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.....
"The mind boggles at an administration which bails out a private company by restricting the future growth possibilities of a state company in which all Irish taxpayers are the shareholders. Perhaps Aer Lingus will have to start paying secret party contributions just as it seems a weak-kneed RTE management now apologise to a State Minister for having the cheek to ask him something every citizen has a right to know - in case there might be another attempt to favour private 26-County administration backers when the valuable cable television franchises are up for grabs ?
Have Fianna Fáil and their friends not done enough already to undermine RTE , a respected national broadcasting network - in spite of its yielding to official Section 31 censorship - in a stampede towards a sham 'independent' broadcasting whose only real result to date has been a decline in standards all round.
Gerry Collins is on record as being proud of the censorship provisions which he first introduced against RTE. Mrs. Thatcher is even prouder of the fact that in the area of broadcasting as well as other 'law and order' areas, she is able to quote the Irish precedent when she wants to clip the wings of the BBC and ITN and limit in other ways the various provisions of the sham democracy with her 37% of the popular vote, throughout the 'UK' - not to mention the "no contest" situation which prevails in the Six Counties......."
(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.)
In two of the accounts he gave , Seán O Callaghan says he desperately tried to prevent John Corcoran's death and had pleaded with his garda handler to carry out a raid before the execution could take place. In his interview with the 'Kerryman' newspaper he said he used a submachine-gun to shoot John Corcoran in the head ; but he told the 'Sunday Times' newspaper he had used a Beretta machine pistol.
One of the questions Eileen Corcoran wants answered is whether Seán O Callaghan did in fact send the tape of her husband's confession to her, because she never received it. The mystery of the tape and what happened to it has bothered her since the first time she read about it in the newspapers.
She wonders incessantly if John left a message for her and the children. Did he think of them in his last moments? The wondering and the unanswered questions torment her. " John may have been executed , but every time Seán O Callaghan keeps coming up saying these things he's killing us too, emotionally. It puts a nail in our coffin. I die inside every time I read the way O Callaghan says he killed John. The first time I read his account I was so sick I couldn't eat , I couldn't sleep. It was just after Ursula's death (in 1992)" , she said.
(MORE LATER).
TRADE UNIONS AND THE HUNGER-STRIKE.......From 'IRIS' magazine, November 1981.
Industrial solidarity ending in substantial strike action is a central part of the National H-Block/Armagh Committee's strategy.
The response to date has been extensive and encouraging. The Committee has the full support of the Republican Movement in this regard , as the ideal aim of the campaign is to secure a general strike which would be a major force in making the British concede.
The ICTU's craven attitude to partition is the major stumbling block preventing that eventuality and must be overcome. Work in that direction is continuing.
[END of 'Trade Unions And The Hunger-Strike']
