Foot Soldier

by PATRICK SMYTH in Ballinskelligs - Irish Times Mon Sep 19, 2011 07:56

Mon, Sep 19, 2011

SEÁN CRONIN was “passionate about politics, about history, about his country”, and a man who made history, his nephew David Glover told the packed congregation at a memorial Mass on Saturday for the former Irish Times Washington Correspondent, academic and one-time IRA chief of staff.

Cronin, who died aged 91 in March, was remembered at the Mass at Dungeaghan Church, Ballinskelligs, Co Kerry, celebrated by the Rev David Gunn. His ashes, brought from his home in Washington to the place where he grew up and worked first as a labourer for the local council, were interred at nearby Dromid cemetery.

Family, friends, and former colleagues gathered with many comrades who served under him in the late 1950s IRA Border campaign, “Operation Harvest”, which Cronin masterminded. Glover also recalled the esteem in which he was held as a journalist, academic and author of well-regarded historical and political works in the US, where he lived from the 1960s.

At the graveside an oration was delivered on behalf of veteran dissident republican Ruairí Ó Brádaigh by his son Maitiú. Cronin, he said, was above all “a soldier”, a leader who “led from the front” with an ability to inspire all around him, fair-minded, and a gentleman. He was a socialist who supported women’s liberation.

He said Cronin’s resignation as IRA chief of staff in 1961, opposed unanimously by the rest of the army council, had been the result of an unfounded complaint against him by US republicans. Although vindicated, Cronin had decided to resign in order not to jeopardise the organisation’s US funding.

Mourners included Martin Ferris TD and trade unionist Manus O’Riordan. Former journalist colleagues from The Irish Times Paul Gillespie, Deirdre McQuillan, Conor O’Clery and Joe Carroll were present. The paper’s Editor was represented by Foreign Policy Editor Patrick Smyth.

Principal mourner was Cronin’s second wife, Reva Rubenstein Cronin, and among the extended family in attendance were David Glover, Con Cronin, John and Michael Goggin, Kathleen May, Mary Margaret Hickey, Helen Lennon, Áine Ní Cuív, Michael Baldwin and Deirdre Calder.

Among the volunteers present from the 1950s campaign, many former prisoners, like Cronin, were Denis Foley, Jim Lane, Richard Behal, Tom Mitchell, Gerry Haughey, Micky Kelly, David Lewesly, Patrick Regan, Brian Sheehy, Larry Bateson, Michael McEldowney, Seamus Murphy, Batty Murphy, Denny Donnelly, Brendan O’Neill, Tony Hayde and Walter Dunphy.

by Timire Sun Sep 18, 2011 19:13

Seán Cronin: A Tribute by Ruairí O Brádaigh

A Mhuintir Sheáin Cronin, a phobail Ghaeltacht Uíbh Ráthaigh, a chomrádaithe agus a chairde Gael,

“The Soldiers of Ireland bore him on high,

On their shoulders with solemn tread”:

Thus did the old ballad describe the funeral of Seán Treacy, a Republican soldier killed in action in 1920. The Soldiers of Ireland are present here today in their various generations. They would consider it an honour and a privilege to participate in the obsequies of their former leader Seán Cronin.

Seán was born here in Ballinskelligs – Baile an Sceilg – about the same time as Seán Treacy fell while fighting British occupation forces. Ceantar Gaeltachta dob ea Baile an Sceilg ag an am agus bhí Gaeilge ón gcliabhán ag Seán. (Baile an Sceilg being a Gaeltacht area, Sean had Irish from childhood)

Is cuimhin len a chomrádaithe an tráthnóna i bpríosún Mhúinseoigh i 1957 nuair a rinne Seán Cronin aithriseoireacht as Ghaeilge. I gceapach an bháis in eite “D”, a bhí mar seomra chaitheamh aimsire ag na príosúnaigh polaitiúla, a bhíomar ag an am. Labhair Seán amach go soiléir agus le mothú:

(Sean’s comrades remember an evening in Mountjoy Jail in 1957 when Sean gave a recitation in Irish. At the time we were in the death row cell, which was in use as a hobbies’ room by political prisoners. Sean spoke clearly and with feeling

‘Mise Eire’ le Pádraig Mac Piarais

Mise Eire; sine mé ná an Chailleach Bhéara;

Mór mo ghlóir; mé do rug Cú Chulainn cróga;

Mór mo náir’; mo chlann féin a dhíol a máthair;

Mise Eire: uaigní mé ná an Chailleach Bheara.

‘I am Ireland’ by P.H. Pearse

I am Ireland; I am older than the old woman of Béara;

Great my glory; I who bore Cú Chulainn the brave;

Great my shame; My own children who sold their mother;

I am Ireland; I am lonelier than the old woman of Béara.

A gifted man of many parts, Seán was above all a soldier. When he was sentenced to three months imprisonment by a Dublin court in January 1957, he told them that he had been a member of the army of the 26-County State from 1941 to 1948. He did not say that he rose to being a lecturer in the Command and Staff School at the Curragh.

Seán emigrated to the United States in 1948 and trained as a journalist. He became associated there with the Clan na Gael and IRA Veterans of America which dated from the Fenian period in 1867. During this time he wrote articles for the Irish Republican organ in Ireland and developed a keen interest in Irish history.

Following the Armagh and Omagh arms raids by the IRA in 1954 and the election in 1955 of two prisoner-candidates in Fermanagh-South Tyrone and in Mid-Ulster Seán Cronin returned to Ireland to take part in the developing struggle. He was promoted rapidly through the ranks of the Irish Republican Army and in 1956 was appointed Director of Operations on General Headquarters Staff. At this time he authored the famous booklet “Notes on Guerrilla Warfare” and was responsible for the “Battle School” which trained selected Volunteers as leaders. They would later in turn train local units.

He drafted the strategic document “Operation Harvest” which was a pilot scheme for a military campaign against British Occupation forces in the Six North-Eastern Counties. This blueprint was accepted by the Army Council and later amended in keeping with local circumstances.

His finest hour was yet to come. That was in July and August 1957 when he and his comrade on GHQ Staff, Charlie Murphy, escaped the internment net and incarceration in the Curragh Concentration Camp. While “on the run”, they re-organised the Resistance Campaign in the Six Occupied Counties. Cronin edited An t-Eireannach Aontaithe/The United Irishman and engaged in a war of words with deValera who was attempting to justify his concentration camp policies.

In the Autumn of 1957 he was appointed IRA Chief of Staff. In the months that followed he led from the front by taking part in operations in the Six Counties and also in an arms raid in England itself. In November 1957 a successful General Army Convention was held to consolidate the structure of the organisation. The Campaign was maintained throughout all of this and Seán Cronin evaded the 26-County Special Branch as it hunted for him night and day. Finally at the end of September 1958 he was arrested in Dublin and sent to the Curragh.

He was to spend the last five months of that concentration camp’s existence interned there without trial. On his release his advice on the dispute which arose in the camp was wise indeed. He posed the question: “is the Republican Movement a self-perpetuating religious sect, or is it the instrument of the freedom of Ireland?” If the former it was a time for discipline at all costs, he said. At the ensuing General Army Convention, Seán Cronin was again returned as Chief of Staff. He also resumed as Editor of the United Irishman.

During 1959-60 Seán was again on operational active service north of the Border. In June 1960 he was arrested a third time and given a six month sentence for “not accounting for his movements”. On his release he found that charges had been made against him from America. A Court of Inquiry found these charges to be groundless and he was co-opted back on to the Army Council. Cronin refused to accept membership because he felt support from America would be cut off if he emerged as a leading figure again. The other six members disagreed but Seán insisted in his refusal.

In the outcome there was no further support from America so both Cronin and the American support were lost to the leadership. However Seán did work for GHQ right up to the end of the Resistance Campaign in 1962. Commenting on the “termination of the campaign that began on December 12, 1956”, Cronin said that there “should always be military resistance to the British occupation of the Six Counties”.

A few years later Seán Cronin returned to the United States. For than 20 years he was the Washington Correspondent of the “Irish Times”. In its obituary that newspaper described his work as “meticulously precise as a reporter” and his Washington Letter as a “must read”. He was a writer, public speaker, lecturer, political analyst and military person who could turn his hand to most things. Above all he was a leader of men who led from the front.

Those who served with him in the Republican Movement in the years 1955-65 can attest to his fair-mindedness and sense of justice. Mná Tí in the houses where he was billeted spoke highly of him as “a gentleman” who did his utmost not to put the household under pressure. A socialist who supported women’s liberation he could always see the broad sweep of affairs and the consequences of actions.

I leave the last word to another Republican soldier who served under Sean Cronin in 1956: Daithí Ó Conaill of Cork. Following his escape from the Curragh Concentration Camp in 1958 he said: ‘I’m looking forward to working with that man’ i.e. Sean Cronin.

Sean Cronin had above all the ability to inspire people, by word and by example. Today his life of service to the cause of Irish national independence inspires us. For those who came of age in succeeding years, he has left the valuable legacy of his writings.

Seán was the author of many books and pamphlets including The McGarrity Papers; The Search for the Republic (a biography of Frank Ryan); Irish Nationalism, a history of its roots and ideology; Young Connolly (an account of James Connolly’s youth); Our Own Red Blood (about the 1916 Rising); Washington’s Irish Policy 1916-1986 Independence, Partition, Neutrality; Kevin Barry; Resistance (The story of the struggle in British-occupied Ireland); Ireland since the Treaty and An appeal to Unionists, The latter three were written under various nom-de-plumes.

They will inspire us for the unfinished work which remains to be done.

His family are justly proud of him. Kerry should be proud of him and all Ireland should cherish his memory. We here today salute him.

Leaba i measc na bhFíníní go raibh ag a spiorad uasal calma i bPárrthas na ngrás! May his brave and noble spirit rest with the Fenians in God’s paradise!

by Basil Goulding Fri Sep 16, 2011 09:22

What? Protestants were ethnically cleansed from the Irish Times? Quick, someone tell Eoghan Harris. He can add that to his list. (BTW, how many Protestants are there at the top in the Sunday Independent? Suppose there is some irregular symmetry: the Irish Times was run by a radical Protestant republican, while the Sindo is run by conservative Catholic unionists.)

Sean Cronin was a great journalist - best of luck to all in Kerry on Saturday, and best of luck to Dublin on Sunday.