THE BOUNDARY COMMISSION , 1921-1925 .......
A British 'sleight-of-hand' which caused a mutiny within British forces in Ireland.......
....... December 1921 : the Stormont 'Minister for Home Affairs' , a 'Sir' Richard Dawson Bates , introduced a new 'law' (on 6th December 1921) compelling all local authorities (ie County Councils etc) in the (then 'new') Six-County 'State' to recognise and work with the new Stormont 'Government' . Tyrone County Council refused the order , and 'Sir' Bates instructed the RIC to close that Council down , which they did . Then , on 21st December 1921 , Fermanagh County Council ,too , issued a statement refusing to do as 'Sir' Bates had 'ordered' .......
Bates put together his RIC raiding-party and stormed the Offices of Fermanagh County Council ; the building was seized , the Council Officials were expelled and the institution itself was dissolved ! In the following four months (ie up to April 1922) , 'Sir' Richard Dawson Bates and his RIC raiding-party were kept busy ; Armagh , Keady and Newry Urban Councils , Downpatrick Town Commissioners , Cookstown , Downpatrick , Kilkeel , Lisnaskea , Strabane , Magherafelt and Newry No. 1 and No. 2 Rural Councils and a number of Boards of Poor Law Guardians had all been dissolved and (pro-Stormont) 'Commissioners' appointed to carry out their functions !
The people of those areas (ie the voters !) were not asked their opinion on whether their Council should be closed down or not , nor were they asked if they agreed with the 'appointment' of a new 'Commissioner' ; in all cases , the new 'boss' understood what his 'job' was - to do as instructed by 'Sir' Bates and his bigoted colleagues in Stormont. In actual fact , the new 'Commissioner' for Armagh and Keady Councils , for instance , was a Colonel Waring , who later 'progressed' through the ranks to become a County Commandant of the 'B' Specials !
'Sir' Bates must have considered himself an all-powerful 'God' by this stage , because he then gave himself the 'legal authority' to -
- ".... outlaw organisations , to detain or intern people indefinitely without charge or trial , to make it an offence to refuse to answer questions put by a policeman , Special Constable or soldier , to impose curfews , make exclusion orders , to examine bank accounts and seize same if required , to block roads and bridges , and to evacuate or destroy houses and buildings . " The man was only short of issuing a decree that he should live forever and walk on water if he wanted to ..... !
That 'law' was introduced in Ireland in the early 1920's ; some forty years later , a certain South African Minister for 'Justice' was to make reference to it .......
(MORE LATER).
THE POLITICS OF H-BLOCK .......
By Vincent Browne .
From 'MAGILL' magazine , December 1980 , pages 26 and 27 .
Re-published here in 10 parts .
(9 of 10).
Concessions were wrung out of the (Free State) Coalition government by a hunger strike by a number of prisoners , including former IRA Chief of Staff , Joe Cahill . In an affadavit which Cahill swore during another hunger strike in 1975 , he states that the 1973 hunger strike ended when the Governor of Mountjoy , Frawley , read a letter to the prisoners in which the authorities conceded a list of demands , including that the Provisional IRA prisoners would be segregated from all other prisoners , would'nt have to do prison work etc .
The prison leadership replied that the hunger strike would continue until the government recognised the political status of the prisoners . The Prison Governor withdrew , according to the affadavit , and returned later to inform the protesting prisoners -
- " (a) since 1922 the Government had refused to afford any group of prisoners recognition as political prisoners .
(b) that in the present circumstances , because of the situation in the North , the government recognised that because of the involvement of the Provisional Republican Movement in the Northern situation , the prisoners were in a special category . "
On the basis of this assurance the hunger strike was ended . Shortly afterwards there was the helicopter escape from Mountjoy Prison and subsequently the Provisional IRA prisoners were moved to Portlaoise Prison .......
(MORE LATER).
DE VALERA AND THE AMERICAN CONNECTION .
By Micheal MacGiolla Phadraig .
From 'NOW' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 4, October 1989 , pages 28 and 29 .
Re-published here in 6 parts .
(1 of 6).
Money to launch The Irish Press newspaper in 1931 came from thousands of Irish-Americans . Contributing dollars and dimes at fund-raiser events , poor emigrants - many driven out of Ireland in the aftermath of the Civil War - helped build up a multi-million dollar fund that was to achieve the dream of the Fianna Fail party ; owning a daily newspaper .
Control of the money which was invested in The Irish Press was given to the President of Fianna Fail , Eamon de Valera .
Nearly 60 years later , there are signs that White Anglo-Saxon Protestant tycoon Ralph Ingersoll the Second - whose ideas must be poles apart from those Irish emigrant founders of the Press - will get control of the newspaper . But a group of small investors , who call themselves the Concerned Shareholders , have emerged to challenge the secrecy which has surrounded not only the Ingersoll deal , but much of the affairs of The Irish Press Group down the years .
Led by a former Irish Editor of The Irish Press , Michael MacGiolla Phadraig , the Concerned Shareholders have been investigating the organisation and structure of the secretive Irish Press Corporation of America which controls the voting in the Dublin company , Irish Press Plc. It has been suggested that an American court should be asked to rule on a number of matters connected with the mystery American corporation . The possibility is that The Irish Press Group belongs to Fianna Fail and is the responsibility of that Party's present President , Taoiseach Charles Haughey .
When a partnership deal between Ingersoll Publications of the U.S. and Irish Press Plc of Dublin was announced last July (ie July 1989) , The Irish Press gave a front-page report and devoted two inside pages to the joint venture .......
(MORE LATER).
