Daniel Courtney and the Irish Citizen Army
There is an interesting new blog on the East Wall For all site on the 1913 Lockout and Irish Citizen Army
Daniel Courtney – The ‘Grandfather of the Irish Citizen Army’
In June 1903 the DMP raided a house at 12 Upper Oriel Street. The object of their attention was the resident of the top floor flat, Daniel Courtney, who was running an illegal sheebeen from the premises. Courtney was a Casual Grain Labourer on the Docks and sought to extend his young families precarious income by some extracurricular home brewing. Tried in the Northern Police Court on the 16th June, he was sentenced by Judge Swift to one month’s imprisonment or a £10 fine for “selling porter without a licence.” This was the equivalent of about a month’s wages – a huge sum at the time. Courtney had no choice – he became prisoner No. 110 in Mount joy Jail. A decade later, he was involved in the 1913 Lockout and evicted from his house in East Wall. In 1916 he was an Irish Citizen Army soldier in the Easter Rising, seeing combat at Annesley Bridge, the GPO and present at the surrender in Moore Street. As we mark the centenary of the founding of the Irish Citizen Army , this is his story, as told by Hugo McGuinness.
To read the rest click on http://eastwallforall.ie/?p=