On December 8th, 1922 , Dick Barrett , Rory O'Connor , Liam Mellows and Joe McKelvey were executed by firing squad in the yard of Mountjoy jail in Dublin .

The executions took place at the height of the Civil War and aroused revulsion and anger at home and abroad. Dick Barrett was born at Hollyhill, Ballineen , County Cork during the 1890's , and was educated at the local national school and later qualified as a teacher . He was an IRA Brigade Staff Officer and occasionally acted as Brigade Commandant of the West Cork Brigade during the Tan War 1919 - 1921 .
He continued his teaching job despite being heavily involved in IRA operations , as this helped him to avoid British suspicion . Barrett also managed to organise fund-raising activities for comrades 'on-the-run' . In 1920 he was appointed Quartermaster of the West Cork Brigade ;
after the Crossbarry ambush ( in which a company of over 100 IRA Volunteers ambushed nine lorries of British troops and killed a large number of them ) Dick Barrett was arrested (March 1921) and imprisoned in Cork jail and later on Spike Island , off the Cork coast .
He rejected the Treaty of December 1921 and played a leading part in the establishment of the republican headquarters in the Four Courts in Dublin , in April 1922 ; on June 28th that year , the Four Courts were attacked by Free State forces armed , in part , by the British ....... (MORE LATER)..

In an attack on partition in March 1941 , a Cardinal McRory , in writing to a Colonel Donovan ( U S President Roosevelt's representative , I think) described the Irish situation as existing because of partition - " The whole miserable state of affairs rises from an un-natural division of a natural unit . Being artificial , partition can be upheld only by unjust measures , of which the incitement of religious bigotry and sectarian prejudice has a main place " .
It would be a pleasure to listen to a sermon like that any day in Church , but it won't happen ~ the Catholic Church in this country , while not as powerful as it once was , has fixed itself firmly to the coat-tails of the Establishment and abides by the same rules and regulations as the political ' elite' etc .
When the Establishment changes , so will the Church ......

Returning to Cork after her release , Mary MacSwiney virtually ran the republican headquarters in the city, but had to leave Cork in a hurry as the Free Staters were looking for her . She was arrested in Dublin on November 4th that year (1922) and was imprisoned in Mountjoy Jail - she immediately went on hunger-strike for release and was eventually freed on the 25th day of her fast , due to the huge international publicity her case received .
She was elected to the Executive of Cumann na mBan in 1926 and , in October that same year, was also elected as Vice-President of Sinn Fein at that organisations Ard Fheis , which was held six months after the split with de Valera . Along with other prominent republicans, including Brian O'Higgins , she resigned from the party in 1934 over the decision of Sinn Fein to allow members to receive IRA pensions from the new Fianna Fail administration .
( There can be no doubt of how she would react to the salaries , offices, perks and holiday-homes that the Adams Family are in receipt of , and not only from the Free State....)
Mary MacSwiney was one of the last surviving loyal members of the Second Dail who transferred their authority to the Army Council of the IRA in December 1938 .
She supported the IRA bombing campaign in England but poor health prevented her from playing her usual active part in the Movement.
Mary MacSwiney died in March 1942 , at 70 years of age, thirty-four of which she devoted to socialism and republicanism - the MacSwiney name will live on as part of the Irish struggle.

" Occasionally , I'm afraid , something has gone wrong, a bomb has landed in the wrong place " ~ British commander General Sir Peter de la Billiere , on civilian casualties in the 1990 Gulf War. ( You mean the damn civvies were in the wrong place , eh, Peter...?)

" Warfare is not that precise a business " ~ U S Commander in the Gulf War , Norman Scwarzkopf . (Translation= ' The bombs may be smart , but we're not ')

" It is difficult to look at the ground and tell what a civilian target is and what a military target is " ~ Lt. General Thomas Kelly , Operations Director of the U S Joint Chiefs of Staff .
( Translation= 'The bombs may be ...............................).
(Above three quotes taken from page 40 of ' The Sunday Tribune' , February 10th , 1991) .

In 1917 , Mary MacSwiney joined Sinn Fein following the adoption by the party of a more republican separatist policy . Following the death of her brother Terence , who died on hunger-strike in October 1920 (at the height of the Tan War) Mary MacSwiney visited America and gave evidence before the American Commission on Conditions in Ireland regarding the campaign of terror being waged against all sections of the nationalist population by the British forces of occupation .
Elections to the Second Dail were held in May 1921 , and Mary MacSwiney was elected a TD for Cork ; in December that year she spoke in opposition to the Treaty which she described as " the grossest act of betrayal that Ireland ever endured " and stated that if the Treaty was passed she would use her influence as a teacher to spread rebellion against the proposed Free State .
In the Civil War that followed , Mary MacSwiney was a formidable and unyielding opponent of the Free State and made no secret of her support for the republican side . She was imprisoned for a brief period in July 1922 , following the surrender of the Four Courts garrison in Dublin . Returning to Cork after her release ...... (MORE LATER)>>

This month , in 1976 , the first appeal for the ' Birmingham Six' was held under Judges Widgery , Lawton and Thompson . These three judges found that the ' forensic tests' used to convict the men were not "of great importance" ( ! ) ~ however , only a year earlier , Judge Nigel Bridge ruled that the tests were one of the two " absolutely critical " parts of the prosecution case .
Widgery and his two buddies gave those that cared to listen a taste of what was to come .....

The Austrian journalist , Guenther Nenning , claimed that Hitler could have been stopped by political means , or at least by minimal force if used in time : he could have been stopped if democratic parties had united against him , if the French had blocked the re-occupation of the Rhineland , or if the 'Allies' had stood up for Austria or launched an offensive in 1939 when Hitler had his hands full with Poland .
Will our children look back and say " Hussein could have been stopped by political means if only ..." ?

On March 27th , 1872 , a baby girl was born in London , was moved to County Cork and reared and educated there , at Queens College : that baby was Mary MacSwiney , who grew up to be an uncompromising republican and one of the most outstanding republican personalities of the 1920's and 1930's .
The young Mary MacSwiney trained as a teacher and returned to London for work until a suitable post was available in Dublin . A supporter of the suffragette movement , she joined the Munster Womens Franchise League (MWFL) in 1908 and , during the following years, campaigned for the franchise to be extended to women . She left the MWFL in 1914 as a result of that organisations support for Britain in the first ' World War' . After its formation in April 1914 , Mary MacSwiney joined Cumann na mBan and was appointed to its Executive Committee ; at the same time , she was a member of a number of other Nationalist organisations , including the Gaelic League .
After the 1916 Rising , she was arrested and imprisoned , and was dismissed from her teaching post ; after her release some months later , she founded a school , St Ita's , modelled on Padraig Pearse's school , St Enda's . Her sister Eithne and her brother Terence were also involved in the setting-up of the school . In 1917 , Mary MacSwiney joined Sinn Fein ...(MORE LATER)>>

A United States General , Norman Schwarzkopf , made his name in the 1990 Gulf War ("Stormin' Norman") ~
His father , a former New Jersey detective who rose to the rank of General in the U S Military Police in the 1940's , helped put the Shah of Iran on his throne and trained the Shah's police forces in the fine art of keeping a despot in power . The Shah's secret police , the ' Savak' , tortured and killed hundreds of opponents while Iran functioned as the U S's closet ally in the Gulf , policing the oil-rich region for a quarter century before the Shah was toppled in 1979 by his own people .
The U S magazine ' Newsweek' reported that Stormin' Norman wanted to start the Gulf War by exploding a nuclear device over Iraq , but Bush Senior would not allow it !
( " Aww go on , George- just a small one......)
The bould Norman stated on the last day of the war that " there is a lot more purpose to this war that getting the Iraqi's out of Kuwait" , but did not elaborate.
The war ended on February 28th , 1991 - 210 days after the invasion and 43 days after Bush Senior ordered military action " to liberate Kuwait" : on that same Thursday , the first full day of ' freedom' in Kuwait , an opposition leader was gunned down by masked men " unbothered by Kuwait Army patrols "--
lawyer Hamed Al-Jouaan had been an outspoken critic of the Sabah(ruling) family .

How many more critics of the establishment will die this time , and which U S Army 'hard-man' will make his name on the strength of those killed ?

...it was agreed to commence the ' S-Plan ' campaign in January 1939 and to stage 'tester' attacks along the border before the January deadline ~ on November 28th ad 29th , 1938, a number of British customs posts along the border were demolished but , on the eve of the attacks, three IRA Volunteers-Jimmy Joe Reynolds(Leitrim) , John James Kelly(Donegal) and Charlie McCafferty(Tyrone) were killed when a mine exploded prematurely in a house at Castlefin , County Donegal .
In late December the Stormont regime introduced internment but many of the northern leaders escaped arrest. Also , that same month, Sean Russell announced in the ' Wolfe Tone Weekly ' that Count Plunkett , J J O'Kelly('Scelig') , Mary MacSwiney , Brian O'Higgins , Cathal O'Murchadha , Tom Maguire and Professor William Stockley , the last surviving faithful members of the Second Dail Eireann elected in 1921 and usurped by the Treaty of Surrender , had transferred their authority as the legitimate government of Ireland to the Army Council of the IRA . This was to be held in trust for the nation making the Army Council the de jure government of the Irish Republic and thereby giving the IRA the right to use force and levy war . The surviving members of the Second Dail Eireann signed over their authority to the IRA Army Council on December 8th , 1938 ~ thirty-one years later , in 1969 , the IRA split and the last and still faithful survivor of the All-Ireland Dail stated that the Provisional IRA was the successor of the 1938 body ; similarly , following the 1986 division , Tom Maguire nominated the Continuity IRA as the legitimate IRA . Comdt. General Tom Maguire died in 1993 , aged 101 .
The PIRA has existed since 1986 as the military wing of a Leinster House-registered political party - if they return to their military campaign it will only be to obtain better conditions from the British ie a better Stormont ! Not " Brits Out " anymore ~ the slogan now is " stay if you want just treat us better" . It was never about that - never about so-called ' civil rights' only .......

" In front of us a curious figure was standing , a little crouched, legs straggled , arms held out from his sides . He had no eyes and his whole body , nearly all of which was visible through tatters of burnt rags, was covered with a hard black crust , speckled with yellow pus . He had to stand because he was no longer covered with a skin , but with a crust-like crackling which broke easily " ----
Journalist Rene Cutforth , describing his first sighting of a Napalm victim in Korea .
That was then , this is now ~ how have the military ' improved ' their chemical weapons.... ?

.....but, in January 1937, Sean Russell was suspended from the IRA for embarking on his American tour without Army Council permission. He stayed out of Dublin until October 1937 , when he approached the IRA leadership in an attempt to convince them that the campaign in England should go ahead .
In April 1938 an IRA General Army Convention was held , and Russell and his supporters secured enough support to get a majority on the Army Executive and to get him re-instated in the organisation , and elected to the Army Council . He was later appointed Chief of Staff . During the summer of 1938 , training classes in explosives were organised throughout the country.
IRA Volunteers were vetted for active service in England ,chemicals and explosives were stockpiled , safe houses and dumps were secured by IRA units in major British cities and a courier and intelligence network was built up .
By early Autumn that year ,the organisation was ready - it was agreed to commence the campaign in January 1939 and to stage ' tester ' attacks along the border before the January deadline ..... (MORE LATER)>>

It could have been one of the Leinster House politicians he was describing ~
In his satirical ' Devils Dictionary' , 19th Century humorist Ambrose Bierce described a bandit as " A person who takes by force from 'A' what 'A' has taken by guile from 'B' !!
..... and the bandits were like that back then , too .....
The same writer described a Christian " as one who thinks the Bible is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbour " !
...we have that ' do as I say and not as I do' - type here as well - unfortunately , people keep voting for them .....

.....the objective was to disrupt basic installations such as electricity, water and train services and , at 6am on January 16th , 1939, there were seven major explosions in the English cities of London , Manchester and Birmingham ; the next day many pylons were damaged by bombs and cable bridges and street electricity mains were hit in a widespread series of attacks .
The years leading up to the introduction of the ' S-Plan ' have been somewhat overshadowed by the campaign itself ~ In 1934 , the leader of Clan na Gael in America, Joseph McGarrity , proposed that the IRA organise a bombing campaign in English cities . His proposals were not adopted by the IRA leadership but the then IRA GHQ Quartermaster General, Sean Russell, supported the plan and , in July 1936, ( one month after the banning of the IRA by de Valera's Fianna Fail administration) he visited the U S in an attempt to obtain arms and to enlist the support of McGarrity and the Clan for an all-out war on England .
Russell was a veteran of the 1916 Rising and was active during the Tan War and, as such, was held in high esteem by the Clan . McGarrity promised money and resources , but in January 1937 Russell was suspended from the IRA for .......(MORE LATER)>>

Around the same time as the Free State applied to join the United Nations in 1946 , the then Free State Taoiseach , Eamon de Valera (Fianna Fail) stated in Leinster house - " If the Security Council decides that action should be taken against a particular state , and that action leads to war , we must participate in that action and enter the war " .
So there ya go , Bertie - retrospective approval from one of your hero's !

...... the January 12th , 1939, ultimatum from the IRA Army Council to Lord Halifax , the British foreign secretary, continued ... " Our Government reserves the right to appropriate action without further notice if upon the expiration of this period of grace , these conditions remain unfulfilled " .
On January 16th , with no reply from the British, a proclamation was posted in public places throughout the 32 Counties , declaring war on England . That January 16th document was written by Joseph McGarrity , leader of Clan na Gael in America , and was signed by six members of the Army Council ~ Stephen Hayes , Patrick Fleming , Peadar O'Flaherty , George Plunkett , Larry Grogan and Sean Russell . The seventh Army Council member, Mairtin O'Cadhain , refused to sign as he believed the IRA was not ready to begin the campaign . McGarrity's Proclamation also highlighted events since the 1916 Rising and declared that the fight for Irish freedom was not over , that Ireland was still unfree and that only military action would ever make the English withdraw from the country .
The 1939 bombing campaign began on January 16th : its objective was to disrupt basic installations such as electricity , water and train services and , at 6am that morning ......( MORE LATER)>>

An E-mail campaign doing the rounds at the moment asks recipients to vote for Ian Paisley as the least favourite Brit , or some such : I would imagine that Paisley would get the vote of the Lyons family -
Ian Paisley made the headlines in the ' Maura Lyons Affair' in 1956 ~ the proselytising of a young Catholic girl from the Falls Road , who disappeared from her parents home for days . The girl finally returned , and eventually abandoned her new-found Free Presbyterian faith . Apparently , Big Ian thought he could save the girls soul by converting her , even if she did'nt ' want to be saved' herself !
In that same year (1956) , Ian Paisley formed ' Ulster Protestant Action' (UPA) with John McQuade and Desmond Boal , a young barrister . Boal drafted the UPA constitution - " to keep Protestant and loyal workers in employment in time of depression , in preference to their fellow Catholic workers " ! The UPA fell asunder within three years - probably because they did'nt 'convert' enough Catholics ........

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peter Barnes was born in Banagher , County Offaly , in 1907 .
At the age of 14 he joined the local slua (group) of Na Fianna Eireann and , in 1924 , at 17 years young, he joined the IRA . Peter Barnes was one of the first to volunteer for active service , at 32 years of age, in England , when the 1939 bombing campaign began . In June of that year he travelled to England and was appointed Transport Officer , operating mainly between Glasgow , Liverpool and London .
James McCormick was born in Mullingar , County Westmeath , in 1910 .
The McCormick family moved to Tullamore , in County Offaly, after the mother died , and it was in that town that James joined the IRA . In early 1939 , James McCormick volunteered for active service in England where , after acting for some time as Operations Officer in London and Birmingham , he was posted to Coventry (in May 1939) and , in August 1939 , was appointed Coventry O/C .
On August 25th , 1939, in one incident during the IRA bombing campaign , a bomb at the busy Broadgate Centre in Coventry killed five people and injured many more .
The bomb was concealed in the carrier-bag of a pushbike which was left standing at the kerb outside Astley's shop in the city centre . It was being transported to it's target some miles outside Coventry , but exploded prematurely due , apparently, to a defect in the timing device . Within hours of the explosion , Barnes was arrested .......( MORE LATER)>>

According to a book entitled "Landslide:The Unmaking of the President 1984-' 88" , by then Washington journalists Jane Mayer and Doyle McManus , Ronald Reagan "was lazy. He was'nt interested in the job . All he wanted to do was watch movies and television" . The then U S Chief of Staff , Howard Baker (who replaced Donald Regan in the job) briefly considered a proposal that the U S's Constitutions' 25th Amendment be invoked to remove Reagan from Office ~ Baker's aid , James Cannon , sent Baker a memorandum on March 1st , 1987 , which read- " Consider the possibility that Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution might be applied" . The '25th' provides that a President can be removed from Office if the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet certify that he/she is unable to perform his/her duties . When questioned about the above , Ronald Reagan replied "No truth at all" . But then again , some would say that Reagan would'nt know the truth even if it WAS in the script .....

.....Thomas Miller Beach (alias Major Henri Le Caron) was privy to the negotiations which led to the 'New Departure' in October 1878 : an alliance between the Fenians led by John Devoy , the Land League under Michael Davitt and the Irish Parliamentary Party led by Charles Stewart Parnell .
John Devoy commissioned the informer Beach to carry messages and instructions to Fenians in Europe and , in 1881 , Beach was sent to Paris with same for John O'Leary and Patrick Egan~ on his way through London he passed the details in his possession to Robert Anderson , from the British Home Office , who copied the information , and Beach carried on as if nothing had happened .
Beach returned to England permanently in December 1888 . By this time , the British government had established a Special Commission on ' Parnellism and Crime' , in order to discredit Parnell , and informed the informer Beach that it would be necessary for him to come out in the open and speak against Parnell ; all concerned understood that such a move would end Beach's career as an informer . His testimony to the commission in February 1889 did not damage Parnell as much as it damaged , shocked and embarrassed the IRB leadership , who were astonished that " one of their own" was a British agent all along . Beach spent the next five years in England , in hiding , his only injury being a nervous breakdown shortly before he died . His autobiography , ' Twenty-Five Years in the Secret Service' , was published in 1892 . The informer Beach died on April 1st , 1894 - not the last high-ranking informer considered to be "one of our own"......

.....in his speech , Ramsey Clark stated - " The (U S) President has no power to kill whomever he wants , to bomb civilian populations after deliberately building up a hate campaign against the country and timing it for prime television " . Clark said the compensation he was seeking on behalf of the fifty-five Libyans would total between $75 Million and $100 Million , and that U S pilots would be sued for not refusing to carry out Reagan's illegal order to bomb Tripoli in peacetime .
Will Bertie Ahern be sued because he is allowing U S bombers to fly from Shannon ?
Will Bush be sued for "building up a hate campaign" against Iraq ?
Will U S pilots end up in court "for not refusing to carry out illegal orders" ?
And what about the groundcrew at Shannon ? Will they be sued ?
It's most unlikely , but should a court-case be instigated here then watch the gutless wonders in Leinster House run for cover while simultaneously blaming each other .

......Thomas Miller Beach (alias Henri Le Caron) began his 'career' as an informer in 1866 , when he notified the authorities of a Fenian raid to be undertaken in Canada by Captain John O'Neill and his men , whose confidence he had won . The raid went ahead as planned but was defeated by the Canadian authorities on June 1st, 1866 .
While on a visit to England in 1867 , Beach made himself known to the British Home Office and was put in touch with a Mr Robert Anderson , to whom he relayed extensive information on Fenianism in Ireland , England and America ; his arrangement with Anderson lasted for years . Meanwhile , he had obtained high rank and responsibility in the IRB and , prior to the second abortive attack on Canada , was actively responsible for locating suitable places for the Fenians to stash their weapons . In April 1870 , the Fenians walked into a carefully prepared ambush and the Canadian operation fell apart ~ the Fenians had long suspected that there was a traitor in their ranks , but suspicion never fell on Beach , such was his standing among the Fenian leadership and rank-and-file .
A founder-member of Clan na Gael in America , Beach was privy to the negotiations .........(MORE LATER)>>

Ramsey Clark was Attorney General for the United States from 1967 to 1969 ; In April 1988 , he gave a speech in Washington in which he announced that he had filed a lawsuit against Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher , seeking compensation for fifty-five Libyans killed or injured in a U S bombing raid on Tripoli in 1986 . He was suing Thatcher because she allowed the U S bombers to fly from British bases , and Reagan because he built up a hate campaign to justify killing Libyans in a bombing raid timed , he said, for U S television news primetime . In his speech , Clark stated - " The (U S) President has no power to kill .........." (MORE LATER)>>>>>

A Mr. Thomas Miller Beach , who was born in Colchester , in England, in 1841 , is one man that is well-remembered by Irish Republicans for his 'career' in the Movement~but for all the wrong reasons.....
........for almost a quarter of a century , Thomas Miller Beach (alias Henri Le Caron) was one of the most 'successful' informers in the pay of the English secret service : he infiltrated the IRA and thwarted nearly all their plans for insurrection .
He was an apprentice draper , and went to America when he was aged 20 (1861) : once there , he enlisted in the 8th Pennsylvanian Reserves in the Union Army and , during the Civil War in that country (1861-' 65) was wounded and was eventually promoted to the rank of Major . While in the Northern Army he became friendly with the Fenian , Captain John O'Neill , and it was this friendship which gained him entry into the Fenian Brotherhood . He moved and settled in Nashville , Tennessee , where he studied medicine . Beach/Le Caron's career as an informer began in 1866 ; ......(MORE LATER)>>>

And a belated "congrats" to Paddy Murray on his new job as Editor of 'The Sunday Tribune' newspaper - its a good read , but was better when Vincent Browne was in charge . However , I doubt if the (Indo) owners of the 'Trib' could afford to have Browne back in the hot seat(financially or otherwise....) as the newspaper lost over EURO1.5 million in its last financial year .
Anyway , I digress - I suspect that the newspaper will go down-market in the near future : perhaps not a 'page 3' dumb-down , but it will , I think, move to an even more anti-republican position than it already occupies . The following quote from new Editor Paddy Murray himself , as lifted from his newspaper on December 3rd , 2000 ('Artlife' section , page 11) is a sign of things to come ~ "(Tom) Barry [ Irish Rebel leader] will never figure in my list of heroes - David Beckham [an English footballer] on the other hand , will figure on that list " .
Beckham over Barry ? Bend it like the latter , Paddy .......

......Mary Anne McCracken won improvements for poor house women , in the clothing trade and in childrens education - she helped develop the idea of an infants' school which flourished for a brief period. She was bitterly opposed to slavery and seen in that issue a parallel with the 'climbing boys' , who were young boys used by chimney sweeps as helpers ; and she fought hard for better conditions for other children who worked in factories . During the early 1840's she assisted Dr Richard R. Madden , the historian of the United Irishmen , with detailed accounts of the lives of her brother and Thomas Russell .
In her last years she saw the republican principles for which she had fought and for which those she had loved had died , once again being widely espoused throughout Ireland by the Fenian movement . Mary Anne McCracken died on July 24th , 1866 , at 97 years of age , and deserves to be remembered as much as her brother , Henry Joy McCracken .

If/when George Bush sends his troops in to Iraq , the American public would do well to remember the words of Franklin D.Roosevelt , one year before the U S was plunged into WW2 - " I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again : your boy's are not going to be sent into any foreign wars" ~ it looks like Bush will be responsible for the first 'resource war' of the 21st Century.
Remember , also, on his last day in Office as President of the USA , Bill Clinton admitted lying under oath and surrendered his licence to practice law , for five years . He also stole furniture , china and silverware from the White House to the approximate value of EURO 250,000 . He pardoned one of the FBI's ten 'Most Wanted' , whose ex-wife 'donated' almost four million euro's to the Democratic Party's war-chest and a six-figure sum to Hillary Clinton's U S Senate campaign , without consulting the FBI or the U S Attorney Generals Office , as required by U S law .
High Office , a nice suit and the courtship of the Establishment is not a guarantee that the people in question are worthy of the trust placed in them .......

.....Mary Anne MacCracken followed with enthusiastic interest the progress of the American War of Independence and , with her sister-in-law, Rose Ann McCracken , she was sworn into the Society of United Irishmen soon after its formation in Belfast in October 1791 . Following the battle of Antrim in June 1798 and the collapse of the Rising in the North , Mary arranged safe passage for her brother , Henry Joy, on a ship bound for North America .
He was arrested as he was about to board the ship and imprisoned in Carrickfergus Jail - he was transferred to Belfast , where Mary was present at his court-martial , and comforted him in his cell as he awaited execution . She accompanied him to the scaffold .
Five years later , just as she had seen her brother make the supreme sacrifice for liberty , she was to again witness another loved one, Thomas Russell, meet the same end at Downpatrick Jail in 1803 .
She withdrew from radical politics following Russell's execution and joined forces with English prison reformer Elizabeth Fry , to form a 'ladies committee' to demand better conditions in Belfast's workhouse .
(MORE LATER)>>>

Ship-jumper Paul Whelan was not alone.....
Fianna Fail Councillor Gerry Murray , from Charlestown in County Mayo , resigned from Fianna Fail in September 2001 and declared himself an Independent Councillor . He joined Provisional Sinn Fein the following month ....
Murray stated that he was a member of PSF in the late 1970's " but drifted away because of the then weakness of the Sinn Fein organisation in Mayo " . And the reason that their organisation is "stronger" now , Gerry , is because it's full with people like you who will no doubt move on if .......

.....his health never improved and he died in Los Angeles in October 1899 , at the young age of 36 . He was buried in America , but his remains were returned to Ireland in 1901 in accordance with his wishes. They were reinterred in Maynooth . When Padraig Pearse , in his famous oration in August 1915 , referred to O'Donovan Rossa as having "the holiness and simplicity of patriotism of a Michael O'Clery or an Eoghan O'Growney ", he was evoking a name, long since dead, who during his 36 years on this earth had done much to promote the revival of the Irish language : Eoghan O'Growney was born in August 1863 and died in October 1899 and , in my opinion, is not remembered as he should be . He would have been three years of age when a woman , with whom he had a lot in common , died ~ this 97 year-old woman died on July 24th , 1866 , after a lifetime service to the cause of Irish freedom - it has been said that she was passed over by history in favour of her brother , Henry Joy McCracken :
The womens name is Mary Anne McCracken , a social reformer and revolutionary , who was born in High Street , Belfast , in July 1770 . Her father was Captain John McCracken and her mother was Ann Joy . They had six children , the most famous of whom was Henry Joy McCracken . Mary grew up with a love of liberty , and followed with enthusiastic interest the progress of the American War of Independence ....(MORE LATER)>>>

It was around June 2001 that a Mr Paul Whelan , a member of the Fianna Fail 'National' Executive (sic-ie; by this , Fianna Fail means the 26 -County state only) and then president of Roscommon Ogra Fianna Fail resigned and joined Provisional Sinn Fein ! He stated - " We have a party (Fianna Fail) more concerned with staying in power nationally(sic) than any other policy " .
"NATIONALLY" ? - By God , Paul , the Provos'll knock that type of talk out of ya ~or maybe they'll learn it from you ..... (another defection tomorrow ...) >>>

.....and were of great importance to the Irish Revival Movement . O'Growney assisted Eoin MacNeill and Douglas Hyde in the formation of the Gaelic League in July 1893 , and was appointed as first vice president of that organisation . Later that year he began a series of lessons in Irish in the 'Gaelic Journal' and in the 'Weekly Freeman' - these articles were then published in book form in 1894 , under the title 'Simple Lessons in Irish' and became the best-seller of its day and are still regarded by some as the best available such books for Irish beginners .
He suffered ill-health due , it was believed , to his hectic workload as professor , editor , writer and an activist in the Irish Revival Movement , and was advised to emigrate to the warmer climate of California , in America , which he did in October 1894 . He continued to contribute articles , in Irish, to the 'Weekly Freeman' and to American newspapers but, again due to his workload , he resigned as professor of Irish at Maynooth in June 1896 . His health never improved and .....(MORE LATER)>>>

.....with 98 of the workers suffering from cancer as a result of exposure to plutonium released in the accident . The B-52 , with four H-Bombs on board , got into trouble five hours into its flight and the crew was unable to make an emergency landing . The crew ejected and the aircraft crashed into ice eight miles west of Thule USAF base : the non-nuclear explosives detonated , dispersing the plutonium inside the bombs , which contaminated the ice . U S military personnel were sent in to ' collect ' the contaminated ice , which they then brought back to Thule where 800 Danes were working . None of the military or civilians wore protective masks because this would have made it impossible to breath in the intense cold . The U S and Danish governments attempted to put a good gloss on the incident in a joint statement they issued , which declared that "a major disaster was turned into a classic example of international co-operation " . The spin-doctors claimed that " the radioactivity spread in the area is not a hazard to people or to biological species , nor is any hazard foreseen in the future " . There were reports , at the time , of an unknown number of deaths , including military personnel , as a result of that accident . Still - it improved " international co-operation " , so it was worth it ....( expect more from the 'spin-doctors' in the near future....)

The Catholic Church has , deservedly, had bad press for deeds carried out by it's ' operatives' ; however , not all its members were without conscience -
A child born in Ballyfallon , County Meath , in August 1863 , grew up to be ordained to the priesthood in 1889 , at twenty-six years of age . The child , Eoghan O ' Growney , became a Gaelic scholar and was a founder member of the Gaelic League at thirty years young . Educated at the local national school , St Finians diocesan seminary in Navan , and at Maynooth College , the young O'Growney's interest in Irish was further sparked by the reading of lessons in Irish in ' Young Ireland' , a weekly paper published from ' The Nation' office . He was also encouraged in his love of the language and history by his mother .
With other local Gaelic speakers , he spent holidays in the Gaeltacht to perfect his knowledge of the Irish language , and was a regular visitor to Cork, Kerry , Donegal and Waterford , but spent much of his time on the Aran Islands , on Inis Mean .
He became a curate at Ballynacargy , County Westmeath , and contributed articles in Irish to the 'Gaelic Journal' and was elected Editor of same in September 1891 . That same year, he was appointed a professor of Irish at Maynooth College but managed to continue his association with the 'Journal' - his articles for that newspaper played a large part in the preservation of the language and were of great importance to the 'Irish Revival Movement' . (MORE LATER)>>>

..... the nuclear material in the weapon failed to attain critical mass " .
The U S government deliberately covered up this near-disaster until 1981 when it announced that a nuclear bomb had "temporarily been lost in the '50's near Kirtland air force base" : the USAF refused to comment on what it described as "this event" . It was not until late 1986 that a statement was issued to the Associated Press news agency , confirming that New Mexico and its surrounding stated were nearly obliterated in 1957 . Another USAF disaster that caused concern was that of a B-52 nuclear-armed bomber , which crashed in Greenland on January 1st , 1968 - over 500 workers became sick , with 98 of them suffering from cancer as a result of exposure to plutonium released in the accident ....(MORE LATER)>>>.

.... O'Sullivan placed a barrel of explosives on a cart against the outer wall of the prison : the wall crumbled and the rescuers scrambled in to the prison yard only to discover that Burke was not among the prisoners in the yard ~ however , O'Sullivan and his men were able to make good their own exit in the ensuing confusion and panic . Because the British knew of the rescue attempt , they were now looking for O'Sullivan , who was in hiding in various safe-houses . He eventually made his way to America and settled in New York , where he joined Clan na Gael and remained active in that organisation and in the IRB for the rest of his life .
He played a vigorous part in the Land League during the 1870's and supported the 'New Departure' between the Fenians , Michael Davitt and Charles Stewart Parnell until Parnell's death in 1891 when , like most of the old Fenians, he dropped out of politics and confined his activities to the Clan until the 'Friends of Irish Freedom' was founded in March 1916 .
Jeremiah O'Sullivan died on November 6th , 1922 , at 77 years of age : a Fenian to the very end .....

In 1981 , it was revealed that in 1957 ,the United States Air Force(USAF) almost ' took out' the state of New Mexico ....
On May 22nd , 1957 , a B-36 bomber 'accidentally' dropped an H-Bomb on land belonging to the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque ; the bomb was a 'Mark 7' , weighing 42,000 pounds . It was described by the Pentagon as the "first droppable thermonuclear bomb to be tested" , and had a pay-load of ten thousand kilotons - a massive 625 times more powerful that that which reduced Hiroshima to ashes ! When questioned , a Pentagon spokesperson stated - " The safety mechanism was apparently moved to the wrong position , causing the weapon to fall out, taking the bomb-bay doors with it "(!) . This master of understatement then declared that the non-nuclear explosives in the bomb " detonated when it hit the ground , but the nuclear material in the weapon failed to attain critical mass " ..... (MORE LATER if we're still here ....)>>>

Jeremiah O'Sullivan , a life-long member of the Fenian movement , was born in Cahirdaniel , County Kerry , in 1845 . At 22 years young , O'Sullivan took part in the Fenian Rising in Kerry in February 1867 and , following the collapse of same, went to London and continued his Fenian activities with the Irish Republican Brotherhood . The head of the Fenians in England , Colonel Ricard O'Sullivan Burke , was captured and imprisoned in the Clerkenwell House of Detention in London , in response to the successful rescue of two Fenians - Colonel Thomas J.Kelly and Captain Timothy Deasy , who were both rescued from a prison van in Manchester in September 1867 .
Jeremiah O'Sullivan and another Fenian ,Captain James Murphy , devised a plan to rescue Burke by blowing a hole in the prison wall while he was at exercise and , after careful planning , arrangements were made to carry out the rescue attempt on December 13th . However , an informer betrayed their plans to the British and Burke was put in a cell during the exercise period ; outside the prison walls , however , the plan went ahead , and O'Sullivan placed a barrel of explosives on a cart against the outer wall of the prison .....(MORE LATER)>>

.......the KHIAN SEA left in the middle of the night , but left three-thousand tonnes of the toxic ash on a remote peninsula outside the capital city ! The ship went to a range of other states , renaming itself the 'FELICIA' and was spotted in 1991 with empty holds having probably dumped the toxic ash in the Bay of Bengal , where the Bangladeshi government have no pollution monitoring units .
A five-year sea trip , sleeping each night with toxic ash ~ they should have followed the example of the Brits , and just dump their rubbish in the Irish Sea .....

....the IRA Volunteers made their escape despite intense searches on both sides of the border .
Following approaches by the British , the Free State administration (Fianna Fail) re-introduced the 'Special Criminal(sic) Court' in November 1961 (on the 22nd of same) , in an attempt to crush the IRA campaign once and for all . The then Justice Minister , Charles Haughey (who was later to give his shirt for Ireland) stated ~ " The government will use every means in its power, including the(Free State) Army ,if necessary , to bring this futile, evil campaign of violence to an end " .
The Special Court sat for the first time that year on November 27th and , by the end of the year, 25 men had been sentenced to various terms of imprisonment : it remained in existence until October 1962 , eight months after the formal ending of the IRA's border campaign . That was by no means the first or last time that a Free State administration turned on its own people at the request of a foreign government .

My previous posts on sea-dumping remind me of the story behind a five-year sea trip by one ship , in order to dump tonnes of toxic ash ~
The Liberian -registered KHIAN SEA left Philadelphia in August 1986 with 13,476 tonnes of toxic ash from the city's municipal incinerators . The ship was destined for the Bahamas , but they turned it away : it was also rejected by Bermuda , Honduras , Guinea-Bissau and the Dominican Republic. In October 1987 , it landed in Haiti , where the import licences said the ship was delivering fertiliser ! In January 1988 , the Haitian government ordered the ash out of the country - the KHIAN SEA left in the middle of the night , but .....(MORE LATER)>>>

.....meanwhile , IRA activities continued ~ during the following year , 1959, twenty-seven operations were carried out and , in 1960 , twenty-six operations were carried out . In April 1961 , the last internees in the Six Counties were freed by the Stormont regime in the belief that the campaign had ended . The IRA , however , was not defeated and the leadership believed that the Army could be re-organised and the fight continued . During the spring and summer of 1961 , as the northern units re-grouped , more effective attacks against the enemy continued along the border .
In the winter of 1961 , as public support for the IRA had all but evaporated , one of the last major actions of the 1956-' 62 campaign took place : in November 1961 , a five-person IRA active service unit ambushed a patrol of eight RUC and B-Specials at Flurrybridge , near Jonesborough in South Armagh , while the crown forces were operating a check-point . The British were stopping and searching people travelling to the near-by Edentubber commemoration . After a fierce gun battle , during which one RUC man was killed and three others wounded , the Volunteers made their escape despite intense searches on both sides of the border . (MORE LATER)>>

In March 1993 , the then Bishop of Salisbury said on Network Two (RTE) television - " The island of Ireland is a natural geographic unit . Britain has made a substantial contribution to divisions in Ireland , partly from strategic and political reasons- people had to be planted there who were regarded as loyal to the British state " .
In June 1993 , the then Chairperson of the ' Britain and Ireland Human Rights Centre ' , John McDonnell , stated - " Political violence in Northern Ireland(sic) is inextricably linked with Britains historic role in Ireland and its failure to complete the process of decolonisation " .
This is one issue closer to home that Mr Blair should be concerned about , before throwing in his lot with Bush on the other side of the world .....

The fifth year of the IRA's 'Border Campaign' commenced in 1961 with a decision by the Army Council to organise a final assault against the British forces in the Six Counties .
Following the beginning of the campaign on December 12th 1956 , and the introduction of internment without trial on both sides of the border , attacks on RUC barracks continued throughout 1957 and the early part of 1958 and , with oppression against republicans on both sides of the border at its height and hundreds either interned or imprisoned by the start of 1958 , it was decided by the IRA Executive to abandon attacks on heavily guarded RUC barracks and instead to concentrate on continuous attacks on British armed patrols and installations along the border .
However , by July 1958 , after some initial successes but with many of the leaders and Volunteers interned or in jail , the attacks ceased and plans for a winter offensive had to be called off . During the winter of 1958 , with the IRA border campaign virtually over, the Free State authorities began the unconditional release of internees and , on March 15th of the following year, internment without trial was ended in the State and the last detainees were released . Meanwhile , IRA activities continued ....(MORE LATER)>>

A 'Patrick Coogan' , born in West Belfast , grew up to be a Major in the British Army , earned his stripes(so to speak) ,left the B A and became an author . When the Author Coogan was asked his opinion on his previous position , he stated - " If the British Government abided by the will of the majority of the people in the first place , it would not have partitioned Ireland . Historically , partition has never worked , whether it is in Pakistan , Cyprus or Yemen . It is based on the old principle of 'divide and conquer' " .
....which begs the question - did Patrick join the right Army ?

" Remember Lincoln , going down on his knees in times of trial and the civil war and all that stuff . You can't be , and we are blessed . So don't feel sorry for ... don't cry for me Argentina " ~ Daddy Bush , then U S President , speaking in New Hampshire . George Junior is taking revenge on the wrong man.....

.....that night , at 6.30pm , the three prisoners decided to make another escape attempt , this time with no outside assistance . They again made their way down to the gate and , this time , the bolt cutter worked . They used butter and grease , which they saved from their meals, to help ease the remaining portion of the corroded bolt and two of the men got their revolvers at the ready as the third man pulled on the heavy door ~ the door creaked open sluggishly on its rusty hinges and the three men walked out !
Simon Donnelly had tried to persuade another prisoner , Paddy Moran , who was awaiting trial on the same charges as Teeling ( the execution of twelve British agents on November 21st, 1920) to join the men on the escape attempt , but Moran - who was not involved in the job and had what he considered the perfect alibi for that night- refused to leave the prison except by the front gate as a free man .
Frank Teeling , Ernie O'Malley and Simon Donnelly escaped from Kilmainham Jail in Dublin on February 14th , 1921 . Exactly one month later , Paddy Moran paid with his life for relying on British justice : not the first innocent man to be put to death by the British , and not the last Irish person to be punished by them in revenge .....

A) ~ " In our view , there can be no partial solutions , no partial negotiations and no internal settlements . Peace is only possible within the context of national self-determination " -- Gerry Adams, AP/RN , May 13th , 1993 , page 7 .

B) ~ " If you want to quieten a dissident , give him(sic) a job in parliament " -- a quote from Oliver Cromwell ,according to Joe Bermingham (Labour Party,Kildare) , as published in ' The Sunday Tribune' , May 23rd, 1993, page 13 .
DAMN IT ! can't get a link between A) and B) at all .....