BrownHairedGirl (talk | contribs) revert massive change by editor who is a major protagonist in the public debate on this incident. This hsoukd be discussed on the talk pge |
There is plenty on the talk page and the Ad hominen reasons do not stand |
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⚫ | The '''Killings at Coolacrease''' refer to an incident in the [[Irish War of Independence]] which happened in [[County Offaly]] in 1921. The Pearsons of Coolacrease were a family loyal to the British government, living in Coolacrease, near [[Cadamstown]], about halfway between [[Birr]] and [[Tullamore]] in [[County Offaly]]. On [[30 June]] [[1921]], eleven days before the Truce which ended the [[Irish War of Independence]], brothers Richard and Abraham Pearson were shot by a [[firing squad]] of the [[Irish Republican Army]] (IRA), and their house was burnt. |
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{{weasel|date=April 2008}} |
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⚫ | The '''Killings at Coolacrease''' |
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*The Pearsons were murdered for their land as part of an ethnic cleansing drive against Protestants. |
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*The Pearsons were militant loyalists who had attacked an IRA party at a roadblock and wounded both of them with gunfire, so their execution was a legitimate war-time military action in defence of the forces of the elected Irish government. |
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*The Pearsons were an innocent Protestant farm family, whose land an IRA gang descended on, and carried out an atrocity. |
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*The inexperience shown by the Offaly Brigade in neglecting to guard its road-blocking party with sentries was matched by its inability to execute the Pearsons humanely. |
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*That the prevalence of injuries to the groin and the lower abdominal area indicates a deliberate intent by the firing squad to mutilate their victims. |
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==The Pearsons of Coolacrease== |
==The Pearsons of Coolacrease== |
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In 1911 the Pearsons moved from neighbouring [[County Laois]] to Coolacrease, where they purchased a 341-acre farm which they worked successfully.<ref name="heaney1">{{cite book | last = Heaney | first = Paddy | title = At the Foot of Slieve Bloom: History and Folklore of Cadamstown | publisher = Kilcormac Historical Society | date = 2006 | pages = | isbn = }}</ref><ref name="stanley">{{cite book | last = Stanley | first = Alan | title = I met Murder on the way | publisher = | date = 2005 | pages = | isbn = }}</ref> They belonged to a religious movement commonly referred to as [[Cooneyites]] which, though evolved out of Protestantism, is considered to be distinct from the main Christian groupings such as Protestantism and Roman Catholicism.<ref>Doug & Helen |
In 1911 the Pearsons moved from neighbouring [[County Laois]] to Coolacrease, where they purchased a 341-acre farm which they worked successfully.<ref name="heaney1">{{cite book | last = Heaney | first = Paddy | title = At the Foot of Slieve Bloom: History and Folklore of Cadamstown | publisher = Kilcormac Historical Society | date = 2006 | pages = | isbn = }}</ref><ref name="stanley">{{cite book | last = Stanley | first = Alan | title = I met Murder on the way | publisher = | date = 2005 | pages = | isbn = }}</ref> They belonged to a religious movement commonly referred to as [[Cooneyites]] or [[Christian Conventions]] which, though evolved out of Protestantism, is considered to be distinct from the main Christian groupings such as Protestantism and Roman Catholicism.<ref name="parker" >{{cite book | last = Parker | first = Doug & Helen | title = 'The Secret Sect' | publisher = Macarthur Press | date = 1982 | pages = | isbn = }}</ref><ref name="stanley">{{cite book | last = Stanley | first = Alan | title = I met Murder on the way | publisher = | date = 2005 | pages = 370 | isbn = }}</ref> |
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Initially, the Pearsons integrated well into the local community, and their children attended the local Catholic school in Cadamstown.<ref name="heaney2">{{cite news | title = Coolacrease: A Place with a Tragic History | author = Paddy Heaney | pages = 220-225 | work = Offaly Heritage | date = [[2006]] }}</ref> |
Initially, the Pearsons integrated well into the local community, and their children attended the local Catholic school in Cadamstown.<ref name="heaney2">{{cite news | title = Coolacrease: A Place with a Tragic History | author = Paddy Heaney | pages = 220-225 | work = Offaly Heritage | date = [[2006]] }}</ref> |
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Following the [[Sinn Féin]] electoral successes in the [[Irish general election, 1918|elections of December 1918]]<ref>[http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/h1918.htm 1918 election results]</ref> a majority of |
Following the [[Sinn Féin]] electoral successes in the [[Irish general election, 1918|elections of December 1918]]<ref>[http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/h1918.htm 1918 election results]</ref> a majority of the elected representatives implemented their election manifesto<ref name="laffan" >{{cite book | last = Laffan | first = Michael | title = 'The Resurrection of Ireland – The Sinn Féin Party, 1916-1923' | publisher = Cambridge University Press | date = 1999 | pages = | isbn = 0 521 65073 9}}</ref> by establishing the [[First Dail]] on 21 January [[1919]]. In a conflict called the [[Anglo-Irish War|Irish War of Independence]] military hostilities between the affiliated [[Irish Volunteers]] and the British forces in Ireland developed into a bitter [[guerrilla]] conflict in 1920 and 1921. |
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In [[County Offaly]], where the Pearsons had their farm at Coolacrease, the military conflict was slow to develop, but it intensified in the course of 1921. A number of |
In [[County Offaly]], where the Pearsons had their farm at Coolacrease, the military conflict was slow to develop, but it intensified in the course of 1921. A number of Catholics, classified by the [[Irish Volunteers]] or [[Irish Republican Army]] (IRA) as spies and informers, were executed and in [[Kinnitty]], about five miles from Coolacrease, two men of the [[Royal Irish Constabulary]] (RIC, the militarized police force which was the principal agency of the British state in Ireland) were killed in an ambush by the IRA on 17 May 1921.<ref name="mcconway1">{{cite news | title = The Pearsons of Coolacrease, pt. 1 | author = Philip McConway | work = Tullamore Tribune | date = [[7 November]] [[2007]] }}</ref><ref name="mcconway2">{{cite news | title = The Pearsons of Coolacrease, pt. 2 | author = Philip McConway | work = Tullamore Tribune | date = [[14 November]] [[2007]] }}</ref><ref name="offaly">[http://www.offalyhistory.com/ Offaly Historical & Archaeological Society]</ref> Following a dispute between the Pearsons and local Catholics over a [[mass path]] running through the Pearsons’ land, two local IRA men, John Dillon and J. J. Horan, were arrested and jailed.<ref name="heaney1"/><ref name="heaney2"/><ref name="mcconway1"/> |
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==The |
==The Shootings== |
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In June 1921 the local Kinnitty Company |
In June 1921 the local Kinnitty Company of the South Offaly No. 2 Brigade IRA was ordered to construct a roadblock as part of county-wide military manoeuvres. At around midnight the Pearsons came to the roadblock and fired a shot or shots. <ref name="heaney1"/><ref name="stanley">{{cite book | last = Stanley | first = Alan | title = I met Murder on the way | publisher = | date = 2005 | pages = | isbn = }}</ref><ref name="heaney2"/> |
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According to one account, |
According to one account,<ref name="stanley">{{cite book | last = Stanley | first = Alan | title = I met Murder on the way | publisher = Alan Stanley| date = 2005 | pages = 110 | isbn = }}</ref> the Pearsons fired a single shotgun cartridge in the air as a warning to rebels who were damaging their property. In this version, “a group of rebels sawed down a tree on Pearson lands in order to create a roadblock”, and angry words were exchanged between the IRA members and Richard Pearson who “went back to the house, retrieved a shotgun and discharged it over the heads of the rebels. … The firing of a shot over the heads of intruders would have a common enough response in the past”. |
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According to other accounts,<ref name="heaney1"/><ref name="heaney2"/><ref name="mcconway1"><ref name="mcconway2"><ref name= "pey">{{cite book | last = Pey (ed.) | first = | title = Eglish & Drumcullen - A Parish in Firceall | publisher = | date = | pages = isbn = }}</ref> |
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Thomas Burke, IRA Officer Commanding South Offaly No. 2 Brigade ordered that all three brothers, Richard, Abraham, and Sidney Pearson, were to be executed and their houses destroyed.<ref>Béaslaí Papers, National Library of Ireland, Ms. 33, 913 (4)</ref><ref>Michael Cordial, Witness Statement, W.S. 1712, Bureau of Military History, Dublin</ref><ref name="mcconway1"/> The Pearsons were not apparently summonsed nor asked for their opinions. |
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an eight-man IRA road-block party selected a tree for a roadblock on the Birr to Tullamore road, about half way between the Pearsons’ house and the village of Cadamstown. The roadside tree was at the point of boundary between the Pearsons’ and a neighbouring farm about half a mile from the Pearsons’ house. Two men were posted as sentries on the road to either side of the planned road-block. At about midnight steps were heard approaching along the road from the direction of Pearsons’ house. Sentry Mick Heaney issued the verbal challenge “Halt! Who goes there?”. In response shots were fired at him, wounding him in the abdomen, arm and neck. The other sentry ran to his assistance and both sentries returned fire. The other sentry Tom Donnelly was shot in the head. A retired RIC man who had been detained by them was also shot by the attackers. The abdominal injuries of Mick Heaney were serious and he died a few years later. The retired RIC man was seriously injured in the back and legs, and lost a lung. In this version, the Pearsons had, as staunch loyalists, become hostile to the local community as the war intensified, leading to their participation as combatants in the war. |
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Following official investigation<ref>Béaslaí Papers, National Library of Ireland, Ms. 33, 913 (4)</ref><ref name="mcconway1"/><ref name="mcconway2"/> in Officers’ Battalion Council, into the identity of the men who attacked the road-block, Thomas Burke, the IRA Officer Commanding South Offaly No. 2 Brigade, ordered that the three brothers Richard, Abraham, and Sidney Pearson were to be executed and their houses destroyed. [http://docs.indymedia.org/pub/Main/CoolaCrease/Burke.pdf Report of Officers’ Battalion Council]. |
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On June 30, about one week after the roadblock affair, a party of thirty or so IRA men arrested Richard and Abraham Pearson while they were making hay in a field near their house. They were taken back to the house and held under guard there with other members of the family — their mother, three sisters, a younger brother, and two female cousins — while the house was prepared to be burned. Their father William Pearson and brother Sidney were away from home at the time. The brothers were shot by a firing squad and the house burned. The two men were fatally injured; no [[coup de grâce]] was made, so they did not die until some hours later.<ref name="heaney1"/><ref name="heaney2"/><ref name="stanley"/> Richard Pearson took six hours to die and his brother Abraham 14 hours.<ref>{{cite news |
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|url=http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2007/1109/1194549951855.html |
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|title= Diehards reveal true colours |
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|author=David Adams |
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|date=[[9 November]] [[2007]] |
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|work=The Irish Times |
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|accessdate=2004-04-24}}</ref> |
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On [[30 June]] [[1921]], about a week after the roadblock shootings, a party of about thirty IRA men arrested Richard and Abraham Pearson.<ref name="stanley"/><ref name="heaney1"/><ref name="heaney2"/><ref>Michael Cordial, Witness Statement, W.S. 1712, Bureau of Military History, Dublin</ref><ref>NAUK (British Public Records Office) CO 762/24/5 William Sidney Pearson, King’s County, No. 324 1926-1927</ref> They were taken to their house and held under guard there with other members of the family (their mother, three sisters, younger brother, and two female cousins) while the house was prepared to be burned. Their father William Pearson and brother Sidney were away from home at the time. The brothers Richard and Abraham Pearson were shot by a firing squad of about ten men, and the house was burned. Richard and Abraham Pearson died after six hours and fourteen hours, respectively. [http://docs.indymedia.org/pub/Main/CoolaCrease/GC-SidneyP.pdf Sidney Pearson’s Statement], [http://docs.indymedia.org/pub/Main/CoolaCrease/GC-WmP.pdf William Pearson’s Statement],[http://docs.indymedia.org/pub/Main/CoolaCrease/MICHAEL_CORDIAL.pdf Michael Cordial’s Witness Statement]. |
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Richard and Abraham Pearson were buried without ceremony in an unmarked grave in Killermough Church of Ireland, Co. Laois, almost 30 miles from their home.<ref name="stanley"/> |
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The medical reports<ref>NAUK (British Public Records Office), WO 35/57A Court of Enquiry</ref> declare that the death of Richard Pearson was due to haemorrhage and shock caused by gunshot wounds to the left shoulder, right groin, right buttock, left lower leg and to the back; the most serious being the wound to the right groin. And in the case of Abraham Pearson, death was declared to be the result of shock from gunshot wounds to the left cheek, left shoulder, left thigh, lower third of left leg and through the abdomen. [http://docs.indymedia.org/pub/Main/CoolaCrease/V_British_Military_Courts_of_Enquiry.pdf Reports of British Military Courts of Enquiry in Lieu of Inquests] |
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==The aftermath== |
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The family left Ireland and their farm was sold to the Irish Land Commission in 1923. The farm was divided into smaller farms which were allocated to local people.<ref name="heaney1"/><ref name="heaney2"/><ref name="stanley"/> |
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It has been alleged{{weasel-inline|date=April 2008}} that the Pearsons were innocent of any offence and that they were shot in furtherance of a sectarian land grab, in a context of ethnic and sectarian attacks on Protestant loyalists to promote ethnic cleansing. Part of this argument includes allegations that the executions were deliberately carried out as an atrocity involving sexual mutilation causing prolonged, agonizing death, which the rest of the family were forced to witness.<ref name="stanley"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.independent.ie/unsorted/features/this-tree-has-rotten-roots-and-bitter-fruit-473209.html |title=This tree has rotten roots and bitter fruit |author=Eoghan Harris |work=Sunday Independent |date= [[9 October]] [[2005]] |accessdate=2008-04-24}}</ref> |
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A counter-argument states that British Courts of Inquiry in Lieu of Inquests were held in Birr on [[2 July]] [[1921]], and the medical evidence shows there was no genital mutilation, and death was due to shock and blood loss from superficial injuries, indicating a botched execution attempt and inadequate medical attention. A summarized RIC report from the County Inspector of Queen's County ([[Laois]]) confirms that the Pearsons were shot because of their attack on the IRA men at the roadblock. This latter point has been questioned by those who argue that there was no RIC investigation. This interpretation summarises the British army correspondence - 5th Division Curragh Camp (not an RIC report) as "collecting rumours".<ref name="unfounded">{{cite web |url=http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/unfounded-claims-about-killings-1230002.html |title=Unfounded claims about killings |author=Niamh Sammon |work=Letters column, The Sunday Independent |date= [[25 November]] [[2005]] |accessdate=2008-04-24}}</ref> |
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The above counter-argument has in turn been challenged on both points. Some argue<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/why-bodies-buried-deep-in-the-green-bog-must-be-raised-1216629.html|title=Why bodies buried deep in the green bog must be raised |author=Eoghan Harris |work=Sunday Independent |date= [[11 November]] [[2005]] |accessdate=2008-04-24}}</ref> that the medical evidence of Medical Practitioner Dr Frederick William Woods contradicts the belief that the medical evidence showed there was no genital mutilation, and that death was not due to superficial injuries. Dr Woods stated at the Court of Enquiry held at Crinkle Military Barracks, Birr, Co. Offaly, [[2 July]] [[1921]]:<blockquote>"In my opinion the cause of death was shock and sudden haemorrhage as a result of gunshot wounds. The fatal wound in my opinion was that on the groin" and later "I found the deceased (Abraham Pearson) lying there suffering from gunshot wounds...I...found extensive wounds on left cheek, left shoulder, left thigh and lower third of left leg. In addition there was a wound through the abdomen. The latter wound had an entrance at the front and appeared to have its exit at the lower part of the back, fracturing the lower part of the spinal column. In my opinion death resulted from shock due to gunshot wounds".<ref>Court of Enquiry held at Crinkle Military Barracks, Birr, Co. Offaly, July 2 1921</ref></blockquote> |
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The distinction between groin and genitals has in turn been challenged. In the ''[[Irish Times]]'', David Adams asked:<blockquote>Were the Pearson brothers shot in the groin or the genitals? What does it matter? The real question is, if it wasn't deliberate, how did so many gunmen (about 30) manage to shoot the men only in their lower abdomens?<ref>{{cite news |
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|url=http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2007/1109/1194549951855.html |
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|title= Diehards reveal true colours |
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|author=David Adams |
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|date=[[9 November]] [[2007]] |
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|work=The Irish Times |
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|accessdate=2004-04-24}}</ref> |
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</blockquote> |
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Others also challenge the assumption that a "summarized RIC report from the County Inspector of Queen's County (Laois) confirms that the Pearsons were shot because of their attack on the IRA men at the roadblock". They argue that there was no RIC investigation. The report cited as evidence of an RIC investigation is they say, a British army correspondence (5th Division Curragh Camp) that speculates on the reasons for the Pearson killings. It was filed after the Court of Inquiry had deliberated on July 2 in Birr. Titled 'The Coolacrease Murders 30.6.21 -- Possible Motives', the first part of the document speculates that the Pearsons were targeted for their land. Part two then states:<blockquote>"It is said by the CI (County Inspector) Queen's County that the two Pearson boys a few days previously had seen two men felling a tree on their land adjoining the road. Had told the men concerned to go away and when they refused had fetched two guns and fired and wounded two Sinn Feiners, one of whom is believed died."</blockquote> The next sentence reads:<blockquote>"It is further rumoured when the farm house was burning two guns fell out of the roof."</blockquote> It is argued that the army was simply collating the rumours surrounding the deaths of the Pearsons (nobody died that night). Not only were these rumours never investigated, the 'Possible Motives' document did not form part of the Court of Inquiry.<ref name="unfounded">{{cite web |url=http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/unfounded-claims-about-killings-1230002.html |title=Unfounded claims about killings |author=Niamh Sammon |work=Letters column, The Sunday Independent |date= [[25 November]] [[2005]] |accessdate=2008-04-24}}</ref> |
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While family members claimed to have observed the shootings, they also testified they were moved to the Grove, a wooded location some distance from the house, where they would have been unable to witness the shootings. The latter is confirmed in a statement by Michael Cordial, an IRA Battalion Quartermaster and member of an Active Service Unit, who was present at the executions.<ref>NAUK (British Public Records Office), WO 35/157A Court of Enquiry</ref><ref name="mcconway1"/><ref name="mcconway2"/><ref name="offaly">[http://www.offalyhistory.com Offaly Historical and Archaeological Society]</ref> |
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There is an opposing interpretation of this event. It has been pointed out that (under oath) Ethel Pearson, in a sworn statement to the Court of Inquiry, said:<blockquote>"I saw the raiders search my brothers, and place them against the wall of the barn and shoot them."</blockquote> Tilly Pearson stated:<blockquote>"They placed my brothers shortly afterwards against the wall of the barn and shot them. When they fell, they shot them again."<ref name="unfounded"/></blockquote> |
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On the land grab issue, one version of the episode says that, due to squatting and boycott, the Pearsons had to dispose of their farm for less than half its value.<ref name="stanley"/> Other accounts describe the Pearsons using first the Republican courts for routine civil purposes, and later the [[Irish Free State]] courts to obtain compensation for damages, as they were entitled to do.<ref name="heaney2"/> It is further argued that the price they received for their farm in 1923 was more than double the amount they paid for it in 1911.<ref>NAUK (British Public Records Office), CO 762/24/5 William Sydney Pearson, King's County, No. 324 1926-1927</ref> It is argued that aspects of William Pearson’s application for financial compensation from the British Government’s Irish Grants Committee involved numerous distortions and fraudulent claims.<ref name="mcconway2"/> |
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Evidence that the land had multiplied in value from the original £2000 purchase price paid by William Pearson came in the form of a letter from William Percy stating he had offered Pearson £10,000 for the land. The Grants Committee file also contains a letter of valuation from local auctioneers valuing the Pearson land at £17,000. William Percy tried to buy the Pearson’s farm in 1921, but was stopped from doing so by the local IRA. <blockquote>"The price I offered was 10,000 and I might have gone higher only the people would not allow any outsider to purchase the land. I was not allowed to close the bargain".<ref name="BCC Decisions"/></blockquote> In the end the Pearsons sold the land to the Land Commission for around £5000.<ref name="stanley"/> |
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==Debate== |
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On [[23 October]] [[2007]], the Irish broadcasting agency [[RTÉ]] broadcast a controversial television documentary ''The Killings at Coolacrease'' which portrayed the events as a sectarian atrocity resulting from a dispute over land.<ref>[http://tvsales.rte.ie/autumn/content/factual/hidden-history.html RTÉ programme announcement]</ref> The editorial of a popular Irish history journal criticized the RTÉ documentary as a text-book example of media spin.<ref>''History Ireland'', January-February 2008</ref> |
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Others within the Irish media welcomed the broadcast of the documentary <ref>[http://www.independent.ie/topics/Abraham+Pearson Irish Independent]</ref><ref name="BelfastNewsletter-time-for-truth">{{cite news |url=http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/39Time-for-truth-on-murders39.3483577.jp |
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|title='Time for truth on murders' |
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|date=[[14 November]] [[2007]] |
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|work=Belfast Newsletter |accessdate=2004-04-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |
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|url=http://archives.tcm.ie/westernpeople/2007/10/31/story38653.asp |
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|title=Can we learn the lessons of history? |
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|date=[[31 October]] [[2007]] |
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|work=The Western People |
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|accessdate=2004-04-24}}</ref><ref>[http://www.ireland.com/search/?rm=listresults&filter=datedesc&keywords=coolacrease Irish Times]</ref><ref name="Kelleher-Sunday Mirror">{{cite news |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4161/is_/ai_n21062660 |
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|title=30 IRA men shot two farm brothers in the groin and left them to |
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|work=Sunday Mirror |
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|date=[[21 October]] [[2007]] |
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|author=Lynne Kelleher |
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|accessdate=2008-04-24}}</ref> and its effort to "uncover the truth behind the murder of two Protestant brothers by ...[the]... IRA".<ref name="BelfastNewsletter-time-for-truth" /> Senator [[Eoghan Harris]] commented:<blockquote>"Nothing can disturb the starkness of 30 men going into a farmhouse and pulling two young men out and shooting them in the groin and then shooting them in the buttocks... I believe the plain people of Ireland believe that something evil was done that day."<ref name="Kelleher-Sunday Mirror">{{cite news |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4161/is_/ai_n21062660 |
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|title=30 IRA men shot two farm brothers in the groin and left them to |
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|work=Sunday Mirror |
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|date=[[21 October]] [[2007]] |
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|author=Lynne Kelleher |
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|accessdate=2008-04-24}}</ref></blockquote> |
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On [[24 October]] [[2007]], independent Senator [[David Norris (politician)|David Norris]] addressed the controversy during the Order of Business in the [[Seanad Éireann|Irish Senate]], calling it a "very remarkable programme".<ref name="Norris-Order-of-business">{{cite web |url=http://www.senatordavidnorris.ie/blogger/2007/10/order-of-business-24th-october-2007.html |title= Order of Business - 24th October 2007 |work=David Norris's website |accessdate=2008-04-24}}</ref> He said:<blockquote>"I was very ashamed by some of the things that were said. There was a horrible and nasty, small minded bestial attempt to smear retrospectively the Pearson family and I deplore that…To hear a young historian say the mistake was that they did not finish them off is repulsive in the extreme. I could hardly believe what I was hearing".<ref name="Norris-Order-of-business" /></blockquote> |
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On [[7 January]] [[2008]], [[Fianna Fáil]] politician and historian [[Martin Mansergh]] commenting on the documentary, questioned whether the treatment meted out to the Pearsons met the standard of avoiding ‘wanton cruelties’ and believed that the justification of military necessity was doubtful in the case of Coolacrease.<ref>{{cite news |
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|url=http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2008/01/07/story51922.asp |
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|title=Hidden History debate casts light into some dark corners |
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|date=[[7 January]] [[2008]] |
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|author=Martin Mansergh |
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|work=Irish Examiner letters |
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|accessdate=2004-04-24}}</ref> |
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On [[25 February]] [[2008]], the Broadcasting Complaints Commission (BCC), an independent statutory body, with the responsibility to deal with all broadcasting complaints concerning radio and television broadcasters licensed within the Republic of Ireland, considered seven formal complaints regarding RTÉ's Hidden History programme, ''The Killings of Coolacrease''. Claims that the documentary was "unbalanced and misleading", that important evidence was omitted, that there were "inaccurate facts amounting to an attack on a person’s reputation or honour" and that there was "unacceptable suppression of pertinent source material" were all rejected by the BCC.<ref name="BCC Decisions">{{cite web |url=http://www.bcc.ie/decisions/feb_08_decisions.html |title=Decisions - February 2008 |work=Broadcasting Complaints Commission website |accessdate=2004-04-24}}</ref> |
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==Atrocity Claims== |
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One of the complainants was Dr Pat Muldowney, an academic mathematician and amateur historian, whose complaints to the BCC had included the program's failure to include any footage of an interview recorded with him. In correspondence with RTÉ, he had described the Pearsons as 'Amish from Hell', as 'extreme mercenary types driven by insatiable desire for land and money' and as 'threatening terrified women and children with firearms'. He wrote of the Pearsons that 'apart from their grasping and bigoted qualities, they were rather unremarkable people, best forgotten about'.<ref name="unfounded" /> |
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On [[9 July]] [[1921]] the British military government of Ireland in [[Dublin Castle]] issued a statement<ref> Dublin Castle Statement 1029 July 9 1921 </ref> [http://docs.indymedia.org/pub/Main/CoolaCrease/DublinCastle.pdf (Dublin Castle Statement) ] claiming that an atrocity had been committed against the Pearsons. In 2005 claims of murder and atrocity were made in a book <ref name="stanley"/> written by the Alan Stanley, son of William Stanley, a friend and relative of the Pearsons who was living with them under an assumed name “Jimmy Bradley” <ref name="heaney1"/> at the time of the roadblock incident and who escaped from arrest by the IRA by running away when the Pearson brothers were arrested.<ref name="stanley"/><ref name="heaney1"/> Alan Stanley’s book argues that the Pearsons were innocent farmers, that they did not shoot anybody at the road-block, and that they were murdered by people who wanted to take their land. |
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Further claims {{Fact|date=April 2007}}{{Fact|date= April 2007}} of atrocity, torture, mutilation, land-grabbing and ethnic cleansing have been made. |
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These allegations against the Pearson family and the Protestant sect, the Cooneyites (in England during WWI, Cooneyite preachers were granted conscientious objector status in keeping with their apolitical beliefs) have been challenged as "unfounded".<ref name="unfounded" /> |
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Counter-claims {{Fact|date= April 2007}}{{Fact|date= April 2007}}{{Fact|date= April 2007}}{{Fact|date= April 2007}} argue that the shooting of the Pearsons was a legitimate military war-time action carried out against enemy combatants by the armed forces of the elected Irish government, and that charges of murder, atrocity, torture, mutilation, land-grabbing and ethnic cleansing are false. |
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On [[18 April]] [[2008]], the television documentary ''The Killings at Coolacrease'' won an International Hugo Television Award (Gold Plaque in the Documentary: History and Biography category), run as part of the 44th Chicago International Film Festival, Chicago, USA. The Hugo Television Awards recognise outstanding productions and are competed for by 35 countries across six continents. Entries to the competition are judged by a jury of leading media professionals. <ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rte.ie/about/awards/page1199734.html |title=RTÉ Wins International Hugo Awards |author=RTE |work=RTE |date= [[18 April]] [[2008]] |accessdate=2008-04-28}}</ref> |
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A television programme <ref>[http://tvsales.rte.ie/autumn/content/factual/hidden-history.html RTÉ programme announcement]</ref> about the incident was broadcast by the Irish broadcaster RTÉ on [[23 October]][[2007]]. It received criticism{{Fact|date= April 2007}}{{Fact|date= April 2007}} and support.{{Fact|date= April 2007}}{{Fact|date= April 2007}} Formal complaints against the programme were rejected by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission.<ref name="BCC Decisions">{{cite web |url=http://www.bcc.ie/decisions/feb_08_decisions.html |title=Decisions - February 2008 |work=Broadcasting Complaints Commission website |accessdate=2004-04-24}}</ref> |
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==Bibliography== |
==Bibliography== |
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# Paddy Heaney, At the Foot of Slieve Bloom, 2002. |
# Paddy Heaney, At the Foot of Slieve Bloom, 2002. |
||
# Pat Muldowney, The Pearson Executions in Co. Offaly 1921, Aubane Historical Society, 2007. |
# Pat Muldowney, The Pearson Executions in Co. Offaly 1921, Aubane Historical Society, 2007. |
||
# Doug & Helen Parker, The Secret Sect, 1982. |
|||
# Alan Stanley, I met Murder on the way, 2005. |
# Alan Stanley, I met Murder on the way, 2005. |
||
Revision as of 11:35, 30 April 2008
The Killings at Coolacrease refer to an incident in the Irish War of Independence which happened in County Offaly in 1921. The Pearsons of Coolacrease were a family loyal to the British government, living in Coolacrease, near Cadamstown, about halfway between Birr and Tullamore in County Offaly. On 30 June 1921, eleven days before the Truce which ended the Irish War of Independence, brothers Richard and Abraham Pearson were shot by a firing squad of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), and their house was burnt.
The Pearsons of Coolacrease
In 1911 the Pearsons moved from neighbouring County Laois to Coolacrease, where they purchased a 341-acre farm which they worked successfully.[1][2] They belonged to a religious movement commonly referred to as Cooneyites or Christian Conventions which, though evolved out of Protestantism, is considered to be distinct from the main Christian groupings such as Protestantism and Roman Catholicism.[3][2]
Initially, the Pearsons integrated well into the local community, and their children attended the local Catholic school in Cadamstown.[4]
Following the Sinn Féin electoral successes in the elections of December 1918[5] a majority of the elected representatives implemented their election manifesto[6] by establishing the First Dail on 21 January 1919. In a conflict called the Irish War of Independence military hostilities between the affiliated Irish Volunteers and the British forces in Ireland developed into a bitter guerrilla conflict in 1920 and 1921.
In County Offaly, where the Pearsons had their farm at Coolacrease, the military conflict was slow to develop, but it intensified in the course of 1921. A number of Catholics, classified by the Irish Volunteers or Irish Republican Army (IRA) as spies and informers, were executed and in Kinnitty, about five miles from Coolacrease, two men of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC, the militarized police force which was the principal agency of the British state in Ireland) were killed in an ambush by the IRA on 17 May 1921.[7][8][9] Following a dispute between the Pearsons and local Catholics over a mass path running through the Pearsons’ land, two local IRA men, John Dillon and J. J. Horan, were arrested and jailed.[1][4][7]
The Shootings
In June 1921 the local Kinnitty Company of the South Offaly No. 2 Brigade IRA was ordered to construct a roadblock as part of county-wide military manoeuvres. At around midnight the Pearsons came to the roadblock and fired a shot or shots. [1][2][4]
According to one account,[2] the Pearsons fired a single shotgun cartridge in the air as a warning to rebels who were damaging their property. In this version, “a group of rebels sawed down a tree on Pearson lands in order to create a roadblock”, and angry words were exchanged between the IRA members and Richard Pearson who “went back to the house, retrieved a shotgun and discharged it over the heads of the rebels. … The firing of a shot over the heads of intruders would have a common enough response in the past”.
According to other accounts,[1][4]Cite error: A <ref>
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an eight-man IRA road-block party selected a tree for a roadblock on the Birr to Tullamore road, about half way between the Pearsons’ house and the village of Cadamstown. The roadside tree was at the point of boundary between the Pearsons’ and a neighbouring farm about half a mile from the Pearsons’ house. Two men were posted as sentries on the road to either side of the planned road-block. At about midnight steps were heard approaching along the road from the direction of Pearsons’ house. Sentry Mick Heaney issued the verbal challenge “Halt! Who goes there?”. In response shots were fired at him, wounding him in the abdomen, arm and neck. The other sentry ran to his assistance and both sentries returned fire. The other sentry Tom Donnelly was shot in the head. A retired RIC man who had been detained by them was also shot by the attackers. The abdominal injuries of Mick Heaney were serious and he died a few years later. The retired RIC man was seriously injured in the back and legs, and lost a lung. In this version, the Pearsons had, as staunch loyalists, become hostile to the local community as the war intensified, leading to their participation as combatants in the war.
Following official investigation[10][7][8] in Officers’ Battalion Council, into the identity of the men who attacked the road-block, Thomas Burke, the IRA Officer Commanding South Offaly No. 2 Brigade, ordered that the three brothers Richard, Abraham, and Sidney Pearson were to be executed and their houses destroyed. Report of Officers’ Battalion Council.
On 30 June 1921, about a week after the roadblock shootings, a party of about thirty IRA men arrested Richard and Abraham Pearson.[2][1][4][11][12] They were taken to their house and held under guard there with other members of the family (their mother, three sisters, younger brother, and two female cousins) while the house was prepared to be burned. Their father William Pearson and brother Sidney were away from home at the time. The brothers Richard and Abraham Pearson were shot by a firing squad of about ten men, and the house was burned. Richard and Abraham Pearson died after six hours and fourteen hours, respectively. Sidney Pearson’s Statement, William Pearson’s Statement,Michael Cordial’s Witness Statement.
The medical reports[13] declare that the death of Richard Pearson was due to haemorrhage and shock caused by gunshot wounds to the left shoulder, right groin, right buttock, left lower leg and to the back; the most serious being the wound to the right groin. And in the case of Abraham Pearson, death was declared to be the result of shock from gunshot wounds to the left cheek, left shoulder, left thigh, lower third of left leg and through the abdomen. Reports of British Military Courts of Enquiry in Lieu of Inquests
Atrocity Claims
On 9 July 1921 the British military government of Ireland in Dublin Castle issued a statement[14] (Dublin Castle Statement) claiming that an atrocity had been committed against the Pearsons. In 2005 claims of murder and atrocity were made in a book [2] written by the Alan Stanley, son of William Stanley, a friend and relative of the Pearsons who was living with them under an assumed name “Jimmy Bradley” [1] at the time of the roadblock incident and who escaped from arrest by the IRA by running away when the Pearson brothers were arrested.[2][1] Alan Stanley’s book argues that the Pearsons were innocent farmers, that they did not shoot anybody at the road-block, and that they were murdered by people who wanted to take their land.
Further claims [citation needed][citation needed] of atrocity, torture, mutilation, land-grabbing and ethnic cleansing have been made.
Counter-claims [citation needed][citation needed][citation needed][citation needed] argue that the shooting of the Pearsons was a legitimate military war-time action carried out against enemy combatants by the armed forces of the elected Irish government, and that charges of murder, atrocity, torture, mutilation, land-grabbing and ethnic cleansing are false.
A television programme [15] about the incident was broadcast by the Irish broadcaster RTÉ on 23 October2007. It received criticism[citation needed][citation needed] and support.[citation needed][citation needed] Formal complaints against the programme were rejected by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission.[16]
Bibliography
- Paddy Heaney, At the Foot of Slieve Bloom, 2002.
- Pat Muldowney, The Pearson Executions in Co. Offaly 1921, Aubane Historical Society, 2007.
- Alan Stanley, I met Murder on the way, 2005.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Heaney, Paddy (2006). At the Foot of Slieve Bloom: History and Folklore of Cadamstown. Kilcormac Historical Society.
- ^ a b c d e f g Stanley, Alan (2005). I met Murder on the way. Cite error: The named reference "stanley" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Parker, Doug & Helen (1982). 'The Secret Sect'. Macarthur Press.
- ^ a b c d e Paddy Heaney (2006). "Coolacrease: A Place with a Tragic History". Offaly Heritage. pp. 220–225.
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(help) - ^ 1918 election results
- ^ Laffan, Michael (1999). 'The Resurrection of Ireland – The Sinn Féin Party, 1916-1923'. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0 521 65073 9.
- ^ a b c Philip McConway (7 November 2007). "The Pearsons of Coolacrease, pt. 1". Tullamore Tribune.
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(help) - ^ a b Philip McConway (14 November 2007). "The Pearsons of Coolacrease, pt. 2". Tullamore Tribune.
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(help) - ^ Offaly Historical & Archaeological Society
- ^ Béaslaí Papers, National Library of Ireland, Ms. 33, 913 (4)
- ^ Michael Cordial, Witness Statement, W.S. 1712, Bureau of Military History, Dublin
- ^ NAUK (British Public Records Office) CO 762/24/5 William Sidney Pearson, King’s County, No. 324 1926-1927
- ^ NAUK (British Public Records Office), WO 35/57A Court of Enquiry
- ^ Dublin Castle Statement 1029 July 9 1921
- ^ RTÉ programme announcement
- ^ "Decisions - February 2008". Broadcasting Complaints Commission website. Retrieved 2004-04-24.