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 .
Sean Garland was also on the OIRA Army Council by virtue of the fact that he was Adjutant General of the OIRA . Michael Ryan was on the OIRA Army Council because he was the Director of Intelligence : Seamus Costello because he was Director of Operations . Other members were Derry Dineen , Quartermaster General and Sean Kenny , International Affairs . Malachy McGurrin was 'Officer Commanding' of the Official IRA in the North and was also on the OIRA Army Council . Eamonn Smullen also attended meetings following his return from Britain in 1973 .
While it is publicly known that Cathal Goulding was on both the OIRA Army Council and its Executive by virtue of the fact that he was OIRA Chief of Staff , the other leading members of what is now the Workers' Party were less than forthcoming about the part they played - in public , none have ever admitted being on the OIRA Army Council , the supreme decision-making body of that organisation . Neither have any stated publicly when , if at all , they relinquished their posts .
Eamonn Smullen was another very influential figure in that movement ; he had spent time in Portlaoise Prison during 'the Emergency' ; he had been aligned with the Communist Party in Britain and was active in the trade union movement . Eamonn Smullen was convicted in Britain of conspiring to buy arms and returned to Ireland in 1973 - it was he who developed the 'infiltrationist tactics' of the Workers' Party , the objective of which was to saturate various areas such as the media and the trade unions with members and supporters of the Workers' Party . In this they have been largely successful .......
(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 .
Criticism of the garda involved , Detective Sergeant Joe Darwin from Monaghan , is beside the point - in a traumatic event he acted as he thought best - he clearly believed that his life and the lives of his colleagues were under threat . He was entitled in that situation to use his gun . * ( * '1169...' Comment : the fact remains that a trained armed member of the State Gardai fired weapons at un-armed protestors . Criticism of said member should not , in our opinion , be dismissed as being "beside the point" .)
In photographs taken from a tape of the RTE News film of the incident , it can be clearly seen that the plainclothes garda cradles his revolver in both hands ; the gun is cocked . His arms are relaxed and bent , the gun is not aimed - it is pointing straight ahead at the bank of the stream . This is not a firing position - a garda deliberately firing a gun in this position would be acting extremely irresponsibly . Yet this is the scene a fraction of a second before the gun is fired . Then the gun fires . The smoke from the discharge can be faintly seen against the right arm of the uniformed garda (on his left) . The gun is now pointing up at an angle of 45 degrees , 'kicking up' into that position as a result of the recoil as the gun fires .
A fraction of a second later and the garda on his left can be seen to have 'flinched' at the sound of the shot . As stones and other objects , thrown by members of the crowd , land in the stream (where the gardai are) , the garda on the right of the garda with the gun 'flinches' : he is trying to move down to where his colleague is trapped in the over-turned car . The plainclothes garda now raises the gun to a firing position but does not fire - he simply points the gun at the crowd . The uniformed garda on his left turns to the plainclothes garda and grasps his shoulder - this uniformed garda is holding the Uzi submachine gun which was previously used . The uniformed garda on his left has now pushed his colleague back against the wall at the far side of the stream , and has apparently persuaded his colleague to lower his revolver .......
(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 .
In an article by Liam Mellows , entitled 'Labour and Irish Republic' , which was published in 'Voice of Labour' on 23rd December 1922 , he stated -
" Industries will receive encouragement ; employment will increase ; the natural resources of the country tapped ; emigration stopped ; education put on a proper basis , and direct contact with the outside world established . Yet all this , resulting as it would in the country being richer and more prosperous , would not mean that the freedom of Ireland has been attained if the economic system remained unchanged .
A political revolution in Ireland , without a co-incident economic revolution , simply means a change of masters - instead of British capitalists waxing rich on the political and economic enslavement of Ireland , as at present , we would have Irish capitalists waxing rich on the political freedom , but continued enslavement , of Ireland . We do not want a change of masters : it would be foolish , surely , to free Ireland from foreign tyranny today , and less than twenty years hence to have to free it from domestic tyranny . Therefore , the Irish Republic must have for its foundation the people . It is they who are freeing Ireland , and it is for the people - all the people - that it is being done , not for any section or group .
The Dail Eireann had this clearly in mind when , at its first session , in January 1919 ,it issued its 'Programme of Democratic Policy'....... "
(MORE LATER).
