Welcome To Ardoyne
With Joe Graham www.rushlightmagazine.com
A Ceili in Herbert Street some years ago
Ardoyne men at Bodenstown in the 1960's
Mrs Molly Barrett and her two daughters
Old Friends meet at the Crumlin Star Club
The original Crumlin Street mural painted in 1953 to commemerate the 150th Anniversary of the 1803 Robert Emmet rebellion.
The building of the James Saunders Memorial Club at old Elmfield Street
The funeral of Lt. Gen Sean McCaughey.
Lt.-Gen. SEAN McCAUGHEY. Irish Republican Army.
Sean McCaughey, born 1916 in Aughnacloy, Co. Tyrone, came to Belfast with his family when he was five years old. He became an enthusiastic member of the Gaelic League in his early years and soon reached Fainne fluency. At the age of eighteen he joined the I.R.A. Promotion came to him rapidly, and eventually he was appointed 0/C. Northern Command. In 1934 he was attached to G.H.Q. Staff, Dublin.
On the 2nd September 1945 he was arrested by Free State Forces and later charged with “Unlawfully detaining and assaulting Stephen Hayes”, ex Chief-of-Staff, I.R.A., and self-confessed informer who had been suspected of such treachery. Sean refused to recognise the Court and after evidence had been given against him by Hayes, he was found guilty on this evidence, and sentenced to death by a Military Court consisting of three Free State Army officers. The sentence was later commuted to penal servitude for life after a countrywide protest against the savage sentence which included the voice of the late Cardinal McRory.
After spending over thee years under the most brutal and inhuman conditions in Portlaoghse Prison, Sean entered upon a hunger-strike on April 19th, 1946. After he had been sixteen days on strike, he decided to go on a thirst strike also. This was the most torturous, agonizing and deadly weapon of all. On the 11th May, 1946—the twenty-third day of his Gethsemani, Sean McCaughey died as the great McSweeny had died twenty-six years earlier.
His remains lie in Milltown Cemetery, where a monument has been erected to his memory by the National Graves’ Association.
Many efforts have been made to besmirch the name of Sean McCaughey by the man on whose evidence he was sentenced to death. In a book written by a foreigner, Enno Stephen, Sean is accused, on information supplied to the author by Hayes, of ill-treating Hayes and using third-degree methods to extort his confession of treachery from him. There was no attempt, of course, by the author to obtain the other side of the story—or to cheek up on Hayes’ allegations.
At the end of 1962 Hayes, using the columns of one of the sensational, muck-raking English weekly newspapers, whose columns are usually filled with the happenings in the Divorce Courts and all that stem from them, and who are ever ready with their offers of filthy lucre to print anything that will besmirch, not only Ireland and her Cause, but also the brave men and women who have served and died for that Cause, endeavoured to write off his infamous confession as one taken from him by torture and trial of which he alleged iluu Sean was the chief offender. But those who knew Sean intimately and worked with him under all sorts of conditions, know that Sean was incapable of any of the slanders alleged against him. He was gentle and humane and priest-like in manner, and beloved by all who knew him and often was referred to as “Father Sean” by his comrades.
His name will be remembered always and his memory cherished in the heart of Republican Ireland, whilst the names of his slanderers and accusers will be spoken of only in contempt.
