The Irish sang When Johnny Comes Marching Home...*

Stephen Speilberg’s magnificent film Lincoln made it clear that the Northern States of America, the Union, had justice and right on its side, when it came to deal with the cotton-based slave states of the south. Washington had objected to their attempt to enlarge its slave industry further west. Southern states were enraged at this interference. In an appalling miscalculation some states began to leave to Union, set up their own Confederacy (eventually including 11 states), and prepared to fight for its freedom to choose its own destiny.

After four years of war, Speilberg also showed us the desperation on behalf of the Confederacy as it sought honourable peace terms. Slave labour had allowed cotton to be produced at vastly reduced prices, resulting in world dominance of American cotton. Whatever about the morality of keeping slaves, the entire commerce and way of life in the south was geared to its cotton trade. Wipe that out, release the slaves, and the whole society faces collapse and ruin - which is exactly what happened.

The Irish sang When Johnny Comes Marching Home...*

Stephen Speilberg’s magnificent film Lincoln made it clear that the Northern States of America, the Union, had justice and right on its side, when it came to deal with the cotton-based slave states of the south. Washington had objected to their attempt to enlarge its slave industry further west. Southern states were enraged at this interference. In an appalling miscalculation some states began to leave to Union, set up their own Confederacy (eventually including 11 states), and prepared to fight for its freedom to choose its own destiny.

After four years of war, Speilberg also showed us the desperation on behalf of the Confederacy as it sought honourable peace terms. Slave labour had allowed cotton to be produced at vastly reduced prices, resulting in world dominance of American cotton. Whatever about the morality of keeping slaves, the entire commerce and way of life in the south was geared to its cotton trade. Wipe that out, release the slaves, and the whole society faces collapse and ruin - which is exactly what happened.

Why not celebrate December 6 as our Independence Day?

Week IV

I made two mistakes last week. I got my months mixed up. Instead of a period of less than two years from the battle at his home Muintir Eoin in the Maam Valley to when he was appointed Leas Ceann Comhairle (deputy speaker) of the new Irish Dáil, I said it was less than ‘eight months’. Secondly the photograph. An utter mystery! It just appeared from cyber space by magic. No idea where it came from.

Nevertheless, despite these things, there has been a steady flow of e-mails and texts during the past few weeks. Maybe it is the approach of 2016 that has prompted people to take a greater interest in our history, I do not know. But there is a very considerable appetite for events that led up to the birth of our nation.

More Galway Diary

• The Irish sang When Johnny Comes Marching Home...*
• The Irish sang When Johnny Comes Marching Home...*
• Why not celebrate December 6 as our Independence Day?
• Letter from Australia
• Wedding party of Pádraic Ó Máille and Eileen Acton September 1921
• ‘No cheering crowds, no military parades, no public holidays’
• A thankless and a dangerous job
• ‘ Prepared to fight and to die’ for Ireland
• Connemara becomes battlefield in Tan war
• St Patrick's Day 1921 — murder and mayhem in Clifden
• A innocent man and the fate of Clifton
• The really ‘cultivated classes’ were the Irish themselves
• What more could a landlord do?
• ‘If you want to know who I am, I am John D Mahon of Ballydonnellan castle’
• The pursuit of love among Galway’s landed society
• Music, even more passion, and the Galway spy
• A love letter from a master of passion
• ‘A long and dangerous night in Galway’
• The man who rescued Lancelot from the River Clare
• 'It was Christmas day in the workhouse..'
• A wife politely tells her husband to calm down
• ‘Hopeless but not serious’
• 'Kiss your wife, and you kiss your husband'
• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm meets Charles Dickens
• The amazing 'Brocken Spectre'
• 'Galwegians are particularly vindictive'
• Ten things an Irish woman could not do in 1970 (and be prepared to cringe...)
• Reeling back the years....
• Tricksters, undemonstrative fathers, and other stories...
• ‘Outstanding courage, skill and determination’ defined romantic Oranmore Commander