'INTIMIDATION BY FORCE OF ARMS'....... From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, January 1958 .
' Before the court were two girls and two men charged with 'possession' of the 'United Irishman' newspaper ! This is the reason for the 'security precautions' , and why Roslea RUC Barracks has been turned into a veritable fortress .
For some time past this large , modern building , which is equipped with radio and other modern aids to security , has been fortified by having a barrier of sandbags erected in front of the doors and windows , which are also equipped with steel shutters inside . Now several machine gun nests have been constructed of sandbags in the grounds and a wall of sandbags is in the course of erection right round the building so as to allow movement around the barracks even under fire .
RUC dogs also patrol the vicinity and barbed wire entanglements are also in position . Hedges in front of the building have been cut low , apparently to allow for a large field of fire . '
Iron Heel On Roslea :
' British air and ground troops carried out strict security precautions during the holding of a court at Roslea , County Fermanagh , on December 6 , 1957 . A low-flying spotter plane circled the town during the court sitting while RUC men , armed with sten-guns , guarded the court-house outside . Strong patrols were on guard at all approaches to Roslea and all persons entering the town were stopped and questioned....... '
(MORE LATER).
THE YOUNG BLOODS : CLARE DALY....... Swords (Dublin) councillor , Clare Daly , wiped a tear from her eye in the (State) High Court after being sentenced to one month in Mountjoy Prison for contempt of Court in defying an injunction on her blockading bin lorries.
From 'The Phoenix' magazine, September 2003 .
A letter dated February 18 , 2003 , from Fingal County Council to John Glennon of SIPTU, which represents the binmen , quoted Senior Council Executive Officer Joe O' Reilly , as saying - " It is felt that private refuse collection contractors are better equipped to deliver the service . I should be obliged therefore if you could meet .....with a view to discussing the orderly wind-down of the refuse collection service ."
However , last week the Council said that that letter was old hat and that other arrangements have since been reached with the binmen . 'Yeah , right...' , say the anti-bin tax campaigners.
Clare Daly studied accounting and finance in NIHE (now DCU) and joined the Labour Party in 1986 , around the time of the divorce referendum. She was on the 'National(sic) Youth Executive' and the 'Administrative Council' of that Party when in 1989 she , Joe Higgins and ten other members were booted out by Ruairi Quinn and other party bigwigs for being too militant .
Militant Labour then became The Socialist Party. Clare Daly's husband , Michael Murphy, was also a Militant Labour Party member and , presumably , her three-year-old daughter won't be voting Fianna Fail when she grows up.......!
(MORE LATER).
GLOSSARY OF THE LEFT IN IRELAND : FROM 1960 TO 1983....... These notes attempt to record the left-wing organisations which have existed in Ireland since 1960 . No attempt has been made to record purely local organisations outside Dublin and Belfast , or microscopic groups which never reached double figures . The larger organisations have been presented in more detail .
From 'GRALTON' magazine, 1983.
By John Goodwillie.
(NOTE : Links in the following article are as accurate as possible - not all the groups mentioned left a discernible 'footprint' .)
YOUNG SOCIALIST ALLIANCE: Formed in 1968 by people involved with the Young Socialist group , a body oriented to the Northern Ireland Labour Party, (sic) and others of varying orientation . The 'Alliance' acted as a core within People's Democracy before lapsing in 1969 .
YOUNG SOCIALISTS: Various branches of this group were active in Dublin and Belfast and elsewhere in 1967 and succeeding years , with the involvement of members of the Irish Workers Group and the League For A Workers Republic. In Belfast they lapsed after the formation of the Young Socialist Alliance; the groups in the South formed a structure in 1970 , and after 1972 were simply the youth movement of the League For A Workers Republic.
[END of 'GLOSSARY OF THE LEFT IN IRELAND']
(Next-'DEATH AND MYSTERY' : from 2003)
