Aitheasc an Uachtaráin Ruairí Ó Brádaigh don 85ú Ard-Fheis de Shinn Féin in Óstlann an Spa , Leamhcán , Co. Atha Cliath , 21ú agus 22ú Deireadh Fómhair , 1989 /
Presidential Address of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh to the 85th Ard-Fheis of Sinn Féin in the Spa Hotel , Lucan , County Dublin , 21st and 22nd October 1989.....
" It is all the more disturbing given the constant regular and clear articulation by the Polish Pope of the cause of his own homeland. Such staunch defence of Polish national rights may, indeed , have been the crucial factor in preventing a Soviet invasion of Poland and the inevitable resort to arms that has always followed from the Pope's fore-fathers whenever the sovereignty and independence of his nation seemed in danger.
But the most interesting and possibly most significant development of the past few years is of course the dramatic news emerging from the Soviet Union as the Gorbachev regime tries to come to terms not only with its economic difficulties but also with the problems of allowing the full factual history of the past to be revealed.
We welcome these developments in so far as they have attempted to promote real peace , disarmament and a more just international order. But we cannot, now or in the past , overlook the rights of the various nations that have been incorporated without their consent into the USSR......."
(MORE LATER).
BETRAYAL.......
The (State) Gardaí used John Corcoran (pictured) as a (P)IRA informer. They allowed him to be killed by another (P)IRA informer, and have since refused to investigate his murder*.
From 'MAGILL' magazine, Christmas Annual 1997.
By Ursula Halligan and Vincent Browne.
(* '1169...' Comment - their word, not ours.)
At 7pm that night - Saturday 23rd March 1985 - the local parish priest and garda sergeant called to the family home in Ballyvolane and broke the news to Mrs Corcoran. At this stage it came as no surprise ; earlier in the day , she had heard on the radio that a body had been found near Ballincollig , and she had spent the day nervously waiting for a knock on the door.
She was heartbroken by the news. " I was very, very saddened to think they [the IRA] had done this to John , because I'd seen John protecting so many of them over the years , and that caused hassle with me, because if he brought guys here I had a rule that my children weren't to meet them."
The heartbreak of her husband's murder* was compounded by the shame of being called an informer. Eileen Corcoran felt the chill locally. While she describes her immediate neighbours and friends as 'brilliant' and very supportive , there were others who shunned her in the street.......
(MORE LATER).
TRADE UNIONS AND THE HUNGER-STRIKE.......From 'IRIS' magazine, November 1981.
There is substaintial support for the hunger-strikers in the British trade union movement. The Scottish Trades Union Congress is the most notable body and many other trades councils and trade union branches , too numerous to enumerate in this article, are sympathetic.
Prominent members of the labour movement - Tony Benn, Ken Livingstone etc - have been vocal on the issue. The Labour Party-based Labour Committee on Ireland has ensured that there are over forty resolutions , mostly pro-nationalist, on the agenda for this year's Labour Party conference.
Agitation around the hunger-strike by British trade unionists has begun to seriously threaten the bi-partisan policy of the Labour Party leadership and the Tory establishment.......
(MORE LATER).
