One may imagine the scene: the British at first watch incredulously, then a scattered fire of muskets. Teeling is unharmed, galloping onwards. The British sharpshooter by the cannon coolly takes aim. Teeling eyes him and suddenly swerves his horse ; the shot goes past him.
The sharpshooter curses and reloads. Another ragged volley from the infantry and again they miss...the French and the Irish are cheering but they can’t believe he will make it. Teeling’s horse leaps a ditch and gallops on past the infantry, foam flying from the animal's body – the sharpshooter looks up at him, loses his nerve and fumbles the charging of his musket.
Teeling is up at the gun, he has drawn his pistol and shoots the sharpshooter dead. He draws another pistol and shoots the gunner.
The Irish and French are ecstatic and charge forward. The British are stunned ; some stand but most of the British infantry flee from the superior numbers and leave the cannon in the hands of the insurrectionist forces, as well as 60 dead and 100 taken prisoner..."
(from here.)
Another author wrote, re the above scene, which took place at the Battle of Collooney - "...this was the turning point of the battle. The troops despatched from Knockbeg had reached Beal Ban and were already rushing down on the British flank. The other column was advancing at a rapid pace against the front.
There was no safety for Verecker from this double danger, except in retreat ; and as the Ballysadare road was no longer practicable, he ordered his men to cross the river and make for Sligo..."
Bartholomew Teeling (pictured, above) was only 24 years of age when he was captured at the Battle of Ballinamuck, Longford, as were another 500 or so Irish and French fighters. The French soldiers were treated as POW's but the Irish soldiers were executed - Teeling was hanged by the British on the 24th September 1798 at Provost Prison in Arbour Hill, Dublin, before his body was thrown into the 'Croppy Pit'.
He attempted to read the following statement from the scaffold, but was not permitted by the 'authorities' to do so :
"Fellow-citizens, I have been condemned by a military tribunal to suffer what they call an ignominious death, but what appears, from the number of its illustrious victims, to be glorious in the highest degree.
It is not in the power of men to abase virtue nor the man who dies for it. His death must be glorious in the field of battle or on the scaffold.
The same Tribunal which has condemned me — citizens, I do not speak to you here of the constitutional right of such a Tribunal — has stamped me a traitor.
If to have been active in endeavouring to put a stop to the blood-thirsty policy of an oppressive Government has been treason, I am guilty. If to have endeavoured to give my native country a place among the nations of the earth was treason, then I am guilty indeed. If to have been active in endeavouring to remove the fangs of oppression from the head of the devoted Irish peasant was treason, I am guilty.
Finally, if to have striven to make my fellow-men love each other was guilt, then I am guilty.
You, my countrymen, may perhaps one day be able to tell whether these were the acts of a traitor or deserved death. My own heart tells me they were not and, conscious of my innocence, I would not change my present situation for that of the highest of my enemies.
Fellow-citizens, I leave you with the heartfelt satisfaction of having kept my oath as a United Irishman, and also with the glorious prospect of the success of the cause in which we have been engaged.
Persevere, my beloved countrymen.
Your cause is the cause of Truth.
It must and will ultimately triumph."
RIP Bartholomew Teeling, Irish Rebel, 1774-1798.
"You cannot in the existing state in Ireland punish a policeman (sic) who shoots a man whom he has every reason to suspect is concerned in police murders.
That kind of thing (ie shooting an RIC member) can only be met by reprisals..."
- the words of a Mr David Lloyd George ('1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor' etc!), the British Prime Minister at the time, as recounted (on the 24th September 1920) by a colleague of his, a Mr Herbert Albert Laurens Fisher (pictured), an MP for the constituency of Sheffield Hallam and, at that time, the President of the British Board of Education.
In effect, that would be a 'licence to kill' - to shoot dead anyone who 'looks suspect'!
On the same date that Mr Fisher was fondly recounting the words of Mr George, a Mr Henry Owens (30, 'Service Number 4180426'), a soldier in the British Army's 'Royal Welch Fusiliers', was in a military barracks ('New Barracks') in Limerick, when he was shot, dying shortly afterwards from the wound.
The shooting was said to have been carried out, 'accidentally', by one of his own comrades.
==========================
GAS LADS...
The massive finds of oil and gas on our western seaboard could ensure Ireland's financial security for generations.
Wealth approximating that of the Arab countries is within our grasp, but the Irish government seems content to sell off our birthright for a handful of votes and a few dollars.
In a special 'Magill' report, Sandra Mara investigates just what we are giving away, and why.
From 'Magill' magazine, March 2002.
However, 'Enterprise Oil' refused to meet with SIPTU and there followed a series of peaceful protests by Irish rig-workers.
The company then moved operations to Ayr on the west coast of Scotland and outsourced the bulk of its goods and services requirements.
For its part, the company says it has no objection to hiring Irish rig-workers ; "absolutely not.." spokesperson Pat Keating told 'Magill' magazine, "...my understanding of the issue is that rigs come in on contract for two, three or five months, and have specialist work forces which come with them.
You can't just send anybody out on a rig ; it would be a delight to have Irish workers, but there's not enough specialist Irish staff out there. So that issue really is a red herring..."
As for Ray Burke's rather generous terms, Pat Keating says they would have had little impact on Enterprise Oil's decision to drill here...
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (24TH SEPTEMBER) 108 YEARS AGO : BRITISH PLANS FINALISED TO FORCE-FEED AN IRISH HUNGER-STRIKER.
The funeral procession in Dublin, 30th September 1917 (pictured), for Thomas Ashe, an IRB leader, who died on the 25th September that year, after being force fed by his British jailers.
He was the first Irish republican to die as a result of a hunger-strike and, between that year and 1981, twenty-one other Irish republicans died on hunger-strike.
The jury at the inquest into his death found "..that the deceased, Thomas Ashe, according to the medical evidence of Professor McWeeney, Sir Arthur Chance, and Sir Thomas Myles, died from heart failure and congestion of the lungs on the 25th September, 1917 and that his death was caused by the punishment of taking away from the cell bed, bedding and boots and allowing him to be on the cold floor for 50 hours, and then subjecting him to forcible feeding in his weak condition after hunger-striking for five or six days.."
Michael Collins organised the funeral and transformed it into a national demonstration against British misrule in Ireland ; armed 'Irish Republican Brotherhood' Volunteers in full uniform flanked the coffin, followed by 9,000 other IRB Volunteers, and approximately 30,000 people lined the streets.
A volley of shots was fired over Ashe's grave, following which Michael Collins stated - "Nothing more remains to be said. That volley which we have just heard is the only speech which it is proper to make over the grave of a dead Fenian."
The London-based 'Daily Express' newspaper perhaps summed it up best when it stated, re the funeral of Thomas Ashe, that what had happened had made '100,000 Sinn Féiners out of 100,000 constitutional nationalists.'
The level of support shown gave a boost to Irish republicans, and this was noted by the 'establishment' in Westminster - 'The Daily Mail' newspaper claimed that, a month earlier, Sinn Féin, despite its electoral successes, had been a waning force. That newspaper said -
'..It had no practical programme, for the programme of going further than anyone else cannot be so described. It was not making headway. But Sinn Féin today is pretty nearly another name for the vast bulk of youth in Ireland...'
He qualified as a teacher in 1905 at De La Salle College, Waterford and, after teaching briefly in Kinnard, County Kerry, in 1906 he became principal of Corduff National School in Lusk, County Dublin.
Thomas Ashe was a fluent Irish speaker and a member of the Keating branch of the Gaelic League and was an accomplished sportsman and musician setting up the Roundtowers GAA Club as well as helping to establish the Lusk Pipe Band (pictured). He was also a talented singer and poet who was committed to Conradh na Gaeilge.
Politically, he was a member of the 'Irish Republican Brotherhood' (IRB) and established IRB circles in Dublin and Kerry and eventually became President of the IRB Supreme Council in 1917. While he was actively and intellectually nationalist he was also inspired by contemporary socialism. Ashe rejected conservative Home Rule politicians and as part of that rejection he espoused the Labour policies of James Larkin.
Writing in a letter to his brother Gregory he said "We are all here on Larkin's side. He'll beat hell out of the snobbish, mean, seoinín employers yet, and more power to him".
Ashe supported the unionisation of north Dublin farm labourers and his activities brought him into conflict with landowners such as Thomas Kettle in 1912. During the infamous lockout in 1913 he was a frequent visitor to Liberty Hall and become a friend of James Connolly.
Long prior to its publication in 1916, Thomas Ashe was a practitioner of Connolly’s dictum that "the cause of labour is the cause of Ireland, the cause of Ireland is the cause of labour". In 1914 Ashe travelled to the United States where he raised a substantial sum of money for both the Gaelic League and the newly formed Irish Volunteers of which he was an early member.
He founded the Volunteers in Lusk and established a firm foundation of practical and theoretical military training, and provided charismatic leadership first as Adjutant and then as O/C (Officer Commanding) the 5th Battalion of the Dublin Brigade.
He inspired fierce loyalty and encouraged personal initiative in his junior officers and was therefore able to confidently delegate command to Charlie Weston, Joseph Lawless, Edward Rooney and others during the Rising. Most significantly, he took advantage of the arrival of Richard Mulcahy at Finglas Glen on the Tuesday of the Rising and appointed him second in command.
The two men knew one another through the IRB and Gaelic League and Ashe recognized Mulcahy’s tactical abilities. As a result Ashe allowed himself to be persuaded by Mulcahy not to withdraw following the unexpected arrival of the motorised force at the Rath crossroads. At Ashbourne on the 28th of April Ashe also demonstrated great personal courage, first exposing himself to fire while calling on the RIC in the fortified barracks to surrender and then actively leading his Volunteers against the RIC during the Battle.
He was incarcerated in a variety of English prisons before being released in the June 1917 general amnesty, immediately returned to Ireland, toured the country reorganising the IRB and incited civil opposition to British rule.
In August 1917, after a speech in Ballinalee, County Longford, he was arrested by the RIC and charged with "speeches calculated to cause disaffection".
He was detained in the Curragh camp and later sentenced to a year's hard labour in Mountjoy Jail. There he became O/C of the Volunteer prisoners, and demanded prisoner-of-war status and, as a result, he was punished by the Governor.
He went on hunger strike on the 20th September 1917 and five days later died as a result of force-feeding by the prison authorities ; he was just 32 years of age.
The death of Thomas Ashe resulted in POW status being conceded to the Volunteer prisoners two days later.
Thomas Ashe's funeral was the first public funeral after the Rising and provided a focal point for public disaffection with British rule. His body lay in state in Dublin City Hall before being escorted by armed Volunteers to Glasnevin Cemetery ; 30,000 people attended the burial where three volleys were fired over the grave (pictured) and the Last Post was sounded.
While imprisoned in Lewes Jail in 1916, Thomas Ashe had written his poem 'Let Me Carry Your Cross for Ireland, Lord' which later provided the inspiration for the Battle of Ashbourne memorial unveiled by Sean T. O'Kelly on Easter Sunday, 26th April 1959 at the Rath Cross in Ashbourne :
Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord
The hour of her trial draws near,
And the pangs and the pains of the sacrifice
May be borne by comrades dear.
But, Lord, take me from the offering throng,
There are many far less prepared,
Through anxious and all as they are to die
That Ireland may be spared.
Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord
My cares in this world are few,
and few are the tears will for me fall
When I go on my way to You.
Spare Oh! Spare to their loved ones dear
The brother and son and sire,
That the cause we love may never die
In the land of our Heart's desire!
Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord!
Let me suffer the pain and shame
I bow my head to their rage and hate,
And I take on myself the blame.
Let them do with my body whate'er they will,
My spirit I offer to You,
That the faithful few who heard her call
May be spared to Roisin Dubh.
Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord!
For Ireland weak with tears,
For the aged man of the clouded brow,
And the child of tender years;
For the empty homes of her golden plains,
For the hopes of her future, Too!
Let me carry your Cross for Ireland, Lord!
For the cause of Roisin Dubh.
RIP Volunteer Thomas Ashe, 12th January 1885 – 25th September 1917.
ON THIS DATE (24TH SEPTEMBER) 49 YEARS AGO : "A THUNDERING DISGRACE" COMMENT MADE PUBLIC.
Ireland, 1970's : turmoil in the country, due to the then-as-now unwanted political and military interference here by Westminster.
The Leinster House administration was headed-up at the time by Fine Gael's Liam Cosgrave , and among the many harsh laws introduced, enforced and 'improved on' by the Blueshirts was a censorship act, 'Section 31'.
The then Free State President was a Fianna Fail man, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh , said to be a compromise candidate by the powers-that-be at the time, as he fitted the requirements dictated by the 'establishment' (ie 'a safe pair of hands').
He was previously the Free State Attorney General and Chief Justice of the FS Supreme Court, and was given the Office, unopposed, in 1974, following the death of Erskine Hamilton Childers.
But it was that legal training which raised a red flag with him in relation to a piece of legislation which the Blueshirt Leinster House administration wanted him to 'rubber stamp' - the 'Emergency Powers Act', and the fact that Ó Dálaigh and Cosgrave didn't agree with each other, socially or politically, came into play : Ó Dálaigh refused to simply 'sign off' on the 'EPA' without first testing its constitutionally.
On the 24th of September, 1976 - 49 years ago on this date - it became known that Mr Ó Dálaigh had spent four hours the day before consulting with a bunch of posh suits known as the Free State 'Council of State' on whether or not it would be best practice to refer the legislation to the Free State Supreme Court to test its constitutionality before he could declare it to be 'the law' and it was decided that that would be the best thing to do, a decision which annoyed the Blueshirt administration.
Just over three weeks later (ie on the 15th October 1976) the FS Supreme Court declared that the 'EPA' was a legitimate piece of legislation and it was only then that Ó Dálaigh deemed it necessary to sign-off on it, which he did, reluctantly (or so it was claimed at the time) but that 'victory' wasn't enough for Cosgrave and his people - they considered themselves to have been disrespected by the actions of Mr Ó Dálaigh and, three days later (ie on the 18th October 1976), they could contain themselves no longer.
It was on that date that the Free State Minister of Defence, Paddy Donegan, was opening a new Free State army barracks in Mullingar, County Westmeath (having, seemingly, forgot that Mr Ó Dálaigh was the Commander-In-Chief of said army!) that he made a remark (he was concussed at the time, he later claimed!) which was to haunt him for the rest of his life.
He had 'kicked himself up the transom', if you like, which wouldn't have caused as much damage as firing a shotgun over dwellings in which people lived - more about that 'eccentric' (!) Free State politician can be read here...
On the 24th September, 1921, during a speech he delivered in Dundee in Scotland, a Mr Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (pictured), British PM, stated that if the Treaty (of Surrender) was not accepted by the Irish...
"..our course would be very unpleasant, but it would also be very simple.
Not peace, but certain war ; real war, not mere bushranging, would follow such a course..."
Later in that speech, Mr Churchill admitted that one of the main reasons why the British needed an end to their terror campaign in Ireland was because "it would remove the greatest obstacle which has ever existed to Anglo-American unity.." ie trade, business, money : slaughtering the Irish was not a good business card to approach the Americans with...
...meanwhile, on that same date, the IRA were doing some approach work themselves, in connection with that same subject - the (Treaty) Truce - which had come into effect on Monday, July 11th 1921, to allow for negotiations between both sides.
The Officer Commanding of the West Limerick Brigade approached the Battalion Commanders in his operational area and instructed them that, as the Truce talks were winding-up, they should advise their fighters to be ready for battle as the outcome of the talks may demand it.
While IRA fighters in Limerick (and other areas in the country) were being briefed by their officers, rioting broke out about 200 miles/320 km up the road in Belfast.
British loyalists, disgusted that 'their side might be about to loose ground to Irish republicans', behaved as expected - they rioted.
A gang of them met up and proceeded to the Short Strand and Newtownards Road area of the city but they met resistance on the way and there and, in the ensuing street fight, two of their number (both aged 19) - James McMinn, from Reid's Place, and Alexander Harrison, from Frazer Street - died when a bomb was thrown at the gang, and about 20 of their colleagues were injured.
==========================
CASH NO EXCUSE FOR RTE PUTTING DOCUMENTARY TO DEATH...
It has been a disastrous 12 months for RTE.
£23.5 million in cutbacks, a bid to increase the licence fee rejected, an enforced postponement of digital expansion, and a predicted £20 million loss to report for 2001.
By Belinda McKeon .
From 'Magill' Annual, 2002.
RTE should remember that its audience has always come through for it when it has taken intelligent risks with programming - it should have faith in that audience, it should have faith in its independent programmers, and it should have faith in itself.
Because, ultimately, it is for itself that the station needs to move forward, not for a minister and her pack of accountants.
(END of 'Cash No Excuse For RTE Putting Documentary To Death' : NEXT - 'William Jefferson Clinton', from the same source.)
"We consider it imperative that some sort of Government, whether a Provisional or a Republican or a military one, should be inaugurated at once..."
- the words written by Volunteer leader Ernie O'Malley (pictured, aka 'B. Stuart'), in a letter he sent, on the 24th September, 1922, to Volunteer leader Liam Lynch.
At that time, the IRA had launched a 'September Offensive' and was attacking Free State forces as opposed to simply defending themselves from FSA attacks on them, and the rebels had success enough to worry the Stater politicians to the point that they introduced, that same month, a death penalty for IRA members.
Perhaps their colleagues in Westminster were paying them a bounty on each ex-comrade they executed...?
As Volunteer Lynch was reading that letter, an IRA Active Service Unit had opened fire on a FSA guard post in Glendalough, in County Wicklow, and was getting the upper hand when the fight was interrupted by the arrival of a 50-strong FSA patrol.
The IRA ASU was now outnumbered and outgunned, and was forced to retreat, with two Volunteers wounded and three captured.
And, on that same date (the 24th), an already captured IRA fighter, Volunteer Patrick Mangan (age 20, Third Battalion of the Cork No. 2 Brigade), from the village of Carrignagower, near Lismore, in County Waterford, was shot by a FSA sentry during a disturbance in Cork Jail.
The IRA POW'S (numbering about 400 Volunteers) refused to return to their cells from the recreation yard and, after being forced to move inside the prison by FSA soldiers/prison guards using their rifle butts, the prisoners rioted in the corridors.
Shots were fired over their heads which dispersed some of the POW's and, when a second round was fired at them, Volunteer Mangan fell to the ground, wounded. He died from that wound the next day.
Attempting to explain and excuse their actions, the Staters put out a statement -
"One party of prisoners, amongst whom was the deceased, still remained on the corridors, shouting and defiant. The sentry was again ordered to fire, and Mangan fell wounded..."
Volunteer Mangan died the following day from the wound.
The Staters held a 'Military Inquiry' (!) into the shooting and issued the following statement afterwards -
"Patrick Mangan met his death as the result of a shot fired by a sentry in the execution of his duty, and the officer who gave the order to fire was justified, as the prisoners had sufficient warnings and ample time to comply with the order to return to their cells..."
Volunteer Patrick Mangan, from the village of Carrignagower, near Lismore, in County Waterford, was attached to the Third Battalion of the Cork No. 2 Brigade, and operated mostly as as a dispatach rider. He was captured by the Staters in Fermoy, County Cork, in August 1922 and imprisoned in Cork Jail.
He is buried in Lismore Old Cemetery in County Cork, and is named on the IRA memorial in Kilcrumper Cemetery in that town.
RIP Volunteer Patrick Mangan.
On that same Sunday (24th September 1922), a pastoral letter from the RC Bishop of Cork, a Mr Daniel Coughlan, was read out at all Masses in the diocese, in which Mr Coughlan stated that "the killing of National (sic) soldiers is murder...", and went on to state that any person taking part in an ambush in which British soldiers were injured, held as hostages, or killed ("murdered", he called it) would be promptly excommunicated by the Catholic Church!
Mr Coughlan, or Cohalan, which he preferred, was known for his loyalty to the Crown and was also known - among the public - as 'Danny Boy', a reference to his pro-British leanings.
Just another quisling in a long line of quislings.
==========================
DEATH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN...
Desmond Boomer, a Belfast engineer working in the Libyan oil-fields, disappeared seven years ago.
Officially, the plane on which he was a passenger crashed as a result of mechanical failure and pilot error.
But is that the real story?
Or were the Irishman and his fellow passengers unwitting victims of the shady war between Islamic fundamentalism and Mossad, Israel's intelligence network?
A special 'Magill' investigation by Don Mullan, author of 'Eyewitness Bloody Sunday'.
From 'Magill' magazine, January 2003.
Cormac Boomer, an engineer by profession, told 'Magill' magazine -
"On the 16th May, 1997, I examined and photographed the alleged wreckage.
It is obviouse the condition of it was not compatible with having spent ten months in the salt brine of the Mediterranean.
There was no indication of salt pigment or the corrosion one would expect to find in such circumstances.
It is claimed the aircraft fell from a height of 9,000 feet into the sea in a severe storm but it is strange, therefore, that the cable looms do not show any indication of the stretch, arc or rupture one would expect from the ripping-apart which would occur in an aircraft descending in a headlong plunge.
From my visual inspection and the photographic evidence it is obvious the ends of those cables have been severed with a cutting tool..."
(MORE LATER.)
ON THIS DATE (24TH SEPTEMBER) 42 YEARS AGO - IRA H-BLOCK PRISON ESCAPE PLAN FINALISED BY IRA POW'S.
"We perceived the escape as a military operation from beginning to end. It could not have been achieved in any other way, and the ASU - as Volunteers in the Irish Republican Army - were under strict orders throughout from an Operations Officer whose judgement was crucial and whose every order had to be obeyed.
Every Volunteer was under a tight brief.." - IRA statement.
It was this precision of planning, exclusively revealed in a detailed interview by key ASU personnel involved, that lay behind the almost incredible escape of 38 Republicans on Sunday 25th September 1983 from what is generally believed to be the most secure prison in Western Europe - the H-Blocks of Long Kesh (near Lisburn, South Belfast).
At 2.15pm that day, three IRA Volunteers carrying concealed pistols fitted with silencers, which had been smuggled into the prison, moved into the 'Central Administration' area (the 'Circle') of H7-Block on the pretext of cleaning out a store. Fifteen minutes later they were joined by a fourth armed Volunteer ; control of the 'Circle', with its numerous alarm bells, was vital for the escape's success and had to be carried out simultaneously with the overpowering of prison Screws in the four wings of H7-Block.
Minutes later three other Volunteers - armed with pistols, hammers or chisels - took up key positions near Screws positioned by alarm buttons, on the pretext of carrying out orderly duties, while Brendan 'Bic' McFarlane (the H-Block Officer Commanding during the hunger-strike) was allowed through two locked grilles into the hall of the Block on cleaning duties - his job was to arrest the Screw there and, on a given signal - once everyone was in position - IRA Volunteers overpowered and arrested all the prison Screws in the Block, many of the Volunteers subsequently changing into their uniforms.
During the seizure of control one Screw - on duty in a locked control room - was shot twice in the head when he ignored orders to lie on the floor and instead made a lunge for the alarm. Control of the Block was completed when 'Bic' McFarlane, accompanied by two IRA Volunteers dressed as Screws, arrested the Screw on duty in the front gate enclosure. It was now about 2.45pm.
It eventually arrived at a 'tally hut' close to a back gate of the prison camp ; the plan was to arrest the Screws in the 'tally hut' and, leaving five Volunteers in control, drive the food lorry a further quarter mile to the front gate 'tally hut' which the escapees would then take control of, leaving two Volunteers there, before driving out in the food lorry to freedom.
Meanwhile, the five Volunteers in the first 'tally hut' would obtain a Screw's car from the adjoining car park, drive to the front gate where the two Volunteers in control there would clamber into the boot, and also make their escape. That was the plan of escape ; unfortunately, it was not to be - the plan of escape began to go wrong at the first 'tally-hut' due to there being larger numbers of Screws coming on duty than anticipated.
While the escapees kept arresting more and more Screws, the situation got out of control and the alarm was raised.
At this point the escapees were forced to make a run for it on foot across fields, many of them successfully commandeering local cars. In the final melee several Screws were stabbed and one escapee, Harry Murray (pictured), was shot and wounded.
The 19 H-Block escapees that were then at liberty are - Kevin Barry Artt, (24) North Belfast ; Paul Brennan (30) Ballymurphy ; Seamus Campbell (26) Coalisland, County Tyrone ; James Clarke (27) Letterkenny, County Donegal ; Seamus Clarke (27) Ardoyne ; Gerard Fryer (24) Turf Lodge ; Dermot Finucane (22) Lenadoon ; Kieran Fleming (23) Derry ; Anthony Kelly (22) Derry ; Gerry Kelly (30) Belfast ; Anthony McAllister (25) Belfast ; Gerard McDonnell (32) Belfast ; Seamus McElwair (22) Scotstown, County Monaghan ; Brendan McFarane (31) Ardoyne ; Padraic McKearney (29) Moy, County Tyrone ; Dermot McNally (26) Lurgantarry, North Armagh ; Robert Russell (25) Ballymurphy ; Terence Kirby (27) Andersonstown and James Smith (38) Ardoyne.
Thanks for the visit, and for reading - appreciated, especially (because we're greedy!) as we're trying to get to 3 million hits (...did ya notice that we now have over two million hits..?!).
Sure we're never bleedin' happy...!
Sharon and the team.
(We'll be back on Wednesday, 8th October, 2025.)
