.....Thomas Miller Beach (alias Major Henri Le Caron) was privy to the negotiations which led to the 'New Departure' in October 1878 : an alliance between the Fenians led by John Devoy , the Land League under Michael Davitt and the Irish Parliamentary Party led by Charles Stewart Parnell .
John Devoy commissioned the informer Beach to carry messages and instructions to Fenians in Europe and , in 1881 , Beach was sent to Paris with same for John O'Leary and Patrick Egan~ on his way through London he passed the details in his possession to Robert Anderson , from the British Home Office , who copied the information , and Beach carried on as if nothing had happened .
Beach returned to England permanently in December 1888 . By this time , the British government had established a Special Commission on ' Parnellism and Crime' , in order to discredit Parnell , and informed the informer Beach that it would be necessary for him to come out in the open and speak against Parnell ; all concerned understood that such a move would end Beach's career as an informer . His testimony to the commission in February 1889 did not damage Parnell as much as it damaged , shocked and embarrassed the IRB leadership , who were astonished that " one of their own" was a British agent all along . Beach spent the next five years in England , in hiding , his only injury being a nervous breakdown shortly before he died . His autobiography , ' Twenty-Five Years in the Secret Service' , was published in 1892 . The informer Beach died on April 1st , 1894 - not the last high-ranking informer considered to be "one of our own"......

.....in his speech , Ramsey Clark stated - " The (U S) President has no power to kill whomever he wants , to bomb civilian populations after deliberately building up a hate campaign against the country and timing it for prime television " . Clark said the compensation he was seeking on behalf of the fifty-five Libyans would total between $75 Million and $100 Million , and that U S pilots would be sued for not refusing to carry out Reagan's illegal order to bomb Tripoli in peacetime .
Will Bertie Ahern be sued because he is allowing U S bombers to fly from Shannon ?
Will Bush be sued for "building up a hate campaign" against Iraq ?
Will U S pilots end up in court "for not refusing to carry out illegal orders" ?
And what about the groundcrew at Shannon ? Will they be sued ?
It's most unlikely , but should a court-case be instigated here then watch the gutless wonders in Leinster House run for cover while simultaneously blaming each other .

......Thomas Miller Beach (alias Henri Le Caron) began his 'career' as an informer in 1866 , when he notified the authorities of a Fenian raid to be undertaken in Canada by Captain John O'Neill and his men , whose confidence he had won . The raid went ahead as planned but was defeated by the Canadian authorities on June 1st, 1866 .
While on a visit to England in 1867 , Beach made himself known to the British Home Office and was put in touch with a Mr Robert Anderson , to whom he relayed extensive information on Fenianism in Ireland , England and America ; his arrangement with Anderson lasted for years . Meanwhile , he had obtained high rank and responsibility in the IRB and , prior to the second abortive attack on Canada , was actively responsible for locating suitable places for the Fenians to stash their weapons . In April 1870 , the Fenians walked into a carefully prepared ambush and the Canadian operation fell apart ~ the Fenians had long suspected that there was a traitor in their ranks , but suspicion never fell on Beach , such was his standing among the Fenian leadership and rank-and-file .
A founder-member of Clan na Gael in America , Beach was privy to the negotiations .........(MORE LATER)>>

Ramsey Clark was Attorney General for the United States from 1967 to 1969 ; In April 1988 , he gave a speech in Washington in which he announced that he had filed a lawsuit against Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher , seeking compensation for fifty-five Libyans killed or injured in a U S bombing raid on Tripoli in 1986 . He was suing Thatcher because she allowed the U S bombers to fly from British bases , and Reagan because he built up a hate campaign to justify killing Libyans in a bombing raid timed , he said, for U S television news primetime . In his speech , Clark stated - " The (U S) President has no power to kill .........." (MORE LATER)>>>>>

A Mr. Thomas Miller Beach , who was born in Colchester , in England, in 1841 , is one man that is well-remembered by Irish Republicans for his 'career' in the Movement~but for all the wrong reasons.....
........for almost a quarter of a century , Thomas Miller Beach (alias Henri Le Caron) was one of the most 'successful' informers in the pay of the English secret service : he infiltrated the IRA and thwarted nearly all their plans for insurrection .
He was an apprentice draper , and went to America when he was aged 20 (1861) : once there , he enlisted in the 8th Pennsylvanian Reserves in the Union Army and , during the Civil War in that country (1861-' 65) was wounded and was eventually promoted to the rank of Major . While in the Northern Army he became friendly with the Fenian , Captain John O'Neill , and it was this friendship which gained him entry into the Fenian Brotherhood . He moved and settled in Nashville , Tennessee , where he studied medicine . Beach/Le Caron's career as an informer began in 1866 ; ......(MORE LATER)>>>

And a belated "congrats" to Paddy Murray on his new job as Editor of 'The Sunday Tribune' newspaper - its a good read , but was better when Vincent Browne was in charge . However , I doubt if the (Indo) owners of the 'Trib' could afford to have Browne back in the hot seat(financially or otherwise....) as the newspaper lost over EURO1.5 million in its last financial year .
Anyway , I digress - I suspect that the newspaper will go down-market in the near future : perhaps not a 'page 3' dumb-down , but it will , I think, move to an even more anti-republican position than it already occupies . The following quote from new Editor Paddy Murray himself , as lifted from his newspaper on December 3rd , 2000 ('Artlife' section , page 11) is a sign of things to come ~ "(Tom) Barry [ Irish Rebel leader] will never figure in my list of heroes - David Beckham [an English footballer] on the other hand , will figure on that list " .
Beckham over Barry ? Bend it like the latter , Paddy .......

......Mary Anne McCracken won improvements for poor house women , in the clothing trade and in childrens education - she helped develop the idea of an infants' school which flourished for a brief period. She was bitterly opposed to slavery and seen in that issue a parallel with the 'climbing boys' , who were young boys used by chimney sweeps as helpers ; and she fought hard for better conditions for other children who worked in factories . During the early 1840's she assisted Dr Richard R. Madden , the historian of the United Irishmen , with detailed accounts of the lives of her brother and Thomas Russell .
In her last years she saw the republican principles for which she had fought and for which those she had loved had died , once again being widely espoused throughout Ireland by the Fenian movement . Mary Anne McCracken died on July 24th , 1866 , at 97 years of age , and deserves to be remembered as much as her brother , Henry Joy McCracken .

If/when George Bush sends his troops in to Iraq , the American public would do well to remember the words of Franklin D.Roosevelt , one year before the U S was plunged into WW2 - " I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again : your boy's are not going to be sent into any foreign wars" ~ it looks like Bush will be responsible for the first 'resource war' of the 21st Century.
Remember , also, on his last day in Office as President of the USA , Bill Clinton admitted lying under oath and surrendered his licence to practice law , for five years . He also stole furniture , china and silverware from the White House to the approximate value of EURO 250,000 . He pardoned one of the FBI's ten 'Most Wanted' , whose ex-wife 'donated' almost four million euro's to the Democratic Party's war-chest and a six-figure sum to Hillary Clinton's U S Senate campaign , without consulting the FBI or the U S Attorney Generals Office , as required by U S law .
High Office , a nice suit and the courtship of the Establishment is not a guarantee that the people in question are worthy of the trust placed in them .......

.....Mary Anne MacCracken followed with enthusiastic interest the progress of the American War of Independence and , with her sister-in-law, Rose Ann McCracken , she was sworn into the Society of United Irishmen soon after its formation in Belfast in October 1791 . Following the battle of Antrim in June 1798 and the collapse of the Rising in the North , Mary arranged safe passage for her brother , Henry Joy, on a ship bound for North America .
He was arrested as he was about to board the ship and imprisoned in Carrickfergus Jail - he was transferred to Belfast , where Mary was present at his court-martial , and comforted him in his cell as he awaited execution . She accompanied him to the scaffold .
Five years later , just as she had seen her brother make the supreme sacrifice for liberty , she was to again witness another loved one, Thomas Russell, meet the same end at Downpatrick Jail in 1803 .
She withdrew from radical politics following Russell's execution and joined forces with English prison reformer Elizabeth Fry , to form a 'ladies committee' to demand better conditions in Belfast's workhouse .
(MORE LATER)>>>

Ship-jumper Paul Whelan was not alone.....
Fianna Fail Councillor Gerry Murray , from Charlestown in County Mayo , resigned from Fianna Fail in September 2001 and declared himself an Independent Councillor . He joined Provisional Sinn Fein the following month ....
Murray stated that he was a member of PSF in the late 1970's " but drifted away because of the then weakness of the Sinn Fein organisation in Mayo " . And the reason that their organisation is "stronger" now , Gerry , is because it's full with people like you who will no doubt move on if .......

.....his health never improved and he died in Los Angeles in October 1899 , at the young age of 36 . He was buried in America , but his remains were returned to Ireland in 1901 in accordance with his wishes. They were reinterred in Maynooth . When Padraig Pearse , in his famous oration in August 1915 , referred to O'Donovan Rossa as having "the holiness and simplicity of patriotism of a Michael O'Clery or an Eoghan O'Growney ", he was evoking a name, long since dead, who during his 36 years on this earth had done much to promote the revival of the Irish language : Eoghan O'Growney was born in August 1863 and died in October 1899 and , in my opinion, is not remembered as he should be . He would have been three years of age when a woman , with whom he had a lot in common , died ~ this 97 year-old woman died on July 24th , 1866 , after a lifetime service to the cause of Irish freedom - it has been said that she was passed over by history in favour of her brother , Henry Joy McCracken :
The womens name is Mary Anne McCracken , a social reformer and revolutionary , who was born in High Street , Belfast , in July 1770 . Her father was Captain John McCracken and her mother was Ann Joy . They had six children , the most famous of whom was Henry Joy McCracken . Mary grew up with a love of liberty , and followed with enthusiastic interest the progress of the American War of Independence ....(MORE LATER)>>>

It was around June 2001 that a Mr Paul Whelan , a member of the Fianna Fail 'National' Executive (sic-ie; by this , Fianna Fail means the 26 -County state only) and then president of Roscommon Ogra Fianna Fail resigned and joined Provisional Sinn Fein ! He stated - " We have a party (Fianna Fail) more concerned with staying in power nationally(sic) than any other policy " .
"NATIONALLY" ? - By God , Paul , the Provos'll knock that type of talk out of ya ~or maybe they'll learn it from you ..... (another defection tomorrow ...) >>>

.....and were of great importance to the Irish Revival Movement . O'Growney assisted Eoin MacNeill and Douglas Hyde in the formation of the Gaelic League in July 1893 , and was appointed as first vice president of that organisation . Later that year he began a series of lessons in Irish in the 'Gaelic Journal' and in the 'Weekly Freeman' - these articles were then published in book form in 1894 , under the title 'Simple Lessons in Irish' and became the best-seller of its day and are still regarded by some as the best available such books for Irish beginners .
He suffered ill-health due , it was believed , to his hectic workload as professor , editor , writer and an activist in the Irish Revival Movement , and was advised to emigrate to the warmer climate of California , in America , which he did in October 1894 . He continued to contribute articles , in Irish, to the 'Weekly Freeman' and to American newspapers but, again due to his workload , he resigned as professor of Irish at Maynooth in June 1896 . His health never improved and .....(MORE LATER)>>>

.....with 98 of the workers suffering from cancer as a result of exposure to plutonium released in the accident . The B-52 , with four H-Bombs on board , got into trouble five hours into its flight and the crew was unable to make an emergency landing . The crew ejected and the aircraft crashed into ice eight miles west of Thule USAF base : the non-nuclear explosives detonated , dispersing the plutonium inside the bombs , which contaminated the ice . U S military personnel were sent in to ' collect ' the contaminated ice , which they then brought back to Thule where 800 Danes were working . None of the military or civilians wore protective masks because this would have made it impossible to breath in the intense cold . The U S and Danish governments attempted to put a good gloss on the incident in a joint statement they issued , which declared that "a major disaster was turned into a classic example of international co-operation " . The spin-doctors claimed that " the radioactivity spread in the area is not a hazard to people or to biological species , nor is any hazard foreseen in the future " . There were reports , at the time , of an unknown number of deaths , including military personnel , as a result of that accident . Still - it improved " international co-operation " , so it was worth it ....( expect more from the 'spin-doctors' in the near future....)