Hunger Strike Rally , GPO , Dublin , Saturday May 6th 2006 .Remembering the Hunger-Strikers 25 years on.
A rally to commemorate the heroic struggle of the ten hunger-strikers : Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Ray McCreesh, Patsy O'Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Thomas McElwee, Michael Devine - who gave their lives in 1981- will be held in Dublin on Saturday May 6 2006 . Assemble at the Garden of Remembrance at 2pm for march to GPO on O'Connell Street.
"They will not criminalise us, rob us of our true identity, steal our individualism, depoliticise us, churn us out as systemised, institutionalised, decent law-abiding robots. Never will they label our liberation struggle as criminal."
- Bobby Sands.
Twenty-two Irish political prisoners died on hunger-strike between 1917 and 1981 . The Dublin Rally is being held to commemorate all those Irishmen .
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 .
The 'Civil Rights' movement started - it was not controlled by Sinn Fein , although there were Sinn Fein members in it . The loyalists attacked nationalist areas in August 1969 : Roy Johnston's 'script' had nothing in it about armed defence of the population - his theory has assumed that people could exercise basic democratic rights , which were presumed to exist under 'Stage One' of the 'Stages Theory' .
The 'Theory' fell to pieces as the IRA scrambled to get guns to defend the people : the old militarists returned and made much play about the fact that there was no guns to defend anybody - the Dublin administration became involved in funding defence committees : there was a split within Sinn Fein and the IRA - the Provos and the Officials were born , in 1969 - two armies emerged which were to develop in radically different ways .
Between 1969 and 1974 , the political and military control of the Official IRA was vested in more or less the same people , and that situation continued for a number of years into the 1970's . Tomas MacGiolla was Chairman of the OIRA Army Council , Chairman of the the Army Executive (the body responsible for the day-to-day running of the Official IRA and membership of which largely overlapped with the OIRA Army Council) and Chairman of the OIRA Army Convention , the assembly of OIRA Volunteers . This latter group had not met once between 1969 and 1972 .......
(MORE LATER).
GARDA GUN FIRE : WHO TO BELIEVE.......?Close analysis of television news film of incidents last month at Emyvale suggests a garda's gun went off accidentally . But that is not what the Minister of Justice told the Dail .
GENE KERRIGAN looks at the evidence.
From 'MAGILL' magazine , June 1987 .
There are several reasons why the State offers up a different version than that of what millions actually witnessed during the 'Emyvale Incident' , when a garda , Detective Sergeant Joe Darwin , from Monaghan , 'discharged' his weapon :
1). It is important that the circumstances in which garda weapons are discharged are monitored and that such actions be accountable .
2). In November 1982 , a young Dublin man , Eamonn Byrne , was shot dead by a garda at the North Wall in Dublin . Byrne had been arrested and was in handcuffs . The garda's gun went off accidentally . Questions arise about the reliability of garda weapons and the ability of gardai to use their guns in a controlled manner . In March 1986 , a garda detective fired shots in a far from controlled manner when gardai were attempting to arrest Evelyn Glenholmes . The detective had to be restrained by a Sinn Fein member .
3). If TV viewers can see that the official 'explanation' of a shooting does not square with the evidence , the reliability of the State Minister for Justice and of the gardai and the status of Leinster House are put in question . ('1169...' Comment - for Republicans , it does not take a garda shooting for those , or any other , 'institutions' of this State to be 'called into question'.)
4). Above all , the public is simply entitled to frankness and honesty from public servants and representatives .
(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 .
Further evidence of the depth of the political consciousness of Liam Mellows is apparent in the following extracts from an article by him entitled ' Labour and Irish Republic' , published in 'Voice of Labour' on 23rd December 1922 , two weeks after his execution :
" When one talks of freedom for Ireland , one should have clearly in mind what is meant by Irish Freedom . Freedom and independence , as used at present , are terms so ambiguous as to mean anything , or nothing . The mere act ot setting up a Republic is not a panacea for all the ills that trouble Ireland . Measures more far-reaching than that are required if Ireland is to enjoy real freedom .
The revolution going on in Ireland has a threefold aspect - it is intellectual , it is political , it is economic . Of the intellectual aspect , it is sufficient here to say that Ireland , to be free , must be Irish , must be as free from the domination of alien thought as from alien armies of occupation . The end of the political struggle , the withdrawal of the British Army and British officials from Ireland , and the international recognition of the Irish Republic , will be the means of solving many of the present economic and social problems there , enabling the Government of Ireland to devote its entire attention to the internal matters of this country . "
(MORE LATER).
