'SECRET ARRESTS AND TRIALS.' From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, January 1958 .
During the weekend December 6 , 7 and 8 last (1957) , a manifesto from the Resistance Movement was posted up throughout Occupied Ireland . The 'Press' and 'Independent' newspapers ignored it for the most part . 'The Sunday Press' in its city edition carried a short paragraph . The false statements from Stormont and British sources are carried in the Dublin newspapers - these are about the only notice events in Occupied Ireland now received in the 26-County State .
No newspaper carried the report on the torture of four young Coalisland , County Tyrone , men , which was released by the Irish Republican Publicity Bureau, on December 5th , 1957 . Six men , arrested in Monaghan in the early part of December 1957 were tried before two courts without any mention in the national press : three of them were sentenced to six months imprisonment each . Their arrests might not have been mentioned either but for the fact that local people informed the press . No word was released by the authorities .
Homes are being raided and men arrested in the 26 Counties without any mention in the newspapers , and these are not isolated instances . But some of our 'national' newspapers are not above sensationalising the news from Occupied Ireland when it suits their book . The attempt here is to discredit the Resistance in the eyes of the people . An example of this can be seen with 'The Sunday Independent' newspaper.......
(MORE LATER).
DERRY : CITY BESIEGED WITHIN THE SIEGE .Derry , once the cockpit of the Northern Irish conflict , has become quarantined in apathy , grimness and deprivation , writes Seamus Deane , the Derry-born poet and writer . In a return look at his native city he finds that its demoralisation has disturbing implications .
From 'FORTNIGHT' magazine, 1983.
Derry , like the rest of the country , is changing into another kind of society . The city I remember was an organic community , although no one would have used such a phrase then . All the talk about community is itself a sign of the thing's disappearance . What is more interesting , but not more attractive , is the kind of city that is now emerging . Built for the automobile , planned in large estates clustered around supermarkeys and 'community' centres , with TV , videos and home computers available at low rentals , it will attempt to give a consumer sheen to the leaden facts of unemployment and political failure .
It is in the imbalance between these two aspects of society that vandalism flourishes . Rebellion separated from its political engagements and violence fostered by the cult of the 'Hard Man' , deprivation surrounded by excess - this is the recipe for organised crime .......
(MORE LATER).
DEATH AND MYSTERY ....... John O Shea was a small farmer and republican . He died at his Kerry home in October 2001 within hours of being released from Garda custody . The inquest into his death raised more questions than it answered and now Kerry County Council has backed calls for a public inquiry . Did John O Shea die from natural causes or is there a more sinister explanation ?
By Mairead Carey.
From 'MAGILL' magazine, May 2003 .
Garda Chief Superintendent Fred Garvey said he is "...quite happy.." there was no altercation with John O' Shea in Garda custody : as to the legality of his arrest , Garvey "...would rather not speculate on it at this stage..". There was no internal inquiry into who told the State pathologist that John O' Shea had been left in the cold for hours , which led to his verdict of hypothermia , nor would there be , said Garvey - " It has gone through the coroner , and there is no problem as far as we are concerned ."
The decision of the county council and the urban council in Tralee to call for a public inquiry was , in Garvey's eyes , certainly not a vote of no confidence in the gardai : " I'm not sure how many of them would have been aware of the investigation anyway..." , was Fred Garvey's opinion.......
(MORE LATER).
