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 .
In April 1987 , Workers Party boss Sean Garland wrote a fifteen-page letter to the editor of 'International Affairs' , a Moscow-based publication , in response to an article about the North of Ireland which had appeared in the paper . In his letter , Sean Garland stated that in 1969 "...the Provisionals began what has continued to this day , a vicious campaign of sectarian assassination .. " but , throughout the letter , there was barely a mention of the Official IRA - the army traditionally aligned to Official Sinn Fein , and what is now The Workers' Party .
In a comment on Bloody Sunday in 1972 , Sean Garland stated that the occasion "...provided the Provisionals and their allies with material to attempt to justify their own terrorist activities .. " . ('1169...' Comment : this ploy [ie the attempt to use the fact that there is opposition to a foreign power as 'justification' as to why that foreign power is there -'to keep the peace'] is still being employed by those in Leinster House against Republicans .) There was no mention of the Aldershot bombing , which was carried out by the Official IRA at the time : at Aldershot , which was the Official IRA response to Bloody Sunday , five cleaning women , a gardener and a priest were killed by a 280 pound bomb at the Parachute Regiment Headquarters .
Neither did Sean Garland tell 'International Affairs' of the fact that the Official IRA shot dead unionist politician Senator Jack Barnhill , or that they attempted to assassinate John Taylor , another unionist politician . Neither did Mr. Garland mention that the Official IRA killed dozens of British soldiers .......
(MORE LATER).
SEAN O' CALLAGHAN : AN UPDATE .......From 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1998 .
By Ursula Halligan.
'Magill' magazine understands that Sean O' Callaghan has recently done a volte face on the subject and is now privately denying that he murdered John Corcoran ; on January 5 last (1998) , Eileen Corcoran , widow of John Corcoran , spoke to RTE's Pat Kenny on his morning radio show about her frustration over the failure of the gardai to question O' Callaghan about his claims . Mrs. Corcoran told 'Magill' that she experienced a great response to the interview -
" So many people came up to me and said they heard me . Many said they never realised what I had been going through until then , " she said . However , Mrs. Corcoran said she was disappointed that the gardai had not contacted her following her interview with Pat Kenny .
[END of 'SEAN O' CALLAGHAN : AN UPDATE']
(Tomorrow - 'GARDA GUN FIRE : WHO TO BELIEVE?' - from 1987.)
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 .
In a modified version of these documents addressed to Ernie O' Malley there are added two further sub-sections , one suggesting the immediate drafting of a Republican Constitution , presumably as an alternative to the Free State constitution , and the other headed 'Military' which declares the outstanding important questions to be intelligence , arms and ammunition , communications , and England . Liam Mellows wrote a further letter to Austin Stack on 11th September 1922 -
" A propos to what I wrote to you sometime ago : the events of the last few days have , I think , made it more clear that what I suggested should be done - it has done more , it has made it imperative . The Free State has shown by Saturday's performance that it was the Provisional Parliament provided by the Free State Act , and not the Third Dail that met .
Therefore the question arises at once - where is the Government of the Republic ? It must be found , Republicans must be provided with a rallying centre , and the Movement with a focussing point ....... "
(MORE LATER).