In November 1881 , a group was formed in Dublin with the objective of "removing all the principal tyrants from the country" ; they called themselves 'The Irish National Invincibles' and, within a few months, they were to make world headlines.....

'The Invincibles' consisted mainly of former Fenians and decided to announce their presence in a dramatic fashion - on May 6th, 1882, they assassinated two of Britains top officials in Ireland : Chief Secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and Under Secretary Thomas F. Burke in the Phoenix Park in Dublin, just yards from the Viceroy Lodge.

The British offered a reward of £1000 for information leading to the arrest of those responsible and put their top man in Dublin, Superintendent John Mallon of the 'G Division' of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, on the case. He arrested dozens of 'suspects' and repeatedly questioned those who were known to be in the Phoenix Park that night , but to no avail. (MORE LATER)>>


"Two hours. Time waits for no man.I'm exhausted. God,I'm tired. I wish I could lie down and go to sleep, and wake up out of this nightmare. They're watching me again.Keep walking. I'm sure they don't even feel guilty. Money consoles their conscience. That is their purpose in life, to gain as much of it as possible . They're mindless, merciless parasites .
Torture mongers. Yes, that's what they are . Some day their turn will come . They'll have to answer for everything !" .

----- from 'The Writings of Bobby Sands' , April 1981 , page 25. (First published in the old 'Republican News' on January 13th, 1979).
"Money consoles their conscience......" ~ enough to buy a holiday home in Donegal, perhaps......


In September 1989, speaking about his memoirs,John Stalker stated that he felt "a strongly hostile feeling at middle and senior levels of the (RUC) Special Branch....downright obstructiveness was unfortunately not rare... a kind of war had obviously been declared between the Branch and my team ". He spoke of "resentful RUC officers who were particularly skilled at promising much but actually delivering very little " .
Re the fact that his inquiry terms of reference were controlled by the then RUC Chief Constable, John Hermon , Stalker said- "What I objected to was having the man, whose force I was investigating, drawing up the parameters of those inquiries" .

-----Full marks, John ; but what did you expect ?

...the killing by Robert Emmet's men of the British Lord Chief Justice in Ireland, Lord kilwarden, and Kilwardens nephew, in Thomas Street in Dublin in 1803 ,put paid to the proposed rising ,and it was abandoned......

Robert Emmet ordered his followers to disband, and he went into hiding but was captured in August 1803 ; on September 19th , he was brought to 'trial' in Dublin's Green Street Courthouse and found guilty of treason - he was sentenced to be hanged. He delivered his famous 'Speech from the Dock' which has inspired generations of Irish rebels. The next day, September 20th 1803, Robert Emmet was hanged in Thomas Street in Dublin ; within weeks, twenty-one of his comrades were executed for their part in the Rising (including Thomas Russell, who was hanged outside Downpatrick Jail on October 21st, 1803).
The events outlined above took place two-hundred years ago,and form only a small, but not insignificant,part, in the history of Irish Risings against British rule in Ireland ; the final chapter has yet to be written, but will not be drafted in Stormont.....

" I fought a monster today and once more I defeated the monster's army. Although I did not escape,I survived to fight another day. It was hard:harder today than ever before, and it gets worse every day. You see I am trapped and all I can do is resist. I know some day I will defeat this monster, but I weary at times. I think and feel that it may kill me first " .
------ from 'The Writings of Bobby Sands' (page 31) : first published in the old 'Republican News' , October 7th, 1978.


'Magill' magazine, December 1997, page 28 -
Fra Browne , former Provo Councillor in County Louth, stated that Provisional Sinn Fein was teeming with "spin doctors" :
"These people kept telling me that the Movement had changed and that I needed to change.But I said that I had'nt changed and the Movement had'nt changed. It was only the people at the top who had changed" .
....that's what happens when you 'change your structures' .......

....after returning to Dublin in October 1802 , Robert Emmet made contact with , amongst others, Myles Byrne, Michael Dwyer, Jemmy Hope and Thomas Russell and , with their help, set up several arms depots in Dublin city ; Emmet then toured Ireland , seeking support for a rising .....

In May 1803 , Robert Emmet sensed an opportunity for a push against the British when war broke out between England and France ; it looked likely that the French would be in a position to invade England within a couple of months, and Emmet worked with an August 1803 uprising against the British in mind .
However , his hand was forced when one of his Dublin city arms-dumps exploded on July 16th, 1803, and badly injured one of his men, who was captured by the British; within days, Emmet's Rising had begun, but it was short-lived.

The killing by Emmet's men of the British Lord Chief Justice in Ireland, Lord Kilwarden, and Kilwardens nephew,in Thomas Street in Dublin, threw Robert Emmet's plans into confusion - his plan, which was well thought out and put together, was to place Dublin Castle under siege, take over the Pigeon House British fort and Islanbridge Barracks ; in doing so, the rebels in the rest of the country would rise up . Kilwardens death, and the British re-action to it, put paid to the proposed rising and it was abandoned ..... (MORE LATER)>>


'Fortnight' magazine, September 1991 , page 14 -
--- Archbishop Robin Eames said: " Here (in the Six Counties) we cannot allow it to go by default to say that it's a religious war, which blatantly it's not; it is a crisis situation in which the religious element coincides so much with these other issues as to make violence almost inevitable.There is a very definite religious element- there is a religious identity to this, but it is no more (than that).It is sociological, cultural, political, economic-it is a much wider question than that " .
....so the British are not the self-proclaimed 'peace-keepers' between the 'warring Irish' , as they like to portray themselves internationally .
- which is what Republicans have being saying all along...

.... in 1802, Robert Emmet met Napoleon to seek assistance for a Rising in Ireland ....

Emmet quickly became frustrated at what appeared to be Napoleon Bonaparte's posturing on the issue of an armed insurrection against the British in Ireland , and was left with the opinion that the French were more interested in making the British believe in the possibility of a French-organised armed campaign than an actual campaign itself . Robert Emmet then began to study military text books and experimented with rockets and explosives in an attempt to leave himself less dependant on the French.
He grew more disillusioned with the French in March 1802 , after they concluded the 'Peace of Amiens' with England in that month, and he returned to Dublin in October 1802. He made contact with, amongst others, Myles Byrne , Michael Dwyer , Jemmy Hope and Thomas Russell and , with their help, set up several arms depots in Dublin city, before touring the country to organise support for a rising. (MORE LATER)>>


In an article entitled 'Appeal to young people' ( AP/RN ,September 12th, 1991, page 14) ,one of the Provos' lesser-known suits, Larry O'Toole (Dublin North) declared - " If our structures (in Provisional Sinn Fein) do not suit their(young people) needs, we must change them accordingly " .

----- Right, so : you accept new members who don't like, say , 'policy x' - so you change it. Then , next month, you take in more new members who don't like the new version of 'policy x' , so you change it again . But that might upset the first batch of new members, so.....
....but what if a third batch of new members join, and their view of 'policy x' is different again ?
Rather than be just another 'catch-all' Leinster House party, Larry, would it not be better to stand by your principles ? To say to possible new members- ' This is what we stand for; take it or leave it' ?
Or has your party no principles? No bottom line? Don't stand for anything in particular ?
That would explain your comments .....

In the summer of 1798 , the 'United Irish Rising' collapsed ; one of its best known leaders, Thomas Addis Emmet, had a younger brother who was determined to follow through the push for Irish freedom - Robert Emmet .....

Within weeks of the 1798 Rising being crushed, Robert Emmet began preparations for another armed insurrection in Ireland , and made contact with the French Government to seek assistance ; the British were aware that Robert Emmet had made this move , and ordered his arrest . However, Emmet knew that the British Government were looking for him , and left Ireland for France, in 1801.

The exiled 'United Irishmen' in Paris took Emmet in, and the group were joined, in 1802, by Thomas Addis Emmet.An appointment was made for Robert Emmet to meet Napoleon , and arrangements were put in place wherby Napoleon's Ministers would assist Emmet in his endeavours . (MORE LATER)>>


....Pope John Paul stated , in November 1980, re the 'Third Secret of Fatima' , that it's contents will not be made public and that it - "should be sufficient for all Christians to know this much- if there is a message in which it is said that the oceans will flood entire sections of the earth , that from one moment to the other , millions of people will perish, there is no longer any point in really wanting to publish this secret message " .
A somewhat obfuscating reply, but the fact that the question was'nt dismissed out of hand must make you think twice .....

....Matt Fitzpatrick, an IRA prisoner in Monaghan County Hospital , was to be rescued from his hospital bed by the IRA .....

All arrangements were made by Dan Hogan , O/C of the Monaghan Brigade, and his staff, who also arranged for IRA units to block the roads used by the escape party after they had passed through.
Not long after 2am on March 30th, 1921, Dan Hogan and his team entered the hospital by a side-door which an employee had left open - telephone lines were cut by some of the IRA men and others overpowered a drowsy sentry in the corridor. The six British Army soldiers in the ground-floor room were disarmed and tied up but only after shots were exchanged ; this alerted the sentry in the ward with Fitzpatrick who opened fire through the door and only surrendered when the RIC 'patient' in the same room threw his revolver away.
Matt Fitzpatrick was lifted on to a stretcher and carried out to one of the waiting cars; other Volunteers gathered up the weapons and ammunition from the British Army and RIC guards . The rescue party then escaped along the pre-arranged route (towards Threemilehouse) while other Volunteers blocked the road behind them .
The whole operation, from entering the hospital to leaving it, took less than fifteen minutes, but it took the 'authorities' a lot longer to live it down.....


From 'An Phoblacht/Republican News' , June 6th, 1991, page 2 -
In the 'Opinion' column of above, the SDLP were lashed for being prepared "to sit down...at a negotiating table with representatives of the government which sanctioned the Coagh killings and Unionist politicians who gloated over them " .
The worm turns in the spinning grave ....the 'Adams Family' now shout "foul" because the Brits won't let them sit in a British parliament !

When on a visit to Fulda in Germany in November 1980 (as reported in the German magazine 'Stimme Des Glaubens') , Pope John Paul was asked why it was that the Third Secret of Fatima still remained unpublished ; he replied - " Because of the seriousness of its contents, in order not to encourage the worldwide power of communism to carry out certain coups, my predecessors in the Chair of Peter have diplomatically preferred to withhold its publication.On the other hand, it should be sufficient for all Christians to know this much - ...." (MORE LATER)>>

....the IRA O/C of the Wattlebridge Company, Matt Fitzpatrick, was badly injured in an IRA raid for arms and had been captured by the British ; he was under heavy guard in Monaghan County Hospital - the IRA decided to rescue him ....

IRA sympathisers in the hospital were asked to observe and monitor the level of security on Fitzpatrick , and it was quickly established that there was one British soldier in his ward and another on guard in the corridor . An armed RIC sergeant was placed as a 'patient' in the bed next to the prisoner, and six more British soldiers were housed in a ground-floor room.
The IRA were told that the guard was changed every 48 hours- it was decided to begin the rescue operation at 2am on the second morning of their shift, when they would be tired and slower to react. Also, transport was required; not only for the necessary escape, but also to carry Matt Fitzpatrick away on a stretcher, as he could not move under his own strength . (MORE LATER)>>


In reviewing Bernard Ingham's book 'Kill The Messenger' , in 'The Sunday Tribune' magazine , June 9th, 1991 (page 2) , Peter Prendergast (former press officer for a Fine Gael administration) stated - " In my experience, no more than about twenty per-cent of what a government is discussing at any time is known to the media. Over time, that might have grown to fifty per-cent. This means that fifty per-cent of what they do is never discovered at all " .
Until , perhaps , the thirty-year disclosure period comes around but , by then , the crooked politician is either dead or has been disgraced already in some other fashion (ie Charlie Haughey , Ray Burke,Michael Lowry etc). And still they continue to draw down their pensions and can make a comfortable living on the 'rubber chicken' circuit...
Meanwhile , we wait for the next batch to be named and 'shamed' .....

In early 1921 , IRA units in the Ulster area carried out many raids for arms on RIC and British Army barracks - in one of these operations , Matt Fitzpatrick, a Volunteer and,at the time, O/C of the Wattlebridge Company IRA, was badly injured and captured by the British....

Fitzpatrick was taken to Monaghan County Hospital under heavy guard and was to be moved to Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast when fit enough ; he was known to the British as a Republican operative and, as such, was marked by the Brits for execution as an example to the IRA .
The O/C of the Monaghan Brigade, Dan Hogan, knew that if Fitzpatrick was moved to the Belfast jail his fate was sealed : a meeting of the IRA Brigade Staff was called and it was agreed that Matt Fitzpatrick would be rescued from the hospital..... (MORE LATER)>>


Shortly before his death , Graham Greene said of religion - " I think its a mystery. It is a mystery which cannot be destroyed; even by the Church ! "
----- the same can be said of the Irish struggle for freedom - "....it cannot be destroyed; even by (so-called) Republicans ". The Provisionals are making a mockery of themselves and their attempts to surrender, without actually saying as much, tarnishes the people that went before them.
They should amalgamate with the SDLP and/or Fianna Fail , and do Republicanism a service.

.....a small group of Irish Republicans left the College of Surgeons during the 1916 Easter Week fighting , to set fire to shops around the Russell Hotel, which was occupied by British troops ; William P.Partridge was one of that group.....

...a young Na Fianna Eireann member, Fred Ryan, was shot dead and Margaret Skinnider was badly wounded on that operation . Putting his own life on the line, Partridge carried the wounded woman back to the College of Surgeons. After the surrender , Partridge was court-martialled, sentenced to fifteen years penal servitude and transferred to prison in England.
However, he was released from Dartmoor Prison in April 1917 , suffering from Brights disease, and he returned to his native Roscommon where he died on July 26th, 1917 , not having reached his 40th birthday .

A quiet unassuming gentleman from all accounts, William P.Partridge deserves his place in Irish history , more so than the 'suits' that, today, have attempted to steal the mantle of Irish Republicanism and prostitute it and themselves before the Brits and the Free Staters.
Thankfully , there are still many like William P.Partridge around , and involved, today .


In 1982 , America's CIA carried out a 'psychological profile' of Libya's Colonel Gadafy ; they found that he was "judged to suffer from a severe personality disturbance" and that he used excessive amounts of sleeping pills and other various 'uppers' .In a follow-up report some years later, the CIA reported that Gadafy wore make-up and high-heel shoes and carried a teddy-bear during a 1984 trip to spain !
Come on, lads - the "severe personality disturbance" part is perhaps believable , but you spoiled the whole report with the 'lipstick,high-heels and teddy-bear' thing .... (what would a psychological profile on Ian Paisley and his (sudden?) fixation on lips reveal?).

.....William P.Partridge , born in Ballaghadereen in County Roscommom during the 1880's , a friend and comrade to the Republican Movement and its leadership, joined the Irish Citizen Army on its formation in November 1913 ; on April 19th, 1916, James Connolly sent Partridge to Tralee in County Kerry to supervise the distribution of the (at least) 20,000 rifles that were to be landed on the Banna Strand , a consignment organised by Roger Casement.
However, Partridge learned on Good Friday that Casement was arrested and 'The Aud'(the ship carrying the rifles) had been scuttled by its crew after it had been intercepted by a British Navy ship . He returned to Dublin.

William P.Partridge was among the Irish Citizen Army contingent commanded by Michael Mallin and Countess Markievicz in St Stephens Green on Easter Monday and the College of Surgeons the following day. During the fighting of Easter Week , the British occupied the Russell Hotel in Harcourt Street and Partridge was among a small group of Republicans who left the near-by College of Surgeons to set fire to shops around the hotel ..... (MORE LATER)>>


The 'Sunday Life' 'newspaper' , June 23rd, 1991,page 12 -
" I would never repudiate the fact that I am an Irishman " - Ian 'Big Lips' Paisley !
The 'Dublin Tribune' newspaper, June 20th, 1991, page 10-
" The everlasting violence in Northern Ireland(sic) is fuelled by lack of job opportunities " - the late Jim Mitchell , Fine Gael.
The former does'nt know what to do about his Irishness , and the latter does'nt understand his Irishness.
Well pucker up , Ian , and understand this - the Brits will wash their hands of you and yours as soon as it suits them.....

A man born in Ballaghadereen in County Roscommon during the 1880's was well known in Republican circles at the time, but history has apparently left him behind......

During his short life, William P. Partridge was a politician , a soldier and a trade union activist : he moved to Dublin some time around 1910 and became involved in James Larkin's newly formed Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU) . In the municipal elections of 1911 , he was elected to Dublin Corporation .
The 'Great Lock Out' , which began in August 1913, ensured that Partridge and Larkin were kept busy , and also brought James Connolly into contact with the Ballaghadereen man ; in October 1913, William P. Partridge was asked by the ITGWU to do a fund-raising tour of England and to enlist the support of workers in that country for the strike in Ireland.
When the Lock-Out ended in February 1914, James Larkin departed to America; Partridge worked with James Connolly in re-organising the Union and the two men also assisted in organising the 'Women Workers' Union' . (MORE LATER)>


A Derry man, Charles Thomson, was the Secretary of the 'Continental Congress' of America and , as such, helped to transcribe the final draft of the U S Declaration of Independence ; Thomson was the first person to read it, both in Congress and publicly . He also served as Chief Executive of the American Government , a position he held several times between 1776 and 1789, during illnesses of the Congess Presidents. Charles Thomson also designed the 'Great Seal' of the United States - like William P. Partridge , Irishman Charles Thomson has been overlooked in the history books .

.....the patrol of Black and Tans and RIC men fired on each other, as the RIC men were reluctant to shoot known Sinn Fein members as per instructions issued by the Tans....

The above incident was one of many which was outlined to the Court of Commission - over the following few months numerous accounts of atrocities committed by the RIC, Tans, Auxiliaries and the regular British Army in Ireland were read into the record. In early 1921 , the Court published its interim report which , as expected, put the Brits in the world spotlight and was a major embarrassment to them .
The Commission had set-out to get international media attention focused on British military activity in Ireland and was successful in that . Now , over 80 years later, media attention is fixed on the Six Counties as yet another treaty buckles under the weight of its own contradictions.....


The Dublin administration attempted only once to refer the situation in the Six Counties to the United Nations :
This was when the then Free State Minister for External Affairs, Patrick Hillery,in August 1969, on behalf of the Dublin Administration, sought a meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the possibility of sending UN troops, or a joint Irish-British contingent, to the Six Counties to monitor the situation. Britain stated its belief that Article 2(7) of the UN Charter (non-intervention in domestic affairs of states) prohibited discussion of the North . Hillery replied by detailing the history of partition and declared that his administration did not "in any way concede(to the British) the right to exercise jurisdiction" in the North (as per then Articles Two and Three of the Free State Constitution).
However ,further consideration of the question was suspended, and that ended the UN 'role' in the North !
In 1998 , the fig-leaf of Articles Two and Three were done away with in the Stormont Treaty in a vain attempt to appease the Unionists and the British ; they grabbed the opportunity with both hands and continue to demand more......

.....the ex-RIC man,Daniel Crowley, told the Court of Commission that the RIC men on patrol with the Black and Tans were there to point out Sinn Fein members so as the Tans could shoot them , and then burn their houses.....

He told the Court of Commission of one incident in which the Black and Tans attempted to shoot members of the RIC patrol which was accompanying them - Crowley spoke of how, on the night of May 21st, 1920, an RIC/Tan patrol, which was heavily armed, raided the home of Maurice Walsh ,the Chairperson of the Clogheen (Tipperary) District Council (a local politician) . The tans had told the RIC members with them that it was their intention to kill Walsh and his family and burn their house ; the ex-RIC man , in his evidence, stated that himself and the other RIC men "reminded him(the man in charge of the Tans) that he was not in the (British) army now, and he said to me that when he left the training depot he was told that he could not be subjected to any discipline whatever if he shot any Sinn Feiners " .
Crowley went on to point out that the issue then developed into a verbal row between the Black and Tans and the RIC, then punches were thrown and, finally, the Tans fired their weapons at the RIC ( I have not been able to determine what injuries both sides caused to each other but, hopefully, they were all good shots !) . .... (MORE LATER)>>


.....it was only in 1989 that the then Stormont Education Minister, Brian Mahwinney, decided not to lower the status of the Irish language in the new curriculum - this still left the language on the fringes in English-medium primary schools and 'a low-status option' at secondary level......

In 1990, the Brits established the 'Ultach Trust' with a fanfare of media present but, five months later (and in a much quieter manner) they withdrew funding from Glor na nGael !
Also , it should be remembered that the 'Education Reform Order' of 1989 , which purported to give the Irish language equal status with French, German, Spanish and Italian as a choice in language studies in secondary schools , still left our first language as a 'lower status' one , said to be 'equivalent to classics' , when schools fulfil their timetabling obligations .
....like the Fianna Fail politician that ordered dozens of young trees to be planted in his ward just weeks before the election (in which he retained his seat) and then , within weeks of his victory, ordered that all the trees be dug up !
Give it to you in one hand........

..... the 'American Commission of Inquiry on Conditions in Ireland' , which was launched in August 1920, started to take evidence in a Washington office on November 19th, 1920....

The British declined an invitation to attend Court sittings, but an undertaking was secured from them that passports and other required travel-passes etc would be issued to people travelling from Ireland to testify ; the British were also asked to state that reprisals against those testifying would not be taken, and gave that commitment.
One of the first witnesses asked to attend the Court was a Catholic priest, Fr Michael Griffin, of Gurteen in County Galway - however, the following day the Court received word that Fr Griffin had been murdered by the Black and Tans. The Court heard evidence from an ex-RIC man (who had resigned in June 1920), Daniel Crowley, who was anxious to speak about British activities in Ireland : he described how, in March 1920, the RIC had been ordered to accompany the Black and Tans on all patrols - the RIC were to help identify 'likely suspects' to the Tans.
Crowley explained - " They (RIC) were to go on an armoured car with a machine-gun , and every man who took a prominent part in the Sinn Fein movement they were to stand up in front of his own house and turn the machine-gun on it. In the armoured car there were put 120 cans of petrol and also 120 Mills bombs, and the reason for this was that they were for burning houses" . (MORE LATER)>>


In 1923,the teaching of Irish in public elementary schools in the Six Counties was restricted by the then Stormont administration to ninty minutes per week. In 1927, British Lord Charlemont , the Stormont Minister of Education (one of Lord McGuinness' predecessors!) told a delegation from Comhaltas Uladh that Irish was dead or dying and French was a more useful language. And so things remained , until March 1989, when the then Education Minister Brian Mahwinney, reversed his own plan to lower the status of Irish in the new curriculum - this still left the Irish language on the fringes in English-medium primary schools and 'a low-status' option at secondary level .... (MORE LATER).

On November 19th, 1920, at the height of the Black and Tan War in Ireland, the 'American Commission of Inquiry on Conditions in Ireland' was due to hold its first session : this body, which successfully focused international attention on the campaign of terror being waged by the British forces against the people of Ireland, was launched in August 1920 by Dr WJ Maloney and Frank Walsh who, in turn were supported by the 32-County Dail Eireann .
Its objective was to ensure that the British would be reluctant to use excessive force in Ireland because to do so would, with the ensuing world-wide publicity, mark them out as the thugs they are. The Commission comprised prominent clergymen , U S Senators and Congressmen, newspaper editors, trade union leaders and members - about 150 people in all; they picked five of their number to act as the Court of the Commission , and were given legal powers to request the attendance of witnesses representing English and Irish opinion, and was to take its evidence at public sessions in a Washington office. (MORE LATER)>>


In a profile of Boris Yeltsin by William Millinship , which was published in 'The Observer' newspaper on June 16th, 1991(page 19) , it was stated that, as a schoolboy during the war, he broke into a church which was being used as an ammunition store, and stole a couple of hand-grenades. Wondering how they worked, Boris 'examined' one of them with a hammer and lost two fingers on his left hand in the explosion !
On February 19th, 1991, he went on television and called for Gorbachov's resignation, and in March he departed from the prepared text of a speech and called for a declaration of war on the country's leadership.....
Are'nt our lot dull in comparison.....
(.....and not only in comparison to Yeltsin ).

.....Alan Bell,the British'Resident Magistrate' in Ireland, was determined to confiscate the funds belonging to the Republican Movement and had already seized over £71,000 ; the IRA was determined to stop him ......

Michael Collins, the then IRA Director of Intelligence, had instructed his men to observe Bell's routine,and a plan to execute him was drawn-up ...
On March 26th, 1920, Collins ordered that the plan be acted on ; on that morning, Bell was joined on the packed tram at Dalkey Station by three armed IRA men and, as the tram arrived at the corner of Simmonscourt Square at Merrion Road to take on and let-off passengers , another IRA man held it there; the three IRA men on board rose from their seats and told Bell to step off the tram with them - he refused and repeatedly called on the other passengers to help him . Only one of the passengers on the packed tram attempted to help Bell, but he was quickly convinced to stay out of it . Bell was then dragged off the tram by the three IRA men and, when they stepped onto the road, they were met by three other armed IRA men - the six Volunteers pushed Alan Bell across the road where he was shot three times in the head and died instantly .
The Dail Eireann National Loan recorded £357,000 in its account at the end of 1920. Dublin Castle had to continue to use its own money to pay its lackies in Ireland to do its bidding......


In June 1991, Amnesty International released a 674-page document reporting on British human rights abuses in the Six Counties, which condemned Britain for same. The then John Major Conservative government responded by saying that it was "necessary in war to have secrecy" . Tory backbencher Ivor Stanbrook MP stated- " Britain is a democracy at war with bloodthirsty terrorists and it is our duty to protect British citizens.We are at war and thats why we use secret tribunals and inquiries. Why should we give our enemies free information ? We have high standards, a record that is better than any other in the world " !
"High Standards"? Probably referring to how well paid their Loyalist hit-squads are....

..... Alan Bell,the British 'Resident Magistrate' in Ireland, organised a raid on February 27th, 1920, on Sinn Fein's Harcourt Street Offices in Dublin, and seized over £71,000 belonging to the Movement ; he suspected there was more than that and he wanted it ........

.... days later he issued an order to all bank managers instructing them to appear before his Commission of Inquiry to be questioned by his Office and to bring with them all files, paper-work, receipts and other similar documentation relating to transactions between their bank and persons acting on behalf of certain named organisations and individuals.

Michael Collins, the then IRA Director of Intelligence, realised that it was only a matter of time before Bell's Office would be in a position to seize all the funds belonging to the Movement, and decided to remove the 'Resident Magistrate' before he could do so ; Collins ordered his Intelligence Officers to trace Bell and work out what, if any, routine he followed- it soon emerged that Bell travelled to work at Dublin Castle from his Dalkey, Dublin home by tram . A plan to execute Alan Bell was drawn-up ....... (MORE LATER)>>


From 'The Sunday Tribune' newspaper,June 9th,1991, page 6 -
In 1975, a British soldier killed a County Tyrone farmer, Patrick McElhone,a civilian, as he ran away from a military patrol. The soldier was charged with murder but acquitted- the trial judge said that although McElhone was an innocent person, the soldier had reason to believe he was a fleeing terrorist and because of the "war or quasi-war situation" in the Six Counties , the British soldier was justified in shooting him !
The British 'Law Lords' later stated- "If he (McElhone)got away (he) was likely sooner or later to participate in acts of violence" .....
.... Anyone out there seen the film 'Minority Report' ?

When the British sent their 'Black and Tan' thugs into Ireland to smash the IRA , they also attempted to hit Republicans by another, perhaps less well known, method - by confiscating funds belonging to the 32-County Dail Eireann.

As a young man in the RIC (Royal Irish Constabulary) , a man from Banagher in County Offaly, Alan Bell, had helped his British pay-masters to investigate the Land League funds during the 1880's. As a reward for his efforts, Bell was appointed as a 'Resident Magistrate' (RM) and served in Athenry, Ballinrobe, Lurgan and Belfast, during the last decade of the 19th Century and the early years of the 20th Century.

Bell rose through the ranks, and was promoted to membership of the British Staff at Dublin Castle in 1920, and worked with British Intelligence where, in February that year, he was put in charge of confiscating the monies built up by the successful Dail Eireann Loan Fund , and any other cash he could find which belonged to Sinn Fein. Alan Bell organised a raid on the then Sinn Fein Offices in Harcourt Street in Dublin on February 27th, 1920 , and seized over £71,000 belonging to the Movement; his information at the time was that there was at least four times that amount in Republican coffers, and he vowed to have it all ...... (MORE LATER)>>


After the Brit establishment lifts its collective jaw from the ground and re-groups in an attempt to 'spin' and/or cover-up the extent of its collusion with Loyalist death-squads in the Six Counties, they should seek out the writings of one Albert 'Ginger' Baker and throw said material on a bon-fire ;
'Ginger' was an ex-British soldier who operated in Belfast in the early 1970's. The gang he led was responsible for the 'Romper Room' murders where Nationalists were beaten, tortured, then mutilated before being shot. Baker was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1974 for a number of those killings, and also admitted his role as a British agent. He said the killings "were designed to fit into a British Intelligence plan to terrorise the Nationalist community and push off support for the IRA" .
'Black-Ops' , I think the Brits call it- but always denied it operated such a policy in Ireland .
Liar,Liar ......

.....James Crossan's friend, Sean Reilly, was asked by the barman if he would drive him and the two Fermanagh men to the border , and he agreed .....

Sean Reilly parked his van about 100 yards from the border and about 300 yards from Mullan British Customs post in Fermanagh ; James Crossan and the young McHugh got out with the three northerners and all five walked towards the border . With the few drinks on him and the time of the day it was - about 3am - Sean Reilly fell asleep in the van.
The sound of gunfire woke him up some time later and he saw flares lighting-up the sky and the area in which he was parked; he got out of the van and saw two RUC men about 30 yards in front of him- they were running towards the British Customs post. It later transpired that the five men (Crossan, McHugh, the barman and the two Fermanagh men),all unarmed, parted company on the Cavan side of the border at about 3.30am and, as Crossan and McHugh were walking back to the van, Crossan was shot dead by a group of RUC men who had positioned themselves on the southern side of the border. Ben McHugh was arrested, and Crossan's body was taken to Enniskillen.
The RUC claimed that they had come across an IRA reconnaissance mission of Mullan British Customs post, which was a total fabrication ; at the inquest (held in Enniskillen) no witnesses were called and no attempt was made to investigate the circumstances of the shooting. The coroner simply justified Crossan's death as "justifiable homicide" .

Baunboy, County Cavan man, James Crossan, was assassinated by the RUC in County Cavan on Sunday , August 24th, 1958.


A book by Shelby Foote, entitled 'The Civil War', gives a fascinating insight into the American Civil War -

Almost three million men fought in the war ; in the Union armies more than one in four were casualties , in the Confederacy more than half suffered the same fate. One in ten able-bodied Northerners were dead or maimed by the end of the war , and one in four Southerners the same. At Cold Harbor, 7,000 men fell in twenty minutes ; in the first post-war year, one-fifth of the Mississippi state budget went to pay for artificial limbs for its returning veterans ! At Shiloh , one hundred-thousand men fought and a quarter of their number were killed or wounded. The musketry was thick enough to denude the trees in a blossoming peach orchard , covering the dead and dying with petals and , by one account, suffocating some of the wounded in flowers ; and where lightning broke the night , it illuminated wild hogs devouring the dead.
Foote's book conjures up a lasting image of what a soldiers lot was like at that period in time ; sad but riveting reading....

At the height of the IRA's border campaign,the RUC,acting on its own information and details believed to be given to it by British Intelligence, targetted Sinn Fein members living close to the border.....
One man that that British police force were particularly interested in,and whose story is perhaps not as well known outside his native County Cavan as it should be, is James Crossan. A native of Baunboy in Cavan, and a prominent Sinn Fein Organiser in the border area, James Crossan and one of his neighbours , Sean Reilly, were in a van on their way to Swanlinbar to finalise details for a meeting to be held the next day, Sunday August 24th, 1958: the meeting was to be held in Ballyconnell.
Having done their business in Swanlinbar,the two men, and a local youth and Sinn Fein member,Ben McHugh, decided to go for a pint ; in the pub they met up with two friends from County Fermanagh. Near the end of the night, the barman asked James Crossan's friend, Sean Reilly, if he would drop him and the two men from Fermanagh to the border, and Reilly agreed ...... (MORE LATER)>>


In an article in the 'The Sunday Telegraph' on 19th May , 1991, (page 20, I think....) , then columnist Geoffrey Wheatcroft wrote - "Fifty years ago Serbs and Croats were massacring each other on a scale that makes the Ulster problem seem as trivial as it indeed is ...." !

In the same article (entitled 'Why division is good for Ireland') Mr/Sir/Lord Wheatcroft also wrote- " Partition has been the greatest boon and benefit Ireland has enjoyed this century. It is the essential condition without which the southern state could not have survived as it has " !
Well , its not cricket, but any of you chaps on for a round of 'Trivial Pursuit' or 'Lets Pretend' ?
You're a gas man , Geoff......