1169 And Counting.....: 05/28/2006

Friday, June 02, 2006

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 .

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 1980 , a Mr. Josie McKee was shot dead by the UVF: McKee was an Official IRA man who had involved himself with the theft of a load of washing machines from the Docks . The UVF were in on the job , but McKee held onto some of the money himself . The UVF shot him dead at his place of work , and there followed a hurried meeting between the Official IRA and the UVF . Workers' Party representatives went on television and radio and pointed out that the killing was sectarian and that anybody with any information should pass it on to the RUC .

Every Christmas , Official IRA collections for 'Republican Prisoners' are made in West Belfast : the Official IRA had by now only a few prisoners left in jail . Shops are also approached . One chemists shop on the Falls Road which at first declined to 'contribute' had return visits from the collectors ....

The inherent contradictions within The Workers' Party itself are also mirrored in the lifestyles of some of its members : for example , Seamus Lynch , the Belfast WP Councillor , lives in the well-off Antrim Road area and has been known to take elocution lessons . He used to be a Belfast docker and was a political internee , and is frequently seen on television . Following a 'Today Tonight' TV programme outlining some of the excesses of the Official IRA in Belfast , Seamus Lynch was asked for his reaction and he claimed that the programme was "...politically motivated.." .

Some people in the South , especially younger voters who had some leanings towards The Workers' Party , were less than impressed with his performance.......
(MORE LATER).

SHANE ROSS : PLAYING THE ORANGE CARD .......
From 'The Phoenix' magazine , February 1984 .
No By-Line.

Compared to the endless search for realistic initiatives by his respected fellow (State) Senator John Robb , Shane Ross's agonising about the anti-loyalist attitudes in the South of Ireland seems to many just as intolerant and predictable as the "...fundamentalist bible thumping.." he so regularly lambasts . Obviously he enjoys preaching to his own converted , but he appears incapable of reaching out to a wider audience .

Shane Ross still has friends in very high places , many of them carefully attended to with gin 'n' tonics and fancy patter : but even with this , his narrow support base and insular thinking will probably ensure that he never gets the opportunity to shoot his mouth off where it matters most * - Leinster House . ('1169....' Comment * - but that's not where "it matters most" : one more self-serving careerist in that vile institution will make little difference to those of us who are judged by them to have only one function - to maintain them in the style they have become accustomed to.)
[END of 'SHANE ROSS : PLAYING THE ORANGE CARD'.]
(Monday , 5th June - ' THE YOUNGER BREED: ANDY CALLAGHAN' - from 1986.)

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 .

When Rhonda Paisley , DUP , sits back in her easychair on 7 March next (1987) as 'Hostess' of RTE's 'Saturday Night Live' programme , and , acting as a representative of some of 'the other traditions' on this isle , interviews her father , Ian Paisley , DUP , and Sammy Wilson , Mayor of Belfast , DUP , she won't have to worry about Provos or Sinn Feiners answering her back .

Because of the operation of Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act , they won't be there , along with the members of the other groups proscribed by the Act , including the INLA , the UVF and the UDA . And judging by the policies of the main political parties as regards Section 31 they won't be there for quite a while to come . The only opposition in Leinster House to the renewal of Section 31 on 19 January last came from Tomas MacGiolla of The Workers' Party who said it was "...anti-democratic , riddled with anomalies and should therefore be repealed.. " .

Other than that it was passed for another year without comment . Despite recent ambivalence , Fianna Fail still regards Section 31 as a 'necessary evil' , while Fine Gael and the 'Progressive Democrats' maintain a policy of keeping it there . And no Labour Party leader has made a statement on it for over eleven years.......
(MORE LATER).

Thursday, June 01, 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 .

Many members of The Workers' Party in the North of Ireland have 'legally' held handguns : some have .38 Smith and Wesson Specials . The Official IRA have structured meetings with loyalist organisations , and co-operated and continue to co-operate in operating the building site racket whereby watchmen are loyal to them .

During the general election this year , a youth in West Belfast moved posters down a lampost in order to put up the tricolour : he was accused by Workers' Party people of tearing down their posters - two weeks ago (ie September 1987) he was outside an off-licence with friends when three men who represented themselves as members of the Official IRA broke a cider bottle and pushed it into his head .

Up to two years ago , two members of the Workers' Party in Belfast ran all the building-site rackets : they were taking up to £30 per week off each worker , but somebody did their sums and discovered that there was £50,000 short and the two were elbowed aside . There are also regular meetings between the RUC and the Official IRA , or what remains of it - they would have no more than thirty or forty members who go back a long way and can be trusted politically and militarily , and there is also an extraordinary degree of co-operation with the UDA/UVF : the Josie McKee case is as good an example as any .......
(MORE LATER).

SHANE ROSS : PLAYING THE ORANGE CARD .......
From 'The Phoenix' magazine , February 1984 .
No By-Line.

Shane Ross has called for the abolition of the (Free State) Constitution ("...a reactionary instrument..") , the (State) Presidency (".. a humdrum bore..") , Irish neutrality ("...only a doctrinaire commitment..") , proportional representation ("...another sacred cow..") and the "...fairyland (Constitutional) Forum.." .

Ross has not yet told us what he would put in their place , and confines himself to constant belly-aching about our "...sabre rattling.." to the Northern Unionists ; our "...ambiguous fellow-travelling attitude to the terrorists.." ; the "...dictation by celibates.." on public morality and the like .

Gestures of friendship and good neighbourliness are required , says Mr. Ross , because really you know , the majority up North is'nt all that intransigent.......
(MORE LATER).

REPUBLICANS AND YOUTH .
From 'IRIS' magazine , November 1983.
By Jack Madden.

A survey conducted in Dublin last year by Na Fianna Eireann revealed the result of failure to the youth on this isle : conducted among the young unemployed , the survey confirmed the degree of youth alienation from establishment parties but also showed that a large majority considered Sinn Fein to be only 'fair' or even 'poor' in terms of its relevance to young people's interests .

Platitudes about the tragedy of youth unemployment are not enough and the Republican Movement - besides developing radical policies on issues such as child-care and education - needs to evaluate its attitudes to schemes such as the State Youth Employment Agency and towards the voluntary organisations working with young people , such as unemployment groups . It is high time such work was begun .
[END of 'REPUBLICANS AND YOUTH'.]
(Tomorrow : ' THE RIGHT TO SILENCE' - from 1987.)

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Apologises for the late post : 'Google/Blogger' had issues and we were unable to post until a few minutes ago . Should this occur again and you find that '1169...' has not being updated on 'Blogspot' , then please try here , a 'mirror' site we also post on . Go raibh maith agat .

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 .

The Workers Party own the 'Trevor Hill Drinking Club' in Newry , County Down , which is run by party members . In Belfast , they have clubs in Twinbrook , Turf Lodge , Short Strad , the Markets area , Cyprus Street and North Queen Street . The party also owns a bar in Bawnmore .

The Official IRA in Belfast still have a good supply of weapons ; they are heavily involved in racketeering , intimidation , extortion and blackmail . Two years ago (ie 1985) Karen Walsh attended a disco in Glinchin : Workers' Party election workers came in and started to pin badges on people - Karen Walsh made it clear that she did'nt want anything to do with them . When she emerged from the disco there were men waiting in the bushes outside : she was pistol-whipped and a breeze-block was thrown on her legs . Her screams brought local residents out and the men fled , but returned later and knocked at a few doors but left when they were confronted by residents .

A car belonging to John Lowry , a Workers' Party spokesman in Belfast , remained at the scene : local kids took election material from the car and burnt the material , and also did some damage to the car . A few days later , Jamsie McMullin was shot ad kneecapped by people claiming to represent the Official IRA . Following this , John Lowry said that the Workers' Party was not involved with the shooting and that any information should be passed on to the RUC.......
(MORE LATER).

SHANE ROSS : PLAYING THE ORANGE CARD .......
From 'The Phoenix' magazine , February 1984 .
No By-Line.

The other 'big cog' in Shane Ross's electoral machine is his talented wife Ruth Buchanan , whose contacts in RTE and in the Church Of Ireland (she is the daughter of Archbishop Buchanan) are still important , and her input into the early campaigns was crucial .

Shane Ross is a glib social mixer "...full of all the necessary nonsense.." , says one associate , and very popular in the bar at Leinster House . He and P.J. Mara , Charlie Haughey's aide , are as thick as thieves . Politically , though , Ross is something of a mixed bag , regularly proclaiming his independence from party interests yet leaning towards Fine Gael: he has pushed through or initiated motions in the Seanad on extradition , divorce and Garret Fitzgerald's 'Constitutional Crusade'.

But much though he may cherish , and broadcast , his ability to raise issues sensitive to party politicians , one gets the impression that the realities of politics are lost on him.......
(MORE LATER).

REPUBLICANS AND YOUTH .
From 'IRIS' magazine , November 1983.
By Jack Madden.

For years emigration existed as the easy way to forget youth : the unemployed and 'malcontents' could always be expected to leave the country , and to leave the political system which had betrayed them , unchallenged . From birth to emigration the needs of youth were ignored , while an exam-orientated education system geared (and continues to gear) children towards expectations which the State could not fulfil .

Nowadays , with emigration no longer an option , many youth - on leaving school and being confronted with the trauma of the dole queue - are drifting into a morass of apathy , or at best into an undirected hostility towards society .

This antagonism , unfortunately , extends to all political parties , left and right , and it has been helped by the consistent failure of a radical movement such as Sinn Fein to show that an alternative is possible which will be beneficial to today's youth.......
(MORE LATER).

Tuesday, May 30, 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 .

One of the names on one of the 'McNamee cheques' was that of a John Hobden : the same name as that of a member of the Workers' Party in Newry . The other name , on the second cheque , 'John Gartland' , is an alias .

The Newry bank account became very important to The Workers Party in recent times : it was used to take the monies owed from their American enterprises , which are based in California : The Workers Party own several pubs - 'The Starry Plough' in Berkeley , 'The Plough and the Stars' bar in San Francisco , and 'The Poet and The Patriot' bar in Los Angeles . These investments are a good source of income for The Workers Party and a good bet against inflation .

However - Brendan McNamee never called his news conference : two weeks ago (ie September 1987) members of The Workers Party video-taped workers arriving on a building site in the Short Strand area : the workers asked what was happening and they were told that the building of the social club was an historic occasion in the locality and that the tape was being made for the archives of the Short Strand area . Some of the men who were videoed were afterwards approached by different people and asked to hand over some money , and they were led to believe that if they refused , the tape would be forwarded to the social security people (the 'dole' office) - some of the workers were apparently drawing social security money at the same time as they were working .

The Workers' Party have extensive 'interests' in the North , including 'drinking clubs' and bars .......
(MORE LATER).

SHANE ROSS : PLAYING THE ORANGE CARD .......
From 'The Phoenix' magazine , February 1984 .
No By-Line.

Even Shane Ross's opponents have been impressed by his 'election machine' : he is as well organised as any party politician in Leinster House , as professional in his preparation and as meticulous in his image-building . The small team he has gathered around him don't just 'turn on the heat' at election time as was customary in this constituency - they have isolated and identified every interest group on the Trinity College register (electorate 11,000) and will circulate these with 'Ross-bumpf' literature long before an election is due .

No-one knows the electorate's intentions as well as Shane Ross does and he is an extremely hard campaigner - he has altered the whole nature of Trinity Seanad contests . While a lot still rests on the 'old boy network of contacts' , which he has cornered , Ross has also given a high-profile emphasis to his campaign and , with the exception of flamboyant gay rights man David Norris , none of the other candidates has the nerve or inclination to follow him onto this tricky terrain . All in all , his position in the (Free State) Seanad is seen as secure for a few years at least , "...unless he seriously blots his copybook.." , as one associate puts it , darkly .

Paul Tansey has played a big part in this electoral success - he has been directing Shane Ross's campaigns since he first ran for the Seanad and has also been his best friend when it coes to media exposure . Ross , not yet a member of the NUJ , began writing his unremarkable few lines on the Stock Exchange for 'The Irish Times' newspaper when Tansey was business editor in that newspaper . Ross now also has his 'Opinion Piece' on the leader page of 'The Sunday Tribune' newspaper where Paul Tansey is also involved . Ross is also a great pal of Vincent 'Mad Dog' Browne and they are regularly seen together in Doheny's and Nesbitts pub .......
(MORE LATER).

REPUBLICANS AND YOUTH .
From 'IRIS' magazine , November 1983.
By Jack Madden.

Establishment political parties in the 26 Counties have in recent years been re-acting to what they view as an increasingly worrying phenomenon - the alienation of growing numbers of youth from the political system . The sudden realisation by political parties that they can no longer rely on 'traditional hereditary' political affiliations , with children voting as their parents before them , has led to a flurry of activity and the emergence of youth sections such as Young Fine Gael , Ogra Fianna Fail and Labour Youth .

Yet few have been fooled by this apparent new 'concern' for youth welfare , and the youth sections have tended to recruit among the families of people already involved in establishment politics : there they are generally used by aspiring party hacks as an easy way to climb the ladder and catch the eye of the party leaderships . But for the majority of youth , their alienation is so complete that they view these aspiring power-mongers with the same healthy contempt they display to their political leaders .

For more than sixty years the political system of the Free State has ignored its young people ; patronage has been , and is , the means of winning power , with real or imaginary 'favours' to people being traded in return for votes . With the possible exception of queue-jumping into jobs in the civil and public services , young people were irrelevant to this system of patronage.......
(MORE LATER).

Monday, May 29, 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 1984 , Newry businessman Brendan McNamee loaned £6,000 to the Workers' Party in Newry , through an intermediary : he said that he believed it was a loan to the Party in Dublin . A named intermediary cashed two cheques - however , no money was ever received on foot of the cheques .

On 3 May 1984 , three men robbed Mr. McNamee's office of £5,000 : McNamee met with the intermediary and another man in Newry - McNamee had been warned that he was to be robbed . According to Brendan McNamee the two men suggested to him that if he named the person who warned him about the robbery , they would repay the money . In December 1985 , an employee of Mr. McNamee's was approached by a person purporting to act on behalf of the Workers' Party and gave him a few days to pay over £10,000 . The employee was told that the two men purporting to represent the Workers' Party had been sent from Dublin and that if he did not come across with the money he would be shot in the head .

McNamee in his letter threatened that if the money was not repaid within seven days he would call a news conference to publicise the entire affair : he also informed Proinsias De Rossa and Tomas MacGiolla that he had sworn affidavits stating the facts , and if anything 'untoward' happened to anybody in the business , arrangements had been made to forward those affidavits to the law and the media .......
(MORE LATER).

SHANE ROSS : PLAYING THE ORANGE CARD .......
From 'The Phoenix' magazine , February 1984 .
No By-Line.

The resolution of a mid-1970's row with his old man cleared the way for a drive on those particular sections of the Trinity electorate which enjoy hearing , if only for old time's sake , the ritualistic Southern Unionist line being drummed out .

Shane Ross made his first bid at political office in 1977 , tried again at the by-election when the Cruiser resigned in 1979 and made it at last in May 1981 : on this third outing he swept home , outgunning his nearest rival on first preferences by early 300 votes (a 3 per cent margin ) , being elected first on the fourth count . His support held remarkably constant in February 1982 and he increased his share by 150 the following November .

The most impressive feature of his performance is that he has eased out one very firmly entrenched , long-established (State) Senator , Trevor West , and has certainly put the skids under two others - Mary Robinson and Catherine McGuinness : Shane Ross has pushed these two out on a limb to fight against one another for the women's labour/liberal votes , while he mops up on other areas such as the North - some ten per cent of Trinity voters are in the North .......
(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.

There is no doubt that male socialists and republicans find it difficult to accept women as political equals : but power is never relinquished without a struggle and that struggle will take place wherever men and women are gathered together .

The final battle , however , will never be won until women discover their own identity and devise a programme that incorporates the reality of women's lives . That is the task facing all Irish feminists today - instead of continually debating what it is that divides us , is it utopian to hope that we can begin to discover how much we have in common ?
[END of 'WE ARE ALL PART OF THE SAME STRUGGLE'].
(Tomorrow - 'REPUBLICANS AND YOUTH' : from 1983.)