WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION , Sunday,June 10,2007,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 , and return to Dublin at 5.30PM.

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 two years ago .
" 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 .

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'MOUNTJOY / WOMEN'S GHETTO / A ROUGH BEAST' .

'PRISONERS ON BREAD AND TEA IN MOUNTJOY' .
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, January 1958 .

Liam Gleeson of Limerick City , Sean Daly of Clonakilty , County Cork , and Kevin McCooey of Monaghan , were each sentenced to six months imprisonment at a County Cavan District Court following their arrest near the border on November 29th , 1957 .

They were arrested and tried in the most secret circumstances - the Press was not represented at their trials and no word of the case was reported in the daily newspapers . They were shifted from Monaghan to the Bridewell Jail in Dublin on the back of an open lorry guarded by Special Branch men armed with sub-machines guns . After being detained in solitary confinement they were shifted to Mountjoy Prison. An attempt was made to impose criminal status on them .

Their mid-day meal in Mountjoy was uneatable . As a protest against these conditions they have not eaten any dinner since December 7th and are now living on a daily diet of eight ounces of bread and a pint of tea.......
(MORE LATER).




OUT OF THE WOMEN'S GHETTO .

By INEZ McCORMICK.
A review of Margaret Ward's book - 'Unmanageable Revolutionaries:Women and Irish Nationalism' .
From 'FORTNIGHT' magazine , October 1983.

I do not approach this book as a potential historian , but rather as a feminist trade unionist . From this perspective I am not surprised that the view of Irish history it reveals is a novel one , ignored by the many professionall historians who have trodden this ground . For the latter , the role of women has been marginal : they appear , if at all , as adjuncts to the main actors and in their stereotyped roles .

Here we might see 'Mrs James Connolly' readying the great man's clothes , or Mrs Pearse teaching Padraig his prayers . Or , as in the case of women such as Maud Gonne or Countess Markievicz they are effectively de-sexed and cast in the role of 'honorary men' - and women's issues never even make an appearance .

Reading this book is in equal measure an exhilerating and depressing experience . Ultimately , however , it is a hopeful book . Parallels with the present and the recent past jump out of the pages , and it draws a clear lesson for the contemporary feminist . This book indicates clearly that while womem were prepared to play a large part in revolutionary struggle they were welcome only insofar as they accepted the struggle as defined by their male comrades ; when they attempted to articulate their own demands , or to work out an approach of their own , they were promptly cast in the role of disloyal or unreliable.......
(MORE LATER).



WHAT ROUGH BEAST IS THIS , ITS HOUR COME ROUND AT LAST?

By JOHN WATERS.
From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine, 'Election Special' , 1987.

" I don't propose to have any kind of relationship with Mr Thatcher." The journalists gathered round the table in the kitchen of Cavan County Hospital looked up from their notebooks and stared at Charles J. Haughey. Then they stared at the reporter from 'The Sunday Times' newspaper whom he was addressing .

It was halfway through the election campaign and Charles Haughey was about to embark on a walkabout of the Cavan-Monaghan constituency . First of all , though , he had to give the hacks their daily fix of column inches and up to now had been answering fairly nondescript questions about taxing farmers , border trading and suchlike . He had already cautioned a BBC reporter about "...monopolising the conversation . There are some Irish journalists here as well , you know... " , he told an unabashed Tim Maby of BBC Radio Four's 'Today' programme.

" What kind of relationship do you hope to have with Mrs Thatcher should you become Taoiseach ?" , the man from 'The Sunday Times' had thereupon piped up from the back . " And who are you now ?" , demanded Charles J. Haughey . " I'm from 'The Sunday Times' , Mr. Haughey , " came the reply . " I don't propose to have any kind of relationship with Mr. Thatcher..." , Haughey said , and paused . He stared the reporter straight in the eye and said "...you did say Mr Thatcher , didn't you ? "

" Actually , no . I said Mrs Thatcher ." "Oh sorry . It's your accent , you see......." , said Haughey.......
(MORE LATER).

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WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION , JUNE 2007 .

ANNUAL WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION :
Sunday , June 10 , 2007 , 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 , and return to Dublin at 5.30PM.

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 two years ago .
" 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 .

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'SECRET ARRESTS / DERRY BESIEGED / DEATH AND MYSTERY' .

'SECRET ARRESTS AND TRIALS.......'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, January 1958 .

'The Sunday Independent' newspaper of December 8 , 1957 , carried a front page lead-story of Garda 'precautions' along the border on the 26-County side , and noted - " The RUC maintain a similar watch on their side of the border but within the last two weeks a band of six men managed to slip over from the South , disarm a two-man patrol and get back across the border . A party of men who tried to blow up an RUC tender also got back to the South despite the fact that radio-cars from nearby RUC stations were on the move within half an hour of the ambush taking place . "

This type of reporting is playing Britain's propaganda game in Ireland : it is absolutely unfounded and what is more the perpetrators know well that it is unfounded . 'The Sunday Press' newspaper on that same date carried a report - unconfirmed and as it turned out totally unfounded - that a man may have been killed in the blowing up of the Belleek Customs Post. Is all this accidental ?

'The Irish Press' newspaper of December 9 , 1957 , when reporting arrests of five men in Waterford , did not give the reason for those arrests : putting up posters for 'The United Irishman' newspaper ! Those men were lodged in filthy cells and held without charge or explanation . This fact was not reported .
[END of 'SECRET ARRESTS AND TRIALS']
(Next : 'Prisoners on bread and tea in Mountjoy' - from the same source)


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 has still a way to go before it rivals Belfast in its poor social structures , but what both cities are breeding now is another updated form of the siege mentality . This is the sort favoured by those who believe in authoritarian measures , distrust dissent and believe that force comes first , law second . The beginnings of this situation are visible in Derry already - the cathedrals are beginning to lose their symbolic significance .

In their place come the new 'security' barracks and , confronting them , the new and increasingly violent housing estates . The 'other' Derry is still just visible . But no more than that .
[END of 'DERRY: CITY BESIEGED WITHIN THE SIEGE']
(Next - 'Out Of The Womens Ghetto' , from 1983)


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 .

For Michael Finucane , the case shows the inadequacy of the coroner's court system - " The European Court of Human Rights has set down standards that inquests are supposed to meet but the state breaks every one of them . There is no right to legal aid for the families , no right to material in advance of the inquest . All questions about John O' Shea's arrest and detention were ruled 'off limits' . The office of the coroner needs to be drastically updated - the world has moved on and it's time our legislation moved with it ."

[END of 'DEATH AND MYSTERY']
(Next - ' What Rough Beast Is This , It's Hour Come Round At Last?' , from 1987)

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WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION , JUNE 2007 .

ANNUAL WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION :
Sunday , June 10 , 2007 , 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 , and return to Dublin at 5.30PM.

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 two years ago .
" 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 .

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'SECRET ARRESTS / DERRY BESIEGED / DEATH AND MYSTERY' .

'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).

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