THE SEEDS OF A POLICE STATE .......There is substantial evidence that a major crime was perpetrated within the Garda Siochana five years ago .
The evidence for this crime has certainly been available to senior Gardai ever since then , but no enquiry whatsoever has taken place , let alone any Garda being disciplined in connection with that crime .
By Vincent Browne and Derek Dunne .
From 'MAGILL' magazine , September 1983 .
In the tunnel , Osgur Breathnach stated that Detective Garda Thomas Fitzgerald and Detective Inspector John Murphy attempted to pull his coat off , that he was slapped , punched , kneed , banged against a wall , that his arms were held , and that he was shouted at . He alleged further that his alleged part in the Sallins mail train robbery was being repeated over and over again to him .
When he was taken back upstairs to the Bridewell Garda Station , he alleged that Detective Garda Thomas Fitzgerald and Detective Inspector John Murphy pulled a chair from under him causing him to fall to the ground , and that he was pulled from one Garda Detective to another , that he was by this time dizzy , sore all over , confused , and had difficulty in breathing . He also alleged that he was beaten by other detectives whom he could not identify , that the statement he signed was not his own , but was concocted by the Gardai , and that he was forced to sign it in order to avoid further beatings .
The time on his statement is 6.00am on Wednesday , April 7 , 1976 - he had been in custody 41 hours at the time of his making a 'confession' . Dr. Noel Smith , who had been the Breathnach family doctor for some years , was asked by relatives to go to the Four Courts to examine Osgur Breathnach prior to the Habeas Corpus application on the afternoon of Wednesday , April 7 , 1976 : he examined Breathnach at 5.15pm that evening , just under 12 hours after the self-incriminatory statement had been signed . The report the doctor gave was shocking.......
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(Martin McGuinness , left , with Henry Kissinger , as usual , on the right ...) DISARMING MARTIN .......
All (P)Sinn Fein leaders have a series of mantras and mini-speeches which they seek to get into every interview , regardless of the question .
The task of the journalist is to avoid setting off these reflex responses : the problem with Martin McGuinness is that he does it so pleasantly that it seems impolite to interrupt him .
From 'MAGILL' magazine , March 1999 .
By John Waters .
The moment of truth is now upon us : as we spoke , at the start of the last week in February , the stalemate remained . And , while the word on the wind , ably assisted by UUP spin doctors , was that Tony Blair was preparing to back the Trimble position on decommissioning in the run up to the March 10th deadline , Martin McGuinness was laying much store on earlier indications from Mo Mowlam that , in the wake of the 'cross-community vote of determination' , she would move to trigger the d'Hondt mechanism which would automatically form the Six County 'executive' complete with two (P) Sinn Fein members .
As Martin McGuinness put it - " From here , it's over , effectively , to the British government , to Tony Blair and Mo Mowlam . The British government has the authority ('1169...' Comment - sic . What 'authority' does the British government have in Ireland ?) now to establish the shadow executive , and have indicated publicly that they would do that in the first few days of March , and that it's their intention then to have powers devolved from both Dublin and London around the 10th of March . Now , the question is : what are Ulster Unionists going to do to stop that , or do the Ulster Unionists want to stop that ? Or are they going to go ahead with that ? Or are they going to , as some people have speculated , bring a proposal before the assembly that (P) Sinn Fein be excluded , have that debate , lose the debate and then press on with the implementation of the agreement , blaming the two governments and so on ? "
That we have reached this state of deja vu is disturbing indeed , given in particular the manner in which the 'Good Friday Agreement' was greeted throughout the world , ('1169...' Comment - " greeted throughout the world " because the Establishments involved in promoting it did so in a misleading fashion ie 'the big lie' that it was 'the end of the age old conflict in Ireland' was pushed by all anti-Republican groups , including those who really should have known better : remember the 'Tri-colour car cavalcade' on the Falls Road ?) culminating in the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize jointly to John Hume and David Trimble.......
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GUNS TO BREAD AND BUTTER .......EDDIE ROONEY looks at the transformation of the Official Republican movement from a revolutionary organisation run by its military wing to a social democratic electoral party .
From 'Fortnight' magazine , 1983 .
Thers is also the question of the lack of internal democracy inside the Workers Party : whether one labels the rigid internal control of members as 'military discipline' or 'democratic centralism' the effect can be stifling , and key decisions have been made over the heads of ordinary members .
Even the OIRA Convention , which traditionally decided which resolutions were to be passed at the Ard Fheis , has not yet been laid to rest . Despite formal democratic procedures , in practice there is little scope for change from below . It is likely only to be a matter of time before the new breed of members feel constrained by this . The problem with implementing more changes lies in the danger of alienating the remaining working-class members .
The Workers Party's recent history suggests that a move towards the 'middle ground' of North of Ireland politics represents a move away from their working-class supporters.......
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