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 .
David Trimble's submission stated : " The British Isles is divided into two sovereign states , the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (sic) on the one hand , and the Republic of Ireland (sic) on the other . In international law there are and ought to be no constitutional issues between these two states . In so far as it does not already do so , the law and practice of each state should conform with the above statement . "
As delegates rose to give him a decent-enough standing ovation , John Taylor's young assistant Stephen King turned to the nearest journalist to point out how inaccurate his leader's references were to Charlie Haughey and the Arms Trial : the Ulster Unionist Party , David Trimble had just said , want Tony Blair to match any inquiry into Bloody Sunday with another into "...the actions of Fianna Fail and the Irish government (sic) in 1970 . " Cries of 'Hear , Hear!' from delegates , loud applause . " But he got it all wrong , " said Stephen King , " it is my PhD subject . He might have checked."
Stephen King's then boss in the Ulster Unionist Party , John Taylor , was later to make the headlines for 'wrongfooting' his own party leader , David Trimble.......
(MORE LATER).
THE YOUNGER BREED : ANDY CALLAGHAN.......From 'The Phoenix' magazine , April 1986 .
No By-Line .
Andy Callaghan , like so many of the 'young hawks' in Fianna Fail , is not afraid to plough-in all his energy and resources when it comes to winning an election : he claims to have had 35 cars working for him on election day and some within the constituency maintain that he spent in the region of £10,000 on the campaign . Some of the fallout from that campaign was seen earlier this month when a case against his election agent , Seamus Concannon , for breach of the peace was adjourned until next month in Dublin's district court .
The incident involved Adele Ramsey's (young Andy's running-mate in Fianna Fail) father who alleges that Seamus Concannon , in a fit of temper , swerved his car at him while he was working under it ! Andy Callaghan recently widened his feud with the Ramseys by packing an Ogra Fianna Fail meeting with supporters and seeing off young Adele as Chairperson : the next round in this Crumlin feud is a libel action against two of Andy Callaghan's cumann members , as Adele strikes back .
If it's not quite Montagu vs. Capulet , it's not too far from West Side Story.......
(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 .
Sinn Fein are fielding 27 candidates in 24 constituencies in the coming election and are hopeful of winning seats on the transfers in three or four of these . Even though Sinn Fein is fielding this number of candidates it cannot conduct party political broadcasts on RTE since the (State) Supreme Court case in 1982 where that court upheld the right of the (State) Minister for Communications to prevent any such broadcasts .
At the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis in November 1986 a motion was passed that all members would refuse to pay TV licence fees as an objection to Section 31 censorship and their exclusion from the airwaves . And even though the latest (State) Ministerial Order renewing Section 31 specifically bans '...the organisation styling itself Republican Sinn Fein ..' they are hoping that international pressure from the International Federation of Journalists who recently visited Ireland for the purpose of monitoring the operation of Section 31 and a United Nations group called 'Article 19' which investigates State Censorship in places like South Africa will at some stage put an end to what Sinn Fein's John Doyle calls the "...ridiculous silent movies of Sinn Fein press conferences.." .
Niall Meehan also says that international pressure will sway the groundswell of public opinion in Ireland about Section 31 .......
(MORE LATER).