Friday, October 24, 2008

Irish Hedge School : 'Back to the Future' for our children...?

"....."The Irish who could afford the Hedgemaster's fee sent their children to Hedge Schools where Gaelic brehons, storytellers and musicians secretly taught Irish history, tradition, and told tales of the Irish children's ancestry. Popular history places these schools under ruined walls or in dry ditches by the roadside. Some lessons, no doubt, were taught in the shadow of a hedge while others were taught in barns...."
(From here)

The 14th October 2008 State budget was not only an attempt by millionaire politicians to prematurely end the lives of the elderly people in this State (who fought back and intend to do so again in the coming weeks) but was also used as an opportunity by those moral renegades in Leinster House to 'have a go' at what they apparently view as 'another load of wasters' : those seeking an education .
Not only did the State increase the costs it charges for 'State Examinations' , it stated that there would be no increase in 2009 in Maintenance Grants that are sometimes available for students. The politicians increased registration fees for Colleges from €900 to €1,500 , reduced the already poor school building programme and , beginning in January 2009 , have decreed that the position of 'sub teacher' will no longer exist . The fund from which resource teachers applied to for money for equipment has been abolished - including the grants for 'Home Economics' classes - and funds previously allocated to 'Early Childcare Centres' are now not available at all , having been abolished by 'Government Decree' .
Altogether at least 30 major cutbacks to the manner in which our children are educated in this State will be enacted in the coming weeks and months ; but none of those cutbacks will be accepted without a fight!
Teachers , their representative organisations , parents and pupils themselves will be taking to the streets in a massive protest - the first of many , if necessary - which will be held on Wednesday 29th October 2008 at 6.30pm outside Leinster House : more details here.
The unproductive political wasters in Leinster House must be stood-up to on this issue : the alternative is to go back to
"...the hedge and the barns.." - WEDNESDAY , OCTOBER 29 , 2008 , LEINSTER HOUSE , 6.30PM . For the sake of your children....
Sharon.






Wednesday, October 22, 2008

"Shame on those in Leinster House....." : a 'retain-the-medical-card' protester outside 'anti-medical-card'-Leinster House today (Wednesday 22 October 2008) objecting to the attempted political State mugging of old age pensioners by Fianna Fail , the Green Party and the Progressive Democrats .

"It often happens that the real tragedies of life occur in such an inarticulate manner that they hurt us by their crude violence, their absolute incoherence, their absurd want of meaning, their entire lack of style."
(Oscar Wilde)
Inarticulate , crude , incoherent , absurd and styleless: all of those words , when combined , describe not only the manner in which the unprincipled Fat Cats in Leinster House attempted to condemn our elderly to an early grave by withdrawing their medical cards but also describe the 'qualities' required to 'progress' through the corrupt political system in this morally-twisted State . But ,in this instance - thankfully - the actions of those suited and pensioned political wasters was a bridge too far for respectable people to ignore :



: From the entry gates of Leinster House and to the very last few inches of the street facing those gates - Molesworth Street - and from the St Stephen's Green-top of Kildare Street to the Nassau Street junction at the bottom of Kildare Street stood at least 20,000 medical card holders - most of them between 50 and 70 years young - carrying placards and banners in protest against the on-going attempted removal of their medical cards by the State Administration . Republican Sinn Fein members and supporters arrived outside Leinster House at 11am to add their numbers to those objecting to this act of thievery and were almost immediately approached by uniformed Garda members and told that they would be removed from where they were at about 12 Noon and would be "placed" across the street in Molesworth Street . When this notification was challenged , the RSF people were told that all protesters were going to be moved across to Molesworth Street (a 'side-street' when compared with Kildare Street) in order that 'the main thoroughfare be kept open' . The RSF people replied that they would be staying where they were : in the event the cops backed-down , due no doubt to the fact that , by 12 Noon , there were between at least five and ten thousand protesters blocking the road itself and standing on the footpaths on both sides of the street!
The cops wisely decided to take themselves off-side and dispersed to the far-flung corners of the immediate area to concentrate on traffic management....


Getting ready to make our presence felt...

Medical card protesters blocking the entry/exit gates to Leinster House.

"No votes here for Harney or Lenihan! "

"PD's , FF and the Greens ? No thanks!"

Two of the RSF pro-medical card protesters in the crowd outside Leinster House.

Three of the armed Special Branch members on the rooftops of surrounding buildings : just making sure that those pesky 'Dissident Pensioners' don't offer too much of a 'threat' to the security of the State...

Finally : RSF maintained a presence today outside Leinster House from 11am to 2pm : on our way out of the area we 'bumped' into about 20,000 student protesters who were making their way to Leinster House to protest against the proposed manner which those fumbling political mongrels in Leinster House wish to financially and spiritually debase them . The 1169 Team sends its heartiest congratulations and best wishes to those young protesters and to those 'over 21's' who were just breaking-up as the young 'uns were arriving . We all of us - a combined total of between 30,000 and 40,000 people - can't be wrong . The millionaire inmates of Leinster House should save us the bother of having to protest against them again and simply abolish themselves . They all have fat pensions they can live quite comfortably on...
Sharon.








THE IRA : the new IRA is younger , more radical and has seen little of life other than violence.......
By Ed Moloney.
From 'Magill' magazine, September 1980.

In late 1978 however the IRA devised a new method of producing home made explosives : their engineers discovered that if ordinary fertiliser was 'cooked' in water , the resulting crystals produced after the 'dirty' water had been skimmed off made high quality explosive when mixed with metal fillings , usually aluminium , and diesel or carbon .

The explosive produced is detonated by a pound or two of commercial explosives and can , as the radio bombs have proved , be enormously effective . Its drawback is that it stinks to high heaven and is very unstable and , as a result , it is usually only 'made to order' in two stills which the British Army thinks the IRA has stashed in deep woodland across the Border . While the IRA has , thanks to that sort of ingenuity and the re-organisation of its structures , made a considerable comeback since 1977 , the organisation and its campaign of military opposition has at the same time been limited effectively to three of its eight operational areas .

Those three areas are Belfast , South Armagh and East Tyrone . Even so , the level of activity in those areas has declined - in Belfast , for instance , there were 109 bombing attacks and 51 ambushes and gun attacks on the RUC , British Army or other so-called 'security force' personnel during 1977 , whereas in 1978 that had declined to 101 bombings and 29 shootings and in 1979 to only 39 bombing attacks and 20 gun attacks . This year (1980) seems to be keeping in line with that , at 13 bombings and 11 gun attacks so far . In East Tyrone and South Armagh the IRA has had mixed results in its military campaign against the forces of Westminster.......
(MORE LATER).



RESISTANCE ON ALL FRONTS.......
IRIS talks to a spokesperson authorised to speak on behalf of the Irish Republican Army.
From 'IRIS' magazine , July/August 1982.

IRIS: "In the wake of the hunger-strike , and faced with the electoral and general political challenge for the Republican Movement , how do you view the future for the SDLP ? "

IRA: "The SDLP is a middle-class 'Castle Catholic' establishment party . In the absence of any electoral involvement by republicans it was able to masquerade as the political voice of the nationalist people , clouding the class divisions which exist within the nationalist camp . Electoral involvement by republicans has shattered that myth and , although the task will be a necessarily hard one , continued involvement in that process by republicans will place the SDLP in their true light , and they will be seen increasingly as being supportive of the British presence in Ireland. "
(MORE LATER).



THE UNDAUNTED WOMEN IN ARMAGH.......

The full story of the republican prisoners in Armagh Jail has yet to be told. It has yet to be sung , and properly described , other than as an after-thought in public speeches - "...and of course the women in Armagh.." Republicans have a right to be proud of those women who, from the Divis Flats grandmother doing six months for what an Orange judge called "riotous behaviour" to the young IRA Volunteer inside for the second time and not yet 25-years-old , have managed, whether they numbered 12 or 120 , to maintain their resistance to the most vicious prison system in Europe. The words that follow , says writer Patricia Collins , were written to encourage more of those women to come forward and tell their story , and are based on conversations with several
ex-prisoners , and on visits and letters from those women presently imprisoned. They were written in the hope of jogging the memory of all those women who wrongly think their contribution to Ireland's future peace is not worth mentioning.

From 'IRIS' magazine , August 1984.

The women POW's decided to barricade themselves in the 'B3' wing of Armagh Prison , using dismantled cell doors . By some fluke , while all this was going on , the Prison Governor , Cunningham , his deputy , Simpson , and two Screws happened to come up to the Wing and the women bundled them up , threw them into an empty cell and locked them in with their own keys . The loyalist prisoners came along , thinking at first that the loyalist compounds had been burnt too . Having later been told otherwise , they nevertheless sat the protest out with the republicans .

The women prisoners had drawn big slogans on bedsheets , reading - 'The Armagh women support the men in Long Kesh - give them their demands' , and hung their 'banners' from the cell windows where they could be seen from the surrounding streets . By the evening , the 'kidnapping' of the Armagh Prison governor by the women POW's was big news : journalists congregated outside the jail and shouted questions across to the barricaded women , who replied by shouting back to them . The Screws turned off the water and the electricity , and armed British soldiers in riot gear started to move into position arond the complex .

The stalemate lasted until the early hours of Thursday 17th October 1974 , when the prison chaplain , Fr Raymond Murray, brought the women an assurance from British 'Direct-Ruler' Merlyn Rees that the men in Long Kesh were safe and that no action would be taken against the women involved in the protest. The women prisoners had by then achieved their objective which was to highlight the plight of the men . The media presence had ensured huge coverage of the issue and the women ended their protest .
(MORE LATER).







Monday, October 20, 2008

On the right of our pic is the State Minister responsible for the 14th October 2008 Budget , Brian Lenihan . On the left of the pic is a high-ranking cop , helping Brian to use Google to find the meaning of the word 'Patriotism'.....

So : you want to punish old people for being old ? For being 'a burden on the State' ? For no longer earning a wage that you can stop tax on ?
And you think that ordinary taxpayers
(and those old people that no longer earn a wage that you can tax) were getting too much of a 'bargain' by only paying €66 whenever they had to avail of the 'services' offered at their local A+E so you increase that amount to €100 a visit? Guess what - you're a "patriot" !!
Yes , indeed : in the moral vacuum that the likes of Brian Lenihan exists in - at someone else's expense , naturally - to 'aspire' to and actually introduce the above as 'law' is answering , in his own words - "...no less than a call to patriotic action."
Seriously! That is precisely what that piece of pond scum garbage stated in his 'Budget 2008 Introduction Speech' in Leinster House on Tuesday 14th October 2008- see here for the actual transcript : his "patriotic" comment is on the second-last line : read it all , if you have a strong stomach , or just skip to the 'its-your-patriotic-duty-to-kill-the-old'-part of this morons speech down at the end of his comments. And to think that representatives from Fianna Fail , The Greens and the Progressive Democrats gave him a five-minute standing ovation for his Declaration Of War on pensioners . Sick or what ?
Please help us in the fight to retain some dignity for our aged relatives . Take to the streets with us on Wednesday 22nd October 2008.
Sharon.