Talk:D. D. Sheehan
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[edit] Why Sheehan left Cork ?
"In the changed political climate, D.D. Sheehan and his family found themselves forced to abruptly abandon their Cork city home and exile to England."
In 1926, after being assured that the threats made against him in Cork were now lifted, he was allowed to return to Dublin.
"These are allegations that have never been proved, according to "D D Sheehan: why he left Cork in 1918" available from www.aubane.org".
The above pamphlet issued in 2003, contains an exchange of correspondence previously published in issues of the north Cork The Corkman newspaper, in which is said these incidents are unproven as they never appeared in any newspaper at the time. This is correct, as censorship had been imposed on newspapers by the authorities during the former period. The pamphlet also argues that as D.D. Sheehan had intended to stand for Labour in London from a latter date in 1918 he therefore must have been intending to continue to attend parliament there. This was never disputed except in the case of his home and family, which were to have remained in Cork. "Allegations" are neither being made nor implied.
In an interview given on the 13 May 2006, D.D. Sheehan's still surviving daughter Mona stated that "during those previous 18 years father was continually away from home, organising his movement, addressing meetings or electioneering, attending parliament, practising as barrister, then serving in the war. We were accustomed to him being away most of the year. Had he been re-elected nothing would have changed. Only that we were compelled to leave Cork there would have been absolutely no necessity for us children to leave home. It was very distressing for us being sent back and forth to boarding schools, we three girls to Loreto Convent Dalkey, where we were taken in as the "charity girls", father being unable to pay our fees, but he knew the Mother Superior."
She went on to say that "at the end of my days my greatest bitterness is that not just the Irish Government, but my fellow Irishmen give no recognition to the efforts and actions my father took to attain freedom for the whole of Ireland by peaceful constitutional means, but give all recognition to those who only got freedom for part of Ireland, using violence".
The circumstances of Sheehans leaving Cork needs to be seen in the historiographical context of that time, local groups often acting without central authorisation, recorded by several authors, Peter Hart in his 1998 work on Violence and Community in Cork (1916-1923) (ISBN 0-19-820806-5), or Desmond & Jean Bowen (2005) in "Heroic Option" (ISBN 1-84415-152-2) writing:
"Nothing showed the brooding unforgiving nationalist hatred of those who served the crown militarily as the campaign of terror against ex-servicemen who survived World War I and tried to return to Ireland. During the War of Independence Irish veterans of the war formed a major target for assassins, and almost a third of the civilians murdered in the first four months of 1921 were ex-soldiers. Out of the first draft of demobilised men who returned to Ireland in the Spring of 1919 eighty-two were murdered prior to the peace of 1921. The nationalist were intent upon harrying the ex-servicemen out of Ireland without mercy. As early after the end of European hostilities as 3 December, 1918 the Irish Independent denounced anyone who had served an "alien cause" as traitor to Ireland."
The pamphlet correspondence finalises with personal views and conclusions by its editor, the document is unbalanced in lacking a closing statement from the contra-correspondent. This was later sent to the editor and should also be obtained from the referenced "Niall", address in the pamphlet's letter correspondence.
Osioni 14:50, 21 May 2006 (UTC)
