PATRICK 0' DONOGHUE AND 'THE IRISH EXILE' REPUBLICAN NEWSPAPER , AUSTRALIA .......


.....sentenced to death for his part in the 1848 Rising , Patrick O'Donoghue was 'spared' and his sentence commuted to transportation for life to the penal colony in Australia ; a death sentence by another name - six months at sea , a 14,000 -mile journey on board a 'slave-ship' - many did'nt make it ......


In the Autumn of 1849 ,'The Swift' , the ship carrying Patrick O'Donoghue and hundreds of other Irish rebel prisoners arrived in Australia , and the deportees were moved to Hobart Town , a (pro-British) police garrison town . They were closely monitored by the authorities , as per orders issued by the local Governor , Sir William Denison , who had no time for the Irish .

There was no work , no 'dole' , no state assistance and no-one to care whether you lived or died . In January 1850 , using materials he had begged and borrowed , Patrick O'Donoghue published , in Hobart Town, what was intended to be a self-financing newspaper - the weekly 'The Irish Exile' . There were thousands of Irish deportees in the district , and the 'paper was aimed at , and for, them ...... (MORE LATER)>




THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle ; first published in 1924 -

THOMAS O SULLIVAN OF BALLINEANIG -


" "I had twelve children , but I had none like him," Mrs. O'Sullivan says .

Tom was twenty-two years old when he was killed ; he was a teacher of Irish and a fisherman , and he was a Volunteer since the Black-and-Tan time ; he was Commandant of his Battalion when he died . They came raiding for him in December , with their lorries, but his mother got him away . He was going fishing and had his hand on the kettle , going to make himself a cup of tea , when she ran in with the warning and he made out through the back door . She lifted a bucket and went up the road towards them thinking to hold them awhile in talk .

" Who's that man running ?" the officer shouted to her , and she called back, "I don't know at all ." "You know well, you devil !" he answered . " 'Tis your son, Tom," and he went down on his knee and fired . The bullet slit Tom's jersey , but Tom was not hurt . But the danger to him seemed more than she could bear . "Wisha, give me your gun ," she said to Tom that night , "and I'll carry it into town for you ." "No, mother," he answered, "that's what I'll never do . I did'nt take my oath to break it, " he said . "I know what's before me , and I'm satisfied to face that ."

He used to come home sometimes , never to sleep, but maybe to change his clothes . He came in on the eighteenth of February . His mother thought he looked troubled . "Have you any letter from Dan ?" he asked her at once . Dan , his brother, was in jail. She gave him the letter and he read it under the lamp . (MORE LATER)>



KEEPING IT IN THE (Adams) FAMILY......

.....In an interview in 'Hot Press' magazine on 25th January , 1990 , (page 28) , Gerry Adams was questioned about the 1986 Sinn Fein Ard Fheis (when Adams and his followers left the Republican Movement to form a new Free State political party) and he stated -

" I pointed out in my presidential speech at the time that for too long republicans had 'left politics to the politicians' with the result that the ambitious and self-seeking were allowed to climb to power on the back of sacrifices made by generations of republicans " . Well said , Gerry - but I wonder would Theresa Ferris agree with you ? This 23-years young lass is to fill the seat on Kerry County Council soon to be vacated by her father , Martin , who will then no doubt find it easier to concentrate on his career in Leinster House .

And if Martin should decide to go for a seat in Brussels , who will be 'parachuted' in to fill his Leinster House seat .....? (Shades of Fianna Fail-'ism' : they went in to Leinster House to "change the system" only to find that the system changed them !)

Oh! what a tangled web we weave ......

PATRICK O'DONOGHUE AND 'THE IRISH EXILE' REPUBLICAN NEWSPAPER , AUSTRALIA.


In July 1848 , a man from Clonegall , County Carlow , Patrick O'Donoghue ( a member of the 'Young Ireland' Movement) was one of the many Irish rebels arrested following the failure of the 1848 Rising ; these men and women were 'tried' before what the British termed a 'Special Commission' and , at one such 'trial' in Clonmel in County Tipperary , in October 1848 , Patrick O'Donoghue was found guilty and sentenced to death .

That death sentence was later commuted to transportation for life to the penal colony in Australia ; a death sentence by another name - the British Administration knew well that the six-month , 14,000 mile-journey to Australia , on board a 'slave-ship' , would finish most , if not all, of the Irish rebels , who had been treated like vermin while awaiting transportation . (MORE LATER)>




THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle , first published in 1924 -

JOHN KEVINS OF BEAUFORT ......


..... a little girl walking on the main road saw (Free State) soldiers with a cart far up a lane . They were putting something wrapped in a blanket into the cart ......


" One of the soldiers was at the hotel later . He said - " The prisoner died on the road . " The Red Cross man , who had been awake all night , was sleeping there on a sofa . They woke him and said to him , "Your patient is dead ." He stared at them wildly , his face white . "Would the wound have killed him ?" , they asked . He said nothing , but shook his head . " It was I turned the mother back on the road , " a soldier who was drunk , said to Miss Sullivan later on . "I was sorry for that - I was sorry for the grey-haired woman - I was not sorry for him - he would have done the same to me , but I was sorry for the grey-haired woman . I have a mother myself , and I would not like her to see the deed that was done ... "

"I'll not forget the things she said to me ," he added , "when I turned her back - she gave hard words ." "I will tell you, then," Miss Sullivan replied, "what she said to me . She said'What could those poor decent boys do?' "

"Jesus," exclaimed the soldier , paling and sobering . "Oh, Jesus, did she say that ?" "



CHEQUE-MATE ........(and/....


" We owe it to the least fortunate of our citizens to ensure that public decisions affecting everyone's welfare are taken only on the grounds of equity and the public good , and to ensure that possession of wealth can never purchase private political favours ."

---- Bertie Ahern , present leader of Fianna Fail and current Free State Taoiseach , giving his response to the publication of the McCracken Tribunal findings , as quoted in 'The Sunday Tribune' , 12th May , 2002 , page 10.


...........or)......BUT THEN HE GOES AND SPOILS IT ALL BY SIGNING SOMETHING STUPID LIKE...

....ONE THOUSAND SIX-HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN CHEQUES -

-- The same Bertie Ahern co-signed most of the 1,615 cheques drawn on the Fianna Fail leaders allowance account from 1984 to 1992 ; better known as 'The Haughey Years' !

Ahern said he had no recollection of a cheque for £25,000 (that's twenty-five thousand old Free State punts- convert it yourself ; I have no recollection of saying I'd do it for ya) made out to cash and signed by him and Haughey on 16th June , 1989 - the day after the general election that year .

The cheque was discovered in an account linked to Haughey .



Is Bertie still married ? Or divorced ? Is 'she' still the girlfriend ? Or is 'she' the ex ? Where was the man educated ? And is 'that' degree really his ?

DOES'NT MATTER -
-- with his 'do-as-I-say-and-not-as-I-do' attitude , the man can ride out any storm.....

..... or claim to have no recollection of any storm !

ATTEMPTED TUNNEL ESCAPE FROM CORK JAIL , 1940 .....


....the result of the Free State 'inquest' into the shooting dead of IRA man John Kavanagh on 3rd August , 1940 (while "attempting to escape") was never made known ......


The IRA internees in Cork Jail were swiftly moved to the Curragh Camp in County Kildare - day's before that move took place , the IRA had buried John Kavanagh (a Cork man) in the Republican Plot in St Finbarrs Cemetery in Cork .

The three tunnel survivors - Denis Joseph O'Sullivan , Cornelius Byrd and Roger Ryan - were charged , on 2nd October 1940, in the 'Special Court' in Dublin with attempting to rescue prisoners from Cork Jail ; O'Sullivan got four years , and Byrd and Ryan each received two years .

I searched my files for more information on Broy Harrier Detective Jim Moore , but found only a fleeting reference to him being in charge of all Cork operations against the Republican Movement . I was curious as to whether he ever emerged from his own blinkered tunnel .



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle ; first published in 1924 --

JOHN KEVINS OF BEAUFORT ....

.... John Kevins lay wounded in a shop at Carenahone , outside Beaufort, surrounded by Free State troops under the command of Captain Bishop of the Dublin Guards .....


" Nobody told John's mother that night . It was a night of cruel frost and east wind . At midnight , Kevins was moved down to the barracks ; at six o'clock , soldiers came to Sullivan's for a cart to take him to Killarney . The Red Cross man protested , offered to go for an ambulance , wanted to accompany the prisoner himself ; this was not allowed . Miss Sullivan went and told the mother , and Mrs. Kevins hurried to the barracks gate . " Let me send for an ambulance, " she pleaded, " and I will pay for it myself . " The answer was "No!" " Will you not let me in to see my boy ? " The answer was "No" , again . " Won't you let me go with him ? " The soldiers were ordered to push her out of the road .

" Don't you know, " she said , " if I saw one of yourselves lying there wounded that I'd help you ? I'd wash you , I'd bandage you , I'd do for you whatever I could - and will you not let me see my poor boy ? " Gently as they could , the soldiers pushed her back from the road . They were slow in doing it , and she saw the cart pass . She saw John lying back in his shirt only ; she called out to him , "Good-bye, John" and he lifted his arm and held it up . He held it up a long time .... When they had passed she turned and saw the mail cart standing at the hotel . It was the goodness of God , she thought, the pity of Mary ! It would be going the Killarney road . She climbed up and the driver started , following the rear-guard of the cart . She could not see the cart itself because of the bends in the road but she hoped , every moment , to see it again .

Then one of the soldiers shouted - " You, there , the boy's mother ! get down and go home !" and she was forced to turn back . The driver of the mail cart was forced to stay where he was for a long time . Whatever he heard or saw it was never told . A man working in the fields heard a terrible scream ; a little girl walking on the main road saw soldiers with a cart far up a lane . They were putting something wrapped in a blanket into the cart . (MORE LATER)>



GUESS WHO ..... (part four) -

.... said .....

..... " Well ,um, somethings neither good nor bad but thinking makes it so , I suppose , as Shakespeare said . "

.... and .....

..... " I believe what I said yesterday ... I don't know what I said, er , but I know what I think and...well , I assume its what I said ."

.... and .....

..... the answer is .....

..... DONALD RUMSFELD , the U S Secretary of Defence , speaking at a U S Department of Defence press conference in 2002 . His boss , George W Bush Jnr , could'nt have put it better himself ....

( See 'The Sunday Business Post' , 1st June last , page 19.)

ATTEMPTED TUNNEL ESCAPE FROM CORK JAIL , 1940.......


...... four IRA men were working in the tunnel on 3rd August , 1940, when one of a group of about ten Broy Harriers fired into it with a Thompson sub-machine gun ......


John Kavanagh died in the tunnel and Roger Ryan was seriously wounded . The other two Volunteers , Denis Joseph O'Sullivan and Cornelius Byrd , escaped injury as they had been round a bend in the tunnel when the shots were fired in ; they were dragged out and arrested .

It was known that John Kavanagh had been shot a number of times in the chest , so questions were asked when the Free State Justice Minister, Gerry Boland, (Fianna Fail) stated that both Kavanagh and Roger Ryan had been shot while attempting to escape ; Boland's answer to the questions was to invoke the 'Emergency Powers Act' , under cover of which the Free Staters prohibited the media from reporting the incident and also allowed the State to cancel the coroner's inquest (by jury) into the death of John Kavanagh .

To try and obtain a gloss of respectability for his actions , Boland conducted his own 'inquest' and one of his own people was put in charge of it - the 'results' of same were never made known ..... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle, first published in 1924 -


JOHN KEVINS OF BEAUFORT .....

.... John Kevins' mother went to her son , an IRA Volunteer, deep in the mountains, to warn him to be careful ; she went home comforted.....

" On March the 15th (1923) , late in the evening, John came down to a shop at Carenahone, outside Beaufort , where they used to buy cigarettes . The shop door was open and the light streamed out , shining on John Kevins' face as he came up . A man in a trench coat , carrying a rifle, stepped out of the shadow, and asked his name . "I'm Kevins ," he replied, "who are you ?" The man lifted his rifle and fired , and John staggered into the shop . There were more men there . "Put another in him," Bishop said .

But the woman of the house rushed between them . "You'll not murder the man in my house," she cried out . "Send for the priest !" A soldier , too, tried to stop murder being done . They left him there , alone with a girl . The priest came and went . The wound was in the shoulder . "This wound won't kill me," John said to the girl . "I don't feel too bad ; I wonder could I escape ?" She went out , but came back shaking her head . "The house is surrounded." "Then the hounds are up for my blood," John said .

Bishop went down for a drink to Miss Sullivan's hotel ; it was his driver who told her sister , the nurse, that a man was wounded above . "He's not too bad," he said; "He can talk away." "I'll let nobody see him," Bishop said . "I have sent up my own Red Cross man ". "What wounds has he ?" she asked , and Bishop answered "He has two." It was not true yet . When Father Dennehy saw him he had only one . Nurse Sullivan implored Bishop to let her go to the wounded man . "It was for me," she told him, "that John sent for his own prisoner, Dempsey. Surely you will let me go ?"

"I'll let no one at all see him," Bishop replied . Nobody told John's mother that night . " (MORE LATER)>



GUESS WHO ..... (part three)--


....said the following ......

..... " I would not say that the future is necessarily less predictable than the past - I think the past was not predictable when it started ."


..... and ......
... " I also know that stating what might be preferable , er , is simply stating what might be preferable ."


..... and ......
... " Near my Office is an American flag done in ....origami.... that's one of those words that I have'nt mastered yet ."


----- (MORE [and answer] LATER)>

ATTEMPTED TUNNEL ESCAPE FROM CORK JAIL , 1940......


.... the IRA were determined to break their imprisoned comrades out of Cork Jail .....


An asylum on College Road in Cork shared a high side-wall with the Jail and , from a secluded corner of the asylum grounds, it was decided to dig a tunnel under the wall and into Cork Jail . In mid-July , the IRA put the plan into action and for the next two weeks all went well ; the equipment was up to the job , the Volunteers worked in shifts and 'look-outs' were in position . But the Broy Harriers (Free State detectives) , under Detective Jim Moore, were monitoring the whole scene .....


On the 3rd August , 1940 , four IRA men were in the tunnel - John Kavanagh , Denis Joseph O'Sullivan , Cornelius Byrd and Roger Ryan : it is thought that John Kavanagh was coming up out of the tunnel , having passed Roger Ryan , who had his back to the opening . At least ten 'Harriers' , armed with sub-machine guns , were crouched-down at the opening , and one of them opened fire with a Thompson Gun into the tunnel ...... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle , first published in 1924 .....


JOHN KEVINS OF BEAUFORT ......

....the captured Free State Officer was Colonel Dempsey of the Dublin Guards , an important capture for the IRA : the gun-battle had left him wounded in the eye .....

"( ..... the local IRA leader ) John Kevins had him cared for in a farmhouse and sent for Nurse Sullivan of Beaufort and for Dr. Carey , of Killarney, Medical Officer to the Brigade . Dr. Carey examined the wound and said it could not be satisfactorily treated except in a hospital . John Kevins asked him to take Dempsey to Killarney in his own car . He released the two 'Red Cross soldiers' at the same time .

Captain Bishop , of the Dublin Guards, took the clothes from some of the prisoners in Bahaghs Workhouse , and with a gang of Free State Officers, dressed in the soft hats and trench coats of Volunteers, went to Glencar . All were armed and Bishop carried a Thompson gun . It was the day of Seumas Taylor's funeral , the 14th of March (1923) ; people on the roads took them for Volunteers and answered their questions as to the identity of certain men . But one old man grew suspicious and called in a loud voice to another - " Would'nt you say there's five or six hundred of the Volunteers marching in the funeral the day ? " . Bishop and his gang changed their minds and travelled to Beaufort .

Beaufort was John Kevins' home . A week before his mother had a dream that troubled her . She saw John with blood on his forehead . She thought it was a foreshadowing of death . She travelled far into the mountains and found him , meaning to warn him because of her dream, but she found him so light-hearted and confident that for the world she could not have said a gloomy word . " Let you make your mind easy ," he said to her, " 'twould take a thousand to catch us here . " She went home comforted , her dream untold . " (MORE LATER)>



GUESS WHO ...... (part two..) --

-- .... told the 'New York Times'...
.... " Once in a while , I'm standing here, doing something . And I think 'what in the world am I doing here ?' It's a big surprise ! "

--
.... told a reporter ...
.... " If I know the answer , I'll tell you the answer , and if I don't , I'll just respond , cleverly ! "

--
.... the same person also said ...
... " I think what you'll find , I think what you'll find is , whatever it is we do substantively , there will be near-perfect clarity as to what it is . "

--
.... and ...
... " It will be known , and it will be known to the Congress, and it will be known to you , probably before we decide it, but it will be known . "

.... (MORE [and answer] LATER)>

( Great to be back ... have washed the Tramore sand out of my system and if I never see another bleedin' egg sambo ....)



ATTEMPTED TUNNEL ESCAPE FROM CORK JAIL , 1940.


The IRA bombing campaign in England , which started in 1939, prompted the Free State administration to double their efforts in the 26-Counties in regards to putting the Movement out of business ; Volunteers were either arrested and imprisoned , interned or shot dead and , by the summer of 1940 , the IRA was virtually decimated .

The 'Broy Harriers' (Free State detectives) were given a free hand , with the then Fianna Fail State Justice Minister Gerry Boland willing to excuse them any deed if it served the purpose of the Staters and the Brits. In Cork , Detective Jim Moore was in charge of the Broy Harriers and had been involved in the conversion of Cork Prison into a military detention centre ; IRA prisoners were interned there and their comrades in the area were determined to break them out ....... (MORE LATER) >



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY by Dorothy Macardle, first published in 1924 -

JOHN KEVINS OF BEAUFORT :

" No problem that confronted the IRA during the civil war was more difficult than the question of the disposal of the hundreds of prisoners who fell into their hands . A fight in which all the prisoners are held by one side is hard on those prisoners , but the IRA controlled no buildings where captives could be detained . To kill or ill-use a prisoner in any way was impossible : there was no alternative but to disarm the men and set them free to hunt their captors again . Throughout the campaign this was done .

In the winter of 1922 , Captain John Kevins and his company were attacked on the hill called 'The Devil's Punch-bowl' in the Macgillicuddy Reeks . Their attackers were driven off and left one wounded officer behind. Kevins saw two of the retreating officers put down their rifles , kneel down by their wounded officer and affix 'Red Cross' badges to their sleeves. He came down to the three prisoners , protesting against men who had come out as combatants wearing the 'Red Cross' . He had the book of 'Red Cross' regulations in his pocket and showed them that it was a breach of these.

The officer proved to be Colonel Dempsey , of the Dublin Guards . It was an important capture. To hold him as a hostage might stop the killing of prisoners which was being practised , by Act of Parliament , by the other side . But Dempsey was wounded in the eye . (MORE LATER)>



GUESS WHO .....

.... said , to a meeting of his Department of Defence last year -

" As we know , there are known knowns . There are things we know we know . We also know there are known unknowns . That is to say , we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknowns unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know ".

.... the same speaker was asked what he knew of the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden -

" We do know of certain knowledge that he is either in Afghanistan , or in some other country , or dead ."

.....and was also asked if the U S would go to war without the Brits backing them -

" Their situation is distinctive to their country and they have a government that deals with a parliament in their way , distinctive way, and what will ultimately be decided is unclear as to their role,um, that is to say their role in the event a decision is made to use force. "


......and no , it's not Homer !

( MORE [and answer] LATER)>

ELIZABETH O'FARRELL ......

..... a protest meeting had been arranged for College Green, in Dublin, in early January 1957, to condemn the British for the deaths of Sean Sabhat and Feargal O'Hanlon ; Elizabeth O'Farrell , now in her mid-60's, addressed the crowd of thousands and praised the men and women that were carrying on the struggle to remove the British presence .....


Elizabeth O'Farrell died within months of making that speech ; on the 25th June, 1957, in her 60's, she passed away at Fatima House , in Bray, County Wicklow, leaving behind a legacy of forty-four years work in the Republican Movement. Without people of that calibre , the Movement could not have survived .



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :

FRANK GRADY OF GLENBEIGH -

.... pulled out from a line of IRA prisoners, Frank Grady was shot dead by Free Stater 'Tiny' Lyons ; he was buried among wild violets and gorze , in the corner of a windy field .....

" In spite of spies and soldiers on every road , the people came down from the glens and mountains to his funeral and followed like a chieftain's host . In spite of a menacing aeroplane dipping and circling overhead , three of his hunted comrades came down from Coomasalarn , waded through a river carrying their rifles , and fired the last post over his grave .

There are few, now, in those glens who will make friends with the army that murdered Frank Grady ; the road he walked in , unswerving, is the road they will follow now . In death as in life he is "a great leader of men."



du CANN CAN DO .....

.... in 'The Sunday Business Post' of 29th December 1996 ('Last Post' Column, page 36), it was reported that American journalist Maureen Orth had interviewed Sir Edward du Cann , former Chairperson of the British Conservative Party , during which he said -

" We English are very badly equipped to deal with the Irish , because we are not poets . The Irish are all poets . The English find them impossible to understand - why they fight each other , why they're so dogmatic , why they speak with such a total lack of logic , wholly ignoring the point of view of the Unionists . There's no reality in Ireland . It's a land of fairies , pixies and leprechauns . "


.....well begosh and begorrah Sirr , and ya do be findin' it hard ta understand us ; sure are'nt we dogmatic , not logical and we do fight with each other don't we not ?

And is'nt it only after takin' ya over 800 years ta find that out ?

Ya must be slower than us , Sirr , seen as yur still here an' all ......

------------ -------------- ------------------ ---------------- ---------------- --------------------- -------------------- ----------------- --------------------- ----------------------- -------------------- ----------------------------- --------------------- --------------------------- ----------------------------- ---------------------- ---------------


AND ON THAT NOTE -

'1169 ....' has the bags packed , the sambos wrapped and the milk cancelled ; should be back on Tuesday 29th July (or before then , if the few bob runs out ....) - 'till then , Slan Anois .

( And we'll be sayin' that to you too, Sirr , someday .....).

ELIZABETH O'FARRELL .....

....within days of the shooting dead of Sean Sabhat and Feargal O'Hanlon on 1st January , 1957, Elizabeth O'Farrell and her friend and comrade Sighle Grenan addressed a crowd of thousands in College Green in Dublin .....

To deafening cheers from the crowd , Elizabeth O'Farrell spoke of her support and admiration for fighters like Sabhat and o'Hanlon , and told the crowd that Padraig Pearse and James Connolly , whom she herself had fought beside, would be proud of the men and women that were carrying on the struggle .

(Tomorrow [Saturday July 19th] - the death of Elizabeth O'Farrell : due to holidays , it will be the 'Last Post' from '1169...' until Tuesday July 29th ; our HQ is being abandoned and the staff de-camping to Waterford for a week or so . Normal service will resume thereafter .....).



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle , first published in 1924 -

FRANK GRADY OF GLENBEIGH -

....Frank Grady's body had been found in a cowshed ; local women had strewn clean hay over the blood-soaked ground and lit a candle and said litanies for his soul .....


" The father came with a cart for his dead son , his daughter with him . The priest turned the girl back . "She would have fainted," he said, "if she had seen what I saw." The mother waited below in the house , not believing at all what she had been told . "I never would believe he was dead," she moaned, "till I saw him lying on the floor."

He was buried in a little, unfenced patch of consecrated ground where grey boulders and gravestones lean against one another, among wild violets and gorze, in the corner of a windy field . " (MORE LATER)>



I'M RIGHT(wing),THE WORLD IS WRONG.....

" 'Bloody Sunday' was orchestrated confrontation and the ensuing tragedy has been shamelessly exploited by evil men ."

----Andrew Hunter MP, then Chairperson of the British Conservative 'Northern Ireland'(sic) Committee , January 1997.

.....maybe they really ARE out to get ya, Andrew - and, if not, they should be !


WELL,eh, LET'S NOT BE TO HASTY 'BOUT THAT .....

Also in January 1997, the 'W.T.P.A.N' Party in the Six Counties (that's the 'Where The Provos Are Now' Party- ie the SDLP) issued a challenge to the Provos to drop abstentionism at Westminster , and received the following reply from Francie Molloy : " Irish politicians should not exaggerate the value of attendance in the London Parliament . The refusal of (Provisional) Sinn Fein representatives to take an oath of allegiance to the English queen has not prevented us from representing our electorate . "

HOWEVER.... in like a speeding bullet with his own reply was Provisional Sinn Fein Leinster House employee Micheal MacDonncha , who stated : "The challenge to republicans themselves remains also- the challenge to adapt all their strategies and tactics to take full advantage of every political opportunity for the advancement of the republican cause ."

--- that , by the way, is political shorthand for "If we can advance our careers in Leinster House, why not Westminster ? "

(Above details from AP/RN, January 9th, 1997, page 9 .)

ELIZABETH O'FARRELL......

......speaking vehemently against the 1921 'Treaty of Surrender' , Elizabeth O'Farrell (then only in her late 20's) urged Republicans to continue the fight ....

When the Treaty was signed, she carried on with her work on behalf of those still fighting for the 32-County Republic and was one of the many steadfast Republican's that ensured the Movement lived on . For the next thirty-odd years she continued her work , usually in the background - fund-raising , organising meetings, transport , and safe-houses for those 'on-the-run' , gathering information and recruiting new members .

On 1st January , 1957, an IRA operation at Brookeborough Barracks went wrong , and two IRA men died - Sean Sabhat and Feargal O'Hanlon ; within days , a protest meeting was called for College Green in Dublin and a stage was erected. Nurse Elizabeth O'Farrell, now in her mid-60's , and her life-long friend and comrade Sighle (Sile) Grenan (they first met each other at the Cumann na mBan meeting forty-four years earlier, and had become like sisters since then) addressed the crowd of thousands in College Green ...... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :

FRANK GRADY OF GLENBEIGH -

....after being shot twice by Free Stater 'Tiny' Lyons at point-blank range, Frank Grady fell back on the road, his arms flung out .....

" Conn Crimmin , one of the prisoners from Cahirciveen, sprang forward . He was a first-aid man. He was kept back until Frank was dead , then Lyons said "Do what you can for him now" . He was pushing his gun into the faces of the other prisoners and seemed eager to kill more , but Captain Foley held him back . "You'll do for the mines," Lyons said to the rest ; and to Denis Daly he said, "You'll fit well to lay over a mine." Conn Crimmin and four soldiers had taken a door from a shed and would have carried Frank's body into a house. "Bring him in to me here," a widow was calling from her door. Lyons said there was no time to waste and made the soldiers throw the body into a cowshed by the wayside. He ordered the soldiers to take off the boots, but not one would obey. He went on with the prisoners then to Killorglin.

Father O'Reilly met a boy on the road ; he was crying ; he said, "Frank Grady is dead" . Father O'Reilly found his body in the cowshed ; women had strewn clean hay over the blood-soaked ground and lit a candle and said litanies for his soul ". (MORE LATER)>



MEET EDDIE's BROTHER ~ ALSO A JOKER ......


Writing in 'The Sunday Independent' on 26th January , 1997, John A Murphy, Professor of Irish History in University College, Cork, stated -

" Only the politically retarded and the ideological malcontents refuse to recognise the state. They nurture fantasies about restoring an all-Ireland republic . Is it not time in this 75th anniversary year of independence (sic) to rid ourselves of this fantasy ? ".

---- it's a "fantasy" that has lived with people for more than 800 years , Mr Murphy , and it has been "fantised" about by those that are still being commemorated to this day .

When was the last time anyone marched in your honour, 'spud' ? .

ELIZABETH O'FARRELL.....

... on Saturday 30th April 1916 , under orders from Padraig Pearse, Elizabeth O'Farrell met with British Brigadier-General Lowe and conveyed to him Pearse's decision to surrender .....

At 3.30pm that same day (Saturday, 30th April, 1916) she accompanied Pearse to the corner of Parnell Street (then known as 'Great Britain Street') and Moore Street and was present when Padraig Pearse surrendered to Lowe. She spent the rest of that day and most of the following day delivering the order of surrender to the various Republican garrisons throughout Dublin city.

Still a young woman (in her early 20's) but marked by the British as 'a danger to society' , Elizabeth O'Farrell went 'underground' and did tremendous work for the Movement , all in a 'behind-the-scenes' capacity ; she vehemently opposed the 'Treaty of Surrender' in 1921 and urged Republicans to continue the fight ...... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :

FRANK GRADY OF GLENBEIGH .....

.... on the morning of Sunday, the eleventh of March (1923) , prisoners from Cahirciveen were brought as far as Mountain Stage, to be handed over there to an escort from Killarney, under 'Tiny' Lyons .....

".....when Lyons arrived his Lieutenant , McGuinness, carried out a round-up in the Glen . They brought a number of captured men up to the road near the station-masters house, and a crowd of people gathered to see who had been taken.There was a tall, fair man who, when questioned, said that his name was Shea . McGuinness asked boys on the road if that was his name , and everyone answered "I don't know" . Kicks and blows failed to make anyone tell .

The prisoners were lined up on the side of the road along with those from Cahirciveen . The young fair man was at the end ; he was dressed ready for Mass; no arms had been found with him . He was laughing in the faces of his captors, unperturbed. Lyons was passing up the file of prisoners , asking each his name, and came to the last . Among the soldiers were men from Glenbeigh and a whisper "Tis Frank Grady", went round. Some hundred and fifty people witnessed what happened then . Lyons put out his hand, saying "Hello Frank" and Frank gave it a friendly grasp. Lyons had a 'peter-the-painter' (revolver) in his left hand. He changed it to his right, holding it by the barrel, when he said "You made a good job of Carragh Bridge".

Then the gun, swung powerfully, crashed into Frank's face. While Frank put his hand up to his head and stood swaying, Lyons reversed the gun and fired . The shot went through Frank's wrist and head . He fired again , and Frank fell back on the road, his arms flung out ...... " (MORE LATER)>



HOLD THE FRONT PAGE ! STOP PRESS ! -
- FREE STATE AIR CORPS TO AID IRAQ !!

Speaking at the RACO conference in 1994 , the then Free State Air Corps Commandant , Dermot Donnelly stated , re a European role in any Gulf War -

" Do we want to be part of the genocide ? Do we want to be responsible for children in Iraq at present having operations without anaesthetics and dying for want of cheap and readily available drugs ? Had we been in a European Army we would share some of the responsibility for these obscenities " .

And here we are , nine years on and, thanks to Bertie and that spineless lot in Leinster House , handing Shannon and Baldonnel over to the U S Army : we "share some of the responsibility for the obscenities " committed by Bush and Blair in their recent adventure .

Tell them that , Dermot .....


WHATEVER YOU SAY , SAY NOTHING - part two ....

RE yesterdays 'BLOODY SUNDAY' post :

.... a Conor , in Limerick, left a message in the guestbook reminding me that the then 'Irish Transport and General Workers Union' (now 'SIPTU') described the event as " One more in the long list of savage and inhuman acts perpetrated on the people of Ireland by the forces and agents of the British Crown " .

...and fair play to them for doing so , Conor : BUT... the very same "forces and agents of the British Crown" are still here , and SIPTU are very quiet .......

ELIZABETH O'FARRELL .......

.....she joined Cumann na mBan at its inaugural meeting in November 1913 , when she was just twenty-years young.....

In April 1916 , Elizabeth O'Farrell travelled the country carrying the mobilisation order from Padraig Pearse to the various Volunteer units - this document contained details of the planned manoeuvres for Easter Sunday , 23rd April 1916, and it was a measure of the esteem with which she was regarded that she was chosen for that mission .

A nurse by profession, Elizabeth O'Farrell was one of the Cumann na mBan contingent who attended the wounded and dying inside the GPO , and was one of the last rebels to leave that building on 29th April . The following day (Saturday 30th April, 1916) , under orders from Padraig Pearse, she met with British Brigadier-General Lowe, at 12 noon, and conveyed to him Pearse's decision to surrender ..... (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :


FRANK GRADY OF GLENBEIGH -

" Frank Grady was well known since 1916 among the glens of West Kerry as "a great leader of men" . His home was in Glenbeigh , but it was unsafe for him to go there ; he could only visit it, watchfully, now and then. In March 1923, he had been ill and was resting not very far from Glenbeigh. Three times in one week Free State troops raided his fathers cottage and found no trace of him . Their manner was menacing , and the old man knew that murder had been done in the last few days at Gleesk and Ballyseedy and at Killarney and at Glencar.

He went out and found his son and warned him to be minding himself well. He was their only boy, loved with the deep, vehement love given in Ireland to a kind son of whom his people are proud. On the morning of Sunday, the eleventh of March (1923) , prisoners from Cahirciveen were brought as far as Mountain Stage, to be handed over there to an escort from Killarney, under 'Tiny' Lyons....... (MORE LATER)>



WHATEVER YOU SAY , SAY NOTHING...

.... in the days after 'BLOODY SUNDAY' (30th January 1972 , Derry) when fourteen unarmed Irish civilians were shot dead by British soldiers , the following was said -

" Even if they (the marchers) were in technical breach of the recently-imposed ban on demonstrations, this act by British troops was unbelievably and savagely inhuman " - Jack Lynch , Free State 'Taoiseach' at the time.

" (we demand) a political solution that will get the British Army out of this country forever " - Fine Gael leader Liam Cosgrave .

" (We condemn) the brutal and barbarous killings by the British Army " - Free State Labour Party leader at the time, Brendan Corish .

A meeting of staff and students in St Patricks College , Maynooth, called for the total withdrawal of British troops from Ireland ; they also made a point of regretting the College's "own inactivity and the apathy of the (Free State) government and people which has contributed to the continuation of injustice and oppression " .

----- why does it take the deaths of Irish people , by the British forces of occupation, before other Irish people speak out ?

ELIZABETH O'FARRELL :

29th April , 1916 - the GPO, surrounded by British troops, is in ruins ; the Irish Republicans inside the crumbling building know they have to evacuate - they fight their way out and make it as far as Moore Street , where they establish a new Headquarters at number 16 : amongst the bunch of 'terrorists, criminals and dissidents' (who, incidentally, had no mandate from the people) was a young Dublin woman , in her early 20's , whose work for Irish freedom has been all but overshadowed by those she worked with .....

Elizabeth O'Farrell was born in Dublin during the early 1890's and dedicated over forty years of her life to the Republican cause ; as a teenager she joined 'Inghinidhe na hEireann' and, at about the age of twenty-years young (in November 1913),she joined Cumann na mBan at its inaugural meeting . (MORE LATER)>



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY, by Dorothy Macardle, first published in 1924 -

Joe and Seumas Taylor of Glencar :

.... Seumas Taylor , a Prisoner Of War, was taken out by the Free Staters and shot dead on the roadside - when his people went to Tralee they were given a broken, shot-riddled body in a rough wooden case. They could not recognise their son ....

" He was buried beside his brother in Glencar , on the fourteenth of March (1923) when FRANK GRADY was buried in Glenbeigh . A group of Free State Officers , under Colonel Bishop, all heavily armed, were recognised in the neighbourhood that day. They had hidden their uniforms and dressed in the weather-stained trench coats of the IRA. If any Republican soldier should be so reckless, it was thought, as to come down from the mountains now, he would meet Seumas Taylor's fate .

The Volunteers came down a hundred strong , and marched to their dead comrade's grave . The Empire's weapon of murder was to fail again " .



KETTLE KALLING .....

... " I think those who are begging should be hosed down and the disgrace of cardboard city should be broken up . Most of the others (beggars) are scum " .

----- so said British Tory MP Terry Dicks , on Friday 10th January 1997 .

Yeah , take them off the streets , Terry - maybe you and Edwina could give them counting lessons before you brand them on the forehead with an 'X' .....

Tom Doyle , Free State Civil Servant , Free State Department of Defence employee .... and IRA activist.

......at the 1951 Sinn Fein Ard Fheis , Tom Doyle was elected Vice-President and, during the early 1950's , he served as President of the organisation for two years -then from 1956 to 1962 he again held the position of Vice-President.....

In March 1957 he contested a general election for Sinn Fein , in the Dublin constituency of North Central, but was not elected. Tom Doyle was a powerful orator and had learned from his nine years as a Civil Servant how to 'work a room' ; he had been travelling from one end of the country to the other speaking at public meetings and commemorations for about ten years , a workload which physically hurt the man - in 1961 , he took ill and was admitted to St Lukes Hospital in Rathgar , Dublin . Tom Doyle died in that hospital on 12th March , 1962 , aged 45 - he was buried in the Republican Plot in Glasnevin Cemetery , and thousands of Irish Republicans attended the funeral.

Morally, Tom Doyle was a giant of a man who carried the Movement and inspired others to keep going . He deserves to be remembered by those who knew him ; his name , actions and deeds should be told to those who don't know of him and those that know of him but would rather forget must not be allowed to .



THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle , first published in 1924 -

Joe and Seumas Taylor of Glencar :

.....the Free State guards had filled Seumas Taylor's coat-pockets with ammunition ; when it fell out on the ground he was beaten by his captors .....

"There were some of the guards who disliked it (the beating Seumas got and the reason for it) and they sent for a priest. Seumas made his confession and prepared himself for death , then he lay down and slept. The prisoners saw the guards who had beaten Seumas come in again . This time they had a green uniform coat, and they tried to force him to put it on. He resisted until they had beaten him almost to unconsciousness ; he could no longer put up his hands to defend himself - then they put the coat on him and took him away.

He was killed on the roadside near Ballyseedy Wood and his body was taken to Tralee . Word was sent to his father that Seumas had been "killed in an ambush" . But there was no ambush that night. One of the soldiers who had taken him out returned to the barracks with his arm in a sling. But in an hour the sling was discarded : there was nothing wrong with the arm. When his people went to Tralee they were given a broken shot-riddled body in a rough wooden case. They could not recognise their son " . (MORE LATER)>



PADDY IRISHMAN, PADDY ENGLISHMAN AND........

.... the Irishman in charge of the Punjab for Britain, Sir Michael O'Dwyer , son of a large land-owner and a Catholic, gave the order for Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer to open fire on unarmed demonstrators at Amritsar on 13th April , 1919 : 379 people died. The shooting caused an international outrage but the two men (O'Dwyer and Dyer) were defended by their British bosses and , in the 'House of Commons' , Edward Carson himself actually praised the two of them !

In 1940 , O'Dwyer was assassinated in London by a young sikh whose relatives had been killed at Amritsar.

....don't know what happened , if anything, to Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer , but I bet he lived the rest of his life looking over his shoulder .....

Tom Doyle , Free State Civil Servant , Free State Department of Defence employee....and IRA activist.

.... when he was released in December 1945 , Tom Doyle had lost his job (due to pressure exerted by the Free State administration) ; however , he was already working with the 'Republican Prisoners Release Association' (RPRA) ....

In 1947 , Tom Doyle was elected Secretary of the 'RPRA' , a position he held until the organisation was disbanded in 1952 and its committee (Rita McGlynn , Ella Woods , Donal O'Connor , Tom Gill , Nan Dillon and Tom Doyle) founded 'An Cumann Cabhrach' (now 'Cabhair') in 1953. He was elected Secretary to the new organisation and held that position until his death in 1962.

Tom Doyle regularly wrote articles for the then newspaper of the Republican Movement 'The United Irishman' (now 'Saoirse') which was first published in May 1948 ; in that same year he was elected as Secretary to the Sinn Fein Organising Committee and later became joint General Secretary (along with Jim Russell) of Sinn Fein proper. Also in 1948 , he got a job on the staff of the 'Workers Union of Ireland' .

At Sinn Fein's 1951 Ard Fheis , Tom Doyle was elected Vice-President of the organisation and, during the early 1950's , he served as President for two years and from 1956 to 1962 again held the position of Vice-President . (MORE LATER)>


THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle , first published in 1924 :

Joe and Seumas Taylor of Glencar -

" ..... for the British left in their place an army of Irishmen pledged to the same King .....

.... June came and that army was commanded to complete the Empire's unfinished work . The war against the Republic was renewed. Again mothers saw their sons go out to the mountains- to their "loyal allies the hills" , and again they held in their hearts the dreadful knowledge - "without falling they will not win" .

Seumas Taylor was not like his soldier brother ; he was a very gentle , home-loving boy . His comrades tried, because of Joe's death, to keep him out of the danger , but for all his quietness he had his own way : he was adjutant of a company in March, 1923. He was sitting in his mother's house , resting, very tired, when the Free State troops rushed in and took him away. The prisoners saw him the next night in Killorglin Barracks . He was covered with blood-stained bandages , hardly able to stand. Sheila (his sister) had sent him in a coat. In the censor's office they had filled the pockets with ammunition ; when Seumas opened the coat this fell out and he was pitilessly beaten by his guards . " (MORE LATER)>


" PADDY IRISHMAN ...... " -

- "They're so intelligent , the Irish . Give them an education and they can do anything . I remember the first time I met an Irish accountant . I laughed because I could'nt believe it : an Irish accountant ! " .

----- Tory MP Edwina Currie , the SUN 'newspaper' , 1st March 1997 .

Oh we're good with figures , Edwina :

1+1+6+9 = 834 ; 26+6 = 1.

.... you can count on that .

.... Tom Doyle , Free State Civil Servant, Free State Department of Defence employee... and IRA activist --

..... in February 1941, Tom Doyle was noticed by the Special Branch as he was talking to people that they were interested in .....

-- his movements and contacts were now being monitored . In March 1942, Tom Doyle was arrested and sentenced to fourteen years imprisonment for IRA membership and was locked-up in Mountjoy Jail ; he was later moved to Arbour Hill Military Prison and, in July 1945, was transferred to the Curragh Internment Camp where he was detained for one year - he was then moved to the 'Glasshouse' in the Curragh and kept there until that December (1945) when he was released.

The Free State administration used 'Section 34 of the Offences Against the State Act 1939' on Tom Doyle and he lost his job ; by then he had already reported back to the Movement and was involved in the 'Republican Prisoners Release Association' (RPRA) , which had been founded in 1945 - the aim of the 'RPRA' was to assist the Republican prisoners and their dependants and to campaign for the release of all Irish Republican political prisoners in Ireland and England. (MORE LATER)>


THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :

Joe and Seumas Taylor of Glencar -

...the Black-and-Tans pulled Joe Taylor out of his house and shot him ; he died from loss of blood ....

" His memorial stands on the roadside where he was shot , in a little plot planted with shrubs and flowers. The cross bears an inscription:'CAPTAIN JOSEPH TAYLOR,IRA,DIED FOR IRELAND,FEB.27th,RIP'.The lesson of his death was for Seumas to learn.

June came, and, as Joe Taylor had foreseen, the enemy called a truce: not out-numbered, not out-rivalled in violence, but defeated by their own campaign of terror . The world's indignation turned against the Imperial assassins : the men whom they had murdered conquered them. December came and the annihilation of a great hope. The departure of British troops from Ireland , dreamed of as the reward of a thousand martyrdoms , came as most bitter shame, for they left in their place an army of Irishmen pledged to the same King . " (MORE LATER)>


WHAT A COINCIDENCE......

.....according to a book by Gary Wills entitled 'REAGANS AMERICA' , Twentieth Century-Fox purchased 236 acres of land from Ronnie and , in doing so, gave him a three-thousand per cent profit on his investment - shortly after that deal , the then U S President signed a bill (which had been vetoed by his predecessor) giving all the major film studios a multimillion-dollar tax break !

...at least he did'nt start a war ....

....and, as they say in Nicaragua , - "El que tuvo reales ya los tiene todavia " ("The one who had money before still has it now").

....Tom Doyle , Free State Civil Servant , Free State Department of Defence employee...and IRA activist.

..... near the end of his teenage years , Tom Doyle became interested in Irish Republicanism....

....and , within a few months, had joined the IRA - he was an active Volunteer in the Dublin Brigade. His position in the Free State Department of Defence gave him access to certain files which were classed as 'sensitive' ; he was interested in one particular folder - it contained information on the 'Magazine Fort' in Dublin's Phoenix Park , where the bulk of the Free State Army's ammunition was stored .

Tom Doyle copied the details from the folder and approached IRA leaders Michael Traynor and Jack McNeela with a view to putting a plan together to raid the 'Fort' ; the idea was worked on and , on 23rd December, 1939 , the raid was carried out : over one-million rounds of ammunition was 'liberated' and Tom Doyle himself was among the dozens of IRA Volunteers that took part in the operation.

In 1940 , Tom Doyle acted as Adjutant General to Stephen Hayes , the IRA Chief-of-Staff ; the Special Branch knew nothing of his IRA activities as he continued to work in the Free State Department of Defence while his IRA comrades were forced to go 'on the run' as the Branch were looking for them . However , in February 1941 , he was noticed by the Branch as he was talking to people they were interested in ..... (MORE LATER)>


'THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY' , by Dorothy Macardle - first published in 1924 :

Joe and Seumas Taylor of Glencar -

.... Joe Taylor , IRA Volunteer, was at home when two armed men rushed in and struck him with a rifle on the forehead , shouting "Get up and come out ..... " --

" Sheila (his sister) stood in the doorway , and caught at the rifle and implored the men not to shoot , but they dragged Joe out on the road . There were about fourteen of the Black-and-Tans round the house with three prisoners they had taken that morning . Seumas (Joe's brother) was one. His captors took Joe to the roadside, made him stand against the hedge, and shot him . He fell on the ground , blood streaming from his wound, and lay moaning .

The mother and father came rushing up from the house, frantic, but the Black-and-Tans held them back. They would let no one go to the wounded man. It was an hour before they went away , leaving Seumas free. The father and brother carried Joe into the nearest house . He was able to speak to them and to take a drink. They did not think that he would die ; but he died an hour later from loss of blood . " (MORE LATER)>


PILLOW TALK.......

The Loyalist 'TARA' paramilitary group (founded , and flounderd,in the 1980's) was led by William McGrath - the same man that made his name in the 'Kincora Boys Home' forced male-prostitution ring, and a 'pin-up' for perverts everywhere. Before he was caught with his bag of lollipops and measuring tape , the bould Willie maintained that the Ulster Protestants were one of the 'Lost Tribes of Israel' !

McGrath claimed that the British Coronation Stone was originally to have been Jacobs Pillow ....

.... life's just one long nightmare for you, Willie, is'nt it....?

Tom Doyle , Free State Civil Servant, Free State Department of Defence employee..... and IRA activist.

A child born on Comeragh Road in Drimnagh, Dublin, in 1917, was to put a full twenty-seven years work into the Republican Movement before his death at the young age of 45 ; again, as so often mentioned on this site, his name is practically unknown outside the Movement.....

Tom Doyle was educated at St James' Christian Brother School in James' Street, Dublin, left school at sixteen years young, and commenced employment as a clerk in the Free State Department of Defence ; he furthered his education and his career prospects by later obtaining a diploma in social and economic science at University college Dublin .

Near the end of his teenage years he became interested in the concept of Irish Republicanism ...... (MORE LATER)>


' THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY ' , by Dorothy Macardle , first published in 1924 :

.... Joe and Seumas Taylor of Glencar -

" In the lonely glen, wind-swept and filled with heroic beauty, it is no wonder if men's minds grow restless- if its young men see visions and its old men dream dreams . It is a place that has given Ireland brave sons.

A little stone-built cottage is the Taylors' home . When things were quiet Joe and Seumas both lived at home. Joe was the elder of the two. He was an officer in the Volunteers in 1916 , one of those who held men together by their own faith and daring when to the worldly-wise the thought of a free Ireland seemed no more than a poet's dream .He was six months in jail for "illegal drilling" in 1918, and was drilling openly again as soon as he was released. He lived in the mountains , carrying out the work of the Republican army until February 1921.

"Tell me,son, are we going to win at all? " , his mother asked one day . "We are," he replied, "but not till after June. Till June things will get hotter; there will be more of them coming in ." "God pity us!" the mother exclaimed . "There'll be many a poor boy fall before that" .

"They'll not win without falling," he said. The twenty-seventh of February was a Sunday , and Joe ventured home to get ready for Mass. It was early ; only his sister Sheila was up and he sat resting, half asleep by the fire . He had been walking the mountains all night and was very tired.

Two armed men rushed in, and one struck him with a rifle on the forehead, shouting "Get up and come out!" ...... (MORE LATER)>


GOOD LORD , JOHN, YOU'RE VERY QUIET .....

.... even before his 'elevation' to that of a 'British Lord' , the Unionist John Taylor was keeping the head down - or was he ?

According to 'The Sunday Tribune' issue of 22nd January 1989 (page 32) , Mr Taylor is probably just to busy to be botherin' with us Taigs :
He was listed as Chairperson of - Cerdac Ltd ; Tyrone Printing Company ; Ulster Gazette (Armagh) Ltd; Bramley Apple Restaurant Ltd; Gosford Housing Association Ltd; Sovereign Properties Ltd; and Tyrone Courier(Dungannon) Ltd !
He also published five newspapers , is a civil engineer , a land owner , a developer holding eleven acres of development land in Armagh , owns two houses in Cyprus and, at the same time , was an MEP .

.... does'nt leave much time for chasing Fenians !

..... James Nowlan , GAA President and Sinn Fein activist.....

.... in August 1916 , James Nowlan was released from Frongoch Prison in Wales and resumed his GAA and Sinn Fein activities - he also raised funds for the 'Irish National and Volunteer Dependent Fund' ......

During the 'Tan War' (1919-1921) James Nowlan publicly voiced support for the IRA's armed struggle and was unmercilessly harassed by the British for doing so - the GAA itself as an institution and anyone associated with it were abused , verbally and physically, by the Brits. James Nowlan retired as GAA President in March 1921 , at the Congress that year, and was appointed 'Honorary Life President' of the association - the only person to be so honoured .

He died on 30th June , 1924 , in his 70's and , three years after his death , the Kilkenny GAA Stadium became known as 'Nowlan Park' . There is a lot more that today's GAA leadership could do to honour that man properly ; the GAA leadership of today has, in my opinion, aligned itself firmly with the establishment of the day and is wasting the potential it has to help achieve a British withdrawal from this country. Again, in my opinion, James Nowlan would have little to do with them .....


'THE TRAGEDIES OF KERRY ' , 1924 (Dorothy Macardle) -

"... there is no lovelier place in Kerry than Glencar ..." :

"Sombre holly-trees huddle under young birches and larches, whose boughs sprinkle the air with luminous green. Scotch firs stand, tall and sparse, in a straggling line. Far and wide the marshy land, grey-brown with rocks and flowering myrtle, flows up to the encompassing hills. Eastward rise up , proud and protective, the Macgillicuddy Reeks, culminating in the summit of Carrantuohill, his head lost in the clouds.

Over it all the restless Kerry weather . Atlantic winds and massive or airy clouds, with varying shadow and sun-burst, weave their spells : visions of floating mountains seem to open only to vanish again ; a hill stands out , clear-cut like a pyramid of gold; a green, wooded valley is transmuted to a heaving sea; then all lies gloomy and sullen once more under a thunderous sky " ' (MORE LATER)>


IT's JUST NOT CRICKET .....
.... In 1935 , the British Duke of Westminster made use of a 'loop-hole' in the tax system to pay his domestic employees (and would'nt we all....) on whom he would not otherwise have received a tax deduction for ; instead of paying them wages , he gave them annual payments under deeds of covenant !

The British House of Lords rejected the tax inspectors arguments that the truth of the matter was that the Duke was paying his staff wages in a form that was dressed up so as to be tax deductible - a 'Lord Tomlin' stated that " Every man is entitled if he can to order his affairs so that the tax attaching is less than it otherwise would be " . The Duke of Westminster won his case .

So - if you're 'signing-on' and doing a few nixers , or doing some extra work after the day job -- don't worry about being caught ; Lord Tomlin says its ok !

.... James Nowlan , GAA President and Sinn Fein activist.....

....although he was a well-respected member of the GAA and a trusted Alderman on Kilkenny Corporation , Sinn Fein member James Nowlan failed to convince the Central Council of the GAA that it should publicly commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1798 Rising .....

The GAA leadership refused to even appoint representatives to the 1798 Centenary Committee , but James Nowlan and a few other GAA members played a prominent role in the celebrations .

At the GAA Congress held in September 1901 , James Nowlan was elected President and attempted to steer the organisation towards a more Republican path ; for instance , when the 'Irish Volunteers' was formed, Nowlan stated that it was a most suitable group for GAA members to join , even though other GAA leaders were not as enthusiastic about the group.

James Nowlan was arrested by the British in May 1916 following the Easter Rising, and imprisoned in Frongoch, in Wales ; in August that year he was released , and resumed his GAA and Sinn Fein activities . He was to the forefront in campaigning for a general amnesty for all political prisoners and also raised funds for the 'Irish National and Volunteer Dependent Fund' . (MORE LATER)>


From 'The Tragedies of Kerry', by Dorothy Macardle , 1924 :

JOE AND SEUMAS TAYLOR OF GLENCAR

" There is no lovelier place in Kerry than Glencar. In Autumn it is aglow with rowan-berries and in May it is full of rainy, sun-lit colours changing with every wind from hour to hour ; always it is full of sweet fragrances and sounds - of "Shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds make madrigals".

Violets and cloud-blue hyacinths, primroses and white bell-flowers whose name nobody knows , glimmer in the hollows under the trees. Little orchards where the apple-trees are a-bubble with blossom struggle up on to rocky moors , and there the starry branches of the blackthorn shine, and the rich yellow of gorse " . (MORE LATER)>


When British Captain Eric Nave retired from service he wrote a book in which he claimed that Churchill knew that the Japanese were going to attack Pearl Harbour ....

.....he stated that Churchill learned of the imminent attack from intercepted messages but refused to tell the Americans for his own reasons (anyone know the Japanese for 'Steaknife' ?) . An extract from Nave's book was published in an Australian newspaper , which prompted British Admiral D Higgins, from the British 'D Notice Committee' (the under-cover censorship board) to contact the 'Bodley Head'-group of publishers , who then decided not to go ahead with the book !

The Americans should realise that the Brits have no friends , only interests .....

James Nowlan , GAA President and Sinn Fein activist .

Born in Kilkenny city during the early 1850's, this child grew up to become the President of the GAA (and was to hold that position for over twenty years) and was a wholehearted supporter of the IRA's armed struggle .....

James Nowlan was a respected and well known member of the Gaelic League , the GAA and Sinn Fein ; his Republican credentials were known to all when , in 1898, he was elected as Alderman to Kilkenny Corporation - Nowlan used the position to great effect in his endeavours to publicise the then fourteen-year's young 'Gaelic Athletic Association' , but was less successful in persuading the Central Council of the GAA that it should begin preparations to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1798 Rising . (MORE LATER)>


....John Tadhg Sullivan of Killurley ........

.... John Sullivan promised his mother that he would visit her on Thursday - he was an IRA Volunteer on leave, and was on his way back to his Column -

" After the Garrane fight John Sullivan and Patrick Coffey set out to rejoin their Column towards Glenbeigh . Suddenly , at the turn of a lonely road in Gleesk, they saw four Free State officers facing them . The officers saw them and fired point blank . Coffey and Sullivan returned the fire, retreating, with zig-zag movements, along the road and Coffey succeeded in escaping over the fields. As he ran he looked back , anxious about his comrade, and saw him standing in a field among the four officers - a prisoner of war .

Nurse Sloan and Nurse O'Connor went with parcels for the prisoners to the Workhouse at Bahaghs, near Cahirciveen, and the sentry told them " There is one of your men wounded up at Gleesk " . They drove to Gleesk and found John Sullivan on the road . He was dead. There was a clean bullet-wound in the right thigh ; the chest and right shoulder were shattered , the skin singed and still hot to the touch. They sent word to the boy's mother that he was wounded and not expected to live ; then they brought him home .

" Oh Johnny , Johnny ! " the mother cried , " you came to us- you kept your word . But, oh Johnny, what a way you came .... " " .

------ 'The Tragedies of Kerry' , 1924.


When the 'ALONE' organisation was founded (by Fireman Willie Bermingham , if memory serves...) in 1977 , to help those unfortunates living rough on the streets of Dublin , the then Fianna Fail administration in Leinster House saw an opening to publicise their 'caring' side and , in a high-profile exercise in front of the media , a cheque for £5000 was handed over to 'ALONE' by Mary O'Flaherty , the then Free State 'Minister for Poverty' (and yes, there was an office with that name at the time!) .

However , in a less well-publicised reply to M/S O'Flaherty and that which she represented , the £5000 cheque was handed back to her along with a second cheque , also for the amount of £5000 , accompanied by a list of twenty-five people living in poverty in Dublin city , requesting the Leinster House administration to spend the £10,000 themselves on the problem !

What a nice way to be called a hypocrite .....

....IRA attack on British military barracks , Mallow, County Cork, 28th September 1920 .....

.... when the IRA unit, under Liam Lynch, were in the process of taking over Mallow military barracks , a Sergeant Gibbs attempted to lock the door of the guardroom where the munitions were stored - he was shot dead .....

Some thirty rifles , a couple of light machine-guns and dozens of boxes of ammunition were removed from the barracks and placed in waiting motor cars which drove off immediately ; the RIC knew nothing of the raid and were not seen that morning .

As they were leaving the barracks , the IRA set fire to a load of straw, hoping to burn the place down, but the fire did'nt catch - the stairs, floors and walls were all made from stone flaggings.

The next night , British troops from surrounding areas wrecked and burned Mallow Town Hall and the local creamery , and looted any shop they could get in to. They were to pay dearly for their presence over the following months , as their own weapons were turned on them .....


... The Garrane Fight .....

.... after a forced march of some fifteen miles , the five Republican prisoners suffered swollen arms (from being strapped together) and had lost the use of their hands due to the cold and poor blood circulation because of the straps ....

" An officer named Swayne insisted on relieving the pressure , secured breakfast for them and let them rest . While they were there Captain 'Tiny' Lyons came up from Killarney with the escort which was to take them the rest of the way . Before they left Mountain Stage , Lyons arrested Frank Grady and shot him dead . That was the eleventh of March (1923). About twenty prisoners , arrested some weeks before, remained in the Workhouse at Bahaghs . They included Michael Courtney , Eugene Dwyer , Willie Riordan , John Sugrue , and Dan O'Shea " .

JOHN TADHG SULLIVAN OF KILLURLEY .

"John Sullivan's father and mother live in Killurley East and even while his column were hunted in the mountains he came home to them every week . As time went on and the war became more cruel it grew harder to see him go . "Don't fret , now, mother ," he said the last time , "I'll come to you on Thursday , never fear" ....... " (MORE LATER)>


" The SDLP are queen lovers - lets join them in a mass-movement .... " :

On 2nd February , 1989 , the Provos published an Ard Fheis issue of their 'paper ; on page five of same , the Stormont Minister for Agriculture and Education (!) , Martin McGuinness, was quoted - " Bloody Sunday made us all very angry and we all reacted as a community should react . We were also angered that the para's commander that day was later decorated by the British Queen. And I have been angered recently by the fact that Mary McSorley, SDLP Councillor for South Derry, was also decorated by the very same queen. That tells us an awful lot about the SDLP " .

---- good sound-bite, Martin - got the crowd moving , I'll bet .... BUT ..
..... on page six of the same Ard Fheis issue , the following was printed : "One of the most important debates of the weekend Ard Fheis was on motion 37 , in the section of political policy, which called for 'the adoption in principle of the need for an all-Ireland anti-imperialist mass movement' "- the motion was passed .

That so-called 'mass-movement' would include the SDLP ....

.... IRA attack on British military barracks , Mallow, County Cork , 28th September 1920 .....

...early on that Saturday morning (28th September , 1920) Richard Willis and Jack Bolster , two tradesmen, went to work in Mallow Barracks ; they were accompanied by their 'foreman' , Paddy McCarthy - all three were IRA Volunteers , and all three were armed .....

At the same time , Liam Lynch and eighteen members of the 'Flying Column' were assembled in small groups in Barrack Street (where the military barracks was located) and six other armed Volunteers were already in control of Mallow Town Hall , a building which the RIC would have to pass should the alarm be raised and the RIC attempt to get to Barrack Street.

The barrack gates opened as usual to allow the thirty or so Lancers out and, once they were out of sight, Liam Lynch walked up to the gate, with an envelope in his hand, and knocked until the guard opened up ; when the gate was opened enough to allow the guard to take the envelope , he was rushed by about twenty IRA Volunteers and held captive. The other twelve or so British soldiers were quickly rounded-up : a Sergeant Gibbs attempted to lock the door of the guardroom where the munitions were stored and was shot dead ...... (MORE LATER)>


THE GARRANE FIGHT .....

" The fight lasted until about three in the afternoon when the Free State troops retired , having lost five or six men . They had killed Dan Clifford and captured six Republicans. The remaining thirty had successfully retreated into the mountains. There was great anger against the handful of Republicans who had made such an obstinate defence . In Bahaghs Workhouse the six prisoners were punished , day and night, for a week.

Denis Daly received a blow on the head which, later , almost cost him his life ; Peter Brady, a medical student, was shot while he lay asleep with his cheek resting on his hand - his face was scarred and his thumb was shattered. Early on Sunday morning five of them were marched to Killorglin . They were very weak from beatings and from hunger. They were tied together in pairs with straps round their arms. By the time they had come to Mountain Stage , a distance of fifteen miles, their arms were swollen and their hands were dead cold ..... " (MORE LATER)>

-------Dorothy Macardle's 1924 book 'The Tragedies of Kerry' .


THE 'STICKIES' and the dual mandate .....

"...it is obviously not possible for people to be in two places at the one time " , stated the 'Workers Party',in 1985, in relation to the issue of the dual mandate : they continued - " and, as the European parliament and the 'Dail' often sit on the same days , it is inevitable that those operating the dual mandate will have to miss important business in either Leinster House or Strasburg " .

The then leader of the Stickies, Proinsias de Rossa, proved what good material he was for Leinster House (ie 'do-as-I-say-and-not-as-I-do') by canvassing for a seat in Leinster House AND the EEC parliament in the June 1989 elections to both institutions ! Good man , Frank - just keep your head down in Europe where you are now and keep adding to your bank balance .....

..... IRA attack on British military barracks , Mallow, County Cork, 28th September 1920.....

...the British soldier from the barracks in Mallow had complained to the two tradesmen of a possible security weakness in the barracks - the tradesmen were also members of the IRA ....

The seven IRA battalions in the Mallow and surrounding areas had recently formed , from within their ranks, a 'Flying Column' , with Paddy Clancy in charge . Richard Willis and Jack Bolster contacted Clancy and told him of the conversation they had with the British soldier - they also had plans and sketches of the barracks , and mentioned that other men in their unit knew the lay-out of the surrounding district , having lived in the area since they were born .

Clancy got in touch with Liam Lynch and Ernie O'Malley and a start was made on putting a plan together to raid the barracks for munitions . On Saturday morning, 28th September 1920, Richard Willis and Jack Bolster went to the barracks to continue with the job they were doing there , this time accompanied by Paddy McCarthy , whom they introduced to the guards as a Board of Works foreman ; all three were admitted , and all three were armed .... (MORE LATER)>


" Those who, sensitive to the sufferings of others yet tenacious of their own peace of mind , love to solace themselves with incredulity , will put down this book half read . To those who have any eagerness to understand that time in Ireland it is offered as an infinitesimal fragment of the truth . It is in Kerry, among the proud and undefeated people that they will hear all the history told :

THE GARRANE FIGHT

Cahirciveen was held by the Republican army during the summer of 1922.
On August 24th , Free State troops landed and, after a fight of some hours, occupied the town.During the winter the Republicans held the mountains inland,bravely welcomed and sheltered by the people in the little farms. Captures were made from time to time and the Free State troops kept their prisoners in the Workhouse at Bahaghs, a few miles from the town.

In March , on the Garrane Mountains, there was a column of about thirty-six rifle men. They had with them an engineer - Dan Clifford, who did not carry arms. When it grew light on the morning of March the fifth they found their retreat surrounded and five or six hundred Free State troops closing in on them over the hills ..... ". (MORE LATER)>


In 1985, the 'Workers Party' (Stickies) made a submission to the Free State 'Joint Oireachtas Committee on Secondary Legislation of the European Community' in which they strongly opposed the dual mandate of Leinster House members also functioning as MEP's.

The Stickies said in their document - " There is no doubt that the public perception of the dual mandate is double-jobbing, and that this has caused considerable resentment, particularly among the unemployed . It is obviously not possible for people to be in two places at the one time ...... " (MORE LATER)>

IRA attack on British military barracks , Mallow, County Cork, 28th September 1920.

Richard Willis , a carpenter, and his friend Jack Bolster, a painter, sometimes worked together on jobs; it was on one such occasion that the two men got talking to a British soldier from the military barracks in Mallow, where Willis and Bolster were working ; the conversation ended with the soldier complaining that those in charge of the forty-five strong Mallow garrison were taking a chance by sending a detachment of thirty Lancers out each morning , to exercise their horses for a few hours .

The soldier voiced his fear that the remaining fifteen or so soldiers in the barracks would be unable to prevent the IRA from taking munitions from the barracks should they attack , not realising that the two tradesmen he was talking to were themselves members of the IRA ..... (MORE LATER)>


"..... only a few can be named in this book. Of men put to death within the prisons , of men killed in action,nothing is said , and very little can be told of those we name . Such dark, fearful and secret happenings leave myths and rumours in their trial , but we have nothing to do with myths and rumours here .

The burning passions of impotent hate and anger that shook Kerry when these things were done have quieted into calm resolution . Now , by intimate questioning of witnesses, a few clear facts can be ascertained . It is those clear, indisputable facts only that are here set down, without art or artifice, as they were told ..... ".

------ Dorothy Macardle , in the 'Foreword' to her 1924 book 'The Tragedies of Kerry' - MORE LATER> ...


... the 'American Federation of Labour' called for a second demonstration to take place on 4th May , 1886 - four of its members had been killed by the police at its first demo on 1st May ; the second demo was attended by about three thousand people , and the police were there as well ; with a heavy hand .....

.... the crowd soon dwindled to a few hundred when the police 'came the heavy' with them - people remembered that it was the same force which, days previously, had killed four people in a similar situation. They were scared. Then a bomb exploded in the middle of the policemen, wounding sixty-six of them, of whom seven died later.Without any evidence against them , eight anarchist leaders were arrested , only one of whom was actually at Haymarket Square that day .

One year after their trial , Albert Parsons, a printer, August Spies , an upholsterer, Adolph Fischer and George Engel were hanged after every appeal was lost . Louis Lingg , 21, had previously taken his own life whilst in jail by exploding a dynamite tube in his mouth .

-------- the above incident seems to be lost in American trade-union history ; why ?

.... IRA attack on Kilmallock RIC Barracks , 28th May , 1920.....

.....by 2am on the morning of the IRA attack on the barracks , its roof and upper storey were on fire ; the RIC men trapped inside the burning building were offered the opportunity to surrender - they refused the offer and , with the imminent collapse of the building, the gun battle started again .....

However , all was not as it seemed to the attackers ; the RIC men had been retreating to the outbuildings at the back of the barracks , braving the sniper-fire from the IRA Volunteers rather than face the onslaught coming through the front of the building.

By about 7am , with the barracks now a smouldering ruin, it was obvious that a fresh plan and re-deployment of the Volunteers would be necessary if the RIC were to be removed from the various outhouses they were now in , and the order was given for the IRA to withdraw ; one Volunteer, Liam Scully, was dead, and the RIC Sergeant and one of his constables were dead - six more RIC men were seriously wounded.

The Kilmallock attack , on 28th May, 1920 , in the middle of the Tan War, was one of the most prolonged and fiercest battles of that period.


" Around Kerry , in the Autumn and Winter of 1922 and the Spring of 1923 , an ominous wall of silence was drawn . The rumours that came through were so terrible that they were scarcely believed .

Those rumours were less terrible than the truth " .

----- Dorothy Macardle , in the 'Foreword' to her 1924 book, ' The Tragedies of Kerry ' :

" The whole history of the war in Kerry is being compiled by those who took part in it , and it is only when that slow labour is completed that Ireland will realize what was suffered for the Republic there . This little book is made , meanwhile, in memory of some of the soldiers of the Republic , men of Kerry, who, during those months, met with lonely and violent deaths " .
(MORE LATER)>


On 1st May , 1886, the 'American Federation of Labour' called for nationwide strikes to demand the reduction of the working day to eight hours. Two days later , strikers and sympathisers fought with scabs outside McCormick Harvester Works in Chicago ; police fired at the strikers , killing four and wounding many more of them .

Following these killings, a meeting was called for 4th May in Haymarket Square , and approximately three-thousand people attended . The police were there as well , and used a heavy hand ....

..... IRA attack on Kilmallock RIC Barracks , 28th May , 1920.....


.....the buildings around the barracks had been secured and armed IRA units had blocked all routes into the town .....

A few Volunteers were positioned near outhouses at the rear of the barracks . Just after midnight, IRA leader Tom Malone and his men took it in turns to lob heavy objects out of the skylight of the Carrolls' house , the object being to break a hole through the roof of the barracks, into which prepared petrol-bombs could be thrown.

When Malone's first object hit the roof, the IRA units positioned around the barracks opened fire on the front and rear of the building ;within minutes, the RIC men trapped in the building were shooting back. While this gun-fight was going on, Malone and his men succeeded in breaching the roof - dozens of parafin and petrol bombs were thrown through the hole, followed by a flaming torch and a grenade : the building was now on fire .

By 2am (approximately two hours after the attack began) the upper storey of the barracks was about to collapse on top of the ground-floor section , where the RIC men were now confined : the IRA stopped the attack and advised the RIC to throw out their weapons and then come out themselves - the RIC refused the offer ...... (MORE LATER)>


"..... an old dog chased its tail on the street where we once played 'kick the tin' and the old fellows made their way to the bookies for the first two across the card . Farmer Thompson's old faithful dog brought his sheep in , a few fields away, and a wood pigeon fell to a distant shotgun , as I arose , not from my panoramic platform, but out of the inky blackness in the corner of my filthy, cold cell, where , wrapping a dirty, flimsy blanket around me to cover my naked body , I stepped towards the barred window and leant my head against it " .

------ 'I Once Had a Life' , by Bobby Sands, first published on 17th March, 1979.


In the same year that Haughey tried to stab himself in the back with a (jewel-encrusted) dagger(1988) , a woman in Italy was out trying to 'earn' her own fortune ;

---- Maria Fioritti convinced thousands of people that she had seen the Virgin Mary, and her local priest, a Fr Vincenzo Diodati, backed her up . The Priest was, in his earlier days , a professional soccer player, and knew how to 'play ball' - both he and Maria wanted to 'score' big and they put the "Virgin Mary visitation" scam together in January 1988 .

It worked for two months but then , in April, they apparently 'scored an own goal' and confessed that the whole thing was a con. The couple were fined 500,000 lire , he was thrown out of the Church and she had to leave the locality.

.....and just what the hell that has to do with Charlie Haughey is beyond me - there is no possible connection between Italian gangsters and Fianna Fail .

.....IRA attack on Kilmallock RIC Barracks , 28th May , 1920 .....

... plans were made to burn down the RIC Barracks at Kilmallock in County Limerick - a house to the right-hand side of the barracks was taller than it , and had a 'skylight' in its attic ....

Clery's Hotel and a Bank practically faced the barracks, as did a shop, owned by the O'Herlihy family . If , during the attack, RIC reinforcements from other areas were to attempt to rescue their colleagues they would find the routes into the town barricaded by armed IRA units.

Sixty IRA Volunteers were organised for the operation ; at least half of them , plus some local men, went out on the night of 27th May and blocked a number of roads leading to Kilmallock . IRA leader Tom Malone ('Sean Forde') and his unit took over Carrolls house , Tim Crowley and his Volunteer group took control of Cleary's Hotel , D O'Hannigan was in charge of a unit of IRA men which occupied the Bank and J McCarthy and an IRA unit moved in to O'Herlihy's shop for the night . Michael Brennan , an IRA leader from East Clare , was also in the shop ..... (MORE LATER)>


"..... in the distance stood another dogged giant , the Divis Tower, in the shadow of its like-named mountain ; and , nearer by, 'Napoleon's Nose' kept a watch on the city , perhaps in rememberance of Wolfe Tone who visited it all those years ago . I retraced my gaze and found with ease our old house . Nobody I knew was there any more , just strangers, who trimmed the lawn around the ash tree that I grew up with .

The fence needed a coat of paint and the front garden had been deflowered of its colour , my mother and father's pride and joy " . ........ (MORE LATER)>

--- Bobby Sands, 17th March , 1979.


In 1988 , when Charles Haughey was the (Fianna Fail) Free State Taoiseach and was on a 'tour' of Australia , it emerged that a Saudi Arabian government official had previously presented the bould Charlie with a small fortune worth of jewellery as a gift for the State ; there was apparently a record of said jewels being handed over, but no sign of the articles in the place where they should have been.....

Haughey was contacted and asked to comment on the issue , but declined to react, stating that he could not comment on domestic affairs while out of the country- he did, however , promise to hold a press conference when he returned to Dublin. A few days later his 'plane touched down and the Haughey fella strolled, with not a care in the world, into the room where the journalists were waiting and promptly announced that the press conference was cancelled! Just like that , bold as brass .

Haughey's bare-faced cheek ensured that the whole episode was given a new lease of life and it eventually came out that the item in question was , as far as I can remember, a jewel-encrusted dagger , worth a good few shillings. The media lost interest (or were encouraged to) but I suspect that said implement could have been the one used by Bertie in later years ....

(Don't ya just miss those years , when our 'leaders' knew their own value !).