Working within British 'law' with a vow NOT to use force against the British :
DANIEL O'CONNELL -1843 ;
THE PROVISIONALS -1994 TO DATE .
Ireland 1843 - 45 years after the 'United Irishmen' Rising , 5 years before the 'Young Irelanders' were to rise up in arms against British mis-rule , and 15 years before the Irish Republican Brotherhood was founded (on Saint Patricks Day , 1858).
The population of Ireland was in decline - 'famine' struck again and approximately 2 million people were to leave the island ; one million people emigrated and the same number died . A Mr. Stephen de Vere was an eye-witness on one of the emigrant ships -
- " Before the emigrant has been a week at sea , he is an altered man . How can it be otherwise ? Hundreds of poor people , men , women and children , of all ages , from the drivelling idiot of ninty to the babe just born , huddled together , without light , without air , wallowing in filth and breathing a foetid atmosphere , sick in body , dispirited in heart . The fevered patients lying between the sound in sleeping places so narrow as almost to deny them a change of position ....by their agonised ravings disturbing those around them .
Living without food or medicine except as administered by the hand of casual charity , dying without spiritual consolation and buried in the deep without the rites of the Church . " Thus did one million Irish people 'live' on board the emigrant ships .......
(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.
BURNINGS.......
".......in early 1920 , an IRA order was issued to launch sustained attacks on RIC barracks throughout the country ; in late March that year , the Brits could no longer hold their bases and evacuated them - in early April we burned them to the ground ......."
" Where the garrisons were maintained they were re-inforced from the personnel of the evacuated buildings and subsequently by Black and Tans . In certain areas , where a large building in the vicinity of the barracks was available , it was occupied by a Company of the British regular Army . Our Intelligence Department gave us timely warning that the British intended to occupy the fortress described above and known as 'The Courthouse , Ballyvourney ' - its distance from the RIC barracks was less than a hundred yards . Once garrisoned , it would forever be a thorn in our side since we had not the means to reduce it ...
...early on the night of 4th April , a small party of us quietly encircled the RIC barracks ; we had little hope that the garrison would come abroad to investigate signs of "riot , commotion , and civil strife ." They had long ago resisted such temptations - indeed , over two years had passed since an IRA Volunteer had , just after nightfall , walked boldly up the avenue and knocked at the front door . At that time it was a war-time regulation that a permit was necessary to sell certain animals ; a voice from within asked who was there and what he wanted - the IRA man gave his name , or at least the name of his loyalist neighbour , and said he had come for a permit . It did not work . Appeals and judicious threats about seeing the RIC District Inspector , an old friend of 'his' , having failed , he was forced to go without having achieved his objective , the opening of the door .
As the IRA Volunteer left , other armed IRA men arose from the shadows and followed him ......."
(MORE LATER).
THE CIA : REAGAN'S SECRET ARMY .......
Since 1947 , the CIA has been a powerful force in covertly executing American internal and foreign policy . A major book detailing the workings , methods and sometimes incompetence of the secret service - 'The Agency ; The Rise and Decline of The CIA ' , by John Ranelagh , has recently been published .
Gene Kerrigan examines the books findings and assesses the importance of 'The Agency' and the role it has played over the last 39 years .
First published in 'The Sunday Tribune' newspaper , Dublin , 24th August 1986 , page 11.
Re-produced here in 21 parts .
(2 of 21).
U S President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and OSS Head , William Donovan also considered building plywood oil pipelines ; and restoring the Habsburgs to the Austrian throne after the war ; and Donovan wanted to send Errol Flynn to Dublin to lobby for the use of Free State ports ! The guiding principle for the CIA has been "whatever works" - the aim would be defending and advancing American interests and the means would be whatever they thought might work , be it dropping dead bats on Japan or live bombs on Libya .
John Ranelagh , a commissioning Editor at Channel 4 , has written a comprehensive and coherent history of the CIA , drawn from a wide range of published sources , declassified documents , documents obtained unofficially and over 200 interviews .
The book is unsensational , conservative , pro- CIA but not blindly so . It is an excellent work of journalism .......
(MORE LATER).
