ANNUAL WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION : Sunday , June 11 , 2006 , Sallins , Co. Kildare .
A bus for this Commemoration , which is organised each year by the Republican Movement , will leave from outside the old McBirneys/Virgin Megastore site on Dublin's Aston Quay at 12.45PM on the day : the Commemoration itself starts at 2.30PM .
The same bus will leave Bodenstown at 5.30PM that afternoon on its return to Dublin city centre . The fare is ten Euro per person .
For information on the death of Wolfe Tone , scroll through this piece (article starts on March 9 on that page) which was published on this blog last year .
"To subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils and to assert the independence of my country- these were my objectives. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissensions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter - these were my means." -Theobald Wolfe Tone .
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 December 1985 , five men , including a Mr. Anthony McDonagh , pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud the Inland Revenue in the North : McDonagh was described in court as an Official IRA Commander . The scam involved securing tax-exemption certificates with the intention of making deductions from employees on building sites : it was not the intention of those operating the fraud to pay the money over and the company involved , Broadmine Ltd , would have been 'folded' before the time came to settle with the Revenue people .
There is plenty of evidence available to the public that the Official IRA are still in existence ; embarrassingly , Official IRA people are still making appearances in court on charges , almost exclusively relating to money-gathering activities .
In 1985 , Peter Halpenny and Benny Holden hi-jacked a taxi and kidnapped the driver in an attempted £10,000 robbery at the Larne ferry : both were Official IRA men and were members of Official drinking clubs in Belfast . In December 1985 , Newry businessman Brendan McNamee wrote to Tomas MacGiolla and Prionsias De Rossa at Leinster House : Mr. McNamee had a story to tell about money that was loaned .......
(MORE LATER).
SHANE ROSS : PLAYING THE ORANGE CARD .......From 'The Phoenix' magazine , February 1984 .
No By-Line.
The young Shane Ross was sent , quite properly , to Rugby public school for some character building : after a colourful stay during which , by his own admission , he "...twice narrowly avoided expulsion for drinking and gambling .. " he took his assorted talents to Trinity to study history . Here he met and befriended two people who were to play crucial roles in the construction of Ross's now substatial public platform - Paul Tansey (the former 'Irish Times' and now 'Sunday Tribune' economics guru) and Ruth Buchanan (whom he married) .
Not that these relationships served to mellow Ross in any way - if anything , he became wilder than ever and his reputation as a ranter survives within the hallowed portals of TCD to this day . Ironically , some of those who now feature most prominently among the supporters of Shane Ross for the Seanad seat were the first to disown him as 'a waster' in College ! But Shane did find time for some preliminary political activity - he ran for auditor of one of the prestigious debating societies but failed by three votes . After that , he turned to the Student Representative Council (the forerunner of the current Students Union) where he was Secretary and PRO , but was beaten in election for 'President' by Paul Tansey , who actually got in thanks to Ross's transfers : Tansey was to repay this 'favour' handsomely in the years to come .
Having moved into the rarified world of stockbroking with Dillon and Waldron of Anglesea Street in Dublin , Ross began to gear himself up for a challenge on political office .......
(MORE LATER).
" WE ARE ALL PART OF THE SAME STRUGGLE ....... " MARGARET WARD , author of a recent book 'UNMANAGEABLE REVOLUTIONARIES' , on the role of women in the national struggle , argues critically that republicans need to develop a non-elitist attitude of support for the feminist movement as an integral part of the liberation struggle .
From 'IRIS' magazine , November 1983 .
No By-Line.
To the outsider , it sometimes appears as though the setting up of separate Women's Departments becomes a mechanism which allows men to escape from the necessity of having to think or do anything about the problems facing women . Feminists within organisations are thereby 'penned in' and contained - or at least , the more reactionary elements can hope this will be the case . But solidarity begins at home , brother !
We have only to look back on our history to see how much women are capable of , and how much more we will achieve when we have developed a strong , unified Movement : we threaten male power and male power does not reside only in the ruling elite of our society - all men benefit from women's domestic labour within the home and from her unequal position within the workplace......
(MORE LATER).
