FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
The weekend of October 4-5th 1969 saw a meeting to establish a controlling body for all Northern defence committees and according to the stated objectives of the meeting the purchases of arms would also be on the agenda . The meeting was held in the Commercial Hotel , Bailieborough , County Cavan , which is owned by Vincent Kelly , brother of (FS) Captain James Kelly .
The meeting began with an assurance from Captain Kelly that the suspension of arms training at Ford Dunree for people from Derry was just a temporary matter and was due to a newspaper inquiry on the activity . In addition to the activity on all other fronts , the Dublin Government had actually opened a military training camp along the border and was training Northern activists in the use of arms . The principal discussion focussed on the funding of full-time people to control barricaded areas and , of course , the necessary provision of arms .
Meanwhile , the Special Branch were outside the hotel and reported back to Peter Berry in the (FS) Department of Justice on Captain Kelly's association with 'subversives' . Days later Charles Haughey authorised the transfer of £5,000 Red Cross funds (the Red Cross was officialy involved in the distribution of the £100,000 given by the Dublin Government for relief of distress in the North ) into an account in the Bank of Ireland in Clones , County Monaghan . The account holders , described as " Mr F , G and H.. " at the subsequent Dail (ie Leinster House) inquiry and the cover names used in the bank were 'John White , John Loughran' and ' Roger White' .
On October 15th and 30th 1969 amounts of £5,000 drawn on the (FS) 'Government Grant-In-Aid' of £100,000 were paid into the Clones bank account ; the money was to be distributed as agreed at the Bailieborough meeting and so strengthen the position of the newly-established Northern Defence Committee - the intention was to distribute it to full-time IRA organisers and vigilantes in the Defence Committees . But that money caused trouble in IRA circles .......
(MORE LATER).
NA FIANNA EIREANN .......
Their courage and daring , their discipline and determination are an inspiration to their older comrades in Sinn Fein , the IRA and Cumann na mBan .
Each Easter the ROLL OF HONOUR is published ; a list of those who have died in the service of their country in this phase of the struggle for Irish Freedom .
Among those names are the names of eighteen young martyrs - members of NA FIANNA EIREANN . They gave their young lives at different ages (the youngest was twelve , the oldest was eighteen ) and in different ways .
From 'IRIS' Magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
After the Rising and the release from prison of many Fianna members at the end of 1916 and 1917 , Na Fianna Eireann was re-organised . From 1919 to 1921 the organisation took an active part in the fight for freedom throughout the country ; they carried despatches for the Volunteers , reconnoitred barracks , engaged in intelligence work and rendered first-aid to the wounded .
These years saw a rapid growth in membership (twenty-five thousand in 1921) and in organisation for the Fianna . Those years also saw great sacrifices and grievous losses . The agony Ireland went through was played out to the full in the Fianna - Fian Billy Myles killed in action at Tralee , County Kerry : Fian Toghd O'Suillivan , died after hunger-strike , Cork , 1917 : Fian Patrick Hanly , murdered in reprisal by the RIC in 1920 and many , many more of their comrades .
Na Fianna Eireann stood solidly behind the Republic after the split in 1922 over the Truce - that Truce , and the Civil War between Republicans and Free Staters which followed it , were to result in the setting up of two states in Ireland ; the twenty-six counties which was to have Dominion home-rule under Britain , and the six counties which were to be represented in the Westminster parliament as well as having their own loyalist government in Belfast . These years were to see more resistance , more deaths and imprisonment and more sacrifices .
This type of military resistance and the sacrifices which resistance demands were to continue long after the end of the Civil War ; indeed , in the six counties , where Na Fianna Eireann has always been an illegal organisation , they continue the struggle to the present day .
Victimisation and harassment , from being stopped and questioned on the street , to being arrested , sometimes charged , convicted and imprisoned for dubious offences - such as membership of Na Fianna , collecting or organising for the Fianna , possession of Fianna documents etc - all these are a regular occurrence both in the North and South of Ireland .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
The first 'Rescue Team' , led by Detective Inspector Carey , who had helped draw up the plan , took up its position in the field across the road from the house ; the second team , led by Detective Sergeant Michael Scanlon , also moved into position , approaching from the rear of the house . Radio silence was observed until all three teams were in position : at 4.50 PM the team led by Detective Sergeant Michael Scanlon radioed into base that they were in position - they were taking cover behind a large ditch overlooking the container .
The kidnappers and John O'Grady were hiding inside this same ditch - they heard the message being given over the garda radio ; it was then that Detective Michael Scanlon noticed that they were not , in fact , in their correct position . There was another field between them and the container and he ordered his men forward - Detective Garda Gerard Corbett went to climb over the ditch which was covered in dense undergrowth . The sound of a branch cracking beneath his weight was clearly audible . The kidnappers , a few feet below Garda Corbett , made a break for it out onto the open road .
Luck was on their side - a Hi-Ace van was approaching , the occupants of which , Charles and Mary Terry , were ordered out at gunpoint : using Mary Terry as a 'shield' , one of the gang fired two shots at Detective Corbett while roaring " Get down you scum " . More shots were exchanged . A Renault 9 pulled up behind the Hi-Ace van - the kidnappers changed their minds and hi-jacked this car instead - all this time one of the gang was firing shots . Another gunman was shouting - " Bring the hostage!" To the gardai the gang seemed well militarily drilled - the gardai were unable to return fire because Mary Terry was between them and the kidnappers .
The gang took off in the Renault , driving down the road towards the container where the garda 'Team One' was positioned .......
(MORE LATER).
Thursday, September 29, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
Due to the booklet and his personal friendship with Seamus Brady (FS Government employee) , Hugh Kennedy ( Bord Bainne rep in Belfast) was elected Public Relations Officer of the 'Central Citizens Defence Committee' (CCDC) , whose Chairperson was the well known IRA activist Jim O'Suillivan ; a staunch supporter of the Cathal Goulding leadership .
In Dungannon , County Tyrone , a jointly-written booklet by Seamus Brady and local Civil Rights activist Aidan Corrigan was produced , entitled - ' Eye Witness in Northern Ireland' ; this too was financed by the Dublin Government Information Bureau and was printed - 5,000 copies - at the Cityview Press in Dublin despite its imprint stating - ' Published and printed in the Province of Ulster ' . The booklet was launched at a press conference in Dublin's Jury's Hotel on October 5th , 1969 . Seamus Brady arranged the press conference .
Brady resigned suddenly from the (FS) Government's Propaganda Squad on September 21st to become a full time activist on a weekly newspaper and a mobile radio station beamed on the North ; the success of illegal stations in the Bogside and Belfast had upset the Dublin Government because of their left wing attacks on them . Seamus Brady set up the weekly 'Voice Of The North' newspaper in consulation with Charles Haughey who initially suggested the title , according to Brady . Final plans for the newspaper were taken at a meeting between Charles Haughey , Captain James Kelly , Aidan Corrigan and Seamus Brady .
Captain Kelly had already organised the distribution of the newspaper and the first edition was due off the press at the Anglo-Celt on October 12th .......
(MORE LATER).
NA FIANNA EIREANN .......
Their courage and daring , their discipline and determination are an inspiration to their older comrades in Sinn Fein , the IRA and Cumann na mBan .
Each Easter the ROLL OF HONOUR is published ; a list of those who have died in the service of their country in this phase of the struggle for Irish Freedom .
Among those names are the names of eighteen young martyrs - members of NA FIANNA EIREANN . They gave their young lives at different ages (the youngest was twelve , the oldest was eighteen ) and in different ways .
From 'IRIS' Magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
Na Fianna played an active part during the 1913 strike ; the great lock-out of 1913 was the first confrontation between the Irish working-class and the bosses and it saw united actions by Republicans and socialists in defence of the people . Patsy O'Connor , a Fianna Officer , was batoned savagely on the head whilst giving first-aid to an injured worker during a baton-charge by the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) on the strikers . He died shortly afterwards .
When the Irish Volunteers (the forerunners of today's IRA) were formed in the same year (1913) the value of the work undertaken by the Fianna became obvious ; the senior Fianna were ready and competent to train the Volunteers and accustom them to discipline . Fianna stewarded the inaugural meeting of the Volunteers and four of their members were elected to the first Executive Council of the Volunteers . The following year , 1914 , saw na Fianna Eireann taking part in the Howth gun-running and shortly afterwards organising a gun-running expedition at Kilcoole .
The history of the Easter Rising in 1916 , when the Republican forces took over the centre of Dublin , proclaimed an independent Irish Republic and held off vastly superior British Army forces for six days , is interwoven with Fianna exploits and Fianna heroes ; Fianna Officers were given command of important sections of the operations . A party of Fianna and Volunteers successfully attacked and destroyed the arms and munitions in the Magazine Fort in Dublin's Phoenix Park , thus signalling the start of the Rising .
Fianna Officers Sean Houston , Con Colbert and Constance Markievicz were in command of the Mendicity Institution , the College of Surgeons and the Marrowbone Lane units ; members of the organisation were also engaged in fighting in other parts of the city where they carried out the dangerous work of despatch-carrying and scouting . Six members of Na Fianna Eireann were killed in the fighting and Fianna Officers Sean Houston and Con Colbert were executed by firing squad on 8th May 1916 .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
The Detectives left Midleton Garda Station at 4.30 PM to take up their designated positions : the plan failed miserably - its success hinged on the presumption that the kidnappers were inside the container . It was fundamentally flawed . The most serious omission was the failure to set up roadblocks sealing off the area . Even if the primary aim was merely containment , it was already known the gang was armed ; if it came to a shoot-out , which was a likely possibility , road blocks were essential , not just to keep the kidnappers hemmed in but , more importantly , to keep the civilian population out .
10. COCK-UP AT MIDLETON .
For the previous three-and-a-half-days , John O'Grady had only been outside the container once , for a twenty minute exercise period . Most of the time he spent listening to the radio and reading the newspapers . At regular intervals during the day a man came and knocked on the container and gave the code-word ' Geronimo' ; he would then open up the container and pass in meals . The container was locked from outside ; O'Grady's guards were as much prisoners as himself . Eddie Hogan had returned to the container on the previous evening - that evening , Hogan and another gang member left early . Sometime during the morning O'Grady and the remaining guard heard someone outside the container ; soon afterwards , Hogan arrived and told John O'Grady to dress quickly . He again put on his blacked-out glasses and was handcuffed . They moved to a tunnel close by .
John O'Grady remained in the tunnel for an hour or so listening to the RTE Radio 2 marathon ; suddenly the headphones were grabbed off his head and he was taken out of the tunnel - the gang had spotted Garda Gerard O'Donoghue and his two colleagues examining the container and calling to the house of Mrs. O'Neill . Hogan led him by the hand across a couple of fields to a ditch beside the road . The four men crouched in the ditch eating currant cake , and Fergal Toal and Tony McNeill shared a cigarette .
Meanwhile , the three teams of detectives were moving in to take up their positions , unaware that the kidnappers and John O'Grady had vacated the container . 'Rescue' Team number two payed no part in what followed .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
Due to the booklet and his personal friendship with Seamus Brady (FS Government employee) , Hugh Kennedy ( Bord Bainne rep in Belfast) was elected Public Relations Officer of the 'Central Citizens Defence Committee' (CCDC) , whose Chairperson was the well known IRA activist Jim O'Suillivan ; a staunch supporter of the Cathal Goulding leadership .
In Dungannon , County Tyrone , a jointly-written booklet by Seamus Brady and local Civil Rights activist Aidan Corrigan was produced , entitled - ' Eye Witness in Northern Ireland' ; this too was financed by the Dublin Government Information Bureau and was printed - 5,000 copies - at the Cityview Press in Dublin despite its imprint stating - ' Published and printed in the Province of Ulster ' . The booklet was launched at a press conference in Dublin's Jury's Hotel on October 5th , 1969 . Seamus Brady arranged the press conference .
Brady resigned suddenly from the (FS) Government's Propaganda Squad on September 21st to become a full time activist on a weekly newspaper and a mobile radio station beamed on the North ; the success of illegal stations in the Bogside and Belfast had upset the Dublin Government because of their left wing attacks on them . Seamus Brady set up the weekly 'Voice Of The North' newspaper in consulation with Charles Haughey who initially suggested the title , according to Brady . Final plans for the newspaper were taken at a meeting between Charles Haughey , Captain James Kelly , Aidan Corrigan and Seamus Brady .
Captain Kelly had already organised the distribution of the newspaper and the first edition was due off the press at the Anglo-Celt on October 12th .......
(MORE LATER).
NA FIANNA EIREANN .......
Their courage and daring , their discipline and determination are an inspiration to their older comrades in Sinn Fein , the IRA and Cumann na mBan .
Each Easter the ROLL OF HONOUR is published ; a list of those who have died in the service of their country in this phase of the struggle for Irish Freedom .
Among those names are the names of eighteen young martyrs - members of NA FIANNA EIREANN . They gave their young lives at different ages (the youngest was twelve , the oldest was eighteen ) and in different ways .
From 'IRIS' Magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
Na Fianna played an active part during the 1913 strike ; the great lock-out of 1913 was the first confrontation between the Irish working-class and the bosses and it saw united actions by Republicans and socialists in defence of the people . Patsy O'Connor , a Fianna Officer , was batoned savagely on the head whilst giving first-aid to an injured worker during a baton-charge by the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) on the strikers . He died shortly afterwards .
When the Irish Volunteers (the forerunners of today's IRA) were formed in the same year (1913) the value of the work undertaken by the Fianna became obvious ; the senior Fianna were ready and competent to train the Volunteers and accustom them to discipline . Fianna stewarded the inaugural meeting of the Volunteers and four of their members were elected to the first Executive Council of the Volunteers . The following year , 1914 , saw na Fianna Eireann taking part in the Howth gun-running and shortly afterwards organising a gun-running expedition at Kilcoole .
The history of the Easter Rising in 1916 , when the Republican forces took over the centre of Dublin , proclaimed an independent Irish Republic and held off vastly superior British Army forces for six days , is interwoven with Fianna exploits and Fianna heroes ; Fianna Officers were given command of important sections of the operations . A party of Fianna and Volunteers successfully attacked and destroyed the arms and munitions in the Magazine Fort in Dublin's Phoenix Park , thus signalling the start of the Rising .
Fianna Officers Sean Houston , Con Colbert and Constance Markievicz were in command of the Mendicity Institution , the College of Surgeons and the Marrowbone Lane units ; members of the organisation were also engaged in fighting in other parts of the city where they carried out the dangerous work of despatch-carrying and scouting . Six members of Na Fianna Eireann were killed in the fighting and Fianna Officers Sean Houston and Con Colbert were executed by firing squad on 8th May 1916 .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
The Detectives left Midleton Garda Station at 4.30 PM to take up their designated positions : the plan failed miserably - its success hinged on the presumption that the kidnappers were inside the container . It was fundamentally flawed . The most serious omission was the failure to set up roadblocks sealing off the area . Even if the primary aim was merely containment , it was already known the gang was armed ; if it came to a shoot-out , which was a likely possibility , road blocks were essential , not just to keep the kidnappers hemmed in but , more importantly , to keep the civilian population out .
10. COCK-UP AT MIDLETON .
For the previous three-and-a-half-days , John O'Grady had only been outside the container once , for a twenty minute exercise period . Most of the time he spent listening to the radio and reading the newspapers . At regular intervals during the day a man came and knocked on the container and gave the code-word ' Geronimo' ; he would then open up the container and pass in meals . The container was locked from outside ; O'Grady's guards were as much prisoners as himself . Eddie Hogan had returned to the container on the previous evening - that evening , Hogan and another gang member left early . Sometime during the morning O'Grady and the remaining guard heard someone outside the container ; soon afterwards , Hogan arrived and told John O'Grady to dress quickly . He again put on his blacked-out glasses and was handcuffed . They moved to a tunnel close by .
John O'Grady remained in the tunnel for an hour or so listening to the RTE Radio 2 marathon ; suddenly the headphones were grabbed off his head and he was taken out of the tunnel - the gang had spotted Garda Gerard O'Donoghue and his two colleagues examining the container and calling to the house of Mrs. O'Neill . Hogan led him by the hand across a couple of fields to a ditch beside the road . The four men crouched in the ditch eating currant cake , and Fergal Toal and Tony McNeill shared a cigarette .
Meanwhile , the three teams of detectives were moving in to take up their positions , unaware that the kidnappers and John O'Grady had vacated the container . 'Rescue' Team number two payed no part in what followed .......
(MORE LATER).
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
The Irish (sic- Free State) Army's main role after August 15 , 1969 , became one of gathering information about events and people in the North ; the special Garda squads , operating on both sides of the border , had their input , too . The (FS) Government's refugee camps along the border were used as sources of information .
With the trouble dying down in Belfast , the (FS) Director of Army Intelligence , Colonel Hefferon , met the (FS) Minister for Finance , Charles Haughey , in McKee Barracks in Dublin and talked about the requirements on the intelligence front for the future as regards the North of Ireand ; at this meeting the idea developed of using a centre in Monaghan , which had been set up to deal with relief , for intelligence gathering . It was agreed to subsidise the activities of the office and the first £100 was paid over on September 9th , 1969 .
The objective was to pay the cost of maintaining the office and staff and help publish a weekly news-sheet , which would generate contacts in the North and so gather information . At the same time (FS) government employee Seamus Brady had produced a booklet entitled ' Terror in Northern Ireland' for the Central Citizens Defence Committee (CCDC) in Belfast ; Brady had been chosen to infiltrate the CCDC and this publication launched him nicely into his work . The full costs of producing the booklet were paid by the Dublin Government's 'Information Bureau' .
Hugh Kennedy , the Bord Bainne representative in Belfast , was known to Seamus Brady from journalistic work carried out for the Bord , which was then under the control of the (FS) Minister for Agriculture , Neil Blaney . Mr. Blaney was also a member of the Leinster House Government's sub-committee on the North .......
(MORE LATER).
NA FIANNA EIREANN .
Their courage and daring , their discipline and determination are an inspiration to their older comrades in Sinn Fein , the IRA and Cumann na mBan .
Each Easter the ROLL OF HONOUR is published ; a list of those who have died in the service of their country in this phase of the struggle for Irish Freedom .
Among those names are the names of eighteen young martyrs - members of NA FIANNA EIREANN . They gave their young lives at different ages (the youngest was twelve , the oldest was eighteen ) and in different ways .
From 'IRIS' Magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
Na Fianna Eireann is the youth organisation of the Republican Movement , the revolutionary vanguard of Irish youth . Throughout its long history , longer indeed than that of either Sinn Fein or the IRA , it has been called upon to play an often vital role in the fight for national liberation .
The organisation was founded by Countess Markievicz in 1909 "...to train the youth of Ireand to fight Ireland's fight when they are older .. " . A Gaelic renaissance was sweeping Ireland at the time and the Fianna were to be an Irish and Gaelic answer to the pro-British Baden-Powell scouts : indeed the National Youth Council of Ireland cites Na Fianna Eireann as the first national Irish youth Movement .
Na Fianna looked on the mythological Fianna of Fionn MacCuamhail as their exemplars , and took their motto , " Glaine 'nar gcroi neart 'nar ngeaga agus beart do reir ar mbriathar " (" Purity In Our Hearts , Strength In Our Arms And Truth On Our Lips ") as their own . The legends of old Ireland extolled the courage and the daring , the discipline and the determination of the country's defenders of Cuchulainn and the Red Branch Knights , and of Fionn and the Fianna .
Their own courage and discipline were soon to be tested in the great lock-out of 1913 , the training of the Irish Volunteers throughout 1914 , 1915 and 1916 , and the Easter Rising .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
Garda Gerard O'Donoghue and two of his colleagues knocked on the container but got no reply ; they went to an adjacent house where an elderly woman , a Mrs O'Neill , lived : she told them she had not noticed any suspicious activity , so they returned to Midleton Garda Station . The matter might have ended there but for the fact that at 3PM Garda O'Donoghue received new information - on the basis of this O'Donoghue was convinced he had located the kidnap gang .
Garda Superintendent Murray arrived into Midleton Garda Station to take charge at 3.30 PM - he acted quickly ; he telephoned surrounding garda stations to request back-up assistance , and then telephoned Commandant Grey of Collins Barracks in Cork City . Murray briefed Grey and requested a Company of troops and emergency lighting to assist him ; Grey's reply was that it would take two hours to mobilise troops . Twenty minutes later , however , Commandant Grey rang back to say that a Captain Kenneally would be in Midleton in three-quarters of an hour with a party of nine soldiers .
By this stage Garda Detective Inspector Carey had arrived from Union Quay Station in Cork ; over the next twenty minutes Murray and Carey cobbled together a plan - there were sixteen armed gardai of various ranks detailed to implement this plan . The Detectives split into three teams : 'Team One' was to take up a position in a field directly across the road from the container , whilst 'Team Two' and 'Team Three' were to approach the container from two directions behind . The ditches in the fields around the container were to give the surrounding party cover .
The purpose of the plan , according to Superintendent Murray , was merely to contain the gang until the soldiers arrived and roadblocks were set up . Each team was instructed to abandon their transport on farms half a mile away from the target .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
The Irish (sic- Free State) Army's main role after August 15 , 1969 , became one of gathering information about events and people in the North ; the special Garda squads , operating on both sides of the border , had their input , too . The (FS) Government's refugee camps along the border were used as sources of information .
With the trouble dying down in Belfast , the (FS) Director of Army Intelligence , Colonel Hefferon , met the (FS) Minister for Finance , Charles Haughey , in McKee Barracks in Dublin and talked about the requirements on the intelligence front for the future as regards the North of Ireand ; at this meeting the idea developed of using a centre in Monaghan , which had been set up to deal with relief , for intelligence gathering . It was agreed to subsidise the activities of the office and the first £100 was paid over on September 9th , 1969 .
The objective was to pay the cost of maintaining the office and staff and help publish a weekly news-sheet , which would generate contacts in the North and so gather information . At the same time (FS) government employee Seamus Brady had produced a booklet entitled ' Terror in Northern Ireland' for the Central Citizens Defence Committee (CCDC) in Belfast ; Brady had been chosen to infiltrate the CCDC and this publication launched him nicely into his work . The full costs of producing the booklet were paid by the Dublin Government's 'Information Bureau' .
Hugh Kennedy , the Bord Bainne representative in Belfast , was known to Seamus Brady from journalistic work carried out for the Bord , which was then under the control of the (FS) Minister for Agriculture , Neil Blaney . Mr. Blaney was also a member of the Leinster House Government's sub-committee on the North .......
(MORE LATER).
NA FIANNA EIREANN .
Their courage and daring , their discipline and determination are an inspiration to their older comrades in Sinn Fein , the IRA and Cumann na mBan .
Each Easter the ROLL OF HONOUR is published ; a list of those who have died in the service of their country in this phase of the struggle for Irish Freedom .
Among those names are the names of eighteen young martyrs - members of NA FIANNA EIREANN . They gave their young lives at different ages (the youngest was twelve , the oldest was eighteen ) and in different ways .
From 'IRIS' Magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
Na Fianna Eireann is the youth organisation of the Republican Movement , the revolutionary vanguard of Irish youth . Throughout its long history , longer indeed than that of either Sinn Fein or the IRA , it has been called upon to play an often vital role in the fight for national liberation .
The organisation was founded by Countess Markievicz in 1909 "...to train the youth of Ireand to fight Ireland's fight when they are older .. " . A Gaelic renaissance was sweeping Ireland at the time and the Fianna were to be an Irish and Gaelic answer to the pro-British Baden-Powell scouts : indeed the National Youth Council of Ireland cites Na Fianna Eireann as the first national Irish youth Movement .
Na Fianna looked on the mythological Fianna of Fionn MacCuamhail as their exemplars , and took their motto , " Glaine 'nar gcroi neart 'nar ngeaga agus beart do reir ar mbriathar " (" Purity In Our Hearts , Strength In Our Arms And Truth On Our Lips ") as their own . The legends of old Ireland extolled the courage and the daring , the discipline and the determination of the country's defenders of Cuchulainn and the Red Branch Knights , and of Fionn and the Fianna .
Their own courage and discipline were soon to be tested in the great lock-out of 1913 , the training of the Irish Volunteers throughout 1914 , 1915 and 1916 , and the Easter Rising .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
Garda Gerard O'Donoghue and two of his colleagues knocked on the container but got no reply ; they went to an adjacent house where an elderly woman , a Mrs O'Neill , lived : she told them she had not noticed any suspicious activity , so they returned to Midleton Garda Station . The matter might have ended there but for the fact that at 3PM Garda O'Donoghue received new information - on the basis of this O'Donoghue was convinced he had located the kidnap gang .
Garda Superintendent Murray arrived into Midleton Garda Station to take charge at 3.30 PM - he acted quickly ; he telephoned surrounding garda stations to request back-up assistance , and then telephoned Commandant Grey of Collins Barracks in Cork City . Murray briefed Grey and requested a Company of troops and emergency lighting to assist him ; Grey's reply was that it would take two hours to mobilise troops . Twenty minutes later , however , Commandant Grey rang back to say that a Captain Kenneally would be in Midleton in three-quarters of an hour with a party of nine soldiers .
By this stage Garda Detective Inspector Carey had arrived from Union Quay Station in Cork ; over the next twenty minutes Murray and Carey cobbled together a plan - there were sixteen armed gardai of various ranks detailed to implement this plan . The Detectives split into three teams : 'Team One' was to take up a position in a field directly across the road from the container , whilst 'Team Two' and 'Team Three' were to approach the container from two directions behind . The ditches in the fields around the container were to give the surrounding party cover .
The purpose of the plan , according to Superintendent Murray , was merely to contain the gang until the soldiers arrived and roadblocks were set up . Each team was instructed to abandon their transport on farms half a mile away from the target .......
(MORE LATER).
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
At the end of the trouble in Belfast , which threatened a major pogrom , the IRA Chief of Staff has issued a press release over his name saying that Active Service Units of his organisation were involved in defence activities in the North . During that period also the 'old brigade' arrived on the scene ; these were 'old' Republicans who had dropped out or resigned over the years because of the IRA's leftward drift and in some cases they dropped out due to lack of interest or laziness .
The atmosphere in the South was fully in favour of aiding 'the minority in the North' with guns - 'Give us guns , bags of guns' was the popular demand . At one rally demanding guns in Dundalk , a Catholic priest was reported to have fired three shots into the air from the platform and everyone cheered . It gained just a few inches in an inside page of the national dailies . But that was the mentality .
The 'old brigade's ' re-appearance on the scene produced some hero-leaders ; people like Daithi O Conaill , a distant relation of Ruairi O Bradaigh , rejoined . He was a hero from the 1956-1962 IRA border campaign , having being wounded in battle - a Corkman living in Donegal , O Conaill became the principal IRA man in the key county of Donegal . This was an appointment that Cathal Goulding would live to regret .
There were similar appointments in different parts of the country ; the IRA Chief of Staff had spent most of the 1956-1962 campaign in a British prison and therefore did not realise that the left wing politics he was pushing would not be taken on board by Daithi O Conaill and others returning to the fold . But it was better to have someone active in an area than to refuse their offer of help . Or so it appeared at the time .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
To date , Unionist Councillors feel they have been carrying the main burden and the policy of endless adjournments have worried many . This month they must strike a rate or be exposed to individual surcharges or replaced by British-imposed commissions .
The small revolts of the old Stormont 'fire eater' Captain Robert Mitchell in Coleraine and of Belfast Official Unionist Councillor Billy Corry may not be omens but they are certainly straws in the wind .
No one , it seems , especially the Unionist leaders , knows where their strategy is headed . After a period of stagnation , we live in stirring times ...
[END of ' THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE ' .]
(Tomorrow - 'NA FIANNA EIREANN' : from 1981.)
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
When John O'Grady was writing his own ransom note , Eddie Hogan was worried that the light from the car would attract attention , even though the windows were covered with blankets . The note warned Dr. Austin Darragh not to contact the police , and instructed that a courier be sent to the Fairways Hotel in Dundalk where a call would come through for a 'Pat Murray' ; the courier was to take the call which would give further instructions .
John O'Grady was then taken from the car and led to a freight container where he was bedded down for the night . Tony McNeill and Fergal Toal resumed guard duties ; Dessie O'Hare and Eddie Hogan left them to it .
9. A BREAKTHROUGH FOR THE GARDAI .
October 26 was a Bank Holiday . Dessie O'Hare was in great form , saying that he was soon to be a millionaire - it was also his birthday . Unknown to him , however , the gardai were about to get their first break in their investigation : Garda Gerard O'Donoghue succeeded in doing what every member of the force from raw recruit to the Garda Commissioner himself wanted to do - he located the kidnappers . O'Donoghue was on plain clothes duty ; the gardai in Midleton had been informed of suspicious activity around a container just outside Midleton , in Ballymascinley .
Attempts to contact the local Garda patrol car failed due to radio interference , so Garda O'Donoghue went out with two of his colleagues in one of their own cars.......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
At the end of the trouble in Belfast , which threatened a major pogrom , the IRA Chief of Staff has issued a press release over his name saying that Active Service Units of his organisation were involved in defence activities in the North . During that period also the 'old brigade' arrived on the scene ; these were 'old' Republicans who had dropped out or resigned over the years because of the IRA's leftward drift and in some cases they dropped out due to lack of interest or laziness .
The atmosphere in the South was fully in favour of aiding 'the minority in the North' with guns - 'Give us guns , bags of guns' was the popular demand . At one rally demanding guns in Dundalk , a Catholic priest was reported to have fired three shots into the air from the platform and everyone cheered . It gained just a few inches in an inside page of the national dailies . But that was the mentality .
The 'old brigade's ' re-appearance on the scene produced some hero-leaders ; people like Daithi O Conaill , a distant relation of Ruairi O Bradaigh , rejoined . He was a hero from the 1956-1962 IRA border campaign , having being wounded in battle - a Corkman living in Donegal , O Conaill became the principal IRA man in the key county of Donegal . This was an appointment that Cathal Goulding would live to regret .
There were similar appointments in different parts of the country ; the IRA Chief of Staff had spent most of the 1956-1962 campaign in a British prison and therefore did not realise that the left wing politics he was pushing would not be taken on board by Daithi O Conaill and others returning to the fold . But it was better to have someone active in an area than to refuse their offer of help . Or so it appeared at the time .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
To date , Unionist Councillors feel they have been carrying the main burden and the policy of endless adjournments have worried many . This month they must strike a rate or be exposed to individual surcharges or replaced by British-imposed commissions .
The small revolts of the old Stormont 'fire eater' Captain Robert Mitchell in Coleraine and of Belfast Official Unionist Councillor Billy Corry may not be omens but they are certainly straws in the wind .
No one , it seems , especially the Unionist leaders , knows where their strategy is headed . After a period of stagnation , we live in stirring times ...
[END of ' THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE ' .]
(Tomorrow - 'NA FIANNA EIREANN' : from 1981.)
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
When John O'Grady was writing his own ransom note , Eddie Hogan was worried that the light from the car would attract attention , even though the windows were covered with blankets . The note warned Dr. Austin Darragh not to contact the police , and instructed that a courier be sent to the Fairways Hotel in Dundalk where a call would come through for a 'Pat Murray' ; the courier was to take the call which would give further instructions .
John O'Grady was then taken from the car and led to a freight container where he was bedded down for the night . Tony McNeill and Fergal Toal resumed guard duties ; Dessie O'Hare and Eddie Hogan left them to it .
9. A BREAKTHROUGH FOR THE GARDAI .
October 26 was a Bank Holiday . Dessie O'Hare was in great form , saying that he was soon to be a millionaire - it was also his birthday . Unknown to him , however , the gardai were about to get their first break in their investigation : Garda Gerard O'Donoghue succeeded in doing what every member of the force from raw recruit to the Garda Commissioner himself wanted to do - he located the kidnappers . O'Donoghue was on plain clothes duty ; the gardai in Midleton had been informed of suspicious activity around a container just outside Midleton , in Ballymascinley .
Attempts to contact the local Garda patrol car failed due to radio interference , so Garda O'Donoghue went out with two of his colleagues in one of their own cars.......
(MORE LATER).
Monday, September 26, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
At that time (ie August 1969) it was felt that any IRA action on the border could lead to a resumption of trouble in Belfast , rather than drawing it off , reasoned the IRA Chiefs ; Cathal Goulding ordered the four IRA Units to withdraw and so the 1969 'Border Campaign' was over without a shot being fired in anger .
On Sunday August 17th 1969 , the Sunday following the Belfast 'mini-pogrom' , a person attached to the Irish Centre in London contacted Cathal Goulding with the news that he could be put in contact with people who had an unlimited supply of money available for arms purchasing , provided they would be for use only in the North of Ireland . The following morning , Monday , August 18th 1969 , Goulding flew to London where he met the contact . When they met , Goulding was fully satisfied that the contact was indeed representing the Dublin Government .
The contact asked if Goulding was supplied with money could the Northern people be supplied with arms ? 'No problem' , said Goulding , provided the money was supplied but the figure would have to be in the region of £50,000 - 'No problem' , said the contact , and handed Goulding £1,500 ; the balance of the £50,000 would be provided within days . Goulding returned to Dublin and put the money into the IRA arms fund . The contact's trip and expenses were paid for out of State funds .
Another contact with the IRA was made back home ; a director of a factory in County Louth contacted a member of the IRA Command Staff from Belfast , at Dundalk . When they discussed the matter , figures of £50,000 to £150,000 for arms were thrown about - but the company director had one big provision : that the arms would not be used South of the border . On the day previous to this meeting the Dublin Government sub-committee had been given £100,000 "...to provide aid for the victims of the current unrest in the Six Counties .. " .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
Catholics living in remote rural areas near Orange Halls have been well aware for months past of the frequent late-night meetings , the lines of cars . The Clubs have developed from a start last August with only a few DUP people willing to get involved - the ever-practical DUP Deputy Peter Robinson of course addressed the first meeting to set up a co-ordinating Ulster (sic) Loyalist Front , side by side with the UDA's John McMichael ; to the position now where the Unionist politicians recognise the necessity to be in there or lose status and dominance entirely to the paramilitaries .
The joint OUP/DUP working party on the 'Agreement' (ie the 1985 Hillsborough Treaty) probably owes its existence to the same pressure . Of the Westminster muddle , the 'Ulster Clubs' said that both Unionist councillors and Assembly-men had come to them to ask for guidance on the next step in the anti-'Agreement' strategy .
For politicians aware that the Clubs only reason for being is to prepare for the day when their strategy breaks down or runs out , that must have been an ominous message . Already they knew that the eternal maverick Belfast Lord Mayor , John Carson , had held a closed meeting of council leaders , mayors and chairmen , to air worries about the strategy .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
Manor House , on Brennanstown Road , is in the area for which Dun Laoghaire Garda Station has responsibility and this became the station from which the hunt for the kidnappers was to be co-ordinated . Every piece of information which was turned up was to be collated and analysed at Dun Laoghaire .
At eleven o'clock on the morning of October 15 , Detective Sergeant Neill visited Manor House and showed Marise O'Grady a dozen photographs - she quickly picked out Dessie O'Hare and , from the account given by Mrs O'Grady , the gardai believed the gang to be "...a bunch of amateurs.. " : many detectives spoke of an early breakthrough .
Dessie O'Hare had told Marise O'Grady to pack wellington boots for her husband as he would be kept in the open , so initially searches concentrated on woodlands but that method did not reveal any significant clues .
8. A RANSOM NOTE .
On the night of October 22 John O'Grady was asleep in the shed when he was woken up by Dessie O'Hare ; wearing the blacked-out glasses he was led out of the shed down a slope covered in gorse and bushes . His chains kept catching in the undergrowth and progress was slow . There were two cars waiting for them . O'Grady was given a cup of tea , then they drove for about ten minutes until they reached Ballymascinley , just outside Midleton , in Cork . Dessie O'Hare handed John O'Grady paper , a felt pen and a book to lean on and was told to move his glasses up on his forehead .
O'Hare dictated a ransom note addressed to Dr. Austin Darragh , demanding a million pounds sterling and half a million in punts .......
(MORE LATER).
( To 'Joe's great grand-daughter' : thank you for the visit and the comments - I hope I did not include any material which your family were not already aware of . Thanks again , Sharon .)
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
At that time (ie August 1969) it was felt that any IRA action on the border could lead to a resumption of trouble in Belfast , rather than drawing it off , reasoned the IRA Chiefs ; Cathal Goulding ordered the four IRA Units to withdraw and so the 1969 'Border Campaign' was over without a shot being fired in anger .
On Sunday August 17th 1969 , the Sunday following the Belfast 'mini-pogrom' , a person attached to the Irish Centre in London contacted Cathal Goulding with the news that he could be put in contact with people who had an unlimited supply of money available for arms purchasing , provided they would be for use only in the North of Ireland . The following morning , Monday , August 18th 1969 , Goulding flew to London where he met the contact . When they met , Goulding was fully satisfied that the contact was indeed representing the Dublin Government .
The contact asked if Goulding was supplied with money could the Northern people be supplied with arms ? 'No problem' , said Goulding , provided the money was supplied but the figure would have to be in the region of £50,000 - 'No problem' , said the contact , and handed Goulding £1,500 ; the balance of the £50,000 would be provided within days . Goulding returned to Dublin and put the money into the IRA arms fund . The contact's trip and expenses were paid for out of State funds .
Another contact with the IRA was made back home ; a director of a factory in County Louth contacted a member of the IRA Command Staff from Belfast , at Dundalk . When they discussed the matter , figures of £50,000 to £150,000 for arms were thrown about - but the company director had one big provision : that the arms would not be used South of the border . On the day previous to this meeting the Dublin Government sub-committee had been given £100,000 "...to provide aid for the victims of the current unrest in the Six Counties .. " .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
Catholics living in remote rural areas near Orange Halls have been well aware for months past of the frequent late-night meetings , the lines of cars . The Clubs have developed from a start last August with only a few DUP people willing to get involved - the ever-practical DUP Deputy Peter Robinson of course addressed the first meeting to set up a co-ordinating Ulster (sic) Loyalist Front , side by side with the UDA's John McMichael ; to the position now where the Unionist politicians recognise the necessity to be in there or lose status and dominance entirely to the paramilitaries .
The joint OUP/DUP working party on the 'Agreement' (ie the 1985 Hillsborough Treaty) probably owes its existence to the same pressure . Of the Westminster muddle , the 'Ulster Clubs' said that both Unionist councillors and Assembly-men had come to them to ask for guidance on the next step in the anti-'Agreement' strategy .
For politicians aware that the Clubs only reason for being is to prepare for the day when their strategy breaks down or runs out , that must have been an ominous message . Already they knew that the eternal maverick Belfast Lord Mayor , John Carson , had held a closed meeting of council leaders , mayors and chairmen , to air worries about the strategy .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
Manor House , on Brennanstown Road , is in the area for which Dun Laoghaire Garda Station has responsibility and this became the station from which the hunt for the kidnappers was to be co-ordinated . Every piece of information which was turned up was to be collated and analysed at Dun Laoghaire .
At eleven o'clock on the morning of October 15 , Detective Sergeant Neill visited Manor House and showed Marise O'Grady a dozen photographs - she quickly picked out Dessie O'Hare and , from the account given by Mrs O'Grady , the gardai believed the gang to be "...a bunch of amateurs.. " : many detectives spoke of an early breakthrough .
Dessie O'Hare had told Marise O'Grady to pack wellington boots for her husband as he would be kept in the open , so initially searches concentrated on woodlands but that method did not reveal any significant clues .
8. A RANSOM NOTE .
On the night of October 22 John O'Grady was asleep in the shed when he was woken up by Dessie O'Hare ; wearing the blacked-out glasses he was led out of the shed down a slope covered in gorse and bushes . His chains kept catching in the undergrowth and progress was slow . There were two cars waiting for them . O'Grady was given a cup of tea , then they drove for about ten minutes until they reached Ballymascinley , just outside Midleton , in Cork . Dessie O'Hare handed John O'Grady paper , a felt pen and a book to lean on and was told to move his glasses up on his forehead .
O'Hare dictated a ransom note addressed to Dr. Austin Darragh , demanding a million pounds sterling and half a million in punts .......
(MORE LATER).
( To 'Joe's great grand-daughter' : thank you for the visit and the comments - I hope I did not include any material which your family were not already aware of . Thanks again , Sharon .)
Friday, September 23, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
Surplus Irish (sic- Free State) Army uniforms were widely distributed free in Nationalist areas of the North and were a big hit with the young activists . The main activists of the Dublin Government's action campaign were Seamus Brady and Captain James Kelly , who was already active gathering intelligence along the border .
Captain Kelly was acting in accordance with his military commission and was doing his duty at all times . But for Seamus Brady it was politics ; Charles Haughey appointed him on the 15th August 1969 to the Propaganda Corps and according to the Head of the Government's Information Bureau at the time , while giving evidence to the eventual Dail Committee of Public Accounts - " The first information I had about Mr. Brady's selection and appointment ...was as a result of a casual meeting on Friday , August 15th (1969) , with the then Minister for Finance , Mr. C.J. Haughey , who informed me that he had arranged for Mr. Brady to join the Bureau for the duration , at a fee .. "
When Seamus Brady reported for duty on 19th August 1969 he was the only person in the propaganda squad selected to go into the North ; his first report to the (FS) Taoiseach , Jack Lynch , filed in late August 1969 , had little to do with explaining the Northern situation - it was an intelligence report on the IRA and the various defence groups in the North of Ireland .
Meanwhile , back in IRA 'land' , Cathal Goulding and his GHQ Staff had a retake on the situation in the North : four IRA Units , fully armed , had been sent to the border with the intention of re-staging a border campaign and thereby take the pressure off Belfast and Derry - but the pogrom situation in Belfast had eased with the arrival of the British Army and it was clear to the 'top brass' in the IRA that the action planned could now back-fire on them .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
It will be interesting to watch the Provos develop their response to the situation created by the Anglo-Irish Agreement (ie 1985 Hillsborough Treaty) : though they reject any suggestion that IRA violence has been stepped up because of that 'Agreement' , IRA statements have been contradictory enough for that denial to be ignored .
A policy of 'goading' the Unionists into even fiercer opposition by keeping up the campaign against off-duty* UDR men and mortar attacks on RUC stations still looks likely . ( * ' 1169 ... ' Comment - The UDR , like the present-day RUC/PSNI , are never "off-duty" : in or out of uniform , they are the 'eyes and ears' of the British 'establishment' . )
If the Provos cannot bring down the 'Agreement' themselves , then they will push the Protestant community - the only people who can defeat it - to do the job for them , the argument goes . The Provos' official answer to that charge is to point out that Loyalists seem to need no further 'goad' than the 'Agreement' itself ; loyalism , meanwhile , is claiming ever more loudly to be united while trying to cover the cracks in the joint party facade , but there is no doubt at all that a unity of disgust with the Hillsborough Treaty remains .
When the 'Ulster Clubs' weighed in recently with their call to the fourteen Unionist MP's to withdraw from Westminster , it was perhaps the clearest sign yet that "ordinary" (ie grassroots) Unionists have become worried by the lack of clear leadership . it took the quite spectacular dithering about how many MP's should leave Westminster , and when , to produce the Clubs' unmistakeable message - they spoke with the authority of almost fifty branches spread across the North and a probable 8,000 members , made up of UDA men , UVF men , almost all the DUP's twenty-one Assembly members and half a dozen Official Unionist Assemblymen .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
Dessie O' Hare was formally expelled from the INLA , and the IRA were also looking for him in connection with guns he had stolen from them ; he was now totally marginalised . The three bank robberies had yielded only £7,000 . He could count those he could rely on in single figures . Eddie Hogan was released from jail in October and immediately took up with O'Hare .
Tony McNeill was the most unlikely member of the gang ; from Belfast , he studied for a diploma in electronic engineering and came south in 1980 after the RUC allegedly issued a death threat to him through his sister . He got a job as a nurse's aide in Palmerstown Hospital . He was friendly with Gerry Wright , a barber in Dublin , whom he introduced to Dessie O'Hare . Wright was not a member of any group but had 'sympathies' , and considered the differences between the Official IRA and the INLA and the Provisional IRA to be only notional . His brother had been a member of the Official IRA in the 1970's but had been shot dead by a fellow member of the organisation after he made a statement in police custody implicating fellow members in a bank robbery .
Gerry Wright agreed to co-operate with Dessie O'Hare when O'Hare said he would shoot Billy Wright's killer , whose identity was well known . Wright was obsessed with his brother's death . In early October the O'Hare gang killed Jimmy McDaid ; O'Hare alleged that he had misappropriated money - his family claims that he was shot because he wanted to disassociate himself from O'Hare , who liked to think of himself as leading a disciplined group who acted under military orders ; the reality was far different .
7. " A Bunch Of Amateurs.. "
The Garda investigation , now well into its second week , had yielded little . After Fergal Toal and Tony McNeill had left John O'Grady's house at 1.50 PM on the first day of the kidnap , Marise O'Grady contacted her father Austin Darragh ; they discused what to do and after some deliberation decided to contact the gardai , who arrived at the house shortly after nine o'clock that night .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
Surplus Irish (sic- Free State) Army uniforms were widely distributed free in Nationalist areas of the North and were a big hit with the young activists . The main activists of the Dublin Government's action campaign were Seamus Brady and Captain James Kelly , who was already active gathering intelligence along the border .
Captain Kelly was acting in accordance with his military commission and was doing his duty at all times . But for Seamus Brady it was politics ; Charles Haughey appointed him on the 15th August 1969 to the Propaganda Corps and according to the Head of the Government's Information Bureau at the time , while giving evidence to the eventual Dail Committee of Public Accounts - " The first information I had about Mr. Brady's selection and appointment ...was as a result of a casual meeting on Friday , August 15th (1969) , with the then Minister for Finance , Mr. C.J. Haughey , who informed me that he had arranged for Mr. Brady to join the Bureau for the duration , at a fee .. "
When Seamus Brady reported for duty on 19th August 1969 he was the only person in the propaganda squad selected to go into the North ; his first report to the (FS) Taoiseach , Jack Lynch , filed in late August 1969 , had little to do with explaining the Northern situation - it was an intelligence report on the IRA and the various defence groups in the North of Ireland .
Meanwhile , back in IRA 'land' , Cathal Goulding and his GHQ Staff had a retake on the situation in the North : four IRA Units , fully armed , had been sent to the border with the intention of re-staging a border campaign and thereby take the pressure off Belfast and Derry - but the pogrom situation in Belfast had eased with the arrival of the British Army and it was clear to the 'top brass' in the IRA that the action planned could now back-fire on them .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
It will be interesting to watch the Provos develop their response to the situation created by the Anglo-Irish Agreement (ie 1985 Hillsborough Treaty) : though they reject any suggestion that IRA violence has been stepped up because of that 'Agreement' , IRA statements have been contradictory enough for that denial to be ignored .
A policy of 'goading' the Unionists into even fiercer opposition by keeping up the campaign against off-duty* UDR men and mortar attacks on RUC stations still looks likely . ( * ' 1169 ... ' Comment - The UDR , like the present-day RUC/PSNI , are never "off-duty" : in or out of uniform , they are the 'eyes and ears' of the British 'establishment' . )
If the Provos cannot bring down the 'Agreement' themselves , then they will push the Protestant community - the only people who can defeat it - to do the job for them , the argument goes . The Provos' official answer to that charge is to point out that Loyalists seem to need no further 'goad' than the 'Agreement' itself ; loyalism , meanwhile , is claiming ever more loudly to be united while trying to cover the cracks in the joint party facade , but there is no doubt at all that a unity of disgust with the Hillsborough Treaty remains .
When the 'Ulster Clubs' weighed in recently with their call to the fourteen Unionist MP's to withdraw from Westminster , it was perhaps the clearest sign yet that "ordinary" (ie grassroots) Unionists have become worried by the lack of clear leadership . it took the quite spectacular dithering about how many MP's should leave Westminster , and when , to produce the Clubs' unmistakeable message - they spoke with the authority of almost fifty branches spread across the North and a probable 8,000 members , made up of UDA men , UVF men , almost all the DUP's twenty-one Assembly members and half a dozen Official Unionist Assemblymen .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
Dessie O' Hare was formally expelled from the INLA , and the IRA were also looking for him in connection with guns he had stolen from them ; he was now totally marginalised . The three bank robberies had yielded only £7,000 . He could count those he could rely on in single figures . Eddie Hogan was released from jail in October and immediately took up with O'Hare .
Tony McNeill was the most unlikely member of the gang ; from Belfast , he studied for a diploma in electronic engineering and came south in 1980 after the RUC allegedly issued a death threat to him through his sister . He got a job as a nurse's aide in Palmerstown Hospital . He was friendly with Gerry Wright , a barber in Dublin , whom he introduced to Dessie O'Hare . Wright was not a member of any group but had 'sympathies' , and considered the differences between the Official IRA and the INLA and the Provisional IRA to be only notional . His brother had been a member of the Official IRA in the 1970's but had been shot dead by a fellow member of the organisation after he made a statement in police custody implicating fellow members in a bank robbery .
Gerry Wright agreed to co-operate with Dessie O'Hare when O'Hare said he would shoot Billy Wright's killer , whose identity was well known . Wright was obsessed with his brother's death . In early October the O'Hare gang killed Jimmy McDaid ; O'Hare alleged that he had misappropriated money - his family claims that he was shot because he wanted to disassociate himself from O'Hare , who liked to think of himself as leading a disciplined group who acted under military orders ; the reality was far different .
7. " A Bunch Of Amateurs.. "
The Garda investigation , now well into its second week , had yielded little . After Fergal Toal and Tony McNeill had left John O'Grady's house at 1.50 PM on the first day of the kidnap , Marise O'Grady contacted her father Austin Darragh ; they discused what to do and after some deliberation decided to contact the gardai , who arrived at the house shortly after nine o'clock that night .......
(MORE LATER).
Thursday, September 22, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
The objectives of the Free State Government's 'Northern Sub-Committee' were outlined by Charles Haughey at the 'Arms Trial' : " We were given instructions that we should develop the maximum possible contacts with persons inside the Six Counties and try to inform ourselves as much as possible on events , political and other developments - within the Six County area . "
The Free State Cabinet also decided on appointing a 'Propaganda Corps' to lead an international publicity attack against Britain over partition ; this 'Corps' consisted of 20 public relations men , 18 of whom were drawn from the State or semi-State companies .
In line with their instructions , the 'Northern Sub-Committee' made contact with the Belfast IRA , with Saor Eire elements through the Citizens Committee located in a house in Kildare Street in Dublin (now demolished) the use of which was made available by the New Ireland Assurance Company , and contact was also made with Cathal Goulding , the IRA Chief Of Staff .
The idea was to get involved in the North : to use every possible contact to influence decision making in the Northern Nationalist community . The Dublin Government was not prepared to be compromised by the decisions taken in either the Civil Rights Association or the IRA . The Irish Army (sic - FS) and special Garda intelligence units were deployed on both sides of the border gathering information on activists of all sorts .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
If you did'nt accept Gerry Adams' arguments , the suspicion inevitably arose that here was a man , and a political party , sucked into a process against its purist judgement by the very fact of being there ; that suspicion partially explained the nature of the Sinn Fein campaign , and it would suggest internal trouble ahead for Adams with those who have always seen the election strategy as at best a distraction from the fight , and at worst inevitably destructive of the Republican Movement's real purpose . ( ' 1169 ... ' Comment - that "election strategy" has resulted in Provisional Sinn Fein sitting in Leinster House and Stormont [Westminster soon ?] and calling on it's own colleagues in the PIRA to not only dis-arm , but to dis-band as well . Career building ... )
It was an odd business , the Provos campaign this time : no money to spend , none of the swarms of young people who so disheartened the SDLP a couple of elections back as they popped up everywhere preaching the Sinn Fein message . Even according to the SDLP , who accuse Sinn Fein of most kinds of skullduggery , there were few allegations of dirty work this time - which many hardened Northerners would regard as an integral part of any energetic election campaign .
Instead the SDLP fretted that Sinn Fein were leaving them to make the running , and wondered why . In Mid-Ulster and Fermanagh-South Tyrone someone had a little go at Sinn Fein's '...dangerous social policies .. ' through the time-honoured method of letters to local papers , and managed to cause Danny Morrison and probably Owen Carron - though he has not been available for comment - some bad moments . Even the faintest whisper of abortion makes your average West of the Bann nationalist turn purple . As Morrison stated - " I was asked at least half a dozen times on the doorsteps or after Mass if it was true Sinn Fein supported abortion . You would'nt know how many other conversations on the subject of 'Morrison-the-baby-killer' those represented .
Then Father Faul joined in with a letter to the 'Irish News' newspaper at the very last minute , meaning I could'nt answer it in time . " Morrison spent time explaining how a motion at the 1985 Sinn Fein Ard Fheis indeed proposed abortion on demand but had been modified by a Sinn Fein Executive amendment . That answer may not have cut much ice on doorsteps in , for instance , Ballynanny .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
In early December 1986 Dessie O'Hare was involved in an attempted bank robbery in Shercock , County Cavan - in dramatic fashion the doors of the bank were smashed down , but the gang left empty-handed . O'Hare was arrested shortly afterwards under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act and taken to Dundalk Garda Station for questioning . Detectives interviewing him were impressed by his agile mind ; he told them that he was now a pacifist .
Over the next ten months he killed , or had killed , five people : he had contacted the GHQ faction of the INLA and had been instructed to form a Unit - this Unit's one and only action against the British 'security forces' , carried out on New Year's Eve , ended in disaster ; the target was a member of the UDR , but the assassins missed and shot his seventy-two year old mother who died soon afterwards .
The INLA feud erupted at the end of January when John O'Reilly and Thomas 'Ta' Power were shot when they attended the Rossnaree Hotel for what they assumed were peace talks . O'Hare was first into bat for the GHQ faction - he was involved in abducting Tony McCloskey , who had his finger , nose and ear cut off before being put out of his misery by a bullet . In the coming weeks O'Hare was to kill two others , both INLA members , one for alleged informing and another in a personal vendetta .
In June he attempted to assassinate Official Unionist Party representative Jim Nicholson . Funds were low and in August he robbed a bank in Ballybay , County Monaghan ; in August he robbed two banks within minutes of each other in Castlepollard , County Westmeath .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
The objectives of the Free State Government's 'Northern Sub-Committee' were outlined by Charles Haughey at the 'Arms Trial' : " We were given instructions that we should develop the maximum possible contacts with persons inside the Six Counties and try to inform ourselves as much as possible on events , political and other developments - within the Six County area . "
The Free State Cabinet also decided on appointing a 'Propaganda Corps' to lead an international publicity attack against Britain over partition ; this 'Corps' consisted of 20 public relations men , 18 of whom were drawn from the State or semi-State companies .
In line with their instructions , the 'Northern Sub-Committee' made contact with the Belfast IRA , with Saor Eire elements through the Citizens Committee located in a house in Kildare Street in Dublin (now demolished) the use of which was made available by the New Ireland Assurance Company , and contact was also made with Cathal Goulding , the IRA Chief Of Staff .
The idea was to get involved in the North : to use every possible contact to influence decision making in the Northern Nationalist community . The Dublin Government was not prepared to be compromised by the decisions taken in either the Civil Rights Association or the IRA . The Irish Army (sic - FS) and special Garda intelligence units were deployed on both sides of the border gathering information on activists of all sorts .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
If you did'nt accept Gerry Adams' arguments , the suspicion inevitably arose that here was a man , and a political party , sucked into a process against its purist judgement by the very fact of being there ; that suspicion partially explained the nature of the Sinn Fein campaign , and it would suggest internal trouble ahead for Adams with those who have always seen the election strategy as at best a distraction from the fight , and at worst inevitably destructive of the Republican Movement's real purpose . ( ' 1169 ... ' Comment - that "election strategy" has resulted in Provisional Sinn Fein sitting in Leinster House and Stormont [Westminster soon ?] and calling on it's own colleagues in the PIRA to not only dis-arm , but to dis-band as well . Career building ... )
It was an odd business , the Provos campaign this time : no money to spend , none of the swarms of young people who so disheartened the SDLP a couple of elections back as they popped up everywhere preaching the Sinn Fein message . Even according to the SDLP , who accuse Sinn Fein of most kinds of skullduggery , there were few allegations of dirty work this time - which many hardened Northerners would regard as an integral part of any energetic election campaign .
Instead the SDLP fretted that Sinn Fein were leaving them to make the running , and wondered why . In Mid-Ulster and Fermanagh-South Tyrone someone had a little go at Sinn Fein's '...dangerous social policies .. ' through the time-honoured method of letters to local papers , and managed to cause Danny Morrison and probably Owen Carron - though he has not been available for comment - some bad moments . Even the faintest whisper of abortion makes your average West of the Bann nationalist turn purple . As Morrison stated - " I was asked at least half a dozen times on the doorsteps or after Mass if it was true Sinn Fein supported abortion . You would'nt know how many other conversations on the subject of 'Morrison-the-baby-killer' those represented .
Then Father Faul joined in with a letter to the 'Irish News' newspaper at the very last minute , meaning I could'nt answer it in time . " Morrison spent time explaining how a motion at the 1985 Sinn Fein Ard Fheis indeed proposed abortion on demand but had been modified by a Sinn Fein Executive amendment . That answer may not have cut much ice on doorsteps in , for instance , Ballynanny .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
In early December 1986 Dessie O'Hare was involved in an attempted bank robbery in Shercock , County Cavan - in dramatic fashion the doors of the bank were smashed down , but the gang left empty-handed . O'Hare was arrested shortly afterwards under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act and taken to Dundalk Garda Station for questioning . Detectives interviewing him were impressed by his agile mind ; he told them that he was now a pacifist .
Over the next ten months he killed , or had killed , five people : he had contacted the GHQ faction of the INLA and had been instructed to form a Unit - this Unit's one and only action against the British 'security forces' , carried out on New Year's Eve , ended in disaster ; the target was a member of the UDR , but the assassins missed and shot his seventy-two year old mother who died soon afterwards .
The INLA feud erupted at the end of January when John O'Reilly and Thomas 'Ta' Power were shot when they attended the Rossnaree Hotel for what they assumed were peace talks . O'Hare was first into bat for the GHQ faction - he was involved in abducting Tony McCloskey , who had his finger , nose and ear cut off before being put out of his misery by a bullet . In the coming weeks O'Hare was to kill two others , both INLA members , one for alleged informing and another in a personal vendetta .
In June he attempted to assassinate Official Unionist Party representative Jim Nicholson . Funds were low and in August he robbed a bank in Ballybay , County Monaghan ; in August he robbed two banks within minutes of each other in Castlepollard , County Westmeath .......
(MORE LATER).
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
With the 'doomsday situation' apparently around the corner the IRA was another influential decision-maker but with their record of destructive involvement in the South , and their left-wing politics , not to mention their constant attacks on Fianna Fail , TACA , and indeed their regular picketing of the homes of several government ministers including the homes of Neil Blaney and Kevin Boland , under different guises , clearly meant that they would be hostile (to the Free State Administration) .
To cap it all the traditional Fianna Fail support body , the 'Nationalist Party' was all but dead since the Stormont Elections ; with the military situation opening up , the IRA was certainly a threatening presence in the North of Ireland . In any case the (FS) Government decided that money would have to be provided to deal with distress and it was essential that it should be spent in a way which would win friends and influence people for the Fianna Fail Government .
Eventually £100,000 from (FS) exchequer funds was agreed and a special sub-committee of the State Cabinet was appointed to deal with the whole Northern 'problem' ; elected to that sub-comittee were Padraig Faulkner , Joe Brennan , Neil Blaney - their constituencies were on the border - and Charles J. Haughey , who was (FS) Minister for Finance and had strong Northern connections , his father having come South to join the Free State Army in the 1920's .
The objectives of that 'Northern sub-committee' were outlined by Charles Haughey at the 'Arms Trial' .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
1983 was Sinn Fein's highest point when they topped the 100,000 votes mark - a year later that total vote dropped to 93,000 . 1985's local government elections brought them back up again over the 100,000 ; to the great though unpublicised relief of Dr. Garret Fitzgerald (Fine Gael) , then pressing his , and John Hume's , case with Margaret Thatcher that Nationalist alienation must be checked and reversed or Sinn Fein and the IRA would inexorably make headway at the expense of constitutional Nationalists .
To get the perspective straight - over recent years the respective shares of the Nationalist vote have been -
1982 : SDLP 65 % to SF 35 % ;
1983 : SDLP 57.4 % to SF 42.6 % ;
1985 : SDLP 60.3 % to SF 39.7 % ;
1986 : SDLP 64.6 % to SF 35.4 % .
Jim Nicholson , a unionist , in defeat , maintained that Sinn Fein and the SDLP had indeed worked a pact in Newry-Armagh to get him out ; Jim McAllister's compassionate hug for the grey-faced Seamus Mallon in mid-count probably finally convinced Nicholson that he was right . The President of (P) Sinn Fein , Gerry Adams , meanwhile commented that some Sinn Fein voters stayed at home and some backed the strongest horse . As the results came in Adams made an interesting study , batting percentages around like the smoothest commentator and insisting the SDLP gain was no surprise and would not last beyond people's disillusionment with the Anglo-Irish Agreement as an instrument of real change . ( ' 1169.... ' Comment - ...that same charge can now be made against the 1998 Stormont Treaty/'GFA' . )
Those who have been wondering all along whether the Provos' involvement in politics will change the Provos more than the politics must have watched Adams' performance with a special interest ; he was least convincing on Sinn Fein's reasons for fighting an election they called "...a so-called referendum.. " and which they originally suggested Nationalists should boycott .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
At the time of his arrest (late 1979) , Dessie O'Hare was credited by the RUC , without substantiation , with involvement in over twenty killings : he had not yet reached twenty-one years of age .
O'Hare could not adjust to jail ; there were several naive escape attempts right up to within months of his release , costing him remission . He was frequently beaten up by prison warders and had few friends in jail . Eddie Hogan had been sentenced to eight years in 1981 for his involvement in an armed robbery ; Fergal Toal was sentenced in 1984 for his part in an attempted armed robbery in Dundalk . The three , along with Jimmy McDaid , who was serving a sentence for the manslaughter of a British soldier , formed one of the many 'cliques' in prison .
Dessie O'Hare was released from jail in October 1986 and Fergal Toal shortly afterwards . The INLA was in disarray ; initially O'Hare approached a member of the new 'Army Council' faction and proposed that the list of legitimate targets should be widened to include people like Bishop Cathal Daly - who had made a number of statements critical of republicans - and Peter Sutherland , who had been (FS) Attorney General when the (FS) Supreme Court reversed its policy of not extraditing people suspected of involvement in offences while on 'active service' .
The man to whom Dessie O'Hare proposed this was appalled , gave him £500 and told him he would be in touch .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
With the 'doomsday situation' apparently around the corner the IRA was another influential decision-maker but with their record of destructive involvement in the South , and their left-wing politics , not to mention their constant attacks on Fianna Fail , TACA , and indeed their regular picketing of the homes of several government ministers including the homes of Neil Blaney and Kevin Boland , under different guises , clearly meant that they would be hostile (to the Free State Administration) .
To cap it all the traditional Fianna Fail support body , the 'Nationalist Party' was all but dead since the Stormont Elections ; with the military situation opening up , the IRA was certainly a threatening presence in the North of Ireland . In any case the (FS) Government decided that money would have to be provided to deal with distress and it was essential that it should be spent in a way which would win friends and influence people for the Fianna Fail Government .
Eventually £100,000 from (FS) exchequer funds was agreed and a special sub-committee of the State Cabinet was appointed to deal with the whole Northern 'problem' ; elected to that sub-comittee were Padraig Faulkner , Joe Brennan , Neil Blaney - their constituencies were on the border - and Charles J. Haughey , who was (FS) Minister for Finance and had strong Northern connections , his father having come South to join the Free State Army in the 1920's .
The objectives of that 'Northern sub-committee' were outlined by Charles Haughey at the 'Arms Trial' .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
1983 was Sinn Fein's highest point when they topped the 100,000 votes mark - a year later that total vote dropped to 93,000 . 1985's local government elections brought them back up again over the 100,000 ; to the great though unpublicised relief of Dr. Garret Fitzgerald (Fine Gael) , then pressing his , and John Hume's , case with Margaret Thatcher that Nationalist alienation must be checked and reversed or Sinn Fein and the IRA would inexorably make headway at the expense of constitutional Nationalists .
To get the perspective straight - over recent years the respective shares of the Nationalist vote have been -
1982 : SDLP 65 % to SF 35 % ;
1983 : SDLP 57.4 % to SF 42.6 % ;
1985 : SDLP 60.3 % to SF 39.7 % ;
1986 : SDLP 64.6 % to SF 35.4 % .
Jim Nicholson , a unionist , in defeat , maintained that Sinn Fein and the SDLP had indeed worked a pact in Newry-Armagh to get him out ; Jim McAllister's compassionate hug for the grey-faced Seamus Mallon in mid-count probably finally convinced Nicholson that he was right . The President of (P) Sinn Fein , Gerry Adams , meanwhile commented that some Sinn Fein voters stayed at home and some backed the strongest horse . As the results came in Adams made an interesting study , batting percentages around like the smoothest commentator and insisting the SDLP gain was no surprise and would not last beyond people's disillusionment with the Anglo-Irish Agreement as an instrument of real change . ( ' 1169.... ' Comment - ...that same charge can now be made against the 1998 Stormont Treaty/'GFA' . )
Those who have been wondering all along whether the Provos' involvement in politics will change the Provos more than the politics must have watched Adams' performance with a special interest ; he was least convincing on Sinn Fein's reasons for fighting an election they called "...a so-called referendum.. " and which they originally suggested Nationalists should boycott .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
At the time of his arrest (late 1979) , Dessie O'Hare was credited by the RUC , without substantiation , with involvement in over twenty killings : he had not yet reached twenty-one years of age .
O'Hare could not adjust to jail ; there were several naive escape attempts right up to within months of his release , costing him remission . He was frequently beaten up by prison warders and had few friends in jail . Eddie Hogan had been sentenced to eight years in 1981 for his involvement in an armed robbery ; Fergal Toal was sentenced in 1984 for his part in an attempted armed robbery in Dundalk . The three , along with Jimmy McDaid , who was serving a sentence for the manslaughter of a British soldier , formed one of the many 'cliques' in prison .
Dessie O'Hare was released from jail in October 1986 and Fergal Toal shortly afterwards . The INLA was in disarray ; initially O'Hare approached a member of the new 'Army Council' faction and proposed that the list of legitimate targets should be widened to include people like Bishop Cathal Daly - who had made a number of statements critical of republicans - and Peter Sutherland , who had been (FS) Attorney General when the (FS) Supreme Court reversed its policy of not extraditing people suspected of involvement in offences while on 'active service' .
The man to whom Dessie O'Hare proposed this was appalled , gave him £500 and told him he would be in touch .......
(MORE LATER).
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
A Mayo Republican was rumoured to have got his flash new car from Fianna Fail ; this was not exactly true . In fact he got the car from a Fianna Fail man involved in car sales . Yet the Republican was virtually penniless . Eventually the IRA established that their member had set up the motor dealer to find him in a 'compromising' position with a woman - the Republican's wife !
Ballinamore in County Leitrim was typical of the reaction by Gardai to the unusual events those days ; two Gardai stood in the centre of the town watching the comings and goings and constantly looking in the direction of John Joe McGirl's pub - their orders were to watch but under no circumstances to intervene . Those orders had come from the (FS) Government .
The IRA had orders not to shoot any garda even if it meant arrest . No one participating really believed that this public relation-orientated order would be upheld if the situation arose . Meanwhile the real (sic) Irish [ie Free State] Army were preparing for action in case the British Government gave their permission * for their participation north of the border . ( * ' 1169... ' Comment - Free Staters waiting for 'permission' from a foreign administration before they dare travel on to what is Irish soil ... !) .
The (FS) Minister for Defence , Jim Gibbons (FF) , authorised a recruiting campaign to bring the (FS) Army up to full strength ; enter the 'Mighty Rangers' of television fame . However the real problem confronting the Dublin Government was how to effectively influence the decisions being taken in Nationalist areas throughout the North - they pinpointed the 'Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association' as one influential body . The rapidly-growing local Defence Committees presented another area of power in the North .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
On BBC Television the face of psychologist Dr. Sidney Elliott was a sight to behold as 'Northern Ireland' Office Minister Nicholas Scott , Tom King's deputy , followed other commentators in throwing around percentages . It should be noted , said Minister Scott , what a small fraction of the total electorate of the Unionist vote represented . He did not subject the SDLP vote to the same test , happily comparing it to the Sinn Fein result as per centages of the Nationalist electorate in the four marginal constituencies they contested , and drawing the conclusion that Sinn Fein supporters had begun to be detached by the Anglo-Irish Agreement .
Dr. Elliott had no chance to comment while British Minister Scott remained on the air , but as soon as he left managed to point out that Margaret Thatcher's government took office with the support of only 30 per cent of the electorate and that Scott himself enjoyed the support of only 25 per cent of the electorate and to judge his own 'large vote' by the same harsh test !
After that initial silly season , no one is drawing too many lessons from the oddest of 'Northern Ireland's many elections ; but , for the record , it should be noted that the Unionist vote in the fifteen constituencies actually exceeded their performance in 1983 , in fact cannot be matched except by the figures for the anti-Sunningdale election of 1974 and even then only by combining the votes of the hardline 'United Ulster (sic) Council' and the moderate 'Faulknerites' .
The SDLP increased their vote in the four seats fought and there was a swing of around six per cent to them from Sinn Fein , compared to the 1983 figures .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
Before leaving the shed , Dessie O'Hare used the polaroid camera and took a photograph of John O'Grady in chains with a gun to his head ; O'Grady noticed that O'Hare was wearing his Longines gold watch and that his Cross pen , bearing the logo of the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology was sticking out of his pocket . The next day was spent in the clearing - it was raining . On the instructions of O'Hare the chains were still attached to O'Grady's wrists and ankles .
There were nuggets of comfort ; the 'Gay Byrne Radio Show' had broadcast a message saying that his mother who had been ill had recovered and that his wife and family were well , and that he was not to worry . That afternoon Tony McNeill , clad in a balaclava , played a couple of games of chess with O'Grady . McNeill was the only one of the gang he could establish any kind of rapport with . McNeill assured O'Grady that he would see to it that he would not be shot .
6. A GANG WITH NOTHING TO LOSE.
John O'Grady by now realised he was in the company of dangerous and desperate men . The newspapers had been full of profiles of Dessie O'Hare , detailing his most notorious deeds . O'Hare was born in Keady , County Armagh , in 1958 ; he joined the Provisional IRA at the age of sixteen and quickjly acquired a reputation as a fearless , ruthless but also reckless operator . He led a charmed life ; in June 1979 he was on an IRA operation with Paddy McIlvenna - from a cattle truck they fired on an RUC Station : their retreat brought them past the house of a prison officer who was mowing the lawn . He had a shotgun handy and he opened up on the cattle truck . By the time they crossed the border McIlvenna was dead and O'Hare injured ...
Five months later , O'Hare was involved in a car chase with the gardai ; the car crashed and O'Hare's passenger , Tony McClelland , was killed . O'Hare was charged with possession of a shotgun and sentenced to nine years in Portlaoise Prison .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
A Mayo Republican was rumoured to have got his flash new car from Fianna Fail ; this was not exactly true . In fact he got the car from a Fianna Fail man involved in car sales . Yet the Republican was virtually penniless . Eventually the IRA established that their member had set up the motor dealer to find him in a 'compromising' position with a woman - the Republican's wife !
Ballinamore in County Leitrim was typical of the reaction by Gardai to the unusual events those days ; two Gardai stood in the centre of the town watching the comings and goings and constantly looking in the direction of John Joe McGirl's pub - their orders were to watch but under no circumstances to intervene . Those orders had come from the (FS) Government .
The IRA had orders not to shoot any garda even if it meant arrest . No one participating really believed that this public relation-orientated order would be upheld if the situation arose . Meanwhile the real (sic) Irish [ie Free State] Army were preparing for action in case the British Government gave their permission * for their participation north of the border . ( * ' 1169... ' Comment - Free Staters waiting for 'permission' from a foreign administration before they dare travel on to what is Irish soil ... !) .
The (FS) Minister for Defence , Jim Gibbons (FF) , authorised a recruiting campaign to bring the (FS) Army up to full strength ; enter the 'Mighty Rangers' of television fame . However the real problem confronting the Dublin Government was how to effectively influence the decisions being taken in Nationalist areas throughout the North - they pinpointed the 'Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association' as one influential body . The rapidly-growing local Defence Committees presented another area of power in the North .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
On BBC Television the face of psychologist Dr. Sidney Elliott was a sight to behold as 'Northern Ireland' Office Minister Nicholas Scott , Tom King's deputy , followed other commentators in throwing around percentages . It should be noted , said Minister Scott , what a small fraction of the total electorate of the Unionist vote represented . He did not subject the SDLP vote to the same test , happily comparing it to the Sinn Fein result as per centages of the Nationalist electorate in the four marginal constituencies they contested , and drawing the conclusion that Sinn Fein supporters had begun to be detached by the Anglo-Irish Agreement .
Dr. Elliott had no chance to comment while British Minister Scott remained on the air , but as soon as he left managed to point out that Margaret Thatcher's government took office with the support of only 30 per cent of the electorate and that Scott himself enjoyed the support of only 25 per cent of the electorate and to judge his own 'large vote' by the same harsh test !
After that initial silly season , no one is drawing too many lessons from the oddest of 'Northern Ireland's many elections ; but , for the record , it should be noted that the Unionist vote in the fifteen constituencies actually exceeded their performance in 1983 , in fact cannot be matched except by the figures for the anti-Sunningdale election of 1974 and even then only by combining the votes of the hardline 'United Ulster (sic) Council' and the moderate 'Faulknerites' .
The SDLP increased their vote in the four seats fought and there was a swing of around six per cent to them from Sinn Fein , compared to the 1983 figures .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
Before leaving the shed , Dessie O'Hare used the polaroid camera and took a photograph of John O'Grady in chains with a gun to his head ; O'Grady noticed that O'Hare was wearing his Longines gold watch and that his Cross pen , bearing the logo of the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology was sticking out of his pocket . The next day was spent in the clearing - it was raining . On the instructions of O'Hare the chains were still attached to O'Grady's wrists and ankles .
There were nuggets of comfort ; the 'Gay Byrne Radio Show' had broadcast a message saying that his mother who had been ill had recovered and that his wife and family were well , and that he was not to worry . That afternoon Tony McNeill , clad in a balaclava , played a couple of games of chess with O'Grady . McNeill was the only one of the gang he could establish any kind of rapport with . McNeill assured O'Grady that he would see to it that he would not be shot .
6. A GANG WITH NOTHING TO LOSE.
John O'Grady by now realised he was in the company of dangerous and desperate men . The newspapers had been full of profiles of Dessie O'Hare , detailing his most notorious deeds . O'Hare was born in Keady , County Armagh , in 1958 ; he joined the Provisional IRA at the age of sixteen and quickjly acquired a reputation as a fearless , ruthless but also reckless operator . He led a charmed life ; in June 1979 he was on an IRA operation with Paddy McIlvenna - from a cattle truck they fired on an RUC Station : their retreat brought them past the house of a prison officer who was mowing the lawn . He had a shotgun handy and he opened up on the cattle truck . By the time they crossed the border McIlvenna was dead and O'Hare injured ...
Five months later , O'Hare was involved in a car chase with the gardai ; the car crashed and O'Hare's passenger , Tony McClelland , was killed . O'Hare was charged with possession of a shotgun and sentenced to nine years in Portlaoise Prison .......
(MORE LATER).
Monday, September 19, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
The British told Dr. Patrick Hillery , the Free State Minister for External Affairs * to 'mind his own business' regarding issues in the Six Counties - so he went to America and then to the United Nations ; his speech to the U.N. was as (Irish) 'Republican' in style and wording ( as that which he delivered in London and America ) similar to which one could hear anywhere reflecting the mood of the times . ( * ' 1169 ... ' Comment - Why was the 'Minister for EXTERNAL Affairs' involved in this issue , anyway .. ? ) .
Meanwhile the IRA was not 'standing idly by ' : IRA Units from the South assembled in the gymnasium under Bily Wright's barbers shop at Parkgate Street , near Dublin's Phoenix Park . Only fully-trained IRA Volunteers were to assemble but everyone turned up for their patriotic chore . The Garda Special Branch watched the goings-on but their orders were not to intervene . In a false fear that the 'real men' would be 'nabbed' , the IRA leadership , who were in control of the nightly 'rabble rousing' meetings outside the Dublin GPO , sent the assembled mobs on a wild goose chase to the border .
Many people woke up the following morning in Dundalk and other points along the border with no train fare home , or a commandeered vehicle in their possession but above all a mighty hangover ! Meanwhile the IRA Units travelled to their destinations on this State's side of the border and waited ...
There were numerous unofficial arrivals at the border including the arrival at Ballinamore of a well-known Republican from County Galway ; he had been expelled some years earlier , with the strong insistence of Ruairi O Bradaigh , because he wanted Sinn Fein to recognise 'the Dail' * ; he went to the Garda Station in Ballinamore and asked where the IRA Headquarters was (!) - the Gardai directed him to John Joe McGirl's pub at the bottom of the town ! It was'nt long before he was committed to Mullingar for alcoholic treatent while his car was use by the IRA ... (* ' 1169 ... ' Comment - ...now you cannot GET IN to (P) Sinn Fein unless you 'recognise the Dail' !) .
This Galway Republican should not be confused with the Mayo Republican , who was driving a flash new car . While it was rumoured that he got the car from Fianna Fail this was not exactly true .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
The 'Agreement' (Hillsborough Treaty) was not a major subject of conversation on the election canvass , though it did recur ; Seamus Mallon (SDLP) thought the effect was "...subliminal.. " . Mostly the voters wondered aloud if this time the Unionist , unexciting Jim Nicholson , might be beatable and Mallon told the like an incantation at doorstep after doorstep ... "... we're going to do it , we're going to do it .. " . For some reason he rarely met accusations of 'splitting the nationalist vote ' , Sinn Fein's anti-SDLP theme-song in the election . (' 1169 ...' Comment ; at the time that was what the SDLP were doing - almost as if they wanted to spare their Westminsters' masters blushes by attempting to ensure that they would not have to suffer having 'a fenian about the place' . Nowadays , the ony difference between Provisional Sinn Fein and the SDLP are the letters 'D' , 'F' and 'L' !)
To the last couple of days , though , Seamus Mallon worried about Newry's Catholic thousands who did not come out in the local government elections in May 1985 : " Round Markethill , now, my place , Poyntzpass , Tandragee , Hamiltonbawn , where they're very much in the minority , they'll come out and vote to a man (sic) . "
In Armagh , Sinn Fein Councillor Tommy Carroll advanced his candidate's cause as a canvasser simply by being known to have lost one brother , an unarmed IRA man , to a shoot-to-kill RUC squad , while UDR men from the local Drumadd Base face trial for the murder of another . Armagh people asked Seamus Mallon about the UDR and RUC as well ; Mallon was firm - 'they would have to clean up their act' , he said . ( ' 1169...' Comment - ...and that was 'firm' - for a nationalist . A Republican would have called for the disbandment of both groups .)
Mallon had not welcomed an 'Agreement' without being very sure that it could lead to radical changes . It was a beginning . ( ' 1169 ... ' Comment - The Hillsborough Treaty offered only to 'tweak' a corrupt system , not to 'radically' change it . But the SDLP would have been quite happy with a bit of 'tweaking' as indeed , would the Provos be now .) Seamus Mallon beat Official Unionist Party candidate Jim Nicholson by a healthy 2,583 votes ; the Sinn Fein candidate , Jim McAllister , was down over 3,000 votes from his performance in the general election of 1983 .
Jim Nicholson (OUP) improved his vote by over one thousand ; the turnout was virtually the same as in 1983 . From that point on you paid your money and you took your choice ! The votes for the fifteen Unionists , and for SDLP versus Sinn Fein were subjected to swift , non-scientific , highly political analysis and the various parties drew the conclusions they wished to .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
5. Evacuation Lessons.
John O'Grady did not yet suspect it but he was actually in Carriggtwohill in County Cork , and not in the North of Ireland as he was led to believe . For the second time in a week his living standards were to drop sharply but , compared with what was to follow , the grimy cellar in Gerry Wright's barber shop would seem a very attractive place indeed ...
The first night was'nt too bad ; he spent it in a cottage which was damp with , he noticed , lots of cobwebs in the corner . Early next morning he was taken by Dessie O' Hare out to a shed in the yard . Entrance to the shed was through a two-foot hole in the wall . Tony McNeill and Fergal Toal resumed their guard duties . Each morning they would take their mattresses out through the hole and then travel a couple of hundred yards through gorse undergrowth to a clearing - here they would remain until sundown .
They put blankets over themselves to keep out the cold ; John O'Grady read books supplied by his captors and listened to the radio ; at night they returned to the shed , which was made from bare cement blocks and measured ten feet by eight , with a corrugated iron roof and a mud floor . O'Grady by now was learning to associate the intermittent appearance of gang leader Dessie O'Hare with disruption or trouble . O'Hare returned on the night of October 20 th ; O'Grady was finding him increasingly volatile and aggressive - O'Hare enquired of O'Grady's guard whether he (O'Grady) was getting in and out of the hole in the shed quickly enough , and was told that O'Grady was a bit slow .
Chains were produced and attached to both wrists and ankles ; O'Hare then got a scarf and gagged O'Grady : he started to kick O'Grady in the head , legs , bottom and back . O'Grady put his hands around his head and tried to scream through the gag . Dessie O'Hare was shouting and cursing that he was'nt getting out of the hole quickly enough ; he stopped the beating and said - " When I say go , you are to gather your mattress and get out of the hole . " Once instructed , O'Grady immediately gathered up his mattress and dived for the hole but he was'nt fast enough for O'Hare and received another kicking . He went again , this time more quickly and his improved speed seemed to satisfy O'Hare's evacuation requirements .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
The British told Dr. Patrick Hillery , the Free State Minister for External Affairs * to 'mind his own business' regarding issues in the Six Counties - so he went to America and then to the United Nations ; his speech to the U.N. was as (Irish) 'Republican' in style and wording ( as that which he delivered in London and America ) similar to which one could hear anywhere reflecting the mood of the times . ( * ' 1169 ... ' Comment - Why was the 'Minister for EXTERNAL Affairs' involved in this issue , anyway .. ? ) .
Meanwhile the IRA was not 'standing idly by ' : IRA Units from the South assembled in the gymnasium under Bily Wright's barbers shop at Parkgate Street , near Dublin's Phoenix Park . Only fully-trained IRA Volunteers were to assemble but everyone turned up for their patriotic chore . The Garda Special Branch watched the goings-on but their orders were not to intervene . In a false fear that the 'real men' would be 'nabbed' , the IRA leadership , who were in control of the nightly 'rabble rousing' meetings outside the Dublin GPO , sent the assembled mobs on a wild goose chase to the border .
Many people woke up the following morning in Dundalk and other points along the border with no train fare home , or a commandeered vehicle in their possession but above all a mighty hangover ! Meanwhile the IRA Units travelled to their destinations on this State's side of the border and waited ...
There were numerous unofficial arrivals at the border including the arrival at Ballinamore of a well-known Republican from County Galway ; he had been expelled some years earlier , with the strong insistence of Ruairi O Bradaigh , because he wanted Sinn Fein to recognise 'the Dail' * ; he went to the Garda Station in Ballinamore and asked where the IRA Headquarters was (!) - the Gardai directed him to John Joe McGirl's pub at the bottom of the town ! It was'nt long before he was committed to Mullingar for alcoholic treatent while his car was use by the IRA ... (* ' 1169 ... ' Comment - ...now you cannot GET IN to (P) Sinn Fein unless you 'recognise the Dail' !) .
This Galway Republican should not be confused with the Mayo Republican , who was driving a flash new car . While it was rumoured that he got the car from Fianna Fail this was not exactly true .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
The 'Agreement' (Hillsborough Treaty) was not a major subject of conversation on the election canvass , though it did recur ; Seamus Mallon (SDLP) thought the effect was "...subliminal.. " . Mostly the voters wondered aloud if this time the Unionist , unexciting Jim Nicholson , might be beatable and Mallon told the like an incantation at doorstep after doorstep ... "... we're going to do it , we're going to do it .. " . For some reason he rarely met accusations of 'splitting the nationalist vote ' , Sinn Fein's anti-SDLP theme-song in the election . (' 1169 ...' Comment ; at the time that was what the SDLP were doing - almost as if they wanted to spare their Westminsters' masters blushes by attempting to ensure that they would not have to suffer having 'a fenian about the place' . Nowadays , the ony difference between Provisional Sinn Fein and the SDLP are the letters 'D' , 'F' and 'L' !)
To the last couple of days , though , Seamus Mallon worried about Newry's Catholic thousands who did not come out in the local government elections in May 1985 : " Round Markethill , now, my place , Poyntzpass , Tandragee , Hamiltonbawn , where they're very much in the minority , they'll come out and vote to a man (sic) . "
In Armagh , Sinn Fein Councillor Tommy Carroll advanced his candidate's cause as a canvasser simply by being known to have lost one brother , an unarmed IRA man , to a shoot-to-kill RUC squad , while UDR men from the local Drumadd Base face trial for the murder of another . Armagh people asked Seamus Mallon about the UDR and RUC as well ; Mallon was firm - 'they would have to clean up their act' , he said . ( ' 1169...' Comment - ...and that was 'firm' - for a nationalist . A Republican would have called for the disbandment of both groups .)
Mallon had not welcomed an 'Agreement' without being very sure that it could lead to radical changes . It was a beginning . ( ' 1169 ... ' Comment - The Hillsborough Treaty offered only to 'tweak' a corrupt system , not to 'radically' change it . But the SDLP would have been quite happy with a bit of 'tweaking' as indeed , would the Provos be now .) Seamus Mallon beat Official Unionist Party candidate Jim Nicholson by a healthy 2,583 votes ; the Sinn Fein candidate , Jim McAllister , was down over 3,000 votes from his performance in the general election of 1983 .
Jim Nicholson (OUP) improved his vote by over one thousand ; the turnout was virtually the same as in 1983 . From that point on you paid your money and you took your choice ! The votes for the fifteen Unionists , and for SDLP versus Sinn Fein were subjected to swift , non-scientific , highly political analysis and the various parties drew the conclusions they wished to .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
5. Evacuation Lessons.
John O'Grady did not yet suspect it but he was actually in Carriggtwohill in County Cork , and not in the North of Ireland as he was led to believe . For the second time in a week his living standards were to drop sharply but , compared with what was to follow , the grimy cellar in Gerry Wright's barber shop would seem a very attractive place indeed ...
The first night was'nt too bad ; he spent it in a cottage which was damp with , he noticed , lots of cobwebs in the corner . Early next morning he was taken by Dessie O' Hare out to a shed in the yard . Entrance to the shed was through a two-foot hole in the wall . Tony McNeill and Fergal Toal resumed their guard duties . Each morning they would take their mattresses out through the hole and then travel a couple of hundred yards through gorse undergrowth to a clearing - here they would remain until sundown .
They put blankets over themselves to keep out the cold ; John O'Grady read books supplied by his captors and listened to the radio ; at night they returned to the shed , which was made from bare cement blocks and measured ten feet by eight , with a corrugated iron roof and a mud floor . O'Grady by now was learning to associate the intermittent appearance of gang leader Dessie O'Hare with disruption or trouble . O'Hare returned on the night of October 20 th ; O'Grady was finding him increasingly volatile and aggressive - O'Hare enquired of O'Grady's guard whether he (O'Grady) was getting in and out of the hole in the shed quickly enough , and was told that O'Grady was a bit slow .
Chains were produced and attached to both wrists and ankles ; O'Hare then got a scarf and gagged O'Grady : he started to kick O'Grady in the head , legs , bottom and back . O'Grady put his hands around his head and tried to scream through the gag . Dessie O'Hare was shouting and cursing that he was'nt getting out of the hole quickly enough ; he stopped the beating and said - " When I say go , you are to gather your mattress and get out of the hole . " Once instructed , O'Grady immediately gathered up his mattress and dived for the hole but he was'nt fast enough for O'Hare and received another kicking . He went again , this time more quickly and his improved speed seemed to satisfy O'Hare's evacuation requirements .......
(MORE LATER).
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
The British told Dr. Patrick Hillery , the Free State Minister for External Affairs * to 'mind his own business' regarding issues in the Six Counties - so he went to America and then to the United Nations ; his speech to the U.N. was as (Irish) 'Republican' in style and wording ( as that which he delivered in London and America ) similar to which one could hear anywhere reflecting the mood of the times . ( * ' 1169 ... ' Comment - Why was the 'Minister for EXTERNAL Affairs' involved in this issue , anyway .. ? ) .
Meanwhile the IRA was not 'standing idly by ' : IRA Units from the South assembled in the gymnasium under Bily Wright's barbers shop at Parkgate Street , near Dublin's Phoenix Park . Only fully-trained IRA Volunteers were to assemble but everyone turned up for their patriotic chore . The Garda Special Branch watched the goings-on but their orders were not to intervene . In a false fear that the 'real men' would be 'nabbed' , the IRA leadership , who were in control of the nightly 'rabble rousing' meetings outside the Dublin GPO , sent the assembled mobs on a wild goose chase to the border .
Many people woke up the following morning in Dundalk and other points along the border with no train fare home , or a commandeered vehicle in their possession but above all a mighty hangover ! Meanwhile the IRA Units travelled to their destinations on this State's side of the border and waited ...
There were numerous unofficial arrivals at the border including the arrival at Ballinamore of a well-known Republican from County Galway ; he had been expelled some years earlier , with the strong insistence of Ruairi O Bradaigh , because he wanted Sinn Fein to recognise 'the Dail' * ; he went to the Garda Station in Ballinamore and asked where the IRA Headquarters was (!) - the Gardai directed him to John Joe McGirl's pub at the bottom of the town ! It was'nt long before he was committed to Mullingar for alcoholic treatent while his car was use by the IRA ... (* ' 1169 ... ' Comment - ...now you cannot GET IN to (P) Sinn Fein unless you 'recognise the Dail' !) .
This Galway Republican should not be confused with the Mayo Republican , who was driving a flash new car . While it was rumoured that he got the car from Fianna Fail this was not exactly true .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
The 'Agreement' (Hillsborough Treaty) was not a major subject of conversation on the election canvass , though it did recur ; Seamus Mallon (SDLP) thought the effect was "...subliminal.. " . Mostly the voters wondered aloud if this time the Unionist , unexciting Jim Nicholson , might be beatable and Mallon told the like an incantation at doorstep after doorstep ... "... we're going to do it , we're going to do it .. " . For some reason he rarely met accusations of 'splitting the nationalist vote ' , Sinn Fein's anti-SDLP theme-song in the election . (' 1169 ...' Comment ; at the time that was what the SDLP were doing - almost as if they wanted to spare their Westminsters' masters blushes by attempting to ensure that they would not have to suffer having 'a fenian about the place' . Nowadays , the ony difference between Provisional Sinn Fein and the SDLP are the letters 'D' , 'F' and 'L' !)
To the last couple of days , though , Seamus Mallon worried about Newry's Catholic thousands who did not come out in the local government elections in May 1985 : " Round Markethill , now, my place , Poyntzpass , Tandragee , Hamiltonbawn , where they're very much in the minority , they'll come out and vote to a man (sic) . "
In Armagh , Sinn Fein Councillor Tommy Carroll advanced his candidate's cause as a canvasser simply by being known to have lost one brother , an unarmed IRA man , to a shoot-to-kill RUC squad , while UDR men from the local Drumadd Base face trial for the murder of another . Armagh people asked Seamus Mallon about the UDR and RUC as well ; Mallon was firm - 'they would have to clean up their act' , he said . ( ' 1169...' Comment - ...and that was 'firm' - for a nationalist . A Republican would have called for the disbandment of both groups .)
Mallon had not welcomed an 'Agreement' without being very sure that it could lead to radical changes . It was a beginning . ( ' 1169 ... ' Comment - The Hillsborough Treaty offered only to 'tweak' a corrupt system , not to 'radically' change it . But the SDLP would have been quite happy with a bit of 'tweaking' as indeed , would the Provos be now .) Seamus Mallon beat Official Unionist Party candidate Jim Nicholson by a healthy 2,583 votes ; the Sinn Fein candidate , Jim McAllister , was down over 3,000 votes from his performance in the general election of 1983 .
Jim Nicholson (OUP) improved his vote by over one thousand ; the turnout was virtually the same as in 1983 . From that point on you paid your money and you took your choice ! The votes for the fifteen Unionists , and for SDLP versus Sinn Fein were subjected to swift , non-scientific , highly political analysis and the various parties drew the conclusions they wished to .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
5. Evacuation Lessons.
John O'Grady did not yet suspect it but he was actually in Carriggtwohill in County Cork , and not in the North of Ireland as he was led to believe . For the second time in a week his living standards were to drop sharply but , compared with what was to follow , the grimy cellar in Gerry Wright's barber shop would seem a very attractive place indeed ...
The first night was'nt too bad ; he spent it in a cottage which was damp with , he noticed , lots of cobwebs in the corner . Early next morning he was taken by Dessie O' Hare out to a shed in the yard . Entrance to the shed was through a two-foot hole in the wall . Tony McNeill and Fergal Toal resumed their guard duties . Each morning they would take their mattresses out through the hole and then travel a couple of hundred yards through gorse undergrowth to a clearing - here they would remain until sundown .
They put blankets over themselves to keep out the cold ; John O'Grady read books supplied by his captors and listened to the radio ; at night they returned to the shed , which was made from bare cement blocks and measured ten feet by eight , with a corrugated iron roof and a mud floor . O'Grady by now was learning to associate the intermittent appearance of gang leader Dessie O'Hare with disruption or trouble . O'Hare returned on the night of October 20 th ; O'Grady was finding him increasingly volatile and aggressive - O'Hare enquired of O'Grady's guard whether he (O'Grady) was getting in and out of the hole in the shed quickly enough , and was told that O'Grady was a bit slow .
Chains were produced and attached to both wrists and ankles ; O'Hare then got a scarf and gagged O'Grady : he started to kick O'Grady in the head , legs , bottom and back . O'Grady put his hands around his head and tried to scream through the gag . Dessie O'Hare was shouting and cursing that he was'nt getting out of the hole quickly enough ; he stopped the beating and said - " When I say go , you are to gather your mattress and get out of the hole . " Once instructed , O'Grady immediately gathered up his mattress and dived for the hole but he was'nt fast enough for O'Hare and received another kicking . He went again , this time more quickly and his improved speed seemed to satisfy O'Hare's evacuation requirements .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
The British told Dr. Patrick Hillery , the Free State Minister for External Affairs * to 'mind his own business' regarding issues in the Six Counties - so he went to America and then to the United Nations ; his speech to the U.N. was as (Irish) 'Republican' in style and wording ( as that which he delivered in London and America ) similar to which one could hear anywhere reflecting the mood of the times . ( * ' 1169 ... ' Comment - Why was the 'Minister for EXTERNAL Affairs' involved in this issue , anyway .. ? ) .
Meanwhile the IRA was not 'standing idly by ' : IRA Units from the South assembled in the gymnasium under Bily Wright's barbers shop at Parkgate Street , near Dublin's Phoenix Park . Only fully-trained IRA Volunteers were to assemble but everyone turned up for their patriotic chore . The Garda Special Branch watched the goings-on but their orders were not to intervene . In a false fear that the 'real men' would be 'nabbed' , the IRA leadership , who were in control of the nightly 'rabble rousing' meetings outside the Dublin GPO , sent the assembled mobs on a wild goose chase to the border .
Many people woke up the following morning in Dundalk and other points along the border with no train fare home , or a commandeered vehicle in their possession but above all a mighty hangover ! Meanwhile the IRA Units travelled to their destinations on this State's side of the border and waited ...
There were numerous unofficial arrivals at the border including the arrival at Ballinamore of a well-known Republican from County Galway ; he had been expelled some years earlier , with the strong insistence of Ruairi O Bradaigh , because he wanted Sinn Fein to recognise 'the Dail' * ; he went to the Garda Station in Ballinamore and asked where the IRA Headquarters was (!) - the Gardai directed him to John Joe McGirl's pub at the bottom of the town ! It was'nt long before he was committed to Mullingar for alcoholic treatent while his car was use by the IRA ... (* ' 1169 ... ' Comment - ...now you cannot GET IN to (P) Sinn Fein unless you 'recognise the Dail' !) .
This Galway Republican should not be confused with the Mayo Republican , who was driving a flash new car . While it was rumoured that he got the car from Fianna Fail this was not exactly true .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
The 'Agreement' (Hillsborough Treaty) was not a major subject of conversation on the election canvass , though it did recur ; Seamus Mallon (SDLP) thought the effect was "...subliminal.. " . Mostly the voters wondered aloud if this time the Unionist , unexciting Jim Nicholson , might be beatable and Mallon told the like an incantation at doorstep after doorstep ... "... we're going to do it , we're going to do it .. " . For some reason he rarely met accusations of 'splitting the nationalist vote ' , Sinn Fein's anti-SDLP theme-song in the election . (' 1169 ...' Comment ; at the time that was what the SDLP were doing - almost as if they wanted to spare their Westminsters' masters blushes by attempting to ensure that they would not have to suffer having 'a fenian about the place' . Nowadays , the ony difference between Provisional Sinn Fein and the SDLP are the letters 'D' , 'F' and 'L' !)
To the last couple of days , though , Seamus Mallon worried about Newry's Catholic thousands who did not come out in the local government elections in May 1985 : " Round Markethill , now, my place , Poyntzpass , Tandragee , Hamiltonbawn , where they're very much in the minority , they'll come out and vote to a man (sic) . "
In Armagh , Sinn Fein Councillor Tommy Carroll advanced his candidate's cause as a canvasser simply by being known to have lost one brother , an unarmed IRA man , to a shoot-to-kill RUC squad , while UDR men from the local Drumadd Base face trial for the murder of another . Armagh people asked Seamus Mallon about the UDR and RUC as well ; Mallon was firm - 'they would have to clean up their act' , he said . ( ' 1169...' Comment - ...and that was 'firm' - for a nationalist . A Republican would have called for the disbandment of both groups .)
Mallon had not welcomed an 'Agreement' without being very sure that it could lead to radical changes . It was a beginning . ( ' 1169 ... ' Comment - The Hillsborough Treaty offered only to 'tweak' a corrupt system , not to 'radically' change it . But the SDLP would have been quite happy with a bit of 'tweaking' as indeed , would the Provos be now .) Seamus Mallon beat Official Unionist Party candidate Jim Nicholson by a healthy 2,583 votes ; the Sinn Fein candidate , Jim McAllister , was down over 3,000 votes from his performance in the general election of 1983 .
Jim Nicholson (OUP) improved his vote by over one thousand ; the turnout was virtually the same as in 1983 . From that point on you paid your money and you took your choice ! The votes for the fifteen Unionists , and for SDLP versus Sinn Fein were subjected to swift , non-scientific , highly political analysis and the various parties drew the conclusions they wished to .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
5. Evacuation Lessons.
John O'Grady did not yet suspect it but he was actually in Carriggtwohill in County Cork , and not in the North of Ireland as he was led to believe . For the second time in a week his living standards were to drop sharply but , compared with what was to follow , the grimy cellar in Gerry Wright's barber shop would seem a very attractive place indeed ...
The first night was'nt too bad ; he spent it in a cottage which was damp with , he noticed , lots of cobwebs in the corner . Early next morning he was taken by Dessie O' Hare out to a shed in the yard . Entrance to the shed was through a two-foot hole in the wall . Tony McNeill and Fergal Toal resumed their guard duties . Each morning they would take their mattresses out through the hole and then travel a couple of hundred yards through gorse undergrowth to a clearing - here they would remain until sundown .
They put blankets over themselves to keep out the cold ; John O'Grady read books supplied by his captors and listened to the radio ; at night they returned to the shed , which was made from bare cement blocks and measured ten feet by eight , with a corrugated iron roof and a mud floor . O'Grady by now was learning to associate the intermittent appearance of gang leader Dessie O'Hare with disruption or trouble . O'Hare returned on the night of October 20 th ; O'Grady was finding him increasingly volatile and aggressive - O'Hare enquired of O'Grady's guard whether he (O'Grady) was getting in and out of the hole in the shed quickly enough , and was told that O'Grady was a bit slow .
Chains were produced and attached to both wrists and ankles ; O'Hare then got a scarf and gagged O'Grady : he started to kick O'Grady in the head , legs , bottom and back . O'Grady put his hands around his head and tried to scream through the gag . Dessie O'Hare was shouting and cursing that he was'nt getting out of the hole quickly enough ; he stopped the beating and said - " When I say go , you are to gather your mattress and get out of the hole . " Once instructed , O'Grady immediately gathered up his mattress and dived for the hole but he was'nt fast enough for O'Hare and received another kicking . He went again , this time more quickly and his improved speed seemed to satisfy O'Hare's evacuation requirements .......
(MORE LATER).
Friday, September 16, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
Fianna Fail's contacts in the Six Counties were in tatters due to the demise of the 'Nationalist Party' and there was serious concern that the IRA might take the initiative . The (Free State) Army and Gardai were instructed to concentrate their intelligence work on both sides of the border .
(FS) Taoiseach Jack Lynch went on television and announced - " The Stormont Government is evidently no longer in control of the situation ....the Government of Ireland (sic) has requested the British Government to apply to the United Nations for urgent despatch of a peace-keeping force to the Six Counties ....many injured do not wish to be treated in Six County hospitals , so Irish Army (sic) authorities have been instructed to establish field hospitals in Donegal and other points on the border ... " .
The Republican tone of Jack Lynch's words such as "...Six County hospitals .. " illustrates the strong Republican stance of his Government* . But other things were happening behind the scenes which were not announced . ( * ' 1169 ... Comment - ...those words 'illustrated' no such thing ; what they did illustrate was that Jack Lynch was more than capable of 'playing' to his own party , amongst others . )
The British Army intervened and * defended the nationalist areas in Derry but on the night of August 14th trouble with a capital 'T' broke out in Belfast . ( * ' 1169 ... ' Comment - ...the British Army moved in , under pressure from the worlds media , to force the loyalists back out of the neighbourhoods in which the Nationalists lived . It was propagated as "defence" by Westminster . ) Ten people died that night , hundreds of houses burned to the ground and refugees in their thousands swept South . Northern nationalist leaders appeared at the nightly public meetings at the GPO in Dublin and everyone was openly demanding arms and money .
Dr. Patrick Hillery , then (FS) Minister for External Affairs in the Dublin Government , flew to London where he was told to mind his own business before flying off to America and the UN where he was to raise the matter at the Security Council .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
When Seamus Mallon (SDLP) began crusading on the UDR the general verdict inside his party was that he was electioneering - not that anyone blamed him . At 50 , with several episodes of heart trouble behind him and generally patchy health , this was his fourth and surely last try at Westminster .
He has suffered more than most Northern politicians for his political persistence - apparently doomed to watch at galling close-hand John Hume jetting off to 'hobnob' with other international statesmen forever , while he stayed home doing constituency work on the kitchen table with his wife Gertrude nursing to keep the family .
Out of expediency and principle and sentiment combined , the SDLP gave the Newry-Armagh by-election their all ; John Hume 'lent' Mallon the young Mark Durkan from his Derry office , and turned up along the border and in cynical Newry to boost him - though he did manage a trip to the U.S. to pick up another honorary degree in between - and party workers weighed in from all over the North .
Local canvassers slogged the hardline estates in Newry and Armagh alike ; the candidate slogged along with them in the sleet and rain , through Derrybeg and Barcroft , big ex-footballer's frame deep in the collapsed driver's seat of a bashed old car bumping up and down the lanes of Derrynoose and Darkley . He met enough cautious welcome to make him start to hope , though he did'nt always say so .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
John O'Grady succeeded in having a brief conversation with Tony McNeill about his Republican beliefs and getting the British soldiers out of the North of Ireland ; McNeill told him he wanted to see a Socialist State in Ireand and every other country that was not already communist . O'Grady was allowed read the newspapers and was given his son's walkman radio to listen to ; he tuned in to pirate radio station NRG 103 FM .
On Thursday October 15 Dessie O'Hare and Eddie Hogan returned ; the kidnap was by now public knowledge . O'Hare then asked O'Grady for the names of other people whom they could contact to make a ransom demand ; O'Grady suggested a relative , an 'Auntie Bettie' , and Hilary Prentice , a solicitor who worked in the firm of Matheson Ormsby and Prentice : Hilary Prentice was a patient of O'Grady's . O'Hare asked O'Grady for details which would show his bona fides when he contacted them to demand the ransom .
John O'Grady provided details which were written down by Eddie Hogan ; the two then departed . The following morning O'Grady was supplied with a basin of hot water and allowed to wash ; he was also given the three morning newspapers which were full of news of the kidnap . Toal and McNeill also read the papers but did'nt pass any comment on them . O'Grady was given two books , ' Murder in The Vicarage' by Agatha Christie and an adventure thriller by Wilbur Smith called ' The Power of The Sword' . He passed the day reading and listening to the radio . Overhead he could hear movement in the barber's shop as Gerry Wright tended to his customers .
On the following Saturday , October 17 , Dessie O'Hare returned alone . John O'Grady was to be moved to a new location - on the journey the gang were in high spirits . They joked about the "...poor old 'Border Fox' being blamed for everyrthing .. " . They stopped after about an hour and O'Hare went to a takeaway to get fish and chips and curries and ate it in the car . O'Hare joked to O'Grady that he would take him for a drink except he might be recognised . They drove on . O'Hare suddenly ordered everyone in the car to get down and shouted " Brits !" and fired two shots out the window . John O'Grady now presumed he was in the North - they had driven for three to four hours in all .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
Fianna Fail's contacts in the Six Counties were in tatters due to the demise of the 'Nationalist Party' and there was serious concern that the IRA might take the initiative . The (Free State) Army and Gardai were instructed to concentrate their intelligence work on both sides of the border .
(FS) Taoiseach Jack Lynch went on television and announced - " The Stormont Government is evidently no longer in control of the situation ....the Government of Ireland (sic) has requested the British Government to apply to the United Nations for urgent despatch of a peace-keeping force to the Six Counties ....many injured do not wish to be treated in Six County hospitals , so Irish Army (sic) authorities have been instructed to establish field hospitals in Donegal and other points on the border ... " .
The Republican tone of Jack Lynch's words such as "...Six County hospitals .. " illustrates the strong Republican stance of his Government* . But other things were happening behind the scenes which were not announced . ( * ' 1169 ... Comment - ...those words 'illustrated' no such thing ; what they did illustrate was that Jack Lynch was more than capable of 'playing' to his own party , amongst others . )
The British Army intervened and * defended the nationalist areas in Derry but on the night of August 14th trouble with a capital 'T' broke out in Belfast . ( * ' 1169 ... ' Comment - ...the British Army moved in , under pressure from the worlds media , to force the loyalists back out of the neighbourhoods in which the Nationalists lived . It was propagated as "defence" by Westminster . ) Ten people died that night , hundreds of houses burned to the ground and refugees in their thousands swept South . Northern nationalist leaders appeared at the nightly public meetings at the GPO in Dublin and everyone was openly demanding arms and money .
Dr. Patrick Hillery , then (FS) Minister for External Affairs in the Dublin Government , flew to London where he was told to mind his own business before flying off to America and the UN where he was to raise the matter at the Security Council .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
When Seamus Mallon (SDLP) began crusading on the UDR the general verdict inside his party was that he was electioneering - not that anyone blamed him . At 50 , with several episodes of heart trouble behind him and generally patchy health , this was his fourth and surely last try at Westminster .
He has suffered more than most Northern politicians for his political persistence - apparently doomed to watch at galling close-hand John Hume jetting off to 'hobnob' with other international statesmen forever , while he stayed home doing constituency work on the kitchen table with his wife Gertrude nursing to keep the family .
Out of expediency and principle and sentiment combined , the SDLP gave the Newry-Armagh by-election their all ; John Hume 'lent' Mallon the young Mark Durkan from his Derry office , and turned up along the border and in cynical Newry to boost him - though he did manage a trip to the U.S. to pick up another honorary degree in between - and party workers weighed in from all over the North .
Local canvassers slogged the hardline estates in Newry and Armagh alike ; the candidate slogged along with them in the sleet and rain , through Derrybeg and Barcroft , big ex-footballer's frame deep in the collapsed driver's seat of a bashed old car bumping up and down the lanes of Derrynoose and Darkley . He met enough cautious welcome to make him start to hope , though he did'nt always say so .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
John O'Grady succeeded in having a brief conversation with Tony McNeill about his Republican beliefs and getting the British soldiers out of the North of Ireland ; McNeill told him he wanted to see a Socialist State in Ireand and every other country that was not already communist . O'Grady was allowed read the newspapers and was given his son's walkman radio to listen to ; he tuned in to pirate radio station NRG 103 FM .
On Thursday October 15 Dessie O'Hare and Eddie Hogan returned ; the kidnap was by now public knowledge . O'Hare then asked O'Grady for the names of other people whom they could contact to make a ransom demand ; O'Grady suggested a relative , an 'Auntie Bettie' , and Hilary Prentice , a solicitor who worked in the firm of Matheson Ormsby and Prentice : Hilary Prentice was a patient of O'Grady's . O'Hare asked O'Grady for details which would show his bona fides when he contacted them to demand the ransom .
John O'Grady provided details which were written down by Eddie Hogan ; the two then departed . The following morning O'Grady was supplied with a basin of hot water and allowed to wash ; he was also given the three morning newspapers which were full of news of the kidnap . Toal and McNeill also read the papers but did'nt pass any comment on them . O'Grady was given two books , ' Murder in The Vicarage' by Agatha Christie and an adventure thriller by Wilbur Smith called ' The Power of The Sword' . He passed the day reading and listening to the radio . Overhead he could hear movement in the barber's shop as Gerry Wright tended to his customers .
On the following Saturday , October 17 , Dessie O'Hare returned alone . John O'Grady was to be moved to a new location - on the journey the gang were in high spirits . They joked about the "...poor old 'Border Fox' being blamed for everyrthing .. " . They stopped after about an hour and O'Hare went to a takeaway to get fish and chips and curries and ate it in the car . O'Hare joked to O'Grady that he would take him for a drink except he might be recognised . They drove on . O'Hare suddenly ordered everyone in the car to get down and shouted " Brits !" and fired two shots out the window . John O'Grady now presumed he was in the North - they had driven for three to four hours in all .......
(MORE LATER).
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