CELTIC CORNER:
Irish soldiers
fighting for the British Army in India went on strike after hearing
Of British war
crimes in Ireland on June 28, 1920, 93 years ago.
The Connaught
Rangers were organized I 1881 as the county regiment of Galway, Leitrim, Mayo
and Roscommon. Their two battalions were merged into one in 1914 following
heavy losses at Mons and Marne. They also fought at Aisne, Messines,
Armentienes and Ypres that year. They were moved to Mesopotamia in 1916 and
Palestine in 1918 before being separated again into two battalions, the first
being sent to India in October 1919. Nearly all the men who mutinied in 1920
were veterans of the Great War.
The Connaught
Rangers were well known for the marching song, It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.
The 2nd Battalion sang this song on August 13, 1914 as they marched
in parade order through the streets of the French port of Boulogne on their way
to the front. War Correspondent George Curnock witnessed this incident and his
report of it was printed in The Daily Mail on August 18, 1914. From that day,
that music hall song, written by Jack Judge in 1912, gained popularity amongst
all the troops during the Great War.
On Sunday night,
June 27, 1920, Joe Hawes, Paddy Sweeny, Patrick Gogarty, Stephen Lally and
William Daly met in the canteen, Jullunder Barrcks, NE India, in the foothills
of the Himalayas. They were veterans with twelve years’ service. Joe told the
others of his experiences in Clare were he had been on holiday the year earlier
and where the British authorities were stepping up repressive measures,
theoretically against the republican movement, but where they proved elusive,
beating and even killing likely looking young men. Newspapers and letters that
had arrived the previous day told of the atrocities being committed by the
“Black and Tans”.
“B” Company (200
men) arrived at the barracks and hearing the singing halted at the guardroom
rather than march past. Their commanding officer, Col. Deacon arrived and told
“B” Company to wait while he addressed those inside. He was about to make a
serious mistake, in his belief that regimental pride would solve the developing
problem. He had those in the guard room come outside and form a line in front
of him. He made an improvised, and to his own mind, very moving speech in which
he appealed to his own 33 years with the Rangers, their great history, the
honors on the flag. Just at this point Joe Hawes stepped forward, interrupting
him and said all the honors on the Connaught Flag are for England. There are
none for Ireland, but there will be one after today and it will be the greatest
honor of them all. One of the mutineers, Pat Coleman, overheard the adjutant
mutter to the Sergeant Major,” when the men go, put Hawes back under arrest.”
Coleman shouted out “you won’t get the chance of Hawes, we are all going back.
Left turn! Back to the guardroom lads!” Col. Deacon was in tears as over a
hundred members of “B” company ran over to the bars of the guardroom windows to
talk excitedly with those inside These soldiers were armed and they urged those
inside to come out. This was a critical moment. A personal decision made by
four soldiers to leave the army became a fully blown mutiny of some 150
soldiers. Those inside poured back out to cheers.
61 men were
sentenced, with 14 getting the death sentence, the ret term of imprisonment
from 1 to 21 years. Helped by the situation Ireland, where British policy was
changing from repression to negotiation, the C.I.C. of India commuted all the
life sentences except for that over J.J.Daly. He was shot on November 2, 1920
by a firing party of London Fusiliers. There was a rumor that the local Indian
population would attempt to storm the jail so several miles around the jail was
put under curfew Daly gave his few belongings and a last postcard to Hawes. It
is available in the Military Bureau and is nearly indecipherable with very many
crowded scrawlings that seem to oscillate between real dread and comforting
thoughts about the cause of Ireland. Daly was the last British soldier shot for
mutiny, but his was not quite the last execution. August 1948 witnessed the
hanging of three Indian mutineers and in January 1943 a British soldier was
executed after being convicted of war treason.
After negotiations
between the Provisional Government of the Free State and the British
Government, all prisoners were released January 9, 1923. The mutineers were
later honored and given pensions by the Irish State.
For each petal on the shamrock
this brings a wish your way
good health, good luck, and happiness
for today and every day.
Your Correspondence Secretary President
Frank Darcy Ken
Egan
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