ANNUAL WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION :
Sunday , June 11 , 2006 , Sallins , Co. Kildare .

A bus for this Commemoration , which is organised each year by the Republican Movement , will leave from outside the old McBirneys/Virgin Megastore site on Dublin's Aston Quay at 12.45PM on the day : the Commemoration itself starts at 2.30PM .

The same bus will leave Bodenstown at 5.30PM that afternoon on its return to Dublin city centre . The fare is ten Euro per person .

For information on the death of Wolfe Tone , scroll through this piece (article starts on March 9 on that page) which was published on this blog last year .
"To subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils and to assert the independence of my country- these were my objectives. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissensions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter - these were my means." -Theobald Wolfe Tone .

(We are on a short break : hope to resume normal publication on Monday 15 May next . If not , you'll know that the few bob is stretching better than expected!)

ANNUAL WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION :
Sunday , June 11 , 2006 , Sallins , Co. Kildare .

A bus for this Commemoration , which is organised each year by the Republican Movement , will leave from outside the old McBirneys/Virgin Megastore site on Dublin's Aston Quay at 12.45PM on the day : the Commemoration itself starts at 2.30PM .

The same bus will leave Bodenstown at 5.30PM that afternoon on its return to Dublin city centre . The fare is ten Euro per person .

For information on the death of Wolfe Tone , scroll through this piece (article starts on March 9 on that page) which was published on this blog last year .
"To subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils and to assert the independence of my country- these were my objectives. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissensions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter - these were my means." -Theobald Wolfe Tone .

(We are on a short break : hope to resume normal publication on Monday 15 May next . If not , you'll know that the few bob is stretching better than expected!)

ANNUAL WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION :
Sunday , June 11 , 2006 , Sallins , Co. Kildare .

A bus for this Commemoration , which is organised each year by the Republican Movement , will leave from outside the old McBirneys/Virgin Megastore site on Dublin's Aston Quay at 12.45PM on the day : the Commemoration itself starts at 2.30PM .

The same bus will leave Bodenstown at 5.30PM that afternoon on its return to Dublin city centre . The fare is ten Euro per person .

For information on the death of Wolfe Tone , scroll through this piece (article starts on March 9 on that page) which was published on this blog last year .
"To subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils and to assert the independence of my country- these were my objectives. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissensions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter - these were my means." -Theobald Wolfe Tone .

(We are on a short break : hope to resume normal publication on Monday 15 May next . If not , you'll know that the few bob is stretching better than expected!)

ANNUAL WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION :
Sunday , June 11 , 2006 , Sallins , Co. Kildare .

A bus for this Commemoration , which is organised each year by the Republican Movement , will leave from outside the old McBirneys/Virgin Megastore site on Dublin's Aston Quay at 12.45PM on the day : the Commemoration itself starts at 2.30PM .

The same bus will leave Bodenstown at 5.30PM that afternoon on its return to Dublin city centre . The fare is ten Euro per person .

For information on the death of Wolfe Tone , scroll through this piece (article starts on March 9 on that page) which was published on this blog last year .
"To subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils and to assert the independence of my country- these were my objectives. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissensions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter - these were my means." -Theobald Wolfe Tone .

(We are on a short break : hope to resume normal publication on Monday 15 May next . If not , you'll know that the few bob is stretching better than expected!)

ANNUAL WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION :
Sunday , June 11 , 2006 , Sallins , Co. Kildare .

A bus for this Commemoration , which is organised each year by the Republican Movement , will leave from outside the old McBirneys/Virgin Megastore site on Dublin's Aston Quay at 12.45PM on the day : the Commemoration itself starts at 2.30PM .

The same bus will leave Bodenstown at 5.30PM that afternoon on its return to Dublin city centre . The fare is ten Euro per person .

For information on the death of Wolfe Tone , scroll through this piece (article starts on March 9 on that page) which was published on this blog last year .
"To subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils and to assert the independence of my country- these were my objectives. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissensions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter - these were my means." -Theobald Wolfe Tone .

(We are on a short break : hope to resume normal publication on Monday 15 May next . If not , you'll know that the few bob is stretching better than expected!)

Hunger Strike Rally , GPO , Dublin , Saturday May 6th 2006 .
Remembering the Hunger-Strikers 25 years on.
A rally to commemorate the heroic struggle of the ten hunger-strikers : Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Ray McCreesh, Patsy O'Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Thomas McElwee, Michael Devine - who gave their lives in 1981- will be held in Dublin on Saturday May 6 2006 . Assemble at the Garden of Remembrance at 2pm for march to GPO on O'Connell Street.
"They will not criminalise us, rob us of our true identity, steal our individualism, depoliticise us, churn us out as systemised, institutionalised, decent law-abiding robots. Never will they label our liberation struggle as criminal."
- Bobby Sands.
Twenty-two Irish political prisoners died on hunger-strike between 1917 and 1981 . The Dublin Rally is being held to commemorate all those Irishmen .


MacGIOLLA's GUERRILLAS .......
Fifteen years ago , the leadership of the 'Official Republican Movement' (now 'The Workers' Party') stated that their armed wing , the 'Official IRA' , went out of existence .
Today , the 'Official IRA' is alive and well and living mainly in Belfast and Newry . In the days when both organisations were operating in an overt way , the leadership of 'The Workers' Party' and the 'Official IRA' overlapped to a certain degree .
Tomas MacGiolla , the man who led the 'Official IRA' for the last twenty-five years has always maintained the position that the 'Official IRA' went out of existence in 1972 . But the 'Official IRA' still march on , not an army fighting the British , but as a fund-collecting agency .
DEREK DUNNE traces the roots of the 'Official IRA' and 'The Workers' Party' .
From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine , October 1987 .

Twenty-three out of twenty-four Belfast OIRA Units voted to overturn the ceasefire , but Liam McMillan refused to convey the decision to Dublin on the basis that it was not unanimous ! A loose , fast and liberal interpretation was put on the 'defence and retaliation' clause .

People like Gerry Steenson , who appeared on fourteen IRA Court Martials for breaking the ceasefire , gradually became a law unto themselves . Major criticism of the people in Dublin - MacGiolla , Goulding and Garland - began to emerge and Seamus Costello became the focus for this : he argued for a return to the armed struggle , and for placing the national question firmly on the agenda . He was ousted from the OIRA .

Official Sinn Fein was by now calling for a 'democratisation' of the North ('1169...' Comment - ie like 'this') and dis-agreed with the abolition of Stormont ('1169...' Comment - ie like these) . Dessie O'Hagan , Tomas MacGiolla , Sean Garland and Cathal Goulding were publicly arguing that the armed struggle was sectarian and that class unity had to be built in advance of a British withdrawal . Seamus Lynch , now a Workers Party councillor in Belfast , sided with the Dublin leadership , as did his brother , Martin .......
(MORE LATER).



EOGHAN HARRIS : OUT OF THE SHADOWS .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , November 1997 .
By Brenda Power .

One senior RTE producer said of Eoghan Harris and his Workers Party colleagues : " They were very determined and personally ambitious people , which of course conflicted totally with the dominant ethos in RTE in those days , and so they found it very easy to take over the Workers Union of Ireland . Then Harris brought in John Caden , who was an account's clerk . The NUJ was too lazy and cynical to concern them at the time - the journalists always wanted just more money , but the WUI represented the producers .

Harris and those realised that if they controlled the producers then they could control programming and effectively control the television station , and that was what they set out to do . " To this end Eoghan Harris set up a secret branch of 'Sinn Fein the Workers Party', which was called the Ned Stapleton Cumann , within the Workers' Union of Ireland . Although he was never a member of Sinn Fein the Workers' Party himself , Harris recruited members in 'sensitive positions' who could not openly support the party - " We had people in the IDA , for example , who gave us information for our pamphlets : they could'nt be seen to be members and so people like that could vote through the Ned Stapleton Cumann , " said Eoghan Harris .

Though Mairin de Burca , who was an Ard Comhairle ('Ruling Body') member of Sinn Fein the Workers' Party at the time , says now that she doubts that the Ned Stapleton Cumann ever actually existed within RTE - " Just because Eoghan Harris says he helped set it up does'nt mean that's true , you know , " she said . But the group and its activities still remain a part of RTE lore : a producer who was in the station at the time but does not wish to be named stated - " Essentially , he ran a sort of a left-wing freemasonry within RTE at the time . The agenda was to promote the Workers' Party through the programmes , and they set about achieving this in a number of different ways ....... "
(MORE LATER).



THE 26 COUNTIES : A STATE BUT NOT A NATION .......
The history of the Free State has been one of progressively solidifying partition : cross-border collaboration is only one aspect of this .
From 'IRIS' magazine , November 1983.
No By-Line.

Today's 26-county state is very different from what it was 62 years ago - very much the stable unit that suits those who rule it and who profit from it : it does , however , lack an essential ingredient for totally solidifying that stability - the ability to portray itself as something more than an apparently independent state ; in short - to portray itself as a nation .

Because of the all-too-obvious contradictions of their true actions on nationalism , the establishment Free State parties have to restrict the national expressions of the people least these flow to their natural conclusions . In verbalising , Fianna Fail allows itself freer rein in this regard , but has successfully created an unwholesome cocktail of rhetoric which includes friendship with Britain and rejection of force even as a conclusion to a traditional rebel-rousing oration .

If this exists as a 'safety valve' to nationalist emotions , underneath the stifling of national characteristics is much more in evidence : thus , the distinctive culture - a keystone of any nation - including the Irish language , is deliberately neglected and allowed to wither . Instead an alien mish-mash of mid-Atlantic culture is imported . Equally , social values of a most conservative type , in keeping not with the historic spirit of the people , but rather with the objectives of the economic system , are used as shackles to development .......
(MORE LATER).

(NOTE : the crew here at '1169...' have not had a break since July 2005 - in order to catch-up with other matters , we will be taking a one-week break from this Friday , May 5th . We will make a 'holding' post during our week off in relation to the up-coming Bodenstown Commemoration . Go raibh maith agat ! John)

---

---

---

Hunger Strike Rally , GPO , Dublin , Saturday May 6th 2006 .
Remembering the Hunger-Strikers 25 years on.
A rally to commemorate the heroic struggle of the ten hunger-strikers : Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Ray McCreesh, Patsy O'Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Thomas McElwee, Michael Devine - who gave their lives in 1981- will be held in Dublin on Saturday May 6 2006 . Assemble at the Garden of Remembrance at 2pm for march to GPO on O'Connell Street.
"They will not criminalise us, rob us of our true identity, steal our individualism, depoliticise us, churn us out as systemised, institutionalised, decent law-abiding robots. Never will they label our liberation struggle as criminal."
- Bobby Sands.
Twenty-two Irish political prisoners died on hunger-strike between 1917 and 1981 . The Dublin Rally is being held to commemorate all those Irishmen .


MacGIOLLA's GUERRILLAS .......
Fifteen years ago , the leadership of the 'Official Republican Movement' (now 'The Workers' Party') stated that their armed wing , the 'Official IRA' , went out of existence .
Today , the 'Official IRA' is alive and well and living mainly in Belfast and Newry . In the days when both organisations were operating in an overt way , the leadership of 'The Workers' Party' and the 'Official IRA' overlapped to a certain degree .
Tomas MacGiolla , the man who led the 'Official IRA' for the last twenty-five years has always maintained the position that the 'Official IRA' went out of existence in 1972 . But the 'Official IRA' still march on , not an army fighting the British , but as a fund-collecting agency .
DEREK DUNNE traces the roots of the 'Official IRA' and 'The Workers' Party' .
From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine , October 1987 .

Liam McMillan was the Officer Commanding of the Official IRA in Belfast ; he was one of the 180 or so people who had emerged from internment in Crumlin Road Jail in 1962 to a shattered Republican Movement : he took over Belfast two years later , and built up the number of activists to 120 in a five-year period .

He was quite ruthless , as evidenced in an interview he gave in 1972 in which he responded to a question about whether or not the Official IRA should have wiped out the Provisional IRA at birth : " Well , this was discussed at one stage . But the attitude of the movement was that if we did have an all out go at the Provos that the British Army would only be standing on the sidelines rubbing their hands , and we would have been doing their job for them . "

Liam McMillan was trusted militarily and politically by the Dublin leadership ; the rank and file in Belfast resented the direction taken by Dublin . The Official IRA was structured in 'Units' , with up to forty people in each . They ran training camps in Donegal and Louth and their weapons were mainly old bolt-action rifles . In September 1972 , four months after the ceasefire was called , Patricia McKay was killed when a bomb she was carrying went off : the ceasefire had been called without any consultation with the membership . And the membership were'nt having it .......
(MORE LATER).


EOGHAN HARRIS : OUT OF THE SHADOWS .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , November 1997 .
By Brenda Power .

That there is widespread fear and loathing for Eoghan Harris within RTE is not in doubt ; scarcely anyone can remain neutral at the mention of his name and , while some remember him as a fearless opponent of Provo sympathies in RTE in the heated years of the late 1970's and early 1980's many others consider that he and a handful of acolytes wielded unaccountable power within the station for the advancement of their own political ends in those times .

They dominated current affairs editorial lines and 'packed' panels and slanted coverage towards their own agenda , setting out to crush anyone who stood in their way . " Fearsome .....mesmerising ....intimidating ...bombastic .." are among the terms used by former colleagues to describe the means by which Eoghan Harris swayed and seduced all round him in those days .

As the major ideologue , pamphleteer and chief adviser to Official Sinn Fein leader Cathal Goulding in the early 1970's , after Harris joined RTE as a producer he first became active within the RTE branch of the Workers' Union of Ireland in the implementation of Sinn Fein The Workers Party strategies of infiltration .......
(MORE LATER).


THE 26 COUNTIES : A STATE BUT NOT A NATION .......
The history of the Free State has been one of progressively solidifying partition : cross-border collaboration is only one aspect of this .
From 'IRIS' magazine , November 1983.
No By-Line.

The national objective has been reduced by the two major Free State parties - Fianna Fail and Fine Gael - to a mere cypher , a mere 'difference in emphasis' between two essentially conservative parties , which successfully creates a smoke-screen behind which the vested interests of capitalist economics can be protected in a state which has - because of its history of militant social as well as national agitation - a potentially dynamic working class .

As part of the overall restriction of such dynamism , the creation of a closed confessional state - in direct negation of all the principles of republicanism - has played a very significant role in turning the 26-county state inwards on itself . The collapse of the Stormont government , and therefore , in effect , the collapse of the 6-county state , should have seen a dramatic acceleration towards a united Ireland - even though the British prop remained . It did not do so because of the determination of Dublin governments that it should not do so .

The establishment political parties and the economic interests they represent could not hope to sustain the comfortable position they had built for themselves in a new 32-county Ireland .......
(MORE LATER).

(NOTE : the crew here at '1169...' have not had a break since July 2005 - in order to catch-up with other matters , we will be taking a one-week break from this Friday , May 5th . We will make a 'holding' post during our week off in relation to the up-coming Bodenstown Commemoration . Go raibh maith agat ! John)

---

---

---

Hunger Strike Rally , GPO , Dublin , Saturday May 6th 2006 .
Remembering the Hunger-Strikers 25 years on.
A rally to commemorate the heroic struggle of the ten hunger-strikers : Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Ray McCreesh, Patsy O'Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Thomas McElwee, Michael Devine - who gave their lives in 1981- will be held in Dublin on Saturday May 6 2006 . Assemble at the Garden of Remembrance at 2pm for march to GPO on O'Connell Street.
"They will not criminalise us, rob us of our true identity, steal our individualism, depoliticise us, churn us out as systemised, institutionalised, decent law-abiding robots. Never will they label our liberation struggle as criminal."
- Bobby Sands.
Twenty-two Irish political prisoners died on hunger-strike between 1917 and 1981 . The Dublin Rally is being held to commemorate all those Irishmen .

MacGIOLLA's GUERRILLAS .......
Fifteen years ago , the leadership of the 'Official Republican Movement' (now 'The Workers' Party') stated that their armed wing , the 'Official IRA' , went out of existence .
Today , the 'Official IRA' is alive and well and living mainly in Belfast and Newry . In the days when both organisations were operating in an overt way , the leadership of 'The Workers' Party' and the 'Official IRA' overlapped to a certain degree .
Tomas MacGiolla , the man who led the 'Official IRA' for the last twenty-five years has always maintained the position that the 'Official IRA' went out of existence in 1972 . But the 'Official IRA' still march on , not an army fighting the British , but as a fund-collecting agency .
DEREK DUNNE traces the roots of the 'Official IRA' and 'The Workers' Party' .
From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine , October 1987 .

The Derry Command of the Official IRA were placed under the watchful eye of the Officer Commanding of the OIRA in the North , Malachy McGurrin , for a period ; eventually , in 1974 , when Seamus Costello split with the Officials and started up the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) and the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) , most of Derry went with him .

Following that split , three Official IRA assassins took over a house in Rathlin Gardens in Derry , but later aborted their mission to assassinate three Derry INLA men : the three assassins defected shortly afterwards . Before the split with the Official IRA , the Derry Command OIRA had been preparing - they had carried out robberies to fund weaponry , but did not pass the money on to Dublin . If the split had not occured , they would have set up their own private army .

Derry was unique in that it was totally politicised , but not in the way Dublin liked : throughout the early 1970's , Sean Garland was always considered a 'hard man' by those in Derry . Mick Ryan was his 'sidekick' . Cathal Goulding was not taken seriously and Tomas MacGiolla was considered a bit of a 'father figure' . Belfast , meanwhile , was having its own problems , and Dublin's decision to scale down the war was not welcomed .......
(MORE LATER).


EOGHAN HARRIS : OUT OF THE SHADOWS .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , November 1997 .
By Brenda Power .

In reply to a student's question in Trinity College , Derek Nally accepted Mary McAleese's explanations about the leaked State Department of Foreign Affairs memos and , the following Friday , he claimed on the 'Late Late Show' debate that he had been duped , deceived and manipulated by John Caden and his dark , cloaked , shadowy , sinister puppetmaster Eoghan Harris .

Sounding like a newly de-programmed 'Moonie' , Derek Nally portrayed himself as having been briefly possessed in an almost demonic fashion , forced to speak in a voice that was not his and helplessly spewing imprecations that came from not even God knew where ! The fact that his extraordinary claims elicited not a titter of scepticism in the studio , least of all from his fellow candidates , and the air of almost awestruck admiration at a brave and lucky escape that attended his tale , prompted several callers to RTE to wonder who , exactly , was this Eoghan Harris and why did he have such acknowledged power ?

Eoghan Harris himself is tetchily dismissive of such concerns - " What's all this dark , shadowy crap ? My enemies use these terms like darkness , mental instability , manic depression , to try to harm me and turn me into dark forces . But I'm a narky fucker who'll talk to anybody . I'm completely open about what I do . I always wore my politics on my sleeve and I was totally straightforward about what I was trying to do with Derek Nally , he just did'nt have the intelligence to see it . I am a very strong personality , a person of powerful polemical force , but I have enemies in RTE and they refuse to give myself and John Caden a right to reply to this defamation ......."
(MORE LATER).


THE 26 COUNTIES : A STATE BUT NOT A NATION .
The history of the Free State has been one of progressively solidifying partition : cross-border collaboration is only one aspect of this .
From 'IRIS' magazine , November 1983.
No By-Line.

The partition of this island is all too often thought of as just a single event which took place 62 years ago and has remained a static piece of unfinished business from that period . But that is not so .

The effects of British occupation - social , economic and cultural , as well as military - over several centuries , were part of the evolution of partition . And equally , since 1921 , those same factors have continued to solidfy partition , in an on-going process , on both sides of the artificial border .

The Stormont government was rather obvious in its efforts to buttress the 6-county state : pogroms , special powers , housing and job discrimination , and electoral gerrymandering . The Dublin government's contribution was a combination of a passive role of abandoning any thought of action to end partition - substituting meaningless verbal platitudes - and then the very active role of repressing those in the 26 counties who sought to take practical steps towards achieving the national objective .......
(MORE LATER).

(NOTE : the crew here at '1169...' have not had a break since July 2005 - in order to catch-up with other matters , we will be taking a one-week break from this Friday , May 5th . We will make a 'holding' post during our week off in relation to the up-coming Bodenstown Commemoration . Go raibh maith agat ! John)

---

---

---

Hunger Strike Rally , GPO , Dublin , Saturday May 6th 2006 .
Remembering the Hunger-Strikers 25 years on.
A rally to commemorate the heroic struggle of the ten hunger-strikers : Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Ray McCreesh, Patsy O'Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Thomas McElwee, Michael Devine - who gave their lives in 1981- will be held in Dublin on Saturday May 6 2006 . Assemble at the Garden of Remembrance at 2pm for march to GPO on O'Connell Street.
"They will not criminalise us, rob us of our true identity, steal our individualism, depoliticise us, churn us out as systemised, institutionalised, decent law-abiding robots. Never will they label our liberation struggle as criminal."
- Bobby Sands.
Twenty-two Irish political prisoners died on hunger-strike between 1917 and 1981 . The Dublin Rally is being held to commemorate all those Irishmen .


MacGIOLLA's GUERRILLAS .......
Fifteen years ago , the leadership of the 'Official Republican Movement' (now 'The Workers' Party') stated that their armed wing , the 'Official IRA' , went out of existence .
Today , the 'Official IRA' is alive and well and living mainly in Belfast and Newry . In the days when both organisations were operating in an overt way , the leadership of 'The Workers' Party' and the 'Official IRA' overlapped to a certain degree .
Tomas MacGiolla , the man who led the 'Official IRA' for the last twenty-five years has always maintained the position that the 'Official IRA' went out of existence in 1972 . But the 'Official IRA' still march on , not an army fighting the British , but as a fund-collecting agency .
DEREK DUNNE traces the roots of the 'Official IRA' and 'The Workers' Party' .
From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine , October 1987 .

Cathal Goulding was quoted as saying in 1972 - when the Official IRA was supposed to have gone out of existance - " I am a physical force revolutionary . I'm not naive enough to think that we don't have to use guns . An armed proletariat is the only assurance that they can have the rule of the proletariat . "

In the nine months preceeding the ceasefire , the Derry Official IRA killed twenty-one British soldiers . At that time , Free Derry was in existance , and the Official IRA operated in conjunction with Saor Eire and the Provos . Dublin , from where all the supplies came , started to scale down the war before the ceasefire was called ; they sent up wrong ammunition in order to slow down activity . Dublin , even prior to the ceasefire , were clearly worried about the direction their Derry comrades were taking .

Derry had its own paper , 'The Starry Plough' , which was selling almost as many copies as the Official's publication , 'The United Irishman' : incidentally , Eamonn McCann contributed to both publications at this time , and for six months in 1972 , wrote all the editorials for 'The United Irishman' .......
(MORE LATER).



EOGHAN HARRIS : OUT OF THE SHADOWS .......
From 'MAGILL' magazine , November 1997 .
By Brenda Power .

'Their' prejudices are the residue of a collapsed ideology - they may have reservations about Mary McAleese's "...appalling record on the liberal agenda.. " but they won't dare raise it because their 'Crypto-Provo-Trot' sympathies run deeper than their 'liberal feminist conceits' .

If , as Eoghan Harris predicts with absolute conviction , the 'People With Bad Politics' (ie alleged 'Provo sympathisers') feel the wrath of the 48 per cent of voters who have imposed a "Secret Fatwa" on Sinn Fein's critical supporters on polling day , McAleese has lost and then " I deserve credit . I alerted my country to her character . And , if she wins , I still deserve credit because she will enter Aras an Uachtarain under a cloud , and she'll fill the place with Shinners singing 'The Men Behind The Wire' and she'll be astonished at the public revulsion to her over the next few months , and I choose the term 'tribal timebomb' very carefully because she'll blow up in Bertie's face sooner or later . And if she wins , not on a technicality but because so many people gave her their number one , then I am living in a country I no longer understand . "

Eoghan Harris has a flair for a memorable tag line and an impressive facility for certainty : so Derek Nally is a "...slimeball , a blustering bucolic windbag (who) bottled out .. " of pursuing the strategy that had been tailored and presented to him for free and which , Harris reckons , was technically foolproof but for the fact that it had failed to contemplate the shortcomings of "...a big thick Guard .. " ('1169...' Comment - Nally was an ex-Garda , while Harris is an ex-citizen of Planet Earth !)

According to Eoghan Harris , Nally was "...the best candidate to point up McAleese's bad politics .. " and he was "...going like a train .. " under the guidance of Harris and his friend John Caden right up to the Trinity College debate when "...McAleese eyeballed him like a bright young barrister cross-examining an elderly cop on a car crash and he just lost it ....... " ('1169....' Comment - Mickey Spillane has nothing on this guy . Except Spillane might have had closer ties to Planet Earth .)
(MORE LATER).



ORANGE JUDGE EXECUTED.......
From 'IRIS' magazine , March 1983 .
No 'By-Line' .

As Diplock Judge William Doyle got into his Mercedes saloon car after leaving St. Brigid's Catholic Church in Derryvolgie Avenue , two IRA Volunteers , armed with a .38 Special and a Magnum , and dressed in hats and black overcoats to blend into the middle-class environment , approached and fired several rapid shots , killing Doyle instantly . Seconds later , the Volunteers ran off to a waiting car driven by a third Volunteer , which the Active Service Unit abandoned a short distance away before transferring to a second vehicle and returning to base .

The IRA's ability to carry out intensive surveillance and intelligence on a county court judge , normally protected by round-the-clock RUC armed bodyguards , and to mount an elaborate attack on such a prestigious target , proved a major embarrassment to the Brits in the immediate aftermath of Doyle's death , especially since security procedures were supposed to have been tightened following an earlier unsuccessful attack on 'Lord' Chief Justice Lowry by the IRA in March 1982 .

It also drew unwelcome attention for the British to the collaborative role of some middle-class Catholics in the North , in propping up the British administration and so inevitably prolonging the war and the suffering of the nationalist people . It is a collaboration that the IRA will not gladly tolerate . ('1169....' Comment : that obviously depends on who is doing the collaborating.)
[END of 'ORANGE JUDGE EXECUTED']
(Tomorrow - 'The 26 Counties : A State But Not A Nation' - from 1983)

---

---

---

Hunger Strike Rally , GPO , Dublin , Saturday May 6th 2006 .
Remembering the Hunger-Strikers 25 years on.
A rally to commemorate the heroic struggle of the ten hunger-strikers : Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Ray McCreesh, Patsy O'Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Thomas McElwee, Michael Devine - who gave their lives in 1981- will be held in Dublin on Saturday May 6 2006 . Assemble at the Garden of Remembrance at 2pm for march to GPO on O'Connell Street.
"They will not criminalise us, rob us of our true identity, steal our individualism, depoliticise us, churn us out as systemised, institutionalised, decent law-abiding robots. Never will they label our liberation struggle as criminal."
- Bobby Sands.
Twenty-two Irish political prisoners died on hunger-strike between 1917 and 1981 . The Dublin Rally is being held to commemorate all those Irishmen .

MacGIOLLA's GUERRILLAS .......
Fifteen years ago , the leadership of the 'Official Republican Movement' (now 'The Workers' Party') stated that their armed wing , the 'Official IRA' , went out of existence .
Today , the 'Official IRA' is alive and well and living mainly in Belfast and Newry . In the days when both organisations were operating in an overt way , the leadership of 'The Workers' Party' and the 'Official IRA' overlapped to a certain degree .
Tomas MacGiolla , the man who led the 'Official IRA' for the last twenty-five years has always maintained the position that the 'Official IRA' went out of existence in 1972 . But the 'Official IRA' still march on , not an army fighting the British , but as a fund-collecting agency .
DEREK DUNNE traces the roots of the 'Official IRA' and 'The Workers' Party' .
From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine , October 1987 .

Malachy McGurrin , Officer Commanding of the Official IRA in the North , was fully aware that British soldier Ranger Best had been 'arrested' by the OIRA : following the killing , he oversaw the press release which talked about the "...slobbering moderates.. " who condemned the action . It should be noted that Malachy McGurrin was one of the people that Tomas MacGiolla complimented on taking their organisation along a more peaceful line after 1962 .

Sean Garland ordered an inquiry into the shooting of Ranger Best and Dublin wished to take disciplinary action against those involved , including shooting the Derry Officer Commanding of the OIRA : the OIRA Army Executive discussed the matter , and the motion to shoot the OC was defeated by just one vote - that of Seamus Costello's , who stated that the day the Official IRA shot one of its own for killing a British soldier would be the day he would leave the organisation .

The Stalinist Dublin leadership of the OIRA used the Ranger Best killing to call a ceasefire , but allowed members to use weapons for defence and retaliation - this 'clause' was effectively a sop to the younger members in Belfast who would have joined the PIRA if there was no military activity within the Official IRA .......
(MORE LATER).


EOGHAN HARRIS : OUT OF THE SHADOWS .
From 'MAGILL' magazine , November 1997 .
By Brenda Power .

They love : French films , John Waters , the 'Questions & Answers' RTE television programme audience , Gerry Adams on the 'Late Late Show'. Hanging around the IFC in black clothes . Nuala O Faolain , DCU journalism , Trotskyism , Feminism (" Scratch a Trot or a feminist and find a Provo... ") and RTE Radio One .

They hate : Zionism , Dana , The Daily Telegraph , Camille Paglia , Unionism , Conor Cruise O' Brien ("...a touchstone for bad politics.. ") , Rupert Murdoch , American cinematic classicism and Aristotle . 'They' are 'People With Bad Politics' , and Eoghan Harris can spot them at a glance - one small 'tic' , one gesture or smart quip and then Eoghan Harris knows , he reveals in 'Alien-script' uppercase , it's ONE OF THEM !

They are typically Dublin middle class professional types who have a series of kneejerk cliched positions on a tight core of political opinion . They are 'Sneaking Regarders' , Hush Puppy Radicals and if they join an organisation it will be a "...mosquito group.." like the International Marxist Group.......
(MORE LATER).


ORANGE JUDGE EXECUTED.......
From 'IRIS' magazine , March 1983 .
No 'By-Line' .

Responding to Bishop Cathal Daly's criticism of Irish republicanism , the IRA said - " But we pose one of these questions again so that the nationalist people , who will find it outlandish that we are the gravest threat to them in 50 years , can see who is and who is not afraid of the truth .

We ask the bishop in plain and simple layperson's language to answer the question : is the British presence , generally speaking , morally good for the nationalist people in the North ? We will see if he is as quick to answer this as he is to condemn us . " The IRA , doubtlessly not to its surprise , is still waiting for Bishop Daly's reply .

Judge William Doyle , a conscious upholder of British law in the six counties , a Diplock judge who had played his full role in railroading republican and nationalists into jail on forced 'confessions' and perjured 'evidence' , died in a carefully planned and carried out attack in the middle-class Malone suburb of South Belfast on January 16th 1983 .......
(MORE LATER).

---

---

---

Hunger Strike Rally , GPO , Dublin , Saturday May 6th 2006 .
Remembering the Hunger-Strikers 25 years on.
A rally to commemorate the heroic struggle of the ten hunger-strikers : Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Ray McCreesh, Patsy O'Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Thomas McElwee, Michael Devine - who gave their lives in 1981- will be held in Dublin on Saturday May 6 2006 . Assemble at the Garden of Remembrance at 2pm for march to GPO on O'Connell Street.
"They will not criminalise us, rob us of our true identity, steal our individualism, depoliticise us, churn us out as systemised, institutionalised, decent law-abiding robots. Never will they label our liberation struggle as criminal."
- Bobby Sands.
Twenty-two Irish political prisoners died on hunger-strike between 1917 and 1981 . The Dublin Rally is being held to commemorate all those Irishmen .


MacGIOLLA's GUERRILLAS .......
Fifteen years ago , the leadership of the 'Official Republican Movement' (now 'The Workers' Party') stated that their armed wing , the 'Official IRA' , went out of existence .
Today , the 'Official IRA' is alive and well and living mainly in Belfast and Newry . In the days when both organisations were operating in an overt way , the leadership of 'The Workers' Party' and the 'Official IRA' overlapped to a certain degree .
Tomas MacGiolla , the man who led the 'Official IRA' for the last twenty-five years has always maintained the position that the 'Official IRA' went out of existence in 1972 . But the 'Official IRA' still march on , not an army fighting the British , but as a fund-collecting agency .
DEREK DUNNE traces the roots of the 'Official IRA' and 'The Workers' Party' .
From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine , October 1987 .

Another occasion when Tomas MacGiolla went to Derry was following the killing of Senator Jack Barnhill on 12 December 1971 : it was claimed that he had been killed in a struggle when the Official IRA were about to burn down his house . Roy Johnston resigned from the Workers' Party over this . MacGiolla initially condemned the action , unaware that his own organisation had carried it out .

The third occasion when Tomas MacGiolla consulted with the Derry Command Staff of the OIRA was in 1972 , following the killing of Ranger Best in the city : Best was a local man who had joined the British Army and was home on leave . There was a standing Official IRA Order which stated that all British soldiers were to be killed , in or out of uniform . This Order was issued following Bloody Sunday .

Aldershot had also followed Bloody Sunday , but Aldershot had been planned for a year ahead , and a decision had already been taken prior to Bloody Sunday to prepare Britain for war on home ground .......
(MORE LATER).



GARDA GUN FIRE : WHO TO BELIEVE.......?
Close analysis of television news film of incidents last month at Emyvale suggests a garda's gun went off accidentally . But that is not what the Minister of Justice told the Dail .
GENE KERRIGAN looks at the evidence.
From 'MAGILL' magazine , June 1987 .

Most incidents of controversy happen away from the view of cameras ; the public must take on trust that the 'official' account subsequently produced is accurate and true . When available evidence seems to conflict with the 'official' account that trust is dangerously stretched .

To attempt to cover up an incident which in itself is quite explainable indicates , at best , a nonchalant attitude to a serious matter . Apart from the cover-up , questions arise about the wisdom of using an Uzi for crowd control , about the routine investigation following garda use of guns and about the reliability of garda guns and the training given to gardai .
[END of ' GARDA GUN FIRE : WHO TO BELIEVE ?'].
(Tomorrow - 'EOGHAN HARRIS : OUT OF THE SHADOWS' - from 1997)


ORANGE JUDGE EXECUTED.
From 'IRIS' magazine , March 1983 .
No 'By-Line' .

The IRA's execution of Judge William Doyle , a 'token Catholic' in the corrupt Orange judiciary in the North of Ireland , sent shock waves of anguish and anger through the pro-British establishment in the North , and through the Catholic middle class ad Catholic hierarchy who objectively assist the British presence .

Two days after the killing , Bishop Cathal Daly , who had been rather more circumspect in his criticism of recent RUC shoot-to-kill murders of nationalists , was prompted to describe those in the Irish republican tradition as representing - " ...the gravest danger which has been created for Belfast Catholicism for half a century . "

Responding to Bishop Daly's denunciation at the time , the IRA said - " Two weeks ago , we asked Bishop Daly to rule on a number of questions which we posed , and he refused to answer because he could not answer without exposing his pro-British sympathies ....... "
(MORE LATER).

---

---

---

Hunger Strike Rally , GPO , Dublin , Saturday May 6th 2006 .
Remembering the Hunger-Strikers 25 years on.
A rally to commemorate the heroic struggle of the ten hunger-strikers : Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Ray McCreesh, Patsy O'Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Thomas McElwee, Michael Devine - who gave their lives in 1981- will be held in Dublin on Saturday May 6 2006 . Assemble at the Garden of Remembrance at 2pm for march to GPO on O'Connell Street.
"They will not criminalise us, rob us of our true identity, steal our individualism, depoliticise us, churn us out as systemised, institutionalised, decent law-abiding robots. Never will they label our liberation struggle as criminal."
- Bobby Sands.
Twenty-two Irish political prisoners died on hunger-strike between 1917 and 1981 . The Dublin Rally is being held to commemorate all those Irishmen .


MacGIOLLA's GUERRILLAS .......
Fifteen years ago , the leadership of the 'Official Republican Movement' (now 'The Workers' Party') stated that their armed wing , the 'Official IRA' , went out of existence .
Today , the 'Official IRA' is alive and well and living mainly in Belfast and Newry . In the days when both organisations were operating in an overt way , the leadership of 'The Workers' Party' and the 'Official IRA' overlapped to a certain degree .
Tomas MacGiolla , the man who led the 'Official IRA' for the last twenty-five years has always maintained the position that the 'Official IRA' went out of existence in 1972 . But the 'Official IRA' still march on , not an army fighting the British , but as a fund-collecting agency .
DEREK DUNNE traces the roots of the 'Official IRA' and 'The Workers' Party' .
From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine , October 1987 .

The Army Council of the Official IRA was elected from the OIRA Army Convention , and the Council in turn appointed the OIRA Executive . The Army Council were party to and conscious of all policy decisions taken . OIRA Officers Commanding from all command areas attended meetings from time to time - Belfast , County Derry , Derry City , Newry South , Armagh , Donegal , Dublin , Waterford , Cork and Limerick .

Between 1969 and mid-1972 , when the Official IRA called its ceasefire , they actively engaged the British Army : this is today presented by members of the Workers' Party as some kind of 'aberration' . By 1972 , the Official IRA had about 150 active members in Derry ; they were arranged into companies and battalions and had an assortment of old weapons - MI's , Winchesters , M3 Grease guns , Garrand rifles and some 303's : they were all bolt action weapons .

On at least three separate occasions , Tomas MacGiolla made his way to Derry to talk with the Official IRA Command Staff there ; one occasion was when OIRA member Joe McCann was killed in action . The OIRA Command meeting was called to discuss what retaliation should take place as a result of the killing but , by the time MacGiolla arrived in Derry , the Official IRA had already shot dead two British soldiers . The OIRA Derry Command also consulted with other members of the Workers' Party in those days , such as Sean Garland , Andy Smith and Larry Malone .
(MORE LATER).



GARDA GUN FIRE : WHO TO BELIEVE.......?
Close analysis of television news film of incidents last month at Emyvale suggests a garda's gun went off accidentally . But that is not what the Minister of Justice told the Dail .
GENE KERRIGAN looks at the evidence.
From 'MAGILL' magazine , June 1987 .

The statement in Leinster House by Gerry Collins (FF) is not only inaccurate but is also clearly damaging to Detective Sergeant Joe Darwin ; State Minister Collins and the AGSI , in stating that the garda deliberately fired the gun , are claiming that he casually let loose a bullet from a weapon that is not aimed , that is not held in a controlled manner in a firing position .

The garda did not fire the gun irresponsibly or deliberately - the gun apparently went off accidentally as he grasped the butt in his right hand and cradled the barrel in his left palm . There may be lessons to be learned from the incident at Emyvale but the overwhelming matter of public concern is the fact that an inaccurate and misleading official account of the incident has been drawn up .

Only the professionalism of the RTE film crew and sheer luck have enabled us to see clearly that the official account is untrue.......
(MORE LATER).



LIAM MELLOWS AND THE IRISH CIVIL WAR .......
This is the bulk of a public lecture given at University College , Galway , by Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member and Deputy General Secretary of the 'Local Government and Public Services Union' , Phil Flynn , on December 8th 1982 , the 60th Anniversary of the Free State's execution of Liam Mellows .
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , March 1983 .

In an article published two weeks after his execution , Liam Mellows wrote -
" In its 'Programme of Democratic Policy' , Dail Eireann laid down that the soil of Ireland and all that grew upon it and lay under it , as well as all the wealth and wealth-producing processes in the country , should belong to the people .

In the last analysis , the fight between the Irish people and the British government is not alone one between two nations : it is more than that - it is a struggle between two systems of civilisation , between the feudal system of England under its present guise of industrialism and the democratic system upon which the old civilisation of Ireland was built .

A vestige of that civilisation remains in Ireland today - it is growing , expanding , and the end of foreign rule in Ireland will usher in not alone a new political era in Ireland , but a new economic one as well . "

[END of 'LIAM MELLOWS AND THE IRISH CIVIL WAR']
(Tomorrow : 'ORANGE JUDGE EXECUTED' - from 1983)

---

---

---

Hunger Strike Rally , GPO , Dublin , Saturday May 6th 2006 .
Remembering the Hunger-Strikers 25 years on.
A rally to commemorate the heroic struggle of the ten hunger-strikers : Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Ray McCreesh, Patsy O'Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Thomas McElwee, Michael Devine - who gave their lives in 1981- will be held in Dublin on Saturday May 6 2006 . Assemble at the Garden of Remembrance at 2pm for march to GPO on O'Connell Street.
"They will not criminalise us, rob us of our true identity, steal our individualism, depoliticise us, churn us out as systemised, institutionalised, decent law-abiding robots. Never will they label our liberation struggle as criminal."
- Bobby Sands.
Twenty-two Irish political prisoners died on hunger-strike between 1917 and 1981 . The Dublin Rally is being held to commemorate all those Irishmen .


MacGIOLLA's GUERRILLAS .......
Fifteen years ago , the leadership of the 'Official Republican Movement' (now 'The Workers' Party') stated that their armed wing , the 'Official IRA' , went out of existence .
Today , the 'Official IRA' is alive and well and living mainly in Belfast and Newry . In the days when both organisations were operating in an overt way , the leadership of 'The Workers' Party' and the 'Official IRA' overlapped to a certain degree .
Tomas MacGiolla , the man who led the 'Official IRA' for the last twenty-five years has always maintained the position that the 'Official IRA' went out of existence in 1972 . But the 'Official IRA' still march on , not an army fighting the British , but as a fund-collecting agency .
DEREK DUNNE traces the roots of the 'Official IRA' and 'The Workers' Party' .
From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine , October 1987 .

Sean Garland was also on the OIRA Army Council by virtue of the fact that he was Adjutant General of the OIRA . Michael Ryan was on the OIRA Army Council because he was the Director of Intelligence : Seamus Costello because he was Director of Operations . Other members were Derry Dineen , Quartermaster General and Sean Kenny , International Affairs . Malachy McGurrin was 'Officer Commanding' of the Official IRA in the North and was also on the OIRA Army Council . Eamonn Smullen also attended meetings following his return from Britain in 1973 .

While it is publicly known that Cathal Goulding was on both the OIRA Army Council and its Executive by virtue of the fact that he was OIRA Chief of Staff , the other leading members of what is now the Workers' Party were less than forthcoming about the part they played - in public , none have ever admitted being on the OIRA Army Council , the supreme decision-making body of that organisation . Neither have any stated publicly when , if at all , they relinquished their posts .

Eamonn Smullen was another very influential figure in that movement ; he had spent time in Portlaoise Prison during 'the Emergency' ; he had been aligned with the Communist Party in Britain and was active in the trade union movement . Eamonn Smullen was convicted in Britain of conspiring to buy arms and returned to Ireland in 1973 - it was he who developed the 'infiltrationist tactics' of the Workers' Party , the objective of which was to saturate various areas such as the media and the trade unions with members and supporters of the Workers' Party . In this they have been largely successful .......
(MORE LATER).



GARDA GUN FIRE : WHO TO BELIEVE.......?
Close analysis of television news film of incidents last month at Emyvale suggests a garda's gun went off accidentally . But that is not what the Minister of Justice told the Dail .
GENE KERRIGAN looks at the evidence.
From 'MAGILL' magazine , June 1987 .

Criticism of the garda involved , Detective Sergeant Joe Darwin from Monaghan , is beside the point - in a traumatic event he acted as he thought best - he clearly believed that his life and the lives of his colleagues were under threat . He was entitled in that situation to use his gun . * ( * '1169...' Comment : the fact remains that a trained armed member of the State Gardai fired weapons at un-armed protestors . Criticism of said member should not , in our opinion , be dismissed as being "beside the point" .)

In photographs taken from a tape of the RTE News film of the incident , it can be clearly seen that the plainclothes garda cradles his revolver in both hands ; the gun is cocked . His arms are relaxed and bent , the gun is not aimed - it is pointing straight ahead at the bank of the stream . This is not a firing position - a garda deliberately firing a gun in this position would be acting extremely irresponsibly . Yet this is the scene a fraction of a second before the gun is fired . Then the gun fires . The smoke from the discharge can be faintly seen against the right arm of the uniformed garda (on his left) . The gun is now pointing up at an angle of 45 degrees , 'kicking up' into that position as a result of the recoil as the gun fires .

A fraction of a second later and the garda on his left can be seen to have 'flinched' at the sound of the shot . As stones and other objects , thrown by members of the crowd , land in the stream (where the gardai are) , the garda on the right of the garda with the gun 'flinches' : he is trying to move down to where his colleague is trapped in the over-turned car . The plainclothes garda now raises the gun to a firing position but does not fire - he simply points the gun at the crowd . The uniformed garda on his left turns to the plainclothes garda and grasps his shoulder - this uniformed garda is holding the Uzi submachine gun which was previously used . The uniformed garda on his left has now pushed his colleague back against the wall at the far side of the stream , and has apparently persuaded his colleague to lower his revolver .......
(MORE LATER).



LIAM MELLOWS AND THE IRISH CIVIL WAR .......
This is the bulk of a public lecture given at University College , Galway , by Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member and Deputy General Secretary of the 'Local Government and Public Services Union' , Phil Flynn , on December 8th 1982 , the 60th Anniversary of the Free State's execution of Liam Mellows .
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , March 1983 .

In an article by Liam Mellows , entitled 'Labour and Irish Republic' , which was published in 'Voice of Labour' on 23rd December 1922 , he stated -
" Industries will receive encouragement ; employment will increase ; the natural resources of the country tapped ; emigration stopped ; education put on a proper basis , and direct contact with the outside world established . Yet all this , resulting as it would in the country being richer and more prosperous , would not mean that the freedom of Ireland has been attained if the economic system remained unchanged .

A political revolution in Ireland , without a co-incident economic revolution , simply means a change of masters - instead of British capitalists waxing rich on the political and economic enslavement of Ireland , as at present , we would have Irish capitalists waxing rich on the political freedom , but continued enslavement , of Ireland . We do not want a change of masters : it would be foolish , surely , to free Ireland from foreign tyranny today , and less than twenty years hence to have to free it from domestic tyranny . Therefore , the Irish Republic must have for its foundation the people . It is they who are freeing Ireland , and it is for the people - all the people - that it is being done , not for any section or group .

The Dail Eireann had this clearly in mind when , at its first session , in January 1919 ,it issued its 'Programme of Democratic Policy'....... "
(MORE LATER).

---

---

---

Hunger Strike Rally , GPO , Dublin , Saturday May 6th 2006 .
Remembering the Hunger-Strikers 25 years on.
A rally to commemorate the heroic struggle of the ten hunger-strikers : Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Ray McCreesh, Patsy O'Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Thomas McElwee, Michael Devine - who gave their lives in 1981- will be held in Dublin on Saturday May 6 2006 . Assemble at the Garden of Remembrance at 2pm for march to GPO on O'Connell Street.
"They will not criminalise us, rob us of our true identity, steal our individualism, depoliticise us, churn us out as systemised, institutionalised, decent law-abiding robots. Never will they label our liberation struggle as criminal."
- Bobby Sands.
Twenty-two Irish political prisoners died on hunger-strike between 1917 and 1981 . The Dublin Rally is being held to commemorate all those Irishmen .


MacGIOLLA's GUERRILLAS .......
Fifteen years ago , the leadership of the 'Official Republican Movement' (now 'The Workers' Party') stated that their armed wing , the 'Official IRA' , went out of existence .
Today , the 'Official IRA' is alive and well and living mainly in Belfast and Newry . In the days when both organisations were operating in an overt way , the leadership of 'The Workers' Party' and the 'Official IRA' overlapped to a certain degree .
Tomas MacGiolla , the man who led the 'Official IRA' for the last twenty-five years has always maintained the position that the 'Official IRA' went out of existence in 1972 . But the 'Official IRA' still march on , not an army fighting the British , but as a fund-collecting agency .
DEREK DUNNE traces the roots of the 'Official IRA' and 'The Workers' Party' .
From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine , October 1987 .

The 'Civil Rights' movement started - it was not controlled by Sinn Fein , although there were Sinn Fein members in it . The loyalists attacked nationalist areas in August 1969 : Roy Johnston's 'script' had nothing in it about armed defence of the population - his theory has assumed that people could exercise basic democratic rights , which were presumed to exist under 'Stage One' of the 'Stages Theory' .

The 'Theory' fell to pieces as the IRA scrambled to get guns to defend the people : the old militarists returned and made much play about the fact that there was no guns to defend anybody - the Dublin administration became involved in funding defence committees : there was a split within Sinn Fein and the IRA - the Provos and the Officials were born , in 1969 - two armies emerged which were to develop in radically different ways .

Between 1969 and 1974 , the political and military control of the Official IRA was vested in more or less the same people , and that situation continued for a number of years into the 1970's . Tomas MacGiolla was Chairman of the OIRA Army Council , Chairman of the the Army Executive (the body responsible for the day-to-day running of the Official IRA and membership of which largely overlapped with the OIRA Army Council) and Chairman of the OIRA Army Convention , the assembly of OIRA Volunteers . This latter group had not met once between 1969 and 1972 .......
(MORE LATER).



GARDA GUN FIRE : WHO TO BELIEVE.......?
Close analysis of television news film of incidents last month at Emyvale suggests a garda's gun went off accidentally . But that is not what the Minister of Justice told the Dail .
GENE KERRIGAN looks at the evidence.
From 'MAGILL' magazine , June 1987 .

There are several reasons why the State offers up a different version than that of what millions actually witnessed during the 'Emyvale Incident' , when a garda , Detective Sergeant Joe Darwin , from Monaghan , 'discharged' his weapon :

1). It is important that the circumstances in which garda weapons are discharged are monitored and that such actions be accountable .
2). In November 1982 , a young Dublin man , Eamonn Byrne , was shot dead by a garda at the North Wall in Dublin . Byrne had been arrested and was in handcuffs . The garda's gun went off accidentally . Questions arise about the reliability of garda weapons and the ability of gardai to use their guns in a controlled manner . In March 1986 , a garda detective fired shots in a far from controlled manner when gardai were attempting to arrest Evelyn Glenholmes . The detective had to be restrained by a Sinn Fein member .
3). If TV viewers can see that the official 'explanation' of a shooting does not square with the evidence , the reliability of the State Minister for Justice and of the gardai and the status of Leinster House are put in question . ('1169...' Comment - for Republicans , it does not take a garda shooting for those , or any other , 'institutions' of this State to be 'called into question'.)
4). Above all , the public is simply entitled to frankness and honesty from public servants and representatives .
(MORE LATER).



LIAM MELLOWS AND THE IRISH CIVIL WAR .......
This is the bulk of a public lecture given at University College , Galway , by Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member and Deputy General Secretary of the 'Local Government and Public Services Union' , Phil Flynn , on December 8th 1982 , the 60th Anniversary of the Free State's execution of Liam Mellows .
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , March 1983 .

Further evidence of the depth of the political consciousness of Liam Mellows is apparent in the following extracts from an article by him entitled ' Labour and Irish Republic' , published in 'Voice of Labour' on 23rd December 1922 , two weeks after his execution :

" When one talks of freedom for Ireland , one should have clearly in mind what is meant by Irish Freedom . Freedom and independence , as used at present , are terms so ambiguous as to mean anything , or nothing . The mere act ot setting up a Republic is not a panacea for all the ills that trouble Ireland . Measures more far-reaching than that are required if Ireland is to enjoy real freedom .

The revolution going on in Ireland has a threefold aspect - it is intellectual , it is political , it is economic . Of the intellectual aspect , it is sufficient here to say that Ireland , to be free , must be Irish , must be as free from the domination of alien thought as from alien armies of occupation . The end of the political struggle , the withdrawal of the British Army and British officials from Ireland , and the international recognition of the Irish Republic , will be the means of solving many of the present economic and social problems there , enabling the Government of Ireland to devote its entire attention to the internal matters of this country . "
(MORE LATER).

---

---

---

MacGIOLLA's GUERRILLAS .......
Fifteen years ago , the leadership of the 'Official Republican Movement' (now 'The Workers' Party') stated that their armed wing , the 'Official IRA' , went out of existence .
Today , the 'Official IRA' is alive and well and living mainly in Belfast and Newry . In the days when both organisations were operating in an overt way , the leadership of 'The Workers' Party' and the 'Official IRA' overlapped to a certain degree .
Tomas MacGiolla , the man who led the 'Official IRA' for the last twenty-five years has always maintained the position that the 'Official IRA' went out of existence in 1972 . But the 'Official IRA' still march on , not an army fighting the British , but as a fund-collecting agency .
DEREK DUNNE traces the roots of the 'Official IRA' and 'The Workers' Party' .
From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine , October 1987 .

The nucleus of the then Republican Movement , which included Roy Johnston , Cathal Goulding and Tomas MacGiolla , took a decision to effectively drop the physical force emphasis which had existed within the IRA and Sinn Fein ; it was Roy Johnston who argued that if links were sufficiently forged between the people and the Republican Movement it would be possible for their representatives to enter 'illegal' places such as Leinster House without being corrupted . ('1169...' Comment - a slightly updated version of those same words was to be used later by 'Johnston'-type figures , again in an attempt to turn a revolutionary movement into a political party .)

Sinn Fein involved itself with agitations , housing-rights and 'fish-ins' ; it moved away from the 'simplistic' view that the border could be removed exclusively through violence : but , as it did so , the older and more militarily-minded among its members moved away from the Movement . Roy Johnston was in favour of launching a civil rights movement in the North , and wanted the IRA to control it ; the 'socialist strategy' adopted by Roy Johnston called for an expansion of the base of the party into urban areas through involvement in agitations . In time , that traditional rural base would be eroded completely , as the party moved from a position of being on the side of small farmers to one where they were against all farmers !

Apparently this change was adopted because they wished to capitalise on the rural/urban divide and show up the differences between the two ; in that they were largely successful , and the party prepared in those heady days for the inevitable socialist triumph that appeared to be just ahead . They had also taken up the 'Stages Theory' which , while not a new concept by any means , was adopted specially for the Irish situation : it held that agitation around the civil rights issue in the North would be a means to allow 'democratic capitalism' to be established . The working class , North and South , would come together , with 'the Final Stage' believing that the 'powers-that-be' would act repressively towards this class and then a co-ordinated militant action would overthrow capitalism on the whole island . The 'Theory' was a breakthrough for a movement which had for so long stagnated and was a specific 'tactical blueprint' for action .......
(MORE LATER).



GARDA GUN FIRE : WHO TO BELIEVE.......?
Close analysis of television news film of incidents last month at Emyvale suggests a garda's gun went off accidentally . But that is not what the Minister of Justice told the Dail .
GENE KERRIGAN looks at the evidence.
From 'MAGILL' magazine , June 1987 .

On Tuesday , May 19th , 1987 , the 'Irish Press' newspaper reported '...a stormy meeting..' within the Garda Representative Association at which it was decided to raise the matter (of the gunfire incident) with the Garda Commissioner ( Laurence Wren) : the image of the Gardai force had been hurt , the 'Press' newspaper was told by its sources , because on TV the garda in the stream was seen to discharge his gun "...wildy.." and by "...accident.." .

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors Executive (AGSI) had their routine monthly meeting with the Garda Commissioner on Monday , May 18th , 1987 , and the 'Emyvale Incident' was NOT discussed ! But the following day , the AGSI was contacted by members in County Monaghan , following publication of the leaked story from the Garda Representative Association . On Wednesday , May 20 , 1987 , the 'Irish Press' newspaper printed a vehement denial from the AGSI , who claimed that the garda , Detective Sergeant Joe Darwin from Monaghan , fired "...on purpose.. " : the AGSI said that the garda "... felt he had no option but to discharge a warning shot to quieten the crowd " .

This statement , like that of the State Minister's , Gerry Collins , is a denial of what millions of people saw on their TV screens ; there are several reasons why this is of consequence .......
(MORE LATER).



LIAM MELLOWS AND THE IRISH CIVIL WAR .......
This is the bulk of a public lecture given at University College , Galway , by Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member and Deputy General Secretary of the 'Local Government and Public Services Union' , Phil Flynn , on December 8th 1982 , the 60th Anniversary of the Free State's execution of Liam Mellows .
First published in 'IRIS' magazine , March 1983 .

In December 1933 , Cumann na mBan stated - " The same , small owning class is still as powerful as ever . It commands our land , our industries , our means of wealth , and may well it sneer at the colour of our pillar boxes . Its chief concern is to distract our attention from the power it possesses over our land and our liberties . It rejoices at every issue we raise , at every action we take which does not challenge its power .

In the North , religious prejudices are inflamed ; in the South , political rivalries are encouraged , minds are excited and passions are aroused on issues , the outcome of which does not interfere with its undisputed domination . The Fianna Fail cabinet (some members of which were the comrades of Liam Mellows years ago , but who can never have shared his views) have failed to avail of their opportunity to weaken the power of our enemies . It remains for us to define the sort of freedom we are working for , in order to ensure that the coming of the Republic will mean the changing of the whole social system .

The organisation of the production of food and industry for USE instead of profit : the ending of oppression and exploitation of man by man - in short , the happiness of all the people of Ireland , for which Liam Mellows fought and died . "
(MORE LATER).

---

---

---