On Monday last, three men, named as Antoin Breathnach, Tom O’Connor and Diarmaid O’Cadhla, all members of a grouping calling themselves “Cork Street Names Campaign”, denied causing actual criminal damage by blackening out the name “Queen Victoria” on Cork street signs, (in both the English and Irish script). All three were oddly described by Judge Paul Kelly, who heard their case, as “people of the utmost sincerity”.
The accused admitted that on February 2nd, 2017, street names at Victoria Road (on both sides of the street), Victoria Cross Roads (on both sides of the street) and Victoria Street on the north side of the city, were damaged by them, using black paint.
However, the Judge pointed out that their actions did not entitle them to break the law, in furthering their deluded convictions. Accepting they did not go out to cause wanton vandalism, he acknowledged it was precise damage in furtherance of a particular view and found the facts proven and under the law was therefore not permissible.
The judge fined each of the three offenders €250 to be paid to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, as a charitable contribution to finalise the matter at Cork District Court.
However, the accused appear to have picked up their knowledge of Irish history from their local pub, from an uneducated republican sympathiser just before closing time, believing the myth that Queen Victoria [known in Ireland in later decades as the “Famine Queen”, following a speech by Irish revolutionary Maud Gonne McBride, (1866 – 1953), long-time love interest of Irish poet W. B. Yeats.] had only donated a miserable £5 to famine relief here in Ireland.
The truth of the matter of course is that Queen Victoria had donated the sum of £2,000, [equivalent of £200,000 today], from her own personal resources, thus making her the largest single donor to Great Famine (1845 1849) relief in Ireland.
She also was patron of a charity that fundraised, publishing two ‘Queen’s Letters’, during Black 47. The first letter was published in March 1847 and the second in October 1847. In these letters she asked people in Britain to donate money to relieve Irish distress. The first letter was printed in the main newspapers and read out at all services in Anglican churches.
Following their publication, a proclamation was announced indicating that March 24th 1847 would be chosen as a day for a ‘General Fast and Humiliation before Almighty God’, with the proceeds to be distributed in Ireland.
The queen’s first letter raised £170,571, (In today’s money multiply by 1,000) the second raised £30,167 (In today’s money again multiply by 1,000).
“Always Engage Brain Before Putting Mouth In Gear“
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