MOLLY O'REILLY , GPO , 1916 .



At about eleven years young , Molly O'Reilly joined the then two year-old Irish Republican girl scout organisation , 'Clann na nGaedheal' , which had been formed , in 1909 , by May and Liz Kelly .

Barely in her teenage years during the 'Great Lock Out' of 1913 , Molly was deeply upset by the so-called 'living conditions' that the workers and their families endured - a number of families in one room , in crumbling tenements , disease and starvation rampant , with the men and women not guaranteed work , even on a day-to-day basis .

Molly herself lived in similar conditions in Gardiner Street , Dublin city centre and , despite her young age , was determined to help those fighting for change ...... (MORE LATER)>



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


BALLYSEEDY CROSS .....

.....John Daly was beaten by the Staters in Tralee Jail - when they were finished , his spine was injured beyond recovery .......


" Michael Connell was only twenty-two years old , but since the Conscription menace he had been a Volunteer . He was taken in the middle of February at a dance ; he was unarmed , and his mother had no fear for him . She saw him looking out of the prison window on Tuesday evening .

"I'll write tomorrow ," he called . She would not believe that he was one of the victims until a girl who had seen the bodies told her there was a "black curly boy" ; she went up and looked then , and knew her son .

James Walsh was well known to be in danger , being a leader and a man with great influence among the people . George Shea , Tim Twomey , John Shanahan and Stephen Fuller were captured on the twenty-first of February in a dug-out . " (MORE LATER)>



SWEET ......

[from 'The Sunday Business Post' , 24th March , 1996 , page 2]

...... For twenty years , the CIA spent more than the equivalent of £12 million Free State punts on six psychics who used to sit in Washington "visualising" Soviet weapon control rooms , Moscow offices , Fidel Castro , Colonel Gadaffi and Daniel Ortega . The pyschics were paid to relay their dreams and visions to CIA Chiefs !

What a dream job ! No , seriously - silly Americans : they should have just established a 'Decommissioning Body' like the Brits did . Hell , it worked for them !



......DREAMS -->

[from 'Hot Press' magazine , 12th June , 1996 , pages 41 and 42]


<-- In an interview , the then Labour Leinster House member for County Clare , Dr. Moosajee Bhamjee , stated that Leinster House "is very boring and very childish at times ." He predicted that his party would have "twenty-five or twenty-six" seats after the 1997 Free State general election , and added -

- "I hope I will be among them . I deserve to be elected again because I think I've done a bit . I'd be disappointed if I was'nt elected again ."

Poor Moosajee was disappointed ; he was last reported walking away from the count centre singing the 'Bay City Rollers' tune "Bye bye Bhamjee , Bhamjee bye bye'eee ....."

---

TIM COUGHLAN -- IRA VOLUNTEER 1906-1928 ; SHOT DEAD BY IRA INFORMER OR FREE STATE AGENTS ...... ?

.....the records of the Free State police differed with the account given by the informer Sean Harling , his neighbours heard gun-shots that Harling said were never fired , and blood was found in a location which , according to Harling , had nothing to do with the shooting .....


The car in which Sean Harling got a lift home on that evening in January was a police car - he was reluctant to admit that fact , and also 'forgot' to tell the 'Tribunal' that his brother-in-law , Thomas Redican , was present when the shooting took place . Again , the 'Tribunal' was not interested - why ?

The fact that Tim Coughlan was an active IRA member meant that he was a 'marked man' as far as the Staters were concerned - had he been shot dead during an operation it would perhaps have been at least more acceptable , or understandable , to all concerned . However , it seems that he was 'bushwhacked' , and the State actively encouraged a 'cover-up' of the full facts involved .

They learned well from their British pay-masters ......


[END]


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


BALLYSEEDY CROSS .....

......eight IRA prisoners at Ballyseedy , four at Killarney , five at Cahirciveen ; the Free Staters were executing Republican prisoners in reprisal for the IRA mine at Knocknagoshel , which killed five Staters - two Captains , two Privates and a Lieutenant .....


" Every precaution against disclosure was taken by the murderers ; every preparation was made to make Ireland believe a lie ; yet every detail of those three massacres "by most miraculous organ" has been revealed . Nine prisoners were taken from Tralee to be killed at Ballyseedy , and nine coffins were sent out from the jail , but only eight men had been killed .

Their names were John Daly , George Shea , Timothy Twomey , Patrick Hartnett , James Connell , John O'Connor , Patrick Buckley , and James Walsh .

Patrick Buckley , who had five children , was thought by some of his friends to be safe in jail - he had done so much for Michael Brennan in Limerick in the trouble with the Black-and-Tans . There were others who knew that his action then would be little protection to him now . John Daly was captured on the 4th of February . He had been in the Republican Army for seven years or more , and was known to the enemy .

They beat him until his spine was injured beyond recovery , in Tralee Jail ." (MORE LATER)>




SIX OF ONE ......

[from 'The Irish News' newspaper , 12th June , 1996]

...... "(I admire 'The Observer' newspaper because) it does a better job of widening the mainland people's knowledge of the complexities of the situation (in the North) " --

-- Martin McGuinness ; can you spot the mistake ? YES ! - that's it : Marty referred to 'the North' when he really meant "the Province" !



......HALF DOZEN OF THE OTHER -->

[from 'The Sunday Business Post' newspaper , 24th March , 1996 , page 26]

<-- " He's not a republican , he's not a nationalist , but he is Taoiseach of this country " --

--Provo spokesperson Rita O'Hare describing the then Fine Gael leader John Bruton . Two outta three , Rita : the 26-county state is not a "country" . At least not to Republicans .... and NO , Rita - it's not a 'province' either !

---

TIM COUGHLAN - IRA VOLUNTEER 1906-1928 ; SHOT DEAD BY IRA INFORMER OR FREE STATE AGENTS ..... ?


......the 'evidence' from the informer Sean Harling did not tally with the post-mortem findings , but Harling insisted his version was correct - the 'Tribunal' that he was given 'evidence' too had been set-up by his employers .....


Other people that lived on Dartry Road at the time of the shooting later spoke of the high level of police activity in the area before the incident and mentioned hearing more than the number of shots which Harling said were fired during the alleged gun-fight .

Police records of the alleged events on that January 1928 evening did not tally with the sequence of events as outlined by their man , Sean Harling , yet this line of investigation was not followed-up on : why ?

A pool of blood was found on the Dartry Road in a location which , according to Harling's account of events , had no bearing on the incident that evening - how did the blood get there and whose blood was it ?

Again , no questions asked . Why ? (MORE LATER)>



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

BALLYSEEDY CROSS .....

.....the Free Staters claimed that the incident was caused by a land-mine planted by the IRA on the Killorglin Road - but the IRA had not built a barricade nor planted explosives on that road at the time , and could not have been responsible .....


" They had , however , at Knocknagoshel , attached a trigger-mine to a dump . The following statement was issued on the tenth of March (1923) from IRA Headquarters , Kerry No.1 Brigade --

" A trigger-mine was laid in knocknagoshel for a member of the Free State Army , Lieutenant o'Connor , who had made a hobby of torturing Republican prisoners in Castleisland . On Tuesday , a party of Free State troops , including Lieutenant O'Connor , proceeded to the place , and two Captains , Lieutenant O'Connor , and two privates were killed . "


Reprisals on prisoners , instituted by the Free State Government in Mountjoy on December 8th , 1922 , had become a systematic practice in their jails . It was concluded that the slaughter of eight prisoners at Ballyseedy and of four at Killarney and of five at Cahirciveen were reprisals for the Knocknagoshel mine . " (MORE LATER)>



BENT , BLOATED BEEF BANDIT BLACKGUARD BAMBOOZLE'S BRETHREN .....

[financial figures from 'The Phoenix' magazine , 27th September , 1996 , page 15]

.....'Hands out' - oops! - I mean 'Hands Up' those that remember the 'Beef Tribunal' ? A Mr. Dermot Gleeson certainly should -->

<-- as the Free States Attorney General at the time , he was the highest-flying 'Legal Eagle' of them all and , as such , the best man to defend 'Beef Baron' Larry Goodman : especially as the taxpayer was footing the bill ! And wha' a bleedin' bill ....

... his fee for taking on the case was £175,000 , he charged £75,000 for making two submissions to the Tribunal , and was paid £3,000 PER DAY for fifty-six days on which the Tribunal was sitting (total £168,000) and a further £2,500 PER DAY for sixty-two other sitting days (£155,000) .

And when the Tribunal was'nt sitting - well , the bould Dermo musta' considered himself as being 'locked-out' or whatever , and was paid £118,000 for those days !

Now , as I remember it - Larry Goodman's company was being investigated (careful!) for allegedly (THAT'S better !) ripping off the taxpayer , yet the 'powers-that-be' determined that it was okay that the same company be defended with taxpayers money !

Jaysus , lads - 'straight bananas' is only in the ha'penny place ....


( THANKS to Sean McG. for sorting out the problem I had with the 'new code' issue : thought I was finished there for a while !)

---

TIM COUGHLAN - IRA VOLUNTEER 1906-1928 ; SHOT DEAD BY IRA INFORMER OR FREE STATE AGENTS ......?


....in his 'evidence' to the Free State 'Tribunal' , the informer Sean Harling claimed that he was running away from the two IRA men that were chasing him and fired one shot back at them : the post-mortem on Tim Coughlan said otherwise ......


The doctor doing the post-mortem , Wilfred Lane , discovered that the IRA man had died as a result of being shot in the back of his head ; the informer Harling had claimed that Tim Coughlan and another man were running towards him when he fired at them . How , then , could the bullet have struck the man in the BACK of his head ? Also , Dr. Lane discovered a cigarette-butt in Tim Coughlan's mouth , which would suggest that Coughlan was caught unawares ie his killer approached him from behind .

If , as the informer Harling had claimed , Coughlan was chasing him , then it is unlikely that Coughlan would have a cigarette in his mouth or , indeed, would even be holding a cigarette in his (gun) hand during the chase . The doctor found what he described as "an independent (ie not linked to the bullet-wound) horizontal fracture " on Coughlan's skull - could an attempt have been made to render the IRA man unconscious or , at the very least , to daze him or temporarily disable him , before delivering the 'coup de grace' ?

Not so , according to Sean Harling's 'evidence' to the so-called 'Tribunal' , established by that informer's employers ...... (MORE LATER)>



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


BALLYSEEDY CROSS .

" But for one accident , so incomprehensible as to seem miraculous , what happened at Ballyseedy Cross could never be rightly known . That early on Wednesday morning a shattering explosion was heard , that a great rent in the roadside and hideous evidence of bloodshed were discovered later in the day , that nine coffins containing the mutilated remains of prisoners were sent out from the barrack and that for days afterwards 'the birds were eating the flesh off the trees at Ballyseedy Cross' - these facts and these only would be known .

The explanation put out by the Free State authorities was known in the locality to be untrue . They said that the prisoners were blown up by mines attached to barricades set up by the Republicans in Killorglin Road . No barricade was placed by Republicans in that neighbourhood on that night . (MORE LATER)>



THE SHOE IS ON ......

[From 'Saoirse' , November 1996 , page 7] -

- For many years , a Mr. Byrne sat in Leinster House as an independent Deputy for County Clare . He rarely took part in debates and made no secret of the fact that he was in politics purely for the salary , expenses and pension . He traded as a 'bone-setter' , a kind of unlicensed chiropractor , who provided his services free ; his only requirement being that the patient vote for him in the next election !

...as near as you'll get to an honest politician !


.....THE OTHER FOOT -->

[From 'Saoirse' , November 1996 , page 7 , as above] -

....<-- In Naples for many years , the politically insignificant 'Monarchist Party' controlled the city because a week before each election they would distribute thousands of left-foot children's shoes free . If they won , then the right shoes would be distributed a week later !

...and John Bruton - DOH !- thought you could only tax them !

---

TIM COUGHLAN - IRA VOLUNTEER 1906-1928 ; SHOT DEAD BY IRA INFORMER OR FREE STATE AGENTS ......?


.....claiming to have been fired on by one of the two men chasing him , the informer Sean Harling said that as he was running towards the hall-door of his house , he managed to fire a shot back in the direction of the men behind him and made it safely into his house ; he was not followed in , he said .....


He laid low in one of the rooms , observing the drive-way and the area around it , but there was no movement that he could see . He claimed that he then went out to investigate the area further and found the body of one of his alleged attackers ; the Free State 'Tribunal' that heard his 'evidence' exonerated him , but Sean Harling knew that he was definitely now a 'dead man walking' and pleaded with his Free State 'handler' , David Neligan , for payments due as well as extra money and expenses , as he wanted out of the country altogether ; Neligan paid him off , and Harling went to America .

Some facts emerged later to back up the IRA claim that the State , and its agent , Sean Harling , had co-operated in lying about the true sequence of events that took place that January night in 1928 : a Dr. Wilfred Lane carried out a post-mortem on the body of IRA Volunteer Tim Coughlan and , amongst other anomalies , discovered that the IRA man died as a result of being shot in the back of his head ....... (MORE LATER)>




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


MICHAEL SINNOT AND JAMES O'CONNOR OF TRALEE ......


.....Mrs. Lyons woke suddenly ; it was the noise of gun-fire that woke her . It was still dark out . She went downstairs with her daughter , but her house was full of Free State soldiers . Mrs. Lyons and her daughter were prevented from leaving the house . More shooting . Then nothing . The Staters then left her house .....


" She tried to light a candle , but her hands were shaking . Her daughter struck a match and lit the candle and looked at her . The girl was trembling , too , and her face was white . "Oh mother ," she said , "you're not fit to go out." Mrs. Lyons took the candle and groped her way to the hay-shed . The hay had been pulled down and was lying everywhere ; some of the boys' clothes were out in the yard ; there were cartridge-cases lying about ; the light of the candle fell on a pool of blood . She listened : there was no sound from the dug-out , not even a moan .

At last she lifted the candle and looked in . Jim was lying there , half-dressed , and Michael beside him ; they were covered with blood , riddled with bullets - dead . There was no sight or sound of the lorries or of the Free State soldiers : they had done their night's work and gone home . "


[END]



ROOTS #1 ......

...... [from 'The Sunday Business Post' , 9th February , 2003 , page 6] -

--- Lawyers acting on behalf of the British Labour Party advised Tony Blair and his colleagues that , while residents of "Northern Ireland" (sic) may well be British 'subjects' , they do not live in Britain and are therefore "ineligible for membership of the British Labour Party " !

YEAH ! And don't even THINK of looking for a driving licence ..... (but DO keep paying your tax , em, ok ...?)



ROOTS #2 ......

...... [from 'The Phoenix' magazine , 10th May , 1996 , page 12] -

--- " People who deny their roots , far from escaping the past , are forced to assume the history of another tribe . "

-- Eoghan Harris , professional 'West Brit' and Fine Gael's Number-One Ard Fheis script-writer .

And Eoghan should know - he's the leader of the tribe .....

TIM COUGHLAN - IRA VOLUNTEER , 1906-1928 ; SHOT DEAD BY IRA INFORMER OR FREE STATE AGENTS .......?


.....on the evening of 28th January , 1928 , a shooting took place in the vicinity of the informer Sean Harling's house , on the Darty Road in Dublin , which left IRA Volunteer Tim Coughlan lying dead on the street .....


The informer Sean Harling later claimed in his statement to a Free State 'Tribunal' into the shooting , that he got a lift home from work that evening in a friend's car , arriving outside his house , 'Woodpark Lodge' , on the Dartry Road , at about 6.30 PM which , he said , was earlier than usual .

He said he noticed two men looking at him from the other side of the street ; as he was walking up his driveway , towards the front door of his house , a shot was fired at him by one of the two men , who were by now , he claimed , running at him . Sean Harling then said that he took to his heels towards his hall-door , taking his gun out of his pocket as he ran , and fired a shot in the direction of the two men behind him .

He stated that he made it into his house and was not followed by either of the two men chasing him ...... (MORE LATER)>



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


MICHAEL SINNOT AND JAMES O'CONNOR OF TRALEE .....


......on 13th February , 1923 , Free State troops rounded-up a number of youths in the Currahane Sands area of Kerry and took them to Ballymullen Barracks in Tralee for questioning ....


" Sinnot and O'Connor were wanted . Where were they sleeping ? Clifford and Drummond (two of the young men seized by the Staters) were beaten to make them tell , but held out . Greer said something to the officer and was not hurt . Ryle's , in Currahane , was raided that evening . Among the raiders , to their amazement , the Ryle's recognised Greer - to whom they had given breakfast that morning - and he in the green (Free State) coat .

He led the raiding party away , then , over Currahane Sands . Mrs Lyons heard that Michael and Jim had escaped capture , and hoped that they would come to her , for a meal , before going to sleep in their dug-out . It grew late and there was no sign of them , so she left cups and bread and butter ready , hung the kettle over the fire and went to bed . She was awakened suddenly while it was still dark , by shots - a sharp , quick rattle of shots close to the house .

Soldiers were in the kitchen ; they would not let her or her daughter go out . The sound of firing went on and on . It was like no other firing she had ever heard . It ceased at last and the soldiers went away ...... (MORE LATER)>




SCREW YOU ......

...... " I believe in the United Kingdom . I value the Union . My agenda is not a united Ireland . None of us in this hall today , even the youngest , is likely to see Northern Ireland (sic) as anything but a part of the United Kingdom . That is the reality , because the conset principle is now almost universally accepted . "

--- British Prime Minister Tony Blair , speaking in Belfast on 16th May , 1997 .

The "consent principle" , Mr Blair ? Then put the question of British withdrawal to the people of Ireland - all 32 Counties . I'd say you'd have an answer within , oh , 45 minutes , Tony .



......SCREW ME -->

<-- " There was one lesson that we learned when we were in government . And that was that the British will promise you the sun , moon and stars , and then at the last moment try and put in something , or change something . And it was like that in history , everything I'd learned in school was coming true . Every time the Irish and themselves (Brits) made a deal , they would do something at the end to screw it up ! "

--- Maire Geoghegan-Quinn , Fianna Fail , in an interview in 'The Sunday Business Post' , 12th May , 1996 , page 26.

Well , actually , Maire - the Brits don't need to "screw up everytime" : they have you lot to do that for them !!

TIM COUGHLAN - IRA VOLUNTEER , 1906-1928 ; SHOT DEAD BY IRA INFORMER , OR STATE AGENTS .......?


......two ex-IRA men , Sean Harling and his brother-in-law Thomas Redican , had been 'turned' by the Free State ; Harling was responsible for arms-dumps being 'found' by the enemy , and he tried to turn the Movement on itself by spreading false rumours . In an attempt to discredit the organisation , he would 'throw his weight' around in pubs , shops etc , using his so-called Republican credentials ......


His 'handler' ('controller') was one David Neligan , a particularly vicious Free State operative who 'made his name' in the fight against Republicans in Kerry during the Civil War . Neligan's intention was to wreak havoc on the Republican Movement in Dublin , and Sean Harling and Thomas Redican were to be his instruments .

The IRA decided to take action against the two informers and , in a prelude to same , had instructed two of its Volunteers , Tim Coughlan and Archie Doyle , to monitor the movements of Harling and Redican . On the evening of 28th January , 1928 , Tim Coughlan and Archie Doyle were in the vicinity of Sean Harling's house when a shooting incident took place which left Tim Coughlan lying dead on the street....... (MORE LATER)>



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


MICHAEL SINNOT AND JAMES O'CONNOR OF TRALEE .


" Mrs. Lyons' farmhouse stands a couple of fields inland from Mrs. Connell's , on Currahane Sands . For the boys who were fighting for the Republic she had welcome and hospitality night and day . Michael Sinnot and Jim O'Connor were old friends of hers , and they were old comrades-in-arms : not so very old - they were , respectively , eighteen and nineteen years of age but Michael , the grandson of a Fenian , had joined the Na Fianna (youth movement) at the age of fifteen , and Jim was one of the hunger-strikers in Cork Jail at the time of Terence MacSwineys death .

They made a fine dug-out for themselves , with beds and blankets and all , under the hay in Mrs Lyons' shed . They got young Greer to help them to make it , and he , too , slept there , now and again . On February the thirteenth (1923) the boys had their breakfast ; some at Mrs. Connell's , young Greer at Ryles' , and went out . There were Free State troops in the neighbourhood : Clifford and Drummond and Greer were captured and taken to Tralee - to Ballymullen Barracks- to the Intelligence Room ...... (MORE LATER)>



SHOOTING......

......In his book 'The Last Conquest of Ireland' , the 'Young Ireland' leader John Mitchel wrote --

--- " Sometimes an ejecting landlord or agent was shot by desperate houseless men . What wonder ? There were not half enough of them shot ! "

Note to Bertie and the rest of the political 'elite' : the 'Young Ireland' Movement and its 'fellow-travellers' (ie Robert Emmet and other 'men of violence') were not the 'pure-as-driven-snow' visionaries you would have us believe they were . They used physical force to obtain a political objective .

Best not to commemorate them , Bertie - it might draw comparisons ....


......FROM THE MOUTH -->

<-- On 14th September , 1724 , Pope Benedict XIII granted an indulgence of one-hundred days for each recitation of the 'Angelus' , and declared that if a person said three ' Hail Mary's 'at six AM , noon and six PM every day , he/she would get two-thousand-one-hundred days off purgatory every week !

That's 109,500 days off in one year ! WOW ! Dunno what the going rate is this century , but its bound to be even better ....

TIM COUGHLAN - IRA VOLUNTEER , 1906-1928 ; SHOT DEAD BY IRA INFORMER , OR FREE STATE AGENTS .......?


......although only in his late teens/early twenties , Tim Coughlan was one of the three-man IRA unit that assassinated the then Free State Minister for 'Justice' , Kevin O'Higgins , on 10th July , 1927 .....


The Free State Army and police constantly harassed Tim Coughlan and anyone he came in contact with , but he ignored the Staters and continued with his work for the Movement . The IRA Dublin Brigade had been made aware that two of it's ex-members , Sean Harling and his brother-in-law Thomas Redican , had been 'turned' by the Free State ; Harling once worked as a Secretary in the First Dail and , as with his brother-in-law Thomas Redican , had been interned by the Free State during the Civil War .

Sean Harling was responsible for the 'discovery' of IRA arms dumps by the Staters and for spreading false rumours in the company of Dublin IRA members , apparently trying to convince them that a leadership challenge should be mounted . He was also , it seems , 'under orders' from his Free State 'handler' (ie 'controller') to "throw his weight around" in bars , shops etc , in an attempt to discredit the IRA in general . (MORE LATER)>



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

EUGENE FITZGERALD OF TRALEE .....


......the Staters tortured Eugene Fitzgerald , breaking his leg . Then they shot him , wounding him badly . His mother was allowed in to see him on a Sunday morning - she knew he was dying .....


" On Monday morning , at nine o'clock , she was at the gate again . The soldiers refused to let her in ; she was crying and pleading and sending notes in to General Daly for two hours and a half . At half past eleven an officer drove out in a car and he threw her a bit of paper as he passed . Her son was dead since ten minutes past ten .

They opened the gate then and let her go to her son . "He had nothing to tell me and nothing to say to me . They did'nt begrudge letting me in then ." "

[END]



FOOL......

...... Ed Rollins , a one-time U S Republican Party 'Political Consultant' (ie spin doctor) once said -

-- " You can fool all the people all the time , if the advertising budget is big enough " !


.....AND OUR MONEY -->

<-- [from 'The Sunday Tribune' , 5th October , 1997 , page 4 ] -

- ' The Fianna Fail / Progressive Democrat Coalition administration have spent an average of £7000 punts a day on 'public relations' and the services of 'consultants' since it took up office just over 100 days ago '.

Rollins was right , and still is ; but we already know that .....

TIM COUGHLAN - IRA VOLUNTEER , 1906-1928 ; SHOT DEAD BY IRA INFORMER , OR FREE STATE AGENTS ?


The second-eldest in a family of nine , Tim Coughlan lived with his parents in the family home , in Inchicore , Dublin . Although only in his late teens/early twenties at the time , he had shoulderd a weapon against the Black-and-Tans and , later , against the Free State forces in the Civil War .

As a known member of the Dublin Brigade IRA , he was interned by the Staters during the Civil War and , if anything , became even more active within the IRA after his release . Tim Coughlan was one of the three-man IRA unit that assassinated the much-detested Free State Minister for 'Justice' , Kevin O'Higgins , on 10th July , 1927 (the other two IRA men were Archie Doyle and Bill Gannon). (MORE LATER)>



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

EUGENE FITZGERALD OF TRALEE .....

.....the Free State soldiers took their prisoner , Eugene Fitzgerald , to the beach and made him kneel on the stones ; if he told them the whereabouts of his IRA column , they swore they would let him go free .....

" It was then , when he refused , that they beat him and broke his leg . They threw him into the lorry again and drove along the road as far as Casement's Fort - the field where Casement was taken in nineteen-sixteen . The thought of Casement , who died for Ireland , was in his mind . There they took him out of the lorry and threw him on the ground and gave him one more chance . Would he tell ?

When he said "No" , one of them fired . He thought the pain would kill him , but he did'nt die . He heard them arguing in the corner of the field ; some wanted to leave him and some wanted to take him on . Those got their way , and they put him back in the lorry and took him into Tralee . She saw him on Sunday morning again . She knew then that he was dying , though he spoke to her and did not know it himself ..... " (MORE LATER)>



BIG BUSINESS ......

......Safety investigator Byron Bloch exposed the dangers of the Ford Pinto in the 1970's .

The car had an extended rear bumper which , when hit by another car , drove the petrol tank up against the rear axle and set the car on fire - dozens of 'Pintos' went on fire this way , and Bloch discovered a memo written by the Ford Company that analysed the costs involved :

180 'burn deaths' and 180 serious injuries would cost $50 million dollars ;
The cost of fixing each 'Pinto' , at $11 dollars per car , would cost $137 million dollars . So Ford decided to do nothing !

A Mr Richard Grimshaw , a 'Pinto' owner who nearly died in a 'Pinto' car crash , sued Ford and a jury awarded him $137 million dollars in punitive damages against the company ! (See 'The Sunday Tribune' magazine , 18th January , 1998 , page 37.)



.....AND BUSINESS AS USUAL -->

<-- ( From 'The Sunday Business Post' , 11th January , 1998 , page 14) --> The Fianna Fail / Progressive Democrat (present) Free State administration cut the 'Youth Development Fund' from £20 million punts to one-and-a-quarter million punts ; the £20 million punts had been earmarked by the previous Free State administration (Fine Gael/Labour/Democratic Left) but was reduced by Fianna Fail/Progressive Democratics at the end of 1997 - the money was needed to provide disadvantaged young people with alternatives to using drugs .

Less than two months before the above-mentioned cut-backs (ie November , 1997) the 'Ireland On Sunday' newspaper reported [see same , 23rd November , 1997 , page 6] that drug addicts were costing Dublin an estimated £300 million punts a year !

This figure included £60 million punts to the victims of crime , and £50 million punts spent on prison and policing costs . It was estimated then (ie 1997) that there were eight thousand drug addicts in Dublin .

Are all 'junkies' working-class 'yobbos' who don't vote and therefore , in the eyes of the establishment , don't count ?

RICHARD DALTON WILLIAMS ; 'SHAMROCK' OF 'THE NATION' NEWSPAPER ......


......in June 1848 , Richard Dalton Williams and 'Young Ireland' leader Kevin Izod O'Doherty published a weekly newspaper called 'The Irish Tribune' , but only five issues were printed before it was suppressed by the British in early July 1848 .....


However , the British used 'The Irish Tribune' newspaper as a reason to arrest Richard Dalton Williams and Kevin Izod O'Doherty ; both men were charged under the 'Treason-Felony Act' with "intent to depose the queen and levying war." A famous barrister of the time , Samuel Ferguson , defended both men in a trial which lasted five months and caused great embarrassment to the British .

Eventually , in November 1848 , Williams and O'Doherty were acquitted ; Williams went back to studying medicine , and qualified as a doctor , in Edinburgh , in July 1849 . In June 1851 , he emigrated to America and , whilst in New Orleans , met and married an Irish woman , Elizabeth Connolly ; the couple moved to a town called Thibodeaux in Louisiana , where he wrote his last poem - 'Song of the Irish-American Regiments.'

On 5th July , 1862 , just shy of his fortieth birthday , Richard Dalton Williams died of consumption in Thibodeaux, Louisiana , in America . A patriot , a poet and a publisher , Dr Richard Dalton Williams is one of the hundreds , if not thousands , of almost unknown and/or forgotten Irish men and women that played their part in the on-going struggle to remove the British presence from Ireland .

They deserve to be remembered somewhere ......

[END]



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

EUGENE FITZGERALD OF TRALEE.....

.....the Free Staters raided Mrs Connell's house and dragged Eugene Fitzgerald away with them ; his father got word the next day that Eugene was lying wounded in Tralee Jail ....


" For five days the mother was at the gate all day long , waylaying the officers , imploring the sentries to let her in . They grew tired of it . "I'll shoot you if you don't shut your mouth !" one of them shouted , and another jeered : "What a loss the rebel is !" "My son is no rebel," she answered , "but thank God , he is a man ." At last , on Saturday night , less than an hour before curfew , they let her in .

"Oh mother ," Eugene said , when he saw her , "why did you come so late ? How will you get home in time ? " He had a bullet wound through his body from side to side ; his left leg had been broken and crushed to pulp . "I wish the bullet went through my heart ," he said , "to put me out of my pain ." The Free State soldiers had taken him to the beach . They made him go down on his knees there on the stones ; they wanted to know where the rest of the column were hiding , and if he told them they swore he would go free ...... (MORE LATER)>




FACT .......

....... The All-Ireland (32 County) Dail continued to function underground until 1938 , when it delegated its executive powers to the Army Council of the IRA , in accordance with a resolution of the First Dail in 1921 . With the 1969 split , Tom Maguire , the last and faithful survivor of the All-Ireland Dail stated that the Provisional IRA was the successor of the 1938 body - similarly , following the 1986 split , he nominated the Continuity IRA as the legitimate IRA . Tom Maguire died in 1993 , aged one-hundred-and-one (101) .



.......AND FICTION -->

<-- " There are big changes coming in Dail Eireann (sic) and we will be a big part of it ."

--- Provisional Sinn Fein Leinster House member , Caoimhghin O'Caolain , as quoted in 'The Sunday Business Post' , 8th June , 1997 , page 3 .

....the only "big changes" so far , Caoimhghin , are in your salary and expenses !

RICHARD DALTON WILLIAMS ; 'SHAMROCK' OF 'THE NATION' NEWSPAPER .....


.....in its July 1851 issue , 'The Nation' newspaper praised one of its contributors , 'Shamrock' (Richard Dalton Williams) , describing him as "robust and vigorous , impetuous and noble - he excels all his contemporaries in imagination and humour ." .....


Richard Dalton Williams , now a member of the 'Young Ireland' Movement , put his medical training to good use during 'The Great Hunger' of 1845 - 1849 , by helping to ease the suffering of hundreds of cholera victims ; he was by now a hardened opponent of British mis-rule in Ireland and had joined the 'Irish Confederation' group , which was founded in January 1847 by William Smith O'Brien and other 'Young Irelanders' who had dis-agreed with Daniel O'Connell's 'Repeal Association' . He was quickly elected to Council level in the 'Confederation' .

Richard Dalton Williams was the driving force behind a short-lived newspaper called 'The Irish Tribune' , which he published with the assistance of 'Young Ireland' leader , Kevin Izod O'Doherty ; the first issue was published in June 1848 , but only five issues of the weekly 'paper made it on to the streets before it was suppressed by the British in early July that year ...... (MORE LATER)>



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

EUGENE FITZGERALD OF TRALEE .....

......Eugene Fitzgerald was Mrs Connell's nephew , and was staying in her house in Currahane ; her house was raided by the Free Staters again and again . He had been a Volunteer since the fighting began , a scout when he was thirteen years young .....


" "He was a great scholar , all the same," his mother says . " He had French and Latin and Irish and typing , and shorthand ; a grand boy , he was, and a fine tradesman ." He was fighting in Listowel in July (1922), and in Limerick . In January nineteen-twenty-three , he was in Currahane . Mrs Connell used to be saying to herself that there was no danger at all ; the house was so well out of the way . But out-of-the-way houses are known to men who used to be sheltered in them from the Black-and-Tans , and who are doing the Black-and-Tans' work for them now .....

It was in the dark night the soldiers broke in ; half of them were drunk : it was no good at all for old Mrs Connell or Bridie to plead or scream . Where would help come from ? What did the soldiers care ? "Bring out the bastard" they were shouting , "and we'll do for him abroad on the beach ." So , reeling and shouting and threatening , they dragged Eugene away . Word came to Eugene's father next morning that the boy was lying wounded in Tralee Jail ......" (MORE LATER)>



FACT ......

...... before he was executed by the British , Padraig Pearse stated :

" We seem to have lost . We have not lost . To refuse to fight would have been to lose ; to fight is to win . We have kept faith with the past , and handed on a tradition to the future . If you strike us down now , we shall rise again and renew the fight . You cannot conquer Ireland . You cannot extinguish the Irish passion for freedom . If our deed has not been sufficient to win freedom , then our children will win it by a better deed ."



.....AND FICTION -->

<-- " For the first time , the smug circle of power in Leinster House will be dented by the presence of Sinn Fein (sic) when TD's (sic) assemble on Thursday , 26th June ."

-- Micheal MacDonncha , Provo employee in Leinster House , 'AP/RN' , 12th June , 1997 , page 9.

And if you can't beat the "smug circle" , Micheal , - join them ! Just ask Martin and his daughter in Kerry how to go about it .....

RICHARD DALTON WILLIAMS ; 'SHAMROCK' OF 'THE NATION' NEWSPAPER .....


.....when Richard Dalton Williams' first poem ('The Munster War Song') was published in 'The Nation' newspaper on 7th January , 1843 , under the pseudonym 'Shamrock' , the author was in the process of moving from Carlow to Dublin to study medicine .....


'The Nation' newspaper received a great response to Williams' poems , and 'Shamrock' became a regular contributor , with works such as 'The Dying Gael' , 'Sisters of Charity' and 'The Haunted Man' , which raised the profile and readership of the newspaper .

As well as the poems , 'The Nation' published a series of humorous articles from Richard Dalton Williams , entitled 'Misadventures of a Medical Student' and described the author , 'Shamrock' (in its July 1851 issue), in the following terms -

-- " His intellect is robust and vigorous , his passion impetuous and noble , his perception of beauty most delicate and enthusiastic ; his sympathies take in the whole range of human affections , and his humour is irresistible . We think , indeed, that 'Shamrock' excels all his contemporaries in imagination and humour ."

(MORE LATER)>


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


EUGENE FITZGERALD OF TRALEE .

" Beyond Ardfert , between Tralee Bay and Ballyheigue , lies the lonely , colourless waste of Currahane Sands . Grey green levels of short , wind-bitten grass-land , swelling now and then into sand-dunes , with never a tree or a singing bird to tell them when it is summer , end in the pebbly beach and the salt sea . Few people live there ; from the road a farmhouse or two can be seen : Mrs Lyons' , with its grey-roofed hayshed and old Mrs Connell's cottage beyond , houses gloomy with memory now of black winter nights .

Eugene Fitzgerald was Mrs Connell's nephew : it was her joy and her terror to have him living out with her in Currahane . His mother is a woman who loves her sons , but would not grudge them to Ireland . Antony was fighting and was arrested when the Free State troops came to Tralee ; her house was raided for Eugene again and again . He had been a Volunteer since the fighting began , a scout when he was thirteen years old " . (MORE LATER)>




I'M BEHIND YOU ......

......Paddy Wright , then a Provisional Sinn Fein Councillor in Kildare , seconded Derek Nallys candidature , thus allowing him to stand in the 1997 Free State Presidential election . [See AP/RN , 23rd October , 1997 , page 9.]



OH NO YOU'RE NOT ......

...... " He was also involved in working with the RUC " - Gerry Adams , in an interview with 'The Sunday Tribune' newspaper , 19th October ,1997 , page 13 , explaining why he would not vote for Derek Nally in the Free State Presidential election !


GERRY - " Right , Paddy - you second him . That should help get us in with the establishment ."

PADDY - " Yeah , ok , Gerry . But won't that get us into trouble with our own people ? "

GERRY - " Naa , I can sort that shower out . I'll issue a statement saying we don't support him ."

PADDY - " But then I'll look foolish , Gerry ! "

GERRY - " HEY ! Respectability has a price , ya know .... besides , Paddy , there's plenty 'a room up here on the fence with the rest of us ! "

RICHARD DALTON WILLIAMS ; 'SHAMROCK' OF 'THE NATION' NEWSPAPER .


In Dublin , in October 1822 , a child was born to Mary Williams , wife of a Tipperary Count , Count D'Alton ; the child , Richard Dalton Williams , was reared at Grenanstown , Nenagh , County Tipperary and educated at St. Stanislaus School , Tullabeg , in County Laois , and St. Patricks College , County Carlow .

His first published poem was entitled - 'The Munster War Song' and it appeared in 'The Nation' newspaper on 7th January , 1843 , under the pseudonym 'Shamrock' ; at the time of its publication , Richard Dalton Williams was in the process of moving , from Carlow , to Dublin , to study medicine in St Vincents Hospital . (MORE LATER)>



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

MICHAEL O'SULLIVAN OF KNOCKANES ......

......two IRA Volunteers , Michael O'Sullivan and Denny Connor , were surrounded by Free State troops ; during the gun-fight , a bullet shattered O'Sullivan's right arm ....


" Denny Connor succeeded in getting away with a slight wound in the cheek . O'Sullivan seized in his left hand the gun that he could never use again and , dashing into a farmhouse , broke it on the floor . When the soldiers rushed in and saw what he had done and saw him facing them , still defiant , they fell on him in fury , dragged him outside the farmhouse , and shot him there . "

[END]


CLINTON , COCAINE , CUBA ......

.....According to a report in 'The New York Times' newspaper [see AP/RN , 15th May , 1997 , page 19] , a U S Democratic Party fundraiser travelled to Cuba in 1995 to raise money for Bill Clinton's re-election campaign . The fundraiser , Vivian Mannerud , travelled to Havana in November 1995 and stayed in the Copacabana Hotel , where she met with Jorge Cabrera , who donated twenty-thousand dollars to the campaign .

Cabrera was later imprisoned in Florida on charges of importing Colombian-sourced cocaine into the U S . When arrested , Cabrera had photographs showing himself with U S Vice President Al Gore and First Lady Hillary Clinton , and also an invitation to a Christmas celebration at the White House , to be held in December 1995 !

I presume the bould Bill would describe that as being "even-handed" - ie , take the money from drug-barons and business-people alike ...

[and speaking of being "even-handed" -->]


--> CLINTON , COMPLIMENTS, CONFORMING ......

..... " I would applaud the White House and President Clinton's even-handed approach to all this (so-called 'peace-process' business) especially as we move into unchartered waters ."

-- so said Mairead Keane , Provisional Sinn Fein representative in Washington at the time [ see AP/RN , 11th September , 1997 , page 11] .


" Unchartered waters " ? Apart from the fact that Dev and MacGiolla , amongst others , have sailed and sunk in those same waters , was'nt it by using same that Cabrera and his cartel got Charlie past the customs .....

JOSEPH MALONE , HUNGER-STRIKER , 1941 .....


.....on 21st January , 1941 , Joseph Malone was ordered off the hunger-strike by his O/C , Joe Collins ; within days , their demand to be recognised as political prisoners was granted - but it was too late for Joseph Malone . His internal organs were either bruised , cut , ruptured and/or bleeding . He was beyond help .....


He lived for only twelve months , in agony , from the date that he finished his fast ; on 21st January , 1942 , aged only twenty-four (24) , Joseph Malone's crippled body gave up . He is buried in the Republican Plot in Milltown Cemetery in Belfast . Like thousands of Irish rebels , both before and after him , the British made his life a misery and put him in an early grave .

I had the intention of ending this story by comparing the manner of Joseph Malone's death with the life of those who sit down to dine genteely at 'thousand-dollar-a-plate' functions with those who either perpetrated the barbarous act on Joseph Malone and his comrades or , by their in-action , supported those who carried out said act . But I can't do it .

Joseph Malone and his comrades , in the 'Parkhursts' of their day , and in the 'Portlaoises' and 'Maghaberrys' of today , deserve better than to be mentioned on the same page as those lackeys . I'll leave it at that , but will remind you , the reader , that more than sixty-one years after Joseph Malone's death over the issue of political status , the situation in HMP Maghaberry , a British concentration camp in Ireland , regarding that same issue , is escalating .

Will the 'establishment' of the day never learn ?

[END]



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

MICHAEL O'SULLIVAN OF KNOCKANES .

" The last fight of Michael O'Sullivan has grown almost to a legend around Knockanes . The end came so suddenly that no one can tell exactly what happened or what was said . On November 2nd a party of about forty Free State soldiers under Captain 'Tiny' Lyons advanced to Headford to make a round-up of Republican men . The hunted Republicans turned and attacked their hunters . The Free State troops , retreating towards Killarney , encountered Michael O'Sullivan and one comrade , who engaged them and kept them at bay for two hours .

At length , Lyons, with six soldiers, contrived to surround the two Republicans and fired on them , all seven at once . O'Sullivan , finding his retreat cut off , kept up fire until a bullet shattered his right arm ......" (MORE LATER)>



20th CENTURY REVOLUTIONARY ......

....... " I leave for the guidance of other Revolutionaries who may tread the path which I have trod . Never treat with the enemy - never surrender to his mercy - fight to the finish . Nothing can be gained by any other means ."

--- Eamon Ceannt , one of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising , quoted just prior to his execution by the British on 7th May , 1916 .


20th CENTURY 'SUIT' ......

....... " We know there are two roads before us . One is the road to further conflict and the other is the road to the negotiating table . We have declared ourselves and now re-declare ourselves in favour of travelling to the negotiating table . There is nowhere else for us to go ".

--- Martin McGuinness , as quoted in 'The Irish News' , 3rd February , 1997.

" Nowhere else to go " , eh , Martin ? If its any consolation - its a corner of your own making that you've backed yourself in too .....

JOSEPH MALONE , HUNGER-STRIKER , 1941 .....


.....during force-feeding , the screws would constantly yank the length of tubing from the victims stomach and quickly re-insert it ; when the screws actually felt the tube hitting the bottom of the persons stomach they would stop pushing on it ....


That's where the quote that I began this piece with comes in --

--- " I was in a cell next to Joe Malone . On the second day of feeding there was no sound from his cell for half-an-hour after the screws leaving . When he spoke from his window he told me he had lost consciousness while being fed . He woke up later lying on the floor , alone , with the door locked . He was wretchedly sick and spitting blood . Looking out on the prison wall he remarked - "It would be a decent thing for them to take us out and put us up against that wall and shoot us ." "

--- the words of Joe Collins , Officer Commanding IRA , Parkhurst Prison .

On 21st January , 1941 , Joe Collins ordered Joseph Malone off the hunger-strike ; day's later , the Irish POW's were offered proper segregation from the other inmates and the rest of their demands for political status were granted . Joe Malone was operated on as his internal organs were either bruised , cut , ruptured and/or bleeding , but he was beyond help ..... (MORE LATER)>



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

JOHN LAWLOR OF BALLYHEIGUE .....

....a division of Free State troops surrounded Ballyheigue on the night of October 30th , 1922 ; John Lawlor had good luck and ill luck that night ....

" Having helped to extricate two companies of Volunteers , he went with a couple of comrades to secure arms . They were captured ; they disarmed their guard and dashed away over the fields with the rifle , in triumph . They headed , by mistake , straight into the enemy post and were seen and fired on . The others escaped but John fell , wounded , and was taken prisoner .

They condemned him to death that night and killed him in the early morning . They left his body in the street of Ballyheigue , outside the church gate . "

[END]


TESTING .....

..... in 1958 , John Dunster , who then worked at Windscale (Sellafield) [and was later appointed head of the Free State 'Nuclear Radiological Protection Board'] told the 'Geneva Conference on Peaceful Uses of the Atom' that "discharges from Windscale have been deliberately maintained high enough to obtain detectable activity levels in samples of fish , seaweed and shore sand . The experiment is still proceeding . This year (1958) the rate of discharge of radioactivity was deliberately increased partly to dispose of unwanted waste but principally to yield better experimental data ."

(See 'Magill' magazine , November 1986 , pages 19 and 20.)

If the Brits want to s**t on their own doorstep , that's their business ; but nuclear waste knows no boundaries . The Brits are aware of that , obviously , but just don't care ....


OOOP's.....

.....on the 17th of March , 1986 , the then U K Energy Secretary , Mr Peter Walker , described nuclear power as --

-- " The safest form of energy known to man ."

Three weeks later , Chernobyle took place .....

Perhaps the Brits got enough "samples" of radioactive "fish , seaweed and shore sand" from Chernobyle . But I doubt it ....

JOSEPH MALONE , HUNGER-STRIKER , 1941 ......


......after they had being on hunger-strike for five days , the senior Medical Officer in Parkhurst Prison , a Dr. Hickson , decided to begin force-feeding the Republican prisoners .....


Being 'force-fed' is a vicious and agonising procedure ; in short , this gruesome act involves holding the victim down while a 'vice'-like object with a hole in its centre is forced in between the victim's teeth and the handle on same wound-up , forcing the person's mouth to open fully .

A length of rubber tubing was then inserted into the centre-hole of the device and forced down the person's throat into his/her stomach ; the other end of the tubing had a funnel placed into it , and 'liquid food' (ie raw eggs , tea , milk etc) was poured into the funnel and flowed down same and into the victim's stomach . This practice was often made even more unbearable by the prison staff sharply removing the tubing from the persons stomach , back up the throat and out of the centre-hole of the device , only to re-insert it immediately in a forceful manner .

This was known to have been done on each of the Irish Republican prisoners a number of times during every session . The screws would only stop re-inserting the tube when they physically felt it hitting the bottom of the person's stomach . (MORE LATER)>



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


JOHN LAWLOR OF BALLYHEIGUE .

" John Lawlor was an adventurous boy and a good soldier ; his few years of manhood were full of action and enterprise . He joined the Volunteers in 1918 . The Treaty and the subtle arguments of those who claimed that it was not surrender were intolerable to John . He was in arms for the Republic again in 1922 .

On the night of October 30th a division of Free State troops surrounded Ballyheigue . John had good luck and ill luck that night ..... " (MORE LATER)>




A TAX ON YOUR PATRIOTISM ......

......in 1986 , the Fine Gael Ard Fheis (party conference) was held over the weekend of the 18th and 19th of October . One of the delegates , a Ronan Flynn , from Dublin South , took to the stage and stated - "What we need today is patriots . Every member of the workforce must be a patriot . That means working hard and paying your fair share of taxes ." (So THATS why they despise Wolfe Tone !)


NO TAX ON YOUR PATRIOTISM ......

...... speaking at the same venue , Garret Fitzgerald (then Fine Gael leader) stated - " Now is the time for honesty , for realism , for telling the truth . It is the time for plain speaking , for honest dealing . This future Ireland , to which we dedicate ourselves , will not be inhabited by a fearful people , afraid to face reality . It will not be a backward-looking Ireland . It will not be an Ireland of narrow-minded people , where personal , parochial or sectional interests hold sway over the common good . It will not be an Ireland of rigid or uncaring attitudes , nor an autocratic Ireland where political parties are personal dictatorships , with instructions handed down from the top ."


Too late for the bullshit , Garret - the previous speaker gave the game away : 'if it can be taxed , tax it' !

JOSEPH MALONE , HUNGER STRIKER , 1941 .....


.....because of their refusal to wear a prison uniform in Parkhurst Prison , the IRA prisoners were kept naked in solitary confinement for almost two years , in cells usually used to confine prisoners who were being punished .....


Every week for that two year period each P O W had his cell entered by a number of screws who would beat the prisoner senseless and then dress him in a prison-issue uniform ; the prisoner would then be carried or dragged to the Governor's office where he would be sentenced to one extra week 'on punishment' for "violating the rules on conventional dress" (ie - not wearing a prison uniform). It was a vindictive break with monotony for the prison staff .

In January , 1941 , the Irish P O W's could take no more ; the only weapon available to them was a hunger-strike , which they embarked on . After five days on hunger-strike , the senior Medical Officer in Parkhurst Prison , a Dr. Hickson , realised that the prisoners were serious and would only end their protest when granted political status . His career and reputation was on the line - he decided to force-feed the Republican prisoners ..... (MORE LATER)>



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

JACK GALVIN OF KILLORGLIN .....

.... Jack Galvin was a prisoner in a Free State convoy on its way to Tralee - the Ballyseedy road was blocked by trees , and the IRA prisoners were forced to clear the road ....


" A Free State Lieutenant named Horan accompanied them : "When you get back into the lorries," he said quietly, "keep Galvin in the middle of the crowd." After they had cut the third tree they were marched on about fifty yards to Ballyseedy Cross and waited for the lorries there . While they waited they heard shots from the Killorglin road ; then the lorries came up . Jack Galvin was missing . Lieutenant Horan counted the prisoners ; he wanted to go back and look for the missing man , but he was ordered to proceed with the convoy and had to obey .

That night the men of Tralee were out searching , and all the next day . They found Jack Galvin's body behind the ditch where the lorry had halted , in Ballyseedy Wood ."

[END]



REAL ? - NO ! .....

...... Bob Woodward of 'The Washington Post' newspaper broke a story in October 1986 claiming that Ronnie Reagan , then U S President , planned a campaign of disinformation against Moammar Gadhafi . The journalist stated that Reagan's spokesperson , Larry Speakes , misled the U S media on all things Libyan .

Woodward interviewed Reagan's 'National Security Adviser' , John D. Poindexter , who admitted that the "(disinformation campaign) combines real and illusionary events , through a disinformation programme , with the basic goal" of making Gadhafi believe that some of his own people and the U S were about to move against him . (See 'The Evening Press' , 7th October 1986 - a Tuesday , if memory serves- page 4.)

Reagan and Gadhafi ; Bush and Hussein . Same s**t , different century !



UNREAL ? - YES !.....

...... Arnold Lokshin , a native of San Francisco , defected to the (then) Soviet Union with his family in September 1986 ; he said his life in the U S had been "a nightmare of persecution" . Lokshin , a cancer specialist , stated - " We thought this was a place where we could raise our children without harassment . We were blackmailed on the telephone , our children were threatened and we received anonymous letters in which we were accused of treachery . I have brought letters of this kind to Moscow . In the end , I was thrown out of work and they threatened to physically destroy me and my three children , the oldest of whom is fifteen years old ."

He claimed he was picked on by the FBI because he was a former campaigner against the Vietnam War whose subsequent protests against the policies of the Reagan Administration incurred the anger of the FBI . (See 'The Evening Press' , 9th October 1986 - must have been a Thursday- page 3.)


Lokshin was apparently unfortunate enough to have been chosen by some 'bright spark' in Reagan's office to be used as an 'example' to others in the victims social circle to "keep their heads down" .

State harassment ? In America , the 'Land of the Free' ? Could'nt be - that only happens in places like Libya .....

JOSEPH MALONE , HUNGER-STRIKER , 1941 .....


....an active member of the Irish language group 'Conradh na Gaeilge' , Joseph Malone regularly stayed in the Donegal Gaeltacht for his holidays ....


At around twenty years young , Joseph Malone joined the Belfast Battalion of the IRA and , in February 1939, he travelled to England to take part in the bombing campaign . Within three months he was in Pentonville Prison , serving ten years penal servitude for possession of explosives .

The Republican prisoners were moved from Pentonville Prison and placed on the Isle of Wight , in Parkhurst Prison , where conditions were appalling ; the English 'Ordinary Decent Criminals' (ie non-political) and the warders took turns in beating the Republican prisoners , on a daily basis .

The prison authorities attempted to treat the Irish POW's as criminals , but they resisted ; because of their refusal to wear prison clothes , they were kept naked in solitary confinement for almost two years , in cells usually used to confine prisoners who were being punished . (MORE LATER)>



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


JACK GALVIN OF KILLORGLIN .

" Killorglin , held by the Republicans all the summer of nineteen-twenty-two , was occupied in August by Free State troops . On September the twenty-fifth , the Republicans made an attempt to take the town again ; the fight lasted twenty-nine hours - twenty Republicans were captured , several wounded , and four killed . After four days in Killorglin barracks the prisoners were put into lorries to be moved to Tralee .

Jack Galvin was among them : his guards had beaten him and broken his left hand . He was suffering great pain and the hand was in a sling . At Ballyseedy the lorries halted : two great trees had been felled and lay across the road . Colonel Michael Hogan ordered the prisoners to get out and remove the trees , but Galvin , because of his useless hand, was kept in the lorry . When the prisoners had cut the two trees they were sent to remove a third , which lay further on .... " (MORE LATER)>



DEAD SAFE .....

.....Autopsies performed on the bodies of three former Windscale (Sellafield) workers have shown plutonium concentrations hundreds of times higher than in the general population .

A report in Britains 'New Scientist' magazine , confirmed by the 'National Radiological Board' , said that in one case the concentration was thousand's of times higher than normal ! Even the locals living around the nuclear plant have plutonium levels of , on average, fifty to two-hundred-and-fifty per cent higher than anyone else in Britain . For workers and locals , the most severe plutonium concentrations were found in lung tissue and lymph nodes connected to the lungs , which suggests that the plutonium had been breathed in .

These peoples ribs , verterbae and livers all showed consistently high concentrations of plutonium .

( Above information from 'The Evening Press' newspaper , 15th August - a Friday , I believe- 1986 , page 4.)

MENTAL PICTURE .... of a Windscale (Sellafield)/B N F L 'Public Relations' person -->

<-- Externally = 'Steve Silvermint'-type , immaculately dressed , well-spoken , white teeth , manicured , tanned and polite , with good manners . What every mother wants for her daughter .

<-- Internally = Remember the van-driver , the 'baddie' , in one of the 'ROBOCOP' films , who missed his target and smashed into a large container , and was flushed out of the back of the van in a tide of nuclear puke .....

JOSEPH MALONE , HUNGER-STRIKER , 1941 .


" I was in a cell next to Joe Malone . On the second day of feeding there was no sound from his cell for half-an-hour after the screws leaving . When he spoke from his window he told me he had lost consciousness while being fed . He woke up later, lying on the floor, alone, with the door locked . He was wretchedly sick and spitting blood . Looking out on the prison wall he remarked - " It would be a decent thing for them to take us out and put us up against that wall and shoot us . " "

---- the words of Joe Collins , O/C IRA prisoners , Parkhurst Prison , Isle of Wight .

Joseph Malone was born in Cullingtree Road in Belfast in 1918 and , as a young man , worked as a sorter in the GPO , Belfast ; he was an active member of the Irish language group 'Conradh na Gaeilge' , and stayed in the Donegal Gaeltacht for his holidays . (MORE LATER)>



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

BERTIE MURPHY OF CASTLEISLAND....


....in September 1922 , IRA Volunteer Bertie Murphy was captured by the Free Staters and used by them as a hostage , to clear barricades etc . He was marched from Castleisland to Killarney and held in the Free State temporary barracks , the 'Great Southern Hotel' ....

" A Free State patrol had been ambushed on the road and there was violent excitement among the garrison in the hotel . A soldier seized Bertie by the throat and struck him ; then an officer called him out to the steps . There is a flight of eight steps in front of the hotel . The officer threw him , head first, down the steps and fired shots into him as he lay below .

Somebody who saw it went for a priest , and Bertie lived until the priest came . He had been killed , the Free State authorities stated , "in the ambush in Brennan's Glen ." "

[END]



OUCH ! ......(in the wallet..) -->

<-- All was rosy for Fine Gael man Eddie Collins and his missus , Mrs Eddie (or Lelia , as her friends called her). But the sky fell in on them and thorns were found on the roses and etc etc on the 24th September 1986 (a Wednesday , I believe..) , when the bould Eddie , then a Free State Minister , was sacked ! The Fine Gael boss at the time , Garret Fitzgerald , placed Austin Deasy in the seat that Eddie had been keeping warm .

Lelia stated - " We were deeply hurt . It was my greatest disappointment . Ed had made Garret Fitzgerald leader and Taoiseach , in my opinion - and on a particularly crucial day for the Taoiseach . I prayed and said Novenas all day for him . I wonder now if that was such good sense . "


Lelia said that her Ed was "shy" and "not a great media man" , but she felt he had better qualifications than the Taoiseach (oh nasty !) - " He was absolutely lost and wasted as a Minister of State " (ie : it was below him) "but he took the job because he felt it was his duty to his constituents and to the people of Waterford . Garret Fitzgerald let us down badly . I am absolutely disgusted with his weakness . I think Garret Fitzgerald does not like people to be intellectually equal to him . He has let us down very badly . "

(From 'The Evening Press' , 25th September , 1986 - a Thursday , if memory serves- page 3).


WELL screw him and his bloody train timetables , right, Missus ?

The bastard .....

AMERICAN FENIANS ; THEIR PLAN TO RAID THE CHESTER CASTLE MILITARY ARSENAL IN ENGLAND , 1867 .....

.....on being told that the Brits were ready for an attack on Chester Castle , the Fenian leadership ordered that all arms be dumped and that the rebels (estimated at over one-thousand strong) disperse - the British police later reported finding large quantities of weapons in Chester Town .....


In Ireland , the British blocked-off the ports in Dublin and Dundalk and quarantined all ships , steamers etc that docked in the port's ; hundreds of Fenians were arrested .

Fenian Captain John McCafferty and John Flood were caught in a small boat off Dublin Bay on 23rd February , 1867 - they were arrested and later sentenced to penal servitude for life . The fact that the informer was John F. Corydon was not discovered until the following September (1867) ; the course of Irish history could well have been changed in that one week in February 1867 but for the actions of that man . But the struggle itself continued ....

[END]


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


BERTIE MURPHY OF CASTLEISLAND .....

....in September 1922 , IRA Volunteer Bertie Murphy was captured by the Free Staters and taken out on patrol with them , as a hostage ...


" His mother heard that he was to be taken to Scartaglen , to remove a barricade and went in dread to the Officers of the IRA . They told her the barricade was not dangerous , and Bertie removed it without disaster on Sunday night . On the following Wednesday , September the nineteenth (1922) the troops from Castleisland went to Killarney .

A friend of Bertie Murphy's saw him marched through the streets carrying a heavy bag on his back . He was taken to the temporary barracks - the Great Southern Hotel . There were other prisoners in the guard-room , some of whom knew him well . (MORE LATER)>



OUCH ! ...... (below the belt..) ->

<- ...when he was a prospective election candidate for the British Conservative Party in the Scottish Constituency of East Lothian , a Mr Peter Clarke gave an address to the 'Federation of Conservative Students' , in which he stated -

" General Pinochet (of Chile) must be our inspiration . He is always caricatured by the left as merely an expert in electrifying peoples testicles ."

I could say thats a load of b***s , and tell Peter he's only a p***k , but this is a family column . And besides , its not forceful enough ...

TUNE IN TOMORROW for 'OUCH ! ......(in the wallet)' ->

<- ... a heart-breaking , mind-blowing , true-life story/drama of a Waterford woman , 'Lelia' , on her way up the social ladder , thanks to her husbands connection with a notorious Dublin-based organisation known to the authorities as 'Fine Gael' . This gang were not the type to 'take prisoners' , even from within their own ranks ; the womans chap , 'Eddie' , was about to be axed .....

Coming to a computer near you - starts tomorrow : don't miss it , or else ....

AMERICAN FENIANS ; THEIR PLAN TO RAID THE CHESTER CASTLE MILITARY ARSENAL IN ENGLAND , 1867 .....

..... the Fenians hoped to be sailing into Dublin Bay before midnight on Monday 11th February , 1867 , with the arsenal from Chester Castle ....


However , in the early afternoon of 11th February , a man who worked for the British administration in Dublin Castle but was a Fenian sympathiser , Thomas Breslin , got word to the Fenian leader Captain John McCafferty that the British were aware of the proposed attack on Chester Castle .

Breslin notified the Fenian leadership that there was an informer within the ranks of their leadership and , acting on that informers advice , the British had strengthened the Castle guard , local militia (British armed and trained) were out in force on the streets of Chester and British troop re-inforcements were on the way to the area from London .

The attack had to be called off , and quickly - word was sent out to dump arms and disperse . The British police later reported finding large quantities of arms and ammunition dumped in the grounds of the railway station and in the ponds and canals of the town ..... (More Later)>



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

BERTIE MURPHY OF CASTLEISLAND -

" Bertie Murphy was seventeen years old when he was killed in September , nineteen-twenty-two. During the Black-and-Tan time his mother could not persuade him to stay at school ; he would be drilling with the Fianna and carrying despatches for the Volunteers . His officer in the Fianna , Hickey, joined the Free State Army and Bertie Murphy became Captain of the Fianna then .

After the outbreak of civil war , Hickey led many a search for his old comrade , but Bertie eluded his enemies for four months . One day in September(1922) he was walking down a bohereen at Dysart , alone, with his rifle on his shoulder , when he encountered a Free State patrol . His mother was standing at the door of her little shop in Castleisland when she saw Bertie led up the street .

He was pale and disfigured , his face bruised . He signed to her with his hand to go in from the doorway . They had threatened , one of the soldiers told her afterwards, to shoot him at his mother's door. They kept him prisoner that day at the hotel and his mother spoke to him there . Hickey was one of his guards . They took him out as a hostage that night when patrolling in Ballymacelligot and brought him back to the hotel .... (MORE LATER)>



SUITS FOR SALE , CAREER'S TO BE MADE .....

.... when the 'Hillsborough Treaty' was signed by the Dublin and London administrations in 1985 (with the intention of defeating the Movement and stabilising the Six and Twenty-Six Counties in the interests of British imperialism and Free Statism) protests by both sides on the ground took place .

While Joe and Josephine Soap were arguing the pros and cons of the Treaty , or simply tuning-out altogether , a section of the Treaty was quietly working away in the background : the so-called 'International Fund' . That 'Fund' was set up under the 1985 Hillsborough Treaty but was only legally established on Thursday , 18th September , 1986 ; signing ceremonies in Dublin and London took place , all very low-key .

The reason for the silence ? - the sound of money ! America had already put fifty million dollars into the 'Fund' kitty , with a promise of two-hundred million dollars more over the following four years ; the Canadians gave ten million dollars , while Australia , New Zealand and the E U (then EEC) had been called on for "agreed contributions" .


The then Free State Minister for Foreign Affairs (and up-and-coming 'tea baron') Peter Barry and the then British 'Charge d'Affaires' , Robert Stimson , signed the 'Fund' into existence in Dublin , while British Sir Geoffrey Howe (then British Foreign Secretary) and Noel Dorr (then Free State Ambassador to London) signed the 'Fund'-papers in London .

It is believed that approximately three-hundred-and-fifty million dollars was raised to "stimulate private investment and enterprise , supplement public spending programmes and encourage voluntary effort including self-help schemes " . In other words , fat cats with nice tans to match their suits which , in turn , were colour-coded to go with the briefcase and company car , all with one objective -to purchase those who opposed the British presence .

They failed then , but had better luck in 1998 , with the 'Stormont Treaty' . And they managed to change old comrades of mine into suits like themselves .

AMERICAN FENIANS ; THEIR PLAN TO RAID THE CHESTER CASTLE MILITARY ARSENAL IN ENGLAND , 1867 .....

.....a force of over one-thousand rebels was being assembled to assist in the attack on Chester Castle in England , where the British were storing some 20,000 weapons ; hundreds of Fenians were being deployed to seize the trains , capture the Holyhead mail boat and for the attack on the castle itself ......


On Sunday , 10th February 1867 , the Fenian leaders held a meeting to go over the list of events one more time ; it was reckoned , if all went well, that at least one-thousand armed Fenians would be on board a commandeered mail boat with a supply of approximately twenty-thousand firearms , on their way to Dublin, by that Monday night .

The timetable envisaged that the Rising in Ireland would start on the morning of Monday , 11th February, 1867 ; that Chester Castle would be raided at seven (7pm) that evening and that the Fenians would sail into Dublin before midnight that same evening with the (ex) Chester arsenal . However , in the early afternoon of 11th February ....... (MORE LATER)>



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

SEAN MORIARTY OF TRALEE ....

..... on 27th August , 1922 , Sean Moriarty and James Healy were captured in their homes in Tralee by Free State troops .....

" They marched them through Tralee to Balloonagh Convent , where they took Healy over a ditch into a field . An officer shot him through the body and left him , believing him to be dead . He dragged himself , bleeding and in agony , to a house . While he was crawling away he heard shots .

The people of the house were not Republicans , but they sheltered him and sent for a priest and a doctor , and his life was saved . They sent word to Sean Moriarty's family .

Sean was found in the field , riddled with bullets , dead .

[END]


RUPERT THE BEAR-faced liar and his friends .....

.....(From 'The Evening Press' newspaper , 22nd September , 1986 - a Monday , I believe- page 1)... Loyalist paramilitary paid-perjurer , James Williamson, said he was forced by the RUC into naming innocent people as accomplices .

He was offered immunity from prosecution , a new life in England and a new identity . He stated -

" The whole thing is corrupt . I named innocent people . If it happened to me it must happen with all the others . If I named three people as discussing the murder in a house , they (RUC) would ask me to add a few more names . They would put forward names and suggest that they were there as well . I would argue that the people were'nt there and they would just press the point that they were ."

Ah yeah , well - maybe . But that was the RUC ; you know, "a few bad apples" and all that . Now , of course , the RUC have been replaced by the ' new kids in the orchard' , the PSNI . And we all know that when you put the 'bad apples' in with the 'good apples' the 'bad' ones turn 'good' ....


.... AND ANOTHER BRITISH FAIRYTALE >

< A 13th Century English law decreed that 'time immemorial' began with the reign of Richard 1 in 1189 !

(Whatcha might call '1189 And Counting ' ...)

AMERICAN FENIANS ; THEIR PLAN TO RAID THE CHESTER CASTLE MILITARY ARSENAL IN ENGLAND , 1867 .....

.....The Fenian Movement had decided to challenge the English on Irish soil , and the campaign was to begin on Monday , 11th February , 1867 .....


Supporters in England had notified the Fenian leadership (via despatch carrier John F. Corydon) that a castle in the North of England , Chester Castle , was being used by the British military to store an arsenal of some twenty-thousand weapons and ammunition for same . The castle had a jail built on to it and was guarded by about sixty men - one company of the 54th Regiment , led by a British Captain Edwards .

The plan involved Fenian Captain John McCafferty and a company of Fenians attacking the castle after other rebel leaders John Flood and Thomas J. Kelly and their men had seized the trains between Chester Town and Holyhead and had captured the mail-boat in Holyhead . Also , all telegraph communications in the Chester district would by then have been cut .

A force of over one-thousand rebels would be put in place for the operation ...... (MORE LATER)>



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

SEAN MORIARTY OF TRALEE -

" Free State troops landed at Fenit on August 2nd , 1922 . They had the work before them which the English forces had abandoned - of destroying the people's allegiance to the Republic and making Ireland a dominion of the British Crown . They knew that they must use more vigorous methods than their predecessors were they to succeed where these had failed .

They had fear as an added incentive - the fear that if they did not do these things to the Republicans these things would be done by the English to themselves . They captured Sean Moriarty and James Healy on August 27th (1922) in their homes ...... " (MORE LATER)>



GURKHA GURRIERS .....

.... five British soldiers , all members of the 'King Edward VII Gurkha Rifles' were given light sentences by Isleworth Crown Court , Middlesex , England , in August 1986 , for smuggling almost £200,000 worth of drugs into Britain , from Nepal .

Purnabahadur Gurung got six years for possession of £153,500 worth of heroin , Haure Rai and Madan Kumar Shrestha got eighteen months (for £19,000 worth of cannabis) and Premparsad Gurung and Debendra Gurung each got twelve months for possession of £17,600 worth of cannabis .

...... and here was I thinkin' that King Edwards men only smoked cigars !

(info from 'The Evening Press' , 25th August 1986 - a Monday , if memory serves - page 5).


...... AND MORE RESPECTABLE GURRIERS >

< Speaking in Newtownards in County Down in September 1986 , ultra-Loyalist and the true original 'MAD DOG' . George Seawright , stated -

" Before the end of the year we'll burn the Tricolour over the GPO in Dublin and then we'll fire their city centre . Ulster has buried its dead and its widiws and orphans have wept , and Ulster has proved its commitment to the cause .

Now is the time for the Dublin people's commitment to their cause to be put to the test and it will have its fill of Irish widiws and orphans to mourn their dead by the time we're finished . All Loyalist efforts should be channeled against the Irish Republic because that is the weakest point in the British-Irish Agreement .

If bombs go off and fires consume Dublin the ordinary people whose relatives are burnt or blown to bits will soon put pressure on their Irish Government to abort the Anglo-Irish Agreement ."

(info from 'The Sunday World' newspaper , 14th September 1986 , page 8).

Obviously , some of the above-mentioned 'cigars' got through .....

AMERICAN FENIANS ; THEIR PLAN TO RAID THE CHESTER CASTLE MILITARY ARSENAL IN ENGLAND , 1867 .


MONDAY , 11th February , 1867 :
John F.Corydon , an American Fenian , had been responsible for carrying despatches between Ireland and America since 1865 , for the Fenians , in preparation for the planned Rising set to take place on Monday , 11th February , 1867 . Now the day had come . If the operation had gone ahead as intended , Corydon would have been one of the few possible survivors .....


In late 1866 , the Fenian leader James Stephens was replaced as Chief of the organisation and , under the new leadership of Colonel Thomas J.Kelly and Captain John McCafferty , about fifty American Fenians made their way to England ; some of their number then travelled to Ireland .

A decision had already been made to militarily challenge the English on Irish soil and a date agreed - Monday , 11th February , 1867 . (MORE LATER)>



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


DANIEL MURPHY OF KNOCKNAGOSHEL -

" When Daniel Murphy was taken at his forge in Knocknagoshel on the twenty-fourth of April , no arms were found in the place . He was known , however, to have been an active Volunteer since 1916 .

Other prisoners taken on the round-up saw Daniel Murphy led away to a certain field . It was the field where Lieutenant O'Connor of the Free State Army had been killed by a trigger-mine .

When he was out of sight they heard shots fired . Daniel Murphy's body was found in the evening by the people of Knocknagoshel and carried home . "

[END]



CHEQUE THIS OUT ....

In July 1986 , U. S. Senator Zorinsky of Nebraska stated that he had been informed by "some members of the (British) House of Commons" that if the U S approved of the British request for $50 million dollars of 'aid' to the occupied six north-eastern counties of Ireland , the British Government was going to reduce , by the same amount, the 'aid' which they gave to the Six Counties .

" We might as well make the cheque out directly to the United Kingdom " , said Zorinsky . That's the Brits for ya , Senator - get your 'friends' to bankroll your 'colony' ....

( Sure have'nt the gombeens in Leinster House being doin' that for years !)


.....THIS CHEQUE OUT >

<...... When he was Free State Minister for Finance (and before he met British Prince Charles and gave him one on the chin - a kiss , that is ...) John Bruton (Fine Gael) gave a speech in Trim , County Meath (on 3rd August , 1986 - a Sunday , I believe..) in which he urged Irish holiday-makers to take the trouble to find out what's on offer in Irish holidays before deciding to go foreign -

- " People will discover that Irish holidays are a good bargain . What Irish tourism needs right now is a buoyant home holiday market . " So far , so good ...

.... however , John's Boss , Garret Fitzgerald , and Mrs Garret, decided to spend two weeks of his holidays in West Cork before jetting off to Cyprus for the rest of his holidays ! And their partner in Leinster House , Dick Spring , and his wife Kristi were in Dublin Airport around the same time as the Prince-Kisser was doing his bit for Irish tourism . The Springs had just arrived home from a holiday in Spain ....

You'll have to pay attention to your buddies' where-abouts in future , John , before you open your mouth ; you don't need their help to make a fool of yourself ....

(From 'The Evening Press' , Monday 4th August , 1986 , page 3).

PETER O'NEILL CROWLEY , CORK FENIAN , KILLED BY THE BRITISH IN TIPPERARY , 1867 ......


.....the 'Kilclooney Wood Engagement' is considered to be the last action of the 1867 Fenian Rising .....


The 1867 Fenian Rising received world-wide attention , but not all of those that died in that attempt to remove the British presence from Ireland , like 35-year's young Peter O'Neill Crowley , are remembered for the part they played in it .

Today , some of those that purport to follow in the Fenian tradition would only recognise the value of Kilclooney Wood as being a 'nice wee spot for the holiday-home' , somewhere to discuss how best to sell-out while making it look like "progress" (reference the infamous 'TUAS' document : 'Totally Un-Armed Strategy' and/or 'Tactical Use of Armed Struggle').

The ghosts of men and women like Peter O'Neill Crowley will hopefully haunt 'patriots' like that .....

[END]


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


.....John Linnane and Dick Bunyan and John Mullaney had a dug-out in a hayshed in Trineragh ....


" It was a fine dug-out , raised about five feet from the ground , and they slept there with a sense of great security and peace . Dick Bunyan woke up suddenly ; Linnane had touched his elbow - someone was pulling down the hay .

The bundle that stopped their exit hole was pulled out and a ( Free State) soldier looked in , shouting "Come out of that!" "We are coming," the three cried out instantly , in reply , but the soldier fired full in Linnane's face , and when his comrades lifted him up he was dead .

Men learned to thank God for a death like that in Kerry in nineteen-twenty-three.

[END]



A SLAP ON THE WRIST ......

..... from 'The Evening Press' newspaper , 28th July 1986 (a Monday, I'm sure..), page 7 -

What was then known as 'The World Court' (formally known as the 'International Court of Justice') found that the United States had broken international law and violated Nicaraguan sovereignty by aiding anti-government rebels . It ordered Washington to stop "arming and training" insurgents and to compensate Nicaragua for damage caused by military attacks , although it did not set an amount .

The United States argued that the Court had no jurisdiction in the case , and rejected the verdict . It said the Court "was not equipped" to judge complex international military issues !

( "COMPLEX" ? -
U S General : "Mr President, SIR ! There's oil in that there country ! "

U S President : " Move in , Private . And take the Army with you " .)


....AND A LIMP WRIST -

- In July 1986 , the then Chief Medical Officer of what was then known as 'WINDSCALE' (now 'Sellafield') , a Dr. Jack Strain [ I kid you not !] stated --

" If Sellafield was to inform general practitioners every time a worker was contaminated we would be writing 100 letters a day ."

WHAT ! only one-hundred .....?

(and sure is'nt it grand writin' a hundred letters a day when ya have five hands .....)