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 .
" From my earliest youth I have regarded the connection between Great Britain and Ireland as the curse of the Irish nation , and felt convinced that , while it lasted , this country could never be free nor happy . My mind has been confirmed in this opinion by the experience of every succeeding year , and the conclusions which I have drawn from every fact before my eyes . In consequence , I was determined to employ all the powers which my individual efforts could move , in order to separate the two countries .
That Ireland was not able of herself to throw off the yoke , I knew ; I therefore sought for aid wherever it was to be found . In honourable poverty I rejected offers which , to a man in my circumstances , might be considered highly advantageous . I remained faithful to what I thought the cause of my country , and sought in the French Republic an ally to rescue three millions of my countrymen " . -Theobald Wolfe Tone .
THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT : INSIDE THE NORTHERN IRELAND (sic) PEACE TALKS (sic).......From 'MAGILL' magazine , November 1997 .
By Fionnuala O' Connor .
From top to bottom , Ulster (sic) unionists view the Stormont talks as a threat , not as a 'promise' : at Stormont , most other groups think that far from developing a commitment to negotiation , David Trimble has been trapped - 'sandbagged' , first , by the collapse of the (Westminster) Conservatives , then steadily squeezed by the (P)IRA's snap re-instatement of their ceasefire , pressure from Tony Blair's government , US White House coaxing , and a growing but still only semi-coherent grassroots and middle-level belief among his own Ulster Unionist Party that they face a worse future if no one represents them in negotiations .
The outcome is evident in the behaviour in talks of the UUP : " They are still in two minds , as if they had just wakened up and found that they're in there , " says one observer . On October 25 last , in Newcastle , County Down , the party's annual conference was more relaxed than in recent years , but neither speeches nor delegates' behaviour suggested whole-heartedness . Critics pulled punches , like M.P. Willie Ross , or stayed silent like M.P. Willie Thompson . Several talks participants , including David Trimble , assured the hall that though sharing a building with 'Sinn Fein/IRA' they were not negotiating with them and certainly not 'fraternising' with them , as Trimble put it .
There were wry smiles at the absence of UUP Deputy Leader John Taylor , enigmatic as always , scheduled to lead off the sole conference debate on the talks process , but unable to attend due to illness , the platform announced . Taylor was Trimble's chief rival in the contest that decided the party leadership and never hides his opinion of the David Trimble 'style' - " I say to David , you really must calm down..." , he told a BBC TV 'profile' programme , chortling while he done so .......
(MORE LATER).
THE YOUNGER BREED : ANDY CALLAGHAN.......From 'The Phoenix' magazine , April 1986 .
No By-Line .
In a speech he made at the Edentubber Martyrs Commemoration in November 1975 , Andy Callaghan stated - " It (Fianna Fail) has spat on every known republican principle and yet has the gall to proclaim that they are guardians of a heroic line from Vinegar Hill to Edentubber . We (he was still with Sinn Fein then !) left it to Jack Lynch to make speeches , we left it to the Stickies to read books on the theory of 'World Revolution' . The rattle of one Thompson is worth more than a library of Marxist pamphlets. "
However , Andy was only 20 at this time : like one or two others who have since joined Fianna Fail , he became disillusioned with the direction the armed struggle was taking and he often cites the Le Mon bombings as his reason for disengaging from Sinn Fein : another reason for quitting was that he had begun to teach English at the C.U.S. School , Leeson Street , Dublin , in 1978 - he did his H.Diploma there and remained on the full-time staff until 1983 , when he left his teaching post (in June of that year) , a little over a year after his father's death , and joined his brother Joe in the family's painting and decorating business .
That business is moderately successful and , ironically , last year (ie 1985) picked-up a contract to paint the Curragh (Free State) Army Camp - that one-time prison for republicans.......
(MORE LATER).
THE RIGHT TO SILENCE.......Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act has just been renewed for another year by State Communications Minister Jim Mitchell , despite increasing protests and lobbying by the NUJ .
HELEN O'CONNOR examines the results of a recent NIHE survey of the attitudes of Dublin people on the issue and GERRY LAVERY looks back to the roots of Section 31 .
From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine , February 1987 .
General Secretary of the (Free State) Labour Party , Ray Kavanagh , calls Charlie Haughey's statements about the possible lifting of Section 31 censorship "...mere opportunism.." - according to Kavanagh , if Charlie Haughey ever got into power he would do exactly what he said he would do and seek the advice of the State's 'security advisors' : " And what would they say ? They would say 'No' . And that would be the end of Fianna Fail getting rid of Section 31. "
As for the Labour Party supporters polled in relation to Section 31 censorship , seven out of every ten disapproved of the restrictions imposed by the Act , and the same number favoured giving Sinn Fein access to the airwaves . The Labour Party does not have a current policy on this form of censorship ('1169...' Comment : if it affected them , policy on the issue would be coming out their ears!) but the matter is coming up for debate at their conference in May , 1987 : " There are opposing views inside the party . You can take it for granted that if we were very much against it , we'd be saying so , " , says Ray Kavanagh who , when asked , cannot remember any Labour Party leader coming out with any statement on the matter for the eleven years that he has been a member !
The poll also showed that Progressive Democrat supporters were not of the same mind as their party leadership in relation to Section 31 censorship.......
(MORE LATER).
