UDR'S ROTTEN APPLES....... Five members of the 'Ulster Defence Regiment' , formerly based at Drummad Barracks in Armagh , have been charged with murder , and the recent visits to this barracks by both the Duke of Edinburgh and Mrs Thatcher caused an uproar in the North . But how exceptional are the 'Drummad Five' ? Just how many 'rotten apples' are there in the 'Ulster Defence Regiment' , which is now the principal back-up force to the RUC in the North of Ireland ? From 'The Phoenix' magazine , 30 March 1984 .
A random check of some of the names on a list of imprisoned UDA members ( published in the October 1976 issue of the UDA's 'COMBAT' magazine) suggests that membership of the British 'security forces' was mentioned in as few as a third of the court cases which led to their convictions . However , to complicate matters further , it is almost certainly the case that some of the UDA prisoners listed joined the UDA after being charged in order , spuriously , to claim political motivation , and therefore political status .
The list is based on files of Dublin publications , particularly of 'Hibernia' and 'The Irish Times' ; many cases not reported in these publications , either for reasons of space or because they did not appear mewsworthy at the time , are therefore omitted . Some additional material has been supplied from his personal files by Larry Kildea of 'The Irish Press' newspaper .
Excluded is a substantial number of lesser cases invoving UDR personnel in sex offences , minor larcenies , fraud , driving offences and run-of-the-mill blackguardism . Other cases have been missed because the fact of defendants' UDR membership did not emerge . A final qualifying point is that the list includes , of course , only UDR personnel who were caught , and whom the North's DPP then considered it proper to prosecute , and who therefore were convicted in the courts . It is commonly argued from facts like these that the UDR is , effectively , the B Specials under another name . This is a mistake .......
(MORE LATER).
ELECTION INTERVENTIONS.......Despite the fact that SINN FEIN has been contesting local elections in the 26 counties for more than two decades , much comment has been passed and incorrectly interpreted about Republican involvement in elections - north and south of the British-imposed border - in the past several months . Here we review Republican interventions in the electoral process for the past century and more . From 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
In recognition of the economic crisis in Irish agriculture , the Fenian John Devoy modified his ideas while maintaining his political position : instead of the type of movement outlined in the 'New Departure' proposals he accepted a purely agrarian one as advocated by Michael Davitt and was later to claim that he and Davitt "...speaking for large bodies of Fenians , although not official representatives .. " reached an agreement with Charles Stewart Parnell in 1879 - Parnell consistently denied such an agreement , which had four main points :
1. In the conduct of the public movement , as far as Parnell and Davitt were able to influence it , there should not be anything said or done to impair the vitality of the Fenian Movement or to discredit its ideal of complete national independence to be secured by the eventual use of physical force .
2. The demand for self government should not for the present be publicly defined , but nothing short of a national parliament with power over all vital national interests and an executive responsible to it should be accepted .
3. The settlement of the land question to be demanded should be the establishment of a peasant proprietory to be reached by compulsory purchase .
4. The Irish members of parliament elected through the public movement should form an absolutely independent party , asking and accepting no places , salaried or honorary , under the British government , either for themselves , their constituents or anyone else . (' 1169...' Comment - Compare those principle's with those of others who claim to be following the Fenian tradition .)
This policy was something of a gamble for John Devoy who , while admitting that the Movement could be sidetracked * into mere reformism , strongly insisted that "...the demands of the Land League will not be granted by a Parliament of British Landlords ... " ('1169...' Comment - * which has now happened to the 'others' mentioned above . )
(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 .
17. ENTER FR. BRIAN D'ARCY . Dr. Austin Darragh had dispatched his chauffeur back to Limerick Cathedral ; the chauffeur lifted the statue right up off its wooden plinth and discovered the note underneath . Taken together , the ranson notes instructed that a courier go to the Silver Springs Hotel in Cork an one o'clock the following day , November 5 , 1987 ; the car driving there was to be equipped with a car phone . At the hotel reception the courier would get a call for a 'Mr Pat Murray' - on taking this call there would be further instructions .
The notes also gave the standard warning about contacting the gardai . The O'Grady family were resigned to paying the ransom and spent the day raising the money ; this presented difficulties in itself . Though Dr. Darragh is a person of considerable means , he did not have that kind of money in cash . But by now they realised that Dessie O'Hare was not bluffing . The gardai were fully aware of the family's intentions .
That evening there was a meeting of the State Cabinet sub-committee on Security to discuss the situation - the meeting was attended by (FS) Taoiseach Charles Haughey , Tanaiste Brian Lenihan , Justice Minister Gerry Collins , Defence Minister Michael Noonan , Garda Commissioner Laurence Wren and senior civil servants and advisors . The sub-committee was concerned about the decision by the O'Grady family to pay the ransom but , in view of Dessie O'Hare's well-proven capacity for mutilation , they found their position understandable . The meeting decided that the best course of action was a 'hands-off' approach .
The Silver Springs Hotel was to be staked-out by the Special Branch but no effort would be made to intercept payment . It was hoped to trail whoever picked up the money covertly and later , after John O'Grady was released , arrest the recipient . Fr. Brian D'Arcy was chosen by the O'Grady family to act as their courier .......
(MORE LATER).
Thursday, October 13, 2005
UDR'S ROTTEN APPLES.
Five members of the 'Ulster Defence Regiment' , formerly based at Drummad Barracks in Armagh , have been charged with murder , and the recent visits to this barracks by both the Duke of Edinburgh and Mrs Thatcher caused an uproar in the North .
But how exceptional are the 'Drummad Five' ? Just how many 'rotten apples' are there in the 'Ulster Defence Regiment' , which is now the principal back-up force to the RUC in the North of Ireland ?
From 'The Phoenix' magazine , 30 March 1984 .
We have chronicled herewith almost one hundred cases where members of the 'Ulster Defence Regiment' (UDR) have been charged with serious offences , mostly involving firearms or explosives . It is a directory of Dishonourable Discharge that is unmatched in the 'security forces' of any country in Europe and probably not even in South America . And even this list does not claim to be exhaustive .
It is standard practice for any UDR member charged with a serious offence to be required to resign from the Regiment before appearing in court . He (or , in a very tiny number of cases , she ) is therefore described in court as a "...former.. " UDR member . Or the fact of UDR membership is not mentioned at all . For example , although Roderick Shane McDowell and Thomas Crozier , convicted in October 1976 of the Miami Showband massacre , were members of the UDR and operating in UDR uniforms at the time of the murders , this was not mentioned at their initial court appearance .
And it was not until after the conviction of the 'Shankill Butchers' in February 1979 that the UDR membership of one of their number , Edward McIlwaine , was made public , and then only after SDLP spokesperson Michael Canavan put a question publicly to Northern Secretary Roy Mason .
It is also worth noting that the UDA , in the October 1976 issue of its magazine 'Combat' , published a list of 57 UDA members serving time in Long Kesh who had been members of the 'security forces' as well : 17 of them were UDR . An accompanying article claimed - " This list by no means exhausts the numbers of ex-security forces now convicted of politically-motivated offences , and at least three times this number could be added if I were to include Magilligan Prison , Crumlin Road and the men in the other Loyalist paramilitary groups . "
(MORE LATER).
ELECTION INTERVENTIONS.......
Despite the fact that SINN FEIN has been contesting local elections in the 26 counties for more than two decades , much comment has been passed and incorrectly interpreted about Republican involvement in elections - north and south of the British-imposed border - in the past several months .
Here we review Republican interventions in the electoral process for the past century and more .
From 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
The Fenian James Fintan Lalor stated , re the land question - " Let the occupiers of the soil refuse all further payment of rent to the present usurping proprietors , until the people , the true proprietors ....have in national congress....decided what rents they are to pay and to whom . " Devoy further believed that the British government's certain refusal of the full Irish demand for land reform ('peasant' proprietory was seen as more radical and far reaching a settlement that Isaac Butt's policy of the three 'F' 's *) would create the condition for a withdrawal from the British parliament . (* Fair rent , Fixity of tenure and Freedom to sell the tenant right .)
In this belief (that the demands of land agitation could not be met by the British Government ) at no time was Devoy advocating that the demand for Irish independence be suppressed in favour of agrarian agitation ; on the contrary , he argued that the land question had to be expanded to give it a nationalist character . In fact he accepted the risk of Britain undercutting the agitation by conceding compromise demands ('1169...' Comment - ...as Westminster did in 1998 with the Stormont Treaty) as a justifiable risk because " ...good work will have been done , sound principles will have been inculcated and the country aroused and agitated .. " - in other words , in the event of a failure to win complete victory , John Devoy felt that at least a step forward would have been taken in the building up of nationalist forces .
Devoy called on the Fenians to enter political life to fight , in particular on the platform of land reform , and by doing so to strengthen their organisation and 'end their isolation' . The full political programme of the 'New Departure' was never agreed upon let alone implemented ; the IRB Supreme Council rejected it at a meeting in Paris in January 1879 although individual members were left free to take part in open political activity , though not to enter parliament . Furthermore , the economic crisis of Irish agriculture in 1879 plus the commencement of the agrarian agitation in Mayo reduced to some extent the relevance of these plans .......
(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 .
Detective Superintendent John Murphy , from Harcourt Square , Dublin , told Superintendent McGroarty to get the package to Portlaoise Garda Station where he had already made arrangements for someone to take it to Dublin : McGroarty handed the package to Detective Frank Duggan , emphasising that he get O'Grady's severed fingers to Portlaoise as quickly as possible . The package reached Detective Superintendent Murphy at 2.00 AM ; only then , three hours after they came into the possession of the gardai , were the fingers put on ice , before being rushed to Jervis Street Hospital , Dublin .
16. PAINKILLERS AND BEER .
Wednesday , November 4, 1987 , was the gloomiest of the twenty-three days of the kidnap for the gardai , the O'Grady family and John O'Grady himself ; he had awoke around 8.30AM - after breakfast , he took more painkillers , removed the dressings and washed his fingers in a basin of lukewarm water . There was a large clot on what remained of the little finger on his right hand , which he snipped with a scissors . Eddie Hogan helped apply a second tourniquet to the finger stump on that hand . In the afternoon he noticed the clot on the finger had worsened and decided he would have to remove this clot to stop the flow of blood . Immediately there was a spurt of arterial blood , which he managed to stop by using pressure with a linen dressing in his left hand .
He realised that the finger would have to be cauterised again , otherwise he might bleed to death . Dessie O'Hare was not in the house , so he called for Eddie Hogan and told him what had to be done . They went into the kitchen . On this occasion John O'Grady and gang members worked in tandem - there was no need to tie his legs together . He was put sitting in a chair and gagged ; one of the gang held his right arm which was put on the table , another man held his left arm . O'Grady wrapped his feet around the chair . Eddie Hogan cauterised the wound five or six times with a red-hot knife : the flow from the artery was checked and blood loss reduced to a trickle . O'Grady was retured to the alcove under the stairs , and Hogan gave him more painkillers and two bottles of beer to wash them down with . O'Grady then fell asleep .......
(MORE LATER).
Five members of the 'Ulster Defence Regiment' , formerly based at Drummad Barracks in Armagh , have been charged with murder , and the recent visits to this barracks by both the Duke of Edinburgh and Mrs Thatcher caused an uproar in the North .
But how exceptional are the 'Drummad Five' ? Just how many 'rotten apples' are there in the 'Ulster Defence Regiment' , which is now the principal back-up force to the RUC in the North of Ireland ?
From 'The Phoenix' magazine , 30 March 1984 .
We have chronicled herewith almost one hundred cases where members of the 'Ulster Defence Regiment' (UDR) have been charged with serious offences , mostly involving firearms or explosives . It is a directory of Dishonourable Discharge that is unmatched in the 'security forces' of any country in Europe and probably not even in South America . And even this list does not claim to be exhaustive .
It is standard practice for any UDR member charged with a serious offence to be required to resign from the Regiment before appearing in court . He (or , in a very tiny number of cases , she ) is therefore described in court as a "...former.. " UDR member . Or the fact of UDR membership is not mentioned at all . For example , although Roderick Shane McDowell and Thomas Crozier , convicted in October 1976 of the Miami Showband massacre , were members of the UDR and operating in UDR uniforms at the time of the murders , this was not mentioned at their initial court appearance .
And it was not until after the conviction of the 'Shankill Butchers' in February 1979 that the UDR membership of one of their number , Edward McIlwaine , was made public , and then only after SDLP spokesperson Michael Canavan put a question publicly to Northern Secretary Roy Mason .
It is also worth noting that the UDA , in the October 1976 issue of its magazine 'Combat' , published a list of 57 UDA members serving time in Long Kesh who had been members of the 'security forces' as well : 17 of them were UDR . An accompanying article claimed - " This list by no means exhausts the numbers of ex-security forces now convicted of politically-motivated offences , and at least three times this number could be added if I were to include Magilligan Prison , Crumlin Road and the men in the other Loyalist paramilitary groups . "
(MORE LATER).
ELECTION INTERVENTIONS.......
Despite the fact that SINN FEIN has been contesting local elections in the 26 counties for more than two decades , much comment has been passed and incorrectly interpreted about Republican involvement in elections - north and south of the British-imposed border - in the past several months .
Here we review Republican interventions in the electoral process for the past century and more .
From 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
The Fenian James Fintan Lalor stated , re the land question - " Let the occupiers of the soil refuse all further payment of rent to the present usurping proprietors , until the people , the true proprietors ....have in national congress....decided what rents they are to pay and to whom . " Devoy further believed that the British government's certain refusal of the full Irish demand for land reform ('peasant' proprietory was seen as more radical and far reaching a settlement that Isaac Butt's policy of the three 'F' 's *) would create the condition for a withdrawal from the British parliament . (* Fair rent , Fixity of tenure and Freedom to sell the tenant right .)
In this belief (that the demands of land agitation could not be met by the British Government ) at no time was Devoy advocating that the demand for Irish independence be suppressed in favour of agrarian agitation ; on the contrary , he argued that the land question had to be expanded to give it a nationalist character . In fact he accepted the risk of Britain undercutting the agitation by conceding compromise demands ('1169...' Comment - ...as Westminster did in 1998 with the Stormont Treaty) as a justifiable risk because " ...good work will have been done , sound principles will have been inculcated and the country aroused and agitated .. " - in other words , in the event of a failure to win complete victory , John Devoy felt that at least a step forward would have been taken in the building up of nationalist forces .
Devoy called on the Fenians to enter political life to fight , in particular on the platform of land reform , and by doing so to strengthen their organisation and 'end their isolation' . The full political programme of the 'New Departure' was never agreed upon let alone implemented ; the IRB Supreme Council rejected it at a meeting in Paris in January 1879 although individual members were left free to take part in open political activity , though not to enter parliament . Furthermore , the economic crisis of Irish agriculture in 1879 plus the commencement of the agrarian agitation in Mayo reduced to some extent the relevance of these plans .......
(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 .
Detective Superintendent John Murphy , from Harcourt Square , Dublin , told Superintendent McGroarty to get the package to Portlaoise Garda Station where he had already made arrangements for someone to take it to Dublin : McGroarty handed the package to Detective Frank Duggan , emphasising that he get O'Grady's severed fingers to Portlaoise as quickly as possible . The package reached Detective Superintendent Murphy at 2.00 AM ; only then , three hours after they came into the possession of the gardai , were the fingers put on ice , before being rushed to Jervis Street Hospital , Dublin .
16. PAINKILLERS AND BEER .
Wednesday , November 4, 1987 , was the gloomiest of the twenty-three days of the kidnap for the gardai , the O'Grady family and John O'Grady himself ; he had awoke around 8.30AM - after breakfast , he took more painkillers , removed the dressings and washed his fingers in a basin of lukewarm water . There was a large clot on what remained of the little finger on his right hand , which he snipped with a scissors . Eddie Hogan helped apply a second tourniquet to the finger stump on that hand . In the afternoon he noticed the clot on the finger had worsened and decided he would have to remove this clot to stop the flow of blood . Immediately there was a spurt of arterial blood , which he managed to stop by using pressure with a linen dressing in his left hand .
He realised that the finger would have to be cauterised again , otherwise he might bleed to death . Dessie O'Hare was not in the house , so he called for Eddie Hogan and told him what had to be done . They went into the kitchen . On this occasion John O'Grady and gang members worked in tandem - there was no need to tie his legs together . He was put sitting in a chair and gagged ; one of the gang held his right arm which was put on the table , another man held his left arm . O'Grady wrapped his feet around the chair . Eddie Hogan cauterised the wound five or six times with a red-hot knife : the flow from the artery was checked and blood loss reduced to a trickle . O'Grady was retured to the alcove under the stairs , and Hogan gave him more painkillers and two bottles of beer to wash them down with . O'Grady then fell asleep .......
(MORE LATER).
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
On the weekend of January 10th/11th 1970 the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis was held ; the structural proposals were carried but the non-participation in parliament policy remained on the books .
But then Denis Cassin , a leading Civil Rights activist and IRA man , stood up to propose a vote of confidence in the Army Council of the IRA . This was routine procedure . Cassin was armed at the time and , before he could propose the vote of confidence another armed delegate , Sean MacStiofain , was up proposing a vote of confidence in the Provisional Army Council : on the following morning the Dublin journalist instrumental in making the contact between the Belfast IRA and Fianna Fail announced the split in banner headlines .
The simmering split was complete ; the Dublin Government's monies which were going North were now directed only to the Provisionals . 'The Voice Of The North' newspaper continued in existence until the end of 1970 . The rest is already public knowledge - the ministerial sackings , the eventual Arms Trial , the inquiry by the Committee of Public Accounts into the £100,000 and the continuing power struggles in Fianna Fail .
[END of ' FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION' .]
(Tomorrow - ' UDR'S ROTTEN APPLES' - from 1984 .)
ELECTION INTERVENTIONS.......
Despite the fact that SINN FEIN has been contesting local elections in the 26 counties for more than two decades , much comment has been passed and incorrectly interpreted about Republican involvement in elections - north and south of the British-imposed border - in the past several months .
Here we review Republican interventions in the electoral process for the past century and more .
From 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
In 1878 Charles Stewart Parnell was re-elected , with Fenian help and against the wishes of Isaac Butt , as President of the Home Rule Confederation of Great Britain . At this point John Devoy offered Parnell the 'New Departure' package and the support of American (Irish) nationalists on the following conditions -
1. Abandonment of the federal demand and substitution of a general declaration in favour of self government .
2. Vigorous agitation of the land question on the basis of a peasant proprietory , while accepting concessions tending to abolish arbitrary eviction .
3. Exclusion of all sectarian issues from the platform .
4. Party members to vote together on all imperial and home questions , adopt an agressive policy and energetically resist coercive legislation .
5. Advocacy of all struggling nationalities in the British Empire and elsewhere .
The Fenian John Devoy further publicly suggested that a majority of members of (the British) Parliament , secured by such an alliance , should eventually meet as an Irish legislative " ...making that declaration a signal for a war of independence (if the country) were otherwise ready .. " . In relation to the land question he advocated involvement in the Land League , started in Connaught in 1879 by Michael Davitt and a handful of Fenian allies and poor tenants .
While deeply involved in land agitation , this section of the Fenians also felt that the land question was "...the material for victory.. " in the sense that James Fintan Lalor had first advocated .......
(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 .
Solicitor Hilary Prentice gave Dessie O'Hare an aircell telephone number where he could speak directly to Dr. Austin Darragh : O'Hare wanted to know if there was a tap on the aircell number . Prentice said she did'nt know , to which O'Hare replied - " They must be very naive . Tell them to wake up . Tell them to contact the 'Security Risk' crowd . " He then hung up , only to ring back immediately to make more threats . Prentice emphasised that the family wanted to co-operate . O'Hare told her that the fingers were in the mortuary chapel in Carlow Cathedral .
The O'Grady family were to put the note in Limerick and the note in Carlow together and that would instruct them how and when to pay the ransom . Inside the envelope in Carlow there were three envelopes - one containing the fingers of John O'Grady , another containing photographs of John O'Grady showing his fingers severed , and the third containing a note . O'Hare rang Prentice : " Now , if they have'nt got the ransom I don't know what I wil do . I'll chop this fucking bastard up . I'm reaching the end of my tether . Don't forget to go to Kilkenny to get the other message , " he repeated - she would need both messages . O'Hare then hung up the phone .
Hilary Prentice was more nonplussed than ever : where did Kilkenny come in ? Immediately the phone rang again - it was Dessie O'Hare ; when he said Kilkenny he really meant Limerick . Prentice updated the O'Grady family on the latest developments - the gardai were also informed . Detective Chief Superintendent Murphy of the Central Detective Unit in Harcourt Square contacted Superintendent John McGroarty in Carlow Garda Station to ask him to organise a search of Carlow Cathedral . Murphy's record of the call is that he made it at 8.45 PM . McGroarty asked Detective Frank Duggan to locate Rev. Tom Dillon , the keyholder , on the basis of a phone call he received at 10.15 PM .
At 11 PM McGroarty and Duggan were let into the cathedral by Rev. Dillon ; they found the note . McGroarty returned to the station and telephoned Detective Superintendent John Murphy in Harcourt Square . Murphy told him to open the package ; wrapped in blood-stained tissue were John O'Gradys fingers . Also in the package were the photographs and note referred to earlier by Dessie O'Hare in his conversation with Hilary Prentice .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
On the weekend of January 10th/11th 1970 the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis was held ; the structural proposals were carried but the non-participation in parliament policy remained on the books .
But then Denis Cassin , a leading Civil Rights activist and IRA man , stood up to propose a vote of confidence in the Army Council of the IRA . This was routine procedure . Cassin was armed at the time and , before he could propose the vote of confidence another armed delegate , Sean MacStiofain , was up proposing a vote of confidence in the Provisional Army Council : on the following morning the Dublin journalist instrumental in making the contact between the Belfast IRA and Fianna Fail announced the split in banner headlines .
The simmering split was complete ; the Dublin Government's monies which were going North were now directed only to the Provisionals . 'The Voice Of The North' newspaper continued in existence until the end of 1970 . The rest is already public knowledge - the ministerial sackings , the eventual Arms Trial , the inquiry by the Committee of Public Accounts into the £100,000 and the continuing power struggles in Fianna Fail .
[END of ' FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION' .]
(Tomorrow - ' UDR'S ROTTEN APPLES' - from 1984 .)
ELECTION INTERVENTIONS.......
Despite the fact that SINN FEIN has been contesting local elections in the 26 counties for more than two decades , much comment has been passed and incorrectly interpreted about Republican involvement in elections - north and south of the British-imposed border - in the past several months .
Here we review Republican interventions in the electoral process for the past century and more .
From 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
In 1878 Charles Stewart Parnell was re-elected , with Fenian help and against the wishes of Isaac Butt , as President of the Home Rule Confederation of Great Britain . At this point John Devoy offered Parnell the 'New Departure' package and the support of American (Irish) nationalists on the following conditions -
1. Abandonment of the federal demand and substitution of a general declaration in favour of self government .
2. Vigorous agitation of the land question on the basis of a peasant proprietory , while accepting concessions tending to abolish arbitrary eviction .
3. Exclusion of all sectarian issues from the platform .
4. Party members to vote together on all imperial and home questions , adopt an agressive policy and energetically resist coercive legislation .
5. Advocacy of all struggling nationalities in the British Empire and elsewhere .
The Fenian John Devoy further publicly suggested that a majority of members of (the British) Parliament , secured by such an alliance , should eventually meet as an Irish legislative " ...making that declaration a signal for a war of independence (if the country) were otherwise ready .. " . In relation to the land question he advocated involvement in the Land League , started in Connaught in 1879 by Michael Davitt and a handful of Fenian allies and poor tenants .
While deeply involved in land agitation , this section of the Fenians also felt that the land question was "...the material for victory.. " in the sense that James Fintan Lalor had first advocated .......
(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 .
Solicitor Hilary Prentice gave Dessie O'Hare an aircell telephone number where he could speak directly to Dr. Austin Darragh : O'Hare wanted to know if there was a tap on the aircell number . Prentice said she did'nt know , to which O'Hare replied - " They must be very naive . Tell them to wake up . Tell them to contact the 'Security Risk' crowd . " He then hung up , only to ring back immediately to make more threats . Prentice emphasised that the family wanted to co-operate . O'Hare told her that the fingers were in the mortuary chapel in Carlow Cathedral .
The O'Grady family were to put the note in Limerick and the note in Carlow together and that would instruct them how and when to pay the ransom . Inside the envelope in Carlow there were three envelopes - one containing the fingers of John O'Grady , another containing photographs of John O'Grady showing his fingers severed , and the third containing a note . O'Hare rang Prentice : " Now , if they have'nt got the ransom I don't know what I wil do . I'll chop this fucking bastard up . I'm reaching the end of my tether . Don't forget to go to Kilkenny to get the other message , " he repeated - she would need both messages . O'Hare then hung up the phone .
Hilary Prentice was more nonplussed than ever : where did Kilkenny come in ? Immediately the phone rang again - it was Dessie O'Hare ; when he said Kilkenny he really meant Limerick . Prentice updated the O'Grady family on the latest developments - the gardai were also informed . Detective Chief Superintendent Murphy of the Central Detective Unit in Harcourt Square contacted Superintendent John McGroarty in Carlow Garda Station to ask him to organise a search of Carlow Cathedral . Murphy's record of the call is that he made it at 8.45 PM . McGroarty asked Detective Frank Duggan to locate Rev. Tom Dillon , the keyholder , on the basis of a phone call he received at 10.15 PM .
At 11 PM McGroarty and Duggan were let into the cathedral by Rev. Dillon ; they found the note . McGroarty returned to the station and telephoned Detective Superintendent John Murphy in Harcourt Square . Murphy told him to open the package ; wrapped in blood-stained tissue were John O'Gradys fingers . Also in the package were the photographs and note referred to earlier by Dessie O'Hare in his conversation with Hilary Prentice .......
(MORE LATER).
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
In December 1969 , the General Army Convention of the IRA was held at an old mansion-type house at Knockvicar , Boyle , County Roscommon ; this special convention was held to decide on the findings of an 'Internal Commission' which had been inquiring into the structure of the Republican Movement . Participation in parliament was also on the agenda .
Belfast was not represented at the convention because of the agreement with the 'dissidents' and the unique situation there . One delegate complained that other delegates were not collected at their pick-up points and blamed it on a move against those opposed to the proposed changes in electoral strategy .
The vote in favour of taking seats in parliament was carried by a very large majority (more than 3 to 1) and the IRA Chief Intelligence Officer up to then , Sean MacStiofain , declared that this was " ...the end of the IRA .. " : after the convention - nobody walks out of such gatherings- Ruairi O Bradaigh , Daithi O Conaill , Sean MacStiofain , John Joe McGirl and others met at O'Bradaigh's mother's house on the Battery Road , Longford .
On December 29th , 1969 , the first statement from the Provisional Army Council and signed in the name of 'P O' Neill' was published : it warned of the dangers to the abstentionist policy at the coming Sinn Fein Ard Fheis . On the weekend of January 10th/11th 1970 the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis was held .......
(MORE LATER).
ELECTION INTERVENTIONS.......
Despite the fact that SINN FEIN has been contesting local elections in the 26 counties for more than two decades , much comment has been passed and incorrectly interpreted about Republican involvement in elections - north and south of the British-imposed border - in the past several months .
Here we review Republican interventions in the electoral process for the past century and more .
From 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
In 1875 , Joseph Biggar , at that time a member of the IRB , which he joined while MP for County Cavan , initiated a policy of obstruction in the British House of Parliament . While this policy , aimed at delaying and frustrating the British Government from passing Irish coercion acts , outraged Isaac Butt , it was regarded with approval by even the most militant varities of Nationalist opinion , including some prominent Fenians .
Having said that , however , it should also be stressed that many Fenians , especially Kickam and O'Leary , remained totally opposed to any form of constitutionalism and the development of the IRB's attitude to the constitutionalists was an uneasy process , leading almost to the destruction of the IRB itself .
In 1877 , Joseph Biggar was joined by Charles Stewart Parnell and other Irish MP's and the policy of obstruction and filibustering undertaken by them increased their standing among militant nationalists , especially the Clann na Gael (the IRB's American ) leadership . At the same time , John Devoy was finding the relative absence of publicly expressed opposition to British rule in Ireland an impediment to enlisting foreign support for the Republican cause . The Clann na Gael leadership were already sold on the idea of an alliance of sorts with C. S. Parnell in which they hoped he would espouse separatism .
Discussions between Parnell and individual Fenians , like J.J. O' Kelly and Dr. William O'Connor , led them to believe that Parnell was committed to the principle of absolute independence , something to which he was not in fact disposed .......
(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 .
Ampliclox antibiotics , Ponstan pain killers and k50 sedatives were administered to John O'Grady , who had just had two of his fingers cut off . Tony McNeill , one of the kidnap gang , had been upstairs in the house when that happened ; he came in to the room with a basin of hot water and dressings - " Jesus Christ , Jesus Christ ... " he repeated , and left . It fell to Eddie Hogan to apply the dressings , which proved inadequate . O'Grady instructed the gang to cut up a linen sheet and boil it for one hour to sterilise it , and told them to boil a scissors in the same way .
Under O'Grady's guidance , Hogan re-dressed both hands and applied a tourniquet to both fingers ; O'Grady then fell asleep holding his hands up to stop the bleeding .
15. "THERE'S TWO FINGERS LYING IN CARLOW CATHEDRAL ... "
Dessie O'Hare , meanwhile , had left Carnlough Road and was back on the telephone to Hilary Prentice ; he wanted her home telephone number so that he could ring her later to tell her where John O'Grady's fingers could be picked up . During that call it was clear to Prentice that O'Hare's temper had not improved . She began telling him that 'Auntie Bettie' had searched the area around the statue carefully - " It's just cost John two of his fingers . Now I am going to chop him up into bits and pieces and send you fresh lumps of him every fucking day if I don't get my money fast . " He told Prentice to send someone back to the cathedral and "...smash up the fucking statue if necessary .. " to get the note .
Dessie O'Hare rang Hilary Prentice at home that evening ; she told him that she had been in contact with the O'Grady family and they were anxious to co-operate - " Well they would want to now , because there's two fingers lying in Carlow Cathedral .." , replied O'Hare .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
In December 1969 , the General Army Convention of the IRA was held at an old mansion-type house at Knockvicar , Boyle , County Roscommon ; this special convention was held to decide on the findings of an 'Internal Commission' which had been inquiring into the structure of the Republican Movement . Participation in parliament was also on the agenda .
Belfast was not represented at the convention because of the agreement with the 'dissidents' and the unique situation there . One delegate complained that other delegates were not collected at their pick-up points and blamed it on a move against those opposed to the proposed changes in electoral strategy .
The vote in favour of taking seats in parliament was carried by a very large majority (more than 3 to 1) and the IRA Chief Intelligence Officer up to then , Sean MacStiofain , declared that this was " ...the end of the IRA .. " : after the convention - nobody walks out of such gatherings- Ruairi O Bradaigh , Daithi O Conaill , Sean MacStiofain , John Joe McGirl and others met at O'Bradaigh's mother's house on the Battery Road , Longford .
On December 29th , 1969 , the first statement from the Provisional Army Council and signed in the name of 'P O' Neill' was published : it warned of the dangers to the abstentionist policy at the coming Sinn Fein Ard Fheis . On the weekend of January 10th/11th 1970 the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis was held .......
(MORE LATER).
ELECTION INTERVENTIONS.......
Despite the fact that SINN FEIN has been contesting local elections in the 26 counties for more than two decades , much comment has been passed and incorrectly interpreted about Republican involvement in elections - north and south of the British-imposed border - in the past several months .
Here we review Republican interventions in the electoral process for the past century and more .
From 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
In 1875 , Joseph Biggar , at that time a member of the IRB , which he joined while MP for County Cavan , initiated a policy of obstruction in the British House of Parliament . While this policy , aimed at delaying and frustrating the British Government from passing Irish coercion acts , outraged Isaac Butt , it was regarded with approval by even the most militant varities of Nationalist opinion , including some prominent Fenians .
Having said that , however , it should also be stressed that many Fenians , especially Kickam and O'Leary , remained totally opposed to any form of constitutionalism and the development of the IRB's attitude to the constitutionalists was an uneasy process , leading almost to the destruction of the IRB itself .
In 1877 , Joseph Biggar was joined by Charles Stewart Parnell and other Irish MP's and the policy of obstruction and filibustering undertaken by them increased their standing among militant nationalists , especially the Clann na Gael (the IRB's American ) leadership . At the same time , John Devoy was finding the relative absence of publicly expressed opposition to British rule in Ireland an impediment to enlisting foreign support for the Republican cause . The Clann na Gael leadership were already sold on the idea of an alliance of sorts with C. S. Parnell in which they hoped he would espouse separatism .
Discussions between Parnell and individual Fenians , like J.J. O' Kelly and Dr. William O'Connor , led them to believe that Parnell was committed to the principle of absolute independence , something to which he was not in fact disposed .......
(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 .
Ampliclox antibiotics , Ponstan pain killers and k50 sedatives were administered to John O'Grady , who had just had two of his fingers cut off . Tony McNeill , one of the kidnap gang , had been upstairs in the house when that happened ; he came in to the room with a basin of hot water and dressings - " Jesus Christ , Jesus Christ ... " he repeated , and left . It fell to Eddie Hogan to apply the dressings , which proved inadequate . O'Grady instructed the gang to cut up a linen sheet and boil it for one hour to sterilise it , and told them to boil a scissors in the same way .
Under O'Grady's guidance , Hogan re-dressed both hands and applied a tourniquet to both fingers ; O'Grady then fell asleep holding his hands up to stop the bleeding .
15. "THERE'S TWO FINGERS LYING IN CARLOW CATHEDRAL ... "
Dessie O'Hare , meanwhile , had left Carnlough Road and was back on the telephone to Hilary Prentice ; he wanted her home telephone number so that he could ring her later to tell her where John O'Grady's fingers could be picked up . During that call it was clear to Prentice that O'Hare's temper had not improved . She began telling him that 'Auntie Bettie' had searched the area around the statue carefully - " It's just cost John two of his fingers . Now I am going to chop him up into bits and pieces and send you fresh lumps of him every fucking day if I don't get my money fast . " He told Prentice to send someone back to the cathedral and "...smash up the fucking statue if necessary .. " to get the note .
Dessie O'Hare rang Hilary Prentice at home that evening ; she told him that she had been in contact with the O'Grady family and they were anxious to co-operate - " Well they would want to now , because there's two fingers lying in Carlow Cathedral .." , replied O'Hare .......
(MORE LATER).
Monday, October 10, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
Cathal Goulding , in an attempt to rally his troops , called a meeting of all key IRA men in the country ; the meeting was held in the gymnasium beneath Billy Wright's barber shop in Parkgate Street , Dublin . It was not a decision-making body - just the IRA Chief of Staff and his Council informing the key men in the organisation what was happening around them .
The Fianna Fail proposals were outlined , the situation in Belfast explained , and it was made clear that the IRA Army Council was against accepting the Fianna Fail offer - that offer was guns and money in return for a cessation of activities south of the border and the dropping of socialist policies everywhere . Daithi O Connell ( 'Mr Barry' was his IRA code name) was very vocal at the meeting and was obviously upset with the leadership .
Ruairi O Bradaigh (IRA code name 'Oliver' ) also expressed dis-satisfaction with the arms situation but he remained quite restrained . Sean MacStiofain explained his role in August (1969) when it appeared he had disobeyed the order for a withdrawal - he had not received the order to withdraw in time . The IRA Army Council intention was to 'flush out' the 'dissidents' in the ranks , but only Daithi O Conaill was in any way drawn .
Meanwhile , (FS) Taoiseach Jack Lynch commenced expressing views in conflict with his Government's sub-committee ; on September 27th , 1969 , speaking in Tralee , County Kerry , Mr. Lynch stated that the Dublin government had no intention of using force to end partition . In October 1969 Neil Blaney , speaking at celebrations for his 21st year in Leinster House , said - " The Fianna Fail party has never taken a decision to rule out the use of force if the circumstances in the Six Counties so demand ....... " ('1169...' Comment - Republicans would consider Westminster's claim of jurisdiction , and its use of force to maintain that claim , as 'circumstances so demanding' .) .......
(MORE LATER).
ELECTION INTERVENTIONS.......
Despite the fact that SINN FEIN has been contesting local elections in the 26 counties for more than two decades , much comment has been passed and incorrectly interpreted about Republican involvement in elections - north and south of the British-imposed border - in the past several months .
Here we review Republican interventions in the electoral process for the past century and more .
From 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
Fenianism was the first Irish political movement to channel the energies of agricultural labourers and small farmers - hitherto expressed through 'ribbonism' and faction fighting - into the national organisation ; by involvement in agrarion agitation and by a process of linking local 'discontents' with the national question , the Fenians fostered and developed a sense of national political consciousness .
While their recourse to physical force came to little in the ill-fated and badly planned 'insurrection' of 1867 , the IRB served as a school for sedition for the next generation .
All this lies outside the scope of this article but , in passing , it is worth mentioning James Connolly's view of this period , when he observed that "...a close study of the events of that time would immensely benefit the militant socialists of all countries . It would help to demonstrate how the union of the forces of social discontent with the forces of political agitation converted the latter from a sterile Parliamentarian impotent for good into a virile force transforming the whole social system and bringing a political revolution within the grasp of the agitators . "
The failure of the insurrection in 1867 and recriminations between the Irish and Irish American leaderships left the IRB considerably weakened ; many of its members had become involved in the Home Rule Movement of the 1870's which was led by Isaac Butt , who supported a system of Home Rule within a federal framework . He enjoyed the sympathy of many Fenians because of his efforts to secure amnesty for Fenian political prisoners . Following the election of 1874 , with the backing of a parliamentary party of about sixty members , Isaac Butt embarked upon a policy of convincing , by reason and debate , the British Government of the desirability of conceding Home Rule to Ireland based on a federal solution .......
(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 hotel to be used as a contact point was closed and the ransom note had not been found ; Dessis O' Hare lost the cool - he told solicitor Hilary Prentice - " I am going to fucking chop his fingers off . How many fucking cathedrals in Limerick are there ? " There was more conversation between O'Hare and Prentice in which the latter assured him that his instructions had been followed . In the middle of the conversation O'Hare said " Fuck this " and hung up the phone .
O'Hare then returned to 260 Carnlough Road : he turned on Eddie Hogan whom he blamed for the mix-up over the Blarney Hotel and a swearing match ensued . Next O'Hare put on a balaclava and went to talk to John O'Grady under the stairs . He dictated a new note to O'Grady , instructing the courier to go to the Silver Springs Hotel in Cork with the money , car and telephone . O'Hare returned a few minutes later - he put two pillow cases over John O'Grady's head , and led him down to the kitchen , where his legs were tied together .
He was gagged and his head was covered again , with another two pillow cases . His left hand was splayed out and a bread board inserted underneath his hand . His small finger was then hacked off with a hammer and chisel by Dessie O'Hare . The finger was then cauterised three times with a hot knife to stop the blood flowing . O'Hare then did the same to the little finger on O'Grady's right hand .
The pillow cases were removed and the blacked-out glasses were put on O'Grady ; O'Hare then took three photographs of John O'Grady using the polaroid camera . He told O'Grady to " ... think of the seasons , think of Spring .. " and to keep his hands up beside his ears . The blood was trickling down his sleeves .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
Cathal Goulding , in an attempt to rally his troops , called a meeting of all key IRA men in the country ; the meeting was held in the gymnasium beneath Billy Wright's barber shop in Parkgate Street , Dublin . It was not a decision-making body - just the IRA Chief of Staff and his Council informing the key men in the organisation what was happening around them .
The Fianna Fail proposals were outlined , the situation in Belfast explained , and it was made clear that the IRA Army Council was against accepting the Fianna Fail offer - that offer was guns and money in return for a cessation of activities south of the border and the dropping of socialist policies everywhere . Daithi O Connell ( 'Mr Barry' was his IRA code name) was very vocal at the meeting and was obviously upset with the leadership .
Ruairi O Bradaigh (IRA code name 'Oliver' ) also expressed dis-satisfaction with the arms situation but he remained quite restrained . Sean MacStiofain explained his role in August (1969) when it appeared he had disobeyed the order for a withdrawal - he had not received the order to withdraw in time . The IRA Army Council intention was to 'flush out' the 'dissidents' in the ranks , but only Daithi O Conaill was in any way drawn .
Meanwhile , (FS) Taoiseach Jack Lynch commenced expressing views in conflict with his Government's sub-committee ; on September 27th , 1969 , speaking in Tralee , County Kerry , Mr. Lynch stated that the Dublin government had no intention of using force to end partition . In October 1969 Neil Blaney , speaking at celebrations for his 21st year in Leinster House , said - " The Fianna Fail party has never taken a decision to rule out the use of force if the circumstances in the Six Counties so demand ....... " ('1169...' Comment - Republicans would consider Westminster's claim of jurisdiction , and its use of force to maintain that claim , as 'circumstances so demanding' .) .......
(MORE LATER).
ELECTION INTERVENTIONS.......
Despite the fact that SINN FEIN has been contesting local elections in the 26 counties for more than two decades , much comment has been passed and incorrectly interpreted about Republican involvement in elections - north and south of the British-imposed border - in the past several months .
Here we review Republican interventions in the electoral process for the past century and more .
From 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
Fenianism was the first Irish political movement to channel the energies of agricultural labourers and small farmers - hitherto expressed through 'ribbonism' and faction fighting - into the national organisation ; by involvement in agrarion agitation and by a process of linking local 'discontents' with the national question , the Fenians fostered and developed a sense of national political consciousness .
While their recourse to physical force came to little in the ill-fated and badly planned 'insurrection' of 1867 , the IRB served as a school for sedition for the next generation .
All this lies outside the scope of this article but , in passing , it is worth mentioning James Connolly's view of this period , when he observed that "...a close study of the events of that time would immensely benefit the militant socialists of all countries . It would help to demonstrate how the union of the forces of social discontent with the forces of political agitation converted the latter from a sterile Parliamentarian impotent for good into a virile force transforming the whole social system and bringing a political revolution within the grasp of the agitators . "
The failure of the insurrection in 1867 and recriminations between the Irish and Irish American leaderships left the IRB considerably weakened ; many of its members had become involved in the Home Rule Movement of the 1870's which was led by Isaac Butt , who supported a system of Home Rule within a federal framework . He enjoyed the sympathy of many Fenians because of his efforts to secure amnesty for Fenian political prisoners . Following the election of 1874 , with the backing of a parliamentary party of about sixty members , Isaac Butt embarked upon a policy of convincing , by reason and debate , the British Government of the desirability of conceding Home Rule to Ireland based on a federal solution .......
(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 hotel to be used as a contact point was closed and the ransom note had not been found ; Dessis O' Hare lost the cool - he told solicitor Hilary Prentice - " I am going to fucking chop his fingers off . How many fucking cathedrals in Limerick are there ? " There was more conversation between O'Hare and Prentice in which the latter assured him that his instructions had been followed . In the middle of the conversation O'Hare said " Fuck this " and hung up the phone .
O'Hare then returned to 260 Carnlough Road : he turned on Eddie Hogan whom he blamed for the mix-up over the Blarney Hotel and a swearing match ensued . Next O'Hare put on a balaclava and went to talk to John O'Grady under the stairs . He dictated a new note to O'Grady , instructing the courier to go to the Silver Springs Hotel in Cork with the money , car and telephone . O'Hare returned a few minutes later - he put two pillow cases over John O'Grady's head , and led him down to the kitchen , where his legs were tied together .
He was gagged and his head was covered again , with another two pillow cases . His left hand was splayed out and a bread board inserted underneath his hand . His small finger was then hacked off with a hammer and chisel by Dessie O'Hare . The finger was then cauterised three times with a hot knife to stop the blood flowing . O'Hare then did the same to the little finger on O'Grady's right hand .
The pillow cases were removed and the blacked-out glasses were put on O'Grady ; O'Hare then took three photographs of John O'Grady using the polaroid camera . He told O'Grady to " ... think of the seasons , think of Spring .. " and to keep his hands up beside his ears . The blood was trickling down his sleeves .......
(MORE LATER).
Friday, October 07, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
The (pro-Republican) newspaper 'The United Irishman' and the Fianna Fail-led 'Voice Of The North' newspaper were engaged in a 'war of words' ; when Seamus Brady (Fianna Fail member , and the man in charge of the 'Voice' newspaper) was asked for a comment on ' Fianna Fail takeover attempts' -type articles published in 'The United Irishman' newspaper , he described such comments as a pack of lies - " These people could'nt tell the truth if their lives depended on it . "
Days later , on November 3rd , 1969 , Seamus Brady (as explained in his submission to the subsequent Leinster House inquiry) submitted an invoice for £1,580, 6 shillings , 6 pence to Eoin Neeson in the 'Government Information Bureau' for the organisation and production of the first three editions of 'The Voice Of The North' newspaper . On the day before 'The United Irishman' newspaper exclusive (re the attempt by Fianna Fail to takeover the 'Civil Rights' issue in the Six Counties) , on October 29th , 1969 , Seamus Brady wrote to Eoin Neeson , Director of the (FS) 'Government Information Bureau' , pointing out that the (FS) Minister for Finance , Charles Haughey , had authorised payment of £1,000 to him to cover 'Voice Of The North' expenses .
As agreed between Brady and Neeson the description was '...to preparation of manuscripts for Government Information Bureau.. ' The publicity given to the disclosure meant changes in the way the 'Voice' newspaper would get its finances ; on November 10th , 1969 , £2,500 was withdrawn from the 'undercover' bank account in Clones , County Monaghan , and was used to open the 'Ann O'Brien' account in Baggot Street , Dublin . So the newspaper continued , with the 'Ann O'Brien' account paying its bills , via Captain James Kelly . Meanwhile , a meeting of all key IRA figures was being organised .......
(MORE LATER).
ELECTION INTERVENTIONS.
Despite the fact that SINN FEIN has been contesting local elections in the 26 counties for more than two decades , much comment has been passed and incorrectly interpreted about Republican involvement in elections - north and south of the British-imposed border - in the past several months .
Here we review Republican interventions in the electoral process for the past century and more .
From 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
Republican intervention in the British electoral process dates back to the elections of Charles Kickham and O Donovan Rossa , while a political prisoner , between 1869 and 1875 , to the Westminster Parliament .
Five years later , John Mitchel was elected MP for Tipperary and Cork City ; when this election , in which he was returned unopposed , was declared 'invalid' ( because " Mitchel had not purged himself of his felony") he stood again and was returned with an 80 per cent majority against his opponent . These men were Fenians , members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood , jailed for their political affiliations and their opposition to British rule in Ireland .
The question , therefore , of Republican intervention in electoral politics is not a new one and an exploration , even a cursory one , of such interventions , gives an interesting and , at times , an illuminating insight into many of the questions which have bedevilled nationalist politics in Ireland for centuries . Constitutionalism versus physical force ; social issues versus national issues - constitutional nationalism versus militant nationaism versus republicanism and the many and varied efforts by Republicans to bring al these tendencies together against British colonialism . The period 1878-1887 is particularly interesting in this respect .
THE FENIANS.
The Fenian Movement , the Irish Republican Brotherhood , was founded in 1858 , and had as its objective the winning of Irish Independence by armed rebellion . In its reports and communications , incidently, mention of the IRA is made for the first time . That apart , and more interestingly , Fenianism was the first truly nation-wide lay secular society which was distinctly radical and committed to founding '... a Republic based on universal suffrage which shall secure for all , the intrinsic value for their labour . The soil of Ireland belongs to us , the Irish people , and to us it must be restored . We declare , also , in favour of absolute liberty of conscience , and the complete separation of Church and State ... '
(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 .
On the evening of Thursday , October 29 , 1987 , a conference was held in Dr. Austin Darragh's apartment , attended by solicitor Hilary Prentice , Detective Superintendent Noel Conroy , Dr. Austin Darragh and members of the O'Grady family ; the following morning 'Auntie Bettie' (Dr. Walter Doyle's wife ) was driven to Limerick Cathedral by Dr. Darragh's chauffeur ; she searched all around the statue for twenty-five minutes , but all she found was a petition to Our Lady asking her to help ' Sean's nerves' . 'Auntie Bettie' returned to Dublin with the petition which she handed over to Detective Superintendent Noel Conroy ; the note to which Dessie O'Hare referred was indeed in the cathedral , but 'Auntie Bettie' would have had to lift the statue up to find it .
That note instructed a courier to go to the Blarney Hotel in Cork on Tuesday , November 3 , 1987 , at 1.00 PM , in a car with a car phone , and the ransom . At the hotel he was to take a call under the name of 'Pat Murray' and would be given further instructions .
On Saturday October 31 , 1987 , Dessie O'Hare made another phone call , this time to the offices of 'The Sunday Tribune' newspaper : he gave an interview to that newspaper , telling them that John O'Grady was safe and would remain so providing certain instructions given to Dr. Darragh were followed carefully .
14. "THINK OF THE SEASONS , THINK OF SPRING. "
Over the next day or two , Dessie O'Hare discovered that the Blarney Hotel was useless as a contact point - it was closed for renovations . On Tuesday , November 3rd , 1987 , O'Hare telephoned Hilary Prentice . He was unaware that the ransom note had not been found in Limerick Cathedral ; he wanted Prentice to get 'Auntie Bettie' to contact , by car phone , the courier who O'Hare presumed was sitting outside the Blarney Hotel . O'Hare told Prentice there had been "...a fuck up.. " - that the hotel was closed . 'Auntie Bettie' was to instruct the courier to proceed to the Killeshin Hotel in Portlaoise - this was to be the new point of contact . But Hilary Prentice had'nt the remotest idea what O'Hare was talking about ; O'Hare said he would ring back shortly after two o'clock .
During this call , Hilary Prentice told O'Hare that 'Auntie Bettie' had gone to Limerick Cathedral as instructed - but had not found the note . It was at this point that Dessie O'Hare flipped his lid .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
The (pro-Republican) newspaper 'The United Irishman' and the Fianna Fail-led 'Voice Of The North' newspaper were engaged in a 'war of words' ; when Seamus Brady (Fianna Fail member , and the man in charge of the 'Voice' newspaper) was asked for a comment on ' Fianna Fail takeover attempts' -type articles published in 'The United Irishman' newspaper , he described such comments as a pack of lies - " These people could'nt tell the truth if their lives depended on it . "
Days later , on November 3rd , 1969 , Seamus Brady (as explained in his submission to the subsequent Leinster House inquiry) submitted an invoice for £1,580, 6 shillings , 6 pence to Eoin Neeson in the 'Government Information Bureau' for the organisation and production of the first three editions of 'The Voice Of The North' newspaper . On the day before 'The United Irishman' newspaper exclusive (re the attempt by Fianna Fail to takeover the 'Civil Rights' issue in the Six Counties) , on October 29th , 1969 , Seamus Brady wrote to Eoin Neeson , Director of the (FS) 'Government Information Bureau' , pointing out that the (FS) Minister for Finance , Charles Haughey , had authorised payment of £1,000 to him to cover 'Voice Of The North' expenses .
As agreed between Brady and Neeson the description was '...to preparation of manuscripts for Government Information Bureau.. ' The publicity given to the disclosure meant changes in the way the 'Voice' newspaper would get its finances ; on November 10th , 1969 , £2,500 was withdrawn from the 'undercover' bank account in Clones , County Monaghan , and was used to open the 'Ann O'Brien' account in Baggot Street , Dublin . So the newspaper continued , with the 'Ann O'Brien' account paying its bills , via Captain James Kelly . Meanwhile , a meeting of all key IRA figures was being organised .......
(MORE LATER).
ELECTION INTERVENTIONS.
Despite the fact that SINN FEIN has been contesting local elections in the 26 counties for more than two decades , much comment has been passed and incorrectly interpreted about Republican involvement in elections - north and south of the British-imposed border - in the past several months .
Here we review Republican interventions in the electoral process for the past century and more .
From 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
Republican intervention in the British electoral process dates back to the elections of Charles Kickham and O Donovan Rossa , while a political prisoner , between 1869 and 1875 , to the Westminster Parliament .
Five years later , John Mitchel was elected MP for Tipperary and Cork City ; when this election , in which he was returned unopposed , was declared 'invalid' ( because " Mitchel had not purged himself of his felony") he stood again and was returned with an 80 per cent majority against his opponent . These men were Fenians , members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood , jailed for their political affiliations and their opposition to British rule in Ireland .
The question , therefore , of Republican intervention in electoral politics is not a new one and an exploration , even a cursory one , of such interventions , gives an interesting and , at times , an illuminating insight into many of the questions which have bedevilled nationalist politics in Ireland for centuries . Constitutionalism versus physical force ; social issues versus national issues - constitutional nationalism versus militant nationaism versus republicanism and the many and varied efforts by Republicans to bring al these tendencies together against British colonialism . The period 1878-1887 is particularly interesting in this respect .
THE FENIANS.
The Fenian Movement , the Irish Republican Brotherhood , was founded in 1858 , and had as its objective the winning of Irish Independence by armed rebellion . In its reports and communications , incidently, mention of the IRA is made for the first time . That apart , and more interestingly , Fenianism was the first truly nation-wide lay secular society which was distinctly radical and committed to founding '... a Republic based on universal suffrage which shall secure for all , the intrinsic value for their labour . The soil of Ireland belongs to us , the Irish people , and to us it must be restored . We declare , also , in favour of absolute liberty of conscience , and the complete separation of Church and State ... '
(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 .
On the evening of Thursday , October 29 , 1987 , a conference was held in Dr. Austin Darragh's apartment , attended by solicitor Hilary Prentice , Detective Superintendent Noel Conroy , Dr. Austin Darragh and members of the O'Grady family ; the following morning 'Auntie Bettie' (Dr. Walter Doyle's wife ) was driven to Limerick Cathedral by Dr. Darragh's chauffeur ; she searched all around the statue for twenty-five minutes , but all she found was a petition to Our Lady asking her to help ' Sean's nerves' . 'Auntie Bettie' returned to Dublin with the petition which she handed over to Detective Superintendent Noel Conroy ; the note to which Dessie O'Hare referred was indeed in the cathedral , but 'Auntie Bettie' would have had to lift the statue up to find it .
That note instructed a courier to go to the Blarney Hotel in Cork on Tuesday , November 3 , 1987 , at 1.00 PM , in a car with a car phone , and the ransom . At the hotel he was to take a call under the name of 'Pat Murray' and would be given further instructions .
On Saturday October 31 , 1987 , Dessie O'Hare made another phone call , this time to the offices of 'The Sunday Tribune' newspaper : he gave an interview to that newspaper , telling them that John O'Grady was safe and would remain so providing certain instructions given to Dr. Darragh were followed carefully .
14. "THINK OF THE SEASONS , THINK OF SPRING. "
Over the next day or two , Dessie O'Hare discovered that the Blarney Hotel was useless as a contact point - it was closed for renovations . On Tuesday , November 3rd , 1987 , O'Hare telephoned Hilary Prentice . He was unaware that the ransom note had not been found in Limerick Cathedral ; he wanted Prentice to get 'Auntie Bettie' to contact , by car phone , the courier who O'Hare presumed was sitting outside the Blarney Hotel . O'Hare told Prentice there had been "...a fuck up.. " - that the hotel was closed . 'Auntie Bettie' was to instruct the courier to proceed to the Killeshin Hotel in Portlaoise - this was to be the new point of contact . But Hilary Prentice had'nt the remotest idea what O'Hare was talking about ; O'Hare said he would ring back shortly after two o'clock .
During this call , Hilary Prentice told O'Hare that 'Auntie Bettie' had gone to Limerick Cathedral as instructed - but had not found the note . It was at this point that Dessie O'Hare flipped his lid .......
(MORE LATER).
Thursday, October 06, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
By the middle of October 1969 it was clear that the (FS) government's sub-committee on the North was in full swing and that nobody would be allowed stand in the way of Fianna Fail ; they had commenced their takeover of the Citizens Defence Committee and the 'Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association' - but greater inroads would have to be made on the IRA front .
Fianna Fail began to publish a weekly paper to rival the very influential IRA newspaper 'The United Irishman' , which had a print run , at the time , in the region of 70,000 copies each month . The first edition of 'The Voice Of The North' newspaper appeared on October 12 , 1969 ; Seamus Brady (FF) was its main supervisor and set out to equate the demand for Civil Rights in the North of Ireland with Fianna Fail . In the third edition , on October 26 , 1969 , 'The Voice Of The North' carried a two-page spread titled - ' De Valera on the North' , which was a reprint of a 1939 speech in the (FS) Senate by Dev . Later editions during 1970 advertised meetings organised by Provisional Sinn Fein and the Provisional IRA .
The 'United Irishman' newspaper hit back : their November 1969 issue carried an exclusive on the Fianna Fail attempted takeover of the Northern Civil Rights Association . It was clear the orders had come down from the IRA Army Council not to mention the takeover attempts of the IRA itself with the difficult situation prevailing . The 'United Irishman' , November 1969 issue , published at the end of October 1969 , stated - " It is hard to believe that Mr. Jack Lynch is unaware of this cynical double-dealing by his Ministers . These Fianna Fail politicians are doing their best to disrupt Civil Rights and anti-Unionist forces which have been politically embarrassing to them . "
When Seamus Brady (FF) was asked for a comment he described it as a pack of lies.......
(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 .
A Fianna spokesperson stated - " Young people , mostly in their teens , have always been found in the ranks of Na Fianna : who were prepared to endure death , torture , intimidation , victimisation and harassment . Their courage and daring , their discipline and determination are an inspiration to their older comrades in Sinn Fein , the IRA and Cumann na mBan .
Today , the Fianna is growing and new sluaite (units) are being set up practically every week . Increasingly it is taking a more publicly prominent role in the Republican Movement and addressing itself more and more to the day-to-day problems facing Irish youth . The Fianna is forging a future for itself , worthy of its past . "
[END of ' NA FIANNA EIREANN .......' .]
(Tomorrow - 'ELECTION INTERVENTIONS' ; 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 .
Dessie O'Hare next visited the house (where John O'Grady was being held) on Saturday , October 31 , 1987 - but never went near the prisoner . In the intervening days O'Grady had been allowed to have a bath and a change of clothes . The other gang members did'nt bother him either . Fergal Toal came into the alcove on one occasion and John O'Grady examined the graze on his head , which he diagnosed as being not serious . He cut away the hair around the spot the bullet had grazed , and told Toal to bathe it in lukewarm , salted water and then apply Sudocreme . Compared to what had gone before , O'Grady's days at Carnlough Road were idyllically spent and incident free . It was to be the calm before the storm ...
13. THE NOTE UNDER THE STATUE .
From the alcove under the stairs where John O'Grady was there may well have seemed to be a lull in activity ; but away from Carnlough Road there were a number of significant developments . Since the kidnap there had been several articles in the newspapers speculating on Dr. Austin Darragh's wealth - one of the articles valued his assets at £27 million - Dessie O'Hare had upped his ransom to £1.5 million . A week earlier he had dictated a note to John O'Grady demanding ransom which named the Fairways Hotel in Dundalk as a liaison point , but had never followed through on this plan .
On Thursday October 29 , 1987 , Dessie O'Hare decided it was time to collect . He rang solicitor Hilary Prentice of Matheson Ormsby and Prentice , whose name had been given to him by John O'Grady as one of the people who could act as a go-between . O'Hare told the solicitor that his name was John Mohen : he established his bona fides from the information supplied to him by John O'Grady , by giving Hilary Prentice details of work carried out on her teeth by O'Grady . O'Hare told her that she was to contact the wife of ear , nose and throat specialist Dr. Walter Doyle who was known to John O'Grady as 'Auntie Bettie' .
Prentice was to tell 'Auntie Bettie' to go to Limerick Cathedral ; there , underneath a statue of Our Lady , beside the thirteenth 'Station of the Cross' , there was a note with instructions . O'Hare warned of the consequences if Dr. Darragh contacted the gardai .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
By the middle of October 1969 it was clear that the (FS) government's sub-committee on the North was in full swing and that nobody would be allowed stand in the way of Fianna Fail ; they had commenced their takeover of the Citizens Defence Committee and the 'Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association' - but greater inroads would have to be made on the IRA front .
Fianna Fail began to publish a weekly paper to rival the very influential IRA newspaper 'The United Irishman' , which had a print run , at the time , in the region of 70,000 copies each month . The first edition of 'The Voice Of The North' newspaper appeared on October 12 , 1969 ; Seamus Brady (FF) was its main supervisor and set out to equate the demand for Civil Rights in the North of Ireland with Fianna Fail . In the third edition , on October 26 , 1969 , 'The Voice Of The North' carried a two-page spread titled - ' De Valera on the North' , which was a reprint of a 1939 speech in the (FS) Senate by Dev . Later editions during 1970 advertised meetings organised by Provisional Sinn Fein and the Provisional IRA .
The 'United Irishman' newspaper hit back : their November 1969 issue carried an exclusive on the Fianna Fail attempted takeover of the Northern Civil Rights Association . It was clear the orders had come down from the IRA Army Council not to mention the takeover attempts of the IRA itself with the difficult situation prevailing . The 'United Irishman' , November 1969 issue , published at the end of October 1969 , stated - " It is hard to believe that Mr. Jack Lynch is unaware of this cynical double-dealing by his Ministers . These Fianna Fail politicians are doing their best to disrupt Civil Rights and anti-Unionist forces which have been politically embarrassing to them . "
When Seamus Brady (FF) was asked for a comment he described it as a pack of lies.......
(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 .
A Fianna spokesperson stated - " Young people , mostly in their teens , have always been found in the ranks of Na Fianna : who were prepared to endure death , torture , intimidation , victimisation and harassment . Their courage and daring , their discipline and determination are an inspiration to their older comrades in Sinn Fein , the IRA and Cumann na mBan .
Today , the Fianna is growing and new sluaite (units) are being set up practically every week . Increasingly it is taking a more publicly prominent role in the Republican Movement and addressing itself more and more to the day-to-day problems facing Irish youth . The Fianna is forging a future for itself , worthy of its past . "
[END of ' NA FIANNA EIREANN .......' .]
(Tomorrow - 'ELECTION INTERVENTIONS' ; 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 .
Dessie O'Hare next visited the house (where John O'Grady was being held) on Saturday , October 31 , 1987 - but never went near the prisoner . In the intervening days O'Grady had been allowed to have a bath and a change of clothes . The other gang members did'nt bother him either . Fergal Toal came into the alcove on one occasion and John O'Grady examined the graze on his head , which he diagnosed as being not serious . He cut away the hair around the spot the bullet had grazed , and told Toal to bathe it in lukewarm , salted water and then apply Sudocreme . Compared to what had gone before , O'Grady's days at Carnlough Road were idyllically spent and incident free . It was to be the calm before the storm ...
13. THE NOTE UNDER THE STATUE .
From the alcove under the stairs where John O'Grady was there may well have seemed to be a lull in activity ; but away from Carnlough Road there were a number of significant developments . Since the kidnap there had been several articles in the newspapers speculating on Dr. Austin Darragh's wealth - one of the articles valued his assets at £27 million - Dessie O'Hare had upped his ransom to £1.5 million . A week earlier he had dictated a note to John O'Grady demanding ransom which named the Fairways Hotel in Dundalk as a liaison point , but had never followed through on this plan .
On Thursday October 29 , 1987 , Dessie O'Hare decided it was time to collect . He rang solicitor Hilary Prentice of Matheson Ormsby and Prentice , whose name had been given to him by John O'Grady as one of the people who could act as a go-between . O'Hare told the solicitor that his name was John Mohen : he established his bona fides from the information supplied to him by John O'Grady , by giving Hilary Prentice details of work carried out on her teeth by O'Grady . O'Hare told her that she was to contact the wife of ear , nose and throat specialist Dr. Walter Doyle who was known to John O'Grady as 'Auntie Bettie' .
Prentice was to tell 'Auntie Bettie' to go to Limerick Cathedral ; there , underneath a statue of Our Lady , beside the thirteenth 'Station of the Cross' , there was a note with instructions . O'Hare warned of the consequences if Dr. Darragh contacted the gardai .......
(MORE LATER).
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
On the evening of September 22 , 1969 , the 'dissident' IRA members marched into a Staff meeting of the Belfast IRA Command which was being held in Cyprus Street in the Lower Falls - they were armed and informed all present that they were taking over .
In the interests of unity and in the face of possible pogroms , the Officer Commanding of the Belfast IRA agreed to have talks with the 'dissidents' : an agreement was made which brought representatives of the 'dissidents' onto the Belfast Command Staff , a temporary shelving of the IRA's socialist policies , a break with GHQ in Dublin , and abstention from the coming General Army Convention due for December 1969 . That special convention would decide on Sinn Fein's attitude towards parliamentary participation and the development of a National Liberation Front in Ireland which might unite left wing forces . The examples of Vietnam was popular worldwide in left wing circles .
Meanwhile the Fianna Fail strategists realised that influence over the IRA would not be enough - they must have control of Citizens Defence Committees which had sprung up - otherwise 'the tail would still be wagging the (southern) dog' . A meeting initiated by Fianna Fail's operators was held in Lurgan , County Armagh , on Saturday September 27, 1969 , of Central Defence Commitees and a 'Provisional Central Committee' was established . That meeting was held in opposition to a similar gathering called by the IRA for the Oriel Hotel , Monaghan . At the Lurgan meeting , organised by the Fianna Fail government , was Ruairi O Bradaigh who in fact had been an active member of the IRA Army Council for many years .
At this time Republican Ireland was being visited by personalities out of the Celtic Twilight : they were the Belfast 'dissidents' , including Maire Drumm , Jimmy Steele and others , who travelled the 32 Counties 'stirring the pot' , openly campaigning against the existing leadership and making contacts all over the country . They were helped in their travels by Seamus Brady , a Fianna Fail man .......
(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 .
A Fianna spokesperson stated - " Young people in the South suffer a wide range of problems - youth unemployment is twice the national average , working-class youth are effectively denied the right to a third level education through the miserable grants scheme operating there . Apprentices and young workers , especially girls , are discriminated against in pay . There's the whole question of illegitimacy , the age of criminal responsibility , the care of young offenders , the provision of adequate sports and recreational facilities . These are just a few of the problems facing young people in the South - problems which Na Fianna Eireann as a youth organisation is vitally concerned about .
We believe that such a bad situation is made worse by the absence of any effective and comprehensive policy document on youth by the twenty-six county government . This clearly shows the lack of commitment on the part of the establishment parties in the South to solving the real issues facing young people today . The twenty-six county government lacks both the vision to see the measures that would be needed to solve these problems , and the will to put these measures into practice .
Na Fianna Eireann , the Irish Republican youth movement , was founded seventy-two years ago and , in that time , in a history that few youth organisations can parallel , it has served the Republican Movement and the cause of Irish freedom well ....... "
(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 .
12. THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM .
That morning , Tuesday October 27 , 1987 , John O'Grady got a decent breakfast - hamburger , bacon , sausage , double egg and a pint jug of tea . After that he was moved downstairs and put in an alcove under the stairs in the living room . He was told that once inside he could remove his blacked-out glasses - his handcuffs had already been removed . There was a mattress on the floor , a light bulb hanging from a waterpipe and a radio . The electricity supply was controlled from the livingroom outside . The alcove was big enough to sit in comfortably but not large enough to stand in .
He was given a selection of Wilbur Smith novels , a book on Liam Mellowes , the writings of Bobby Sands and a book by Nora Connolly O'Brien on the development of Ireland since 1916 ; he was told to study them carefully as he would be asked questions later .
The newspapers were full of accounts of the shooting incident in Midleton , Cork : it was the first time he knew that he had been in Midleton though from listening to the radio , which had a lot of Cork-based ads , he had suspected that Dessie O'Hare's shots at supposed British soldiers was an attempt to disorientate him . There was criticism in the newspapers over the garda handling of the operation at Midleton ; public disquiet over the way the kidnap was being handled was growing . There was some consolation for the gardai , however - because there had been no contact with the O'Grady family many gardai feared that John O'Grady was dead . Secondly , the gang had left plenty of fingerprints behind in the container : the gardai were now able to harden up their suspicions and positively identify the remaining gang members .
Dessie O'Hare turned up at Carnlough Road the night after the shoot-out , Tuesday October 27 , 1987 ; the gang bought beer and celebrated . In the alcove under the stairs John O'Grady could here O'Hare and the others talking about the escape in excited tones . O'Hare was accompanied by a woman - he never came near O'Grady that night .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
On the evening of September 22 , 1969 , the 'dissident' IRA members marched into a Staff meeting of the Belfast IRA Command which was being held in Cyprus Street in the Lower Falls - they were armed and informed all present that they were taking over .
In the interests of unity and in the face of possible pogroms , the Officer Commanding of the Belfast IRA agreed to have talks with the 'dissidents' : an agreement was made which brought representatives of the 'dissidents' onto the Belfast Command Staff , a temporary shelving of the IRA's socialist policies , a break with GHQ in Dublin , and abstention from the coming General Army Convention due for December 1969 . That special convention would decide on Sinn Fein's attitude towards parliamentary participation and the development of a National Liberation Front in Ireland which might unite left wing forces . The examples of Vietnam was popular worldwide in left wing circles .
Meanwhile the Fianna Fail strategists realised that influence over the IRA would not be enough - they must have control of Citizens Defence Committees which had sprung up - otherwise 'the tail would still be wagging the (southern) dog' . A meeting initiated by Fianna Fail's operators was held in Lurgan , County Armagh , on Saturday September 27, 1969 , of Central Defence Commitees and a 'Provisional Central Committee' was established . That meeting was held in opposition to a similar gathering called by the IRA for the Oriel Hotel , Monaghan . At the Lurgan meeting , organised by the Fianna Fail government , was Ruairi O Bradaigh who in fact had been an active member of the IRA Army Council for many years .
At this time Republican Ireland was being visited by personalities out of the Celtic Twilight : they were the Belfast 'dissidents' , including Maire Drumm , Jimmy Steele and others , who travelled the 32 Counties 'stirring the pot' , openly campaigning against the existing leadership and making contacts all over the country . They were helped in their travels by Seamus Brady , a Fianna Fail man .......
(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 .
A Fianna spokesperson stated - " Young people in the South suffer a wide range of problems - youth unemployment is twice the national average , working-class youth are effectively denied the right to a third level education through the miserable grants scheme operating there . Apprentices and young workers , especially girls , are discriminated against in pay . There's the whole question of illegitimacy , the age of criminal responsibility , the care of young offenders , the provision of adequate sports and recreational facilities . These are just a few of the problems facing young people in the South - problems which Na Fianna Eireann as a youth organisation is vitally concerned about .
We believe that such a bad situation is made worse by the absence of any effective and comprehensive policy document on youth by the twenty-six county government . This clearly shows the lack of commitment on the part of the establishment parties in the South to solving the real issues facing young people today . The twenty-six county government lacks both the vision to see the measures that would be needed to solve these problems , and the will to put these measures into practice .
Na Fianna Eireann , the Irish Republican youth movement , was founded seventy-two years ago and , in that time , in a history that few youth organisations can parallel , it has served the Republican Movement and the cause of Irish freedom well ....... "
(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 .
12. THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM .
That morning , Tuesday October 27 , 1987 , John O'Grady got a decent breakfast - hamburger , bacon , sausage , double egg and a pint jug of tea . After that he was moved downstairs and put in an alcove under the stairs in the living room . He was told that once inside he could remove his blacked-out glasses - his handcuffs had already been removed . There was a mattress on the floor , a light bulb hanging from a waterpipe and a radio . The electricity supply was controlled from the livingroom outside . The alcove was big enough to sit in comfortably but not large enough to stand in .
He was given a selection of Wilbur Smith novels , a book on Liam Mellowes , the writings of Bobby Sands and a book by Nora Connolly O'Brien on the development of Ireland since 1916 ; he was told to study them carefully as he would be asked questions later .
The newspapers were full of accounts of the shooting incident in Midleton , Cork : it was the first time he knew that he had been in Midleton though from listening to the radio , which had a lot of Cork-based ads , he had suspected that Dessie O'Hare's shots at supposed British soldiers was an attempt to disorientate him . There was criticism in the newspapers over the garda handling of the operation at Midleton ; public disquiet over the way the kidnap was being handled was growing . There was some consolation for the gardai , however - because there had been no contact with the O'Grady family many gardai feared that John O'Grady was dead . Secondly , the gang had left plenty of fingerprints behind in the container : the gardai were now able to harden up their suspicions and positively identify the remaining gang members .
Dessie O'Hare turned up at Carnlough Road the night after the shoot-out , Tuesday October 27 , 1987 ; the gang bought beer and celebrated . In the alcove under the stairs John O'Grady could here O'Hare and the others talking about the escape in excited tones . O'Hare was accompanied by a woman - he never came near O'Grady that night .......
(MORE LATER).
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
On September 18 , 1969 , the same people - except Neil Blaney - met the then (FS) Minister for Finance , Chares J. Haughey , at his home . The same matters were again discussed and arrangements made for the establishment of a bank account through which (FS) government aid could be channelled directly to Belfast . The following morning , September 19th , the account was opened with a £5 deposit in Dundalk - but no money ever came .
On September 22 , 1969 , Captain James Kelly and Seamus Brady gave an indication of their Government's strategy regarding the IRA when they called to the home of the South Derry IRA Officer Commanding - this was the man who received the first contact from Fianna Fail earlier in the year ; they were accompanied by two others , one of whom was the businessman who made the initial contact earlier in the year . Seamus Brady put forward the idea of an independent Northern Command for the IRA - this would mean breaking with the Dublin/Goulding leadership .
Such an 'independent' Northern Command of the IRA would lead to more money and more arms - Seamus Brady explained that the IRA's socialist policies were unacceptable to the Dublin Government and he also suggested that if the top people in the IRA were removed they could more easily supply arms . When the IRA Officer Commanding asked who these 'top people' were , he was told , among others , Cathal Goulding , Seamus Costello and Mick Ryan : the top 3 in the IRA at that time . The idea was that the IRA should be used now that Fianna Fail had no support organisation since the demise of the Nationalist Party . ( '1169...' Comment - Fianna Fail now have a 'support organisation' in the North - it is called the Provisional movement !)
The new Fianna Fail message reached the 'dissident' group in Belfast ; with the prospects of massive amounts of cash and guns it was easy to go along with the separate Northern Command concept . The 'dissident group' was made up of people who were too old to adopt socialist policies and/or too young to bother too much . They decided to take over the Belfast IRA with a coup d'etat.......
(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 .
A Fianna spokesperson stated - " We believe there is a great need for such a political youth organisation to combat British imperialism and its effects in both parts of Ireland ; and let's not forget that British imperialism has resulted in the deaths of several children since May of this year in the North - murdered by plastic bullets . It has been responsible for the deaths of eighteen of our members since 1969 and hundreds of other young people , children and teenagers .
British imperialism means the armed and aggressive occupation of Ireland . It means baton-charges , snatch-squads , bullying and torture . It means the bolstering up of a sectarian statelet in which a third of the population have no rights , and play no part . It means that a nationalist school-leaver in the North is twice as likely to be unemployed as his unionist counterpart . Believe you me , the youth of this country are getting a rough lesson in what 'imperialism' is all about . "
To the charge that all this means little to the young people in the South who do not experience sectarian discrimination and who have probably only ever seen British troops on the television , the Fianna spokesperson said - " I think the recent elections in the South where two prisoners were elected , and where all the prisoner candidates did very well , has put paid to the idea that Southern people don't care about the North . Most commentators have accepted that the prisoners won a large section of the young vote , and H-Block/Armagh demonstrations , North and South , have been notable by the large youth presence in them . So H-Block repression , the whole Northern question , is felt to be important and relevant to young people in the South ....... "
(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 .
11. "NOTHING PERSONAL" .
As it happened , the kidnap gang did meet a (FS) soldier that afternoon - Private Mark Nugent had travelled by car to Cork with three friends to see Cork City play Waterford in a League of Ireland football match ; the four had stopped at Cobh Cross to go to the toilet , and were spotted by O'Hare's Unit who decided it was time to change cars . They took the car at gunpoint ; Eddie Hogan told Private Mark Nugent that if he had any objection he would "...blow his fucking brains out .. "
As the gang approached Mallow , County Cork , it was decided to change cars again . They called to the house of John Hannon - when he opened the door , Eddie Hogan pushed a gun to his face and pushed him into the living room onto his couch . Hannon though it was a joke and went to pull the balaclava off Hogan's head - Hogan told him it was nothing personal but they needed his car . Fergal Toal , who had been grazed by a bullet at Midleton , cleaned his wound . John Hannon , his wife Nuala and their seven-year-old child , Colin , were tied up . A seven-month-old baby , John , was left in his pram beside his parents .
Tony McNeill questioned the wisdom of tying up the mother who would then not be able to give the baby attention , but Eddie Hogan told him - " Tie her up . That's an order . " As an afterthought Hogan made up a fresh bottle for the baby before leaving . John O'Grady remained outside in the car : for the first time in twelve days he was left unattended . The gang returned after a few minutes and took off . A few miles up the road they needed petrol , so O'Grady was shoved into a ditch under guard ; the car returned in a few minutes with a full tank , and they drove on to Dublin , staying clear of main roads to avoid roadblocks . They arrived at 260 Carnlough Road , the house of barber Gerry Wright , shorty before midnight . John O'Grady slept in an ordinary bed for the first time in almost two weeks .
It had been a trying day , with almost nothing to eat . All he got before going to sleep was a glass of water , but he slept soundly . When he awoke the following morning it was already bright .......
(MORE LATER).
(To the person who wrote in re the 'unsanctioned UVF killing' - thank you for contacting us . You can leave more information , in the same way , if you want . Sharon.).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
On September 18 , 1969 , the same people - except Neil Blaney - met the then (FS) Minister for Finance , Chares J. Haughey , at his home . The same matters were again discussed and arrangements made for the establishment of a bank account through which (FS) government aid could be channelled directly to Belfast . The following morning , September 19th , the account was opened with a £5 deposit in Dundalk - but no money ever came .
On September 22 , 1969 , Captain James Kelly and Seamus Brady gave an indication of their Government's strategy regarding the IRA when they called to the home of the South Derry IRA Officer Commanding - this was the man who received the first contact from Fianna Fail earlier in the year ; they were accompanied by two others , one of whom was the businessman who made the initial contact earlier in the year . Seamus Brady put forward the idea of an independent Northern Command for the IRA - this would mean breaking with the Dublin/Goulding leadership .
Such an 'independent' Northern Command of the IRA would lead to more money and more arms - Seamus Brady explained that the IRA's socialist policies were unacceptable to the Dublin Government and he also suggested that if the top people in the IRA were removed they could more easily supply arms . When the IRA Officer Commanding asked who these 'top people' were , he was told , among others , Cathal Goulding , Seamus Costello and Mick Ryan : the top 3 in the IRA at that time . The idea was that the IRA should be used now that Fianna Fail had no support organisation since the demise of the Nationalist Party . ( '1169...' Comment - Fianna Fail now have a 'support organisation' in the North - it is called the Provisional movement !)
The new Fianna Fail message reached the 'dissident' group in Belfast ; with the prospects of massive amounts of cash and guns it was easy to go along with the separate Northern Command concept . The 'dissident group' was made up of people who were too old to adopt socialist policies and/or too young to bother too much . They decided to take over the Belfast IRA with a coup d'etat.......
(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 .
A Fianna spokesperson stated - " We believe there is a great need for such a political youth organisation to combat British imperialism and its effects in both parts of Ireland ; and let's not forget that British imperialism has resulted in the deaths of several children since May of this year in the North - murdered by plastic bullets . It has been responsible for the deaths of eighteen of our members since 1969 and hundreds of other young people , children and teenagers .
British imperialism means the armed and aggressive occupation of Ireland . It means baton-charges , snatch-squads , bullying and torture . It means the bolstering up of a sectarian statelet in which a third of the population have no rights , and play no part . It means that a nationalist school-leaver in the North is twice as likely to be unemployed as his unionist counterpart . Believe you me , the youth of this country are getting a rough lesson in what 'imperialism' is all about . "
To the charge that all this means little to the young people in the South who do not experience sectarian discrimination and who have probably only ever seen British troops on the television , the Fianna spokesperson said - " I think the recent elections in the South where two prisoners were elected , and where all the prisoner candidates did very well , has put paid to the idea that Southern people don't care about the North . Most commentators have accepted that the prisoners won a large section of the young vote , and H-Block/Armagh demonstrations , North and South , have been notable by the large youth presence in them . So H-Block repression , the whole Northern question , is felt to be important and relevant to young people in the South ....... "
(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 .
11. "NOTHING PERSONAL" .
As it happened , the kidnap gang did meet a (FS) soldier that afternoon - Private Mark Nugent had travelled by car to Cork with three friends to see Cork City play Waterford in a League of Ireland football match ; the four had stopped at Cobh Cross to go to the toilet , and were spotted by O'Hare's Unit who decided it was time to change cars . They took the car at gunpoint ; Eddie Hogan told Private Mark Nugent that if he had any objection he would "...blow his fucking brains out .. "
As the gang approached Mallow , County Cork , it was decided to change cars again . They called to the house of John Hannon - when he opened the door , Eddie Hogan pushed a gun to his face and pushed him into the living room onto his couch . Hannon though it was a joke and went to pull the balaclava off Hogan's head - Hogan told him it was nothing personal but they needed his car . Fergal Toal , who had been grazed by a bullet at Midleton , cleaned his wound . John Hannon , his wife Nuala and their seven-year-old child , Colin , were tied up . A seven-month-old baby , John , was left in his pram beside his parents .
Tony McNeill questioned the wisdom of tying up the mother who would then not be able to give the baby attention , but Eddie Hogan told him - " Tie her up . That's an order . " As an afterthought Hogan made up a fresh bottle for the baby before leaving . John O'Grady remained outside in the car : for the first time in twelve days he was left unattended . The gang returned after a few minutes and took off . A few miles up the road they needed petrol , so O'Grady was shoved into a ditch under guard ; the car returned in a few minutes with a full tank , and they drove on to Dublin , staying clear of main roads to avoid roadblocks . They arrived at 260 Carnlough Road , the house of barber Gerry Wright , shorty before midnight . John O'Grady slept in an ordinary bed for the first time in almost two weeks .
It had been a trying day , with almost nothing to eat . All he got before going to sleep was a glass of water , but he slept soundly . When he awoke the following morning it was already bright .......
(MORE LATER).
(To the person who wrote in re the 'unsanctioned UVF killing' - thank you for contacting us . You can leave more information , in the same way , if you want . Sharon.).
Monday, October 03, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
Trouble within the IRA was developing (over the £100,000 Free State 'relief' money ) and both sides (ie the IRA and the 'Northern Defence Committee') were falling over each other in grabbing the money from the Dublin Government ; the internal IRA row flared over the lack of guns in the organisation in mid-August 1969 - the 'old brigade' , who had now become active again , were bitterest in their attacks .
The left wing move of Cathal Goulding and company was the root cause of the shortage of weapons , the 'old brigade' claimed ; by now all heads were turned northwards and the social agitations in the South , and indeed the housing and other agitations in the North , were virtually forgotten about . On August 24th , 1969 , some members of the 'old brigade' aong with some activists discontent with the shortage of guns came together in Casement Park at Andersonstown , Belfast ; the meeting decided to oust the Belfast IRA leadership which was close to the Goulding leadership in Dublin . They also agreed that the Fianna Fail Government's generous offer of guns and money and the conditions of non-action South of the border should be immediately accepted .
While the row was developing , money from the Dublin Government continued to arrive in Belfast and was grabbed by the city's IRA leadership ; on September 14th , 1969 , the 'dissidents' met again in Belfast and were addressed by an un-named person who was described to them as a 'political commentator from Dublin ' - in fact he was a well-known journalist attached to one of the Dublin newspapers . Later in the evening the same journalist met a Staff member of the Belfast IRA in the Wellington Park Hotel on the Malone Road in Belfast ; the journalist explained that money and other assistance would be coming from the South and arrangements were made for a meeting between the IRA Staff Officer and the people in the 26 Counties . The meeting took place a few days later in Dublin - in Government Buildings ; it was hed in the Office of the (FS) Minister for Agriculture , Neil Blaney . Seamus Brady , Fianna Fail activist and the man who was in charge of the 'Voice Of The North' newspaper , was present .
Also there were prominent representatives of the minority community in the North of Ireland -they discussed personalities in the North and problems facing that community and how security for their safety could be improved .......
(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 .
From the 1940's when Na Fianna Eireann defied the ban on the main Republican Commemoration at Bodenstown by hiking the 23 miles there and laying a wreath on Wolfe Tone's grave , under the guns of Free State soldiers , to the 1960's when Na Fianna sold the banned Easter Lily publicly and like many other Republicans were prosecuted for doing so , the organisation has refused to be bullied or brow-beaten . They proudly refuse today , too , and continue the glorious heritage of militant resistance bequeathed them by Countess Markievicz , Con Colbert , Sean Heuston , Liam Mellowes and Frank Ryan .
Na Fianna Eireann is the youth organisation of the Republican Movement ; it is a national youth movement organised throughout Ireland (and in the USA) , involved in a broad range of activities , scouting , political and cultural , and deeply committed to the freedom of Ireland and the Irish people . A spokesperson for the Fianna stated - " We are playing an important part in mobilising young people behind the demands of the prisoners . Our last 'Youth Against H-Block/Armagh' march was the largest youth march ever seen in Dublin . We were very pleased with that . It shows that young people do care . They link the oppression the prisoners are suffering under with the oppression they see around them every day - in employment , education , housing , in every aspect of life . "
Asked if Fianna are going totally political , he replied - " Na Fianna Eireann was never non-political . We are a Republican youth organisation , and in that sense we were always political . The Fianna is involved in a whole range of activities - we have Irish classes , we go on hikes and camps , we put up posters and give out leaflets . We are , if you like , at the service of the Republican Movement . Wherever the pressure is greatest , the Fianna will be there . At the moment the pressure is coming from the prisons and naturally we are straining at the leash to do everything we can to support the prisoners . Especially since many of them are our prisoners - members , or former members , of our organisation . Probably most of them are former members . Raymond McCreesh was a member of Na Fianna , Kieran Doherty TD , and Jackie McMullan were also former members .
So Na Fianna Eireann is a political youth organisation as well as being a scouting and cultural one....... "
(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 .
State Detective Sergeant Michael Scanlon quickly radioed Detective Inspector Carey to tell him that the kidnappers and hostage had escaped and were headed in their direction . In the confusion he told them they were travelling in a Hi-Ace van ; the kidnappers , driving the Renault 9 , were on top of Detective Carey and his men before they knew it . Carey recognised Eddie Hogan in the Renault and shouted to his men . Garda Gerard O'Donoghue was in a crouched position on the grass verge beside the road with an Uzi machine gun ; there was a gunman pointing a gun out the back window of the car , which he had broken with the butt of his rifle . Garda John Gleeson was beside Garda O'Donoghue with a Smith and Wesson - there was an exchange of shots .
One of the bullets struck the boot of the car , another grazed the neck of Fergal Toal , the driver : the Renault swerved and went around the corner . The Gardai , with the exception of Garda Gerard O'Donoghue - whose lead had pinpointed the kidnappers - proceeded to run on foot to their cars which were parked a quarter of a mile away . Garda O'Donoghue flagged down a civilian car and gave chase . But the kidnappers were already gone .
The developments were radioed back to Superintendent Murray in Midleton Garda Station , who had already detailed eight uniformed gardai to set up roadblocks , but none were yet in position . Meanwhile , (FS) Army support had just arrived . The kidnappers were already miles away ........
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
Trouble within the IRA was developing (over the £100,000 Free State 'relief' money ) and both sides (ie the IRA and the 'Northern Defence Committee') were falling over each other in grabbing the money from the Dublin Government ; the internal IRA row flared over the lack of guns in the organisation in mid-August 1969 - the 'old brigade' , who had now become active again , were bitterest in their attacks .
The left wing move of Cathal Goulding and company was the root cause of the shortage of weapons , the 'old brigade' claimed ; by now all heads were turned northwards and the social agitations in the South , and indeed the housing and other agitations in the North , were virtually forgotten about . On August 24th , 1969 , some members of the 'old brigade' aong with some activists discontent with the shortage of guns came together in Casement Park at Andersonstown , Belfast ; the meeting decided to oust the Belfast IRA leadership which was close to the Goulding leadership in Dublin . They also agreed that the Fianna Fail Government's generous offer of guns and money and the conditions of non-action South of the border should be immediately accepted .
While the row was developing , money from the Dublin Government continued to arrive in Belfast and was grabbed by the city's IRA leadership ; on September 14th , 1969 , the 'dissidents' met again in Belfast and were addressed by an un-named person who was described to them as a 'political commentator from Dublin ' - in fact he was a well-known journalist attached to one of the Dublin newspapers . Later in the evening the same journalist met a Staff member of the Belfast IRA in the Wellington Park Hotel on the Malone Road in Belfast ; the journalist explained that money and other assistance would be coming from the South and arrangements were made for a meeting between the IRA Staff Officer and the people in the 26 Counties . The meeting took place a few days later in Dublin - in Government Buildings ; it was hed in the Office of the (FS) Minister for Agriculture , Neil Blaney . Seamus Brady , Fianna Fail activist and the man who was in charge of the 'Voice Of The North' newspaper , was present .
Also there were prominent representatives of the minority community in the North of Ireland -they discussed personalities in the North and problems facing that community and how security for their safety could be improved .......
(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 .
From the 1940's when Na Fianna Eireann defied the ban on the main Republican Commemoration at Bodenstown by hiking the 23 miles there and laying a wreath on Wolfe Tone's grave , under the guns of Free State soldiers , to the 1960's when Na Fianna sold the banned Easter Lily publicly and like many other Republicans were prosecuted for doing so , the organisation has refused to be bullied or brow-beaten . They proudly refuse today , too , and continue the glorious heritage of militant resistance bequeathed them by Countess Markievicz , Con Colbert , Sean Heuston , Liam Mellowes and Frank Ryan .
Na Fianna Eireann is the youth organisation of the Republican Movement ; it is a national youth movement organised throughout Ireland (and in the USA) , involved in a broad range of activities , scouting , political and cultural , and deeply committed to the freedom of Ireland and the Irish people . A spokesperson for the Fianna stated - " We are playing an important part in mobilising young people behind the demands of the prisoners . Our last 'Youth Against H-Block/Armagh' march was the largest youth march ever seen in Dublin . We were very pleased with that . It shows that young people do care . They link the oppression the prisoners are suffering under with the oppression they see around them every day - in employment , education , housing , in every aspect of life . "
Asked if Fianna are going totally political , he replied - " Na Fianna Eireann was never non-political . We are a Republican youth organisation , and in that sense we were always political . The Fianna is involved in a whole range of activities - we have Irish classes , we go on hikes and camps , we put up posters and give out leaflets . We are , if you like , at the service of the Republican Movement . Wherever the pressure is greatest , the Fianna will be there . At the moment the pressure is coming from the prisons and naturally we are straining at the leash to do everything we can to support the prisoners . Especially since many of them are our prisoners - members , or former members , of our organisation . Probably most of them are former members . Raymond McCreesh was a member of Na Fianna , Kieran Doherty TD , and Jackie McMullan were also former members .
So Na Fianna Eireann is a political youth organisation as well as being a scouting and cultural one....... "
(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 .
State Detective Sergeant Michael Scanlon quickly radioed Detective Inspector Carey to tell him that the kidnappers and hostage had escaped and were headed in their direction . In the confusion he told them they were travelling in a Hi-Ace van ; the kidnappers , driving the Renault 9 , were on top of Detective Carey and his men before they knew it . Carey recognised Eddie Hogan in the Renault and shouted to his men . Garda Gerard O'Donoghue was in a crouched position on the grass verge beside the road with an Uzi machine gun ; there was a gunman pointing a gun out the back window of the car , which he had broken with the butt of his rifle . Garda John Gleeson was beside Garda O'Donoghue with a Smith and Wesson - there was an exchange of shots .
One of the bullets struck the boot of the car , another grazed the neck of Fergal Toal , the driver : the Renault swerved and went around the corner . The Gardai , with the exception of Garda Gerard O'Donoghue - whose lead had pinpointed the kidnappers - proceeded to run on foot to their cars which were parked a quarter of a mile away . Garda O'Donoghue flagged down a civilian car and gave chase . But the kidnappers were already gone .
The developments were radioed back to Superintendent Murray in Midleton Garda Station , who had already detailed eight uniformed gardai to set up roadblocks , but none were yet in position . Meanwhile , (FS) Army support had just arrived . The kidnappers were already miles away ........
(MORE LATER).
Friday, September 30, 2005
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).
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).
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