STREET TALK .......The name Tony Gregory was virtually unheard of outside Dublin before 1982 when he was elected to Leinster House as an independent in Dublin Central , a post he still holds . He made the headlines with the famous 'Gregory Deal' in the same year when , in return for his support , the Fianna Fail government pumped £76 million into the redevelopment of inner city housing .
By Sean Ó Donáile .
From 'USI NEWS' , February 1989.
Seamus Costello, founder of the INLA, was a major influence on Tony Gregory - " His whole involvement in the South was based on community and trade union organisations , tenant groups , social agitation etc , and a view that a military struggle against military targets was necessary in the North . "
Seamus Costello was assassinated in 1975 (by the organisation now called 'The Workers Party') and his portrait occupies pride of place in Tony Gregory's office .
Tony Gregory on drugs :
Even the most conservative estimates put the number of drug addicts in this country at 4,000 . Between Jervis Street Hospital, Beaumont Hospital, the Rutland Centre and Coolmine, there are a total of 87 beds available for the treatment of addicts here . Heroin abuse is a major problem in his constituency : " The problem with heroin is that it affects the poorest areas of inner city flats and places like Tallaght and Ballymun. The government never responds to problems that affect areas like that , in any major way......."
(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.
In 1975 , out of the women's group in Queen's University in Belfast and another group based in the Ormeau Road area of South Belfast , came the formation of the ' Northern Ireland Women's Rights Movement'(NIWRM), whose main platform called for the extension of the 'Sex Discrimination Act' (already law in Britain) to the North , a move which would mean , as the 'NIWRM' expressed it - "...parity of rights for women in Northern Ireland with women in England."
Sentiments such as this not surprisingly had the effect of widening the gulf between the NIWRM and women politically active in the Northern resistance struggle . Also in 1975 , the 'Belfast Socialist Women's Group' was formed , but relations between this and the NIWRM became increasingly difficult , with the Belfast Socialist Women's Group later saying of the NIWRM -
" What women were offered was a reformist and objectively pro-imperialist women's movement in the guise of 'non-sectarianism' . Its demands were for parity with Britain and attempts to suggest co-operation with women's movements in the South were rejected . Its failure to state a position on British imperialism quite evidently meant that it would never attempt to involve women in anti-imperialist areas in the women's movement , since to do so would have compromised its real political position ..."
(MORE LATER).
KERRY DEATH MYSTERY.......From 'The Phoenix' magazine , January 2003.
(Note: as a result of our recent posts on this subject , a reader asked us to locate and publish this 'Phoenix' article . We are pleased to be able to do so.)
When solicitor Michael Finucane put it to State Pathologist , Professor John Harbison that John O' Shea was outside the house for only a short period and that he was fully dressed , Mr Harbison accepted that this was so . He then changed his verdict to one of possible cardio myopathy , coupled with alcoholic intoxication , although he stated that this was not a heart attack , merely heart failure .
Professor Harbison could not explain how or where John O' Shea sustained his facial injuries or pressure marks on his body . He said the injuries could not have been caused by a fall outside the house or by being dragged on the ground . Nobody had noticed any injuries on John O' Shea at any time on the evening of his death.......
(MORE LATER).
