DYING BY THE SWORD .......
By Emer Woodful .
The murder of LVF leader BILLY WRIGHT has ignited the most violent spell in the North's recent history and threatened the peace process . He may well have considered it an appropriate legacy .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1998 , pages 30,31,34 and 35 .
Re-published here in 17 parts .
(4 of 17).
So just who was Billy Wright ? : " I am a mid-Ulster loyalist , and I can equate my feelings to 97 per cent of the unionist population , " he told me when I met him twice in the summer of 1996 . Wright , said to have been the former mid-Ulster Commander of the UVF , had just played a pivotal role in the Drumcree stand-off .
Our last meeting was on 29 August 1996 , the day before the expiration of the Combined Loyalist Military Command's death threat against him and Alex Kerr , the former UDA Commander in South Belfast .
The drill was that you phoned Wright , got picked up in a car park and were driven to his home , via a number of safety checks . The car slowed down at different houses , and a wave was given , and returned, from behind a curtain . Then , later , a mysterious wave , and a nod to a dark figure concealed in a big hedge , just at the entrance to his housing estate in Portadown .......
(MORE LATER).
WOMEN IN IRELAND'S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM .......
By the late Cork Republican , Gearoid MacCarthaigh .
" Throughout 1922 and 1923 , as well as carrying out the same tasks as they had during the Black And Tan War , Republican women also carried out an intensive publicity campaign against the Free State .
One night a number of Cumann na mBan members were picked up by a Free State Army patrol while painting slogans on walls in Dublin ; they were placed in the back of an armoured car and taken to the Barracks . Luckily , their paint and brushes were put in as well - when the armoured car arrived at the Free State Barrack , the Staters discovered the inside of it covered with anti Free State slogans in white paint . The women had not been idle during the journey !
When the 'Cease-Fire-Dump-Arms' Order was issued in 1923 , women continued to play a leading role in the struggle ; in 1925 , the Easter Lily was introduced by Cumann na mBan as the National Emblem of Commemoration of Ireland's dead . The Easter Lily is still the property of Cumann na mBan and no other body has the right to claim it .
For a number of years past the National Commemoration Committee ('1169...' Comment - the NCC are now based at 223 Parnell Street , Dublin 1) have acted as distribution agents for Cumann na mBan . Many women were interned in Kilmainham Jail by the Free Staters during the years 1922-1923 ....... "
(MORE LATER).
SURVIVORS , SERVERS , AND SAVIOURS.......
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper , Aibrean [April] 1957 , page 1.
(IML. IX. UIMHIR 4 - price Tri Pingin [Three Pennies].
Thanks to my late friends Christy and Theresa L. for giving me this 48-year-old newspaper ; this thread published in memory of those two old Fenians ! - John.
' Padraig Pearse had this to say to the 'Pacificators' :
: " A thing that stands demonstrable is that nationhood is not achieved otherwise than in arms . In one or two instances there may have been no actual bloodshed , but the arms were there and the ability to use them . Ireland un-armed will attain just as much freedom as it is convenient for England to give her ; Ireland armed will attain ultimately just as much freedom as she wants . There are many things more horrible than bloodshed : and slavery is one of them . "
The first duty we owe to Ireland is to unite all Irishmen and fill them with a patriotic fervour to serve those neighbours who are nearest in blood and tradition - there own people . It should never be forgotten that , at the end of the eighteen century , Ireland was rapidly becoming united and would have become completely so but for British interference .
The real author of the 'Orange Terror' etc was Britain ; our brother Irishmen were merely 'the master's puppets' . They certainly sinned , but we sin also if we fail to forgive them . Unity is not to be built on foundations of hatred , and sectarianism lacks charity ....... '
(MORE LATER).
