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 .
Belfast Workers' Party councillor Seamus Lynch last week called for full support for the RUC ; another Workers' Party spokesperson in Belfast , Mary McMahon , has consistently called for full support and co-operation with the RUC by nationalists . ('1169...' Comment : the 'Workers' Party' left the Republican Movement in 1969 and slowly began the metamorphosis into not only an anti-Republican political party , but an actual pro-British criminal gang : such was the price demanded for their admittance to the 'establishment' . Those same demands are being made again to a slightly different grouping , and will be conceeded to , again .)
But the current positions of both McMahon and Lynch contrast sharply with what De Rossa has said : in an interview with 'Gralton' magazine in October 1983 , * Prionsias De Rossa (* '1169....' Comment : who was then still with the 'Workers Party' - ie before he helped to form 'Democratic Left' and also before he joined the 'Labour Party' . That is , when he was only 'slightly constitutional' ... ) said - " We have policy , developed as far back as 1975 , of demanding the de-militarisation of the RUC . So we , in fact , give only qualified support to the RUC , with demands that it be reformed , de-militarised and have a complaints procedure etc " . This volte face , while it may appear insignificant on the surface , goes to the heart of the contradictions within the Workers' Party . ('1169....' Comment : the issue of 'policing' in the Six Counties is again causing contradictions for those who now follow in the footsteps of the 'Workers Party' . )
The Workers' Party have a tightly structured centralist organisation , with more or less the same people running the show for the past twenty-five years . One of the most influential of these has been Sean Garland , current General Secretary of the Workers' Party .......
(MORE LATER).
SEAN O' CALLAGHAN : AN UPDATE .......From 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1998 .
By Ursula Halligan.
Sean O' Callaghan , who has been living in Britain since his release from jail , told 'Magill' magazine he was always available to speak to the gardai and that his mobile phone number had been available to journalists for the last 12 months . In early December , 'Magill' gave the gardai his mobile-phone number . The garda who spoke to Sean O' Callaghan is the officer who was appointed over a year ago to investigate claims , first made by O' Callaghan in 1988 and repeated in interviews with 'The Sunday Times' and 'The Boston Globe' newspapers , that he murdered John Corcoran and that he warned the gardai several times that John Corcoran's life was in danger .
In the interview with 'The Sunday Times' in 1992 , O' Callaghan said he informed the gardai about Corcoran's abduction and where Corcoran was being held captive : he said - " When I returned , I removed Corcoran to a shed . I had him quiet and calm . He thought it was going to be a press conference . I wanted him to think that , because I fully expected gardai to arrive and all of us to be arrested and questioned . The police did not come , and three hours later I put a Beretta machine-pistol to Corcoran's head and shot him dead . "
However , when interviewed by 'Magill' in December 1997 , Sean O' Callaghan would neither confirm nor deny the previous accounts he gave to newspapers on how he murdered John Corcoran .......
(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 .
" 7. Communications .
(A) Abroad - Routes and men must be sought out and maintained , at all costs , for the following - England , Scotland , America , Germany , Belgium , France , Russia , Italy .
(B) Home - Very essential .
8. Foreign . India : Is'nt the time approaching when we should be in closer touch ?
9. By-elections . Don't suppose these can take place under present conditions , but we must keep our eyes open .
10. Bishops . Can anything be done by a number of clergy coming together ? "
(MORE LATER).
