A poet , a revolutionary , a social reformer : perhaps briefly mentioned in passing in academic circles , and one of the many Irish heros that goes unsung ~ born at Templepatrick in County Antrim in 1764 , Jemmy Hope is all of the above .
Largely self-educated , Hope, the son of a Presbyterian, left school at the age of ten and was apprenticed to a linen weaver . Having served his time , he left his job and became a traveller and journeyman . The French Revolution had a profound effect on his life and he was influenced by the writings of Paine and Rousseau - the ideas of equality and of the rights to life , liberty and property . In 1795 , he joined the United Irishmen , and became a close associate of many of the leading United Irishmen , including Theobald Wolfe Tone , Henry Joe McCracken and Thomas Russell. He was sent to Dublin in 1796 to scout for the Society .
He returned to the North of Ireland in 1798 and took part in the Battle of Ballynahinch during the Rising that year and , following the collapse of same, he went ' on the run ' in Ulster for five months before making his way to Dublin , where he worked as a weaver in the Liberties area of the city . Hope supported Robert Emmet in planning the rising of July 1803 but was on an organisational tour in Ulster when .......(MORE LATER)...

'SPOT THE DIFFERENCE' Competition -
" The Nationalist majority in the county Fermanagh stands at 3,640 . I would ask the meeting to authorise their executive to adopt whatever plans and take whatever steps, however drastic, to wipe out this Nationalist majority " ~ Unionist M P E.C.Ferguson , addressing a unionist convention in Enniskillen in 1948 .

" Now men , Sinn Fein has had all the sport up to the present , and we are going to have the sport now . You may make mistakes occassionally , and innocent persons may be shot , but that cannot be helped , and you are bound to get the right parties sometime . The more you shoot , the better I will like you , and I assure you , no policeman will get into trouble for shooting any man " ~ Colonel Smyth , RIC Divisional Police Commander for Munster , June 1920 .
Can't 'spot the difference' ? - wait 'till you see tomorrows two entries .....

.......were waiting with four cars to transport the escapees to safety , but they landed at the wrong spot ; approximately 500 yards away .The men realised their mistake and made their way to Queen's Road bus terminus where they commandeered a bus and drove across the city to the Markets area . During the journey , the bus was spotted by a British Army Land Rover which attempted to stop the vehicle ; however , the Brits backed-off when the bus entered the staunchly republican Markets district , which was then surrounded by British reinforcements . A search of the area was carried out by the British Army and RUC , but none of the escapees were found ~ the 'Magnificent Seven' were long gone to a different part of Belfast !
Eight years after Lemass and his ' we are for sale' statements (see yesterdays article) , the then Free State Foreign Affairs Minister , Patrick Hillery(Fianna Fail) said re EEC entry - " We would have to act closely in political as well as economic affairs and would have to participate in common action , even the defence of the new Europe " ; those that consider themselves this State's 'political elite' know the price of everything but the value of nothing .

In 1979 , the U S concluded a secret bilateral pact with Norway to allow nuclear munitions to be stored there under certain conditions , despite the wishes of the Norwegian electorate , expressed through a referendum . The secret pact was only accidentally discovered by the Oslo media five years after the event , 1984 . "Weapons of mass destruction" in Norway : So when you're finished with Iraq , George .....

....the day after the fifty men were transferred from the ship , the ' Magnificent Seven' escaped ~
One of the group had spotted a seal slip through a gap in the barbed-wire draped around the ship and it was decided that if the seal could come in , then they could go out !
The men used black boot polish to camouflag themselves and smeared each other in butter , to keep out the cold . They had already cut through a bar in a porthole which they now slipped through , and clambered down the Maidstone's steel hauser and entered the water . Several of them were badly cut by the barbed-wire , but they all managed to get through it . In single file , they swam the 400 yards through the ice-cold floodlit water to the shore : it took them twenty minutes , as some of the men could not swim and had to be helped by the others . On the bank , Volunteers of the Andersonstown unit of the IRA's Belfast Brigade were waiting with four cars to transport the escapees to safety , but ....(MORE LATER) ....
This State's intention re it's neutrality has not only been highlighted by the recent U S Army near take-over of Shannon -
In July 1962 , in New York, Sean Lemass stated~ " We are prepared to go into any integrated union without any reservations at all as to how far this would take us in the field of foreign policy or defence commitments" : also , while negotiating in Bonn for admission to the then EEC in October 1962 , Lemass said - " In the East-West conflict we are not neutral . We have made it quite clear that our desire is to participate in whatever political union may ultimately develop in Europe . We are making no reservations of any sort, including defence " .
Could someone out there please contact George Bush and tell him he's OK ; then contact Saddam and tell him he's welcome , too ~ after all , we have "no reservations of any sort" . Come one, come all .....

James Emerson Bryson , Tommy Tolan , Thomas Kane , Tommy Gorman , Peter Rodgers , Martin Taylor and Sean Convery : a group of Irish Republicans known as 'The Magnificent Seven' because of the nature of their escape from the Maidstone prison ship on January 17th , 1972 .
Of the 226 men detained following the introduction of internment in August 1971 , 124 were initially held in Crumlin Road Jail while the remainder were held on the Maidstone , a prison ship moored at the coalwharf in Belfast docks . The prison ship ,used as an emergency billet for British troops who arrived in 1969 , was totally unsuitable as a prison - it was cramped , stuffy and overcrowded , with the 'lock-up' section located at the stern below the deck , which was used twice a day for exercise . On January 16th , 1972 , fifty men were transferred from the ship to the new camp at Magilligan : this sudden move spurred on internees who were planning to escape .......(MORE LATER) ....
In 1883 , British Lord Salisbury declared - " Ireland must be kept , like India , at all costs; by persuasion,if possible , - if not, by force " . So the Brits purchased some of us and bullied the rest !
However , there's hope for us yet ~ On October 23rd , 1918 , Brit Lord Hugh Cecil stated - " We must accept the fact of Irish Nationality. It is regrettable , it is unhistorical ; in view of Ulsters feelings it is even absurd . But it is a fact : the majority of Irishmen do think Ireland a Nation and we must do the best we can in the circumstances "
"Unhistorical"? "Absurd"? Steady on , old chap .....
(Translation from Sunday - " Do not be breaking your shin on a stool that is not in your way").

.....the entire nationalist population of Lisburn were driven out of their homes by the UVF and other loyalist mobs . Nationalist areas of Belfast again came under attack from loyalist gangs - there were burnings ,shootings and looting on a massive scale which lasted until the end of that month .
In the last ten days of the pogrom , 31 men and women were killed and hundreds of Catholics were burned out of their homes : property damage was put at one million pounds . Within a week of the ending of the pogroms , the British government invited members of the loyalist murder-gangs and the UVF to join the newly-formed 'B-Specials' ! The 1920 pogroms subsided after five weeks , on September 3rd of that year , and are rarely discussed these days ; and no wonder ~ a shameful episode in a long list of shameful episodes which the British introduced into Ireland .

On October 28th , 1986(a Tuesday,I think!) , Colonel Gadaffi of Libya was interviewed on RTE television's ' Today/Tonight' programme and , amongst other things, said - " If I were the leader of the South of Ireland I would consider that the North is colonised and I would fight to liberate that part of Ireland" : the Free State Industry Minister at the time (now ex-leader of Fine Gael) Michael Noonan declared that Gadaffi's comments " had sent shock waves through the board-rooms of America" , which indicated that Free State government policy is dictated in the "board-rooms of America" as much as in the meeting-rooms of Strasbourg , Brussels and Whitehall !
Witness the servile attitude by this States gut-less , arrogant and un-principled administration to Bush's use of Shannon .If (when?) it comes back to haunt them and , unfortunately ,by association , the rest of us , we will all regret they forgot the following -- " Na bris do loirgin air stol nach bhfuil ann do shlighe" .
(Translation later)....

.....the campaign started with inconceivable ferocity on the night of July 19th , 1920 , when armed loyalist mobs attacked the Catholic areas of the city ~ setting fire to houses , shooting , looting ,and wrecking shops while the British military refused to intervene . The death toll after four days was 19(most of them Catholic) with over 200 wounded and thousands of pounds worth of damage caused to hundreds of nationalist homes . When the British Army finally intervened it was to fire upon IRA Volunteers who were attempting to drive back the loyalist mobs .
The following day , the entire Catholic workforce was driven at gun-point by the ' Belfast Protestant Association' out of the two shipyards , four main engineering works , the main building firm and a number of the linen mills in Belfast . A total of 10,000 men and 1,000 women were expelled . During a debate at Westminster , Carson defended the pogroms and expulsions of the nationalist workforce while the British government was denounced by nationalist MP's for callously and deliberately formenting the sectarian attacks in Belfast to justify their proposed partition scheme .
During August 1920 , the 'Ulster Volunteer Force' (UVF) openly re-organised in the North . On August 22nd , following the execution by the IRA in Lisburn of District Inspector Swanzy of the RIC (who was responsible for the murder earlier in the year of the Mayor of Cork, Tomas MacCurtain) , the entire nationalist population of the town were .....(MORE LATER)....

In May 1989 , the London magazine 'Time Out' uncovered a letter written in 1987 by Lord Marshall of Goring , then Chairperson of the Central Electricity Generating Board , which was at the time Windscales most important customer . The letter was written to the then Tory Energy Secretary ,Peter Walker , but was never sent . In it , it was conceeded that Windscales environmentalist opponents had been correct - "A major part of the past problems at Sellafield(Windscale) and a substantial part of potential problems in the future are due to the simple fact that Sellafield has the wrong technology" ; also ,(see 'The Sunday Tribune' Colour Magazine ,June 4th,1989, page 6) the letter stated that it had been "nothing less than a failure of policy-making (by BNFL) which had resulted in radioactive leaks at Sellafield and a loss of public confidence in that plant and in nuclear power generally" . BAD MENTAL PICTURE - Homer,Springfield ,DOH!

......the boycott was not sufficiently crippling , for though Belfast was the main distribution centre for large areas outside the Six Counties , the backbone of its economy was manufacturing industry , which exported the bulk of its products to Britain and her colonies . In addition , the industries where most of the expulsions had taken place(shipbuilding and engineering) hardly did any trade with the rest of Ireland . However , the boycott sent a clear message to the Loyalists and their British paymasters - the Six Counties had not been abandoned by the people in the rest of the country .
The pogroms that encouraged the boycott have their own tale to tell ~ During the summer of 1920 , with the British administration in Ireland virtually crippled by the IRA's guerrilla war , Belfast witnessed its worst pogroms for almost a century . In July , with the ' Government of Ireland' Bill being debated at Westminster and the partition of Ireland stated to be "inevitable" , the Loyalists were determined to secure , at the very minimum , a state comprising the six north-eastern counties of Ireland . Concerned that they might be left with a four-county state and , worse still , that the working-class Protestants might join ranks with the Nationalists in the poverty-stricken conditions of post-war Belfast , Loyalist bigots,urged on by the sectarian rhetoric of Edward Carson , began a series of systematic attacks and pogroms against the Nationalist population of Belfast ; the campaign started with inconceivable ferocity .....(MORE LATER)>

" Is it likely that we could have the British rail police , harbour police , Scotland Yard , all involved? Forensic people? The Jury? The Judges? And that each and every one of those had been 'got at'? I don't believe it is possible in the society that we have that this could happen " -- Ken Maginnis ,RTE's favourite Unionist, ' Hot Press' magazine ,February 9th, 1989 , page 20 , on the 'Birmingham Six' .
Well there ya go , Ken! And its not that the "rail police,harbour police,Scotland Yard" etc etc were "got at"~more like they volunteered.....

.....the boycott got underway on a huge scale in early September 1920 when the Council of County Councils issued a recommendation that the boycott should be adopted throughout Ireland . At a meeting of Dublin Corporation several days later a committee was organised to put the boycott into immediate effect . During the following months, the boycott was strictly enforced throughout the country by the IRA , who were assisted by the Republican Police, Cumann na mBan and Fianna Eireann .
IRA Volunteers attacked lorries and trains carrying goods produced in Belfast , and a special ' Boycott Patrol' raided shops and warehouses in Dublin and other towns , seizing Belfast goods and taking action against firms which handled them . The population were given ' black lists' and were encouraged to boycott firms which dealth with Belfast and to withdraw deposits from Belfast-based banks . In January , 1921 , the Dail appointed Joseph McDonagh ,acting Minister for Labour while Countess Markievicz was in jail , as Director of the Belfast boycott and voted £72,500 for the campaign , which continued throughout 1921 until after the signing of the Treaty the following December .
Although the boycott was effective and harmed the Belfast economy , it failed to achieve its main object - the reinstatement of the expelled Nationalist workers in Belfast .......(MORE LATER).

On Saturday , November 1st , 1986 , 15,000 Scottish loyalists gathered in a Glasgow park to hear the Rev. Ian Paisley call for a "fight to the death" against the 1985 Hillsborough Treaty . The same crowd later heard the then OUP leader, James Molyneaux, say - " We are not here to organise or raise an illegal army. We are not here to entice young people to violence" ;
--- "fight to the death" but "don't use violence" ~ Scottish loyalists sure are different from their colleagues in this country ......

.....the Dail was divided on the issue .....
.....with the resolution initially opposed by many of the available deputies , including Countess Markievicz , Terence MacSwiney , Ernest Blyth and Arthur Griffith. Countess Markievicz was not convinced that a boycott of Belfast goods would be effective and warned - " to declare a blockade would be playing into the hands of the enemy and giving them an excuse for partition " , while Griffith felt that the resolution was practically a declaration of war by the Republican government on part of its own territory .
After much discussion , the Dail declared it illegal for employers to require religious tests as a condition of employment but postponed its decision on a boycott of Belfast goods . However , when pogroms against Nationalists were resumed in Belfast at the end of August 1920 (resulting in 31 deaths)the Dail agreed to implement a boycott and from September 1920 , a strict boycott of goods from Belfast , Lisburn and a number of other northern towns was begun .
The Belfast boycott started in August 1920 on unofficial lines when shops in Galway city refused to stock goods originating from Belfast but it got underway on a huge scale in early September when .......
...(MORE LATER)...

During the 'Great Hunger' in this country in 1848 , British Lord Londonderry made a contribution of £20 to relief-efforts and his wife donated £10 , while at the same time spending £15,000 renovating their house in Mount Stewart ; presumably so the poor wretches outside his estate would see something pretty before they died of hunger . During that same period , each British Landlord was responsible for paying the rates of every tenant who paid less than £4 in yearly rent , so those whose land was crowded with poor tenants were faced with huge bills . The tenants on their estates were too poor to pay anything , so they were evicted from their small plots and the land was re-let in bigger lots to people with more money : to do that anytime would be bad enough , but to do it while the tenants were in the state they were must require a certain 'stiff-upper-lipness' .

....the 'boycott' call was made in response to the anti-Catholic rioting and pogroms in Belfast in July 1920 , during which 19 people ,most of them Catholics, were killed and over 200 wounded , Thousands of pounds worth of damage was caused to hundreds of Nationalist homes , and the campaign of discrimination against Nationalists by Loyalist employers intensified , with those lucky enough to have a job being required to sign a declaration of loyalty to the British crown .
Sean McEntee , a native of Belfast and TD for South Monaghan in the 32-County Dail Eireann , urged the Dail to sanction a boycott of goods manufactured in Belfast. On August 6th , 1920 , McEntee , on behalf of four Sinn Fein members of Belfast Corporation , appealed for help in "the war of extermination being waged against us " and , in a resolution, called for a boycott of Belfast goods and a withdrawal of funds from Belfast-based banks by people in the rest of Ireland . At all times it was made clear that Protestants in other parts of Ireland would not be molested in any way on account of the actions of their co-religionists in Belfast.
However , the Dail was divided on the issue , with the resolution initially being opposed by many of the available deputies ..... (MORE LATER)>

A few days ago , Dublin was practically brought to a stand-still by the Irish Farmers Association , when thousands of farmers, driving tractors, headed for Dublin , and 300 of their number drove into the City Centre ; this reminded me of an earlier tractor blockade -- that which was organised by Ian Paisley in 1977 :
Paisley organised a tractor blockade of Ballymena , as part of an " all-out offensive" by the 'United Unionist Action Council' . The UUAC wanted the British Government to crack down harder on Republicans and to set up a parliament along the lines of the old Stormont . Paisley issued what he called a " solemn promise " to leave politics forever if the UUAC did'nt succeed - it did'nt and Paisley did'nt !
His own followers should have had the measure of the man from that stunt , but....did'nt !
Ah well- it was 26 years ago: no use crying.....

....and, in England , the mutineers suffered long periods of solitary confinement and ill-treatment during their fight for political status ( a fight which is still going on today) . They were later moved to Maidstone Prison and , on January 3rd, 1923, the remaining sixty mutineers were released and returned to Ireland.
In October 1970 , the remains of Daly , Smythe and Sears were brought back to Ireland : Smythe , a native of Drogheda, Co. Louth and Sears, from Neale , Co. Mayo , were buried in the Republican Plot in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin . James Daly , who was executed in Jullunder in India on November 2nd , 1920 , was re-interred in his native Tyrellspass .
If the English were'nt killing Irishmen in Ireland , they were killing them abroad .

In the same year that James Daly was executed , the First Dail Eireann made one of it's most controversial decrees - its decision , in the summer of 1920 , to implement a boycott of Belfast goods ...... (MORE LATER)........

Francis Hughes and the last will and testament of SAS man David Anthony Jones -- The issue was referred to the High Court in London in July 1980 . Delving into ancient preceendent ( one going back to the middle ages) , Mr Justice Arnold concluded that Jones had been engaged in active military service against " a conjuration of clandestine assassins and arsonists " and that was enough to validate his will , resulting in Anne Mannering receiving Jones' £3000 death grant and belongings ( despite bitter protest from Jones' mother) .
Judge Arnold was not , of course, required to delve into precedent on the reverse question , as to whether " a conjuration of assassins and arsonists" on active service were entitled to special status !!

....... On June 30 , 1916 , following the deaths of Privates Patrick Smythe and Peter Sears in an attempt to capture the magazine at Solon , the mutiny ended . Seventy-five of the mutineers were arrested and taken to Lucknow where they were held until September when they were moved to Dayshai Prison to stand trial .
While awaiting trial ,the prisoners were subjected to such harsh treatment by the British that it resulted in the death of one of the men , Private John Miranda , a native of Liverpool . At the subsequent general court-martial , fourteen of the prisoners were sentenced to death and the remainder to terms of imprisonment varying from ten - twenty years . In mid-October , 13 of the fourteen death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment - the exception was Jim Daly , a native of Tyrellspass , County Westmeath . After six months , the mutineers were transferred to Portland Convict Prison in England , where they suffered ........(MORE LATER) >

Francis Hughes , an IRA Volunteer , was arrested on March 16 ,1978 , after a gun battle with British soldiers in a field in his native South Derry , in which a British SAS man , David Anthony Jones , was killed . Before he died , Jones told his colleagues that he wanted his girlfriend , Anne Mannering , whom he was planning to marry , to get - " all my stuff" . Under English law ,there are two circumstances in which a verbal ( as opposed to a written) last will and testament is binding - the first is if it is made by a sailor at sea : the second is if it is by a soldier during a state of war ......... (MORE LATER)

.....after the split in the Republican Movement in January 1970 , Jimmy Steele , a member of the IRA's Belfast Brigade Staff and the Provisional Army Executive ( a post he held until his death) was active in Belfast re-organising and re-arming IRA units to defend Nationalist areas from attack by Orange mobs backed-up by the B-Specials and RUC . A founder member of ' Republican News' in June 1970 , the four-page weekly paper under the editorship of Steele soon had a circulation of 15,000 copies per week . Jimmy Steele was Editor of the 'paper when he died on August 9 , 1970 ,at 63 years of age : more than twenty of those 63 years were spent in jail . Steele by name , and Steele by nature - hard to break ......

Around the same time as Jimmy Steele joined the IRA , 1920 , the Black and Tan War was at its height .
Irishmen serving with the British Army in India mutinied in protest at the atrocities being committed in Ireland by the British . The three-day mutiny began on June 27 , 1920 , when 350 Irishmen gave in their arms and refused to soldier for England . The mutiny was confined chiefly to members of 'B' and 'C' Companies , 1st Battalion , Connaught Ranger Regiment , stationed at Wellington Barracks , Jullunder , Punjab, India . The men at Jullunder were led by Private Joseph Hawes and their protest was joined two days later by a detachment of 'C' Company at the hill-station in Solon , under Private James Daly , a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood . (MORE LATER) .....

Like Nixon , I ,too, had a dream last night .....
Henry Kissinger is wanted for questioning on human-rights abuses by courts in France , Spain , Belguim , Argentina and Chile .He supported the genocidal regimes of Pol Pot of Cambodia and General Suharto of Indonesia , and has questions to answer re his knowledge of the assassination of General Rene Shneider , the Commander of the Chilean Army in 1970 . Someone should have asked Dickie to investigate .....

.....Steele figured in two major operations during his brief period of freedom .....
..... in March 1943 , along with Liam Burke and Harry White , he organised and assisted in the escape of 22 IRA Volunteers from Derry Jail and , in April 1943 , he participated in the Broadway Cinema operation on the Falls Road when armed Volunteers took over the cinema and stopped the film while Steele and McAteer went on stage and read a statement from the IRA Army Council . The two men finished off the nights entertainment for the packed cinema by reading the 1916 Proclamation !
By May , Steele was back in jail, this time sentenced to twelve years .When he was released in September 1950 , he was the last Republican prisoner of that era to be freed , leaving Crumlin Road Jail empty of political prisoners for the first time since partition . During the following years , Steele edited two Belfast newspapers - ' Glor Uladh' and ' Resurgent Ulster' , and was the main author of two books published by the National Graves Association- ' Antrim's Patriot Dead' and ' Belfast Patriot Graves'. On December 21st 1957 , following the beginning of the IRA's Border Campaign , internment was once more introduced in the Six Counties and Steele was among the 167 Republicans interned in Crumlin Road Jail - he was released three years later and reported back to the Army . Steele was an outspoken opponent of the policies being pursued by the leadership of the Republican Movement and , in an oration at the re-interment of the remains of Peter Barnes and James McCormick (both executed in England in February 1940 ) at Mullingar , County Westmeath , in July 1969 , he severely criticised the leadership and in particular the running-down of the IRA .
Within six months (January 1970) the inevitable split in the Republican Movement occured...... (MORE LATER).....

" There is no art that one government sooner learns from another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people " -
Adam Smith, ' The Wealth of Nations' , 1776 : Smith lived in late 18th Century Edinburgh , and was shunned completely by society ; he was known to ramble around in a trance , not properly dressed , and was of a very nervous disposition ( ie he 'twitched' constantly) and spoke loudly to himself . His appearance was said to be that like a " worm with legs" . He never married and lived all his life with his mother . While ostracised by the establishment of the day , he certainly had their measure - " People of the same trade seldom meet together even for merriment and diversion but the conversation always ends in a conspiracy against the public " .
A far-sighted man , mentally ahead of those that considered themselves the superior class .....

........ he joined the IRA .
Arrested twice , in 1923 and 1924 , he was held for several months in Crumlin Road Jail . Following his release later that year and the freeing of the internees in 1925 , he assisted with the re-organising of the IRA and Na Fianna in Belfast . On April 25 , 1936 , while attending an IRA court-martial in connection with the abortive Campbell College raid in December 1935 , at the rooms of the Craobh Rua Club at Crown Entry in Belfast , Steele and most of the Belfast Battalion Staff were arrested . On May 29 , 1936 , Steele was charged with ' treason felony' and , along with twelve others , was found guilty and sentenced to five years penal servitude in Crumlin Road Jail .
Released in May 1940 , he reported back to the Army leadership and continued on as before . While ' on the run' , he married Anna Crawford , a member of Cumann an mBan who came from a staunch Republican family ; unfortunately , married life in freedom was to be short-lived -- the following December he was re-arrested and sentenced to ten years in jail . In January 1943 , along with Patrick Donnelly , Ned Maguire and Hugh McAteer , Steele escaped from Crumlin Road Jail . Despite a reward of £3000 being offered by the Stormont government for his capture and his photograph being displayed throughout the Six Counties , he reported back for active service and was appointed Adjutant of the Northern Command Staff .
Steele figured in two major operations during his brief period of freedom ...... (MORE LATER) .

On September 4 , 2000 , BBC2 television broadcast a programme entitled ' Reputations' which , if memory serves , was a series of interviews with various politicians/'personalties/flavours of the month and used by same as an 'image-building' vehicle . The above-dated episode featured Henry Kissinger , who recalled being roused from his sleep , in the early 1970's , by a phone call from U S President Richard Nixon : Nixon ordered Kissinger to bomb Damascus !
Kissinger , however , probably experienced in such late-night 'phone calls , went back to sleep ....
The following morning , Nixon met Kissinger to discuss various issues but failed to mention the " bomb Damascus" order : and , sensibly , Kissinger said nothing either !
Considering that Nixon was U S President for almost six years , we can but speculate on how many countries ' Tricky Dickie' dreamed about .....

.....and was beginning a 20-year penal servitude sentence .
After serving nine years in various English prisons , he was released on condition that he went into exile until the period of his term of imprisonment had expired . He spent most of this time in Paris where he was visited in March 1879 by Charles Stewart Parnell and John Devoy to discuss Fenian business . He returned to Dublin and began writing his reminiscences , which were published in 1896 under the title of ' Recollections of Fenians and Fenianism' . He communicated the essentials of Fenianism to those who came after him and , through his example , his writings and his close association with Republicans during the last years of his life , he influenced a younger generation of rebels who would later lead the Easter Rising of 1916 . John O'Leary died in Dublin on March 16 , 1907 , having insured that the cause would live on .
Another man to be charged by the English with " treason felony" ( an archaic charge originally devised for John Mitchel , the Young Ireland leader , in 1848) was Jimmy Steele , who was born in Belfast on August 8 , 1907 : he lived his life as a soldier , writer , poet and devoted his 63 years in this world to the Republican Movement and the cause of Irish freedom .
At the age of 12 , he joined Fianna Eireann and was active with his young comrades in assisting the Volunteers in his own area , the New Lodge Road , during the Tan War . Following the Treaty of December 1921 , and the split in the Movement , Steele remained true to his republican principles and , in the early 1920's , he joined the IRA . (MORE LATER) .........

According to ' Ireland On Sunday' (March 12 , 2000 , page 34) a British Army GOC directive issued in 1997 stated that the British Army's objectives up to 2001 envisaged maintaining six resident battalions , six RIR battalions , a constant level of force troops and six 'roulement' battalions in the Six Counties - ie approximately ten thousand troops ! It was also stated that 80 cameras, codenamed "GLUTTON" , were installed in public sites , all camouflaged , in the Six North-Eastern Counties , and another 20 cameras were "located privately" ( perhaps on holiday-homes in Donegal ? .... ) .

A man born in Tipperary town in July 1830 went on to become one of the most prominent members of the Fenian movement : John O' Leary .
His parents enrolled him in Trinity College , Dublin , to study law , which he did , but he abandoned his studies when he discovered that barristers were required to take an oath of allegiance to the British crown .
At the age of 18 , he took part in the Young Ireland Rising of 1848 in Tipperary , after which he was imprisoned in Clonmel Jail for several weeks . In 1863 , at the age of 33 , John O 'Leary was appointed editor of the newly-established Fenian weekly newspaper ' The Irish People' , with Thomas Clarke Luby and Charles J.Kickham as his co-editors and chief contributors. Two years later , the paper was suppressed ( September 1865) and O'Leary , Luby , Kickham and dozens of other prominent members of the Fenian movement were arrested after being named to the English forces by the informer Pierce Nagle .
By December that same year , O' Leary found himself charged with " treason felony" and was beginning a 20-year penal servitude sentence ...... (MORE LATER) .

On March 18 , 2001 (page 6) ' The Sunday Business Post' wrote that British Army security documents from the 1970's entitled ' Military Appreciation of the Security Situation in Northern Ireland(sic) ' , revealed that special Brit Army units known as ' Q Squads' were set up to "mystify , mislead and destroy the terrorists(sic) " ~ no doubt ' steaknife' and his globetrotting comrades (when they're not in Donegal buying holiday-homes , that is) are knowledgable regarding the action of the ' Q Squads' , as I know their own members are "mystified" as to whats going on !
The objectives of the Provisional organisation have been so reduced that there is now no justification in an armed campaign to obtain them . Or are they going to wage war for a better Stormont ?

.....all was not as it first appeared.....
Fine Gael had indeed polled the Blanchardstown and Castleknock areas of West Dublin : ten-thousand ' Freepost ' cards were sent out to residents of the area , asking do they --
1) support the stadium; or
2) support a scaled-down version of the stadium ; or
3) reject the stadium .
Question 1) prevented the poll being classed as ' loaded ' and allowed Fine Gael to state that the poll was fair . The results (ie " 78.2 per cent of people" against the project) were trumpted far and wide ;
however , it later emerged that , of the 10,000 questionnaires sent out , only 355 (or 3.65 per cent) were returned !!
And of those , thirty-four were spoiled votes , leaving a valid poll of 321 :
13 per cent of which were in favour of the stadium ,
8 per cent favoured a scaled-down version , and
78.2 per cent ( 251 votes) were against the scheme .
Ten-thousand households asked to vote , 321 did so , and the result was propogated as the ' majority decision' !
Once again , as in the Stormont Treaty poll , the facts behind the head-lines are whats important ......

In June 1983 , the then leader of the Official Unionist Party (OUP) , James Molyneaux ( now Lord , or Sir/Madam or something in the Brit establishment) alleged that USSR submarines were landing guns , ammunition and explosives on remote beaches on the Free States Atlantic Coast , for use by Republicans ! He did not cite his source or his evidence for that claim ( see ' The Evening Press' newspaper , Tuesday June 21 , 1983) . In the same month , the bould Jim requested the RUC to find out who was responsible for putting up posters showing him inspecting a band of hooded men , carrying cudgels , done in an orange colour , with the caption-- ' Does Jim Support Separation Now? ' . The RUC found out that the Lisburn branch of the UDA were responsible and that the photo used in the poster was that of Molyneaux inspecting a UDA demonstration against the creation of a ' no-go' area in the Bogside , in 1972 .
I dunno , Jim - seems like a commie plot to me ......

Bertie Ahern, the not-yet-superseded Fianna Fail leader and Free State Taoiseach , has been in the news here over the last three or four years in connection with the proposed stadium and sports campus which was to be built in Abbotstown , West Dublin , which is apparently not now going ahead . In December 2001 , the Fine Gael branch (they don't have ' Cumann ' - nor do the Tories) in West Dublin decided to do a poll on the views of those living in the Blanchardstown and Castleknock areas of West Dublin , to ascertain whether , like Fine Gael, the residents were of the opinion that the ' Bertiebowl ' should not be built .
The results of that poll , according to Fine Gael , showed that "78.2 per cent of people" were against the project going ahead - if the figures were accurate , and Fine Gael insisted they were , then that would indeed represent the majority point of view .
But........
( and , as I stated here recently in relation to the false interpretation given to the results of the 1998 Stormont Treaty)
...........all was not as it first appeared . (MORE LATER)

In an interview with the 'The Sunday Business Post' newspaper on April 14 last year (page 3) , British nuclear consultant John Large , who was commissioned by the Russian Government to raise the Kursk submarine , was asked his views on the Windscale/Sellafield nuclear plant : he replied ~ " The plant should never have been allowed to get into this condition in the first place and now it's crammed with waste in every nook and cranny . Waste has been stored for decades in containers not designed for it , they have'nt been maintained , and people have just walked away " .
Sellafield seems to be heading for an ' Irish solution ' ~ something bad will have to happen before anything is done .

.......the English had strengthened the Antrim Garrison and were better prepared than was known ......
Though lacking adequately-trained officers and now with only 3000 men , due to a belief shared by the majority of his previous force that an attack on Antrim was unwise , McCracken assembled the insurgents on Donegore Hill , above Antrim and , after assembling his force and issuing instructions , they began the fight . Within hours , nearly all of Antrim , except Carrickfergus and Belfast , had been captured by the United forces .
The attack on Antrim was a disaster ~ the insurgents occupied strategic positions and forced the English troops to retreat : however , it went wrong due to bad communication - the United forces from County Down , under Samuel Orr , were advancing on Antrim after their success at Randalstown and , on seeing the fleeing Englisg garrison , mistook it for an attack . Orr's men scattered and soon the panic spread to McCracken's men who broke ranks and fled . When English reinforcements arrived to Antrim that evening they took revenge on insurgents and civilian's alike .
McCracken hid for months in the Slemish Mountains and transport was arranged for him to escape to America . But it was not to be - he was arrested by the English , tried by court-martial , found guilty of treason and hanged at Belfast Market House on July 17 , 1798 . He was 31 years of age . McCracken's legacy will always be remembered , whereas those that helped do him in , like Magin , leave nothing but a bad taste in the mouth .

On U S President Abe Lincoln's orders , political opponents and dissidents of his war policy were jailed without charge at Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbour - among those jailed were the Mayor ,Police Chief , Police Commissioner , thirty-one members of the State Legislature , newspaper reporters and members of the U S Congress and Judges !!
Will George Bush Jnr do the same ?

Another informer , Nicholas Magin , earned his 30 pieces of silver during the 1798 Rising ......
Henry Joy McCracken , leader of the United Irishmen in County Antrim during the 1798 Rising , was born in High Street , Belfast , in August 1767 . When he was 24 years young , he founded the United Irishmen with Wolfe Tone and Thomas Russell . At 29 years of age he was known to the authorities and was arrested for his involvement in an ' illegal organisation' (sounds familar!) ~ he was imprisoned in Kilmainham Jail and kept there for 13 months before being allowed out on bail .
He made himself scarce and , unlike many of the other United Irish leaders , he succeeded in avoiding arrest in the months leading up to the rising , and was appointed to command the insurgents in County Antrim . By June 6 , 1798 , two weeks after the beginning of the rising , McCracken mobilised 12,000 fighters , armed with muskets , swords and pikes and prepared to attack Antrim town . Arrangements had been made for thousands of insurgents from County Down to join them in the battle and then to march on Belfast itself .
However , the English commander of the northern garrison , General Nugent , was already aware of the plan , thanks to Nicholas Magin , a man trusted by the united Irish leadership ,~ and an informer . The English had strengthened the Antrim garrison and were better prepared than was known .......(MORE LATER ) >

" You people of the Shankill Road - what's wrong with you ? Number 425 Shankill Road : do you know who lives there ? Pope's men , thats who ! Forte's ice-cream shop , Italian Papists on the Shankill Road ! How about 56 Aden Street ? For 97 years a Protestant lived in that house and now there's a Papisher in it . Crimea Street , number 38 ! Twenty-five years that house has been up , 24 years a Protestant lived there but there's a Papisher there now " .
----- Ian Paisley , speaking in 1959 , in the run-up to that years July 12 ' celebrations' . Most people dismiss Paisley as a loud-mouthed dinosaur , a figure of fun, almost - but he is dangerous enough in that he will set people up for a ' visit' from his buddies in the Loyalist community , even if he condemns those same friends afterwards .

..... Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen were in agreement that the best hope of carrying out a successful revolution was with aid from France , which was by now at war with England ; the French responded favourably to Tone's plan . Being sympathetic , the French knew that if they could land a large army in Ireland it could overrun the country , make it independent from England and so weaken their enemy ~ a meeting was arranged for Tone to discuss war details with a French nominee : the Reverend William Jackson .
The meeting took place and a plan of action was agreed - however , shortly afterwards , the informer Cockayne lead the English forces to Jackson , who was arrested . Presumably , Cockayne was paid his thirty pieces of silver . In April 1795 , Jackson was charged with high treason and brought forward to ' trial ' where he was found guilty .
On April 30 , 1795 , at 58 years of age , Jackson poisoned himself , and died , in the dock of the courthouse . Although perhaps not as well known as other aspects of that period , the ' Jackson Affair ' is yet another example of how informers have stymied possible advances at cruical times in Irish history ~ a history which is still being written .....

" Let me first of all make quite clear that I do not advocate anything other than British withdrawal(from Ireland) . We stayed in India on much the same plea that there would be much greater communal violence if we withdrew and indeed there was very great communal violence . Part of that was due to the fact that we should have withdrawn twenty years before " . -----
A J P Taylor , British historian , who died aged 84 on September 7 , 1990 . Wise words , and still time to act on them .....

The Reverend William Jackson , who was born in Dublin in 1737 , lived most of his life in London , where he edited a radical journal , the ' Public Ledger and Morning Post ' . He was vocal in his support of the American revolutionaries of 1776 . Following the founding of the United Irishmen in October 1791 by Wolfe Tone , the newly-established French revolutionary government sent several emissaries to Ireland , the most important of whom was the Reverend Jackson .
His betrayal and arrest , following his arrival in Ireland , caused consternation in the United Irishmen and forced many of the leaders of that organisation to go into exile to avoid arrest .
When he was fifty-five years of age , Jackson went to France and was commissioned by the authorities there to ascertain the chances of success of a French invasion of England and , while in London , en route to Ireland , he renewed acquaintance with a man named Cockayne ~ an encounter he was to regret later .......

One of our better known career politicians in this State ( better known now because he was actually caught with his hand in the greasy till) is Liam Lawlor (now ex) Fianna Fail , a man who was always full of his own self-importance , and perhaps never more so than in February 1990 when , in an interview with ' Dublin Diary' magazine ,he stated - " Politicians are trusted , and up to 75 per cent of the population turn out to vote for their politicians , thereby recording their faith and trust in public representatives " .
.... Told ya so - voting for them only encourages them !

" .... lets shoot 100 men a week " ~ No doubt MacReady learned his ' peace-keeping' skills in other countries which the British sought to claim as their own -- Wales , Scotland , North America , Africa , India , Australia , New Zealand , Burma , Afghanistan , China , Sudan , Egypt , and South Africa !!

Like most of the above-named countries , Ireland has had various British ' solutions ' imposed on her ~ direct rule , indirect rule , genocide , apartheid , puppet parliaments , so-called 'real' parliaments (Stormont) martial law , civil law , colonisation , land reform and partition . All have failed , being successful only in prolonging the conflict . The alternative , so far ignored and dismissed by the establishment as " unworkable " ( and not even up for discussion by the professional politicians in Leinster House , Stormont or Westminster) is that of a complete British military and political withdrawal from the 32 Counties of Ireland .
However , there are still those amongst us pushing for that solution ...

Eamonn's friend , Garret Fitzgerald , is remembered (by me, anyway !) for his conduct during the November 1982 Leinster House election campaign in this State , when he verbally lashed the then Fianna Fail leader , Charlie Haughey , for not supporting Maggie Thatcher in her Malvinas(Falklands) War _- Fitzgerald stated that if he was Free State Taoiseach during said episode he would have supported her ! According to ' The Sunday Tribune' newspaper of July 24 , 1983 , a former senior Free State civil servant (not named) claimed that Fitzgerald made a rushed secret visit to London in 1974 to persuade the British Government NOT to withdraw from the Six Counties . It was also claimed that the then leader of Fianna Fail , Jack Lynch , also made it known to the Brits that he was against withdrawal - he is said to have pleaded with the then British Foreign Secretary , James Callaghan . I can just picture a small queue of sniveling Free Staters waiting outside Downing Street .......

.........indeed, after his stint as a British ' peace-keeper ' , Widgery maintained his British Army connections by continuing to serve with the British Territorial Army for several years after the war . He is perhaps best remembered in Ireland for his statement on Bloody Sunday ~
" I would not be surprised if , in the relevant half-hour , as many rounds were fired at the (British) troops as were fired by them " ! It was obvious that defence of the Para's actions , not inquiry into them , was what Widgery saw as his task .
The British Minister of State for the Six Counties at the time , a Mr Van Straubenzee , later stated that he had visited many British Army barrackrooms and was constantly told , and I quote - " The average troops feeling is that if only they could be let off the leash they could finish the whole thing " . An echo of a similar statement by British General MacReady , who vowed to solve the Six County situation by proposing to shoot 100 men in a week ! (MORE LATER) .

He is said to be this States highest paid journalist , and is certainly never far from the headlines ~ Mr Eamonn Dunphy , that is - you may see him on a bus near you soon ...
The man was once a member of Fine Gael , and said he joined because he was " attracted by Garret Fitzgerald . He seemed a man of reason , a cut above the rest . He did'nt pander to the Catholic Church , did'nt promise to do away with the border overnight , or indeed at all , nor did he promise to make us wealthy in the morning . I knew nothing of Blueshirts - I had lived in England for nearly 25 years , and was unfamilar with the fine print of Irish politics " .
I would have thought it wise to check-out the political scene before joining any political party - but apparently the Blueshirts will accept the politically ignorant , perhaps even depend on them ......

" It strikes me that the British Army ran amok that day and they shot without thinking of what they were doing . They were shooting innocent people . I say it without reservation - it was sheer unadulterated murder "
------ So said British Major Hubert O Neill , the then Derry City Coroner , at the end of the inquest into Bloody Sunday ; O Neill delivered the above comments on August 21 , 1973 - a full 19 months after the massacre had taken place . It took the British that long to admit to something that must have been obvious to the rest of the world within hours of it happening - that the British Army were under instructions to let the Nationalist population in the Six Counties know that their then existence , their then lifestyle , such as it was , WAS IT ! There was no more on offer , whether requested politely by so-called Nationalist leaders or whether demanded on the streets - there was no more for the Nationalist population ! And that in-built discrimination which Bloody Sunday , January 30 , 1972 , symbolised , still lives on in the Six County area , even if it has been given a new coat of gloss with the Stormont Treaty .
On that Sunday , 15,000 people assembled in the Creggan Estate and , when the march reached the perimiter of the Bogside , near the high-rise Rossville Street flats , the marchers were confronted by barricades manned by the British Para's - the Parachute Regiment were under orders to prevent the marchers from entering the walled city ; suddenly , with no warning , the British Troops opened fire on the crowd - they shot 42 people , 14 of whom died . The British ' Report ' into Bloody Sunday was headed by British Lord Widgery , a man who had seen service in the British Army during WW2 - indeed , after his stint as a British ' peace-keeper ' ........ (MORE LATER) >

Although it is often assumed that the Free State ' Offences Against the State Act 1939 ' was introduced as an emergency measure due to the imminence of what became known as ' World War Two ' , it was in fact a routine adoption by the State of repressive powers . According to the then Fianna Fail Minister for Justice , Seamus Ruttledge , who introduced the OAS Bill in February 1939 , the FS administration " had it under consideration " since the adoption of the 1937 Free State Constitution . The period 1937 - 1939 was one of exceptional calm , as was agreed at the time by the Free State Labour Party leader , William Norton , and Fine Gael leader T F O' Higgins . Fine Gael , however , voted for the Bill on the day .
They may have thought it was'nt necessary , but then again , if it helps secure the position of the Establishment .....

In August , 1916 , Roger Casement , who was arrested on the eve of the Rising at Banna Strand in Kerry ( having come ashore from a German submarine) was hanged in Pentonville Prison , London . Of the ninty people who were sentenced to death by courts martial , 15 were executed, while the remainder( including Countess Markievicz) had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment .

In total , 1,836 men and five women ~ Brigid Foley , Maire Perolz , Nell Ryan , Winifred Carney and Helena Moloney~ were deported to prisons and internment camps in England and Wales . Between 3 and 12 May , 1916 , 15 Republican leaders were executed by firing squad in Kilmainham and Cork jails , in the aftermath of the 1916 Rising .
...and still the problem persists - how many more Risings are needed before the British admit their folly ?
During the years 1941-1948 , Lyndon B Johnson ( sworn in as U S President after the assassination of John F Kennedy) claimed he had seen 70,000 flying miles during which he had shot down fourteen Japanese planes , had his own engines shot out by enemy aircraft , acquired the nickname ' Raider' Johnson and been hospitalised on the Fiji Islands . In actual fact , Johnson's contribution to the U S war effort was one fifteen-minute flight as an observer in the South Pacific !!
.....was Johnson related to Ronnie Reagan ??

...... however , three days later (May 8) , three Republicans were executed - Eamonn Ceannt (Commander of the South Dublin Union) , Michael Mallin (Commander of the garrison at St Stephens Green) and Sean Heuston , a member of Na Fiann Eireann , who commanded the Mendicity Institute garrison . Later on that same day , Con Colbert , who had assumed command at Marrowbone Lane , was also put to death .
On May 9 , the only execution outside Dublin took place in Cork Jail where Thomas Kent , who had defended his home at Bawnard House , Fermoy , when British soldiers attempted to arrest his entire family , was shot by firing squad . On May 12 , Sean MacDiarmada and the dying James Connolly (Commander of the Dublin rebels) ,who had to be strapped upright in a chair , were shot by firing squad in Kilmainham Jail . (MORE LATER .....)

Far be it for me to speak ill of the dead , but a fact is a fact ~
In November 1989 , Catholic Bishop Edward Daly called for an end to Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act (which forbid Republican comment on radio and television in the State) . The Fine Gael communications spokesperson at the time , the late Jim Mitchell , said he favoured extending the ban to silent TV coverage of meetings , walkabouts , press conferences etc . He said to end the ban would almost certainly shift the balance in favour of "subversives" !
And that was not so much due to the way we put across the message , as the fact that the message itself was the correct path ; a fact which the Free Staters could'nt handle .

More information has been E-mailed to me re the aftermath of the 1916 Rising --

Sixteen Irish Republicans , including the seven signatories of the Proclamation , were executed by the British , after the Rising , while hundreds were imprisoned and interned in England and Wales . Within two days of the ending of the Rising ,court martials were convened by the British at Arbour Hill and Richmond Barracks - one of the first to face court-martial was Padraig Pearse , the President of the newly-proclaimed Irish Republic (32-Counties,NOT a 26-County State) and commander-in-chief of the Republican Army . On May 2 , 1916 , he was sentenced to death and despite a plea that his life be forfeit and that those of his comrades be spared , his request was rejected . During the following ten days , 15 Republicans were court-martialled , sentenced to death and executed .
On the morning of May 3 , 1916 , Pearse and Thomas J Clarke , the veteran Fenian and first signatory of the Proclamation , and Thomas MacDonagh , commander of the 2nd Battalion at Jacob's factory , were executed by firing squad in the yard of Kilmainham Jail . The following day , four more executions took place - Joseph Plunkett (GPO Garrison) ,Edward Daly (commander of the Four Courts Garrison) , Willie Pearse (GPO) and Michael O'Hanrahan (second-in-command at Jacobs factory) . Major John MacBride , a veteran of the Boer War in South Africa , who fought at Jacobs factory , was the only execution carried out on May 5 ........(MORE LATER......)

When Jack Lynch was Free State ' Taoiseach ' here in the bad old days , he appointed a Mr Desmond O Malley as ' Minister for Justice' : in December 1970 , Dessie threatened to introduce internment without trial in the State ~ this was nine months before Stormont premier Brian Faulkner imposed said internment in the Six Counties ! That's the Free Staters for ya-do the Brits dirty work even before they themselves can do it .....

..... Con Colbert held the position of Captain of ' F ' Company , Fourth Battalion , during Easter Week...

Throughout the early part of that week in 1916 , he commanded Watkin's Brewery in Ardee Street , an important outpost of the South Dublin Union , which intended to cut off the approach of the enemy from the south and west . On Wednesday , April 26th , he moved his small unit of about 20 men and boys to the main garrison at Jameson's Distillery , Marrowbone Lane ~ the fight that followed was described as ' fierce and bloody' .
Following Pearse's signed order to surrender on Saturday , April 29th , Con Colbert assumed command of the Marrowbone Lane garrison to save the life of his superior officer . In Richmond Barracks , after the surrender , Colbert was picked out by Dublin Castle detectives and transferred to Kilmainham Jail . On Thursday , May 4th , he was court-martialled and sentenced to death . On Sunday , May 7th , the death sentence was confirmed and , at 3.45am on the following morning , he was executed by firing squad in the yard of Kilmainham Jail with three others- Sean Heuston , Eamonn Ceannt and Michael Mallin . That happened on May 8th , 1916 - Con Colbert was only 23 years of age .
Not one of those that went out in 1916 did so with the intention of securing a partial British withdrawal ;
The fight then ,as now , is for an island free of British interference .....

During the 1920's , Britain divided both Ireland and Mesopotamia , keeping control in each nation of the most industrialised and profitable area ; Ireland was partitioned and Mesopotamia was 'made into' the kingdoms of Iraq and Kuwait . And it's all comimg back to haunt them .....

Beannachtai na Nollag , a chara - slan anois .

One of perhaps the least-mentioned leaders of the 1916 Rising , and the youngest , was Con Colbert .
He was born in Monalena , near Newcastle West , in Limerick , in 1893 , and was reared in Athea and educated at the local national school and later at the CBS in North Richmond Street after the family moved to Dublin . After his schooling , his first job was as a clerk at Kennedy's Bakery in Parnell Street . He was a fluent Irish speaker and joined Na Fianna Eireann in August 1909 , at 16 years of age . His Fianna work became his ambition , and he helped to organise routines and training for the other boys - he also established nightly classes in the use of fire-arms , signalling , scouting , map-reading and first-aid classes .
At the invitation of Padraig Pearse , Con Colbert acted as drill-instructor to the boys at St Edna's school in Rathfarnham and formed a slua (group) of Na Fianna in the school . In 1911 , he joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood and , in 1913 , at it's foundation , he joined the Irish Volunteers at it's inaugural meeting in November that year . He was soon elected to it's Executive Committee and became one of their first instructors in drill and fire-arms . The Irish Volunteers promoted Colbert to the position of Captain of ' F ' Company , Fourth Battalion , which was then commanded by Eamonn Ceannt ~ this was the position that Con Colbert held during Easter Week ......
(MORE LATER)

The last three ' legitimate ' kings of "Great Britain" are buried in the Vatican- in St Peters itself ! The last king was not only a Catholic , but a senior Roman Cardinal ; Cardinal King HenryIX . It was not untill Edward VII ( 20th Century) that England produced a 'monarch' whose first language was English ! ... And sure have'nt we in Oireland bein' spaking the english for ages-thick Paddies howarya .....

This month thirty-one years ago (December 5 , 1971) , the ' Democratic Unionist Party ' (DUP) was officially launched : prior to this , Ian Paisley was involved in the 'Ulster Protestant Action' group whose stated aim was~ " to keep Protestant and loyal workers in employment in times of recession in preference to their Catholic fellow workers " . The ' UPA ' was founded by Paisley in 1956 and used by him as an election vehicle ; on April 17 , 1970 , he was elected as British MP for North Antrim and has'nt stopped shouting since ...
In 1986 , William Beattie told the DUP youth wing " We must hire assassins ( to murder Catholics) and pay them when the job is done " . It was obviously cheaper to let the Brits do it for them-UDA , UVF , LVF etc etc .....
A man who might have been interested in DUP membership , a Mr Noel Koch , a former top U S ' anti-terrorism ' expert (who resigned from the U S Defence Department in May 1986 in protest at covert U S arms sales to Iran) suggested at the June 1987 Congressional hearings that the leader of a pro-Iranian group suspected of holding U S hostages in Lebanon should be " taken off to a nice warm dry place " where " I would take off something thats non-life-threatening like a finger and I'd wrap it in a note and I'd say ' There's a lot more where this came from ' " . He said he would then demand the release of all hostages immediately " and , if not , we'll be sending some more of this stuff around . There is a reality in which people do have to do things that are not taught in Sunday School . This hostage situation could be resolved rather handily if we choose to do it " . In dealing with ' terrorists' , Koch suggested that the U S should be " a little more creative and a little less fastidious " !! Obviously , Noel's mother did'nt name him with Christmas in mind ......

The American Civil War (1861-1865) was fought to ensure " that self-determination belonged only to the whole people of the nation " : President Abraham Lincoln stated -- "On what rightful principle may a State , being not more than one-fiftieth part of the nation in soil and population , break up the nation and then coerce a proportionally larger sub-division of itself in the most arbitrary way ?" .
The Six-County area of Ireland which Britain presently claims jurisdiction over (partitioned 82 years ago) had never existed before as an entity in history , or politics , or economics . Craigavon , deputy-leader of the Unionists in the British parliament , explained on March 29 , 1920 , why only six of the nine counties of Ulster could be brought under a Belfast parliament ~
" The three excluded counties contain some 70,000 Unionists and 260,000 Sinn Feiners and Nationalists and the addition of that large block of Sinn Feiners and Nationalists would reduce our majority to such a level that no sane man would undertake to carry on a Parliament with it . We quite frankly admit that we cannot hold the nine counties " ( see ' HANSARD ' , Volume 127 , column 991) . We can expect a similar ' explanation ' soon , from the British Parliament , as to why they now need to re-partition the partitioned area ! The Six-County Unionists would be doing themselves a favour in recognising that Britain has no permanent friends or enemies - only permanent interests ~ she will sell them out in 200? just as quickly as she did in 1920 ......

In an interview in ' Ireland on Sunday ' on March 28 , 1999 ,(page 16) , Provo Leinster House member Martin Ferris claimed that his house-phone had been cut off and his party was so broke (financially , he meant ! ) that they could'nt pay the bill for him ..... must be all those globe-trotting flights and $500-a-plate dinners and fine suits and cars that the money is spent on , Martin .....
..... he stated~ " People may not agree with me but they know I'm honest and I'll tell them the truth . I will not lie and cheat " . The medical-card incident is well known , but what about a certain M/S Ferris on a college grant ....?

That old British chestnut surfaced here again recently regarding Roger Casement ; the British still insisting that the ' diaries ' they ' found ' belong to the man . While that issue continues to fill column-space in the newspapers , Casement's speech from the dock goes unmentioned --
" Ireland is being treated today among the nations of the world as if she were a convicted criminal . If it be treason to fight against such an unnatural fate as this , then I am proud to be a rebel and shall cling to my ' rebellion ' with the last drop of my blood . If there be no right of rebellion against the state of things that no savage tribe would endure without resistance , then I am sure that it is better for men to die without right than to live in such a state of right as this . Where all your rights have become only an accumulated wrong , where men must beg with bated breath for leave to subsist in their own land ; to think their own thoughts , to sing their own songs , to gather the fruits of their own labours and , even while they beg , to see things inexorably withdrawn from them - then surely it is a braver , a saner and truer thing to be a rebel , in act and in deed , against such circumstances as these , than to tamely accept as the natural lot of men " .
The British feared such an influential man as Casement when he was their prisoner and feared the legacy he left behind after his death ; to divide his supporters it was necessary to malign his name , which is what they are still attempting to do with the so-called ' diaries ' .
Thankfully , thanks to their own history , the British have no credibility when they stand on a world stage and ask to be believed .
At their Ard Fheis in March this year , Bertie Ahern told the assembled ' Soldiers of Destiny ' -- " We need a kinder , gentler republicanism . We in Fianna Fail will continue to encourage former revolutionary parties to complete their transformation to become strictly democratic ones " . ~ Thats an easy job , Bertie ; the leadership of that "former revolutionary party" is doing the job for you !

......but Carter had another visitor- Garret Fitzgerald , the then Fine Gael top statesman , got word that Carter had been speaking to Fr Sean McManus and requested a meeting with the now U S President .
The meeting went ahead on 14 March , 1977 , and the Fine Gael blueshirt persuaded Carter " not to speak about the Northern Ireland(sic) issue in human rights terms " . By now , of course , like all politicians , Jimmy Carter had got what he wanted and got where he wanted , with the assistance of people whom he had promised that he would not forget afterwards !
And , again like all politicians ~ ' eaten bread is soon forgotten ' . The issue here is not only Carters about-turn on the Irish issue , but rather on why any Irish man would try to persuade a powereful figure like Carter NOT to involve himself in the question of Britains involvement in Ireland .

And the race is on to try and get Stormont up and running again in time for the elections to that institution next May . When talks were held in May and June 1996 in order to put together the Stormont Treaty , one of the first issues to be discussed was that of wages and expenses for the participants ! It was agreed that those attending the talks at Castle Buildings , Stormont , would be paid a basic "loss of earnings" allowance of £100 Sterling each a day , plus subsistance and travel expenses at the standard British Civil Service rates ! Nice one , lads ....
In addition to the above , each of the then nine political parties involved were given a flat allowance of £300Sterling per day for each day they were involved in the talks , and each party was given a " research grant" of up to a maximum of £6000 per quarter year !
Another reason why the Provos and the rest of them were so anxious to get into Stormont - they could'nt afford not to ...

.....throughout Easter Week , the women engaged in the fight also helped to look after the wounded and voluntered to do the difficult and dangerous task of carrying the numerous vital dispatches between the various garrisons and outposts , in addition to gathering intelligence on British troop movements around the city .They also transported food supplies and ammunition through the many British army checkpoints .
On Saturday ,April 29 ,1916 , Nurse Elizabeth O Farrell , Julia Greenan and Winifred Carney(James Connolly's secretary) who had all moved to the new republican HQ in Moore Street following the evacuation of the GPO , carried Padraig Pearse's final order of surrender to British General Lowe at the corner of Moore Street and Parnell Street . Cumann na mBan were instructed to tour the republican garrisons with Pearse's order to surrender .
Seventy-seven women were arrested as a result of the Easter Rising , and many of those were released within days ; however , five women- Brigid Foley ,Maire Perolz , Nell Ryan , Winifred Carney and Helena Maloney were held for longer periods . Countess Markievicz , court-martialled and sentenced to death , had her sentence commuted to penal servitude for life and was released from Aylesbury Prison in June 1917 .
Countess Markievicz was born in London in 1868 . She founded Fianna Eireann in 1909 and , during the 1913 ' lock-out ' , she ran the Liberty Hall kitchen . She was baptised a Catholic in 1917 ~ she died on July 15 , 1927 . The cause that these women fought for is still with us , as is the history they left us ; it is not a history of appeasement ....

On Wednesday ,October 27 , 1976 , a few days before he was elected U S President , the Irish National Caucus arranged a meeting with Jimmy Carter in Pittsburgh . About fifty Irish-American leaders from around the U S attended . Fr Sean McManus made the opening statement in which he criticised US policy on the Six Counties and urged Carter to set a new policy if elected . Carter replied- " We see specific instances where human rights are subjugated and where quite often our nation , as was pointed out by Father McManus , stands mute and does'nt speak . It is a mistake for our countrys government to stand quiet on the struggle of the Irish for peace , for respect , for human rights and for unifying Ireland " .
Good words , well spoken ; but , Carter had another visitor ...... MORE LATER ...

During Easter Week 1916 , almost 100 women , members of Cumann na mBan and the Irish Citizen Army , played a full part in the fighting : Cumann na mBan , formed in April 1914 and the Irish Citizen Army , founded by James Connolly in November 1913 , were in training months before the Rising . Both groups received instruction in first aid , signalling and weapons preparation . Connollys daughters , Nora and Agnes , who were both members of Cumann na mBan , joined other members of that organisation in travelling around the country to ascertain the strengths and weaknesses in a particular area .
On Easter Monday 1916 , as the Volunteers and Citizen Army set out from Liberty Hall to occupy the various garrisons throughout Dublin , they were accompanied by several dozen women from the ICA and Cumann na mBan - these women were joined by dozens more once news of the rising spread . Altogether , 34 women , including Nurse Elizabeth O Farrell , Julia Grennan and Winifred Carney , were stationed at republican headquarters in the GPO . Women also stood side-by-side with the men at the Four Courts , Jacobs Factory and the South Dublin Union ; however , at Bolands Mills , which was under the command of Eamon de Valera , no women served ~ de Valera wpould not allow it !
The Irish Citizen Army put Michael Mallin in charge of the rebels stationed at St Stephens Green and he , in turn , placed Countess Markievicz as second-in-command - the Countess and Margaret Skinnider , who was badly injured during the fighting , acted as snipers from the roof of the College of Surgeons . In the City Hall area , where the commander Sean Connolly was killed during the Citizen Army attack on Dublin Castle on Easter Monday , Dr Kathleen Lynn , the most senior officer at the outpost , took over . MORE LATER......

In 1796 , the British established the Yeomanry , a de facto Orange militia ; within two years they were out of control , so much so that General Abercromby , who was called in to instil some discipline and restraint in late 1797 , resigned in disgust after issuing his famous order of February 1798 ~ " The army (are) in such a state of licentiousness that makes them formidable to everyone save the enemy " ! Would that they would only destroy each other today , too ....

Tim Pat Coogan , the newspapers mentioned previously , the Provos , Piet De Pauw etc -- all wrong in relation to the outcome of the vote on the Stormont Treaty ('Good Friday Agreement') ~~
..... which was put to the vote on Friday ,May 22 , 1998 , in this Free State and in the Six Counties --
In this state , the turnout was 56.3 % ; of those , 1,442,583 (94.4%) voted 'YES' and 85,748 (5.6%) voted 'NO' .
But 43.97% of those entitled to vote in the state did not do so !

In the Six Counties the turnout was 81% ; of those , 676,966 (71.12%) voted ' YES ' and 274,879 (28.88%) voted ' NO' .
But 19% of those entitled to vote in the Six Counties did not do so !
The claims that "the majority voted for it" and that it represents "the democratic wish of 95% of the population " etc etc is a deliberate falsehood put about by those that would attempt to convince the Irish people that the struggle to achieve a just and permanent settlement has been achieved . That finality can only begin when the British give a date for their withdrawal from this country - it has not been a war of over 800 years only to say to the British that which the Stormont Treaty leads them to believe _ ' Stay if you want , just treat us better ...' That was never the Republican demand , regardless of how well dressed and presentable those are that travel the globe calling , in effect , for the British to implement their policy in Ireland !
In his book ' History of the Irish Working Class ' , Peter Beresford Ellis wrote- " On October 25 , 1920 , Lord Mayor of Cork , Terence MacSwiney , poet , dramatist and scholar , died on the 74th day of a hunger-strike while in Brixton Prison , London . A young Vietnamese dishwasher in the Carlton Hotel in London broke down and cried when he heard the news - " A Nation which has such citizens will never surrender " . His name was Nguyen Ai Quoc who , in 1941 , adopted the name Ho Chi Minh and took the lessons of the Irish anti-imperialist fight to his own country " .
Terence MacSwiney , Bobby Sands - how many other examples are we going to need .........?

Bertie Ahern , ' Sunday Business Post' , 3/5/98 , page 16 - said it means that "Britain is out of the equation " ~
AP/RN , 10/9/98 , page 9 - said it was " the will of the electorate in both partitioned states " ~
' The Sunday Business Post ' , 13/2/00 , page 18 - said its institutions were set up " as a direct result of a vote of all the people of this island , the will of the entire people of Ireland " ~
' Ireland on Sunday' ,28/3/99 , page 14 - said it was " the wish of almost every last man and woman in this country " ~
AP/RN , 20/5/99 , page 9 - said it was " endorsed by a huge majority of this countrys people " ~
Tim Pat Coogan , in his 'IOS' column on 24/9/00 (page 32) said that " more than 90 per cent of the people of this island voted for " it ~
Niall O Dowd , in his 'IOS' column on 13/2/00 (page 31) said that it was " the democratic wish of 95 per cent of the population in the Irish Republic and 72 per cent in the North " ~
Piet De Pauw , the Belgium lawyer and human-rights expert , said , in December 2000 , that " the majority of the people on this island voted for " it ~
AP/RN , 11/3/99 , page 12 , said it " was endorsed by 85 per cent of the people of Ireland " ~
Tim Pat Coogan , again , this time in his 'IOS' column dated 7/5/00 , page 34 , said that its institutions " were voted for by an overwhelming majority on this island " ~~~~
What were they talking about ?
And why are they all wrong ?
More later .....
According to a report released by the United Nations Committee on Air Pollution in June , 1987 , Britain was then ( still is ?) the main acid rain polluter of the 32 Counties : they were also responsible for the pollution of every one of 16 sites where measurements were taken in East and West Europe , and contributed about 43 per cent of the sulphur pollution and 36 per cent of the nitrogen pollution affecting Ireland - they were also listed as the greatest single polluter of Norway and Sweden ! ( See ' The Sunday Tribune' , June 21 , 1987 , page 4) .
Damn Brits - if they don't get ya one way ........

Sir Charles Edward Trevelyan , the then permanent head of the British Treasury , was the man who held the British purse-strings and oversaw the economy while hundreds of thousands of Irish people died of starvation and disease in 1845 ,'46 and '47 . He is best remembered for saying the following during The Great Hunger ( ' Famine ' ) in this country ~ " The great evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the famine(sic) , but the moral evil of the selfish , perverse and turbulent character of the Irish people " . Trevelyan was put in charge of 'relief effort' by his administration , but actually remained in England throughout that period - he received a knighthood for his work !
He once stated his belief that Cromwell had three objectives in Ireland ~ to pay off , in Irish land , the soldiers who had fought and the capitalists who had provided the money , for the conquest / to render the English hold upon Ireland secure against rebellion / to extripate Roman Catholicism . Cromwell done the damage on the military front , while people like Trevelyan ,who stayed in the background , backed up the ' Cromwells ' financially and morally . Its only right that they should be remembered , too .....
In 1847 , the Poor Law Committee stated that 2,385,000 people starved in Ireland every year , whether the potato crop failed or not . Trevelyan and his like simply hurried things along ....
On a somewhat similar note - On Sunday , July 12 , 1992 , a more up-to-date version of the above-named specimens died ~ Albert Pierrepoint , the last Englisg hangman ! He hanged IRA Volunteer Charlie Kerins , Chief of Staff , in December 1944 . Kerins will always be remembered and commemorated in Ireland , while Pierrepoint and those that appointed him will remain infamous . And that particular list is yet to be finally updated ....

The old Irish song ' The Old Bog Road ' was penned by Teresa Brayton , who was born in Kilbrook , Co. Kildare , in 1868 . The song itself is a ballad about being exiled from Ireland , while another of her songs was adopted by Na Fianna Eireann , the Republican scouting organisation , as its marching song . Teresa was known locally as an Irish patriot and a staunch Republican , and she became an assistant teacher at Newtown in Kildare . She emigrated to America in 1908 but returned home frequently , and was a friend to , amongst others , Constance Markievicz and Helena Moloney . After the 1916 Rising and throughout the Tan War she supported the Irish Republican cause in America by distributing pamphlets and fund-raising . She also wrote a song about ' The Manchester Martyrs ' ( Allen , Larkin and O Brien ) . Teresa Brayton died in America on August 24 , 1943 .

When he was British Foreign Secretary , Douglas Hurd , former Six-County Direct Ruler , stated -- " We need to make it clear that we don't accept the partition of Bosnia by force . The idea that simply because you or your friends have occupied swathes of terrority , the world simply packs up and accepts that , will be shown to be wrong " . ' Hear Hear ' , Douglas , and so say all of us !

In 1963 , the British pulled out of Kenya . The Mau Mau 'terrorists' that fought against the British presence were treated much like the Irish ' terrorists ' , and are now fighting the Brits again !
They are taking their former oppressors to court to seek compensation for human rights abuses during the 1950's and 1960's . More than half a million Mau Mau belonging to the Mau Mau Trust welfare group have hired British lawyer ( fight fire with fire ! ) Martin Day to fight their case . They claim that British soldiers regularly beat and tortured the Kenyans with rifle butts and glass bottles before putting them to work as slave labourers . It has been stated that some of the men were effectively castrated by the British soldiers , while female prisoners were raped repeatedly and with extreme violence . The brits , as can be expected , deny the claims and have said that the majority of 'official ' records(ie their own files) were destroyed in the war .
On the other hand , Mr Blair , we Irish have plenty of paperwork ......

Liam Mellows , the Irish Republican leader , predicted in the Treaty debate on January 4 , 1922 -- " Men will get into positions , men will hold power , and men who get into positions and hold power will desire to remain undisturbed and will not want to be removed " ;
Human Nature again - Mellows was warning us about those that fool themselves into thinking that they can cosy up to the British but still maintain their opposition to the British presence : the Brits , of course , are past masters of pulling people like that ' the extra mile ' ie into the establishment . They will try it now , again ,in Kenya , and are doing it now , in Ireland . But not to all of us ...

A group called ' Ailtiri na hAiseirghe' , Irish for ' Architects of the Resurrection' , entered the political scene in the Free State in the early 1940's , with the intention of creating a ' Gaelic , Christian ,Corporatist (fascist) state ' . They apparently supported the Portugese dictator Salazar , and condemned "the cumbersome indirect methods of our imposed, corrupt , unchristian , Godless and inefficient brand of parliamentary democracy " . They stated that there should be "room for only one national party " in the State , and that under its rule we would be " a model for the whole world ,and our superior civilisation would enable Ireland to control not only the Atlantic , but the Pacific ... " .
They also claimed that such a State " could dictate to dictators and in co-operation with Divine Providence it could settle the affairs of the universe for another two-thousand years ! In the 1943 election , four 'Resurrection' candidates amassed four thousand votes between them - in !944 , seven 'Res' candidates got six thousand votes , all but one of them losing their deposits . In the 1948 election they fielded one candidate and received only 323 votes . Perhaps Fine Gael should change its name and improve its fortunes ......
About ten years ago , a Mr Geoffrey Wheatcroft was a columnist with the (ever-so) British ' The Sunday Telegraph' (perhaps he still is - its not a newspaper I 'take' , as they say...) . In one of his columns , Geoffrey stated - " Fifty years ago , Serbs and Croats were massacring each other on a scale that makes the Ulster(sic) problem seem as trivial as it indeed is . Partition has been the greatest boon and benefit Ireland has enjoyed this century .It is the essential condition without which the southern state could not have survived as it has " . I say-steady on , Geoffrey , old man !
I have just removed 'The sunday Telegraph' from my Christmas card list ...

In May , 1956 , while speaking to the Aden Legislative Council , British Lord Lloyd stated~ " The importance of Aden both strategically and economically is such that we (British Government) cannot forsee the possibility of any fundamental relaxation of our responsibilities for the colony " -- In November 1967 , Britain withdrew !
Speaking about Cyprus in 1954 , Henry Hopkinson , a Colonial Office Minister of State , said~ " It has always been understood and agreed that there are certain territories in the Commonwealth which , owing to their particular circumstances , can never expect to be independent " -- In August 1960 , Cyprus became independent ...
In ???? , speaking at ////// British PM ~~~~~~~ stated that due to the proximity of the two isles/our stiff upper lip/ for the sake of our position on the world stage/ the British will continue to exercise a jurisdictional claim in Ireland-- however , in ..........

An extract from MIchael Davitts ' The Fall of Feudalism in Ireland' states -- The genius of misgovernment has never been more wilfully blind in its methods or more persistent in the folly of political unwisdom than in the ways and means of Englands rule in Ireland . Laws and force have come to us across the sea in their most provocative form and applicaton , while concessions were never wisely or tactfully made to a cry of justice , but always to the pressure of turmoil , illegality or insurrection . Every stage of the Anglo-Irish struggle attests this fact in its history " .
Those that left the Movement in 1986 and are now in the pay of the British -"attempting to change things from the inside" - would do well to remember that it was tried before ; the only position the British will allow them is that of a poacher turned gamekeeper . And our history is littered with those ....

By early 1931 it was obvious to the Free State administration that what they termed " the normal process of the law " could no longer deal with Republican activity in the State , and Free State President Cosgrave introduced the necessary paper-work to set up a Military Tribunal on October 14 , 1931 . Eamon de Valera , who had left the Movement in 1926 and formed the Fianna Fail party , stated - " They (the then IRA) are to be taken into these secret tribunals and maltreated and nobody is to hear a word about it and nobody is to be allowed to raise his voice in protest. That is the situation. But tradition is a hard thing to kill. They have been reared in that tradition . That is the Gospel that kept Irish Nationality alive through all the centuries of persecution . These are the men whom we want to crush now . These are the men who are represented as terrorists , these who never thought of themselves . They are simply the rats that are to be squelched . These are the people who are ready to give everything that they had for Ireland , and well we know it , and now they are being deserted by the majority of their people . They have been deserted by old comrades who can no longer see any hope of success on the line they are adopting , by people who were with them originally but who are so far away from them now that the road which they are following is leading diametrically in the opposite direction . They are brave men anyway : let us at least have for them the decent respect that we have for the brave " .
---- Words from a heavy heart , obviously , but words the man was to put into action .

More words from another anti-republican ; " The only solution for dealing with the (P)IRA is to kill 600 people in one night- let the United Nations and Bill Clinton and everyone else make a scene , and it is over for 20 years " .
--- Former British Defence Minister Alan Clark , October 12 , 1997 (see ' Ireland On Sunday' newspaper , 12/10/97 , page 15) ; that's the attitude that got the British into trouble in all the countries they colonised - indeed , it is the reason they set out on their conquest . And they still have'nt learned !

One of this State's elected representatives who sits in Leinster House and is paid 1438 Euro a week for doing so has what hundreds of thousands of ordinary working-class people have'nt got - a medical card , which he has used three times since his election last May . Politicians in that institution received a pay-rise in 2000 and , in January 2001 , they received another increase ( of 18.7per cent) , then an extra 4 per cent in October last plus another wage increase last week (announced after the budget) which has them at their present wage ; after ten years ' service ' they get 1670 Euro a week , based on present wage structures . On top of their salary , they also get 625 Euro a week in various expenses , not all of which has to be vouched for with receipts . Martin is apparently a quick learner~ Leinster House has no shortage of financially and morally corrupt members - now , since last May , Ferris ( the ' good ' apple) has gone into the barrell ( of bad apples ) to change them or , at the very least , to ' keep an eye on them ' but ... human nature kicked in and another wealthy politican decided he , too , wanted more !
Plus ca change , plus c'est la meme chose .

A Mr George Marshall was ' Regional Director of BBC Northern Ireland(sic) ' in 1937 and is best remembered by us for the following quote - " There is no such thing today as an Irishman. One is either a citizen of the Irish Free State or a citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland(sic) . Irishmen as such cease to exist after the partition " . George may be gone but no doubt his sentiments live on in the minds of his BBC colleagues .

The Informer Reynolds~
The meetings that Reynolds attended of the ' United Irish Supreme Executive' were detailed gatherings to plan the Rising - he supplied chapter and verse on these to his English paymasters . He also compiled and handed over information which led to the arrest of most of the membership of the Leinster Directory of the United Irishmen : the arrests took place at the home of Oliver Bond , in Bridge Street , Dublin , in March 1798 . The arrests were a severe blow to the organisation and irreparably damaged the prospects of a successful rising taking place the following May .
Reynolds , thinking that his ' job ' was done , refused to comply when ordered to testify at the ' trial ' of Oliver Bond and John McCann , the Provincial Secretary of the Leinster Directory , and so was placed under arrest himself ( in May 1798) ! However , being the weasel that he was , he struck a deal -- in exchange for personal immunity he agreed to appear in court to give evidence about certain figures and , for a lump sum of £5000 and a pension for life he agreed to tout on the people arrested at Bond's house .
Reynolds was no doubt proud that , thanks to him , three members of the Directory - McCann , Billy Byrne and Bond were found guilty in July 1798 . McCann and Byrne were executed while Bond died in jail the following September . The Informer left Ireland for his own safety and was employed abroad by the English authorities . He settled in Paris and died there on August 18 , 1836 . I can only hope he had many a sleepless night .
Lloyd George again ~
In his book 'Year 501; The Conquest Continues' , Noam Chomsky tells how former British PM Lloyd George noted approvingly that British diplomacy had prevented the 1932 Disarmament Convention from banning the bombardment of civilians . Lloyd George observed - " We insisted on reserving the right to bomb niggers " . God knows he sent enough people , including coloureds , to their deaths ...