|
The killings at Coolacrease was an incident that took place in County Offaly during the Irish War of Independence. In late June 1921, Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteers came under fire at a roadblock in the rural area of Coolacrease (near Cadamstown). The roadblock was located at the boundary of land owned by loyalist farmer William Pearson. On 30 June, his sons Richard (aged 24) and Abraham (aged 19) Pearson〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=National Archives: Census of Ireland 1911 )〕 were shot by an IRA firing squad and their house was burnt. ==The Pearsons of Coolacrease== In 1911, the Pearsons moved to Coolacrease from neighbouring County Laois. They bought a farm and worked it successfully. They are said to have belonged to a Protestant religious movement commonly referred to as Cooneyites or Two by Twos.〔 However, in the 1911 census they listed their religion as Church of Ireland.〔 Initially, the Pearsons integrated well into the local community, and their children attended the local Catholic school in Cadamstown, where one of them was a member of the hurling team. Following the Sinn Féin electoral successes in the elections of December 1918〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Irish General Election of 1918 )〕 a majority of the Irish elected representatives implemented their election manifesto by establishing the First Dáil on 21 January 1919. In the Irish War of Independence military hostilities between the IRA and British forces developed into a bitter guerrilla conflict in 1920 and 1921. In County Offaly, where the Pearsons had their farm at Coolacrease, the military conflict was slow to develop, but it intensified in the course of 1921.〔 A number of Catholics, classified by the IRA as spies and informers, were executed. In Kinnitty, about five miles (8 km) from Coolacrease, two members of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC, the militarized police force which was the principal agency of the British state in Ireland) were killed in an ambush by the IRA on 17 May 1921.〔〔(Philip McConway articles )〕 Following a June 1921 dispute between the Pearsons and local Catholics over a mass path running through the Pearsons’ land, two IRA men, John Dillon and JJ Horan, were arrested.〔〔An online book reviewer mistakenly suggested that this dispute occurred a year earlier in 1920 and was already settled. 'Getting them Out', Tom Wall, Dublin Review of Books (drb.ie), Issue 9, 2009. See Philip O’Connor and Pat Muldowney, (A House Built on Sand ), Dublin Review of Books (drb.ie), Issue 11. See also Niall Meehan, (Frank Gallagher and land agitation ), Dublin Review of Books (drb.ie), Issue 11.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Killings at Coolacrease」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|