The IRA launched it's ' S-Plan' in January 1939 , after years of preparation . Jim O'Donovan , an IRA Instructor and colleague of then Chief of Staff Sean Russell , drew up the ' S-Plan' , a blue-print for a bombing campaign which called for the destruction of military targets in England , such as communication centres , BBC transmitters ,aerodromes , bridges and military installations .
Preparations for the campaign were at an advanced stage when , in December 1938, the surviving faithful Deputies of the Second (All-Ireland) Dail signed over their authority to the IRA Army Council . That same December (on the 22nd) , internment without trial was introduced in the Six Counties and 34 republican operatives were arrested in British Army swoops ; however, this did not effect the ' S-Plan' campaign as IRA active service units were already in place in major English cities , with quantities of explosives, waiting for orders to commence the campaign .
A formal ultimatum from the IRA Army Council demanding "the withdrawal of all British armed forces stationed in Ireland" was delivered to the British foreign secretary , Lord Halifax , on January 12th , 1939 . Copies of the document were sent to the Stormont administration in the Six Counties as well . The IRA ultimatum was signed by Patrick Fleming , Secretary, "on behalf of the Government and Army Council of Oglaigh na hEireann" , and ended with the statement that - " The Government of the Irish Republic believe that a period of four days is sufficient notice to your government to signify its intention in the matter of the military evacuation and for the issue of your declaration of abdication in respect of our country ..... " (MORE LATER)>>

" We have reached , perhaps gone beyond, what is strictly compatible with Irish neutrality . It will only be a matter of time before some important issue will arise in some trouble spot around the world about which the majority of the members of the (European) Community will have no alternative , whatever our feelings may be or whatever our neutrality may suggest , or public opinion may favour , but to act upon the decision of the Community acting through the political co-operation machinery " .
------- Bertie Ahern re the Iraq situation or some other state politician in his/her ' read-between-the-lines' mode trying to cosy-up to the U S ?
Or Bertie trying to cosy-up to some other state politician ? (!)
No ~ Charles Haughey , ex-Fianna Fail boss and Free State Taoiseach , in 1986 . Thats what happens when your clothes are worth more than your morals ......

A branch of the Irish Volunteers was founded in Limerick in January 1914 , and John Daly was mainly responsible during the following months for the spread of the organisation throughout the county . The British administration in Dublin Castle were keeping a close eye on him , and discussed between themselves "the urgency of the arrest of a small knot of violent men , of whom the principals were Thomas j. Clarke of Dublin and John Daly of Limerick : men who were known to work in great secrecy, never appearing on public platforms or in the press, or making themselves in any way amenable to the law " ! It should be noted that John Daly was 71 years of age when the British wrote the above about him ......( Thomas J.Clarke , another Irish rebel, and John Daly became friends in Portland Prison during the 12 years that the latter was imprisoned there) .
John Daly was too ill to participate in the mobilisation of Volunteers in Limerick during Easter Week 1916 ; he lived long enough to see the Fenian faith of his youth winning general acceptance . He died in the summer of 1916 , at seventy-one years of age , 53 years of which he gave over to the cause of Irish freedom . John Daly will never be as well-known as the ' super-star statesmen' that prostitute themselves today with Ahern , Blair and Bush but , when examined , his mark on Irish history exposes the ' suits ' for the frauds they are .

A report in ' The Irish Times' on April 26th , 1990 (page 7) told of how , in September 1989 , the Free State administration rejected over eight million punts which was actually available from the EU Structural Funds , because the money would have ended up in the hands of community groups .
A spokesperson for the State Department of Finance insisted that there "simply has to be central control over the spending of money" !! For "central control" read- " If we can't dish it out to our cronies then we're not interested......" . And to think we're about to pay for a brand new jet for that crowd !
I have posted it here before , but it deserves a repeat ~
G K Chesterton , a poet and (British) Liberal MP , once wrote -
" With pomp and with ridiculous display
the politicians corpse is borne away ,
and all around him carped and slanged
I wept - I had wished to see him hanged !

.......later , while working as a hospital attendant in England , John Daly played an active part in the dynamite campaign in English cities during the early 1880's , and was arrested at Birkenhead in possession of explosives in 1884 ~ he was sentenced to life imprisonment .
While in Portland Prison he endured appalling conditions but was released after twelve years , in 1896, when a commission of enquiry investigated his allegation that he was being slowly poisoned by the prison authorities . A free man again , he immersed himself into the cause of Irish freedom - the overthrow of British rule in Ireland . After his return to Ireland , having been elected MP for Limerick while in prison, he opened a bakery in the city and was on three occasions ( 1899-1901) elected Mayor of Limerick. In 1911 , John Daly helped in establishing a slua ( group) of Na Fianna Eireann in Limerick city and , one year later, he provided the organisation in the city , which was led by Sean Heuston and Con Colbert, with a Fianna Hall , built on a plot of ground behind his home in Barrington Street . (MORE LATER)>>>

That crooked despot Saddam Hussein today raised the spectre of the Vietnamese War in a ploy to put pressure on the Bush administration to back down : it's interesting that Hussein should do so ~
It was the British , in contravention of the Yalta Agreement , who started the Vietnamese War at the end of 'World-War Two' - under Major Douglas Gracey , they released the Japanese and French Vichyite (traitor) prisoners of war from their incarceration by the forces of their late ally , Ho Chi Minh, and banded these together into an armed force to unseat the latter from power as the leader of a free nation. This campaign was then continued by the French for the re-acquisition of their former colony , but they were defeated at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu . Then the U S entered to conduct a long and protracted war against the Vietnamese but were finally beaten , but not before conducting enormous acts of carnage by laying waste the agricultural and industrial infrastructure of that nation .
It was British , French and U S imperialism which was responsible for the then turmoil in South East Asia, a lesson obviously lost on the British and the American governments .......

Born on October 18th, 1845, in Limerick , this veteran revolutionary became a living link between the Fenians and the Irish Republican Brotherhood :
John Daly joined the IRB at the age of 18 , in 1863, and he and his brother Ned led the Limerick city company of the IRB in the raid on Kilmallock RIC Barracks , during the Fenian Rising in March 1867 , in one of the few actions which took place outside Dublin . He was a prominent member of the re-organised Fenian Movement and , following the collapse of the 1867 Rising , he went to the United States where he played an active role in the IRB . During the Land War of 1879-'82 , he returned to Ireland as a member of the Supreme Council of the IRB , and took on the role as Organiser for Connacht and Ulster .
He delivered the oration at the funeral of one of the finest intellects of the Fenian Movement, Charles J. Kickham , in August 1882 , at Mullinahone , County Tipperary . Later , while working as a hospital attendant in England , he played an active part in the dynamite campaign in English cities during the early 1880's ...... (MORE LATER)>>

......over the years , Panamanians began to demand control of their native terrority , and , in 1979, U S President Jimmy Carter signed an agreement with Panamanian leader General Omar Torrijos , which meant the territory would become Panamanian on January 1st in the year 2000. under this treaty , the territory would be controlled from 1980 untill 1989 by a commission chaired by the U S . On January 1st , 1990 , the U S was to hand over control of the commission to the Panamanian Government .
Rather than let Noriega , the country's effective leader , gain control of the canal , George Bush Senior ordered an invasion !
So Bush Senior went to war over water , and now his son is preparing to go to war over oil .........
That's progress !

..... at the same time that Padraig Pearse launched the newspaper ' An Barr Buadh ' and his new political party ' Cumann na Saoirse ' , he was already the Editor of the Gaelic League's newspaper ' An Claidheamh Soluis ' and was also trying to keep his school , St. Enda's , open : Pearse received some help from Brian O'Higgins , Eamonn Ceannt , Thomas MacDonnell , Desmond Ryan , Cathal Brugha , The O'Rahilly and Peadar Kearney in keeping the newspaper published , but all involved had other commitments to the cause and , after only eleven issues, the 'paper folded . A financial crisis at St.Enda's in May 1912 almost led to the closure of the school and forced Pearse to abandon the newspaper which, in turn,when it ceased publication , led to the disbandment of Cumann na Saoirse .
However , Padraig Pearse's involvement in politics brought him to the attention of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and , within the following four years , as President of the Irish Republic , Pearse was to lead the IRB to strike a blow for freedom against the British forces of occupation . The short-lived publication ' An Barr Buadh ' had helped to set in motion an event which is still on-going to this day .......

As far as I am aware , Panama is the only state in world history which was created in order to build a canal through it !
It came into existence in 1903 after a U S-inspired coup resulted in its secession from Colombia . The U S wanted a weak , friendly regime which would allow it to build and control the canal which the famous engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps started in 1879 and abandoned ten years later . The new state then offered the U S control of the Panama Canal Zone , a belt of land right across the middle of the country which later became a massive U S military installation. Over the years , Panamanians began to demand control of their native terrority and , ........(MORE LATER)>>........

Ninty-one years ago this month , a new political weekly newspaper began publication - March 16th, 1912.

In the Spring of that year, the debate on the issue of Home Rule for Ireland was being hotly debated ; Padraig Pearse (who supported the Home Rule Bill only because he viewed it as the thin edge of the wedge regarding full Irish freedom) used the highly-charged political atmosphere to launch a newspaper entitled ' An Barr Buadh' ( ' The Trumpet of Victory ') and to launch a new political party , ' Cumann na Saoirse' (' The Society of Freedom ' ) .
Pearse had long believed in the formation of an armed force to achieve his political objective - that of complete Irish independence : at the inaugural meeting of the new party , where the proceedings were entirely in Irish , he was the principal speaker , and the keynote of his address was " that a rifle should be made as familiar to the hands of an Irishman as a hurley " . Pearse made it clear to all present that ' An Barr Buadh' would be published to support the objective of a free Ireland ~ " to advocate the political independence of Ireland " . The newspaper emphasised in editorials and articles that Home Rule was only acceptable if it was to be used as a step towards complete freedom ; if , however , even the low measure of Home Rule should be denied , Pearse made it clear that he would call for a resort to arms ........ (MORE LATER)>>

Eoin McKiernan , founder of the Irish-American Cultural Institute , once stated~ " Self-confident nations do not board up the Alamo , recycle the Constitution of Boston Harbour or tear down Paris's triumphal arch . The one quality colonists lack is self confidence. They cannot deal with the present or project a future because they will not face the past " .
The American writer , George Santayana, put it another way ~ " Those who ignore the lessons of history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of history " .
Over the weekend just gone , and again today , the Provisional Sinn Fein leadership stated that if the British Stormont administration is to ' be put back on track' then Republicans will feel "pain" because of what will have to be given in return.
We have had over 800 years of "pain" , Gerry - we don't want more . The Brits should be told to get out.
" Do not board up the Alamo ..... " .

..... the evenings in the IRA training camps were devoted to lectures and written exercises , including instruction in map reading , signalling , street fighting , ambushes and personal security . During the last three days of the camp , each Volunteer was given command of a section , which he led in simulated attacks on a fictitious enemy .
When the camp ended , the new Flying Column attempted to engage a party of the 1st Essex Regiment which regularly travelled between Dunmanway and Ballineen , about ten miles from Kilbrittain . Having waited for most of the day with no sign of the British Regiment , the column was forced to disband as the weapons were required for a camp to be held at Ballymurphy .
That night , however , the small group of Volunteers chosen to take the weapons to the HQ at Newcestown , a few miles north of Ballineen , encountered two lorries of British troops ~ the IRA team lined the side of the road and opened fire on the passing patrol , killing an officer and several soldiers . The Volunteers then escaped across local fields to safety .
It was not the last action of Tom Barry's Flying Column , which was formed from the IRA's Number 3 Cork Brigade , in October 1920 .

' The Irish Times ' newspaper , of July 23rd , 1990 , carried a report on page 4 which told how two Indian hunters in a remote jungle 150 miles north-east of the Panamanian capital , where most of the fighting in the December 1989 American invasion took place , found a ten-wheeled US Army truck , loaded with explosives , mortars , ammunication , communications equipment and a 50-calibre machine gun ! Panama City newspaper ' La Prensa ' said the truck apparently missed the invasion and claimed that the two hunters found two large parachutes hanging from trees nearby ....
The U S Southern Command , which directed the invasion that ousted General Noriega , had been told of the find by ' La Prensa ' , but had no comment to make regarding the situation .
Let's be careful out there ......