'Turn The Spotlight / Derry Besieged / Death And Mystery' .

'TURN THE SPOTLIGHT' ........
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, January 1958 .

Do the citizens of the 26 Counties even know what is happening here ? Among our tourist attractions we can now boast of a Concentration Camp at the Curragh , County Kildare: we may not have a plan to end unemployment or emigration but we have a Concentration Camp . And we have semi-secret 'trials' . Indeed , that is not the end of the list of the things we have - we have a secret police force working in conjunction with Britain's security forces in Occupied Ireland .

We have given the power to some minor police official to seize newspapers and to haul men off to jail for the 'crime' of putting up posters demanding the release of political prisoners. And we have the shameless hypocrisy of men who pay tribute to our Republican dead while they hound and jail our Republican living . There are men in this country with influence in high places who know these things but who haven't the moral backbone to stand up and condemn them . There are men who march in processions under banners proclaiming their part in the struggle against the Black-and-Tans almost forty years ago .

Have they spoken out for the youth of this generation who have taken over from where they left off ? Some , perhaps , have . But too many who march in processions to honour the dead of forty years ago appear to have closed their eyes and stuffed their ears to the sights and sounds in Occupied Ireland.......
(MORE LATER).



DERRY : CITY BESIEGED WITHIN THE SIEGE .......

Derry , once the cockpit of the Northern Irish conflict , has become quarantined in apathy , grimness and deprivation , writes Seamus Deane , the Derry-born poet and writer . In a return look at his native city he finds that its demoralisation has disturbing implications .
From 'FORTNIGHT' magazine, 1983.

The architecture was then remarkably organised to picture forth the situation . The handsome and plain architecture of the Protestant cathedral made an appropriate contrast with the pseudo-Gothic pretentiousness of its Catholic counterpart . Even coming up the Strabane Road was then a lesson in political perspective , for the two cathedrals , which from six miles away appeared to be on the same side of the river , gradually seemed to separate as the distance decreased until they were seen to be on opposite sides .

The Protestant cathedral was girded by the city walls , Governor Walker's monument towered over the small , huddled houses of the Bogside: one proclaimed the defence of the Protestant tradition , the other the authority of the Roman tradition . There were , then , many such examples of what seemed to be a perfectly organised symbolism . Marches , bonfires , schools , accents , gardens - all contributed to it . But this shining clarity has now become muted and has in some instances almost disappeared .

Derry's loss of charisma is ominous for the whole area , for it represents the loss of possibility which was once there . I don't say this in any exclusive or sectarian spirit ; it is not only the Catholic community which has lost its rebellious radiance , the Protestant community has also lost its defending radiance : each has been replaced by a woeful grimness . Each community has seen the disappearance of its respective hopes for total change or for total preservation but both communities retain the will to behave as though these hopes had not disappeared.......
(MORE LATER).



DEATH AND MYSTERY .......
John O Shea was a small farmer and republican . He died at his Kerry home in October 2001 within hours of being released from Garda custody . The inquest into his death raised more questions than it answered and now Kerry County Council has backed calls for a public inquiry . Did John O Shea die from natural causes or is there a more sinister explanation ?
By Mairead Carey.
From 'MAGILL' magazine, May 2003 .

After examining Garda photographs , the jury pointed out that John O' Shea also had marks on his neck : Dr. John Harbison said he hadn't noticed them and couldn't explain them or other marks on the body . The laceration on the bridge of his nose could have been caused by falling on a pointed object or by being struck with a pointed object , he said .

Listowel , County Kerry , Fine Gael councillor Jacqueline Barrett was one of the jurors at the inquest - " What made us suspicious were the markings on him , particularly on his neck . There were no explanations for them . We weren't satisfied with the answers we got to some of our questions . I certainly had doubts, " she said . Another juror , who did not wish to be named , told this magazine that she believed someone had killed John O' Shea and suggested that someone may have been waiting for him when he got home .

Jacqueline Barrett believes the case should be reopened - " The exact cause of death has still to be determined . For everyone's peace of mind , it should be an independent inquiry as opposed to a Garda one ." But the State Minister for Justice , Michael McDowell, speaking in Leinster House , ruled out such an inquiry , stating that John O' Shea's injuries were "...consistent with a number of falls with no evidence of assault.." . McDowell stated that the circumstances of John O' Shea's death were "...exhaustively investigated.. " , first by the Garda and then at the inquest , according to McDowell . " I should mention that the person in question had been released from Garda custody the previous day , but I am not aware of any evidence that his unfortunate death was in any way connected with this , " he added .......
(MORE LATER).

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Unprincipled Callous Politicians.......

A Fine Gael election promise , May 2007 . However , should those children grow up to be adults with special needs , this is what they can expect (...more here) .
And it's not only Fine Gael that are that callous - all their career colleagues in Leinster House are , in our opinion , equally untrustworthy .Which is why we offer the following advice.......

MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT - SPOIL IT !

This coming May 24th a 'general election' will take place in this 26-County State to elect and/or re-elect 165 time-serving place-seekers who will sit in a plush building in Kildare Street in Dublin city centre , pay themselves a basic salary of €2013 a week (...whilst , at the same time [in some cases], paying themselves up to €1572 a week 'expenses' on top of their salary!) and wash their manicured hands of responsibility for their continued and repeated failures to those voters that previously would have considered them 'worthy' enough to sit in that institution .

In this election we encourage those of our readers who are entitled to vote to SPOIL THAT VOTE ! Go to your polling station , claim your vote and deliberately and purposely SPOIL IT ! We ourselves , from this blog , will be writing - " Release All Political Prisoners!" on our voting ballot , but any message you decide to write on your ballot will have the same effect ie that vote will be deemed 'spoiled' .
A 'spoiled vote' is the only proper option open to those of us who wish to declare that we view the whole political system , as it now stands , as a corrupt , money-grabbing 'mé féin' and morally bankrupt system , run , operated , controlled and maintained by useless self-servers .

IF YOU HAVE A VOTE THIS MAY 2007 , USE IT TO MAKE A PROTEST. SPOIL IT !

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'Spotlight / Derry Besieged / Death And Mystery' .

'TURN THE SPOTLIGHT' .
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, January 1958 .

Democracy cannot operate in secrecy . Dictators and would-be dictators and little men with totalitarian leanings know this well : they do their utmost to control the press , stifle public opinion , develop spinelessness , buy-off opposition - all the better to work out their scheming in the dark where the people will have no chance of checking on them . We are perilously close to that situation in Ireland to-day .

It was an American statesman who said : ' You can't be crooked in the light.' It is high time the Irish people understood this : it is time they made up their minds to end the crookedness in the dark. They still have the power - for how long they will have it we would not like to guess .

We think if the truth were known about what is happening in Ireland to-day there would be an outraged cry from the Irish people . But the truth is not known . It is buried . Or else it is labelled 'propaganda' . Consider these things : our people in the North of Ireland are being persecuted and crucified , whole areas are being turned into terror-zones , prisoners are being tortured , young men are in arms against tyranny . How much of this story is known ? We would hazard a guess that Americans and others know more about what is happening in the North (albeit from biased sources) than the average citizen in the South.......
(MORE LATER).



DERRY : CITY BESIEGED WITHIN THE SIEGE .......

Derry , once the cockpit of the Northern Irish conflict , has become quarantined in apathy , grimness and deprivation , writes Seamus Deane , the Derry-born poet and writer . In a return look at his native city he finds that its demoralisation has disturbing implications .
From 'FORTNIGHT' magazine, 1983.

Derry , in other words , is , like the North , in 'quarantine' . It suffers from an illness which no-one can cure but with which many are willing to experiment . Until the illness is cured , the quarantine cannot be lifted . Yet , of course , it never will be lifted because the illness is the state of quarantine itself . It is not just a particular political structure , it is a deep-seated mentality . It is not surprising that the best-known structure in the North is Long Kesh, a prison in which modern technology is used to create the segregated conditions which are natural to the whole society , in a particularly pure and cruel form .

Derry , then , manages still to achieve its own peculiar symbolic importance in Northern society . Its 'two names' - 'Derry/Londonderry' : its two communities : its history of siege : its absorption of the effects of violence and economic demoralisation along with economic subsidy : the contrast between its beautiful setting and its ruined cityscape : and above all , its isolation , allow a visitor-native like myself to see it as a place , small enough to be understood and big enough to be typical of others , as the North's , maybe the whole island's , exemplary town .

Thus the charisma , if I might call it that , which it possessed in the early days of the crisis , when Free Derry, or the Bogside, or even Bloody Sunday, were names of resonant places and events , was generated by the clarity with which the society's oppositions were represented in the place , down to the smallest detail.......
(MORE LATER).



DEATH AND MYSTERY .......
John O Shea was a small farmer and republican . He died at his Kerry home in October 2001 within hours of being released from Garda custody . The inquest into his death raised more questions than it answered and now Kerry County Council has backed calls for a public inquiry . Did John O Shea die from natural causes or is there a more sinister explanation ?
By Mairead Carey.
From 'MAGILL' magazine, May 2003 .

John's father , James O' Shea , already believed his son was dead . His wife wouldn't accept it . She washed the blood off his face and went out and cleaned the step . For the next three hours she stayed with him . Her other son , Michael , says she was afraid to call him "...for fear I would give out about his drinking.." . At around 5am she eventually called for help . " When I saw him I said to myself - 'This man has been murdered' " , said his brother . The local doctor also thought his death was suspicious and told the family to call the gardai .

State pathologist John Harbison originally said that John O' Shea had a number of minor injuries suggesting falls shortly before his death , and that he did not appear to have been beaten up . He gave hypothermia as the cause of death . But neither the jury nor Michael Finucane were satisfied with his evidence , and he was dramatically called back to Kerry on the second day of the inquest to explain himself further . He withdrew his opinion that hypothermia had been a cause of death , explaining that his initial decision had been influenced by information given to him by gardai that John O' Shea had been lying outside the house half naked for a long time . The gardai denied ever saying as much to Mr Harbison .

Among the injuries listed in the pathologist's report were abrasions and bruising on his forehead , a laceration on the bridge of his nose , an abrasion on his chin and on the back of his right hand . He had an abrasion on his penis , a group of abrasions on his left thigh , a more marked group of abrasions on his right thigh and matching abrasions above both knees.......
(MORE LATER).

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Spoil It on May 24th / Bodenstown June 10th .

MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT ON MAY 24th - SPOIL IT !

This coming May 24th a 'general election' will take place in this 26-County State to elect and/or re-elect 165 time-serving place-seekers who will sit in a plush building in Kildare Street in Dublin city centre , pay themselves a basic salary of €2013 a week (...whilst , at the same time [in some cases], paying themselves up to €1572 a week 'expenses' on top of their salary!) and wash their manicured hands of responsibility for their continued and repeated failures to those voters that previously would have considered them 'worthy' enough to sit in that institution .

In this election we encourage those of our readers who are entitled to vote to SPOIL THAT VOTE ! Go to your polling station , claim your vote and deliberately and purposely SPOIL IT ! We ourselves , from this blog , will be writing - " Release All Political Prisoners!" on our voting ballot , but any message you decide to write on your ballot will have the same effect ie that vote will be deemed 'spoiled' .
A 'spoiled vote' is the only proper option open to those of us who wish to declare that we view the whole political system , as it now stands , as a corrupt , money-grabbing 'mé féin' and morally bankrupt system , run , operated , controlled and maintained by useless self-servers .

IF YOU HAVE A VOTE THIS MAY 2007 , USE IT TO MAKE A PROTEST. SPOIL IT !

ANNUAL WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION : Sunday , June 10 , 2007 , Sallins , Co. Kildare .

A bus for this Commemoration , which is organised each year by the Republican Movement , will leave from outside the old McBirneys/Virgin Megastore site on Dublin's Aston Quay at 12.45PM on the day , and return to Dublin at 5.45PM.

The fare is ten Euro per person .

For information on the death of Wolfe Tone , scroll through this piece (article starts on March 9 on that page) which was published on this blog two years ago .
" From my earliest youth I have regarded the connection between Great Britain and Ireland as the curse of the Irish nation , and felt convinced that , while it lasted , this country could never be free nor happy . My mind has been confirmed in this opinion by the experience of every succeeding year , and the conclusions which I have drawn from every fact before my eyes . In consequence , I was determined to employ all the powers which my individual efforts could move , in order to separate the two countries .
That Ireland was not able of herself to throw off the yoke , I knew ; I therefore sought for aid wherever it was to be found . In honourable poverty I rejected offers which , to a man in my circumstances , might be considered highly advantageous . I remained faithful to what I thought the cause of my country , and sought in the French Republic an ally to rescue three millions of my countrymen " . -Theobald Wolfe Tone .

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'The Men of 1922 / Derry Besieged / Death And Mystery.'

'THE MEN OF 1922.......'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, January 1958 .

' Let every man in Fianna Fail who still thinks of himself as a Republican answer these questions for himself . Rory , Liam , Dick and Joe never collaborated with Britain , never answered the English whip , never jailed a young Irish Republican .

Let us be fair to the dead at least . '
[END of 'THE MEN OF 1922']
(Next - ' TURN THE SPOTLIGHT' : from the same source)


DERRY : CITY BESIEGED WITHIN THE SIEGE .

Derry , once the cockpit of the Northern Irish conflict , has become quarantined in apathy , grimness and deprivation , writes Seamus Deane , the Derry-born poet and writer . In a return look at his native city he finds that its demoralisation has disturbing implications .
From 'FORTNIGHT' magazine, 1983.

The people of Derry are , in effect , locked into their city and its history . Ringed by the border , they are cut off from Donegal to which the majority Nationalist population looks as its natural hinterland . Ringed by the walls and by the zones of their housing estates , they are cut off from one another .

The county of Derry beyond is looked to by the minority Unionist population as its natural hinterland . The geographical location and the historical background of the city confirm this oppressive sense of siege , one shared by both communities . Each regards itself as surrounding and being surrounded by enemies . Although Belfast presents this mentality also , Derry , being smaller , provides a more concentrated and easily apprehensible example .

A peculiar feature of the effects generated by modern conditions on this mentality - conditions such as are associated with political violence , the welfare state , unemployment , television and modern housing - is that they supply ready-made arguments for and against capitalism , for and against socialism , for and against nationalism , radical revolution , reformist gradualism and any one of half a dozen other competing ideologies . Such a society appears , at times , to be a well run laboratory or prison , from which escape is sometimes granted for good behaviour (within the educational system) , but in which most inhabitants are serving a life sentence.......
(MORE LATER).



DEATH AND MYSTERY .......
John O Shea was a small farmer and republican . He died at his Kerry home in October 2001 within hours of being released from Garda custody . The inquest into his death raised more questions than it answered and now Kerry County Council has backed calls for a public inquiry . Did John O Shea die from natural causes or is there a more sinister explanation ?
By Mairead Carey.
From 'MAGILL' magazine, May 2003 .

Local hackney driver Denis Brosnan was the last known person to see John O' Shea alive : he picked up a group of people at the centre of the village at 12.45am . John O' Shea was among them . In a statement to the inquest he described O' Shea as a "...reasonably regular customer . I observed him coming to the bus and he was steady enough but appeared tired . From observing his condition , I was not concerned that he needed to be separated from the others because of the two usual reasons , namely that he was in danger of getting sick and that he was in an argumentative mood . He was in a fine , placid mood that night . "

John O' Shea "...had dozed off.." and the driver woke him up when he arrived at his home . " I could see that he had no marks on his face or on his left hand as I held his left hand to support him as he was getting out . His condition to me seemed more due to tiredness than drink . He was groggy but was alert to what was going on . As I left the yard , his back was turned to me and he was facing the door . He was in quite an alert state and I had no worries for his safety . "

John O' Shea lived with his mother , Kate , who is in her early 70's , in a stone cottage overlooking the sea . " He was a baby to her . She lived for him . She always protected him, " says Chris O' Shea . The mother , Kate , heard the minibus arrive and leave , but when her son hadn't appeared ten minutes later she went to investigate . She found him outside on a low step , slumped to one side . There was a mark on his face and blood on the ground beside him . She called her husband to help her and between them they dragged him into the house . They removed his trousers and shoes , laid him on a sheet on the kitchen floor and put a blanket over him . They lit the fire to keep him warm.......
(MORE LATER).

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Wolfe Tone Commemoration , June 2007 .

ANNUAL WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION :Sunday , June 10 , 2007 , Sallins , Co. Kildare .

A bus for this Commemoration , which is organised each year by the Republican Movement , will leave from outside the old McBirneys/Virgin Megastore site on Dublin's Aston Quay at 12.45PM on the day , and return to Dublin at 5.45PM.

The fare is ten Euro per person .

For information on the death of Wolfe Tone , scroll through this piece (article starts on March 9 on that page) which was published on this blog two years ago .
" From my earliest youth I have regarded the connection between Great Britain and Ireland as the curse of the Irish nation , and felt convinced that , while it lasted , this country could never be free nor happy . My mind has been confirmed in this opinion by the experience of every succeeding year , and the conclusions which I have drawn from every fact before my eyes . In consequence , I was determined to employ all the powers which my individual efforts could move , in order to separate the two countries .
That Ireland was not able of herself to throw off the yoke , I knew ; I therefore sought for aid wherever it was to be found . In honourable poverty I rejected offers which , to a man in my circumstances , might be considered highly advantageous . I remained faithful to what I thought the cause of my country , and sought in the French Republic an ally to rescue three millions of my countrymen " . -Theobald Wolfe Tone .




MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT - SPOIL IT !

This coming May 24th a 'general election' will take place in this 26-County State to elect and/or re-elect 165 time-serving place-seekers who will sit in a plush building in Kildare Street in Dublin city centre , pay themselves a basic salary of €2013 a week (...whilst , at the same time [in some cases], paying themselves up to €1572 a week 'expenses' on top of their salary!) and wash their manicured hands of responsibility for their continued and repeated failures to those voters that previously would have considered them 'worthy' enough to sit in that institution .

In this election we encourage those of our readers who are entitled to vote to SPOIL THAT VOTE ! Go to your polling station , claim your vote and deliberately and purposely SPOIL IT ! We ourselves , from this blog , will be writing - " Release All Political Prisoners!" on our voting ballot , but any message you decide to write on your ballot will have the same effect ie that vote will be deemed 'spoiled' .
A 'spoiled vote' is the only proper option open to those of us who wish to declare that we view the whole political system , as it now stands , as a corrupt , money-grabbing 'mé féin' and morally bankrupt system , run , operated , controlled and maintained by useless self-servers .

IF YOU HAVE A VOTE THIS MAY 2007 , USE IT TO MAKE A PROTEST. SPOIL IT !

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'The Men Of 1922 / Derry Besieged / Death And Mystery.'

'THE MEN OF 1922......'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, January 1958 .

' No one blames 'The Sunday Press' newspaper for what they wrote . It was good writing . The subjects were of the heroic mould . It was still fine writing and true writing when it ended thus - " That which called and assembled that small company by new-dug graves in Mountjoy Jail on December 8th 1922, calls to the Irish of today and will call for all time until wrong is righted and the oppressed set free . "

That is true . It calls to the Irish of today and they have answered the call , and it will call to them "for all time until wrong is righted and the oppressed set free ." But where is 'The Sunday Press' and its owners in all of this ? Are they on the side of the oppressed ? They know their own consciences so let them answer in their own time . But one thing is certain - you can't be on the side of the right while helping wrong .

You can't be in the company of Rory O' Connor , Liam Mellowes , Dick Barrett and Joe McKelvey while jailing men without charge or trial , while sneaking others off to prison following secret trials , while persecuting young freedom fighters for the 'terrible crime' of opposing English rule in Ireland . Why then did the four martyrs die....... ? '
(MORE LATER).


DERRY : CITY BESIEGED WITHIN THE SIEGE .

Derry , once the cockpit of the Northern Irish conflict , has become quarantined in apathy , grimness and deprivation , writes Seamus Deane , the Derry-born poet and writer . In a return look at his native city he finds that its demoralisation has disturbing implications .
From 'FORTNIGHT' magazine, 1983.

The anarchic spirit of the young and the apathy of most others are not contrasting reactions . They are very closely tied to one another : a rebellious spirit will constantly recruit its strength from the young , but permanent rebelliousness , with the high cost that it brings , is liable to lead to a state of exhaustion in those who realise that it allows for no let-up and , in present conditions , for no foreseeable resolution . The sheer blankness of the future has , as far as I can read it , finally demoralised the whole population .

The neighbourhood spirit , once a pronounced feature of Derry life , especially in the poorer districts , has broken down . Someone told me recently of the fate of a group of pensioners' bungalows , built only fifteen years ago , which are now roofless ruins ; men came and removed the alloy roofs despite the protests of the pensioners . No one moved to defend them . No one would , of course , have thought of phoning the RUC. The men involved had no paramilitary connections , yet they were allowed to vandalise these houses . I don't believe that would have been allowed to happen ten years ago . Nor would all the various muggings , beatings , robberies and rapes which have increased at such an alarming rate .

Those responsible are , in their own witless and brutal way , providing the RUC with an argument for the necessity of 'law and order' . They also provide them with a steady flow of information on guerrilla activities , yet the RUC have so far lost acceptability that even the increase in crime is not powerful enough to redeem them . The community is caught in the squeeze between those who would impose the old system and those who flourish in the absence of any . It wants neither but has to suffer both.......
(MORE LATER).



DEATH AND MYSTERY .......
John O Shea was a small farmer and republican . He died at his Kerry home in October 2001 within hours of being released from Garda custody . The inquest into his death raised more questions than it answered and now Kerry County Council has backed calls for a public inquiry . Did John O Shea die from natural causes or is there a more sinister explanation ?
By Mairead Carey.
From 'MAGILL' magazine, May 2003 .

Gerard O' Shea (41) , from Curraheen , Tralee, said he spoke to John O' Shea as he left Houlihan's Pub : he knew O' Shea through the (P) Sinn Fein party . " He was pissed off . He said he had been roughed up by the gardai . We were only talking for a few seconds . He was on his way home and seemed sober enough to me , " Gerard O'Shea said .

Chris O' Shea says she received a call from John after he was released from the garda station : " He sounded shaky in his voice , and distressed in himself ." She offered to collect him , but he insisted he would make his own way home . A few minutes later , John O' Shea got a taxi to Castlemaine - the driver said he appeared to be swaying in the back seat and falling asleep . He was let off at The Castle Inn where he drank until closing time . Numerous customers were interviewed and all of them pointed out that they saw no marks on his face .

Willie Hanafin (45) , from Castlemaine , was never approached by gardai . He says that he spoke to John O' Shea for about ten minutes in the pub - " He asked me if I'd heard what happened to him . I said no . At that he lifted his shirt . There were marks on him . He said he'd tell me some other time , but that time never came . The next morning he was dead....... "
(MORE LATER).

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Spoil It on May 24th / Bodenstown June 10th .

MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT ON MAY 24th - SPOIL IT !

This coming May 24th a 'general election' will take place in this 26-County State to elect and/or re-elect 165 time-serving place-seekers who will sit in a plush building in Kildare Street in Dublin city centre , pay themselves a basic salary of €2013 a week (...whilst , at the same time [in some cases], paying themselves up to €1572 a week 'expenses' on top of their salary!) and wash their manicured hands of responsibility for their continued and repeated failures to those voters that previously would have considered them 'worthy' enough to sit in that institution .

In this election we encourage those of our readers who are entitled to vote to SPOIL THAT VOTE ! Go to your polling station , claim your vote and deliberately and purposely SPOIL IT ! We ourselves , from this blog , will be writing - " Release All Political Prisoners!" on our voting ballot , but any message you decide to write on your ballot will have the same effect ie that vote will be deemed 'spoiled' .
A 'spoiled vote' is the only proper option open to those of us who wish to declare that we view the whole political system , as it now stands , as a corrupt , money-grabbing 'mé féin' and morally bankrupt system , run , operated , controlled and maintained by useless self-servers .

IF YOU HAVE A VOTE THIS MAY 2007 , USE IT TO MAKE A PROTEST. SPOIL IT !

ANNUAL WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION : Sunday , June 10 , 2007 , Sallins , Co. Kildare .

A bus for this Commemoration , which is organised each year by the Republican Movement , will leave from outside the old McBirneys/Virgin Megastore site on Dublin's Aston Quay at 12.45PM on the day , and return to Dublin at 5.45PM.

The fare is ten Euro per person .

For information on the death of Wolfe Tone , scroll through this piece (article starts on March 9 on that page) which was published on this blog two years ago .
" From my earliest youth I have regarded the connection between Great Britain and Ireland as the curse of the Irish nation , and felt convinced that , while it lasted , this country could never be free nor happy . My mind has been confirmed in this opinion by the experience of every succeeding year , and the conclusions which I have drawn from every fact before my eyes . In consequence , I was determined to employ all the powers which my individual efforts could move , in order to separate the two countries .
That Ireland was not able of herself to throw off the yoke , I knew ; I therefore sought for aid wherever it was to be found . In honourable poverty I rejected offers which , to a man in my circumstances , might be considered highly advantageous . I remained faithful to what I thought the cause of my country , and sought in the French Republic an ally to rescue three millions of my countrymen " . -Theobald Wolfe Tone .

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The men of 1922 / Derry besieged / Death and Mystery.

'THE MEN OF 1922.......'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, January 1958 .

' We wonder do Fianna Fail members ponder occasionally when they read their party newspapers where would Rory, Liam, Dick and Joe have stood today had Free State English guns not robbed them of life on that bleak morning 35 years ago ? Would they stand with the men who stand for Irish freedom and who are locked in the jails of Ireland and England , or would they stand with the men who have used their power to put Irish Republicans behind bars ?

" Freedom , Independence - he had striven for these and less than these he would not take...." , the 'Sunday Press' newspaper writer so described Rory O' Connor ; 'Less than freedom he would not take ...' " He was one of the people and it was Ireland , the people , for him . He was a social insurgent as well as a national one . In his cell at night he pondered deeply on a system which would take from the rich and give to the poor ... " , the 'Sunday Press' so described Liam Mellowes . Would Mellowes then accept today the social evils of unemployment , emigration and poor living standards ?

" Somehow the North was in him. Joe McKelvey had commanded a brigade where all around were foes , and he had that astuteness of the man who works in constant danger , the astuteness and a courage which he does not know himself to possess ..." , the newspaper wrote of Joe McKelvey . Would he stand today for co-operation with the British authorities in Occupied Ireland? And Dick Barrett who was "...to write one strange line showing that he had thought much and was great : ' Death ' , he wrote ,' is only terrible from a distance' . What of Dick Barrett.......? '
(MORE LATER).



DERRY : CITY BESIEGED WITHIN THE SIEGE .

Derry , once the cockpit of the Northern Irish conflict , has become quarantined in apathy , grimness and deprivation , writes Seamus Deane , the Derry-born poet and writer . In a return look at his native city he finds that its demoralisation has disturbing implications .
From 'FORTNIGHT' magazine, 1983.

It is more than twenty years since I lived in Derry and , although I have visited it regularly in that interval , I have become an outsider and can lay no claim to any special knowledge of the way it is now . My affection for the town remains unimpaired , but it is founded on memories which are constantly being disturbed by its present image . There is no need to rehearse what the place has been through in the last fifteen years - despite heroic efforts on the part of various organisations , the effects have been devastating .

Town-planning has been responsible for a great deal of this , especially in the Bogside, where the open spaces of earlier years have been replaced by bleak apartment blocks and where , as in Belfast , the shape of the neighbourhoods has been changed to accommodate the motor car . New housing estates have sprung up in Shantallow and the Waterside. The Creggan, the oldest of the town's housing estates , built initially both to rehouse people and to preserve the gerrymander system, is , in part , a ruin . Vandalism is responsible for that , but the conditions which allow it to grow and become rampant remain distressingly familiar .

Unemployment is one of them , disaffection with the 'State' and its 'security forces' - which have an appalling record of unpunished crime in the city - is another . The pressure of political and social circumstances has been so unrelenting for so long a time that many people seem to be borned down by it . There is certainly strong support for the IRA and for Sinn Fein in the districts which have suffered most . This is , in itself , sufficient commentary on the policies of successive British governments.......
(MORE LATER).


DEATH AND MYSTERY .......
John O Shea was a small farmer and republican . He died at his Kerry home in October 2001 within hours of being released from Garda custody . The inquest into his death raised more questions than it answered and now Kerry County Council has backed calls for a public inquiry . Did John O Shea die from natural causes or is there a more sinister explanation ?
By Mairead Carey.
From 'MAGILL' magazine, May 2003 .

Even before the inquest into the death of John O' Shea was held , coroner Helen Lucey wrote to solicitor Michael Finucane saying : " The inquest would be to establish identity and to establish how , when and where the deceased met his death . The question of blame or exoneration will not arise . "

After leaving the Garda Station it was thought that John O' Shea took a taxi to Castlemaine to his local pub . However , this magazine has spoken to a number of people who say they met John O' Shea at a pub in Tralee shortly after he left the garda station . Local man Jerome Daly (35) said he met O' Shea in Richie Houlihan's pub at around 10pm : " He pulled up his shirt and said 'Look what them fuckers did to me...' There were red marks on his side , up near his rib cage , " said Jerome Daly .

Daly , who says he knew John O' Shea through (P) Sinn Fein , was never interviewed by gardai and says he never thought of going to them - " My understanding was that he hit his head and that that was how he died . It's different now . No one is sure anymore . " According to Jerome Daly , John O' Shea "...didn't stay long in the pub . At most he had a short......."
(MORE LATER).

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Rock the 'establishment' on May 24 : SPOIL YOUR VOTE !

Make your vote count on May 24th - SPOIL IT !
This coming May 24th a 'general election' will take place in this 26-County State to elect and/or re-elect 165 time-serving place-seekers who will sit in a plush building in Kildare Street in Dublin city centre , pay themselves a basic salary of €2013 a week (...whilst , at the same time [in some cases], paying themselves up to €1572 a week 'expenses' on top of their salary!) and wash their manicured hands of responsibility for their continued and repeated failures to those voters that previously would have considered them 'worthy' enough to sit in that institution .

In this election we encourage those of our readers who are entitled to vote to SPOIL THAT VOTE ! Go to your polling station , claim your vote and deliberately and purposely SPOIL IT ! We ourselves , from this blog , will be writing - " Release All Political Prisoners!" on our voting ballot , but any message you decide to write on your ballot will have the same effect ie that vote will be deemed 'spoiled' .
A 'spoiled vote' is the only proper option open to those of us who wish to declare that we view the whole political system , as it now stands , as a corrupt , money-grabbing 'mé féin' and morally bankrupt system , run , operated , controlled and maintained by useless self-servers .

IF YOU HAVE A VOTE THIS MAY 2007 , USE IT TO MAKE A PROTEST. SPOIL IT !


ANNUAL WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION :
Sunday , June 10 , 2007 , Sallins , Co. Kildare .

A bus for this Commemoration , which is organised each year by the Republican Movement , will leave from outside the old McBirneys/Virgin Megastore site on Dublin's Aston Quay at 12.45PM on the day , and return to Dublin at 5.45PM.

The fare is ten Euro per person .

For information on the death of Wolfe Tone , scroll through this piece (article starts on March 9 on that page) which was published on this blog two years ago.
" From my earliest youth I have regarded the connection between Great Britain and Ireland as the curse of the Irish nation , and felt convinced that , while it lasted , this country could never be free nor happy . My mind has been confirmed in this opinion by the experience of every succeeding year , and the conclusions which I have drawn from every fact before my eyes . In consequence , I was determined to employ all the powers which my individual efforts could move , in order to separate the two countries .
That Ireland was not able of herself to throw off the yoke , I knew ; I therefore sought for aid wherever it was to be found . In honourable poverty I rejected offers which , to a man in my circumstances , might be considered highly advantageous . I remained faithful to what I thought the cause of my country , and sought in the French Republic an ally to rescue three millions of my countrymen " . -Theobald Wolfe Tone .

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Wolfe Tone Commemoration .

ANNUAL WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION :
Sunday , June 10 , 2007 , Sallins , Co. Kildare .

A bus for this Commemoration , which is organised each year by the Republican Movement , will leave from outside the old McBirneys/Virgin Megastore site on Dublin's Aston Quay at 12.45PM on the day , and return to Dublin at 5.45PM.

The fare is ten Euro per person .

For information on the death of Wolfe Tone , scroll through this piece (article starts on March 9 on that page) which was published on this blog two years ago.
" From my earliest youth I have regarded the connection between Great Britain and Ireland as the curse of the Irish nation , and felt convinced that , while it lasted , this country could never be free nor happy . My mind has been confirmed in this opinion by the experience of every succeeding year , and the conclusions which I have drawn from every fact before my eyes . In consequence , I was determined to employ all the powers which my individual efforts could move , in order to separate the two countries .
That Ireland was not able of herself to throw off the yoke , I knew ; I therefore sought for aid wherever it was to be found . In honourable poverty I rejected offers which , to a man in my circumstances , might be considered highly advantageous . I remained faithful to what I thought the cause of my country , and sought in the French Republic an ally to rescue three millions of my countrymen " . -Theobald Wolfe Tone .



MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT - SPOIL IT !

This coming May 24th a 'general election' will take place in this 26-County State to elect and/or re-elect 165 time-serving place-seekers who will sit in a plush building in Kildare Street in Dublin city centre , pay themselves a basic salary of €2013 a week (...whilst , at the same time [in some cases], paying themselves up to €1572 a week 'expenses' on top of their salary!) and wash their manicured hands of responsibility for their continued and repeated failures to those voters that previously would have considered them 'worthy' enough to sit in that institution .

In this election we encourage those of our readers who are entitled to vote to SPOIL THAT VOTE ! Go to your polling station , claim your vote and deliberately and purposely SPOIL IT ! We ourselves , from this blog , will be writing - " Release All Political Prisoners!" on our voting ballot , but any message you decide to write on your ballot will have the same effect ie that vote will be deemed 'spoiled' .
A 'spoiled vote' is the only proper option open to those of us who wish to declare that we view the whole political system , as it now stands , as a corrupt , money-grabbing 'mé féin' and morally bankrupt system , run , operated , controlled and maintained by useless self-servers .

IF YOU HAVE A VOTE THIS MAY 2007 , USE IT TO MAKE A PROTEST. SPOIL IT !

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'THE MEN OF 1922...'

'THE MEN OF 1922'.
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, January 1958 .

' " Rory and Liam and Dick and Joe
Star of the morning , Mary come .
Red is their hearts' blood ,
Their souls like snow ,
Mary Immaculate guide them home ."

- Padraíg de Brun.

Thirty-five years ago Rory and Liam , Dick and Joe were killed . They died for the Irish people . For freedom . For the Republic of Pearse and Connolly. The 'Sunday Press' newspaper remembered them on December 8 (1958) , while 125 Irish Republicans exercised in the Curragh Concentration Camp, another half dozen moved around the cells of the same Mountjoy Prison where those four men met their deaths , 250 Irish Republicans were guarded with guns in the Crumlin Road Prison in Belfast and seven others exercised in English jails with the convicts of England .

Rory O' Connor , Liam Mellowes , Dick Barrett and Joe McKelvey , the 'Sunday Press' remembered you . You were also remembered by the Irish Republicans of our day in the prisons of Ireland and England . The top men of Fianna Fail attended Mass at Trinity Church , Dublin Castle, in memory of the four martyrs , on December 8th . They were photographed later and next day the 'Irish Press' newspaper told us all about it . But no photographer travelled to the Curragh , or Mountjoy , or Crumlin Road , Wakefield or Wormwood Scrubs. If he had he would not have been admitted or , indeed , might have stood a good chance of being locked up.......'
(MORE LATER).



THE YOUNG BLOODS : CLARE DALY.......
Swords (Dublin) councillor , Clare Daly , wiped a tear from her eye in the (State) High Court after being sentenced to one month in Mountjoy Prison for contempt of Court in defying an injunction on her blockading bin lorries.
From 'The Phoenix' magazine, September 2003 .

The Labour Party's former Mayor of Dublin , Dermot Lacey, seriously embarrassed his party in January this year (2003) by voting against his party to pass an increase in the council charges so as not to spoil his stint in the Mansion House. Although the Labour Party condemns the charges , it is recommending people to 'obey the law' and pay up ! The Party is moving to the political right under Pat Rabbitte who has sidled up to the bloodsports enthusiasts at the National Association of Regional Games Councils (NARGC) (sic - that Association is a 26-county body only) and endorsed the privatisation of services earlier in 2003 - so the Labour Party won't be doing anything radical on the bins issue .

While this makes the Labour Party vulnerable to both (P) Sinn Fein ( whose members in Leinster House from beyond the Pale , it emerged , have paid their bin charges!) and the Socialist Party in working-class areas , there is little (P)SF support in Swords and it is Clare Daly who will benefit and who could take the Labour seat off Sean Ryan. In 2002 , she received more of (P) Sinn Fein's candidate , Mick Davis's, transfers than anyone else ; however , republicans consider the 400-member Socialist Party - which was inspired by and emerged in the same way as the British Socialist Party - to be virtually unionist on the issue of the North , classing British squaddies as "workers in uniform" ! ('1169...' Comment - those that were then critical of the Socialist Party in relation to the North-Eastern issue are now on that same road themselves , dismissing those of us whom still hold true to Republican ideals as 'micro/unrepresentative/dissident' groups . The 'squaddies are just workers'-remarks will surely follow in time...)

The Socialist Party has a virtual monopoly on the anti double-bin tax issue in Fingal , where it is most serious . For Fingal County Council to put one Socialist Party member in jail could be excused as unlucky , but to put the scariest woman in north Dublin behind bars was just plain foolish . Clare Daly will be back to haunt them .
[END of 'THE YOUNG BLOODS : CLARE DALY'] .
(Next - 'DERRY : CITY BESIEGED WITHIN THE SIEGE' , from 1983)


DEATH AND MYSTERY .......
John O Shea was a small farmer and republican . He died at his Kerry home in October 2001 within hours of being released from Garda custody . The inquest into his death raised more questions than it answered and now Kerry County Council has backed calls for a public inquiry . Did John O Shea die from natural causes or is there a more sinister explanation ?
By Mairead Carey.
From 'MAGILL' magazine, May 2003 .

According to the Gardai , John O' Shea was kept in a cell in Tralee Garda Station until 9.40pm , when they woke him up . He made the bed , put on his boots and returned with them to the dayroom to collect his belongings . As he left the station another garda waited outside ; he was then questioned on the steps of the station in relation to the car accident but refused to sign garda notes . All the gardai present testified that he was sober and was in "...good form.." when he left them .

John O'Shea's arrest , detention and subsequent questioning were all unlawful , according to the family's solicitor , Michael Finucane: " There is no law that says you can't be under the influence of alcohol and be a passenger in a car . They invited him out of the car and created a situation where he was drunk in a public place and arrested him for it . It's a contrived offence , " says Finucane , the son of murdered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.

" They then detained him for almost three hours , when there are no provisions in the Act for detaining him without charge for longer than it is nesessary to take his details . When he walked out the front door there were two gardai waiting for him to question him about the car accident . Why didn't they question him in the Garda station ? " Michael Finucane wanted answers about the manner of John O' Shea's arrest but the coroner in Kerry was having none of it , and stated as much in a letter.......
(MORE LATER).

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SEND A MESSAGE ON MAY 24 : SPOIL YOUR VOTE !

Don't Just 'rock the vote' : ROCK THE ESTABLISHMENT !

MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT - SPOIL IT !

This coming May 24th a 'general election' will take place in this 26-County State to elect and/or re-elect 165 time-serving place-seekers who will sit in a plush building in Kildare Street in Dublin city centre , pay themselves a basic salary of €2013 a week (...whilst , at the same time [in some cases], paying themselves up to €1572 a week 'expenses'on top of their salary!) and wash their manicured hands of responsibility for their continued and repeated failures to those voters that previously would have considered them 'worthy' enough to sit in that institution .

In this election we encourage those of our readers who are entitled to vote to SPOIL THAT VOTE ! Go to your polling station , claim your vote and deliberately and purposely SPOIL IT ! We ourselves , from this blog , will be writing - " Release All Political Prisoners!" on our voting ballot , but any message you decide to write on your ballot will have the same effect ie that vote will be deemed 'spoiled' .
A 'spoiled vote' is the only proper option open to those of us who wish to declare that we view the whole political system , as it now stands , as a corrupt , money-grabbing 'mé féin' and morally bankrupt system , run , operated , controlled and maintained by useless self-servers .

IF YOU HAVE A VOTE THIS MAY 2007 , USE IT TO MAKE A PROTEST. SPOIL IT !

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United Irishman 1958 / Young Bloods / Death And Mystery .

'INSIDE THE CURRAGH CONCENTRATION CAMP.......'
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, January 1958 .

' The result is that there are many here who have had treatment prescribed for them months ago and for whom nothing has been done...

A similar situation exists about clothing . We have been told that if the doctor recommended clothing it would be supplied ; the doctor here has done so and only a few items have come . It is one or two months ago that he put down a recommendation for a pair of slacks for me and although I have beaten a track up to the medical hut - but no dice so far .

However , these are all the things which we have experienced for years and years . Eventually we'll wear them down . I must say that the people are doing their best to make things easy but even at its best a prison-camp is not too pleasant a place .

Internee ,
The Curragh Concentration Camp,
The Curragh Military Camp,
Co. Kildare . '
(Next - from the same source : 'THE MEN OF 1922')


THE YOUNG BLOODS : CLARE DALY.......
Swords (Dublin) councillor , Clare Daly , wiped a tear from her eye in the (State) High Court after being sentenced to one month in Mountjoy Prison for contempt of Court in defying an injunction on her blockading bin lorries.
From 'The Phoenix' magazine, September 2003 .

Apart from the bins issue , the airport profile has made Clare Daly the face of anti-Brennan, anti-Aer Rianta-break-up sentiment in the Dublin North constituency where local reps such as Fianna Fail Leinster House members GV Wright and Jim Glennon, have been (unsurprisingly) silent - until last weekend , when Jim Glennon demanded that Daly's party colleague , Joe Higgins, resign his Leinster House seat !

Clare Daly has long overtaken Green Party leader Trevor Sargent and Labour's Sean Ryan on airport issues which , like the bin charges, she has caught onto like a pit bull and refuses to let go . In the 2002 general election, Clare Daly put the frighteners on Fianna Fail, and came close behind GV Wright with her 5,501 first preferences - Wright scored 5,658 to come fourth .

In early 2003 , Sean Ryan indicated his intention not to run again if the administration runs its full term as he wants to retire and , unless a credible Labour Party candidate drops out of the sky , Daly will hoover up many traditional Labour votes as well as her own support . In the meantime , Sean Ryan's council seat has been co-opted to psychiatric nurse , Gerry McGuire, who will likely run but nobody will be taking any votes off Daly now that the council has turned her into Joan of Arc.......
(MORE LATER).



DEATH AND MYSTERY .......
John O Shea was a small farmer and republican . He died at his Kerry home in October 2001 within hours of being released from Garda custody . The inquest into his death raised more questions than it answered and now Kerry County Council has backed calls for a public inquiry . Did John O Shea die from natural causes or is there a more sinister explanation ?
By Mairead Carey.
From 'MAGILL' magazine, May 2003 .

Michael O' Shea rang his brother , John , again , from outside the Garda Barracks in Tralee : John colourfully complained that the gardai were keeping him in . But his conversation was cut short . " I heard shuffling and banging , " Michael O' Shea told the inquest , "...it sounded to me like the guards were carrying him to a cell . "

Inside the Barracks , Michael met two gardai : " They looked shaky and a bit nervous . I asked one of the guards if John O' Shea was here , that I was there to collect him . The guards told me that he wouldn't be going anywhere for a while , that they were investigating a traffic accident . " At the inquest the gardai said they had no knowledge of John O' Shea receiving a phonecall : they said they had taken his mobile phone once he entered the Barracks . But an 'Eircell' phone bill , seen by this magazine , shows that two calls were made to his number at 7.23pm and 7.30pm . The second call lasted for over two minutes .

The gardai said at the inquest that they got a tip-off from an anonymous male caller at about 6.50pm saying that a car had crashed into a sign at Ballymullen and that the driver was drunk : when they got there they found John O' Shea sitting in the passenger's seat . They believed he was drunk and arrested him under the Public Order Act. They took him to Tralee Garda Station .......
(MORE LATER).

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Report and photographs on Hunger-Strike Rally , 5th May 2007 , Dublin .

The RSF-organised Memorial Rally for the 22 Irish Hunger-Strikers , which was held on Saturday 5th May 2007 in Dublin's O'Connell Street , was a great success and a reminder to all that the conditions which led to those men taking that action still exist - the continuing British military and political presence on this island .

Those attending the two-hour Memorial Rally witnessed at least fifty members and supporters of the Republican Movement commemorating in a dignified manner the sacrifice made by the 22 Hunger-Strikers : over that two-hour period in Dublin's O'Connell Street , at least fifty other people joined in the Commemoration and assisted in handing out leaflets , selling the 'Saoirse' newspaper and leaving their contact details with the organisers .
Republican Sinn Fein are to be congratulated for organising this event - photographs from same are published below :
















Once again , thanks to Republican Sinn Fein for putting this event together .

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United Irishman 1958 /Young Bloods /Death And Mystery.

'INSIDE THE CURRAGH CONCENTRATION CAMP'.
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, January 1958 .

' The following is part of a letter to his family from a Republican in the Curragh Concentration Camp :

You will have seen in the debate in Leinster House that we would be appearing to have no grounds at all for complaint and that the standard of cleanliness is very high . Well , first of all , if the standard of cleanliness is high it would be well for them to remember that we clean and keep the Camp in order and it is due mainly to the high standard of discipline and co-operation among our lads that the place is so clean .

As for being perfectly housed , anyone who has lived in huts with poor fires and bad turf will know all about that . For months past we have been looking for treatment for eyes and teeth and although the staff here have recommended treatment it has been stopped or delayed or stymied up the line somewhere .

The result is that there are many here who have had treatment prescribed for them months ago and for whom nothing has been done.......'
(MORE LATER).


THE YOUNG BLOODS : CLARE DALY.......
Swords (Dublin) councillor , Clare Daly , wiped a tear from her eye in the (State) High Court after being sentenced to one month in Mountjoy Prison for contempt of Court in defying an injunction on her blockading bin lorries.
From 'The Phoenix' magazine, September 2003 .

Clare Daly first stood (unsuccessfully) for election to Leinster House in 1997 in Dublin North when she got 2,971 first preference votes - 7 per cent of the total vote . She also (unsuccessfully) contested the by-election (ie 'local council') in that constituency later in that same year . However , in 1999 she succeeded in getting onto Fingal County Council in the five-seat Swords area with 1,287 first preferences (14 per cent of the vote) . She came in second after Sean Ryan (Labour) and ahead of Anne Devitt(Fine Gael) and Michael Kennedy (Fianna Fail).

She had her council photocopying privileges withdrawn in 2002 by county manager , Willie Soffe, for "...undermining council policy.." by copying leaflets critical of the council itself , and has regular clashes with other councillors - especially Fine Gael's Anne Devitt - on planning issues , accusing them of bowing to the agendas of privatisation and property developers . She is said to remain 'aloof' from the other councillors ("...shame-faced hypocrites.." , she calls them on the double bin-tax issue) at meetings and not to socialise with them , probably because they are the enemy . However , she is feared in the debating chamber because of her debating skills and because her regular political 'rants' are often too much for some to take .

Her skill has been to latch onto populist local issues and break them down in terms of us versus them - the workers vs the bosses - and feed on that same arms-folded , 'sure they're all on the take' indignation that surrounds the tribunals.......
(MORE LATER).


DEATH AND MYSTERY .......
John O Shea was a small farmer and republican . He died at his Kerry home in October 2001 within hours of being released from Garda custody . The inquest into his death raised more questions than it answered and now Kerry County Council has backed calls for a public inquiry . Did John O Shea die from natural causes or is there a more sinister explanation ?
By Mairead Carey.
From 'MAGILL' magazine, May 2003 .

John O' Shea had just turned 40 at the time of his death . He was a small farmer , with a holding of 18 acres and 14 cows . He was a member of (Provisional) Sinn Fein . There was a republican colour party at his funeral . He had no convictions and was never in any real trouble with the law , according to his family . " He was very quiet and shy , but when he had a few pints in him he had courage all right . He was a binge drinker . He could go on the batter for a few days and be off it again for a few weeks , " says his brother , Michael .

He died during the October bank holiday weekend in October 2001 . He had left his home in Castlemaine , County Kerry, around lunchtime that Monday with a neighbour , John Thorney O' Shea . The duo ended up drinking in Tralee , 17 miles away . At around 7pm , John rang his sister-in-law , Chris , saying that his car had been crashed and asking if she would come and pick him up . The car had hit a 'Yield' sign , but O'Shea told her someone else was driving it at the time . She later gave the man's name to the gardai but the man in question has told this magazine that he was never interviewed by them . It is not certain if O'Shea was actually in the car when it crashed .

O'Shea arranged to meet his sister-in-law outside a pub near Tralee , but when Chris and her husband , Michael (John's brother) , arrived there was no sign of John . They rang him on his mobile phone to be told that he had been arrested.......
(MORE LATER).

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