BRITISH 'JUSTICE' : THE EMERGENCY LEGISLATION AND THE INFORMER SYSTEM.......
First published in the booklet ' STRIP SEARCHES IN ARMAGH JAIL' , produced , in February 1984 , by 'The London Armagh Group' .

Some of the recent victims of the British forces' 'shoot-to-kill' strategy had , prior to their deaths , complained of such threats while in RUC custody . Informers are offered the inducement of a lifetime's immunity from prosecution or a reduced sentence if they will inform on others .

Often , they are also offered large sums of money (up to £100,000) and told they will be set up in a new country with a new identity , a job and a home for themselves and their family . The money offered comes from the 'Northern Ireland (sic) Office' and MI6 makes the international security arrangements .

The 'NIO' denies that such sums are involved and the British Attorney General has given an undertaking that any sums paid to an informer during a 'trial' will be made public - such details have , however , not yet been made available , and it is particularly important to note the reference ' ...during a trial..' , which precludes information being given about financial settlement after a 'trial' .

Once a prisoner has agreed to the 'deal' , he names the people on whom he is going to inform.......

(MORE LATER).



FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .

It is only fair to deduce that , given the Catholic hierarchy's total support of the Alison/ICJP agreement , and their total lack of response to the prisoners' appeals , that they were , in fact , politically opposed to the granting of the five demands .

It was on this basic premise of broad political agreement with the Catholic Church hierarchy's political attitude - despite his own declaration of support for the five demands , which never manifested itself in actively mobilising similar support within the Catholic Church - and against a background of Free State and SDLP slavish co-operation with Westminster - that Fr. Denis Faul set about actively mobilising against the hunger-strike .

A prelude to Fr. Faul's first major offensive against the hunger-strike - on July 28th 1981 - took place the previous week : a meeting with Sinn Fein , at Fr. Faul's request , took place during that week ; present were Fathers Faul and Murray (chaplain to Armagh Jail) , a member of the ALJ , and Eamonn McCrory of Sinn Fein . Though inconsequential in itself , the meeting and its immediate aftermath were indicative of what was to follow .......

(MORE LATER).



THUGGERY : THE UGLY FACE OF SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .

THE BILLY WRIGHT MURDER , OCTOBER 2 , 1975 :
Although in no sense was this an authorised Official IRA operation we are including it in this list because it arose directly out of an Official IRA robbery in Heuston Station in Dublin in September 1973 , when £17,000 was stolen .

Billy Wright was accused of having taken part in this robbery but was acquitted ; however , he later made a statement to the Gardai in connection with the robbery and in this statement he implicated a very prominent member of the Official IRA who had been Officer Commanding of the Dublin Unit OIRA and who had also been prominent in the 'research division' of the OIRA set up by Cathal Goulding in 1972 .

This person had absconded to the Continent following the robbery but , it is widely believed by the Gardai among many others , that he returned specifically to 'even the score' with Billy Wright .

Wright knew he was in trouble once he made the statement : " I am a dead man .. " . On October 2 , 1975 , he was mowed down in a hail of machine-gun fire in his barber's shop on Cabra Road , Dublin . He died in hospital on October 19 , 1975 .
(Monday , 19 December : 'Official IRA/Provisional IRA Feuds' .)
(MORE LATER).

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BRITISH 'JUSTICE' : THE EMERGENCY LEGISLATION AND THE INFORMER SYSTEM.......
First published in the booklet ' STRIP SEARCHES IN ARMAGH JAIL' , produced , in February 1984 , by 'The London Armagh Group' .

The 1978 'Amnesty International' report on physical torture of detainees by the RUC and the subsequent international reaction caused the halt of routine physical abuse ; the sexual abuse of women , however , continued and would seem to be escalating .

The Diplock Courts and the bulk of emergency legislation remain . Since 1980 , the RUC and the British Army have turned to the use of informers to secure the 'convictions' they are told to achieve . They have refined their psychological techniques to the point where selected people are used to give 'evidence' against their peers .

The use of informers in what have become known as 'Show Trials' is the latest and current phase in the British government's attempt to contain dissent in the North of Ireland : most informers are recruited after having 'broken' under interrogation and incriminated themselves , in many cases of things they have not done , or after being told there is sufficient evidence against them to convict them on long sentences .

Some have agreed to inform under the threat that members of their family would be arrested , framed or shot if they refused to co-operate .......

(MORE LATER).




FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .

The Catholic hierarchy's attitude to the hunger-strike campaign was stated on March 1st , 1981 , the day Bobby Sands embarked on hunger-strike , by Bishop Edward Daly of Derry .

At a conference on Catholic youth held in Derry city he attacked the hunger-strike as not being "...morally justified .. " and urged the nationalist youth not to support hunger-strike protests by H-Block action groups unless such groups dissociated themselves from "...groups which have a policy of guerilla warfare .. " .

Bishop Edward Daly also attacked the continuation of the no-wash protest , which , when it coincidentally ended the next day , drew no commendation from him , or immediate call on the British administration to reciprocate . On several occasions throughout the hunger-strike both Cardinal O' Fiaich and Bishop Daly called for an end to the hunger-strike whilst of the British government they asked only "...flexibility.. " or the implementation of the Alison/Irish Commission for Justice and Peace (ICJP) agreement .

That agreement , reached in early July 1981 , which they knew to be far short of the prisoners' five demands , but which , indicative of the Catholic Church's political attitude , was the agreed position on the hunger-strike of the Irish political 'establishent' .

Despite appeals from the hunger-strikers on several occasions to the Irish Catholic hierarchy to support their five demands , no response was ever forthcoming .......

(MORE LATER).



THUGGERY : THE UGLY FACE OF SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .

THE LARRY WHITE MURDER , JUNE 10TH 1975 :
One of those convicted of this murder was Barry Doyle who had been Sinn Fein The Workers Party Organiser in the Munster area .

The others convicted were Bernard Lynch of 30 Charles Day Road , Togher , County Cork ; David O' Donnell of 147 Rosewood Estate , Ballincollig , County Cork ; Larry White , associated with Saor Eire in Cork , having previously been involved with the Official Movement .

There was a great deal of aggro between Larry White and Sinn Fein The Workers Party members ; it is not clear whether this murder was authorised by the leadership of the Official IRA .

(MORE LATER).

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BRITISH 'JUSTICE' : THE EMERGENCY LEGISLATION AND THE INFORMER SYSTEM.......
First published in the booklet ' STRIP SEARCHES IN ARMAGH JAIL' , produced , in February 1984 , by 'The London Armagh Group' .

From 1975 onwards , large numbers of people were arrested and taken to interrogation centres at Castlereagh and Gough Barracks ; here , women were sexually abused , both verbally and physically , and often threatened with rape . Men were tortured : the 'confessions' thus extracted were used to convict them .

In the Diplock Courts , set up under the Emergency Powers Act , trial for 'scheduled offences' (ie political offences) is before a single judge sitting without a jury ; statements made involuntarily are admissable as 'evidence' , provided they are not made as a result of "...torture , inhuman or degrading treatment.. " . It is notoriously difficult to prove that a statement was made as a result of coercion . In England , Scotland and Wales , trial for serious offences is always by jury , and statements made involuntarily are inadmissable as 'evidence' .

During the late 1970's , 94 per cent of cases brought before juryless Diplock Courts concluded with a prison sentence , and between 70 and 90 per cent of these convictions were based upon self-incriminating statements obtained during interrogation . Independent evidence is rarely used by the prosecution . Note that for 1976-1979 , the average acquittal rate for contested jury trials was 58 per cent , compared to the average acquittal rate for contested Diplock trials of only 19 per cent .......

(MORE LATER).



FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .

The deaths of all the hunger-strikers and all the other evils which have flowed from the partition of Ireland lie squarely on the shoulders of imperial Britain . But the Irish 'establishment' , whose craven acquiescence in the British partition of Ireland , and its maintenance , have made - are making - and will continue to make a major contribution to the general evils of partition as well as to the specific circumstances whereby Westminster was permitted to murder ten young Irishmen in the hospital wing of the H-Blocks rather than make five simple concessions to them .

It was against this background of slavish acceptance by the Irish 'establishment' of Britain's 'right' to do what it will in Ireland , and after the deaths of six prisoners on hunger-strike , that the campaign of demoralisation , instilling of defeatism , undermining the prisoners and vilification of their supporters , got underway in July of that year (1981) .

'Chief Advocate' of that campaign was Fr. Denis Faul , an assistant chaplain to Long Kesh and civil rights activist , who is prominent in the activities of the respected 'Association for Legal Justice' (ALJ) : however , his hunger-strike breaking activities cannot be ascribed to those of an individual . Faul , like Fianna Fail leader , Charles Haughey , or Sinn Fein President , Ruairi O' Bradaigh , cannot be viewed as having taken unilateral action on this most acutely political situation in isolation from the body of which he is a prominent member , the Irish Catholic Church .......

(MORE LATER).



THUGGERY : THE UGLY FACE OF SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .

The Official IRA/INLA Feud , 1975 :
It is impossible to apportion blame in such incidents but because the Official IRA was then the largest organisation and its interests most immediately threatened , it is not unreasonable to assume that it was the major culprit in this feud .

Certainly the Official IRA was the first to kneecap an opponent and then it was the first to murder a member of the opposing party , Hugh Ferguson . The 'final tally' ended up with two deaths on each side .

Then the Official IRA Officer Commanding , Billy McMillan , was shot dead by the INLA on the Falls Road in Belfast ; this shooting took place after a truce had been negotiated .......

(MORE LATER).

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BRITISH 'JUSTICE' : THE EMERGENCY LEGISLATION AND THE INFORMER SYSTEM.......
First published in the booklet ' STRIP SEARCHES IN ARMAGH JAIL' , produced , in February 1984 , by 'The London Armagh Group' .

When internment became politically impossible , the British government substituted it for the policy of 'criminalisation', which continues today . Those suspected of involvement in political resistance are processed through the courts , but RUC and court procedure are governed by emergency legislation that has substantially changed the rules of British 'justice' .

Many of the traditional principles that safeguard the civil rights of the citizen have been taken away in the emergency legislation , such as the right to silence and the right to trial by jury . The first phase of 'criminalisation' has come to be known as the 'conveyor belt' system of 'justice' : under the 'Emergency Powers Act' you can be arrested and held for three days without being suspected of any specific offence , other than "...(suspected of) being a terrorist.. " .

Under the 'Prevention Of Terrorism Act' , the 'suspicion' must be of a particular offence - then you can be held for seven days . A detainee has no right to see a solicitor .......

(MORE LATER).



FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .

The actual and intended medical intervention by their relatives precluded both the threat and the actuality of on-going deaths in the H-Blocks , removed the pressure being maintained on the British government , and negated the effectiveness of hunger-strike as a prison protest weapon .

But ten prisoners had already died on hunger-strike and their families had not intervened ; their relatives loved them at least as much as did the families who did intervene or declared their intention to do so . Their families wanted to prevent their deaths at least as much as the families whose actions and intentions did prevent the death of their loved ones .

Not one of those twenty families was not fully behind and actively supportive of the hunger-strikers five demands . So why did a situation arise where those families did take the steps which effectively brought an end to the hunger-strike by nagating its value as a protest weapon ....... ?

(MORE LATER).



THUGGERY : THE UGLY FACE OF SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY .
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .

The image which Sinn Fein The Workers Party presents to voters in the South of Ireland as the party of "...peace , justice and class politics .. " and as "...the party you can trust.. " is very different to the reality of the Official IRA , which has been responsible for some of the most horrific atrocities in the North in the past decade .

Below we list the most salient examples of thuggery for which the Official IRA have been responsible . We list only those incidents , apart from the murder of David Walker , that have taken place since 1975 ; this is because the Official IRA seemed intent on a ceasefire since that time .

The Murder Of David Walker , June 21 , 1973 :
We are including this incident in our list of Official IRA atrocities because of its particular awfulness , even though it happened before the effective end to the Official IRA military campaign . David Walker was aged 16 and was mentally handicapped ; he was kidnapped by the Official IRA on his way to school at about 8.35AM and was found with gunshot wounds in his head and chest at 11.25AM . He died 20 minutes later .......

(MORE LATER).

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BRITISH 'JUSTICE' : THE EMERGENCY LEGISLATION AND THE INFORMER SYSTEM.
First published in the booklet ' STRIP SEARCHES IN ARMAGH JAIL' , produced , in February 1984 , by 'The London Armagh Group' .

Women come to be prisoners in Armagh Jail via a judical system which is substantially different from that whereby women living in England , Scotland and Wales can be convicted of offences and imprisoned .

Since Partition in 1922 , which set-up 'Northern Ireland' as a 'State' , its people have always been controlled by emergency legislation which severely compromises civil and human rights . The 'Special Powers Act' of 1922 was replaced in 1973 by the 'Emergency Powers Act' and the 'Prevention of Terrorism Act' was introduced in 1974 . The 15 years since 1969 have seen internment without trial , juryless courts and routine physical , sexual and psychological torture of detainees .

During the most recent period of the British Army being in Ireland there have , since 1969 , been three distinct phases in the strategies used by the 'security forces' and judiciary to repress political strife . First , internment ; secondly , criminalisation using 'confessions' obtained by beatings ; and thirdly , criminalisation using informer 'evidence' .

Internment was introduced in 1971 and , for the next four years , thousands of Irish people , mainly Catholic men , were held without trial in Long Kesh ; the often flimsy 'evidence' against them went unchallenged since they were never brought to court .......

(MORE LATER).



FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .

The hunger-strike begun by Bobby Sands on March 1st , 1981 , ended two-hundred-and-seventeen days later on October 3rd , 1981 .

Between 1.17AM on Tuesday May 5th 1981 and 7.50AM on Thursday August 20th 1981 , ten young Irishmen - the youngest , 23 : the oldest , 30 - died on hunger-strike . Their sacrifice was as much aimed at gaining for their comrades on the blanket protest the overt physical conditions of political recognition as it was individually a personal testimony of their refusal to be branded 'criminal' by the foreign and oppressive British regime which occupies the six north-eastern counties of Ireland by armed might .

The hunger-strike ended after four families had intervened medically to prevent their loved ones from dying and six other families had intimated that they would do likewise . The prisoners had not entered into the hunger-strike protest lightly ; they fully realised that only their deaths or the threat of their deaths would create the political conditions which would force the British government into conceding their five just and reasonable demands .......

(MORE LATER).



IN THE SHADOW OF A GUNMAN .......

The aspirations of SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY towards socialist respectability are undermined by the continued military operations of the OFFICIAL IRA and that Party's own ideoligical contortions .
From ' MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
By Vincent Browne.

Bank Levies , SFWP style :

CIE TRAIN ROBBERY :
This happened on Thursday February 5th , 1981 but where we are not exactly sure . Neither do we know what , if anything , the raiders got .

Two train hold-ups occurred on the same day ; one on the Dublin-Belfast train , which left Connolly Station in Dublin at 17.30 . It appears that there were just two women involved in this raid and they held-up five crew members on the train and threw out 5 mail bags onto the tracks . These bags were later found by Gardai on the line between Skerries and Balbriggan , County Dublin .

While at least some of the bags contained registered mail , it is not known what , if anything , of value , the raiders may have got . Incidentally , the two female raiders got off the train when it came to an unscheduled halt at Balbriggan.

The other train hold-up occurred later that same night at Ballybrophy , County Laois on the Dublin-Cork mail train . It appears that there was no money on this train and the raiders left the scene in a state of some agitation . The Gardai linked the two incidents together , believing that the same organisation was responsible . However , we have discovered that one of the raids was conducted by the Official IRA and the other by the Provisional IRA , but we are not sure which was responsible for which .

[END of ' IN THE SHADOW OF A GUNMAN ' .]
(Tomorrow - 'Thuggery : The Ugly Face Of SFWP' .)

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" DON'T LET THEM BREAK YOU , LOVE " .......
First published in the booklet ' STRIP SEARCHES IN ARMAGH JAIL' , produced , in February 1984 , by 'The London Armagh Group' .
The Official Response.

In response to the many letters of protest sent by concerned members of parliament , members of the European Parliament , local councillors , members of the public and concerned women and men from elsewhere in the world , this official version of the strip-search procedure has been faithfully reproduced , together with further comforting phrases :

" The (British) government is satisfied , having gone into the whole matter very carefully , that there is a need for the present procedures and that they are carried out in as sensitive a manner as possible by the staff concerned . To describe what is done as 'inhuman' is a gross exaggeration . " Compare this with the following , which actually happened - " Eight screws were present , standing silently , waiting to see , hoping to see , another one break . Then the dreaded words - "Right ! Strip !" "

And this - " She is briefly visually examined while still in the cubicle to ensure that she has not 'hidden' any item on her person .....as I felt a hand slowly moving down the calf of my leg my flesh crawled . They were'nt content to jibe at my naked state , they had to 'search' me . A 'skin-search' , aye . It sounds ridiculous , but it is true... "

The British government is "...satisfied.. " , despite the fact that metal detectors , which are available , are not used to search prisoners at Armagh , that these degrading procedures are "...necessary.. " . The British government is also "...satisfied .." that sometimes as many as 28 strip-searches a month are "...necessary.. " to make sure that one prisoner is not smuggling anything into the prison or out of it .

Yet , if the British government is concerned about 'security' why do they not use the metal detectors ? Surely the imposition of anything so traumatic as the strip-searches , which are unnecessary , constitutes 'inhumanity' and is a contradiction of British 'Lord' Gowrie's 'principle' of "...proper consideration.. " ?

[END of " DON'T LET THEM BREAK YOU , LOVE " .]
(Monday , 12th - 'British Justice' : from 1984.)


THE HEROIC PRISON STRUGGLE .......
1981 was dominated by the grim and heroic struggle of Republican prisoners for political recognition - which they undoubtedly received from millions all over the world , yet which few governments , least of all London or Dublin , would grant them .
From 'AP/RN' , 31st December 1981 .
By Teresa Kelly .

On the outside , the Irish 'establishment' has been exposed and lost credibility and electoral ground . British 'criminalisation' policy has been smashed . Anti-imperialist feelings have been awakened from their slumber throughout Ireland . The struggle for Irish freedom has gained world-wide publicity . And , more important perhaps for the future , the youth of Ireland stood up to be counted .

Some joined the ranks of the IRA , others worked tirelessly in their action groups , organising pickets , drafting leaflets , painting wall murals , the photographs of which went all over the world , as the most beautiful proof of the existence of a living popular struggle . All this was , first and foremost , what Bobby Sands and his comrades were in jail for , and what they died for .

[END of ' THE HEROIC PRISON STRUGGLE ' .]
(Monday , 12th - 'Fr. Denis Faul ; A Conniving , Treacherous Man.' From 1981.)


IN THE SHADOW OF A GUNMAN .......

The aspirations of SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY towards socialist respectability are undermined by the continued military operations of the OFFICIAL IRA and that Party's own ideoligical contortions .
From ' MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
By Vincent Browne.

Bank Levies , SFWP style :

ALLIED IRISH BANK HEAD OFFICE site - £6,000 :
This robbery took place in 1977 when the AIB headquarters was under construction . Two armed men forced their way into the site office of Crampton's , the builders , and got away with £6,000 - a third man was waiting for them in a car opposite the Royal Dublin Society building in Ballsbridge , Dublin . Specific details of this robbery were not available from Crampton's - the foreman at the site at the time was able to remember only the above details . Sources connected with the Official IRA have informed us that they were responsible for the robbery .

INTERNATIONAL MEAT PACKERS , DUBLIN - £30,000 :
This , according to the Gardai , was "...a particularly well organised job .. "
The payroll arrived in the factory on Lower Grand Canal Street , in Dublin , at 9AM on Friday , July 22nd , 1977 . Forty-five minutes later two raiders , dressed in white coats and protective helmets (the uniform of workers on the site) arrived ; they held up the cash office at gunpoint as the staff there were in the process of filling out wage packets . They opened fire on a member of the staff who pursued them , and got away in a white Ford Cortina which had been stolen and was later found abandoned .
(Monday , 12th - 'CIE Train Robbery'.)
(MORE LATER).

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" DON'T LET THEM BREAK YOU , LOVE " .......
First published in the booklet ' STRIP SEARCHES IN ARMAGH JAIL' , produced , in February 1984 , by 'The London Armagh Group' .
The Official Response.

" Anyone with long hair is ordered to gather her hair up in her hands and hold it on top of her head . This , say the women prisoners , makes the entire sordid affair seem like a slave trade market . When the strip-searching is finished , clothes are returned and we are allowed to dress .

Next , we are brought into an RUC van and from there on we are in RUC custody ; after arriving at court we make a brief appearance and , I should stress , have no contact with the public . Most women are returned to Armagh Prison from the local court in Armagh in less than half an hour , and are again subjected to strip-searching .

The women are searched on their return to prison from court , even though they have been in RUC custody and have had no contact with the public - where would they get anything to conceal on themselves in a high security court ? Also , what could possibly be the justification for searching the women on leaving the prison to go to court ?

Harassment , rather than security , is obviously the purpose ....... "

(MORE LATER).



THE HEROIC PRISON STRUGGLE .......
1981 was dominated by the grim and heroic struggle of Republican prisoners for political recognition - which they undoubtedly received from millions all over the world , yet which few governments , least of all London or Dublin , would grant them .
From 'AP/RN' , 31st December 1981 .
By Teresa Kelly .

Bernard Fox ended his hunger-strike on September 25th , 1981 for health reasons , similar to the health issues suffered by Brendan McLaughlin . The hunger-strike finally crumbled as an effective weapon when all but one family of the remaining six hunger-strikers indicated that they would intervene eventually .

What the British and Free State governments had been unable to achieve , directly or through various 'official' bodies , the Catholic hierarchy had succeeded in bringing about - an unconditional end of the hunger-strike . The prisoners , in their October 3rd 1981 statement , were not slow to draw the lesson from the fact . Having won international recognition for their status as political prisoners , but having failed to wring the formal admission of that fact from an unyielding British government , the Republican prisoners were given their own clothes and promised some restoration of remission for 'good behaviour' .

About two-thirds of the prisoners are now on a 'no-work' protest , like their women comrades in Armagh Jail , and the rest have decided to conform to prison rules . It will take them months , maybe years , to overcome the emotional and physical strain of four-and-a-half years of gruelling protest and ill-treatment , and a year of hunger-strikes .......

(MORE LATER).



IN THE SHADOW OF A GUNMAN .......

The aspirations of SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY towards socialist respectability are undermined by the continued military operations of the OFFICIAL IRA and that Party's own ideoligical contortions .
From ' MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
By Vincent Browne.

Bank Levies , SFWP style :
Cork CMP Dairies raid - £10,000 : cont/d .......

During a raid on the Cork CMP Dairies , a handgun was discharged at a clerk , Maura Collins - she was wounded in the lower back . The Special Branch moved in on the premises and a gunfight ensued , resulting in the capture of the five raiders . Those five men were :
Thomas Patrick Cosgrave , Cork .
James Martin McKevitt , Newry .
Rory O' Hagan , Dundalk .
David Russell , Belfast .
Hugh Gorman , Newry .

Legal counsel for the men stated at their trial in the Special Criminal Court on October 9th , 1978 - " ...while there were members of the Official IRA (sic- "present" ?) the incident in question was of the nature of a maverick operation for themselves.. " .

That statement , which of course was given in good faith by the legal counsel , was designed to minimise the political embarrassment caused by the incident . It was , however , untrue , according to a variety of sources attached to the Official's . In addition , one of the men involved gave an alias - this man was a prominent operative for the Official IRA over the previous number of years .

(Tomorrow - raids on Allied Irish Bank Head Office and International Meat Packers , both in Dublin.)

(MORE LATER).

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" DON'T LET THEM BREAK YOU , LOVE " .......
First published in the booklet ' STRIP SEARCHES IN ARMAGH JAIL' , produced , in February 1984 , by 'The London Armagh Group' .
The Official Response.

British 'Lord' Gowrie (Deputy Secretary of State for 'Northern Ireland' , with responsibility for prisons , for two years until 1983) stated : " I do accept that there is legitimate concern that no prisoners , especially women , should be treated other than with proper consideration . Neither I nor Jim Prior (present British Secretary of State for 'Northern Ireland') nor any of my officials , would tolerate a system which did not operate under this principle . "

Yet very little consideration is shown to women when they are menstruating , as can be seen from the prisoners' account : " While you are naked you are asked if you have a period and , if you have , you are forced to remove your sanitary protection . A paper bag is provided for your tampoon or towel ; the bag is then opened and the contents examined . Your body is then inspected , and you are told to turn completely round so as no part of your body is left unseen . "

Why wait until the woman is naked before asking if she has her period ? Why not ask this before the strip-search begins ? It is obvious that the whole process is designed to humiliate and degrade the women prisoners and that 'Lord' Gowrie's words are meaningless . The contradiction between 'official' statements and the reality of what the women prisoners go through can be seen from further statements .......

(MORE LATER).



THE HEROIC PRISON STRUGGLE .......
1981 was dominated by the grim and heroic struggle of Republican prisoners for political recognition - which they undoubtedly received from millions all over the world , yet which few governments , least of all London or Dublin , would grant them .
From 'AP/RN' , 31st December 1981 .
By Teresa Kelly .

Mrs Quinn's intervention to save her son , Paddy's life , on July 31st 1981 , was heralded as " ...an example for all Christian mothers.. " by various clerics , increasing the already unbearable pressure on the families of Kevin Lynch and Kieran Doherty . Through public statements , Catholic priest Fr. Denis Faul began to describe the hunger-strike as "...hopeless.. " , accusing Republicans of using the hunger-strike to "...gain control.." . The mask was down .

The Catholic hierarchy's real fear had been , all along , the collapsing of their power base . And if their power rested on British rule , then support British rule they must . Pat McGeown's wife intervened on August 20th 1981 as his condition suddenly worsened . Apart from Brendan McLaughlin , who had voluntarily called off his fast on May 27th 1981 after fourteen days on hunger-strike , after it had become clear he would soon die of a perforated ulcer , now two hunger-strikers had ended their fast through family intervention .

Fr. Denis Faul by then was paying frequent visits to the hunger-strikers' relatives , calling meetings or seeing them individually . On September 4th 1981 , Matt Devlin's family signed for medical intervention : on the 6th September 1981 , Laurence McKeown's family did likewise . On the 26th September 1981 , Liam McCloskey voluntarily ended his hunger-strike after his mother convinced him that she would intervene the minute he became unconscious .......

(MORE LATER).



IN THE SHADOW OF A GUNMAN .......

The aspirations of SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY towards socialist respectability are undermined by the continued military operations of the OFFICIAL IRA and that Party's own ideoligical contortions .
From ' MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
By Vincent Browne.

Bank Levies , SFWP style :

Allied Irish Bank , North Wall , Dublin - £11,000 .
Three armed men entered the bank at 10.14AM ; two jumped over the counter and one of them shouted - " Give us the rent ... " - they got away in a car which was driven by the fourth man . Two of the men involved visited the scene on the following day to point out the location to their girl friends . One of these ladies is a prominent trade unionist today .

Cork CMP Dairies - £10,000 .
This was probably the most embarrassing robbery for Sinn Fein The Workers Party because the people involved were caught and many of them were very well-known members of the Official Movement . Five men , all armed , held up the wages office of the CMP Dairies and took £10,000 ; one of the raiders fired a shot at a wages clerk , a M/S Maura Collins , who failed to comply swiftly enough with their orders : she was hit in the lower back .

The sound of the gunshot alerted three Special Branch men who were investigating a break-in at the rear of the premises . They rushed around to the front and exchanged shots with the raiders - when one of the Branch men produced a machine-gun , the five raiders surrendered .......

(MORE LATER).

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" DON'T LET THEM BREAK YOU , LOVE " .......
First published in the booklet ' STRIP SEARCHES IN ARMAGH JAIL' , produced , in February 1984 , by 'The London Armagh Group' .
The Official Response.

" You are then told to hand over all your clothes , which are taken away and searched . Once your clothes are gone you are asked if you want a 'gown' - this garment comes in two parts : the top consists of a strip of material which slips over the head and consists of two panels , back and front , which are not joined .

The bottom part is similar to a mini-skirt - the purpose of this is to enable the prison staff to raise the material and inspect your body . No woman has ever agreed to wear these distasteful garments . Apart from adding to the already tense embarrassment , they would only tend to prolong the strip-search . After the 'gowns' have been refused , a bedsheet is offered - if you accepted this sheet you would have to wrap it round yourself and then open it to have your body 'inspected' . This also only serves to prolong the strip-searching , so the sheets are also refused . "

From this woman's account , it is obvious that there is no privacy and that , instead of one prison screw , there are sometimes up to ten present . Also , the offer of a 'gown' is used to prolong the strip-search ; not to make it as brief as possible . It does nothing to preserve the woman's dignity or to prevent her from being humiliated .......

(MORE LATER).



THE HEROIC PRISON STRUGGLE .......
1981 was dominated by the grim and heroic struggle of Republican prisoners for political recognition - which they undoubtedly received from millions all over the world , yet which few governments , least of all London or Dublin , would grant them .
From 'AP/RN' , 31st December 1981 .
By Teresa Kelly .

The main advocate of the anti-Republican campaign which was carried-out by the Catholic hierarchy was Long Kesh assistant-chaplain Fr. Denis Faul , with the approval of Cardinal O Fiaich and Bishop Daly .

As early as 1st March 1981 , Bishop Daly of Derry had condemned the hunger-strike as " ...immoral.. " and advised young people "...not to be used by certain groups.. " . The Catholic church broke its silence a few times , asking for compromise and an end to the fast ; on April 28th 1981 , the Catholic Pope's envoy , Fr. John Magee , was despatched to plead with the hunger-strikers to unconditionally end their fast . To no avail .

After the death of Francis Hughes, Cardinal O Fiaich had sent a telegram to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher begging her to negotiate with the prisoners , but his plea was ignored . This was to be the last effort by the Catholic hierarchy to act in favour of the prisoners . Through the Irish Commission for Justice and Peace , the Catholic hierarchy willingly played the British game of deceit .

By then , after six deaths in the H-Blocks , those anti-Republican forces clearly saw the prisoners' 'Achilles heel' to be their distressed relatives , and began a concerted effort in that direction ; repeatedly through the last week of July 1981 , and into August , Fr. Faul , by a series of lies , tried to undermine the trust the families were putting in the H-Block campaign leadership . Although always publicly exposed , Fr. Denis Faul forged ahead , with various meetings of prisoners' relatives - in Toomebridge , Belfast etc , hoping to provide a public platform for any frustration or resentment the families might have had against the whole campaign , or against the Republican Movement .

But the relatives remained united , and even issued a joint statement at the end of such a meeting in Belfast , on August 7th , 1981 .......

(MORE LATER).



IN THE SHADOW OF A GUNMAN .......

The aspirations of SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY towards socialist respectability are undermined by the continued military operations of the OFFICIAL IRA and that Party's own ideoligical contortions .
From ' MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
By Vincent Browne.

Bank Levies , SFWP style : Dundalk Jewellers (cont/d)...

Two of the men who were involved in the May 9th 1980 robbery of a jewellers shop in Dundalk , County Louth , were caught and sentenced to eight years imprisonment by the 'Special Criminal Court' : they were Leonard McAteer of Newry and James Tracey of Horn Drive , Suffolk , Belfast . Two of the Gardai involved in the incident were decorated .

Bank of Ireland , Westland Row , Dublin - £25,000 :
This robbery took place on November 22 , 1977 , while security men from Brinkmat Security Firm were making a delivery to the bank . Three armed men accosted them at the door of the bank and forced them inside ; one of the raiders was armed with a shotgun and the other two had handguns . They got away with £25,000 but missed a larger sum of money which was still in the security van .

Two of the raiders escaped on a motorbike while the third made off on foot . The Gardai later apprehended a man and interrogated him but it was found that he was a barman in a local pub who was confused by locals with one of the raiders .......

(MORE LATER).

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" DON'T LET THEM BREAK YOU , LOVE " .......
First published in the booklet ' STRIP SEARCHES IN ARMAGH JAIL' , produced , in February 1984 , by 'The London Armagh Group' .

The women prisoners in Armagh Jail cannot appeal to you , so I do so in their name . They are imprisoned because they denied the British Government the 'right' to invade their country . For their 'audacity' , that same government has sought to invade both their bodies and their minds .

The Armagh women deserve every accolade laid on them ; they suffer and endure , resolutely , continual strip searches , cell-raids , and internal lock-ups . They expect nothing less and they deserve so much more .

The Official Response.
In response to criticism in the press , the British 'Northern Ireland (sic) Office' issued a circular in February 1983 describing the strip-searches thus :

" The prisoner is shown into an enclosed cubicle where , in complete privacy , she removes her clothing and passes them out to a woman prison officer for searching . While she is in the cubicle , she may put on prison-made top and skirt or , if she prefers , a sheet which she wears while her clothes are being searched .

She is then briefly visually examined while still in the cubicle by one female prison officer to ensure she has not hidden any item on her person . " This 'official' statement paints a picture of a discreet , perfunctory and private search , carried out by only one prison screw while the prisoner is in the cubicle . It should be compared to a statement made by the prisoners themselves :

" We are told to go into the cubicles and strip . A curtain is fastened across the cubicle about waist-high to the floor . You are always in view of the prison staff who sometimes number as many as ten . As you strip , you become very aware of how little protection the curtain affords you . When you are naked , your body from the waist up is visible to all the prison staff in the room ....... "

(MORE LATER).



THE HEROIC PRISON STRUGGLE .......
1981 was dominated by the grim and heroic struggle of Republican prisoners for political recognition - which they undoubtedly received from millions all over the world , yet which few governments , least of all London or Dublin , would grant them .
From 'AP/RN' , 31st December 1981 .
By Teresa Kelly .

On August 2nd 1981 , Kieran Doherty , TD for Cavan/Monaghan , died after seventy-three days on hunger-strike ; the flag flew at half mast on Leinster House to mark his passing , although the few people left in the building at the beginning of the summer recess were at pains to point out that it was done "...for any TD .." In fact , arch-bigot and Unionist MP Robert Bradford was to be bestowed that same honour less than four months later .

The last two hunger-strikers to lose their lives in this heroic struggle were Thomas McElwee , who died on August 8th 1981 after sixty-two days on hunger strike , and Micky Devine , who died on August 20th after sixty days on hunger strike . On that same day a by-election took place in Fermanagh and South Tyrone ; no hunger-striker candidate this time - the British government had seen to that by hastily concocting and passing a bill through Westminster which would bar people convicted of 'terrorist offences' in Britain and the North from standing for election at Westminster .

That bill , widely known as the 'Sands Bill' , demonstrated how respectful of the ballot box the British really are . In the event , Owen Carron , local member of Sinn Fein , H-Block activist and former election agent for Bobby Sands , was chosen to stand as a ' proxy political prisoner candidate ' against ex-UDR man and Official Unionist Party candidate Ken Maginnis . Owen Carron polled 31,278 votes , increasing Bobby Sands' majority by almost eight hundred . This was another body-blow to Margaret Thatcher's government , a further indication of the height of support the prisoners enjoyed .

Yet , at that stage , the Brits' worries were soon to be over , as their old ally , the Catholic Hierarchy , was on an all-out campaign to put pressure on the hunger-strikers' relatives .......

(MORE LATER).




IN THE SHADOW OF A GUNMAN .......

The aspirations of SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY towards socialist respectability are undermined by the continued military operations of the OFFICIAL IRA and that Party's own ideoligical contortions .
From ' MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
By Vincent Browne.

Bank Levies , SFWP style :

CIE Pay Office , Inchicore , Dublin : £150,000 .
This was one of the Official IRA's most successful operations and it took place on November 1 , 1978 . Five armed men held up the cashier's office ; they were armed with shotguns and they were wearing scarves and balaclava helmets . They locked the wages staff in the canteen after they got the money and then drove away in a CIE van , which was later abandoned as the raiders got away in another vehicle . Nobody was ever caught for the operation - we have been informed by several sources connected with the Official Movement that this robbery was conducted by the Official IRA to provide finance for Sinn Fein The Workers Party .

Dundalk Jewellers : £60,000 .
This robbery took place on May 9 , 1980 , and could have proved a major embarrassment to Sinn Fein The Workers Party because the men involved got caught and were identifiable as being associated with the Official Movement ; however , the media missed the story at the time and the Gardai do not seem to have realised the significance of the incident .

The jewellers that was raided was owned by John Walsh and jewels to the value of £60,000 were taken . A garda on duty nearby gave chase to the raiders but failed to catch them ; however , two men who corresponded to the description given by that garda were later spotted by other gardai who also gave chase and , this time , caught them . The car involved in the incident had been hi-jacked in Belfast the previous day , with the hi-jackers telling the owner that the car was being taken over by the Official IRA and would be returned later that day . When this did not happen the man went to the Provisional Sinn Fein incident centre on the Falls Road in Belfast and a man who liaises with the Official IRA for the Provisionals contacted the local Official IRA Officer Commanding in the Cyprus Street Republican Clubs drinking haunt .

He was told that the car would be returned the next day - but the car was then found to have been involved in the Dundalk jewellery robbery .......

(MORE LATER).

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" DON'T LET THEM BREAK YOU , LOVE " .......
First published in the booklet ' STRIP SEARCHES IN ARMAGH JAIL' , produced , in February 1984 , by 'The London Armagh Group' .

The prison Governor states that strip-searches are carried out on a " spot-check" basis ; my repeated ordeals denied that as true . The ordeal of being strip-searched continually had a pronounced and adverse effect on many of its victims , both physical and psychological .

I saw girls being physically ill on the morning of their court appearance and I saw others biting back tears upon their return , and heard them stifling their sobs in the 'privacy' of their cells . I saw their anger and their revulsion , and I felt their pain .

Within a few months I was released from Armagh Jail , when the British Crown 'witness' became unwilling to perjure the lives of so many innocent people . Within me I carry the memory of the Armagh women , their joy when we heard that the British government would have to release me : I think of Marie , who felt everyone's troubles of any nature .

I think of Siobhan , five feet of sheer resilience : I think of all the women who maintain their dignity throughout each assault upon their bodies .......

(MORE LATER).



THE HEROIC PRISON STRUGGLE .......
1981 was dominated by the grim and heroic struggle of Republican prisoners for political recognition - which they undoubtedly received from millions all over the world , yet which few governments , least of all London or Dublin , would grant them .
From 'AP/RN' , 31st December 1981 .
By Teresa Kelly .

A member of Na Fianna Eireann , John Dempsey , was shot dead by British soldiers in Belfast and a young housewife , Nora McCabe , was fatally wounded by an RUC plastic bullet .

On Friday July 10th , 1981 , as Joe McDonnell was being buried with full military honours , British soldiers and RUC men attacked the mourners and the IRA Firing Party both with plastic and live bullets , coming close to creating another 'Bloody Sunday' . The premature death of Martin Hurson after forty-six days of fast , on July 13th 1981 , further stunned the relatives and supporters of the prisoners .

Six of their comrades had now died , yet the prisoners battled on , with grim and heroic determination ; the British government's last attempt to give the illusion of progress and demoralise the prisoners took place as Kevin Lynch and Kieran Doherty were entering the critical stage of their fasts , and involved the International Red Cross (IRC) . The IRC delegation was given a 'brief' by the British government - this 'brief' was so thin as to be invisible , but the prisoners condemned this new ploy and the IRC people faded away to prepare some vague report on ' Northern Ireland (sic) Prisons ' .

On August 1st 1981 , Kevin Lynch died after seventy-one days of fast . Then , on August 2nd 1981 , Kieran Doherty , TD for Cavan/Monaghan , died after seventy-three days .......

(MORE LATER).



IN THE SHADOW OF A GUNMAN .......

The aspirations of SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY towards socialist respectability are undermined by the continued military operations of the OFFICIAL IRA and that Party's own ideoligical contortions .
From ' MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
By Vincent Browne.

Bank Levies , SFWP style :

Glens of Antrim , £229,997 .
On April 26 , 1977 , a Securior van was halted on its way from Limavady to Coleraine by a spiked chain thrown across the road . Twenty-three bags of money were taken from the van by five armed men - this gang was later arrested by an RUC patrol as it was packing the bags of money into meat carcasses in a disused quarry , four miles from the scene of the robbery . Those five men were convicted of the robbery at Belfast City Commission on December 14 , 1977 - four were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and one to four years .

The convicted men were - James Michael Feeney of Seapark , Banbridge : Hugh Murphy of Richmont Gardens , Lurgan : John Paul McGeown of Ridgeway , Craigavon : Andrew Murnin of Drumbeg North , Craigavon : and William Barr of Belmont , Derry . The latter , William Barr , was the manager of Securicor Ulster Ltd , in Derry . Feeney and Murphy admitted to being members of the Official IRA .......

(MORE LATER).

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" DON'T LET THEM BREAK YOU , LOVE " .......
First published in the booklet ' STRIP SEARCHES IN ARMAGH JAIL' , produced , in February 1984 , by 'The London Armagh Group' .

As I felt a hand slowly moving down the calves of my leg , my flesh crawled . They were'nt content to jibe at my naked state , they had to 'search' me - a 'skin-search' . It sounds ridiculous , but it's true. I was ordered to turm around , and I managed to totally ignore that command and the following ones . They could strip me , but no way was I going to assist them . They were forced to move behind me and , as I steeled myself , they searched my hair .

Eventually , they could draw out the search no longer - they told me to re-enter the cubicle and dress quickly , but I remained where I was , silently staring at each one of them in turn , wanting them to look at my face . These were women - women who did this to me . I am 5ft 1inch and weigh 6st 9lbs , and it took eight of these prison screws to be present . I slowly returned to the cubicle and started to dress , feeling drained , and I noticed a tremble in my hands . I felt violated , invaded , victimised . And very , very angry .

Within the next 48 hours I was to be strip-searched five times . I wrote numerous letters of complaint to the Board of Visitors , calling into question their empty excuses that strip-searching is necessary on 'security grounds' . Each time I left the prison I was under joint British military/RUC escort , and was taken to the court (two minutes journey away) in a steel-reinforced van , locked into a steel 'pig-sty' within the van and dragged out of it and hustled into the courtroom for a 30 second appearance in the dock , and returned immediately to the prison .

Both before getting into the van and when leaving it back at the jail I was strip-searched , stripped naked twice within twenty minutes , having had no contact at all with the public .......

(MORE LATER).



THE HEROIC PRISON STRUGGLE .......
1981 was dominated by the grim and heroic struggle of Republican prisoners for political recognition - which they undoubtedly received from millions all over the world , yet which few governments , least of all London or Dublin , would grant them .
From 'AP/RN' , 31st December 1981 .
By Teresa Kelly .

On June 23rd 1981 , as Joe McDonnell was beginning his fifty-seventh day on hunger-strike , the 'Irish Commission for Justice and Peace' met the British Under-Secretary for Prisons in the North , Michael Alison . At that meeting he told them that he saw no problem in the prisoners wearing their own clothes : from that day to July 8th , when Joe McDonnell died , the British government was to engage in yet another exercise in brinkmanship with the prisoners' lives , letting the Commission meet the hunger-strikers , but not their Officer Commanding , Brendan McFarlane , allowing the Commission members to raise the relatives' hopes only to crush them , as on July 3rd , when Michael Alison renaged on the clothes issue .

All along , Garret Fitzgerald , the Fine Gael Free State 'Taoiseach' , was monitoring the situation , and even met the families of the hunger strikers on July 3rd 1981 , impressing on them that they should get their sons to accept the Commission's statement ; but the British government's 'about-turn' on the clothes issue , followed by their stalling , ensured that the Commission was shown as a 'puppet' in the hands of the British . On July 8th 1981 , Joe McDonnell died after sixty-one days on hunger-strike .

Never at any time had the Republican prisoners stated that the Commission's proposals were acceptable to them yet , in spite of a lengthy and crystal-clear statement by the prisoners , on July 14th 1981 , the Commission , a creation of the Irish 'establishment' , had lent itself willingly to the cynical manoeuvres of the British government : the streets of the Occupied Six Counties echoed once more , for the fifth time in less than ten weeks , with the fracas of bin lids and of angry rioting .......

(MORE LATER).



IN THE SHADOW OF A GUNMAN .......

The aspirations of SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY towards socialist respectability are undermined by the continued military operations of the OFFICIAL IRA and that Party's own ideoligical contortions .
From ' MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
By Vincent Browne.

It appears that many of the Official IRA's arms were dumped around 1975 : one of those arms dumps was discovered in Monaghan by the Gardai in September 1980 : among the items found then were six handguns , 10,000 rounds of ammunition , walkie-talkie radios and a quantity of silver coins - left overs from a bank raid . Training manuals and other documents were also found , leading Gardai to conclude that weapons training had been carried out by the Official IRA some short time previously .

Sinn Fein the Workers Party strenuously denies that any of its finance comes from robberies ; in spite of these denials , however , we have identified the following robberies as having been carried out by members of the Official IRA since 1975 . We have been able to identify robberies that amount to only about half a million pounds in all and much of this was recovered afterwards . But we are aware that these represent only the tip of the iceberg - that much more money has been robbed by members of the Official IRA over the last several years . One former member of the OIRA Army Council estimates that the Official IRA robbed a total of about £2 million since the 1972 ceasefire .

We have also been informed that two major robberies were conducted in the run up to the June 1981 general election campaign , one of which took place in Belfast in early 1981 when a bank on the Ormeau Road was raided . The other robbery took place in the South and the takings were very considerable . We are not aware of the precise details of either of these operations and have therefore left them out of this narrative ; however , we wish to point out that there was a major jewellery robbery in McDowells Jewellers in O' Connell Street , Dublin , on April 24 , 1981 , when jewellery valued at £100,000 was taken . We have no evidence that this was stolen by the Official IRA but this is the only robbery of its size undertaken in the run-up to the 1981 election .

Also , as outlined below , the Official IRA was involved in another jewellery robbery in May 1980 and therefore must have the means of disposing of jewellery on the black market .......

(MORE LATER).

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" DON'T LET THEM BREAK YOU , LOVE " .......
First published in the booklet ' STRIP SEARCHES IN ARMAGH JAIL' , produced , in February 1984 , by 'The London Armagh Group' .

I thought of the women waiting for me on the prison wing ; they had gone through this . I thought of the Blanket Men of Long Kesh - they had been forced to remain naked for five years .

I thought of my sister , sixteen years of age , and dreaded this ever happening to her . I thought of my mother's face on the morning of my arrest , trying so hard not to cry , and her shouts of support - " Don't let them break you , love... " and " Be strong..." And I thought of her face that morning in the court - ashen , aged ; prepared to run to Armagh Prison for the next decade , just as she had run to various jails to visit my father and brother .

And I thought of all the women , striving everywhere to achieve their freedom . Aye ! I thought of a lot of things - anything to block out what was happening to me . I was stripped naked to confront me with their 'control' , to enforce on me my own vulnerability , to degrade me . But they were not going to succeed .

I saw my nakedness as an indictment against them - they thought my womenhood would serve to help defeat me . They did not understand that the strength of ideals cannot be stripped from one's mind .......

(MORE LATER).



THE HEROIC PRISON STRUGGLE .......
1981 was dominated by the grim and heroic struggle of Republican prisoners for political recognition - which they undoubtedly received from millions all over the world , yet which few governments , least of all London or Dublin , would grant them .
From 'AP/RN' , 31st December 1981 .
By Teresa Kelly .

After two postponements , the Free State government had fixed a date for general elections in that jurisdiction ; it was to be June 11th , 1981 . H-Block activists actively campaigned for nine prisoners , four of them on hunger-strike at that time : Joe McDonnell , Kevin Lynch , Martin Hurson and Kieran Doherty - and five other prisoners , Mairead Farrell , Tony O'Hara , Tom McAllister , Sean McKenna and Paddy Agnew .

Proving all the pundits wrong , the prisoners polled extremely well , and two were elected : Kiernan Doherty for the Cavan/Monaghan constituency , with 15 per cent first preference votes , and Paddy Agnew for Louth with 18 per cent first preference votes . These two seats prevented the Charles Haughey administration from gaining a majority in Leinster House , and a Fine Gael-Labour coalition took over , with Garret Fitzgerald as 'premier' .

However , in spite of the widespread support for the prisoners' demands in the twenty-six counties , in spite of the fact that a sizeable fraction of that support was translated into votes , the pressure was not sufficient to force an intervention by the Fine Gael/Labour administration in favour of the prisoners . Since the beginning of June 1981 , the Irish Commission for Justice and Peace , composed mainly of Catholic clerics , middle-class politicians , academics , lawyers and other 'pillars of the Establishment' , had begun to make noises signifying to the prisoners and the British government that it saw a role for itself in mediating between the two parties .

After a tentative statement on what they saw as necessary prison reforms to resolve the issue , a statement which the British government ignored and which the prisoners studied and answered two weeks later , the Commission started a series of meetings with various political parties , hunger-strikers' relatives , and the National H-Block/Armagh Committee .......

(MORE LATER).



IN THE SHADOW OF A GUNMAN .......

The aspirations of SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY towards socialist respectability are undermined by the continued military operations of the OFFICIAL IRA and that Party's own ideoligical contortions .
From ' MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
By Vincent Browne.

The Ardmonagh Gardens eviction :
The Official IRA moved another family into a house in which Seamus Smith and his family were in the process of moving in to : the PIRA had 'secured' the previously empty house for the Smith family . The OIRA made it clear that if any attempt were made to dislodge the second family , those responsible would have to deal with the Official IRA . One of the men taking part was the brother of one of the most prominent members of the 'Republican Clubs' in Belfast .
[End of 'Evictions' section.]
The Official IRA has less than 50 operatives in Belfast : these are organised into Units based around the drinking Clubs in Cyprus Street in the Lower Falls area , in New Lodge Road , in the Markets , in the Short Strand , in Turf Lodge and in Bawnmore . The OIRA Officer Commanding in Belfast until recently was a very prominent figure who has apparently stepped aside , with his place taken by a person who is not significantly less prominent . The Official IRA is known to have members in the Craigavon area . On a national level it is not clear what re-organisation has taken place but it is a certainty that the OIRA Chief of Staff is a member of SFWP ; so too is the OIRA Finance Officer and the OIRA Adjutant General . The Dublin Unit Officer Commanding is also a member of SFWP .

There are about 30 active members on call in the Dublin area ; these are engaged almost exclusively in robberies . Some of these are not members of SFWP or at least deny membership . By all accounts the organisation is well armed , with Russian Kalashnikov AK 47 carbines and sophisticated 357 Magnum revolvers .......

(MORE LATER).

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" DON'T LET THEM BREAK YOU , LOVE " .......
First published in the booklet ' STRIP SEARCHES IN ARMAGH JAIL' , produced , in February 1984 , by 'The London Armagh Group' .

I was arrested under the infamous 'Section 12 of the PTA' and then 'stitched-up' by the British 'Paid Perjurer' System . I maintained my silence , knowing that within the week I would join those women whose very existence denies every atrocity inflicted by their oppressors . I was charged , and taken from the court to Armagh .

I remember a tremendous feeling of unreality about my arrival in Armagh Jail ; detached , I entered the prison , thinking wryly of my next forthcoming encounter with British rule : photographed , weighed , then brought into the 'reception room' where eight screws were present , standing silently , waiting , hoping to see another one 'break' . Then the dreaded words - " RIGHT ! STRIP ! "

I was hustled into a small cubicle and slowly began to undo the buttons of my shirt .... " This can't be happening to me ..it can't...." - but of course it could . Item by item , I removed my clothes , each article taken from me and scrutinised . I knew there was no need to search me - I had been in custody for over a week , I had'nt seen one friendly face or heard one word of kindness since 'leaving' the house : dragged out , shoeless and coatless , by a mixed force of British troops and RUC men .

As I stood there naked , I grasped my ideals to my heart . They were'nt going to succeed . I would NOT break .......

(MORE LATER).



THE HEROIC PRISON STRUGGLE .......
1981 was dominated by the grim and heroic struggle of Republican prisoners for political recognition - which they undoubtedly received from millions all over the world , yet which few governments , least of all London or Dublin , would grant them .
From 'AP/RN' , 31st December 1981 .
By Teresa Kelly .

Over forty thousand copies of 'The Writings Of Bobby Sands' and 'The Diary Of Bobby Sands' were sold through the campaign : extracts were quoted in the world press . Sentences appeared on the walls of Belfast and Derry , and the lark has now become the symbol of the jailed freedom fighters . Bobby Sands gave the prisoners a voice .

Francis Hughes died on May 12th 1981 after fifty-nine days on hunger-strike : Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O'Hara died on May 21st 1981 after sixty-one days on hunger-strike . huge crowds of mourners attended their funerals , pickets were organised all over Ireland , mock coffins were carried by thousands of protestors to British embassies or consulates all over Europe , in America , Australia , New Zealand ; vigils and pickets were organised in Britain .

On May 23rd 1981 , local elections took place in the Six Counties and , although Sinn Fein did not field any candidates , in Belfast , two IRSP and two 'People's Democracy' candidates , standing on anti-H-Block manifestos , were elected to the city council . Gerry Fitt , who had despicably sided with Margaret Thatcher on the prison issue , lost the seat which he had held for twenty-three years . Paddy Devlin scraped through on the last count .

The 'Irish Independence Party' , which had publicly supported the prisoners demands , gained twenty-one seats , an increase of eleven .......

(MORE LATER).



IN THE SHADOW OF A GUNMAN .......

The aspirations of SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY towards socialist respectability are undermined by the continued military operations of the OFFICIAL IRA and that Party's own ideoligical contortions .
From ' MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
By Vincent Browne.

The Official IRA is still very visible in Belfast as the incident in Ardmonagh Gardens on January 29 this year (1982) shows : this incident occurred in the Turf Lodge area of Belfast , when about 20 members of the Official IRA took part in an eviction of a family from a house : the OIRA members carried rifles and short arms openly on the street in broad daylight and they pursued a man in a manner that suggested that they intended to cause him serious injury at least .

The incident started when members of Provisional Sinn Fein (actually probably PIRA members) went around to families living in flats in Ardmonagh Gardens , asking if any of them would like to move into a house which was about to become vacant . A Seamus Smith said that he would like to move his wife and three young children in , and this was agreed . A few days later he started cleaning the vacant house and began some re-decoration , and moved some of the furniture from his flat into the house . A knock came to the door of the house on the evening of Thursday , January 28 1982 and , when he answered it , there were two men standing on the doorstep with their hands inside their coats , suggesting that they were armed .

They said to him - " You had better be out of here tomorrow at six o' clock or you're going to be shot . " They said they were from the Official IRA but he did'nt recognise either of them . Naturally frightened by the visit , he approached the local PIRA and was told later that night that they (the Provos) had been in touch with the Official IRA and that the matter had been sorted out - that he could continue moving into the house . The following evening at around six o' clock (Friday , January 29 , 1982 : the second day of the recent general election campaign) , Seamus Smith left the house to go across the road for his tea to his mother-in-law's home ; immediately after he did so he was informed by a neighbour that armed men had broken into the house . Two Ford vans had driven into Ardmonagh Gardens and about twenty men had got out ; about six of them held rifles and several others were carrying short arms .

These men effectively took over the street , manning corners , standing in the centre of the road and even taking up positions in the fields at the back of the street : three of them dashed into the flats where Seamus Smith and his family had lived and smashed down the front door and then kicked in the sitting-room sliding door . Neither Smith nor any of his family were there , so the men left .......

(MORE LATER).

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" DON'T LET THEM BREAK YOU , LOVE " .......
First published in the booklet ' STRIP SEARCHES IN ARMAGH JAIL' , produced , in February 1984 , by 'The London Armagh Group' .

My first arrest set a precedent for the next few years of my life : every time I encountered a British Army foot patrol I was searched . My demands for the search to be carried out by a female British soldier always ended with my arrest . I was forced to leave school after being shot , and was arrested when I left hospital and told not to go to court or ' I'd get it right in the head the next time' . I was at this stage seventeen years of age .

Eventually , a few months ago , the British forces of occupation arrested me at 5.30 in the morning . I was informed that I was being arrested under the infamous 'Section 12 of the PTA' and was taken to Castlereagh Interrogation Centre . There followed seven days of repeated interrogations by Special Branch detectives : I was told I could end my ordeal by 'picking' a charge , making a statement , such as - " At an unspecified time , on an unspecified date , I was in possession [of a weapon] at an unspecified place.." 'Evidence' such as dates , times and places are trivialities in the Special Diplock Courts .

Your guilt is not established at your trial . Mine was established at birth . I was Catholic . Worse , I was a Republican . I refused to make any statements , I refused to speak one word , from my arrest . Four days later I became another victim of the Paid Perjurer System - a man 'identified' me as being a Republican activist ; they told me they knew I was innocent of the charges but that they were delighted at this opportunity to 'stitch me up' .......

(MORE LATER).



THE HEROIC PRISON STRUGGLE .......
1981 was dominated by the grim and heroic struggle of Republican prisoners for political recognition - which they undoubtedly received from millions all over the world , yet which few governments , least of all London or Dublin , would grant them .
From 'AP/RN' , 31st December 1981 .
By Teresa Kelly .

From April 1981 , seven people were killed by plastic bullets - 3 children and 4 adults : none of them taking part in a riot . Several hundreds were injured and required hospital treatment , with injuries mostly to the head or chest , causing in some cases paralysis or blindness .

The beleaguered nationalist people were to experience in a few months the death of ten hunger-strikers , and of many more on the streets of the occupied Six Counties , callous British disregard for their democratic voice , and the closing of ranks of the Irish 'establishment' behind the British government .

Bobby Sands' remains were carried on Thursday 7th May 1981 from his Twinbrook home in Belfast to the Republican Plot in Belfast's Milltown cemetery , flanked by a huge crowd . Estimates ranged from fifty to one-hundred thousand people .

Through his sixty-six days on hunger-strike , Bobby Sands had become a household name , and his literary talent contributed in no little way to making the world understand what kind of people the British were keeping behind bars in the occupied Six Counties .......

(MORE LATER).



IN THE SHADOW OF A GUNMAN .......

The aspirations of SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY towards socialist respectability are undermined by the continued military operations of the OFFICIAL IRA and that Party's own ideoligical contortions .
From ' MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
By Vincent Browne.

On many building sites 'lump labour' is employed on a contractual basis ; the firms which provide this contracted lump labour are provided with tax exemption forms by the authorities , which means that workers do not pay PAYE (ie 'Pay As You Earn' : income tax stopped at source on a weekly basis) but rather their tax contributions are paid on an annual basis . The scope for abuse is considerable and this is exploited by paramilitary organisations all over the North .

The building sites on which the paramilitaries can conduct these rackets obviously can be only in those areas where they have a measure of control ; thus , for the Official IRA , the building sites where they operate the tax exemption rackets are in the Lower Falls , The Markets , Twinbrook and Bawnmore areas of Belfast . Actually their area of influence has diminished recently with the defection of one of their major racketeers to the IRSP .

When these rackets were working well for the Official IRA it was estimated that they were 'earning' up to £3,000 per week from them . They also got involved in another and more 'exotic' form of racketeering : the 'massage parlour' business . Up to about two years ago they were running three 'massage parlours' in Belfast ; one of these , incredibly , was run in conjunction with the UVF but this was closed down after a disagreement between the two organisations - the UVF and the Official IRA often co-operated in recent years and , reportedly , exchanged information .

Another of those 'parlours' was firebombed by the Provos and a third was closed down by the RUC . One of the candidates for Sinn Fein the Workers Party in the local elections of May last year was convicted of running brothels in the Ormeau Road area of Belfast .......

(MORE LATER).

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" DON'T LET THEM BREAK YOU , LOVE " .
First published in the booklet ' STRIP SEARCHES IN ARMAGH JAIL' , produced , in February 1984 , by 'The London Armagh Group' .

This is the first time I have put pen to paper to try and document some of the crimes I have been subjected to .

You'll forgive me if I don't feel the need to ask you to understand just what is happening here in the occupied Six Counties . Rather I demand your realisation of what is being done in your name , to me , and to countless hundreds of my sisters . You have read of us , some of you have even met us , but you have never 'lived' us . Maybe this will help. Think of it as 'A Day In The Life ...' :

I am the eldest daughter of four children , born to working-class parents in a Catholic ghetto in Belfast . In August 1971 the British Government introduced internment . My father evaded arrest until December 1971 , then was taken by British troops to Castlereagh Interrogation Centre and held there incommunicado : witnesses to his arrest testified to the savage and brutal beating he received . We were denied access , and were denied a writ of habeus corpus . At this stage we just wanted his body , as we believed him to be dead .

Our home became a regular haunt of the British occupation forces - early morning raids , dawn arrests , these were our examples of 'British impartiality' . I was first arrested on the morning of my birthday in June 1974 , forced to stand 'spread-eagle' against a brick wall for four hours , subjected to a continual barrage of insults , rubber batons run up the inside of my leg , enquiries as to my sexual preferences , physically searched again and again by British troops , insulted , degraded , humiliated . I was sixteen that day .......

(MORE LATER).



THE HEROIC PRISON STRUGGLE .......
1981 was dominated by the grim and heroic struggle of Republican prisoners for political recognition - which they undoubtedly received from millions all over the world , yet which few governments , least of all London or Dublin , would grant them .
From 'AP/RN' , 31st December 1981 .
By Teresa Kelly .

On Sunday 26th April 1981 , twenty thousand marchers demonstrated on the Falls Road in Belfast . The size of the crowd , the many speakers who addressed the rally - US Attorney-General Ramsey Clark , Massachusetts State Representative Marie Howe , American Jesuit pacifist Fr. Daniel Berrigan , Kerry GAA football celebrity Joe Keohane , Bernadette McAliskey (who was making her first public appearance since the UDA's attempt on her life and on that of her husband on January 16th 1981) and , finally , the dozens of telegrams from all over Europe , the USA and Britain , that were read to the demonstrators : all these elements pointed to an unprecedented support for the prisoners' cause , a hitherto unequalled world interest in the plight of the Irish people .

Yet the British were to remain unmoved ; as the H-Block prisoners pointed out much later , in their October 3rd 1981 statement drawing the lessons of the hunger strike they had just ended - " The nationalist community is politically inconsequential and impotent in the context of the six-county statelet . "

Bobby Sands died at 1.17AM on Tuesday 5th May 1981 : as an angry nationalist community took to the dark streets , some women with bin lids , others with rosary beads , youths with stones and petrol bombs , the British Army and the RUC indulged in an orgy of attacks on by-standers , driving armoured cars at groups of women who were praying , shooting on small children with plastic bullets . On April 19th 1981 , in Derry , two youths had been savagely run over and killed by British Army vehicles - Gary English , aged nineteen , and Jimmy Brown , aged eighteen . Tensions were already high in the North over this incident .

The unadulterated violence displayed by British troops and the RUC would cause many more deaths and permanent injuries , causing even 'moderate' politicians and churchmen to condemn the use of plastic bullets , concerned as they were by the rising popular indignation and wishing that the British troops would 'behave' in a more 'acceptable' manner....... ('1169...' Comment - there is no 'acceptable' manner to Republicans for any British soldier to behave in on this island .)

(MORE LATER).


IN THE SHADOW OF A GUNMAN .......

The aspirations of SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY towards socialist respectability are undermined by the continued military operations of the OFFICIAL IRA and that Party's own ideoligical contortions .
From ' MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
By Vincent Browne.

The Official IRA was always used to control Sinn Fein the Workers Party and this did not end certainly until well after 1978 , if even then . The OIRA Convention used to be held regularly prior to the SFWP Ard Fheis and at those Conventions it would be decided how the OIRA should vote en bloc at the Ard Fheis . Therefore military discipline was effectively deployed at the party level to influence decisions .

The level of robberies stepped up considerably after the OIRA ceasefire , especially when the ceasefire became effective . The robberies took place across the North and in the South : a gang formed in Belfast especially for robberies , which became known as ' The Dirty Dozen' (initially comprised of 12 men and later of 13 ) , it reputedly stole £200,000 in one 4-month period : targets were mainly post offices , post office vans and security vans .

The Official IRA became primarily a fund-raising organisation but it served other purposes too - it kept order in the vast drinking clubs that the Officials own in the North and in Dublin ; it maintained internal discipline through intimidation and beatings , and provided the means of 'self-defence' for the party which got into feuds from time to time with the Provos . The Official IRA has also been responsible for running rackets in Belfast particularly . This involved primarily the operation of tax exemption fraud , which the Provos have also perfected .

On many building sites 'lump labour' is employed on a contractual basis - a 'weakness' in the method of collection of income tax from these workers was spotted .......

(MORE LATER).

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