Years ago I came across a memoir by Clement Attlee.
In 1920, as Alderman Attlee, Mayor of Poplar, ]
he walked in full regalia behind uniformed IRA men
the 1st Cork Brigade in the London leg of the funeral
of Lord Mayor Terence Mac Swiney, who had died on
hunger strike in Brixton Prison.
On reading that I rated Attlee as a committed democrat
and a Good Egg.
When Prime Minister, Attlee toured Ireland, North and
South, without a bodyguard. The greatest hazard he
faced was the crazy driving of his spouse.
He visited our President, Sean T. O’Ceallaigh, who,
in 1916 was a Sinn Fein Alderman in Dublin Corporation.
The Insurgent leaders intended, in the event of military
success to appoint Sean T as Provisional President,
because of his proven popular credential.
Sean T, always a dapper dresser, ordered a smart
Volunteer Officer’s uniform to go with a Sam Browne
Belt and a sheath for his sword, as befitting his role
as an Adjutant. But his tailor failed to do his work on
time.And thus prolonged Sean T’s life on earth by
50 years.
In prison in England Sean T witnessed the abuse by
staff of Conscientious Objectors among them Clem
Attlee’s brother and got word out to an Irish Party MP
who raised the matter at Westminster, resulting in
their better treatment.
Rather better than Malayan prisoners’ fate under
Clem’s “EMERGENCY!”
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