'THERE WILL BE ANOTHER DAY.....'
By Peadar O'Donnell ; first published in January 1963.One of my 'An Phoblacht' editorials stated - "The point of attack is the point of rally. Every militant Republican will be on the side of the small farmers (and) in some corner of the land some phase of the conquest is resisted. Where resistance begins organisation is born...."
In all this I was adventuring far beyond my authority and, of course, I provoked protests , and I published them : "There are men in Ireland whose vision is not your vision , whose faith in the people is not yours , whose ideal is still the Ireland of Pearse and McSwiney..." I have no doubt Maurice (Moss) Twomey , Chief of Staff and the outstanding influence in the IRA in that period, was much beset , but he never once let the matter on to the agenda of an army council meeting. There were other grumbles but I kept on shouting and in September 1926 I gave space in 'An Phoblacht' for a long quote from a poster issued by the Donegal committee (the poster itself was probably my own doing) - "We own no landlord rent, and we owe no annuity for buying out rights that were never morally binding on us. We repudiate rent and annuity as a matter of principle." But there is more to building a movement than bellowing in a newspaper. Without warning I got a telegram from Donegal calling me there at once , yet nothing in a letter of a few days before gave any hint that trouble was brewing. I was on the train north that afternoon and Con Quinn drove me from Fintown to Dungloe - Con distinguished himself later as a trade union leader at Dearborn , Michigan , and he was a great help to me.....(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.
" Mr Craig (and Stout) was visibly shaken when he heard of Mr Smith's visit to Dublin of 6th September , and he took a note of it. He said that he would very much like to believe that nothing would happen this winter but he didn't see how he would ignore the advice of the RUC , his own policeforce , and said that he had already issued instructions for stepping-up police precautions. I referred to his statement that "a sizeable splinter group" was active and asked where was this group operating and how many were there. I referred to the Saor Uladh group which has been defunct since before Liam Kelly went to the USA some years ago , and the Dublin group , the members of which have shown no activity whatsoever for some years. Mr Stout asked what about MacCriostal (this showed that their sources of information were very defective) and I pointed out that since MacCriostal's release from Mountjoy Prison around 1985 , before the completion of his sentence, he had disassociated himself completely from the Saor Uladh organisation. In reply to questions I said that the use of explosives on 17th March 1963 , in Cork, in which one man lost his life and another was maimed , was for the purpose of blowing-up a war memorial and that we were satisfied that it was not an attempt on the life of our President , Mr de Valera. I mentioned that my Minister had received letters from Belfast, from Derry and from people living along thr Border , expressing doubts about any IRA activities in Border Counties and asking my Minister for reassurances....."(MORE LATER).
FEELIN' LUCKY , PUNK....?
....well, if it's next Sunday (14th) you're thinkin' about then you might just be lucky - but you'll have to have a ticket first!
The CABHAIR organisation will be holding a 650-ticket raffle on that Sunday in the usual Kildare venue and, unless any unsold tickets are returned to organising committee reps before then, you most definitely won't be having a winner : as things stand at the time of writing, there are no spare/unsold tickets for the 14th and, indeed, disappointed customers are being offered tickets for the November 2012 raffle instead of this one - and that particular raffle is going to prove more 'interesting' than the October one, as the 108th Ard Fheis of Republican Sinn Féin is being held on that same weekend - Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th November 2012. The normal monthly raffle is hectic enough as it is , due to the amount of tickets involved and the associated paperwork etc but it gets nuclear when it clashes with another Republican event ! But we'll manage , as we have before. Somehow...!
B-SPECIALS=UDR / RUC=PSNI .
REPLACING 'SIX-OF-ONE' WITH 'HALF-A-DOZEN' OF THE OTHER WHEN IT'S THE 'MATHS' ITSELF THAT IS FAULTY ; 26+6 DOES EQUAL 1.
On this date in 1969 (10th October) 'The Hunt Report' recommended a change of name and uniform for an 'official' British-sponsored armed gang to ensure that Stormont would continue to have the 'muscle' to enforce its diktat , as they are doing now with the RUC/PSNI. But Baron 'Sir' John needn't have worried (...he didn't, by the way..) , despite the 'threat' of a Loyalist-instigated 'civil war', the political and military paymasters in Westminster never intended to change the actual structure of 'their' Irish fiefdom - their intention (as with the RUC/PSNI 'changeover') was simply to give the impression that they had done so.
And the more gullible amongst us (although they are well salaried to be so or, at least, to behave in such a gullible manner) profess themselves convinced that a new day has dawned , ignoring the fact that the shadow in the room is caused by an elephant....
A LESSON HARD-LEARNED SO EARLY IN LIFE.
TOO EARLY IN LIFE.
Back on my 'group-hug' horse again , I know , but I hope you will forgive me my indulgence and bear with me. I have mentioned this particular blog before and have been checking-in on it on a fairly regular basis since then, and a post from a few days ago has stayed with me. I have convinced myself that the author is a teenage girl (apologises if I'm wrong) but there is a certain sensitivity in the writing that I don't think a male of any age would be capable of - and again , apologises if that sounds 'elitist' or offensive, as that is not my intention.
The post I refer to begins in this manner - "At the risk of sounding 'deep' about this issue (I'm far too young for that!) I think I have stumbled on the main difference between people that are genuinely civilised and those that aren't, and it hasn't anything to do with how well-off people are, or the society they live in or the political leanings of those that govern them or whether the society they live in is a so-called 'advanced' society or not.
The difference is that people that are genuinely civilised have respect for, and live according to, the spirit of the law rather than the letter of it. Those that are genuinely civilised are guided by their conscience, morality and a personal responsibility whilst those that aren't need clearly-defined laws to stop them from doing wrong, but even if all aspects of the society they live in are governed by clearly-defined laws those that are not genuinely civilised will (most of the time) abide by those laws but only because they have to and not because they agree that it is the right thing to do......" , and is entitled 'THE 'RIGHT' TO DO WRONG.'
To my mind, it's a rather 'heavy' piece of writing from one so young - male or female - and even though it points to a lesson learned, it is such a pity that that lesson had to be learned in such tragic circumstances. As a mother of three girls (all of whom consider themselves to be well-versed and 'street-wise' young women but all of whom will forever remain 'my three girls') there are certain human traits which I hope (hope against hope) that my three girls do not have to encounter , and that blog details one of them. I am not a 'softie' by any means , and was not raised to be one : my parents and my family ensured that my inquisitiveness and my questioning scepticism (which I hope I have passed-on to my daughters) was encouraged and nurtured but I was not burdened with 'adult'-type problems or issues until I had developed enough to be trusted (and expected) to be able to handle issues of that nature. And that is , I think, the reason why I am particularly disturbed by the nature of the blog in question - it has introduced a child into a cut-throat world of adult treatchery that no child should be confronted with. And the two women referred to in the blog can add that to the disgusting legacy they will leave in their wake.
You can read the full post here, and the blog itself can be read here.
IRISH FARMERS PROTEST OUTSIDE THE BIGGEST SLURRY PIT IN THE STATE...
It was a delight to witness about 20,000 Irish farmers and their families close down Dublin City yesterday (Tuesday 9th) in a well-organised protest against State/EU/IMF threats to their standard of living - those who organised the protest and those who made it their business to take part in same and/or otherwise supported it are to be congratulated , and those who should have called their members out on protest in support - but didn't - are to be condemned for their bad judgement which can be attributed to their cosy relationship to 'Green Look-a-Likes' , the State Labour Party , who are presently , as expected, turning their back on election promises (and on those that were foolish enough to vote for them) in order to prop-up their right-wing coalition administration with Fine Gael.
This State Labour Party has exposed itself as being just a 'political prop', available (at a price) to support any other Party with which it can cohabitate , in power, for as long as it takes for its members to secure their own financial futures. Mr Gilmore and Company would do well to remember the words of Jim Larkin - "The men whose manhood you have broken will loathe you, and will always be brooding and scheming to strike a fresh blow."
And that "fresh blow" will be delivered to the State Labour Party by those that that party claims to represent - the workers , the unemployed and the underprivileged. And the sooner the better.
Thanks for reading, Sharon.
