It was in this picturesque town that Rose Pauline Kane and Alphonsus Cunningham, both 21 years old and engaged to be married with plans to emigrate to America, tragically lost their lives 50 years ago on July 21st, 1973 while serving as IRA Volunteers.
Despite not coming from approving republican backgrounds, Pauline and Alphonsus were drawn into the war due to the series of events unfolding at that time. It is important to provide some context here, as there is a deep and complex interplay of causes and effects that led to the war in Ireland during this time. Suffice to say, the reality of English rule confirmed Republican legitimism, as the criteria for just war doctrine was fulfilled to those who witnessed and experienced it.
In Irish history, there is a cyclical nature, where events play out repeatedly, albeit with slight remixes. Even though the comparisons I make may not be equal in terms of consequence, the sacrifices made by individuals like Pauline and Alphonsus are no less significant. Irish history is replete with examples of inspiring principled bravery against unfavorable odds, betrayals by informers, and brutality by the crown. The echoes of the past seem to reoccur and present themselves.
Consider here the aftermath of the 1916 Easter rebellion, when Grace Clifford married Joseph Plunkett in Kilmainham jail the night before his execution. Grace remained faithful to the cause and never remarried. The popular Irish song “Grace” poignantly captures the fleeting moments they shared in marriage, with the lyrics expressing, “there won't be time to share our love, so we must say goodbye.” Similarly, in 1803, Irish patriot Robert Emmett found himself caught in the aftermath of another rising in Dublin. His plan prior to capture was to escape to America with his sweetheart Sarah Curran. In one of his last letters from Kilmainham jail, he lamented the shattered hope of being reunited with his love, writing, “but a rude blast has snapped it, and they have fallen over a grave.” After Emmett 's famous speech from the dock he found himself on the gallows, when asked his last words he simply said and repeated “Not Yet”. He was then launched into eternity.
In 1973 Alphonsus, an active republican volunteer, had asked Pauline to join him as cover for the operation. It's believed the reasoning was that the presence of a girl in a vehicle with two other men on a busy Saturday night would attract less suspicion. In retrospect, the ill-advised wisdom of this decision was that Alphonsus never foreseen the result, which was not his intent or will. Pauline agreed to participate in the mission, which aimed to hit multiple targets in the local area. The explosives were carefully placed and timed to detonate late at night accompanied by telephone warnings to prevent civilian casualties.
On that night of July 21st, around 8:00 PM, Pauline, dressed in a purple velvet jacket with a yellow round neck sweater and yellow jeans, waited in her living room with her father William as she waited to be picked up by her boyfriend for a night out. William was with her, but he stepped away into the bathroom for a shave. When he returned she had left and tragically he would never see his little Girl alive again.
Alphonsus sat in the back of the vehicle, while Pauline occupied the front passenger seat, with another volunteer driving. As the device made a noise, Alphonsus’s last words were “Oh No”. What followed was a blinding flash. The car was split in two, Alphonsus absorbed much of the blast and died instantly. There are eyewitness descriptions of this event, but they are too gruesome to share. The other volunteer who survived had witnessed Pauline being resuscitated by good Samaritans, and for a moment it looked as if there was a good response from Pauline to the attempt at resuscitation, but she quickly passed away on the road. It is my belief that she had prayed not to be separated from her love, and her request was granted as she departed from this life into the next.
The families were shocked and devastated by the event, prompting a swift emphatic public renunciation of any republican connection or affiliation on their part. This response was because they were disgraced by association to the event and any tentative link to Republicanism. The power dynamic in the family aimed responsibility by being punitive internally. Reasonable motivations based out of fear would account for some of the reaction, but it was resentment, anger, and spite that would account for other behaviors within the family.
Pauline and Alphonsus 's names joined the long list of those who fought for the old cause, those who laid everything on the line – their very lives – for the sake of the nation. While the words of patriotic military rhetoric are true, they fail to account for other dimensions such as the immense pain and destruction that they entail. Yeats famously described the 1916 Easter rising as a “terrible beauty”, a sentiment distilled from the destruction, pain, and death that ensued. It can be easy to imbue romanticism into these events but sometimes that romanticism does not bear the burden of the consequences of such actions. It’s been said “It is easier to rest on another man's wound.”
There is a through line connecting these events and many others in between spanning from 1803 to 1916 and 1973. There is a shared narrative of the love sacrificed against English rule in Ireland. This narrative in the stories of these iconic republican heroes resonated with me as I could see a similarity. As their sacrifices represented all that they had to give. I imagine that Alphonsus, much like Emmet, would have had an apologetic heart for his fiancé and her family recognizing that a rude blast had thrown them into an early grave. Alphonsus’s “Oh no” could very well echoed Emmett’s “not yet.”
In another time and place, a friend once told me, “Someone has to do the hard work." Some individuals are driven by their conscience to act, while others operate purely in their own self-interest. When loved one(s) die there are entities that feel entitled and are able to strip control from the families or even the very wishes of the deceased themselves in order to drive a narrative that suits their own agenda. I think Emmett tried to preempt this with “let my epitaph not be written . . . ”.
Pauline was my aunt, My Mother’s sister. I never met Pauline as this event transpired many years before I was born. In the late 90s, while riding in a car with my mother, Don Mclean 's “American pie” began to play on the radio. My mom quietly revealed that the song was Pauline’s favorite. Since learning this, I have always felt a connection to the song, trying to understand what would have resonated with a young girl in Ireland in 1973. The song was a way for me to connect to my Aunt that I knew so little of. While the lyrics of the song are open to interpretation, certain lines stand out, such as “there we were, all in one place, a generation lost in space, with no time left to start again.”
As I conclude this piece, I am reminded of Joseph Plunkett’s poem aptly named I See His Blood Upon The Rose. It speaks of Christ’s love for us in the majesty of God evident in nature just as the beauty of the love and blood sacrificed where the dark Mourne sweeps down to the sea.
⏩Micheál Ó Brádaigh lives in the US.
Despite not coming from approving republican backgrounds, Pauline and Alphonsus were drawn into the war due to the series of events unfolding at that time. It is important to provide some context here, as there is a deep and complex interplay of causes and effects that led to the war in Ireland during this time. Suffice to say, the reality of English rule confirmed Republican legitimism, as the criteria for just war doctrine was fulfilled to those who witnessed and experienced it.
In Irish history, there is a cyclical nature, where events play out repeatedly, albeit with slight remixes. Even though the comparisons I make may not be equal in terms of consequence, the sacrifices made by individuals like Pauline and Alphonsus are no less significant. Irish history is replete with examples of inspiring principled bravery against unfavorable odds, betrayals by informers, and brutality by the crown. The echoes of the past seem to reoccur and present themselves.
Consider here the aftermath of the 1916 Easter rebellion, when Grace Clifford married Joseph Plunkett in Kilmainham jail the night before his execution. Grace remained faithful to the cause and never remarried. The popular Irish song “Grace” poignantly captures the fleeting moments they shared in marriage, with the lyrics expressing, “there won't be time to share our love, so we must say goodbye.” Similarly, in 1803, Irish patriot Robert Emmett found himself caught in the aftermath of another rising in Dublin. His plan prior to capture was to escape to America with his sweetheart Sarah Curran. In one of his last letters from Kilmainham jail, he lamented the shattered hope of being reunited with his love, writing, “but a rude blast has snapped it, and they have fallen over a grave.” After Emmett 's famous speech from the dock he found himself on the gallows, when asked his last words he simply said and repeated “Not Yet”. He was then launched into eternity.
In 1973 Alphonsus, an active republican volunteer, had asked Pauline to join him as cover for the operation. It's believed the reasoning was that the presence of a girl in a vehicle with two other men on a busy Saturday night would attract less suspicion. In retrospect, the ill-advised wisdom of this decision was that Alphonsus never foreseen the result, which was not his intent or will. Pauline agreed to participate in the mission, which aimed to hit multiple targets in the local area. The explosives were carefully placed and timed to detonate late at night accompanied by telephone warnings to prevent civilian casualties.
On that night of July 21st, around 8:00 PM, Pauline, dressed in a purple velvet jacket with a yellow round neck sweater and yellow jeans, waited in her living room with her father William as she waited to be picked up by her boyfriend for a night out. William was with her, but he stepped away into the bathroom for a shave. When he returned she had left and tragically he would never see his little Girl alive again.
Alphonsus sat in the back of the vehicle, while Pauline occupied the front passenger seat, with another volunteer driving. As the device made a noise, Alphonsus’s last words were “Oh No”. What followed was a blinding flash. The car was split in two, Alphonsus absorbed much of the blast and died instantly. There are eyewitness descriptions of this event, but they are too gruesome to share. The other volunteer who survived had witnessed Pauline being resuscitated by good Samaritans, and for a moment it looked as if there was a good response from Pauline to the attempt at resuscitation, but she quickly passed away on the road. It is my belief that she had prayed not to be separated from her love, and her request was granted as she departed from this life into the next.
The families were shocked and devastated by the event, prompting a swift emphatic public renunciation of any republican connection or affiliation on their part. This response was because they were disgraced by association to the event and any tentative link to Republicanism. The power dynamic in the family aimed responsibility by being punitive internally. Reasonable motivations based out of fear would account for some of the reaction, but it was resentment, anger, and spite that would account for other behaviors within the family.
Pauline and Alphonsus 's names joined the long list of those who fought for the old cause, those who laid everything on the line – their very lives – for the sake of the nation. While the words of patriotic military rhetoric are true, they fail to account for other dimensions such as the immense pain and destruction that they entail. Yeats famously described the 1916 Easter rising as a “terrible beauty”, a sentiment distilled from the destruction, pain, and death that ensued. It can be easy to imbue romanticism into these events but sometimes that romanticism does not bear the burden of the consequences of such actions. It’s been said “It is easier to rest on another man's wound.”
There is a through line connecting these events and many others in between spanning from 1803 to 1916 and 1973. There is a shared narrative of the love sacrificed against English rule in Ireland. This narrative in the stories of these iconic republican heroes resonated with me as I could see a similarity. As their sacrifices represented all that they had to give. I imagine that Alphonsus, much like Emmet, would have had an apologetic heart for his fiancé and her family recognizing that a rude blast had thrown them into an early grave. Alphonsus’s “Oh no” could very well echoed Emmett’s “not yet.”
In another time and place, a friend once told me, “Someone has to do the hard work." Some individuals are driven by their conscience to act, while others operate purely in their own self-interest. When loved one(s) die there are entities that feel entitled and are able to strip control from the families or even the very wishes of the deceased themselves in order to drive a narrative that suits their own agenda. I think Emmett tried to preempt this with “let my epitaph not be written . . . ”.
Pauline was my aunt, My Mother’s sister. I never met Pauline as this event transpired many years before I was born. In the late 90s, while riding in a car with my mother, Don Mclean 's “American pie” began to play on the radio. My mom quietly revealed that the song was Pauline’s favorite. Since learning this, I have always felt a connection to the song, trying to understand what would have resonated with a young girl in Ireland in 1973. The song was a way for me to connect to my Aunt that I knew so little of. While the lyrics of the song are open to interpretation, certain lines stand out, such as “there we were, all in one place, a generation lost in space, with no time left to start again.”
As I conclude this piece, I am reminded of Joseph Plunkett’s poem aptly named I See His Blood Upon The Rose. It speaks of Christ’s love for us in the majesty of God evident in nature just as the beauty of the love and blood sacrificed where the dark Mourne sweeps down to the sea.
I see his blood upon the rose
And in the stars the glory of his eyes,
His body gleams amid eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies.
♜ ♞ ♟
I see his face in every flower;
The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but his voice—and carven by his power
Rocks are his written words.
♜ ♞ ♟
All pathways by his feet are worn,
His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,
His cross is every tree
⏩Micheál Ó Brádaigh lives in the US.
Has resentment, anger, or spite ever accounted for your behaviour, Micheal O Bradaigh? Well written parts, good word choice, ya could have ran it through spell check at least once. Doesn't make sense in some parts. Its impossible to know if Auntie Pauline ever knew it was a mission or not. She went because she loved Alphonsus. Good job Micheal O Bradaigh, but considering who this is written by, the hypocrisy could choke a horse.
ReplyDeleteAlphonsus O Bradaigh