Post
by macliam » Thu Jan 26 2023 3:32pm
26th January
A couple of lesser-known anniversaries:
1316 - At the battle of Skerries, Co. Kildare, the Hiberno-Scottish army of Prince Edward Bruce defeats the Anglo-Norman army of Justiciar Edmund Butler. This was a battle in the Bruce Campaign in Ireland.... a little remembered example of the political enmity of England and Scotland that spilled beyond the borders of the two nations.
There had been a struggle over the domination of the Isle of Man and Robert the Bruce was concerned that England could use Ireland as a base to attack his kingdom, so he sent his brother to ally with Irish chieftains against the Anglo-Normans who were in nominal control of the country, but actually only in control of small areas in the south and east.
The campaign was a bloody affair on both sides and Bruce sacked Dundalk and massacred the population and did the same in Kells. In the battle of Skerries, the Scots lost heavily, but carried the day thanks to division in the Anglo-Norman ranks and their withdrawal from the battle. However, Bruce largely withdrew to Ulster and despite continuing hostilities until 1318, when Bruce was eventually defeated and killed at the Battle of Faughart (ironically close to Dundalk). His body was beheaded and quartered on the battlefield with his body parts distributed to the major towns in Ireland.
However, England was never able to use Ulster as a platform to attack Scotland, so the campaign met its objectives.
1904 - Birth of Seán MacBride, IRA leader, politician, head of Amnesty International, recipient of Nobel and Lenin peace prizes and a largely unknown figure in European politics. MacBride was the son of John MacBride, one of the executed leaders of the Easter Rising and Maud Gonne, an English-born Irish revolutionary, suffragette and actress who was well known for being the muse and long-time love interest of W. B. Yeats.
Sean MacBride joined the IRA at the age of 15 and opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty, fighting against the Free State in the Irish Civil war. He was captured and imprisoned before reaching 20 years of age, but on his release studied Law at Trinity College and became the secretary to Éamon de Valera. In 1925, at the age of 21 he married Catalina Bulfin, the daughter of the Irish nationalist publisher, four years his senior. They remained together until her death in 1976.
MacBride became head of Intelligence for the IRA and spied for the USSR, passing information on the Royal Navy and the RAF to the Soviets, including details of ASDIC (an early form of SONAR). In 1931 he then formed a political party "Saor Éire" ("Free Ireland") which was declared unlawful and MacBride was No1 target for the security services, but in 1936 he became the IRA's Chief of Staff. However, this was almost the end of his IRA involvement. In 1937, he was called to the Bar and resigned from the Republican movement when the Constitution of Ireland was enacted later that year, although he went on to defend many IRA prisoners.
In 1946 he formed a republican/socialist party, "Clann na Poblachta" (children of the republic) which was seen as a replacement for the by-then marginalized Sinn Féin. After electoral success, he became a TD and Minister for External Affairs in coalition led by Fine Gael, which was itself an "odd" alliance as Fine Gael represented the pro-treaty republicans. However, MacBride used his position to force a number of reforming policies - and proved his non-sectarian beliefs when he proposed a Northern Protestant as a Senator, the first to take such a position. The Senator, Denis Ireland, became the Irish representative to the Council of Europe and assisted MacBride in securing acceptance of the European Convention on Human Rights in 1950. MacBride then became president of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Council of Europe, and was vice-president of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC, later OECD). He was also responsible for Ireland not joining NATO, citing its constitutional neutrality.
Beyond Irish politics, MacBride served as the International Chairman of Amnesty International from 1961 until 1975, was Secretary-General of the International Commission of Jurists from 1963 to 1971 and was elected Chair and later President of the International Peace Bureau in Geneva. He drafted the constitution of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU); and also the first constitutions of Ghana Zambia and Tanzania. Within the United Nations he served as Assistant Secretary-General, President of the General Assembly, and High Commissioner for Namibia and President of UNESCO's International Commission for the Study of Communications. MacBride's work was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974 as a man who "mobilised the conscience of the world in the fight against injustice". In 1976 he received the Lenin Peace Prize and in 1978 he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. In 1980 he was awarded the UNESCO Silver Medal for Service. He died in Dublin on 15 January 1988, eleven days before his 84th birthday and is buried with his mother and his late wife.
Rather an extraordinary life from unlikely beginnings.....
Just because I'm paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get me