1169 And Counting.....: 04/16/2006

Friday, April 21, 2006

National 90th Anniversary Rally , Saturday , 22nd April 2006 : Assemble Garden of Remembrance , 2pm .
Musical Night , Saturday 22nd April 2006 : 'Saints and Sinners' pub , North King Street , Dublin . Doors open 8.30pm . Admission EURO 10 .
"Damn your concessions , England . We want our country!"

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 1962 , Cathal Goulding was at an extraordinary IRA Convention (a meeting of IRA Volunteers) at which the dropping of abstentionism was brought up ; to do so would allow Sinn Fein elected representatives to take their seats in Leinster House , Stormont and Westminster . Cathal Goulding was later to say of this proposal -

" We wanted to clear the ground (in the North) for politial action . In other words to gain freedom for political manoeuvrability . The first thing we needed was civil rights . " Goulding was then the acknowledged Chief of Staff of the IRA . Roy Johnston returned to Ireland in 1963 and involved himself with the Wolfe Tone Society ; he became 'Education Officer' for the Republican Movement , as well as its political commissar .

Roy Johnston , Cathal Goulding and Tomas MacGiolla developed their own version of 'Marxism' , peculiar to the Irish situation . They had few links with international groups , and they began to develop the perspective - in the light of the failed military campaign - which the Workers' Party espouses today . That perspective still has very few international connections , and embodys a form of 'Marxism' which is , as stated , unique to the Irish situation .......
(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 .

On Wednesday , May 11th , 1987 , Gerry Collins (Fianna Fail) told Leinster House that as well as firing the Uzi in the air , Detective Sergeant Joe Darwin from Monaghan "...drew his handgun and fired one further shot over the heads of the crowd in an effort to make them disperse . "

Collins' statement seemed to reflect an inadequate and inaccurate briefing ; apart from stating that the revolver shot was deliberately fired he also stated that the Uzi was discharged after the car was pushed into the stream - television film clearly showed the garda firing the Uzi before the car was pushed into the stream . Detective Darwin was trying to frighten away the crowd pushing the car .

Gerry Collins also stated that the revolver was fired after the trapped garda was released from the over-turned car : television film shows that the revolver discharged before the garda was freed . These latter inaccuracies are unimportant except in so far as they raise doubts about the credibility of Gerry Collins' statement , although this is not intended to suggest that he deliberately misrepresented the situation . The important point is that the accidental discharge of the weapon was in the official account turned into a deliberate warning shot .......
(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 .

Commenting in December 1933 , on the life and times of Liam Mellows , Cumann na mBan stated :

" Writing of transport and the banking system , Liam Mellows wrote - " All transport , railways , canals etc will be operated by the State - the Republican State - for the benefit of the workers and the farmers . All banks will be operated by the State for the benefit of industry and agriculture , not for the purpose of profit-making by loans , mortgages etc . That the land of the aristocracy (who support the Free State and the British connection) will be seized and divided amongst those who can and will operate it for the nation's benefit ."

Cumann na mBan continued - " Eleven years have passed since Liam Mellows was silenced forever by a British bullet . Eleven years of native rule ! In those years our pillar boxes have changed from red to green , our enemies' uniforms have changed from khaki to green , and may become grey . Our coins have changed from king's head to pigs and hens , and our very name has changed from Ireland to the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland , and may shortly be christened a 'Republic' . Yet fundamentally the organisation of the people's lives has remained unchanged : the same hunger , want , insecurity and man-made misery stalk through the length and breadth of Ireland ....... "
(MORE LATER).

Thursday, April 20, 2006

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's involvement goes back more than thirty years ; towards the end of 1955 , when he was in the IRA , he was involved in an aborted attempt to free Cathal Goulding , a senior member of the organisation , from a British jail , using a hired DC3 airplane .

He also joined the British Army to gather intelligence for an IRA raid on Gough Barracks , and in 1956 , took part in the raid on Brookborough Barracks , during which two IRA men , Sean South and Fergal O' Hanlon , were killed , and Sean Garland was hit in the leg . When he returned south of the border he was arrested and given six months in jail for refusing to answer questions !

Garland was part of the 're-think' that went on within the Republican Movement from 1960 onwards ; so also was Cathal Goulding , and a Marxist computer scientist called Roy Johnston , Tomas MacGiolla and others . Goulding had been elected onto the IRA Army Council - the 'supreme body' of the IRA - in the 1940's and had spent eight years in British jails for his part in the raid on Felsted Barracks when the IRA tried to obtain weapons .

As a result of his imprisonment , he missed the Border Campaign .......
(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 .

When the PIRA fired shots over the coffin of Jim Lynagh , a plainclothes garda , Detective Sergeant Joe Darwin from Monaghan , fired several bursts from an Uzi submachine gun , firing in the air in an attempt to stop a crowd from pushing a garda car into a stream . Photographs of the incident show that the garda also fired at body level .

That garda and two uniformed colleagues ended up in the stream ; they wanted to free another garda who was in the over-turned car - the crowd were throwing traffic cones and other missiles at the gardai ; during this incident the plainclothes garda , Detective Sergeant Joe Darwin from Monaghan , drew his revolver . The revolver subsequently appeared to be discharged accidentally .

Towards the end of the RTE News bulletin at 9pm that evening , film of the incident was shown - the gun plainly appeared to be discharged accidentally . Half an hour later the footage was shown on ITN News : both British channels showed the footage the following morning on their breakfast programmes , and it was shown again on RTE that night . Two days later , Fianna Fail's Gerry Collins delivered what many believe to be an inaccurate statement in Leinster House on the incident .......
(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 .

While others saw only the symbol of the oath of allegiance to a foreign king , Liam Mellows understood that the purpose of British policy was to create a political garrison in Ireland to replace the military garrison whose position had become untenable . Mellows saw that out of the revolutionary movement itself , a political party had been formed whose existence was bound up with retaining intact the British system of law , politics and social relations : that the old colonial relationship was preserved in a new form .

The significance and continuing relevance of Liam Mellows is well expressed in the following extract from an article on his life and aims published by Cumann na mBan in December 1933 , the 11th anniversary of his execution :

" Under the Fianna Fail government , industry is organised for the benefit of the British combines or for the British or Irish capitalists . The Fianna Fail government actually boasts of industries being set up under these conditions . Recently it is rumoured that three foreign firms are about to start the manufacture of cement in three different parts of Ireland . Imagine a government of men professing a love of , and an interest in , their country , permitting the private ownership - at this stage of the world - of such a vital necessity as cement ! It is no wonder England is not disturbed at the prospect of losing political control of part of this country while she is assured of the economic domination of the whole country . "
(MORE LATER).

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

EASTER RISING 1916-2006 : 90th Anniversary Events organised by the Republican Movement -

Easter Sunday , 16 April 2006 : Deansgrange Cemetery , Dublin , 1 pm . Assemble at Cemetery gates and march to Republican Plot .
Easter Monday , 17 April 2006 : Assemble Garden of Remembrance , Parnell Square , Dublin , 2 pm . March to GPO .
National 90th Anniversary Rally , Saturday , 22nd April 2006 : Assemble Garden of Remembrance , 2pm .
Musical Night , Saturday 22nd April 2006 : 'Saints and Sinners' pub , North King Street , Dublin . Doors open 8.30pm . Admission EURO 10 .
"Damn your concessions , England . We want our country!"

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 went on to say that "...the enemy today is Anglo-American imperialism . We must all the time be conscious of this fact . " He makes no mention of the fact that the Workers' Party support what could be termed the bastion of ' Anglo-American imperialism' - multinational investment .

Neither did he mention that the Workers' Party are now effectively pro-EEC . Sean Garland is indicative of the Workers' Party today - he epitomises the contradictions and the changes that have manifested themselves . It could be considered a source of wonderment how a party that has changed so much could still be led by the same people . ('1169....' Comment : we could supply a link here to another Leinster House-registered political party which "has changed so much [despite being] led by the same people... " [since 1986 , that is - when they registered themselves as a political party] , but we believe you know to whom we refer!)

What is now the Workers' Party has gone from a position of traditional militant republicanism to espousing an ideology which is ostensibly hard left . They also claim to have severed all links with their military tendency . However , the Official IRA is still active , mainly in Belfast .......
(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 .

Gardai very rarely fire their guns . When they do , their actions become the subject of public scrutiny ; the facts are required to be explained to Leinster House by the State Minister for Justice .

On Wednesday , May 11 1987 , Gerry Collins gave an account of incidents of two days previously , in Emyvale , County Monaghan , when a garda detective fired both from a submachine gun and a revolver . Collins' account denied the truth of what was evident from the TV news reports seen by hundreds of thousands of people . The garda's revolver was seen to have been discharged accidentally . As a result of what happened , two garda representative organisations have been drawn into conflict with one another over the facts and the interpretation of the facts .

The Garda Representative Association and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors have tangled with each other publicly as to whether the gun was fired accidentally or not . The incidents happened on the evening of Monday , May 11 , 1987 , at Emyvale , County Monaghan , when the body of James Lynagh , one of the eight IRA members killed in the ambush at Loughgall , was being carried through the town on its route from the North of Ireland to Monaghan . There was a confrontation between gardai and the Provisionals when the latter fired shots over Jim Lynagh's coffin .......
(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 .

On 11th September , 1922 , Liam Mellows wrote to Austin Stack : -
" The unemployed question is acute . Starvation is facing thousands of people ; the official Labour Movement has deserted the people for the flesh-pots of Empire . The Free State government's attitude towards striking postal workers makes clear what its attitude towards workers generally will be . The situation created by all these must be utilised for the Republic . The position must be defined : FREE STATE - Capitalism and industrialism - Empire . REPUBLIC - Workers - Labour . "

There is strong evidence that Liam Mellows was very influenced by James Connolly and certainly they had a lot in common politically as is clear from these documents . For example , the connection between the national and social struggles and the sense of internationalism . As Desmond Greaves points out in his book - " In his analysis of the character of the proposed Free State he must surely have been one of the first to discuss the new methods of imperial domination ... " (subsequently christened 'neo-colonialism') .

His insistence on politics , his demand for a return to the masses as the basis of the revolution , for the political education of republican soldiers , and for the establishment of a new revolutionary government , show him to have been as Peadar O' Donnell justly remarked - " ...the richest mind our race has achieved for many a long day .. "
(MORE LATER).

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

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 April 1987 , Workers Party boss Sean Garland wrote a fifteen-page letter to the editor of 'International Affairs' , a Moscow-based publication , in response to an article about the North of Ireland which had appeared in the paper . In his letter , Sean Garland stated that in 1969 "...the Provisionals began what has continued to this day , a vicious campaign of sectarian assassination .. " but , throughout the letter , there was barely a mention of the Official IRA - the army traditionally aligned to Official Sinn Fein , and what is now The Workers' Party .

In a comment on Bloody Sunday in 1972 , Sean Garland stated that the occasion "...provided the Provisionals and their allies with material to attempt to justify their own terrorist activities .. " . ('1169...' Comment : this ploy [ie the attempt to use the fact that there is opposition to a foreign power as 'justification' as to why that foreign power is there -'to keep the peace'] is still being employed by those in Leinster House against Republicans .) There was no mention of the Aldershot bombing , which was carried out by the Official IRA at the time : at Aldershot , which was the Official IRA response to Bloody Sunday , five cleaning women , a gardener and a priest were killed by a 280 pound bomb at the Parachute Regiment Headquarters .

Neither did Sean Garland tell 'International Affairs' of the fact that the Official IRA shot dead unionist politician Senator Jack Barnhill , or that they attempted to assassinate John Taylor , another unionist politician . Neither did Mr. Garland mention that the Official IRA killed dozens of British soldiers .......
(MORE LATER).

SEAN O' CALLAGHAN : AN UPDATE .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1998 .
By Ursula Halligan.

'Magill' magazine understands that Sean O' Callaghan has recently done a volte face on the subject and is now privately denying that he murdered John Corcoran ; on January 5 last (1998) , Eileen Corcoran , widow of John Corcoran , spoke to RTE's Pat Kenny on his morning radio show about her frustration over the failure of the gardai to question O' Callaghan about his claims . Mrs. Corcoran told 'Magill' that she experienced a great response to the interview -

" So many people came up to me and said they heard me . Many said they never realised what I had been going through until then , " she said . However , Mrs. Corcoran said she was disappointed that the gardai had not contacted her following her interview with Pat Kenny .
[END of 'SEAN O' CALLAGHAN : AN UPDATE']
(Tomorrow - 'GARDA GUN FIRE : WHO TO BELIEVE?' - from 1987.)

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 a modified version of these documents addressed to Ernie O' Malley there are added two further sub-sections , one suggesting the immediate drafting of a Republican Constitution , presumably as an alternative to the Free State constitution , and the other headed 'Military' which declares the outstanding important questions to be intelligence , arms and ammunition , communications , and England . Liam Mellows wrote a further letter to Austin Stack on 11th September 1922 -

" A propos to what I wrote to you sometime ago : the events of the last few days have , I think , made it more clear that what I suggested should be done - it has done more , it has made it imperative . The Free State has shown by Saturday's performance that it was the Provisional Parliament provided by the Free State Act , and not the Third Dail that met .

Therefore the question arises at once - where is the Government of the Republic ? It must be found , Republicans must be provided with a rallying centre , and the Movement with a focussing point ....... "
(MORE LATER).

Monday, April 17, 2006

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 .

Belfast Workers' Party councillor Seamus Lynch last week called for full support for the RUC ; another Workers' Party spokesperson in Belfast , Mary McMahon , has consistently called for full support and co-operation with the RUC by nationalists . ('1169...' Comment : the 'Workers' Party' left the Republican Movement in 1969 and slowly began the metamorphosis into not only an anti-Republican political party , but an actual pro-British criminal gang : such was the price demanded for their admittance to the 'establishment' . Those same demands are being made again to a slightly different grouping , and will be conceeded to , again .)

But the current positions of both McMahon and Lynch contrast sharply with what De Rossa has said : in an interview with 'Gralton' magazine in October 1983 , * Prionsias De Rossa (* '1169....' Comment : who was then still with the 'Workers Party' - ie before he helped to form 'Democratic Left' and also before he joined the 'Labour Party' . That is , when he was only 'slightly constitutional' ... ) said - " We have policy , developed as far back as 1975 , of demanding the de-militarisation of the RUC . So we , in fact , give only qualified support to the RUC , with demands that it be reformed , de-militarised and have a complaints procedure etc " . This volte face , while it may appear insignificant on the surface , goes to the heart of the contradictions within the Workers' Party . ('1169....' Comment : the issue of 'policing' in the Six Counties is again causing contradictions for those who now follow in the footsteps of the 'Workers Party' . )

The Workers' Party have a tightly structured centralist organisation , with more or less the same people running the show for the past twenty-five years . One of the most influential of these has been Sean Garland , current General Secretary of the Workers' Party .......
(MORE LATER).

SEAN O' CALLAGHAN : AN UPDATE .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1998 .
By Ursula Halligan.

Sean O' Callaghan , who has been living in Britain since his release from jail , told 'Magill' magazine he was always available to speak to the gardai and that his mobile phone number had been available to journalists for the last 12 months . In early December , 'Magill' gave the gardai his mobile-phone number . The garda who spoke to Sean O' Callaghan is the officer who was appointed over a year ago to investigate claims , first made by O' Callaghan in 1988 and repeated in interviews with 'The Sunday Times' and 'The Boston Globe' newspapers , that he murdered John Corcoran and that he warned the gardai several times that John Corcoran's life was in danger .

In the interview with 'The Sunday Times' in 1992 , O' Callaghan said he informed the gardai about Corcoran's abduction and where Corcoran was being held captive : he said - " When I returned , I removed Corcoran to a shed . I had him quiet and calm . He thought it was going to be a press conference . I wanted him to think that , because I fully expected gardai to arrive and all of us to be arrested and questioned . The police did not come , and three hours later I put a Beretta machine-pistol to Corcoran's head and shot him dead . "

However , when interviewed by 'Magill' in December 1997 , Sean O' Callaghan would neither confirm nor deny the previous accounts he gave to newspapers on how he murdered John Corcoran .......
(MORE LATER).