MORE ON WEDNESDAY 20TH JANUARY 2016.
" A wealth of information..."
Sunday, January 17, 2016
CAPTURED BY THE BRITISH ARMY, TORTURED, AND THEN A BAYONET WAS ACQUIRED...
A STORY OF TORTURE BEFORE EXECUTION...
This IRA man was captured in Dublin by the British after an IRA operation and was brought to a British barracks and handcuffed. A British Army officer demanded information from him but the IRA prisoner refused to say anything. The British Army officer threatened to hand him over to the squaddies unless he got the information he was looking for. The IRA man didn't reply. The British soldiers in the room then pushed him on to the floor and removed his handcuffs ; one of them knelt on his back and two others placed one foot each on his back and his left shoulder. His right arm was grabbed and twisted from the wrist and his head was forced back by the hair. His arm was then twisted from the elbow joint, and all during this torture he was shouted at for the information his British captors were looking for. But still he refused to cooperate. A bayonet was pressed against his stomach...
MORE ON WEDNESDAY 20TH JANUARY 2016.
MORE ON WEDNESDAY 20TH JANUARY 2016.
Wednesday, January 06, 2016
IRA OTR : "THE SITUATION I'M NOW IN PREVENTS ME FROM WALKING AROUND THIS COUNTRY..."
PROSE AND CONS.
By prisoners from E1 Landing, Portlaoise Prison, 1999.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS :
Grateful thanks to the following for their help, support, assistance and encouragement, and all those who helped with the typing and word processing over the past few months. Many thanks to Cian Sharkhin, the editor of the book, Mr Bill Donoghue, Governor, Portlaoise, Mr Seán Wynne, supervising teacher, the education unit in Portlaoise Prison and the education staff, especially Zack, Helena and Jane. Education officers Bill Carroll and Dave McDonald, Rita Kelly, writer, print unit, Arbour Hill.
First Print : November 1999, reprinted March 2000, illustrations by D O'Hare, Zack and Natasha. Photograph selection : Eamonn Kelly and Harry Melia.
BIRD MAN, by John Doran
Kevin was five foot ten, an athletic young man in his late twenties, black hair and good looking. He was a middleweight ex-boxer who fought for Ireland, a hard working man who got mixed up with the wrong crowd, eventually ending up in prison. He was a very quiet man who kept to himself.
One cold winter's morning, as the icicles hung from the wire fencing, Kevin walked on the snow-covered prison yard and noticed a young grey crow under the bench. It was shaking like a leaf. Kevin bent down and picked it up, and brought it back to his cell and put it into an old shoe box, which he placed on the heating pipe. After a few hours, the crow started to flap its wings. Kevin fed it some bread and butter mashed up and, after a few more days, it moved around the cell. Then one day the door was left open and the crow followed him down the landing , unknown to Kevin. It followed him right down to the hot plate. All the inmates and screws had a good laugh looking at this.
After a few more days, the weather improved and Kevin decided to bring the crow out to the yard and let it loose. He put the crow into the palm of his hand and raised his arm up in the air. The crow flew and circled the prison yard a few times and landed beside Kevin, as all the inmates in the yard cheered. As he walked in from the yard, the crow followed him. Kevin called him 'Greybird'.... (MORE LATER.)
IS PEACE SAFE WITH ANDREWS....?
Where politics once stagnated, events in Northern Ireland now chase each other helter-skelter. As 'Magill' went to press, a new joint government document turned recent perceptions head over heels. Fionnuala O'Connor charts the doubts behind the instant reactions. From 'Magill' magazine, February 1998.
The LVF victims were catholic civilians, two of them teenagers, a girl shot in bed beside her protestant boyfriend, a boy whose burned body was hidden among animal carcases. Yet some imagine that the LVF began to kill only when Billy Wright was shot, and that the two larger loyalist groups held blamelessly in 1997 to their ceasefires. Republicans and others in the wider nationalist community resent that impression - the sense that loyalist violence against catholics is invisible and unnoticed translates into more pressure on the IRA, already digesting political problems.
Whatever the polished (P) Sinn Féin spin, this comes down to macho pride ; other paramilitaries are putting it up to them. Their community says 'do something'. "If republicans are extremely clever, they won't do anything," says the ex-prisoner, "the big danger for them is if catholics continue to be killed and the INLA kills some major loyalist paramilitary figure. There would be a sort of residual respect for the INLA then which would hurt the IRA. I don't think it's likely - the INLA are far more likely to end up killing ordinary protestants. Why did they target Jim Guiney? Because he was a quarter of a mile out of Twinbrook. But there's still the myth - August 1969 , IRA means I Ran Away, and that's what this whole last two generations has been predicated on."
Perhaps, with hindsight, this was exactly when we should have expected the crunch to come, even down to the INLA—which no informed quarter believes was anything but characteristic reflex violence on their part.
Both governments began to insist before the Christmas talks break that the first month of the new year must see the start of real negotiation. Ministers pointed towards mid-February or March. "That's when we'll need to have the gist of it agreed," one said privately, "or we'll never make the May deadline." A period of six weeks' intensive negotiation, in other words, a crash-course towards compromise. Persistent rumour has it that the UDA in the Maze gave Mo Mowlam a deadline to achieve an outline of an acceptable settlement - six weeks again. And republicans do not deny the security-force claim that the IRA is to review the cease-fire in March. According to IRA rules, it is said, no review is needed to end a cease-fire, only to prolong it. Deadlines multiplying, muscles flexing. (MORE LATER.)
1916 - WHAT DID IT MEAN FOR IRISH WOMEN....?
By Ursula Barry.
. What is there for women in Ireland to commemorate in 1916? Did the 1916 Proclamation and the subsequent 'Democratic Programme of the First Dáil' contain radical or revolutionary statements on the position of women in Irish society that were later betrayed or sold out in the process of establishing the Free State?
From 'Iris' magazine, Easter 1991.
For example, the right to import contraceptives for personal use, women's right of access to jury service and to co-determine the education of their children were all established under the Constitution, but there is little doubt that the defeat* of radical republicanism and the subsequent partitioning of the island stripped the new state of its radical democratic potential. Partition has given us two weak and fragile states which have secured their existence through political and social repression.
A formidable alliance of right-wing forces, both inside and outside the institutional churches, has resisted progressive democratic change in both parts of this island. In the North the selective application of British social legislation (for example abortion and homosexuality) finds its direct parallel in the socially repressive 26-County state where, for example, married women were banned from public and private service employment and restricted in industrial employment, where abortion and male homosexual practice still carry a possible life sentence, where contraception was only finally and partially legalised in 1980, where the state designs its marital breakdown legislation according to catholic church dictates and where 'ethical' committees in the health and education systems succeed in determining the content of sex education, the availability of sterilisation and the limits on infertility research.
So what does it mean for women to commemorate 1916? I think that for women the question is not so much the Rising or the content of the 1916 Proclamation but rather to reflect on a period of critical revolutionary thought and action on this island. (* '1169' comment - radical republicanism has not been 'defeated' ; rather it has suffered a temporary set-back, inflicted by the Free State constitutional parties that nest in Leinster House.) (MORE LATER.)
USURPERS HIRE MORE GOONS TO PROTECT THEIR ILL-GOTTEN GAINS.
The funeral (pictured, left) of Irish republican Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, who died on Wednesday, 5th June 2013, being attacked by members of the Free State riot squad, an enforcement militia for the establishment.
'More than 100 extra gardaí have been drafted into the 'riot squad' to cope with 1916 centenary events. The serving officers, who come from all six Garda regions, were given specialised training to qualify for the Public Order Unit...the force has been beefed up amid fears that centenary commemorations could be hijacked by troublemakers...' (from here.)
"..hijacked by troublemakers..." indeed : too late, for now, anyway, to worry about that, as it has already happened. The riot squad and their employers are the "troublemakers", the usurpers - representatives of those that Irish republicans challenged and fought against in one way or another in every generation since the 12th century. That fact won't change, no matter how many goons they hire in an attempt to legitimise themselves, and that's the message that will be delivered loud and clear to them from O'Connell Street in Dublin on Saturday 23rd April next and from other venues before and after that date. "It's not those who inflict the most, but those that endure the most, that shall prevail"(Terence MacSwiney).
ON THIS DATE (6TH JANUARY) 76 YEARS AGO : REPRESSIVE FREE STATE LAWS UPDATED.
On the 6th January 1940 - 76 years ago on this date - the then Free State President, Douglas Hyde (pictured, left) stated that it was his intention to convene his 'Council of State' (this was the first such meeting ever of said body) to discuss a bill he was asked to sign, concerning an amendment to the heavy-handed 'Offences Against the State Act 1939', which would have allowed the Leinster House administration to intern Irish-born citizens in a move said to be necessary in the Free State's fight against the IRA. It should be noted that those who wanted that power fully intended to use it against men and women that they had fought side-by-side with only twenty years previously.
Two days later (ie on the 8th January 1940) the 'Council' held a meeting in a Free State residence in Dublin's Phoenix Park (behind closed doors, minutes not made public) following which Hyde announced that he was going to refer the proposed amendment/legislation to the Free State 'Supreme Court', stating that he also intended to seek a judgement on the 'Offences Against the State (Amendment) Bill 1940' in its entirety. The 'Supreme Court' replied that, in its opinion, it was within the power and the authority 'of the Oireachtas, consistent with the Constitution, to enact such legislation'. Hyde then signed the necessary paperwork, no doubt having convinced himself that he had done all in his power to prevent further injury to the republicans he would have associated with during his years as a member of the 'Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language', the 'Gaelic League' and the 'Gaelic Journal'. But easing your conscience isn't the same as cleansing it.
ON THIS DATE (6TH JANUARY) 29 YEARS AGO : IRA OTR CAPTURED BY FS SPECIAL BRANCH.
On Easter Sunday morning, 1978, seven Donegal Provo recruits crossed the border to Derry City ; they had been chosen to form the Colour Party for the Easter Commemoration ceremony that afternoon, leading the Easter Parade through the Creggan and Bogside where Dáithí Ó Conaill delivered the oration. After the event, the Colour Party members went into the Rossville Street flats, stripped off their paramilitary clothes and dark glasses and got into casual clothes. The back road from Creggan to the border had been checked and cleared, they were assured. Some of the seven men wanted to go for a few pints and then take the bus home but, under protest, they all piled into the one car and were driven off. The joint British Army/RUC patrol which intercepted them minutes later already had photographs of all seven men taken from a helicopter during the Easter Parade. IRA membership would be easy to prove.
Two of the seven men detained were from Letterkenny in County Donegal ; Patrick McIntyre of Ard O'Donnell and his colleague, Jim Clarke. Patrick McIntyre is the fifth of a family of nine, who did his 'Leaving Certificate' (school examination) in 1976 and, after taking a six months AnCo (state work-training) course, started working on a building site in Letterkenny. As a youth, Patrick was, as friends describe him, a 'withdrawn kind of a lad'. His involvement with the IRA was to surprise the entire family. But he had been impressed by the 1916 plaque in Saint Eunan's College, by the sight of Derry refugees taking shelter in Letterkenny, of the (Free State) Army on stand-by near the border, by emotive speeches by politicians and by the 'Arms Trial'. He mixed with Official Sinn Fein members in the early 1970's : they held meetings in a room over a pub in Letterkenny where local issues were discussed. But he always stayed clear of public displays and not a word was said at home.
However - the IRA Colour Party had now been detained by the British 'security forces' and, after 14 months on remand in the North, Patrick McIntyre came before a judge ; he was in deep trouble, as he had signed a statement admitting involvement in the attempted 'murder' of a UDR member ('Ulster[sic] Defence Regiment', a pro-British militia) near Castlederg in County Tyrone, in late 1977. McIntyre refused to recognise the court, was convicted and given a fifteen year jail sentence ; Jim Clarke was also jailed for the Castlederg attack - he got eighteen years. The first part of their detention was spent in Crumlin Road Prison and the two men were then transferred to the Kesh at a time when the campaign for retention of political status was intensifying ; they took part in the Blanket Protest and were still there during the 1981 Hunger-Strike. They were two of the 38 inmates who escaped from the prison in September 1983. Patrick McIntyre managed to stay loose for two days ; cameramen were alerted to film him and another escaper, Joe Corey, being recaptured near Castlewellan, County Down.
Re-captured within two days after the September 1983 jail-break, Patrick McIntyre had to wait three years and three months to get a second chance ; with less than six months of his original sentence left, he was due three days 'rehabilitation parole' as Christmas 1986 approached. The prison authorities opposed his release because the trial of the Maze escapers was pending, but McIntyre defeated their objections before the courts. The Provisionals approved his absconding - they believed the recently introduced 'rehabilitation' gimmick was geared to cause divisions in their structures within the prisons. By December 20th, 1986, the RUC were looking for him but he was over the border, in Donegal, getting his hair tinted! On the twisty main road between Killybegs and Kilcar, in West Donegal, there is a white flat-roofed dwelling in the townland of Cashlings ; some Gardai consider it 'a safe house'. Raymond 'The Rooster' McLaughlin, a well-known IRA activist, was suspected of stopping off there not long before he drowned, accidentally, in a pool, in County Clare, in 1985. Shortly after eight o'clock on the morning of 6th January 1987 - 29 years ago on this date - Aiden Murray and other armed Free State detectives raided the house.
They roused a young man from his sleep - he was wearing pants only and, when asked his name, he hesitated before telling them he was 'Colm McGuire'. He requested to see a doctor and solicitor and refused to answer any further questions. Detective Aiden Murray promptly arrested 'McGuire' on suspicion of being a member of the IRA. The Gardai were back at base in Ballyshannon with their prisoner soon after nine o' clock ; they still had no official identity for him and, in accordance with his wishes, a local solicitor, John Murray, was sent for ; he arrived and, after consulting with the man in the cell, he told gardai during a casual conversation that the prisoner was Patrick McIntyre of Ard O'Donnell, Letterkenny. The gardai say that minutes afterwards they received information which possibly linked McIntyre to a robbery in Ballyshannon before Christmas and that they began questioning him about this crime. By mid-morning the word was out in Donegal : Paddy McIntyre had been collared and the prospect of extradition loomed. By that afternoon, a Belfast solicitor, Pat Finucane, was contacting a colleague in Dublin.
The legal defence was prepared in the tiny rooms over a swop-shop along Ormond Quay, near the Four Courts, in Dublin, where solicitor Anne Rowland, a native of Ballina, County Mayo, set up her own firm five years ago. Her penchant is for the cut and thrust of criminal cases. On accepting the McIntyre brief, she immediately sought out barrister Patrick Gageby - they had worked together before ; Evelyn Glenhomes and Gerard Tuite were among those they had represented. Rowland and Gageby immediately agreed that their defence case would focus on the circumstances of McIntyre's arrest and detention. They were told that an extradition application would come before District Justice Liam McMenamin at Ballyshannon District Court on January 7th (1987). Before leaving for County Donegal, Rowland put the state on notice that she would require in court the garda who performed the Section 30 arrest and the Garda Officer who signed the order extending Patrick McIntyre's detention for a second 24 hour period.
About one hundred Sinn Féin protestors shouted abuse outside the court as Patrick McIntyre was escorted from a prison vehicle ; in the melee, nobody noticed three plainclothes detectives sliding another man past - RUC member Robert Herron. He was needed to identify Patrick McIntyre. As he rose to speak, Sinn Féin members immediately headed for the exits but gardai told them the doors would have to be kept closed. Then, his identity unknown to those outside, the RUC man was discreetly and safely brought past the crowds before the hearing ended. Chief Superintendent Patrick Murphy was in the witness box - a stranger to the area, he had been transferred from Limerick to Letterkenny, in Donegal, on promotion the previous October. Murphy gave evidence of signing the Section 30 Extension Order for a second 24 hour period. State Solicitor Ciaran McLoughlin asked him nothing further. District Justice McMenamin had no questions, and Defence Counsel Patrick Gageby kept quiet. Chief Superintendent Patrick Murphy left the witness box ; defence counsel Patrick Gageby didn't even attempt to smile ; but he did believe that 'the door had been left ajar'. Early last year Patrick Gageby and Anne Rowland had unsuccessfully appealed the three convictions of County Louth men in the Drumree Post Office murder trial - Garda Frank Hand had been killed in an armed robbery. In the Court of Criminal Appeal, however, Gageby had spotted one sentence and quietly filed it away. He now suggested that Chief Superintendent Murphy had not informed the court of his state of mind when signing the extension order ; it had not been proven that the garda officer had the requisite mental element to justify the detention. State Solicitor Ciaran McLoughlin was quickly on his feet trying to answer the point ; District Justice McMenamin adjourned the hearing to consider this and other legal matters raised.
When the case came before District Justice mcMenamin again in Donegal town on January 14th (1987), he again heard Defence Counsel Patrick Gageby question the validity of the Section 30 extension ; but Judge McMenamin dismissed the arguments and granted the extradition order. An appeal was immediately lodged in the High Court. McIntyre's case was becoming something of a cause celebre ; on March 10th (1987), when Leinster House met to elect a Taoiseach, Independent Donegal Leinster House member, Neil Blaney, demanded that the extradition arrangements between Britain and Ireland "be repealed so that in the interim a young county man of mine, by name McIntyre, be not extradited." But when the case came before Mr Justice Gannon in the High Court in May 1987, Defence Counsel Patrick Gageby had further 'ammunition' - as well as the ruling in the McShane, McPhilips, Eccles (Drumree) case which included this phrase in relation to the person issuing extension orders -"is bona fide suspected by him of being involved in the offence for which he was arrested." Gageby had the additional support of a Supreme Court ruling of April 3rd (1987) which confirmed that a Chief Superintendent must give evidence of his suspicions when he is issuing an extension order ; it is not sufficient to confirm that he issues the order, he must say why. Patrick McEntee SC had been added to the defence team - McIntyre's supporters were confident of victory. On the afternoon of 7th May 1987, Patrick McIntyre was freed, courtesy of a legal loophole which has since been closed ; the Provisionals had a motorbike waiting outside the courtroom and he was driven off at high speed and was within seconds in city centre traffic. Garda had eighteen further warrants in relation to Patrick McIntyre ; his extradition was still being sought by the British, but he was then on the run.
OTR Patrick McIntyre net with a journalist in a nondescript suburban room. His physical appearance has not altered since the Donegal court hearings - maybe he is a little less fidgety, but he speaks in a soft voice which frequently quivers. The sentiments are resolute. He was sleeping when the gardai came to the house in south Donegal, he says : "I gave the surname of the people who own the house but they didn't believe me. They said I was Patrick McIntyre." Yet the evidence given by gardai in court suggested that the prisoner was not positively identified until solicitor John Murray named him in Ballyshannon garda station. It was also stated that the detectives went to Kilcar after a 'tip-off' that an armed man or men had been seen in the area. It appears the gardai were not aware they would find Patrick McIntyre in the house. It has not been possible to establish whether they knew him by sight ; they seem to have 'struck lucky' - and then got the procedure wrong. As Patrick McIntyre says - "The situation I'm in now prevents me from walking around in this country. I am not wanted for anything in this jurisdiction ; I am being sought for things related to the British administration. If the Birmingham Six were in the 26 Counties now, they could and would be extradited. If the British issue warrants for any person's extradition, the request will come before the Irish courts and the person opposing it must pay his own costs."
The free legal aid scheme does not apply to extradition cases ; costs in the Patrick McIntyre case, expected to run into several thousand pounds, will be paid by Sinn Féin. Asked about his family and his future, Patrick McIntyre stares at the floor - "They let me out for three days to attend my mother's funeral in March. I was told the best I could expect was to go there escorted, in handcuffs, but I fought the case for compassionate bail in the High Court and won. Then there was a rumour that the decision might be appealed by the state and I was thinking about that all the way during the journey from Dublin to Donegal. That was a shattering experience. I tried to spend the three days with my family. There were thousands of people at the funeral and at the house. It was the first time that we had the family together for a long time, and we had photographs taken. I met a lot of people that I grew up with. Just before I left, my sister gave me a Saint Patrick's Day card that my mother had written, to me, in Saint Luke's Hospital..."
A knock comes to the door - it is time for him to go. What does he intend to do now?, I ask - "Make it third time lucky. Or at least stay out longer than the past two times...", he replies. (NOTE : this is an edited version of a piece we posted here in November 2004.)
LADIES DAY - PAY ATTENTION, LADS....!
Beannachtaí ar Lá Nollag na mBan!
January 6th is marked by Nollaig na mBan or 'Women's Little Christmas' ; in celebration of the feast of the Epiphany in Ireland, January 6th is marked by Nollaig na mBan or 'Women's Little Christmas'. On this day it is the tradition in Ireland for the women to get together and enjoy their own Christmas, while the men folk stay at home and handle all the chores. It is also common for children to buy their mothers and grandmothers presents on this day, though this custom is gradually being overtaken by Mothers Day....
I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.(Oscar Wilde) Happy Nollaig na mBan to all our readers, especially the Ladies!
ON THIS DAY NEXT WEEK (WEDNESDAY 13TH JANUARY 2016).....
...we won't be posting our usual contribution, and probably won't be in a position to post anything at all ; this coming weekend (Saturday/Sunday 9th/10th January 2016) is spoke for already with a 650-ticket raffle to be run for the Dublin Executive of Sinn Féin Poblachtach in a venue on the Dublin/Kildare border (work on which begins on the Tuesday before the actual raffle) and the 'autopsy' into same which will take place on Monday evening, 11th, in RSF Head Office on Parnell Street in Dublin, meaning that we will not have the time to post here. But we'll be back, as stated above, on Wednesday 20th January 2016. See ye then!
Thanks for reading, Sharon.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS :
Grateful thanks to the following for their help, support, assistance and encouragement, and all those who helped with the typing and word processing over the past few months. Many thanks to Cian Sharkhin, the editor of the book, Mr Bill Donoghue, Governor, Portlaoise, Mr Seán Wynne, supervising teacher, the education unit in Portlaoise Prison and the education staff, especially Zack, Helena and Jane. Education officers Bill Carroll and Dave McDonald, Rita Kelly, writer, print unit, Arbour Hill.
First Print : November 1999, reprinted March 2000, illustrations by D O'Hare, Zack and Natasha. Photograph selection : Eamonn Kelly and Harry Melia.
BIRD MAN, by John Doran
Kevin was five foot ten, an athletic young man in his late twenties, black hair and good looking. He was a middleweight ex-boxer who fought for Ireland, a hard working man who got mixed up with the wrong crowd, eventually ending up in prison. He was a very quiet man who kept to himself.
One cold winter's morning, as the icicles hung from the wire fencing, Kevin walked on the snow-covered prison yard and noticed a young grey crow under the bench. It was shaking like a leaf. Kevin bent down and picked it up, and brought it back to his cell and put it into an old shoe box, which he placed on the heating pipe. After a few hours, the crow started to flap its wings. Kevin fed it some bread and butter mashed up and, after a few more days, it moved around the cell. Then one day the door was left open and the crow followed him down the landing , unknown to Kevin. It followed him right down to the hot plate. All the inmates and screws had a good laugh looking at this.
After a few more days, the weather improved and Kevin decided to bring the crow out to the yard and let it loose. He put the crow into the palm of his hand and raised his arm up in the air. The crow flew and circled the prison yard a few times and landed beside Kevin, as all the inmates in the yard cheered. As he walked in from the yard, the crow followed him. Kevin called him 'Greybird'.... (MORE LATER.)
IS PEACE SAFE WITH ANDREWS....?
The LVF victims were catholic civilians, two of them teenagers, a girl shot in bed beside her protestant boyfriend, a boy whose burned body was hidden among animal carcases. Yet some imagine that the LVF began to kill only when Billy Wright was shot, and that the two larger loyalist groups held blamelessly in 1997 to their ceasefires. Republicans and others in the wider nationalist community resent that impression - the sense that loyalist violence against catholics is invisible and unnoticed translates into more pressure on the IRA, already digesting political problems.
Whatever the polished (P) Sinn Féin spin, this comes down to macho pride ; other paramilitaries are putting it up to them. Their community says 'do something'. "If republicans are extremely clever, they won't do anything," says the ex-prisoner, "the big danger for them is if catholics continue to be killed and the INLA kills some major loyalist paramilitary figure. There would be a sort of residual respect for the INLA then which would hurt the IRA. I don't think it's likely - the INLA are far more likely to end up killing ordinary protestants. Why did they target Jim Guiney? Because he was a quarter of a mile out of Twinbrook. But there's still the myth - August 1969 , IRA means I Ran Away, and that's what this whole last two generations has been predicated on."
Perhaps, with hindsight, this was exactly when we should have expected the crunch to come, even down to the INLA—which no informed quarter believes was anything but characteristic reflex violence on their part.
Both governments began to insist before the Christmas talks break that the first month of the new year must see the start of real negotiation. Ministers pointed towards mid-February or March. "That's when we'll need to have the gist of it agreed," one said privately, "or we'll never make the May deadline." A period of six weeks' intensive negotiation, in other words, a crash-course towards compromise. Persistent rumour has it that the UDA in the Maze gave Mo Mowlam a deadline to achieve an outline of an acceptable settlement - six weeks again. And republicans do not deny the security-force claim that the IRA is to review the cease-fire in March. According to IRA rules, it is said, no review is needed to end a cease-fire, only to prolong it. Deadlines multiplying, muscles flexing. (MORE LATER.)
1916 - WHAT DID IT MEAN FOR IRISH WOMEN....?
. What is there for women in Ireland to commemorate in 1916? Did the 1916 Proclamation and the subsequent 'Democratic Programme of the First Dáil' contain radical or revolutionary statements on the position of women in Irish society that were later betrayed or sold out in the process of establishing the Free State?
From 'Iris' magazine, Easter 1991.
For example, the right to import contraceptives for personal use, women's right of access to jury service and to co-determine the education of their children were all established under the Constitution, but there is little doubt that the defeat* of radical republicanism and the subsequent partitioning of the island stripped the new state of its radical democratic potential. Partition has given us two weak and fragile states which have secured their existence through political and social repression.
A formidable alliance of right-wing forces, both inside and outside the institutional churches, has resisted progressive democratic change in both parts of this island. In the North the selective application of British social legislation (for example abortion and homosexuality) finds its direct parallel in the socially repressive 26-County state where, for example, married women were banned from public and private service employment and restricted in industrial employment, where abortion and male homosexual practice still carry a possible life sentence, where contraception was only finally and partially legalised in 1980, where the state designs its marital breakdown legislation according to catholic church dictates and where 'ethical' committees in the health and education systems succeed in determining the content of sex education, the availability of sterilisation and the limits on infertility research.
So what does it mean for women to commemorate 1916? I think that for women the question is not so much the Rising or the content of the 1916 Proclamation but rather to reflect on a period of critical revolutionary thought and action on this island. (* '1169' comment - radical republicanism has not been 'defeated' ; rather it has suffered a temporary set-back, inflicted by the Free State constitutional parties that nest in Leinster House.) (MORE LATER.)
USURPERS HIRE MORE GOONS TO PROTECT THEIR ILL-GOTTEN GAINS.
'More than 100 extra gardaí have been drafted into the 'riot squad' to cope with 1916 centenary events. The serving officers, who come from all six Garda regions, were given specialised training to qualify for the Public Order Unit...the force has been beefed up amid fears that centenary commemorations could be hijacked by troublemakers...' (from here.)
"..hijacked by troublemakers..." indeed : too late, for now, anyway, to worry about that, as it has already happened. The riot squad and their employers are the "troublemakers", the usurpers - representatives of those that Irish republicans challenged and fought against in one way or another in every generation since the 12th century. That fact won't change, no matter how many goons they hire in an attempt to legitimise themselves, and that's the message that will be delivered loud and clear to them from O'Connell Street in Dublin on Saturday 23rd April next and from other venues before and after that date. "It's not those who inflict the most, but those that endure the most, that shall prevail"(Terence MacSwiney).
ON THIS DATE (6TH JANUARY) 76 YEARS AGO : REPRESSIVE FREE STATE LAWS UPDATED.
Two days later (ie on the 8th January 1940) the 'Council' held a meeting in a Free State residence in Dublin's Phoenix Park (behind closed doors, minutes not made public) following which Hyde announced that he was going to refer the proposed amendment/legislation to the Free State 'Supreme Court', stating that he also intended to seek a judgement on the 'Offences Against the State (Amendment) Bill 1940' in its entirety. The 'Supreme Court' replied that, in its opinion, it was within the power and the authority 'of the Oireachtas, consistent with the Constitution, to enact such legislation'. Hyde then signed the necessary paperwork, no doubt having convinced himself that he had done all in his power to prevent further injury to the republicans he would have associated with during his years as a member of the 'Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language', the 'Gaelic League' and the 'Gaelic Journal'. But easing your conscience isn't the same as cleansing it.
ON THIS DATE (6TH JANUARY) 29 YEARS AGO : IRA OTR CAPTURED BY FS SPECIAL BRANCH.
Two of the seven men detained were from Letterkenny in County Donegal ; Patrick McIntyre of Ard O'Donnell and his colleague, Jim Clarke. Patrick McIntyre is the fifth of a family of nine, who did his 'Leaving Certificate' (school examination) in 1976 and, after taking a six months AnCo (state work-training) course, started working on a building site in Letterkenny. As a youth, Patrick was, as friends describe him, a 'withdrawn kind of a lad'. His involvement with the IRA was to surprise the entire family. But he had been impressed by the 1916 plaque in Saint Eunan's College, by the sight of Derry refugees taking shelter in Letterkenny, of the (Free State) Army on stand-by near the border, by emotive speeches by politicians and by the 'Arms Trial'. He mixed with Official Sinn Fein members in the early 1970's : they held meetings in a room over a pub in Letterkenny where local issues were discussed. But he always stayed clear of public displays and not a word was said at home.
However - the IRA Colour Party had now been detained by the British 'security forces' and, after 14 months on remand in the North, Patrick McIntyre came before a judge ; he was in deep trouble, as he had signed a statement admitting involvement in the attempted 'murder' of a UDR member ('Ulster[sic] Defence Regiment', a pro-British militia) near Castlederg in County Tyrone, in late 1977. McIntyre refused to recognise the court, was convicted and given a fifteen year jail sentence ; Jim Clarke was also jailed for the Castlederg attack - he got eighteen years. The first part of their detention was spent in Crumlin Road Prison and the two men were then transferred to the Kesh at a time when the campaign for retention of political status was intensifying ; they took part in the Blanket Protest and were still there during the 1981 Hunger-Strike. They were two of the 38 inmates who escaped from the prison in September 1983. Patrick McIntyre managed to stay loose for two days ; cameramen were alerted to film him and another escaper, Joe Corey, being recaptured near Castlewellan, County Down.
Re-captured within two days after the September 1983 jail-break, Patrick McIntyre had to wait three years and three months to get a second chance ; with less than six months of his original sentence left, he was due three days 'rehabilitation parole' as Christmas 1986 approached. The prison authorities opposed his release because the trial of the Maze escapers was pending, but McIntyre defeated their objections before the courts. The Provisionals approved his absconding - they believed the recently introduced 'rehabilitation' gimmick was geared to cause divisions in their structures within the prisons. By December 20th, 1986, the RUC were looking for him but he was over the border, in Donegal, getting his hair tinted! On the twisty main road between Killybegs and Kilcar, in West Donegal, there is a white flat-roofed dwelling in the townland of Cashlings ; some Gardai consider it 'a safe house'. Raymond 'The Rooster' McLaughlin, a well-known IRA activist, was suspected of stopping off there not long before he drowned, accidentally, in a pool, in County Clare, in 1985. Shortly after eight o'clock on the morning of 6th January 1987 - 29 years ago on this date - Aiden Murray and other armed Free State detectives raided the house.
They roused a young man from his sleep - he was wearing pants only and, when asked his name, he hesitated before telling them he was 'Colm McGuire'. He requested to see a doctor and solicitor and refused to answer any further questions. Detective Aiden Murray promptly arrested 'McGuire' on suspicion of being a member of the IRA. The Gardai were back at base in Ballyshannon with their prisoner soon after nine o' clock ; they still had no official identity for him and, in accordance with his wishes, a local solicitor, John Murray, was sent for ; he arrived and, after consulting with the man in the cell, he told gardai during a casual conversation that the prisoner was Patrick McIntyre of Ard O'Donnell, Letterkenny. The gardai say that minutes afterwards they received information which possibly linked McIntyre to a robbery in Ballyshannon before Christmas and that they began questioning him about this crime. By mid-morning the word was out in Donegal : Paddy McIntyre had been collared and the prospect of extradition loomed. By that afternoon, a Belfast solicitor, Pat Finucane, was contacting a colleague in Dublin.
The legal defence was prepared in the tiny rooms over a swop-shop along Ormond Quay, near the Four Courts, in Dublin, where solicitor Anne Rowland, a native of Ballina, County Mayo, set up her own firm five years ago. Her penchant is for the cut and thrust of criminal cases. On accepting the McIntyre brief, she immediately sought out barrister Patrick Gageby - they had worked together before ; Evelyn Glenhomes and Gerard Tuite were among those they had represented. Rowland and Gageby immediately agreed that their defence case would focus on the circumstances of McIntyre's arrest and detention. They were told that an extradition application would come before District Justice Liam McMenamin at Ballyshannon District Court on January 7th (1987). Before leaving for County Donegal, Rowland put the state on notice that she would require in court the garda who performed the Section 30 arrest and the Garda Officer who signed the order extending Patrick McIntyre's detention for a second 24 hour period.
About one hundred Sinn Féin protestors shouted abuse outside the court as Patrick McIntyre was escorted from a prison vehicle ; in the melee, nobody noticed three plainclothes detectives sliding another man past - RUC member Robert Herron. He was needed to identify Patrick McIntyre. As he rose to speak, Sinn Féin members immediately headed for the exits but gardai told them the doors would have to be kept closed. Then, his identity unknown to those outside, the RUC man was discreetly and safely brought past the crowds before the hearing ended. Chief Superintendent Patrick Murphy was in the witness box - a stranger to the area, he had been transferred from Limerick to Letterkenny, in Donegal, on promotion the previous October. Murphy gave evidence of signing the Section 30 Extension Order for a second 24 hour period. State Solicitor Ciaran McLoughlin asked him nothing further. District Justice McMenamin had no questions, and Defence Counsel Patrick Gageby kept quiet. Chief Superintendent Patrick Murphy left the witness box ; defence counsel Patrick Gageby didn't even attempt to smile ; but he did believe that 'the door had been left ajar'. Early last year Patrick Gageby and Anne Rowland had unsuccessfully appealed the three convictions of County Louth men in the Drumree Post Office murder trial - Garda Frank Hand had been killed in an armed robbery. In the Court of Criminal Appeal, however, Gageby had spotted one sentence and quietly filed it away. He now suggested that Chief Superintendent Murphy had not informed the court of his state of mind when signing the extension order ; it had not been proven that the garda officer had the requisite mental element to justify the detention. State Solicitor Ciaran McLoughlin was quickly on his feet trying to answer the point ; District Justice McMenamin adjourned the hearing to consider this and other legal matters raised.
When the case came before District Justice mcMenamin again in Donegal town on January 14th (1987), he again heard Defence Counsel Patrick Gageby question the validity of the Section 30 extension ; but Judge McMenamin dismissed the arguments and granted the extradition order. An appeal was immediately lodged in the High Court. McIntyre's case was becoming something of a cause celebre ; on March 10th (1987), when Leinster House met to elect a Taoiseach, Independent Donegal Leinster House member, Neil Blaney, demanded that the extradition arrangements between Britain and Ireland "be repealed so that in the interim a young county man of mine, by name McIntyre, be not extradited." But when the case came before Mr Justice Gannon in the High Court in May 1987, Defence Counsel Patrick Gageby had further 'ammunition' - as well as the ruling in the McShane, McPhilips, Eccles (Drumree) case which included this phrase in relation to the person issuing extension orders -"is bona fide suspected by him of being involved in the offence for which he was arrested." Gageby had the additional support of a Supreme Court ruling of April 3rd (1987) which confirmed that a Chief Superintendent must give evidence of his suspicions when he is issuing an extension order ; it is not sufficient to confirm that he issues the order, he must say why. Patrick McEntee SC had been added to the defence team - McIntyre's supporters were confident of victory. On the afternoon of 7th May 1987, Patrick McIntyre was freed, courtesy of a legal loophole which has since been closed ; the Provisionals had a motorbike waiting outside the courtroom and he was driven off at high speed and was within seconds in city centre traffic. Garda had eighteen further warrants in relation to Patrick McIntyre ; his extradition was still being sought by the British, but he was then on the run.
OTR Patrick McIntyre net with a journalist in a nondescript suburban room. His physical appearance has not altered since the Donegal court hearings - maybe he is a little less fidgety, but he speaks in a soft voice which frequently quivers. The sentiments are resolute. He was sleeping when the gardai came to the house in south Donegal, he says : "I gave the surname of the people who own the house but they didn't believe me. They said I was Patrick McIntyre." Yet the evidence given by gardai in court suggested that the prisoner was not positively identified until solicitor John Murray named him in Ballyshannon garda station. It was also stated that the detectives went to Kilcar after a 'tip-off' that an armed man or men had been seen in the area. It appears the gardai were not aware they would find Patrick McIntyre in the house. It has not been possible to establish whether they knew him by sight ; they seem to have 'struck lucky' - and then got the procedure wrong. As Patrick McIntyre says - "The situation I'm in now prevents me from walking around in this country. I am not wanted for anything in this jurisdiction ; I am being sought for things related to the British administration. If the Birmingham Six were in the 26 Counties now, they could and would be extradited. If the British issue warrants for any person's extradition, the request will come before the Irish courts and the person opposing it must pay his own costs."
The free legal aid scheme does not apply to extradition cases ; costs in the Patrick McIntyre case, expected to run into several thousand pounds, will be paid by Sinn Féin. Asked about his family and his future, Patrick McIntyre stares at the floor - "They let me out for three days to attend my mother's funeral in March. I was told the best I could expect was to go there escorted, in handcuffs, but I fought the case for compassionate bail in the High Court and won. Then there was a rumour that the decision might be appealed by the state and I was thinking about that all the way during the journey from Dublin to Donegal. That was a shattering experience. I tried to spend the three days with my family. There were thousands of people at the funeral and at the house. It was the first time that we had the family together for a long time, and we had photographs taken. I met a lot of people that I grew up with. Just before I left, my sister gave me a Saint Patrick's Day card that my mother had written, to me, in Saint Luke's Hospital..."
A knock comes to the door - it is time for him to go. What does he intend to do now?, I ask - "Make it third time lucky. Or at least stay out longer than the past two times...", he replies. (NOTE : this is an edited version of a piece we posted here in November 2004.)
LADIES DAY - PAY ATTENTION, LADS....!
January 6th is marked by Nollaig na mBan or 'Women's Little Christmas' ; in celebration of the feast of the Epiphany in Ireland, January 6th is marked by Nollaig na mBan or 'Women's Little Christmas'. On this day it is the tradition in Ireland for the women to get together and enjoy their own Christmas, while the men folk stay at home and handle all the chores. It is also common for children to buy their mothers and grandmothers presents on this day, though this custom is gradually being overtaken by Mothers Day....
I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.(Oscar Wilde) Happy Nollaig na mBan to all our readers, especially the Ladies!
ON THIS DAY NEXT WEEK (WEDNESDAY 13TH JANUARY 2016).....
...we won't be posting our usual contribution, and probably won't be in a position to post anything at all ; this coming weekend (Saturday/Sunday 9th/10th January 2016) is spoke for already with a 650-ticket raffle to be run for the Dublin Executive of Sinn Féin Poblachtach in a venue on the Dublin/Kildare border (work on which begins on the Tuesday before the actual raffle) and the 'autopsy' into same which will take place on Monday evening, 11th, in RSF Head Office on Parnell Street in Dublin, meaning that we will not have the time to post here. But we'll be back, as stated above, on Wednesday 20th January 2016. See ye then!
Thanks for reading, Sharon.
Monday, January 04, 2016
IRA COLOUR PARTY 'ARRESTED' BY BRITISH 'SECURITY FORCES'.
IRA COLOUR PARTY 'ARRESTED' BY BRITISH 'SECURITY FORCES'.
1978, Easter Sunday morning : seven IRA recruits crossed the border from Donegal to Derry City ; they were to form the Colour Party for the Easter Commemoration that afternoon, leading the parade through the Creggan and Bogside where Dáithí Ó Conaill delivered the oration. After the event, the Colour Party members went into the Rossville Street flats, stripped off their paramilitary clothes and dark glasses and got into casual clothes. The back road from Creggan to the border had been checked and cleared, they were assured. Some of the seven men wanted to go for a few pints and then take the bus home but, under protest, they all piled into the one car and were driven off. The joint British Army/RUC patrol which intercepted them minutes later already had photographs of all seven men taken from a helicopter during the Easter Parade. IRA membership would be easy to prove....
MORE ON WEDNESDAY 6TH JANUARY 2016.
Thanks for visiting, Sharon.
MORE ON WEDNESDAY 6TH JANUARY 2016.
Thanks for visiting, Sharon.
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
DEATH-BED WARNING FROM IRA QUARTERMASTER.
DÁITHÍ Ó CONAILL COMMEMORATION , FRIDAY 1ST JANUARY 2016, GLASNEVIN, DUBLIN.
"Dáithí came from a strong Cork Republican family. His uncle Michael O’Sullivan (17), along with five of his comrades, was bayoneted to death by British Crown forces in March 1921. He joined Sinn Féin at the age of 17 during the local elections in 1955. By the end of the following year he was on active service as a Volunteer in the Irish Republican Army , serving as an organiser under GHQ staff in Co Fermanagh.
On January 1st 1957, he was second-in-command of the Pearse Column during the attack on Brookeborough RUC barracks which resulted in the deaths of two of his comrades, Fearghal Ó hAnluáin and Seán Sabhat. Four others were wounded including the column commander. At 18 years of age Dáithí took command and led a successful withdrawal back across the border – evading 400 RUC, B-Specials, two helicopters and the British army – where they were forced to retire. He was then imprisoned in Mountjoy and the Curragh Concentration camp from where he escaped with his friend and comrade Ruairí Ó Brádaigh in September 1958. He returned to active service and for a period was Director of Operations. He was critically wounded in an ambush by the RUC and B-Specials in Arboe, Co Tyrone on the shores of Lough Neagh in November 1959. He made his escape but was forced to seek help because of loss of blood and his weakened condition. He was captured by Crown Forces and was sentenced to eight years which he served in Belfast’s Crumlin Road Jail. Following his release in 1963 he reported back to active service.
In 1969/70 he again made his talents available to the Republican Movement. Ruairí Ó Brádaigh said of him he possessed the 'ablest mind in the Republican Movement for over 20 years'. The sheer breadth of his ability and intellect was evidenced by his service to the All-Ireland Republic both militarily and politically. He had a central role in framing ÉIRE NUA and remained a tireless advocate of it right up to his death in 1991. Dáithí Ó Conaill never equivocated on what was the cause of the war in Ireland or what was required to deliver a just and lasting peace for all of the Irish people. Speaking in Belfast at Easter 1973 he said: 'Today, the central issue in the war is one of conflict between Ireland’s right to freedom and England’s determination to keep us in subjection. All other issues are subordinate to this basic point. There can be no compromise on the fundamental issue as to who should rule Ireland: the British Parliament or the Irish people. We have had 800 years of British ineptitude in ruling Ireland; we have never known rule by the Irish, of the Irish, for the Irish. Until we do, we shall never enjoy peace and stability in our land.' " (From here.)
The commemoration will be held, as stated, on New Year's Day in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. Those attending are asked to assemble at the main gates at 12.45pm. Go raibh maith agat.
PROSE AND CONS.
By prisoners from E1 Landing, Portlaoise Prison, 1999.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS :
Grateful thanks to the following for their help, support, assistance and encouragement, and all those who helped with the typing and word processing over the past few months. Many thanks to Cian Sharkhin, the editor of the book, Mr Bill Donoghue, Governor, Portlaoise, Mr Seán Wynne, supervising teacher, the education unit in Portlaoise Prison and the education staff, especially Zack, Helena and Jane. Education officers Bill Carroll and Dave McDonald, Rita Kelly, writer, print unit, Arbour Hill.
First Print : November 1999, reprinted March 2000, illustrations by D O'Hare, Zack and Natasha. Photograph selection : Eamonn Kelly and Harry Melia.
SUICIDE.
The cell measured
ten by six by twelve
A dull light shone on
grey concrete floor
and artic walls
that stenched of stain and blood
mice scuttled in the dark
gloomy corners
The spy hole on the heavy steel door
opened and closed.
A two-by-two cast iron frame
surrounded the thirty-five
dirty perspex panes
A prisoner's naked body
hung limp
from a white sheet.
The shit ran down his legs.
John Doran.
(Next : 'Bird Man', by John Doran. )
IS PEACE SAFE WITH ANDREWS....?
Where politics once stagnated, events in Northern Ireland now chase each other helter-skelter. As 'Magill' went to press, a new joint government document turned recent perceptions head over heels. Fionnuala O'Connor charts the doubts behind the instant reactions. From 'Magill' magazine, February 1998.
"I'm sure the loyalists would love to know what it would take," says an ex-IRA prisoner. "I'm sure they're wondering 'if we went into a youth club or a community centre or a bookies or a pub (and opened fire), would that draw the IRA in ?' I don't know what the threshold is." He was speaking before a loyalist gang placed themselves on the roadside in the heart of republican west Belfast, flagged down a taxi driver, and shot him dead.
By one of those thought processes that southerners rarely understand, the INLA is not blamed in republican districts for triggering this terror by killing Billy Wright - "No," the ex-prisoner says, "because the catholic mood was up before that. They'd say 'what about Seán Brown in Bellaghy ('1169' comment - Seán Brown was "not a real victim", according to an 'Ulster Unionist' political leader!) , what had that got to do with Billy Wright? That was the LVF, whoever the hell they really are, trying to wreck the thing."
The much-reported RUC estimate that Billy Wright was responsible for up to 30 catholic deaths over a 15-year period certainly colours opinions about his killing. Loyalist violence before the recent spate, continuing through the IRA's cease-fire and scarcely commented upon, is more to the point - republicans killed five people in 1997 (two RUC men and a British soldier killed before the cease-fire, and an RUC man and Billy Wright, by the INLA) whereas loyalists of various kinds killed 15 people - the UDA two, the UVF two, the LVF four, with disputed circumstances in several other deaths. Some killings were apparently the results of internal loyalist feuds. (MORE LATER.)
1916 - WHAT DID IT MEAN FOR IRISH WOMEN....?
By Ursula Barry.
. What is there for women in Ireland to commemorate in 1916? Did the 1916 Proclamation and the subsequent 'Democratic Programme of the First Dáil' contain radical or revolutionary statements on the position of women in Irish society that were later betrayed or sold out in the process of establishing the Free State?
From 'Iris' magazine, Easter 1991.
The more radical republican ideology which emphasises diversity and co-existence based on a concept of common humanity was completely marginalised during this period in which the State took on increasingly the role of a single moral authority and the nature of that moral authority was such that the rights, needs and creativity of women were buried under a rigid system based on the deliberate preservation of the economic and political system for men and the fear of sexuality , especially female sexuality.
The 1937 Constitution, perhaps more than any other document, reflects the contradiction between the revolutionary period of 1880-1920 and the reactionary thinking of the 1920-1950 period. As the constitution of the 26 Counties it echoes some of the elements of the 1916 Proclamation and the Democratic Programme of the First Dáil but it also, and in some ways ever more so, reflects the time in which it was produced.
While the equality of all citizens before the law is enshrined within it, it also makes reference to different capacities of citizens based on sex. In addition it asserts directly and unambiguously that women have only one role in Irish society - that of mother and homemaker - reinforced by a prohibition on divorce legislation. Interestingly, those aspects of the Constitution which have their roots in the more radical definitions of the Republic are precisely those which have been used in a number of constitutional cases to assert democratic rights. (MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (30TH DECEMBER) 44 YEARS AGO : IRA VETERAN KILLED IN EXPLOSION IN DUBLIN.
The funeral of IRA operative Jack ('John') McCabe, who died in an explosion on the 30th December 1971 - 44 years ago on this date. He was buried in Killann Graveyard, East Cavan, on the 1st January 1972 and the then PIRA chief of staff, Seán MacStiofain, delivered the graveside oration. Details re his death and funeral can be read here.
Jack McCabe, who was born in 1916, joined the IRA in Cavan in the 1930's, when he would have been in his late teens/early 20's, and rose to the position of Quartermaster General in that organisation. He operated for a while in England in the late 1930's, where he served the Cause as officer commanding in the Manchester area (he worked alongside a then 17-years-young Jackie Griffith) where he was captured while on active service and sentenced to 20 years penal servitude. He was released from Parkhurst Prison in 1948, at 32 years of age, and returned to Ireland to continue his work for the Movement.
In 1954, after an IRA raid in Omagh for enemy equipment, he was captured and imprisoned in Crumlin Road Jail and, when released in the early 1960's, he immediately reported back for duty and worked tirelessly for the IRA until his untimely death in 1971 - he was instrumental, along with Myles Shevlin (and others) in the defence of Bombay Street and, as Quartermaster General, he was part of the IRA team which first met with a Libyan delegation to discuss the issue of arms.
He was one of the main explosives experts for the IRA and that was how he was to meet a gruesome death - he was mixing explosives in the garage of his house on the Swords Road, in Dublin, when a spark from the shovel he was using set the mixture off. His eyes were blown out of his head and his testicles were blown off but, before he died (on 30th December 1971, 44 years ago on this date) he managed to devise a safe method of mixing explosives to ensure that the same mistake would not be made again. Even on his death-bed, and in great agony, Jack McCabe's thoughts were with those he knew would follow in his footsteps. Incidentally, his death inadvertently assisted the IRA in refining the use of a weapon still employed to this day.
AND FINALLY - THIS IS OUR LAST POST FOR 2015 :
Here's to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that's never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some see them as the crazy ones,we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world, are the ones who do...(From here.)
Athbhliain faoi Mhaise Duit and Happy New Year to all our readers : thanks for reading, Sharon.
On January 1st 1957, he was second-in-command of the Pearse Column during the attack on Brookeborough RUC barracks which resulted in the deaths of two of his comrades, Fearghal Ó hAnluáin and Seán Sabhat. Four others were wounded including the column commander. At 18 years of age Dáithí took command and led a successful withdrawal back across the border – evading 400 RUC, B-Specials, two helicopters and the British army – where they were forced to retire. He was then imprisoned in Mountjoy and the Curragh Concentration camp from where he escaped with his friend and comrade Ruairí Ó Brádaigh in September 1958. He returned to active service and for a period was Director of Operations. He was critically wounded in an ambush by the RUC and B-Specials in Arboe, Co Tyrone on the shores of Lough Neagh in November 1959. He made his escape but was forced to seek help because of loss of blood and his weakened condition. He was captured by Crown Forces and was sentenced to eight years which he served in Belfast’s Crumlin Road Jail. Following his release in 1963 he reported back to active service.
In 1969/70 he again made his talents available to the Republican Movement. Ruairí Ó Brádaigh said of him he possessed the 'ablest mind in the Republican Movement for over 20 years'. The sheer breadth of his ability and intellect was evidenced by his service to the All-Ireland Republic both militarily and politically. He had a central role in framing ÉIRE NUA and remained a tireless advocate of it right up to his death in 1991. Dáithí Ó Conaill never equivocated on what was the cause of the war in Ireland or what was required to deliver a just and lasting peace for all of the Irish people. Speaking in Belfast at Easter 1973 he said: 'Today, the central issue in the war is one of conflict between Ireland’s right to freedom and England’s determination to keep us in subjection. All other issues are subordinate to this basic point. There can be no compromise on the fundamental issue as to who should rule Ireland: the British Parliament or the Irish people. We have had 800 years of British ineptitude in ruling Ireland; we have never known rule by the Irish, of the Irish, for the Irish. Until we do, we shall never enjoy peace and stability in our land.' " (From here.)
The commemoration will be held, as stated, on New Year's Day in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. Those attending are asked to assemble at the main gates at 12.45pm. Go raibh maith agat.
PROSE AND CONS.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS :
Grateful thanks to the following for their help, support, assistance and encouragement, and all those who helped with the typing and word processing over the past few months. Many thanks to Cian Sharkhin, the editor of the book, Mr Bill Donoghue, Governor, Portlaoise, Mr Seán Wynne, supervising teacher, the education unit in Portlaoise Prison and the education staff, especially Zack, Helena and Jane. Education officers Bill Carroll and Dave McDonald, Rita Kelly, writer, print unit, Arbour Hill.
First Print : November 1999, reprinted March 2000, illustrations by D O'Hare, Zack and Natasha. Photograph selection : Eamonn Kelly and Harry Melia.
SUICIDE.
The cell measured
ten by six by twelve
A dull light shone on
grey concrete floor
and artic walls
that stenched of stain and blood
mice scuttled in the dark
gloomy corners
The spy hole on the heavy steel door
opened and closed.
A two-by-two cast iron frame
surrounded the thirty-five
dirty perspex panes
A prisoner's naked body
hung limp
from a white sheet.
The shit ran down his legs.
John Doran.
(Next : 'Bird Man', by John Doran. )
IS PEACE SAFE WITH ANDREWS....?
"I'm sure the loyalists would love to know what it would take," says an ex-IRA prisoner. "I'm sure they're wondering 'if we went into a youth club or a community centre or a bookies or a pub (and opened fire), would that draw the IRA in ?' I don't know what the threshold is." He was speaking before a loyalist gang placed themselves on the roadside in the heart of republican west Belfast, flagged down a taxi driver, and shot him dead.
By one of those thought processes that southerners rarely understand, the INLA is not blamed in republican districts for triggering this terror by killing Billy Wright - "No," the ex-prisoner says, "because the catholic mood was up before that. They'd say 'what about Seán Brown in Bellaghy ('1169' comment - Seán Brown was "not a real victim", according to an 'Ulster Unionist' political leader!) , what had that got to do with Billy Wright? That was the LVF, whoever the hell they really are, trying to wreck the thing."
The much-reported RUC estimate that Billy Wright was responsible for up to 30 catholic deaths over a 15-year period certainly colours opinions about his killing. Loyalist violence before the recent spate, continuing through the IRA's cease-fire and scarcely commented upon, is more to the point - republicans killed five people in 1997 (two RUC men and a British soldier killed before the cease-fire, and an RUC man and Billy Wright, by the INLA) whereas loyalists of various kinds killed 15 people - the UDA two, the UVF two, the LVF four, with disputed circumstances in several other deaths. Some killings were apparently the results of internal loyalist feuds. (MORE LATER.)
1916 - WHAT DID IT MEAN FOR IRISH WOMEN....?
. What is there for women in Ireland to commemorate in 1916? Did the 1916 Proclamation and the subsequent 'Democratic Programme of the First Dáil' contain radical or revolutionary statements on the position of women in Irish society that were later betrayed or sold out in the process of establishing the Free State?
From 'Iris' magazine, Easter 1991.
The more radical republican ideology which emphasises diversity and co-existence based on a concept of common humanity was completely marginalised during this period in which the State took on increasingly the role of a single moral authority and the nature of that moral authority was such that the rights, needs and creativity of women were buried under a rigid system based on the deliberate preservation of the economic and political system for men and the fear of sexuality , especially female sexuality.
The 1937 Constitution, perhaps more than any other document, reflects the contradiction between the revolutionary period of 1880-1920 and the reactionary thinking of the 1920-1950 period. As the constitution of the 26 Counties it echoes some of the elements of the 1916 Proclamation and the Democratic Programme of the First Dáil but it also, and in some ways ever more so, reflects the time in which it was produced.
While the equality of all citizens before the law is enshrined within it, it also makes reference to different capacities of citizens based on sex. In addition it asserts directly and unambiguously that women have only one role in Irish society - that of mother and homemaker - reinforced by a prohibition on divorce legislation. Interestingly, those aspects of the Constitution which have their roots in the more radical definitions of the Republic are precisely those which have been used in a number of constitutional cases to assert democratic rights. (MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (30TH DECEMBER) 44 YEARS AGO : IRA VETERAN KILLED IN EXPLOSION IN DUBLIN.
Jack McCabe, who was born in 1916, joined the IRA in Cavan in the 1930's, when he would have been in his late teens/early 20's, and rose to the position of Quartermaster General in that organisation. He operated for a while in England in the late 1930's, where he served the Cause as officer commanding in the Manchester area (he worked alongside a then 17-years-young Jackie Griffith) where he was captured while on active service and sentenced to 20 years penal servitude. He was released from Parkhurst Prison in 1948, at 32 years of age, and returned to Ireland to continue his work for the Movement.
In 1954, after an IRA raid in Omagh for enemy equipment, he was captured and imprisoned in Crumlin Road Jail and, when released in the early 1960's, he immediately reported back for duty and worked tirelessly for the IRA until his untimely death in 1971 - he was instrumental, along with Myles Shevlin (and others) in the defence of Bombay Street and, as Quartermaster General, he was part of the IRA team which first met with a Libyan delegation to discuss the issue of arms.
He was one of the main explosives experts for the IRA and that was how he was to meet a gruesome death - he was mixing explosives in the garage of his house on the Swords Road, in Dublin, when a spark from the shovel he was using set the mixture off. His eyes were blown out of his head and his testicles were blown off but, before he died (on 30th December 1971, 44 years ago on this date) he managed to devise a safe method of mixing explosives to ensure that the same mistake would not be made again. Even on his death-bed, and in great agony, Jack McCabe's thoughts were with those he knew would follow in his footsteps. Incidentally, his death inadvertently assisted the IRA in refining the use of a weapon still employed to this day.
AND FINALLY - THIS IS OUR LAST POST FOR 2015 :
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that's never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some see them as the crazy ones,we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world, are the ones who do...(From here.)
Athbhliain faoi Mhaise Duit and Happy New Year to all our readers : thanks for reading, Sharon.
Saturday, December 26, 2015
NEITHER (STATE) 'HELL' NOR (NATURE'S) 'HIGH WATER' : CABHAIR CHRISTMAS SWIM 2015.
SWIMMING IN THE RAIN : 39TH CONSECUTIVE CABHAIR SWIM, 25TH DECEMBER 2015.
The four Cabhair swimmers who, like the rest of us, got soaked making their way to the 3rd Lock of the Grand Canal in Dublin, on Christmas Day 2015, only to get soaked again!
'How heavy fell the rain that day
From burdened clouds of mournful grey....
My skin wrung wet with icy chill
As mud embraced that sodden hill...'(from here.)
Those of us who managed to make it to the Cabhair Swim in Inchicore, Dublin, on Christmas Day last (continuous heavy rain in Dublin had caused flooding) were informed by one of the 'Christmas Crew', John Horan, Dublin - during his 'Speech from The Lock' - that two of the swimmers, who were travelling in the same car to the site had apologised for their absence as they had been caught in a small flood which had disabled the vehicle. And, really, it was a wonder that any of us got there at all, as the incessant rain had caused havoc in parts of Dublin since Christmas Eve.
And that also explained the smaller-than-usual turnout, as those who didn't have to venture outdoors weren't going to do so, understandably, as it would have been unwise to take children out on such a vicious day. But those of us who were there enjoyed ourselves as much as we could, with the usual offerings available - a good few cans of different beers, something stronger (thanks, Bernard!) , mince pies, lemonade, crisps, sweets, Christmas crackers etc, most of which had to be distributed from the boot of a car as it was too wet to set-up the usual tables and music system. Four swimmers managed to get there, and each of them earned their keep - two of them swam from lock to lock, twice, and the other two swam two widths each. Apart from the weather and the two absent swimmers, the only other set-back was supplied by the State, rather than nature - three car loads of Special Branch and the contents of one Garda squad car competed with the mini-storm in an attempt to keep this Cabhair event from going ahead, but couldn't do so. As John said, during his speech, next year will mark the 40th such Swim and, come more State 'hell' or High Water from nature, it will be held!
These are a few pics from the event, with more here ('Facebook' link) and a proper report will be published in the January 2016 issue of 'Saoirse', which goes to print on Wednesday, 13th of that month :
Thanks for reading, Sharon.
'How heavy fell the rain that day
From burdened clouds of mournful grey....
My skin wrung wet with icy chill
As mud embraced that sodden hill...'(from here.)
Those of us who managed to make it to the Cabhair Swim in Inchicore, Dublin, on Christmas Day last (continuous heavy rain in Dublin had caused flooding) were informed by one of the 'Christmas Crew', John Horan, Dublin - during his 'Speech from The Lock' - that two of the swimmers, who were travelling in the same car to the site had apologised for their absence as they had been caught in a small flood which had disabled the vehicle. And, really, it was a wonder that any of us got there at all, as the incessant rain had caused havoc in parts of Dublin since Christmas Eve.
And that also explained the smaller-than-usual turnout, as those who didn't have to venture outdoors weren't going to do so, understandably, as it would have been unwise to take children out on such a vicious day. But those of us who were there enjoyed ourselves as much as we could, with the usual offerings available - a good few cans of different beers, something stronger (thanks, Bernard!) , mince pies, lemonade, crisps, sweets, Christmas crackers etc, most of which had to be distributed from the boot of a car as it was too wet to set-up the usual tables and music system. Four swimmers managed to get there, and each of them earned their keep - two of them swam from lock to lock, twice, and the other two swam two widths each. Apart from the weather and the two absent swimmers, the only other set-back was supplied by the State, rather than nature - three car loads of Special Branch and the contents of one Garda squad car competed with the mini-storm in an attempt to keep this Cabhair event from going ahead, but couldn't do so. As John said, during his speech, next year will mark the 40th such Swim and, come more State 'hell' or High Water from nature, it will be held!
These are a few pics from the event, with more here ('Facebook' link) and a proper report will be published in the January 2016 issue of 'Saoirse', which goes to print on Wednesday, 13th of that month :
Thanks for reading, Sharon.
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
39TH ON THE 25TH FOR THE 32 AT THE 3RD!
39TH ON THE 25TH FOR THE 32 AT THE 3RD!
39 Years underwater!
It began - properly structured and organised - in 1976, as a 'fundraiser with a difference', combined with the need to gain extra publicity for a situation which was then - as now - making world headlines. Those that sat down together in early September 1976 to tighten-up the then 'hit-and-miss' affair were a dedicated team who fully understood that to fail in their business would not only bring derision on them and the issue they sought to highlight, but would give their enemy a publicity coup which they would exploit to the fullest extent. With that in mind, the team persevered - favours were called-in, guarantees were secured, provisions obtained and word dispatched to like-minded individuals in the area. At the appointed time on the agreed day - 12 Noon, Christmas Day 1976 - a soon-to-be 39-years-young event was 'born'. The CABHAIR Christmas Day Swim is, thankfully, still going strong and will be, as mentioned, 39-years-young on December 25th next!
Sponsored Swim * Christmas Day * 12 Noon * Grand Canal * 3rd Lock* Inchicore* Dublin*
ALL WELCOME!
PROSE AND CONS.
By prisoners from E1 Landing, Portlaoise Prison, 1999.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS :
Grateful thanks to the following for their help, support, assistance and encouragement, and all those who helped with the typing and word processing over the past few months. Many thanks to Cian Sharkhin, the editor of the book, Mr Bill Donoghue, Governor, Portlaoise, Mr Seán Wynne, supervising teacher, the education unit in Portlaoise Prison and the education staff, especially Zack, Helena and Jane. Education officers Bill Carroll and Dave McDonald, Rita Kelly, writer, print unit, Arbour Hill.
First Print : November 1999, reprinted March 2000, illustrations by D O'Hare, Zack and Natasha. Photograph selection : Eamonn Kelly and Harry Melia.
WEE KITTEN.
Two young girls played
in the back garden
they heard the faint cries of a kitten
they jumped up on the three foot brick wall
and they scanned the garden
The wee kitten cried out again
the grass was wet and two foot high
Sinéad crawled on her hands and knees
and called out 'here kitty kitty kitty'
as mother cat nursed her three other kittens.
The wee neglected kitten tried to burrow
into the warm litter
but mother cat lashed out with her paw
Sinéad saw what was going on
she felt sorry for the abandoned pet
and cried out 'I found the cat'
Amy ran excitedly,
'Where, where, show me where'
Tenderly they carried the kitten
into the kitchen and gave him milk on the white saucer
Too weak to drink
he shook like a leaf
as they lifted him back beside the mother
hoping she would care
Next morning the kitten lay dead in the grass.
The girls cried.
John Doran.
(Next : 'Suicide'. )
IS PEACE SAFE WITH ANDREWS....?
Where politics once stagnated, events in Northern Ireland now chase each other helter-skelter. As 'Magill' went to press, a new joint government document turned recent perceptions head over heels. Fionnuala O'Connor charts the doubts behind the instant reactions. From 'Magill' magazine, February 1998.
Republicans in and close to leadership insist that their cease-fire is not about to end in the near future. "We're in this for the long haul, said a republican official on the night after the heads of agreement emerged. "Negotiations are the only game in town, we're not walking away from it, whatever worries we may have." But then the same person continued - "We have no difficulty reading it as a basis for negotiation. It doesn't preclude us from bringing our own issues." The IRA response, eight days later, was a good deal harsher.
Whatever the true level of republican unease about Dublin's dealings with London and their joint management of negotiations, the pace of loyalist violence gives republicans immediate problems : there is a growing, primitive* call for the IRA to strike back, even though 30 years of death tolls show that retaliation is no more deterrent than it is moral**. In much the same way as unionists believe the INLA to be a proxy for the IRA, 'licensed' by it in David Trimble's phrase and essentially part of a pan-nationalist front to break the union, many nationalists, not just republicans, suspect that the LVF is a catch-all title used when it suits the larger groups - and secretly admired by unionists who think the IRA's cease-fire is just the most recent nationalist trick, dreamed up by an alliance of the catholic church, Gerry Adams and, wiliest of all, John Hume.
The strongest republican argument against the IRA ending their cease-fire in the face of the recent string of killings is that this would give loyalists and unionists what they want, by preventing negotiations. Some of those who support the argument are themselves unsure about the outcome, as they are about the shape of any likely settlement.
('1169' comment : *It would obviously be republicans who would call for the IRA to strike back - "primitive" republicans, in the opinion of the author of that article who, to the best of my knowledge, has never referenced British imperialism [and the damage it is responsible for here in Ireland and elsewhere] as "primitive" - it seems that only those under attack, rather than the instigator of the attack, can be considered "primitive" // ** likewise with the claim that, apparently,it is only those who retaliate that should be judged as 'immoral', not those who initiated the conflict.) (MORE LATER.)
1916 - WHAT DID IT MEAN FOR IRISH WOMEN....?
By Ursula Barry.
. What is there for women in Ireland to commemorate in 1916? Did the 1916 Proclamation and the subsequent 'Democratic Programme of the First Dáil' contain radical or revolutionary statements on the position of women in Irish society that were later betrayed or sold out in the process of establishing the Free State?
From 'Iris' magazine, Easter 1991.
Within 20 years of the establishment of the Free State a legislative framework had been put in place reflecting conservative and reactionary thinking with particularly serious implications for women. Women who had played a key role in both republican and workers' organisations as well as asserting their own demands for the vote were systematically excluded from public life and constrained to the private domestic sphere in both the Free State and the North.
But more than that : social life was viciously suppressed in the Free State, where literature, film, sexual expression and even dancing were the target of repressive laws. The 1920's saw the denial of the right to civil divorce, the virtual exclusion of women from jury service and the savage censorship of films and other publications.
During the 1930's the focus shifted inevitably towards sex as contraceptives were outlawed, in a piece of legislation that simultaneously penalised brothel-keepers, and the 'Public Dance Halls Act' of 1935 gave district justices the power to regulate and control public dances, a move directly in line with a Catholic Church pastoral on 'the evils of modern dancing' a few years earlier and in that same year the 'Conditions of Employment Bill 1935' imposed a maximum proportion of women workers in industry and gave the State minister for labour the right to prohibit women completely. So much for equal opportunities! (MORE LATER.)
HO! HO! HO! POWER TO THE TAXPAYING PRINTER. AGAIN!
Whether it's the season to give or not, we State taxpayers are, as ever, generous beyond belief when it comes to 'giving' to the career politicians in Leinster House. And, it seems, especially so at Christmas - one of their number, ex-Fianna Fail member Averil Power (now an 'Independent' Free State Senator) 'gifted' the taxpayer with a bill for just under €3,000 for 73,000 personalised 2016 calendars, Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) used taxpayers money to purchase 30,000 calendars and Emmet Stagg thanked taxpayers for buying 6,000 Christmas cards for him. They are just three of many that (ab)used State money to impress those that (might) vote for them - a more detailed list can be seen here.
And, talking of 2016 calendars -
- this is the RSF calendar for 2016 (front of same, top pic, and back) which is available for a fiver (Euro or Sterling) from the usual RSF contacts. And no free money from taxpayers was spent in the production of same!
ON THIS DATE (23RD DECEMBER) 31 YEARS AGO : RUC DISRUPT REPUBLICAN FUNERAL.
IRA Volunteer Ciarán Fleming (left) - 'On Sunday 2nd December 1984, IRA Volunteers Antoine Mac Giolla Bhríghde, from Magherafelt, County Derry and Ciarán Fleming, who had broken out of Long Kesh prison in the Great Escape of 1983, were preparing to mount an operation against crown forces near Drumrush in County Fermanagh when Mac Giolla Bhríghde saw a car parked on the lane which he believed to contain civilians. Approaching the car to tell the occupants to leave the area, undercover SAS members opened fire, hitting him in the side. Cuffed with plastic stays, Mac Giolla Bhríghde was tortured before being summarily executed. His comrades, when later debriefed, reported hearing a single shot, then screaming, and a short time later a further burst of machine gun fire, after which the screaming stopped....' (from here.)
Ciarán Fleming '...drowned in Bannagh River, near Kesh, County Fermanagh (while) escaping from a gun battle between undercover British Army (BA) unit and Irish Republican Army (IRA) unit. His body (was) found in the river on 21st December 1984..' (from here) Ciarán was buried on the 23rd December 1984 - 31 years ago on this date - and his funeral was at the time described as '...the most gratuitously violent RUC attack of the year on any funeral. Many of the RUC had come in full riot gear of helmet, shield and body armour, to show that they were intent on violent disruption. Several times during a tense and exhausting funeral which lasted three full hours, the RUC baton-charged the mourners, which encouraged near-by children, standing on a wall, to throw stones at them in reprisal : the RUC then fired at least four plastic bullets into the funeral cortege, seriously injuring two people. During the afternoon, numerous mourners suffered bloody head wounds and one man was knocked unconscious by the RUC. Stewards were often forced to halt the proceedings because of this harassment but, despite the RUC's terror, the people stood firm and, in a twilight Bogside, three uniformed IRA Volunteers stepped out of the crowd and paid the IRA's traditional salute to their fallen comrade, as a forest of arms were raised in clenched-fist salute. Finally , thanks to the courage of thousands of nationalists, Volunteer Ciaran Fleming was laid to rest..' (from 'IRIS' magazine, October 1987.)
IRA sources that were contacted at the time by journalist Ed Moloney stated that Ciarán Fleming '...was noted for his hard line militarist republicanism. He is reputed to have backed a plan to form full-time guerrilla units or 'flying columns' based in the Republic, which would carry out four or five large scale attacks in the north a year. This approach was espoused by the militant Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade led by Padraig McKearney and Jim Lynagh, who wanted an escalation of the conflict to what they termed "total war". They were opposed by Kevin McKenna, the IRA Chief of Staff and by the republican leadership headed by Gerry Adams, on the grounds that actions on that scale were too big a risk and unsustainable. The IRA leadership wanted a smaller scale campaign of attrition, supplemented by political campaigning by (Provisional) Sinn Féin....' (from here.)
That "political campaigning by Provisional Sinn Féin" has seen that grouping morph into a slightly more-nationalist political party than either of the latter-day Fianna Fáil or SDLP organisations but, true to form, like Fianna Fáil and the SDLP, the Provisional Sinn Féin party has distanced itself (except verbally) from Irish republicanism. It's an easier life, with a salary and a pension, neither of which were available when Adams and company professed to be advocates of change rather than that which they are now (and have been for almost 30 years) ie advocates of British accommodation in Ireland.
ON THIS DATE (23RD DECEMBER) 44 YEARS AGO : TED HEATH, BRITISH PM, VISITS IRELAND, CALLS FOR PEACE. BUT IGNORES BRITISH VIOLENCE.
British PM Ted Heath, right, with his friend Jimmy Savile.
On the 23rd December 1971 - 44 years ago on this date - British PM Edward Heath paid a visit to the Occupied Six Counties of north-east Ireland and declared his 'determination to end the violence', making it clear in the process that he was referring to the then IRA campaign to remove the British military and political presence. Five weeks after that visit, his troops let loose with live rounds in the Bogside area of Derry, killing fourteen Irish people and, as a PR exercise, Heath (and his sidekick, Reginald Maudling) set up the 'Widgery Inquiry' into the massacre.
'Lord' Widgery proceeded to exclude the political background to the shootings, a politically motivated decision, as was suggested by the minutes of an extraordinary discussion between Widgery, Edward Heath and the British 'Lord Chancellor', 'Lord' Hailsham, at Downing Street, two days after the massacre, on the evening before the British 'Commons' announcement of Widgery's appointment to conduct the 'inquiry'. Among "..a number of points which I [Edward Heath] thought it right to draw to the Lord Chief Justice's [Widgery] attention (was that) it had to be remembered that we were in Northern Ireland (sic) fighting not just a military war but a propaganda war..." and, indeed, Heath is on record as saying that the Derry Guildhall building would be unsuitable as a venue for tribunal hearings as it "...was on the wrong side of the River Foyle.." (ie - the 'Catholic/Nationalist' side) !
It should be noted that the day before the Bogside massacre (ie on Saturday 29th January 1972) , the RUC and the British Army issued the following joint statement : "Experience this year has already shown that attempted marches often end in violence and (this) must have been foreseen by the organisers. Clearly, the responsibility for this violence and the consequences of it must rest fairly and squarely on the shoulders of those who encourage people to break the law. The (British) security forces have a duty to take action against those who set out to break the law..."
Mutinous talk there, from that joint statement because, if they were to do their 'duty', then they would have had to "take action" against themselves and their own political leaders, including Edward Heath. But considering that Heath and his political establishment were pals with the Jimmy Savile's of their world, then it should have been obvious to all that they would have no 'duty' of care or responsibility to 14 dead Irish people.
ON THIS DATE (23RD DECEMBER) 76 YEARS AGO : IRA REMOVE GUNS AND AMMUNITION FROM A FREE STATE FORT.
"Now's here's a proof of Irish sense
Here Irish wit is seen
When nothing's left that's worth defence,
We build a Magazine."(Jonathan Swift)
The Magazine Fort, Phoenix Park, Dublin (pictured, left) - built in 1735, raided by republicans twice ; in 1916, when thirty members of the Irish Volunteers and Na Fianna Éireann captured the building and took guns and withdrew from the area and again in 1939 - on the 23rd December, 76 years ago on this date - when, at about ten pm on that Saturday night, an IRA man walked up to the Free State sentry who was guarding the locked gate and told him that he had a parcel for his commanding officer. The sentry unlocked the gate only to be faced with a revolver pointed at his head : he was held there as other IRA men entered the Fort and then the hapless State soldier was forced to lead the IRA men to the guardroom where they ordered the Free Staters to surrender, which they promptly did.
13 lorries were then driven into the complex and crates containing Thompson machine guns and ammunition (estimated at 1,084,000 rounds!) were removed from the premises and neither side suffered any casualties. However, State soldiers who were based in the nearby Islandbridge Barracks were perplexed as to the reason why such a heavy volume of truck traffic was entering and leaving the Phoenix Park and they went to investigate : two of the IRA raiders were captured but their comrades made good their escape, complete with that which they came for. However, within a week most of the liberated munitions (including about 850,000 bullets) had been recovered by the Staters : two-and-a-half-tons were seized in Dundalk, County Louth, eight tons recovered in Swords, County Dublin, sixty-six cases of Thompson machine guns and ammunition were seized from an arms dump in South Armagh and 100 crates containing 120,000 bullets recovered in Straffan, County Kildare.
Also, on March 1st, 1940, Jack McNeela and Jack Plunkett - two of the many republicans who were 'lifted' by the Staters following the 'Fort Raid'- were sentenced to two years and eighteen months respectively on a charge of "conspiring to usurp the function of government" by, of all things, operating a 'pirate' radio transmitter. On March 5th, 1940, Tony D'Arcy and Michael Traynor, both arrested during a raid on the Meath Hotel, Parnell Square, Dublin, the previous month, where an IRA meeting was being held to plan an attack in the Six Counties, were sentenced to three months imprisonment for refusing to answer questions. After being sentenced, the four prisoners were transferred to Arbour Hill Prison, Dublin and, on March 27th 1940, they were moved to St Brican's Military Hospital next to the prison. On April 1st that year they were joined there by Tomas MacCurtain and Thomas Grogan, both of whom were still awaiting trial. MacCurtain was charged with shooting dead a Special Branch detective in Cork and Thomas Grogan with taking part in the Magazine Fort raid.
On April 16th, 1940, Tony D'Arcy, a native of Headford, County Galway, died after 52 days on hunger strike ; Jack McNeela, a native of Ballycroy, Westport, County Mayo, died three days later, after 55 days on hunger strike. The fast ended that night when the prisoners were informed that their demands had been met. The hunger strike began on February 25th, 1940, in Mountjoy Jail, Dublin, and resulted in the deaths of two IRA Volunteers.
ON THIS DATE (23RD DECEMBER) 93 YEARS AGO : 'VOICE OF LABOUR' ROARS!
Liam Mellows (pictured, left) wrote, in his last letter to his mother - "The time is short and much I would like to say must go unsaid. But you will understand in such moments heart speaks to heart. At 3.30 this morning we [Dick Barrett, Rory O’Connor, Joe McKelvey and I] were informed that we were to be "executed as a reprisal"...I go to join Tone and Emmett, the Fenians, Tom Clarke, Connolly, Pearse, Kevin Barry and Childers. My last thoughts will be on God, and Ireland, and you. I had hopes that some day I might rest in some quiet place – beside Grandfather and Grandmother in Castletown (Co. Wexford), not amidst the wordly pomps [sic] of Glasnevin but if it is to be the prison clay, it is all the sweeter for many of our best lie here..." . That was on December 8th, 1922 - he was then executed by a Free State Army firing squad. However, forty-six years after that execution (ie in 1968) more information regarding that deed was made public ; in a letter to the media forty-six years after the execution of Liam Mellows (ie on April 24th, 1968) a Free State Army Captain, Ignatius O'Rourke, who was present at the execution of Liam Mellows and the other three men - Dick Barrett, Rory O'Connor and Joe McKelvey - wrote that, a few minutes before Mellows was shot dead he [Mellows] sent for the prison chaplain, a Father McMahon. Captain O'Rourke wrote that "... a few minutes later...I saw Father McMahon leaving the room [cell]
..accompanied by Liam Mellows, with his right arm around Liam's shoulders, and they walked along together leading the group as we all walked to the sandbags. Liam and Father McMahon appeared to be in deep, friendly conversation, with no sign of discord, disagreement or argument, just like two men discussing some point in a friendly fashion. They continued to talk until Father McMahon left Liam in the number one position at the sandbags ..."
Fifteen days after his execution (ie on the 23rd December 1922 - 93 years ago on this date) an article he had written, entitled 'Labour and the Irish Republic' was published in the trade union 'Voice of Labour' newspaper : "Industries will receive encouragement ; employment will increase ; the natural resources of the country tapped ; emigration stopped ; education put on a proper basis, and direct contact with the outside world established. Yet all this, resulting as it would in the country being richer and more prosperous, would not mean that the freedom of Ireland has been attained if the economic system remained unchanged. A political revolution in Ireland, without a co-incident economic revolution, simply means a change of masters - instead of British capitalists waxing rich on the political and economic enslavement of Ireland, as at present, we would have Irish capitalists waxing rich on the political freedom, but continued enslavement, of Ireland. We do not want a change of masters* : it would be foolish, surely, to free Ireland from foreign tyranny today, and less than twenty years hence to have to free it from domestic tyranny*. Therefore, the Irish Republic must have for its foundation the people. It is they who are freeing Ireland, and it is for the people - all the people - that it is being done, not for any section or group.
The Dail Éireann had this clearly in mind when, at its first session, in January 1919,it issued its 'Programme of Democratic Policy' that the soil of Ireland and all that grew upon it and lay under it, as well as all the wealth and wealth-producing processes in the country, should belong to the people. In the last analysis, the fight between the Irish people and the British government is not alone one between two nations : it is more than that - it is a struggle between two systems of civilisation, between the feudal system of England under its present guise of industrialism and the democratic system upon which the old civilisation of Ireland was built. A vestige of that civilisation remains in Ireland today - it is growing, expanding, and the end of foreign rule in Ireland will usher in not alone a new political era in Ireland, but a new economic one as well."
*Unfortunately, as Mellows opined, above, the citizens in this part of Ireland - the so-called 'Free State' - have had 'a change of masters/domestic tyranny' imposed on them, not only by an outside force (Westminster, which established the Leinster House 'parliament') but by a force that they themselves are responsible for - the ballot box. "The foundation, the people" , as referenced above by Liam Mellows, are for the most part made of clay and it is a relief that Mellows and his comrades did not live to witness the hypocritical shambles that the political institution on Kildare Street in Dublin, and those voters that time and again 'legitimise' that cess pit, converted his efforts into. Small mercy that the man went to his grave believing that his contribution to the struggle for freedom would help to achieve a proper Irish democracy rather than the 'whats-in-it-for-me' political culture that has hijacked his efforts.
UP THE REPUBLIC - OUR DAY WILL COME !
NOLLAIG SHONA DAR LEITHEOIRI ! Ar eagle an dearmaid.... Ba bhrea an rud e siocháin bhuan bunaithe ar an gceart a bheith againn in Éireann . Is i an bronntanas is fearr a d'fheadfaimis a thabhairt duinn fein agus dar gclann. Coinniodh an ceart agus an tsiocháin uainn le breis agus ocht gcead bliain , de bharr ionradh , forghabhail agus miriaradh na Sasanach. Socrú ar bith a dheantar in ainm mhuintir na hÉireann agus a ghlacann le riail Shasana agus a dhaingnionn an chriochdheighilt , ni thig leis an ceart na an tsiocháin bhuann a bhunu.
Ni dheanfaidh se ach la na siochána buaine a chur ar an mhear fhada agus an bhunfhadb a thabhairt do ghluin eile . Tharla se seo cheana nuair a siniodh Conradh 1921 agus cuireadh siar ar mhuintir na hÉireann e in ainm na siochána . Is mór ag Sinn Féin Poblachtach Éire a bheith saor agus daonlathach , an cuspoir ceanna a bhi i gceist ag Wolfe Tone agus ag na Poblachtaigh uile anuas go dti 1916 agus an la ata inniu ann.
Rinne a lan fear agus ban croga iobairti mora , thug a mbeatha fiu, ar son na cuise uaisle seo. CEART. SAOIRSE. DAONLATHAS.
A PEACEFUL CHRISTMAS TO OUR READERS ! Least we forget .... A just and permanent peace in Ireland is most desirable. It is the greatest gift we could give to ourselves and our children. We have been denied justice and peace for more than eight centuries, because of English invasion, occupation and misrule of our country. Any arrangement which, in the name of the Irish people or otherwise, accepts English rule and copperfastens the border, will not bring justice and lasting peace. It will only postpone the day of permanent peace, handing over the basic problem to another generation.
This happened before when the Treaty of 1921 was signed and was forced on the Irish people in the name of peace. Republican Sinn Féin cherishes the objective of a free, democratic Ireland, as envisaged by Wolfe Tone and all Republicans down to 1916 and our own day. Many brave men and women sacrificed a lot, even their lives, for this noble objective. JUSTICE. FREEDOM. DEMOCRACY.
(From the '1169...' Crew , December 2015. PLEASE NOTE : we are now on a short break from normal posting, although we will post details of how the CABHAIR swim went and possibly a few other posts. We will return to 'normal' early in the New Year. Go raibh maith agat, and thanks for reading! Sharon.)
It began - properly structured and organised - in 1976, as a 'fundraiser with a difference', combined with the need to gain extra publicity for a situation which was then - as now - making world headlines. Those that sat down together in early September 1976 to tighten-up the then 'hit-and-miss' affair were a dedicated team who fully understood that to fail in their business would not only bring derision on them and the issue they sought to highlight, but would give their enemy a publicity coup which they would exploit to the fullest extent. With that in mind, the team persevered - favours were called-in, guarantees were secured, provisions obtained and word dispatched to like-minded individuals in the area. At the appointed time on the agreed day - 12 Noon, Christmas Day 1976 - a soon-to-be 39-years-young event was 'born'. The CABHAIR Christmas Day Swim is, thankfully, still going strong and will be, as mentioned, 39-years-young on December 25th next!
Sponsored Swim * Christmas Day * 12 Noon * Grand Canal * 3rd Lock* Inchicore* Dublin*
ALL WELCOME!
PROSE AND CONS.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS :
Grateful thanks to the following for their help, support, assistance and encouragement, and all those who helped with the typing and word processing over the past few months. Many thanks to Cian Sharkhin, the editor of the book, Mr Bill Donoghue, Governor, Portlaoise, Mr Seán Wynne, supervising teacher, the education unit in Portlaoise Prison and the education staff, especially Zack, Helena and Jane. Education officers Bill Carroll and Dave McDonald, Rita Kelly, writer, print unit, Arbour Hill.
First Print : November 1999, reprinted March 2000, illustrations by D O'Hare, Zack and Natasha. Photograph selection : Eamonn Kelly and Harry Melia.
WEE KITTEN.
Two young girls played
in the back garden
they heard the faint cries of a kitten
they jumped up on the three foot brick wall
and they scanned the garden
The wee kitten cried out again
the grass was wet and two foot high
Sinéad crawled on her hands and knees
and called out 'here kitty kitty kitty'
as mother cat nursed her three other kittens.
The wee neglected kitten tried to burrow
into the warm litter
but mother cat lashed out with her paw
Sinéad saw what was going on
she felt sorry for the abandoned pet
and cried out 'I found the cat'
Amy ran excitedly,
'Where, where, show me where'
Tenderly they carried the kitten
into the kitchen and gave him milk on the white saucer
Too weak to drink
he shook like a leaf
as they lifted him back beside the mother
hoping she would care
Next morning the kitten lay dead in the grass.
The girls cried.
John Doran.
(Next : 'Suicide'. )
IS PEACE SAFE WITH ANDREWS....?
Republicans in and close to leadership insist that their cease-fire is not about to end in the near future. "We're in this for the long haul, said a republican official on the night after the heads of agreement emerged. "Negotiations are the only game in town, we're not walking away from it, whatever worries we may have." But then the same person continued - "We have no difficulty reading it as a basis for negotiation. It doesn't preclude us from bringing our own issues." The IRA response, eight days later, was a good deal harsher.
Whatever the true level of republican unease about Dublin's dealings with London and their joint management of negotiations, the pace of loyalist violence gives republicans immediate problems : there is a growing, primitive* call for the IRA to strike back, even though 30 years of death tolls show that retaliation is no more deterrent than it is moral**. In much the same way as unionists believe the INLA to be a proxy for the IRA, 'licensed' by it in David Trimble's phrase and essentially part of a pan-nationalist front to break the union, many nationalists, not just republicans, suspect that the LVF is a catch-all title used when it suits the larger groups - and secretly admired by unionists who think the IRA's cease-fire is just the most recent nationalist trick, dreamed up by an alliance of the catholic church, Gerry Adams and, wiliest of all, John Hume.
The strongest republican argument against the IRA ending their cease-fire in the face of the recent string of killings is that this would give loyalists and unionists what they want, by preventing negotiations. Some of those who support the argument are themselves unsure about the outcome, as they are about the shape of any likely settlement.
('1169' comment : *It would obviously be republicans who would call for the IRA to strike back - "primitive" republicans, in the opinion of the author of that article who, to the best of my knowledge, has never referenced British imperialism [and the damage it is responsible for here in Ireland and elsewhere] as "primitive" - it seems that only those under attack, rather than the instigator of the attack, can be considered "primitive" // ** likewise with the claim that, apparently,it is only those who retaliate that should be judged as 'immoral', not those who initiated the conflict.) (MORE LATER.)
1916 - WHAT DID IT MEAN FOR IRISH WOMEN....?
. What is there for women in Ireland to commemorate in 1916? Did the 1916 Proclamation and the subsequent 'Democratic Programme of the First Dáil' contain radical or revolutionary statements on the position of women in Irish society that were later betrayed or sold out in the process of establishing the Free State?
From 'Iris' magazine, Easter 1991.
Within 20 years of the establishment of the Free State a legislative framework had been put in place reflecting conservative and reactionary thinking with particularly serious implications for women. Women who had played a key role in both republican and workers' organisations as well as asserting their own demands for the vote were systematically excluded from public life and constrained to the private domestic sphere in both the Free State and the North.
But more than that : social life was viciously suppressed in the Free State, where literature, film, sexual expression and even dancing were the target of repressive laws. The 1920's saw the denial of the right to civil divorce, the virtual exclusion of women from jury service and the savage censorship of films and other publications.
During the 1930's the focus shifted inevitably towards sex as contraceptives were outlawed, in a piece of legislation that simultaneously penalised brothel-keepers, and the 'Public Dance Halls Act' of 1935 gave district justices the power to regulate and control public dances, a move directly in line with a Catholic Church pastoral on 'the evils of modern dancing' a few years earlier and in that same year the 'Conditions of Employment Bill 1935' imposed a maximum proportion of women workers in industry and gave the State minister for labour the right to prohibit women completely. So much for equal opportunities! (MORE LATER.)
HO! HO! HO! POWER TO THE TAXPAYING PRINTER. AGAIN!
And, talking of 2016 calendars -
ON THIS DATE (23RD DECEMBER) 31 YEARS AGO : RUC DISRUPT REPUBLICAN FUNERAL.
Ciarán Fleming '...drowned in Bannagh River, near Kesh, County Fermanagh (while) escaping from a gun battle between undercover British Army (BA) unit and Irish Republican Army (IRA) unit. His body (was) found in the river on 21st December 1984..' (from here) Ciarán was buried on the 23rd December 1984 - 31 years ago on this date - and his funeral was at the time described as '...the most gratuitously violent RUC attack of the year on any funeral. Many of the RUC had come in full riot gear of helmet, shield and body armour, to show that they were intent on violent disruption. Several times during a tense and exhausting funeral which lasted three full hours, the RUC baton-charged the mourners, which encouraged near-by children, standing on a wall, to throw stones at them in reprisal : the RUC then fired at least four plastic bullets into the funeral cortege, seriously injuring two people. During the afternoon, numerous mourners suffered bloody head wounds and one man was knocked unconscious by the RUC. Stewards were often forced to halt the proceedings because of this harassment but, despite the RUC's terror, the people stood firm and, in a twilight Bogside, three uniformed IRA Volunteers stepped out of the crowd and paid the IRA's traditional salute to their fallen comrade, as a forest of arms were raised in clenched-fist salute. Finally , thanks to the courage of thousands of nationalists, Volunteer Ciaran Fleming was laid to rest..' (from 'IRIS' magazine, October 1987.)
IRA sources that were contacted at the time by journalist Ed Moloney stated that Ciarán Fleming '...was noted for his hard line militarist republicanism. He is reputed to have backed a plan to form full-time guerrilla units or 'flying columns' based in the Republic, which would carry out four or five large scale attacks in the north a year. This approach was espoused by the militant Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade led by Padraig McKearney and Jim Lynagh, who wanted an escalation of the conflict to what they termed "total war". They were opposed by Kevin McKenna, the IRA Chief of Staff and by the republican leadership headed by Gerry Adams, on the grounds that actions on that scale were too big a risk and unsustainable. The IRA leadership wanted a smaller scale campaign of attrition, supplemented by political campaigning by (Provisional) Sinn Féin....' (from here.)
That "political campaigning by Provisional Sinn Féin" has seen that grouping morph into a slightly more-nationalist political party than either of the latter-day Fianna Fáil or SDLP organisations but, true to form, like Fianna Fáil and the SDLP, the Provisional Sinn Féin party has distanced itself (except verbally) from Irish republicanism. It's an easier life, with a salary and a pension, neither of which were available when Adams and company professed to be advocates of change rather than that which they are now (and have been for almost 30 years) ie advocates of British accommodation in Ireland.
ON THIS DATE (23RD DECEMBER) 44 YEARS AGO : TED HEATH, BRITISH PM, VISITS IRELAND, CALLS FOR PEACE. BUT IGNORES BRITISH VIOLENCE.
On the 23rd December 1971 - 44 years ago on this date - British PM Edward Heath paid a visit to the Occupied Six Counties of north-east Ireland and declared his 'determination to end the violence', making it clear in the process that he was referring to the then IRA campaign to remove the British military and political presence. Five weeks after that visit, his troops let loose with live rounds in the Bogside area of Derry, killing fourteen Irish people and, as a PR exercise, Heath (and his sidekick, Reginald Maudling) set up the 'Widgery Inquiry' into the massacre.
'Lord' Widgery proceeded to exclude the political background to the shootings, a politically motivated decision, as was suggested by the minutes of an extraordinary discussion between Widgery, Edward Heath and the British 'Lord Chancellor', 'Lord' Hailsham, at Downing Street, two days after the massacre, on the evening before the British 'Commons' announcement of Widgery's appointment to conduct the 'inquiry'. Among "..a number of points which I [Edward Heath] thought it right to draw to the Lord Chief Justice's [Widgery] attention (was that) it had to be remembered that we were in Northern Ireland (sic) fighting not just a military war but a propaganda war..." and, indeed, Heath is on record as saying that the Derry Guildhall building would be unsuitable as a venue for tribunal hearings as it "...was on the wrong side of the River Foyle.." (ie - the 'Catholic/Nationalist' side) !
It should be noted that the day before the Bogside massacre (ie on Saturday 29th January 1972) , the RUC and the British Army issued the following joint statement : "Experience this year has already shown that attempted marches often end in violence and (this) must have been foreseen by the organisers. Clearly, the responsibility for this violence and the consequences of it must rest fairly and squarely on the shoulders of those who encourage people to break the law. The (British) security forces have a duty to take action against those who set out to break the law..."
Mutinous talk there, from that joint statement because, if they were to do their 'duty', then they would have had to "take action" against themselves and their own political leaders, including Edward Heath. But considering that Heath and his political establishment were pals with the Jimmy Savile's of their world, then it should have been obvious to all that they would have no 'duty' of care or responsibility to 14 dead Irish people.
ON THIS DATE (23RD DECEMBER) 76 YEARS AGO : IRA REMOVE GUNS AND AMMUNITION FROM A FREE STATE FORT.
Here Irish wit is seen
When nothing's left that's worth defence,
We build a Magazine."(Jonathan Swift)
The Magazine Fort, Phoenix Park, Dublin (pictured, left) - built in 1735, raided by republicans twice ; in 1916, when thirty members of the Irish Volunteers and Na Fianna Éireann captured the building and took guns and withdrew from the area and again in 1939 - on the 23rd December, 76 years ago on this date - when, at about ten pm on that Saturday night, an IRA man walked up to the Free State sentry who was guarding the locked gate and told him that he had a parcel for his commanding officer. The sentry unlocked the gate only to be faced with a revolver pointed at his head : he was held there as other IRA men entered the Fort and then the hapless State soldier was forced to lead the IRA men to the guardroom where they ordered the Free Staters to surrender, which they promptly did.
13 lorries were then driven into the complex and crates containing Thompson machine guns and ammunition (estimated at 1,084,000 rounds!) were removed from the premises and neither side suffered any casualties. However, State soldiers who were based in the nearby Islandbridge Barracks were perplexed as to the reason why such a heavy volume of truck traffic was entering and leaving the Phoenix Park and they went to investigate : two of the IRA raiders were captured but their comrades made good their escape, complete with that which they came for. However, within a week most of the liberated munitions (including about 850,000 bullets) had been recovered by the Staters : two-and-a-half-tons were seized in Dundalk, County Louth, eight tons recovered in Swords, County Dublin, sixty-six cases of Thompson machine guns and ammunition were seized from an arms dump in South Armagh and 100 crates containing 120,000 bullets recovered in Straffan, County Kildare.
Also, on March 1st, 1940, Jack McNeela and Jack Plunkett - two of the many republicans who were 'lifted' by the Staters following the 'Fort Raid'- were sentenced to two years and eighteen months respectively on a charge of "conspiring to usurp the function of government" by, of all things, operating a 'pirate' radio transmitter. On March 5th, 1940, Tony D'Arcy and Michael Traynor, both arrested during a raid on the Meath Hotel, Parnell Square, Dublin, the previous month, where an IRA meeting was being held to plan an attack in the Six Counties, were sentenced to three months imprisonment for refusing to answer questions. After being sentenced, the four prisoners were transferred to Arbour Hill Prison, Dublin and, on March 27th 1940, they were moved to St Brican's Military Hospital next to the prison. On April 1st that year they were joined there by Tomas MacCurtain and Thomas Grogan, both of whom were still awaiting trial. MacCurtain was charged with shooting dead a Special Branch detective in Cork and Thomas Grogan with taking part in the Magazine Fort raid.
On April 16th, 1940, Tony D'Arcy, a native of Headford, County Galway, died after 52 days on hunger strike ; Jack McNeela, a native of Ballycroy, Westport, County Mayo, died three days later, after 55 days on hunger strike. The fast ended that night when the prisoners were informed that their demands had been met. The hunger strike began on February 25th, 1940, in Mountjoy Jail, Dublin, and resulted in the deaths of two IRA Volunteers.
ON THIS DATE (23RD DECEMBER) 93 YEARS AGO : 'VOICE OF LABOUR' ROARS!
Fifteen days after his execution (ie on the 23rd December 1922 - 93 years ago on this date) an article he had written, entitled 'Labour and the Irish Republic' was published in the trade union 'Voice of Labour' newspaper : "Industries will receive encouragement ; employment will increase ; the natural resources of the country tapped ; emigration stopped ; education put on a proper basis, and direct contact with the outside world established. Yet all this, resulting as it would in the country being richer and more prosperous, would not mean that the freedom of Ireland has been attained if the economic system remained unchanged. A political revolution in Ireland, without a co-incident economic revolution, simply means a change of masters - instead of British capitalists waxing rich on the political and economic enslavement of Ireland, as at present, we would have Irish capitalists waxing rich on the political freedom, but continued enslavement, of Ireland. We do not want a change of masters* : it would be foolish, surely, to free Ireland from foreign tyranny today, and less than twenty years hence to have to free it from domestic tyranny*. Therefore, the Irish Republic must have for its foundation the people. It is they who are freeing Ireland, and it is for the people - all the people - that it is being done, not for any section or group.
The Dail Éireann had this clearly in mind when, at its first session, in January 1919,it issued its 'Programme of Democratic Policy' that the soil of Ireland and all that grew upon it and lay under it, as well as all the wealth and wealth-producing processes in the country, should belong to the people. In the last analysis, the fight between the Irish people and the British government is not alone one between two nations : it is more than that - it is a struggle between two systems of civilisation, between the feudal system of England under its present guise of industrialism and the democratic system upon which the old civilisation of Ireland was built. A vestige of that civilisation remains in Ireland today - it is growing, expanding, and the end of foreign rule in Ireland will usher in not alone a new political era in Ireland, but a new economic one as well."
*Unfortunately, as Mellows opined, above, the citizens in this part of Ireland - the so-called 'Free State' - have had 'a change of masters/domestic tyranny' imposed on them, not only by an outside force (Westminster, which established the Leinster House 'parliament') but by a force that they themselves are responsible for - the ballot box. "The foundation, the people" , as referenced above by Liam Mellows, are for the most part made of clay and it is a relief that Mellows and his comrades did not live to witness the hypocritical shambles that the political institution on Kildare Street in Dublin, and those voters that time and again 'legitimise' that cess pit, converted his efforts into. Small mercy that the man went to his grave believing that his contribution to the struggle for freedom would help to achieve a proper Irish democracy rather than the 'whats-in-it-for-me' political culture that has hijacked his efforts.
UP THE REPUBLIC - OUR DAY WILL COME !NOLLAIG SHONA DAR LEITHEOIRI ! Ar eagle an dearmaid.... Ba bhrea an rud e siocháin bhuan bunaithe ar an gceart a bheith againn in Éireann . Is i an bronntanas is fearr a d'fheadfaimis a thabhairt duinn fein agus dar gclann. Coinniodh an ceart agus an tsiocháin uainn le breis agus ocht gcead bliain , de bharr ionradh , forghabhail agus miriaradh na Sasanach. Socrú ar bith a dheantar in ainm mhuintir na hÉireann agus a ghlacann le riail Shasana agus a dhaingnionn an chriochdheighilt , ni thig leis an ceart na an tsiocháin bhuann a bhunu.
Ni dheanfaidh se ach la na siochána buaine a chur ar an mhear fhada agus an bhunfhadb a thabhairt do ghluin eile . Tharla se seo cheana nuair a siniodh Conradh 1921 agus cuireadh siar ar mhuintir na hÉireann e in ainm na siochána . Is mór ag Sinn Féin Poblachtach Éire a bheith saor agus daonlathach , an cuspoir ceanna a bhi i gceist ag Wolfe Tone agus ag na Poblachtaigh uile anuas go dti 1916 agus an la ata inniu ann.
Rinne a lan fear agus ban croga iobairti mora , thug a mbeatha fiu, ar son na cuise uaisle seo. CEART. SAOIRSE. DAONLATHAS.
A PEACEFUL CHRISTMAS TO OUR READERS ! Least we forget .... A just and permanent peace in Ireland is most desirable. It is the greatest gift we could give to ourselves and our children. We have been denied justice and peace for more than eight centuries, because of English invasion, occupation and misrule of our country. Any arrangement which, in the name of the Irish people or otherwise, accepts English rule and copperfastens the border, will not bring justice and lasting peace. It will only postpone the day of permanent peace, handing over the basic problem to another generation.
This happened before when the Treaty of 1921 was signed and was forced on the Irish people in the name of peace. Republican Sinn Féin cherishes the objective of a free, democratic Ireland, as envisaged by Wolfe Tone and all Republicans down to 1916 and our own day. Many brave men and women sacrificed a lot, even their lives, for this noble objective. JUSTICE. FREEDOM. DEMOCRACY.
(From the '1169...' Crew , December 2015. PLEASE NOTE : we are now on a short break from normal posting, although we will post details of how the CABHAIR swim went and possibly a few other posts. We will return to 'normal' early in the New Year. Go raibh maith agat, and thanks for reading! Sharon.)
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
39TH ON THE 25TH FOR THE 32 AT THE 3RD....
FORT RAIDERS IN IRELAND IN 1916 AND 1939...
39th on the 25th for the 32 at the 3rd - this event has been held since 1976 and will celebrate its 40th 'birthday' next year....death of a wee kitten - from Portlaoise, 1999....INLA a proxy, 'licensed' by the IRA?....social life was viciously suppressed in the Free State, where literature, film, sexual expression and even dancing were the target of repressive laws....a gratuitously violent attack on a funeral by the RUC...British PM calls for peace in Ireland but ignores his country's 'contribution' to political violence here...British/Free State Fort raided for arms twice by republicans...Liam Mellows on a change of masters and domestic tyranny...this blog, this Wednesday (23rd December 2015)...
Sharon.
Sharon.
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