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.....
" In this overall context, the inevitable stampede without real discussion towards "1992" in the EC has already thrown up major issues and contradictions. The bubble of "massive structural funding" has already been burst, while at the same time the reluctance of the Dublin administration to grant even a fraction of the inadequate action to anybody other than the unelected officials of Merrion Street puts paid for once and for all to Fianna Fail claims about a genuine interest in decentralisation.
Even the EC economic experts themselves are now stating publicly that "1992" is no solution for our economic ills. It is going to be tough all the way up to that year - with unemployment, asset stripping , take-overs, emigration and stagnation in most sectors being as bad as we predicted they would be in the 1970's and '80s when we tried to warn people about the snare of EC membership.
Even the latest NESC Report had to admit that the substantial part of the Raymond Crotty scenario on the Common Market was correct. Mr Crotty's case was and is our case also. Yet there is very little debate about this in the Irish media. Politicians are scared stiff to conduct debate on the so-called 'National Plan' , to such an extent that the NESC Report itself is difficult to get in shops and lirraries. Leinster House ostrich-like chooses to ignore the facts and continues to parrot the declining list of 'benefits' which they claim 1992 will bring......."
(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.)
" I filled up. I felt desperate, " Eileen Corcoran said. "I felt there was only one way out of there and that was in a box. So I was saying to myself how, after all these years of telling me he couldn't get out, does he suddenly say he's semi-retired?"
Looking back at the weeks leading up to her husband's murder * , she remembers other things : she remembers watching him lie awake one night, unable to sleep, clearly troubled by something. When she asked what was bothering him, he didn't answer. She remembers another night when the house alarm went off and John refused to get out of bed to investigate the incident. "You could be murdered out there," he said. She could sense he was very scared.
Then there was the mystery caller , the man who would phone at any hour and demand to speak to John. This man phoned several times during the days in March when John went missing and was anxious to find out where he was. " I have no face for this man. He was just a voice to me. Over the months and years (that he had been phoning) he was a man I wouldn't have liked. He was aggressive. When he wanted John , he wanted John , even if it was an awkward time. He was a demanding man......."
(MORE LATER).
TRADE UNIONS AND THE HUNGER-STRIKE.......From 'IRIS' magazine, November 1981.
Because of the massive unemployment in Ireland and because the other eight deaths , after Bobby Sands and Francis Hughes, were not as 'shocking' - though of course people were moved and angry nonetheless - industrial action, although still widespread, has been more on the scale of one-hour stoppages at the time of the funerals.
Some sections of workers merit special thanks for their support ; these are the Belfast dockers and De Lorean workers , the Shortt factory workers of Derry, the Dublin building workers, Waterford Glass workers and the 3,500 construction workers at Aughinish - the largest construction site in Ireland , on the Shannon river estuary - who have taken strike action to mark the loss of each of the hunger-strikers.
Evidence of the consistent support enjoyed by the prisoners among trade unionists came in the recent Southern general election and the Fermanagh/South Tyrone by-election brought about by the death of Bobby Sands .......
(MORE LATER).
