A Lisbon ballot paper with a 'NO' vote registered.The Lisbon Constitution/Treaty lays the basis for the further creation of a European 'super state' -already 80 per cent of domestic law in this corrupt little statelet is subservient to EU laws and directives and , if passed, this Constitution/Treaty will introduce a clause which gives the EU Council of Ministers the 'right' to extend its powers without the need for a further treaty , removing the preferred requirement for any future extension of EU power to be voted on by the electorate in this State .
VOTE NO TO THE LISBON CONSTITUTION/TREATY ON 12th JUNE 2008 !
THE IRA : the new IRA is younger , more radical and has seen little of life other than violence.
By Ed Moloney.
From 'Magill' magazine, September 1980.
At 9.30 on the morning of Saturday 19th April 1980 a car containing five armed and masked men pulled up outside the home of a farmer not far from the South Armagh village of Crossmaglen . The men got out of the car and went into the house where the farmer and his family were just finishing breakfast . They demanded and got the keys to his tipper lorry parked outside and while two of the men stayed with the farmer's family the other three drove the lorry back , where they had come from , across the border .
Two miles across the southern side of the border along the windy roads of county Monaghan the lorry drove into a farmyard and stopped . The men got out and were joined by several others who had been waiting nervously for them in a number of outbuildings . Over the next two hours the farmyard was a scene of intense activity as the men screwed into position on the back of the lorry ten long mortar tubes . The tubes were then loaded with home made mortar bombs , each containing five pounds of commercial explosives packed into beer gas cylinders .
The mortars were improvised IRA devices , called 'Mark 10's' by British Army technical experts who had learned to fear them since exactly a year before when a shower of 'Mark 10's ' had devastated Newtownhamilton RUC barracks, killing a British Army soldier in the process . After the complicated firing mechanism for the mortars had been set , the lorry was driven to Caulfield Place in Newry , about 100 yards from the town's RUC station, and was parked there . Five minutes later the first of the mortars went off.......
(MORE LATER).
AN OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE RUC . RUC brutality , torture , murder and lies were brushed aside as the unionist establishment congratulated itself for the continuing existence of a paramilitary force which had maintained and safe-guarded its rule in the Occupied Six Counties of Ireland.......From 'IRIS' magazine , July/August 1982.
In a statement taken before Brian Maguire's death, Phelim Hamill , an RUC torture victim himself , detailed this aspect of the torture : " My arms and legs were pinned down and a light-coloured towel was put over my head , obstructing my vision . The RUC tied the towel around my neck and choked me . While the towel was tied around my face a cup of water was poured down my throat and nose , giving me a drowning feeling ." After surviving this terrifying experience , Phelim Hamill spent eleven months on remand before being released . Brian Maguire was not so lucky .
Like withered leaf or side of beef
They hang you by the heels,
Then kidneys crunch with heavy punch
To tortured jiggling squeals .
Bones are bruised 'cos boots are used
To loosen up your tongue,
So men admit a little bit
When nothing they have done.
(Bobby Sands : 'The Crime of Castlereagh')
The RUC are a bigoted and sectarian force , existing today to perform the same function they were set up to perform - the defence of the Orange state . The child-killers of 1969 are the torturers of Castlereagh and the plastic bullet assassins , and any number of years on the RUC are an unchanged and unchangeable paramilitary force . Their name spells repression and death to the nationalist community .
That is why , for all the newspaper articles and editorials , and for all the middle-class prayers and council motions and , above all , for all the ambivalence and collaboration of the SDLP ('1169...' Comment - ...and the 'new' SDLP) and the Workers' Party towards them , there are not and never will be any birthday greetings to the RUC from the nationalist people.
[END of 'Sixty Years Of Repression']
(Next: 'No let up in repression' : a POW writes from Armagh Jail , 1983)
OPERATIONAL COMMENTS OF A BRITISH ARMY OFFICER.......
British Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Dewar of the Royal Green Jackets has served in Cyprus , Borneo and Malaya , as well as in the Occupied Six Irish Counties . He has written three previous books - 'Internal Security Weapons And Equipment Of The World' and 'Brushfire Wars' . The extracts reproduced here are from 'The British Army In Northern Ireland' , which was published by 'Arms and Armour Press' in 1985 . The underlined comments in this article are ours . This article reflects the operational thinking of a British military commander , more so than his political or ideological outlook. From 'IRIS' magazine , October 1987.
It is patrolling , however , on foot or in vehicles , that actually dominates an area : the physical presence of soldiers prevents the enemy from preparing or planning an 'illegal activity' . However , the enemy would argue that the presence of foreign troops on the streets is provocative and a catalyst for their activities .
But the 'rule of law' cannot be maintained without regular visits from those upholding the 'law' - those who physically attack 'the representatives of law and order' on the streets have no defence in 'law' . The army patrols must be seen regularly on the streets to give 'confidence' to the local population and this can be achieved by foot or vehicle patrols but , in some respects, the latter have a high profile and are easier and safer to mount.
The best method of securing information and of getting to know an area is on foot . The majority of patrols in an urban area must always be on foot , which means the Company Commander must plan a matrix of vehicle and foot patrols which cover the entire Company area 24 hours a day in an irregular and unpredictable pattern , in such a way that no patrol is ever left unsupported by another patrol . Into this pattern he/she will work the odd static Observation Post , thus ensuring that all patrols in the area are mutually supported - indeed , some are 'multiple' from the outset , meaning that two or more patrols will cover a grid of side streets working in parallel in a co-ordinated manner and in radio contact . In this way they will discourage an ambush by possibly cutting off escape routes.......
(MORE LATER).
