Wednesday, April 13, 2011

THE FIANNA FÁIL STORY.......

The Rise And Decline Of Fianna Fáil , by Kevin Boland - Mercier Press.

Seán Lemass And The Making Of Modern Ireland , by Paul Bew and Henry Patterson - Gill and Macmillan.

By Roy Johnston.
From 'Gralton' magazine, Aug/Sept 1983.

During the pre-1958 period of investment-starvation , Ireland was a net exporter of capital and the Irish rentier-bourgeoisie preferred to deal on the London stock exchange.

We identified partition as the main obstacle to the achievement of this important step in the completion of the bourgeois-democratic revolution , contrasting the Irish scene with other relatively successful bourgeois democracies such as Denmark or Norway. The copper-fastening of partition by declaring an independent 26-county Punt in the 1930's , '40's or '50's was politically unthinkable.

It is ironical that this has since been achieved , in a manner of speaking , within the greater EEC straitjacket , when the ability to use the financial system in the control process has been abandoned. However , for Bew and Patterson to admit arguments like this into the analysis of the 1950's would be for them to invoke what at all costs must be suppressed - the national question , the whole of Ireland as the natural political and economic unit.......
(MORE LATER).










THE PETER BERRY PAPERS....... The Top Secret Memoirs of Ireland's Most Powerful Civil Servant : Dirty Tricks, Election '69/ Spying on a Unionist Politician/ Keeping the (State) Taoiseach informed/ The Garda Fallon Murder/ Advice to Jack Lynch- 'Fire the pair of them...'/ Vivion De Valera's advice to O'Malley/ Rumours of a Coup D'Etat/ The Internment Plot, November 1970/ Secret Meeting with William Craig.
From 'MAGILL' magazine , June 1980.

" I was not to know until the proceedings before the Committee of Public Accounts of 27th January 1971 were published (Booklet No. 7 , paragraph 4102) that Mr Haughey had seen Captain Kelly with Col. Hefferon at his home in the last week of September and on 3rd October - the day before he visited me - he had given a cheque for £500 for Captain Kelly's expenses for the Baileboro meeting. Both Col. Hefferon and Kelly swore to this before the CPA."

OCTOBER 7th 1969 :

"I had a visit from a security chief who told me that a group in Saor Éire were planning armed robberies , that his own men were showing signs of the jitters and that lives were at risk. He told me that some of the group were psychopaths and that , short of placing them in detention without trial , he knew of no way of containing them except by having each individual followed by day and night and to do that he would need 30 extra men.

He said that his Authorities were short of men for other police purposes and that he had no hope of getting the manpower he required unless I brought Ministerial weight to bear on the Commissioner , and I undertook to speak to the Commissioner and to the Minister....... "

(MORE LATER).







EASTER COMMEMORATIONS 2011 , DUBLIN :

Easter Saturday (23rd April 2011):
Balbriggan Bridge at 2pm.

Easter Sunday (24th April 2011):
Assemble at gates of Deansgrange Cemetery at 1pm for the march to the Republican Plot.

Easter Monday (25th April 2011):
Assemble at the Garden of Rememberance , Parnell Square , Dublin City Centre , at 1.45pm for the march to the GPO.






HUNGER-STRIKERS COMMEMORATION 2011 , DUBLIN :
An RSF-organised Hunger-Strikers Commemoration will be held at the GPO in O'Connell Street , Dublin, at 2pm on Saturday 7th May 2011 - those attending are asked to assemble at the Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Square , where the parade will leave from , at 1.45pm , for the GPO.






HUNGER-STRIKE COMMEMORATIVE FUNCTION , DUBLIN :

DATE - SATURDAY 7TH MAY 2011.

VENUE - THE 79'R PUB , BALLYFERMOT.

GROUP - THE DRUIDS.

DOORS OPEN - 8.30PM.

ADMISSION - €5 PER PERSON.


All Welcome !
Thanks ,
Sharon.







Sunday, April 10, 2011


650 ON THE 10TH + 3 ON THE 7TH and 8TH.....



This being the second Sunday of the month , the usual six of us spent the afternoon in a hotel on the Dublin/Kildare border , sorting through 650 raffle ticket stubs and making sure each stub was accompanied by the money for same - two Euro - , assembling the eight prize envelopes (pictured above) getting the forty result sheets ready for filling-in and selling the fifty tickets that were held back for sale on the day.
As there was some sporting event(s)-or-other
(!) being shown on the television today , the hotel bar and lounge were packed to capacity , and we very quickly ran out of tickets to sell : we ended-up apologising to dozens of people who came to our table looking to buy a ticket but - although it was no consolation to the 'ticketless' - we did have four winners 'on site' !
Congrats to those four - Ciarán , Tony and Jackie , Anne R. and M. Egan who , between them , pocketed €340 !
The other winners were Jody , Róisin , J. Casey and E. Murray , and the winning ticket numbers were - 485, 094, 546, 647, 247, 567, 542 and 021. In total , €440 in prize money was handed out today , and another such raffle will be held on Sunday 8th May next , in the same venue , at the same time
(between 3pm and 5pm) .
Incidentally , that same weekend will witness , on Saturday 7th May , the Annual Irish Hunger-Strikers Rally in Dublin City Centre
(assemble at the Garden of Remembrance at 1.45pm for the Parade to the GPO) and , that same evening , a Republican ballad session in the 79'r Pub in Ballyfermot , Dublin West , at which 'The Druids' will be playing : doors open at 9pm and admission is a fiver per person.
If we recover from those two events in time
(especially the latter one !) we'll have another 650-ticket raffle to work on during Sunday afternoon. Can't guarantee our hands will be too steady , though.....!
Thanks,
Sharon.