There was great resentment in Cork at the decision of the authorities to proceed with a major court case on 27 March, 1891 – it was Good Friday.
When the courthouse accidentally burned down that very day, the elation of the watching crowd evoked a bitter reaction from an outraged Rudyard Kipling – the great ‘Poet of the Empire’ who composed a lengthy poem in response. Pat Poland recalls the time when …

 

Rudyard Kipling, the great ‘Poet of the Empire,’ was well on the way to achieving world-wide fame. His poems ‘Mandalay’ and ‘Gunga Din’ were already well-loved party pieces, and other notable gems such as ‘If’ would soon follow. Stories such as ‘The Man who would be King’ had already captured the imagination of the public, while, within a short few years, ‘The Jungle Book’ and ‘Kim’ would become best-sellers.

Now, however, in March 1891, Kipling was not a happy man. In fact, he was incandescent with rage. A staunch unionist, and rabidly opposed to the Irish nationalist cause, he had read in the paper that when the courthouse in Cork went up in flames:

“Above the portico, a flag-staff bearing the Union Jack, remained fluttering in the flames for some time, but ultimately, when it fell, the crowds rent the air with shouts, and seemed to see significance in the incident.”

‘Significance, indeed!’ he fumed. Dipping his favourite pen into the ink-well on his desk, he sent it scuttling across the blank page. Within days, his lengthy poem was published in several newspapers both here and in Britain.

Regarded by many as one of his best compositions, he did not spare the people of Cork for their display of disloyalty to the British Crown:

The English Flag.
Winds of the World, give answer! They are whimpering to and fro –
And what should they know of England, who only England know? –
The poor little street-bred people that vapour and fume and brag,
They are lifting their heads in the stillness to yelp at the English flag!

And so on for a further sixteen verses. The blaze in question occurred on the evening of Good Friday, 27 March, 1891, and it is remembered locally for another reason: Cork sages will gravely tell you that the trial was the only one heard on a Good Friday, outside of Christ’s itself.

In September 1890 the infamous Crimes Court, set up under the Coercion Act to break Parnell’s National League, had imposed prison sentences on William O’Brien, MP, John Dillon, MP, and nine others for conspiracy. 

Outside the Tipperary courthouse the RIC panicked when followers of the accused tried to force their way into the already-packed building.

The fracas, and the charges that followed, became known as ‘The Tipperary Riot’ case.

Due to the highly-charged atmosphere in Tipperary town and its hinterland the authorities decided to transfer the trial of the five men charged with rioting to Cork where it was scheduled for Holy Week 1891.

Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own