The Catholic Church has , deservedly, had bad press for deeds carried out by it's ' operatives' ; however , not all its members were without conscience -
A child born in Ballyfallon , County Meath , in August 1863 , grew up to be ordained to the priesthood in 1889 , at twenty-six years of age . The child , Eoghan O ' Growney , became a Gaelic scholar and was a founder member of the Gaelic League at thirty years young . Educated at the local national school , St Finians diocesan seminary in Navan , and at Maynooth College , the young O'Growney's interest in Irish was further sparked by the reading of lessons in Irish in ' Young Ireland' , a weekly paper published from ' The Nation' office . He was also encouraged in his love of the language and history by his mother .
With other local Gaelic speakers , he spent holidays in the Gaeltacht to perfect his knowledge of the Irish language , and was a regular visitor to Cork, Kerry , Donegal and Waterford , but spent much of his time on the Aran Islands , on Inis Mean .
He became a curate at Ballynacargy , County Westmeath , and contributed articles in Irish to the 'Gaelic Journal' and was elected Editor of same in September 1891 . That same year, he was appointed a professor of Irish at Maynooth College but managed to continue his association with the 'Journal' - his articles for that newspaper played a large part in the preservation of the language and were of great importance to the 'Irish Revival Movement' . (MORE LATER)>>>

..... the nuclear material in the weapon failed to attain critical mass " .
The U S government deliberately covered up this near-disaster until 1981 when it announced that a nuclear bomb had "temporarily been lost in the '50's near Kirtland air force base" : the USAF refused to comment on what it described as "this event" . It was not until late 1986 that a statement was issued to the Associated Press news agency , confirming that New Mexico and its surrounding stated were nearly obliterated in 1957 . Another USAF disaster that caused concern was that of a B-52 nuclear-armed bomber , which crashed in Greenland on January 1st , 1968 - over 500 workers became sick , with 98 of them suffering from cancer as a result of exposure to plutonium released in the accident ....(MORE LATER)>>>.

.... O'Sullivan placed a barrel of explosives on a cart against the outer wall of the prison : the wall crumbled and the rescuers scrambled in to the prison yard only to discover that Burke was not among the prisoners in the yard ~ however , O'Sullivan and his men were able to make good their own exit in the ensuing confusion and panic . Because the British knew of the rescue attempt , they were now looking for O'Sullivan , who was in hiding in various safe-houses . He eventually made his way to America and settled in New York , where he joined Clan na Gael and remained active in that organisation and in the IRB for the rest of his life .
He played a vigorous part in the Land League during the 1870's and supported the 'New Departure' between the Fenians , Michael Davitt and Charles Stewart Parnell until Parnell's death in 1891 when , like most of the old Fenians, he dropped out of politics and confined his activities to the Clan until the 'Friends of Irish Freedom' was founded in March 1916 .
Jeremiah O'Sullivan died on November 6th , 1922 , at 77 years of age : a Fenian to the very end .....

In 1981 , it was revealed that in 1957 ,the United States Air Force(USAF) almost ' took out' the state of New Mexico ....
On May 22nd , 1957 , a B-36 bomber 'accidentally' dropped an H-Bomb on land belonging to the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque ; the bomb was a 'Mark 7' , weighing 42,000 pounds . It was described by the Pentagon as the "first droppable thermonuclear bomb to be tested" , and had a pay-load of ten thousand kilotons - a massive 625 times more powerful that that which reduced Hiroshima to ashes ! When questioned , a Pentagon spokesperson stated - " The safety mechanism was apparently moved to the wrong position , causing the weapon to fall out, taking the bomb-bay doors with it "(!) . This master of understatement then declared that the non-nuclear explosives in the bomb " detonated when it hit the ground , but the nuclear material in the weapon failed to attain critical mass " ..... (MORE LATER if we're still here ....)>>>

Jeremiah O'Sullivan , a life-long member of the Fenian movement , was born in Cahirdaniel , County Kerry , in 1845 . At 22 years young , O'Sullivan took part in the Fenian Rising in Kerry in February 1867 and , following the collapse of same, went to London and continued his Fenian activities with the Irish Republican Brotherhood . The head of the Fenians in England , Colonel Ricard O'Sullivan Burke , was captured and imprisoned in the Clerkenwell House of Detention in London , in response to the successful rescue of two Fenians - Colonel Thomas J.Kelly and Captain Timothy Deasy , who were both rescued from a prison van in Manchester in September 1867 .
Jeremiah O'Sullivan and another Fenian ,Captain James Murphy , devised a plan to rescue Burke by blowing a hole in the prison wall while he was at exercise and , after careful planning , arrangements were made to carry out the rescue attempt on December 13th . However , an informer betrayed their plans to the British and Burke was put in a cell during the exercise period ; outside the prison walls , however , the plan went ahead , and O'Sullivan placed a barrel of explosives on a cart against the outer wall of the prison .....(MORE LATER)>>

.......the KHIAN SEA left in the middle of the night , but left three-thousand tonnes of the toxic ash on a remote peninsula outside the capital city ! The ship went to a range of other states , renaming itself the 'FELICIA' and was spotted in 1991 with empty holds having probably dumped the toxic ash in the Bay of Bengal , where the Bangladeshi government have no pollution monitoring units .
A five-year sea trip , sleeping each night with toxic ash ~ they should have followed the example of the Brits , and just dump their rubbish in the Irish Sea .....

....the IRA Volunteers made their escape despite intense searches on both sides of the border .
Following approaches by the British , the Free State administration (Fianna Fail) re-introduced the 'Special Criminal(sic) Court' in November 1961 (on the 22nd of same) , in an attempt to crush the IRA campaign once and for all . The then Justice Minister , Charles Haughey (who was later to give his shirt for Ireland) stated ~ " The government will use every means in its power, including the(Free State) Army ,if necessary , to bring this futile, evil campaign of violence to an end " .
The Special Court sat for the first time that year on November 27th and , by the end of the year, 25 men had been sentenced to various terms of imprisonment : it remained in existence until October 1962 , eight months after the formal ending of the IRA's border campaign . That was by no means the first or last time that a Free State administration turned on its own people at the request of a foreign government .

My previous posts on sea-dumping remind me of the story behind a five-year sea trip by one ship , in order to dump tonnes of toxic ash ~
The Liberian -registered KHIAN SEA left Philadelphia in August 1986 with 13,476 tonnes of toxic ash from the city's municipal incinerators . The ship was destined for the Bahamas , but they turned it away : it was also rejected by Bermuda , Honduras , Guinea-Bissau and the Dominican Republic. In October 1987 , it landed in Haiti , where the import licences said the ship was delivering fertiliser ! In January 1988 , the Haitian government ordered the ash out of the country - the KHIAN SEA left in the middle of the night , but .....(MORE LATER)>>>

.....meanwhile , IRA activities continued ~ during the following year , 1959, twenty-seven operations were carried out and , in 1960 , twenty-six operations were carried out . In April 1961 , the last internees in the Six Counties were freed by the Stormont regime in the belief that the campaign had ended . The IRA , however , was not defeated and the leadership believed that the Army could be re-organised and the fight continued . During the spring and summer of 1961 , as the northern units re-grouped , more effective attacks against the enemy continued along the border .
In the winter of 1961 , as public support for the IRA had all but evaporated , one of the last major actions of the 1956-' 62 campaign took place : in November 1961 , a five-person IRA active service unit ambushed a patrol of eight RUC and B-Specials at Flurrybridge , near Jonesborough in South Armagh , while the crown forces were operating a check-point . The British were stopping and searching people travelling to the near-by Edentubber commemoration . After a fierce gun battle , during which one RUC man was killed and three others wounded , the Volunteers made their escape despite intense searches on both sides of the border . (MORE LATER)>>

In March 1993 , the then Bishop of Salisbury said on Network Two (RTE) television - " The island of Ireland is a natural geographic unit . Britain has made a substantial contribution to divisions in Ireland , partly from strategic and political reasons- people had to be planted there who were regarded as loyal to the British state " .
In June 1993 , the then Chairperson of the ' Britain and Ireland Human Rights Centre ' , John McDonnell , stated - " Political violence in Northern Ireland(sic) is inextricably linked with Britains historic role in Ireland and its failure to complete the process of decolonisation " .
This is one issue closer to home that Mr Blair should be concerned about , before throwing in his lot with Bush on the other side of the world .....

The fifth year of the IRA's 'Border Campaign' commenced in 1961 with a decision by the Army Council to organise a final assault against the British forces in the Six Counties .
Following the beginning of the campaign on December 12th 1956 , and the introduction of internment without trial on both sides of the border , attacks on RUC barracks continued throughout 1957 and the early part of 1958 and , with oppression against republicans on both sides of the border at its height and hundreds either interned or imprisoned by the start of 1958 , it was decided by the IRA Executive to abandon attacks on heavily guarded RUC barracks and instead to concentrate on continuous attacks on British armed patrols and installations along the border .
However , by July 1958 , after some initial successes but with many of the leaders and Volunteers interned or in jail , the attacks ceased and plans for a winter offensive had to be called off . During the winter of 1958 , with the IRA border campaign virtually over, the Free State authorities began the unconditional release of internees and , on March 15th of the following year, internment without trial was ended in the State and the last detainees were released . Meanwhile , IRA activities continued ....(MORE LATER)>>

A 'Patrick Coogan' , born in West Belfast , grew up to be a Major in the British Army , earned his stripes(so to speak) ,left the B A and became an author . When the Author Coogan was asked his opinion on his previous position , he stated - " If the British Government abided by the will of the majority of the people in the first place , it would not have partitioned Ireland . Historically , partition has never worked , whether it is in Pakistan , Cyprus or Yemen . It is based on the old principle of 'divide and conquer' " .
....which begs the question - did Patrick join the right Army ?

" Remember Lincoln , going down on his knees in times of trial and the civil war and all that stuff . You can't be , and we are blessed . So don't feel sorry for ... don't cry for me Argentina " ~ Daddy Bush , then U S President , speaking in New Hampshire . George Junior is taking revenge on the wrong man.....

.....that night , at 6.30pm , the three prisoners decided to make another escape attempt , this time with no outside assistance . They again made their way down to the gate and , this time , the bolt cutter worked . They used butter and grease , which they saved from their meals, to help ease the remaining portion of the corroded bolt and two of the men got their revolvers at the ready as the third man pulled on the heavy door ~ the door creaked open sluggishly on its rusty hinges and the three men walked out !
Simon Donnelly had tried to persuade another prisoner , Paddy Moran , who was awaiting trial on the same charges as Teeling ( the execution of twelve British agents on November 21st, 1920) to join the men on the escape attempt , but Moran - who was not involved in the job and had what he considered the perfect alibi for that night- refused to leave the prison except by the front gate as a free man .
Frank Teeling , Ernie O'Malley and Simon Donnelly escaped from Kilmainham Jail in Dublin on February 14th , 1921 . Exactly one month later , Paddy Moran paid with his life for relying on British justice : not the first innocent man to be put to death by the British , and not the last Irish person to be punished by them in revenge .....

A) ~ " In our view , there can be no partial solutions , no partial negotiations and no internal settlements . Peace is only possible within the context of national self-determination " -- Gerry Adams, AP/RN , May 13th , 1993 , page 7 .

B) ~ " If you want to quieten a dissident , give him(sic) a job in parliament " -- a quote from Oliver Cromwell ,according to Joe Bermingham (Labour Party,Kildare) , as published in ' The Sunday Tribune' , May 23rd, 1993, page 13 .
DAMN IT ! can't get a link between A) and B) at all .....