COOLACREASE: THE IRISH INDEPENDENT REPORT
Nov 26th, 2007 by Conor McCabe
I was actually looking for something else when I saw that I was close enough to June 1921 to have a look and see what was written. Anyway, it’s not much but here’s what the Irish Independent had to say about Coolacrease. It’s from page five, issue dated Saturday 2 July 1921.
The Independent also carried a breakdown of deaths and non-fatal casualties for the period 1 Jan up to 1 July. It claimed that there were 997 people killed so far that year, with 1,331 wounded. 352 of the dead were listed as ‘crown forces’, while ‘645′ were listed as ‘others’. These ‘others’ included both IRA and civilian deaths.
Anyway, here’s the complete column.
Thanks for that Conor. I must have a look in the IT archive as well… Sort of contextualises the chaos of the time…
Well, nobody mourns for William Hickey.
In relation to the events of Coolacrease, RTE made a documentary last year (2007) with Eoghan Harris in which it distorted the true facts of what actually took place in Coolacrease. The events as described in the Irish Independent above present the incident as it happened. The Protestant farmers were killed as they attempted to attack an IRA road block in Offally near the British Army barracks. The documentary last year was akin to a semi soap opera talking about the shooting of the farmers genitals, ethnic cleansing and killing Protestants to take hold of their land. History revisionism impacts on local communities and memories and emotions of the War of Independence are held by some to this day. Documentaries akin to drama struggle to maintain the integrity of the true story. Coolacrease The True Story the book steers clear from the cine director genre and locates it’s content from local historians.