A reader has sent us the following information which appeared in the August 1999 edition of the Saoirse - Irish Freedom newspaper.
In an article in the Sinn Féin newspaper Ant Éireannach Aontaithe (United Irishman) of July-August 1949 a report was carried on the reactionary nature of the British newspapers circulating in the Ireland of the day. An example of their anti-Irish bias was an article in the Sunday Chronicle of June 26, 1949 that referred to Reggie Dunne and Joseph O'Sullivan who were hanged in 1922 for the shooting dead of Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, 'Military Adviser' to the sectarian regime based at Stormont, Northern Ireland (now re-established in 2000 with the support of 'republicans'!).
United Irishman
commented:'What must they think when a paper is allowed to circulate freely in Ireland in which Dunne and O'Sullivan are referred to as 'Irish gunmen', 'assassins', 'murderers' and which compared them to 'Chicago gangsterdom'.
'The same article refers to the Indian hero Udham Singh who was executed in London in 1940 for the shooting of Sir Michael O'Dwyer who had been governor of the Punjab at the time of the Amritsar massacre.
'We are proud to have the name of this Indian hero linked with those of Dunne and O'Sullivan, even though the intention in linking them was to defame them.
'Our only regret in the incident is that it should have been an Irishman who had sold himself to our national enemy, who had by his part in the butchery and oppression of the Indian people so richly deserved the punishment meted out to him by Udham Singh.'
Fraternally,
S. Dooham,
Dublin, Ireland.
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