The '1169...' crew will be 'closing up shop' later on this week for our Christmas break ; we will probably be absent for about one week , but it could be less : depends on when the funds run dry !
BRITISH 'JUSTICE' : THE EMERGENCY LEGISLATION AND THE INFORMER SYSTEM.......
First published in the booklet ' STRIP SEARCHES IN ARMAGH JAIL' , produced , in February 1984 , by 'The London Armagh Group' .
Those named by an informer are immediately arrested and held on remand in Armagh and Crumlin Road gaols ; thus , although the sole 'evidence' against them is the 'word' of one individual , and the 'truth' of the 'evidence' has not yet been decided by a 'court' (a juryless one) , those named people lose their freedom .
Women are immediately subjected to the full harshness of Armagh prison life : regular strip-searches , stringent discipline and the punitive use of prison rules . Overall , 400 people have so far been charged on the 'word' of an informer , and 80 have been convicted . The Show Trials have put so many people on remand - some for periods of up to two years - that in effect they have led to the reintroduction of internment , which was 'officially' ended in 1975 .
Of the 35 women currently imprisoned in Armagh , several are on remand having been named by an informer , but to date no woman has been convicted on informer evidence . It seems probable that there is a connection between the Westminster policy of using informers and of intensive strip-searching - the informer 'system' began in 1980 , getting fully underway in 1982 ; the strip-searches began in earnest in November 1982 ; the more intolerable that prison life becomes , the easier it will be for Westminster to find prisoners willing to turn informer .......
(MORE LATER).
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
In July 1981 , Fr. Denis Faul requested a meeting with Sinn Fein ; his declared purpose in doing so (with people whom he would later call "thugs" , to advance his 'case') was allegedly to acquaint himself with Sinn Fein's then current attitude to the hunger-strike situation . At that stage six hunger-strikers were already dead and Kevin Lynch and Kieran Doherty were rapidly deteriorating .
Eamonn McCrory , from Sinn Fein , put the position that Republicans believed that the hunger-strike would continue and that prisoners would continue to die while the people whose co-operation and collaboration Britain depended on to maintain its rule in Ireland - the Free State Government ,the SDLP and the Irish Catholic hierarchy - withheld their active support for the prisoners' five demands . That took about ten minutes : the rest of the meeting , which lasted about forty minutes in total , was used by Fr. Faul to expound on the "...hopelessness.. " of the situation .
At one point Faul described the hunger-strikers' determination and self-sacrifice as being no more that a "...lemming-mentality.. " , saying that "...they must be helped to help themselves by getting them off the hunger-strike .. " . He spoke of a "...suspension.. " of the hunger-strike and , with an insight into his intentions , of the hunger-strike ultimately breaking down in recriminations . Within twenty-four hours , this conniving and treacherous Catholic priest was to 'spin' the facts regarding that meeting .......
(MORE LATER).
THUGGERY : THE UGLY FACE OF SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
OFFICIAL IRA/PROVISIONAL IRA FEUDS (1975 and 1977):
The Official IRA seems to have been the victim , certainly in the 1975 feud with the Provisional IRA , for the same reason that the IRSP was the victim in the feud with the Official IRA earlier that year if only because it was the more vulnerable party .
Altogether eleven people were killed in the 1975 feud and five in the 1977 feud , when the Officials seemed to have wreaked some sort of revenge . We are not delving too deeply into those feuds here because of the enormous complexity of them and because of the existence of thuggery on both sides .
(Tomorrow : 'The Murder Of Seamus Costello' , October 5 , 1977 .)
(MORE LATER).
29th Christmas Morning Swim : 1976-2005.
SPONSORED SWIM - CHRISTMAS DAY , 12 NOON .
Venue : Grand Canal (opposite Kellys Pub/Blackhorse Inn) Inchicore , Dublin 8 .
15 swimmers , turf fire , Rebel music , lemonade for the kids , 'soup' for the adults...
ALL WELCOME !
Organised by CABHAIR (Irish Republican Prisoners Dependants Fund) , 223 Parnell Street , Dublin 1 .
