Many A Hero Untold

By David Hoggard and Bob Mumby

Ireland is a nation which has endured much over its long and storied history. But the struggles the newborn country endured when it was born in the younger years of the 20th century are obscured by the grander history of World Wars, the rise of superpowers, and the clash of ideologies. Ireland’s part in these convulsions is typically on the sidelines. But what if the absence of a single man had been noted in time, a government fell, and Ireland found herself on the frontlines of the rise of fascism, the turmoil of the Second World War, and the ensuing Cold War?

In Many A Hero Untold, Bob Mumby and David Hoggard tell a story of an Ireland at the forefront of events during the 20th century, but a country that nevertheless cuts her own unique path through them. The result is a very different Ireland than the one we know, but one which may feel eerily familiar.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sea Lion Press
• Release date: Jul 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386831556

Book preview

This is a work of fiction. While ‘real-world’ characters may appear, the nature of the divergent story means any depictions herein are fictionalised and in no way an indication of real events. Above all, characterisations have been developed with the primary aim of telling a compelling story.

Published by Sea Lion Press, 2017. All rights reserved.

"You may sing of your soldiers and sailors so bold

But there's many and many a hero untold

Who sits at the wheel in the heat and the cold

Day after day without sleeping"

- Extract from Champion at Keeping Them Rolling

Thomas Johnson

1927-1932

Thomas Johnson became the first Labour head of government in Ireland in 1927.

This was a highly unlikely turn of events, as his party had only 22 seats out 153 in the Irish Parliament (the Dail Eireann) at that point.

The story goes like this.

The government of the day was the Cumann na nGaedheal party, the victors of the Irish Civil War, which had been fought over the issue of whether to stop fighting the English. Cumann na nGaedheal, led by the unassuming W. T. Cosgrave, defeated the anti-Treaty forces (who later became the Fianna Fail party) after much bloodshed and general unpleasantness, and proceeded to govern almost unopposed – for Fianna Fail refused to take their seats in the Dail, just as the Red Albany Party currently refuse to take their seats in the UK Parliament. After the elections in the June of 1927, then, there were 44 empty seats, which allowed Cumann na nGaedheal to hold the confidence of the Dail with support from Independents and third parties.

Kevin O’Higgins, a Cumann na nGaedheal TD (‘Teachta Dala’, the Gaelic term for an MP), introduced a Bill in 1927 to force Fianna Fail to choose between taking their seats or ceasing to stand in elections. He was assassinated by the IRA for his troubles, but the charismatic and devious Fianna Fail leader Eamon de Valera (who is tragically little-known today) saw the writing on the wall and led his followers into the Dail for the first time since the Civil War. Most of them carried weapons on the first day.

Very quickly, de Valera connived with various other TDs and parties who were unimpressed with Cosgrave’s government for a variety of reasons, principally the Labour Party, who were the only major centre-left party in Ireland. Even then, ‘major’ is pushing it. They also went after the National League Party, who were an amalgamation of pro-British conservatives and moderate Nationalists – and, for some reason, vintners – led by Captain William Redmond. They, along with some Independents, hatched a plot to bring down the minority Cumann na nGaedheal government. Thomas Johnson would introduce a motion of no confidence and propose a minority coalition between his own Labour Party and the National League Party. Fianna Fail, who had more seats than both of these parties combined – and these were useful seats now that they were forcibly filled – would vote in their favour and give them ’confidence and supply’ in the hope of replacing them in government before too long.

The day of the vote came, and it was predicted by the mathematics of the situation that the motion would pass 73-70. Close, but not Squeaky Bum Time. As it turned out, however, the unnatural deal between the rightmost and the leftmost parties in the Dail, and the paltry 30 votes they could muster between them, had lost them the confidence of two National League TDs. One, Vincent Rice, very publicly crossed the floor to join Cumann na nGaedheal with the words I do not think that Deputy de Valera has ever disguised that his aim is to get rid of the Treaty and the Constitution, and if he is not serving that purpose by keeping Deputy Redmond in office, how many hours will he keep him there? How right – and yet how wrong – he was. It now stood at 72-71.

At this point, another National League TD, a Sligoman named John Jinks, decided to quietly jinx the vote. He slipped out of the Dail while both sides were in full fervour and wandered off into the streets of Dublin. Redmond noticed that there was an empty seat behind him, and he needed every vote he could get if he was going to be Vice-President of the Executive Council. If it came to a 71-71 tie, the Ceann Comhairle (or Speaker) would have the casting vote, and he would be constitutionally obliged to vote for the status quo. National League functionaries were sent off to trawl the streets of Dublin for Deputy Jinks; after a number of dead ends and close calls, they found him at the bar of his hotel. He was physically dragged into the Dail, where Captain Redmond guided him firmly by the arm into the correct lobby. Cumann na nGaedheal TDs reported that Jinks had struggled against Redmond’s covert grip, but if he did so, it availed him nothing. Thomas Johnson was now President of the Executive Council – at de Valera’s pleasure.

In the first few months of the Labour-led government, very little legislation could be passed due to the fragility of the Parliamentary arithmetic. But Tom Johnson did manage to bring Fianna Fail and the National League behind a couple of policies: the abolition of taxes on tea and tobacco; and the creation of a state pension for widows and orphans. Both were passed, and Captain Redmond (now Minister for External Affairs) was sent to negotiate a trade agreement with the United Kingdom in return for the relaxing of certain Treaty clauses. Nothing came of this, however, because in October de Valera informed Johnson that he would no longer support the mackled-together Labour-National coalition, and would prefer to be in charge himself – if Johnson didn't mind, of course.

This did not suit Johnson, who was just beginning to enjoy himself. He immediately called new elections and fought them on the basis of his record in government, his long-time support for Irish workers despite being born in Liverpool (he was not the last foreigner to command Ireland, in fact), and the scurrilousness of de Valera. Both Labour and the National League gained vast numbers of votes from both Cumann na nGaedheal and Fianna Fail. Labour now had 54 TDs; the National League had 20. This was almost – but not quite – a majority, but the coalition survived with the help of Independent TDs such as John Daly.

What had been a coalition between minor parties had eclipsed the Civil War factions of old. Ireland was moving on. And in 1928, the impossible happened; the remnants of Cumann na nGaedheal and Fianna Fail, who had been literally at war with one