Of all the bombings, atrocities, tortures and killings that have unfortunately being visited and imposed on this country by Westminster due to their unwanted military and political presence here, the shooting dead of David Walker is one of the worst : this special needs sixteen-year-old boy was lifted off the street by the 'Official IRA', apparently as a 'dare', at about 8.30am on Thursday, 21st June 1973 - 50 years ago on this date - as he was working in his job.
He was found about three hours later on the Falls Road with gunshot wounds to his head and chest. He died a few minutes after he had been found.
'David Walker, 16-year-old Protestant civilian was found at O'Neill Street in the lower Falls area where he was shot and left by the Official IRA..(he) was described as being educationally subnormal and had a job in the Belvoir area of south Belfast near his home at Castlecoole Park...as (he) was working, the Official IRA abducted him and took him to the west of the city where they shot him. Joseph Cunningham, Senator Paddy Wilson, and Irene Andrews were later killed by the UDA/UFF in retaliation for young David's death.
The man jailed for David Walker's killing said in a statement that he thought David was a member of the UFF. He said he had been approached by a man in Leeson Street who asked him if he was "man enough to shoot a member of the UFF murder gang". The man said : "I said I would do it if there was proof that he was killing innocent Catholics. I asked for proof and he said Walker was involved in the murder of Danny Rouse".The judge said that David Walker's murder was "a horrible and unjustified murder.." ' (from here.)
It may well be fifty years since that barbarous act, but the political conditions for deeds like it are still in place - and it would still suit those in power in Westminster to have 'the wild Irish' killing themselves, allowing the British - the 'man in Leeson Street' - to continue to present themselves as being in Ireland 'to keep the warring factions apart'.
The only workable solution is that of a British political and military withdrawal from Ireland.
'RESURGENT ULSTER : NORTHERN SPEAKERS ADDRESS DUBLIN MEETING...'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, April 1955.
A large and enthusiastic audience accorded a warm welcome to a group of Ulster republicans who came to speak at a public meeting on Saturday, 19th of March (1955), in O'Connell Street in Dublin.
Joe Cahill, Belfast, speaking briefly, stated that he would sooner face the might of the Empire with a gun in his hand than address a public meeting.
He pointed to the futility of talk while an army of occupation was on our soil, and stated that moral force was not the answer to physical aggression. He said that the British Empire must be met on her own terms with a superior discipline and resolute determination. That way only lay victory.
Sean McKearney, Belfast, and James Rowantree, Newry, also spoke at the meeting.
Concluding, the Chairman (sic),Seoirse Dearle, traced the part played by Irish Protestants in the struggle for freedom from Tone, Emmet and Mitchel, down to the present day. It was Catholic England who first oppressed Ireland ; Ireland is the property of all Irishmen (sic) and freedom is our God-given right, but that freedom must be won.
Tone and Emmet had shown the way. Are the people of Ireland prepared to follow?
(END of 'Resurgent Ulster : Northern Speakers Address Dublin Meeting' ; NEXT - ' 'Northern Ireland' Flag Act', from the same source.)
'THOUGH THE HEAVENS MAY FALL...'
From 'Magill' Annual, 2002.
Dr Moira Woods (pictured).
Since it is clear that the families in question, including their now adult children, are anxious for the report to be published, and since the Medical Council has itself previously declared that it wishes all these matters to be as fully ventilated as possible, it is difficult to understand what possible basis there could be for declining now to publish the results of this investigation.
It would be a pity if the families were forced to return to the High Court to explore the potential of Mr Justice Barr's injunction concerning the paramountcy of doing justice.
(END of 'Though The Heavens May Fall' ; NEXT - 'Law And Society : Is It Time To Ask Questions Of The Legal Profession?', from the same source.)
ON THIS DATE (21ST JUNE) 146 YEARS AGO : 'THE DAY OF THE ROPE'.
On what became known as 'Black Thursday' (21st June, 1877), ten coal miners were hanged until dead in eastern Pennsylvania ; all ten had been born in Ireland but were forced to leave because of the attempted genocide ('An Gorta Mór') orchestrated by Westminster.
It was claimed that they, and others, were involved in 'organised retributions' against corrupt and unfair employers and other members of the establishment, and operated as such under the name 'Molly Maguires' (Molly Maguire had become famous in Ireland - or 'infamous', as the 'landlord' class described her - for refusing to bow down or bend the knee to them).
The workers had been arrested for their alleged part in several killings and, despite much doubt cast over the 'evidence' used against them, they were convicted and sentenced to death.
The court case was widely seen as employers drawing 'a line in the sand' in regards to what they considered to be 'uppity' workers looking for better wages and conditions, and an excuse for the establishment to vent its anti-labour and anti-Irish prejudice -
'The first trials began in January 1876. They involved 10 men accused of murder and were held in Mauch Chunk (an Indian name meaning 'Bear Mountain') and Pottsville. A vast army of media descended on the small towns where they wrote dispatches that were uniformly pro-prosecution.
The key witness for the prosecution was yet another Irishman, James McParlan. Back in the early 1870's, when Gowen had hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to spy on his workers, McParlan had gone undercover to infiltrate 'the Mollies' and gather evidence. And gather he did — or at least he claimed he did, during the trials. On the stand he painted a vivid picture of 'Molly Maguire' secrecy, conspiracy and murder. With Irish catholics and miners excluded from the juries, the verdicts were a foregone conclusion.
All 10 were convicted and sentenced to hang.
No doubt seeking to send the most powerful message to the region's mining communities, authorities arranged to stage the executions on the same day — June 21st, 1877 – in two locations. Alexander Campbell, Michael Doyle, Edward Kelly, and John Donahue were hanged in Mauch Chuck (where the four men "all swung together"), while James Boyle, Hugh McGehan, James Carroll, James Roarity, Thomas Duffy, and Thomas Munley met a similar fate in Pottsville (where all six "swung two-by-two").
Although the hangings took place behind prison walls, they were nonetheless major spectacles that drew huge crowds and generated international news coverage..' (from here).
It was reported that there was "..screams and sobbing as husbands and fathers were bid goodbye.." and that "..James Boyle carried a blood-red rose and Hugh McGehan wore two roses in his lapel (as) James Carroll and James Roarity declared their innocence from the scaffold.."
Over the following two years, ten more alleged members of the 'Molly Maguires' were hanged, including Thomas P. Fisher (on the 28th March 1878) and James McDonnell and Charlie Sharp (on the 14th January 1879).
In 1979, the state of Pennsylvania pardoned one of the men, John 'Black Jack' Kehoe, after an investigation by its 'Board of Pardons' at the behest of one of his descendants (incidentally, Seán Connery played the part of John Kehoe in the film 'The Molly Maguires') and, on the 5th December 2005, the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives passed a resolution recognising the lack of due process for several of the men.
Make way for the Molly Maguires
They're drinkers, they're liars but they're men
Make way for the Molly Maguires
You'll never see the likes of them again.
Down the mines no sunlight shines
Those pits they're black as hell
In modest style they do their time
It's Paddy's prison cell
And they curse the day they've travelled far
Then drown their tears with a jar.
So make way for the Molly Maguires
They're drinkers, they're liars but they're men
Make way for the Molly Maguires
You'll never see the likes of them again.
Backs will break and muscles ache
Down there there's no time to dream
Of fields and farms, of womans arms
Just dig that bloody seam
Though they drain their bodies underground
Who'll dare to push them around.
So make way for the Molly Maguires
They're drinkers, they're liars but they're men
Make way for the Molly Maguires
You'll never see the likes of them again.
So make way for the Molly Maguires
They're drinkers, they're liars but they're men
Make way for the Molly Maguires
You'll never see the likes of them again.
'WAITING TO FALL...'
If this year sees the end of the 'Age of Tribunals', it won't be a moment too soon.
By John Drennan.
From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.
The hopes and dreams of our tribunalistas that the Flood and Moriarty Tribunals would be the Trojan Horses which would facilitate the sack of Fianna Fail have been dashed.
Instead, if the present rate of 'progress' in the Flood Tribunal continues, they have provided Fianna Fail with the prospect of a cordon sanitaire that could last for 15 years.
The new popularity of tribunals was epitomised by the Morris Tribunal ; its creation - together with the cleverly designed terms of reference which have omitted PR Pat the Garda Commissioner, Michael McDowell and John O'Donoghue - has neutralised the political impact of the most serious Garda scandal in the history of the State.
From now on, any politician who attempts to raise the McBrearty affair will be greeted by the sight of Bertie Ahern highlighting the separation of powers and sighing - "I cannot comment on dat issue as it is a matter for de Tribunal".
Sweet...
(MORE LATER.)
Thanks for the visit, and for reading,
Sharon and the team.
