FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
Surplus Irish (sic- Free State) Army uniforms were widely distributed free in Nationalist areas of the North and were a big hit with the young activists . The main activists of the Dublin Government's action campaign were Seamus Brady and Captain James Kelly , who was already active gathering intelligence along the border .
Captain Kelly was acting in accordance with his military commission and was doing his duty at all times . But for Seamus Brady it was politics ; Charles Haughey appointed him on the 15th August 1969 to the Propaganda Corps and according to the Head of the Government's Information Bureau at the time , while giving evidence to the eventual Dail Committee of Public Accounts - " The first information I had about Mr. Brady's selection and appointment ...was as a result of a casual meeting on Friday , August 15th (1969) , with the then Minister for Finance , Mr. C.J. Haughey , who informed me that he had arranged for Mr. Brady to join the Bureau for the duration , at a fee .. "
When Seamus Brady reported for duty on 19th August 1969 he was the only person in the propaganda squad selected to go into the North ; his first report to the (FS) Taoiseach , Jack Lynch , filed in late August 1969 , had little to do with explaining the Northern situation - it was an intelligence report on the IRA and the various defence groups in the North of Ireland .
Meanwhile , back in IRA 'land' , Cathal Goulding and his GHQ Staff had a retake on the situation in the North : four IRA Units , fully armed , had been sent to the border with the intention of re-staging a border campaign and thereby take the pressure off Belfast and Derry - but the pogrom situation in Belfast had eased with the arrival of the British Army and it was clear to the 'top brass' in the IRA that the action planned could now back-fire on them .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
It will be interesting to watch the Provos develop their response to the situation created by the Anglo-Irish Agreement (ie 1985 Hillsborough Treaty) : though they reject any suggestion that IRA violence has been stepped up because of that 'Agreement' , IRA statements have been contradictory enough for that denial to be ignored .
A policy of 'goading' the Unionists into even fiercer opposition by keeping up the campaign against off-duty* UDR men and mortar attacks on RUC stations still looks likely . ( * ' 1169 ... ' Comment - The UDR , like the present-day RUC/PSNI , are never "off-duty" : in or out of uniform , they are the 'eyes and ears' of the British 'establishment' . )
If the Provos cannot bring down the 'Agreement' themselves , then they will push the Protestant community - the only people who can defeat it - to do the job for them , the argument goes . The Provos' official answer to that charge is to point out that Loyalists seem to need no further 'goad' than the 'Agreement' itself ; loyalism , meanwhile , is claiming ever more loudly to be united while trying to cover the cracks in the joint party facade , but there is no doubt at all that a unity of disgust with the Hillsborough Treaty remains .
When the 'Ulster Clubs' weighed in recently with their call to the fourteen Unionist MP's to withdraw from Westminster , it was perhaps the clearest sign yet that "ordinary" (ie grassroots) Unionists have become worried by the lack of clear leadership . it took the quite spectacular dithering about how many MP's should leave Westminster , and when , to produce the Clubs' unmistakeable message - they spoke with the authority of almost fifty branches spread across the North and a probable 8,000 members , made up of UDA men , UVF men , almost all the DUP's twenty-one Assembly members and half a dozen Official Unionist Assemblymen .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
Dessie O' Hare was formally expelled from the INLA , and the IRA were also looking for him in connection with guns he had stolen from them ; he was now totally marginalised . The three bank robberies had yielded only £7,000 . He could count those he could rely on in single figures . Eddie Hogan was released from jail in October and immediately took up with O'Hare .
Tony McNeill was the most unlikely member of the gang ; from Belfast , he studied for a diploma in electronic engineering and came south in 1980 after the RUC allegedly issued a death threat to him through his sister . He got a job as a nurse's aide in Palmerstown Hospital . He was friendly with Gerry Wright , a barber in Dublin , whom he introduced to Dessie O'Hare . Wright was not a member of any group but had 'sympathies' , and considered the differences between the Official IRA and the INLA and the Provisional IRA to be only notional . His brother had been a member of the Official IRA in the 1970's but had been shot dead by a fellow member of the organisation after he made a statement in police custody implicating fellow members in a bank robbery .
Gerry Wright agreed to co-operate with Dessie O'Hare when O'Hare said he would shoot Billy Wright's killer , whose identity was well known . Wright was obsessed with his brother's death . In early October the O'Hare gang killed Jimmy McDaid ; O'Hare alleged that he had misappropriated money - his family claims that he was shot because he wanted to disassociate himself from O'Hare , who liked to think of himself as leading a disciplined group who acted under military orders ; the reality was far different .
7. " A Bunch Of Amateurs.. "
The Garda investigation , now well into its second week , had yielded little . After Fergal Toal and Tony McNeill had left John O'Grady's house at 1.50 PM on the first day of the kidnap , Marise O'Grady contacted her father Austin Darragh ; they discused what to do and after some deliberation decided to contact the gardai , who arrived at the house shortly after nine o'clock that night .......
(MORE LATER).
Thursday, September 22, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
The objectives of the Free State Government's 'Northern Sub-Committee' were outlined by Charles Haughey at the 'Arms Trial' : " We were given instructions that we should develop the maximum possible contacts with persons inside the Six Counties and try to inform ourselves as much as possible on events , political and other developments - within the Six County area . "
The Free State Cabinet also decided on appointing a 'Propaganda Corps' to lead an international publicity attack against Britain over partition ; this 'Corps' consisted of 20 public relations men , 18 of whom were drawn from the State or semi-State companies .
In line with their instructions , the 'Northern Sub-Committee' made contact with the Belfast IRA , with Saor Eire elements through the Citizens Committee located in a house in Kildare Street in Dublin (now demolished) the use of which was made available by the New Ireland Assurance Company , and contact was also made with Cathal Goulding , the IRA Chief Of Staff .
The idea was to get involved in the North : to use every possible contact to influence decision making in the Northern Nationalist community . The Dublin Government was not prepared to be compromised by the decisions taken in either the Civil Rights Association or the IRA . The Irish Army (sic - FS) and special Garda intelligence units were deployed on both sides of the border gathering information on activists of all sorts .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
If you did'nt accept Gerry Adams' arguments , the suspicion inevitably arose that here was a man , and a political party , sucked into a process against its purist judgement by the very fact of being there ; that suspicion partially explained the nature of the Sinn Fein campaign , and it would suggest internal trouble ahead for Adams with those who have always seen the election strategy as at best a distraction from the fight , and at worst inevitably destructive of the Republican Movement's real purpose . ( ' 1169 ... ' Comment - that "election strategy" has resulted in Provisional Sinn Fein sitting in Leinster House and Stormont [Westminster soon ?] and calling on it's own colleagues in the PIRA to not only dis-arm , but to dis-band as well . Career building ... )
It was an odd business , the Provos campaign this time : no money to spend , none of the swarms of young people who so disheartened the SDLP a couple of elections back as they popped up everywhere preaching the Sinn Fein message . Even according to the SDLP , who accuse Sinn Fein of most kinds of skullduggery , there were few allegations of dirty work this time - which many hardened Northerners would regard as an integral part of any energetic election campaign .
Instead the SDLP fretted that Sinn Fein were leaving them to make the running , and wondered why . In Mid-Ulster and Fermanagh-South Tyrone someone had a little go at Sinn Fein's '...dangerous social policies .. ' through the time-honoured method of letters to local papers , and managed to cause Danny Morrison and probably Owen Carron - though he has not been available for comment - some bad moments . Even the faintest whisper of abortion makes your average West of the Bann nationalist turn purple . As Morrison stated - " I was asked at least half a dozen times on the doorsteps or after Mass if it was true Sinn Fein supported abortion . You would'nt know how many other conversations on the subject of 'Morrison-the-baby-killer' those represented .
Then Father Faul joined in with a letter to the 'Irish News' newspaper at the very last minute , meaning I could'nt answer it in time . " Morrison spent time explaining how a motion at the 1985 Sinn Fein Ard Fheis indeed proposed abortion on demand but had been modified by a Sinn Fein Executive amendment . That answer may not have cut much ice on doorsteps in , for instance , Ballynanny .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
In early December 1986 Dessie O'Hare was involved in an attempted bank robbery in Shercock , County Cavan - in dramatic fashion the doors of the bank were smashed down , but the gang left empty-handed . O'Hare was arrested shortly afterwards under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act and taken to Dundalk Garda Station for questioning . Detectives interviewing him were impressed by his agile mind ; he told them that he was now a pacifist .
Over the next ten months he killed , or had killed , five people : he had contacted the GHQ faction of the INLA and had been instructed to form a Unit - this Unit's one and only action against the British 'security forces' , carried out on New Year's Eve , ended in disaster ; the target was a member of the UDR , but the assassins missed and shot his seventy-two year old mother who died soon afterwards .
The INLA feud erupted at the end of January when John O'Reilly and Thomas 'Ta' Power were shot when they attended the Rossnaree Hotel for what they assumed were peace talks . O'Hare was first into bat for the GHQ faction - he was involved in abducting Tony McCloskey , who had his finger , nose and ear cut off before being put out of his misery by a bullet . In the coming weeks O'Hare was to kill two others , both INLA members , one for alleged informing and another in a personal vendetta .
In June he attempted to assassinate Official Unionist Party representative Jim Nicholson . Funds were low and in August he robbed a bank in Ballybay , County Monaghan ; in August he robbed two banks within minutes of each other in Castlepollard , County Westmeath .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
The objectives of the Free State Government's 'Northern Sub-Committee' were outlined by Charles Haughey at the 'Arms Trial' : " We were given instructions that we should develop the maximum possible contacts with persons inside the Six Counties and try to inform ourselves as much as possible on events , political and other developments - within the Six County area . "
The Free State Cabinet also decided on appointing a 'Propaganda Corps' to lead an international publicity attack against Britain over partition ; this 'Corps' consisted of 20 public relations men , 18 of whom were drawn from the State or semi-State companies .
In line with their instructions , the 'Northern Sub-Committee' made contact with the Belfast IRA , with Saor Eire elements through the Citizens Committee located in a house in Kildare Street in Dublin (now demolished) the use of which was made available by the New Ireland Assurance Company , and contact was also made with Cathal Goulding , the IRA Chief Of Staff .
The idea was to get involved in the North : to use every possible contact to influence decision making in the Northern Nationalist community . The Dublin Government was not prepared to be compromised by the decisions taken in either the Civil Rights Association or the IRA . The Irish Army (sic - FS) and special Garda intelligence units were deployed on both sides of the border gathering information on activists of all sorts .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
If you did'nt accept Gerry Adams' arguments , the suspicion inevitably arose that here was a man , and a political party , sucked into a process against its purist judgement by the very fact of being there ; that suspicion partially explained the nature of the Sinn Fein campaign , and it would suggest internal trouble ahead for Adams with those who have always seen the election strategy as at best a distraction from the fight , and at worst inevitably destructive of the Republican Movement's real purpose . ( ' 1169 ... ' Comment - that "election strategy" has resulted in Provisional Sinn Fein sitting in Leinster House and Stormont [Westminster soon ?] and calling on it's own colleagues in the PIRA to not only dis-arm , but to dis-band as well . Career building ... )
It was an odd business , the Provos campaign this time : no money to spend , none of the swarms of young people who so disheartened the SDLP a couple of elections back as they popped up everywhere preaching the Sinn Fein message . Even according to the SDLP , who accuse Sinn Fein of most kinds of skullduggery , there were few allegations of dirty work this time - which many hardened Northerners would regard as an integral part of any energetic election campaign .
Instead the SDLP fretted that Sinn Fein were leaving them to make the running , and wondered why . In Mid-Ulster and Fermanagh-South Tyrone someone had a little go at Sinn Fein's '...dangerous social policies .. ' through the time-honoured method of letters to local papers , and managed to cause Danny Morrison and probably Owen Carron - though he has not been available for comment - some bad moments . Even the faintest whisper of abortion makes your average West of the Bann nationalist turn purple . As Morrison stated - " I was asked at least half a dozen times on the doorsteps or after Mass if it was true Sinn Fein supported abortion . You would'nt know how many other conversations on the subject of 'Morrison-the-baby-killer' those represented .
Then Father Faul joined in with a letter to the 'Irish News' newspaper at the very last minute , meaning I could'nt answer it in time . " Morrison spent time explaining how a motion at the 1985 Sinn Fein Ard Fheis indeed proposed abortion on demand but had been modified by a Sinn Fein Executive amendment . That answer may not have cut much ice on doorsteps in , for instance , Ballynanny .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
In early December 1986 Dessie O'Hare was involved in an attempted bank robbery in Shercock , County Cavan - in dramatic fashion the doors of the bank were smashed down , but the gang left empty-handed . O'Hare was arrested shortly afterwards under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act and taken to Dundalk Garda Station for questioning . Detectives interviewing him were impressed by his agile mind ; he told them that he was now a pacifist .
Over the next ten months he killed , or had killed , five people : he had contacted the GHQ faction of the INLA and had been instructed to form a Unit - this Unit's one and only action against the British 'security forces' , carried out on New Year's Eve , ended in disaster ; the target was a member of the UDR , but the assassins missed and shot his seventy-two year old mother who died soon afterwards .
The INLA feud erupted at the end of January when John O'Reilly and Thomas 'Ta' Power were shot when they attended the Rossnaree Hotel for what they assumed were peace talks . O'Hare was first into bat for the GHQ faction - he was involved in abducting Tony McCloskey , who had his finger , nose and ear cut off before being put out of his misery by a bullet . In the coming weeks O'Hare was to kill two others , both INLA members , one for alleged informing and another in a personal vendetta .
In June he attempted to assassinate Official Unionist Party representative Jim Nicholson . Funds were low and in August he robbed a bank in Ballybay , County Monaghan ; in August he robbed two banks within minutes of each other in Castlepollard , County Westmeath .......
(MORE LATER).
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
With the 'doomsday situation' apparently around the corner the IRA was another influential decision-maker but with their record of destructive involvement in the South , and their left-wing politics , not to mention their constant attacks on Fianna Fail , TACA , and indeed their regular picketing of the homes of several government ministers including the homes of Neil Blaney and Kevin Boland , under different guises , clearly meant that they would be hostile (to the Free State Administration) .
To cap it all the traditional Fianna Fail support body , the 'Nationalist Party' was all but dead since the Stormont Elections ; with the military situation opening up , the IRA was certainly a threatening presence in the North of Ireland . In any case the (FS) Government decided that money would have to be provided to deal with distress and it was essential that it should be spent in a way which would win friends and influence people for the Fianna Fail Government .
Eventually £100,000 from (FS) exchequer funds was agreed and a special sub-committee of the State Cabinet was appointed to deal with the whole Northern 'problem' ; elected to that sub-comittee were Padraig Faulkner , Joe Brennan , Neil Blaney - their constituencies were on the border - and Charles J. Haughey , who was (FS) Minister for Finance and had strong Northern connections , his father having come South to join the Free State Army in the 1920's .
The objectives of that 'Northern sub-committee' were outlined by Charles Haughey at the 'Arms Trial' .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
1983 was Sinn Fein's highest point when they topped the 100,000 votes mark - a year later that total vote dropped to 93,000 . 1985's local government elections brought them back up again over the 100,000 ; to the great though unpublicised relief of Dr. Garret Fitzgerald (Fine Gael) , then pressing his , and John Hume's , case with Margaret Thatcher that Nationalist alienation must be checked and reversed or Sinn Fein and the IRA would inexorably make headway at the expense of constitutional Nationalists .
To get the perspective straight - over recent years the respective shares of the Nationalist vote have been -
1982 : SDLP 65 % to SF 35 % ;
1983 : SDLP 57.4 % to SF 42.6 % ;
1985 : SDLP 60.3 % to SF 39.7 % ;
1986 : SDLP 64.6 % to SF 35.4 % .
Jim Nicholson , a unionist , in defeat , maintained that Sinn Fein and the SDLP had indeed worked a pact in Newry-Armagh to get him out ; Jim McAllister's compassionate hug for the grey-faced Seamus Mallon in mid-count probably finally convinced Nicholson that he was right . The President of (P) Sinn Fein , Gerry Adams , meanwhile commented that some Sinn Fein voters stayed at home and some backed the strongest horse . As the results came in Adams made an interesting study , batting percentages around like the smoothest commentator and insisting the SDLP gain was no surprise and would not last beyond people's disillusionment with the Anglo-Irish Agreement as an instrument of real change . ( ' 1169.... ' Comment - ...that same charge can now be made against the 1998 Stormont Treaty/'GFA' . )
Those who have been wondering all along whether the Provos' involvement in politics will change the Provos more than the politics must have watched Adams' performance with a special interest ; he was least convincing on Sinn Fein's reasons for fighting an election they called "...a so-called referendum.. " and which they originally suggested Nationalists should boycott .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
At the time of his arrest (late 1979) , Dessie O'Hare was credited by the RUC , without substantiation , with involvement in over twenty killings : he had not yet reached twenty-one years of age .
O'Hare could not adjust to jail ; there were several naive escape attempts right up to within months of his release , costing him remission . He was frequently beaten up by prison warders and had few friends in jail . Eddie Hogan had been sentenced to eight years in 1981 for his involvement in an armed robbery ; Fergal Toal was sentenced in 1984 for his part in an attempted armed robbery in Dundalk . The three , along with Jimmy McDaid , who was serving a sentence for the manslaughter of a British soldier , formed one of the many 'cliques' in prison .
Dessie O'Hare was released from jail in October 1986 and Fergal Toal shortly afterwards . The INLA was in disarray ; initially O'Hare approached a member of the new 'Army Council' faction and proposed that the list of legitimate targets should be widened to include people like Bishop Cathal Daly - who had made a number of statements critical of republicans - and Peter Sutherland , who had been (FS) Attorney General when the (FS) Supreme Court reversed its policy of not extraditing people suspected of involvement in offences while on 'active service' .
The man to whom Dessie O'Hare proposed this was appalled , gave him £500 and told him he would be in touch .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
With the 'doomsday situation' apparently around the corner the IRA was another influential decision-maker but with their record of destructive involvement in the South , and their left-wing politics , not to mention their constant attacks on Fianna Fail , TACA , and indeed their regular picketing of the homes of several government ministers including the homes of Neil Blaney and Kevin Boland , under different guises , clearly meant that they would be hostile (to the Free State Administration) .
To cap it all the traditional Fianna Fail support body , the 'Nationalist Party' was all but dead since the Stormont Elections ; with the military situation opening up , the IRA was certainly a threatening presence in the North of Ireland . In any case the (FS) Government decided that money would have to be provided to deal with distress and it was essential that it should be spent in a way which would win friends and influence people for the Fianna Fail Government .
Eventually £100,000 from (FS) exchequer funds was agreed and a special sub-committee of the State Cabinet was appointed to deal with the whole Northern 'problem' ; elected to that sub-comittee were Padraig Faulkner , Joe Brennan , Neil Blaney - their constituencies were on the border - and Charles J. Haughey , who was (FS) Minister for Finance and had strong Northern connections , his father having come South to join the Free State Army in the 1920's .
The objectives of that 'Northern sub-committee' were outlined by Charles Haughey at the 'Arms Trial' .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
1983 was Sinn Fein's highest point when they topped the 100,000 votes mark - a year later that total vote dropped to 93,000 . 1985's local government elections brought them back up again over the 100,000 ; to the great though unpublicised relief of Dr. Garret Fitzgerald (Fine Gael) , then pressing his , and John Hume's , case with Margaret Thatcher that Nationalist alienation must be checked and reversed or Sinn Fein and the IRA would inexorably make headway at the expense of constitutional Nationalists .
To get the perspective straight - over recent years the respective shares of the Nationalist vote have been -
1982 : SDLP 65 % to SF 35 % ;
1983 : SDLP 57.4 % to SF 42.6 % ;
1985 : SDLP 60.3 % to SF 39.7 % ;
1986 : SDLP 64.6 % to SF 35.4 % .
Jim Nicholson , a unionist , in defeat , maintained that Sinn Fein and the SDLP had indeed worked a pact in Newry-Armagh to get him out ; Jim McAllister's compassionate hug for the grey-faced Seamus Mallon in mid-count probably finally convinced Nicholson that he was right . The President of (P) Sinn Fein , Gerry Adams , meanwhile commented that some Sinn Fein voters stayed at home and some backed the strongest horse . As the results came in Adams made an interesting study , batting percentages around like the smoothest commentator and insisting the SDLP gain was no surprise and would not last beyond people's disillusionment with the Anglo-Irish Agreement as an instrument of real change . ( ' 1169.... ' Comment - ...that same charge can now be made against the 1998 Stormont Treaty/'GFA' . )
Those who have been wondering all along whether the Provos' involvement in politics will change the Provos more than the politics must have watched Adams' performance with a special interest ; he was least convincing on Sinn Fein's reasons for fighting an election they called "...a so-called referendum.. " and which they originally suggested Nationalists should boycott .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
At the time of his arrest (late 1979) , Dessie O'Hare was credited by the RUC , without substantiation , with involvement in over twenty killings : he had not yet reached twenty-one years of age .
O'Hare could not adjust to jail ; there were several naive escape attempts right up to within months of his release , costing him remission . He was frequently beaten up by prison warders and had few friends in jail . Eddie Hogan had been sentenced to eight years in 1981 for his involvement in an armed robbery ; Fergal Toal was sentenced in 1984 for his part in an attempted armed robbery in Dundalk . The three , along with Jimmy McDaid , who was serving a sentence for the manslaughter of a British soldier , formed one of the many 'cliques' in prison .
Dessie O'Hare was released from jail in October 1986 and Fergal Toal shortly afterwards . The INLA was in disarray ; initially O'Hare approached a member of the new 'Army Council' faction and proposed that the list of legitimate targets should be widened to include people like Bishop Cathal Daly - who had made a number of statements critical of republicans - and Peter Sutherland , who had been (FS) Attorney General when the (FS) Supreme Court reversed its policy of not extraditing people suspected of involvement in offences while on 'active service' .
The man to whom Dessie O'Hare proposed this was appalled , gave him £500 and told him he would be in touch .......
(MORE LATER).
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
A Mayo Republican was rumoured to have got his flash new car from Fianna Fail ; this was not exactly true . In fact he got the car from a Fianna Fail man involved in car sales . Yet the Republican was virtually penniless . Eventually the IRA established that their member had set up the motor dealer to find him in a 'compromising' position with a woman - the Republican's wife !
Ballinamore in County Leitrim was typical of the reaction by Gardai to the unusual events those days ; two Gardai stood in the centre of the town watching the comings and goings and constantly looking in the direction of John Joe McGirl's pub - their orders were to watch but under no circumstances to intervene . Those orders had come from the (FS) Government .
The IRA had orders not to shoot any garda even if it meant arrest . No one participating really believed that this public relation-orientated order would be upheld if the situation arose . Meanwhile the real (sic) Irish [ie Free State] Army were preparing for action in case the British Government gave their permission * for their participation north of the border . ( * ' 1169... ' Comment - Free Staters waiting for 'permission' from a foreign administration before they dare travel on to what is Irish soil ... !) .
The (FS) Minister for Defence , Jim Gibbons (FF) , authorised a recruiting campaign to bring the (FS) Army up to full strength ; enter the 'Mighty Rangers' of television fame . However the real problem confronting the Dublin Government was how to effectively influence the decisions being taken in Nationalist areas throughout the North - they pinpointed the 'Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association' as one influential body . The rapidly-growing local Defence Committees presented another area of power in the North .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
On BBC Television the face of psychologist Dr. Sidney Elliott was a sight to behold as 'Northern Ireland' Office Minister Nicholas Scott , Tom King's deputy , followed other commentators in throwing around percentages . It should be noted , said Minister Scott , what a small fraction of the total electorate of the Unionist vote represented . He did not subject the SDLP vote to the same test , happily comparing it to the Sinn Fein result as per centages of the Nationalist electorate in the four marginal constituencies they contested , and drawing the conclusion that Sinn Fein supporters had begun to be detached by the Anglo-Irish Agreement .
Dr. Elliott had no chance to comment while British Minister Scott remained on the air , but as soon as he left managed to point out that Margaret Thatcher's government took office with the support of only 30 per cent of the electorate and that Scott himself enjoyed the support of only 25 per cent of the electorate and to judge his own 'large vote' by the same harsh test !
After that initial silly season , no one is drawing too many lessons from the oddest of 'Northern Ireland's many elections ; but , for the record , it should be noted that the Unionist vote in the fifteen constituencies actually exceeded their performance in 1983 , in fact cannot be matched except by the figures for the anti-Sunningdale election of 1974 and even then only by combining the votes of the hardline 'United Ulster (sic) Council' and the moderate 'Faulknerites' .
The SDLP increased their vote in the four seats fought and there was a swing of around six per cent to them from Sinn Fein , compared to the 1983 figures .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
Before leaving the shed , Dessie O'Hare used the polaroid camera and took a photograph of John O'Grady in chains with a gun to his head ; O'Grady noticed that O'Hare was wearing his Longines gold watch and that his Cross pen , bearing the logo of the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology was sticking out of his pocket . The next day was spent in the clearing - it was raining . On the instructions of O'Hare the chains were still attached to O'Grady's wrists and ankles .
There were nuggets of comfort ; the 'Gay Byrne Radio Show' had broadcast a message saying that his mother who had been ill had recovered and that his wife and family were well , and that he was not to worry . That afternoon Tony McNeill , clad in a balaclava , played a couple of games of chess with O'Grady . McNeill was the only one of the gang he could establish any kind of rapport with . McNeill assured O'Grady that he would see to it that he would not be shot .
6. A GANG WITH NOTHING TO LOSE.
John O'Grady by now realised he was in the company of dangerous and desperate men . The newspapers had been full of profiles of Dessie O'Hare , detailing his most notorious deeds . O'Hare was born in Keady , County Armagh , in 1958 ; he joined the Provisional IRA at the age of sixteen and quickjly acquired a reputation as a fearless , ruthless but also reckless operator . He led a charmed life ; in June 1979 he was on an IRA operation with Paddy McIlvenna - from a cattle truck they fired on an RUC Station : their retreat brought them past the house of a prison officer who was mowing the lawn . He had a shotgun handy and he opened up on the cattle truck . By the time they crossed the border McIlvenna was dead and O'Hare injured ...
Five months later , O'Hare was involved in a car chase with the gardai ; the car crashed and O'Hare's passenger , Tony McClelland , was killed . O'Hare was charged with possession of a shotgun and sentenced to nine years in Portlaoise Prison .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
A Mayo Republican was rumoured to have got his flash new car from Fianna Fail ; this was not exactly true . In fact he got the car from a Fianna Fail man involved in car sales . Yet the Republican was virtually penniless . Eventually the IRA established that their member had set up the motor dealer to find him in a 'compromising' position with a woman - the Republican's wife !
Ballinamore in County Leitrim was typical of the reaction by Gardai to the unusual events those days ; two Gardai stood in the centre of the town watching the comings and goings and constantly looking in the direction of John Joe McGirl's pub - their orders were to watch but under no circumstances to intervene . Those orders had come from the (FS) Government .
The IRA had orders not to shoot any garda even if it meant arrest . No one participating really believed that this public relation-orientated order would be upheld if the situation arose . Meanwhile the real (sic) Irish [ie Free State] Army were preparing for action in case the British Government gave their permission * for their participation north of the border . ( * ' 1169... ' Comment - Free Staters waiting for 'permission' from a foreign administration before they dare travel on to what is Irish soil ... !) .
The (FS) Minister for Defence , Jim Gibbons (FF) , authorised a recruiting campaign to bring the (FS) Army up to full strength ; enter the 'Mighty Rangers' of television fame . However the real problem confronting the Dublin Government was how to effectively influence the decisions being taken in Nationalist areas throughout the North - they pinpointed the 'Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association' as one influential body . The rapidly-growing local Defence Committees presented another area of power in the North .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
On BBC Television the face of psychologist Dr. Sidney Elliott was a sight to behold as 'Northern Ireland' Office Minister Nicholas Scott , Tom King's deputy , followed other commentators in throwing around percentages . It should be noted , said Minister Scott , what a small fraction of the total electorate of the Unionist vote represented . He did not subject the SDLP vote to the same test , happily comparing it to the Sinn Fein result as per centages of the Nationalist electorate in the four marginal constituencies they contested , and drawing the conclusion that Sinn Fein supporters had begun to be detached by the Anglo-Irish Agreement .
Dr. Elliott had no chance to comment while British Minister Scott remained on the air , but as soon as he left managed to point out that Margaret Thatcher's government took office with the support of only 30 per cent of the electorate and that Scott himself enjoyed the support of only 25 per cent of the electorate and to judge his own 'large vote' by the same harsh test !
After that initial silly season , no one is drawing too many lessons from the oddest of 'Northern Ireland's many elections ; but , for the record , it should be noted that the Unionist vote in the fifteen constituencies actually exceeded their performance in 1983 , in fact cannot be matched except by the figures for the anti-Sunningdale election of 1974 and even then only by combining the votes of the hardline 'United Ulster (sic) Council' and the moderate 'Faulknerites' .
The SDLP increased their vote in the four seats fought and there was a swing of around six per cent to them from Sinn Fein , compared to the 1983 figures .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
Before leaving the shed , Dessie O'Hare used the polaroid camera and took a photograph of John O'Grady in chains with a gun to his head ; O'Grady noticed that O'Hare was wearing his Longines gold watch and that his Cross pen , bearing the logo of the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology was sticking out of his pocket . The next day was spent in the clearing - it was raining . On the instructions of O'Hare the chains were still attached to O'Grady's wrists and ankles .
There were nuggets of comfort ; the 'Gay Byrne Radio Show' had broadcast a message saying that his mother who had been ill had recovered and that his wife and family were well , and that he was not to worry . That afternoon Tony McNeill , clad in a balaclava , played a couple of games of chess with O'Grady . McNeill was the only one of the gang he could establish any kind of rapport with . McNeill assured O'Grady that he would see to it that he would not be shot .
6. A GANG WITH NOTHING TO LOSE.
John O'Grady by now realised he was in the company of dangerous and desperate men . The newspapers had been full of profiles of Dessie O'Hare , detailing his most notorious deeds . O'Hare was born in Keady , County Armagh , in 1958 ; he joined the Provisional IRA at the age of sixteen and quickjly acquired a reputation as a fearless , ruthless but also reckless operator . He led a charmed life ; in June 1979 he was on an IRA operation with Paddy McIlvenna - from a cattle truck they fired on an RUC Station : their retreat brought them past the house of a prison officer who was mowing the lawn . He had a shotgun handy and he opened up on the cattle truck . By the time they crossed the border McIlvenna was dead and O'Hare injured ...
Five months later , O'Hare was involved in a car chase with the gardai ; the car crashed and O'Hare's passenger , Tony McClelland , was killed . O'Hare was charged with possession of a shotgun and sentenced to nine years in Portlaoise Prison .......
(MORE LATER).
Monday, September 19, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
The British told Dr. Patrick Hillery , the Free State Minister for External Affairs * to 'mind his own business' regarding issues in the Six Counties - so he went to America and then to the United Nations ; his speech to the U.N. was as (Irish) 'Republican' in style and wording ( as that which he delivered in London and America ) similar to which one could hear anywhere reflecting the mood of the times . ( * ' 1169 ... ' Comment - Why was the 'Minister for EXTERNAL Affairs' involved in this issue , anyway .. ? ) .
Meanwhile the IRA was not 'standing idly by ' : IRA Units from the South assembled in the gymnasium under Bily Wright's barbers shop at Parkgate Street , near Dublin's Phoenix Park . Only fully-trained IRA Volunteers were to assemble but everyone turned up for their patriotic chore . The Garda Special Branch watched the goings-on but their orders were not to intervene . In a false fear that the 'real men' would be 'nabbed' , the IRA leadership , who were in control of the nightly 'rabble rousing' meetings outside the Dublin GPO , sent the assembled mobs on a wild goose chase to the border .
Many people woke up the following morning in Dundalk and other points along the border with no train fare home , or a commandeered vehicle in their possession but above all a mighty hangover ! Meanwhile the IRA Units travelled to their destinations on this State's side of the border and waited ...
There were numerous unofficial arrivals at the border including the arrival at Ballinamore of a well-known Republican from County Galway ; he had been expelled some years earlier , with the strong insistence of Ruairi O Bradaigh , because he wanted Sinn Fein to recognise 'the Dail' * ; he went to the Garda Station in Ballinamore and asked where the IRA Headquarters was (!) - the Gardai directed him to John Joe McGirl's pub at the bottom of the town ! It was'nt long before he was committed to Mullingar for alcoholic treatent while his car was use by the IRA ... (* ' 1169 ... ' Comment - ...now you cannot GET IN to (P) Sinn Fein unless you 'recognise the Dail' !) .
This Galway Republican should not be confused with the Mayo Republican , who was driving a flash new car . While it was rumoured that he got the car from Fianna Fail this was not exactly true .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
The 'Agreement' (Hillsborough Treaty) was not a major subject of conversation on the election canvass , though it did recur ; Seamus Mallon (SDLP) thought the effect was "...subliminal.. " . Mostly the voters wondered aloud if this time the Unionist , unexciting Jim Nicholson , might be beatable and Mallon told the like an incantation at doorstep after doorstep ... "... we're going to do it , we're going to do it .. " . For some reason he rarely met accusations of 'splitting the nationalist vote ' , Sinn Fein's anti-SDLP theme-song in the election . (' 1169 ...' Comment ; at the time that was what the SDLP were doing - almost as if they wanted to spare their Westminsters' masters blushes by attempting to ensure that they would not have to suffer having 'a fenian about the place' . Nowadays , the ony difference between Provisional Sinn Fein and the SDLP are the letters 'D' , 'F' and 'L' !)
To the last couple of days , though , Seamus Mallon worried about Newry's Catholic thousands who did not come out in the local government elections in May 1985 : " Round Markethill , now, my place , Poyntzpass , Tandragee , Hamiltonbawn , where they're very much in the minority , they'll come out and vote to a man (sic) . "
In Armagh , Sinn Fein Councillor Tommy Carroll advanced his candidate's cause as a canvasser simply by being known to have lost one brother , an unarmed IRA man , to a shoot-to-kill RUC squad , while UDR men from the local Drumadd Base face trial for the murder of another . Armagh people asked Seamus Mallon about the UDR and RUC as well ; Mallon was firm - 'they would have to clean up their act' , he said . ( ' 1169...' Comment - ...and that was 'firm' - for a nationalist . A Republican would have called for the disbandment of both groups .)
Mallon had not welcomed an 'Agreement' without being very sure that it could lead to radical changes . It was a beginning . ( ' 1169 ... ' Comment - The Hillsborough Treaty offered only to 'tweak' a corrupt system , not to 'radically' change it . But the SDLP would have been quite happy with a bit of 'tweaking' as indeed , would the Provos be now .) Seamus Mallon beat Official Unionist Party candidate Jim Nicholson by a healthy 2,583 votes ; the Sinn Fein candidate , Jim McAllister , was down over 3,000 votes from his performance in the general election of 1983 .
Jim Nicholson (OUP) improved his vote by over one thousand ; the turnout was virtually the same as in 1983 . From that point on you paid your money and you took your choice ! The votes for the fifteen Unionists , and for SDLP versus Sinn Fein were subjected to swift , non-scientific , highly political analysis and the various parties drew the conclusions they wished to .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
5. Evacuation Lessons.
John O'Grady did not yet suspect it but he was actually in Carriggtwohill in County Cork , and not in the North of Ireland as he was led to believe . For the second time in a week his living standards were to drop sharply but , compared with what was to follow , the grimy cellar in Gerry Wright's barber shop would seem a very attractive place indeed ...
The first night was'nt too bad ; he spent it in a cottage which was damp with , he noticed , lots of cobwebs in the corner . Early next morning he was taken by Dessie O' Hare out to a shed in the yard . Entrance to the shed was through a two-foot hole in the wall . Tony McNeill and Fergal Toal resumed their guard duties . Each morning they would take their mattresses out through the hole and then travel a couple of hundred yards through gorse undergrowth to a clearing - here they would remain until sundown .
They put blankets over themselves to keep out the cold ; John O'Grady read books supplied by his captors and listened to the radio ; at night they returned to the shed , which was made from bare cement blocks and measured ten feet by eight , with a corrugated iron roof and a mud floor . O'Grady by now was learning to associate the intermittent appearance of gang leader Dessie O'Hare with disruption or trouble . O'Hare returned on the night of October 20 th ; O'Grady was finding him increasingly volatile and aggressive - O'Hare enquired of O'Grady's guard whether he (O'Grady) was getting in and out of the hole in the shed quickly enough , and was told that O'Grady was a bit slow .
Chains were produced and attached to both wrists and ankles ; O'Hare then got a scarf and gagged O'Grady : he started to kick O'Grady in the head , legs , bottom and back . O'Grady put his hands around his head and tried to scream through the gag . Dessie O'Hare was shouting and cursing that he was'nt getting out of the hole quickly enough ; he stopped the beating and said - " When I say go , you are to gather your mattress and get out of the hole . " Once instructed , O'Grady immediately gathered up his mattress and dived for the hole but he was'nt fast enough for O'Hare and received another kicking . He went again , this time more quickly and his improved speed seemed to satisfy O'Hare's evacuation requirements .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
The British told Dr. Patrick Hillery , the Free State Minister for External Affairs * to 'mind his own business' regarding issues in the Six Counties - so he went to America and then to the United Nations ; his speech to the U.N. was as (Irish) 'Republican' in style and wording ( as that which he delivered in London and America ) similar to which one could hear anywhere reflecting the mood of the times . ( * ' 1169 ... ' Comment - Why was the 'Minister for EXTERNAL Affairs' involved in this issue , anyway .. ? ) .
Meanwhile the IRA was not 'standing idly by ' : IRA Units from the South assembled in the gymnasium under Bily Wright's barbers shop at Parkgate Street , near Dublin's Phoenix Park . Only fully-trained IRA Volunteers were to assemble but everyone turned up for their patriotic chore . The Garda Special Branch watched the goings-on but their orders were not to intervene . In a false fear that the 'real men' would be 'nabbed' , the IRA leadership , who were in control of the nightly 'rabble rousing' meetings outside the Dublin GPO , sent the assembled mobs on a wild goose chase to the border .
Many people woke up the following morning in Dundalk and other points along the border with no train fare home , or a commandeered vehicle in their possession but above all a mighty hangover ! Meanwhile the IRA Units travelled to their destinations on this State's side of the border and waited ...
There were numerous unofficial arrivals at the border including the arrival at Ballinamore of a well-known Republican from County Galway ; he had been expelled some years earlier , with the strong insistence of Ruairi O Bradaigh , because he wanted Sinn Fein to recognise 'the Dail' * ; he went to the Garda Station in Ballinamore and asked where the IRA Headquarters was (!) - the Gardai directed him to John Joe McGirl's pub at the bottom of the town ! It was'nt long before he was committed to Mullingar for alcoholic treatent while his car was use by the IRA ... (* ' 1169 ... ' Comment - ...now you cannot GET IN to (P) Sinn Fein unless you 'recognise the Dail' !) .
This Galway Republican should not be confused with the Mayo Republican , who was driving a flash new car . While it was rumoured that he got the car from Fianna Fail this was not exactly true .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
The 'Agreement' (Hillsborough Treaty) was not a major subject of conversation on the election canvass , though it did recur ; Seamus Mallon (SDLP) thought the effect was "...subliminal.. " . Mostly the voters wondered aloud if this time the Unionist , unexciting Jim Nicholson , might be beatable and Mallon told the like an incantation at doorstep after doorstep ... "... we're going to do it , we're going to do it .. " . For some reason he rarely met accusations of 'splitting the nationalist vote ' , Sinn Fein's anti-SDLP theme-song in the election . (' 1169 ...' Comment ; at the time that was what the SDLP were doing - almost as if they wanted to spare their Westminsters' masters blushes by attempting to ensure that they would not have to suffer having 'a fenian about the place' . Nowadays , the ony difference between Provisional Sinn Fein and the SDLP are the letters 'D' , 'F' and 'L' !)
To the last couple of days , though , Seamus Mallon worried about Newry's Catholic thousands who did not come out in the local government elections in May 1985 : " Round Markethill , now, my place , Poyntzpass , Tandragee , Hamiltonbawn , where they're very much in the minority , they'll come out and vote to a man (sic) . "
In Armagh , Sinn Fein Councillor Tommy Carroll advanced his candidate's cause as a canvasser simply by being known to have lost one brother , an unarmed IRA man , to a shoot-to-kill RUC squad , while UDR men from the local Drumadd Base face trial for the murder of another . Armagh people asked Seamus Mallon about the UDR and RUC as well ; Mallon was firm - 'they would have to clean up their act' , he said . ( ' 1169...' Comment - ...and that was 'firm' - for a nationalist . A Republican would have called for the disbandment of both groups .)
Mallon had not welcomed an 'Agreement' without being very sure that it could lead to radical changes . It was a beginning . ( ' 1169 ... ' Comment - The Hillsborough Treaty offered only to 'tweak' a corrupt system , not to 'radically' change it . But the SDLP would have been quite happy with a bit of 'tweaking' as indeed , would the Provos be now .) Seamus Mallon beat Official Unionist Party candidate Jim Nicholson by a healthy 2,583 votes ; the Sinn Fein candidate , Jim McAllister , was down over 3,000 votes from his performance in the general election of 1983 .
Jim Nicholson (OUP) improved his vote by over one thousand ; the turnout was virtually the same as in 1983 . From that point on you paid your money and you took your choice ! The votes for the fifteen Unionists , and for SDLP versus Sinn Fein were subjected to swift , non-scientific , highly political analysis and the various parties drew the conclusions they wished to .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
5. Evacuation Lessons.
John O'Grady did not yet suspect it but he was actually in Carriggtwohill in County Cork , and not in the North of Ireland as he was led to believe . For the second time in a week his living standards were to drop sharply but , compared with what was to follow , the grimy cellar in Gerry Wright's barber shop would seem a very attractive place indeed ...
The first night was'nt too bad ; he spent it in a cottage which was damp with , he noticed , lots of cobwebs in the corner . Early next morning he was taken by Dessie O' Hare out to a shed in the yard . Entrance to the shed was through a two-foot hole in the wall . Tony McNeill and Fergal Toal resumed their guard duties . Each morning they would take their mattresses out through the hole and then travel a couple of hundred yards through gorse undergrowth to a clearing - here they would remain until sundown .
They put blankets over themselves to keep out the cold ; John O'Grady read books supplied by his captors and listened to the radio ; at night they returned to the shed , which was made from bare cement blocks and measured ten feet by eight , with a corrugated iron roof and a mud floor . O'Grady by now was learning to associate the intermittent appearance of gang leader Dessie O'Hare with disruption or trouble . O'Hare returned on the night of October 20 th ; O'Grady was finding him increasingly volatile and aggressive - O'Hare enquired of O'Grady's guard whether he (O'Grady) was getting in and out of the hole in the shed quickly enough , and was told that O'Grady was a bit slow .
Chains were produced and attached to both wrists and ankles ; O'Hare then got a scarf and gagged O'Grady : he started to kick O'Grady in the head , legs , bottom and back . O'Grady put his hands around his head and tried to scream through the gag . Dessie O'Hare was shouting and cursing that he was'nt getting out of the hole quickly enough ; he stopped the beating and said - " When I say go , you are to gather your mattress and get out of the hole . " Once instructed , O'Grady immediately gathered up his mattress and dived for the hole but he was'nt fast enough for O'Hare and received another kicking . He went again , this time more quickly and his improved speed seemed to satisfy O'Hare's evacuation requirements .......
(MORE LATER).
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
The British told Dr. Patrick Hillery , the Free State Minister for External Affairs * to 'mind his own business' regarding issues in the Six Counties - so he went to America and then to the United Nations ; his speech to the U.N. was as (Irish) 'Republican' in style and wording ( as that which he delivered in London and America ) similar to which one could hear anywhere reflecting the mood of the times . ( * ' 1169 ... ' Comment - Why was the 'Minister for EXTERNAL Affairs' involved in this issue , anyway .. ? ) .
Meanwhile the IRA was not 'standing idly by ' : IRA Units from the South assembled in the gymnasium under Bily Wright's barbers shop at Parkgate Street , near Dublin's Phoenix Park . Only fully-trained IRA Volunteers were to assemble but everyone turned up for their patriotic chore . The Garda Special Branch watched the goings-on but their orders were not to intervene . In a false fear that the 'real men' would be 'nabbed' , the IRA leadership , who were in control of the nightly 'rabble rousing' meetings outside the Dublin GPO , sent the assembled mobs on a wild goose chase to the border .
Many people woke up the following morning in Dundalk and other points along the border with no train fare home , or a commandeered vehicle in their possession but above all a mighty hangover ! Meanwhile the IRA Units travelled to their destinations on this State's side of the border and waited ...
There were numerous unofficial arrivals at the border including the arrival at Ballinamore of a well-known Republican from County Galway ; he had been expelled some years earlier , with the strong insistence of Ruairi O Bradaigh , because he wanted Sinn Fein to recognise 'the Dail' * ; he went to the Garda Station in Ballinamore and asked where the IRA Headquarters was (!) - the Gardai directed him to John Joe McGirl's pub at the bottom of the town ! It was'nt long before he was committed to Mullingar for alcoholic treatent while his car was use by the IRA ... (* ' 1169 ... ' Comment - ...now you cannot GET IN to (P) Sinn Fein unless you 'recognise the Dail' !) .
This Galway Republican should not be confused with the Mayo Republican , who was driving a flash new car . While it was rumoured that he got the car from Fianna Fail this was not exactly true .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
The 'Agreement' (Hillsborough Treaty) was not a major subject of conversation on the election canvass , though it did recur ; Seamus Mallon (SDLP) thought the effect was "...subliminal.. " . Mostly the voters wondered aloud if this time the Unionist , unexciting Jim Nicholson , might be beatable and Mallon told the like an incantation at doorstep after doorstep ... "... we're going to do it , we're going to do it .. " . For some reason he rarely met accusations of 'splitting the nationalist vote ' , Sinn Fein's anti-SDLP theme-song in the election . (' 1169 ...' Comment ; at the time that was what the SDLP were doing - almost as if they wanted to spare their Westminsters' masters blushes by attempting to ensure that they would not have to suffer having 'a fenian about the place' . Nowadays , the ony difference between Provisional Sinn Fein and the SDLP are the letters 'D' , 'F' and 'L' !)
To the last couple of days , though , Seamus Mallon worried about Newry's Catholic thousands who did not come out in the local government elections in May 1985 : " Round Markethill , now, my place , Poyntzpass , Tandragee , Hamiltonbawn , where they're very much in the minority , they'll come out and vote to a man (sic) . "
In Armagh , Sinn Fein Councillor Tommy Carroll advanced his candidate's cause as a canvasser simply by being known to have lost one brother , an unarmed IRA man , to a shoot-to-kill RUC squad , while UDR men from the local Drumadd Base face trial for the murder of another . Armagh people asked Seamus Mallon about the UDR and RUC as well ; Mallon was firm - 'they would have to clean up their act' , he said . ( ' 1169...' Comment - ...and that was 'firm' - for a nationalist . A Republican would have called for the disbandment of both groups .)
Mallon had not welcomed an 'Agreement' without being very sure that it could lead to radical changes . It was a beginning . ( ' 1169 ... ' Comment - The Hillsborough Treaty offered only to 'tweak' a corrupt system , not to 'radically' change it . But the SDLP would have been quite happy with a bit of 'tweaking' as indeed , would the Provos be now .) Seamus Mallon beat Official Unionist Party candidate Jim Nicholson by a healthy 2,583 votes ; the Sinn Fein candidate , Jim McAllister , was down over 3,000 votes from his performance in the general election of 1983 .
Jim Nicholson (OUP) improved his vote by over one thousand ; the turnout was virtually the same as in 1983 . From that point on you paid your money and you took your choice ! The votes for the fifteen Unionists , and for SDLP versus Sinn Fein were subjected to swift , non-scientific , highly political analysis and the various parties drew the conclusions they wished to .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
5. Evacuation Lessons.
John O'Grady did not yet suspect it but he was actually in Carriggtwohill in County Cork , and not in the North of Ireland as he was led to believe . For the second time in a week his living standards were to drop sharply but , compared with what was to follow , the grimy cellar in Gerry Wright's barber shop would seem a very attractive place indeed ...
The first night was'nt too bad ; he spent it in a cottage which was damp with , he noticed , lots of cobwebs in the corner . Early next morning he was taken by Dessie O' Hare out to a shed in the yard . Entrance to the shed was through a two-foot hole in the wall . Tony McNeill and Fergal Toal resumed their guard duties . Each morning they would take their mattresses out through the hole and then travel a couple of hundred yards through gorse undergrowth to a clearing - here they would remain until sundown .
They put blankets over themselves to keep out the cold ; John O'Grady read books supplied by his captors and listened to the radio ; at night they returned to the shed , which was made from bare cement blocks and measured ten feet by eight , with a corrugated iron roof and a mud floor . O'Grady by now was learning to associate the intermittent appearance of gang leader Dessie O'Hare with disruption or trouble . O'Hare returned on the night of October 20 th ; O'Grady was finding him increasingly volatile and aggressive - O'Hare enquired of O'Grady's guard whether he (O'Grady) was getting in and out of the hole in the shed quickly enough , and was told that O'Grady was a bit slow .
Chains were produced and attached to both wrists and ankles ; O'Hare then got a scarf and gagged O'Grady : he started to kick O'Grady in the head , legs , bottom and back . O'Grady put his hands around his head and tried to scream through the gag . Dessie O'Hare was shouting and cursing that he was'nt getting out of the hole quickly enough ; he stopped the beating and said - " When I say go , you are to gather your mattress and get out of the hole . " Once instructed , O'Grady immediately gathered up his mattress and dived for the hole but he was'nt fast enough for O'Hare and received another kicking . He went again , this time more quickly and his improved speed seemed to satisfy O'Hare's evacuation requirements .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
The British told Dr. Patrick Hillery , the Free State Minister for External Affairs * to 'mind his own business' regarding issues in the Six Counties - so he went to America and then to the United Nations ; his speech to the U.N. was as (Irish) 'Republican' in style and wording ( as that which he delivered in London and America ) similar to which one could hear anywhere reflecting the mood of the times . ( * ' 1169 ... ' Comment - Why was the 'Minister for EXTERNAL Affairs' involved in this issue , anyway .. ? ) .
Meanwhile the IRA was not 'standing idly by ' : IRA Units from the South assembled in the gymnasium under Bily Wright's barbers shop at Parkgate Street , near Dublin's Phoenix Park . Only fully-trained IRA Volunteers were to assemble but everyone turned up for their patriotic chore . The Garda Special Branch watched the goings-on but their orders were not to intervene . In a false fear that the 'real men' would be 'nabbed' , the IRA leadership , who were in control of the nightly 'rabble rousing' meetings outside the Dublin GPO , sent the assembled mobs on a wild goose chase to the border .
Many people woke up the following morning in Dundalk and other points along the border with no train fare home , or a commandeered vehicle in their possession but above all a mighty hangover ! Meanwhile the IRA Units travelled to their destinations on this State's side of the border and waited ...
There were numerous unofficial arrivals at the border including the arrival at Ballinamore of a well-known Republican from County Galway ; he had been expelled some years earlier , with the strong insistence of Ruairi O Bradaigh , because he wanted Sinn Fein to recognise 'the Dail' * ; he went to the Garda Station in Ballinamore and asked where the IRA Headquarters was (!) - the Gardai directed him to John Joe McGirl's pub at the bottom of the town ! It was'nt long before he was committed to Mullingar for alcoholic treatent while his car was use by the IRA ... (* ' 1169 ... ' Comment - ...now you cannot GET IN to (P) Sinn Fein unless you 'recognise the Dail' !) .
This Galway Republican should not be confused with the Mayo Republican , who was driving a flash new car . While it was rumoured that he got the car from Fianna Fail this was not exactly true .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
The 'Agreement' (Hillsborough Treaty) was not a major subject of conversation on the election canvass , though it did recur ; Seamus Mallon (SDLP) thought the effect was "...subliminal.. " . Mostly the voters wondered aloud if this time the Unionist , unexciting Jim Nicholson , might be beatable and Mallon told the like an incantation at doorstep after doorstep ... "... we're going to do it , we're going to do it .. " . For some reason he rarely met accusations of 'splitting the nationalist vote ' , Sinn Fein's anti-SDLP theme-song in the election . (' 1169 ...' Comment ; at the time that was what the SDLP were doing - almost as if they wanted to spare their Westminsters' masters blushes by attempting to ensure that they would not have to suffer having 'a fenian about the place' . Nowadays , the ony difference between Provisional Sinn Fein and the SDLP are the letters 'D' , 'F' and 'L' !)
To the last couple of days , though , Seamus Mallon worried about Newry's Catholic thousands who did not come out in the local government elections in May 1985 : " Round Markethill , now, my place , Poyntzpass , Tandragee , Hamiltonbawn , where they're very much in the minority , they'll come out and vote to a man (sic) . "
In Armagh , Sinn Fein Councillor Tommy Carroll advanced his candidate's cause as a canvasser simply by being known to have lost one brother , an unarmed IRA man , to a shoot-to-kill RUC squad , while UDR men from the local Drumadd Base face trial for the murder of another . Armagh people asked Seamus Mallon about the UDR and RUC as well ; Mallon was firm - 'they would have to clean up their act' , he said . ( ' 1169...' Comment - ...and that was 'firm' - for a nationalist . A Republican would have called for the disbandment of both groups .)
Mallon had not welcomed an 'Agreement' without being very sure that it could lead to radical changes . It was a beginning . ( ' 1169 ... ' Comment - The Hillsborough Treaty offered only to 'tweak' a corrupt system , not to 'radically' change it . But the SDLP would have been quite happy with a bit of 'tweaking' as indeed , would the Provos be now .) Seamus Mallon beat Official Unionist Party candidate Jim Nicholson by a healthy 2,583 votes ; the Sinn Fein candidate , Jim McAllister , was down over 3,000 votes from his performance in the general election of 1983 .
Jim Nicholson (OUP) improved his vote by over one thousand ; the turnout was virtually the same as in 1983 . From that point on you paid your money and you took your choice ! The votes for the fifteen Unionists , and for SDLP versus Sinn Fein were subjected to swift , non-scientific , highly political analysis and the various parties drew the conclusions they wished to .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
5. Evacuation Lessons.
John O'Grady did not yet suspect it but he was actually in Carriggtwohill in County Cork , and not in the North of Ireland as he was led to believe . For the second time in a week his living standards were to drop sharply but , compared with what was to follow , the grimy cellar in Gerry Wright's barber shop would seem a very attractive place indeed ...
The first night was'nt too bad ; he spent it in a cottage which was damp with , he noticed , lots of cobwebs in the corner . Early next morning he was taken by Dessie O' Hare out to a shed in the yard . Entrance to the shed was through a two-foot hole in the wall . Tony McNeill and Fergal Toal resumed their guard duties . Each morning they would take their mattresses out through the hole and then travel a couple of hundred yards through gorse undergrowth to a clearing - here they would remain until sundown .
They put blankets over themselves to keep out the cold ; John O'Grady read books supplied by his captors and listened to the radio ; at night they returned to the shed , which was made from bare cement blocks and measured ten feet by eight , with a corrugated iron roof and a mud floor . O'Grady by now was learning to associate the intermittent appearance of gang leader Dessie O'Hare with disruption or trouble . O'Hare returned on the night of October 20 th ; O'Grady was finding him increasingly volatile and aggressive - O'Hare enquired of O'Grady's guard whether he (O'Grady) was getting in and out of the hole in the shed quickly enough , and was told that O'Grady was a bit slow .
Chains were produced and attached to both wrists and ankles ; O'Hare then got a scarf and gagged O'Grady : he started to kick O'Grady in the head , legs , bottom and back . O'Grady put his hands around his head and tried to scream through the gag . Dessie O'Hare was shouting and cursing that he was'nt getting out of the hole quickly enough ; he stopped the beating and said - " When I say go , you are to gather your mattress and get out of the hole . " Once instructed , O'Grady immediately gathered up his mattress and dived for the hole but he was'nt fast enough for O'Hare and received another kicking . He went again , this time more quickly and his improved speed seemed to satisfy O'Hare's evacuation requirements .......
(MORE LATER).
Friday, September 16, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
Fianna Fail's contacts in the Six Counties were in tatters due to the demise of the 'Nationalist Party' and there was serious concern that the IRA might take the initiative . The (Free State) Army and Gardai were instructed to concentrate their intelligence work on both sides of the border .
(FS) Taoiseach Jack Lynch went on television and announced - " The Stormont Government is evidently no longer in control of the situation ....the Government of Ireland (sic) has requested the British Government to apply to the United Nations for urgent despatch of a peace-keeping force to the Six Counties ....many injured do not wish to be treated in Six County hospitals , so Irish Army (sic) authorities have been instructed to establish field hospitals in Donegal and other points on the border ... " .
The Republican tone of Jack Lynch's words such as "...Six County hospitals .. " illustrates the strong Republican stance of his Government* . But other things were happening behind the scenes which were not announced . ( * ' 1169 ... Comment - ...those words 'illustrated' no such thing ; what they did illustrate was that Jack Lynch was more than capable of 'playing' to his own party , amongst others . )
The British Army intervened and * defended the nationalist areas in Derry but on the night of August 14th trouble with a capital 'T' broke out in Belfast . ( * ' 1169 ... ' Comment - ...the British Army moved in , under pressure from the worlds media , to force the loyalists back out of the neighbourhoods in which the Nationalists lived . It was propagated as "defence" by Westminster . ) Ten people died that night , hundreds of houses burned to the ground and refugees in their thousands swept South . Northern nationalist leaders appeared at the nightly public meetings at the GPO in Dublin and everyone was openly demanding arms and money .
Dr. Patrick Hillery , then (FS) Minister for External Affairs in the Dublin Government , flew to London where he was told to mind his own business before flying off to America and the UN where he was to raise the matter at the Security Council .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
When Seamus Mallon (SDLP) began crusading on the UDR the general verdict inside his party was that he was electioneering - not that anyone blamed him . At 50 , with several episodes of heart trouble behind him and generally patchy health , this was his fourth and surely last try at Westminster .
He has suffered more than most Northern politicians for his political persistence - apparently doomed to watch at galling close-hand John Hume jetting off to 'hobnob' with other international statesmen forever , while he stayed home doing constituency work on the kitchen table with his wife Gertrude nursing to keep the family .
Out of expediency and principle and sentiment combined , the SDLP gave the Newry-Armagh by-election their all ; John Hume 'lent' Mallon the young Mark Durkan from his Derry office , and turned up along the border and in cynical Newry to boost him - though he did manage a trip to the U.S. to pick up another honorary degree in between - and party workers weighed in from all over the North .
Local canvassers slogged the hardline estates in Newry and Armagh alike ; the candidate slogged along with them in the sleet and rain , through Derrybeg and Barcroft , big ex-footballer's frame deep in the collapsed driver's seat of a bashed old car bumping up and down the lanes of Derrynoose and Darkley . He met enough cautious welcome to make him start to hope , though he did'nt always say so .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
John O'Grady succeeded in having a brief conversation with Tony McNeill about his Republican beliefs and getting the British soldiers out of the North of Ireland ; McNeill told him he wanted to see a Socialist State in Ireand and every other country that was not already communist . O'Grady was allowed read the newspapers and was given his son's walkman radio to listen to ; he tuned in to pirate radio station NRG 103 FM .
On Thursday October 15 Dessie O'Hare and Eddie Hogan returned ; the kidnap was by now public knowledge . O'Hare then asked O'Grady for the names of other people whom they could contact to make a ransom demand ; O'Grady suggested a relative , an 'Auntie Bettie' , and Hilary Prentice , a solicitor who worked in the firm of Matheson Ormsby and Prentice : Hilary Prentice was a patient of O'Grady's . O'Hare asked O'Grady for details which would show his bona fides when he contacted them to demand the ransom .
John O'Grady provided details which were written down by Eddie Hogan ; the two then departed . The following morning O'Grady was supplied with a basin of hot water and allowed to wash ; he was also given the three morning newspapers which were full of news of the kidnap . Toal and McNeill also read the papers but did'nt pass any comment on them . O'Grady was given two books , ' Murder in The Vicarage' by Agatha Christie and an adventure thriller by Wilbur Smith called ' The Power of The Sword' . He passed the day reading and listening to the radio . Overhead he could hear movement in the barber's shop as Gerry Wright tended to his customers .
On the following Saturday , October 17 , Dessie O'Hare returned alone . John O'Grady was to be moved to a new location - on the journey the gang were in high spirits . They joked about the "...poor old 'Border Fox' being blamed for everyrthing .. " . They stopped after about an hour and O'Hare went to a takeaway to get fish and chips and curries and ate it in the car . O'Hare joked to O'Grady that he would take him for a drink except he might be recognised . They drove on . O'Hare suddenly ordered everyone in the car to get down and shouted " Brits !" and fired two shots out the window . John O'Grady now presumed he was in the North - they had driven for three to four hours in all .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
Fianna Fail's contacts in the Six Counties were in tatters due to the demise of the 'Nationalist Party' and there was serious concern that the IRA might take the initiative . The (Free State) Army and Gardai were instructed to concentrate their intelligence work on both sides of the border .
(FS) Taoiseach Jack Lynch went on television and announced - " The Stormont Government is evidently no longer in control of the situation ....the Government of Ireland (sic) has requested the British Government to apply to the United Nations for urgent despatch of a peace-keeping force to the Six Counties ....many injured do not wish to be treated in Six County hospitals , so Irish Army (sic) authorities have been instructed to establish field hospitals in Donegal and other points on the border ... " .
The Republican tone of Jack Lynch's words such as "...Six County hospitals .. " illustrates the strong Republican stance of his Government* . But other things were happening behind the scenes which were not announced . ( * ' 1169 ... Comment - ...those words 'illustrated' no such thing ; what they did illustrate was that Jack Lynch was more than capable of 'playing' to his own party , amongst others . )
The British Army intervened and * defended the nationalist areas in Derry but on the night of August 14th trouble with a capital 'T' broke out in Belfast . ( * ' 1169 ... ' Comment - ...the British Army moved in , under pressure from the worlds media , to force the loyalists back out of the neighbourhoods in which the Nationalists lived . It was propagated as "defence" by Westminster . ) Ten people died that night , hundreds of houses burned to the ground and refugees in their thousands swept South . Northern nationalist leaders appeared at the nightly public meetings at the GPO in Dublin and everyone was openly demanding arms and money .
Dr. Patrick Hillery , then (FS) Minister for External Affairs in the Dublin Government , flew to London where he was told to mind his own business before flying off to America and the UN where he was to raise the matter at the Security Council .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
When Seamus Mallon (SDLP) began crusading on the UDR the general verdict inside his party was that he was electioneering - not that anyone blamed him . At 50 , with several episodes of heart trouble behind him and generally patchy health , this was his fourth and surely last try at Westminster .
He has suffered more than most Northern politicians for his political persistence - apparently doomed to watch at galling close-hand John Hume jetting off to 'hobnob' with other international statesmen forever , while he stayed home doing constituency work on the kitchen table with his wife Gertrude nursing to keep the family .
Out of expediency and principle and sentiment combined , the SDLP gave the Newry-Armagh by-election their all ; John Hume 'lent' Mallon the young Mark Durkan from his Derry office , and turned up along the border and in cynical Newry to boost him - though he did manage a trip to the U.S. to pick up another honorary degree in between - and party workers weighed in from all over the North .
Local canvassers slogged the hardline estates in Newry and Armagh alike ; the candidate slogged along with them in the sleet and rain , through Derrybeg and Barcroft , big ex-footballer's frame deep in the collapsed driver's seat of a bashed old car bumping up and down the lanes of Derrynoose and Darkley . He met enough cautious welcome to make him start to hope , though he did'nt always say so .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
John O'Grady succeeded in having a brief conversation with Tony McNeill about his Republican beliefs and getting the British soldiers out of the North of Ireland ; McNeill told him he wanted to see a Socialist State in Ireand and every other country that was not already communist . O'Grady was allowed read the newspapers and was given his son's walkman radio to listen to ; he tuned in to pirate radio station NRG 103 FM .
On Thursday October 15 Dessie O'Hare and Eddie Hogan returned ; the kidnap was by now public knowledge . O'Hare then asked O'Grady for the names of other people whom they could contact to make a ransom demand ; O'Grady suggested a relative , an 'Auntie Bettie' , and Hilary Prentice , a solicitor who worked in the firm of Matheson Ormsby and Prentice : Hilary Prentice was a patient of O'Grady's . O'Hare asked O'Grady for details which would show his bona fides when he contacted them to demand the ransom .
John O'Grady provided details which were written down by Eddie Hogan ; the two then departed . The following morning O'Grady was supplied with a basin of hot water and allowed to wash ; he was also given the three morning newspapers which were full of news of the kidnap . Toal and McNeill also read the papers but did'nt pass any comment on them . O'Grady was given two books , ' Murder in The Vicarage' by Agatha Christie and an adventure thriller by Wilbur Smith called ' The Power of The Sword' . He passed the day reading and listening to the radio . Overhead he could hear movement in the barber's shop as Gerry Wright tended to his customers .
On the following Saturday , October 17 , Dessie O'Hare returned alone . John O'Grady was to be moved to a new location - on the journey the gang were in high spirits . They joked about the "...poor old 'Border Fox' being blamed for everyrthing .. " . They stopped after about an hour and O'Hare went to a takeaway to get fish and chips and curries and ate it in the car . O'Hare joked to O'Grady that he would take him for a drink except he might be recognised . They drove on . O'Hare suddenly ordered everyone in the car to get down and shouted " Brits !" and fired two shots out the window . John O'Grady now presumed he was in the North - they had driven for three to four hours in all .......
(MORE LATER).
Thursday, September 15, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
1969 : Street fighting in Derry saw an end to the possibility of internment in the South of Ireland - instead the Dublin Government began a series of special emergency cabinet meetings .
On August 13th , 1969 , in response to massive demonstrations on the streets of the South in support of the Northern minority , an invasion of Derry was considered and all previous rifts within the (FS) Cabinet were apparently forgotten .
The (FS) Army statement on their lack of preparedness , read to the (FS) Cabinet , helped Jack Lynch to quietly resist the invasion proposals : but the danger of pogroms in other parts of the North was a real fear . A compromise of seeking the agreement of the British Government to send the Irish (ie Free State) Army to protect Nationalist areas was agreed , and stronger dramatic action came in the establishment of military field hospitals on the border for those injured who did not want to risk going to a northern hospital for aid .
The 'dangers' of the left-wing-led IRA taking the initiative was also discussed and all were united that it could not be allowed .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
In the aftermath of the Hillsborough Treaty , Seamus Mallon issued cautions : the 'Agreement' was only as good as its implementation , there must be visible progress , and eventually after Tom King's unhelpful elaboration on Dr. Garrett Fitzgerald's acceptance of partition in perpetuity , came a growl from Seamus Mallon that Dublin had better get on with representing Nationalists in there and stop worrying about Unionist sensibilities , since that was'nt what they were there to worry about .
Some veteran John Hume-watchers cannot decide if there really has been all that tension between him and Mallon over the years , or whether it is useful to the party leader to have a sea-green incorruptible , friend of Haughey even , on his right-hand side : and whether Mallon is now playing that role for all it is worth , with Hume's blessing , in the Anglo-Irish process .
Certainly during the months of horse-trading and the last touchy stages , the advantages could be imagined - when Hume could point over his shoulder to that lined face , so stern on television , and tell the perfidious hacks of British diplomacy - " You expect me to sell that to him ? " . To which the British replied , at a very early stage indeed on the question of the UDR : " It cost £45,000 to train a soldier to fire a nuclear weapon in Germany and we are not going to get his fucking head blown off in Ballymurphy , are we ? Without the UDR we just have'nt the manpower that's needed , available . And the UDR keeps the Loyalists where everybody can see them . "
The SDLP , at least those in the know , settled for that , implicity accepting also the RUC as 'semi-trustworthy go-betweens' , and , yes - 'police' , "...who knew where the UDR landrovers are supposed to be at any given time .. " , as one SDLP man puts it , and can pull them into line . If they want to , that is .......
( ' 1169 ... ' Comment - The RUC were/are ['PSNI'] 'go-betweens' , right enough - they share any information they have between the UDA and the UVF . )
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
John O'Grady was put in a cellar ; his glasses and handcuffs were removed - he took stock of his new surroundings : the walls were bare . There was a blue coloured blanket hanging from the ceiling separating him from his captors . There was a black Victorian fireplace in the corner . The only heat being provided , however , was from one bar of a superser heater .
A dinner of roast beef , vegetables and potato was provided . Fergal Toal and Tony McNeill , who had returned with Dessie O'Hare , took up guard duties . Eddie Hogan and Dessie O'Hare left . It was Wednesday October 14 ; the first full day of this kidnap was nearing a close . Gerry Wright's cellar was to be ' home' for the next four days .
4. The "...poor old 'Border Fox' .. "
John O'Grady's guards were prepared to make minor concessions ; on Wednesday evening he was asked if he would like a drink . He asked for , and was provided with , a bottle of Muscadet wine and Ballygowan mineral water . The two mixed together is known as a 'spritzer' and is a fairly popular drink in many of Dublin's upwardly mobile bar lounges .
There was nothing salubrious about his present surroundings , however . The spritzer was served in a paper cup ; there was a bucket to urinate in and , for most of the time , he was handcuffed and obliged to wear the pair of blacked-out glasses . Meals were strictly functional - tea , toast and boiled eggs for breakfast , yogurt , fruit and sandwiches for lunch and burger and chips or Kentucky fried chicken in the evening .
Toal and McNeill worked in rotation , taking turns for sleep .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
1969 : Street fighting in Derry saw an end to the possibility of internment in the South of Ireland - instead the Dublin Government began a series of special emergency cabinet meetings .
On August 13th , 1969 , in response to massive demonstrations on the streets of the South in support of the Northern minority , an invasion of Derry was considered and all previous rifts within the (FS) Cabinet were apparently forgotten .
The (FS) Army statement on their lack of preparedness , read to the (FS) Cabinet , helped Jack Lynch to quietly resist the invasion proposals : but the danger of pogroms in other parts of the North was a real fear . A compromise of seeking the agreement of the British Government to send the Irish (ie Free State) Army to protect Nationalist areas was agreed , and stronger dramatic action came in the establishment of military field hospitals on the border for those injured who did not want to risk going to a northern hospital for aid .
The 'dangers' of the left-wing-led IRA taking the initiative was also discussed and all were united that it could not be allowed .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
In the aftermath of the Hillsborough Treaty , Seamus Mallon issued cautions : the 'Agreement' was only as good as its implementation , there must be visible progress , and eventually after Tom King's unhelpful elaboration on Dr. Garrett Fitzgerald's acceptance of partition in perpetuity , came a growl from Seamus Mallon that Dublin had better get on with representing Nationalists in there and stop worrying about Unionist sensibilities , since that was'nt what they were there to worry about .
Some veteran John Hume-watchers cannot decide if there really has been all that tension between him and Mallon over the years , or whether it is useful to the party leader to have a sea-green incorruptible , friend of Haughey even , on his right-hand side : and whether Mallon is now playing that role for all it is worth , with Hume's blessing , in the Anglo-Irish process .
Certainly during the months of horse-trading and the last touchy stages , the advantages could be imagined - when Hume could point over his shoulder to that lined face , so stern on television , and tell the perfidious hacks of British diplomacy - " You expect me to sell that to him ? " . To which the British replied , at a very early stage indeed on the question of the UDR : " It cost £45,000 to train a soldier to fire a nuclear weapon in Germany and we are not going to get his fucking head blown off in Ballymurphy , are we ? Without the UDR we just have'nt the manpower that's needed , available . And the UDR keeps the Loyalists where everybody can see them . "
The SDLP , at least those in the know , settled for that , implicity accepting also the RUC as 'semi-trustworthy go-betweens' , and , yes - 'police' , "...who knew where the UDR landrovers are supposed to be at any given time .. " , as one SDLP man puts it , and can pull them into line . If they want to , that is .......
( ' 1169 ... ' Comment - The RUC were/are ['PSNI'] 'go-betweens' , right enough - they share any information they have between the UDA and the UVF . )
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
John O'Grady was put in a cellar ; his glasses and handcuffs were removed - he took stock of his new surroundings : the walls were bare . There was a blue coloured blanket hanging from the ceiling separating him from his captors . There was a black Victorian fireplace in the corner . The only heat being provided , however , was from one bar of a superser heater .
A dinner of roast beef , vegetables and potato was provided . Fergal Toal and Tony McNeill , who had returned with Dessie O'Hare , took up guard duties . Eddie Hogan and Dessie O'Hare left . It was Wednesday October 14 ; the first full day of this kidnap was nearing a close . Gerry Wright's cellar was to be ' home' for the next four days .
4. The "...poor old 'Border Fox' .. "
John O'Grady's guards were prepared to make minor concessions ; on Wednesday evening he was asked if he would like a drink . He asked for , and was provided with , a bottle of Muscadet wine and Ballygowan mineral water . The two mixed together is known as a 'spritzer' and is a fairly popular drink in many of Dublin's upwardly mobile bar lounges .
There was nothing salubrious about his present surroundings , however . The spritzer was served in a paper cup ; there was a bucket to urinate in and , for most of the time , he was handcuffed and obliged to wear the pair of blacked-out glasses . Meals were strictly functional - tea , toast and boiled eggs for breakfast , yogurt , fruit and sandwiches for lunch and burger and chips or Kentucky fried chicken in the evening .
Toal and McNeill worked in rotation , taking turns for sleep .......
(MORE LATER).
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
One of those expelled from the Republican Movement for preventing the 'Connolly Youth' group from marching at an Easter Commemoration was Nobby Ferguson , the 1967 Mayor of Sligo ; a revolt in the ranks was obviously simmering when the bodies of IRA martyrs Barnes and MacCormack were brought back and buried in Mullingar ; the chief organiser of the Mullingar funeral was Ruairi O Bradaigh .
The platform was used by an 'old brigade' man for an attack on the IRA leadership for its left-wing policies - the attack had been preceded by a local Republican woman rubbing it into the 'Commies' - she recited five decades of the rosary just as the proceedings commenced !
Bank raids became fashionable with Saor Eire taking much of the credit ; between the IRA burnings of the foreign-owned farms which caused uproar in the West German Parliament and the bank raids , the Fianna Fail government seriously considered the possibility of selective internment - a figure in the region of 50 people to be interned was discussed .
In early August 1969 , (FS) Taoiseach Jack Lynch met the editors of the Dublin newspapers and requested that they ignore IRA statements about their actions South of the border ; he also drew to their attention that in fact it was illegal to be reproducing IRA statements ! But then the 'Troubles' in the North began to erupt .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
Seamus Mallon , SDLP MP , made ritual angry noises on what he would expect in the line of curbing the UDR , though he knew that there was no chance of it being disbanded . Then he flatly denounced the very idea of an anti-violence pledge * to be taken by all future election candidates , still a negotiating gambit on the British side as the Agreement package reached the 'tying-up' stage .
John Hume duly showered Mallon with praise in the conference's big set-piece , the 'Leaders Speech' - he all but called his deputy the conscience of the party , to happy delegates' applause . Another piece of neat Hume 'packaging' .
* Re the British-imposed Political Test Oath :
" I declare that , if elected , I will not by word or deed express support for or approval of -
(A) Any organisation that is for the time being a proscribed organisation specified in Schedule 2 to the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1978 : or
(B) Acts of terrorism (that is to say , violence for political ends) connected with the affairs of Northern Ireland . "
The British 'Oath' called for the public disowning of the Irish Republican Army , Cumann na mBan , Fianna Eireann and a repudiation of the right of the Irish people to use force of arms to end British occupation . That right has been asserted in every generation and in those 836 years it has been asserted at tremendous cost in terms of life , liberty and human suffering .
Republicans will not allow Ireland's fight for freedom to be branded "...over 800 years of crime.. " - we have never accepted British 'oaths' of allegiance : for fifty years Republican candidates were debarred from public office because of their refusal to take such 'oaths' . Many public bodies were abolished for refusing to take an 'oath' of allegiance to the British Crown - it required the great upheaval of the Civil Rights Movement and the armed resistance of the people to smash the oath at local government level .
Meekly accepting the taking of such an 'oath' demeans the whole cause of Irish Republicanism and dishonour's all those who gave their lives for Irish freedom - particularly the twenty-two men that have died on hunger-strike between 1917 and 1981 .
(MORE LATER).
.......on 'The Sea Green Incorruptible'.
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 .
3. " Look As Natural As Possible... "
The car slowed down and mounted two kerbs or bumps ; from inside the boot John O'Grady could hear a roller door being opened . Dessie O'Hare got into a second car and drove off . The plan had been for McNeill and Toal , who remaimed behind in the house , to drive off after a time in John O'Grady's car which they were then to dump outside the Fairways Hotel in Dundalk . This was to create the impression that the gang had gone across the border .
Dessie O'Hare switched cars and drove off to meet with McNeill and Toal to bring them back to Dublin ; back in the lock-up garage John O'Grady could hear Eddie Hogan snoring . In the boot , O'Grady munched a pear from the stock of provisions . He , too , dozed off . When he woke he asked Eddie Hogan if he could go to the toilet but was supplied with a milk bottle which he filled twice . A short time later Dessie O'Hare returned ; John O'Grady was released from the boot of the car and ordered into the back seat of another car .
The blindfold was removed and he was given a pair of glasses with the lenses blacked out with masking tape . They drove for about half an hour in heavy traffic - O'Grady was given a cigarette on the journey and told to pretend to smoke it and to look as natural as possible . Their destination was a barber's shop at 41 Parkgate Street in Dublin near Guinness's brewery . They were met by the proprietor of the premises , Gerry Wright ; O'Grady was led to a cellar ; his arm was shaking . Wright took his arm , told him he was alright and not to worry . The cellar was dilapidated , dusty and disused .
He was put sitting in a sweaty-smelling armchair in a corner .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
One of those expelled from the Republican Movement for preventing the 'Connolly Youth' group from marching at an Easter Commemoration was Nobby Ferguson , the 1967 Mayor of Sligo ; a revolt in the ranks was obviously simmering when the bodies of IRA martyrs Barnes and MacCormack were brought back and buried in Mullingar ; the chief organiser of the Mullingar funeral was Ruairi O Bradaigh .
The platform was used by an 'old brigade' man for an attack on the IRA leadership for its left-wing policies - the attack had been preceded by a local Republican woman rubbing it into the 'Commies' - she recited five decades of the rosary just as the proceedings commenced !
Bank raids became fashionable with Saor Eire taking much of the credit ; between the IRA burnings of the foreign-owned farms which caused uproar in the West German Parliament and the bank raids , the Fianna Fail government seriously considered the possibility of selective internment - a figure in the region of 50 people to be interned was discussed .
In early August 1969 , (FS) Taoiseach Jack Lynch met the editors of the Dublin newspapers and requested that they ignore IRA statements about their actions South of the border ; he also drew to their attention that in fact it was illegal to be reproducing IRA statements ! But then the 'Troubles' in the North began to erupt .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .......
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
Seamus Mallon , SDLP MP , made ritual angry noises on what he would expect in the line of curbing the UDR , though he knew that there was no chance of it being disbanded . Then he flatly denounced the very idea of an anti-violence pledge * to be taken by all future election candidates , still a negotiating gambit on the British side as the Agreement package reached the 'tying-up' stage .
John Hume duly showered Mallon with praise in the conference's big set-piece , the 'Leaders Speech' - he all but called his deputy the conscience of the party , to happy delegates' applause . Another piece of neat Hume 'packaging' .
* Re the British-imposed Political Test Oath :
" I declare that , if elected , I will not by word or deed express support for or approval of -
(A) Any organisation that is for the time being a proscribed organisation specified in Schedule 2 to the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1978 : or
(B) Acts of terrorism (that is to say , violence for political ends) connected with the affairs of Northern Ireland . "
The British 'Oath' called for the public disowning of the Irish Republican Army , Cumann na mBan , Fianna Eireann and a repudiation of the right of the Irish people to use force of arms to end British occupation . That right has been asserted in every generation and in those 836 years it has been asserted at tremendous cost in terms of life , liberty and human suffering .
Republicans will not allow Ireland's fight for freedom to be branded "...over 800 years of crime.. " - we have never accepted British 'oaths' of allegiance : for fifty years Republican candidates were debarred from public office because of their refusal to take such 'oaths' . Many public bodies were abolished for refusing to take an 'oath' of allegiance to the British Crown - it required the great upheaval of the Civil Rights Movement and the armed resistance of the people to smash the oath at local government level .
Meekly accepting the taking of such an 'oath' demeans the whole cause of Irish Republicanism and dishonour's all those who gave their lives for Irish freedom - particularly the twenty-two men that have died on hunger-strike between 1917 and 1981 .
(MORE LATER).
.......on 'The Sea Green Incorruptible'.
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 .
3. " Look As Natural As Possible... "
The car slowed down and mounted two kerbs or bumps ; from inside the boot John O'Grady could hear a roller door being opened . Dessie O'Hare got into a second car and drove off . The plan had been for McNeill and Toal , who remaimed behind in the house , to drive off after a time in John O'Grady's car which they were then to dump outside the Fairways Hotel in Dundalk . This was to create the impression that the gang had gone across the border .
Dessie O'Hare switched cars and drove off to meet with McNeill and Toal to bring them back to Dublin ; back in the lock-up garage John O'Grady could hear Eddie Hogan snoring . In the boot , O'Grady munched a pear from the stock of provisions . He , too , dozed off . When he woke he asked Eddie Hogan if he could go to the toilet but was supplied with a milk bottle which he filled twice . A short time later Dessie O'Hare returned ; John O'Grady was released from the boot of the car and ordered into the back seat of another car .
The blindfold was removed and he was given a pair of glasses with the lenses blacked out with masking tape . They drove for about half an hour in heavy traffic - O'Grady was given a cigarette on the journey and told to pretend to smoke it and to look as natural as possible . Their destination was a barber's shop at 41 Parkgate Street in Dublin near Guinness's brewery . They were met by the proprietor of the premises , Gerry Wright ; O'Grady was led to a cellar ; his arm was shaking . Wright took his arm , told him he was alright and not to worry . The cellar was dilapidated , dusty and disused .
He was put sitting in a sweaty-smelling armchair in a corner .......
(MORE LATER).
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
The General Election of June 1969 in the 26 Counties kept everyone busy in Fianna Fail and Neil Blaney abandoned his Northern speeches for the sake of the appearance of party unity . Nevertheless , the battles between George Colley , Charles J. Haughey and Neil Blaney continued with Jack Lynch as Taoiseach avoiding involvement .
Seamus Brady , the PR man/journalist , was active for Fianna Fail in the General Election turning out scripts which hit at the Labour Party for its 'red politics' ; Brady had been active in the previous year's referendum campaign on Proportional Representation and at a number of Fianna Fail Ard Fheisanna - always turning out 'hot' speeches for Fianna Fail leaders - mainly his friend Neil Blaney .
Seamus Brady was a member of the Dublin North-East Comhairle Dail Ceanntair of Fianna Fail and his professional touch - which he obtained while working for an English newspaper and later the 'Irish Press' newspaper - was always in demand . The Northern issues played little or no part in the June 1969 General Election when the country ' Backed Jack .... '
Meanwhile , in the 'unknown land' of the IRA , a group of Sligo members were expelled because they would not allow the 'Connolly Youth' group march at the Easter Commemoration .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
Seamus Mallon went to Westminster on Monday January 27 1986 . That night a UDR patrol opened fire on a car full of young Tyrone Catholics in the car-park of a pub near Cookstown .
As a text-book example of the pitfalls in the way of the Anglo-Irish Agreement (ie the Hillsborough Treaty) the sequence could hardly be bettered . One of Mr. Mallon's colleagues in Tyrone spoke with restraint of the dubious circumstances of the shooting ; Peter Barry (Fine Gael) demanded an explanation from the British government , and the UDR said those who fired the shots would not be suspended pending an inquiry because that would suggest guilt .
In other words , Mr. Seamus Mallon , SDLP MP - make what you can of that ! There's your Irish voice in the inter-governmental machinery for you , and your new voice at Westminster , and what effect have they had on the behaviour of your favourite targets of criticism , the overwhelmingly Protestant/Loyalist Ulster Defence Regiment ? Who were not accompanied at the time of the incident by the Royal Ulster Constabulary , needless to say , as the Taoiseach promised Northern Nationalists in the wake of Hillsborough they would henceforward be .
Seamus Mallon knew the score all along , better than anyone . When tight-lipped he stood before the party's annual conference last autumn and promised in so many words that he would not be joining his friend and mentor the Fianna Fail leader , Mr. Charles Haughey , in immediate opposition to the then imminent Anglo-Irish Agreement , his face showed the struggle that cost him . Party observers were not surprised , though they were relieved to hear him be so definite . " Where else can he go ? " they said , " ...he is not a well man , he's not fit to be fighting John Hume ... " .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
John O'Grady was taken upstairs to rejoin the rest of his family . He lay down on the bed beside his wife Marise ; he was aware that the gang had discussed the possibility of taking one of the children as well as himself . He talked it over with his wife . John O'Grady decided Anthony would be the one they should take along with himself . All the time gang-member Tony McNeill was sitting , armed with a shotgun , on a chair in the corner of the room watching them .
After an hour or two John O'Grady was taken down to the playroom where he was made to sit on a swivel chair ; Eddie Hogan talked with him for a while about Dr. Austin Darragh's wealth . Before the family was allowed go to bed for the night a ransom note demanding £300,000 was drafted .
2 . NOT THE SMOOTHEST OF OPERATORS .
In the morning , Dessie O'Hare took John O'Grady downstairs ; Marise O'Grady was told to get warm clothes , socks and wellington boots for her husband . He was to be kept in a field , she was told . John O'Grady was in the playroom with Tony McNeill guarding him . Shortly before nine o'clock one of the gang came in and blindfolded him with a lint and gauze dressing . O'Hare led him , still handcuffed , out to the back of the house to a car and John O'Grady was ordered to get into the boot .
Dessie O'Hare returned to the house . The 'phone rang . O'Hare stood over Marise O'Grady while she accepted an invitation from a friend to Sunday dinner . It was another cock up : O'Hare was not wearing his balaclava and Marise O'Grady got a good look at his face . O'Hare told her that he was leaving with her husband and warned her not to contact the Gardai . The car they were leaving in had already been packed with provisions from the house . The gang also took a walkman radio , walkie-talkies and a polaroid camera .
Two members of the gang , Fergal Toal and Tony McNeill , remained behind to ensure O'Hare's safe getaway . Dessie O'Hare and Eddie Hogan drove off with John O'Grady ; they intended driving to a lock-up garage on the north side of Dublin , but quickly lost their way . They were forced to rely on directions from John O'Grady who was blindfolded and in the boot . Less than twelve hours into the kidnap it was apparent Dessie O'Hare and his gang were not the smoothest of operators .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
The General Election of June 1969 in the 26 Counties kept everyone busy in Fianna Fail and Neil Blaney abandoned his Northern speeches for the sake of the appearance of party unity . Nevertheless , the battles between George Colley , Charles J. Haughey and Neil Blaney continued with Jack Lynch as Taoiseach avoiding involvement .
Seamus Brady , the PR man/journalist , was active for Fianna Fail in the General Election turning out scripts which hit at the Labour Party for its 'red politics' ; Brady had been active in the previous year's referendum campaign on Proportional Representation and at a number of Fianna Fail Ard Fheisanna - always turning out 'hot' speeches for Fianna Fail leaders - mainly his friend Neil Blaney .
Seamus Brady was a member of the Dublin North-East Comhairle Dail Ceanntair of Fianna Fail and his professional touch - which he obtained while working for an English newspaper and later the 'Irish Press' newspaper - was always in demand . The Northern issues played little or no part in the June 1969 General Election when the country ' Backed Jack .... '
Meanwhile , in the 'unknown land' of the IRA , a group of Sligo members were expelled because they would not allow the 'Connolly Youth' group march at the Easter Commemoration .......
(MORE LATER).
THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE .
Seamus Mallon , at 50 , has finally made it to Westminster , but the Anglo-Irish Agreement is still a difficult gamble .
Fionnuala O'Connor reports on the North after the elections .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1986 .
Seamus Mallon went to Westminster on Monday January 27 1986 . That night a UDR patrol opened fire on a car full of young Tyrone Catholics in the car-park of a pub near Cookstown .
As a text-book example of the pitfalls in the way of the Anglo-Irish Agreement (ie the Hillsborough Treaty) the sequence could hardly be bettered . One of Mr. Mallon's colleagues in Tyrone spoke with restraint of the dubious circumstances of the shooting ; Peter Barry (Fine Gael) demanded an explanation from the British government , and the UDR said those who fired the shots would not be suspended pending an inquiry because that would suggest guilt .
In other words , Mr. Seamus Mallon , SDLP MP - make what you can of that ! There's your Irish voice in the inter-governmental machinery for you , and your new voice at Westminster , and what effect have they had on the behaviour of your favourite targets of criticism , the overwhelmingly Protestant/Loyalist Ulster Defence Regiment ? Who were not accompanied at the time of the incident by the Royal Ulster Constabulary , needless to say , as the Taoiseach promised Northern Nationalists in the wake of Hillsborough they would henceforward be .
Seamus Mallon knew the score all along , better than anyone . When tight-lipped he stood before the party's annual conference last autumn and promised in so many words that he would not be joining his friend and mentor the Fianna Fail leader , Mr. Charles Haughey , in immediate opposition to the then imminent Anglo-Irish Agreement , his face showed the struggle that cost him . Party observers were not surprised , though they were relieved to hear him be so definite . " Where else can he go ? " they said , " ...he is not a well man , he's not fit to be fighting John Hume ... " .......
(MORE LATER).
23 DAYS IN HELL : THE STORY OF THE O'GRADY KIDNAPPING .......
The Gardai had in their possession a clue which could have led them to the O'Grady kidnappers and their captive some ten days earlier .
A card found in a rucksack after the Midleton shoot-out led them directly to the gang once they checked it out - but this was ten days later , by which time John O 'Grady had lost two of his fingers .
First published in 'MAGILL' Magazine , May 1988 .
By Michael O'Higgins .
John O'Grady was taken upstairs to rejoin the rest of his family . He lay down on the bed beside his wife Marise ; he was aware that the gang had discussed the possibility of taking one of the children as well as himself . He talked it over with his wife . John O'Grady decided Anthony would be the one they should take along with himself . All the time gang-member Tony McNeill was sitting , armed with a shotgun , on a chair in the corner of the room watching them .
After an hour or two John O'Grady was taken down to the playroom where he was made to sit on a swivel chair ; Eddie Hogan talked with him for a while about Dr. Austin Darragh's wealth . Before the family was allowed go to bed for the night a ransom note demanding £300,000 was drafted .
2 . NOT THE SMOOTHEST OF OPERATORS .
In the morning , Dessie O'Hare took John O'Grady downstairs ; Marise O'Grady was told to get warm clothes , socks and wellington boots for her husband . He was to be kept in a field , she was told . John O'Grady was in the playroom with Tony McNeill guarding him . Shortly before nine o'clock one of the gang came in and blindfolded him with a lint and gauze dressing . O'Hare led him , still handcuffed , out to the back of the house to a car and John O'Grady was ordered to get into the boot .
Dessie O'Hare returned to the house . The 'phone rang . O'Hare stood over Marise O'Grady while she accepted an invitation from a friend to Sunday dinner . It was another cock up : O'Hare was not wearing his balaclava and Marise O'Grady got a good look at his face . O'Hare told her that he was leaving with her husband and warned her not to contact the Gardai . The car they were leaving in had already been packed with provisions from the house . The gang also took a walkman radio , walkie-talkies and a polaroid camera .
Two members of the gang , Fergal Toal and Tony McNeill , remained behind to ensure O'Hare's safe getaway . Dessie O'Hare and Eddie Hogan drove off with John O'Grady ; they intended driving to a lock-up garage on the north side of Dublin , but quickly lost their way . They were forced to rely on directions from John O'Grady who was blindfolded and in the boot . Less than twelve hours into the kidnap it was apparent Dessie O'Hare and his gang were not the smoothest of operators .......
(MORE LATER).
Monday, September 12, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
Fianna Fail Minister Neil Blaney advised Northern Catholics not to support Northern Premier Captain Terence O'Neill , who was seeking their support in the Stormont elections in early 1969 . While O'Neill gave away ground to Ian Paisley , Fianna Fail were shattered by the result .
Their lap dog party , 'The Nationalist Party' , was smashed in the election and its leader Eddie McAteer was defeated for the Derry seat by John Hume . On this stage Kevin Boland's recollection was - " We considered the establishment of Fianna Fail on the other side of the border and had almost decided that this might have to be done . " He explained his reasoning : re-unification was not an issue in the Northern elections .
Others in Fianna Fail felt the danger of the Northern issue dictating politics in the South was real and something must be done to control the situation . This second possibility was very dangerous for Fianna Fail if they were to remain a force in the 26 Counties ; therefore it was essential that the Fianna Fail presence in the North be restored following the collapse of their close associates 'The Nationalist Party' . It was during this period that the first contact in modern times between Fianna Fail and the IRA took place .
A prominent businessman in South Derry approached his local IRA Officer Commanding whom he personally knew and passed on the message that there were plenty of guns and money available from the South ; the IRA man played along and reported back to his GHQ in Dublin while the businessman reported this recitation to a leading Fianna Fail TD from the border area .......
(MORE LATER).
SINN FEIN ALONE .......
As Sinn Fein has become more active , members of the government parties have sought to isolate the Provos politically .
The record shows , however , that some of those politicians have for years sought support from Sinn Fein - and some continue to do so in so far as it is politically expedient .
By JOHN McHUGH .
First published in ' MAGILL ' Magazine , September 1984.
The decision of the (FS) Government not to see members of Sinn Fein is important but even if there was'nt a general government policy on the matter , Ministers Kavanagh and Desmond could carry out a very effective embargo on their own . Environment and Health and Social Welfare are surely the two most important political Departments for a local politician .
Liam Kavanagh has made his position clear , the Donegal incident notwithstanding , and Barry Desmond has said that he would find it repugnant to have a member of Sinn Fein in his office , and that he would regard it as an act of political hygiene to have no dealings with a Sinn Fein member - Desmond was talking about a specific member of Sinn Fein : Phil Flynn , Vice President of Sinn Fein and General Secretary of the State's largest public service union , the LGPSU .
That trade union has several thousand members working in the health sector and it is doubtful that Phil Flynn will be withdrawing from delegations .
[ END of 'SINN FEIN ALONE' .]
(Tomorrow - ' THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE' - from 1986.)
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 told John O'Grady to open the safe - all that it contained was birth , baptism and marriage certificates , passports , a TV licence , other personal documents and jewellery worth just over a thousand pounds . O'Hare took everything . Marise O'Grady was upstairs in one of the bedrooms with her three children - they were under armed guard by another member of the gang , Tony McNeill .
Marise O'Grady found that McNeill was reasonable - he acceded to all her requests but attempts to draw him into conversation failed . He put his finger up to his lips to indicate that she should be quiet . Downstairs , Dessie O'Hare was in a foul temper . He summoned Marise O'Grady ; he was trying to think of a ruse that would entice Dr. Austin Darragh out to the house : one of his suggestions was that John O'Grady should ring him and tell Dr. Darragh that Marise had fallen down the stairs and broken her neck . Marise O'Grady told O'Hare the plan would not work - O'Hare kicked her on the backside . On the way back upstairs he called her a " ...lying cunt.. " .
The kidnap gang held a conference over tea and biscuits ; O'Hare lamented the fact that O'Grady was not a son of Dr. Darragh - he took the view that John O'Grady would be 'expendable' . The idea of taking Marise O'Grady was discussed but O'Hare was against taking a woman . John O'Grady was summoned downstairs again - the fourth member of the gang , Eddie Hogan , produced a video camera and filmed O'Grady , flanked on either side by Dessie O'Hare and Tony McNeill who had guns pointed at his head .
Afterwards they asked O'Grady where his video cassette player was , to check if the camera worked . 'MANOR HOUSE' has almost every modern convenience imaginable but John O'Grady told an incredulous O'Hare that they did not own a video cassette player . The reason , he explained to O'Hare , was that he did'nt want his children to watch video nasties .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
Fianna Fail Minister Neil Blaney advised Northern Catholics not to support Northern Premier Captain Terence O'Neill , who was seeking their support in the Stormont elections in early 1969 . While O'Neill gave away ground to Ian Paisley , Fianna Fail were shattered by the result .
Their lap dog party , 'The Nationalist Party' , was smashed in the election and its leader Eddie McAteer was defeated for the Derry seat by John Hume . On this stage Kevin Boland's recollection was - " We considered the establishment of Fianna Fail on the other side of the border and had almost decided that this might have to be done . " He explained his reasoning : re-unification was not an issue in the Northern elections .
Others in Fianna Fail felt the danger of the Northern issue dictating politics in the South was real and something must be done to control the situation . This second possibility was very dangerous for Fianna Fail if they were to remain a force in the 26 Counties ; therefore it was essential that the Fianna Fail presence in the North be restored following the collapse of their close associates 'The Nationalist Party' . It was during this period that the first contact in modern times between Fianna Fail and the IRA took place .
A prominent businessman in South Derry approached his local IRA Officer Commanding whom he personally knew and passed on the message that there were plenty of guns and money available from the South ; the IRA man played along and reported back to his GHQ in Dublin while the businessman reported this recitation to a leading Fianna Fail TD from the border area .......
(MORE LATER).
SINN FEIN ALONE .......
As Sinn Fein has become more active , members of the government parties have sought to isolate the Provos politically .
The record shows , however , that some of those politicians have for years sought support from Sinn Fein - and some continue to do so in so far as it is politically expedient .
By JOHN McHUGH .
First published in ' MAGILL ' Magazine , September 1984.
The decision of the (FS) Government not to see members of Sinn Fein is important but even if there was'nt a general government policy on the matter , Ministers Kavanagh and Desmond could carry out a very effective embargo on their own . Environment and Health and Social Welfare are surely the two most important political Departments for a local politician .
Liam Kavanagh has made his position clear , the Donegal incident notwithstanding , and Barry Desmond has said that he would find it repugnant to have a member of Sinn Fein in his office , and that he would regard it as an act of political hygiene to have no dealings with a Sinn Fein member - Desmond was talking about a specific member of Sinn Fein : Phil Flynn , Vice President of Sinn Fein and General Secretary of the State's largest public service union , the LGPSU .
That trade union has several thousand members working in the health sector and it is doubtful that Phil Flynn will be withdrawing from delegations .
[ END of 'SINN FEIN ALONE' .]
(Tomorrow - ' THE SEA GREEN INCORRUPTIBLE' - from 1986.)
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 told John O'Grady to open the safe - all that it contained was birth , baptism and marriage certificates , passports , a TV licence , other personal documents and jewellery worth just over a thousand pounds . O'Hare took everything . Marise O'Grady was upstairs in one of the bedrooms with her three children - they were under armed guard by another member of the gang , Tony McNeill .
Marise O'Grady found that McNeill was reasonable - he acceded to all her requests but attempts to draw him into conversation failed . He put his finger up to his lips to indicate that she should be quiet . Downstairs , Dessie O'Hare was in a foul temper . He summoned Marise O'Grady ; he was trying to think of a ruse that would entice Dr. Austin Darragh out to the house : one of his suggestions was that John O'Grady should ring him and tell Dr. Darragh that Marise had fallen down the stairs and broken her neck . Marise O'Grady told O'Hare the plan would not work - O'Hare kicked her on the backside . On the way back upstairs he called her a " ...lying cunt.. " .
The kidnap gang held a conference over tea and biscuits ; O'Hare lamented the fact that O'Grady was not a son of Dr. Darragh - he took the view that John O'Grady would be 'expendable' . The idea of taking Marise O'Grady was discussed but O'Hare was against taking a woman . John O'Grady was summoned downstairs again - the fourth member of the gang , Eddie Hogan , produced a video camera and filmed O'Grady , flanked on either side by Dessie O'Hare and Tony McNeill who had guns pointed at his head .
Afterwards they asked O'Grady where his video cassette player was , to check if the camera worked . 'MANOR HOUSE' has almost every modern convenience imaginable but John O'Grady told an incredulous O'Hare that they did not own a video cassette player . The reason , he explained to O'Hare , was that he did'nt want his children to watch video nasties .......
(MORE LATER).
Friday, September 09, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
The late 1960's were also the years of the Fianna Fail financial 'whizz-kids' of TACA : Colley , Haughey , Boland , Blaney and Lynch in the leadership and always in government . It was the days of the 1968 attempt by Fianna Fail to rid the country (sic) of Proportional Representation . But then came Derry in the middle of that campaign -
- on the 5th October 1968 , the RUC baton-charged a small march for Civil Rights at Duke Street , Derry . This was only the second Civil Rights march in the campaign of marches which commenced with 3,000 people marching from Coalisland to Dungannon on August 24th 1968 . On October 16th 1968 Fianna Fail lost the 'PR' referendum and the Derry 'scene' did not help .
Once the referendum was behind him , Fianna Fail Minister Neil Blaney turned his attention to the North ; he criticised the Civil Rights Association in the North for not having the re-unification of the country on its agenda . (' 1169 .... ' Comment - ...that was in 1968 ; in 1973 , Fianna Fail were amongst those telling Republicans that the 'Sunningdale Agreement' was the "solution" to the North . In 1985 they did the same with the 'Hillsborough Treaty' . In 1998 they did the same with the 'Stormont Treaty' ('GFA') . Fianna Fail and "re-unification of the country" are chalk and cheese . )
This was a deliberate tactic by those who initiated the Civil Rights Association - the leadership of the IRA . Neil Blaney strongly advised his party to discontinue the Lynch-O'Neill ' hands-across-the-border' and his speech was seen as an attempt to unseat his Taoiseach Jack Lynch ; Blaney kept up the speech-making on the North taking every opportunity of launching attacks on the Northern 'Premier' , Captain Terence O'Neill who was already under pressure from the Rev. Ian Paisley .......
(MORE LATER).
SINN FEIN ALONE .......
As Sinn Fein has become more active , members of the government parties have sought to isolate the Provos politically .
The record shows , however , that some of those politicians have for years sought support from Sinn Fein - and some continue to do so in so far as it is politically expedient .
By JOHN McHUGH .
First published in ' MAGILL ' Magazine , September 1984.
Pat Brady , a Sinn Fein member of Bundoran Urban District Council , was at a function last Spring in Killybegs at which Minister of State , George Bermingham , was also present ; Brady is a member of the local 'Vocational Educational Committee' and the function was a prize-giving ceremony for students .
Minister Bermingham was attending in his capacity as Minister of State at the Department of Education ; Brady (SF) says that the Minister said hello to him and that he feels he knew who he was .
County Councillors are frequently plagued with requests for support at (FS) Senate election time and often they remain on the Christmas mailing list . One member of Sinn Fein , Fra Browne , even recalls getting a box of chocolates from Fine Gael Senator Joe Lennon at the time of the last Senate elections . Sinn Fein members have often received requests for support from people on behalf of others and they have been asked to support members of other parties on certain local issues .
Before the ban many Sinn Fein members had had dealings with State Ministers such as Dick Spring , Ruairi Quinn , Austin Deasy , Alan Dukes and John Bruton .......
(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 .
Other members of the O'Grady household were aroused by the noisy incursion ; they were ushered at gunpoint by O'Hare into the bedroom of Anthony O'Grady (12) who was already on the telephone attempting to contact the gardai : " You little bastard , " said O'Hare , who promptly took the 'phone from him . The family was ushered into the bedroom of Louise O'Grady (6) , the youngest of the O'Grady family .
John O'Grady was taken downstairs to the front porch where the alarm and console for opening and closing the front gate in the driveway were located . He had difficulty convincing Dessie O'Hare that the alarm had not been switched on because it had been malfunctioning recently .
O'Hare wanted to know where Dr. Austin Darragh , the head of the Institute of Cinical Pharmacology , was . He was told that Dr. Darragh had not lived in the house for three and a half years . O'Hare went back upstairs . There was a telephone in Louise's bedroom too ; Marise O'Grady had dialled 999 , got through to the exchange and was awaiting connection to the police ...
... at that moment O'Hare entered the room - he flew into a rage and called Marise O'Grady a bitch and swore at her . The telephone was ripped out of the wall : Dessie O'Hare said that there had been a "...fuck up .. " and that they had got the wrong man . He told Marise O'Grady that a previous kidnap in which he had been involved had been bungled and it was important that they should not lose face .
John O'Grady was by this time handcuffed ; he had had to walk barefoot out to the porch through the broken glass . He was taken into the kitchen where he met Fergal Toal who was armed with a pump action shotgun and who he noticed was very nervous and breathing heavily .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
The late 1960's were also the years of the Fianna Fail financial 'whizz-kids' of TACA : Colley , Haughey , Boland , Blaney and Lynch in the leadership and always in government . It was the days of the 1968 attempt by Fianna Fail to rid the country (sic) of Proportional Representation . But then came Derry in the middle of that campaign -
- on the 5th October 1968 , the RUC baton-charged a small march for Civil Rights at Duke Street , Derry . This was only the second Civil Rights march in the campaign of marches which commenced with 3,000 people marching from Coalisland to Dungannon on August 24th 1968 . On October 16th 1968 Fianna Fail lost the 'PR' referendum and the Derry 'scene' did not help .
Once the referendum was behind him , Fianna Fail Minister Neil Blaney turned his attention to the North ; he criticised the Civil Rights Association in the North for not having the re-unification of the country on its agenda . (' 1169 .... ' Comment - ...that was in 1968 ; in 1973 , Fianna Fail were amongst those telling Republicans that the 'Sunningdale Agreement' was the "solution" to the North . In 1985 they did the same with the 'Hillsborough Treaty' . In 1998 they did the same with the 'Stormont Treaty' ('GFA') . Fianna Fail and "re-unification of the country" are chalk and cheese . )
This was a deliberate tactic by those who initiated the Civil Rights Association - the leadership of the IRA . Neil Blaney strongly advised his party to discontinue the Lynch-O'Neill ' hands-across-the-border' and his speech was seen as an attempt to unseat his Taoiseach Jack Lynch ; Blaney kept up the speech-making on the North taking every opportunity of launching attacks on the Northern 'Premier' , Captain Terence O'Neill who was already under pressure from the Rev. Ian Paisley .......
(MORE LATER).
SINN FEIN ALONE .......
As Sinn Fein has become more active , members of the government parties have sought to isolate the Provos politically .
The record shows , however , that some of those politicians have for years sought support from Sinn Fein - and some continue to do so in so far as it is politically expedient .
By JOHN McHUGH .
First published in ' MAGILL ' Magazine , September 1984.
Pat Brady , a Sinn Fein member of Bundoran Urban District Council , was at a function last Spring in Killybegs at which Minister of State , George Bermingham , was also present ; Brady is a member of the local 'Vocational Educational Committee' and the function was a prize-giving ceremony for students .
Minister Bermingham was attending in his capacity as Minister of State at the Department of Education ; Brady (SF) says that the Minister said hello to him and that he feels he knew who he was .
County Councillors are frequently plagued with requests for support at (FS) Senate election time and often they remain on the Christmas mailing list . One member of Sinn Fein , Fra Browne , even recalls getting a box of chocolates from Fine Gael Senator Joe Lennon at the time of the last Senate elections . Sinn Fein members have often received requests for support from people on behalf of others and they have been asked to support members of other parties on certain local issues .
Before the ban many Sinn Fein members had had dealings with State Ministers such as Dick Spring , Ruairi Quinn , Austin Deasy , Alan Dukes and John Bruton .......
(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 .
Other members of the O'Grady household were aroused by the noisy incursion ; they were ushered at gunpoint by O'Hare into the bedroom of Anthony O'Grady (12) who was already on the telephone attempting to contact the gardai : " You little bastard , " said O'Hare , who promptly took the 'phone from him . The family was ushered into the bedroom of Louise O'Grady (6) , the youngest of the O'Grady family .
John O'Grady was taken downstairs to the front porch where the alarm and console for opening and closing the front gate in the driveway were located . He had difficulty convincing Dessie O'Hare that the alarm had not been switched on because it had been malfunctioning recently .
O'Hare wanted to know where Dr. Austin Darragh , the head of the Institute of Cinical Pharmacology , was . He was told that Dr. Darragh had not lived in the house for three and a half years . O'Hare went back upstairs . There was a telephone in Louise's bedroom too ; Marise O'Grady had dialled 999 , got through to the exchange and was awaiting connection to the police ...
... at that moment O'Hare entered the room - he flew into a rage and called Marise O'Grady a bitch and swore at her . The telephone was ripped out of the wall : Dessie O'Hare said that there had been a "...fuck up .. " and that they had got the wrong man . He told Marise O'Grady that a previous kidnap in which he had been involved had been bungled and it was important that they should not lose face .
John O'Grady was by this time handcuffed ; he had had to walk barefoot out to the porch through the broken glass . He was taken into the kitchen where he met Fergal Toal who was armed with a pump action shotgun and who he noticed was very nervous and breathing heavily .......
(MORE LATER).
Thursday, September 08, 2005
FIANNA FAIL AND THE IRA CONNECTION .......
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
In 1969 , the IRA was experiencing its own 'transformation' - the Cathal Goulding leadership was moving the organisation in a definite left-wing direction . Instead of organising for another border campaign he was openly declaring for a revolution ; but what he meant by revolution was not necessarily a blood bath but a change in the ownership of the resources of the country .
His leadership wanted the working-class to be owners of the country's resources ; a policy document found on an IRA man in 1966 spelt out how this was to be done - infiltration of peoples' organisations - the trade unions , the tenant associations etc and the establishment of organisations where there was a possibility of movement in a left-wing direction .
This development by the post 1962 leadership caused a few 'splutters' among the 'old brigade' ; many became inactive in the Republican Movement while many more dropped out . In the late 1960's this policy of the IRA was directly responsible for the emergence of the ' Northern Ireland (sic) Civil Rights Association ' , the ' Housing Action' committees , the 'Fish-In' Campaign (where the nationalisation of 'privately' owned rivers and lakes was demanded ) , land agitations and a host of other agitations .
Cathal Goulding's idea was to organise the people in support of what he and the majority in his small organisation sought . Inevitably the gun was produced which saw the burning of foreign owned farms in Meath and other areas , in support of small farmers resisting spiralling land prices brought on by foreign bidders . A fishing boat was blown up in Rossaveal in Connemara again in the name of the locals . Buses owned by the Silverdale company which was involved in carrying strike-breakers to work at Shannon were burned and blown-up in several areas around the country .
It was all a far cry from the traditional Republican policy of non-action in the 26 Counties .......
(MORE LATER).
SINN FEIN ALONE .......
As Sinn Fein has become more active , members of the government parties have sought to isolate the Provos politically .
The record shows , however , that some of those politicians have for years sought support from Sinn Fein - and some continue to do so in so far as it is politically expedient .
By JOHN McHUGH .
First published in ' MAGILL ' Magazine , September 1984.
Other examples of the embargo would be the refusal of Liam Kavanagh to see a delegation from Longford County Council to discuss road improvements ; the Sinn Fein member of the delegation , Michael Nevin , withdrew and the meeting then went ahead .
Minister Liam Kavanagh was accused of being anti-democratic ; he did not think he was - " I have accepted the democratic will of the people of Longford and saw the deputation . " He said that people who voted for Michael Nevin (SF) , who was Chairman of the County Council ... "...might not be aware of Sinn Fein policy .. "
Frank Glynn , who was elected by members of both the Fine Gael and Labour parties to the post of Chairman of Galway County Counci in 1979 and who has since voted for Fine Gael as well as Fianna Fail and Independent Chairmen , was turned away from Leinster House on March 15th . Minister of State at the Department of the Environment , Fergus O'Brien , said that he woud only meet a delegation from Galway County Council if Frank Glynn absented himself .
Eddie O'Doherty , a Sinn Fein member of Carrick-on-Suir Urban District Council , says that Minister of State , Eddie Collins , would not meet him on July 18th : O'Doherty says that he wanted to talk to the Minister about the closure of a local industry ........
(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 .
1. The O'Hare Gang Comes Calling .
John O'Grady was standing at the top of his stairs when Dessie O'Hare , attired in a grey suit and black balaclava , came smashing through the wooden framed glass-panels of his front door with a sledgehammer . Up to that point it had been an unremarkable day ...
O'Grady had returned home from his dental surgery in Wellington Road at six o'clock , a little earlier than usual . He had dinner with his wife Marise and three children , Darragh , aged thirteen , Anthony , twelve , and Louise , six . After dinner he went up to visit his mother Kitty O'Grady , who was sick . He returned home just before nine o'clock .
The children were already in bed ; John and Marise O'Grady decided to have an early night . They were in bed watching television when at around half past nine they heard the sound of breaking glass . They thought it might have been Anthony and Darragh playacting ; John O'Grady got up in his pyjamas and went to investigate .
Confronted with a stranger breaking down the door with a sledge-hammer , John O'Grady instinctively descended a few steps of the stairs . Now , Dessie O'Hare was standing in front of him pointing a gun at his head , threatening to blow him away . There were three other armed men , also wearing balaclavas , along with O'Hare . O'Grady told O'Hare not to panic , that he (O'Grady) was not going to do anything .......
(MORE LATER).
By Breasal O Caollai .
First published in ' New Hibernia ' Magazine , December 1986/January 1987 .
In 1969 , the IRA was experiencing its own 'transformation' - the Cathal Goulding leadership was moving the organisation in a definite left-wing direction . Instead of organising for another border campaign he was openly declaring for a revolution ; but what he meant by revolution was not necessarily a blood bath but a change in the ownership of the resources of the country .
His leadership wanted the working-class to be owners of the country's resources ; a policy document found on an IRA man in 1966 spelt out how this was to be done - infiltration of peoples' organisations - the trade unions , the tenant associations etc and the establishment of organisations where there was a possibility of movement in a left-wing direction .
This development by the post 1962 leadership caused a few 'splutters' among the 'old brigade' ; many became inactive in the Republican Movement while many more dropped out . In the late 1960's this policy of the IRA was directly responsible for the emergence of the ' Northern Ireland (sic) Civil Rights Association ' , the ' Housing Action' committees , the 'Fish-In' Campaign (where the nationalisation of 'privately' owned rivers and lakes was demanded ) , land agitations and a host of other agitations .
Cathal Goulding's idea was to organise the people in support of what he and the majority in his small organisation sought . Inevitably the gun was produced which saw the burning of foreign owned farms in Meath and other areas , in support of small farmers resisting spiralling land prices brought on by foreign bidders . A fishing boat was blown up in Rossaveal in Connemara again in the name of the locals . Buses owned by the Silverdale company which was involved in carrying strike-breakers to work at Shannon were burned and blown-up in several areas around the country .
It was all a far cry from the traditional Republican policy of non-action in the 26 Counties .......
(MORE LATER).
SINN FEIN ALONE .......
As Sinn Fein has become more active , members of the government parties have sought to isolate the Provos politically .
The record shows , however , that some of those politicians have for years sought support from Sinn Fein - and some continue to do so in so far as it is politically expedient .
By JOHN McHUGH .
First published in ' MAGILL ' Magazine , September 1984.
Other examples of the embargo would be the refusal of Liam Kavanagh to see a delegation from Longford County Council to discuss road improvements ; the Sinn Fein member of the delegation , Michael Nevin , withdrew and the meeting then went ahead .
Minister Liam Kavanagh was accused of being anti-democratic ; he did not think he was - " I have accepted the democratic will of the people of Longford and saw the deputation . " He said that people who voted for Michael Nevin (SF) , who was Chairman of the County Council ... "...might not be aware of Sinn Fein policy .. "
Frank Glynn , who was elected by members of both the Fine Gael and Labour parties to the post of Chairman of Galway County Counci in 1979 and who has since voted for Fine Gael as well as Fianna Fail and Independent Chairmen , was turned away from Leinster House on March 15th . Minister of State at the Department of the Environment , Fergus O'Brien , said that he woud only meet a delegation from Galway County Council if Frank Glynn absented himself .
Eddie O'Doherty , a Sinn Fein member of Carrick-on-Suir Urban District Council , says that Minister of State , Eddie Collins , would not meet him on July 18th : O'Doherty says that he wanted to talk to the Minister about the closure of a local industry ........
(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 .
1. The O'Hare Gang Comes Calling .
John O'Grady was standing at the top of his stairs when Dessie O'Hare , attired in a grey suit and black balaclava , came smashing through the wooden framed glass-panels of his front door with a sledgehammer . Up to that point it had been an unremarkable day ...
O'Grady had returned home from his dental surgery in Wellington Road at six o'clock , a little earlier than usual . He had dinner with his wife Marise and three children , Darragh , aged thirteen , Anthony , twelve , and Louise , six . After dinner he went up to visit his mother Kitty O'Grady , who was sick . He returned home just before nine o'clock .
The children were already in bed ; John and Marise O'Grady decided to have an early night . They were in bed watching television when at around half past nine they heard the sound of breaking glass . They thought it might have been Anthony and Darragh playacting ; John O'Grady got up in his pyjamas and went to investigate .
Confronted with a stranger breaking down the door with a sledge-hammer , John O'Grady instinctively descended a few steps of the stairs . Now , Dessie O'Hare was standing in front of him pointing a gun at his head , threatening to blow him away . There were three other armed men , also wearing balaclavas , along with O'Hare . O'Grady told O'Hare not to panic , that he (O'Grady) was not going to do anything .......
(MORE LATER).
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