“The Smashing of the Van (II)”
Description
Ten Sinn Fein men smash a prison van on Glasgow's High Street to free a prisoner. The police arrest the Sinn Fein men and Father McRory "a mere clergyman." Counsellors McKane and Sandymen defend the accused and the verdict is "Not Guilty"
Notes
The song is about a failed rescue attempt of IRA commander Frank Carty while he was being transported in a police van to Duke Street prison. Inspector Johnson was killed. Father McRory, among others, was charged but all the accused were acquitted. "The trial, and in particular Father McRory's arrest, fanned sectarian tensions to white heat. However, the Anglo-Irish Truce of July 1921 helped to defuse the situation." (source: Tim Pat Coogan, _Wherever Green is Worn_ (2001, New York), p. 243).
McBride: "Fr. McRory, mentioned in this song was from the 'Parish', the rural area that lies north of Bunrana Town, hence the popularity of this short song in Inishowen."
McBride's text begins "It was on the twenty fourth of May nineteen and twenty one"; _The Times_ of London supports Coogan's date of May 4, 1921 (source:"Irish Outrage in Glasgow Police Inspector Murdered?, _The Times_, May 5, 1921, p. 7, Issue 42712, column D, Copyright 1921 _The Times_, Article CS119083173, Copyright 2002 The Gale Group). - BS
The index to Calton Younger's _Ireland's Civil War_ (Fontana Press, 1979) reveals that there were two Frank Cartys of interest during this period, one from Sligo, one from Wexford. Frank Carty of Wexford was an IRA brigade adjutant (Younger, p. 343), but it is Carty of Sligo who is meant here. Interestingly, Younger has far more references to Cary of Wexford than Carty of Sligo,mentioning this rescue only in passing. And most of the other histories I checked don't mention Carty at all.
I would not hasten to accept that Father McRory was a "mere" clergyman. I assume this is Joseph McRory (1861-1945), archishop of Armagh from 1928 and cardinal from 1929 (so his entry in the _Oxford Companion to Irish History_); he is said to have been "reluctant to condemn IRA activities." And he later inflamed the troubles with a statement that Protestant churche were not part of the true church of Christ (see John A. Murphy, _Ireland in the Twentieth Century_, Gill and Macmillan, 1989, p. 159). - RBW
Historical references
- May 4, 1921 - Attempted rescue of Frank Carty from a police van in Glasgow (source: Coogan)
References
- McBride 65, "The Smashing of the Van" (1 text, 1 tune)
- Roud #3028
- BI, McB1065