IRELAND , JANUARY 15th , 1920 : ELECTIONS .......
....... in order to convince Ulster Unionists that they should jettison three of Ulster's nine counties - and their Unionist brethren that lived in those three counties - Cavan , Monaghan and Donegal - so that Westminster might more easily effect 'control' over that part of Ireland , the then influential British MP , Thomas Moles (who was later to be appointed Editor of 'The Belfast Telegraph' newspaper) stated .......
....... " If a ship were sinking and there were only enough life boats for two-thirds of the passengers , should they all drown rather than leave anyone behind ? " ('1169...' comment - no mention of it being a stolen 'ship' , crewed by pirates !) However - the British Bill in question (ie- 'The Government of Ireland Bill') was eventually accepted , and became 'law' in May 1920 . But the 'new' 'Six County Ulster' was also 'problematic' for the Brits - at the time it had a Unionist majority of 820,000 to 430,000 Nationalists , but the 'spread' of both sides created problems in attempting to gerrymander the area .
Two of the Six Counties had a Nationalist majority - Fermanagh 56.2 per cent , and Tyrone 55.4 per cent . Plus , some city's and other areas had Nationalist majority's , too : Derry City , parts of Armagh and Down , and Belfast . It was hoped by Westminster that the then new voting system of proportional representation would give the Unionists an edge .
But the fact that the January 15th , 1920 election had seen the Unionists loose control of Derry Corporation was still 'hurting' the Unionists and their political masters in Westminster .......
(MORE LATER).
Why We Ended The Hunger-Strike .
The full text of the H-Block Blanket Men's statement announcing the end of the 1981 Hunger-Strike .
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2, November 1981 , pages 23 , 24 , 25 and 26 .
Re-published here in 18 parts .
(14 of 18).
" We believe that the Dublin bloc of Fianna Fail , Fine Gael , and Labour are accessories to the legalised murder of ten true and committed Irishmen who died heroically in the long tradition of republican resistance to British occupation , oppression , and injustice in Ireland .
They are accessories to murder by virture of the fact that they sat idly by and thus encouraged the British to continue with the death policy .
The sheer hypocrisy of their position is that at no time did any of these three parties unequivocally or even tacitly support our demands , even though our five demands are implemented in their entirety - even more than we were looking for - in jails in Southern Ireland ....... "
(MORE LATER).
A CASE OF IRISH JUSTICE .......
By Maureen Armstrong .
First published in ' The Spirit of Freedom ' magazine ; An Independent Journal of Irish News and Opinion ' .
Volume 2 , Number 5 , May 1987 , page 3 .
Re-published here in six parts .
(4 of 6).
British 'Lord' Justice Gibson had a holiday home at Doonan , Kilcar , in County Donegal ; the slavish , obeisant behaviour of the Dublin government to " His Lordship" added to his secret feeling of invulnerability . This was his downfall .
The long-suffering Republican and Nationalist community in the North had no respect for this arrogant purveyor of British 'justice' in the six occupied counties . Their defenders , the Irish Republican Army , were thwarted in dealing out the justice he deserved because he was under strong security both at his home and in transit to and from the courts .
Gibson , thinking that he was invincible , made his own arrangements on his trip to Britain ; he decided to come back through Dublin , as he so enjoyed having the slaves in the 'Republic' take such good care of him . On Thursday , April 23rd , the RUC notified the Gardai Security Section in the Phoenix Park , Dublin , and ordered them to meet 'Lord' Gibson at the B+I terminal on Saturday and escort him to the 'Border' .......
(MORE LATER).