A MANIFESTO : BRITAIN MUST WITHDRAW HER FORCES.......This Manifesto was posted throughout Occupied Ireland during the week beginning December 6 , 1957 , and ending on December 12 .
From 'The United Irishman' newspaper, January 1958 .
" To achieve our objectives we must end forever interference in our affairs by an outside power . We must drive from our shores the forces of this outside power . We must establish national independence .
That is the task the Resistance has set itself . With the help of the Irish people we will reach our goal . All British occupation forces must withdraw from Ireland now ."
[END of 'A MANIFESTO : BRITAIN MUST WITHDRAW HER FORCES']
(NEXT : 'Drogheda Corporation On Internments' - from the same source.)
A QUESTION OF LIBERATION .......Feminists and anti-imperialists in Ireland have often regarded each other's struggles with misunderstanding , mutual suspicion , and sometimes outright rejection . What then is the relationship between them ? Eibhlin Ni Gabhann surveys the emergence of women's liberation groups in Belfast and Dublin over the past decade or so , and some of the questions they have faced .
From 'IRIS' magazine , November 1983.
One founder member of the 'Irish Women United'(IWU)group recalls -
" Young angry women in IWU only had to look at the position of women in Dublin , Belfast , Cork or Kerry to see that nothing had been gained for women through fighting beside men . Republicans had been as guilty as imperialists in their eyes . Now seemed the time for women to fight on their own , undistracted by calls for support from anti-imperialist but essentially male struggles . Ultimately though , the damage done by the non-discussion of the North led to the break-up of the IWU ."
For their part , republican women raised the question of women's rights formally for the first time at the 1979 Sinn Fein Ard Fheis . Both Northern and Southern women spoke , convinced that Sinn Fein had to take up seriously the oppression of women , and that it was not enough to say - as some argued - that women in the Republican Movement were not discriminated against within the Movement . Whether that were true or not , our concern had to be for the people of Ireland , for all the women who were not just second-class citizens but , as James Connolly said , "...the slaves of slaves.." .
Out of that Ard Fheis intervention came the Sinn Fein Department of Women's Affairs which submitted a policy document - 'Women In The New Ireland' - to the 1980 Ard Fheis . It had the backing of the Ard Comhairle (ruling body) of Sinn Fein and was passed almost unanimously . Since then , 'women's affairs' officers have been appointed in most Sinn Fein cumann and comhairli ceantair , and the 'Women's Affairs' Head of Department is automatically co-opted to the Ard Comhairle : that Department , focussed mainly on Belfast , Dublin and Derry , is still in a formative stage but it has been responsible for some important initiatives as well as heightening generally the republican consciousness concerning women's rights.......
(MORE LATER).
THE LEFT BEHIND.Dick Spring and the Labour Party headed into this election campaign with four years of coalition government behind them . To observe them on the campaign trial you would never guess this , but there is , nevertheless , a noticeable resistence to them , especially amongst traditional Labour voters . Judging from Dick Spring's reception on the campaign trial it is almost certain that the party is in big trouble , at least in the Dublin area .
From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine 'Election Special' , 1987 .
By Derek Dunne.
Nobody noticed how Ruairi Quinn hi-jacked Dick Spring's itinerary that day . The plan that had been laid out for Dick in advance included a visit to Ruairi , but when everybody arrived Ruairi had an alternative sheet prepared which he gave to journalists . Other than to have a stand-up row about it , there was really no choice but to go along with the new plan , which included a fair amount of publicity for Ruairi himself , who may not be returned in this election . There was even talk that he might have found himself 'a job' in the event of being made redundant by the electorate .
It's hardly a month since Dick Spring sat at the cabinet table, but in the minds of the Labour Party ministers they have distanced themselves from those awful days . Nowadays , posters of Dick show the man with an open shirt - a 'Good Man Of The People'- : his moustache is trimmed , to give it a tamer if sharper look . On the posters at least , the working class hero has finally come home to roost .
The day is dark and cold when the bus leaves Labour Party Headquarters ; Dick Spring steps out - 'People of Ireland , I love you...' On the bus , the RTE cameras start to roll as the vehicle makes its way down Dorset Street . Passers-by look with amazement as they see James Connolly's successor (!) answering questions , facing into a camera , in a bus moving through the early morning traffic . Dick has own reservations about touring in buses , and what effect it has on people but , since the other parties do it , Labour would not seem to have a choice . It is a travelling circus.......
(MORE LATER).
