1169 And Counting - Irish history , Irish politics : from today and yesterday : all 32 Counties !
We believe we may be taken 'off line' in the next few days .
On Thursday night last , January 12th , at approximately 10.10PM , the house belonging to myself , John Horan , in Clondalkin , Dublin , and at which the equipment used to publish the '1169...' blog is housed , was visited by four members of the 'Special Branch' , this States 'political police' force .
From past experience of such events (with this house and with houses belonging to our colleagues) this seems to have been a 'dry run' by those State operatives . We therefore expect to be raided in the near future and , as is usual in such events , computer equipment , discs , mobile phones etc will be removed from the premises .
If/when this does happen , we will obviously be unable to 'post' any articles for ... a while ! But we will get 'up and running' as soon as possible ! It is a small price to pay when one considers what those that went before us paid .
Slan go foill anois ,
John , Sharon , 'Junior' .
1169 And Counting .......
Friday, January 13, 2006
WHERE SINN FEIN STANDS.......
The following statement was issued subsequent to a meeting of the Caretaker Executive of Sinn Fein on January 17th 1970 .
In the years 1964 and 1965 certain persons came into the Republican Movement from the Irish Workers' Party and the Connolly Association in England and , early in 1965 , a ' .....conference to discuss political tactics , policy and internal organisation (and make recommendations).. ' was established .
Most of the ten points which emerged (from the Conference) were turned down at an Extraordinary Ard Fheis in June 1965 , notably one which sought to have Sinn Fein recognise Westminster , Stormont and Leinster House . Another - which was also turned down but was later accepted by a further Ard Fheis - looked for "...co-operation with other radical groups.." in pursuit of limited objectives : these groups included the Communist Party of 'Northern Ireland' on one side of the 'border' , the Irish Workers' Party and Connolly Youth Movement on the 'other' side of the 'border' , and the Connolly Association in England .
Fifteen months ago , after the 'parliamentary' idea had been rejected at an IRA Convention by a majority of three to one and the continuation of "...co-operation with the other radical groups .. " already named , carried once more by a slender majority , a Commission was set-up to examine again all the policies of the Republican Movement and make recommendations - this Commission was to tour the country and take evidence at local centres .
In spite of the developments North of the 'border' since October 5th 1968 , in Derry , and the escalation of events throughout the Six Counties all through the first half of 1969 , the Commission remained blind to what was obvious to even outside observers . The terror of August 1969 in Belfast , Derry , Armagh , Dungannon and other places was not foreseen when the Commission reported finally in July 1969 , nor was anything of the kind considered or provided against .......
(MORE LATER).
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
From Thursday August 20th 1981 , an insidious campaign of moral exploitation took place involving clerics who not only adopted Bishop Daly's recommendation of family intervention but posed it as a moral duty for Catholic mother's to do so .
So conspiratorial were they in their endeavours that when three Belfast men - Pat Sheehan , Jackie McMullan and Bernard Fox - joined the hunger-strike consecutively , on August 10th 1981 , August 17th and August 24th , respectively , it drew the somewhat neurotic response from Fr. Denis Faul that this was a deliberate ploy aimed at making their families more amenable to 'ghetto discipline' !
The reality of the situation was , however , that as Belfast men constituted the biggest percentage of all the H-Block prisoners it was unavoidable that at some stage a geographic spread of hunger-strikers from throughout the Six Counties could not be maintained by the prisoners : what Faul was in fact decrying was that he believed Belfast families to be less amenable to his influence . Faul was to have a blistering row with the Republican prisoners after which he backed-down , but only reluctantly so .......
(MORE LATER).
THE 1985 ANGLO-IRISH AGREEMENT - THE SHADOW OF THE GUNMEN .......
As the Anglo-Irish talks reach their conclusion , FINTAN O'TOOLE talks to activists of Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party and hears that they would prefer civil war to an accommodation with Dublin .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , November 1985 .
Charles Haughey's 'sleight-of-hand' should not be allowed to obscure , as it has to date , the debate about the 'consultative role' which the 26-County government is to have after the signing of the Hillsborough Treaty : for it is * possible to isolate the demand for legitimate and agreed institutions for policing 'Northern Ireland' and for administering justice from the demand for a United Ireland . (* '1169...' Comment - In our opinion , the two cannot be separated : the claim of 'jurisdictional control' from Westminster throws a shadow over any attempt to do so successfully .)
And it is clear that a 'consultative role' which comes into effect only before the institutions of 'the Northern State' have been reformed is meaningless . If the 26-County government is to be involved in overseeing the operation of (British) 'security forces' which have not been fundamentally reformed , then they will be in an even weaker position than they are at the moment in seeking to represent the point of view of northern Nationalists with regard to those 'security forces' .
They may find theselves unable to exert any control over the RUC and the UDR , and at the same time unable even to protest publicly about the behaviour of the RUC and the UDR because they are locked into a 'consultative process' . John Hume argued at the SDLP conference that the UDR , the RUC and their behaviour were not the 'Northern Ireland' problem ; Hume said that "...they were symptoms of a deeper problem , which is division .. " . This is of course true * , but it is not an excuse for entering an 'agreement' which leaves the position of the UDR and the RUC fundamentally unaltered ....... (*' 1169...' Comment - ...as usual with the SDLP , they sold themselves short with that comment : they should have asked who fostered that "division" , and laid the blame at that doorstep . But those with a 'Free State' mentality will never do that - it is easier not to . And certainly safer .)
(MORE LATER).
The following statement was issued subsequent to a meeting of the Caretaker Executive of Sinn Fein on January 17th 1970 .
In the years 1964 and 1965 certain persons came into the Republican Movement from the Irish Workers' Party and the Connolly Association in England and , early in 1965 , a ' .....conference to discuss political tactics , policy and internal organisation (and make recommendations).. ' was established .
Most of the ten points which emerged (from the Conference) were turned down at an Extraordinary Ard Fheis in June 1965 , notably one which sought to have Sinn Fein recognise Westminster , Stormont and Leinster House . Another - which was also turned down but was later accepted by a further Ard Fheis - looked for "...co-operation with other radical groups.." in pursuit of limited objectives : these groups included the Communist Party of 'Northern Ireland' on one side of the 'border' , the Irish Workers' Party and Connolly Youth Movement on the 'other' side of the 'border' , and the Connolly Association in England .
Fifteen months ago , after the 'parliamentary' idea had been rejected at an IRA Convention by a majority of three to one and the continuation of "...co-operation with the other radical groups .. " already named , carried once more by a slender majority , a Commission was set-up to examine again all the policies of the Republican Movement and make recommendations - this Commission was to tour the country and take evidence at local centres .
In spite of the developments North of the 'border' since October 5th 1968 , in Derry , and the escalation of events throughout the Six Counties all through the first half of 1969 , the Commission remained blind to what was obvious to even outside observers . The terror of August 1969 in Belfast , Derry , Armagh , Dungannon and other places was not foreseen when the Commission reported finally in July 1969 , nor was anything of the kind considered or provided against .......
(MORE LATER).
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
From Thursday August 20th 1981 , an insidious campaign of moral exploitation took place involving clerics who not only adopted Bishop Daly's recommendation of family intervention but posed it as a moral duty for Catholic mother's to do so .
So conspiratorial were they in their endeavours that when three Belfast men - Pat Sheehan , Jackie McMullan and Bernard Fox - joined the hunger-strike consecutively , on August 10th 1981 , August 17th and August 24th , respectively , it drew the somewhat neurotic response from Fr. Denis Faul that this was a deliberate ploy aimed at making their families more amenable to 'ghetto discipline' !
The reality of the situation was , however , that as Belfast men constituted the biggest percentage of all the H-Block prisoners it was unavoidable that at some stage a geographic spread of hunger-strikers from throughout the Six Counties could not be maintained by the prisoners : what Faul was in fact decrying was that he believed Belfast families to be less amenable to his influence . Faul was to have a blistering row with the Republican prisoners after which he backed-down , but only reluctantly so .......
(MORE LATER).
THE 1985 ANGLO-IRISH AGREEMENT - THE SHADOW OF THE GUNMEN .......
As the Anglo-Irish talks reach their conclusion , FINTAN O'TOOLE talks to activists of Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party and hears that they would prefer civil war to an accommodation with Dublin .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , November 1985 .
Charles Haughey's 'sleight-of-hand' should not be allowed to obscure , as it has to date , the debate about the 'consultative role' which the 26-County government is to have after the signing of the Hillsborough Treaty : for it is * possible to isolate the demand for legitimate and agreed institutions for policing 'Northern Ireland' and for administering justice from the demand for a United Ireland . (* '1169...' Comment - In our opinion , the two cannot be separated : the claim of 'jurisdictional control' from Westminster throws a shadow over any attempt to do so successfully .)
And it is clear that a 'consultative role' which comes into effect only before the institutions of 'the Northern State' have been reformed is meaningless . If the 26-County government is to be involved in overseeing the operation of (British) 'security forces' which have not been fundamentally reformed , then they will be in an even weaker position than they are at the moment in seeking to represent the point of view of northern Nationalists with regard to those 'security forces' .
They may find theselves unable to exert any control over the RUC and the UDR , and at the same time unable even to protest publicly about the behaviour of the RUC and the UDR because they are locked into a 'consultative process' . John Hume argued at the SDLP conference that the UDR , the RUC and their behaviour were not the 'Northern Ireland' problem ; Hume said that "...they were symptoms of a deeper problem , which is division .. " . This is of course true * , but it is not an excuse for entering an 'agreement' which leaves the position of the UDR and the RUC fundamentally unaltered ....... (*' 1169...' Comment - ...as usual with the SDLP , they sold themselves short with that comment : they should have asked who fostered that "division" , and laid the blame at that doorstep . But those with a 'Free State' mentality will never do that - it is easier not to . And certainly safer .)
(MORE LATER).
Thursday, January 12, 2006
WHERE SINN FEIN STANDS.......
The following statement was issued subsequent to a meeting of the Caretaker Executive of Sinn Fein on January 17th 1970 .
Those who remained in The Intercontinental Hotel on Sunday January 11th 1970 sought to reverse this basic principle of the Sinn Fein organisation down the years and to participate in all three existing parliaments . That sitting and participating in the affairs of these assemblies constitutes recognition of them , all reasonable people will agree without hesitation .
Those who walked out stand by the Constitution and Rules of the Sinn Fein organisation ('1169....' Comment - ....as , indeed , they did in 1986 when others [including those working for British Intelligence] attempted to constitutionalise the organisation) and claim the historic name of Sinn Fein , while those who remained sought , without success , to alter that Constitution and change a National Movement into yet another political party seeking votes at all costs ; having failed to secure the necessary two-thirds majority to effect these changes they then pressed on the Ard Fheis (ie - the Organisation's 'AGM') a resolution requiring a simple majority only viz : "...expressing allegiance to the IRA leadership.." which had , prior to the Ard Fheis , adopted recognition of Westminster , Stormont and Leinster House as policy.
This the delegates loyal to a 32-County parliament could not tolerate and since the resolution in question seemed likely to be carried , they took the only action open to them if they were not to be compromised - they walked out and resumed the Ard Fheis elsewhere ( in the Kevin Barry Hall , Parnell Square , Dublin) . The background to these events is not as well known as the events themselves : we refer to the years 1964 and 1965 .......
(MORE LATER).
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
In an attack on the hunger-strike and on Republicans in general , Fr. Denis Faul , indicative of his general as well as specific political attitude to the hunger-strike , Faul defended the 'Establishment' , whose continuing co-operation with the British government , Republicans had correctly pinpointed as the chief buttress of its intransigence : " It is not a 1916 situation . People have not changed their political consciousness to any great degree . It is foolish to expect salvation from an increased effort from the Dublin government , the hierarchy and the SDLP ... "
Prominent among his other ludicrous assertions was that the statements issued by the Republican prisoners were written by people on the outside ! But more serious was the implication of external manipulation of the hunger-strikers , inherent in that ridiculous assertion . Overall , the purpose of Fr. Denis Faul's attack was to further instill defeatism , defend the 'Establishment' which reflected his own political views and vilify the prisoners' supporters .
On Thursday , August 20th 1981 , Micky Devine , the tenth and final hunger-striker to give his life for political status , died at 7.50 AM after sixty days on hunger-strike . The Nationalist people of Fermanagh and South Tyrone cast their votes to elect Owen Carron as the prisoners' candidate that day also . Early that evening , Mrs. Pauline McGeown sought medical intervention to prevent her husband , Pat - at that stage forty-two days on hunger-strike - from dying .......
(MORE LATER).
THE 1985 ANGLO-IRISH AGREEMENT - THE SHADOW OF THE GUNMEN .......
As the Anglo-Irish talks reach their conclusion , FINTAN O'TOOLE talks to activists of Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party and hears that they would prefer civil war to an accommodation with Dublin .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , November 1985 .
Loyalist opposition to a Dublin voice will focus on the consultative machinery involving the Dublin Government and on any secretariat from the South which is based in Belfast . There is a tendency to assume that those aspects of an agreement would of themselves be enormously significant for nationalist aspirations , but a clear look at the consequences of such a 'consultative' machinery suggests otherwise - Charles Haughey has good reason to regard a 'consultative role' which gives responsibility without authority as potentially "...disastrous.. " .
In many ways a 'consultative role' is a diplomat's dream - the prospect of continuing , open-ended discussion , of an endless series of 'nods and winks' and behind-the-scenes 'bargainings' has innate attractions for the professional diplomats who have negotiated the substance of the deal . It sets up a machinery which is self-generating and ultimately self-'justifying' ; there is always plenty to consult about and consultation is always sufficiently vague to be seen as an end in itself ! ('1169...' Comment - 'Talks about Talks' , anyone ... ?)
The point , however , is the institutions which this machinery is meant to oversee , and it is those institutions themselves which have created the immediate problems which the Anglo-Irish process is supposed to tackle . Mr. Charles Haughey has engaged in some 'sleight-of-hand' in this regard - the term 'alienation' which has been used so often to sum-up the plight of the Northern nationalist is deeply ambiguous - it implies at once an alienation from 'the United Kingdom' , which can only be overcome by the institution of a United Ireland , and a more specific alienation from the machinery of security and justice , which can be overcome in the absence of a United Ireland - Haughey has used these senses of 'alienation' interchangably , allowing him to move imperceptibly from criticising any arrangement which does not tackle the alienation of the nationalists from the 'security forces' and
the 'Courts' to maintaining that there is no solution short of a United Ireland ....... ('1169...' Comment - We have had over eight centuries of 'solutions' imposed on us , and all have failed . Though it pains us greatly here on this blog to do so (for other reasons) , we would have supported Haughey in his supposition regarding the 'United Ireland' solution . Having said that , we do recognise that Haughey was simply 'playing the green card' - the man is a Free Stater at heart . ) .......
(MORE LATER).
The following statement was issued subsequent to a meeting of the Caretaker Executive of Sinn Fein on January 17th 1970 .
Those who remained in The Intercontinental Hotel on Sunday January 11th 1970 sought to reverse this basic principle of the Sinn Fein organisation down the years and to participate in all three existing parliaments . That sitting and participating in the affairs of these assemblies constitutes recognition of them , all reasonable people will agree without hesitation .
Those who walked out stand by the Constitution and Rules of the Sinn Fein organisation ('1169....' Comment - ....as , indeed , they did in 1986 when others [including those working for British Intelligence] attempted to constitutionalise the organisation) and claim the historic name of Sinn Fein , while those who remained sought , without success , to alter that Constitution and change a National Movement into yet another political party seeking votes at all costs ; having failed to secure the necessary two-thirds majority to effect these changes they then pressed on the Ard Fheis (ie - the Organisation's 'AGM') a resolution requiring a simple majority only viz : "...expressing allegiance to the IRA leadership.." which had , prior to the Ard Fheis , adopted recognition of Westminster , Stormont and Leinster House as policy.
This the delegates loyal to a 32-County parliament could not tolerate and since the resolution in question seemed likely to be carried , they took the only action open to them if they were not to be compromised - they walked out and resumed the Ard Fheis elsewhere ( in the Kevin Barry Hall , Parnell Square , Dublin) . The background to these events is not as well known as the events themselves : we refer to the years 1964 and 1965 .......
(MORE LATER).
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
In an attack on the hunger-strike and on Republicans in general , Fr. Denis Faul , indicative of his general as well as specific political attitude to the hunger-strike , Faul defended the 'Establishment' , whose continuing co-operation with the British government , Republicans had correctly pinpointed as the chief buttress of its intransigence : " It is not a 1916 situation . People have not changed their political consciousness to any great degree . It is foolish to expect salvation from an increased effort from the Dublin government , the hierarchy and the SDLP ... "
Prominent among his other ludicrous assertions was that the statements issued by the Republican prisoners were written by people on the outside ! But more serious was the implication of external manipulation of the hunger-strikers , inherent in that ridiculous assertion . Overall , the purpose of Fr. Denis Faul's attack was to further instill defeatism , defend the 'Establishment' which reflected his own political views and vilify the prisoners' supporters .
On Thursday , August 20th 1981 , Micky Devine , the tenth and final hunger-striker to give his life for political status , died at 7.50 AM after sixty days on hunger-strike . The Nationalist people of Fermanagh and South Tyrone cast their votes to elect Owen Carron as the prisoners' candidate that day also . Early that evening , Mrs. Pauline McGeown sought medical intervention to prevent her husband , Pat - at that stage forty-two days on hunger-strike - from dying .......
(MORE LATER).
THE 1985 ANGLO-IRISH AGREEMENT - THE SHADOW OF THE GUNMEN .......
As the Anglo-Irish talks reach their conclusion , FINTAN O'TOOLE talks to activists of Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party and hears that they would prefer civil war to an accommodation with Dublin .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , November 1985 .
Loyalist opposition to a Dublin voice will focus on the consultative machinery involving the Dublin Government and on any secretariat from the South which is based in Belfast . There is a tendency to assume that those aspects of an agreement would of themselves be enormously significant for nationalist aspirations , but a clear look at the consequences of such a 'consultative' machinery suggests otherwise - Charles Haughey has good reason to regard a 'consultative role' which gives responsibility without authority as potentially "...disastrous.. " .
In many ways a 'consultative role' is a diplomat's dream - the prospect of continuing , open-ended discussion , of an endless series of 'nods and winks' and behind-the-scenes 'bargainings' has innate attractions for the professional diplomats who have negotiated the substance of the deal . It sets up a machinery which is self-generating and ultimately self-'justifying' ; there is always plenty to consult about and consultation is always sufficiently vague to be seen as an end in itself ! ('1169...' Comment - 'Talks about Talks' , anyone ... ?)
The point , however , is the institutions which this machinery is meant to oversee , and it is those institutions themselves which have created the immediate problems which the Anglo-Irish process is supposed to tackle . Mr. Charles Haughey has engaged in some 'sleight-of-hand' in this regard - the term 'alienation' which has been used so often to sum-up the plight of the Northern nationalist is deeply ambiguous - it implies at once an alienation from 'the United Kingdom' , which can only be overcome by the institution of a United Ireland , and a more specific alienation from the machinery of security and justice , which can be overcome in the absence of a United Ireland - Haughey has used these senses of 'alienation' interchangably , allowing him to move imperceptibly from criticising any arrangement which does not tackle the alienation of the nationalists from the 'security forces' and
the 'Courts' to maintaining that there is no solution short of a United Ireland ....... ('1169...' Comment - We have had over eight centuries of 'solutions' imposed on us , and all have failed . Though it pains us greatly here on this blog to do so (for other reasons) , we would have supported Haughey in his supposition regarding the 'United Ireland' solution . Having said that , we do recognise that Haughey was simply 'playing the green card' - the man is a Free Stater at heart . ) .......
(MORE LATER).
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
WHERE SINN FEIN STANDS.
The following is the statement which was issued subsequent to a meeting of the Caretaker Executive of Sinn Fein on January 17th 1970 :
We , the Caretaker Executive of the Sinn Fein organisation , wish to explain to the Irish people why almost half of the delegates to the recent Ard Fheis 'walked out' from the Intercontinental Hotel ('1169.... ' Comment - ...now 'Jury's Hotel' , Ballsbridge , Dublin 4) on Sunday January 11th 1970 , and resumed the Ard Fheis in the Kevin Barry Hall , 44 Parnell Square , Dublin . There they elected us as a Caretaker Executive pending the re-convening of a full Ard Fheis .
There are five major reasons for the walk-out : each is explained in detail in the following paragraphs :
RECOGNITION OF PARLIAMENTS .
The Sinn Fein organisation , since its foundation in 1905 , has consistently denied the 'right' of the British Parliament to 'rule' in Ireland . Similarly , Sinn Fein has refused to recognise the two partition parliaments at Stormont and Leinster House , forced on the Irish people under the British Government of Ireland Act 1920 , and the Treaty of Surrender of 1921 .
Sinn Fein's alternative to those British institutions of government was the All-Ireland Republican Dail which it assembled in January 1919 ; it remains the task of Sinn Fein today to lead the Irish people away from British , 6-County and 26-County parliaments and towards the re-assembly of the 32-County Dail which will then legislate for and rule all Ireland .......
(MORE LATER).
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
On Friday , August 14th 1981 , Fr. Denis Faul launched a public attack on the IRA and the hunger-strike , daubing the latter as "... hopeless.. " and "...a situation of dispair .. " . More interestingly he did not confine his attack to further instilling defeatism , but at one point in an attack on the aims of the hunger-strike , which is indicative of his own political attitudes and which cannot be isolated from his political attitude to the hunger-strike and his activities therein , Faul suggested that maybe the real issue was "...the control of the voice of Irish Catholic Nationalists .. "
This was a ridiculous suggestion to be posing to Republicans , who were opposed to the hunger-strike from the start because of the personal tragic consequences for their comrades and their families but which must surely counterpose the question - were Fr. Faul's hunger-strike breaking activities aimed at ensuring that its political consequences , by default on the part of the Nationalist 'establishment' as much as anything else , did not lead to the total erosion of that 'establishment's' influence over the Nationalist people .......?
(MORE LATER).
THE 1985 ANGLO-IRISH AGREEMENT - THE SHADOW OF THE GUNMEN .......
As the Anglo-Irish talks reach their conclusion , FINTAN O'TOOLE talks to activists of Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party and hears that they would prefer civil war to an accommodation with Dublin .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , November 1985 .
The evidence of 1912 , of 1920 and of 1972 , argues against the belief that 'the Protestants' are bluffing ; in each of those years tens of thousands of ordinary Protestants joined 'official' or 'unofficial' paramilitaries - the UVF in 1912 , the 'A' and 'B' and 'C' Specials in 1920 and the UDA in 1972 , when Stormont was prorogued .
Both in the early 1920's and the early 1970's substantial numbers of Catholics were brutally murdered ; in 1972 , as now , there was no immediate threat to the position of 'Northern Ireland' in the 'United Kingdom' , but the response was none the less vicious . There is no reason to believe that it would be different in 1985 if the Loyalists perceive a threat , and it is clear that they do perceive such a threat even in a relatively innocuous consultative machinery involving the Dublin government .
The strategy of Ian Paisley's DUP for defeating an Anglo-Irish agreement involves a carefully-staged series of moves , from parliamentary opposition to the engineering of electoral contests to civil disobedience and finally to armed conflict and the declaration of a Provisional Government . Whether or not all of these stages actually come into force , it is clear that the opportunity for the DUP to build up tension , with a consequent open invitation to the sectarian killers to go to 'work' , is there to be exploited .
However loathsome the DUP's 'ballot-box-in-one-hand-and-armalite-behind-the-back' strategy , it has obvious political advantages for them in their attempt to establish themselves as the political spokesmen for Ulster Loyalism and it has to be taken seriously .......
(MORE LATER).
The following is the statement which was issued subsequent to a meeting of the Caretaker Executive of Sinn Fein on January 17th 1970 :
We , the Caretaker Executive of the Sinn Fein organisation , wish to explain to the Irish people why almost half of the delegates to the recent Ard Fheis 'walked out' from the Intercontinental Hotel ('1169.... ' Comment - ...now 'Jury's Hotel' , Ballsbridge , Dublin 4) on Sunday January 11th 1970 , and resumed the Ard Fheis in the Kevin Barry Hall , 44 Parnell Square , Dublin . There they elected us as a Caretaker Executive pending the re-convening of a full Ard Fheis .
There are five major reasons for the walk-out : each is explained in detail in the following paragraphs :
RECOGNITION OF PARLIAMENTS .
The Sinn Fein organisation , since its foundation in 1905 , has consistently denied the 'right' of the British Parliament to 'rule' in Ireland . Similarly , Sinn Fein has refused to recognise the two partition parliaments at Stormont and Leinster House , forced on the Irish people under the British Government of Ireland Act 1920 , and the Treaty of Surrender of 1921 .
Sinn Fein's alternative to those British institutions of government was the All-Ireland Republican Dail which it assembled in January 1919 ; it remains the task of Sinn Fein today to lead the Irish people away from British , 6-County and 26-County parliaments and towards the re-assembly of the 32-County Dail which will then legislate for and rule all Ireland .......
(MORE LATER).
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
On Friday , August 14th 1981 , Fr. Denis Faul launched a public attack on the IRA and the hunger-strike , daubing the latter as "... hopeless.. " and "...a situation of dispair .. " . More interestingly he did not confine his attack to further instilling defeatism , but at one point in an attack on the aims of the hunger-strike , which is indicative of his own political attitudes and which cannot be isolated from his political attitude to the hunger-strike and his activities therein , Faul suggested that maybe the real issue was "...the control of the voice of Irish Catholic Nationalists .. "
This was a ridiculous suggestion to be posing to Republicans , who were opposed to the hunger-strike from the start because of the personal tragic consequences for their comrades and their families but which must surely counterpose the question - were Fr. Faul's hunger-strike breaking activities aimed at ensuring that its political consequences , by default on the part of the Nationalist 'establishment' as much as anything else , did not lead to the total erosion of that 'establishment's' influence over the Nationalist people .......?
(MORE LATER).
THE 1985 ANGLO-IRISH AGREEMENT - THE SHADOW OF THE GUNMEN .......
As the Anglo-Irish talks reach their conclusion , FINTAN O'TOOLE talks to activists of Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party and hears that they would prefer civil war to an accommodation with Dublin .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , November 1985 .
The evidence of 1912 , of 1920 and of 1972 , argues against the belief that 'the Protestants' are bluffing ; in each of those years tens of thousands of ordinary Protestants joined 'official' or 'unofficial' paramilitaries - the UVF in 1912 , the 'A' and 'B' and 'C' Specials in 1920 and the UDA in 1972 , when Stormont was prorogued .
Both in the early 1920's and the early 1970's substantial numbers of Catholics were brutally murdered ; in 1972 , as now , there was no immediate threat to the position of 'Northern Ireland' in the 'United Kingdom' , but the response was none the less vicious . There is no reason to believe that it would be different in 1985 if the Loyalists perceive a threat , and it is clear that they do perceive such a threat even in a relatively innocuous consultative machinery involving the Dublin government .
The strategy of Ian Paisley's DUP for defeating an Anglo-Irish agreement involves a carefully-staged series of moves , from parliamentary opposition to the engineering of electoral contests to civil disobedience and finally to armed conflict and the declaration of a Provisional Government . Whether or not all of these stages actually come into force , it is clear that the opportunity for the DUP to build up tension , with a consequent open invitation to the sectarian killers to go to 'work' , is there to be exploited .
However loathsome the DUP's 'ballot-box-in-one-hand-and-armalite-behind-the-back' strategy , it has obvious political advantages for them in their attempt to establish themselves as the political spokesmen for Ulster Loyalism and it has to be taken seriously .......
(MORE LATER).
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
TIME MARCHES ON .......
The Easter Commemoration Parades took place this year in the North as usual . At the regular venues - Belfast , Derry , Crossmaglen , Newry - the same Proclamation was read , the usual speeches were made and the routine Army Council message was delivered to the faithful .
The only difference this year was that by Good Friday the North's death toll since 1969 had reached 2,500 and Ireland's longest period of civil disturbance appeared no nearer an end .
Behind much of the violence stands the Provisional IRA , organisers of most Easter Parades and , by their own claims , direct lineal descendants* of the men of 1916 . But how strong are they and for how long can they continue the military and political struggle ?
PATRICK MURPHY reports from Belfast .
First published in 'NEW HIBERNIA' magazine , May 1987 .
(* In 1986 the Provisional IRA abandoned that lineage and offered their support to what was to become a Leinster House-registered political party.)
Like any 'business' , the Provisional IRA intend to stay in operation and like any organisation they have made efforts to maximise their efficiency and to therefore produce a high level of 'satisfaction' for their 'members/shareholders' ; it may sound a callous analysis of what has produced tragic human consequences * in the North of Ireland , but then war - guerilla or otherwise - is a callous 'business' and when all the analysis has been done 'murder' is still the name of the political 'game' . (* '1169 ...' Comment : The root cause of those "tragic human consequences" can be laid firmly at Westminster's doorstep . )
All that stands against the PIRA is the Anglo-Irish Agreement (Hillsborough Treaty) which is rapidly falling into disrepute through its vague terms and ambiguous promises ; like all British initiatives in the past 75 years (sic - even then [ie 1987] , it was over 800 years of 'failed British initiatives') it has produced nothing but violence . The long-term solution in the North of Ireland may be difficult to visualise at the moment , but the short-term solution * is simply to live with the problem . (* '1169....' Comment - The 'long-term solution' is to remove the British military and political presence from Ireland , while the 'short-term solution' is for Irish Republicans to continue fighting for that to be implemented.)
That 'task' falls mainly to the RUC at present and their plea for help to the community shows that they do not relish the prospect . And the 'sad' thing is that nobody , apart from their wives and family , really cares . Like the Provos , most people in the North of Ireland have become 'cost/benefit' conscious and the name of the 'game' is survival.
[END of 'TIME MARCHES ON' .]
(Next - ' WHERE SINN FEIN STANDS' - from January 1970.)
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
The McElwee family's involvement prior to and during Thomas' hunger-strike had brought them almost to the point of exhaustion .
It was suspected that Fr. Denis Faul viewed each meeting about the on-going hunger-strikes as a potential nucleus for an anti-hunger-strike movement ; however , the families of all the prisoners rallied behind those on hunger-strike . After one such meeting , on Friday August 7th 1981 , the families issued a statemrnt which was read by Mrs. Eilish McDonnell , mother of dead hunger-striker Joe McDonnell , which said :
" It is unknown in Irish history for eight young men to die on hunger-strike for the principle of human dignity . We , the prisoners wives , fathers , mothers , brothers and sisters welcome the statements from the protesting prisoners in the H-Blocks and Armagh of July 4th and August 6th . We find them clear , responsible statements . We find the British government guilty of the most callous cruelty and lack of responsibility , care and compassion in the present hunger-strike crisis . We , the relatives , stand in full support of the protesting prisoners and the hunger-strike . "
Fr. Denis Faul was instrumental in having an attack on the Free State government , the SDLP and the Catholic hierarchy deleted , saying that it was all too much for one statement . Thwarted for the time being (by failing to have the whole statement squashed) Fr. Faul's offensive , in the public arena at least , was dormant for a week ; but he 'bounced' back , in full flight , on Friday 14th August 1981 .......
(MORE LATER).
THE 1985 ANGLO-IRISH AGREEMENT - THE SHADOW OF THE GUNMEN .
As the Anglo-Irish talks reach their conclusion , FINTAN O'TOOLE talks to activists of Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party and hears that they would prefer civil war to an accommodation with Dublin .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , November 1985 .
That there are dangers in any Anglo-Irish deal is obvious , but not so obvious that it goes without saying . That there are dangers in not pursuing an agreement is equally obvious . The task at hand for the British and Irish political establishments is to weigh the dangers against the possible gains .
For the Irish (sic) government in particular , compelling reasons have to be found for running the risk of massively increased civil unrest in the North and possible violent action aimed at the South . The political pressure on the administration to 'pull a rabbit out of the hat' and the public relations challenge of presenting the same proposals in two different ways to two different audiences are not sufficient justification for a deal that does not tackle the immediate problems of the North of Ireland . ('1169....' Comment : as far as Irish Republicans are concerned , those "immediate problems" all stem from Westminster's continuing occupation of part of this island.)
In spite of the evidence in history and the repeated statements of Loyalist political leaders , there has been an abiding assumption among Nationalists that the threat of Loyalist violence in 'response' to anything they see as threatening their position in the 'United Kingdom' is a bluff . In this issue of 'MAGILL' we probe the deep psychological disposition towards a violent 'response' by the semi-constitutional party of 'Ulster' Loyalism - the Democratic Unionist Party , which represents nearly half of the Protestant population . The evangelical , often apocalyptic , turn of mind of the DUP gives little ground for hope that they can be swayed by an appeal to rational , pragmatic calculations .
The evidence of 1912 , of 1920 and of 1972 also argues against the belief that the Protestants are bluffing .......
(MORE LATER).
The Easter Commemoration Parades took place this year in the North as usual . At the regular venues - Belfast , Derry , Crossmaglen , Newry - the same Proclamation was read , the usual speeches were made and the routine Army Council message was delivered to the faithful .
The only difference this year was that by Good Friday the North's death toll since 1969 had reached 2,500 and Ireland's longest period of civil disturbance appeared no nearer an end .
Behind much of the violence stands the Provisional IRA , organisers of most Easter Parades and , by their own claims , direct lineal descendants* of the men of 1916 . But how strong are they and for how long can they continue the military and political struggle ?
PATRICK MURPHY reports from Belfast .
First published in 'NEW HIBERNIA' magazine , May 1987 .
(* In 1986 the Provisional IRA abandoned that lineage and offered their support to what was to become a Leinster House-registered political party.)
Like any 'business' , the Provisional IRA intend to stay in operation and like any organisation they have made efforts to maximise their efficiency and to therefore produce a high level of 'satisfaction' for their 'members/shareholders' ; it may sound a callous analysis of what has produced tragic human consequences * in the North of Ireland , but then war - guerilla or otherwise - is a callous 'business' and when all the analysis has been done 'murder' is still the name of the political 'game' . (* '1169 ...' Comment : The root cause of those "tragic human consequences" can be laid firmly at Westminster's doorstep . )
All that stands against the PIRA is the Anglo-Irish Agreement (Hillsborough Treaty) which is rapidly falling into disrepute through its vague terms and ambiguous promises ; like all British initiatives in the past 75 years (sic - even then [ie 1987] , it was over 800 years of 'failed British initiatives') it has produced nothing but violence . The long-term solution in the North of Ireland may be difficult to visualise at the moment , but the short-term solution * is simply to live with the problem . (* '1169....' Comment - The 'long-term solution' is to remove the British military and political presence from Ireland , while the 'short-term solution' is for Irish Republicans to continue fighting for that to be implemented.)
That 'task' falls mainly to the RUC at present and their plea for help to the community shows that they do not relish the prospect . And the 'sad' thing is that nobody , apart from their wives and family , really cares . Like the Provos , most people in the North of Ireland have become 'cost/benefit' conscious and the name of the 'game' is survival.
[END of 'TIME MARCHES ON' .]
(Next - ' WHERE SINN FEIN STANDS' - from January 1970.)
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
The McElwee family's involvement prior to and during Thomas' hunger-strike had brought them almost to the point of exhaustion .
It was suspected that Fr. Denis Faul viewed each meeting about the on-going hunger-strikes as a potential nucleus for an anti-hunger-strike movement ; however , the families of all the prisoners rallied behind those on hunger-strike . After one such meeting , on Friday August 7th 1981 , the families issued a statemrnt which was read by Mrs. Eilish McDonnell , mother of dead hunger-striker Joe McDonnell , which said :
" It is unknown in Irish history for eight young men to die on hunger-strike for the principle of human dignity . We , the prisoners wives , fathers , mothers , brothers and sisters welcome the statements from the protesting prisoners in the H-Blocks and Armagh of July 4th and August 6th . We find them clear , responsible statements . We find the British government guilty of the most callous cruelty and lack of responsibility , care and compassion in the present hunger-strike crisis . We , the relatives , stand in full support of the protesting prisoners and the hunger-strike . "
Fr. Denis Faul was instrumental in having an attack on the Free State government , the SDLP and the Catholic hierarchy deleted , saying that it was all too much for one statement . Thwarted for the time being (by failing to have the whole statement squashed) Fr. Faul's offensive , in the public arena at least , was dormant for a week ; but he 'bounced' back , in full flight , on Friday 14th August 1981 .......
(MORE LATER).
THE 1985 ANGLO-IRISH AGREEMENT - THE SHADOW OF THE GUNMEN .
As the Anglo-Irish talks reach their conclusion , FINTAN O'TOOLE talks to activists of Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party and hears that they would prefer civil war to an accommodation with Dublin .
First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , November 1985 .
That there are dangers in any Anglo-Irish deal is obvious , but not so obvious that it goes without saying . That there are dangers in not pursuing an agreement is equally obvious . The task at hand for the British and Irish political establishments is to weigh the dangers against the possible gains .
For the Irish (sic) government in particular , compelling reasons have to be found for running the risk of massively increased civil unrest in the North and possible violent action aimed at the South . The political pressure on the administration to 'pull a rabbit out of the hat' and the public relations challenge of presenting the same proposals in two different ways to two different audiences are not sufficient justification for a deal that does not tackle the immediate problems of the North of Ireland . ('1169....' Comment : as far as Irish Republicans are concerned , those "immediate problems" all stem from Westminster's continuing occupation of part of this island.)
In spite of the evidence in history and the repeated statements of Loyalist political leaders , there has been an abiding assumption among Nationalists that the threat of Loyalist violence in 'response' to anything they see as threatening their position in the 'United Kingdom' is a bluff . In this issue of 'MAGILL' we probe the deep psychological disposition towards a violent 'response' by the semi-constitutional party of 'Ulster' Loyalism - the Democratic Unionist Party , which represents nearly half of the Protestant population . The evangelical , often apocalyptic , turn of mind of the DUP gives little ground for hope that they can be swayed by an appeal to rational , pragmatic calculations .
The evidence of 1912 , of 1920 and of 1972 also argues against the belief that the Protestants are bluffing .......
(MORE LATER).
Monday, January 09, 2006
TIME MARCHES ON .......
The Easter Commemoration Parades took place this year in the North as usual . At the regular venues - Belfast , Derry , Crossmaglen , Newry - the same Proclamation was read , the usual speeches were made and the routine Army Council message was delivered to the faithful .
The only difference this year was that by Good Friday the North's death toll since 1969 had reached 2,500 and Ireland's longest period of civil disturbance appeared no nearer an end .
Behind much of the violence stands the Provisional IRA , organisers of most Easter Parades and , by their own claims , direct lineal descendants* of the men of 1916 . But how strong are they and for how long can they continue the military and political struggle ?
PATRICK MURPHY reports from Belfast .
First published in 'NEW HIBERNIA' magazine , May 1987 .
(* In 1986 the Provisional IRA abandoned that lineage and offered their support to what was to become a Leinster House-registered political party.)
Recent killings prompted the RUC to issue a unique statement in which they asked for support from the public (!) ; it is only this type of support which can counter the PIRA operations , but it is unlikely to be forthcoming from all Nationalists in the foreseeable future and thus the bullet in the back of the head strategy is likely to be with us for some time to come .
Logistically , it is but one step up from shooting UDR men at or near their homes or at other so-called ' soft targets' in their place of work or recreation . Militarily , the PIRA operations are simple , and represent the first serious 'cost/benefit' analysis by the Provos in recent years and they provide a unique form of 'occupational therapy' for what would otherwise be a bored standing army .
Politically they do neither harm nor good in the context of support for (P) Sinn Fein ; Gerry Adams will be returned as MP for West Belfast no matter how many RUC/UDR men live or die . The deaths simply keep the political pot boiling , and represent a challenge to the Hillsborough Treaty (the 'Anglo-Irish Agreement') - the killings maintain the high level of sectarian fear within which the Provos can continue to operate . ('1169...' Comment - any 'sectarian fear' on this island was 'introduced' , maintained and , indeed , encouraged , by the British for their own purpose ie to allow Westminster to claim themselves as 'neutral peace-keepers' in Ireland.)
And the PIRA can continue to operate indefinitely because militarily they cannot lose * : equally true is the fact (?) that they cannot win , but if you were Chief of Staff of the Provisionals what would you do ? Fight on or give up ? There is only one alternative open to the Provos because to give up is to disband .......
(* "...cannot lose.. " ? The Provisionals 'lost' to themselves : any organisation , which has elements within its leadership who work for over two decades for the alleged enemy , is bound to 'lose' . )
(MORE LATER).
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
On Friday July 31st 1981 , Paddy Quinn's mother authorised medical intervention to save her son's life because she could not bear "...the sight of him kicking and screaming in so much pain.. " Paddy had prematurely slipped into a coma after forty-seven days on hunger-strike .
Bishop Daly of Derry lost no time in exploiting the situation by recommending Mrs. Quinn's action to the mothers of all the hunger-strikers . At 1.00AM on August 1st 1981 Kevin Lynch died after seventy-one days on hunger-strike . That evening , at a meeting which was attended by , amongst others , Cardinal O'Fiaich , Fr. Faul , Bernadette McAliskey (of the 'National H-Block/Armagh Committee' and a staunch defender of the prisoners) and Belfast solicitor Oliver Kelly , the 'monitoring committee' proposal was formally dropped and in its place the 'Help the Prisoners Committee' was formed . All that was missing was the actual words '...to help themselves..'
This Committee issued a statement supporting the prisoners' July 4th position - that was one of only two statements issued by that Committee to find its way into print . On Sunday August 2nd 1981 Kieran Doherty TD died at 7.15PM after seventy-three days on hunger-strike . His father , Alfie Doherty , who , along with Kieran's mother , Margaret , had been exhaustingly active in the hunger-strike campaign , had verbally attacked Fr. Denis Faul for putting pressure on the prisoners and their families instead of on the British . Then Fr. Faul announced a meeting of relatives of all protesting prisoners to take place in Clonard Hall , Belfast , on Friday August 7th 1981 : the idea for such a meeting came from Mrs. Alice McElwee , mother of Thomas McElwee , who viewed it as a means of mobilising all the
families of H-Block prisoners to involve themselves in the hunger-strike campaign .......
(MORE LATER).
THUGGERY : THE UGLY FACE OF SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
In early April 1982 , members of Sinn Fein The Workers Party seriously injured an American reporter outside McEnaney's Pub beside Andersonstown RUC Barracks and left him unconscious on the footpath . His 'offence' was to be in the company of a woman who was selling the IRSP newspaper .
The brother of a well-known SFWP member was present during the beating of the reporter and then walked by saying that he had seen nothing . In 1973 a former member of SFWP was beaten by two very prominent members of SFWP in a bar in Belfast for 'indiscipline' - they cracked his ribs and broke his nose . One of the people involved in this beating is a very prominent spokesperson for SFWP in Belfast .
Later this same victim was kneecapped by the Official IRA having been enticed to Dundalk , County Louth .
[END of 'THUGGERY : THE UGLY FACE OF SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY' .]
(Tomorrow - 'THE 1985 ANGLO-IRISH AGREEMENT : IN THE SHADOW OF THE GUNMEN' : from 1985.)
The Easter Commemoration Parades took place this year in the North as usual . At the regular venues - Belfast , Derry , Crossmaglen , Newry - the same Proclamation was read , the usual speeches were made and the routine Army Council message was delivered to the faithful .
The only difference this year was that by Good Friday the North's death toll since 1969 had reached 2,500 and Ireland's longest period of civil disturbance appeared no nearer an end .
Behind much of the violence stands the Provisional IRA , organisers of most Easter Parades and , by their own claims , direct lineal descendants* of the men of 1916 . But how strong are they and for how long can they continue the military and political struggle ?
PATRICK MURPHY reports from Belfast .
First published in 'NEW HIBERNIA' magazine , May 1987 .
(* In 1986 the Provisional IRA abandoned that lineage and offered their support to what was to become a Leinster House-registered political party.)
Recent killings prompted the RUC to issue a unique statement in which they asked for support from the public (!) ; it is only this type of support which can counter the PIRA operations , but it is unlikely to be forthcoming from all Nationalists in the foreseeable future and thus the bullet in the back of the head strategy is likely to be with us for some time to come .
Logistically , it is but one step up from shooting UDR men at or near their homes or at other so-called ' soft targets' in their place of work or recreation . Militarily , the PIRA operations are simple , and represent the first serious 'cost/benefit' analysis by the Provos in recent years and they provide a unique form of 'occupational therapy' for what would otherwise be a bored standing army .
Politically they do neither harm nor good in the context of support for (P) Sinn Fein ; Gerry Adams will be returned as MP for West Belfast no matter how many RUC/UDR men live or die . The deaths simply keep the political pot boiling , and represent a challenge to the Hillsborough Treaty (the 'Anglo-Irish Agreement') - the killings maintain the high level of sectarian fear within which the Provos can continue to operate . ('1169...' Comment - any 'sectarian fear' on this island was 'introduced' , maintained and , indeed , encouraged , by the British for their own purpose ie to allow Westminster to claim themselves as 'neutral peace-keepers' in Ireland.)
And the PIRA can continue to operate indefinitely because militarily they cannot lose * : equally true is the fact (?) that they cannot win , but if you were Chief of Staff of the Provisionals what would you do ? Fight on or give up ? There is only one alternative open to the Provos because to give up is to disband .......
(* "...cannot lose.. " ? The Provisionals 'lost' to themselves : any organisation , which has elements within its leadership who work for over two decades for the alleged enemy , is bound to 'lose' . )
(MORE LATER).
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
On Friday July 31st 1981 , Paddy Quinn's mother authorised medical intervention to save her son's life because she could not bear "...the sight of him kicking and screaming in so much pain.. " Paddy had prematurely slipped into a coma after forty-seven days on hunger-strike .
Bishop Daly of Derry lost no time in exploiting the situation by recommending Mrs. Quinn's action to the mothers of all the hunger-strikers . At 1.00AM on August 1st 1981 Kevin Lynch died after seventy-one days on hunger-strike . That evening , at a meeting which was attended by , amongst others , Cardinal O'Fiaich , Fr. Faul , Bernadette McAliskey (of the 'National H-Block/Armagh Committee' and a staunch defender of the prisoners) and Belfast solicitor Oliver Kelly , the 'monitoring committee' proposal was formally dropped and in its place the 'Help the Prisoners Committee' was formed . All that was missing was the actual words '...to help themselves..'
This Committee issued a statement supporting the prisoners' July 4th position - that was one of only two statements issued by that Committee to find its way into print . On Sunday August 2nd 1981 Kieran Doherty TD died at 7.15PM after seventy-three days on hunger-strike . His father , Alfie Doherty , who , along with Kieran's mother , Margaret , had been exhaustingly active in the hunger-strike campaign , had verbally attacked Fr. Denis Faul for putting pressure on the prisoners and their families instead of on the British . Then Fr. Faul announced a meeting of relatives of all protesting prisoners to take place in Clonard Hall , Belfast , on Friday August 7th 1981 : the idea for such a meeting came from Mrs. Alice McElwee , mother of Thomas McElwee , who viewed it as a means of mobilising all the
families of H-Block prisoners to involve themselves in the hunger-strike campaign .......
(MORE LATER).
THUGGERY : THE UGLY FACE OF SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
In early April 1982 , members of Sinn Fein The Workers Party seriously injured an American reporter outside McEnaney's Pub beside Andersonstown RUC Barracks and left him unconscious on the footpath . His 'offence' was to be in the company of a woman who was selling the IRSP newspaper .
The brother of a well-known SFWP member was present during the beating of the reporter and then walked by saying that he had seen nothing . In 1973 a former member of SFWP was beaten by two very prominent members of SFWP in a bar in Belfast for 'indiscipline' - they cracked his ribs and broke his nose . One of the people involved in this beating is a very prominent spokesperson for SFWP in Belfast .
Later this same victim was kneecapped by the Official IRA having been enticed to Dundalk , County Louth .
[END of 'THUGGERY : THE UGLY FACE OF SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY' .]
(Tomorrow - 'THE 1985 ANGLO-IRISH AGREEMENT : IN THE SHADOW OF THE GUNMEN' : from 1985.)
Friday, January 06, 2006
TIME MARCHES ON .......
The Easter Commemoration Parades took place this year in the North as usual . At the regular venues - Belfast , Derry , Crossmaglen , Newry - the same Proclamation was read , the usual speeches were made and the routine Army Council message was delivered to the faithful .
The only difference this year was that by Good Friday the North's death toll since 1969 had reached 2,500 and Ireland's longest period of civil disturbance appeared no nearer an end .
Behind much of the violence stands the Provisional IRA , organisers of most Easter Parades and , by their own claims , direct lineal descendants* of the men of 1916 . But how strong are they and for how long can they continue the military and political struggle ?
PATRICK MURPHY reports from Belfast .
First published in 'NEW HIBERNIA' magazine , May 1987 .
(* In 1986 the Provisional IRA abandoned that lineage and offered their support to what was to become a Leinster House-registered political party.)
Consider the alternatives to the two methods of fighting : two young-fellow's sit in a car or hang about a car-park in a quiet Loyalist town , such as Portrush or Newcastle , wait for an RUC member or two to walk down the street , shoot him/them and make their escape .
There is little planning needed (RUC members have to walk down most streets in the North every day ) , handguns are by far the easiest weapons to transport - certainly more convenient than half a ton of explosives - and there are no local contacts who can be picked up by the RUC afterwards to find out the structure of the operation . The effect is quite devastating and its psychological impact on the community is enormous .
The secret of success is simple ; there are 'two' RUC's in the North of Ireland - there is the RUC of the Falls Road , the Bogside , Newry and Crossmaglen and there is the RUC of Newtownards , Comber , Portrush , Newcastle , Ballynahinch and Ballymoney : the RUC in Bangor does not expect to be hit - the RUC in Strabane does . So you hit them where they do not expect it - hardly an original guerilla war idea , and you hit them in a way that they neither expect nor can counter . The only way to stop a two-person RUC patrol being shot in the back of the head is for one of them to walk backwards down the street at all times .
Quite simply there is no effective counter-measure that the RUC can adopt .......
(MORE LATER).
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
What had emerged over a two-day period was the involvement in varying degrees and roles of Fr. Denis Faul , Fr. Oliver Crilly and Cardinal O' Fiaich in an attempt to bring an immediate and unconditional end to the hunger-strike ; Fr. Crilly was tasked with providing a completely implausible and incredible 'way out' for the hunger-strikers in which was inherent all of Faul's reasoning the previous week at his meeting with Sinn Fein's Eamonn McCrory - '...help the prisoners to help themselves..' etc .
Faul provided the pressure on the prisoners supporters through subterfuge and exploitation of the emotions of the hunger-strikers families . And Cardinal O' Fiaich , to whom Faul was conceivably 'reporting-in' to on the morning of Wednesday July 29th 1981 , when Gerry Adams was attempting to contact Faul , was on hand to arrange any necessary facilities with regard to prison visits which might arise .
The following morning , Thursday July 30th 1981 , Gerry Adams rang Fr. Faul who expressed his satisfaction that Adams had done everything possible in appraising the hunger-strikers of the grim reality of their situation . But at another meeting he held with the families , again in Toomebridge , later that day , he cast aspersions on the credibility of Adams' account of what took place inside the prison ; to his 'arsenal' of lies and emotional exploitation , Fr. Faul had now added the undermining of the prisoners' supporters as a weapon towards his ends .
From this point onward Faul ignored the 'bulldozer' tactics he had employed on the evening of Tuesday July 28th 1981 , opting for a more sedate pace involving moral exploitation , undermining the prisoners and vilification of the prisoners' supporters on the outside while all the time maintaining his public image by reiterating his 'support' of the prisoners' five demands .......
(MORE LATER).
THUGGERY : THE UGLY FACE OF SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
BEATINGS , KNEE-CAPPING AND INTIMIDATIONS , 1975-1982 :
There are countless stories in Belfast of these incidents involving members of the Official IRA , and they are certainly a weekly , if not daily , occurrance .
Only earlier this month the Official IRA were involved in kneecappings of two brothers in the Moyard housing estate . During the hunger-strike protest last year the OIRA intimidated several pub owners into either refusing to close during hunger-strike funerals or , as in one case , forcing a publican to remain closed for one week in retaliation for closing during a funeral .
Members of Sinn Fein The Workers Party also carried out a vendetta against members of the IRSP .......
(MORE LATER).
The Easter Commemoration Parades took place this year in the North as usual . At the regular venues - Belfast , Derry , Crossmaglen , Newry - the same Proclamation was read , the usual speeches were made and the routine Army Council message was delivered to the faithful .
The only difference this year was that by Good Friday the North's death toll since 1969 had reached 2,500 and Ireland's longest period of civil disturbance appeared no nearer an end .
Behind much of the violence stands the Provisional IRA , organisers of most Easter Parades and , by their own claims , direct lineal descendants* of the men of 1916 . But how strong are they and for how long can they continue the military and political struggle ?
PATRICK MURPHY reports from Belfast .
First published in 'NEW HIBERNIA' magazine , May 1987 .
(* In 1986 the Provisional IRA abandoned that lineage and offered their support to what was to become a Leinster House-registered political party.)
Consider the alternatives to the two methods of fighting : two young-fellow's sit in a car or hang about a car-park in a quiet Loyalist town , such as Portrush or Newcastle , wait for an RUC member or two to walk down the street , shoot him/them and make their escape .
There is little planning needed (RUC members have to walk down most streets in the North every day ) , handguns are by far the easiest weapons to transport - certainly more convenient than half a ton of explosives - and there are no local contacts who can be picked up by the RUC afterwards to find out the structure of the operation . The effect is quite devastating and its psychological impact on the community is enormous .
The secret of success is simple ; there are 'two' RUC's in the North of Ireland - there is the RUC of the Falls Road , the Bogside , Newry and Crossmaglen and there is the RUC of Newtownards , Comber , Portrush , Newcastle , Ballynahinch and Ballymoney : the RUC in Bangor does not expect to be hit - the RUC in Strabane does . So you hit them where they do not expect it - hardly an original guerilla war idea , and you hit them in a way that they neither expect nor can counter . The only way to stop a two-person RUC patrol being shot in the back of the head is for one of them to walk backwards down the street at all times .
Quite simply there is no effective counter-measure that the RUC can adopt .......
(MORE LATER).
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
What had emerged over a two-day period was the involvement in varying degrees and roles of Fr. Denis Faul , Fr. Oliver Crilly and Cardinal O' Fiaich in an attempt to bring an immediate and unconditional end to the hunger-strike ; Fr. Crilly was tasked with providing a completely implausible and incredible 'way out' for the hunger-strikers in which was inherent all of Faul's reasoning the previous week at his meeting with Sinn Fein's Eamonn McCrory - '...help the prisoners to help themselves..' etc .
Faul provided the pressure on the prisoners supporters through subterfuge and exploitation of the emotions of the hunger-strikers families . And Cardinal O' Fiaich , to whom Faul was conceivably 'reporting-in' to on the morning of Wednesday July 29th 1981 , when Gerry Adams was attempting to contact Faul , was on hand to arrange any necessary facilities with regard to prison visits which might arise .
The following morning , Thursday July 30th 1981 , Gerry Adams rang Fr. Faul who expressed his satisfaction that Adams had done everything possible in appraising the hunger-strikers of the grim reality of their situation . But at another meeting he held with the families , again in Toomebridge , later that day , he cast aspersions on the credibility of Adams' account of what took place inside the prison ; to his 'arsenal' of lies and emotional exploitation , Fr. Faul had now added the undermining of the prisoners' supporters as a weapon towards his ends .
From this point onward Faul ignored the 'bulldozer' tactics he had employed on the evening of Tuesday July 28th 1981 , opting for a more sedate pace involving moral exploitation , undermining the prisoners and vilification of the prisoners' supporters on the outside while all the time maintaining his public image by reiterating his 'support' of the prisoners' five demands .......
(MORE LATER).
THUGGERY : THE UGLY FACE OF SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
BEATINGS , KNEE-CAPPING AND INTIMIDATIONS , 1975-1982 :
There are countless stories in Belfast of these incidents involving members of the Official IRA , and they are certainly a weekly , if not daily , occurrance .
Only earlier this month the Official IRA were involved in kneecappings of two brothers in the Moyard housing estate . During the hunger-strike protest last year the OIRA intimidated several pub owners into either refusing to close during hunger-strike funerals or , as in one case , forcing a publican to remain closed for one week in retaliation for closing during a funeral .
Members of Sinn Fein The Workers Party also carried out a vendetta against members of the IRSP .......
(MORE LATER).
Thursday, January 05, 2006
TIME MARCHES ON .......
The Easter Commemoration Parades took place this year in the North as usual . At the regular venues - Belfast , Derry , Crossmaglen , Newry - the same Proclamation was read , the usual speeches were made and the routine Army Council message was delivered to the faithful .
The only difference this year was that by Good Friday the North's death toll since 1969 had reached 2,500 and Ireland's longest period of civil disturbance appeared no nearer an end .
Behind much of the violence stands the Provisional IRA , organisers of most Easter Parades and , by their own claims , direct lineal descendants* of the men of 1916 . But how strong are they and for how long can they continue the military and political struggle ?
PATRICK MURPHY reports from Belfast .
First published in 'NEW HIBERNIA' magazine , May 1987 .
(* In 1986 the Provisional IRA abandoned that lineage and offered their support to what was to become a Leinster House-registered political party.)
Gone are the days when shots were fired at passing RUC patrols or massive landmines destroyed inadequately armoured RUC cars on border duty ; in early 1987 the tactics were switched towards the bullet in the back of the head and the success rate has been phenomenal , although the death of 'Lord Justice' Gibson shows that the Provos have not put all their eggs in one tactical basket .
The reason for the bullet in the back of the head is simple - logistically it is much easier to operate . A landmine operation can take up to a month to prepare , and sometmes longer , as it requires the movement of massive amounts of explosives , normally across country for at least the final part of the journey and , depending on the physical details of the culvert or bridge , anything up to three nights preparing , priming and running wires/fixing radio equipment .
An IRA operation like that would need at least four men , and often up to a dozen , with all of them being exposed at various points before the operation . All are potential security risks and all could 'talk' years afterwards if arrested : the operation itself can involve a wait of up to a month for a suitable vehicle to come along and the RUC are sufficiently flexible to vary their patrol routines in strategic areas . Thus up to a dozen men can be occupied for anything up to two months in the hope of carrying out an operation and always there exists the risk of prior discovery .
This type of operation can be countered by surveillance and by routine intelligence work and generally it represents the old style guerilla campaign which has varied little (apart from the radio switches) since West Cork in 1921 .......
(MORE LATER).
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
The content and outcome of a meeting held on Wednesday July 29th 1981 are now well recorded historical fact - over a period of hours , Gerry Adams , Brendan McFarlane , Owen Carron and Seamus Ruddy saw all the hunger-strikers with the exception of Kevin Lynch whose deteriorating condition prevented him from being present . Having outlined the reasons for their visit the deputation , as requested , gave a painful but necessarily frank assessment of the situation to the hunger-strikers .
In a statement , prepared in conjunction with the hunger-strikers , Gerry Adams said afterwards : " We gave them a factual and hard breakdown on their position - that is , that they would all be dead very soon . They told us , individually and collectively , that they were determined to continue with the hunger-strike until the British government was pressurised into meeting in a commonsense manner with the protesting prisoners on the hunger-strikers' position as outlined in their July 4th 1981 statement . "
The hunger-strikers were fully aware of the situation outside the prison , of its inevitable consequences to themselves , but they were totally determined to continue . One other previously unknown fact arose at that July 29th 1981 meeting - Fr. Oliver Crilly of the ICJP had been in the prison the previous day to see Thomas McElwee with a proposal that the hunger-strike should be suspended to allow a 'monitoring committee' to ensure the implementation of British government commitments ; Fr. Oliver Crilly was to attend the meeting with the families later that day at Toomebridge but did not accompany them to the Belfast meeting late that night .
This strange proposal was obviously a non-starter simply because it had no basis - the British government had not given any public commitments : there was nothing to monitor and as such it was rejected that night as totally implausible by the hunger-strikers and Brendan McFarlane who had been brought from the cells to the hospital wing .......
(MORE LATER).
THUGGERY : THE UGLY FACE OF SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
JOE McCABE : SHOT IN THE HEAD , AUGUST 1980 -
There was a riot taking place in the vicinity of Divis Flats close to midnight between local youths and British soldiers .
Official IRA men emerged armed from the vicinity of their drinking club in Cyprus Street - they had two rifles and a handgun . They opened fire on the rioters , hitting 18 year-old Joe McCabe in the back of the head .
As McCabe lay on the ground seriously injured , one of the Official IRA men , who had been in school with him , came up and kicked him .
(Tomorrow - 'Beatings , knee-capping and intimidations ; 1975-1982' .)
(MORE LATER).
The Easter Commemoration Parades took place this year in the North as usual . At the regular venues - Belfast , Derry , Crossmaglen , Newry - the same Proclamation was read , the usual speeches were made and the routine Army Council message was delivered to the faithful .
The only difference this year was that by Good Friday the North's death toll since 1969 had reached 2,500 and Ireland's longest period of civil disturbance appeared no nearer an end .
Behind much of the violence stands the Provisional IRA , organisers of most Easter Parades and , by their own claims , direct lineal descendants* of the men of 1916 . But how strong are they and for how long can they continue the military and political struggle ?
PATRICK MURPHY reports from Belfast .
First published in 'NEW HIBERNIA' magazine , May 1987 .
(* In 1986 the Provisional IRA abandoned that lineage and offered their support to what was to become a Leinster House-registered political party.)
Gone are the days when shots were fired at passing RUC patrols or massive landmines destroyed inadequately armoured RUC cars on border duty ; in early 1987 the tactics were switched towards the bullet in the back of the head and the success rate has been phenomenal , although the death of 'Lord Justice' Gibson shows that the Provos have not put all their eggs in one tactical basket .
The reason for the bullet in the back of the head is simple - logistically it is much easier to operate . A landmine operation can take up to a month to prepare , and sometmes longer , as it requires the movement of massive amounts of explosives , normally across country for at least the final part of the journey and , depending on the physical details of the culvert or bridge , anything up to three nights preparing , priming and running wires/fixing radio equipment .
An IRA operation like that would need at least four men , and often up to a dozen , with all of them being exposed at various points before the operation . All are potential security risks and all could 'talk' years afterwards if arrested : the operation itself can involve a wait of up to a month for a suitable vehicle to come along and the RUC are sufficiently flexible to vary their patrol routines in strategic areas . Thus up to a dozen men can be occupied for anything up to two months in the hope of carrying out an operation and always there exists the risk of prior discovery .
This type of operation can be countered by surveillance and by routine intelligence work and generally it represents the old style guerilla campaign which has varied little (apart from the radio switches) since West Cork in 1921 .......
(MORE LATER).
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
The content and outcome of a meeting held on Wednesday July 29th 1981 are now well recorded historical fact - over a period of hours , Gerry Adams , Brendan McFarlane , Owen Carron and Seamus Ruddy saw all the hunger-strikers with the exception of Kevin Lynch whose deteriorating condition prevented him from being present . Having outlined the reasons for their visit the deputation , as requested , gave a painful but necessarily frank assessment of the situation to the hunger-strikers .
In a statement , prepared in conjunction with the hunger-strikers , Gerry Adams said afterwards : " We gave them a factual and hard breakdown on their position - that is , that they would all be dead very soon . They told us , individually and collectively , that they were determined to continue with the hunger-strike until the British government was pressurised into meeting in a commonsense manner with the protesting prisoners on the hunger-strikers' position as outlined in their July 4th 1981 statement . "
The hunger-strikers were fully aware of the situation outside the prison , of its inevitable consequences to themselves , but they were totally determined to continue . One other previously unknown fact arose at that July 29th 1981 meeting - Fr. Oliver Crilly of the ICJP had been in the prison the previous day to see Thomas McElwee with a proposal that the hunger-strike should be suspended to allow a 'monitoring committee' to ensure the implementation of British government commitments ; Fr. Oliver Crilly was to attend the meeting with the families later that day at Toomebridge but did not accompany them to the Belfast meeting late that night .
This strange proposal was obviously a non-starter simply because it had no basis - the British government had not given any public commitments : there was nothing to monitor and as such it was rejected that night as totally implausible by the hunger-strikers and Brendan McFarlane who had been brought from the cells to the hospital wing .......
(MORE LATER).
THUGGERY : THE UGLY FACE OF SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
JOE McCABE : SHOT IN THE HEAD , AUGUST 1980 -
There was a riot taking place in the vicinity of Divis Flats close to midnight between local youths and British soldiers .
Official IRA men emerged armed from the vicinity of their drinking club in Cyprus Street - they had two rifles and a handgun . They opened fire on the rioters , hitting 18 year-old Joe McCabe in the back of the head .
As McCabe lay on the ground seriously injured , one of the Official IRA men , who had been in school with him , came up and kicked him .
(Tomorrow - 'Beatings , knee-capping and intimidations ; 1975-1982' .)
(MORE LATER).
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Bhi an saoire caite inne !
The holiday was over yesterday !
....great to be back ; we continue from where we left off on Wednesday 21 December last ...
But first ...three years before the Sinn Fein organisation was founded ; three years after 'The United Irishman' newspaper was founded ; and Anna Johnston died in this year : 1902 . This man , a legend amongst Irish Republicans , was born that year , and celebrated his 104th birthday on Monday last , January 2nd ! 'Respect' , Dan - Congratulations ! From the '1169....' team .
TIME MARCHES ON .......
The Easter Commemoration Parades took place this year in the North as usual . At the regular venues - Belfast , Derry , Crossmaglen , Newry - the same Proclamation was read , the usual speeches were made and the routine Army Council message was delivered to the faithful .
The only difference this year was that by Good Friday the North's death toll since 1969 had reached 2,500 and Ireland's longest period of civil disturbance appeared no nearer an end .
Behind much of the violence stands the Provisional IRA , organisers of most Easter Parades and , by their own claims , direct lineal descendants* of the men of 1916 . But how strong are they and for how long can they continue the military and political struggle ?
PATRICK MURPHY reports from Belfast .
First published in 'NEW HIBERNIA' magazine , May 1987 .
(* In 1986 the Provisional IRA abandoned that lineage and offered their support to what was to become a Leinster House-registered political party.)
In military terms , British Army personnel are the more difficult to hit ; of course they are by no means impossible to hit , but their military alertness , their firepower , their training and their mobility make them a more difficult target . The problem with fighting the British Army is that they are likely to fire at you first and even if they do not you normally only get one shot at them before they start firing back .
In recent years the alternative tactic has been to bombard their bases with mortar shells and although this has had marked success against the RUC - notably in Newry - the British Army have survived largely intact from this type of attack . British Army superiority in the air and the PIRA inability to bring down helicopters has meant that there really is no contest on a military level between the two sides .
The difficulty in hitting the British Army has been accompanied by a political shift of emphasis in the Westminster 'Northern Ireland (sic) Office' where dead RUC/UDR bodies are apparently more acceptable than dead British bodies ; the switch towards the priority of the RUC as the main 'security force' with the British Army as the 'back-up' organisation has been justified by 'NIO' sources in terms of the primacy of the RUC and the need for an 'acceptable police force' as a foundation for political stability in the North of Ireland . ('1169.... Comment - There will never be 'political stability in the North' as long as Westminster maintains its military and political presence in this country.)
But the political unacceptability of military funerals on a regular basis in Britain must also be a factor and with less British Army personnel on the ground the PIRA have 'obliged' the British by hitting at the softest targets ; ' ...if the Provos must kill people , let them kill the Irish ..' , runs the British 'logic' .
And kill the Provos certainly have .......
(MORE LATER).
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
Fr. Denis Faul's complete and deliberate distortion of the truth had achieved for him what he wanted ; he had created a 'chink' in the hitherto unified front of prisoners , hunger-strikers' relatives and prisoners' supporters .
Unashamedly , and with single mindedness , after having been proved in the presence of more than a score of people to have been deliberately untruthful , Faul pressed ahead with his primary intention of having the hunger-strike ended immediately . Like the ICJP before him , he was attempting to use the families of the hunger-strikers as a 'pressure group' towards that end . However , even in this he did'nt have things his own way , coming under vociferous attack , particularly from Mrs Margaret Doherty - Kieran's mother - and members of Thomas McElwee's family who were aghast at the idea of removing pressure from the British and putting it on the prisoners .
But given that Faul's premise for forcing this meeting to take place in the first instance was entirely incorrect - a fact of which he himself was fully aware - the meeting was largely inconclusive ; only one of the several aspects of the discussion could be dealt with . Some of the families raised doubts about whether their relatives on hunger-strike were fully appraised of the political situation outside the prison and its grim consequences for those on hunger-strike . Despite the fact that this was not the case - communications detailing all the known facts accompanied by a full assessment of their implications , were been smuggled into the prison on a daily , and often on a twice daily , basis - Gerry Adams , the following day , contacted Fr. Denis Faul to see if arrangements could be made whereby he could see the hunger-strikers in order to allay those particular fears of the families : after some initial failures , Adams eventually contacted Faul at Cardinal O'Fiaich's residence in Armagh city .
It was in fact Cardinal O' Fiaich who made the necessary arrangements with the British administration at Stormont to facilitate an unprecedented visit between Gerry Adams , the hunger-strikers and the prisoners' representative , Brendan McFarlane , on the afternoon of Wednesday , July 29th 1981 . Also present at that meeting were Owen Carron of Sinn Fein and Seamus Ruddy of the IRSP .......
(MORE LATER).
THUGGERY : THE UGLY FACE OF SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
The murder of Hugh Halloran , September 8 , 1979 :
Hugh Halloran , a former member of Sinn Fein The Workers Party , was 'sentenced' to a beating for indiscipline : he was beaten to death with hurley sticks by members of the Official IRA in Belfast .
Two of the men responsible for the murder fled to Cork , where they were looked after by local Official IRA contacts . Meanwhile , public outrage over the killing evinced from Seamus Harrison , who 'mans' the Sinn Fein The Workers Party office in Belfast's Springfield Road , this comment : " Our party wishes to place on record its absolute condemnation and disgust at these murders (caused by street violence generally) . Those responsible showed callous disregard for human life by their unprovoked assaults against innocent and harmless people . "
Public re-action became so intense that the Official IRA decided to order the culprits back from Cork and give themselves up to the RUC ; Francis Macklin of Britton's Parade , Belfast , and Stephen Hunter of Ballymurphy Road , Belfast , duly arrived in Newry and gave theselves up at the RUC Barracks there .
In the course of their trial , their counsel told the court that they had been approached by two Official IRA men and told they would be shot if they refused to return to the North to confess the killing : Macklin was jailed for 15 years and Hunter for 13 years .
(Tomorrow - Joe McCabe - shot in the head in August 1980.)
(MORE LATER).
The holiday was over yesterday !
....great to be back ; we continue from where we left off on Wednesday 21 December last ...
But first ...three years before the Sinn Fein organisation was founded ; three years after 'The United Irishman' newspaper was founded ; and Anna Johnston died in this year : 1902 . This man , a legend amongst Irish Republicans , was born that year , and celebrated his 104th birthday on Monday last , January 2nd ! 'Respect' , Dan - Congratulations ! From the '1169....' team .
TIME MARCHES ON .......
The Easter Commemoration Parades took place this year in the North as usual . At the regular venues - Belfast , Derry , Crossmaglen , Newry - the same Proclamation was read , the usual speeches were made and the routine Army Council message was delivered to the faithful .
The only difference this year was that by Good Friday the North's death toll since 1969 had reached 2,500 and Ireland's longest period of civil disturbance appeared no nearer an end .
Behind much of the violence stands the Provisional IRA , organisers of most Easter Parades and , by their own claims , direct lineal descendants* of the men of 1916 . But how strong are they and for how long can they continue the military and political struggle ?
PATRICK MURPHY reports from Belfast .
First published in 'NEW HIBERNIA' magazine , May 1987 .
(* In 1986 the Provisional IRA abandoned that lineage and offered their support to what was to become a Leinster House-registered political party.)
In military terms , British Army personnel are the more difficult to hit ; of course they are by no means impossible to hit , but their military alertness , their firepower , their training and their mobility make them a more difficult target . The problem with fighting the British Army is that they are likely to fire at you first and even if they do not you normally only get one shot at them before they start firing back .
In recent years the alternative tactic has been to bombard their bases with mortar shells and although this has had marked success against the RUC - notably in Newry - the British Army have survived largely intact from this type of attack . British Army superiority in the air and the PIRA inability to bring down helicopters has meant that there really is no contest on a military level between the two sides .
The difficulty in hitting the British Army has been accompanied by a political shift of emphasis in the Westminster 'Northern Ireland (sic) Office' where dead RUC/UDR bodies are apparently more acceptable than dead British bodies ; the switch towards the priority of the RUC as the main 'security force' with the British Army as the 'back-up' organisation has been justified by 'NIO' sources in terms of the primacy of the RUC and the need for an 'acceptable police force' as a foundation for political stability in the North of Ireland . ('1169.... Comment - There will never be 'political stability in the North' as long as Westminster maintains its military and political presence in this country.)
But the political unacceptability of military funerals on a regular basis in Britain must also be a factor and with less British Army personnel on the ground the PIRA have 'obliged' the British by hitting at the softest targets ; ' ...if the Provos must kill people , let them kill the Irish ..' , runs the British 'logic' .
And kill the Provos certainly have .......
(MORE LATER).
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
Fr. Denis Faul's complete and deliberate distortion of the truth had achieved for him what he wanted ; he had created a 'chink' in the hitherto unified front of prisoners , hunger-strikers' relatives and prisoners' supporters .
Unashamedly , and with single mindedness , after having been proved in the presence of more than a score of people to have been deliberately untruthful , Faul pressed ahead with his primary intention of having the hunger-strike ended immediately . Like the ICJP before him , he was attempting to use the families of the hunger-strikers as a 'pressure group' towards that end . However , even in this he did'nt have things his own way , coming under vociferous attack , particularly from Mrs Margaret Doherty - Kieran's mother - and members of Thomas McElwee's family who were aghast at the idea of removing pressure from the British and putting it on the prisoners .
But given that Faul's premise for forcing this meeting to take place in the first instance was entirely incorrect - a fact of which he himself was fully aware - the meeting was largely inconclusive ; only one of the several aspects of the discussion could be dealt with . Some of the families raised doubts about whether their relatives on hunger-strike were fully appraised of the political situation outside the prison and its grim consequences for those on hunger-strike . Despite the fact that this was not the case - communications detailing all the known facts accompanied by a full assessment of their implications , were been smuggled into the prison on a daily , and often on a twice daily , basis - Gerry Adams , the following day , contacted Fr. Denis Faul to see if arrangements could be made whereby he could see the hunger-strikers in order to allay those particular fears of the families : after some initial failures , Adams eventually contacted Faul at Cardinal O'Fiaich's residence in Armagh city .
It was in fact Cardinal O' Fiaich who made the necessary arrangements with the British administration at Stormont to facilitate an unprecedented visit between Gerry Adams , the hunger-strikers and the prisoners' representative , Brendan McFarlane , on the afternoon of Wednesday , July 29th 1981 . Also present at that meeting were Owen Carron of Sinn Fein and Seamus Ruddy of the IRSP .......
(MORE LATER).
THUGGERY : THE UGLY FACE OF SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
The murder of Hugh Halloran , September 8 , 1979 :
Hugh Halloran , a former member of Sinn Fein The Workers Party , was 'sentenced' to a beating for indiscipline : he was beaten to death with hurley sticks by members of the Official IRA in Belfast .
Two of the men responsible for the murder fled to Cork , where they were looked after by local Official IRA contacts . Meanwhile , public outrage over the killing evinced from Seamus Harrison , who 'mans' the Sinn Fein The Workers Party office in Belfast's Springfield Road , this comment : " Our party wishes to place on record its absolute condemnation and disgust at these murders (caused by street violence generally) . Those responsible showed callous disregard for human life by their unprovoked assaults against innocent and harmless people . "
Public re-action became so intense that the Official IRA decided to order the culprits back from Cork and give themselves up to the RUC ; Francis Macklin of Britton's Parade , Belfast , and Stephen Hunter of Ballymurphy Road , Belfast , duly arrived in Newry and gave theselves up at the RUC Barracks there .
In the course of their trial , their counsel told the court that they had been approached by two Official IRA men and told they would be shot if they refused to return to the North to confess the killing : Macklin was jailed for 15 years and Hunter for 13 years .
(Tomorrow - Joe McCabe - shot in the head in August 1980.)
(MORE LATER).
Friday, December 30, 2005
1169 And Counting ..... : Irish history , Irish politics - from today and yesterday : all 32 Counties ! Bhi an saoire caite inne , Deardaoin 29 Nollaig 2005 .
The holiday was over yesterday , Thursday 29 December 2005 .
Now it's time for the New Year break ... !
We will re-commence our posts on WEDNESDAY , JANUARY 4th , 2006 .
Enjoy your own break , have a good start to this New Year ....and check-back here on January 4th !
Slan go foill anois ,
Good-bye for now ,
John , Sharon and 'Junior' .
Thursday, December 22, 2005
NOLLAIG SHONA DAR LEITHEOIRI !
Ar eagle an dearmaid ....
Ba bhrea an rud e siochain bhuan bunaithe ar an gceart a bheith againn in Eireann . Is i an bronntanas is fearr a d'fheadfaimis a thabhairt duinn fein agus dar gclann .
Coinniodh an ceart agus an tsiochain uainn le breis agus ocht gcead bliain , de bharr ionradh , forghabhail agus miriaradh na Sasanach . Socru ar bith a dheantar in ainm mhuintir na hEireann agus a ghlacann le riail Shasana agus a dhaingnionn an chriochdheighilt , ni thig leis an ceart na an tsiochain bhuann a bhunu .
Ni dheanfaidh se ach la na siochana buaine a chur ar an mhear fhada agus an bhunfhadb a thabhairt do ghluin eile . Tharla se seo cheana nuair a siniodh Conradh 1921 agus cuireadh siar ar mhuintir na hEireann e in ainm na siochana . Is mor ag Sinn Fein Poblachtach Eire a bheith saor agus daonlathach , an cuspoir ceanna a bhi i gceist ag Wolfe Tone agus ag na Poblachtaigh uile anuas go dti 1916 agus an la ata inniu ann .
Rinne a lan fear agus ban croga iobairti mora , thug a mbeatha fiu , ar son na cuise uaisle seo .
CEART . SAOIRSE. DAONLATHAS .
A PEACEFUL CHRISTMAS TO OUR READERS !
Least we forget ....
A just and permanent peace in Ireland is most desirable . It is the greatest gift we could give to ourselves and our children . We have been denied justice and peace for more than eight centuries , because of English invasion , occuption and misrule of our country .
Any arrangement which , in the name of the Irish people , accepts English rule and copperfastens the Border , will not bring justice and lasting peace . It will only postpone the day of permanent peace , handing over the basic problem to another generation .
This happened before when the Treaty of 1921 was signed and was forced on the Irish people in the name of peace . Republican Sinn Fein cherishes the objective of a free , democratic Ireland , as envisaged by Wolfe Tone and all Republicans down to 1916 and our own day . Many brave men and women sacrificed a lot , even their lives , for this noble Cause .
JUSTICE . FREEDOM . DEMOCRACY .
1169 And Counting.....
29th Christmas Morning Swim : 1976-2005.
SPONSORED SWIM - CHRISTMAS DAY , 12 NOON .
Venue : Grand Canal (opposite Kellys Pub/Blackhorse Inn) Inchicore , Dublin 8 .
15 swimmers , turf fire , Rebel music , lemonade for the kids , 'soup' for the adults...
ALL WELCOME !
Organised by CABHAIR (Irish Republican Prisoners Dependants Fund) , 223 Parnell Street , Dublin 1 .
Back after our Christmas break. Or.......
..... (MORE LATER).
Ar eagle an dearmaid ....
Ba bhrea an rud e siochain bhuan bunaithe ar an gceart a bheith againn in Eireann . Is i an bronntanas is fearr a d'fheadfaimis a thabhairt duinn fein agus dar gclann .
Coinniodh an ceart agus an tsiochain uainn le breis agus ocht gcead bliain , de bharr ionradh , forghabhail agus miriaradh na Sasanach . Socru ar bith a dheantar in ainm mhuintir na hEireann agus a ghlacann le riail Shasana agus a dhaingnionn an chriochdheighilt , ni thig leis an ceart na an tsiochain bhuann a bhunu .
Ni dheanfaidh se ach la na siochana buaine a chur ar an mhear fhada agus an bhunfhadb a thabhairt do ghluin eile . Tharla se seo cheana nuair a siniodh Conradh 1921 agus cuireadh siar ar mhuintir na hEireann e in ainm na siochana . Is mor ag Sinn Fein Poblachtach Eire a bheith saor agus daonlathach , an cuspoir ceanna a bhi i gceist ag Wolfe Tone agus ag na Poblachtaigh uile anuas go dti 1916 agus an la ata inniu ann .
Rinne a lan fear agus ban croga iobairti mora , thug a mbeatha fiu , ar son na cuise uaisle seo .
CEART . SAOIRSE. DAONLATHAS .
A PEACEFUL CHRISTMAS TO OUR READERS !
Least we forget ....
A just and permanent peace in Ireland is most desirable . It is the greatest gift we could give to ourselves and our children . We have been denied justice and peace for more than eight centuries , because of English invasion , occuption and misrule of our country .
Any arrangement which , in the name of the Irish people , accepts English rule and copperfastens the Border , will not bring justice and lasting peace . It will only postpone the day of permanent peace , handing over the basic problem to another generation .
This happened before when the Treaty of 1921 was signed and was forced on the Irish people in the name of peace . Republican Sinn Fein cherishes the objective of a free , democratic Ireland , as envisaged by Wolfe Tone and all Republicans down to 1916 and our own day . Many brave men and women sacrificed a lot , even their lives , for this noble Cause .
JUSTICE . FREEDOM . DEMOCRACY .
1169 And Counting.....
29th Christmas Morning Swim : 1976-2005.
SPONSORED SWIM - CHRISTMAS DAY , 12 NOON .
Venue : Grand Canal (opposite Kellys Pub/Blackhorse Inn) Inchicore , Dublin 8 .
15 swimmers , turf fire , Rebel music , lemonade for the kids , 'soup' for the adults...
ALL WELCOME !
Organised by CABHAIR (Irish Republican Prisoners Dependants Fund) , 223 Parnell Street , Dublin 1 .
Back after our Christmas break. Or.......
..... (MORE LATER).
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
The '1169...' crew will be 'closing up shop' later on this week for our Christmas break ; we will probably be absent for about one week , but it could be less : depends on when the funds run dry !
TIME MARCHES ON .
The Easter Commemoration Parades took place this year in the North as usual . At the regular venues - Belfast , Derry , Crossmaglen , Newry - the same Proclamation was read , the usual speeches were made and the routine Army Council message was delivered to the faithful .
The only difference this year was that by Good Friday the North's death toll since 1969 had reached 2,500 and Ireland's longest period of civil disturbance appeared no nearer an end .
Behind much of the violence stands the Provisional IRA , organisers of most Easter Parades and , by their own claims , direct lineal descendants* of the men of 1916 . But how strong are they and for how long can they continue the military and political struggle ?
PATRICK MURPHY reports from Belfast .
First published in 'NEW HIBERNIA' magazine , May 1987 .
(* In 1986 the Provisional IRA abandoned that lineage and offered their support to what was to become a Leinster House-registered political party.)
As the North of Ireland heads towards yet another long hot summer and political solutions appear as remote as ever the one constant factor in 'the province' is the level of violence ; already this year's death toll looks like being twice that of 1986 and , apart from the INLA feud , most of the 'violence' has stemmed from the Provisional IRA .
Now in its 17th year * since its origins as yet another Republican splinter group , the Provisional IRA have in 1987 stepped-up their military campaign and if success can be measured in terms of casualties , this year (ie 1987) so far has been one of their most successful since the mid-1970's . (* SIC : 1987 was , in fact , the first year of operations carried out by the PIRA after they had left the Republican Movement the previous year .)
The success has been brought about by a new military strategy and by an increasing political urgency to deliver the military 'goods' at a time when some elements within the organisation have feared its drift towards conventional politics . The new military strategy is simple - dead bodies represent military progress and the greater the number of dead bodies which can be achieved with the minimum risk of apprehension then the better the success rate . In Provo terms , dead bodies fall into two categories - British Army personnel and UDR/RUC personnel .......
(MORE LATER).
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
Present at a meeting in the Sinn Fein Office in Belfast on July 28th 1981 were Fathers Denis Faul , Murray and McIldowney (from Dungiven) , a group of people who accompanied Fr. Faul but who had no apparent role , relatives of most of the hunger-strikers , Gerry Adams , Eamonn McGrory and Jim Gibney of Sinn Fein and two representatives from the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) .
Not only was Fr. Faul's assertion about Gerry Adams proved to be untrue but the circumstances in which he alleged it had been made to him by Brendan McFarlane were equally proved to be entirely bogus . Firstly , the conversation that Faul had had with McFarlane had taken place weeks previously and not , as he (Faul) had been inferring to the relatives , within the few days prior to the Toombridge meeting .
Secondly , the conversation was only in the context of the role prescribed by Bobby Sands for Gerry Adams and Danny Morrison (Sinn Fein) during the Charles Haughey-inspired intervention by the European Commission on Human Rights in April 1981 . At that time Bobby Sands had stated that he was not prepared to meet members of the Commission unless two external nominees , Adams and Morrison , and the prisoners representative , McFarlane , were present .
All of this was proved to the mutual satisfaction of all present , and strangely with no obvious embarrassment to Fr. Denis Faul , by a communication from Brendan McFarlane which was in the files of the H-Block Information Centre and which detailed the contents and timing of that conversation weeks earlier . Fr. Faul himself assented to the correctness of those details when they were read out .......
(MORE LATER).
THUGGERY : THE UGLY FACE OF SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
THE MURDER OF SEAMUS COSTELLO , OCTOBER 5 , 1977 : continued...
The person who is believed to have been directly responsible for the shooting of Seamus Costello held no personal animosity towards Costello and the belief is that he was specifically ordered to kill the IRSP leader by a very senior person in the Official organisation .
There was an earlier attempt made on Seamus Costello's life in Waterford on May 7th , 1975 : Costello had spoken at a meeting in the city that night and on his way to the home of one of the organisers , the car in which they were travelling was raked with machine gun fire by a passenger on a motorbike . The motorbike keeled over and it was this which saved Costello's life at the time .
We have been informed that both men on the motorbike were senior members of the Official IRA in Dublin , who were attached to the GHQ Staff of that organisation . It is believed that the gun used in the attempted murder was later found by Gardai but not identified by them as such .
There is no question but that that attempt on Seamus Costello's life was a fully authorised Official IRA operation .
(Next - 'The Murder of Hugh Halloran' , September 8th , 1979 .)
(MORE LATER).
29th Christmas Morning Swim : 1976-2005.
SPONSORED SWIM - CHRISTMAS DAY , 12 NOON .
Venue : Grand Canal (opposite Kellys Pub/Blackhorse Inn) Inchicore , Dublin 8 .
15 swimmers , turf fire , Rebel music , lemonade for the kids , 'soup' for the adults...
ALL WELCOME !
Organised by CABHAIR (Irish Republican Prisoners Dependants Fund) , 223 Parnell Street , Dublin 1 .
TIME MARCHES ON .
The Easter Commemoration Parades took place this year in the North as usual . At the regular venues - Belfast , Derry , Crossmaglen , Newry - the same Proclamation was read , the usual speeches were made and the routine Army Council message was delivered to the faithful .
The only difference this year was that by Good Friday the North's death toll since 1969 had reached 2,500 and Ireland's longest period of civil disturbance appeared no nearer an end .
Behind much of the violence stands the Provisional IRA , organisers of most Easter Parades and , by their own claims , direct lineal descendants* of the men of 1916 . But how strong are they and for how long can they continue the military and political struggle ?
PATRICK MURPHY reports from Belfast .
First published in 'NEW HIBERNIA' magazine , May 1987 .
(* In 1986 the Provisional IRA abandoned that lineage and offered their support to what was to become a Leinster House-registered political party.)
As the North of Ireland heads towards yet another long hot summer and political solutions appear as remote as ever the one constant factor in 'the province' is the level of violence ; already this year's death toll looks like being twice that of 1986 and , apart from the INLA feud , most of the 'violence' has stemmed from the Provisional IRA .
Now in its 17th year * since its origins as yet another Republican splinter group , the Provisional IRA have in 1987 stepped-up their military campaign and if success can be measured in terms of casualties , this year (ie 1987) so far has been one of their most successful since the mid-1970's . (* SIC : 1987 was , in fact , the first year of operations carried out by the PIRA after they had left the Republican Movement the previous year .)
The success has been brought about by a new military strategy and by an increasing political urgency to deliver the military 'goods' at a time when some elements within the organisation have feared its drift towards conventional politics . The new military strategy is simple - dead bodies represent military progress and the greater the number of dead bodies which can be achieved with the minimum risk of apprehension then the better the success rate . In Provo terms , dead bodies fall into two categories - British Army personnel and UDR/RUC personnel .......
(MORE LATER).
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
Present at a meeting in the Sinn Fein Office in Belfast on July 28th 1981 were Fathers Denis Faul , Murray and McIldowney (from Dungiven) , a group of people who accompanied Fr. Faul but who had no apparent role , relatives of most of the hunger-strikers , Gerry Adams , Eamonn McGrory and Jim Gibney of Sinn Fein and two representatives from the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) .
Not only was Fr. Faul's assertion about Gerry Adams proved to be untrue but the circumstances in which he alleged it had been made to him by Brendan McFarlane were equally proved to be entirely bogus . Firstly , the conversation that Faul had had with McFarlane had taken place weeks previously and not , as he (Faul) had been inferring to the relatives , within the few days prior to the Toombridge meeting .
Secondly , the conversation was only in the context of the role prescribed by Bobby Sands for Gerry Adams and Danny Morrison (Sinn Fein) during the Charles Haughey-inspired intervention by the European Commission on Human Rights in April 1981 . At that time Bobby Sands had stated that he was not prepared to meet members of the Commission unless two external nominees , Adams and Morrison , and the prisoners representative , McFarlane , were present .
All of this was proved to the mutual satisfaction of all present , and strangely with no obvious embarrassment to Fr. Denis Faul , by a communication from Brendan McFarlane which was in the files of the H-Block Information Centre and which detailed the contents and timing of that conversation weeks earlier . Fr. Faul himself assented to the correctness of those details when they were read out .......
(MORE LATER).
THUGGERY : THE UGLY FACE OF SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
THE MURDER OF SEAMUS COSTELLO , OCTOBER 5 , 1977 : continued...
The person who is believed to have been directly responsible for the shooting of Seamus Costello held no personal animosity towards Costello and the belief is that he was specifically ordered to kill the IRSP leader by a very senior person in the Official organisation .
There was an earlier attempt made on Seamus Costello's life in Waterford on May 7th , 1975 : Costello had spoken at a meeting in the city that night and on his way to the home of one of the organisers , the car in which they were travelling was raked with machine gun fire by a passenger on a motorbike . The motorbike keeled over and it was this which saved Costello's life at the time .
We have been informed that both men on the motorbike were senior members of the Official IRA in Dublin , who were attached to the GHQ Staff of that organisation . It is believed that the gun used in the attempted murder was later found by Gardai but not identified by them as such .
There is no question but that that attempt on Seamus Costello's life was a fully authorised Official IRA operation .
(Next - 'The Murder of Hugh Halloran' , September 8th , 1979 .)
(MORE LATER).
29th Christmas Morning Swim : 1976-2005.
SPONSORED SWIM - CHRISTMAS DAY , 12 NOON .
Venue : Grand Canal (opposite Kellys Pub/Blackhorse Inn) Inchicore , Dublin 8 .
15 swimmers , turf fire , Rebel music , lemonade for the kids , 'soup' for the adults...
ALL WELCOME !
Organised by CABHAIR (Irish Republican Prisoners Dependants Fund) , 223 Parnell Street , Dublin 1 .
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
The '1169...' crew will be 'closing up shop' later on this week for our Christmas break ; we will probably be absent for about one week , but it could be less : depends on when the funds run dry !
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' .
So far , all the informers have been men , but no doubt attempts are being made to recruit women .
Strip-searching can also be seen as an attempt to break the morale of women held on remand on the 'word' of informers - the aim being to persuade the women to plead guilty , thus corroborating the informer's 'evidence' .
Finally , for a male prisoner , the thought that his mother , sister or wife may be arrested and imprisoned if he refuses to inform , is made additionally persuasive in the knowledge that women prisoners are currently been subjected to the harshest prison regime in Armagh for many years .
If we look at the treatment of prisoners in Armagh Jail in its full political and legal context , then two vital points emerge : firstly , most of the women in Armagh Jail have arrived there via a system of 'justice' which denies them the legal rights which , outside the Six Counties , have always been regarded as fundamental to British 'justice' ; secondly , it is likely that the increasing harshness of the prison regime , including the use of intensive strip-searching , is closely tied in with the policy of using informers in show trials .
[END of 'BRITISH 'JUSTICE' : THE EMERGENCY LEGISLATION AND THE INFORMER SYSTEM' .]
(Tomorrow - ' TIME MARCHES ON' : from 1987.)
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
Within one day of having met Sinn Fein re the hunger-strike issue , Fr. Denis Faul was 'spinning' that meeting to suit his own anti-Republican agenda : another Catholic chaplain to Long Kesh prison , a Fr. Murphy , having being 'briefed' by Faul , was telling Thomas McElwee , then about forty days on hunger-strike , that at the meeting the Sinn Fein rep , Eamonn McCrory , had described the hunger-strikers' situation as "...hopeless.. " : when challenged on this , Fr. Denis Faul dismissed ever having said such a thing to Fr. Murphy ...
But the circumstances of the meeting with Fr. Denis Faul where this challenge was made would tend to indicate that he may not have been truthful ; that meeting itself , beginning at about 11.30PM on the evening of Tuesday July 28th 1981 , and continuing into the early hours of the following morning , was called on the basis of a proven lie by Fr. Faul which was told simply to bring that meeting about and in circumstances most favourable to his purpose - earlier that evening , at a meeting in Toomebridge with relatives of most of the hunger-strikers - relatives whose emotional and moral exploitation was the other 'prong' of Fr. Faul's offensive - he stated that in a conversation he had had with Brendan McFarlane , Officer Commanding of the IRA prisoners in the H-Blocks and representative of all protesting prisoners , McFarlane had said that Gerry Adams , Vice-President of Sinn Fein , had the power and authority to call off the hunger-strike . Faul urged the relatives to press Adams into doing that .
That untrue assertion led to the meeting late that night in Sinn Fein's offices in Belfast .......
(MORE LATER).
THUGGERY : THE UGLY FACE OF SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
THE MURDER OF SEAMUS COSTELLO , OCTOBER 5 , 1977 :
There continues to be speculation about this act and there have been suggestions that Seamus Costello may have been killed by members of his own organisation : certainly there had been talk among Belfast members of the INLA in the months prior to this killing about "...getting rid .. " of Seamus Costello , by which at least some of them meant killing him .
This was because of Costello's failure to acquire arms and explosives in the quantities that he repeatedly promised and his refusal to allow anybody else take over responsibility for it or even to be jointly involved . However , we have been informed by a number of people who were members of the Official IRA at the time that Costello was in fact shot by a senior member of the Official IRA .
The only doubt that surrounds the operation is what degree of authorisation did it have : certainly , when the IRSP feud broke out in 1975 and especially after the killing of Billy McMillan in Belfast on April 28 , 1975 , plans were made by the Official IRA to kill Seamus Costello and the OIRA Army Council gave explicit authorisation for that . We have been informed of this by people who were members of the OIRA AC at the time .
It also appears that there was no countermanding order made to the OIRA AC but there may have been a general 'understanding' ' to let sleeping dogs lie .......'
(This piece on the killing of Seamus Costello will conclude tomorrow.)
(MORE LATER).
29th Christmas Morning Swim : 1976-2005.
SPONSORED SWIM - CHRISTMAS DAY , 12 NOON .
Venue : Grand Canal (opposite Kellys Pub/Blackhorse Inn) Inchicore , Dublin 8 .
15 swimmers , turf fire , Rebel music , lemonade for the kids , 'soup' for the adults...
ALL WELCOME !
Organised by CABHAIR (Irish Republican Prisoners Dependants Fund) , 223 Parnell Street , Dublin 1 .
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' .
So far , all the informers have been men , but no doubt attempts are being made to recruit women .
Strip-searching can also be seen as an attempt to break the morale of women held on remand on the 'word' of informers - the aim being to persuade the women to plead guilty , thus corroborating the informer's 'evidence' .
Finally , for a male prisoner , the thought that his mother , sister or wife may be arrested and imprisoned if he refuses to inform , is made additionally persuasive in the knowledge that women prisoners are currently been subjected to the harshest prison regime in Armagh for many years .
If we look at the treatment of prisoners in Armagh Jail in its full political and legal context , then two vital points emerge : firstly , most of the women in Armagh Jail have arrived there via a system of 'justice' which denies them the legal rights which , outside the Six Counties , have always been regarded as fundamental to British 'justice' ; secondly , it is likely that the increasing harshness of the prison regime , including the use of intensive strip-searching , is closely tied in with the policy of using informers in show trials .
[END of 'BRITISH 'JUSTICE' : THE EMERGENCY LEGISLATION AND THE INFORMER SYSTEM' .]
(Tomorrow - ' TIME MARCHES ON' : from 1987.)
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
Within one day of having met Sinn Fein re the hunger-strike issue , Fr. Denis Faul was 'spinning' that meeting to suit his own anti-Republican agenda : another Catholic chaplain to Long Kesh prison , a Fr. Murphy , having being 'briefed' by Faul , was telling Thomas McElwee , then about forty days on hunger-strike , that at the meeting the Sinn Fein rep , Eamonn McCrory , had described the hunger-strikers' situation as "...hopeless.. " : when challenged on this , Fr. Denis Faul dismissed ever having said such a thing to Fr. Murphy ...
But the circumstances of the meeting with Fr. Denis Faul where this challenge was made would tend to indicate that he may not have been truthful ; that meeting itself , beginning at about 11.30PM on the evening of Tuesday July 28th 1981 , and continuing into the early hours of the following morning , was called on the basis of a proven lie by Fr. Faul which was told simply to bring that meeting about and in circumstances most favourable to his purpose - earlier that evening , at a meeting in Toomebridge with relatives of most of the hunger-strikers - relatives whose emotional and moral exploitation was the other 'prong' of Fr. Faul's offensive - he stated that in a conversation he had had with Brendan McFarlane , Officer Commanding of the IRA prisoners in the H-Blocks and representative of all protesting prisoners , McFarlane had said that Gerry Adams , Vice-President of Sinn Fein , had the power and authority to call off the hunger-strike . Faul urged the relatives to press Adams into doing that .
That untrue assertion led to the meeting late that night in Sinn Fein's offices in Belfast .......
(MORE LATER).
THUGGERY : THE UGLY FACE OF SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
THE MURDER OF SEAMUS COSTELLO , OCTOBER 5 , 1977 :
There continues to be speculation about this act and there have been suggestions that Seamus Costello may have been killed by members of his own organisation : certainly there had been talk among Belfast members of the INLA in the months prior to this killing about "...getting rid .. " of Seamus Costello , by which at least some of them meant killing him .
This was because of Costello's failure to acquire arms and explosives in the quantities that he repeatedly promised and his refusal to allow anybody else take over responsibility for it or even to be jointly involved . However , we have been informed by a number of people who were members of the Official IRA at the time that Costello was in fact shot by a senior member of the Official IRA .
The only doubt that surrounds the operation is what degree of authorisation did it have : certainly , when the IRSP feud broke out in 1975 and especially after the killing of Billy McMillan in Belfast on April 28 , 1975 , plans were made by the Official IRA to kill Seamus Costello and the OIRA Army Council gave explicit authorisation for that . We have been informed of this by people who were members of the OIRA AC at the time .
It also appears that there was no countermanding order made to the OIRA AC but there may have been a general 'understanding' ' to let sleeping dogs lie .......'
(This piece on the killing of Seamus Costello will conclude tomorrow.)
(MORE LATER).
29th Christmas Morning Swim : 1976-2005.
SPONSORED SWIM - CHRISTMAS DAY , 12 NOON .
Venue : Grand Canal (opposite Kellys Pub/Blackhorse Inn) Inchicore , Dublin 8 .
15 swimmers , turf fire , Rebel music , lemonade for the kids , 'soup' for the adults...
ALL WELCOME !
Organised by CABHAIR (Irish Republican Prisoners Dependants Fund) , 223 Parnell Street , Dublin 1 .
Monday, December 19, 2005
The '1169...' crew will be 'closing up shop' later on this week for our Christmas break ; we will probably be absent for about one week , but it could be less : depends on when the funds run dry !
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' .
Those named by an informer are immediately arrested and held on remand in Armagh and Crumlin Road gaols ; thus , although the sole 'evidence' against them is the 'word' of one individual , and the 'truth' of the 'evidence' has not yet been decided by a 'court' (a juryless one) , those named people lose their freedom .
Women are immediately subjected to the full harshness of Armagh prison life : regular strip-searches , stringent discipline and the punitive use of prison rules . Overall , 400 people have so far been charged on the 'word' of an informer , and 80 have been convicted . The Show Trials have put so many people on remand - some for periods of up to two years - that in effect they have led to the reintroduction of internment , which was 'officially' ended in 1975 .
Of the 35 women currently imprisoned in Armagh , several are on remand having been named by an informer , but to date no woman has been convicted on informer evidence . It seems probable that there is a connection between the Westminster policy of using informers and of intensive strip-searching - the informer 'system' began in 1980 , getting fully underway in 1982 ; the strip-searches began in earnest in November 1982 ; the more intolerable that prison life becomes , the easier it will be for Westminster to find prisoners willing to turn informer .......
(MORE LATER).
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
In July 1981 , Fr. Denis Faul requested a meeting with Sinn Fein ; his declared purpose in doing so (with people whom he would later call "thugs" , to advance his 'case') was allegedly to acquaint himself with Sinn Fein's then current attitude to the hunger-strike situation . At that stage six hunger-strikers were already dead and Kevin Lynch and Kieran Doherty were rapidly deteriorating .
Eamonn McCrory , from Sinn Fein , put the position that Republicans believed that the hunger-strike would continue and that prisoners would continue to die while the people whose co-operation and collaboration Britain depended on to maintain its rule in Ireland - the Free State Government ,the SDLP and the Irish Catholic hierarchy - withheld their active support for the prisoners' five demands . That took about ten minutes : the rest of the meeting , which lasted about forty minutes in total , was used by Fr. Faul to expound on the "...hopelessness.. " of the situation .
At one point Faul described the hunger-strikers' determination and self-sacrifice as being no more that a "...lemming-mentality.. " , saying that "...they must be helped to help themselves by getting them off the hunger-strike .. " . He spoke of a "...suspension.. " of the hunger-strike and , with an insight into his intentions , of the hunger-strike ultimately breaking down in recriminations . Within twenty-four hours , this conniving and treacherous Catholic priest was to 'spin' the facts regarding that meeting .......
(MORE LATER).
THUGGERY : THE UGLY FACE OF SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
OFFICIAL IRA/PROVISIONAL IRA FEUDS (1975 and 1977):
The Official IRA seems to have been the victim , certainly in the 1975 feud with the Provisional IRA , for the same reason that the IRSP was the victim in the feud with the Official IRA earlier that year if only because it was the more vulnerable party .
Altogether eleven people were killed in the 1975 feud and five in the 1977 feud , when the Officials seemed to have wreaked some sort of revenge . We are not delving too deeply into those feuds here because of the enormous complexity of them and because of the existence of thuggery on both sides .
(Tomorrow : 'The Murder Of Seamus Costello' , October 5 , 1977 .)
(MORE LATER).
29th Christmas Morning Swim : 1976-2005.
SPONSORED SWIM - CHRISTMAS DAY , 12 NOON .
Venue : Grand Canal (opposite Kellys Pub/Blackhorse Inn) Inchicore , Dublin 8 .
15 swimmers , turf fire , Rebel music , lemonade for the kids , 'soup' for the adults...
ALL WELCOME !
Organised by CABHAIR (Irish Republican Prisoners Dependants Fund) , 223 Parnell Street , Dublin 1 .
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' .
Those named by an informer are immediately arrested and held on remand in Armagh and Crumlin Road gaols ; thus , although the sole 'evidence' against them is the 'word' of one individual , and the 'truth' of the 'evidence' has not yet been decided by a 'court' (a juryless one) , those named people lose their freedom .
Women are immediately subjected to the full harshness of Armagh prison life : regular strip-searches , stringent discipline and the punitive use of prison rules . Overall , 400 people have so far been charged on the 'word' of an informer , and 80 have been convicted . The Show Trials have put so many people on remand - some for periods of up to two years - that in effect they have led to the reintroduction of internment , which was 'officially' ended in 1975 .
Of the 35 women currently imprisoned in Armagh , several are on remand having been named by an informer , but to date no woman has been convicted on informer evidence . It seems probable that there is a connection between the Westminster policy of using informers and of intensive strip-searching - the informer 'system' began in 1980 , getting fully underway in 1982 ; the strip-searches began in earnest in November 1982 ; the more intolerable that prison life becomes , the easier it will be for Westminster to find prisoners willing to turn informer .......
(MORE LATER).
FR. DENIS FAUL : A CONNIVING AND TREACHEROUS MAN .......
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , Volume 1 , Number 2 , November 1981 .
In July 1981 , Fr. Denis Faul requested a meeting with Sinn Fein ; his declared purpose in doing so (with people whom he would later call "thugs" , to advance his 'case') was allegedly to acquaint himself with Sinn Fein's then current attitude to the hunger-strike situation . At that stage six hunger-strikers were already dead and Kevin Lynch and Kieran Doherty were rapidly deteriorating .
Eamonn McCrory , from Sinn Fein , put the position that Republicans believed that the hunger-strike would continue and that prisoners would continue to die while the people whose co-operation and collaboration Britain depended on to maintain its rule in Ireland - the Free State Government ,the SDLP and the Irish Catholic hierarchy - withheld their active support for the prisoners' five demands . That took about ten minutes : the rest of the meeting , which lasted about forty minutes in total , was used by Fr. Faul to expound on the "...hopelessness.. " of the situation .
At one point Faul described the hunger-strikers' determination and self-sacrifice as being no more that a "...lemming-mentality.. " , saying that "...they must be helped to help themselves by getting them off the hunger-strike .. " . He spoke of a "...suspension.. " of the hunger-strike and , with an insight into his intentions , of the hunger-strike ultimately breaking down in recriminations . Within twenty-four hours , this conniving and treacherous Catholic priest was to 'spin' the facts regarding that meeting .......
(MORE LATER).
THUGGERY : THE UGLY FACE OF SINN FEIN THE WORKERS PARTY .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1982 .
OFFICIAL IRA/PROVISIONAL IRA FEUDS (1975 and 1977):
The Official IRA seems to have been the victim , certainly in the 1975 feud with the Provisional IRA , for the same reason that the IRSP was the victim in the feud with the Official IRA earlier that year if only because it was the more vulnerable party .
Altogether eleven people were killed in the 1975 feud and five in the 1977 feud , when the Officials seemed to have wreaked some sort of revenge . We are not delving too deeply into those feuds here because of the enormous complexity of them and because of the existence of thuggery on both sides .
(Tomorrow : 'The Murder Of Seamus Costello' , October 5 , 1977 .)
(MORE LATER).
29th Christmas Morning Swim : 1976-2005.
SPONSORED SWIM - CHRISTMAS DAY , 12 NOON .
Venue : Grand Canal (opposite Kellys Pub/Blackhorse Inn) Inchicore , Dublin 8 .
15 swimmers , turf fire , Rebel music , lemonade for the kids , 'soup' for the adults...
ALL WELCOME !
Organised by CABHAIR (Irish Republican Prisoners Dependants Fund) , 223 Parnell Street , Dublin 1 .
Friday, December 16, 2005
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).
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).
Thursday, December 15, 2005
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).
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).
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
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).
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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