EASTER RISING 1916-2006 : 90th Anniversary Events organised by the Republican Movement -Easter Sunday , 16 April 2006 : Deansgrange Cemetery , Dublin , 1 pm . Assemble at Cemetery gates and march to Republican Plot .
Easter Monday , 17 April 2006 : Assemble Garden of Remembrance , Parnell Square , Dublin , 2 pm . March to GPO .
National 90th Anniversary Rally , Saturday , 22nd April 2006 : Assemble Garden of Remembrance , 2pm .
Musical Night , Saturday 22nd April 2006 : 'Saints and Sinners' pub , North King Street , Dublin . Doors open 8.30pm . Admission EURO 10 .
"Damn your concessions , England . We want our country!"
MacGIOLLA's GUERRILLAS .......Fifteen years ago , the leadership of the 'Official Republican Movement' (now 'The Workers' Party') stated that their armed wing , the 'Official IRA' , went out of existence .
Today , the 'Official IRA' is alive and well and living mainly in Belfast and Newry . In the days when both organisations were operating in an overt way , the leadership of 'The Workers' Party' and the 'Official IRA' overlapped to a certain degree .
Tomas MacGiolla , the man who led the 'Official IRA' for the last twenty-five years has always maintained the position that the 'Official IRA' went out of existence in 1972 . But the 'Official IRA' still march on , not an army fighting the British , but as a fund-collecting agency .
DEREK DUNNE traces the roots of the 'Official IRA' and 'The Workers' Party' .
From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine , October 1987 .
Tomas MacGiolla was born in Nenagh in 1924 and worked for the ESB between 1948 and 1977 . During the IRA Border Campaign of 1956-1962 he was interned for twenty-one months : publicly there was very little known of his military involvement during this period , if any .
It was he who led the party to the breakthrough * it achieved by getting 'TD's' elected in the November 1982 election , but the party has failed to capitalise on its initial successes ** and remains with only four elected members in Leinster House . ( */** '1169...' Comment - 'breakthrough' and 'success' ? For the personal wealth of those involved , certainly , but definitely not for any improvement in the political situation regarding Britains imposed border on this isle . A development that was to happen again.)
Prionsias De Rossa , hotly tipped as the next leader of the Workers' Party , was born in 1940 and joined the junior wing of the IRA when he was twelve . In 1957 , he joined Sinn Fein and worked to get Tom Mitchell elected to parliament ; Mitchell was a prisoner in Crumlin Road jail in Belfast at the time . De Rossa is respected within the Workers' Party , but he has gone on record with views which might be taken to be at odds with others within his organisation .......
(MORE LATER).
SEAN O' CALLAGHAN : AN UPDATE .......From 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1998 .
By Ursula Halligan.
IRA informer John Corcoran was an epileptic father of eight and a low level garda informant whose body was found in March 1985 in a field in south Kerry ; he had been shot in the head .
The Christmas issue of 'Magill' magazine revealed evidence that gardai knew in advance about plans for the murder but failed to intervene ; there was also evidence of garda reluctance to investigate the murders , including their failure to question Sean O' Callaghan while he was held in prison in the North for eight years for the murder of two members of the British 'security forces' and following his release in December 1996 .
'Magill' has now learned that last Monday , 19 January 1998 , a senior garda officer spoke to Sean O' Callaghan on Mr. O' Callaghan's mobile phone and requested an interview : Mr. O' Callaghan agreed , and it is expected that senior garda will travel to Britain next week to interview him about his role in the murder . Up until now , gardai have told 'Magill' that they were unable to contact O' Callaghan because they did not have his phone number. * ( * '1169...' Comment - Note to self : in order to avoid being 'contacted' by the gardai in future , make sure they don't have your phone number !)
(MORE LATER).
LIAM MELLOWS AND THE IRISH CIVIL WAR .......This is the bulk of a public lecture given at University College , Galway , by Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member and Deputy General Secretary of the 'Local Government and Public Services Union' , Phil Flynn , on December 8th 1982 , the 60th Anniversary of the Free State's execution of Liam Mellows .
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , March 1983 .
" 5. Fianna : We must concentrate on youth - salvation of the country lies in this - both boys and girls . Fianna never get proper help or encouragement , yet the Fianna ideal can save the future . The reason for so many young soldiers going wrong is that they never had a proper grasp of the fundamentals : they were absorbed into the Movement and the fight - not educated into it . Hence no real convictions .
6. Food Control : Food supply will present a serious problem soon . The obstruction of roads , railways and communications will be intensified ; towns will feel it the worst . Some plan of rationing will have to be thought out and some person (a Labour man for preference) put in control . If the Republic is to win out against the Free State and the British we shall have to face the idea of people suffering many privations , but if the 'Food Control' scheme was worked out it will not be so bad . In fact , it would compel a change from the present wretched economic outlook and make them rely on their own resources .
Many things that are now looked on as necessities would have to be done without - tea , sugar , foreign flour etc - but oatmeal , oatflour , barley and other wholesome food would be used . As a matter of fact , Ireland suffered nothing (comparatively speaking) either during the Great War or our war . English people (and English women) cheerfully put up with severe deprivations and we Irish think our Cause worth putting up with anything . But do we ? Judging by the whines and grumbles , one is tempted sometimes to say 'Certainly not' " .
(MORE LATER).
