Dublin Riots , Saturday , February 25 , 2006 .RIOT SQUAD RESPONSIBLE FOR STARTING THE TROUBLE-
I was there from 11 AM untill 2.15 PM : this is what actually happened , as witnessed by myself and that other writer , amongst others , who was obviously in the same vicinity of O' Connell Street/Parnell Street as myself . Sharon.
NOTE - readers may be asking why the 'spark' that set the whole incident off was not shown on television news reports and/or in the pictures and reports that were published in the newspapers : on Monday , 27 February last , in 'The Evening Herald' newspaper , the following was published (on page 5) , by that organs 'Crime Editor' -
" A number of photographers , and myself , were taking pictures of the confrontation and we were surrounded by gardai who demanded that we stop and forcibly stood in front of us to prevent snaps . "
It appears that State agents were , even then , preparing an alibi for themselves and their paymasters . (Thanks , again , to the 'IRBB' for the 'heads-up' on that newspaper article).
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE IRISH STRUGGLE .......This article is based on a lecture delivered by Sean O Bradaigh in Dublin on January 21 , 1989 , marking the 70th Anniversary of the founding of the First (All-Ireland) Dail Eireann in the Mansion House on January 21 , 1919 , and the links between Irish and French Republicans - 'Partners in Revolution' 200 years ago .
Published in 1989 by Sean Lynch , Cleenrath , Aughnacliffe , County Longford , on behalf of the County Longford Branch of the National Graves Association .
By Sean O Bradaigh .
Liberte ! Egalite ! Fraternite ! Ou La Mort ! ( (Freedom ! Equality ! Brotherhood ! or Death!).
Unite Indivisibilite De La Republique !
" And pledge we the stout sons of France , boys ,
bold Humbert and all his brave men ,
whose tramp , like the trumpet of battle ,
brought hope to the drooping again . "
It was of course in France's interest to assist us Irish in 1798 when she was at war with England ; but it was in our interest also . The Rising failed , but the experience in Wexford , in Antrim and in County Down in the month of June 1798 showed that brave Irishmen and women , on their own , could take on the enemy and put up a formidable resistance . The campaign in the West of Ireland in August 1798 demonstrated that we had friends in the world outside who understood our predicament and were willing to help .
As Irish Republicans we are all in the tradition of Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen ; that tradition was born of an Irish separatism which was given a new direction and a new lease of life by the inspiration of the events of 1798 in France . The generous ideals of the First French Republic , born in blood 200 years ago , are part of an inheritance which has inspired every generation of Irish people since then and inspires us today . We are children of Ireland , but we are also , as Irish Republicans , ' enfants de la patrie' , because the school of Irish Republicanism is a Franco-Irish school and we have all been there .......
(MORE LATER).
THE UNBROKEN LINKS IN THE IRISH REPUBLICAN CHAIN ....... ByMartin Calligan.
(No year of publication.)
I got a couple of kicks and I then had to travel nearly 2 miles , naked and barefooted , until I came to Mick Huxley's house , where I got clothes and shoes . I arrived home at five in the morning .
When the Military Court was set-up in 1931 I was in the first batch taken before it : in all , I was to appear five times before the Military Tribunal . I spent 11 years as a 'Guest of the State' - spent in all their 'guesthouses' including the Curragh Internment Camp . Immediately after the war was declared in 1939 I was interred without trial . Seamus Burke succeeded in proving we were illegally interred , and we had to be released .
However , De Valera had the Military Court Act amended immediately to cover the loophole , and then I had to 'Go on the run' in the traditional manner of the Irish Rebels throughout the centuries . While on the run , a government agent who infiltrated the IRA sent an order that I go to Clonmel , County Tipperary ; I tossed a coin with Joe O' Connor , Kerry , over which of us should obey this order and I won - this meant that I would stay in my present posting . Unknowingly , I had avoided a trap .......
(MORE LATER).
BUTCHERS DOZEN .......A poem by Thomas Kinsella , written after Bloody Sunday .
From 'IRIS' magazine , March 1983 .
Friend and stranger , bride and brother ,
son and sister , father , mother ,
all not blinded by your smoke ,
photographers who caught your stroke .
The priests that blessed our bodies , spoke ,
and wagged our blood in the world's face -
the truth will out , to your disgrace .
He flushed and faded . Pale and grim ,
a joking spectre followed him :
take a bunch of stunted shoots ,
a tangle of transplanted roots ,
ropes and rifles , feathered nests ,
some dried colonial interests ,
a hard unnatural union grown , in a bed of blood and bone .
(MORE LATER).
