The IRA launched it's ' S-Plan' in January 1939 , after years of preparation . Jim O'Donovan , an IRA Instructor and colleague of then Chief of Staff Sean Russell , drew up the ' S-Plan' , a blue-print for a bombing campaign which called for the destruction of military targets in England , such as communication centres , BBC transmitters ,aerodromes , bridges and military installations .
Preparations for the campaign were at an advanced stage when , in December 1938, the surviving faithful Deputies of the Second (All-Ireland) Dail signed over their authority to the IRA Army Council . That same December (on the 22nd) , internment without trial was introduced in the Six Counties and 34 republican operatives were arrested in British Army swoops ; however, this did not effect the ' S-Plan' campaign as IRA active service units were already in place in major English cities , with quantities of explosives, waiting for orders to commence the campaign .
A formal ultimatum from the IRA Army Council demanding "the withdrawal of all British armed forces stationed in Ireland" was delivered to the British foreign secretary , Lord Halifax , on January 12th , 1939 . Copies of the document were sent to the Stormont administration in the Six Counties as well . The IRA ultimatum was signed by Patrick Fleming , Secretary, "on behalf of the Government and Army Council of Oglaigh na hEireann" , and ended with the statement that - " The Government of the Irish Republic believe that a period of four days is sufficient notice to your government to signify its intention in the matter of the military evacuation and for the issue of your declaration of abdication in respect of our country ..... " (MORE LATER)>>

" We have reached , perhaps gone beyond, what is strictly compatible with Irish neutrality . It will only be a matter of time before some important issue will arise in some trouble spot around the world about which the majority of the members of the (European) Community will have no alternative , whatever our feelings may be or whatever our neutrality may suggest , or public opinion may favour , but to act upon the decision of the Community acting through the political co-operation machinery " .
------- Bertie Ahern re the Iraq situation or some other state politician in his/her ' read-between-the-lines' mode trying to cosy-up to the U S ?
Or Bertie trying to cosy-up to some other state politician ? (!)
No ~ Charles Haughey , ex-Fianna Fail boss and Free State Taoiseach , in 1986 . Thats what happens when your clothes are worth more than your morals ......

A branch of the Irish Volunteers was founded in Limerick in January 1914 , and John Daly was mainly responsible during the following months for the spread of the organisation throughout the county . The British administration in Dublin Castle were keeping a close eye on him , and discussed between themselves "the urgency of the arrest of a small knot of violent men , of whom the principals were Thomas j. Clarke of Dublin and John Daly of Limerick : men who were known to work in great secrecy, never appearing on public platforms or in the press, or making themselves in any way amenable to the law " ! It should be noted that John Daly was 71 years of age when the British wrote the above about him ......( Thomas J.Clarke , another Irish rebel, and John Daly became friends in Portland Prison during the 12 years that the latter was imprisoned there) .
John Daly was too ill to participate in the mobilisation of Volunteers in Limerick during Easter Week 1916 ; he lived long enough to see the Fenian faith of his youth winning general acceptance . He died in the summer of 1916 , at seventy-one years of age , 53 years of which he gave over to the cause of Irish freedom . John Daly will never be as well-known as the ' super-star statesmen' that prostitute themselves today with Ahern , Blair and Bush but , when examined , his mark on Irish history exposes the ' suits ' for the frauds they are .

A report in ' The Irish Times' on April 26th , 1990 (page 7) told of how , in September 1989 , the Free State administration rejected over eight million punts which was actually available from the EU Structural Funds , because the money would have ended up in the hands of community groups .
A spokesperson for the State Department of Finance insisted that there "simply has to be central control over the spending of money" !! For "central control" read- " If we can't dish it out to our cronies then we're not interested......" . And to think we're about to pay for a brand new jet for that crowd !
I have posted it here before , but it deserves a repeat ~
G K Chesterton , a poet and (British) Liberal MP , once wrote -
" With pomp and with ridiculous display
the politicians corpse is borne away ,
and all around him carped and slanged
I wept - I had wished to see him hanged !

.......later , while working as a hospital attendant in England , John Daly played an active part in the dynamite campaign in English cities during the early 1880's , and was arrested at Birkenhead in possession of explosives in 1884 ~ he was sentenced to life imprisonment .
While in Portland Prison he endured appalling conditions but was released after twelve years , in 1896, when a commission of enquiry investigated his allegation that he was being slowly poisoned by the prison authorities . A free man again , he immersed himself into the cause of Irish freedom - the overthrow of British rule in Ireland . After his return to Ireland , having been elected MP for Limerick while in prison, he opened a bakery in the city and was on three occasions ( 1899-1901) elected Mayor of Limerick. In 1911 , John Daly helped in establishing a slua ( group) of Na Fianna Eireann in Limerick city and , one year later, he provided the organisation in the city , which was led by Sean Heuston and Con Colbert, with a Fianna Hall , built on a plot of ground behind his home in Barrington Street . (MORE LATER)>>>

That crooked despot Saddam Hussein today raised the spectre of the Vietnamese War in a ploy to put pressure on the Bush administration to back down : it's interesting that Hussein should do so ~
It was the British , in contravention of the Yalta Agreement , who started the Vietnamese War at the end of 'World-War Two' - under Major Douglas Gracey , they released the Japanese and French Vichyite (traitor) prisoners of war from their incarceration by the forces of their late ally , Ho Chi Minh, and banded these together into an armed force to unseat the latter from power as the leader of a free nation. This campaign was then continued by the French for the re-acquisition of their former colony , but they were defeated at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu . Then the U S entered to conduct a long and protracted war against the Vietnamese but were finally beaten , but not before conducting enormous acts of carnage by laying waste the agricultural and industrial infrastructure of that nation .
It was British , French and U S imperialism which was responsible for the then turmoil in South East Asia, a lesson obviously lost on the British and the American governments .......

Born on October 18th, 1845, in Limerick , this veteran revolutionary became a living link between the Fenians and the Irish Republican Brotherhood :
John Daly joined the IRB at the age of 18 , in 1863, and he and his brother Ned led the Limerick city company of the IRB in the raid on Kilmallock RIC Barracks , during the Fenian Rising in March 1867 , in one of the few actions which took place outside Dublin . He was a prominent member of the re-organised Fenian Movement and , following the collapse of the 1867 Rising , he went to the United States where he played an active role in the IRB . During the Land War of 1879-'82 , he returned to Ireland as a member of the Supreme Council of the IRB , and took on the role as Organiser for Connacht and Ulster .
He delivered the oration at the funeral of one of the finest intellects of the Fenian Movement, Charles J. Kickham , in August 1882 , at Mullinahone , County Tipperary . Later , while working as a hospital attendant in England , he played an active part in the dynamite campaign in English cities during the early 1880's ...... (MORE LATER)>>

......over the years , Panamanians began to demand control of their native terrority , and , in 1979, U S President Jimmy Carter signed an agreement with Panamanian leader General Omar Torrijos , which meant the territory would become Panamanian on January 1st in the year 2000. under this treaty , the territory would be controlled from 1980 untill 1989 by a commission chaired by the U S . On January 1st , 1990 , the U S was to hand over control of the commission to the Panamanian Government .
Rather than let Noriega , the country's effective leader , gain control of the canal , George Bush Senior ordered an invasion !
So Bush Senior went to war over water , and now his son is preparing to go to war over oil .........
That's progress !

..... at the same time that Padraig Pearse launched the newspaper ' An Barr Buadh ' and his new political party ' Cumann na Saoirse ' , he was already the Editor of the Gaelic League's newspaper ' An Claidheamh Soluis ' and was also trying to keep his school , St. Enda's , open : Pearse received some help from Brian O'Higgins , Eamonn Ceannt , Thomas MacDonnell , Desmond Ryan , Cathal Brugha , The O'Rahilly and Peadar Kearney in keeping the newspaper published , but all involved had other commitments to the cause and , after only eleven issues, the 'paper folded . A financial crisis at St.Enda's in May 1912 almost led to the closure of the school and forced Pearse to abandon the newspaper which, in turn,when it ceased publication , led to the disbandment of Cumann na Saoirse .
However , Padraig Pearse's involvement in politics brought him to the attention of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and , within the following four years , as President of the Irish Republic , Pearse was to lead the IRB to strike a blow for freedom against the British forces of occupation . The short-lived publication ' An Barr Buadh ' had helped to set in motion an event which is still on-going to this day .......

As far as I am aware , Panama is the only state in world history which was created in order to build a canal through it !
It came into existence in 1903 after a U S-inspired coup resulted in its secession from Colombia . The U S wanted a weak , friendly regime which would allow it to build and control the canal which the famous engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps started in 1879 and abandoned ten years later . The new state then offered the U S control of the Panama Canal Zone , a belt of land right across the middle of the country which later became a massive U S military installation. Over the years , Panamanians began to demand control of their native terrority and , ........(MORE LATER)>>........

Ninty-one years ago this month , a new political weekly newspaper began publication - March 16th, 1912.

In the Spring of that year, the debate on the issue of Home Rule for Ireland was being hotly debated ; Padraig Pearse (who supported the Home Rule Bill only because he viewed it as the thin edge of the wedge regarding full Irish freedom) used the highly-charged political atmosphere to launch a newspaper entitled ' An Barr Buadh' ( ' The Trumpet of Victory ') and to launch a new political party , ' Cumann na Saoirse' (' The Society of Freedom ' ) .
Pearse had long believed in the formation of an armed force to achieve his political objective - that of complete Irish independence : at the inaugural meeting of the new party , where the proceedings were entirely in Irish , he was the principal speaker , and the keynote of his address was " that a rifle should be made as familiar to the hands of an Irishman as a hurley " . Pearse made it clear to all present that ' An Barr Buadh' would be published to support the objective of a free Ireland ~ " to advocate the political independence of Ireland " . The newspaper emphasised in editorials and articles that Home Rule was only acceptable if it was to be used as a step towards complete freedom ; if , however , even the low measure of Home Rule should be denied , Pearse made it clear that he would call for a resort to arms ........ (MORE LATER)>>

Eoin McKiernan , founder of the Irish-American Cultural Institute , once stated~ " Self-confident nations do not board up the Alamo , recycle the Constitution of Boston Harbour or tear down Paris's triumphal arch . The one quality colonists lack is self confidence. They cannot deal with the present or project a future because they will not face the past " .
The American writer , George Santayana, put it another way ~ " Those who ignore the lessons of history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of history " .
Over the weekend just gone , and again today , the Provisional Sinn Fein leadership stated that if the British Stormont administration is to ' be put back on track' then Republicans will feel "pain" because of what will have to be given in return.
We have had over 800 years of "pain" , Gerry - we don't want more . The Brits should be told to get out.
" Do not board up the Alamo ..... " .

..... the evenings in the IRA training camps were devoted to lectures and written exercises , including instruction in map reading , signalling , street fighting , ambushes and personal security . During the last three days of the camp , each Volunteer was given command of a section , which he led in simulated attacks on a fictitious enemy .
When the camp ended , the new Flying Column attempted to engage a party of the 1st Essex Regiment which regularly travelled between Dunmanway and Ballineen , about ten miles from Kilbrittain . Having waited for most of the day with no sign of the British Regiment , the column was forced to disband as the weapons were required for a camp to be held at Ballymurphy .
That night , however , the small group of Volunteers chosen to take the weapons to the HQ at Newcestown , a few miles north of Ballineen , encountered two lorries of British troops ~ the IRA team lined the side of the road and opened fire on the passing patrol , killing an officer and several soldiers . The Volunteers then escaped across local fields to safety .
It was not the last action of Tom Barry's Flying Column , which was formed from the IRA's Number 3 Cork Brigade , in October 1920 .

' The Irish Times ' newspaper , of July 23rd , 1990 , carried a report on page 4 which told how two Indian hunters in a remote jungle 150 miles north-east of the Panamanian capital , where most of the fighting in the December 1989 American invasion took place , found a ten-wheeled US Army truck , loaded with explosives , mortars , ammunication , communications equipment and a 50-calibre machine gun ! Panama City newspaper ' La Prensa ' said the truck apparently missed the invasion and claimed that the two hunters found two large parachutes hanging from trees nearby ....
The U S Southern Command , which directed the invasion that ousted General Noriega , had been told of the find by ' La Prensa ' , but had no comment to make regarding the situation .
Let's be careful out there ......

.....Tom Barry realised the need for proper training and saw the advantages of a highly-trained Flying Column to fight the British : the column was to comprise special fighters , trained in the art of ' hit and run' warfare . To this end , Barry held a series of training camps , at short intervals where , over a period, about 150 officers and men would be trained ~ it was from that group that the Flying Column would come from , while those not picked would receive more training and would be put into a reserve to replace casualties .
From early October 1920 , with strict security precautions being observed , and protected day and night by sentries , training camps were to be held at Clonbuig , near Kilbrittain and Ballymurphy , near Bandon , Schull and near Dunmanway in West Cork . All the camps were located in isolated farmhouses with outbuildings which housed the Volunteers . After one week at the camp , officers and Volunteers were expected to put their training to use by seeking an engagement with the crown forces . The first lecture at the camp , which took ten hours a day , was usually for officers only and dealt with the security of the camp itself ; on arrival , Volunteers were allocated posts which were expected to be manned within three minutes in the event of an alert at night .
The ten-hour lectures dealt with instructions in drill , gun lessons and elementary tactics . The evenings were devoted to lectures and written exercises , including instruction in map reading , signalling , street fighting , ambushes and personal security . ( MORE LATER) >>

.............the Indians met violence with violence and , by the end of the Sioux War of 1876 , the victory was with the U S Army . The completion of the railroad in 1869 ( built by the Irish and the Chinese) facilitated the arrival of settlers , and the various tribes were gradually pushed back into barren , hostile territories , while settlers arrived in their thousands across the plains , invading the Blackfoots sacred Black Hills in search of gold and building an oil field on Seminole land in Oklahoma itself . By the 1930's , the settlers had so abused and over-extended the land that it turned dry , into a dustbowl .
No need for you to go to Iraq to sort out an injustice , Mr Bush .......

.....attacks on RUC barracks continued throughout 1957 and during the early months of 1958 but , by the summer of that year, oppression on both sides of Britains border was having its effect and IRA attacks slowed down and had all but ended by the end of that year . Three years later , the campaign was officially ended with an order to all Volunteers to dump arms - eleven IRA Volunteers were killed in action during the campaign . It should be noted that no orders were issued to decommission arms or, indeed, disband the organisation ; had either order been issued , the leadership would, at the very least, have been changed .....
The IRA's Cork Number 3 Brigade , the ' Flying Column' , was formed from the Volunteers attending training camps in 1920 , when the ' Tan War ' (1919-'21) was well underway . The position of O/C of the then Cork No.3 Brigade changed hands in July 1920 , when Charley Hurley took over from Tom Hales . Tom Barry was then appointed as the Brigade's Training Officer : as a former British soldier , Barry realised the need for proper training and saw the advantages of a highly-disciplined Flying Column to fight the British ..... (MORE LATER)>>

Oklahoma , located on the southern edge of the Great Plains , was the last strong-hold of many tribes of American Indians - at the end of the American Civil War there were as many as 275,000 Indians west of the Mississippi river . During the cattle boom of the 1860's , when the big cattle trails crossed Indian lands from Texas to Missouri , Indians first collected grazing taxes from the herd drivers , but later their designated lands were simply taken over . The American Government signed and violated treaties time and time again , and then used force to try to subjugate the tribes . The Indians met violence with violence ...... (MORE LATER)>> .....

....in the Westminster election of May 1955 Sinn Fein , with an abstentionist policy , won two of the twelve seats in the Six Counties ~ Tom Mitchell and Philip Clarke, both imprisoned for the Omagh raid, were elected for Mid-Ulster and Fermanagh/South Tyrone , but were later disqualified and their seats awarded to the defeated unionist candidates ! In November 1955 , a group left the IRA and formed Saor Uladh and began attacking customs posts along the border . In January 1956 , IRA Volunteer Sean Cronin presented the leadership of the IRA with a plan codenamed ' Operation Harvest ' , with the intention of driving the British forces out of entire areas in the Six Counties and creating liberated zones .
It was originally intended that the plan would be put into effect that winter , but the action of Saor Uladh meant that ' Operation Harvest ' was to be put into gear sooner than planned .
On the night of December 11th , 1956 , one-hundred and fifty IRA Volunteers attacked targets in all Six Counties - the long-awaited border campaign had begun . The Stormont regime responded by introducing internment without trial , on December 21st. In July 1957 , following the return to power of Fianna Fail in the Free State, internment was introduced and a large number of republicans were arrested and interned in the Curragh Camp .
Attacks on RUC barracks continued ....... (MORE LATER)>>

" Even a dolt understands the principle . We need the oil . It's nice to talk about standing up for freedom but Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are not exactly democracies " ~ Then American President George Bush , as quoted in ' TIME' magazine , August 20th , 1990 .
We're all waiting , George Junior - come on , now - ' fess up .........

" You cannot stifle or suppress a people's desire for liberty " ~ Margaret Thatcher , during an interview she gave to BBC Radio Four's ' World At One ' programme , November 1989.
However , if you do "stifle or suppress a people's desire for liberty" , make sure you first label the people as ' terrorists' ......

Republican policy changed radically in the in the early 1950's - the IRA leadership issued an order prohibiting military action against the forces of the Free State ; attacks were now to be directed against the British forces of occupation in the Six Counties .
By 1952 , IRA recruitment was being carried out openly in the Free State and the organisation was being reformed in the Six Counties . In strong republican areas , training was carried out in preparation for an attack on the North . In June 1954 , in an operation to procure arms , an IRA raiding party captured Gough Barracks in Armagh and escaped with a massive haul of 250 rifles , 37 sten guns and nine Bren guns . New members flocked to the organisation as a result of the raid . An attempted repeat of the Gough raid backfired at Omagh in County Tyrone in October 1954 , and eight IRA Volunteers were caught and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment for "treason felony" . Meanwhile , Sinn Fein was gaining wide support ~ in the Westminster election of May 1955 ...... (MORE LATER)>>>>

In September 1998 , Free State President Mary McAleese was in Australia on a visit and , as part of the itinerary, called in to the Sisters of Mercy at Brisbanes Mater Hospital for a speaking engagement on the plight of the travellers in Ireland and that of the Australian aborigines . However , like all politicians, Mary went off on a verbal tangent and it's still not clear where she ended up ~ " When you start to unpack the solutions , you begin to see, while they are'nt exactly on all fours with each other , they are always the same shape and there is a core which is very transferable " . It is believed that our own Ronan Keating ripped -off and 'sang' a song about the above incident - " you say it best ......." !
In a column he wrote for the ' Ireland On Sunday' newspaper on October 4th , 1998 (page 17) , the UDA-linked Gary McMichael described the Six Counties as " my lovely , picturesque little country set on the North-East corner of the island " ....So there ya have it ~ the loyalists in the Six Counties live in a country which is itself "set" in the corner of another country ...or~something. The sooner the better you learn 'Mary-speak' , Gary ......

....on April 16th , 1940 , Tony D'Arcy , a native of Headford , County Galway , died after 52 days on hunger strike ; Jack McNeela , a native of Ballycroy, Westport, County Mayo , died three days later , after 55 days on hunger strike . The fast ended that night when the prisoners were informed that their demands had been met . The hunger strike began on February 25th , 1940 , in Mountjoy Jail , Dublin , and resulted in the deaths of two IRA Volunteers ~ their deaths were to mark the beginning of lean years for the Republican Movement : years of internment and oppression followed , which left Sinn Fein non-existent and the IRA threatened with extinction .
In 1948 , the republican leadership of Michael Traynor , Paddy MacLogan , Tony Magan and Tomas MacCurtain set about rebuilding the Movement .
Tony Magan , as Chief of Staff , reorganised the IRA while Michael Traynor was busy setting up Sinn Fein cumainn throughout the island . Republican policy in the early 1950's underwent a radical change .
(MORE LATER)>>

....and talking about Pakistan ....
One of the ' Tomahawk ' cruise missiles fired at Osima bin Laden in August 1998 missed it's target by 400 miles and landed in Pakistan , near the Baluchistan desert , where it was found by a shepherd !
The shepherd reported his find to the local authorities , who moved in to examine the guidance system on the weapon ~ they refused to allow the Americans near the crash site , and called in Pakistan former military intelligence Chief General Hamid Gul , who declared - " It has descended from the heavens and we'll use it " !
Watch yourself , Hamid ~ could get pretty scary soon in the desert ......

.....on March 1st , 1940 , Jack McNeela and Jack Plunkett , who were both arrested during the swoops which followed the raid by the IRA on the Magazine Fort in Dublin's Phoenix Park on 23rd December 1939 , were sentenced to two years and eighteen months respectively on a charge of "conspiring to usurp the function of government " by , of all things , operating a 'pirate' radio transmitter ! On March 5th , 1940 , Tony D'Arcy and Michael Traynor , both arrested during a raid on the Meath Hotel, Parnell Square , Dublin , the previous month , where an IRA meeting was being held to plan an attack in the Six Counties , were sentenced to three months imprisonment for refusing to answer questions .
After being sentenced , the four prisoners were transferred to Arbour Hill Prison , Dublin , and , on March 27th , were moved to St Brican's Military Hospital next to the prison . On April 1st , they were joined there by Tomas MacCurtain and Thomas Grogan , both of whom were still awaiting trial ~ MacCurtain was charged with shooting dead a Special Branch detective in Cork and Grogan with taking part in the Magazine Fort raid .
Fifty-two days after he began his hunger strike , that is , on April 16th , 1940 , Tony D'Arcy died ...
(MORE LATER)>>

On May 26th , 1998 , Pakistan 'flexed it's muscles' and tested its nuclear capability ; the the Prime Minister of that country , Nawaz Sharif , stated on Saturday , July 11th , 1998 , that Pakistan would have to pay a price for becoming a nuclear power and that the country's then 130 million people would have to tighten their belts and " pay some price " .
Did anyone question the morality of telling people , most of whom were already on the bread-line , that there was worse to come ?
Is it only a well-paid , professional career politician that could see nothing wrong in warning , for instance, parents , that the trouble they're having now in feeding their family and paying the bills etc is about to get worse ?
Was it being insinuated that those parents should take comfort in the knowledge that they now live in a country with nuclear capability ?
If you and yours are living hand-to-mouth , day in , day out , do you face each day in a more optimistic way because you live in a country with nuclear capability ?
I was in Dublin city centre last night and witnessed , not for the first time , a couple of homeless men trying to make a bed for themselves in the vicinity of the new Dublin ' monument' , which is a large , shiny 'needle'-type structure which cost just shy of four and a half million euros ; the two men were moved on by the Guards but were no doubt allowed sleep in the gutter up some side street .
The politicians are living beyond our means .....

Those of us that were politically active in the 1980's will always remember the hunger strike of 1981 ; in one way or another , it touched everyone on this island and , indeed, it's no exaggeration to state that it exposed the British " Irish gangsters/criminals " propaganda on a world-wide scale .
Since James Connolly , the executed 1916 leader, embarked on a hunger strike in September 1913 , a number of fasts took place in both Irish and English prisons for various demands . Towards the end of the Irish Civil War , three young Volunteers died on hunger strike ~
Andy Sullivan , from Mallow, in County Cork, died in Mountjoy Jail in Dublin on November 22nd , 1923 , and is buried in Mallow : Joseph Whitty, from William Street in Wexford , died at the Curragh Camp on August 2nd, 1923 , and is buried in Ballymore Cemetery in Killinick , County Wexford : and Denis Barry , from Blackrock , in Cork , died at Newbridge Camp , County Kildare , on November 20th , 1923 and , on November 28th his remains were reinterred and buried in St Finbarr's , in Cork , in the Republican Plot .
Mindful of the dire consequences of the act , the Volunteers in Mountjoy Jail in the spring of 1940 , who were being denied political status, embarked on a hunger strike in support of the demands to be treated as political prisoners , free association for all prisoners and to have two prisoners transferred to military custody . In late February 1940 , in an attempt to bring about a change, the six-prisoner command of 'D' wing in Mountjoy Jail ~ Jack McNeela , Tony D'Arcy , Michael Traynor , Jack Plunkett , Tomas MacCurtain and Thomas Grogan ~ embarked on a hunger strike with the understanding that they would continue to the end and then be replaced by six more Volunteers .
On March 1st, 1940 , McNeela and Plunkett , both arrested during the swoops ....(MORE LATER)>>

When the 'Stormont Treaty' (' GFA' ) was voted on here in May 1998 , one of it's main "selling-points" , according to the Establishment that were promoting it ( ie Fianna Fail , Fine Gael, Labour , Provisional Sinn Fein , the Church's , media etc) was that the British Government would legislate for the creation of a united Ireland if a majority within the Six Counties desired same ~ this was said to be a major development and , on it's own , worth voting 'YES' for :
however , that commitment from the Brits was contained in the ' Ireland Act' of 1949 , the ' Northern Ireland(sic)Act' of 1973 , and Section Five of the 'Sunningdale Agreement' and the opening section of the 1985 Hillsborough Treaty ! It was a deliberate mis-representation of the facts by the pro-treaty side , which repeatedly claimed that a peaceful end to the North-Eastern conflict depended on a majority "YES" vote in the referendum , thereby insinuating that those who voted "NO" were pro-war ...
as Liam Mellows said of the Treaty of Surrender in 1922 ~ " This is not the will of the people ; it is the fear of the people " . The conflict continued after the 1922 Treaty , and continues today ......

....by 1936 , largely due to the efforts of the I W W U , most employers had conceded a shorter working week , with the working hours being reduced from 48 to 44 hours and , by the 1940's, most workers enjoyed two weeks holidays every year . During the following decades , due in no small part to the I W W U , hours of work , pay and conditions and security of employment had vastly improved for all but the part-time women workers , who eventually won concessions as per their full-time comrades .
In 1984 , the Irish Womens Workers Union amalgamated with the Federated Workers Union of Ireland , and did so in the knowledge that it had left a proud legacy as its trademark .

On February 15th , 2001 , the U S Justice Department instructed a New York federal prosecutor to begin a criminal investigation into all of Bill Clintons 177 last-minute pardons and sentence commutations , and more that a dozen FBI agents were dispatched to interview potential witnesses !
One of those pardoned was a restaurant owner convicted of violating wildlife laws , who was pardoned by Clinton on January 20th , 2001 . Bill Clintons brother , Roger, had his previous convictions for conspiracy to distribute cocaine wiped from his record with a word from Bill in the right place...Fraudster Dorothy Rivers , tax evader Marc Rich , drug dealer Carlos Vignali , fraudster Glenn Braswell , money launderer Harvey Weinig and fraudster Melvin Reynolds ,amongst others , were all pardoned by Bill Clinton days before he was due to leave Office !
This is the man that conspired with others in America , in England and in Ireland , to put together the 1998 Stormont Treaty (' Good Friday Agreement ' ) and , with a compliant media, sold it to the public as a "solution to the Six County problem " in Ireland , which it is not ~ Britains claim of jurisdiction over our Six North-Eastern Counties remains in force . The real solution is a British withdrawal , not looked-for or discussed in the 1998 Treaty . True Irish Republicans still demand that solution - unlike Gerry Adams and his organisation , and Albert Reynolds , Bill Clinton, Bush Jnr , Bertie Ahern and the rest of the ' stay-if-you-want-just-treat-us-better-mob ' , we will not rest untill we achieve that outcome.
Even if it takes another 834 years .....

.....throughout the Black and Tan War ( 1919 - 1921 ) the I W W U played their part in the liberation struggle and were prominent in the 'White Cross' , the then Republican prisoner-dependent relief organisation(now CABHAIR) and the womens Union also campaigned on behalf of the prisoners during the many prison protests . The I W W U , including Louie Bennett , Maire Johnston , Mary O'Connor and Margaret Buckley, opposed the Treaty of Surrender (December 1921) and supported the republicans in the Civil War .
During the mid-1920's , a more militant and political I W W U campaigned tirelessly for the unemployed and their dependants , demanding relief work for the jobless and the opening of a coal fund and the provision of meals for their families . It opposed the ' Conditions of Employment Bill ' of 1935 , Section 16 of which allowed the Free State Industry and Commerce Minister , Sean Lemass, to prohibit the employment of female workers in industry , fixed the proportion of female workers to the number of other workers and forbade employers to employ more women than men ! However , despite the almost 5,000 women trade unionists it rallied to its cause , the Bill was passed . By 1936 , largely due to the efforts of the I W W U .....(MORE LATER)>>

.....the consultant clinical psychologist stated that the workers at the Windscale nuclear plant pass through the psychiatric casualty system "at a considerable rate " and he condemned "very old fashioned " management attitudes for creating at Windscale that could lead to catastrophe . "I have been surprised , when I have had contact with some staff referred to psychiatry and psychology , that such obviously disturbed people were employed at the plant in the first place . One of my psychiatric colleagues has asked the question whether Windscale actually sets out to employ anxious obsessionals , or whether they just make them that way in the end " .
A windscale spokesperson confirmed that the report , made in 1982, had been received and that management had not acted on it !
It seems that the Brits have their own ' weapons of mass destruction ' .....

Within two years of its formation , many of the I W W U members were involved in the Great Lock-Out of August 1913 and , following the ending of same in February 1914 , almost half the workers failed to get their jobs back . The Irish Women's Workers Union , led by Louie Bennett and Helen Chenvix (both later presidents of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions) and Margaret Buckley (president of Sinn Fein from 1936 to 1949) played a prominent part in the struggle for freedom between 1918 and 1921 .
They took part in the one-day strike organised by the Irish Trade Union Congress on April 23rd , 1918 , called to protest at the proposed introduction of conscription in Ireland and actively campaigned for republican candidates , including Countess Markievicz , who was later appointed Minister for Labour in the First Dail , which prompted the I W W U to declare - " We rejoice that the first woman elected to parliament in Ireland is one to whom the workers can always confidently look to uphold their rights and just cause " .
Throughout the Black and Tan War ......(MORE LATER)>>

If Tony Blair is serious about having a go at Iraq , he should send in workers from Windscale/Sellafield instead of the British Army :
In February 1986 , a Mr Douglas Wilkinson , the then Consultant clinical psychologist at the West Cumbrian Hospital in Cumbria , said that scientists working at the Windscale nuclear plant were " neurotic and unstable " and that management at the plant seem to "breed tension, back-biting and paranoia" among staff ! He issued these findings in an 18-page report he done in 1982 at the request of Windscale medical officers , who asked him to investigate the situation at the plant . His report was based on his findings after treating staff at Windscale over many years ~ he stated that the workers pass through the psychiatric casualty system " at a considerable rate " . (MORE LATER)>>>

In September 1911 , at a meeting in the Antient Concert Room in Brunswick (now Pearse) Street in Dublin , which was attended by dozens of women (many of whom were actively involved in Inghinidhe na hEireann and/or the suffragette movement) the ' Irish Womens Workers Union ' ( I W W U) was formed . The principal speakers in attendance included Countess Markievicz , James Larkin , James Nolan and Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington .
Addressing the assembled women , Countess Markievicz declared -
" Without organisation you can do nothing . The purpose of this meeting is to turn you into a army of women " . Conditions and pay at the time for all workers , but particularly for women employed in the shirt and weaving industries , was appalling . In England , organised workers were being paid up to four times the wage of their Irish counterparts and were not fined for absenteeism and damage to cloth on the same scale as the women workers in Ireland were . Also , the Irish women worked a six-day week with very little holidays . Within two years of its formation .....(MORE LATER)>>

More on Paddy Murray , editor of the 'The Sunday Tribune' newspaper , whom I wrote about here recently : in his column in that 'paper on December 9th , 2001 ,(page 14) he described himself as - " opinionated , rightwing (with) a slightly dodgy sense of humour , enjoy more pints than average and to completely lack the ability to listen to the other side of the argument " . An odd choice for a newspaper editor ..... Also , writing in the ' The Sunday World' newspaper on February 8th , 1998 , the bould Paddy stated- " I don't mind being called a Free Stater . Because I am a Free Stater " . That's it , Paddy ~ get it off your chest ...
Or was Paddy just licking-up to his boss , Anto O'Reilly (that's Dr A J F O'Reilly, to you) who , in the newspaper that Paddy now edits for him , on October 2nd , 1988 , (page 36) defined patriotism as -
" Doing a superior day's work for a fair day's pay (and) is also about putting together large sums of capital " ! DAMN IT ! If only the men and women of 1916 had stormed a bank instead of a post office , we could have had Tony on our side .....

Peter Barnes and James McCormick were to be made an example of - the question of guilt or innocence was immaterial as long as English ' justice ' had sufficient evidence to give it a pretext for judicial murder .
Pleas for clemency flooded into the British Home Office from all over the world , but were ignored .
On the day of the execution of Barnes and McCormick there were signs of mourning all over Ireland ~ flags flew at half mast on public buildings , cinemas closed , sports meetings were cancelled and public bodies passed resolutions of sympathy .
Peter Barnes , 33 , and James McCormick , 30, were hanged in Winson Green Prison , Birmingham , England, on February 7th , 1940 . They are still commemorated in Ireland to this day .

......Roosevelt knew reporters by name , played water polo with his favourites , sent cards on anniversaries , invited some to Christmas dinner and entertained all at square dances which he organised . He talked to them in the small hours while his wife , Eleanor , made them scrambled eggs in a chafing dish , and his daughter , Anna , " bustled around the table making sure that everyone had enough to eat " . By 1933 , the press felt sufficiently comfortable to ask - and receive - permission to use the White House tennis courts and swimming pool . However , not all the journalists were fooled into believing that Roosevelt was their new best friend - Arthur Krock , then head of the ' New York Times ' washington bureau , accused the FDR administration " of more ruthlessness , intelligence and subtlety in trying to suppress legitimate , unfavourable comment than any other I have known " .
Next time the media tell you why it is , for example , that Iraq ' should be made pay ' - step back and think of who's manipulating who ; and think of FDR .....

Within hours of the August 25th , 1939 , Coventry explosion ,Peter Barnes was arrested at his lodgings at 176 Westbourne Terrace and three days later James McCormick (operating under the alias James Richards) and the tenants of 25 Clara Street , Coventry, Joseph Hewitt , his wife Mary and his mother-in-law Brigid O'Hara , were detained during a raid on the house . All five were charged on suspicion only and, at their 'trial' the following December , three were acquitted while Barnes and McCormick were sentenced to death by hanging . Before sentencing, McCormick , who had remained silent and composed throughout the proceedings , told the court ~ " As a soldier of the Irish Republican Army , I am not afraid to die, for I am dying in a just cause" .
Peter Barnes , who was nowhere near Coventry on the day of the explosion , stated in court ~ " I would like to say that as I am going before my God , as I am condemned to death, I am innocent, and later I am sure it will all come out that I had neither hand , act or part in it . That is all I have to say " . The English establishment , like so many times before and since , in their endeavours ' to teach the Irish a lesson ' , were satisfied with the result as both men were Irish and had republican connections . They were to be made an example of .....(MORE LATER)>>

Bush and Blair know, from past campaigns, the potential power to be gained by manipulating an already supine media ; it was a tactic used to full effect by Franklin Delano Roosevelt , who was popular with the public but not with the media and attempted to change that situation .
In her book entitled ' FDR and the news media ' , Betty Horchin Winfield wrote of how Roosevelt was elected with 57 per cent of the vote in 1932 , yet he had only 41% of American dailies and weeklies editorial support . In 1936 , he got 60 per cent of the vote while his editorial support dropped to 37% and , when he went for the unprecedented third term in 1940 , he went down to 25% editorial support but won the election triumphantly . That situation was much the same in 1944 . Roosevelt knew reporters by name ..... (MORE LATER)>>>