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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

.....could haul the ladder over to their side of the wall . Oscar Traynor , IRA Dublin Brigade O/C , had secured a bolt cutter and that , along with two revolvers, were packaged and smuggled into the prison by a friendly soldier. The prisoners were not sure that the bolt cutter would be up to the job but were determined to carry out the escape plan , as Frank Teeling was in line for execution ; on the night of February 13th , 1921, the three men made their way to the outer prison gate but , as the handles of the bolt cutter were incorrectly fitted , they were unable to cut the bolt . They went to 'Plan B' , and gave the signal for their comrades on the other side of the prison wall to throw in the rope attached to the ladder - the rope jammed on top of the wall and snapped when the men outside attempted to pull it back to them .
The three prisoners had no alternative but to return to their cells .The following day , the British soldier who was in on the plan repaired/adjusted the handles on the bolt cutter and , that night, at 6.30pm , the three prisoners decided to make another escape attempt ......(MORE LATER)>>>

In the early 1940's , the Catholic Archbishop of Zagref , Alojzui Stepinac , hailed the establishment of the Nazi regime as " a long-cherished wish ... a work of God that arouses our admiration " . The official Catholic magazine ' Nedelja' stated- " God,who directs the destiny of nations and controls the hearts of Kings , has given us Ante Pavelic (leader of the fascist Ustasha movement) and moved the leader of a friendly and allied people , Adolf Hitler , to use his victorious troops to disperse our oppressors and enable us to create an independent State of Croatia . Glory be to God , our gratitude to Adolf Hitler " .
-- They praise Hitler and threaten to excommunicate Irish Republicans ~ must have been the tight-fitting Nazi uniforms that swung it for them ......

On February 14th 1921 , three IRA men, Frank Teeling ,Ernie O'Malley and Simon Donnelly , escaped from Kilmainham Jail in Dublin .
Frank Teeling was sentenced to death in connection with the events of November 21st, 1920 , during which twelve British agents were killed. Teeling and Ernie O'Malley were being held in Kilmainham Jail and , on February 11th, were joined by Simon Donnelly ; he was taken into their confidence and told of their plan to escape . After weeks of careful consideration , an escape plan was decided upon ~ the peep-holes in the cell doors were three inches in diameter and , if one of the men could get his arm through it , it would be possible to open the door from the outside ; the plan then was to make their way to the yard (as the men had noticed that the door leading from the prison to the yard was usually left closed-over, but not locked) and then cross the yard to a large iron gate on the west side of the jail , cut the bolt on same and escape .
A 'Plan B' had been made in case the bolt cutter should fail ~ IRA Volunteers from 'F' Company ,Fourth Battalion , Dublin Brigade, would take up positions outside the prison wall with a rope ladder and , awaiting an agreed signal , throw in the rope attached to the ladder , so that the prisoners could haul the ladder over to their side of the wall ....(MORE LATER)_>>>>
"Strenuous efforts must be made to bend towards the Unionists , to show them that their civil rights and their religious rights will be respected - EVEN(his emphasis) if that means making internal arrangements that will suit Unionists better than they will suit the rest of us" ~ ....no, not John Hume or one of his Stoop Down Low Party lackeys , but Gerry Adams , in a 'Hot Press' interview on May 19th, 1993 (page 13) ---- And the bastards STILL (my emphasis) won't let you surrender with dignity, eh, Gerry . There's respect for ya .....

....the jury brought in a verdict of guilty - sentence was deferred until 3pm that afternoon ; when they were brought up for sentence a plea by John , the younger brother, that he be allowed to take the punishment for both was rejected and they were sentenced to be executed the following day .
At mid-day on the day of their execution (the ninth anniversary of the fall of the Bastille) John and Henry Sheares were hanged outside Newgate Jail in Green Street, Dublin , beside what is now the Special ' Criminal' Court . The bodies of the brothers are still preserved in the vaults of the nearby Saint Michan's Church , in Church Street , Dublin . John Sheares , aged 32 , and Henry Sheares , ages 45 , were executed by the British on July 14th, 1798 .
The British tradition of conquest , theft, exploitation and dispossession has touched most corners of the globe and is still with us in this country : spys,informers , false treaty's and pillage has been their stamp here ~ over the on-going period of their 'conquest' , the British have purchased some of the Irish (and I include Adams and his Provo outfit of outlaw pets in that ) and branded the rest of us as "dissidents" .
And I , for one , am proud to be classed as such by them .....

NEWSFLASH>>>NEWSFLASH ---
" A return to Stormont in any form is unacceptable to nationalist opinion in Ireland " --- so said Gerry Adams , in what can only be described as a ground-breaking devel...OOPS ! wait a minute..No ,sorry , that's been on my desk since April ,1996 , as a quote from Adams as printed in AP/RN , April 11th that year (page4) . My mistake.....

Yasser Arafats biographers , Tony Walker and Andrew Gowers , call Arafat the " grand illusionist " - Roger Hardy , a London-based writer and broadcaster on the Middle East , wrote - " Arafat is a master magician in the theatre of politics but , like every magician , he relies on sleight of hand " ~ just like our own (Gerry) Arafat .....

....on their return to Ireland , the brothers joined the United Irishmen : John became a member of the Leinster Directory and later, following the arrest of most of the leaders at the home of Oliver Bond in March 1798 , he took on the position of chief organiser . He was arrested,along with his brother, on May 21st, two days before the proposed Rising , having been betrayed by Captain John Warneford Armstrong, a Dublin Castle spy : Armstrong had befriended John Sheares by claiming to be a 'reluctant soldier' and had offered to assist the United Irishmen in their efforts to capture the English military camp at Leighlinstown , where he (Armstrong) was stationed .
The brothers were charged with 'high treason' and lodged in Kilmainham Jail : at their 'trial' , which began in Green Street Courthouse on July 12th (with the infamous Lord Norbury .' the hanging judge' , presiding) , the English spy, Armstrong, was to earn his keep as the principal witness against the brothers . The proceedings lasted twenty-four hours without an adjournment and , at 8am the following day, the jury (after an absence of only 17 minutes !) brought in a verdict of guilty .....(MORE LATER)>

In 1995 , documentation from the British Atomic Energy Authority confirmed that 2,517 tonnes of radioactive waste had been dumped in Beaufort Dyke in 1981 ; the information was given in answer to a Westminster parliamentary question in 1985 ,and it was also confirmed that unscheduled dumping had taken place due to "adverse weather" , but claimed that it was only a " small quantity of concrete waste" ! Yeah,right - tell that to the fish........or to Nuclear scientist Augustin Janssen , who stated on October 16th, 1995 , that "the Irish Sea is more dangerous than French Polynesia" . (Wonder where they dump their concrete ?).

The brothers John and Henry Sheares , who were both born in Cork , were put to death on the same day by British forces in 1798 after being found guilty of "high treason" ....
Henry Sheares was born in 1753 and John in 1766 . Both were educated at Trinity College in Dublin and both were called to the Bar in 1788 ; the two brothers then moved to Dublin to practise their profession . Both brothers had an interest in the revolutionary changes taking place in France and in other European capitals and , in 1789 , they both went to France to visit relatives . They were present , as spectators, at the fall of the Bastille on July 14th and were regular visitors to the political clubs where they became acquainted with many of the French revolutionary leaders , including Roland,Brissant and Robespierre .On their return to Ireland in August 1793 , the brothers joined the Society of the United Irishmen ......(MORE LATER)>....

My 'Person-of-The-Day' Award ( an all-new and possibly once-off category on this page!) goes to Anthony Williams , a one-time employee of Scotland Yard .
Mr. Williams was employed by 'the Yard' as an accountant and , over his eleven years there , was , apparently, a model employee- kept his head down , down his work , good time-keeper etc. However , over that same eleven years , he stole five million pounds Sterling from the job and used it to purchase practically all of the town of Tomintoul in Inverness ! He was caught , and an Old Bailey judge locked him up for seven-and-a-half years .
The bould Tony slipped-up : he should have declared himself Mayor of Tomintoul , and Sheriff ,and Town Clark ,City Manager etc etc and claimed diplomatic immunity ......

......and in March 1858 , Michael Doheny assisted James Stephens and John O'Mahony in founding the Irish Republican Brotherhood , and was a member of the American delegation which accompanied the remains of Terence Bellew MacManus to Ireland in November 1861 . A plan had been set in motion for another attempted rising in Ireland , and the arrival of the MacManus remains was the signal for the rising to commence : however , on the advice of John O'Mahony , who had been in Ireland earlier that year , the rising was abandoned - O'Mahony reported that the people were not properly organised . On his return to New York , Michael Doheny , author ,poet , soldier , journalist and lawyer , died suddenly on April 1st , 1862 , at 57 years of age . A rebel heart , true and true ...

(Dumping at sea,continued.....) In February 1995 , the British Ministry of Defence admitted that 145,000 tonnes of chemical weapons were secretly dumped in the 1950's off the coasts of Antrim and Donegal - this admission followed years of denial by the British . The Free State Minister for the Environment at the time , Brendan Howlin , confirmed that the deadly nerve gas,TABUN, as well as mustard gas and phosgene , were amongst chemical weapons dumped by the British into the Irish Sea during the 1950's . The British , for good measure , stated that almost no steps were taken to protect the dumped weapons from natural erosion once under the sea and that the dumps have remained totally unmonitored since around 1955 . According to the Celtic League (in 1993) , around 8,500 tonnes of chemical weapons were dumped by the British in the Biscay region to the south-west of Ireland . The Brits have really been dumping on us , in more ways than one ....
( Perhaps we should be grateful that the dumped munitions did'nt land on an unexploded H-bomb .....) .

......the armed rising failed and Michael Doheny was forced to go ' on the run ' with a price of £300 on his head . Discouraged ,weak from travel and on his own , Doheny began to keep a journal of his wanderings that became part of Irish rebel literature , and were published in 1849 under the title ' The Felon's Track '~ it remains , to this day, a classic of the literature of Irish freedom .
Doheny eventually succeeded in escaping to America and settled in New York , where he set to work at organising an armed force for another attempt at revolt in Ireland . He was actively involved with the Emmet Monument Association (the early 'Fenian Movement') and , in March 1858, he assisted James Stephens and John O'Mahony in founding the Irish Republican Brotherhood . (MORE LATER)...

The Beaufort Dyke is a deep trench which runs from north of the Isle of Man to near the Wigtonshire coast , in England . It was into this seabed hole that the British dumped thousands of tonnes of surplus and disintegrating war supplies over a 30-year period which supposedly ended in the late 1960's . Included in this military rubbish was tonnes of phosphorous shells and bombs and TNT munitions ; also dumped at sea by the Brits was 'C W Munitions' (Chemical Warfare bombs) , some of which contained the nerve agent TABUN , which was developed by the Nazi's ! (MORE LATER)>

Author,poet,soldier , journalist and lawyer - a full life for any person , but this man,who was born at Brookhill, near Fethard in County Tipperary in 1805 , did not allow his own busy and prosperous life-style to blind him to the everyday struggle of those around him .
As a student of Gray's Inn , in London, Michael Doheny supported himself as a journalist until he was called to the Bar in 1838 . He returned to Ireland and settled in Cashel , from where he defended the poor in the courts against the excessive demands being made on them by local landlords . In 1842 , at the invitation of Thomas Davis , he joined the Repeal Association and became a regular contributor of articles and poems to the newspaper ' The Nation' . He was an effective speaker in Conciliation Hall , Lower Abbey Street, Dublin , where he spoke in favour of the policies of the Irish Confederates , a group of radical Young Irelanders who seceded from Daniel O'Connell's Repeal Association in January 1843 .
It was the sight of dozens of food-ships sailing out of the country in the midst of 'famine' which decided him on the necessity of an immediate rising and , in July 1848 , Michael Doheny , James Stephens and William Smith O'Brien attempted an armed rising ........(MORE LATER)....

A U S pilot lost his life in 1965 when his aircraft rolled off the aircraft carrier TICONDEROGA , which was heading for the Japanese port of Youkosuka . The plane sank in more than three miles of water , as did it's cargo - a Hydrogen bomb with the potential blasting power of one million tonnes of TNT ! For years the U S Navy refused to admit that the incident happened ~ the Pentagon listed the incident but claimed it occured 500 miles from land . Researchers for the Institute of Policy Studies in Washington placed the incident 70 miles east of the nearest Japanese island and 200 miles from the more heavily populated Okinawa . Documents which proved the incident took place were released under the ' Freedom of Information' laws in 1989 : twenty-four years after the event ! In 2027 , we may be told the truth as to why George Bush Jnr started a war with Iraq .....

.....Jemmy Hope was on an organisational tour in Ulster when the ill-fated rising broke out in Dublin . He escaped arrest and eventually , after the political amnesty of 1806, returned to Belfast and resumed work as a linen weaver . In the early 1840's , he assisted Dr. R.R. Madden , the historian of the United Irishmen , with detailed accounts of the events in 1798 and 1803 .
During the course of a long life he never changed his views on the rights of the working-class . His writings earned for him the title of "the first Irish socialist" in whose footsteps James Fintan Lalor and James Connolly were later to follow . A fervent adherent of the principles of the French Revolution and the United Irishmen to the very end , Jemmy Hope died in February 1847 , aged 83 . The man deserves to be remembered for that which he stood,and died,for .

'SPOT THE DIFFERENCE' Competition,part two -
"By God ,it is enjoyable being a Minister . This is what I like doing , taking decisions , and I had to take the decision to put the troops in while I was on the plane on the way back from Cornwall " ~ the then British Labour Party Home Secretary , James Callaghan ,in his diary , on the open deployment of the British Army in the Six Counties , August 14th , 1969 .

" I loath and detest the miserable bastards. Savage, murderous thugs. May the Irish ,all of them , rot in hell " ~ British Lord Arran , then a columnist in the 'London Evening News' , May 1974.

The only difference is the four different speakers : the sentiments expressed are similar .

A poet , a revolutionary , a social reformer : perhaps briefly mentioned in passing in academic circles , and one of the many Irish heros that goes unsung ~ born at Templepatrick in County Antrim in 1764 , Jemmy Hope is all of the above .
Largely self-educated , Hope, the son of a Presbyterian, left school at the age of ten and was apprenticed to a linen weaver . Having served his time , he left his job and became a traveller and journeyman . The French Revolution had a profound effect on his life and he was influenced by the writings of Paine and Rousseau - the ideas of equality and of the rights to life , liberty and property . In 1795 , he joined the United Irishmen , and became a close associate of many of the leading United Irishmen , including Theobald Wolfe Tone , Henry Joe McCracken and Thomas Russell. He was sent to Dublin in 1796 to scout for the Society .
He returned to the North of Ireland in 1798 and took part in the Battle of Ballynahinch during the Rising that year and , following the collapse of same, he went ' on the run ' in Ulster for five months before making his way to Dublin , where he worked as a weaver in the Liberties area of the city . Hope supported Robert Emmet in planning the rising of July 1803 but was on an organisational tour in Ulster when .......(MORE LATER)...

'SPOT THE DIFFERENCE' Competition -
" The Nationalist majority in the county Fermanagh stands at 3,640 . I would ask the meeting to authorise their executive to adopt whatever plans and take whatever steps, however drastic, to wipe out this Nationalist majority " ~ Unionist M P E.C.Ferguson , addressing a unionist convention in Enniskillen in 1948 .

" Now men , Sinn Fein has had all the sport up to the present , and we are going to have the sport now . You may make mistakes occassionally , and innocent persons may be shot , but that cannot be helped , and you are bound to get the right parties sometime . The more you shoot , the better I will like you , and I assure you , no policeman will get into trouble for shooting any man " ~ Colonel Smyth , RIC Divisional Police Commander for Munster , June 1920 .
Can't 'spot the difference' ? - wait 'till you see tomorrows two entries .....

.......were waiting with four cars to transport the escapees to safety , but they landed at the wrong spot ; approximately 500 yards away .The men realised their mistake and made their way to Queen's Road bus terminus where they commandeered a bus and drove across the city to the Markets area . During the journey , the bus was spotted by a British Army Land Rover which attempted to stop the vehicle ; however , the Brits backed-off when the bus entered the staunchly republican Markets district , which was then surrounded by British reinforcements . A search of the area was carried out by the British Army and RUC , but none of the escapees were found ~ the 'Magnificent Seven' were long gone to a different part of Belfast !
Eight years after Lemass and his ' we are for sale' statements (see yesterdays article) , the then Free State Foreign Affairs Minister , Patrick Hillery(Fianna Fail) said re EEC entry - " We would have to act closely in political as well as economic affairs and would have to participate in common action , even the defence of the new Europe " ; those that consider themselves this State's 'political elite' know the price of everything but the value of nothing .

In 1979 , the U S concluded a secret bilateral pact with Norway to allow nuclear munitions to be stored there under certain conditions , despite the wishes of the Norwegian electorate , expressed through a referendum . The secret pact was only accidentally discovered by the Oslo media five years after the event , 1984 . "Weapons of mass destruction" in Norway : So when you're finished with Iraq , George .....

....the day after the fifty men were transferred from the ship , the ' Magnificent Seven' escaped ~
One of the group had spotted a seal slip through a gap in the barbed-wire draped around the ship and it was decided that if the seal could come in , then they could go out !
The men used black boot polish to camouflag themselves and smeared each other in butter , to keep out the cold . They had already cut through a bar in a porthole which they now slipped through , and clambered down the Maidstone's steel hauser and entered the water . Several of them were badly cut by the barbed-wire , but they all managed to get through it . In single file , they swam the 400 yards through the ice-cold floodlit water to the shore : it took them twenty minutes , as some of the men could not swim and had to be helped by the others . On the bank , Volunteers of the Andersonstown unit of the IRA's Belfast Brigade were waiting with four cars to transport the escapees to safety , but ....(MORE LATER) ....
This State's intention re it's neutrality has not only been highlighted by the recent U S Army near take-over of Shannon -
In July 1962 , in New York, Sean Lemass stated~ " We are prepared to go into any integrated union without any reservations at all as to how far this would take us in the field of foreign policy or defence commitments" : also , while negotiating in Bonn for admission to the then EEC in October 1962 , Lemass said - " In the East-West conflict we are not neutral . We have made it quite clear that our desire is to participate in whatever political union may ultimately develop in Europe . We are making no reservations of any sort, including defence " .
Could someone out there please contact George Bush and tell him he's OK ; then contact Saddam and tell him he's welcome , too ~ after all , we have "no reservations of any sort" . Come one, come all .....

James Emerson Bryson , Tommy Tolan , Thomas Kane , Tommy Gorman , Peter Rodgers , Martin Taylor and Sean Convery : a group of Irish Republicans known as 'The Magnificent Seven' because of the nature of their escape from the Maidstone prison ship on January 17th , 1972 .
Of the 226 men detained following the introduction of internment in August 1971 , 124 were initially held in Crumlin Road Jail while the remainder were held on the Maidstone , a prison ship moored at the coalwharf in Belfast docks . The prison ship ,used as an emergency billet for British troops who arrived in 1969 , was totally unsuitable as a prison - it was cramped , stuffy and overcrowded , with the 'lock-up' section located at the stern below the deck , which was used twice a day for exercise . On January 16th , 1972 , fifty men were transferred from the ship to the new camp at Magilligan : this sudden move spurred on internees who were planning to escape .......(MORE LATER) ....
In 1883 , British Lord Salisbury declared - " Ireland must be kept , like India , at all costs; by persuasion,if possible , - if not, by force " . So the Brits purchased some of us and bullied the rest !
However , there's hope for us yet ~ On October 23rd , 1918 , Brit Lord Hugh Cecil stated - " We must accept the fact of Irish Nationality. It is regrettable , it is unhistorical ; in view of Ulsters feelings it is even absurd . But it is a fact : the majority of Irishmen do think Ireland a Nation and we must do the best we can in the circumstances "
"Unhistorical"? "Absurd"? Steady on , old chap .....
(Translation from Sunday - " Do not be breaking your shin on a stool that is not in your way").