John Jinks T.D. Is it true that phrase Jinxed originated with him

1912
As for Jinks, throughout 1912…focused on meetings of the town and North Sligo UIL…He unsuccessfully backed John Treacy, founder of the town’s Gaelic Club, for the job of headmaster of the Technical Schools in July…Roscommon Journal 27 July 1912
Michael Wheatley (2005) Nationalism and the Irish Party: Provincial Ireland, 1910-1916

Sligo 1914-1921: A Chronicle of Conflict. By Michael Farry.
Another Sinn Féin supporter was John R. Treacy, a native of Youghal, County Cork, who taught in Limerick and Dublin before coming to Sligo in 1904. He taught in Summerhill College and in the Technical School. He had been involved with Griffith and William Rooney in Sinn Féin while in Dublin and was one of the “Apostles of Sinn Féin” in Sligo.
In 1916, the Mayor got another opportunity to voice his sympathy for the executed leaders at a meeting in Sligo to appeal for funds for the Irish National Aid Association. This association was set up to help the dependents of those killed and imprisoned on the rebel side in the rising. The Mayor presided and among the attendance were… J. Tracey…During the month of November the Sinn Féin party in Sligo town started a club in a room in a building in Pound Street. It was called "The Wanderers Gaelic Club" but was popularly called "The Sinn Féin Club". Among those involved were John R. Treacy…
The by-election was fought in January 1917 with polling day on February 3rd. All those on the republican side, though as yet not united, rallied around Plunkett. Many from Sligo tookcpart. Alec McCabe, who had been on the run since the rising took part as did some from Sligo town including probably J. R. Treacy…The Mayor, Mr Hanley and Mrs Hanley welcomed the Countess and a bouquet of roses was presented by Miss Ita Tracey, daughter of the chairman of Sligo Sinn Féin club.
In 1918. on August 15th there was a nationwide protest by the Sinn Féin organisation against the banning of the organisation and the banning of meetings in Ireland. At various places throughout the land speakers read a printed statement from Sinn Féin and as a result were arrested. In County Sligo a large meeting was held outside the Town Hall. The statement was read by J. R. Tracey…As a result of their action on August 15th Professor Tracey and John Hennigan were arrested on Thursday night/Friday morning and taken into custody. They were still in Sligo prison awaiting trial a week later and both men were offered some hours liberty to visit their families on Sunday August 18th. Treacy accepted but Hennigan refused. On Tuesday, 27th August, the pair were removed to Galway prison. On September 5th a meeting of the Sligo Urban Technical Committee was held under the chairmanship of Rev P. Butler. Treacy was a teacher at the Sligo Technical School and had been there for fourteen years. His appointment was part time subject to annual re-appointment. A letter from Treacy was read at the meeting in which he stated that "owing to circumstances over which I have no control I shall be absent for some time". The committee decided unanimously to re-appoint him and to appoint a substitute pending his return. On September 24th at a court martial in Renmore Barracks Galway, Tracey and Hennigan were found guilty. At the trial Hennigan admitted reading the Sinn Féin manifesto and said that he would do so again if the occasion arose. Both men were sentenced to two years imprisonment. In the case of Professor Tracey he was released at the beginning of October on medical advice. When he arrived at Sligo Station he was met by a large crowd of Sinn Féiners and escorted to his home.
In 1919, on St. Patrick's Day another protest meeting was held this time about the prisoners especially those from Sligo: John Lynch, Henry Monson, John Hennigan, John Kelly and Frank O'Beirne. The meeting was held in the Market Yard and the speakers included the Mayor, J. R.Tracey, R. G. Bradshaw, Michael Nevin, J. J. Clancy. Members of the Volunteers were there under the command of Liam Pilkington. The other Sligo prisoner, J. J. O'Connell, did not arrive in Sligo until Wednesday March 19th. His arrival was not expected and there was not a large crowd to meet him. However about fifty Volunteers did turn out and escorted him to the Gaelic Club, Teeling Street… J. R. Tracey president of the club.
In December 1920, among those arrested were John R. Treacy…All these arrests put further pressure on detention space in Sligo and at the end of January some prisoners were moved to Derry. These included John R. Treacy, James Devins, James Doocey and Harry Benson. Also those arrested on January 22nd were moved on February 28th. John R. Tracey of Sligo was moved from Derry jail to Ballykinlar around this time.
http://homepage.eircom.net/~mfarry47/sligowar.pdf
Wednesday, April 3rd 1918 The Jail Journal of Michael Collins
Sligo jail is a short distance from the town. 'Tis generally speak ing like all other jails. It must be old, I think, both from the look and the plan. The cells are smaller than those I knew in Staffordand Wandsworth but the same size as Mountjoy, I think, or the Frongoch clink. The size of course does not make a great difference. One doesn't get appreciably more exercise in a cell 14 by 7 than in one 12 by 7. Mr. Treacy and Mr. Clancy visit me in the evening. The Mayor of Sligo also pays me a visit. I tell him I don't quite like the look of some things.

For 1913 the Mayor was Daniel O'Donnell. The Aldermen were John Connolly, John
Jinks, auctioneer, Thomas Flanagan, merchant, Edward Foley, merchant, J. P. Higgins, merchant
and the Mayor. The councillors were Thomas Scanlon, tailor cutter, Edward Kelly, Dudley M.
Hanley, merchant, John Foley, merchant, Michael McDonagh, shopkeeper, John Hughes,
merchant, James Gray, dealer, Patrick N. White, chemist, Robert Smyllie, journalist, Thomas
Kivlehin, William Gibbons, plasterer, Thomas Hughes, monumental contractor, Edward Harte,
painter, Peter Keeley, clerk, Peter Heraghty, trader, John Lynch, stevedore, Henry Monson,
merchant and Henry Depew, carpenter. Of these six had been in office since the turn of the
century: John Connolly, Edward Foley, John Jinks, Thomas Scanlon, Edward Kelly and Thomas
Flanagan. John Lynch was the President of the Sligo branch of the I.T.G.W.U. and had been
elected for the first time in January 1913. Also elected for the first time then were Union
candidates Monson, Depew, Heraghty and Thomas Hughes. William Gibbons was also a Labour
councillor. Robert Smyllie was the only councillor who could be called unionist.

Smyllie was born in Glasgow. His father was a Scottish journalist who moved to Sligo to edit the Sligo Times. Smyllie was educated at Sligo Grammar School. He entered Trinity College Dublin in 1912. Working as a vacation tutor to an American boy in Germany at the start of World War I, he was interned in Ruhleben Prisoner of War Camp, near Berlin, during the war. As an internee, he was involved in drama productions with other cosmopolitan internees and gleaned a wide political education.
He was also on good terms with the church http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._M._Smyllie

On January 23rd at the Corporation meeting Alderman John Jinks was unanimously
elected Mayor with the salary of £130 per year. After his election the new Mayor hosted a
banquet at which he entertained the Corporation members and a number of his friends. Speeches
at the banquet included, according to the local press, many "eulogistic references" to Mr Jinks
including one by Canon E. Doorly Administrator, Sligo, to the effect that "The church in Sligo
was and ought to be very well satisfied with the appointment made that day."

Todd) Andrews writing of Smyllie: ‘He integrated the Irish Times and what it stood for with the Irish nation’, in A Man of No Property (here p.95.) Smyllie at war: ‘Smyllie, I found, was showing signs of wear and tear. The Irish Times was down to a single folded sheet - four pages; and he had been involved in a protracted battle with the Censors. A couple of notable victories had been gained, including one which had featured in newspapers all over the English-speaking world. Commenting on one of Churchill’s speeches, in which he had named nine militatry commanders who had won fame in the Middle East, an Irishman’s Diary paragraph noted that only one of them had [133] been British. Three, it went on - Generals Wilson, Dill and Brooke - were Japanese (North Island); four - Generals O’Connor and O’Moore Creagh; Admirals Somerville and Cunningham - were Japanese (South Island). Nobody was later able to discover how this spoof got past the Censors, but they retaliated by becoming even more tough than before.’ (pp.133-34.)

MarchDub wrote: »

Not sure where some of this is coming from - do you have any references?

I did my own digging for references on Smyllie. Smyllie was a character no doubt but as regards De Valera he came to respect Dev and shared many of his views. Smyllie became very suspicious of Fine Gael – especially what he viewed as Cosgrave’s too close dalliance with the Blueshirts and drew closer to Dev.

Details of these are given in the biography of Smyllie by Tony Gray published about 20 years ago. Gray worked alongside of him in the Irish Times. I have a copy of the book and just consulted it – Syllie wrote an editorial in 1936 agreeing with Dev’s decision to proscribe the IRA and break the ports part of the Treaty and Smyllie further supported Dev’s abolition of the post of British Governor-General in favour of an Irish President.

As regards the Jinks affair Gray says that Smyllie was too much a believer in the system of democracy to have been involved in purposely trying to prevent Jinks from voting – and Donal O’Sullivan dismisses the ‘legend’ of Jinks as just that in The Free State and Its Senate i.e. O’Sullivan claims that Jinks had been warned off the vote by Major Cooper and that Jinks just got on the train back to Sligo in order to avoid the vote.

MarchDub wrote: »

What? This is how you do research? Dismiss all that you don't want to know about or agree with?

I was asking about all the statements about Yeats, Flann O'Brien and even Smyllie etc. that you put out there. It's not clear where that all came from. It was a valid question IMO and in no way meant to be an idle argument.

I was clearly quoting from Donal O'Sullivan on that one. His work is considered to be of great value.

I have no idea what you mean by this? What is the reference to Yeats about?

This seems to be just your conjecture. A careful reading of the historic record indicates the line that Dev was carefully treading - his decision to outlaw the IRA came only about 2 years after he was in office.

We might as well say anything if you won't accept any sources that are not inclined to your own view. Again, I was just putting something else out there and using valid sources to do so. I have a number of books to hand that deal with Smyllie and his world.

I wasn't spoiling for a fight here - just inquiring about your sources which weren't very clear to me but if you can't take an alternative point of view on the thread then what is the point of the thread?

I really must say that I think you seem to have a conditioned view against De Valera and won't be budged from that on any account - source material be damned. Am I reading this right??

MarchDub wrote: »

Your opening question is enough for me to quit.


TBH you do seem to cherry pick whom you call partisan and who is to be believed. You make up your own bible. But I am just going to leave it at that. I can see that discussing this any further with you is going to go around in silly circles.

I refer to yours of the 21st inst in above regard. Alderman Jinks was Mayor of Sligo

In 1914, 1915 1916, 1921 and part of 1934. Michael Nevin was Mayor for remainder

Of 1934. I have taken this information from the Roll of Mayors which is on display in the

Mayors Parlour, City Hall.

Unfortunately we do not have any old files which might answer your other query, I suggest

You contact the Sligo County Library which holds archive material old newspapers etc.

Their email address is sligocentrallibrary@sligococo.ie

Regards

Mary Dolan
Staff Officer
Sligo Borough Council

Hi Mary

Thanks-you have answered my question -I have since found out that Alderman Jinks died in September 1934 while in office.

It would be good to see him listed having won the Election and it just shows that the Mayors Roll is incorrect.

He was a TD for a short period in 1927 when he abstained from a crucial no confidence motion which was very controvercial.

It would be good to see the website corrected listing his final Mayoralty- as in fact it was Alderman Jinks who was Mayor and Michael Nevin who was the Alternate. The listing on the website is just confusing.

My interest is really historical and he is a difficult guy to get information on.

Many thanks

Thats rhetorical Marchdub -you dont have to answer that

Will discuss with someone in our communications office and see if website can be amended.



Regards



Mary

MarchDub wrote: »

Now we need a photo. There has to be one somewhere. Maybe a newspaper archive?

... Whilst Lissadell remained in the control of Sir Josslyn he ensured full employment, whatever the political or economic situation; when he died in 1944 the estate [still] employed 102 persons and the buildings, including the many houses and cottages, were all occupied and in good order. Unfortunately he was not able completely to avoid labour problems. In 1920 Alderman Jinks of Sligo recruited the Lissadell workers into the local branch of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union. Shortly afterwards there was a dispute about conditions and a strike was called. Sir Josslyn's main concern was the dairy herd, which he milked unaided for several days, but the task was too much for him. He drove to the Union headquarters in Sligo and persuaded them to milk the cows to avoid unnecessary suffering, although all the milk was tipped away.
While it is obvious that Sir Josslyn and [his sister] Constance supported conflicting ideals, there are many reports of their respect for one another. Constance continued to visit Lissadell, usually with her husband Casimir, until 1913 when her political activities began to increase towards the violent crescendo of the Easter Rising in 1916. Contact after that was more difficult, although Constance was still seeing her mother through secret meetings arranged by Sarah Purser, the artist who painted the double portrait [at Lissadell] of Constance and Eva as children. However, Sir Josslyn never rejected his sister and took responsibility for her property during her several periods of imprisonment. As Constance once said: 'I suppose it's very embarrassing to have a relation that gets into jail and fights in revolutions that you are not in sympathy with" ... .

Constance's daughter, Maeve, was born at Lissadell on 13 November 1901 and was to spend almost her entire childhood in the care of her relatives in Sligo. ... Even when her parents moved [from Paris] to Dublin and a new home at St Mary's, Rathgar, in 1903, Maeve continued to live mainly with her grandmother, although her stepbrother, Staskow, lived at St Mary's. In 1907 Sir Josslyn married and Lady Gore-Booth move from Lissadell, first to a rented house, Ballytivnan, but eventually to Ardeevan [between Sligo and Rosses Point], which was to be Maeve's home for the remainder of her childhood. ... As she grew older, Maeve increasingly disapproved of her mother's revolutionary activities and, although they evidently enjoyed each other's company when they were together, Maeve was convinced that her mother thought only rarely about her at other times. ...'