greektzon
10-05-2008, 05:35 PM
http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/unrolling-corks-historical-tapestry-1490273.html
TO date, we have only two classic works which neither sanitise nor sentimentalise the sufferings of thousands of ordinary Irish Protestants in the period 1919-22 -- Peter Hart's The IRA and its Enemies and Joseph O Neill's Blood Dark Track.
Now there is a third, Jasper Wolfe of Skibbereen, by his grandson, Jasper Ungoed-Thomas, rigorously researched, elegantly written, and beautifully presented by The Collins Press Cork. And it, too, is a classic.
All three books have three things in common, too. First, all the authors are semi-detached, and because they were physically brought up outside Ireland we seem willing to let them probe deep into our psyche without taking offence.
Second, all three authors succeed in being fair to both sides when telling the tragic story of the IRA's treatment of Protestants whom they called West Brits and frequently shot as spies.
Finally, all three authors avoid both the fashionable world of the Big House Anglo-Irish and the comfortable world of the Dublin Protestant and engage with the more demanding world of the rural and small town Protestants. And this is how Jasper Ungoed-Thomas introduces his subject: "Jasper Wolfe, Wesleyan Methodist, descended from shopkeepers and tenant farmers, was an almost archetypal representative of what in an earlier age would be called a 'middling' sort of Protestant."
But there was nothing archetypal about Jasper's life. Even in a succint summary, it leaps off the page like a story published in a boy's magzine formed from a merger between the Boy's Own Paper and Our Boys.
Jasper Wolfe, son of a Skibbereen Methodist shopkeeper, was born in 1872, set up as a solicitor, where he soon had "all West Cork for his client".
He was one of the few Protestant Home Rulers found west of Cork City. His speech at the London launch of the Protestant Home Rule Movement was judged stronger than those of two other speakers -- George Bernard Shaw and Arthur Conan Doyle.
After Easter 1916, Jasper, still adhering to his Home Rule views, was appointed Crown Solicitor for the City and West Riding of Cork.
And his former services to nationalism cut no ice once the IRA commenced its campaign against agents of what it saw as British imperialism.
As a result, Jasper Wolfe was sentenced to death by the IRA no fewer than three times in the course of the War of Independence -- and each time he escaped.
The death sentence that really mattered was the one issued by Jasper's main IRA antagonist, Neilus Connolly, commander of the IRA in Skibbereen, and which was confirmed by Michael Collins. Once again, Jasper kept ahead of the IRA posse. So how did he do it?
According to his grandson's account, Jasper was well warned, was given great help by two heroic Roman Catholic clergymen -- Dr Kelly, Bishop of Ross and Fr Florence McCarthy -- and spent some time in safe houses both locally and in England and Wales. And here, I want to put a small question mark over the time he allegedly spent in England.
Many years ago, an elderly local Methodist, whose father had helped Jasper move around, told me that Bishop Kelly had hidden Jasper in his own home, the Bishop's Palace in Skibbereen, and that one of the stained glass windows in Skibbereen Cathedral was Jasper's way of saying thanks.
Maybe the old man's memory deceived him. But there is a rather special stained glass window in the cathedral.
And the fact that the story was told at all shows the respect that the local "middling" Protestants had for Bishop Kelly -- and another reason for the IRA's antipathy to Bishop Kelly.
It must be stressed that this brilliant biography is not just about Jasper Wolfe and the IRA -- it is actually an account of the rich tapestry of relations between West Cork Catholics and Protestants with many a mixed marriage along the way.
But Jasper's complex relations with the IRA, especially with Neilus Connolly, constitute the thrilling core of this brilliant biography.
In one corner is Jasper Wolfe, a Protestant, a Crown servant and a nationalist. In the other is Neilus Connolly, a Roman Catholic and a republican -- who as officer commanding the area would have sanctioned the shooting of two local Protestant farmers, William Connell and Matthew Sweetnam, who had refused to be intimidated by the IRA when called to testify against local Sinn Fein members in a civil court case.
Even the most fanatical IRA supporter could not be completely comfortable about the shooting of two local Protestant farmers whose main crime was not keeping their mouths shut.
But the author's account makes it clear Neilus Connolly was no simple sectarian gunman -- indeed his later life gave ample proof that he was in many ways "the noblest Roman of them all".
Connolly comes across as a selfless, couragous and chivalrous IRA leader. He was one of the few IRA commanders in west Cork to stay loyal to Michael Collins and the Free State Goverment and put up a ferocious fight when asked to surrender Skibberreen to local republicans. Neilus was one of the heroic hard men without whom the Free State would have collapsed in a few weeks.
Astoundingly, after the IRA campaign concluded, Jasper and Neilus continued to cross paths. Both men were subsequently elected to Dail Eireann. Neilus found being a TD too boring, refused to stand for the 1927 election and retired to the country, remarking: "I could be as well off and more contented with a pair of long reins behind two horses".
At the same election, Jasper stood as an independent and topped the poll with the help of an anti-Treatyite vote secured by his defending Republicans after the Civil War.
After that, Jasper's career continue to prosper and was crowned when he becamed the first Corkman to be elected president of the Law Society.
Even more remarkably, in later years, Jasper and Neilus met in Cork, shook hands and went for the first of many drinks together. And while this argues that the tribal walls were not as high in west Cork as in other places, it also begs a question: why was Jasper Wolfe so successful in rising above tribal divides? My theory is that Jasper was trusted by his Roman Catholic neighbours because he mixed with them, took a drink with them and told them what was on his mind.
In sum: Jasper Wolfe survived because he did not keep his head down.
- Eoghan Harris
TO date, we have only two classic works which neither sanitise nor sentimentalise the sufferings of thousands of ordinary Irish Protestants in the period 1919-22 -- Peter Hart's The IRA and its Enemies and Joseph O Neill's Blood Dark Track.
Now there is a third, Jasper Wolfe of Skibbereen, by his grandson, Jasper Ungoed-Thomas, rigorously researched, elegantly written, and beautifully presented by The Collins Press Cork. And it, too, is a classic.
All three books have three things in common, too. First, all the authors are semi-detached, and because they were physically brought up outside Ireland we seem willing to let them probe deep into our psyche without taking offence.
Second, all three authors succeed in being fair to both sides when telling the tragic story of the IRA's treatment of Protestants whom they called West Brits and frequently shot as spies.
Finally, all three authors avoid both the fashionable world of the Big House Anglo-Irish and the comfortable world of the Dublin Protestant and engage with the more demanding world of the rural and small town Protestants. And this is how Jasper Ungoed-Thomas introduces his subject: "Jasper Wolfe, Wesleyan Methodist, descended from shopkeepers and tenant farmers, was an almost archetypal representative of what in an earlier age would be called a 'middling' sort of Protestant."
But there was nothing archetypal about Jasper's life. Even in a succint summary, it leaps off the page like a story published in a boy's magzine formed from a merger between the Boy's Own Paper and Our Boys.
Jasper Wolfe, son of a Skibbereen Methodist shopkeeper, was born in 1872, set up as a solicitor, where he soon had "all West Cork for his client".
He was one of the few Protestant Home Rulers found west of Cork City. His speech at the London launch of the Protestant Home Rule Movement was judged stronger than those of two other speakers -- George Bernard Shaw and Arthur Conan Doyle.
After Easter 1916, Jasper, still adhering to his Home Rule views, was appointed Crown Solicitor for the City and West Riding of Cork.
And his former services to nationalism cut no ice once the IRA commenced its campaign against agents of what it saw as British imperialism.
As a result, Jasper Wolfe was sentenced to death by the IRA no fewer than three times in the course of the War of Independence -- and each time he escaped.
The death sentence that really mattered was the one issued by Jasper's main IRA antagonist, Neilus Connolly, commander of the IRA in Skibbereen, and which was confirmed by Michael Collins. Once again, Jasper kept ahead of the IRA posse. So how did he do it?
According to his grandson's account, Jasper was well warned, was given great help by two heroic Roman Catholic clergymen -- Dr Kelly, Bishop of Ross and Fr Florence McCarthy -- and spent some time in safe houses both locally and in England and Wales. And here, I want to put a small question mark over the time he allegedly spent in England.
Many years ago, an elderly local Methodist, whose father had helped Jasper move around, told me that Bishop Kelly had hidden Jasper in his own home, the Bishop's Palace in Skibbereen, and that one of the stained glass windows in Skibbereen Cathedral was Jasper's way of saying thanks.
Maybe the old man's memory deceived him. But there is a rather special stained glass window in the cathedral.
And the fact that the story was told at all shows the respect that the local "middling" Protestants had for Bishop Kelly -- and another reason for the IRA's antipathy to Bishop Kelly.
It must be stressed that this brilliant biography is not just about Jasper Wolfe and the IRA -- it is actually an account of the rich tapestry of relations between West Cork Catholics and Protestants with many a mixed marriage along the way.
But Jasper's complex relations with the IRA, especially with Neilus Connolly, constitute the thrilling core of this brilliant biography.
In one corner is Jasper Wolfe, a Protestant, a Crown servant and a nationalist. In the other is Neilus Connolly, a Roman Catholic and a republican -- who as officer commanding the area would have sanctioned the shooting of two local Protestant farmers, William Connell and Matthew Sweetnam, who had refused to be intimidated by the IRA when called to testify against local Sinn Fein members in a civil court case.
Even the most fanatical IRA supporter could not be completely comfortable about the shooting of two local Protestant farmers whose main crime was not keeping their mouths shut.
But the author's account makes it clear Neilus Connolly was no simple sectarian gunman -- indeed his later life gave ample proof that he was in many ways "the noblest Roman of them all".
Connolly comes across as a selfless, couragous and chivalrous IRA leader. He was one of the few IRA commanders in west Cork to stay loyal to Michael Collins and the Free State Goverment and put up a ferocious fight when asked to surrender Skibberreen to local republicans. Neilus was one of the heroic hard men without whom the Free State would have collapsed in a few weeks.
Astoundingly, after the IRA campaign concluded, Jasper and Neilus continued to cross paths. Both men were subsequently elected to Dail Eireann. Neilus found being a TD too boring, refused to stand for the 1927 election and retired to the country, remarking: "I could be as well off and more contented with a pair of long reins behind two horses".
At the same election, Jasper stood as an independent and topped the poll with the help of an anti-Treatyite vote secured by his defending Republicans after the Civil War.
After that, Jasper's career continue to prosper and was crowned when he becamed the first Corkman to be elected president of the Law Society.
Even more remarkably, in later years, Jasper and Neilus met in Cork, shook hands and went for the first of many drinks together. And while this argues that the tribal walls were not as high in west Cork as in other places, it also begs a question: why was Jasper Wolfe so successful in rising above tribal divides? My theory is that Jasper was trusted by his Roman Catholic neighbours because he mixed with them, took a drink with them and told them what was on his mind.
In sum: Jasper Wolfe survived because he did not keep his head down.
- Eoghan Harris