A MANIFESTO : BRITAIN MUST WITHDRAW HER FORCES.This Manifesto was posted throughout Occupied Ireland during the week beginning December 6 , 1957 , and ending on December 12 .
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, January 1958 .
" TO THE PEOPLE OF BRITISH OCCUPIED IRELAND :
On this , the first anniversary of the December 12 , 1956, Revolt against foreign tyranny and occupation we send you greetings on behalf of the heroic freedom fighters and the men and women of the Resistance . Your sacrifices during the past 12 months have proved to the world that the historic Irish Nation still lives ; that it has not accepted and will never accept British Imperial domination over the affairs of our country .
You have suffered in the cause of National Resistance . Your homes have been raided systematically by day and by night . Your sons have been jailed without charge or trial and when not jailed , unceasingly interrogated and intimidated . Intensified police terrorism has not broken your spirit . You have consistently stood up against this tyranny to the utmost of your power .
Be assured that the people of the 26 Counties and Irish exiles everywhere are slowly becoming aware of your sufferings for the cause of Irish liberty and unity . Be assured that victory will be ours in the end . Since this Revolt began seven of our comrades have made the supreme sacrifice. We shall not forget them . Their deaths have made us more determined to carry on the work for which they gave their lives . Their names will live on in the annals of our people while the flame of freedom burns among us......."
(MORE LATER).
A QUESTION OF LIBERATION .......Feminists and anti-imperialists in Ireland have often regarded each other's struggles with misunderstanding , mutual suspicion , and sometimes outright rejection . What then is the relationship between them ? Eibhlin Ni Gabhann surveys the emergence of women's liberation groups in Belfast and Dublin over the past decade or so , and some of the questions they have faced .
From 'IRIS' magazine , November 1983.
The 'Irish Women's Liberation Group' did take up issues that were important to women in the South : their most effective protest was the 'Contraceptive Train' to Belfast in May 1971 , when members of the group travelled North to buy up large numbers of contraceptives , which were illegal in the Free State , and publicly 'imported' them into the South . Their aim - maximum media coverage - was achieved and no action was taken against them .
Differences , however , surfaced within the group when some of the women who had been active in housing action groups wanted it to state an opposition to the proposed 'Forcible Entry Act' then going through Leinster House : that Act gave the gardai the 'right' to enter any building and evict the occupiers without a court order . Other women in the group did not see this as being particularly a 'woman's issue' .
However - since so many of the founding members of the 'Irish Women's Liberation Group' were journalists and women involved in the media , publicity for the issues they raised was not hard to get . The invasions of 'Men Only' pubs and bathing places got maximum coverage , and many women were attracted by the image of flouting authotity . Mary Kenny, in particular , who emerged as the principal spokesperson for the group , delighted in shocking Irish conventionality.......
(MORE LATER).
REPUBLICAN EVICTIONS.......Known members of the INLA were recruited to carry out a forced eviction of tenants in a Dublin house.
By Liz Walsh.
From 'MAGILL'magazine, June 1998 .
At 8pm , Bart O' Connor let Gary Adams , Damien Bond and Thomas Murray off at a roundabout near Oaktree Drive , Castleknock , Dublin . After threatening the lodgers inside Number 8 , the three men tried to leave the house but were immediately surrounded by armed gardai . Special Branch detectives found Saoirse Mullen inside the door with a telephone in her hand . She was crying and shaking uncontrollably .
The following day , Thomas Gear was arrested at his jeweller's shop at the Parnell Mall in the Ilac Shopping Centre in Dublin on suspicion of being a member of the INLA. When questioned about the incident at his home the previous night , he said he first met Saoirse Mullen in April 1996 when she replied to his advertisement for lodgers . She and Thomas Gear had a cordial landlord-tenant relationship until July 23 ,1996 , the night he entered her room . He admitted trying to kiss her , but said he stopped when she made it clear that she wasn't interested . He admitted going to see Bart O' Connor to see about having his lodgers removed.......
(MORE LATER).
