fellows, and still he would go out and beat them back. Bobby wouldn't let anyone touch us.

"Also, I remember how stubborn he was. If we had done something wrong in the house, my mother would put us outside to play and then when she called us in Bobby wouldn't come in. He would wait until she asked him. There was always this stubborn attitude the whole time.

"Or if he got hit he wouldn't let anyone see him crying. He just went about as if nothing had happened. When he got beatings from other kids he would get up and either hit back or walk away. Even if he collapsed around the corner after the beating, he wouldn't let others see it. He just wouldn't give in to people."

An attitude that, later in life, when he was imprisoned, he was to reproduce time and time again until his dying breath.

TROUBLES

Even when the four Sands children were young their mother told them about "the Troubles" during the twenties and the thirties, and she told them about what her grandmother, a staunch republican, had told her.

Bernie recalls: "Once "the Troubles" started it wasn't as if it came out of the blue, or that we suddenly became aware... When we saw the riots on television my mother would say: look that's what we went through, exactly the same thing. She used to always say to us: I hope you will never have to go through what we went through. But then the same thing did happen all over again"

Bernie recalls how Bobby decided to become an active republican: "I was young at the time, still at school, but he saw that many things happening around him. "The Troubles" we getting underway, the rioting was on television, and different people were getting shot and terrible things like that. He was just at the age when he was beginning to become aware of these things happening around him. He more or less just said "right, this is when I'm going to take up." He was about sixteen or seventeen when he became involved.

"There were a couple of our cousins arrested and interned, and Bobby felt that he should get involved and start doing something because it was starting to hit home now."

**A few more days of this article, as its a long one.

  ¶ 6:37 AM