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Adhan

The  (, أَذَان) is the first Islamic call to prayer, usually recited by a muezzin at five times of the day in a mosque, traditionally from a minaret. The is also the first thing recited in the ear of a newborn baby. It is often the first thing recited in a new home.

It is the first call summoning Muslims to enter the mosque for obligatory prayers ; a second call, known as the, summons those already in the mosque to line up for prayer. Muslims are encouraged to stop their activities and respond to the by performing the prescribed prayer, demonstrating reverence for the call to prayer and commitment to their faith.

In Turkey, it is voiced in five styles depending on the time of day: sabâ, uşşak, hicaz, rast, and segâh. In Arabic, the five different styles of voicing the are known as  (فجر),  (ظهر),  (عصر),  (مغرب), and  (عشاء).

Terminology
, Arabic for 'announcement', from the root, meaning 'to listen, to hear, be informed about', is variously transliterated in different cultures.

It is commonly written as athan, or adhane (in French), azan in Iran and south Asia (in Persian, Dari, Pashto, Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, and Punjabi), adzan in Southeast Asia (Indonesian and Malaysian), and ezan in Turkish and Serbo-Croatian Latin (езан in Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic and Bulgarian, ezani in Albanian). Muslims in many parts of South Asia, including the Malabar Coast of India and the Punjab region of India and Pakistan, use the Persian term بانگ,, for the call to public prayer.

Another derivative of the word is  (أُذُن), meaning 'ear'.

Announcer

The muezzin (مُؤَذِّن muʾaḏḏin) is the person who recites the adhan from the mosque. Typically in modern times, this is done using a microphone: a recitation that is consequently broadcast to the speakers usually mounted on the higher part of the mosque's minarets, thus calling those nearby to prayer. However, in many mosques, the message can also be recorded. This is due to the fact that the "call to prayer" has to be done loudly and at least five times a day. This is usually done by replaying previously recorded "call to prayer" without the presence of a muezzin. This way, the mosque operator has the ability to edit or mix the message and adjust the volume of the message while also not having to hire a full-time muezzin or in case of the absence of a muezzin. This is why in many Muslim countries, the sound of the prayer call can be exactly identical between one mosque and another, as well as between one Salah hour and another, as is the case for the London Central Mosque. In the event of a religious holidays like Eid al-Fitr, for example in Indonesia, where the Kalimah (speech) has to be recited out loud all day long, mosque operators uses this recording method to create a looping recital of the Kalimah.

The muezzin is chosen for his ability in reciting the adhan clearly, melodically, and loudly enough for all people to hear. This is one of the important duties in the mosque, as his companions and community rely on him in his call for Muslims to come to pray in congregation. The Imam leads the prayer five times a day. The first muezzin in Islam was Bilal ibn Rabah, a freed slave of Abyssinian heritage.

Words
Repeating the two testimonies of faith is recommended according to the Shafi'i school. The first time should be said in low voice to oneself, and the second should be called out; this was the practice of the people of Mecca. The Maliki school uses the same adhan, except allāhu akbar should only be said twice in the beginning; this was the practice of the people of Medina. Both positions also use a narration in Sahih Muslim as evidence.

On rare occasions, the muezzin may say "ṣallu fī buyūtikum" (pray in your homes) or "ṣallu fī riḥālikum" (pray in your dwellings) if it is heavily rainy, windy, or cold. Another case where this was said was during the COVID-19 lockdown. It may either be said at the end of the adhan, or replacing "ḥayya ʿala ṣ-ṣalāh" and "ḥayya ʿala l-falāḥ"; other ways have also been narrated.

Shia
Shia sources state Muhammad, according to God's command, ordered the adhan as a means of calling Muslims to prayer. Shia Islam teaches that no one else contributed, or had any authority to contribute, towards the composition of the adhan.

Shia sources also narrate that Bilal ibn Rabah al-Habashi was, in fact, the first person to recite the adhan publicly out loud in front of the Muslim congregation.

The fundamental phrase lā ʾilāha ʾillā llāh is the foundation stone of Islam along with the belief in it. It declares that "there is no god but Allah". This is the confession of Tawhid or the "doctrine of Oneness [of God]".

The phrase Muḥammadun rasūlu -llāh fulfills the requirement that there should be someone to guide in the name of God, which states Muhammad is God's Messenger. This is the acceptance of prophethood or Nabuwat of Muhammad.

Muhammad declared Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor, at Ghadir Khumm, which was required for the continuation of his guidance. According to the hadith of the pond of Khumm, Muhammad stated that "Of whomsoever I am the authority, Ali is his authority". Hence, it is recommended to recite the phrase ʿalīyun walī -llāh ("Ali is His [God's] Authority").

In one of the Qiblah of Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah (1035–1094) of Fatemi era masjid of Qahira (Mosque of Ibn Tulun) engraved his name and kalimat ash-shahādah as lā ʾilāha ʾillā -llāh, muḥammadun rasūlu -llāh, ʿalīyun walīyu -llāh (لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ ٱللَّٰهِ عَلِيٌّ وَلِيُّ ٱللَّٰهِ).

Adhan reminds Muslims of these three Islamic teaching Tawhid, Nabuwat and Imamate before each prayer. These three emphasise devotion to God, Muhammad and Imam, which are considered to be so linked together that they can not be viewed separately; one leads to other and finally to God.

The phrase is optional to some Shia as justified above. They feel that Ali's Walayah ("Divine Authority") is self-evident, a testification and need not be declared. However, the greatness of God is also taken to be self-evident, but Muslims still declare Allāhu ʾakbar to publicize their faith. This is the reason that the most Shia give for the recitation of the phrase regarding Ali.

Sunni

Sunnis believe that the adhan was not written or said by the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, but rather by one of his companions. Abdullah ibn Zayd, a companion of Muhammad, reportedly had a vision in his dream, in which the adhan was revealed to him by God. He related this to his companions; later, this news reached Muhammad, who confirmed it. Because of his stunning voice, Muhammad chose a freed Habeshan slave by the name of Bilal ibn Rabah al-Habashi to make the call for prayers. Muhammad preferred the call over the use of bells, used by Christians, and horns, used by Jews.

During the Friday prayer (Salat al-Jumu'ah), there is one adhan but some Sunni Muslims increase it to two adhans; the first is to call the people to the mosque, the second is said before the Imam begins the khutbah (sermon). Just before the prayers start, someone amongst the praying people recites the iqama as in all prayers. The basis for this is that at the time of the Caliph Uthman he ordered two adhans to be made, the first of which was to be made in the marketplace to inform the people that the Friday prayer was soon to begin, and the second adhan would be the regular one held in the mosque. Not all Sunnis prefer two adhans as the need for warning the people of the impending time for prayer is no longer essential now that the times for prayers are well known.

Shia
While listening to the adhan, it is recommended to repeat the same words silently, except when the adhan reciter (muezzin) says: "أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ" and "أَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ ٱللَّٰهِ" (ʾašhadu ʾan lā ʾilāha ʾillā -llāh and ʾašhadu ʾanna Muḥammadan rasūlu -llāh) they silently say: "وَأَنَا أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ ٱللَّٰهِ (صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِهِ وَسَلَّمَ) أَكْتَفِي بِهَا عَمَّنْ أَبَىٰ وَجَحَدَ وَأُعِينُ بِهَا مَنْ أَقَرَّ وَشَهِدَ

'And I [also] bear witness that there is no deity but God, I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God, and I suffice by it (the testimonies) against whoever refuses and fights against it (the testimonies), and I designate by it one who agrees and testifies.'"

Whenever Muhammad's name is mentioned in the adhan or Iqama, it is recommended to recite salawat, a form of the peace be upon him blessing specifically for Muhammad. This salawat is usually recited as either ' (صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِهِ وَسَلَّمَ), ' (صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِهِ), or  (ٱللَّٰهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَىٰ مُحَمَّدٍ وَآلِ مُحَمَّدٍ).

Immediately following the adhan, it is recommended to sit and recite the following dua (supplication): "ٱللَّٰهُمَّ ٱجْعَلْ قَلْبِي بَارًّا وَرِزْقِي دَارًّا وَٱجْعَلْ لِي عِنْدَ قَبْرِ نَبِيِّكَ (صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِهِ وَسَلَّمَ) قَرَارًا وَمُسْتَقَرًّا

'O God! Make my heart to be righteous, and my livelihood to be constant, and my sustenance to be continuous, and Make for me, in the presence of Your Prophet (God bless him and his progeny and grant him peace) a dwelling and a rest.'"

Sunni
While listening to the adhan, it is recommended to silently repeat after the caller, except when they say "come to prayer" (ḥayya ʿala ṣ-ṣalāh) and "come to success" (ḥayya ʿala l-falāḥ), to which it is recommended to silently say "there is no ability and no power except by God, [the Most High, Most Great]" (lā ḥawla wa-lā quwwata illā bi-llāh [l-ʿaliyyi l-ʿaẓīm]). Most scholars, including the Malikis, Shafi'is, and Hanbalis, view this as only recommended; however, others, including the Hanafis and Zahiris, view it as necessary.

Immediately following the adhan, it is recommended to recite the following supplications:

1. A testification of faith "وَأَنَا أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ رَضِيتُ بِٱللَّٰهِ رَبًّا وَبِمُحَمَّدٍ رَسُولًا وَبِٱلْإِسْلَامِ دِينًا

'And I testify that there is nothing worthy of worship except God, alone without a partner, and that Muhammad is his servant and messenger. I am pleased with God as lord, with Muhammad as messenger, and with Islam as religion.'"

2. Prayers and blessings on Muhammad and his family "ٱللَّٰهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَىٰ مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَىٰ آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ كَمَا صَلَّيْتَ عَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَعَلَىٰ آلِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ إِنَّكَ حَمِيدٌ مَجِيدٌ وَبَارِكْ عَلَىٰ مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَىٰ آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ كَمَا بَارَكْتَ عَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَعَلَىٰ آلِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ إِنَّكَ حَمِيدٌ مَجِيدٌ

'O God! Send prayers on Muhammad and on Muhammad's family, like you sent prayers on Abraham and on Abraham's family. Indeed, you are praiseworthy and glorious. And send blessings on Muhammad and on Muhammad's family, like you sent blessings on Abraham and on Abraham's family. Indeed, you are praiseworthy and glorious.'"

3. Praying for Muhammad's station and virtousness "اللَّٰهُمَّ رَبَّ هَٰذِهِ ٱلدَّعْوَةِ ٱلتَّامَّةِ وَٱلصَّلاَةِ ٱلْقَائِمَةِ آتِ مُحَمَّدًا ٱلْوَسِيلَةَ وَٱلْفَضِيلَةَ وَٱبْعَثْهُ مَقَامًا مَحْمُودًا ٱلَّذِي وَعَدْتَهُ إِنَّكَ لَا تُخْلِفُ ٱلْمِيعَادَ

'O God, lord of this perfect call and established prayer! Give Muhammad the station and virtuousness, and raise him to the praiseworthy station that you promised him. Indeed, you do not neglect promises.'"

4. Any personal supplication made to God between the adhan and iqamah. It was narrated this is a time when supplications are especially answered and not rejected.

Form
The call to prayer is said after entering the time of prayer. The muezzin usually stands during the call to prayer. It is common for the muezzin to put his hands to his ears when reciting the adhan. Each phrase is followed by a longer pause and is repeated one or more times according to fixed rules. During the first statement each phrase is limited in tonal range, less melismatic, and shorter. Upon repetition the phrase is longer, ornamented with melismas, and may possess a tonal range of over an octave. The adhan's form is characterised by contrast and contains twelve melodic passages which move from one to another tonal center of one maqam a fourth or fifth apart. Various geographic regions in the Middle East traditionally perform the adhan in particular maqamat: Medina, Saudi Arabia uses Maqam Bayati while Mecca uses Maqam Hijaz. The tempo is mostly slow; it may be faster and with fewer melismas for the sunset prayer. During festivals, it may be performed antiphonally as a duet. Duration can be 4 minutes, but also longer, and then continuing with the shorter iqama.

Australia
There are controversies due to community-centric disagreements at mosques in Australia, such as ongoing parking disputes at Al Zahra in Arncliffe, noise complaints at Gallipoli Mosque and Lakemba Mosque in Sydney, and public filming at Albanian Australian Islamic Society and the Keysborough Turkish Islamic and Cultural Centre in Melbourne.

Bangladesh
In 2016, opposition leader Khaleda Zia alleged the government was preventing the broadcasting of adhans through loudspeakers, with government officials citing security concerns for the prime minister Sheikh Hasina".

Israel
In 2016, Israel's ministerial committee approved a draft bill that limits the volume of the use of public address systems for calls to prayer, particularly outdoor loudspeakers for the adhan, citing it as a factor of noise pollution, the draft bill was never enacted and has been in limbo ever since. The bill was submitted by Knesset member Motti Yogev of the far right Zionist party Jewish Home and Robert Ilatov of the right wing Yisrael Beiteinu. The ban is meant to affect three mosques in Abu Dis village of East Jerusalem, disbarring them from broadcasting the morning call (fajr) prayers. The bill was backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who said: "I cannot count the times — they are simply too numerous — that citizens have turned to me from all parts of Israeli society, from all religions, with complaints about the noise and suffering caused to them by the excessive noise coming to them from the public address systems of houses of prayer." The Israel Democracy Institute, a non-partisan think tank, expressed concerns that it specifically stifles the rights of Muslims, and restricts their freedom of religion.

Kuwait and the UAE
During the COVID-19 pandemic in Kuwait, some cities changed their adhan from the usual hayya 'ala as-salah, meaning "come to prayer", to as-salatu fi buyutikum meaning "pray in your homes" or ala sallu fi rihalikum meaning "pray where you are".

Other Muslim countries (notably Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Indonesia) also made this change because Muslims are prohibited to pray in mosques during the pandemic as preventive measures to stop the chain of the outbreak. The basis for the authority to change a phrase in the adhan was justified by Muhammad's instructions while calling for adhan during adverse conditions.

Sweden
The Fittja Mosque in Botkyrka, south of Stockholm, was in 2013 the first mosque to be granted permission for a weekly public call to Friday prayer, on condition that the sound volume does not exceed 60 dB. In Karlskrona (province of Blekinge, southern Sweden) the Islamic association built a minaret in 2017 and has had weekly prayer calls since then. The temporary mosque in Växjö filed for a similar permission in February 2018, which sparked a nationwide debate about the practice. A yearlong permission was granted by the Swedish Police Authority in May the same year.

Tajikistan
The usage of loudspeakers to broadcast the adhan was banned in 2009 with Law No. 489 of 26 March 2009 on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Unions.

Turkey
As an extension of the reforms brought about by the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the Turkish government at the time, encouraged by Atatürk, introduced secularism to Turkey. The program involved implementing a Turkish adhan program as part of its goals, as opposed to the conventional Arabic call to prayer. Following the conclusion of said debates, on the 1 February 1932, the adhan was chanted in Turkish and the practice was continued for a period of 18 years. There was some resistance against the adhan in the Turkish language and protests surged. In order to suppress these protests, in 1941, a new law was issued, under which people who chanted the adhan in Arabic could be imprisoned for up to 3 months and be fined up to 300 Turkish Lira.

On 17 June 1950, a new government led by Adnan Menderes, restored Arabic as the liturgical language.

Uzbekistan
In 2005, former Uzbek president Islam Karimov banned the Muslim call to prayer from being broadcast in the country; the ban was lifted in November 2017 by his successor, Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

In other countries, there is no written law forbidding the distribution of the call to prayer in mosques and prayer halls.

In television
In some Muslim-majority countries, television stations usually broadcasts the adhan at prayer times, in a similar fashion to radio stations. In Indonesia and Malaysia, it is mandatory for all television stations to broadcast the adhan at Fajr and Magrib prayers, with the exception of non-Muslim religious stations. Islamic religious stations often broadcast the adhan at all five prayer times. Since the 1970s the adhan has been broadcast from mosques in the U.S., such as the American Moslem Society, which was established in Dearborn, Michigan.

The adhan are commonly broadcast with a visual cinematic sequence depicting mosques and worshippers attending to the prayer. Some television stations in both Malaysia and Indonesia often utilize a more artistic or cultural approach to the cinematic involving multiple actors and religious-related plotlines.

The 1991-1994 recording of Masjid al-Haram muezzin, Sheikh Ali Ahmed Mulla is best known for its use in various television and radio stations.

Turkish National Anthem
The adhan is referenced in the eighth verse of İstiklâl Marşı, the Turkish national anthem:

"The sole wish of my soul, oh glorious God, from You is that, No heathen would ever, on the bosom of my temple, lay hand! These adhans, whose testimonies are the ground of religion, Should resound far and wide over my eternal homeland."

"The Armed Man"
The adhan appears in "The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace" composed by Karl Jenkins.

title: Adhan


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Talk:Cinnamon teal

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 26 August 2021 and 25 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Maddi.wong.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 17:43, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Untitled
Isn't the female more like female Blue-winged Teal ? jimfbleak 15:50 22 Jun 2003 (UTC)

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Red-rumped parrot

The red-rumped parrot (Psephotus haematonotus), also known as the red-backed parrot or grass parrot, is a common bird of south-eastern Australia, particularly in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Taxonomy
The red-rumped parrot was described by John Gould in 1838 as Platycercus haematonotus from a specimen collected in New South Wales. He felt it was intermediate between the genera Platycercus and Nanodes, placing it in the former. He gave it its species name on account of its red rump.

It is the type species for the genus Psephotus. It was long presumed to be closely related to the mulga parrot, however analysis of multiple genetic material shows it to be an early offshoot of a group containing the genera Platycercus and Barnardius. Hence all other species in the genus have been moved to the new genus Psephotellus, leaving the red-rumped parrot as the sole member in the now monotypic genus.

The IOC has designated red-rumped parrot as its official common name. It is also known as red-backed parrot and grass parrot.

Description
Red-rumped parrots are slim, moderate-sized parrots approximately 28 cm in length. The male's plumage is a bright emerald-green with yellow underparts, a brick-red rump and blue highlights on the wings and upper back. The female's plumage is less vibrant, with pale olive underparts, dull green wings and back and blue-black wingtips. The characteristic red rump is only found in the male.

Behavior
Red-rumped parrots can be found in pairs or flocks in open country with access to water. They avoid the coast and the wetter, more heavily wooded areas. Clearing of large tracts of forest and the provision of water for stock has probably extended their range. They are often seen in suburban parks and gardens. Their green plumage provides such a good camouflage in ankle length grasses that they can hide quite effectively until the viewer is only 10–20 metres away.

They spend a great deal of time feeding on the ground, and often call to one another with an attractive chee chillip chee chillip.

Breeding
Like many parrots, red-rumped parrots nest in tree hollows or similar places, including fenceposts and stumps. They lay 3-6 white eggs around 2 or so centimetres. Breeding usually takes place in spring (September-November); however, in the dryer inland areas, breeding can occur at any time of year in response to rainfall.

Aviculture
Red rumps are bred easily in captivity if provided with necessary flight space and a large nesting box. Breeders usually use peat and wood shavings as bedding for the nests, birds like to arrange the beds to their likings. As soon as mating has occurred the hen will deposit 4 to 7 eggs which she will brood for about 20 days. Red rump hens will not leave the nest box whilst on eggs and not even humans checking will make them leave their eggs alone. The eggs will hatch around 30 days after laying. Care must be taken to remove the chicks as soon as they fledge or else the male may attack his own offspring. One-year-old birds are sexually mature. Incubation from the second egg onwards. The brooding hen is fed by her partner outside the nest.

Colour mutations have been bred through aviculture. Yellow red-rumped parrots are readily available in the market.

Housing
Red-rumped parrots do well in aviaries and cages. They do not like crowded spaces and will sometimes be aggressive towards other birds if they do not have enough space. Red-rumped parrots can also be hand-reared, provided that they have a large cage and are taken out of their cage on a daily basis to prevent boredom, as it may result in the parrot pulling out its feathers to occupy itself.

Lifespan
In captivity, if properly cared for, these birds will live from 15 to 32 years.

title: Red-rumped parrot


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Richard Mulcahy

Richard James Mulcahy (10 May 1886 – 16 December 1971) was an Irish Fine Gael politician and army general who served as Minister for Education from 1948 to 1951 and 1954 to 1957, Minister for the Gaeltacht from June 1956 to October 1956, Leader of the Opposition from 1944 to 1948, Leader of Fine Gael from 1944 to 1959, Minister for Local Government and Public Health from 1927 to 1932 and Minister for Defence from January to April 1919 and 1922 to 1924. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1918 to 1938 and from 1943 to 1961 and a Senator from March 1938 to June 1938 and 1943 to 1944. He served in the cabinets of W. T. Cosgrave and John A. Costello.

He was an army general who fought in the 1916 Easter Rising, served as Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army during the War of Independence and became commander-in-chief of the National Army in the Irish Civil War after the death of Michael Collins.

Early life and 1916 Rising
Richard Mulcahy was born in Manor Street, Waterford, in 1886, the son of post office clerk Patrick Mulcahy and Elizabeth Slattery. He was educated at Mount Sion Christian Brothers School and later in Thurles, County Tipperary, where his father was the postmaster. One of his grandmothers was a Quaker who was disowned by her wealthy family for marrying a Catholic.

Mulcahy joined the Royal Mail (Post Office Engineering Dept.) in 1902, and worked in Thurles, Bantry, Wexford and Dublin. He was a member of the Gaelic League and joined the Irish Volunteers at the time of their formation in 1913. He was also a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

He was second-in-command to Thomas Ashe (who later died on hunger strike) in an encounter with the armed Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) at Ashbourne, County Meath during the Easter Rising in 1916—one of the few stand-out victories won by republicans in that week, and generally credited to Mulcahy's grasp of tactics. In his book on the Rising, Charles Townshend principally credits Mulcahy with the defeat of the RIC at Ashbourne, for conceiving and leading a flanking movement on the RIC column that had engaged with the Irish Volunteers. Arrested after the Rising, Mulcahy was interned at Knutsford and at the Frongoch internment camp in Wales until his release on 24 December 1916.

War of Independence and Civil War

On his release, Mulcahy immediately rejoined the republican movement and became commandant of the Dublin Brigade of the Irish Volunteers. He was elected to the First Dáil in the 1918 general election for Dublin Clontarf. He was then named Minister for Defence in the new (alternative) government and later Assistant Minister for Defence. In March 1918, he became IRA chief of staff, a position he held until January 1922.

He and Michael Collins were largely responsible for directing the military campaign against the British during the War of Independence. During this period of upheaval in 1919, he married Mary Josephine (Min) Ryan, sister of Kate and Phyllis Ryan, the successive wives of Seán T. O'Kelly; her brother was James Ryan. O'Kelly and James Ryan both later served in Fianna Fáil governments.

Mulcahy supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. Archive film shows that Mulcahy, as Minister of Defence, was the Irish officer who raised the Irish tricolour at the first hand-over of a British barracks to the National Army in January 1922. He was defence minister in the Provisional Government on its creation and succeeded Collins, after the latter's death, as Commander-in-Chief of the Provisional Government's forces, during the subsequent Civil War.

He earned notoriety through his order that anti-Treaty activists captured carrying arms were liable for execution. A total of 77 anti-Treaty prisoners were executed by the Provisional Government. Mulcahy served as Minister for Defence in the new Free State government from January 1924 until March 1924, but resigned in protest because of the sacking of the Army Council after criticism by the Executive Council over the handling of the 'Army Mutiny', when some National Army War of Independence officers almost revolted after Mulcahy demobilised many of them at the end of the Civil War. He re-entered the cabinet as Minister for Local Government and Public Health in 1927.

Post-independence politician
During his period on the backbenches of Dáil Éireann his electoral record fluctuated. He was elected as TD for Dublin North-West at the 1921 and 1922 general elections. He moved to Dublin North for the election the following year, and was re-elected there in four further elections: June 1927, September 1927, 1932 and 1933.

Dublin North was abolished for the 1937 election, at which Mulcahy was defeated in the new constituency of Dublin North-East. However, he secured election to Seanad Éireann as a Senator, the upper house of the Oireachtas, representing the Administrative Panel. The 2nd Seanad sat for less than two months, and at the 1938 general election he was elected to the 10th Dáil as a TD for Dublin North-East. Defeated again in the election of 1943, he secured election to the 4th Seanad by the Labour Panel.

Leader of Fine Gael
After the resignation of W. T. Cosgrave as Leader of Fine Gael in 1944, Mulcahy became party leader while still a member of the Seanad. Thomas F. O'Higgins was parliamentary leader of the party in the Dáil at the time and Leader of the Opposition. Facing his first general election as party leader, Mulcahy drew up a list of 13 young candidates to contest seats for Fine Gael. Of the eight who ran, four were elected. He had successfully cast aside the Cosgrave legacy of antipathy to constituency work, travelling the country on an autocycle and bringing new blood into the party. He was returned again to the 12th Dáil as a TD for Tipperary at the 1944 general election. While Fine Gael's decline had been slowed, its future was still in doubt.

Following the 1948 general election—at which, following boundary changes, Mulcahy was elected for Tipperary South, the dominant Fianna Fáil party finished six seats short of a majority. However, it was 37 seats ahead of Fine Gael, and conventional wisdom suggested that Fianna Fáil was the only party that could possibly form a government. Just as negotiations got underway, however, Mulcahy realised that if Fine Gael, the Labour Party, the National Labour Party, Clann na Poblachta and Clann na Talmhan banded together, they would have only one seat fewer than Fianna Fáil—and that if they could get support from seven independents, they would be able to form a government. He played a leading role in persuading the other parties to put aside their differences and join forces to consign the then Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Éamon de Valera, to the opposition benches.

Since Fine Gael was by far the largest party in the prospective coalition, Mulcahy initially seemed set to become Taoiseach in a coalition government. However, he was not acceptable to Clann na Poblachta's leader, Seán MacBride. Many Irish republicans had never forgiven Mulcahy for his role in the Civil War executions carried out under the Cosgrave government in the 1920s. Consequently, MacBride let it be known that he and his party would not serve under Mulcahy. Without Clann na Poblachta, the other parties would have had 57 seats between them—17 seats short of a majority in the 147-seat Dáil. Mulcahy stepped aside and encouraged his party colleague John A. Costello, a former Attorney General, to become the parliamentary leader of Fine Gael and the coalition's candidate for Taoiseach. According to Mulcahy, the suggestion that another person serve as Taoiseach came from Labour leader William Norton. For the next decade, Costello served as the party's parliamentary leader while Mulcahy remained the nominal leader of the party.

Mulcahy went on to serve as Minister for Education under Costello from 1948 until 1951. Another coalition government came to power at the 1954 election, with Mulcahy once again stepping aside to become Minister for Education in the Second Inter-Party Government. The government fell in 1957, but Mulcahy remained as Fine Gael leader until October 1959. In October the following year, he told his Tipperary constituents that he did not intend to contest the next election.

Family
Richard Mulcahy married Min Ryan, the former fiancée of Seán Mac Diarmada, in 1920, and lived in a flat in Oakley House, Ranelagh. Min, a member of the Cumann na mBan Executive, had herself been involved in nationalist activity at the time of the Rising. One of his sons, Risteárd Mulcahy (1922–2016), was for many years a cardiologist in Dublin. His daughter Neillí Mulcahy (1925–2012) was one of Ireland's leading fashion designers. She designed the uniforms for Aer Lingus in 1962. Another son was the structural engineer and visual artist Seán Mulcahy (1926–2018).

Richard Mulcahy died of cancer in Dublin on 16 December 1971, at the age of 85.

title: Richard Mulcahy


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John Bright

John Bright (16 November 1811 – 27 March 1889) was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, one of the greatest orators of his generation and a promoter of free trade policies.

A Quaker, Bright is most famous for battling the Corn Laws. In partnership with Richard Cobden, he founded the Anti-Corn Law League, aimed at abolishing the Corn Laws, which raised food prices and protected landowners' interests by levying taxes on imported wheat. The Corn Laws were repealed in 1846. Bright also worked with Cobden in another free trade initiative, the Cobden–Chevalier Treaty of 1860, promoting closer interdependence between Great Britain and the Second French Empire. This campaign was conducted in collaboration with French economist Michel Chevalier, and succeeded despite Parliament's endemic mistrust of the French.

Bright sat in the House of Commons from 1843 to 1889, promoting free trade, electoral reform and religious freedom. He was almost a lone voice in opposing the Crimean War; he also opposed William Ewart Gladstone's proposed Home Rule for Ireland. He saw himself as a spokesman for the middle class and strongly opposed the privileges of the landed aristocracy. In terms of Ireland, he sought to end the political privileges of Anglicans, disestablished the Church of Ireland, and began land reform that would turn land over to the Catholic peasants. He coined the phrase "The mother of parliaments."

Early life
Bright was born at Greenbank, Rochdale, in Lancashire, England—one of the early centres of the Industrial Revolution. His father, Jacob Bright, was a much respected Quaker, who had started a cotton mill at Rochdale in 1809. Jacob's father, Abraham, was a Wiltshire yeoman, who, early in the 18th century, moved to Coventry, where his descendants remained. Jacob Bright was educated at the Ackworth School of the Society of Friends, and apprenticed to a fustian manufacturer at New Mills, Derbyshire. John Bright was his son by his second wife, Martha Wood, daughter of a Quaker shopkeeper of Bolton-le-Moors. Educated at Ackworth School, she was a woman of great strength of character and refined taste. There were eleven children of this marriage, of whom John was the eldest surviving son. His younger brother was Jacob Bright, an MP and mayor. His sisters included Priscilla Bright McLaren (whose husband was Duncan McLaren MP) and Margaret Bright Lucas. John was a delicate child and was sent as a day pupil to a boarding school near his home, kept by William Littlewood. A year at the Ackworth School, two years at Bootham School, York, and a year and a half at Newton, near Clitheroe, completed his education. He later claimed to have learned little Latin and Greek at school, but instead acquired a love of English literature, which his mother fostered, and a love of outdoor pursuits. In his sixteenth year, he entered his father's mill, and in due time became a partner in the business.

In Rochdale, Jacob Bright was a leader of the opposition to a local church-rate. Rochdale was also prominent in the movement for parliamentary reform, by which the town successfully claimed to have a member allotted to it under the Reform Bill. John Bright took part in both campaigns. He was an ardent Nonconformist, proud to number among his ancestors John Gratton, a friend of George Fox, and one of the persecuted and imprisoned preachers of the Religious Society of Friends. His political interest was probably first kindled by the Preston election in 1830, in which Edward Stanley, after a long struggle, was defeated by Henry "Orator" Hunt.

But it was as a member of the Rochdale Juvenile Temperance Band that Bright first learned public speaking. These young men went out into the villages, borrowed a chair of a cottager, and spoke from it at open-air meetings. John Bright's first extempore speech was at a temperance meeting. Bright got his notes muddled and broke down. The chairman gave out a temperance song, and during the singing told Bright to put his notes aside and say what came into his mind. Bright obeyed, began with much hesitancy, but found his tongue and made an excellent address, although sometimes he spoke with a confused syntax. Tales of these early years circulated through Britain and the United States late into his career, to the extent that students at institutions such as the young Cornell University regarded him as an exemplar for activities such as the Irving Literary Society.

On some early occasions, however, he committed his speech to memory. In 1832 he called on the Rev. John Aldis, an eminent Baptist minister, to accompany him to a local Bible meeting. Mr Aldis described him as a slender, modest young gentleman, who surprised him by his intelligence and thoughtfulness, but who seemed nervous as they walked to the meeting together. At the meeting he made a stimulating speech, and on the way home asked for advice. Mr Aldis counselled him not to learn his speeches, but to write out and commit to memory certain passages and the peroration. This "first lesson in public speaking", as Bright called it, was given in his twenty-first year, but he had not then contemplated a public career. He was a fairly prosperous man of business, very happy in his home, always ready to take part in the social, educational and political life of his native town. A founder of the Rochdale Literary and Philosophical Society, he took a leading part in its debates, and on returning from a holiday journey in the east, gave the society a lecture on his travels.

Cobden and the Corn Laws
He first met Richard Cobden in 1836 or 1837. Cobden was an alderman of the newly formed Manchester Corporation, and Bright went to ask him to speak at an education meeting in Rochdale. Cobden consented, and at the meeting was much struck by Bright's short speech and urged him to speak against the Corn Laws. His first speech on the Corn Laws was made at Rochdale in 1838, and in the same year he joined the Manchester provisional committee which in 1839 founded the Anti-Corn Law League. He was still only the local public man, taking part in all public movements, especially in opposition to John Fielden's proposed factory legislation, and to the Rochdale church-rate. In 1839 he built the house which he called "One Ash", and he married Elizabeth, daughter of the Quaker minister Rachel (born Bragg) and the tanner Jonathan Priestman of Newcastle upon Tyne.

In November of the same year there was a dinner in Bolton in honour of Abraham Paulton, who had just returned from an Anti-Corn Law tour in Scotland. Among the speakers were Cobden and Bright, and the dinner is memorable as the first occasion on which the two future leaders appeared together on a Free Trade platform. Bright is described by the historian of the League as "a young man then appearing for the first time in any meeting out of his own town, and giving evidence, by his energy and by his grasp of the subject, of his capacity soon to take a leading part in the great agitation."

In 1840 he led a movement against the Rochdale church-rate, speaking from a tombstone in the churchyard, where it looks down on the town in the valley below. A daughter, Helen, was born to him; but his young wife, after a long illness, died of tuberculosis in September 1841. Three days after her death at Leamington, Cobden called to see him. "I was in the depths of grief", said Bright, when unveiling the statue of his friend at Bradford in 1877, "I might almost say of despair, for the life and sunshine of my house had been extinguished." Cobden spoke some words of condolence, but "after a time he looked up and said, 'There are thousands of homes in England at this moment where wives, mothers and children are dying of hunger. Now, when the first paroxysm of your grief is past, I would advise you to come with me, and we will never rest till the Corn Laws are repealed.' I accepted his invitation", added Bright, "and from that time we never ceased to labour hard on behalf of the resolution which we had made."

Into Parliament: the Member for Durham
At the general election in 1841 Cobden was returned for Stockport, Cheshire, and in 1843 Bright was the Free Trade candidate at a by-election at Durham. He was defeated, but his successful competitor was unseated on petition, and at the second contest Bright was returned. He was already known as Cobden's chief ally and was received in the House of Commons with suspicion and hostility. In the Anti-Corn Law movement, the two speakers complemented each other. Cobden had the calmness and confidence of the political philosopher; Bright had the passion and the fervour of the popular orator. Cobden did the reasoning, Bright supplied the declamation, but mingled argument with appeal. No orator of modern times rose more rapidly. He was not known beyond his own borough when Cobden called him to his side in 1841, and he entered parliament towards the end of the session of 1843 with a formidable reputation. He had been all over England and Scotland addressing vast meetings and, as a rule, carrying them with him; he had taken a leading part in a conference held by the Anti-Corn Law League in London had led deputations to the Duke of Sussex, to Sir James Graham, then home secretary, and to Lord Ripon and Gladstone, the secretary and undersecretary of the Board of Trade; and he was universally recognised as the chief orator of the Free Trade movement. Wherever "John Bright of Rochdale" was announced to speak, vast crowds assembled. He had been so announced, for the last time, at the first great meeting in Drury Lane Theatre on 15 March 1843; henceforth his name was enough. He took his seat in the House of Commons as one of the members for Durham on 28 July 1843, and on 7 August delivered his maiden speech in support of a motion by Mr Ewart for reduction of import duties. He was there, he said, "not only as one of the representatives of the city of Durham, but also as one of the representatives of that benevolent organisation, the Anti-Corn Law League." A member who heard the speech described Bright as "about the middle size, rather firmly and squarely built, with a fair, clear complexion and an intelligent and pleasing expression of countenance. His voice is good, his enunciation distinct, and his delivery free from any unpleasant peculiarity or mannerism." He wore the usual Friend's coat and was regarded with much interest and hostile curiosity on both sides of the House.

Mr Ewart's motion was defeated, but the movement of which Cobden and Bright were the leaders continued to spread. In the autumn the League resolved to raise £100,000; an appeal was made to the agricultural interest by great meetings in the farming counties, and in November The Times startled the country by declaring, in a leading article, "The League is a great fact. It would be foolish, nay, rash, to deny its importance." In London great meetings were held in Covent Garden Theatre, at which William Johnson Fox was the chief orator, but Bright and Cobden were the leaders of the movement. Bright publicly deprecated the popular tendency to regard Cobden and himself as the chief movers in the agitation, and Cobden told a Rochdale audience that he always stipulated that he should speak first, and Bright should follow. His "more stately genius", as John Morley calls it, was already making him the undisputed master of the feelings of his audiences. In the House of Commons his progress was slower. Cobden's argumentative speeches were regarded more sympathetically than Bright's more rhetorical appeals, and in a debate on George Villiers's annual motion against the Corn Laws, Bright was heard with so much impatience that he was obliged to sit down.

In the next session (1845) he moved for an inquiry into the operation of the Game Laws. At a meeting of county members earlier in the day Robert Peel, then Prime Minister, had advised them not to be led into discussion by a violent speech from the member for Durham, but to let the committee be granted without debate. Bright was not violent, and Cobden said that he did his work admirably, and won golden opinions from all men. The speech established his position in the House of Commons. In this session Bright and Cobden came into opposition, Cobden voting for the Maynooth Grant and Bright against it. On only one other occasion—a vote for South Kensington—did they go into opposite lobbies, during twenty-five years of parliamentary life.

In the autumn of 1845 Bright retained Cobden in the public career to which Cobden had invited him four years before; Bright was in Scotland when a letter came from Cobden announcing his determination, forced on him by business difficulties, to retire from public work. Bright replied that if Cobden retired the mainspring of the League was gone. "I can in no degree take your place", he wrote. "As a second I can fight, but there are incapacities about me, of which I am fully conscious, which prevent my being more than second in such a work as we have laboured in." A few days later he set off for Manchester, posting in that wettest of autumns through "the rain that rained away the Corn Laws", and on his arrival got his friends together, and raised the money which tided Cobden over the emergency. The crisis of the struggle had come. Peel's budget in 1845 was a first step towards Free Trade. The bad harvest and the potato blight drove him to the repeal of the Corn Laws, and at a meeting in Manchester on 2 July 1846 Cobden moved and Bright seconded a motion dissolving the league. A library of twelve hundred volumes was presented to Bright as a memorial of the struggle.

"Flog a dead horse"
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of the expression in its modern sense was by Bright in reference to the Reform Act of 1867, which called for more democratic representation in Parliament. Trying to rouse Parliament from its apathy on the issue, he said in a speech, would be like trying to "flog a dead horse" to make it pull a load.

However, an earlier instance is attributed to Bright some thirteen years previously: speaking in the Commons on 28 March 1859 on a similar issue of parliamentary reform, Lord Elcho remarked that Bright had not been "satisfied with the results of his winter campaign" and that "a saying was attributed to him [Bright] that he [had] found he was 'flogging a dead horse.'"

"England is the Mother of Parliaments"
Bright coined this famous phrase on 18 January 1865 in a speech at Birmingham supporting an expansion of the franchise. It has often been misquoted as a reference to the UK Parliament.

Marriage and Manchester
Bright married firstly, on 27 November 1839, Elizabeth Priestman of Newcastle, daughter of Jonathan Priestman and Rachel Bragg. They had one daughter, Helen Priestman Bright (b. 1840) but Elizabeth eventually died from tubercolosis on 10 September 1841. Bright had visited her often but she had been cared for by her sister Margaret. Elizabeth's requests included that Helen Priestman Bright should be brought up by her larger family. She later married William Stephens Clark (1839–1925) of Street in Somerset. Bright married secondly, in June 1847, Margaret Elizabeth Leatham, sister of Edward Aldam Leatham of Wakefield, by whom he had seven children including John Albert Bright and William Leatham Bright. Bright employed Lydia Rous in 1868 to teach his children. He compared her abilities as second only to the Queen.

In July 1847, Bright was elected uncontested for Manchester, with Milner Gibson. In the new parliament, he opposed legislation restricting the hours of labour, and, as a Nonconformist, spoke against clerical control of national education. In 1848 he voted for Hume's household suffrage motion, and introduced a bill for the repeal of the Game Laws. When Lord John Russell brought forward his Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, Bright opposed it as "a little, paltry, miserable measure", and foretold its failure. In this parliament he spoke much on Irish questions. In a speech in favour of the government bill for a rate in aid (a tax on the prosperous parts of Ireland that would have paid for famine relief in the rest of that island) in 1849, he won loud cheers from both sides, and was complimented by Disraeli for having sustained the reputation of that assembly. From this time forward he had the ear of the House, and took effective part in the debates. He spoke against capital punishment, against church-rates, against flogging in the army, and against the Irish Established Church. He supported Cobden's motion for the reduction of public expenditure, and in and out of parliament pleaded for peace.

In the election of 1852 Bright was again returned for Manchester on the principles of free trade, electoral reform and religious freedom. But war was in the air, and the most impassioned speeches he ever delivered were addressed to this parliament in fruitless opposition to the Crimean War. Neither the House nor the country would listen. "I went to the House on Monday", wrote Macaulay in March 1854, "and heard Bright say everything I thought." His most memorable speech, the greatest he ever made, was delivered on 23 February 1855. "The angel of death has been abroad throughout the land. You may almost hear the beating of his wings", he said, and concluded with an appeal that moved the House as it had never been moved within living memory.

In 1860, Bright won another victory with Cobden in a new Free Trade initiative, the Cobden–Chevalier Treaty, promoting closer interdependence between Britain and France. This campaign was conducted in collaboration with French economist Michel Chevalier, and succeeded despite Parliament's endemic mistrust of the French.

MP for Birmingham: 1858–89
In 1857, Bright's unpopular opposition to the Crimean War led to his losing his seat as member for Manchester. Within a few months, he was elected unopposed as one of the two MPs for Birmingham in 1858. He would hold this position for over thirty years though he would later leave the Liberal Party on the issue of Irish Home Rule in 1886.

On 27 October 1858, he launched his campaign for parliamentary reform at Birmingham Town Hall. In 1866 he wrote an essay with the title "Speech on Reform". In this speech he demanded the enfranchisement of the working-class people because of their sheer number, and said that one should rejoice in open demonstrations rather than being confronted with "armed rebellion or secret conspiracy". In 1868, Bright entered the cabinet of Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone as President of the Board of Trade, but resigned in 1870 due to ill health. He served twice again in Gladstone cabinets as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1873–74, 1880–82). In 1882, Gladstone ordered the Royal Navy to bombard Alexandria to recover the debts owed by the Egyptians to British investors. Bright scornfully dismissed it as "a jobbers' war" on behalf of a privileged class of capitalists, and resigned from the Gladstone cabinet."

For deeply personal reasons, Bright was closely associated with the North Wales tourist resort of Llandudno. In 1864, he holidayed there with his wife and five-year-old son. As they passed through the graveyard, the boy said, "Mamma, when I am dead, I want to be buried here." A week later, he had died of scarlet fever, and his wish was granted. Bright returned to Llandudno at least once a year until his own death. He is still commemorated in Llandudno where the principal secondary school was named after him, and a new school, Ysgol John Bright was built in 2004.

Bright had much literary and social recognition in his later years. In 1880 he was elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, although R. W. Dale wrote of his rectorial address: "It was not the old Bright." He was given an honorary degree of the University of Oxford in 1886. He delivered the opening address for the Birmingham Central Library in 1882, and in 1888 the city erected a statue of him. The marble statue, by Albert Joy, was in store until it was recently restored to a prominent position in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Both John Bright Street, close to the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham, and Morse's Creek in Australia, now known as Bright, Victoria, were renamed in his honour.

Opposition to Home Rule
When in the wake of the Great Irish Famine, an all-Ireland Tenant Right League was formed, Bright expressed sympathy and support for reform of Irish land tenure. In 1850 he advised the House of Common to "resolutely legislate" on the question. Key for Bright was that "Instead of the [tenant-right] agitation being confined, as heretofore to the Roman Catholics and their clergy, Protestant and Dissenting clergymen seem to be amalgamated with Roman Catholics at present; indeed, there seems an amalgamation of all sects on this question." But once the sectarian division over Ireland's future within the United Kingdom reasserted itself, Bright's position hardened. Supporting Protestant Ulster, he would have no truck with what he described as the "disloyal Ireland".

In 1886 when Gladstone proposed Home Rule for Ireland and another Irish Land Act, Bright opposed it, along with Joseph Chamberlain and Lord Hartington. He regarded Charles Stewart Parnell's Irish Parliamentary Party as "the rebel party". Bright was repeatedly contacted by Gladstone, Chamberlain and Hartington to solicit his support. He was widely regarded as a force to be reckoned with and his political influence was considerably out of proportion to his activity. In March 1886 Bright went to London, and on 10 March met Hartington, having an hour's talk with him on Ireland. On 12 March Bright met Gladstone for dinner, writing that Gladstone's "chief object is to settle the Land question which I rather think ought now ought be considered as settled. On the question of a Parliament in Dublin, he wishes to get rid of Irish representation at Westminster, in which I entirely agree with him if it be possible". On 17 March he met Chamberlain and thought "his view is in the main correct and that it is not wise in him to support the intended measures". On 20 March he had a two-hour-long meeting with Gladstone:

"He gave me a long memorandum, historical in character, on the past Irish story, which seemed to be somewhat one-sided, leaving out of view the important minority and the views and feelings of the Protestant and loyal portion of the people. He explained much of his policy as to a Dublin Parliament, and as to Land purchase. I objected to the Land policy as unnecessary—the Act of 1881 had done all that was reasonable for the tenants—why adopt the policy of the rebel party, and get rid of landholders, and thus evict the English garrison as the rebels call them? I denied the value of the security for repayment. Mr G. argued that his finance arrangements would be better than present system of purchase, and that we were bound in honour to succour the landlords, which I contested. Why not go to the help of other interests in Belfast and Dublin? As to Dublin Parliament, I argued that he was making a surrender all along the line—a Dublin Parliament would work with constant friction, and would press against any barrier he might create to keep up the unity of the three Kingdoms. What of a volunteer force, and what of import duties and protection as against British goods? ... I thought he placed far too much confidence in the leaders of the rebel party. I could place none in them, and the general feeling was and is that any terms made with them would not be kept, and that through them I could not hope for reconciliation with discontented and disloyal Ireland."

On 8 April Gladstone introduced the Home Rule Bill into the House of Commons, where it passed the first reading without division. Bright did not enter the debates on the Bill and left London at the end of April to attend the funeral of his brother-in-law. He then returned to his home in Rochdale. On 13 May Gladstone sent him a letter, requesting he visit him in London. This date was also the anniversary of the death of Bright's wife's, so he replied that he felt the need to spend it at home. He further wrote:

"I cannot consent to a measure which is so offensive to the whole Protestant population of Ireland, and to the whole sentiment of the province of Ulster so far as its loyal and Protestant people are concerned. I cannot agree to exclude them from the protection of the Imperial Parliament. I would do much to clear the rebel party from Westminster, and do not sympathise with those who wish to retain them—but admit there is much force in the arguments on this point which are opposed to my views upon it. ... As to the Land Bill, if it comes to a second reading, I fear I must vote against it. It may be that my hostility to the rebel party, looking at their conduct since your Government was formed six years ago, disables me from taking an impartial view of this great question. If I could believe them honorable and truthful men, I could yield much—but I suspect that your policy of surrender to them will only place more power in their hands to war with greater effect against the unity of the 3 Kingdoms with no increase of good to the Irish people. ... Parliament is not ready for it, and the intelligence of the country is not ready for it. If it be possible, I should wish that no Division should be taken upon the Bill."

On 14 May Bright came to London and wrote to the Liberal MP Samuel Whitbread that Gladstone should withdraw the Home Rule Bill and that he should not dissolve Parliament if the Bill were put forward for a second reading and were defeated in a vote: "... it would only make the Liberal split the more serious, and make it beyond the power of healing. He would be responsible for the greatest wound the Party has received since it was a Party ... If the Bill were now withdrawn, the whole present difficulty in our Party would be gone". He also predicted the Conservatives would gain in strength if an election were called.

At the famous meeting at the Committee Room 15, Liberal MPs who were not outright opponents of the idea of Irish self-government but who disapproved of the Bill, met to decide upon a course of action. Among the attendees were Chamberlain, and Bright wrote to on 31 May:

"My present intention is to vote against the Second Reading, not having spoken in the debate. I am not willing to have my view of the bill or Bills in doubt. But I am not willing to take the responsibility of advising others as to their course. If they can content themselves with abstaining from the division, I shall be glad. they will render a greater service by preventing the threatened dissolution than by compelling it ... a small majority for the Bill may be almost as good as its defeat and may save the country from the heavy sacrifice of a general election. I wish I could join you, but I cannot now change the path I have taken from the beginning of this unhappy discussion ...P.S.—If you think it of any use you may read this note to your friends."

Chamberlain read aloud this letter to the meeting and he later wrote that Bright's "announcement that he intended to vote against the Second Reading undoubtedly affected the decision" and that the meeting ended by unanimously agreeing to vote against the Bill. Bright wrote to Chamberlain on 1 June that he was surprised at the meeting's decision because his letter "was intended to make it more easy for and your friends to abstain from voting in the coming division". On 7 June the Home Rule Bill was defeated by 341 votes to 311, Bright voting against it. Gladstone dissolved Parliament.

During the subsequent general election campaign, Bright delivered only one speech, to his constituents on 1 July, in which he opposed Irish Home Rule. He exhorted his countrymen to put the Union above the Liberal Party. This speech was generally viewed by the Gladstonian Liberals as having a decisive effect on their defeat. John Morley wrote that "The heaviest and most telling attack came from Mr. Bright, who had up to now in public been studiously silent. Every word, as they said of Daniel Webster, seemed to weigh a pound. His arguments were mainly those of his letter already given, but they were delivered with a gravity and force that told powerfully upon the large phalanx of doubters all over the kingdom". The chairman of the National Liberal Federation, Sir B. Walter Foster, complained that Bright "probably did more harm in this election to his own party than any other single individual". The Liberal journalist P. W. Clayden was a candidate for Islington North and when canvassing leading dissident Liberals, he would take with him a copy of the Home Rule Bill:

"Going through the Bill with some of them clause by clause, I was able to answer all their objections, and in many cases to get their promise of support. Mr Bright's speech, however, at once undid all my work. In the whole country it probably kept many thousands of Liberal voters from going to the polls, and did more than all the other influences put together to produce the Liberal abstention which gave the Coalition its decisive victory."

Bright was re-elected by his Birmingham constituents and it turned out to be his last Parliament. He sat as a Liberal Unionist allied to the Conservative Party who had formed a government after the election. Bright participated little in this Parliament, however his actions could still decide events. Lord George Hamilton recorded that when the government introduced the Criminal Law Amendment (Ireland) Bill in March 1887, which increased the authorities' coercive powers, the Liberal Party opposed it. Bright did not speak in the debate but Hamilton notes that great importance was attached to how Bright would vote: "If he abstained from voting or voted against the Government, the Unionist coalition would have been practically broken up. On the other hand if he, in order to avert Home Rule, voted for a procedure which was so contrary to his previous professions, the Coalition would receive a fresh source of strength and cohesion. When the Division Bell rang, Mr. Bright, who was sitting close by Gladstone, without a moment's hesitation walked straight into the Government's lobby".

From this point until his death, Bright did not meet Gladstone, despite their long political relationship together.

MLA for Kennedy, Queensland: 1869–70
The Colony of Queensland achieved separation from New South Wales in 1859 with Brisbane in the south-east corner chosen as its capital. By the 1860s, the perceived dominance of southern Queensland created a strong separatist movement in Central Queensland and North Queensland, seeking to establish yet another independent colony. In the 1867 Queensland colonial election, some separatists decided to nominate John Bright as the candidate for the electoral district of Rockhampton in Central Queensland, arguing that representation in the Queensland Parliament had been ineffective, so they would seek a representative within the British Parliament. However, he polled only 10 votes and was not elected.

Subsequently, on 11 June 1869, Thomas Henry Fitzgerald, member for the electoral district of Kennedy in North Queensland, resigned, triggering a by-election. John Bright was again nominated as part of the separatist protest and on this occasion won the resulting by-election on 10 July 1869. When nominating him, one separatist declared: Let us elect a man of some weight at home, who will take our case before the Queen and try for redress. There is no man more eminently qualified for this purpose than the Honourable John Bright—a favourite with the Queen, a favourite with the nation—the representative of trade, commerce, and manufactures in the Government and the champion of liberty, and yet a loyal subject. If we can enlist his sympathies, we are right. I believe he is the man who will break the iron rod of the South and set us free; for he has already fought for the liberty of the subject, and I cannot believe he will turn a deaf ear to our manifold sorrows. In January 1870, the separatists sent a petition to Queen Victoria requesting that North Queensland be made a separate colony to be called "Albertsland" (after the Queen's late husband Albert, Prince Consort). As Bright never visited Queensland or took his seat in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, his failure to attend parliament eventually resulted in his seat being declared vacant on 8 July 1870. North Queensland did not achieve separation and remained part of the Colony of Queensland (now the State of Queensland).

It is not known what role John Bright had in these Queensland political activities, or indeed if he was even aware of them. However, it was claimed in 1867 that Bright was an "intimate personal friend" of the then Governor of Queensland George Bowen.

Death
In late 1888, Bright became seriously ill and he realised the end was near. On 27 November his son Albert wrote a letter to Gladstone in which he said his father "wishes me to write to you and tell you that "he could not forget your unvarying kindness to him and the many services you have rendered the country". He was very weak and did not seem able to say any more, and I saw the tears running down his cheeks". Gladstone replied that "I can assure you that he has been little absent of late from mine, that my feelings towards him are entirely unaltered by any of the occurrences of the last three years and that I have never felt separated from him in spirit. I heartily pray that he may enjoy the peace of God on this side the grave and on the other".

Bright received many letters and telegrams of sympathy from the Queen downwards. The Irish Nationalist MP Tim Healy wrote to Bright, wishing him a speedy recovery and "Your great services to our people can never be forgotten, for it was when Ireland had fewest friends that your voice was loudest on her side. I hope you may still be spared to raise it on her behalf according to your conceptions of what is best, for while we go on struggling for our own views, there can be nothing but regrets on our part of the sharpness of division in the past".

Bright died at his home One Ash on 27 March 1889 and was buried in the graveyard of the meeting-house of the Religious Society of Friends in Rochdale.

The Conservative Prime Minister Lord Salisbury paid tribute to him in the House of Lords the day after his death, and it sums up his character as a public man:

"In the first place, he was the greatest master of English oratory that this generation has produced, or I may perhaps say several generations back. I have met men who have heard Pitt and Fox, and in whose judgment their eloquence at its best was inferior to the finest efforts of John Bright. At a time when much speaking has depressed and almost exterminated eloquence, he maintained robust and intact that powerful and vigorous style of English which gave fitting expression to the burning and noble thoughts he desired to express. Another characteristic for which I think he will be famous is the singular rectitude of his motives, the singular straightness of his career. He was a keen disputant, a keen combatant; like many eager men, he had little tolerance of opposition. But his action was never guided for a single moment by any consideration of personal or party selfishness. He was inspired by nothing but the purest patriotism and benevolence from the first beginning of his public career to the hour of its close."

Memorials

In 1868, students of the new Cornell University debated whether to call its first literary society, "The John Bright Brotherhood" or the "Irving Literary Society". New York State's recently deceased native son received the honours, but not before Bright was inducted as its first honorary member.

The library at Bootham School is named in his honour.

In 1928, the Brooks-Bryce Foundation donated significant funds to the Princeton University Library for a collection of materials on the life and times of John Bright, in honour of the statesman. The Foundation also donated funds for an outdoor pulpit to be added to Princeton Chapel, also in honour of Bright.

His name is given to John Bright Street in Birmingham, his statue is in the collection of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and to the secondary school Ysgol John Bright in Llandudno, North Wales.

The town of Bright in Victoria, Australia, is named in his honour.

Legacy
Historian A. J. P. Taylor summarized Bright's achievements: "John Bright was the greatest of all parliamentary orators. He had many political successes. Along with Richard Cobden, he conducted the campaign which led to the repeal of the Corn Laws. He did more than any other man to prevent the intervention of this country (Britain) on the side of the South during the American Civil War, and he headed the reform agitation in 1867 which brought the industrial working class within the pale of the constitution. It was Bright who made possible the Liberal party of Gladstone, Asquith and Lloyd George, and the alliance between middle class idealism and trade unionism, which he promoted, still lives in the present-day Labour Party."

Historiography

 * Loades, David Michael, ed. Reader's guide to British history (2003) 2: 185–186.

title: John Bright


text:
Twistor memory

Twistor memory is a form of computer memory formed by wrapping magnetic tape around a current-carrying wire. Operationally, twistor was very similar to core memory. Twistor could also be used to make ROM memories, including a re-programmable form known as piggyback twistor. Both forms were able to be manufactured using automated processes, which was expected to lead to much lower production costs than core-based systems.

Introduced by Bell Labs in 1957, the first commercial use was in their 1ESS switch which went into operation in 1965. Twistor was used only briefly in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when semiconductor memory devices replaced almost all earlier memory systems. The basic ideas behind twistor also led to the development of bubble memory, although this had a similarly short commercial lifespan.

Construction
In core memory, small ring-shaped magnets - the cores - are threaded by two crossed wires, X and Y, to make a matrix known as a plane. When one X and one Y wire are powered, a magnetic field is generated at a 45-degree angle to the wires. The core magnets sit on the wires at a 45-degree angle, so the single core wrapped around the crossing point of the powered X and Y wires will be affected by the induced field.

The materials used for the core magnets were specially chosen to have a very "square" magnetic hysteresis pattern. This meant that fields just below a certain threshold will do nothing, but those just above this threshold will cause the core to be affected by that magnetic field; it will abruptly flip its magnetization state. The square pattern and sharp flipping states ensures that a single core can be addressed within a grid; nearby cores will see a slightly different field, and not be affected.

Data retrieval
The basic operation in a core memory is writing. This is accomplished by powering a selected X and Y wire both to the current level that will, by itself, create ½ the critical magnetic field. This will cause the field at the crossing point to be greater than the core's saturation point, and the core will pick up the external field. Ones and zeros are represented by the direction of the field, which can be set simply by changing the direction of the current flow in one of the two wires.

In core memory, a third wire - the sense/inhibit line - is needed to write or read a bit. Reading uses the process of writing; the X and Y lines are powered in the same fashion that they would be to write a "0" to the selected core. If that core held a "1" at that time, then the magnetic state flips to a "0" and the transition causes a short pulse of electricity to be induced into the sense/inhibit line. If no pulse is seen, then no flip occurred, thus the core already held a "0". This process is destructive; if the core did hold a "1", that pattern is destroyed during the read, and has to be re-set in a subsequent operation.

The sense/inhibit line is shared by all of the cores in a particular plane, meaning that only one bit can be read (or written) at once. Core planes were typically stacked in order to store one bit of a word per plane, and a word could be read or written in a single operation by working all of the planes at once.

Between reads or writes the data was stored magnetically. This means that core is a non-volatile memory.

Manufacturing
Manufacturing core was a major issue. The X and Y wires had to be threaded through the cores in a weave pattern, and the sense/inhibit line passed through every core in a plane. In spite of considerable effort, no one successfully automated the production of core, which remained a manual task into the 1970s. To increase memory density one had to use smaller cores, which greatly increased the difficulty of wiring them onto the lines.

Twistor
An early iteration of the Twistor comprised a twisted ferromagnetic wire threaded through a series of concentric solenoids. The longer solenoid is the SENSE coil, the shorter one the WRITE coil. A single bit was written by pulsing the WRITE coil with a + (1) or - (0) current sufficient to magnetize the helical area beneath the coil in one of two directions. At one end of the stretched wire was the READ solenoid - when pulsed it sent an acoustic wave through the wire. As the acoustic pulse passed under each SENSE coil it induced a small electrical pulse, either + or - depending on the direction of magnetization of the region of the wire. Thus with each pulse a "byte" could be read out serially.

Twistor was similar in concept to core memory, but replaced the circular magnets with magnetic tape to store the patterns. The tape was wrapped around one set of the wires, the equivalent of the X line, in such a way that it formed a 45-degree helix. The Y wires were replaced by solenoids wrapping a number of twistor wires. Selection of a particular bit was the same as in core, with one X and Y line being powered, generating a field at 45 degrees. The magnetic tape was specifically selected to only allow magnetization along the length of the tape, so only a single point of the twistor would have the right direction of field to become magnetized.

The original twistor system used permalloy tape wrapped around a 3 mil copper wire. For any given length of wire, the tape was wound up over only the first half. The copper wire was then bent at the point where the tape ended, and ran back alongside the portion with the tape, forming a return conductor. This meant all the connections were at one end. Several such twistor lines were laid side-by-side and then laminated into a PET film plastic sheet, with the twistors and their return wires about 1/10th of an inch apart. A typical tape might have five twistor wires and their returns, so the sheet was just over an inch wide. The solenoid was similarly constructed, consisting of a number of 0.15 inch wide copper tapes laminated into a plastic tape of the same basic dimensions as the twistor. Unlike a traditional solenoid with many turns of wire around an open core, this system was essentially nothing more than single wires in a sheet of plastic.

To build the complete memory system, a sheet of the solenoid was laid out flat, say along the X direction, and then a sheet of the twistor was laid on top at right angles to it along the Y axis. The solenoid tape was then folded over, so that it wrapped the twistor sheet, producing a series of U-shaped solenoids. Now another layer of the solenoid tape is laid over the first, the twistor tape folded over so it now runs along the negative Y axis across the top of the new solenoid tape, and then the solenoid tape is folded over to form a second set of loops. This process continues until the twistor strip is "used up", forming a compact cube of memory. Along one side of the memory, connected to each of the solenoid loops, was a series of small cores used solely for switching (their original purpose, development as a memory came later).

The main reason for Bell's development of twistor is that the process could be highly automated. Although the folding process that completed the twistor might be carried out by hand, the layup and laminating of the sheets was easily handled by machine. Improved versions of twistor also wrapped the section of bare copper initially used solely for the return path, thereby doubling density without any changes to the production techniques.

Operation
Writing to twistor was effectively identical to core; a particular bit was selected by powering one of the twistor wires and one of the solenoid loops to one half of the required power, such that the required field strength was created only at the intersection of the two.

Reading used a different process. Unlike core, twistor did not have a sense/inhibit line. Instead, it used a larger current in the solenoid, large enough to flip all of the bits in that loop, and then used the twistor wires as the read line.

Twistor was thus read and written one plane at a time, rather than in core, where only one bit per plane could be used at once.

Permanent magnet twistor
Twistor could be modified to produce a ROM that could be easily re-programmed. To do this, one-half of each solenoid loop was replaced with an aluminum card into which tiny vicalloy bar magnets were embedded. As the solenoids have to be complete circuits in order for current to flow through them, they were still inserted as folded sheets, but in this case the loop was inserted between the folds of twistor instead of around them. This allowed the single sheet to act as one half of a solenoid loop for two folds of the twistor, above and below. To complete the loop, the card of magnets was placed on the other side of the twistor tape.

Reads were performed by powering the solenoid to a point about half of that needed to produce a write. This field was "reflected" by the aluminum sheet, closing the loop, magnetically. The resulting field was greater than the write strength, causing the permalloy state to flip. If the bit was beside an unmagnetized bar magnet in the card, the field was not opposed and the flip caused a current pulse in the twistor wire, reading a "1". However, by magnetizing the bar at that bit, the bar magnet opposed the field being created by the solenoid current, causing it to be below the write strength, and preventing the flip. This read a "0".

The permanent magnet twistor (PMT) was re-programmed by removing the plates and placing them over a custom writer. Vicalloy was used because it required much more power to re-magnetize than the permalloy tape, so that the system would never come close to re-setting the permanent magnets while in use in the memory system. The writer system used much larger currents that overcame this resistance.

The PMT that was used in the 1ESS system used modules with 128 cards with 2818 magnets (for 64 44-bit words) on each. This produced a module with 8192 words (8 kibiwords). The complete store used 16 modules for a total of 131,072 words (128 kibiwords), equivalent to 720,896 8-bit bytes (704 KiB).

Piggyback twistor
Another form of twistor ROM replaced the permanent magnet cards with a second magnetic tape wrapped around the first on the twistor lines, in a "piggyback" configuration. This tape was coated with coballoy instead of permalloy, which is much "harder" magnetically, requiring about twice the field in order to flip. To make the system even harder, the coballoy tape was about two and a half times thicker than the permalloy one, so the resulting field strength was five times. The external current required to flip the state of the coballoy tape was about 15 times that of the normal operational current.

Read operations in the piggyback are identical to the permanent magnet version. Writes were slightly more complex, due to the fact that piggyback twistors all featured the magnetic tape along the entire length of the X wire. This meant that any one solenoid was wrapping both the bit that is being written as well as the one on the section of return wire. To set the one both and not the other, the solenoid was first powered in one direction and then the other, while the current in the twistor line remained constant. This created two magnetic fields in turn, one aligned with the first section of wire and then the second. All reads and writes were carried out on paired bits in this fashion.

Applications
Twistor was used in a number of applications. Much of the development funding was supplied by the US Air Force, as twistor was to be used as the main memory in the LIM-49 Nike Zeus project.

In the United States the Bell System (American Telephone & Telegraph) also used twistors with permanent magnets as the "Program Store" or main memory in their first electronic telephone switching system, the 1ESS as well as others in the ESS series of electronic telephone switches, and did so up to the 4ESS switch introduced in 1976 and sold into the 1980s.

In addition, twistor was used in the Traffic Service Position System (TSPS), Bell's successor to cord telephone switchboards which controlled call handling and coin collection for local and international calls.

By 2017 all remaining TSPS and ESS installations used to provide telephone service in rural areas of the United States had been removed. Some systems may remain in use Mexico and Colombia, where many U.S. systems were sold and re-installed after being removed from service in the United States.

title: Twistor memory


text:
Plaka

Pláka (Πλάκα) is the old historical neighborhood of Athens, clustered around the northern and eastern slopes of the Acropolis, and incorporating labyrinthine streets and neoclassical architecture. Plaka is built on top of the residential areas of the ancient town of Athens. It is known as the "Neighborhood of the Gods" due to its proximity to the Acropolis and its many archaeological sites.

Name

The toponym Plaka is first attested in the second half of the 17th century. Up until the era of Otto, it pertained only to the area around the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates (locals knew it as "Kandili 'lantern' of Demosthenes" at least since 1460, or just as kandili); it was only after 1834 that the toponym's application gradually expanded to eventually include the entire area between today's Makrygianni Street and the Ancient Agora. Prior of that, the local Athenians referred to the area by various other names, such as Alikokkou, Kontito, Kandili, or by the names of the local churches. In particular, Alikokkou was the name of the broader area of what is now Plaka, until the early 20th century, and was one of the divisions into which Athens was divided during the Ottoman era; the toponym Alikokkou derived from the surname of a family who was likely of Frankish origin, but had been Hellenized.

Some have suggested that the toponym Plaka derives from the Arvanitika Pliak Athena, meaning 'Old Athens'; from Albanian plak 'old'. Others have suggested that it derives from the presence of a plaque (Greek: πλάκα; romanized: plaka) which once marked its central intersection. The latter view is also supported by linguist Charalampos Symeonides (2010), who stated that Plaka is a common Medieval and Modern Greek toponym that can be found throughout Greece, and is attested as early as 1089; in the case of Athens, it denoted a place with ancient plaques or marbles.

Location
Plaka is on the northeast slope of Acropolis, between Syntagma and Monastiraki square. Adrianou Street (running north and south) is the largest and most central street in Plaka and divides it into two areas: the upper level, - Ano Plaka - located right under the Acropolis and the lower level - Kato Plaka - situated between Syntagma and Monastiraki.

History
Plaka was developed mostly around the ruins of Ancient Agora of Athens. It is the oldest district of Athens and has been continuously inhabited from the neolithic to the present day. As a result, Plaka contains monuments form all periods of the city's history. Some of the streets, such as Adrianou and Tripodon, can be traced back to the ancient era. The population of Athens grew during the early 16th century, and the town experienced another urban development after the one which occurred in 1456, this time towards the north-east, again mainly by the settlement of Albanians who had moved in the region several years before the Ottoman arrival. After the Ottoman conquest, these settlements occurred in Attica in one wave after the Venetian loss of its Morean strongholds in 1540, and in another wave after a revolt in the Morea in 1570, when the Ottoman administration decreed the mandatory settlement of Albanians in Attica, in order to offer them improving living conditions. The such created north-eastern district of Athens later became known as Plaka. During that period, Plaka was also the home of the Greek aristocratic Benizelos family, the family that Saint Philothei came from. In the mid-17th century, out of the eight main administrative units (platomata) in Athens, it appears Plaka was the least densely inhabited.

During the Greek War of Independence, Plaka like the rest of Athens, was temporarily abandoned by its inhabitants because of the severe battles that took place in 1826. The area was repopulated during the first years of the reign of Otto of Greece. Plaka had a sizable Albanian community till the late 19th century, and as a result it was the Albanian quarter of Athens. They had their own courts where they used the Albanian language. Their descendants nowadays have been assimiliated into the Greek nation in considerable numbers. This happened through Greek control over the education system. At the same period the neighborhood of Anafiotika, featuring traditional Cycladic architecture, was built by settlers from the Aegean island of Anafi.

Plaka assumed its present form in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Following Greek independence, the area grew rapidly. Plaka became inhabited by a mixed population, that included old Athenian families as well as an influx of newcomers, such as artisans, professionals, military personnel, and others. In 1884 a fire burned down a large part of the neighborhood which gave the opportunity for the archaeologists to conduct excavations in the Roman Market and Hadrian’s library. Excavations have been taking place continuously since the 19th century. Growth continued until World War 2. From the 1950s until the 1970s, Plaka experienced some degradation, as a result of the post-war construction boom, the increase in motor cars, and the tourist boom. In the 1980s, a comprehensive preservation plan was implemented, and the area improved rapidly. Nowadays Plaka is a major tourist destination.

Modern neighbourhood
Plaka is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists around the year, and is under strict zoning and conservation regulations, as the only neighborhood in Athens where all utilities (water, power, cable television, telephone, internet, and sewage) lie underground in fully accessible, custom-made tunneling.

Museums in Plaka include:

 * Acropolis Museum
 * Athens University Museum
 * Frissiras Museum
 * Jewish Museum of Greece
 * Museum of Greek Folk Art, an annex of which is the Old Public Baths building
 * Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments
 * Museum of Pavlos and Alexandra Kanellopoulou

Cinema
Many movies of the Greek cinema were filmed in the area. Some of them include:
 * And the Wife Shall Revere Her Husband
 * The Drunkard (film)
 * What If..., Christoforos Papakaliatis movie
 * Woe to the Young

title: Plaka