Category: 100 Years Ago

21 MARCH 1923

Following opposition from the Government, Earl Beauchamp withdrew his Parliamentary Election Bills which would have introduced the principle of the alternative vote.

The results of the national strike vote of members of the Builders Unions were published, with 42,606 voting to accept the terms and 140,952 voting against.

The Irregulars tried to destroy the residence of Maurice Healy, the brother of the Governor-General of the Irish Free State Tim Healy, saying that it was a reprisal for recent executions in Cork. The occupants were able to put the fire out after the arsonists had fled, restricting the damage to two rooms.

20 MARCH 1923

A new political organisation was established in the Irish Free State which sought to support the Government.

17,000 miners in South Wales went on strike over the question of non membership of a trade union, with 67,000 men potentially being ultimately involved.

There was a large majority in the building trade ballot who supported strike action.

The French Government said that they were not seeking hegemony in the Ruhr Valley, just security and an agreement for the Germans to pay war reparations.

20 tons of surplus fish was destroyed at Edinburgh fish market as the railways refused to transport it south.

Ben McCarthy, reported as a 16 year old boy, was taken from his home in Ardagh, Bantry and executed by four members of the Irregulars who wanted reprisals for executions which had taken place of their members across the Irish Free State. [further information at https://www.ucc.ie/en/theirishrevolution/collections/cork-fatality-register/register-index/1923-28/]

19 MARCH 1923

Andrew Bonar Law, the Prime Minister, responded to a deputation that met him that there would be no public subsidy for the agriculture industry.

Joseph Smeets, a leading Rhineland separatist, was attacked and seriously wounded in Cologne.

The Unionist Party selected Richard Owen Roberts as their candidate for the forthcoming Anglesey by-election.

18 MARCH 1923

The French Government confirmed that around 40 soldiers were killed in a railway crash in the occupied Ruhr Valley.

Boilermakers were instructed by their union executive not to take part in a ballot of shipyard workers and the union planned to withdraw from the Engineering and Shipbuilding Trades Federation pending a vote of their membership.

James Donovan, a member of the Irregulars who was known as the “director of chemicals”, was arrested by Irish police.

17 MARCH 1923

In a bid to prevent the growing number of acts of sabotage on the railways in the French occupied Ruhr Valley, the French authorities started to place German civilians on trains.

A ballot of workers in the building trade voted in support of strike action.

The Irish Government said that they had arrested ten senior members of the Irregulars in Cork. The announcement came after three houses had been burnt by the Irregulars in the Bandon area of the city.

It was proposed in the House of Commons that eggs should be date stamped.

16 MARCH 1923

Rupert Sackville Gwynne was appointed as the new Financial Secretary to the War Office.

The Criminal Justice Bill passed the report stage in the House of Lords.

At a conference in London, local authorities accepted a Government offer of £6 per house to assist them in building homes for “the working class”.

A new Cabinet was formed in Egypt.

15 MARCH 1923

Irish Republicans have issued a proclamation stating an indefinite period of national mourning during which all sports and amusements are to be suspended.

The Irregulars issued a statement saying that any MP in the Provisional Government that signed the Murder Bill would be shot on sight.

14 MARCH 1923

It was reported that British traders were struggling in the Rhineland due to the French occupation of the Ruhr Valley.

Seven members of the Irregulars were executed by shooting in the Irish Free State, one in Dublin, two in Cork, two in Mullingar and three in Wexford.

A group of armed Irregulars looted the village of Knocknagree in County Cork.

13 MARCH 1923

The Home Secretary was asked in the House of Commons why the Government had assisted the Irish Free State with arresting so many Irish rebels. He replied that evidence was provided to the Home Office that there was a quasi-military organisation with revolutionary aims which the Government felt was a threat to national security.

Tensions rose in the occupied Ruhr Valley following the shooting by French military of two men who had been alleged to have killed two French officers. In the confusion following the shootings the French military shot five more German civilians.

Archibald Boyd-Carpenter was confirmed as the new Financial Secretary to the Treasury.

12 MARCH 1923

Police in Scotland and England, working with the Irish Free State, were instructed by the Home Office to arrest a large number of Irish rebels that were in the country.

Two French soldiers were murdered in Recklinghausen in the Ruhr Valley.

It was reported that Lord Crewe, the British ambassador in Paris, was seriously ill.

The Irregulars announced that they intended to murder Mrs Powell, the widowed sister of the late General Michael Collins.