A 25-years young Irish Republican Army prisoner in Arbour Hill Military Prison wrote a letter to his mother which ended- " I feel I cannot stand this any longer. I have been subjected to cruel treatment since I was arrested". The young man, Sean Glynn, from Pennywell Road in Limerick city , then killed himself.

The 1936 Fianna Fail administration , led by Eamonn de Valera, had turned viciously on those it once fought beside; in June that year, the IRA had been declared an "unlawful association" and the annual republican commemoration to the grave of Wolfe Tone at Bodenstown in County Kildare was banned. It was in that atmosphere that Sean Glynn and more than two dozen other republicans boarded a bus in Limerick on Bodenstown Sunday morning to travel to the 'banned' commemoration : the bus was stopped at Dunkerrin, County Offaly, and all passengers were arrested. The following month(July 1936) those arrested on the bus were brought before a Free State military tribunal where eighteen of them, including Sean Glynn, were sentenced to nine months imprisonment on a charge of IRA membership, and were taken to Arbour Hill Military Prison in Dublin - (MORE LATER)>>


In 1991 , when Fianna Fail's Frank Fahey was Free State Minister of State at the Department of Education, with responsibility for Sports and Youth Affairs( a good 'all-rounder', is our Frank!) he gave an interview in 'Hot Press' magazine (April 4th, 1991, page 40) in which he stated - "I feel strongly about this, that Ireland in the future is going to be a country unique as a holiday destination and unique for the creative abilities that we have here. Our economic future is not in manufacturing industry. It's in our ability to become an attractive location for tourism and our ability to be upfront in sport and particularly in music " .
"An attractive location for tourism...a holiday destination (with) sport and music" but with no "manufacturing industry"; let's sit on our pony and traps , doff our caps at the paying visitors and greet them with "top o'the mornin' to ya". Sure would'nt that be grand,Frank.....

....the arrest , in November 1865, of Fenian leaders and, in particular, James Stephens,meant that a planned uprising had to be postponed; the Irish Republican Brotherhood decided to break him out of Richmond Jail ,as he was that organisations military strategist . John Devoy, the IRB's Organiser, put an escape plan together: Ellen O'Leary(John O'Leary's sister) had agreed to mortgage her home and use the money to bribe two somewhat sympathetic warders in Richmond Jail to hand over a set of keys which would enable James Stephens to simply let himself out of the prison! The plan worked; within weeks of his incarceration in Richmond Jail, Stephens had his own set of keys to the place and, on the night of November 24th, 1865, used them successfully- he was met on the outside , as arranged, and taken to a safe house. In the early hours of the 25th , his absence was noticed and the prison was searched but, as O'Donovan Rossa was to recall in his recollections of prison life- it was too late; "the bird had flown" .
The British offered what was then a small fortune - £300 - for information on James Stephens and on how he escaped , but to no avail . Within months he was in Frace , where he continued his work for the Fenians and the IRB .


The health service in this State is constantly under fire from those of us who are reliant on it - no beds, not enough staff, disorganised etc ; those that can afford it go private, the rest of us struggle on as best we can . A report from the 'El Tiempo' newspaper in Columbia , from February 20th, 1991, brought to mind a comparison of how they were then and how we are now - Speaking at a conference on South American medical authorities , a Dr Alaos Miguel Carlo said- "We are in the hands of mad politicians. Over one thousand complaints have been made about the service at Columbia's General Hospital. This famous institution has been officially opened six times by six different party leaders , but it is still not in service because the electricity has not been turned on . At the same time, the six 'opening's' cost over six million pesos, mostly for nibbles and drink" !
Must be South American blood in Leinster House.......

On the night of November 24th, 1865, the head of the Fenian movement and founder of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, James Stephens, escaped from Richmond Jail in Dublin .
Weeks before his imprisonment, the British had been involved in an all-out offensive against the Fenians; their newspaper 'The Irish People' had been suppressed and Fenian leaders John O'Leary, Thomas Clarke Luby and Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa had been arrested. They were charged with 'treason felony' , which was later changed to 'high treason' , and were put in Richmond Jail , off the South Circular Road in Dublin, to await 'trial'. In November 1865, more leaders of the Fenian movement were arrested- Charles J. Kickham , Edmund Duffy , Hugh Brophy and, perhaps most damaging of all, James Stephens : his detention not only hindered the work of the Fenians, but also slowed development of the IRB , which he had founded in Dublin on St.Patricks Day, 1858 . Stephens had built-up the organisation to such an extent that, by 1865, it was ready to rise up against British rule . (MORE LATER)>>


In 1947, the British government resettled some 8,000 men of the SS Galizien Division in Britain ; they were Ukrainians who supported the Nazi's because of their hatred of the Soviets . So,if, for example, you are a Palestinian who fought with the Iraq's because of your hatred of the United States - you know where to go.
In 1979, John Taylor , OUP , (now Brit Lord somethingorother) was returned in the European elections as one of the three MEP's for the Six Counties. In the European Parliament, he initially joined the British Conservatives in the European Democratic Group(EDG) . However, he left the EDG in 1987 because it supported the (1985) Hillsborough Treaty (2 years on the fence-a sore thing!) and he then joined the European Right Group(ERG) headed by French National Front leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen . At the time , Taylor insisted that he had made the right move , and boasted that the ERG made him their spokesperson because "I controlled their political expression". He later left the ERG(because he found its links with the neo-Nazi German Republican Party an "embarrassent" !) and joined the European Peoples Party (EPP) , the so-called 'Christian Democrat' grouping to which this state's Fine Gael party also belongs.
There is no truth to the rumour that John, having almost run out of groups to join, is to start his own and call it the 'Galizien Group' ......

......indeed, many of the IRA Volunteers that took on the British in a guerrilla war during the 1919-1921 period learned their trade in Frongoch Internment Camp in North Wales. The Irish Republican Brotherhood used their time in the camp to re-organise , and Michael Collins formed his deadly 'Dublin Squad' from those same internees ; his country-wide intelligence network was said to have been as efficient as it was because of the training its operatives received in Frongoch.
On December 23rd, 1916, the last 600 internees in the camp and the two remaining female internees in Aylesbury Jail, Winifred Carney and Helena Moloney , were released ; the sentenced prisoners, including Constance Markievicz, were held in English prisons until the general amnesty in June 1917. Frongoch, the 'Republican University' in North Wales,was first opened to receive Irish'students' on June 9th, 1916. And we're still 'learning' ......


Following the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Kurdistan was established by the League of Nations in 1920 as an independent nation for the then 25 million Kurds, whose homeland it was for well over a thousand years. In 1921, Britain set up the state of Iraq, and annexed the southern half of Kurdistan , while she was at it. Meanwhile, France was drawing up the borders of Syria and the Kurds lost the western part of their country. A year later, Kemal Ataturk founded the Turkish Republic , and took over the northern portion . Iran and the then Soviet Union swallowed up what remained . In that same period of time, Britain divided both Ireland and Mesopotamia, keeping control in each nation of the most industrialized and profitable area ; Ireland was partitioned and Mesopotamia was made into the kingdoms of Iraq and Kuwait .
Now the Brits are back, militarily, in that part of the world and would have us believe that their objective is to "restore democracy" : a word of warning to the 'pro-democracy' (ie puppet) administration that Bush and Blair will set-up ----- watch your backs; before you know it, you'll be the new "Axis of Evil"........

In early June 1916, 1,850 Irish Republicans were brought to Frongoch Internment Camp in North Wales ; this was the first use by the British of an internment camp for Irish political prisoners . Frongoch was divided into two sections , the South Camp(capable of holding 1,000 men) and the North Camp(850 men approximately) - the internees in each camp organised themselves into units, comprising a Camp Commandant, chain of command structures and group and hut leaders . By August 1916 ,there had been a large number of releases and all remaining internees were moved to the South Camp; however, the men insisted that if they were to continue to be held in Frongoch then it should be in the smaller North Camp, which had 'better' accommodation and, on October 21st, they were transferred there. The South Camp was then used as a 'punishment centre' only.
Frongoch became known as the 'Republican University' because,as it allowed for lengthy periods of free association , the internees organised lectures,debates and training sessions on a daily basis and those that were released left as disciplined military and political activists; indeed, many of those that took on the British in a guerrilla war during the 1919-1921 period learned their trade in Frongoch. (MORE LATER)>>


The Six-County area cut off in 1920 had never existed before as an entity in history, or politics, or economics. Craigavon, deputy-leader of the Unionists in the British Parliament, explained on March 29th, 1920, why only six of the nine counties of Ulster could be brought under a Belfast parliament - "The three excluded counties contain some 70,000 Unionists and 260,000 Sinn Feiners and Nationalists and the addition of that large block of Sinn Feiners and Nationalists would reduce our majority to such a level that no sane man would undertake to carry on a parliament with it. We quite frankly admit that we cannot hold the nine counties" (HANSARD, Volume 127,Col.991). The above is too big to fit on a placard, but perhaps someone will remind Tony Blair of it, and point out that the 'Irish problem' created by the English still exists- and then maybe Tony will pass it on to George, who might then ask his daddy what to do about it ......

It has been estimated that around 1,650 men and women took part in the 1916 Easter Rising yet, in the days following its collapse, 3,430 men and 79 women were arrested by the British ; of these, 1,424 men and 73 women were released almost immediately. Fifteen men were executed ; one-hundred and twenty-three men,who were sentenced to penal servitude ranging from two years to life and one woman,Countess Markievicz(who was sentenced to life imprisonment) were all deported to various English prisons , while 1,519 men and five women were interned. English prisons like Knutsford, Wakefield, Stafford and Wandsworth were used to house the male internees with the five females (Maire Perolz, Brigid Foley, Nell Ryan, Winifred Carney and Helena Moloney) sent to Aylesbury Prison. Shortly after being interned , 650 men were released and returned to Ireland - however, almost two thousand men were served with internment orders under the British 'Defence of The Realm Act' .
In early June 1916 , Frongoch Internment Camp in Merionethshire, North Wales, having being cleared of all German prisoners, was opened for Irish prisoners and about 1,850 men were brought there by rail from the various jails . This was the first use by the British of an internment camp for Irish political prisoners ....... (MORE LATER)>>


And the Adams Family has called on people to protest against the visit of George Bush Junior in Belfast today(not Tony Blair's visit,however- he pays for their Donegal holiday-homes) and at the same time the bould Gerry is due to break bread with the man! We are told it is necessary as Baby Bush has to be kept 'on-side' due to his support for what the establishment describes as"the Irish peace process" ; Bush, we are told, is a guarantor that, eventually,the Nationalists in the Six Counties will be treated with "equality": well, run this up the flagpole,George --- we "got equality" with Catholic emancipation in 1829 , and again in 1969 with Terence O'Neills reforms, and again in 1973 with the Sunningdale Agreement and again in 1985 with the Hillsborough Treaty ...... which brings us back to the Stormont Treaty of 1998 and it's promise of "equality" .
We've had a bellyfull of'equality' , George , so have a quick word in Tony's ear and suggest that he take the best option - withdrawal.
Because Gerry certainly won't do it........

It was a member of the British Parliament , Lord Gifford, who compared the English 'supergrass' trials with those in the Six Counties and found that in England no-one was convicted without corroborative evidence - in the six North-Eastern counties of Ireland "57 per cent of those found guilty in the ten supergrass trials to date in Northern Ireland(sic) were convicted by the presiding judge on uncorroborated accomplice evidence" . The authors of the book 'Abolishing the Diplock Courts' stated- "We believe that even at its strongest , all the relevant data falls far short of the calibre of evidence which should be required before a legal right, so fundamental to the legal tradition of Britain and Ireland, as jury trial for serious offences can legitimately be even 'partially' or 'temporarily' suspended " .
The two men responsible for the book(Steven Greer and Anthony White), which was published, as I stated, around 1986 or 1987 have, in my opinion,ignored (wilfully or otherwise)the political 'reasons' for Britains use of non-jury courts; the authors looked at their subject matter without realising that the British Government considered the process of law as one element amongst many that needed to be 'tweaked' by them when dealing with what they called "the Irish problem".The British parliament and judicial system assisted the Westminster administration to that end. That said , however, the book did at least signal at the time a sense of unease with the way the politicians were conducting matters in the Six Counties and helped to draw attention to that judicial issue and other matters which Thatcher, Major etc would rather have swept under the carpet . For that alone it did the Irish cause a small favour .


In a letter to Karl Marx , Frederick Engels wrote - "The worst about the Irish is that they become corruptible as soon as they stop being peasants and then turn bourgeois. True, this is the case with most peasant nations , but in Ireland it is particularly bad " . Like most readers, I would have my differences with both Marx and Engels , but the latter , in his letter, sure knew us better !
........ The American revolutionary Benjamin Franklin once said , on finding some of his comrades willing to strike a 'deal' with the British - "Those who would trade freedom for peace will have neither" - there are many in this country for whom the absence of war means peace ~ never mind that the cause of the conflict remains.......

A book entitled 'Abolishing the Diplock Courts' by Steven Greer and Anthony White , published by the Cobden Trust in Britain about fifteen years ago , re the 'judicial' system in the Six Counties , makes for interesting (re-)reading , even today ;
" The threat of intimidation of witnesses which we have already described extends also to jurors.The jury system as a means for trying terrorist crime(sic) is under strain.It may not have broken down , but we think that the time is already ripe to forestall its doing so" -- so stated 'The Diplock Report', which was published in December 1972,and which was used by the British to further their opinion that jury trial had to be abolished.
In their book , Steven Greer(a law lecturer at Bristol University) and Anthony White(a barrister-at-law) argued that the reasons given at the time for the abolition of the jury system for 'scheduled offences' were not valid or based on "any systematic data". They stated that the arguments used to justify the Westminster move did not stand up to critical examination, and both men proposed that jury trial should have been restored. The authors quoted from a study by Lord Gifford , who compared the English 'supergrass' trials with those in the Six Counties and found that in England no-one was convicted without corroborative evidence . (MORE LATER)>>>



In 1990 , during the Free State administrations tenure of the E U Presidency , former Fianna Fail leader Albert Reynolds signed the directive authorising the E U's £2.8 billion low-cost loan to BNFL, which built THORP .There were 32 operating nuclear reactors in Britain at the time and 20 per cent of the power supply then was nuclear generated. Next January, Bertie Ahern will be in the position that Reynolds occupied in 1990 ; perhaps, as a mark of gratitude to those he so obviously considers his'betters', Bertie will let the Brits build a nuclear plant in Shannon,and convince his buddy George Bush (who knows the area well) to finance it ! Could be an'OBE' in it for ya, Bert ......

In the weeks following the shooting dead of the two County Westmeath IRA Volunteers in Ballykinlar Internment Camp in County Down , in January 1921 (Volunteers Joe Tormey and James Sloan) three more IRA Volunteers - Eamon Healy(Waterford) , Padraig O'Toole(Carlow) and Sean O'Sullivan (Kildare) died of illness at the camp due to the foul conditions the prisoners were forced to endure .
Following the signing of the Treaty in December 1921 , all the Republican prisoners and internees in Ballykinlar were freed . In later years , new camps were to be opened-up for republican prisoners and internees , this time run by their old comrades : today , again, those 'old comrades' have once more turned their back on Irish Republicans and now put as much effort in attempting to 'dress-up' the British presence as they once did in trying to remove that presence ; they are aware that as long as Britains jurisdictional claim over any part of Ireland remains in force , opposition to that claim will always be with us .......

On February 17th, 2000, the then Stormont Office Minister Adam Ingram , stated that 49 people had been killed in the Six Counties since May 1998 ; he admitted that between April 4th 1998 and February 10th 2000 , a total of 2,422 people had been injured as a result of attacks, including 456 people hurt by explosions, 155 injured through gun attacks and 1,811 people hurt by 'punishment' attacks . Loyalists were blamed for 251 casualties, including 79 shootings and 172 assaults. Nationalists were said to be responsible for 134 attacks, including 46 shootings and 88 assaults - between the same dates , attacks on the RUC numbered 2,901 involving firearms,explosives and what he termed "other missiles" .
The British and the Free Staters(including the Provisionals) sold the Stormont Treaty as a "vote YES for peace" exercise ~ they got a majority 'YES'vote from those that bothered to vote , but no peace yet ; nor will there be , until such time as the British withdraw their political and military presence from Ireland.

The two IRA Volunteers , friends from County Westmeath , who were held in the different camps in Ballykinlar , approached the fence which separated them and were both machine-gunned to death by a British sentry in one of the posts ; the soldier was later to be promoted in rank and moved to a different position in Ballykinlar Camp .
In the British House of Commons, the 'Chief-Secretary in Ireland' , Sir Hamar Greenwood , stated ~ " A military Court of Inquiry , held in lieu of an inquest, found that no blame attached to the soldier who fired in execution of his duty . No action of a disciplinary character is , therefore, called for , and none has been taken " .
The British Army issued a statement claiming that " a number of men in two adjoining cages persisted in communicating with each other despite the repeated warnings of a sentry " . ( It should be noted that another IRA Volunteer , Corkman Tadgh Barry , was killed by a sentry in similar circumstances in the same camp in November that year , 1921) .
(MORE LATER).....

'Congrats' to Emily O'Reilly on her new position as this state's 'Ombudsman' and we also wish her well in her new role as ' Freedom of Information Commissioner' : her (nice) new Office comes with a pay-check of 3646 EURO a week , which should help her forget about her old job as Editor of'Magill' magazine which she left(in 2000,I think) because , if I remember correctly, that magazines' 'sister' publication , 'In Dublin' , made most of its money by publishing advertisements for 'massage parlours' .
When asked why she did'nt leave sooner (or perhaps why she took the job in the first place....) Emily stated- " There are levels of knowing and levels of awareness" ; so, if our new 'Ombudsperson' and 'Freedom of Information Commissioner' fails to "get back to you on that one" , you'll know its because "there are levels......" .

In December 1920 , internment camps capable of holding thousands of IRA prisoners were set up at Kilworth , Bear Island and Spike Island in County Cork , Rath Camp and Newbridge Camp at the Curragh in County Kildare and Gormanstown Camp in County Meath ...
Leo Henderson was IRA Officer Commanding at Ballykinlar Camp 1 and Joe McGrath filled the same position in Ballykinlar Camp 2 ; each of the two camps held about one thousand prisoners but , due to the barbed-wire fence and sentry boxes which separated them , communications between camps was not possible . This led to frequent rows between the armed guards and the internees , so the two IRA O/C's worked out an agreement with the British Commander , Colonel Little , in which the prisoners were free to use the tarmacadam pathway which separated the two camps and communicate with prisoners in the different camps , provided that they did not approach nearer than three feet from the fence .

However , the British hated the Republican prisoners to such an extent that , like now , their word could not be trusted - in mid-January 1921 , two IRA Volunteers , friends from County Westmeath , who were held in the different camps in Ballykinlar , approached the fence which separated them and were both machine-gunned to death..... (MORE LATER)>>


..... Members of the Stormont Assembly that are not re-elected or who chose not to stand made sure they would not suffer financially :
... they rewarded themselves with a "resettlement allowance" of £19,000 , a "winding-up" allowance of £11,617 and decided that ex-Ministers , Junior Ministers and other office holders would each receive an additional payment equal to one-quarter of their annual salary !
The Provisionals are just as apt to fumble in the greasy till as other British and Free State career politicians are.....

On August 9TH, 1920 , the English parliament enacted 'The Restoration of Order in Ireland Act', which was a special extension of the 'Defence of the Realm Act 1914 ' :
The ' Restoration Act ' allowed for internment without trial ,secret military courts martial , the suppression of coroners'inquests and other immunities from the normal course of law .
In December that year(1920) ,with most of the country under martial law (ie all of the Free State and most of the Six Counties) and Kevin Barry not long in his grave (the British hanged him in November 1920) a new push was made by the British to defeat the IRA : the commander-in-chief of all British forces in Ireland, Sir Neville Macready , introduced internment without trial .

On December 5TH , 1920 , one-hundred internees were sent by sea from Dublin via Belfast to Ballykinlar internment camp in County Down .
During the following weeks additional internment camps , capable of holding thousands of prisoners , were set up at Kilworth , Bear Island and Spike Island in County Cork , Rath Camp and Newbridge Camp at the Curragh in County Kildare and Gormanstown Camp in County Meath . ( MORE LATER)>>

.....the Brits have already spent billions on their occupation of this country, but its still not enough .......
' The Office Holders Bill ', of which I wrote here about before , deserves another mention --if only to highlight the sheer brass-neck of those that wrote it up and agreed with it :
This self-serving , money-grabbing and immoral piece of legislation had its 'second stage ' provision passed in December 1999 by those whom it will benefit -- the members of the British-financed Stormont assembly . The third stage of the ' Office Holders ' bill was discussed at Stormont on January 12TH , 2000 ; it allows for so-called 'MLA's' that are not re-elected in future polls or who chose not to stand would be entitled to ...... (MORE LATER)>>>

By the Autumn of 1923 , after the civil war had ended and with the republican forces smashed , thousands of political prisoners were held in Free State jails and camps . Conditions were rough for the men and women in the grim buildings and compounds , in which 77 of their comrades had been executed since November 1922 ( between the execution of PH Pearse in Kilmainham , Dublin, on May 3rd 1916 and William Shaughnessy on May 2nd 1923 , one-hundred and fifteen other republicans were executed) .
Maud Gonne led a tireless campaign to publicise the conditions in which the prisoners found themselves and the prisoners realised that , with the approach of winter , their conditions would only worsen . The Free Staters were attempting to deprive them of political status and treat them as criminals - four-hundred and twenty four men began a hunger strike in Mountjoy Jail on October 14th , 1923 . Ten of their number were members of Dail Eireann . Within days , more republican prisoners throughout the Free State joined the fast . On November 20th, IRA Commandant Denis Barry, from Blackrock in County Cork , died in Newbridge Camp ,Kildare , and on November 22nd , Captain Andrew Sullivan , from Mallow in County Cork , died in Mountjoy .
Demands from ordinary people , at home and abroad , for the release of the prisoners flooded into the Free State administration and Cardinal Logue issued a pronouncement asking for the release of the internees (but not mentioning the sentenced prisoners) . By this stage , women prisoners had joined the fast (Kilmainham Jail) and IRA leaders decided that further sacrifice of life would not be justified ~ by November 23rd ,1923 , 176 men had been on hunger-strike for over thirty-four days and a number had gone over the 40 day period . The leaders of the protest , Tom Derrig and DL Robinson (both of whom were over forty days without food) visited the prisoners to call off the protest - they were escorted to all the jails and camps by the Free State authorities , and only ended their own hunger-strikes after their Volunteers themselves had done so .
Releases began soon afterwards , with the women being released from Kilmainham first : some of the men were let out , but hundreds were still incarcerated into late December .
It was not by any means the last time that a hunger-strike would be used as a weapon against anti-republicans......
A few years ago , the ' West Belfast Economic Forum' published a booklet entitled "The Costs of War and Dividends of Peace" , in which it was stated that , from 1969 up to August 1994 , the Brits had spent £18.205 billion to maintain their presence in Ireland , a figure which included British Army costs of £5.669 billion , compensation payments of £1.593 billion and prison/RUC costs of £10.943 billion ! However , the Brits will now have to ' factor in ' (<-- economic jargon:translates as 'allow for' ....) the three stages of ' The Office Holders Bill' ....... (MORE LATER)>>

When the IRA POW's that had attempted to escape from Long Kesh were found , they were brought back to the camp by British troops and thrashed with batons , stripped naked and thrown , injured and bleeding, into cells .
Most of the 33 men who escaped through the tunnel that November night in 1974 were recaptured almost immediately , but several of that group did evade the British soldiers for some hours : three of the escapees hid in a ditch half-filled with water , for almost two hours, then climbed the barbed-wire perimeter fence and , even though they knew they were way behind time, headed for their original pick-up point . When they realised there was no transport there for them , they started on their way to a safe house , but were arrested shortly afterwards .
Another group of three men practically buried themselves in hedges beside a small stream and stayed put for almost 24 hours ! They then set off , on foot, cold , hungry and dishevelled, for Twinbrook in Belfast , walking in fields parallel to the M1 motorway - they got within yards of their destination before being arrested ......
Also , it should be noted , that after the last of the POW's had entered the Cage Five tunnel at the start of the escape attempt , the IRA O/C of the camp instructed that Cage Five be vacated by the remaining prisoners as it was known by all concerned that the British troops would take revenge on anyone found in the Cage where the tunnel was located . All the remaining POW's re-located to Cage Four but the Brits then fired CS gas into that cage , which contained approximately 450 men . British soldiers and prison guards , all in riot gear, sealed the cage and, after a negotiated stand-off between both sides, the POW's returned to Cage Five .
The escape attempt may have failed , but the fact that it had taken place at all and the vicious British re-action to it , plus the death of Coalisland POW Hugh Cooney , made international headlines and exposed the conditions in which the British held Irish prisoners .

George Bush is wrong to do what he's doing now , and Jimmy Carter was wrong to do what he done ~ While he was President of the United States , Jimmy Carter connived in the introduction of death squads to El Salvador , conspired to try and keep Nicaragua's Somoza in power and , when he failed to do so, he smuggled Officers of Somoza's army out of the country in planes disguised with 'Red Cross' markings.....
..... different degrees of interference , no doubt, but both wrong .

The ' International Brigade ' comprised 45,000 volunteers from 54 countries ; one-hundred and forty-five were from Ireland , of whom 61 were killed . Those who returned faced condemnation from the Catholic Church , which supported the fascist rebellion led by General Franco , aided by Hitler and Mussolini . After the fascists took power , they murdered 196,000 Spaniards between 1939 and 1952 ~
Why is the Catholic Church so quiet here in relation to the Iraq situation ?
Are they afraid they've backed the' wrong side ' again , in their acquiescence ?

In 1974 , a mass break-out from Long Kesh prison camp had been organised , but had to be postponed after a large part of the camp was set on fire by the POW's on the night of October 16th that year......
After the trouble in the camp, and with the tunnel not having been discovered by the British , it was agreed that the escape plan should stand - early November (1974) was chosen as the time to put the plan into action. On November 6th , 1974, in Cage Five of Long Kesh prison camp, the plan was outlined ~ the tunnel led from that Cage to the fields on the camp's farm , close to the perimeter fence ; on leaving the tunnel , the escapees would have to crawl through rolls of barbed-wire and then climb over the Camp's outer wire fence . IRA units had been notified to collect the escapees at an arranged rendezvous point and drive them to safe houses where the POW's were expected .
Thirty-three men went into the Cage Five tunnel but, when the first few emerged from same in the field , they were spotted by a patrol of British soldiers in a jeep ; each escapee knew that the element of surprise was gone and their chances now of success were slim , but all those who could exit the tunel made a run for it just the same . The British soldiers immediately raised the alarm as the POW's scattered , running through a ditch and crawling through coils of barbed-wire ; the British troops in the jeep opened fire without warning , and IRA Volunteer Hugh Cooney was badly wounded .
By this time , some of the British soldiers from the jeep had made it to the mouth of the tunnel and threatened to shoot the men still emerging from same unless they lay down .
Requests for a doctor or a priest to attend the dying Hugh Cooney , who was in a ditch, were refused and, indeed, the recaptured POW's later spoke of how the British soldiers standing over Cooney had urinated over the dying man . British Army re-inforcements, with dogs, were by this time searching the area and those escapees that were found had the dogs set on them . When they were returned to the camp , the POW's were thrashed with batons , .......... (MORE LATER)>>

In the late 1960's/ early 1970's , the ' security ' of the Six Counties was left in the hands of the British Army Command in Belfast , under General Freeland ( ! ) , a veteran colonial soldier renowned for his command of the MAU MAU campaign in Kenya ~ in other words , the Brits felt it was time to get even tougher with the natives ......
In 1979 , British Army Captain Mike Biggs told listeners on BRM Radio - "Northern Ireland(sic) is a problem , a problem that we started ..... " ~ and it's not finished yet , Mike...
In 1993 , the Free State administration spent 410 million punts on on their Army , which included 135 million punts on so-called ' border security ' ~ the Brits impose it on us , and the Free Staters help pay for it ! " Take it down from the mast ........ "

One of the earliest escapes from Long Kesh prison took place in September 1973 , two years after it first opened . IRA Volunteer John Francis Green walked out of the camp dressed as a Catholic priest !
Following the introduction of internment in August 1971 , the internees were initially held in Magilligan Prison in County Derry and on the Maidstone prison ship , moored in Belfast Lough . In September that year (1971) the majority of those held were moved to Long Kesh , a disused Second World War British Army airfield near Lisburn , County Antrim . Here they were housed in nissen huts in 21 cages surrounded by a huge barbed-wire perimeter fence .
Eventually , sentenced prisoners were transferred to Long Kesh and the cages were divided between republican and loyalist internees and sentenced prisoners . On the night of October 16th , 1974 , in protest over conditions , the sentenced prisoners and internees burnt a large part of the camp , destroying sentry towers and most of the huts . After CS gas was dropped on the detainees from a helicopter , a large force of British troops entered the camp and , in the riot which followed, the POW'S were severely assaulted . They were then returned to the various cages , moving into make-shift accommodation . The burning of Long Kesh camp on that October night in 1974 meant that a plan to escape , which was by then finalised, had to be postponed - a mass break-out had been organised via a tunnel out of Cage Five , and dozens of IRA men from that cage were ready to go .........
(MORE LATER)>>

' Number-crunchers ' reading this may find the following information interesting and , hopefully, bring up the subject at their next social gathering(which could very well be their last such outing....) ~
In September 1971(after internment) a MORI Opinion Poll in Britain found that 59 per cent of those polled wanted their troops out of the Six Counties ;
In December 1975 , a GALLUP Poll found that 64 per cent wanted their troops out /
February 1977 , GALLUP 53% / May 1978 , GALLUP 53% / September 1978 GALLUP 55% /
November 1980 'WEEKEND WORLD' Poll 50% / April 1981 MARPLAN 58% /May '81 MORI 59%
August 1981 GALLUP 54% / May 1984 MORI 53% / January 1987 MORI 61% / Nov '87 MARPLAN 40%
March 1988 MORI 50%/ December 1989 HARRIS 51%/ December 1990 BRITISH SOCIAL ATTITUDES -
59% / October 1991 MORI 61% / March 1992 MORI 54% .
....and the British claim to be in the Six Counties because a majority of people want them there !

~ all six men( the three IRA 'Gardai' and their 'prisoners' ) were admitted into Mountjoy Jail ;
Once inside , the warders were over-powered and one of their master-keys was taken . The three'Gardai' and 'prisoners' made their way un-challenged through the series of gates and passageways and freed 19 IRA prisoners . The twenty-five men , escorted by three of their number dressed in Gardai uniform, again bluffed their way past the confused jail staff and made it safely to the street ( included in those that walked to freedom that night were Jim Killeen , Michael Carolan and David Fitzgerald) .
A number of cars had been arranged to take the escapees away , but only one car turned up (driven by taxi driver Tom Finlay) and had parked on the North Circular Road , outside the prison. This car loaded-up with as many men as it could fit in and sped off ; the rest of the IRA men escaped on foot . Within less than an hour the area around the prison was sealed off by Free State military and police but it was too late - the twenty-five men were already in safe houses .
This event took place on November 25th , 1925 , and proved highly embarrassing to the Cosgrave Free State administration : it was not the only time they were to be embarrassed .........

.........the cost of loading their tenants on a ship to Canada was £4 per person , compared with a cost of £7 per person per year for tenants sent to the workhouse , a sum the ' landlord' would have been liable for ; hundreds died making the passage to Canada ....
The local Catholic Bishop claimed that another 3,060 people were evicted , and that most of those died on the roadside, trying to live on the bogland or in the workhouses . On November 2nd , 1847 , Major Mahon was shot dead because he had overseen the eviction of a whole town . The Mahon family offered to let the tenants come back if informants came forward , and two men were later hanged in Roscommon Square on the strength of fake confessions which the Mahon family had printed up . An estimated one million people died and 1.3 million people emigrated during the years of The Great Hunger .
The above is just one incident among many that the Irish people were put through during those years ...

Through contacts inside Mountjoy Jail , Sean Russell, before he was arrested , had located a twenty-minute ' gap ' when internal secirity was slack , and had built the escape-plan to suit same ~
It was proposed by the escape committee that six IRA Volunteers , three disguised as Free State Gardai and the others as prisoners , would bluff their way into the prison , hold up the warders and the sentries and release their comrades . Three Garda uniforms had already been procured and false paper-work had been forged , 'stamped' and signed - transport had also been arranged . On the evening of November 25th , 1925 , George Gilmore and five IRA comrades met in a house in Drumcondra , Dublin , and held a final rehearsal of their roles ; three of them changed into Garda uniforms and , as well as the forged committal orders , armed themselves with revolvers . All six then drove to Mountjoy Jail .
At the prison gates , ' Sergeant Ryan ' ( George Gilmore) and 'Gardai Shelly' and 'Malone' informed the prison staff that their three 'prisoners' would be serving a three-month prison sentence for poaching in Wicklow ~ all six were admitted to the jail ...... (MORE LATER)>>

One of the most harrowing tales still remembered in this country from the times of ' An Gorta Mor' ('The Great Hunger') is that of British Major Denis Mahon , the 'landlord' of Strokestown Park in County Roscommon ~
Major Mahon inherited the estate after his cousin , Lord Hartland , was declared to be insane . At the time , the estate consisted of 9,000 acres on which thirteen-thousand people lived , but later , in 1847, it expanded to 27,500 acres when the Major's daughter married a Roscommon landowner . The Major employed another cousin , John Ross Mahon , as the land agent for the estate , and he drew up a memorandum saying that due to the potato blight, the growing of potatoes should be replaced by oats . But , since oats required 12 acres and potatoes only one acre per family for subsistence , he estimated that two-thirds of the tenants had to be evicted or ' made ' to emigrate . The Mahon family hired charter ships to assist the emigration to Canada of about 1,000 of their tenants - this cost £4 per person , instead of supporting those evicted in the workhouse , which would have cost over £7 a year , a sum the 'landlord' would have been liable to pay - hundreds died making the passage ....... (MORE LATER)>>

On November 25th , 1925 , an event took place in Dublin which was highly embarrassing to the Free State ( Cosgrave) administration , and a spectaculat propaganda coup for the IRA ; six IRA Volunteers disguised as Gardai (police) and prisoners managed to free 19 of their comrades from Mountjoy Jail ~

After the Civil War ended in May 1923 , republican prisoners were led to believe that their release was imminent - however , they soon realised that that was not the case , and a mass hunger-strike by republican prisoners and internees in camps and jails throughout the island began . In December that year (1923) , the internees and the women political prisoners were released and , by the end of 1924 , all of the sentenced IRA prisoners had been set free .
The IRA began to re-group in 1925 , and the Free State regime once more began to imprison large numbers of republicans . David Fitzgerald and Jim Killeen , two IRA Officers , were arrested and put in Mountjoy Jail ; the O/C of the Dublin Brigade , Mick Price, and the IRA's Director of Intelligence , Michael Carolan, along with Sean Russell , set about organising a jail-break from Mountjoy but , before the plan could be finalised , both Carolan and Russell were arrested .
Mick Price and George Gilmore took over the operation ; they were aware that Mountjoy Jail was now more or less being run as a ' civilian' jail , but also knew that there was a light contingent of armed Free State military present . Through contacts inside the jail , Russell, before he was arrested, had located a twenty-minute 'gap' when internal security was slack , and had built the escape-plan to suit same ........ (MORE LATER)>>

Khalid succeeded Faisal to the throne as ruler of Saudi Arabia , and ruled from 1975 to 1982 . King Fahd once lost £8 million in one evening's 'play' in Monte Carlo , in 1962 . He has seven huge palaces in Saudi Arabia worth at least $11 billion , and also has a 100-room palace in Marbella , another fitted out for 18th century French kings outside Paris , a third with 1,500 telephone lines in Geneva and a huge house near London which cost £30 million to refurbish ! He has a flying palace , a Boeing 747 fitted with a sauna , a lift , chandeliers , gold bathroom fixtures and gold tooth-brushs .....
When he travels , his Boeing 747 is followed by another for his entourage , and three 707's to carry the 'Royal' party's luggage . No fewer that fifty members of the ruling family are billionaires . Political parties are illegal in Saudi Arabia , as is the right to peaceful assembly .
So - Bush , Blair and our own lap-dog Ahern ~ if corrupt regimes are in your sights ............

In 1941 , a ' witness ' was beaten by Free State detectives into agreeing to give incriminating statements against two Irish Republicans who were being charged with the execution of an informer ( George Plant was one of the men) but , on the day of the ' trial ' , in the Special Court , the 'witness' refused to co-operate with the system and the 'trial' collapsed . George Plant was , as expected, immediately re-arrested and Gerry Boland(the Fianna Fail Justice Minister) transferred the case from the Special Court to the Special Military Court , where the only sentence was death and the verdict could not be appealed .
De Valera , like the good vindictive Free Stater he was , wanted to ensure the demise of his former comrades and , in an unprecedented manipulation of the legal system , issued an ' Emergency Powers Order' in December 1941 , which was retrospective and provided for the acceptance of ' witness ' statements in evidence even if they had been withdrawn and even though the people who had originally made them were not present in court !
At his second ' trial ' , George Plant was found guilty , sentenced to death and executed in March 1942 . Today , courtesy of the 1998 Stormont Treaty (' Good Friday Agreement ') , those convicted of 'offences' similar in nature to those of George Plant and his comrades , are denied political status and labelled as ' dangerous criminals' by Free State administrations . Those that signed-up , supported and campaigned for that Treaty in 1998 knew that those still fighting against the British presence would be thus labelled but , like Dev , were prepared to turn on their former comrades ......

.......one of Ibn Saud's sons , the Crown Prince, built a palace for $10 million , knocked it down when it was finished because he did'nt like it , and built a second one on the same site for $30 million ! Another son drove a Cadillac until it ran out of petrol , gave it away and bought another one which had a full tank ......
Ibn Saud's eldest son and heir , Saud , ruled from 1953 for eleven years , and squandered ten's of millions of dollars on trivialities such as the use of 25,000 light bulbs in the garden of his palace . In the early 1960's , Saud's palace was using 4,000 eggs , 200 chickens and 30 lambs daily . In 1964 , Saud was replaced by his younger brother , Faisal , who ruled for eleven years until he was assassinated by an irate nephew for non-political reasons , in 1975 . Khalid succeeded Faisal to the throne , and ruled from 1975 to 1982 .......... (MORE LATER) >>