WILLIAM ROONEY , poet and journalist ; 1872-1901 .......
....... William Rooney died , aged 29 , on 6th May 1901 , in Dublin - he had wore himself out . His friend , Arthur Griffith later published material that William Rooney had left behind .......
The name ' William Rooney ' means little , if, indeed, anything , to most people today , as unfortunately is the case with so many other unsung hero's , who would , or could (and should) have lived completely different and possibly longer , more comfortable lives were it not for the political situation they were born into .
And that same political situation (ie British interference in Irish affairs) exists today ; how many more Irish men and women must endure the same fate as William Rooney and the countless others like him ? What is the potential being lost to this Irish Nation due to the continuing British military and political presence here ?
Whatever the loss , however it is judged or calculated - it is a crime against this proud country . If it is , as the Free Staters and their friends in the 'Establishment' tell us - "...over 800 years of crime , " then it is the Brits and the Free Staters that are the criminals , not Irish Republicans .......
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
COOLNACAHERA and COOMNACLOHY .......
"....... Jim Grey and myself had fitted-out a second Lewis-Gun , which our Column Officer then handed to "X" , whom most of us suspected to be an informer ; during the ambush , he had the opportunity to use the weapon ......."
" But , leaving the Lewis-Gun , "X" ran and demoralised others around him . A young lad , Dick Kingston from Ballyvourney , picked-up the Lewis and brought it away . I used it afterwards and found it excellent - "X" alleged that it failed to work for him at the ambush . Across the road from his position were two labourer's cottages , which stood about forty yards apart and were screened from the road by a stone fence . Their acre plots were also enclosed by a similar fence . The cottages and plots were on a hillock which sloped to the south and west .
The British Auxiliaries had no option but to retire into and defend this ground when they were driven off the road ; the Macroom men were admirably posted to prevent them escaping or fighting their way to the south or west , and admirably well they did their task . Not alone did our lads hold the Brits in the plots , but finally their steady and accurate fire drove them uphill to the immediate environs of the cottage . A few men with Ned Neville of Rusheen occupied a hillock , the most easterly point of the Macroom men's positions . Once the Auxiliaries contemplated taking some of our lads on from behind them ; keeping away to the east , the Brits started to creep south . Ned shot down the leader and that finished that project for them .......
(MORE LATER).
THE CONVICTION OF WILLIAM QUINN .......
' William Quinn was recently jailed for life in Britain having been convicted of the murder of a London policeman on the basis of evidence and an identification which has given rise to considerable controversy . '
BY MICHAEL FARRELL .
(First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1988 , page 18).
Reproduced here in 9 parts.
(2 of 9).
William Quinn was born into an Irish-American family in California . Moved by the events in the North of Ireland in 1969 - 1971 , he threw up his job in the U.S. post office and flew to Ireland to join the IRA . In April 1975 , he was arrested in Dublin and charged with assaulting a garda and with membership of the IRA ; he appeared at the 'Special Crimial' Court in May 1975 and was acquitted of the assault charge but convicted of IRA membership and jailed for a year .
Before Quinns imprisonment , in February 1975 , a British policeman , PC Adrian Blackledge , stopped a man in a West London street and was about to search him - the man ran away and when PC Stephen Tibble , who was off duty and passing the scene at the time , tried to stop him , the man shot PC Tibble dead .......
(MORE LATER).
