BRITISH OCCUPATION AND THE LONDON 'TIMES' .......From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, January 1958 .
The 'London Times' newspaper has learned little Irish history since the Pigott Forgeries, but that little doesn't stop it pontificating on our problems . What it doesn't know it invents . Here is the imperial line on the Irish Question , and Messers. de Valera and Costello might take note : the border is not a creation of the British Government , according to the 'Special Correspondent' who wrote the article 'Thirty Years After Partition' for the special supplement . That 'Correspondent' exlains -
" Charges and counter-charges have been launched . But the basic position is perfectly clear . A division was reached - and accepted in Dublin , in Belfast and in London - to meet so far as was practical the realities of a difficult situation . This situation , as has been shown , was not of Northern nor of British making . "
The basic position may be 'perfectly clear' to The Times and its readers ('the best quality people in England' , according to its own advertisements...) but it is also , amazingly enough , perfectly clear to the Irish people . Our conclusions in regard to this "basic position" differ more than somewhat.......
(MORE LATER).
A PORTRAIT OF IRELAND , by Saoránach.First published in the Republican Bulletin - Iris Na Poblachta , November 1986.
The Ireland of 1986 is beset by many social problems . Most of us are aware of this . We know there is material and cultural deprivation and that unemployment is at record levels , both North and South .
Our society seems to drift along , leaderless . The problems are now so great that only radical change will solve them . Those who look to the British , Loyalist and 26-County establishments in Ireland for positive and honest national leadership will look in vain . To take one example - it is sad indeed to see sincere Gaeilgeoirí (ie 'Irish speakers') going to the 26-County Minister for Education , Mr Patrick Cooney, to ask him to take action to halt the alarming decline in the Irish language in our schools . Ná bí ag caint !
Those who would wish to change a lot of things in Irish society cannot plan a way ahead without first taking a hard look and making a realistic assessment of how and where we are now and how we got here . Never was the need for a radical alternative more necessary than today.......
(MORE LATER).
ROBERT EMMET - THE DARLING OF ERIN.......Margaret McKearney looks at the life and death of one of Ireland's most enduring heroes.
From 'Fourthwrite' magazine, Autumn 2003.
There were four branches of the United Irishmen in TCD and Robert Emmet was secretary of one of them . However , after an inquisition , presided over by Lord Chancellor Fitzgibbon, Emmet became one of nineteen students who were expelled for United Irishmen activity .
Although not active in the 1798 Rising, Robert Emmet was well known to the authorities and by April 1799 , when Habeas Corpus had been suspended , there was a warrant issued for his arrest , which he managed to evade and , early in 1801 , accompanied by a Mr Malachy Delany of Cork , he travelled throughout Europe , and made Paris his headquarters - it was there that he replaced Edward Lewis as the liaison officer between Irish and French Republicans .
While in Paris , Emmet learned about rockets and weapons , and studied a two-volume treatise by a Colonel Tempelhoff which can be examined in the Royal Irish Academy, with the marginal notes given the reader some insight into Emmet's thinking.......
(MORE LATER).
