Hunger Strike Rally , GPO , Dublin , Saturday May 6th 2006 .Remembering the Hunger-Strikers 25 years on.
A rally to commemorate the heroic struggle of the ten hunger-strikers : Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Ray McCreesh, Patsy O'Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Thomas McElwee, Michael Devine - who gave their lives in 1981- will be held in Dublin on Saturday May 6 2006 . Assemble at the Garden of Remembrance at 2pm for march to GPO on O'Connell Street.
"They will not criminalise us, rob us of our true identity, steal our individualism, depoliticise us, churn us out as systemised, institutionalised, decent law-abiding robots. Never will they label our liberation struggle as criminal."
- Bobby Sands.
Twenty-two Irish political prisoners died on hunger-strike between 1917 and 1981 . The Dublin Rally is being held to commemorate all those Irishmen .
MacGIOLLA's GUERRILLAS .......Fifteen years ago , the leadership of the 'Official Republican Movement' (now 'The Workers' Party') stated that their armed wing , the 'Official IRA' , went out of existence .
Today , the 'Official IRA' is alive and well and living mainly in Belfast and Newry . In the days when both organisations were operating in an overt way , the leadership of 'The Workers' Party' and the 'Official IRA' overlapped to a certain degree .
Tomas MacGiolla , the man who led the 'Official IRA' for the last twenty-five years has always maintained the position that the 'Official IRA' went out of existence in 1972 . But the 'Official IRA' still march on , not an army fighting the British , but as a fund-collecting agency .
DEREK DUNNE traces the roots of the 'Official IRA' and 'The Workers' Party' .
From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine , October 1987 .
Malachy McGurrin , Officer Commanding of the Official IRA in the North , was fully aware that British soldier Ranger Best had been 'arrested' by the OIRA : following the killing , he oversaw the press release which talked about the "...slobbering moderates.. " who condemned the action . It should be noted that Malachy McGurrin was one of the people that Tomas MacGiolla complimented on taking their organisation along a more peaceful line after 1962 .
Sean Garland ordered an inquiry into the shooting of Ranger Best and Dublin wished to take disciplinary action against those involved , including shooting the Derry Officer Commanding of the OIRA : the OIRA Army Executive discussed the matter , and the motion to shoot the OC was defeated by just one vote - that of Seamus Costello's , who stated that the day the Official IRA shot one of its own for killing a British soldier would be the day he would leave the organisation .
The Stalinist Dublin leadership of the OIRA used the Ranger Best killing to call a ceasefire , but allowed members to use weapons for defence and retaliation - this 'clause' was effectively a sop to the younger members in Belfast who would have joined the PIRA if there was no military activity within the Official IRA .......
(MORE LATER).
EOGHAN HARRIS : OUT OF THE SHADOWS . From 'MAGILL' magazine , November 1997 .
By Brenda Power .
They love : French films , John Waters , the 'Questions & Answers' RTE television programme audience , Gerry Adams on the 'Late Late Show'. Hanging around the IFC in black clothes . Nuala O Faolain , DCU journalism , Trotskyism , Feminism (" Scratch a Trot or a feminist and find a Provo... ") and RTE Radio One .
They hate : Zionism , Dana , The Daily Telegraph , Camille Paglia , Unionism , Conor Cruise O' Brien ("...a touchstone for bad politics.. ") , Rupert Murdoch , American cinematic classicism and Aristotle . 'They' are 'People With Bad Politics' , and Eoghan Harris can spot them at a glance - one small 'tic' , one gesture or smart quip and then Eoghan Harris knows , he reveals in 'Alien-script' uppercase , it's ONE OF THEM !
They are typically Dublin middle class professional types who have a series of kneejerk cliched positions on a tight core of political opinion . They are 'Sneaking Regarders' , Hush Puppy Radicals and if they join an organisation it will be a "...mosquito group.." like the International Marxist Group.......
(MORE LATER).
ORANGE JUDGE EXECUTED.......From 'IRIS' magazine , March 1983 .
No 'By-Line' .
Responding to Bishop Cathal Daly's criticism of Irish republicanism , the IRA said - " But we pose one of these questions again so that the nationalist people , who will find it outlandish that we are the gravest threat to them in 50 years , can see who is and who is not afraid of the truth .
We ask the bishop in plain and simple layperson's language to answer the question : is the British presence , generally speaking , morally good for the nationalist people in the North ? We will see if he is as quick to answer this as he is to condemn us . " The IRA , doubtlessly not to its surprise , is still waiting for Bishop Daly's reply .
Judge William Doyle , a conscious upholder of British law in the six counties , a Diplock judge who had played his full role in railroading republican and nationalists into jail on forced 'confessions' and perjured 'evidence' , died in a carefully planned and carried out attack in the middle-class Malone suburb of South Belfast on January 16th 1983 .......
(MORE LATER).
